Reader's Guide
Overview
Around 300,000 books are published in the United States every year (and the number keeps climbing). Choosing which of those books you're going to read can be anything but simple.
Staff Reviews
Librarians are a wordy bunch; we like to read almost as much as we like to comment on books. For those of you who don’t trust the big reviewers, we offer you the Staff Blog: a completely–random–and–in–no–particular–order assortment of reviewed books from the staff of the Newburyport Public Library. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
To help you, we’ve gathered some resources aimed at guiding readers & book clubs to their next favorite book.
New Materials List
Keep tabs on your favorite authors, musicians and actors by checking out the MVLC New Materials List When you need to know what’s new, right now.
Hot Titles List
Be ahead of the curve (or at least on par). Here you can find, in ranked order, which titles borrowers of the MVLC are reading, viewing, and listening to.Bestsellers Lists
Want to keep up with the most talked about books? Inform your book choice by perusing these Bestsellers lists.NY Times Bestseller Lists
Powell's Books Bestseller Lists
USA Today's Bestseller List
NPR Books
NoveList
Need a little help deciding on what your next read is going to be? With over 150,000 fiction titles, and more than 4,000 custom created articles and lists (subject guides, award winners, Readalikes, etc.), NoveList can help connect you with great reads.
NoveList for fiction Your one stop shop for everything fictionNoveList Plus Your one stop shop for everything non-fiction and fiction (for NPL library card holders only)
Other Great Sites for Readers
Overbooked a resource for omnivorous readersBookslut.com Don't let the name put you off. According to the NY Times , “Bookslut is actually a friendly literary hub that aims to provide 'insightful reviews, commentary on trends, updated news, and a lot of silliness.'” And it does.
Powell's Books Review–A–Day. Book reviews sent to your email, 7 days a week.
Bookreview.com Around 300,000 books are published in the US last year. Not all of them will get reviewed (market saturation, unknown authors, no budget for advertising). Bookreview.com does it’s best to review the small-press, low-budget, obscure subject book.
Fresh Fiction The best feature of this website is the variety of subscription newsletters that can be delivered to your email box on a weekly basis.
Award Winners
When you’re short on time, long on desire, and willing to read only the best
Amazon's List of Award WinnersBarnes & Noble Directory of Award Winners
Lambda Literary Foundation Award
Man Booker Prize
National Book Critics Circle
National Book Foundation
Nobel Prize in Literature
Pen-Faulkner Award for Fiction
Pulitzer Prize Winners
Romance Writers of America
Fantasy Book Awards
Check out our audio book links.
Listen to Books
Now you can listen to your Newburyport Public Library and MVLC audio books four different ways. Sure you know about books–on–tape, and books–on–CD. Did you know we also offer MP3 Playaways and access to Overdrive, a collection of digitally downloadable audio books? Well, we do. NPL Audio Book Collection Use the catalog to see the most updated account of NPL audio books. Overdrive Just like a regular library, if a book is available, you can download it.
Large Print Books
The Library has a collection of large print fiction and non–fiction books located on the first floor in the Reading Room.Book Club @ NPL
The Book Club @ NPL is a library sponsored book group for the public. Books are selected based on interest, availability, and their ability to generate lively discussions (we tend to focus on fiction, but there is room for some compelling non-fiction). All are welcome! The Book Club @ NPL currently meets every other month. Check the events calendar for meeting times and book selections.
Book Club and Author Info
Books clubs have special needs. We need to know our books are discussable. We need to know our club choices won’t tank. We need to know more. Well, here’s more. These resources were selected for their uniqueness, thoughtful features, and in some cases, rank popularity. Go forth and book club.
Overbooked A resource for omnivorous readers This site is an incredibly user–friendly resource for avid book clubbers.Book Browse Reading guide questions and more
Reading Group Guides An online community for book groups, including questions for discussion
Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust Wiki ; The world’s most famous librarian has a wiki (a type of community space) that’s aimed at giving book clubbers and readers a place to dish about what they’re reading.
Reader’s Circle Aside from being an international book club list and extensive awards and review source, the Reader’s Circle also offers book clubs a way to schedule author phone chats for their meetings. A site worth seeing.
Bookspace From our friends at the Hennepin County Library in Minnesota, the book club links are especially nifty.
Book Group Buzz. The free features (there are some paid features) make this a worthwhile stop on your book club tour.
Oprah’s Book Club Oprah loves a good read. Here are her choices.
Newburyport Literary Festival
Newburyport Literary Festival The Newburyport Literary Festival is a frenetic three-day spring festival celebrating reading, writing, and the love of books. The festival features more than 50 writers of distinguished fiction and non–fiction, including short story writers, children's authors, biographers, nature writers, critics, screenwriters, poets, novelists, and journalists who read and discuss their work in venues throughout Newburyport's historic downtown.Other Library Catalogs
Boston Public LibraryNOBLE North of Boston Library Exchange (a nearby group of libraries)
Virtual Catalog (catch all of the Massachusetts libraries in this catalog)
OCLC WorldCat Check out OCLC World Cat Link
LibraryThing It’s alive!!! Part library catalog, part blog, all genius – LibraryThing is a way to catalog your home library (making it searchable with tags), to get book recommendations, or to riff on your favorite authors.
