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The Brooklyn Public Library recently revealed its list of most borrowed books of all time, but if you still need some literary inspiration (or holiday gift ideas!), we suggest you consult the New York Public Library's just-released recommendations for best books of the year.
The institution's lists have become an annual tradition for the past century and, in recent years, the pundits have even issued directories of tomes for teens and others written in Spanish.
Expert librarians have looked through almost 3,000 titles and settled on a fraction of them to make up four lists this year: best new books for adults, best new books for kids, best new books for teens and best books in Spanish for kids.
You can browse through each category in full right here and, below, find a selection of some entries in each group:
Best books for adults
- The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang
- The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere–A Memoir by James Spooner
- A Lady For a Duke by Alexis Hall
- Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
- Path of Totality: Poems by Niina Pollari
- Shutter: A Novel by Ramona Emerson
- Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora
- The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird & Tom Waltz
- Vladimir: A Novel by Julia May Jonas
Best books for kids
- Aviva vs. the Dybbuk by Mari Lowe
- Beauty Woke by NoNieqa Ramos, illustrated by Paola Escobar
- Blue: A History of the Color As Deep As the Sea and As Wide As the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, illustrated by Daniel Minter
- Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee
- Nothing Special by Desiree Cooper, illustrated by Bec Sloane
- Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams’s Photographs Reveal about the Japanese American Incarceration by Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki
- Sir Ladybug by Corey R. Tabor
- Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas
- Ten Blocks to the Big Wok: A Chinatown Counting Book (English and Chinese Edition) by Ying-Hwa Hu
- Wednesday and Woof #1: Catastrophe by Sherri Winston, illustrated by Gladys Jose
Best books for teens
- All My Rage: A Novel by Sabaa Tahir
- Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White
- I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
- I Rise by Marie Arnold
- Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American by Laura Gao
- Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer, illustrated by Jules Zuckerberg
- So This Is Ever After by F. T. Lukens
- The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes
- The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
- Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend by Alys Arden, illustrated by Jacquelin de Leon
Best books for kids in Spanish
- A veces, yo soy todo lo que necesito by Juliana Perdomo
- ¡A viajar, semillas! by Lorena Ruiz
- La casita de Esperanza by Terry Catasús Jennings, illustrated by Raúl Colón
- La falda morada de Leo by Irma Borges, illustrated by Francesco Fagnani
- Las gallinas de Sonia by Phoebe Wahl, translated by Laura Piperno and Gema Zamorano
- 9 kilómetros by Claudio Aguilera, illustrated by Gabriela Lyon
- Sábado by Jorge Garza
- Tengo hambre by Menena Cottin
- Una noche sin dormir by Micaela Chirif, illustrated by Joaquín Camp
- Yo no fui by Ana Palmero, illustrated by Alejandra Acosta