We celebrate the wondrous activity of reading with this list of 144 titles, books that delighted LJ reviewers, columnists, and editors, including:
Best Nonfiction of 2024 By Jill Cox-Cordova, Liz French & Kevin Howell Moving memoirs, historical accounts, lively performing arts books, and scientific inquiries number among these real-world reads.
Best Literary Fiction of 2024 By Neal Wyatt Explore powerful titles by marquee-name and debut authors, a translator, several poets, and short-story scribes.
Best Poetry of 2024 By Barbara Hoffert These volumes’ lyric and reflective lines cry out against oppression, war, and annihilation and praise the complexity and absurdity of human existence.
The IMF’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Virtual Handbook is a reference guide for policymakers and experts at central banks and ministries of finance. It also serves as the basis for the IMF’s engagement with country authorities and other stakeholders. Read our reference guide which shares knowledge, lessons, and empirical findings.
By Dr. Meredith R. Evans, Hannah Lewis, Victoria Thur, and Alethea Perez
From the research services of a presidential center to a large public library system and an academic music archive, explore three libraries around the country and the resources they rely upon.
Salem Press, 75 years old this year, offers multivolume resources that meet the needs of many readers. LJ talked to Leslie Mackenzie, Salem’s president and publisher, about Salem’s vision for reference and its approach to making its materials accessible to all.
Coherent Digital provides students, educators, policymakers, and librarians with wide-ranging resources for research, learning, and discussion. LJ talked with Eileen Lawrence, Coherent’s cofounder and senior adviser, to discuss Coherent’s materials, selection process, and commitment to finding, preserving, and making endangered content accessible.
Academics have a shared goal of making their work highly accessible for a worldwide audience—and they agree that F1000Research, which is part of Taylor & Francis and supports researchers in all subject areas, is an effective platform for achieving this goal.
A robust visually enriched resource that offers detailed lessons about geography, history, and the people who have shaped North America over millennia.
An outstanding translation of one of the most important and influential books of the last 150+ years. The quality of editing, the copious explication, and the stellar supporting documents result in a translation that will be definitive for decades. Serious readers with extensive knowledge of economics, political science, philosophy, and theory will benefit most from this rendition, but novices will be able to follow along too.
A must-purchase for academic libraries with extensive Southern history or women’s studies collections. Public libraries in the South that are interested in regional history or agricultural heritage will also find this title of high interest.
A distinctive, memorable story that powerfully shows what it takes to survive as a political prisoner in the U.S. Pair with Better, Not Bitter by Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Exonerated Five.
Heath’s clear writing will appeal to business readers, but there’s enough research to give the book some academic heft as well. Its focus on making business changes that can have a lasting impact on employees separates the book from other titles about organizational change.
What we think of as “reference” has steadily evolved with technology. Now “reference” is more likely than not to be synonymous with “database.” Most of the publishers in this month’s Reference section offer digital databases alongside—or in lieu of—traditional printed reference materials like books and periodicals.
Bibliodiversity, state-of-the-art content, and hand-picked works supporting curricula make academic ebook platforms key parts of the collection development ecosystem.
When the journey is the point, the mode of travel is as important as the destination. Moving from here to there—whether via quiet footfalls or the whisper of wings or sailing with a neatly trimmed spinnaker—fascinates readers and makes them wonder if there are ways to do it more efficiently, more economically, or with more zest and flair. The books on this list answer with a resounding “yes.”
Searching to update collections and fill information gaps? Consider these 580+ new and forthcoming print titles. Also included are updated lists of reference fun reads.
Scheduled to be updated in late 2024/through 2025, consider these 140+ databases and online products. Arranged by category, these resources range from titles on the arts to those addressing technology.
The NYT announces the 10 best books of 2024. Peter Mackay has been named Scotland’s national poet, and Kate Beaton wins the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature. Plus, Oxford University Press selects “brain rot” as its word of the year.
Washington Post shares its 10 best books of 2024. Alice Loxton’s Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives is Blackwell’s Book of the Year. Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo is named Foyles Book of the Year. The Racket: On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation—and the Other 99% by Conor Niland wins the William Hill Sports Book Award. Lexington: The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America’s Legendary Racehorse by Kim Wickens wins the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award. Winners of the James Berry Poetry Prize and the shortlist for the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year are also announced.
One painful part of living through the pandemic for me was the sense that Americans were failing one another. Recent catastrophic weather events have brought back that same sense of unease. When deadly Hurricanes Helene and Milton made landfall last month, conspiracy theorists suggested they were manufactured for political benefit. Federal relief efforts were stymied by online misinformation, and a man was arrested for threatening FEMA workers. America, we’re not okay.
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