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Readers’ advisory experts announce 2016 Reading List: Year’s best in genre fiction for adult readers

BOSTON—The Reading List Council has announced the 2016 selections of the Reading List, an annual best-of list comprised of eight different fiction genres for adult readers. A shortlist of honor titles was also announced. The list was announced today during the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting held in Boston.

The 2016 selections are:

Adrenaline

Winner
“Pretty Girls: A Novel” by Karin Slaughter. William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins.
Three sisters are driven apart in the aftermath of one’s disappearance. When a violent crime occurs new fears arise and relationships shift again. Long term effects of family grief are exploited by the compulsions of a psychopath. Brutal and disturbing, this is ultimately a story of love and empowerment.

Read alikes
“Jack Caffery” series by Mo Hayder. Atlantic Monthly.
“The Hand that Feeds You” by A.J. Rich. Scribner.
“Dark Places” by Gillian Flynn. Crown/Shaye Areheart.

Short List
“The Cartel” by Don Winslow. Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House.
“Descent: A Novel” by Tim Johnston. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
“The Killing Lessons” by Saul Black. St. Martin’s Press, a division of Macmillan Publishers.
“Palace of Treason: a Novel” by Jason Matthews. Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Fantasy

Winner
“Uprooted” by Naomi Novik. Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books.
In this enchanted old-world fable, villagers threatened by a blighted magical wood allow the resident wizard to take one daughter into servitude for ten years. When he chooses klutzy Agnieszka, she faces an unexpected future and confronts the dangers of a wider political world and the roots of magical corruption.

Read alikes
“The Golem and the Jinni” by Helene Wecker. Harper.
“Tearling”  trilogy by Erika Johansen. Harper.
“Wild Girl” by Kate Forsyth. St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne.

Short List
“The Aeronaut’s Windlass: The Cinder Spires” by Jim Butcher. Roc, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
“A Darker Shade of Magic” by V. E. Schwab. Tor Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.
“The Fifth Season: The Broken Earth: Book One” by N. K. Jemisin. Orbit, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company.
“Sorcerer to the Crown” by Zen Cho. Ace Books, an imprint of The Berkley Publishing Group.

Historical Fiction

Winner
“Crooked Heart: A Novel” by Lissa Evans. Harper.
Raised by his eccentric ex-suffragette godmother to be a free-thinker, young Noel is thrown into chaos when the London Blitz forces him into the home of a scam artist loyal only to her layabout son. Thrust together, the two oddballs are forced to find a way through the wartime landscape.

Read alikes
“All Clear” (#1) and “Blackout” (#2) by Connie Willis. Spectra Books.
“Night Watch by Sarah Waters. Riverhead.
“Paper Moon” (movie, Paramount, 1973).

Short List
“Jam on the Vine: a Novel” by LaShonda Katrice Barnett. Grove Press.
“The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah. St. Martin’s Press.
“Paradise Sky” by Joe R. Lansdale. Mulholland Books, a division of Little, Brown and Company.
“The Truth According to Us: a Novel” by Annie Barrows. The Dial Press.
“Girl Waits with Gun” by Amy Stewart. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Horror

Winner
“The Fifth House of the Heart: A Novel” by Ben Tripp. Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster.
Flamboyant antiques dealer Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang made his fortune by accidentally killing a vampire with a horde of treasure. To protect the only person he loves, his niece, he’s forced to return to old Europe to assemble an eccentric team of vampire hunters in this gory, witty caper.

Read alikes
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (TV, Mutant Enemy Productions, 1997-2003)
“Parasol Protectorate” (#1) series by  Gail Carriger. Orbit.
“Stoker’s Manuscript” by Royce Prouty. G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Short List
“A Head Full of Ghosts” by Paul Tremblay. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.
“Little Girls” by Ronald Malfi. Kensington Publishing Corp.
“The Silence” by Tim Lebbon. Titan Books.
“When We Were Animals: a Novel” by Joshua Gaylord. Mulholland Books, a division of Little, Brown and Company.

Mystery

Winner
“The Long and Faraway Gone” by Lou Berney. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Cold cases cast a twenty-five year shadow of grief and guilt on the lives of two survivors of traumatic teenage crimes. New leads and new cases bring them back to Oklahoma City as past and present intersect in this poignant and compelling story of lives forever changed by random violence.

Read alikes
“Case Histories” by Kate Atkinson. Little, Brown.
“In the Woods” by Tana French. Viking.
“Mystic River” by Dennis Lehane. Morrow.

Short List
“Gun Street Girl: a Detective Sean Duffy Novel” by Adrian McKinty. Seventh Street Books.
“Land of Careful Shadows” by Suzanne Chazin. Kensington Books.
“Last Ragged Breath” by Julia Keller. Minotaur Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.
“Little Black Lies” by Sharon Bolton. Minotaur Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.

Romance

Winner
“Taking the Heat” by Victoria Dahl. HQN, Harlequin Books.
Sassy relationship advice columnist Veronica overcomes her commitment anxiety and gains confidence with the help of mountain-climbing librarian Gabe. Steamy romance evolves into a strong relationship as they scale a mountain of family conflicts and share secrets against a majestic Jackson Hole backdrop.

Read alikes
“Can’t Buy Me Love” by Molly O’Keefe. Bantam.
“Natural Born Charmer” by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Morrow.
“Veiled Desire” (#1) by Alisha Rai. Samhain.

Short List
“A Desperate Fortune” by Susanna Kearsley. Sourcebooks Landmark.
“Ever After: a Nantucket Brides Novel” by Jude Deveraux. Ballantine Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.
“Rumor Has It” by Cheris Hodges. Dafina Books.
“When a Scot Ties the Knot: Castles Ever After” by Tessa Dare. Avon Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins.

Science Fiction

Winner
“Golden Son” by Pierce Brown. Del Rey, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Insurgent Darrow inveigled his way into high Gold society in 2014’s Red Rising. In this dramatic, high octane follow-up, conflicting loyalties and his own ambitions lure Darrow into an untenable web of deceptions. Bolstered by new alliances, Darrow battles to overthrow corrupt lunar leadership and bring freedom to Mars.

“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. Scholastic.
“Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card. Tor.
“Dune” (#1) Dune Chronicles by Frank Herbert. Hodder & Stoughton.

Short List
“Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits” by David Wong. Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, a division of Macmillan Publishers.
“Seveneves” by Neal Stephenson. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Slow Bullets” by Alastair Reynolds. Tachyon.
“The Water Knife” by Paolo Bacigalupi. Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House.

Women’s Fiction

Winner
“Re Jane” by Patricia Park. Pamela Dorman Books, an imprint of Penguin Books.
Anxious to escape the strict upbringing of her uncle’s Flushing grocery, Korean-American Jane accepts an au pair position in the pretentious household of two Brooklyn academics and their adopted Chinese daughter. Park has created a bright comic story of falling in love, finding strength, and living on one’s own terms.

Read alikes
“The Nanny Diaries” by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. St. Martin’s.
“Brooklyn” by Colm Tóibín. Scribner.
“The Newlyweds” by Nell Freudenberger. Knopf.

Short List
“Days of Awe: a Novel” by Lauren Fox. Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House.
“The Royal We” by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan. Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group.
“This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!: a Novel” by Jonathan Evison. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
“A Touch of Stardust” by Kate Alcott. Doubleday.

The winners were selected by the Reading List Council whose members include twelve expert readers’ advisory and collection development librarians. The eight genres currently included in the Council’s considerations are adrenaline, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction, and women’s fiction. However, the Council is adaptable to new genres and changes in contemporary reading interest.

The Council consists of Ann Chambers Theis, Henrico County Public Library, chair; Valerie Morgan Taylor, co-chair; Phillip Ballo, National University; Jessica D. Barrientos, Westminster Public Library; Amy Gornikiewicz, Eagle Valley Library District;  Rebecca Greer, Poinciana Library; Neil Hollands, Williamsburg Regional Library; Lauren Kage; EBSCO; Tammy Ryan, Phoenix Public Library; Janet Schneider, Oceanside Library.

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RUSA announces 2015 book and media awards for adults

RUSA announced the top books in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and genre; audio books; and reference books for adults – including the Notable Books List, Reading List, Sophie Brody Medal, Listen List, Dartmouth Medal and Outstanding Reference Sources – at its Midwinter Meeting in Chicago.

A list of all the 2015 award winners follows:

Notable Books List for excellence in fiction, nonfiction and poetry:

Fiction

“All My Puny Sorrows” by Miriam Toews (McSweeneys)

“All the Light We Cannot  See” by Anthony Doerr (Scribner)

“The Bone Clocks: A Novel” by David Mitchell (Random House)

“The Children Act” by Ian McEwan (Nan A Talese)

“The Crane Wife” by Patrick Ness (Penguin)

“The Enchanted: A Novel” by Rene Denfeld (Harper)

“Narrow Road to the Deep North: A Novel” by Richard Flanagan (Alfred A. Knopf)

“On Such a Full Sea” by Chang-Rae Lee (Riverhead)

“Orfeo: A Novel” by Richard Powers (W.W. Norton)

“Something Rich and Strange: Selected Stories” by Ron Rash (Ecco)

“Station Eleven: A Novel” by Emily St. John Mandel (Alfred A. Knopf)

“Tigerman” by Nick Harkaway (Alfred A. Knopf)

Nonfiction

“The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution” by Jonathan Eig (W.W. Norton)

“Blood Royal: A True Tale of Crime and Detection in Medieval Paris” by Eric Jager (Little, Brown and Company)

“Dark Invasion: 1915 Germany’s Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America” by Howard Blum (Harper)

“Factory Man” by Beth Macy (Little, Brown and Company)

“In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette” by Hampton Sides (Doubleday)

“Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story” by Rick Bragg (Harper)

“Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” by Bryan Stevenson (Spiegel & Grau)

“The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses” by Kevin Birmingham (Penguin Press)

“No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State” by Glenn Greenwald (Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt)

“Pandora’s DNA: Tracing the Breast Cancer Genes Through History, Science, and One Family Tree” by Lizzie Stark (Chicago Review Press)

“The Secret History of Wonder Woman” by Jill Lepore (Alfred A. Knopf)

“The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History” by Elizabeth Kolbert (Henry Holt)

Poetry

“The Blue Buick: New and Selected Poems” by B.H.Fairchild (W.W. Norton)

“Gabriel: A Poem”, by Edward Hirsch (Knopf)

For a complete list of 2015 winners and annotations, see the official announcement here. For a list of past winners and more information on the award and Notable Books Council, visit the Notable Books Award page.

Reading List for excellence in genre fiction:

Adrenaline

“Broken Monsters” by Lauren Beukes (Mulholland Books)

 Fantasy

“The Goblin Emperor” by Katherine Addison (Tor)

Historical Fiction

“Bitter Greens” by Kate Forsyth (Thomas Dunne)

Horror

“The Lesser Dead” by Christopher Buehlman (Penguin)

Mystery

“Murder at the Brightwell” by Ashley Weaver (Minotaur)

Romance

“A Bollywood Affair” by Sonali Dev (Kensington)

Science Fiction

“The Martian” by Andy Weir (Crown)

Women’s Fiction

“My Real Children” by Jo Walton (Tor)

For a complete list of annotations, shortlist titles and read alikes for the 2015 list, see the official announcement here. For a list of past winners and more information on the Reading List Council, visit the Reading List award page.

Sophie Brody Medal for excellence in Jewish Literature:

“A Replacement Life” by Boris Fishman (HarperCollins)

Honorable mentions include:
“The Mathematician’s Shiva” by Stuart Rojstaczer (Penguin)
“In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist” by Ruchama King Feuerman (New York Review of Books)

For a complete description of the 2015 award winner and honorable mentions, see the official announcement here. For a list of past winners and more information on the Sophie Brody Medal, visit the Sophie Brody Medal award page.

Listen List for outstanding audiobook narration:

“The Bees” by Laline Paull. Narrated by Orlagh Cassidy. Blackstone Audio/HarperAudio.

“Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World That Made Him” by David Henry & Joe Henry. Narrated by Dion Graham. Tantor Media.

“The Home Place” by Carrie La Seur. Narrated by Andrus Nichols. Blackstone Audio/HarperAudio.

“The Invention of Wings” by Sue Monk Kidd. Narrated by Jenna Lamia and Adepero Oduye. Penguin Audio/Recorded Books.

“Lord of Scoundrels” by Loretta Chase. Narrated by Kate Reading. Blackstone Audio.

“The Martian” by Andy Weir. Narrated by R.C. Bray. Podium Publishing.

“Moonraker” by Ian Fleming. Narrated by Bill Nighy. Blackstone Audio.

“The Moonstone” by Wilkie Collins.  Narrated by Ronald Pickup, Joe Marsh, Fenella Woolgar, Sam Dale, Jonathan Oliver, Jamie Parker, Sean Barrett, David Timson, John Foley and Benjamin Soames. Naxos AudioBooks.

“Queen of the Tearling,” by Erika Johansen. Narrated by Katherine Kellgren. Blackstone Audio.

“The Silkworm” by Robert Galbraith. Narrated by Robert Glenister. Blackstone Audio/Hachette Audio.

“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel. Narrated by Kirsten Potter. Books on Tape/Random House Audio.

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. Narrated by Bryan Cranston. Brilliance Audio.

For a complete list of annotations and listen alikes for the 2015 winners, see the official announcement here. For a list of past winners and more information on the Listen List, visit the Listen List award page.

Dartmouth Medal for the most distinguished reference publication:

“Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism” published by Princeton University Press.

For a complete description of the award and 2015 winner, see the official announcement here. For a list of past winners and more information on the Dartmouth Medal award, visit the Dartmouth Medal award page.

Outstanding Reference Sources for excellence in reference:

“American Indians at Risk” Edited by Jeffrey Ian Ross (Greenwood)

“Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the Twenty-First Century” by Monique W. Morris (The New Press)

“Bumblebees of North America” by Paul Williams, Robin Thorp, Leif Richardson and Shelia Colla (Princeton University Press)

“Consumer Healthcare” Edited by Brigham Narins (Gale Cengage Learning)

“Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon” Edited by Barbara Cassin. Translation edited by Emily Apter, Jaques Lezra, and Michael Wood (Princeton University Press)

“Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice” Edited by Jay S. Albanese (Wiley Blackwell)

“Encyclopedia of Deception” Edited by Timothy R. Levine (Sage Publishing)

“Encyclopedia of Humor Studies” Edited by Salvatore Attardo (Sage Publishing)

“Encyclopedia of the Wars of The Early American Republic, 1783-1812” Edited by Spencer C Tucker (ABC-CLIO)

“Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God” Edited by Coeli Fitzpatrick and Adam Hani Walker (ABC-CLIO)

For more information about the award, see the official announcement here. For a complete list of past winners and more information on the award, visit the Outstanding Reference Sources award page.

Selected by judging committees of librarians and other readers’ advisory experts, the awards highlight outstanding works for adult readers and libraries nationwide.  For more information on RUSA’s Book and Media Awards, please visit www.ala.org/rusa/awards.

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Show us your #shelfie for a chance to win tickets to the Andrew Carnegie Medal awards ceremony!

Librarians nationwide are gearing up for the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas to learn, network and celebrate their passion for reading. This year marks the third annual announcement of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, recognizing the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. the previous year.

shortlist-fiction-for-contest

We want you to share our excitement for these outstanding fiction contenders on the shortlist! Readers are invited to Tweet a shelfie (self + shelf = shelfie) with one of the fiction shortlist titles (pictured above) with the hashtag #ala_carnegie, and your name will be entered in a drawing to receive two tickets to the award ceremony in Las Vegas! Contest runs from Tuesday, June 3 through 12:00 p.m. CDT, Friday, June 6, 2014.

In the following weeks we will be running two more contests, one for a set of non-fiction shortlist titles and another for a pair of tickets to the award ceremony in Las Vegas. Be sure to track the #ala_carnegie hashtag to keep up with current announcements about this year’s awards!

The award ceremony, held on Saturday, June 28 at 8 p.m. at Caesars Palace, will feature selection committee chair Nancy Pearl, award-winning author Karin Slaughter and the 2014 winners. The program is followed by dessert, drinks, and a raffle for the six shortlisted titles.

The shortlist fiction titles are:

“Americanah,” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, published by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

“Claire of the Sea Light,” by Edwidge Danticat, published by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

“The Goldfinch,” by Donna Tartt, published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

*One entry per person.

*Winners will receive two complimentary tickets to the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction Announcement at ALA Annual Conference; travel to Las Vegas, conference registration fees and any other expenses are not included.

*Employees of the American Library Association and their families are ineligible.

Ticket information is available on the ALA Annual Conference website.

Unable to attend? Follow the hashtag #ala_carnegie to hear which books win!

Ways to stay in touch and get updates and ongoing information include the Annual Conference website; Twitter @alaannual and #alaac14; Facebook; Pinterest; Google +; and Tumblr

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Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction & Nonfiction Longlist Announced!

The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction & Nonfiction were established by Carnegie Corporation of New York and ALA in 2012 to recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books written for adult readers and published in the U.S. the previous year. The Medals and the lists leading up to the selection of the winners serve as a guide to selecting quality reading material.

Forty-four books comprising the “longlist” for consideration for the 2014 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction have been selected from the most recent Booklist Editors’ Choice and RUSA Notable Books List.

Six-title shortlist; three fiction and three nonfiction medals will be announced in late April. The two winners will be announced at ALA Annual Conference in June in Las Vegas. The longlist is available on the awards’ website.

Awards Longlist:

Start reading these 2014 longlist titles now to count down to the shortlist announcement this spring! The titles under consideration for the 2014 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction are:
Fiction

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. (Knopf)

Atkinson, Kate. Life after Life. (Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur)

Barrett, Andrea. Archangel. (Norton)

Bass, Rick. All the Land to Hold Us. (Houghton)

Danticat, Edwidge. Claire of the Sea Light. (Knopf)

Eggers, Dave. The Circle. (Knopf)

Garey, Juliann. Too Bright to Hear, Too Loud to See. (Soho)

Gilbert, Elizabeth. The Signature of All Things. (Viking)

Harding, Paul. Enon. (Random House)

Horn, Dara. A Guide for the Perplexed. (Norton)

Hosseini, Khaled. And the Mountains Echoed. (Riverhead)

Jansma, Kristopher. The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards. (Viking)

Koch, Herman. The Dinner. (Hogarth)

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Lowland. (Knopf)

Marra, Anthony. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. (Hogarth)

McBride, James. The Good Lord Bird. (Riverhead)

Messud, Claire. The Woman Upstairs. (Knopf)

Ozeki, Ruth. A Tale for the Time Being. (Viking)

Shacochis, Bob. The Woman Who Lost Her Soul. (Atlantic Monthly)

Silber, Joan. Fools. (Norton)

Tartt, Donna. The Goldfinch. (Little, Brown)

Nonfiction

Anderson, Scott. Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East. (Doubleday)

Arana, Marie. Bolivar: American Liberator. (Simon & Schuster)

Aslan, Reza. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. (Random House)

Basbanes, Nicholas. On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand Year History. (Knopf)

Beam, Cris. To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care. (Houghton)

Berg, A. Scott. Wilson. (Putnam)

Brown, Daniel James. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. (Viking)

Buruma, Ian. Year Zero: A History of 1945. (Penguin)

Fink, Sheri. Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital. (Crown)

Fox, Margalit. The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code. (Ecco)

Garfield, Simon. On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks. (Gotham)

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism. (Simon & Schuster)

Hilburn, Robert. Johnny Cash: The Life. (Little, Brown)

Koerner, Brendan I. The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking. (Crown)

Labor, Earle. Jack London: An American Life. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Lepore, Jill. Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin. (Knopf)

Morell, Virginia. Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures. (Crown)

Packer, George. The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Roach, Mary. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. (Norton)

Rodriguez, Richard. Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography. (Viking)

Schlosser, Eric. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. (Penguin)

Solnit, Rebecca. The Faraway Nearby. (Viking)

Wright, Lawrence. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief. (Knopf)

Find out more about the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction.