Champaign librarian faves
These lists link you straight to the catalog to find great reads fast. Stay tuned: we’ll keep adding to and updating these lists.
Gift Books
Regularly Updated Lists
- In the News
- “Book by Book” Readers Recommend
- Library Staff Picks
- Kelly Strom's Picks
- African American Authors
- NY Times Fiction Bestsellers
- NY Times Nonfiction Bestsellers
Recent Recommendations
- 1/12 Civil War Sampler
- 1/12 BYOB Readers Recommend
- 1/12 Entertaining Indoors
- 10/11 Chills from the Windy City Scary stories from upstate
- 10/11 Teen Books that Adults Love
- 9/11 It Happened Like This -- Memoirs
- 8/11 From a Distant Shore Modern American immigrant stories
- 6/11 Librarians on the Loose
- 5/11 Celebrating Mother's Day
- 4/11 Use It or Lose It Keep your brain fit and memory sharp
- 4/11 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
- 12/10 Observing Obama
- 11/10 Don’t Forget to Feed the Birds
- 8/10 Marigolds, Mulch, and Murder Fun reads for the end of summer
- 6/10 A Hat, a Coat, and a Gun Noir mystery & true crime for men
- 6/10 Fire & Endurance Merely the tip of our adventure-books iceberg
- 6/10 Container Gardening Tiny gardens = big satisfaction!
- 6/10 LGBT Pride Month Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender topics
- 4/10 Happiness
- 4/10 Culinary Memoirs
- 4/10 Chinese Fiction from Chinese Authors
- 2/10 It Must Be Spring by Now!
Gift Book Ideas
See our gift book suggestions for children, for teens, and for adults.
What Should My Book Club Read Next?
Are you in a book club in CU? Don’t buy books to discuss; check them out free from the library! We have multiple copies of more than 20 titles, plus discussion guides. See our list of titles.
“Book by Book” Reader Recommendations
See what local readers in our seasonal Book by Book program are enjoying. See our list of titles that “Book by Book” readers recommend.