Innholdsfortegnelse for Booklist, Vol. 120, No. 12, 2/15/24 i Booklist

Journalism & Publishing The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters. By Susan Page. Apr. 2024. 480p. Simon & Schuster, $30 (9781982197926). 070.92. In the annals of broadcast journalism, Barbara Walters is legendary. Acclaimed for her monumental “gets,” Walters interviewed a veritable who’s who of twentieth-century politicians and celebrities, amassing a master class trove of spirited and probing interrogatories that famously reduced her subjects to tears. In an era when the business of broadcast news was a firmly established old boys club, Walters took a battering ram to those clubhouse doors when, in 1976, she became coanchor of ABC Nightly News. Not only was her position unprecedented, her million-dollar annual salary was record-shattering. Walters had toiled for decades in the trenches as a PR operative, low-level news writer,…

These eminently discussable books, reviewed in Booklist from February 15, 2023, through February 1, 2024, highlight hot topics through deep sociological work, historical encounters, satire, and more, making them ideal for groups looking to explore events through different lenses. Nonfiction 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed. By Eric Klinenberg. 2024. Knopf, $32 (9780593319482). Sociologist Klinenberg compiles a superb “social autopsy” of a turbulent year marked by a pandemic and protests through interviews and a telescopic view of institutions, societies, and political leadership. Birding under the Influence: Cycling across America in Search of Birds and Recovery. By Dorian Anderson. 2023. Chelsea Green, $24.95 (9781645022237). In this memoir of a yearlong bicycle journey, Anderson chronicles his spotting of over 600 birds while meditating on his awareness of the…

Older Readers The Boyfriend Wish. By Swati Teerdhala. Feb. 2024. 336p. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen, $19.99 (9780063279155). Gr. 9–12. Teerdhala’s sweet, wintry romance is perfect for any season. Deepa has big plans for her junior year: she’s gathered all the courage to ask a boy out to the dance, and she has her eyes set on an exciting school committee. Except, her crush already has a date, and the only committee with spots left is for the junior lock-in, with her neighbor and frenemy, Vikram. Feeling unlucky in love, Deepa wishes for someone who meets all the requirements of The List, containing all the qualities of her perfect boyfriend, that she made freshman year. The very next day, Deepa meets a new neighbor, and to her surprise, he just might be the…

Much like the young humans it describes, Pretween, as a term, can be hard to pin down. Preteen sums it up physiologically, but in terms of literature, we at Booklist use it for the nebulous space between the middle-grade and YA spheres. These fantastic titles were drawn from books reviewed in Booklist between February 15, 2023, and February 1, 2024. Alebrijes. By Donna Barba Higuera. Illus. by David Álvarez. 2023. Levine Querido, $18.99 (9781646142637). Gr. 5–8. Beautiful writing and complex world building fill this dystopian sf novel, wherein 14-year-old Leandro faces monsters of varying kinds to save his sister and himself from the harsh society in which they live. Chronically Dolores. By Maya Van Wagenen. 2024. Dutton, $18.99 (9780525426820). Gr. 7–10. Dolores Mendoza’s life is in the toilet after she…

A recent spate of imports from Japan with many appeals for readers are hitting bookshelves: deceptively simple, heart-warming stories that feature books, cats, comfort food, and coffee. Settle into a cozy chair with these translations and be swept away by the feel-good fun. Before the Coffee Gets Cold. By Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Tr. by Geoffrey Trousselot. 2020. Harper. A small café in Tokyo serves more than just carefully brewed coffee; it also offers customers a chance to travel back in time for as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold. Four quirky characters take the trip in this wistful, mysterious series starter. There are three more titles, most recently Before We Say Goodbye (2023). The Cat Who Saved Books. By Sosuke Natsukawa. Tr. by Louise Heal Kawai. 2021. Harper.…

General Fiction The Alternatives. By Caoilinn Hughes. Apr. 2024. 352p. Riverhead, $28 (9780593545003); e-book (9780593545027). Olwen Flattery, the oldest of four sisters, has already been dealt a rough hand. Orphaned when the sisters were just teenagers, Olwen has had to see her siblings through to adulthood. In setting up a life with a widower and his two young boys she played savior yet again. So when the realities of the geology lessons she teaches at the University of Galway hit home, extreme climate anxiety does her in and she disappears. The sisters, accomplished professionals all, close ranks to track their missing sibling and to try to flesh out a more cohesive picture of their current adult lives. Hughes’ (The Wild Laughter, 2020) writing is simply brilliant: An opinion was “sculpted…

Older Readers Advice to 9th Graders: Stories, Poetry, Art & Other Wisdom. Ed. by Amy Friedman. Feb. 2024. 200p. Out of the Woods, paper, $21.95 (9781952197024). Gr. 8–11. 373. This is the first anthology from the joint PATH finder and POPS (Pain of the Prison System) Clubs, featuring art and creative expression by POPS students that offers a safe space for youth impacted by incarceration. From a poem in Spanish, with English translations (“No Te Decaigas Se Fuerte,” by Lisbeth Vásquez) to a single sentence poem (“Don’t,” by Akinn Solis), the poems (over 150 of them), color photos, and drawings relay heartfelt poetic advice to both other ninth-graders and to the poets’ younger selves. They urge readers to be themselves, join clubs, make friends, stay in school, and avoid drugs.…

The past year saw a number of novels that explored the grieving process in ways that were innovative, reassuring, and even funny. These books, reviewed in Booklist between February 15, 2023, and February 1, 2024, handle this topic—and readers—with honesty and care. Boomi’s Boombox. By Shanthi Sekaran. 2023. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen, $18.99 (9780063051584). Gr. 5–7. Infused with grief, joy, and sardonic humor, this tale of preteen Boomi employs an sf twist when an old boombox transports her back in time to her recently deceased father’s childhood. The Boy, the Cloud and the Very Tall Tale. By Heather Smith. 2023. Orca, $14.95 (9781459836037). Gr. 4–7. Ewan’s whimsical journey to find his father and his own strength propels him across a colorful 1920s Newfoundland landscape in this fantastical look at loss. Clementine. By…

This announcement section offers readers a selected preview of notable new titles for young-adult, middle-grade, and young readers. All titles will be published in the spring or summer 2024 seasons. Young Adult Nonfiction American Crime Stories Set 2 (series). ABDO/Essential Library. Individual titles, lib. ed., $41.36. Eight-title set price, $330.88. Gr. 7–12. Spring. American Democracy in Crisis. By Naomi Rockler. ReferencePoint, lib. ed., $32.95 (9781678207229). Gr. 7–12. Mar. Americana (series). ABDO/ABDO & Daughters. Individual titles, lib. ed., $34.22. Six-title set price, $205.32. Gr. 6–9. Spring. Artificial Intelligence: Promise and Peril. By John Allen. ReferencePoint, lib. ed., $32.95 (9781678207243). Gr. 7–12. Mar. Becoming Who We Are: Real Stories about Growing Up Trans. Ed. by Sammy Lisel and Hazel Newlevant. Art by Various. Diamond/A Wave Blue World, paper, $17 (9781949518269). Gr. 7–12. May.…

Words on a page can zing and zap. They can swish like a hushed kiss or go plipity-plipity-plap. Short. Choppy. Sentences. Or long sentences that use lots of compounds and, like, commas or whatever, they can work, too. It’s all about the emotions you’re wooing and what you want to do. When writers think of onomatopoeia, picture books often come to mind. Text that moves across the page in exaggerated fonts. Or poetry, with its many forms and rules. However, good writing is good writing, no matter the audience or medium. Great middle-grade authors can swish or plipity-plipity-plap with the best of ’em. The best way for me to find the rhythm of my words is with a musical accompaniment. No, there is no piano in my home office with…

Adult Fiction After World. By Debbie Urbanski. Read by a full cast. 2023. 10.5hr. Simon & Schuster Audio, DD (9781797170381). An intriguing premise: decades into the future, an AI has decided the best way to save the planet from increasingly catastrophic climate events is to make humanity extinct, but through more gentle means than one might expect. The novel follows one particular human whose job is to document the end of humanity. In a unique twist, the story is told through the lens of the AI, which may be falling in love with the human. Readers may be drawn to the book based on the starred review of the print edition and the notable full voice cast, which does an excellent job with the material but is separated into separate…

The Dreamatics. By Michelle Cuevas. Read by Megan Hilty. 2023. 7hr. Listening Library, DD (9780593745465). Gr. 4–7. Megan Hilty delivers a touching, varied performance of Michelle Cuevas’ story of a young girl coping with the loss of a beloved pet in The Dreamatics. Every night, the cast and crew of the Lunarian Grand Theatre, known as the Dreamatics, put on fantastical dreams for their girl Luna. When tragedy takes the life of her dog Murph, the Dreamatics are forced out of the Lunarian as a host of nightmares take over. Stagehand Dormir must find a way to restore the rest of the Dreamatics and bring joy back to Luna’s dreams. Hilty does an amazing job with characterization, making each dream, nightmare, and human distinctive. Even more impressive is her ability…