Unshelve Your Collection - Using Celebrity Picks

One constant is that readers enjoy celebrity reading picks. We can see this every time someone like Taylor Swift is seen with a book under her arm. I have had great success with celebrity reading focused book displays. Bill Gates and President Obama are two people who come out with annual lists. When Gates recommended a book on the history of shipping containers I put it on a displays and it was checked out the first day.

You can find lists by searching for [celebrity name] reading list , favorite books, or reading recommendations. For a different take on this idea, you can create a display inspired by a particular album, artist, movie, or song. Use the title "Reading with [celebrity name] and put up those books along with titles you have that feature that actor, musician, or author. 

Here are some lists to get you started! If you create a display, I would love to see it. Tag me on social media or email me!

Billy Porter Shares His 6 Favorite Reads — Including This Viral Self-Help Book

Radical Reads: Celebrity Book Recommendations

Celeb Book Recs

celebrities with great reading lists?

20 Great Celebrity Book Recommendations

Amazon Book Review - Celebrity Picks

Listopia > books taylor swift has mentioned

What books do we know Taylor has read and liked?

Bad Bunny Reading List

 Listopia > Beyoncé Cowboy Carter Reading List

Pedro Pascal's Favorite Books Just Proves This Man Has Impeccable Taste

12 Celebrity Book Recommendations

Celebrities Who Read Diversely and The Books They Recommend

The Shameless Book Club: Jacob Elordi 

Pop Star Picks: Books, TV & Films Recommended By Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Zendaya & More

Book Recommendations from Celebrities

Unshelve Your Collection - Using Upcoming Books to Draw Attention to Your Backlist

 Book Riot sends out a newsletter devoted to horror called The Fright Stuff. The Friday, April 3 edition was titled "Scream-Worthy New Horror Books Coming Out in April 2026." Included were titles like: 

• Bodies of Work by Clay McLeod Chapman (Titan, April 7) You can see my starred review here.
• Morsel by Carter Keane (Tor Nightfire, April 14)
• The Take by Kelly Yang (Berkley, April 14) 
• Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker (Hanover Square, April 14) 
• May the Dead Keep You by Jill Baguchinsky (Little, Brown Books, April 21)
• The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer (Atria, April 21)
• Molka by Monika Kim (Erewhon, April 28) You can see my starred review here

Take a page from Concord, NH’s great indie bookstore, Gibson’s! Set up a display or bulletin board with covers from upcoming titles. Add a QR code with a link to your catalog where the patron can place a hold. Add read-alikes from your collection to the display. 

Never assume that all of your patrons know about even basic library services like placing a hold. You can mirror this display online and include a link to the catalog. 

Borrow ideas from newsletters and publisher’s marketing emails and use them to help market your backlist. 

RUSQ: A Journal of Reference and User Experience - Inclusion as the Norm: The Power of Diverse Book Displays

 
I was fortunate to have an article published in RUSQ. The Reference and User Services Association of ALA relaunched its journal in 2024. It's purpose is "... to disseminate information of interest to reference librarians, information specialists, and other professionals involved in user-oriented library services." In Vol 61, No 2 (2026) Winter Issue you can find my article "Inclusion as the Norm: The Power of Diverse Book Displays."

A pdf of the article is available online. 

I will quote from one paragraph here: 

" It centers a white, straight, Christian perspective as what is in “normal” books while making diverse books more of a niche interest, to be read by members of those communities and on special months. These books are not interesting or valuable because their authors and characters are diverse.  They need to be added to the displays, lists, and suggestions that are made to readers interested in a particular genre or topic. Moving who is centered in the culture of reading that is created in a library, allowing those who are marginalized to take center stage, even if a sign does not declare their identity, is actively promoting a culture of anti-racism. This active promotion does not require signage identifying the author’s characteristics to be actively anti-racist. These books are books that should be treated as titles to be potentially enjoyed by any reader. Deliberately developing a regular practice of adding diverse titles to all displays and lists both increase staff knowledge of those titles, creating more opportunities for them to be included in staff recommendations."

Upcoming Events - Penguin Random House Spring Book & Author Festival

 

I will be participating in the PRH Spring Book & Author Festival on Thursday, April 16. It's a free day-long event that has interviews, book buzzes, eGalleys, and more! There are authors of youth titles from picture books to young adult titles as well as adult fiction and non-fiction.  For those who need it, a CE certificate is available. The sessions will also be available for three months after the event. 

The panel I will be moderating is "Twisted Fiction." So far, the lineup of authors includes (with blurbs from the publisher): 

Bill Schweigart, author of Dirty 20 : The Sopranos meets Dungeons & Dragons when the son of a crime boss accidentally becomes a crowdfunding superstar and disrupts business on the streets with his RPG

Luke Larkin, author of The Unheld : Startling monsters and occult oddities abound in this chilling horror Western as a girl journeys across the haunted Montana Territory to rescue her father from an otherworldly creature.

Emeline Atwood, author of A Real Animal : In this unforgettable debut, a moment of metaphysical transformation launches a woman’s beautiful and terrifying journey through her twenties, through loneliness and complicated love that takes her from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the plains of Texas

Abe Moss, author of Morsels : Meeting the family is scary. Surviving them is a nightmare.

Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow : In this viscerally dark, queer Victorian gothic, longing and transformation take wing through the secret selves we nurture when no one is watching.

These events are fun and educational for any library worker. You can view the Winter 2025 PRH Book and Author Festival here. There is not a cost to attend. Staff can register here. 

PRH also has a page with upcoming author events which you can share with your patrons. Working with local bookstores benefits both the library and the bookstore. We are not in competition. Readers often will buy books from authors they have discovered at the library. 

Unshelve Your Collection with The Lineup & Grief Horror

 The Lineup recently featured this list: 9 Unsettling Horror Books About Grief.  For those who don't know, The Lineup covers movies, TV shows, and books about horror, true crime, and thrillers. They focus on backlist titles so it's a great resource for discovering titles for book displays and book lists. 

Grief horror is big right now and a focus on a popular theme, trope, or subgenre can help fans of a recent title find other books they will love. I would add other fiction about grief to the display to fill it out and to allow you to leave it up for a longer time if you don't currently have enough horror titles. Don't forget to include information about which titles you have in your digital collections. 

One of the lists below includes recovering from trauma with the fiction about grief so I included some lists about that subject for those who wanted to expand their display. 

It's always possible to put up a small, curated, pop-up collection at a service desk or on a bookcart. This would allow more staff to be involved as you would have to change it out more frequently when titles were checked out. Include a link to your catalog on the sign and encourage patrons to place holds if titles are already checked out. 

If you decide to put up some non-fiction, consider your community and perhaps place that in a different part of the library. However, as the Reddit threads indicate, reading fiction about loss is one way to grieve and deal with a death. 

Here are some lists to help get you started: 

The Seattle Public Library : Next Chapter: Grief (Fiction)

Goodreads : Grief Fiction Books

Reddit r/literature : Novels with grief as an important theme

Reddit r/suggestmeabook : My partner passed recently, fiction books about loss and grief? 

Reddit r/suggestmeabook :Suggest me a fiction book with grief as a theme

The Fiction Fox : Ultimate Guide to Grief Fiction

Book Riot : 8 of the Best Novels About Grief and Recovering from Trauma

Reddit r/suggestmeabook : Fiction books with a MC struggling/dealing with trauma in a realistic way?

Reddit r/suggestmeabook : Books involving characters who have gone through childhood trauma or dysfunctional families

The Fiction Fox :Ultimate Guide to Novels on (Healing from) Trauma

Electric Lit : 7 Novels About the Reverberations of Trauma

Goodreads : Trauma Book Lists

What I've Read and Reviewed Recently

Beyond reading for pleasure, I review for both Booklist and Library Journal. Here are some of my recent reviews:

I recommend both of these sites and publications for both readers advisory and collection development purposes. They are a fantastic way to keep in touch with what is popular and what is trending. If your library doesn't subscribe, ask that they do. 

Published March 1 by Booklist: Neurotica by Maxwell I. Gold from Shortwave Press

https://www.booklistonline.com/products/9819174. Starred Review
Comps: Stephanie Wytovich or Cynthia Pelayo

Published February 1 by Booklist: The Spoil by Maile Chapman from Graywolf

https://www.booklistonline.com/products/9818773
Comps:  I will add these as soon as I can 

Published February 6 by Library Journal: Molka by Monika Kim from Erewhon Starred Review

https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/molka-100008120
Comps: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado or My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Published February 6 by Library Journal: Odessa by Gabrielle Sher from Little, Brown Starred Review

https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/odessa-100008109
Comps: The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman or The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

I won't republish the reviews here and I will try to do a better job of adding more information to my Goodreads page with more details than can be in print. I did list my comps for the titles to give you some idea. 

 

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