Since becoming a librarian, I’ve learned that the Texas Library Association has a large number of reading advisory lists. I knew about the Bluebonnet Award (for elementary books, similar to our Mark Twain Award back in Missouri), but didn’t know that we had adult lists for fiction and non-fiction, Texas lists, bilingual lists, and more.
A colleague at Texas Woman’s University, Esther Garcia, was the chair of the Lariat committee (for adult fiction) a couple of years ago, and she encouraged me to put my name forward for the 2025-2026 list. The next thing I know, I’m in my first meeting with a group of amazing women from across the state… who are warning me that boxes of books will start to arrive at my door soon, and I’d better get started reading since we’ll be reading 80-90 books to whittle the list to 25 by November.
I guess I’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s a good thing my reading buddy loves to snuggle up while I’m nestled in my favorite chair.
