I’m doing some spring cleaning with my Check Your Shelf notes. I’ve found a bunch of announcements, lists, and resources to help you with your reader’s advisory work, whether you work with kids, teens, adults, or all of the above! Divorce memoirs? Passover picture books? A James Patterson & MrBeast collaboration? We’ve got all that and more, including a sneak peek of some bonus content!
New Book Announcements
- Hoda Kotb announces her next book, Jump and Find Joy, out in September.
- Lucy Foley is writing the first full-length continuation of Miss Marple.
- Penguin Press is publishing Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir. Pelicot became headline news when she waived her right to anonymity against her husband and the 50 men accused of her sexual assault.
- Terry Brooks is passing on the Shannara series to Delilah S. Dawson.
- This book goes to 11: A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap is on the way!
- YA author Ayana Gray is making her adult fiction debut with I, Medusa, coming out in November.
- Fellow YA author Nic Stone is also making her adult fiction debut with Boom Town.
- Grammy-winning producer Mark Ronson is publishing a memoir in September.
- Salman Rushdie is publishing a new story collection in November.
- James Patterson and MrBeast are cowriting a thriller together, and honestly, what is even happening in this timeline?
- The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde who urged Trump to “have mercy” during her National Prayer Service sermon in January, will have two books geared at younger readers coming out this year. Both are adapted from her 2023 book, How We Learn to Be Brave.
Readers Advisory & Genre Resources
- Queer historical romance novels: a starter pack.
- The (bad) sisterhoods of crime fiction.
- The state of romantasy.
- A growing number of romantasy novels are featuring relationships between human women and non-human males.
- But really, where have all the non-romance fantasy books gone?
- Vulture looks at the recent popularity of the divorce memoir.
- A look at the popularity of animal memoirs.
- Passive book promotion to teens.
Book Lists for Kids & Teens
- 10 books designed to get kids moving.
- Inspiring children’s books starring female athletes.
- Picture books to help kids prepare for Passover.
- Children’s books that celebrate Muslim culture.
- Picture book biographies about women in STEM.
- 12 garden-filled picture books for spring.
- 6 terrific books for young basketball fans.
- Age-appropriate romance reads for tweens.
- 15 great nonfiction books for tweens.
- 22 contemporary YA fantasy books that have the best of both worlds.
- 10 YA books with pirates.
- 18 YA books featuring competitions.
- 13 YA books for the coming vampire renaissance.
- It’s the end of the world as we know it: Dystopian books for YA readers.
- 23 YA books featuring love and romance with Asian characters.
- YA books to read if you loved Heartstopper.
The following bonus content comes to you from the Editorial Desk. Enjoy this sneak peek!
This week, we’re highlighting a post that celebrates the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby! Revisit F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic (and emblem of assigned reading) and get a crash course on the book’s history, including challenges encountered by its readers and adapters. Read on for an excerpt and become an All Access member to unlock the full post.
January 16, 2025, marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The New York Public Library celebrated with a party, following a special performance of the Broadway musical adaptation of the novel. Simon and Schuster recently released a new audiobook with an introduction by Jesmyn Ward.
The novel’s theme of reinventing oneself is timeless. The ideas of living a lie by reinventing yourself and wealth making people callous are equally resonant today. How did this novel become so influential, especially on other American novels, and a fixture on high school syllabi? Was it always a bestseller? What aspects of Gatsby hold up, and which ones have aged terribly?
Fitzgerald’s original title for The Great Gatsby was Trimalchio in West Egg. I think the publisher was right to change it. Trimalchio is a character from the ancient Roman work The Satyricon. Combined with the fictional West Egg neighborhood, this reference is cryptic. Gatsby is now an icon in his own right. He doesn’t need a classical allusion for us to notice the theme of excessive wealth.
In a 2014 NPR interview, Maureen Corrigan, the author of So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures, explained how Gatsby became popular. Initial reception was mixed, ranging from the headline “Fitzgerald’s Latest a Dud,” to Modernist poets like T. S. Eliot saying they loved it. When Fitzgerald died in 1940, Gatsby was unpopular (but not out of print). A few years later, it was republished for US service members in World War II, and 123,000 copies were given to members of the military through the Armed Services Editions.
After World War II, Gatsby was no longer an obscure book with mixed reviews. It was considered a classic and became a staple of countless high school syllabi. Constance Grady wrote that Gatsby was ideal for many 20th and early 21st-century English teachers’ emphasis on New Criticism. It’s a great choice for close readings of short passages and analyzing symbolism. However, historical context is also crucial and should never be downplayed, especially in terms of bias.
The Great Gatsby possibly condemns white supremacist theories but uses racist language elsewhere. Tom Buchanan reads white supremacist books and goes on racist rants. Daisy mocks him for this. It’s easy to read this as condemning Tom’s overall bigotry. However, Fitzgerald also expressed racist and antisemitic views in real life.
Sign up to become an All Access member for only $6/month and then click here to read the full, unlocked article. Level up your reading life with All Access membership and explore a full library of exclusive bonus content, including must-reads, deep dives, and reading challenge recommendations.
