Literary Tastes
Access Literary News at the RUSA Blog
RUSA’s Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) is the home for readers advisory and collection development librarians within the American Library Association. Throughout the year, CODES hosts several events that celebrate the best writing and reference publications of the year. We welcome participation in these events from book lovers of all areas of the library profession, and from members of the public, too!
To become a member of RUSA and CODES, visit www.ala.org/membership, or call (800) 545-2433, option 5 to speak with our Membership and Customer Service team.
Literary Events
RUSA Book & Media Awards Reception
Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013
5-6:30p.m.
Municipal Room
Renaissance Seattle Hotel
Follow the event on Twitter with hashtag #literarytastes or by following us at @ala_rusa
Add the event to your Midwinter schedule.
Book lovers of all stripes are invited to gather at the RUSA Book & Media Awards reception at the ALA Midwinter Meeting where we announce the titles selected for the Notable Books List, The Reading List, the Outstanding Reference Sources List, the Sophie Brody Medal for notable Jewish literature, the Dartmouth Medal for outstanding reference work and the inaugural winners of The Listen List, a new audiobook award. The event is a part of ALA’s Midwinter Meeting, and meeting registrants are welcome to attend.
Literary Tastes Author Program: Celebrating the Best Reading of the Year
2013 Event Details: Sunday, June 30, 2013, 8-10a.m.
Registration for the 2013 ALA Annual Conference opens Jan. 7, 2013.
Listen to some of the year’s best authors discuss their works and the craft of writing while enjoying the company of other book lovers. All Annual Conference registrants are invited to participate in this conference program. Our most recent events have included the following noteworthy and award-winning writers:
- Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus
- Candice Millard, author of Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President
- Mark Adams, author of Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time
- Russell Banks, author of Lost Memory of Skin
- Guy Gavriel Kay, author of Under Heaven, 2011 Reading List Fantasy winner.
- Nathaniel Philbrick, author of The Last Stand, 2011 Notable Books List selection.
- Judith Shulevitz, author of the 2011 Sophie Brody Medal-winning title The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time
- Dan Chaon, author of Notable Books title Await Your Reply: A Novel
- Adriana Trigiani, author of the 2010 top women’ fiction pick Very Valentine
- Laney Salisbury, co-author of Notable Books selection Provenance: How a Con Man & a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art
- David Small, author of Stitches, also on the Notable Books List
- Melvin Konner, author of The Jewish Body, a Sophie Brody honor book for 2010
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction Awards Ceremony
2013 Event Details: Sunday, June 30, 2013, 8-10p.m.
An ALA annual event, co-sponsored by RUSA and Booklist
Tickets for this event will go on sale Jan. 7. The shortlist and winners will be selected from the 2013 Notable Books List and the Booklist 2012 Editor's Choice list.
Get up-to-the-minute event information at the award web site.
Access Literary News at the RUSA Blog
Tools to Find a Good Book
Find us on Goodreads! RUSA uses Goodreads as a quick way to find our literary awards lists and add them to your to-be-read list. Signing up for Goodreads is free. Once you have an account, search for us—username RUSA CODES or e-mail address rusa@ala.org—and add us as a friend to start building your list.
You can also check out our literary award winners’ webpages.
Or, visit one of the sites below! This list was compiled via RUSA member recommendations. If you’d like to add a site to this list, e-mail rusa@ala.org.
- Booklist Online More than 130,000 book reviews from librarians, book groups and book lovers—from the trusted experts at the American Library Association.
- Library Journal
- Kirkus Reviews The world’s toughest book critics.
- New York Times
- Jewish Book Council Serves to promote the reading, writing, publication, distribution and public awarenewss of books that reflect the rich variety of the Jewish experience.
- Overbooked Providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction for ravenous and omnivorous readers.
- Blogging for a Good Book Award-winning book blog from the Williamsburg Regional Library.
- Shelf Talk The Seattle Public Library blog.
- Ricklibrarian Reviews by Rick, a reference librarian at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library.
- Citizen Reader Formerly known as Nonfiction Readers Anonymous; reviews by freelance librarian and indexer Sarah Statz Cords.
- ShelfRenewal Nobody puts backlist in a corner.
- BookBrowse “Your home for exceptional books.” Some free resources; membership subscription option.
- BOOK reMARKS Reviews from the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries
- The Librarian’s Review of Books Book reviews by C.A. Lajos
- Skokie (Ill.) Public Library Picks from the Readers’ Services Department
- Reading Addict Slightly skewed book thoughts by seriously dedicated librarians at the Tulsa City-County Library
- The New Dork Review of Books Twice-weekly book reviews from a guy named Greg in Chicago who I reads mostly contemporary literary fiction with some classics, dude lit and memoir/non-fiction mixed in.
- Farmbrarian Dedicated to books about sustainable agriculture
LEARN MORE ABOUT
Reference and User Services Association (RUSA)
Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES)
The Notable Books List
The Reading List
Dartmouth Medal
Sophie Brody Medal
Outstanding Reference Sources List
The Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration
The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
