Booklist's Shelf Care
Booklist's bookish library podcast
Welcome to Booklist’s Shelf Care, where we bring all things readers’ advisory, collection development, and reference right to your earbuds. Hosted by Susan Maguire, Senior Editor, Collection Management and Library Outreach, each episode of Shelf Care will introduce you to rock star librarians, hot topics in publishing, and books you need to know from colleagues at Booklist.
Subscribe to Booklist’s Shelf Care on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. The Shelf Care Interview is also included in the subscription feed. More information on the Shelf Care Interview is located on this page, below the list of previous Shelf Care episodes.
Listen to the Latest Episode:

On this episode of Booklist’s Shelf Care: The Podcast, host Susan Maguire talks to NoveList’s Halle Eisenman about her turn as chair of the RUSA CODES’ Reading List committee, and what that list can do for you (and your patrons). Then Adult Books Editor Donna Seaman shares millions (OK, not millions) of suggestions for forthcoming books of biography, poetry, fiction, and more.
Here’s what we talked about:
RUSA’s Reading List
RUSA’s Notable Books List
The Guncle, by Steven Rowley
A Man Called Ove, by Frederik Backman
Dial A for Aunties, by Jesse Q. Sutanto
The Reading List, by Sara Nisha Adams
Sorrow and Bliss, by Meg Mason
The Summer Seekers, by Sarah Morgan
A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers
One Day All This Will Be Yours, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Arsenic and Adobo, by Mia P. Manansala
Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo
Nora Goes Off Script, by Annabel Monaghan
Black Cake, by Charmaine Wilkerson
The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah
Diamonds and Deadlines: A Tale of Greed, Deceit, and a Female Tycoon in the Gilded Age, by Betsy Prioleau
Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe
The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christophr Murray
Yoko Ono: An Artful Life, by Donald Brackett
Antes Que Isla Es Volcán / Before Island Is Volcano, by Raquel Salas Rivera
Smoking the Bible, by Chris Abani
Border Vista, by Anni Liu
Smile: The Story of a Face, by Sarah Ruhl
Love Poems in Quarantine, by Sarah Ruhl
Zoom Rooms, by Mary Jo Salter
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies, by Tsering Yangzom Lama
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, by Elif Batuman
Either/Or, by Elif Batuman
The Idiot, by Elif Batuman
You Made a Fool of Death with your Beauty, by Akwaeke Emezi
Vigil Harbor, by Julia Glass
Browse Previous Episodes:
Episode #19: Hyperlocal Streaming Music, Audiobook Awards, and Picture Books with Boots
Episode #18: Editors' Choice
Episode #17: No Library is a TARDIS: Or, Why and How to Weed
Episode #16: Don’t Think of an Elephant! (RA for non-RA Staff)
Episode #15: Graphic Novels for Every Reader
Episode #14: Circ Stats, Bridgerton, and Other Library Business
Episode #13: Summer Scares 2021
Episode #12: Editors' Choice 2020
Episode #11: Games!
Episode #10: Pandemic-Induced Programming Pivot
Episode #9: Comics and Book Groups and Libraries, Oh My!
Episode #8: Shelf Isolation
Episode #7: Size (and Format) Matters
Episode #6: Editors’ Choices
Episode #5: Cookbooks and the Apocalypse
Episode #4: Body Horror, Bruce Springsteen, and Vampire Feelings
Episode #3.5: Rebecca 'n' Rave
Episode #3: Graphic, Two Ways
Episode #2: To Beach Their Own
Episode #1: It's a Podcast!
The Shelf Care Interview
Welcome to Booklist’s conversation series, where our editors talk with book people. Below is a list of our recent conversations:
Interview #36: Dan Abdo & Jason Patterson, author of Barb and the Ghost Blade, from Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Interview #35: Sajni Patel, author of My Sister’s Big Fat Indian Wedding, from Amulet Books
Interview #34: Jamar J. Perry, author of Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms, from Bloomsbury Children's Books
Interview #33: Dave Scheidt and Miranda Harmon, creators of Mayor Good Boy, from Random House Children's Books
Interview #32: Chris Barton, author of How to Make a Book (About My Dog), from Lerner Publishing Group
Interview #31: Karla Valenti, author of Lotería; and Emma Otheguy, author of Sofia Acosta Makes a Scene, from Random House Children’s Books
Interview #30: Sara Pennypacker, author of Pax: Journey Home, from HarperCollins Children's Books
Interview #29: Jeffrey Archer, creator of Over My Dead Body, from HarperCollins
Interview #28: Nidhi Chanani, creator of Jukebox, from Macmillan
Interview #27: Barry McGovern, Marcella Riordan, and Roger Marsh, the team behind Finnegans Wake, from Naxos Audiobooks
Interview #26: Olivia Matthews and Janina Edwards, the team behind Murder By Page One, from Dreamscape Audio
Interview #25: Raúl the Third, author of Tag Team and Training Day, from HMH
Interview #24: J. William Lewis, author of The Essence of Nathan Biddle, from Greenleaf Book Group Press
Interview #23: Ally Carter, author of Winterborne Home for Mayhem and Mystery, from HMH
Interview #22: Traci Sorell, author of Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer, from Lerner
Interview #21: John Gallagher, creator of Max Meow: Cat Crusader, from Random House Children's Books
Interview #20: Alex Sanchez, author of The Greatest Superpower, from Capstone
Interview #19: Duchess Harris, author of Being LGBTQ in America: LGBTQ Social Movements in America, from Gale's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice student eBook collection
Interview #18: Aliza Layne, creator of Beetle and the Hollowbones, from Simon & Schuster; and Gabby Rivera, author of Juliet Takes a Breath, from BOOM! Studios
Interview #17: Talia Sherer, Amanda Rountree, Emily Day, and Samantha Slavin, from Macmillan Library Marketing
Interview #16: Kim Johnson, author of This Is My America, from Random House Children’s Books; and Alex Aster, author of Curse of the Night Witch, from Sourcebooks
Interview #15: Mike Curato, creator of Flamer; John Patrick Green, creator of the InvestiGators series; and Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter, creators of Dungeon Critters, all from Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group
Interview #14: Nancy Pearl, author of The Writer’s Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives, from HarperOne
Interview #13: V. T. Bidania, author of the Astrid and Apollo series, from Capstone
Interview #12: Margaret Owen, author of The Faithless Hawk, from Henry Holt & Co.
Interview #11: Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, creators of When Stars Are Scattered, from Dial, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers
Interview #10: Tracey Hecht, author of The Weeping Wombat, from Fabled Films Press
Interview #9: Sabaa Tahir, Nicole Andelfinger, and Sonia Liao, creators of A Thief among the Trees, from BOOM! Studios
Interview #8: Susan Muaddi Darraj, author of the Farah Rocks series, and Siman Nuurali, author of the Sadiq series, both from Capstone
Interview #7: Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds, authors of Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, from Little, Brown
Interview #6: Irene Latham and Charles Waters, authors of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z, from Lerner/Carolrhoda
Interview #5: Chris Ferrie, author of The Everyday Science Academy series, from Sourcebooks
Interview #4: Irene Hannon, author of Starfish Pier, from Revell
Interview #3: Suzanne Woods Fisher, author of Two Steps Forward, from Revell
Interview #2: Lynette Eason, author of Collateral Damage, from Revell
Interview #1: Irene Hannon, author of Dark Ambitions, from Revell
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