Unshelve with Help From Novel Suspects

 Novel Suspects is a website and newsletter from Hachette Book Group. It covers crime fiction and horror, including true crime. They include book lists, obviously with Hachette titles. However, you can borrow the idea and use the books in your collection. 

"Cannibalistic Cravings: 5 Gourmet Thrillers with ‘Unique’ Taste" is a recent list that could make a creative display. In addition to crime fiction, horror, and true crime, a display like this could include cookbooks as well. There are a number of lists below with books that you can use. 

The same display could be done with cozy mysteries with food themes. Cozy-Mystery has lists of culinary mysteries. 

I love the titles that Book Riot used - Fed Up With People and On the Menu. They are both clever and could be borrowed for your display with credit give to Book Riot. 

Horror suggestions from Reddit

Cannibalism Books - Goodreads

Crazy about Cannibalism- Patron created list from Central Arkansas Library System

8 Novels About Humans Eating Humans - Electric Lit

8 Books About Historical Cannibalism - Mental Floss

Fed Up With People: 10 Great Horror Books About Cannibalism- Book Riot

9 True Crime Books About Cannibalism - The Lineup

Cannibal Books - Goodreads

On the Menu: Cannibalistic Horror - Book Riot

Using Reddit as a Source for Passive Readers Advisory

 Reddit has a large number of communities or subreddits that focus on books, some of which are very specific and delve in subgenres that you may have never thought about. It can be a great way to find read alikes or to satisfy a patron who has very distinct tastes. You can also use ideas in the threads and posts there to launch a book display as well. 

Enter in a genre and search for communities. If you search for romance book, you will see the following communities: 

Romance Books

Spicy Romance Books

Contemporary Romance

Dark Romance

Romance Authors

Historical Romance

Fantasy Romance

Free Romance Books

MM Romance Books

Romance for Men

Queer Romance Lit

Wholesome Romance

Science Fiction Romance

Romantasy

Paranormal Romance

Sapphic Lit

Romance Anime Manga

Romance Anime

Reverse Harem

Mafia Romance Books

There are likely even more...

Search for a read alike and you will find readers who have posted their suggestions. I looked for read alikes for Sarah MacLean and found many posts with suggestions. While you might not agree with all of them, they can provide the start of a conversation as well as options for a book display. 

You can search Reddit without logging in which is helpful. Even the threads about books people dislike can help you out if they provide reasons why. Someone's hate read is someone else's catnip. 

It's a useful site to keep in your list of tools you have for passive and active readers advisory. 

Unshelve Your Collection Post Superbowl

 Superbowl 2026 is behind us now but you can use it to market your collection. The easiest thing to do is to harness the press about Bad Bunny and set up a display of books by Puerto Rican authors and books about PR. I will put a few lists below to get you started. The idea is to use a topic that is already on the minds of your patrons and use it to put some great books in front of them. 

Goodreads Listopia:Highlighting books written by Puerto Rican authors.

Indianapolis Public Library - Puerto Rican Authors

Reddit r/books: Literature of Puerto Rico

Barnes & Noble: Puerto Rican Fiction 

Don't forget to look for music by Puerto Rican musicians and to bring out your non-fiction about the island. You likely also have biographies of people from Puerto Rico. 

This is not an attempt to provoke those who might be mad about the halftime show but a way to bring out some great books that are hiding on the shelf. Use your best judgement about your patrons and community when it comes to signage. 

Another way to harness the Superbowl is to check the news today and see which advertisements landed well with viewers. Pull out books with titles that will remind patrons of those ads or are about subjects related to the ads. This kind of display can harness the creativity of your staff!