Holidays, school breaks, and changes in weather — there are lots of factors that cause wildly fluctuating traffic in your library during winter. Whether you're busy all day long or closed for a snow day, you can rest assured that NextReads newsletters are providing your patrons with high-quality reading recommendations directly in their inboxes. Even if you're facing a holiday lull at the desk, you can always use a NextReads theme lists to pull together some quick displays.
Here are some highlights from what's coming your way this winter via NextReads:
- A new year on the way makes for a good opportunity to highlight the past year. This December, you'll find "2022 Debuts" theme lists in Teen Scene, Biography and Memoir, History and Current Events, and Horror. (And check out the accidental mini-theme of cult stories among the 2022 Horror Debuts — truly a scary year!)
- In January, Christian Fiction looks back with "Books You May Have Missed," while the Home, Garden, and DIY newsletter rounds up "Cookbooks You Might Have Missed."
- For readers who prefer food for thought, keep an eye out for Temple Grandin's Visual Thinking and Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Song of the Cell, both in Science and Nature.
- December's Mystery newsletter is rife with schemes and backstabbing – our "If You Like Knives Out" read-alike theme list coincides with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, streaming on Netflix starting December 23.
- This winter is a big one for speculative fiction – our Science Fiction and Fantasy newsletters will be graced by new works from N.K. Jemisin, Rebecca Roanhorse, Brandon Sanderson, Nghi Vo, and Neil Gaiman.
- With Valentine's Day looming in February, you can expect some wintry romances in upcoming NextReads newsletters: Jake Maia Arlow's How to Excavate a Heart and Whiteout by an all-star lineup of authors in Teen Scene; plus Timothy Janovsky's You're A Mean One, Matthew Prince in Romance.
- And romance readers who love titles starring the titled can look forward to Eloisa James' The Reluctant Countess, Minerva Spencer's The Boxing Baroness, and Amalie Howard's The Duke in Question.
- Finally, with the ALA's Youth Media Awards announced at the end of January, there may be a surge of interest in kidlit from 2022 — but that doesn't mean there aren't new books for young readers to get excited about! December's Books for Kids and Tweens recommends buzzworthy new graphic novels from Gale Galligan, Ben Clanton, and Claribel A. Ortega; and in Picture Books, animal-obsessed kids can absorb new facts from award-winning duos Candace Fleming & Eric Rohmann (Polar Bear) and Robin Page & Steve Jenkins (The Bird Book).
If you're wondering how to get these nuggets of newsletter goodness out from the ol' inbox, wonder no more: A Guide to NextReads Newsletters has you covered with simple how-tos for everything from understanding the Advance List to using LibraryAware for promotional materials.
Rebecca Honeycutt is a Senior Readers' Advisory Librarian at NoveList. She is currently reading Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen.
