By Mikayla van Loon
Featuring both up-and-coming writers as well as the most esteemed making the top contending list in a year of amazing releases, Eastern Regional Libraries is narrowing down the favourite titles of Yarra Valle and Dandenong Ranges readers.
Throughout the month of January, Eastern Regional Libraries received submissions from book lovers who voted for their favourite book of the year in the Reader’s Choice awards.
Preparing to announce the book of the year on Library Lovers Day on 14 February, Lilydale Library staff were excited about 2022’s outstanding year of releases.
Library manager Robin Barden said while Eastern Regional Libraries has held the Reader’s Choice awards many times before, this was the first year Lilydale had taken part.
“We love hearing what our readers enjoyed. We love feedback and there were so many amazing books published last year,” she said.
Librarian and book lover Deb Hosking said generally the latest fiction is first off the shelves, with something like Jane Harper’s ‘Exiles’ just one of those in 2022.
“Always the popular writers that are releasing books regularly. There’s always a big waiting list for those so people were quite keen to get their name on the list,” she said.
Robin agreed that fiction is often the most popular genre but with a number of biographies and autobiographies released in 2022, some made the top contenders list for the year.
“People love reading about true stories of people’s experiences. The Hannah Gadsby book ‘Ten Steps to Nanette’ was incredibly popular.
“With fiction – crime, mysteries – people just love those. That’s a really popular genre.”
Since the release of Jane Harper’s books, Robin said there has been a shift to Australian literature, with ‘Dirt Town’ by Hayley Scrivenor also a popular read.
“I was really taken with ‘Dirt Town’, which is a book by a new Australian author. The outback noir as they call it has become really popular.
“Jane Harper and Gary Disher also write wonderful mysteries set in outback towns and this is in that genre so that was terrific.”
Understanding what people are enjoying reading and having a compiled list of the best books as chosen by readers, Robin said, allows them as librarians to make suggestions.
“It is nice to be able to recommend things because people sometimes haven’t been reading for a while, a lot of people came back to reading during lockdown.
“We’ve had people come back and sometimes they come in and say, ‘I don’t know, can you recommend a good book? I’d like a great story or I’d like to read about someone’s life’.
“The feedback we get means that we can think to ourselves, ‘I’ll recommend this one or here’s another one’ and give them a selection.”
Deb said during the Covid lockdowns, the library was posting books to people and often they “would exhaust an author” and have to try something new, so having a list makes it all the more easy to recommend something.
With the number of Australian authors listed in the top contenders for 2022, Robin said that can also help guide the type of author talks or events the library holds in the future.
While Deb’s favourite book of 2022 was ‘Exiles’, Robin enjoyed ‘Shrines of Gaiety’ by Kate Atkinson.
Making the shortlist for 2022 was ‘The Mother’ by Jane Caro, ‘Again, Rachel’ by Marian Keyes, ‘Dinner with the Schnabels’ by Toni Jordan, ‘Sea of Tranquility’ by Emily St John Mandel, ‘Lying Beside You’ by Michael Robotham, ‘The Paris Apartment’ by Lucy Foley, ‘The Space Between the Stars’ by Indira Naidoo, ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ by Bonnie Garmus and ‘Someone Else’s Child’ by Kylie Orr.
For Robin, in 2023 she is looking forward to the release of Margaret Atwood’s book of short stories and ‘Birnam Wood’ by Eleanor Catton.
Other good reads to look out for in 2023 as recommended by collections manager Lyn include ‘Happy Place’ by Emily Henry, ‘The Bookbinder of Jericho’ by Pip Williams, ‘Paris: The Memoir’ by Paris Hilton and ‘Atlas: The story of Pa Salt’ by Lucinda Riley.
Deb and Robin would like to invite everyone down for Library Lovers Day to celebrate the best book of 2022 and encourage any book lovers to join the Library.
Lilydale Library can be found at Jarlo Drive Lilydale within the Box Hill Institute campus near Point of View cafe. To find out more, visit yourlibrary.com.au
