The Shelf Awareness READERS' ISSUE is here!

You may have heard of Shelf Awareness, the daily e-mail newsletter with the tagline "Daily Enlightenment for the Book Trade," but thought it wasn't for you because...well, you're not in the "book trade."

Well, think again. As of today, that's changed.

Today, Shelf Awareness launches its new "Readers Edition." It will come to you twice each week, on Tuesday and Friday mornings.

Editor Bethanne Patrick (@TheBookMaven) promises that each edition of the Readers' Shelf will bring you

"...a dozen or so book reviews, along with some content from the daily version of Shelf Awareness that will boost your reading IQ, new consumer-focused content like 'Book Candy' and more readerly goodies.

...Each week we will share the 25 best books available to you right now (emphasis added), chosen by our industry insiders, including reviews editor Marilyn Dahl and children's editor Jennifer M. Brown...You'll find literary fiction, commercial fiction, biographies and memoirs, cookbooks, YA novels, children's books and more. Our terrific corps of reviewers includes booksellers, critics, librarians and authors. In each issue we'll also feature a 'Starred Review,' highlighting an especially worthy title."

The reviews in the Readers' Shelf are for books you can go out and get today. The very first Starred Review is for Kate Christensen's latest novel The Astral, of which the reviewer says:

Discover: The best exploration of a middle-aged man’s psyche since Bellow, all the more brilliant for having been written by a woman.

Here's a sampling of some of the other reviews in the inaugural issue:

• Mystery/Thriller: 

Tigerlily's Orchids by Ruth Rendell, reviewed by K.C. Martin, blogger at The Readable Feast
The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey, reviewed by Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd

• Nonfiction:

Sugar in My Bowl: Real Women Write About Real Sex by Erica Jong (editor), reviewed by Rebecca Joines Schinsky, The Book Lady's Blog

• Biography/Memoir:

I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl by Kelle Groom, reviewed by Kristen Galles, blogger at Book Club Classics

• Current Events & Issues:

Allah, Liberty and Love by Irshad Manji, reviewed by Hannah Caulkins, blogger at Unpunished Vice
As you can see, book bloggers are part of the Readers' Shelf...and I am excited to be one of them! (I don't have any reviews in the first issue, but as the books I've reviewed for SA approach their publication dates, I hope you'll start seeing them there. And look for other names you may know, too!)

Subscribers to the daily trade edition of Shelf Awareness will automatically receive the new Readers' Shelf edition in their e-mail - and if you blog about books, you are associated with the "book trade" and should be reading the trade edition already.

And if you just love to read and want a great source of book news and reviews, sign up now for your free e-mail subscription to Shelf Awareness: Enlightenment for Readers! You'll be glad you did - although your book budget and TBR pile may not be.