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Check Your Shelf

Year-End Reading Recs, Book Club Suggestions, and More

Check out the latest "Best Books of 2024" lists, plus get reading recommendations for your book club to close out the year in style.

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Katie McLain Horner

Contributing Editor

Katie's parents never told her "no" when she asked for a book, which was the start of most of her problems. She has an MLIS from the University of Illinois and works full time as a Circulation & Reference Manager in Illinois. She has a deep-rooted love of all things disturbing, twisted, and terrifying and takes enormous pleasure in creeping out her coworkers. When she's not at work, she's at home watching the Cubs with her cats and her cardigan collection. Other hobbies include scrapbooking, introducing more readers to the Church of Tana French, and convincing her husband that she can, in fact, fit more books onto her shelves. Twitter: @kt_librarylady

View All posts by Katie McLain Horner

We’re getting very, very close to the end of the year, so let’s go out with an explosion of reading recommendations! We’ve got one last round of “Best of 2024” lists, book club suggestions to keep your reading going into the new year, plus a roundup of new releases that your patrons are hearing about.

Best Books of 2024

We’ve got some big ones here: The Atlantic, Crime Reads (psychological thrillers), Elle, The Guardian (general picks, crime/thrillers), Kirkus (picture books, middle grade, mysteries/thrillers), Library Journal, LitHub, The New York Times (notable books, Top 10, crime novels, thrillers), The New Yorker, NPR, and New York Public Library. Out of all of these, NPR’s Books We Loved is always my favorite list. I love how you can create your own customized filters to find exactly the type of book you’re in the mood for, and the sheer number of titles has all the other lists beat.

In da Clerb, We All Fam

This right here might be the most awkward way to say “Here are some reading suggestions for your book club.” Whether you’re looking at December new releases, short reads to ensure everyone actually finishes the book, or books about messy family dynamics, we’ve got you covered…(fam).

(Psst.) Want more new releases for December? We’ve got monthly roundups from Amazon, AV Club, L.A. Times, and LitHub (SFF), plus Book Riot has its monthly picks for the best overall new releases, mysteries/thrillers, historical fiction, horror, romance, SFF, nonfiction, queer reads, children’s books, and comics/graphic novels.

What Your Patrons Are Hearing About

cover of The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd (The New York Times, The Washington Post)

Cher: The Memoir, Part One by Cher (The New York Times, USA Today, Vulture, The Washington Post)

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (The New York Times, Vulture, The Washington Post)

Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music by Rob Sheffield (The New York Times, The Minnesota Star Tribune, The Washington Post)

Rental House by Weike Wang (The New York Times, The Washington Post)

Time of the Child by Niall Williams (The New York Times, NPR, The Minnesota Star Tribune, The Washington Post)

Which of these are you most excited to read with your patrons?