Unshelve With Help from RA For All & The Best Books of 2026, So Far

On Tuesday, Becky Spratford featured The Best Books of 2026, So Far from the New York Times on her blog, RA for All. 

On Tuesday April 28, Becky Spratford featured The Best Books of 2026, So Far from the New York Times on her blog, RA for All. I recommend that you and your colleagues read through Becky’s blog post.  In it, she discusses how the NYT book section is focusing on prioritizing the reader and what would appeal to readers like our patrons.

There is nothing to add to Becky’s analysis. However, I would suggest that you look over the NYT list after you read the blog post. The titles of the various sections will make great titles for book displays. Several examples - I want a lush historical novel about sisterhood, I want a fresh perspective on familiar history, I want a rivals-to-lovers road trip romance, and I love absorbing biographies that bring icons to life – can likely be filled with titles from your collection. Check for read-alikes for the exact titles on their list but don’t worry about expanding your selections far from what the Times has listed; the display is to market your collection, not to mirror the Times article exactly.

I love the idea of just taking “I love” or “I want” and creating a series of displays to run over a month or so in a library. You can see what the Times has listed but then create your own. There are plenty of tropes and plot points that you can select which will draw attention to your backlist. Something like “I want a new twist on vampires” would have plenty of recent examples such as The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste, and Nestlings by Nat Cassidy.