Shauna's highlights "What do I read next?" is never as tough to answer as it is after BookExpo, when hundreds of new books are spinning around in my brain. (This is not a complaint!) At the conference, reader appetites for psychological suspense seem not to have dimmed a whit, with AJ Finn's debut novel The Woman in the Window one of the more buzzed-about (think Rear Window plus The Girl on the Train). Speculative fiction authors spoke at several well-attended sessions, which bodes well for those genres. And many books -- fiction and non-fiction alike -- took on sensitive topics, like Tayari Jones' An American Marriage (which elicited an awed "oooooh" from the crowd at Library Journal's Day of Dialog). There are too many great books to mention here, so please check out this spreadsheet, which collects the niftiest new titles for adults, including new books from Gabrielle Zevin and Celeste Ng, as well as fiction debuts from RA superstar Nancy Pearl and movie superstar Tom Hanks. Only 50 weeks 'til next time... |
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Rebecca's highlights
I'm still battling a case of con drop following the all-consuming energy of BookExpo, but while I was there, I kept an eye out for trends and buzz. For instance, there was an audible gasp from the audience at School Library Journal's Day of Dialog when Random House pitched The Book of Dust, Philip Pullman's follow-up series to His Dark Materials; eager crowds gathered every time Scholastic distributed galleys of Maggie Stiefvater's upcoming standalone, All the Crooked Saints; YA and children's author Jason Reynolds made several appearances to promote his three (count 'em, THREE) forthcoming books; and as usual, the signing line for Mo Willems was epic. You can check out all of these titles and authors in this spreadsheet of new titles for kids and teens -- I've highlighted buzzworthy books, as wells as some noteworthy staff picks.
Oh, and my personal BookExpo highlights? The panel on "Book Reviews: The Diversity of Race, Ethnicity, and Sexual Orientation" was a treasure trove of best practices, and meeting my favorite illustrator, Christian Robinson, was a dream come true (I only cried a little).
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