Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 118, No. 19/20, 6/1/22 and 6/15/22 i Booklist

This year’s ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition will take place June 23–28, in Washington, DC, and our team couldn’t be more excited. Booklist will be conveniently situated in booth 1427 and we hope you stop by, not just because we want to talk to you and hear how you’re doing—it’s certainly been a challenging two-and-a-half years—but also because we will have swag! And during your visit, be sure to pick up a print copy of the June issue of Booklist Reader. Launched in September 2021, Booklist Reader is a monthly magazine for library patrons featuring diverse readers’ advisory recommendations for readers and listeners of all ages. Booklist Reader is digital-only now, and many of you have communicated interest in having Booklist Reader in print. So we have printed the current…

Memoir readers know that there’s no limit to the subjects that outstanding personal writing can illuminate. These 10 unforgettable memoirs, reviewed from June 1 & 15, 2021, through May 15, 2022, celebrate difference and resilience, from the depths of our planet’s oceans to its highest peak. —Annie Bostrom The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found. By Frank Bruni. 2022. Simon & Schuster/Avid Reader, $28 (9781982108571). After a stroke causes him to lose vision in one eye, Bruni visits specialists, enlists in experimental programs, and interviews people who have refused to let their physical limitations limit their dreams. Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea. By Edith Widder. 2021. illus. Random, $28 (9780525509240). Marine biologist Widder elucidates the how and…

Terry Hong, Booklist Contributing Reviewer and chair of the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence selection committee, had questions for Tom Lin, winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction for his first novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu. Here is their conversation. Hong: So as a debut novelist in your mid-twenties, what does winning the Andrew Carnegie Medal mean to you? Lin: It’s an incredible honor, doubly so because the award is given out by the country’s librarians, the contingent of people most immersed and invested in the power of a good story. I’m truly humbled by the attention and feedback that the book has received. I wrote The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu because it felt important to me—and winning the Andrew Carnegie Medal feels like an…

Kate Beaton’s forthcoming graphic memoir, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (reviewed on p.50) began as an online journal comic in 2014, and her many fans will be pleased to know that this full-length version is definitely worth the wait. With lucid vulnerability and moments of delightful comedy, she presents a coming-of age story that examines her own realizations about herself as well as her growing awareness of not only the environmental impact of the fossil fuel industry in Canada but the economic and human impact, as well. Read on for Beaton’s further thoughts on the project, what she’s learned since her time at the oil sands, and the importance of comedy for telling the true story. Hunter: So much of your work is comedic; this is a pretty big…

MICHAEL CART is the author of Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism. 4th edition. (ALA Editions, 2022). Get out the party hats and noisemakers, citizens; it’s time to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month. And here to get the party started is a soupçon of statistics: in a survey released recently, Gallup found that a record 7.1 percent of U.S. adults now self-identify as LGBTQ+ or something other than heterosexual. That’s twice the number in 2012, when the survey was first conducted. The increase was especially pronounced among the 68 million Gen Z’ers (people born between 1997 and 2012), with a jaw-dropping 21 percent of them identifying as LGBTQ+; that’s twice the number who did in 2017. And it gets better, for in sheer numbers alone, the Golden Age of LG-BTQ+…

This list of the top 10 biographies and memoirs for youth, reviewed between June 2021, and May 15, 2022, highlights creative forms and lesser-known stories. —Ronny Khuri Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor’s Life. By Marilyn Nelson. 2022. Little, Brown/Christy Ottaviano, $18.99 (9780316298025). Gr. 8–12. In this biography told through poems of various form, style, and voice, Nelson traces the life of Harlem Renaissance sculptor Augusta Savage, while the accompanying photos provide visual context and showcase her talents. Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui. By Alison Goldberg. Illus. by Elizabeth Zunon. 2022. Lee & Low, $20.95 (9781620149669). Gr. 2–5. This robustly researched and sourced biography of contemporary Ghanian artist El Anatsui explores the development of his found-object art and the collaborative nature of his fascinating works. Crazy Horse…

The books just never stop, do they? Here are some forthcoming titles we’re eagerly anticipating from best-selling, award-winning authors. —Sarah Hunter Each Night Was Illuminated. By Jodi Lynn Anderson. HarperCollins/Quill Tree, $17.99 (9780062393579). Gr. 9–12. Aug. In best-selling Anderson’s latest, a girl grapples with what it means to have faith when she’s reunited with a boy who looks at the world with wonder. The First to Die at the End. By Adam Silvera. HarperCollins/Quill Tree, $19.99 (9780063240803). Gr. 9–12. Oct. Beloved YA author Silvera offers a sequel to his best-selling They Both Die at the End, which begins on the day the Death-Cast app launches, informing thousands of the exact moment of their deaths. The Getaway. By Lamar Giles. Scholastic, $18.99 (9781338752014). Gr. 7–10. Sept. The exclusive resort town where…

For the fifteenth season of the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production, the rules have been changed so that one gold medallion goes to a children’s audio title and another to a young adult production. HarperAudio has won both. Boogie Boogie, Y’all and When You Look like Us were both produced on behalf of HarperAudio by Almeda Beynon. This is her first Odyssey win. Beynon came to audiobooks after working in the theater world, mainly as a sound designer, but also as a producer and director, and serving as the audio/video supervisor for a university before joining Harper. Booth: Tell us about your role as an audio producer for Harper-Audio. Beynon: I primarily produce children’s and YA, which I never knew was actually my dream job. After almost three years…

June brings the longest days of the summer, a perfect excuse to cram as much into the daylight hours as humanly possible. And as these novels show, a single day can hold a lot. Each book on this list takes place in the space of just one day (sometimes less), and they all demonstrate just how pivotal that one day can be—something sure to ring true for teens eager to make the most of their summers. I Have Lost My Way. By Gayle Forman. 2018. Viking. Gr. 10–12. Freya, Harun, and Nathaniel are thrown together after a chance encounter in this quiet, sophisticated examination of loss. The bulk of the narrative takes place over the course of just one day, during which the three, who come from varying backgrounds and…

Philosophy & Psychology Body Language: Writers on Identity, Physicality, and Making Space for Ourselves. Ed. by Nicole Chung and Matt Ortile. July 2022. 336p. Catapult, paper, $16.95 (9781646221318). 153.69. Editors Chung (All You Can Ever Know, 2018) and Ortile (The Groom Will Keep His Name, 2020) present 30 essays that reveal how diverse bodies “move within (and against) expectations of race, gender, health, and ability.” Gabrielle Bellot, a Black trans woman, impressively parallels Black violence and scuba diving in “The Year of Breath,” while her suggestion of turning Scheherazade into a verb, “meaning to tell stories to survive,” becomes a theme for the entire collection. Bodies are vessels of empowerment despite adversity. Natalie Lima is a Big Beautiful Woman in “Smother Me.” Andrea Ruggirello appreciates an atheist miracle in “On…

These standout biographies and memoirs tell the stories of individuals well-known and too-little-known who fought and are still fighting against inequality and injustice on many fronts, from myriad manifestations of racism to anti-immigrant policies, gender and disability discrimination, environmental destruction, worker’s rights, and the justice system’s deep flaws and failings. Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman’s Fight to End Ableism. By Elsa Sjunneson. 2021. Simon & Schuster/Tiller, $24.99 (9781982152376) In this thought-provoking memoir, award-winning writer and activist Sjunneson, who describes herself as Deafblind and queer, shares anecdotes and insights about growing up in an ableist world. Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley. By Tomiko Brown-Nagin. 2022. Pantheon, $30 (9781524747183). Cited by Vice President Kamala Harris as a direct influence, Constance Baker Motley spent her career fighting for racial and gender equality. The Crusades…

These books are recommended by BlueInk Review, a fee-based review service devoted exclusively to self-published books. Every other issue, BlueInk will compile a list of their favorites for Booklist, as a service to librarians hoping to incorporate self-published work into their collections. BlueInk was founded by Patti Thorn, former book review editor of Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, and Patricia Moosbrugger, a literary agent who represents several best-selling authors. The company delivers professional, unbiased reviews of self-published books written by critics drawn largely from major mainstream publications and by editors from prominent publishing houses. Stars reflect the decisions of BlueInk reviewers and editors. Booklist is happy to bring this curated collection of the best in self-publishing for adults and youth to our audience. Adult Blue Zeus: Legend of the Red Desert.…

Older Readers Coping with Parental Death: Insights and Tips for Teenagers. By Michelle Shreeve. Illus. by Kate Haberer. July 2022. 168p. Rowman & Littlefield, paper, $29 (9781538154892); e-book, $27.50 (9781538154908). Gr. 8–12. 155.937. This reassuring and affirming entry in the Empowering You series provides information and coping methods for any young person who has lost a parent or parents before they have reached the age of 20. Shreeve, who was 9 when she lost her own mother, understands what young people in similar situations are going through. She explains how life changes after a young person loses a parent and identifies milestones surviving children should anticipate and how to get through them. Other young people provide honest accounts of the challenges and successes they experienced. Both negative and positive coping…

Minoru Yamasaki is perhaps best known for designing the originial World Trade Center, but his architecture career is much more expansive and interesting than that achievement. Katie Yamasaki (Minoru’s granddaughter) has written and illustrated a picture-book biography, Shapes, Lines, and Light: My Grandfather’s American Journey (reviewed on p.71), endeavoring to demonstrate how Minoru’s experiences of the welcoming spaces of nature and home—as well as the unwelcoming spaces he endured as a Japanese American man in the mid-twentieth century—shaped the work of this major American architect. I talked with Katie about writing a biography as an insider, how her grandfather’s distinctive architectural style inspired her own artwork for the book, and why he deserves to be known for so much more than the Twin Towers. Hunter: Minoru Yamasaki was your grandfather; what…

Julia Scotti: Funny That Way. Prod. by Susan Sandler. 2022. 73min. GOOD DOCS, DVD. In the 1980s, Rick Scotti was married, a father of two, and a successful stand-up comic—as well as a person struggling with deep feelings of unhappiness in life, gender, and relationships. Nearing 50, Scotti decided to follow a more authentic truth and live fully as a transgender woman, Julia. Returning to comedy as a middle-aged woman and appearing on “America’s Got Talent,” Julia now speaks openly about the process and her new lifestyle. Performing on stage or speaking in front of smaller groups, Scotti describes her years of depression and the pain of telling her wife and children about her plans. For fifteen years, Scotti and her children remained apart, but now as adults, they come…

These lists pretty much always speak for themselves, but with some truly huge names (sometimes multiple per book!) this month’s iteration speaks even more loudly than usual. —Annie Bostrom A Book of Days. By Patti Smith. Random, $28.99 (9780593448540). Nov. All-around rock star Smith’s third memoir will pair a year’s worth of her personal photos with written reflections. Demon Copperhead. By Barbara Kingsolver. Harper, $29.99 (9780063251922). Oct. Loosely inspired by Dickens’ David Copperfield, this novel belongs to a young man trying to work his way up from the Appalachian poverty he was born into. The Forerunner. By Cori Bush. Knopf, $28 (9780593320587). Oct. Bush elucidates her remarkable life both before and after she made history as the first Black woman congressperson from Missouri. Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering. Harper, $28.99…

Scientists, activists, artists, a female magnate, and George Floyd are the compelling subjects of these exceptional biographies reviewed in Booklist over the past 12 months. —Donna Seaman Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend. By Jackie Kay. 2021. Vintage, $16.95 (9780593314272). Kay, a Black lesbian Scottish poet and writer, explores questions of identity, culture, and creativity in this imaginative and lyrical portrait of the profoundly influential blues singer Bessie Smith. Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. By Dana Stevens. 2022. Atria, $28 (9781501134197). Film critic Stevens astutely aligns Buster Keaton’s kinetic cinematic artistry and daring comedic genius with the velocity of twentieth-century innovation and change. Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus. By Maia Weinstock. 2022.…

General Fiction 1,000 Coils of Fear. By Olivia Wenzel. Tr. by Priscilla Layne. July 2022. 288p. Catapult, paper, $16.95 (9781646220502). The narrator of playwright and performer Wenzel’s debut novel examines her past and future, at home in Berlin and abroad. Born to a white East German mother and an Angolan father, she lost her twin brother to suicide at age 19. She struggles with being a queer person of color in a majority-white country where Nazism and white supremacy remain ongoing threats. In the U.S. for the 2016 election, she finds comfort in the Black community while recognizing such community was forged into existence by centuries of violence. She considers her grandmother’s and estranged mother’s lives and lost dreams alongside their inability to understand her own experiences. Translated from German…

Adult The Con Artists. By Luke Healy. Art by the author. June 2022. 128p. Drawn & Quarterly, $24.95 (9781770466234). 741.5. Frank wants nothing more than to be a stand-up comedian. When his childhood friend Giorgio calls him and tells Frank he was hit by a bus, Frank steps up to take care of Giorgio (who has broken his arm and requires surgery) by moving in with him as he recovers. Quickly thereafter, Frank discovers that Giorgio may not be as successful as he appears to be. This graphic novel puts focus on Frank’s introspective journey, especially as it relates to his anxiety and guilt, as well as his relationship with Giorgio. While Frank is able to talk about sensitive topics on stage in front of complete strangers, he has difficulty…

ALA Annual Will you be at ALA Annual in Washington, DC, this June? Visit Book list’s booth (#1427) to meet Booklist staff members and pick up issues of Booklist and Book Links, as well as the latest edition of our annual publication, Booklist’s Guide to Graphic Novels in Libraries, and a special print edition of our new patron-friendly publication, Booklist Reader. We’ll also be hosting a special giveaway with Chicago Review Press on Friday, June 24. Stop by after the exhibit hall opens to snag finished copies of Nora Ephron: A Biography, by Kristin Marguerite Doidge, and Fearless Heart: An Illustrated Biography of Surya Bonaly, by Frank Murphy, with Surya Bonaly, and illustrated by Anastasia Magloire Williams. Awards Ceremonies Booklist is proud to cosponsor several ALA media awards, and the…

Older Readers Blade Breaker. By Victoria Aveyard. June 2022. 576p. HarperTeen, $19.99 (9780062872661). Gr. 8–11. Straight off of killing a giant kraken and closing the Spindle—a door to another realm—in Ibal, pirate Corayne must take stock of the dead Gallish soldiers she helped defeat and of the remaining members of her own ragtag team. Queen Erida of Galland has joined forces with evil Taristan, naming him her consort and using the monsters he’s been unleashing from other realms to bolster her own armies. The Companions, as Corayne and her team have been called, must continue the long battle to close more Spindles even as Taristan opens them. The queen also fights against a cousin bent on stealing her crown and throne. An even bigger threat is the powerful god What…

Adult Birds of California. By Katie Cotugno. Read by Julia Whelan. 2022. 8hrs. HarperAudio, DD (9780063159167). Twentysomething former child star Fiona St. James got her big break on TV’s Birds of California, but now she’s lying low after a highly publicized fall from grace. When Sam Fox, who played her older brother on the series, reaches out to see if she’s interested in participating in a reboot, Fiona balks at the opportunity even as she finds herself drawn to her one-time costar. Award-winning narrator Whelan (a former child-actor herself) narrates best-selling YA author Cotugno’s steamy adult debut. Her distinct character voices for the sardonic Fiona and the goofy Sam expertly capture the pair’s flirty chemistry and rapid-fire banter. As Fiona and Sam get to know each other again, both characters…

What better way to get to know someone than listening to author-narrators and voice actors who tap into the truth of their subjects’ motivations and experiences? Original music—only available on the audio books—further enlivens the memoirs of musicians on this year’s list. —Heather Booth All about Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business. By Mel Brooks. Read by the author. 2021. 15hr. Books on Tape (9780593290750). This entertaining production featuring legendary comedian, actor, and director Brooks has an intimate feel, is laugh-out-loud funny, and is sure to send fans back to the library’s DVD collection. Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend. By Jackie Kay. Read by the author and Adjoa Andoh. 2021. 5.5hr. Books on Tape (9780593458365). A poetic tribute to an unsung legend who will never…