For Readers

Booklists

Movie Holdings

New Materials

Ask a librarian!

For Readers

Try some of these links. They'll point you to fantastic booklists!

Listservs & Newsletters

• The wonderful fiction-l is populated mainly by librarians. If you're trying to remember the name of a book, you can pose the question to the collective brain of fiction-l, and they're bound to find the answer. The conversations are always engaging. It is high-traffic, however, so consider diverting all the fiction-l mail into a folder or signing up for the digest.

• Readers' Advisor News is a new quarterly e-newsletter published by Libraries Unlimited, a leading publisher of library-interest materials. You can read the articles online or you can opt to receive the newsletter by emailing ranews@lu.com.

• Updated monthly, Book Page has reviews for all your favorite authors and books.

Miscellaneous Booklists

They're miscellaneous but supremely helpful. Condensed from fiction-l conversations, these booklists are easily searchable by several categories (I've included examples after each one, but there are many more!):

• Genre (Cat Mysteries, Interracial Romance, Little Old Lady Sleuths, Science Fiction for Those Who Think They Don't Like Science Fiction)
• Character (African Americans in Historical Fiction, Books Narrated by Animals, Desperate Housewives, Positive Middle Aged Characters)
• Setting (Books Set in Southeast Asia, Fiction with a Thanksgiving Setting, New York City Books, Stormy Weather)
• Subject (Adoption Fiction, Coffee Related Books, Fiction Titles Dealing with Illness, Surprise Endings of Books and Movies)
• Author (Anita Shreve Readalikes, Gentle Romance Authors, Latina Authors, Novels by Seniors)
• Audience (Gentle But Not Religious Fiction, Biography for Men, Books to Read Aloud to Adults, Great YA Reads for Older Adults)
• Miscellaneous (Best Nonfiction Books of 2004, Books to Movies, One Day Reads for the Beach, Tearjerkers

Series

• What's Next is a free online database developed by the Kent District Library (MI). It's easy to use: type in Author, Title, or Series information, and it will show all the books in the series.

• The Series and Sequels page from the Los Angeles Public Library can be searched by author, title, series name, or characters.

General

• A.K.A. lists the pseudonyms and pen names of your favorite authors.

• Access the What Do I Read Next database from home or from the library to find suggestions for books based on your own reading tastes.

• Explore the wonderful Genreflecting website by 11 different genres or by 10 "beyond genre" categories, including African American, Contemporary Mainstream, Easy Reads, and Women's Fiction.

• With an emphasis on genre, the massive Fantastic Fiction website offers popularity indicators, biographies, and bibliographies for thousands of authors, including some very obscure and out-of-print writers.

• The Librarians' Index to the Internet is a portal to various internet resources for 38 categories, ranging from Banned Books to Literature Movements to Poetry.

• Mostly Fiction: Booklists! is a massive portal booklists on almost every topic imaginable.

• Use Overbooked to find contemporary Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller books.

• The Modern Library compiled a ranked list of the Best 100 Novels written in English in the 20th century. It has been heavily criticized for the preponderance of white male authors, but it is invaluable for readers who prefer canonical literature.

• The inimitable New York Times Book Review will keep you informed of select current titles.

• whichbook.net helps you find books based on your preferences in 12 categories:
  • Happy or Sad
  • Funny or Serious
  • Safe or Disturbing
  • Expected of Unpredictable
  • Larger than Life or Down to Earth
  • Beautiful or Disgusting
  • Gentle or Violent
  • Easy or Demanding
  • No Sex or Sex
  • Conventional or Unusual
  • Optimistic or Bleak
  • Short or Long

   

Romance

• The Romance Reader offers new and archived reviews, in-depth and at-a-glance, categorized by several sub-genres.

• The Romantic Times features current reviews in different sub-genres. You can also search for new and old titles based on theme, character, series.

• Everything Romantic! reviews books and ranks them on a scale of 1 to 100. Find current or archived entries.

• Sort reviews at All About Romance by date, author, or review grade. Each entry includes a sensuality scale. They also maintain a partially-completed archive.

• The fabulous Genreflecting site has an area dedicated to the romance genre, including Reviews, Must-Read Authors, and Genre Resources.

• Romance Reviews Today has oodles of current reviews listed for each month, going back six months.

• Affaire de Coeur: The Magazine That Brings You Honest Reviews, offers reviews searchable by month and, in the archives, searchable by reviewer or title.

• Search for romantic suspense on The Mystery Reader website. Includes at-a-glance and in-depth reviews.

• The Romance Writers of America maintain listings of current and past romance bestsellers.

• Find current and past winners of the RITA award, the top prize for romance.

• The Lair features reviews of romance graphic novels.

Horror

• New and recent horror releases are maintained by The Horror Writers Association.

• Find the twenty latest fiction reviews of Buried.com, or see all of their reviews.

• The Horror Writers Association has a best ever list, though it was created in 1996.

• Dark Echo maintains a list of reviews arranged alphabetically by author.

• Horror World reviews recent books and maintains an archive of reviews.

• The current winners of the International Horror Guild Awards are maintained here, or you can look at previous recipients.

• The Bram Stoker Awards recognize horror works of superior achievement; find past winners and nominees here.

• The fabulous Genreflecting site has an area dedicated to the horror genre, including Reviews, Must-Read Authors, and Genre Resources.

• Though not necessarily concerned with horror, the Transformation Stories List is a bibliography with brief annotations and reviews for literature concerning physical shapeshifting, as with magic spells, werewolves, weregoldfish, etc.

• The Lair features reviews of horror graphic novels.

• Literature of the Fantastic is a small library of free fulltext online horror books.

• Get full online texts of gothic literature from The Literary Gothic.

Thriller/Adventure/Suspense

• International Thriller Writers has a long list of "must-reads."

• Search for thrillers on The Mystery Reader website. Includes at-a-glance and in-depth reviews.

• Search for suspense on The Mystery Reader website. Includes at-a-glance and in-depth reviews.

• Search for romantic suspense on The Mystery Reader website. Includes at-a-glance and in-depth reviews.

• The fabulous Genreflecting site has an area dedicated to the adventure aka thriller aka suspense genre, including Reviews, Must-Read Authors, and Genre Resources.

• MysteryGuide.com has reviews of thriller mysteries.

• MysteryGuide.com has reviews of suspense mysteries.

• The Lair features reviews of action/adventure graphic novels.

• The Lair features reviews of crime/suspense graphic novels.

Mystery

• Stop, You're Killing Me! has bibliographies searchable by author or character, as well as lists of new and upcoming releases.

• The Mystery Reader lists violence ratings alongside its reviews, both new and archived.

• Search for suspense on The Mystery Reader website. Includes at-a-glance and in-depth reviews.

• Search for thrillers on The Mystery Reader website. Includes at-a-glance and in-depth reviews.

• Search for romantic suspense on The Mystery Reader website. Includes at-a-glance and in-depth reviews.

• Search for police/detective mysteries on The Mystery Reader website.

• Search for cozy mysteries on The Mystery Reader website.

• Search for historical mysteries on The Mystery Reader website.

• The Historical Mystery Fiction webpage has an exhaustive bibliography of historical mysteries.

• The Magical Mystery Tour has reviews of lots and lots of historical mysteries.

• The Mystery Writers of America website maintains a list of the winners of the Edgars and other awards.

• The fabulous Genreflecting site has one area dedicated to the crime genre and one dedicated to the mystery and detection genre, including Reviews, Must-Read Authors, and Genre Resources.

• Search for reviews at MysteryGuide.com through one of 17 sub-genres (they're on the left side of the page) or by author.

Speculative Fiction (SF, Fantasy, etc.)

• The tremendous SciFan is an incredible resource. Search by writers or by series or by a vast number of themes (found in the middle of the page). Only a tiny fraction of the available themes are listed below. You'll find publication info and sometimes a description. See also the new and forthcoming books section.

• SciFan has a site for Science Fiction Classics that includes publication info and sometimes a description.

• The Recommended Fantasy Author List has short descriptions and reviews.

• Though somewhat dated, you can find good titles on the Internet Top 100 SF/Fantasy List.

• The World Fantasy Awards acknowledge excellent in fantasy writing.

• Achievement in Science Fiction is recognized by the Hugo Awards, chosen by fans.

• Achievement in Science Fiction and Fantasy is recognized by the Nebula Awards, chosen by writers.

• The Campbell Award is given to the best SF novel of the year, as determined by a small panel of judges.

• The Arthur C. Clarke Award is Britain's most prestigious award for SF.

• The fabulous Genreflecting site has one area dedicated to the fantasy genre and one dedicated to the science fiction genre, including Reviews, Must-Read Authors, and Genre Resources.

• Uchronia: The Alternate History List is a lengthy annotated bibliography.

• Find a short list of contemporary fantasy NOT in the Tolkien tradition at A Contemporary Fantasy Reading List.

• SciFan has an urban fantasy site that includes publication info and sometimes a description.

• MysteryGuide.com has reviews of SF mysteries.

• The Christian SF/Fantasy Recommended Reading website is a list of SF/F books in which Christianity is portrayed positively.

• Search for time travel and fantasy romance on the Romance Reader website. Includes at-a-glance and in-depth reviews with sensuality ratings.

• The Lair features reviews of fantasy graphic novels.

• The Lair features reviews of science fiction graphic novels.

Historical

• Search the links on the lefthand side of the Historical Fiction Review for book reviews or for historical fiction by location and time period.

• HistFiction.net has a searchable author database.

• The fabulous Genreflecting site has an area dedicated to the historical fiction genre, including Reviews, Must-Read Authors, and Genre Resources.

• Search for historical romance on the Romance Reader website. Includes at-a-glance and in-depth reviews with sensuality ratings.

• Prehistoric Fiction is an extremely informative site with an extensive bibliography.

• Ancient Greece in Fiction has a very long chronological bibliography of Ancient Greece novels and story collections.

• The Historical Mystery Fiction webpage has an exhaustive bibliography of historical mysteries.

• Three sites have excellent reviews of historical mysteries: The Magical Mystery Tour, MysteryGuide.com, and The Mystery Reader.

• The Lair features reviews of historical fiction graphic novels.

Westerns

• Descriptions of new Westerns are provided by American Western Magazine and by MostlyFiction.com.

• Descriptions of older Westerns are offered by the Seattle Public Library (Larry McMurtry readalikes), the Des Plaines Public Library, and the Park Ridge (IL) Public Library.

• Find book reviews from The Western Writers of America.

• The Wolfner Library (MO) has a list of Western series, with brief descriptions of each series.

• The fabulous Genreflecting site has an area dedicated to the Western fiction genre, including Reviews, Must-Read Authors, and Genre Resources.

• A panel reached consensus on the Best Westerns of the 20th Century.

• The Spur Awards are given annual for distinguished writing about the American West.

Christian

• CBA, the trade association for the Christian retail channel, maintains a list of current Christian fiction bestsellers.

• The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association keeps lists of Christian bestsellers for each month, going back several years.

• Overbooked.org has hotlists for inspirational fiction and Christian fiction going back several years.

• The fabulous Genreflecting site has an area dedicated to the Christian fiction genre, including Reviews, Must-Read Authors, and Genre Resources.

• The Christy Awards are given to the best examples of contemporary Christian fiction.

• The Christian SF/Fantasy Recommended Reading website is a list of SF/F books in which Christianity is portrayed positively.

• Get full online texts of Christian classics from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Graphic Novels

• The Lair is the best online resource for graphic novels for adults and older teens. (See also Sidekicks for kids and No Flying, No Tights for teens). The site includes a list of core adult graphic novels.

• Kat Kan, a leading expert in sequential art, writes monthly reviews of graphic novels.

• Steve Raiteri, who reviews graphic novels for Library Journal, created the website Graphic Novels for Public Libraries.

• The wonderfully informative Librarian's Guide to Anime and Manga includes a page of recommended manga; each title has a brief description and, where appropriate, cautions.

• Starter Comics is for people unfamiliar with Graphic Novels.