Loan Stars is the readers’ advisory tool that allows library staff across Canada to collaboratively select their favourite forthcoming titles. Using CataList, the online catalogue service and order management tool available for free to libraries, library staff can endorse the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Juvenile, and Young Adult titles they want to recommend to their patrons. The titles with the most recommendations become Loan Stars picks!
Join us as we go back in time and recap what happened in the Loan Stars world in the Winter and Spring seasons of 2022 (click here to see the full lists by month).
Library circulation
Thanks to LibraryData, BookNet’s national library collection and circulation analysis tool, we were able to determine which of the 50 books on the five lists were the most popular among library patrons from their publication dates up until July 14, 2022.
These are the results:
The Maid by Nita Prose 🍁 (January & February 2022 list)
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle (March 2022 list)
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan (January & February 2022 list)
Bluebird by Genevieve Graham 🍁 (April 2022 list)
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins (January & February 2022 list)
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan (April 2022 list)
Book Lovers by Emily Henry (May 2022 list)
The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk 🍁 (January & February 2022 list)
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (January & February 2022 list)
Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict (January & February 2022 list)
Subject popularity
The lists during this period were very homogeneous, with 47 Fiction titles, only two Comics & Graphic Novels and one Literary Collections title.
The Fiction categories that were present in the lists were Thrillers (11), Literary (8), Historical (8), Romance (6), Women (3), Mystery & Detective (3), Fantasy (2), Short Stories (1), Magical Realism (1), Humorous (1), Gothic (1), Family Life (1), and Coming of Age (1).
Repeat authors
Of the authors whose titles were Loan Stars picks during these seasons, ten had been featured on a previous Loan Stars list!
The authors previously included (and the titles that got them on the list):
Ben Aaronovitch’s False Value was on the January & February 2020 list and Lies Sleeping was on the November 2018 list.
Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach was on the October 2017 list.
Nicole Lundrigan's 🍁 Hideaway was on the July 2019 list and The Substitute was on the June 2017 list.
Marie Benedict’s The Personal Librarian was on the June 2021 list and The Other Einstein was on the October 2016 list.
Riley Sager’s Survive the Night was on the June 2021 list, Home Before Dark was on the Summer 2020 list, Lock Every Door was on the July 2019 list, The Last Time I Lied was on the July 2018 list, and Final Girls was on the July 2017 list.
Abbi Waxman’s The Bookish Life of Nina Hill was on the July 2019 list.
Jennifer Ryan’s The Chilbury Ladies' Choir was on the February 2017 list.
Lisa Moore’s Something for Everyone was on the September 2018 list.
Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation was on the May 2021 and Best of the Brightest 2021 lists, Beach Read was on the May 2020 list.
Iona Whishaw’s 🍁 A Match Made for Murder was on the April 2020 list and Death in a Darkening Mist was on the April 2017 list.
Canadian 🍁 contributors
We also looked at the number of Canadian contributors present in the five lists. (For reference, a Canadian contributor is an author, illustrator, translator, or editor who is a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.) Of all 50 titles on the January & February, March, April, May, and June Adult lists, 30% were by Canadian contributors.
ICYMI, these are the titles that made it to the lists
January & February Loan Stars Adult List
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins (St. Martin's Press)
The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk 🍁 (Poisoned Pen Press)
The Maid by Nita Prose 🍁 (Viking)
Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict (Sourcebooks Landmark)
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn (Doubleday Canada)
Good Rich People by Eliza Jane Brazier (Berkley)
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan (Simon & Schuster)
The Almond in the Apricot by Sara Goudarzi (Deep Vellum Publishing)
Between the Lines by S. J. Butler (Headline Accent)
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (Minotaur Books)
Find all these titles in this CataList Catalogue
March Loan Stars Adult List
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James 🍁 (Berkley)
The Suite Spot by Trish Doller (St Martin’s Griffin)
Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz 🍁 (Simon & Schuster)
When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (Bond Street Books)
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle (Atria Books)
Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage 🍁 (Knopf Canada)
Daughters of the Deer by Danielle Daniel 🍁 (Random House Canada)
The People's Princess by Flora Harding (One More Chapter)
The Night Shift by Alex Finlay (Minotaur Books)
In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer (Forever)
Find all these titles in this CataList Catalogue
April Loan Stars Adult List
An Unthinkable Thing by Nicole Lundrigan 🍁 (Viking)
Bluebird by Genevieve Graham 🍁 (Simon & Schuster)
The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon (Atria Books)
Framed in Fire by Iona Whishaw 🍁 (TouchWood Editions)
Forbidden City by Vanessa Hua (Ballantine Books)
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan (Scribner)
Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow (The Dial Press)
Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch (DAW)
Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes (Doubleday Canada)
Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett (Ballantine Books)
Find all these titles in this CataList Catalogue
May Loan Stars Adult List
Book Lovers by Emily Henry (Berkley)
Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner 🍁 (St. Martin's Press)
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi (Atria Books)
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan (Ballantine Books)
All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay 🍁 (Viking)
The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas (Berkley)
Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman (Berkley)
Such Big Dreams by Reema Patel 🍁 (McClelland & Stewart)
The Island by Adrian McKinty (Little, Brown and Company)
This Is How We Love by Lisa Moore 🍁 (House of Anansi Press)
Find all these titles in this CataList Catalogue
June Loan Stars Adult List
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager (Dutton)
The Aerialists by Katie Munnik 🍁 (The Borough Press)
The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle by Sophie Green (Hachette Australia)
Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman (Minotaur Books)
Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith (Chronicle Books)
Dele Weds Destiny by Tomi Obaro (Knopf)
The Cook by Ajay Chowdhury (Harvill Secker)
The World As We Knew It by Amy Brady and Tajja Isen 🍁 (Catapult)
The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark (Sourcebooks Landmark)
Summer Fires by Giulia Sagramola (Dark Horse Books)
The format preferences of Canadian buyers, borrowers, and readers.