Shelf Awareness: Daily Enlightenment for the Book Trade. OK, so this isn’t technically a website or a blog, it’s a daily e-newsletter, but hey, if you don’t want to bother subscribing to it, you can go to the site and just treat it like a blog by reading the daily issues.  ShelfAwareness is meant for the book trade, so you’ll get insider news, information on upcoming books, and pertinent ads from publishers.  A ridiculous amount of information in a handy daily little package.

What’s that you say?  It’s Friday AGAIN?  Well then it must be time for our Web Crush of the Week…

This week’s crush is Reading the Past.

This blog features previews of upcoming historical fiction as well as backlist reviews. Sarah Johnson is tareference/electronic resources librarian at a midwestern university and  the book review editor for the Historical Novels Review; she also reviews and writes about books for Booklist, NoveList, and CHOICE, among others.  Some of the reasons we enjoy her blog are: she has an unpretentious style; you can tell she totally LOVES historical fiction; and, there just aren’t very many historical fiction blogs out there, so if you’re going to do one, do it right!  And she does.

Stop You’re Killing Me: This mega-mystery site has put every mystery book properly in it’s place  – you can search by author, title, character name, character profession, place,  time period, the list goes on.

Created by Bonny Brown and maintained by Lucinda Surber and Stan Ulrich, this is a site that we just can’t get enough of.  About the only thing missing is a searchable index by color of the front cover.  (Come on, guys, get on that, will you??)

So when your patron comes to the desk looking for a mystery they read 10 years ago, featuring an Episcopal vicar from New Jersey, it will take you no time at all to point them to the Mother Lavinia Grey series by Kate Gallison.  And you will look BRILLIANT.

http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/

RA librarian, instructor (and full disclosure:  friend of ours – see, it pays to put up with us…) Becky Spratford dishes all about Readers Advisory on RA for All, featuring what she’s reading, what her patrons at the Berwyn Public Library are reading, and what her students at Dominican University are learning about.  We like her clean layout and unpretentious writing.

Librarians, this will give you tons of ideas you can use on a practical level in your library – lots of booklist, book group, and display ideas.  Readers, it’s like chatting with friend about great books.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, we LOVE Early Word! EarlyWord’s goal is to help Collection Development and Readers Advisory librarians stay ahead of public demand and identify hidden gems. Edited by Nora Rawlinson, this site is a must-read for anyone who wants high-demand titles on their shelves and something smart to say about them.

Chock full media buzz, movie deals, and sales figures, the site also offers comprehensive lists of best-seller lists, pre-pub announcements, publisher catalogs, and book awards. As close to a collection development crystal ball as there is.