'Tis the Season for Book Lists!

Some of the titles in NPR's Best of 2019 Lists

The holiday season doesn’t truly start for me until NPR’s (National Public Radio) annual book lists are revealed, beginning in late November. If you are a book geek, and I know for a fact that there are a number of you in our community, you have probably already begun to compile your list of titles to read for 2020.

People often ask me what some of my favorite lists are, so here are some to consider, in no particular order:

NPR’s Book Concierge: easy to search, “best of” lists for every conceivable category

WWB (Words Without Borders) The Best Translated Books You Missed in 2019: there are some absolute gems on this list and I love its inclusiveness and scope. For many in our community, you could read the original work rather than the work in translation.

Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of 2019: great lists divided into the following age groups: under 5, 5-9, 9-12, 12-14, 14 and up. Bank Street College “recognizes the importance of diversity in children’s literature and acknowledges and celebrates the voices and cultures of all of our readers” (from “Bank Street College Diversity Statement”).

Book Riot: “Always books, never boring” is Book Riot’s slogan and they deliver on this mission! BR has fantastic lists for every possible subject with witty write-ups. They recently posted this year’s Read Harder Challenge, which might be a fun endeavor for those looking to expand the scope of their reading or for some of our local book clubs to try.

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019 - easy to search by genre and carefully chosen books. NYT is a great source for book recommendations of all types. This is but one list among many that they publish.

Literary Hub’s The Ultimate Best Books of 2019 List- I like how this list from Literary Hub shows you how many times each work appeared on other “best of” lists. Topping the charts by appearing in 21 “best of” lists are Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (that title!) and Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys. 

GoodReads 2019 Reader’s Choice Awards- Goodreads has thousands upon thousands of lists and is an easy to use site that is also fantastic for tracking your own reading, finding book recommendations, and loads more. Their 11th annual Reader’s Choice Awards is a good source for popular titles.

African Arguments: Best Books by African Writers in 2019 So Far- this list and content on this site is published by the Royal African Society, which has close links with SOAS Centre for African Studies at the University of London. This is a great list that should be updated soon.

Enjoy the holiday and happy reading! Please pass along the names of your favorite reads to our library team and send any pictures of your children or family reading to either me at [email protected]  or to the Primary School Librarian, Ms. Jill Daley (for pictures of primary students and their families) at [email protected]. See you in 2020!

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