“When I think of libraries, a flipbook of memories flashes through my mind. My local – the one I grew up with – is Watsonia Library in the north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It’s a low white building plonked right beside a busy train line and directly underneath two enormous transmission towers. Not exactly a dreamy location, but for many years it was my favourite place in the world.”

“Going to university was so thrilling, I found it nearly impossible to focus on my studies. I was finally free from my mother’s rules and had a ton of new friends, and when I sat in my bedroom with my books, I couldn’t concentrate. Then I remembered libraries. As soon as I got my butt back into a library, I felt a wonderful sense of calm, and it was a sanctuary from hectic student life.”

Check out Jay Ellis, Jane Pek, M. T. Anderson, David F. Walker, Edward Burns, Cece Bell, and Del Sandeen in this series of videos filmed on the show floor at ALA Annual!

“I work as a high school librarian now. I still celebrate Banned Books Week every year, but it’s different, because I actually understand it. ‘Did you notice that most of these bans are for books with Black or LGBTQ+ characters?’ I ask the students. I tell them to remember that these statistics are only a small fraction of the story; I tell them that most book bans are insidious, as they were in my former town.”

“The library, to me, was two magical things at the same time: the safest and coziest place on earth with a thousand adventures snuggled up inside of it.”

“The Haunting of Moscow House is many things. It is about a society on the cusp of momentous change, a persecuted group in history now quite forgotten, a female-centric story of survival and the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood that make this possible, an old house with hundreds of years of past and memory. But at its heart, The Haunting of Moscow House is a ghost story.”

Red at the Bone has become one of the most banned books in the country with teachers, librarians, and community leaders fighting to keep this seminal book on shelves.

“When I was a child, my happiest memories are of my family’s frequent trips to the library. My mom adored the library with a cheerful, vehement passion that was contagious; going to the library triggered that same Pavlovian response as “Hey kids, we’re going for ice cream”—it was a treat!”

“The library was where I learned to love mysteries. Nancy Drew, to be more specific. I have a core memory of the line of yellow books in the kids’ section of my local public library. I read every single one that the library had. I read so many that I started to guess the endings. It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that the protagonist of my novel becomes a kind of detective herself, though her boyfriend is significantly less upstanding than Nancy’s Ned Nickerson.”

I’m a little teary-eyed as I write this, because libraries have played a huge role in my life. I wouldn’t be the person—or the writer—I am today without them. My debut novel, CROSS THE LINE, wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t been exposed to books of all genres, had a safe space to explore my creativity in, and experienced the kindness of librarians.

Come nighttime these current and former library staff are writing the next big novel you’ll sink your teeth into. Browse below for forthcoming and recently published recs in mysteries, romance, fantasy, and more.

James McBride, Lisa Wingate, Chris Whitaker, and John Schu celebrate National Library Week with heartfelt video messages for librarians and library lovers everywhere!