Show up for our libraries. ALA 150, American Library Association.
NEW: Congress has begun preparation for next year's federal budget, and they need to hear from library advocates like you.
The best way to show up #ForOurLibraries during the budget process? Take action.
Tell your Representative to #FundLibraries in FY 2027: ala.org/showup
Closeup of cover of thee March 2026 issue of BOOKLIST with text: NEW ISSUE ALERT! THE MARCH BOOKLIST IS HERE!
New month, new books, new issue! Our March issue of BOOKLIST is stacked (pun intended) with lots of new recs⤵️
🌳Spotlight on Environment & Sustainability
📚Spotlight on YA Fiction
🌻Focus on Poetry
🏒Hockey Romances
☘️A leprechaun-themed backlist
It's all here and more! Preview now: bit.ly/4uavwxE
Registration is open for this year's Readers' Advisory Ideas and Practice workshop. Take your RA services to the next level, learn about trending genres, and connect with other RA providers just as passionate about matching the right book to a reader as you are.
ala-events.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
In an open letter released today, ALA employees announced the formation of a union with @afscme31.bsky.social. If certified, the union will represent more than 100 ALA workers. https://afscme31.org/news/american-library-association-employees-forming-union-afscme
Making Book Recommendations By Thinking Like a Reader NOT a Librarian
raforall.blogspot.com/2026/02/maki...
THE ART OF FIELDING is the first sports book I remember actually enjoying, so I concur!
Book cover for THE KILLING SPELL by Shay Kauwe; Red letters against a brown background with blue and green and purple and yellow and orange graphics swirling around the title. From the BOOKLIST starred review: "Kauwe’s deep understanding and connection to her Hawaiian culture shines through, drawing readers into a unique perspective for speculative fiction."
Book cover for LEAVE YOUR MESS AT HOME by Tolani Akinola; Black woman in an orange turtleneck reclines on one elbow against a blue background. From the BOOKLIST starred review: "Akinola tackles tough topics through rich, fully-formed characters in this sensitive portrayal of how family dynamics can be stifling and how seeing things from only one perspective means missing out on the full picture. This debut novel is an exquisitely observed portrait of an impactful two-month slice of one immigrant family’s complicated experience in this country."
Book cover for THE SUBTLE ART OF FOLDING SPACE by John Chu; blue background with many layers of a steamer basket, containing dumplings and the cosmos. From the BOOKLIST starred review: "Stylistically complex, daunting, and at times humorous, this tightly written novel will appeal to readers who enjoy hard sf with an emotional tinge. Recommend to those who enjoyed Hannu Rajaniemi’s Jean le Flambeur trilogy or the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy by Cixin Liu."
Book cover for THE INFINITE SADNESS OF SMALL APPLIANCES by Glenn Dixon; cartoon appliances with eyes in boxes surrounding the title. From the BOOKLIST review: "Readers who enjoy stories that mix an intimate domestic setting with big questions about AI and control will find this both moving and surprisingly hopeful."
Vote for your April LibraryReads titles by March 1st! Here are a few humble suggestions: @libraryreads.bsky.social
![Two people smile at the camera at the Public Library Association 2026 Conference. The text reads, "Find Your [Library] People. Advance registration rates end Feb. 20!" The event is scheduled for April 1-3 in Minneapolis. The website mentioned is placonference.org.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:q5qyswhppr7tiskw43xhcv7f/bafkreiaahut5yrukqj3zob36ckzdxjzrnjxqigleuxz3hs4nj3dimoa7nu)
Two people smile at the camera at the Public Library Association 2026 Conference. The text reads, "Find Your [Library] People. Advance registration rates end Feb. 20!" The event is scheduled for April 1-3 in Minneapolis. The website mentioned is placonference.org.
Public library professionals, take note: advance rates for #PLA2026 end Friday, February 20.
Join us April 1–3 in Minneapolis for 100+ sessions, inspiring speakers, bestselling authors, and an exhibit hall packed with solutions.
Register now to save! https://www.placonference.org/registration
What Becky doesn't mention is that it is also chock full of Heated Rivalry references. #relevant
Thank you for sharing, Becky!
Yaaaaas LibraryReads!
Love how she incorporates THE ASTRAL LIBRARY by Kate Quinn.
www.booklistonline.com/products/981...
"Hold the line. Hold the light. Hold each other." Emely Rumble offering some powerful words at @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social's Recharging in Challenging Times. #ALAVirtual26
Watched THE LIBRARIANS documentary last night. It wasn't new news for me (as a devoted follower of @oif.bsky.social and @heykellyjensen.bsky.social), but it was still enlightening, empowering, frustrating. School librarians save lives! I cried! Recommend!
My cold heart wouldn't be able to take it and maintain its frigid core temperature!
The author pulls no punches with this one! And yet it manages to be uplifting...I can see book groups eating it up.
I loved this one, and I'm a dog person!
Hooray! See you there! In a manner of speaking.
Now *that's* how you do readers' advisory!
Graphic for Booklist Readers' Advisory survey with text: HOW DO YOU RA? WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT MAKES THE IDEAL TOOL FOR READERS' ADVISORY. TAKE THIS BRIEF SURVEY TO LET US KNOW WHAT WORKS FOR YOU! With QR code to survey and Booklist's website (www.booklistonline.com) below.
📣Hey library workers--we want to hear from you! Tell us which tools are most useful to you and your staff during real-time RA interactions with adult patrons. Ahh, don't you just love nerding out over readers' advisory🤓📚❤️➡️: bit.ly/4btwpdG
Closeup of cover image of Squirrel: How a Backyard Forager Shapes Our World by Nancy Castaldo.
The top ten most discussable books reviewed in Booklist over the past 12 months cover topics like science and nature, the beauty industry, and the infinitely complicated dynamics of family. Get those program planners out and check out our Top 10 Book-Group Books: bit.ly/3ZNZ2Ls
Cover image of the February 2026 issue of BOOKLIST with text NEW ISSUE ALERT! THE FEBRUARY BOOKLIST IS HERE!
Our February issue of BOOKLIST, spotlighting History and Historical Fiction, is a must read!
📚Tons of new history recs (youth, adult, and audio)
🎤An interview with #LaurieHalseAnderson
🌷Spring 2026 Youth Preview
💭A new #MangaEssentials
and so much more! Preview now: bit.ly/4qaZYnV
Period, sis.
Free online RA training, now in its third year with a whole new set of topics! Woo!
Graphic of Booklist logo
Booklist Guide to Graphic Novels - call for submissions. Deadline EXTENDED! They are interested in a wide variety of topics relating to comics, manga, and graphic novels in libraries and the deadline has been extended until February 9th @ala-booklist.bsky.social
airtable.com/appa8wgGSwLw...
Book cover for MY GRANDFATHER, THE MASTER DETECTIVE by Masateru Konishi. Illustrated elderly man sits on a chair in front of a bonsai tree, record player, and tea pot, the steam from which turns into a tiger. Starred BOOKLIST review says, "While his visions can be the canvas he paints solutions upon, they are a reminder that Kaede’s grandfather is deteriorating before her eyes. This gives the novel a rich emotional landscape, as the mysteries often have a cozy, kind aspect to them while the realities of her grandfather’s condition are heartbreaking."
Book cover for SEASONS OF GLASS & IRON: STORIES by Amal El-Mohtar. Bucolic landscape disrupted by a sideways pink and sky-blue trapezoid, through which a fox and a rabbit run. Starred BOOKLIST review says, "Whether playing with folklore and fairy-tale tropes in stories like “Florilegia; or, Some Lies About Flowers” and “John Hollowback and the Witch,” or experimenting with form in the anti-colonial “A Tale of Ash in Seven Birds” or Palestine elegy “Qahr,” El-Mohtar (The River Has Roots, 2025) brings genuine storytelling talent paired with lush poetic language to deliver the kind of narratives her devotees have grown to love."
Book cover for HELL'S HEART by Alexis Hall. Bright yellow-green letters surrounded by the tentacles of a pink creature with a yellow eye at its center. Spooky! Starred BOOKLIST review says, "All the elements are here for a fantastic space adventure that any fan of sf or even Earth-bound adventure novels will love. It does not really matter if one has read or even knows anything about Moby-Dick—although it is fun to see what Hall does with the story. The real draw of this swashbuckling space adventure is the delightful characters."
Book cover for WHIDBEY by T Kira Madden. A painted landscape of a riverbank surrounded by a black background. Starred BOOKLIST review says, "Neither a revenge story nor a moralizing one, this is an absorbing, energized novel of real-feeling characters attempting to live through incomprehensible violence and existential fury."
Votes for the March LibraryReads are due Feb. 1st; here are my humble suggestions @libraryreads.bsky.social:
Yesterday was the announcement of all of the Adult Books & Media Awards from @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social. I have a full post with backlist access and more:
raforall.blogspot.com/2026/01/usin...
Thanks for the shout out, @raforall.bsky.social! It's a quick survey!
We are honored to announce the 2026 #ALA_Carnegie winners:
🥇#Nonfiction: Yiyun Li, THINGS IN NATURE MERLY GROW
🥇#Fiction: Megha Majumdar, A GUARDIAN AND A THIEF
Congratulations to our winners and publishers, @macmillanlib.bsky.social and @prhlibrary.bsky.social🎉
Read more: https://bit.ly/46gpBfU
