It’s like a national Library Staff Picks display. For eleven days, librarians are tweeting their eleven favorite books of 2011 (thanks to GalleyChat regulars Stephanie Chase, Multnomah County Library and Robin Beerbower, Salem, OR., Public Library who organized it). Today is day eight of the challenge, but it’s not too late to add your favorites (use #libfavs2011 — don’t worry, they’re not doctrinaire about posting just one a day; you can jump in at any time).

There’s not much consensus, but the fun of the exercise is seeing how many books get mentioned (over 90 in the first three days, many of them debuts). In the first days, Ready Player One got several shout outs (see earlier story). Stephanie reports some of yesterday’s leads were:

Before I Go to Sleep, S. J. Watson (Harper); this psychological thriller has received strong support from librarians throughout the year, who made it a BEA Librarians Shout & Share pick and talked it up during GalleyChat sessions.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. The story of a relationship-adverse former foster child who has the strange ability to change people’s lives through her knowledge of the Victorian language of flowers, is described by one librarian as, ” Beautifully written, heartwrenching, unforgettable.”

The YA debut, Hourglass by McIntyre (Egmont USA) has been mentioned by someone every day of the past three days (note to Hollywood: it’s a series! The second book, Timepiece, is coming in June). This unuusual blend of genres is described as, “Inventive, smart, funny, and action-packed. Could not put it down!”

This entry was posted on Friday, December 23rd, 2011 at 11:09 am and is filed under Best Books 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.