ALA and RUSA award lists and more ...

It is that time of year so here are some wonderful links for even more reading choices ...

ALA Youth awards:
https://www.ala.org/news/2026/01/american-library-association-announces-2026-youth-media-award-winners   Plenty of choices for young people in our lives AND the ALEX awards are adult books suitable for teens. 

 

Notable Fiction

https://rusaupdate.org/2026/01/2026-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/ 

The ten fiction choices from that list are shown here with their covers:

https://pcin.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/display/1612157240/2946217557

 

Listen List … Includes The Correspondent, Mailman, and The Names

https://rusaupdate.org/2026/01/2026-rusa-listen-list-revealed/

 

And Ron Charles, The Washington Post book reviewer, just shared his readers' favorite humorous books ... we all need a smile or a laugh ...  

·       Jeeves & Wooster series, by P.G. Wodehouse

·       “A Confederacy of Dunces,” by John Kennedy Toole

·       “Straight Man,” by Richard Russo

·       “Dear Committee Members,” by Julie Schumacher

·       “Lucky Jim,” by Kingsley Amis

·       “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” by Helen Fielding

·       “I See You’ve Called in Dead,” by John Kenney

·       “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir,” by Jenny Lawson

·       “Squeeze Me,” by Carl Hiaasen

·       “Lamb,” by Christopher Moore

 

And see A Year-by-Year Look at 4-Star, Beloved Books of the New Century, published on GoodReads: 
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/3040-a-year-by-year-look-at-4-star-beloved-books-of-the-new-century 

True Biz by Sara Novic

TRUE BIZ by the very talented Sara Novic (Girl at War) is a fascinating read. The main focus of the story is Charlie, a hearing-impaired high school student who has struggled for years to communicate and finally is allowed to attend River Valley School for the Deaf. There is drama and angst in her relationships with her parents and her peers. This is a young woman working hard to find herself and along the way readers are privileged to learn background information and see diagrams about American Sign Language and Black American Sign Language (developed separately in part due to the legacy of segregated schools). Charlie has a cochlear implant which functions poorly and provides another opportunity for Novic (who is deaf) to provide asides and information about Deaf Culture, particularly in contrast to the experiences of classmate Austin, whose family has had deaf members for generations. Charlie, like so many adolescents, makes some poor choices, but there is caring adult support from February Waters, the headmistress at her new school who is a hearing child of deaf parents. The often troubled relationship between Feb and Mel, her wife, is part of another story arc within this many-faceted novel. If anything, it tries to accomplish too much, but readers will relate to the characters and learn much from this ambitious work. TRUE BIZ received starred reviews from Booklist (“Moving and revelatory… will draw YA readers.”) and Publishers Weekly (“This is brilliant.”).

Update: So excited to see that this title was chosen to appear on the Alex Awards List for 2023.

ALA names youth media awards

In case you missed them, here are today’s ALEX award winners:

The Alex Awards are awarded to ten crossover adult books that appeal to kids ages 12–18.

• Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
• The Impossible First: From Fire to Ice — Crossing Antarctica Alone by Colin O’Brady
• Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf
• The Kids are Gonna Ask by Gretchen Anthony
• The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
• Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
• Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
• Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
• We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

I have heard positive comments about the first two, but am not (sigh…so many books, so little time) very familiar with the others. More award winners listed on BookRiot: https://bookriot.com/2021-youth-media-awards/