Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 121, No. 7/8, 12/1 & 12/15/2024 i Booklist

As we look forward to the new year, I’ve been reflecting on the last twelve months. Personally, it was a wonderfully exciting year to engage with my family and enjoy time with my daughter as she grows and learns. Professionally, I’m thrilled to see the developments at Booklist, including Donna Seaman becoming Editor In Chief and overseeing content and editorial policy in our storied publication. Like so many, I was also absorbed with the emotion and drama of election-year politics. Through the ups and downs, reading centered me and offered solace and information. The importance of libraries was reinforced on a daily basis personally, professionally, and culturally. Thankfully, I can escape into books and find comfort and community in libraries! I want to thank our intrepid and dedicated team at…

These chronicles of musicians’ lives, artistry, struggles, and breakthroughs capture the creative passion for music in contrast to the obstacles endemic to the industry. 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool. By James Kaplan. Penguin, $35 (9780525561002). Kaplan’s richly detailed, insightful, and revelatory portrait of three crucial jazz geniuses captures the moods and milieus, temperaments and drama that propelled jazz’s evolution from bebop to cool to fusion. Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico. By Noé Álvarez. Catapult, $26 (9781646220892). Álvarez follows the award-winning Spirit Run (2020), with a journey of self-discovery as he seeks his accordian-player grandfather, who abandoned his family, setting off a ripple effect of intergenerational trauma. A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The…

No one comes in or out, but the bodies are piling up—meaning danger is in your midst. The locked-room is an eternally popular type of mystery, and these are excellent examples of the trope. Close to Death. By Anthony Horowitz. Harper, $30 (9780063305649). The murder of an obnoxious resident in a tiny village outside London jump-starts the engrossing fifth Hawthorne and Horowitz mystery, a tale full of whimsy and dark humor. He Who Whispers. By John Dickson Carr. Poisoned Pen, paper, $15.99 (9781464216473). In this 1946 novel, Carr upends the standard locked-room mystery by setting a murder in a totally exposed space: the top of a tower, in broad daylight, with witnesses. The Hitchcock Hotel. By Stephanie Wrobel. Berkley, $29 (9780593547113). This locked-room mystery follows a man who opens a…

Adult Avengers: Twilight. By Chip Zdarsky. Art by Daniel Acuna. Marvel, paper, $24.99 (9781302921484). Aging, embittered Marvel heroes come together to fight off an all-too-familiar oligarchy in this sharply realized, stand-alone story from the Avengers universe. The AWL, v.1. By Choi Gyu-seok. Art by the author. Tr. by Lynn Eskow. Diamond/Ablaze, paper, $14.99 (9781684971909). This trilogy opener follows Gu Go-shin, a Korean activist who helps workers get access to rights denied to them by their unethical bosses. Brittle Joints. By Maria Sweeney. Art by the author. Street Noise, paper, $20.99 (9781951491260). In deft artwork, Sweeney capably relates her experiences of living with a degenerative bone disorder, from dealing with chronic pain to struggling to navigate the bureaucracy of the U.S. health-care system. Capital & Ideology: A Graphic Novel Adaptation. By…

Help history, STEM, civics, and literature come alive in the elementary-school classroom with these exceptional nonfiction titles from the last year. Big Bertha: How a Massive Tunnel Boring Machine Dug a Highway under Seattle. By Amanda Abler. Illus. by Katy Wu. Sasquatch/Little Bigfoot, $18.99 (9781632173065). Gr. 1–4. Meet Bertha, the massive tunnel-boring machine used to build a double-decker traffic tunnel beneath Seattle. Claudette Colvin: I Want Freedom Now! By Claudette Colvin and Philip Hoose. Illus. by Bea Jackson. Farrar, $19.99 (9780374389734). PreS–Gr. 3. Growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin takes a stand against segregation. Others follow her example, sparking the famous bus boycott. Dive! The Story of Breathing Underwater. By Chris Gall. Illus. by the author. Roaring Brook, $19.99 (9781250823953). K–Gr. 3. This beautifully illustrated picture book traces…

This year brought an unusually strong pack of books about dogs, from sweet picture books to adventurous middle-grade novels to informative nonfiction. Answers to Dog. By Pete Hautman. Candlewick, $18.99 (9781536234886). Gr. 4–7. Evan is an average rural kid, but when he meets a stray dog, Samarkand, he and his family find a new sense of optimism. Dog vs. Strawberry. By Nelly Buchet. Illus. by Andrea Zuill. Random House Studio, $18.99 (9780593643129). PreS–Gr. 2. In an epic (and hilarious) living-room race, a dog faces off against a strawberry. Go and Get with Rex. By David LaRochelle. Illus. by Mike Wohnoutka. Candlewick, $17.99 (9781536222067). PreS–Gr. 2. This hilarious picture book features a dog competing with two children in an alphabet game with unexpected twists and turns. Gooseberry. By Robin Gow. Abrams/Amulet,…

Philosophy & Psychology Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together. By Dean Spade. Jan. 2025. 352p. Algonquin, paper, $19.99 (9781643756462). 158.1. This inclusive guide to interpersonal relationships is not only for fans of self-help books. Lawyer, professor, and trans activist Spade (Mu tual Aid, 2020) explains that too often, books about dating, romance, and sex are unhelpful and deeply exclusionary, addressing issues only from a heteronormative, white, Christian perspective. For all lovers and friends, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, income, and family background, this book is broken into sections about managing issues like isolation, jealousy, conflict, and change management in a world that, with its ecological and social catastrophes, can exacerbate our strife. The radical truth: we must love each other…

General Fiction Back after This. By Linda Holmes. Feb. 2025. 320p. Ballantine, $28 (9780593599259); e-book (9780593599266). Cecily Foster knows she is a good podcast producer. She’s known for juggling multiple priorities with ease and coming so prepared for any emergency that her colleagues jokingly refer to her as “mom.” After a difficult break-up six years prior, she put her romantic life on hold to pursue her professional passions, which include eventually producing her own show. Her boss needs a big hit to sustain the company, so when he offers Cecily the opportunity to take the next step in her career, it comes with a catch. Cecily must agree to be the star of a podcast where Eliza, an influencer-turned-relationship-expert, sets her up on twenty blind dates. Cecily reluctantly agrees to…

Older Readers After Life. By Gayle Forman. Jan. 2025. 272p. HarperCollins/Quill Tree, $19.99 (9780063346147). Gr. 9–11. Nothing has changed for Amber on the fine spring day she arrives home from school, but her family is shocked to see her—she’s been dead for seven years. Hit by a car, Amber has returned as she was at 17 years old, while her friends and family have continued to age and splinter in her absence. But the specifics of her death—including the person responsible—are as mysterious as her reappearance. In accessible prose, Forman returns to her highdrama, high-interest stories of teen girls in liminal states between life and death. Amber appears as sympathetic and burdened with typical teenage flaws, of which she’s newly self-aware. As in her popular If I Stay (2009), Forman…

Adult Fiction Adult Fiction Adult Graphic Novel Adult Audio Youth Nonfiction Youth Graphic Novel Middle Grade Fiction Picture Book Young Adult Fiction Youth Audio…

These bright-burning social-justice reads stand out for their meditations on identity, confrontations with prejudice, and histories of hard-fought-for freedoms. Beautiful People: My Thirteen Truths about Disability. By Melissa Blake. Hachette Go, $29 (9780306830426). Mixing personal stories with data, a disability-rights activist helps nondisabled readers understand ableism while helping disabled readers move toward self-acceptance, covering romantic relationships, mobility devices, and much more. By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land. By Rebecca Nagle. Harper, $32 (9780063112049). In this thrilling legal exposé, investigative journalist Nagle scrutinizes the Supreme Court case, McGirt vs Oklahoma, one of the most significant Native American rulings in a century. LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority. By Marie Arana. Simon & Schuster, $32.50 (9781982184896). Celebrated Arana unpacks one of…

General Fiction After Annie. By Anna Quindlen. Random, $30 (9780593229804). Quindlen explores the impact of the sudden death of Annie Brown, age 37, on her husband, four kids, and best friend in this exquisitely sensitive examination of grief and renewal. All Fours. By Miranda July. Riverhead, $29 (9780593190265). In July’s brilliant, sexy, funny, and ludicrously entertaining coming-of-middle-age novel, a woman stares down the wilderness of the rest of her life and finds surprising new rootedness. The Alternatives. By Caoilinn Hughes. Riverhead, $28 (9780593545003). The oldest of four sisters, Olwen Flattery, a geologist, cared for her siblings through to adulthood; now the climate crisis causes a personal crisis and she vanishes somewhere in Ireland. And He Shall Appear. By Kate van der Borgh. Union Square, $27.99 (9781454952619). In this unsettling tale,…

Historical novels about real-life people combine all the revelations of biography with transporting storytelling to illuminate both the world and the inner lives of intriguing and influential individuals. Burma Sahib. By Paul Theroux. Mariner, $30 (9780063297548). Theroux imagines Eric Blair’s life-shaping sojourn in Burma as a policeman-in-training for the occupying British in this engrossing tale mapping his metamorphosis into George Orwell, resounding critic of malevolent power. Finding Margaret Fuller. By Allison Pataki. Ballantine, $30 (9780593600238). Pataki presents an invigorating, inspiring fictional portrait of the brilliant Margaret Fuller, American feminist writer, Transcendentalist thinker, journal editor, and foreign correspondent always striving to achieve her potential. Followed by the Lark. By Helen Humphreys. Farrar, $27 (9780374611491). Steeped in Thoreau’s writing, Humphrey lyrically and perceptively imagines the inner life of this singular earth ecstatic…

Older Readers The Ballerina of Auschwitz: Young Adult Edition of The Choice. By Edith Eva Eger. Atheneum, $18.99 (9781665952552). Gr. 8–12. This thoughtful memoir follows the author before, during, and after WWII, including how she survived Auschwitz as a teen and her post-war healing journey. Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir. By Walela Nehanda. Penguin/Kokila, $19.99 (9780593529492). Gr. 10–12. Black, queer, and nonbinary writer and activist Nehanda chronicles their difficult journey through cancer and mental health issues stemming from familial abuse. Born a Girl: It Takes Courage. By Alice Dussutour. Illus. by the author. Tr. by David Warriner. Orca, $29.95 (9781459838987). Gr. 7–10. Through fictional characters and a highly illustrated format, this looks at five contemporary misogynistic cultural practices intended to isolate, humiliate, and control women. Diary of a Dying…

Nonfiction The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality. By Amanda Montell. Read by the author. 6hr. Simon & Schuster Audio, DD (9781797175577). The popular Sounds like a Cult podcaster treats the topic of cognitive bias as a social exploration of how our brains can trick us. Ambition Monster. By Jennifer Romolini. Read by the author. 9.5hr. Simon & Schuster Audio, DD (9781797179186). This candid audiobook is recommended for anyone with aspirations of leadership in the corporate world, illustrating how overachieving can be shaped by our environment, personality, and obstacles. At the Edge of Empire: A Family’s Reckoning with China. By Edward Wong. Read by Will Dao and the author. 17hr. Books on Tape, DD (9780593908860). After 20 years of stage performance, Dao’s narrative skills are top notch here…

Let’s call it a month of high-demand firsts: first books, first solo-authored books, first books in a while. Be the first to order them! —Annie Bostrom All the Men I’ve Loved Again. By Christine Pride. Atria, $28.99 (9781668049532). Jul. Pride, who’s coauthored two best-selling novels with Jo Piazza, strikes out on her own in this story of a woman who gets caught in the same love triangle twice, 20 years apart. Flashlight. By Susan Choi. Farrar, $30 (9780374616373). Jun. A father’s long-ago disappearance reverberates in Choi’s first novel since the National Book Award–winning Trust Exercise (2019). Katabasis. By R. F. Kuang. Harper Voyager, $35 (9780063021471). Aug. A fantastical dark academia romance from the author of recent best-sellers Yellowface (2023) and Babel (2022)? Copies will fly off shelves. King of Ashes.…

Adult Fiction Clear. By Carys Davies. Read by Russ Bain. 2024. 3hr. Simon & Schuster Audio, DD (9781797168517). A minister charged with removing the last remaining inhabitant of a Scottish island during the Highland Clearances is injured on arrival. John is rescued by and nurtured to health by Ivar, the island’s solitary inhabitant, and the two slowly build a common language for communication that leads to a connection outside the bounds of society’s expectations. The curiosity, determination, heartache, and connection of the characters in Davies’ slim and evocative novel is baldly apparent and enduringly memorable. Bain’s voicing so vividly crafts each man’s perspective that one forgets that it’s not a dual narration. The story is told mainly from the perspective of reticent minister John, and Bain takes a storyteller-like stance…

Adult Books We the editors have chosen what we feel are the most extraordinary 2024 books for adults reviewed in Booklist this year with an eye to literary artistry, ardent research, abundant imagination, and resonant content, as well as diversity of voices, subjects, and genres. These titles offer pleasure and reckonings, revelations and reminders, surprises and transcendence. Nonfiction, poetry, and fiction alike tell gripping stories and seek truth. We hope that these works by writers renowned and new will prove to be exciting recommendations for readers seeking transportive reading experiences that will leave them laughing, crying, marveling, and feeling informed, engaged, and inspired. The Arts Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring. By Brad Gooch. Harper, $42 (9780062698261). Keith Haring started out as a graffiti artist on the streets…

The authors of these guides—reports from the field, memoirs, and a poetry collection—offer fresh and arresting perspectives on the state of the biosphere. The Conceivable Future: Planning Families and Taking Action in the Age of Climate Change. By Meghan Elizabeth Kallman and Josephine Ferorelli. Rowman & Littlefield, $26 (9781538179697). This reassuring consideration of a deeply personal matter teams seamlessly with a reasoned, emphatic call to action. Cry of the Wild: Eight Animals under Siege. By Charles Foster. Doubleday, $32.99 (9780857529381). In these imaginative and sometimes overpowering zoological fables, naturalist Foster shows just how besieged the natural world currently is, portraying a fox, an orca, a gannet, an eel, a mayfly, an otter, and humans. Fog and Smoke. By Katie Peterson. Farrar, $27 (9780374610890). Climate change is entangled with the precariousness…

What did Tolstoy say—every fictional family is dramatic in its own way? Family secrets, pasts-come-to-light, and relationships that are anything but simple make these fictional families impossible to stop reading about, or forget. Behind You Is the Sea. By Susan Muaddi Darraj. HarperVia, $26 (9780063324237). In this episodic debut novel, Darraj portrays the joys, resentments, and yearnings of three generations in a tight-knit Palestinian American community coping with the lies that undermine the American dream. The Berlin Letters. By Katherine Reay. Harper Muse, paper, $18.99 (9781400243068). As a child, Luisa is handed over the under-construction Berlin Wall, ends up in the U.S. working for the CIA, and gradually discovers her hidden past in this suspenseful drama. Devil Is Fine. By John Vercher. Macmillan/Celadon, $28.99 (9781250894489). A floundering biracial writer loses…

Genreblending is having a moment, with romance infiltrating the speculative genres. These sf, fantasy, and horror titles—along with a few paranormal romances—all feature love stories at their core. The Cottage around the Corner. By D. L. Soria. Del Rey, paper, $18.99 (9780593358108). A witch hopes to prevent a mage from opening another magic business in her hometown in this enemies-to-lovers romantic fantasy full of witty banter and an impressive magic system. The Familiar. By Leigh Bardugo. Flatiron, $29.99 (9781250884251). In this historical fantasy, a servant hides her magical talents, fearing that discovery would also uncover her Jewish roots, only to attract the attention of a power-hungry patron. Fang Fiction. By Kate Stayman-London. Dial, paper, $19 (9780593729120). What if your favorite fantasy book series was real? That’s what happens to New…

These excellent nonfiction titles from the last year will supplement and enrich conversations about history, civics, literature, science, and more. Barracoon: Adapted for Young Readers: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.” By Zora Neale Hurston and Ibram X. Kendi. Illus. by Jazzmen Lee-Johnson. Amistad, $18.99 (9780063098336). Gr. 5–8. Decorated Kendi adapts for young readers the legendary Hurston’s posthumously published work about the last known survivor of the Middle Passage. Fire Escape: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires. By Jessica Stremer. Illus. by Michael Garland. Holiday, $22.99 (9780823454426). Gr. 5–8. An exceptionally informative look at how the forest and the animals and plants that inhabit it adapt to survive devastating wildfires. Made in Asian America: A History for Young People. By Erika Lee and Christina Soontornvat. HarperCollins/Quill Tree, $19.99 (9780063242937).…

In these novels, loss lingers like a ghost—sometimes just metaphorically, but other times, those ghosts are real. At the End of the River Styx. By Michelle Kulwicki. Page Street YA, $18.99 (9798890039606). Gr. 9–12. After his mother’s death, Bastian has nightmares, through which he meets and falls for Zan, a servant of the monstrous Ferryman, who eats dead souls. Come Out, Come Out. By Natalie C. Parker. Putnam, $19.99 (9780593619391). Gr. 10–12. Fern and Jaq recover missing, crucial memories about their queer identities in a haunted forest in this taut, sharp ghost story with a soft sapphic romance at its core. The Dark We Know. By Wen-yi Lee. Zando/Gillian Flynn, $19.99 (9781638930587). Gr. 9–12. Isa teams up with her last living childhood friend to save their hometown from a supernatural…

Older Readers Interabled: True Stories about Love and Disability from Squirmy & Grubs and Other Interabled Couples. By Shane Burcaw and Hannah Burcaw. Jan. 2025. 288p. Roaring Brook, $19.99 (9781250620712). 362.4. In a series of touching and humorous interviews, YouTubers Shane and Hannah Burcaw explore romance and disability by speaking with couples across the country about how disability affects their lives together. All of the interviews have a personal and understanding touch, coming from personal experience of learning to navigate the relationship between caretaker and significant other. The spirit of romance perseveres throughout the interviews Shane and Hannah conduct with over 20 couples about their experiences of being in relationships with one person disabled and the other not. All of the interviewees are passionate about their relationships and proud of…

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. By Susanna Clarke. Read by Richard Armitage. 2024. 36hr. Macmillan Audio, DD (9781250384867). Clarke’s much-lauded debut novel is 20 years old but feels like it has been part of our collective reading awareness for much longer. The alternate history of magicians in London influenced many of today’s favorite speculative writers, like V. E. Schwab, who wrote an introduction to this anniversary edition and reads it with the excitement of a fan and the wisdom of a scholar of Clarke’s work. Richard Armitage then steps in and sweeps us away on his deep, velvety voice, one much worth the marathon listening time. Listeners will know they are in for a treat immediately as they hear his voice change between reading the front matter and the first…

This issue celebrates the best of Booklist 2024, but for all the stars we bestowed and all the titles we selected for Bookist Editors’ Choice and the pinnacle, Top of the List, Booklist staff have their own personal favorite books, TV series, and podcast. We share those here as a closing toast to this year and a welcome to the next with high hopes and gratitude for your readership. Ablaze! The Mysterious Fires of Spontaneous Human Combustion. By Larry E. Arnold. Growing up in the ’70s, I was convinced that the biggest threats in life were getting sucked into the Bermuda Triangle or slowly sinking in quicksand. So, you can imagine how stoked I was to complete the fear trifecta when I stumbled upon on an entire book dedicated to…