Innholdsfortegnelse for Booklist, Vol. 122, No. 2, October 2025 i Booklist

October already? Why does it seem that time passes more quickly as one ages? I’m not the first to feel this way; there’s plenty of research on this topic. A simple Google search offers a few suggestions for slowing the perception of time. These techniques seem like good advice whether or not they actually alter our sense of time passing: seek new experiences (introduce novelty into your life), live mindfully (consciously process sights, sounds, and feelings), and embrace variety (get out of your routines when possible). I’ll add another: read more books and vary the types of books you read. Halloween is around the corner so this is the perfect time of year to read horror and fantasy fiction. Check out our October Booklist Reader for incredible sf, fantasy, and…

Many books blend manga and nonfiction storytelling styles when it comes to information on hobby topics such as cosplay creation, cooking, traveling, drawing, or gardening. Authors may use manga chapters as a throughline between informational text or choose to convey information entirely in manga form. Check out these books on popular hobby topics that use manga storytelling. Cosplay Cosplay Basics: A Beginners Guide to the Art of Costume Play. By Yuki Takasou & RUMINE. 2015. One Peace, $18.95 (9781935548812). Gr. 7–12. Both authors enjoy cosplay in Japan and created this beginner’s guide to induct the cosplay-curious into the hobby. Each section is introduced with a manga chapter following two friends—one an experienced cosplayer, the other a beginner. While some websites included have already become defunct since the book’s original publication,…

The following nonfiction series, both new and continuing, mark the season’s newest releases available in Spanish. —Julia Smith New Series Ayudantes de la comunidad (Spot Community Helpers). Amicus Learning. Individual titles, lib. ed., $21.95. PreS–Gr. 2. (8 titles) Biografías: Líderes del mundo (Leading Biographies). ABDO/Kids Junior. Individual titles, lib. ed., $23.95. PreS–Gr. 2. (6 titles) Celebramos que somos tú y yo con Sesame Street® (Sesame Street® Celebrating You and Me). Lerner/ediciones Lerner. Individual titles, lib. ed., $20.99. PreS–Gr. 2. (6 titles) Conoce a los caballos (Meet the Horses). Jump!/Bullfrog. Individual titles, lib. ed., $20.99. K–Gr. 3. (6 titles) Creative Sports: Ganadores de la Copa del Mundo (Creative Sports: World Cup Winners). The Creative Company/Creative Education. Individual titles, lib. ed., $24.95. Gr. 1–4. (8 titles) Creative Sports: Historias del Super Bowl…

Adult Fiction Alchemy of Secrets. By Stephanie Garber. Read by Sutton Foster. Oct. 2025. 10hr. Macmillan Audio, DD (9781250403124). Beloved YA fantasy and paranormal-romance author Garber defends her reigning talents in this dazzling debut adult novel. Holland St. James has always been enchanted by all things magical, even studying folklore and myths academically after an enigmatic course taught by the equally cryptic Professor. Unlike her peers, Holland believes magic is real. Her conviction is immediately founded when she speaks with a local legend, the Watch Man, who proclaims that Holland will die the next day unless she finds a mystical object: the Alchemical Heart. As Holland falls deeper into Los Angeles’ spellbinding underbelly, a (somehow) unique paranormal love triangle ensues set against a velvety Old Hollywood aesthetic. You never know…

Philosophy & Psychology Kin: The Future of Family. By Sophie Lucido Johnson. Nov. 2025. 288p. Atria, $29 (9781668060650); e-book (9781668060674). 158.2. Author and art-school instructor Johnson offers a meditation on the people we choose to build our lives with. In conversational prose, Johnson explains how contemporary society has pulled humans so far from our village-like community of relationships. She explores who can be kin (chosen family) and how a tradition of kinship can ease the pressures of child-rearing as well as the loneliness that plagues us. Her past writing on polyamory (Many Love, 2018) factors heavily into how she lays out the possibilities for family relationships. Johnson encourages readers to find their people and share resources: childfree people should offer to watch their friends’ children; friends should cook dinner together…

These outstanding art books reviewed in Booklist over the past 12 months cast light on film and television history, musical innovation and pop triumphs, and a long-cloaked force in surrealism. —Donna Seaman American Noir Film: From The Maltese Falcon to Gone Girl. By M. Keith Booker. 2024. Rowman & Littlefield, $45 (9781538194096). Booker’s riveting history tracks American film noir from the influence of exiled German filmmakers and French critics through the now-classic first wave to neo-noir films, such as Chinatown in 1974, and revisionary noirs, including Basic Instinct (1992). Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People. By Imani Perry. 2025. Ecco, $28.99 (9780062977397). Perry offers an impressionistic cultural history of the African diaspora through its connections to the color blue in music, dance, folklore, art,…

Older Readers Fascinating Fungi: Nourishers, Killers, Connectors, and Healers. By Karen Latchana Kenney. Oct. 2025. 136p. illus. Lerner/Twenty-First Century, lib. ed., $37.32 (9798765611173). Gr. 7–12. 579.6. From the eye-catching color photographs to the perfectly named chapter titles, readers will be hooked on this fun and informative book about fungi that truly lives up to its title. Readers will learn what fungi are, how they have evolved, their structure, and how they eat and expand their spores. Chapters introduce distinct types of mushrooms, from “the beauties” (mauve parachute, purple pinwheel) to “the oddities” that are grotesque and terrifying (bleeding tooth, devil’s fingers or octopus stinkhorn, and zombie ant fungus). Kenney also explains how certain fungi are poisonous, how fungi can be a source of food and drink, the healing and medicinal properties…

What’s old is made new and fresh in these 10 outstanding series about ancient civilizations. —Angela Leeper Amazing Archaeology (ABDO/AbdoZoom; 6 titles) K–Gr. 3. King Tut’s Tomb, Pompeii, and Machu Picchu are some of the archaeological sites featured in these early readers. In doublepage spreads, beautiful, full-page photos and a short paragraph of text explain the background of each ancient site and how it was discovered. Ancient Warriors (Crabtree; 6 titles) Gr. 3–8. High/low text in a larger font relates the history of such ancient warriors as gladiators, samurai, Vikings, and Spartans, touching upon their clothing, weapons, training, fighting style, and daily life. Bold photos of real men and women incorporate these details in dramatic, action-packed reenactments. Ancient Worlds (Cherry Lake/45th Parallel; 6 titles) Gr. 4–7. Ancient civilizations are considered…

A Book of Loves. By Cynthia Rylant. Illus. by the author. 2026. 32p. Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane (9781665987943). PreS–Gr. 3. Jan. Newbery Medal winner Rylant returns to illustration with this gentle new picture book that celebrates the smaller things around us that we love. The Dream Builder’s Blueprint: Dr. King’s Message to Young People. By Alice Faye Duncan. Illus. by E. B. Lewis. 2026. 32p. Astra/Calkins Creek (9781662680311). Gr. 2–5. Jan. Two award-winning creators collaborate on this reinterpretation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous 1967 “street sweeper” speech, presenting it as a found erasure poem. Hattie Mae Begins Again. By Sharon G. Flake. 2026. 368p. Knopf (9780593650349). Gr. 3–7. Jan. This historical novel in verse from three-time Coretta Scott King Honor Book author Flake follows southern Hattie as she attends…

The Stone Door. By Leonora Carrington. Read by Lorna Bennett. 2025. 4hr. Tantor, DD (9798331921149). Carrington’s (1917–2011) short novel, composed of two overlapping texts with surrealist features, was written in the 1940s but did not appear in print until 1977, when the Surrealist movement was already past and much analyzed. The book, however, proudly withstood the test of its belated mise-en-scène. Narrator Bennett must navigate a unique, fantastic (in multiple senses of the word) symbology with allusions to esoteric and mythological themes unleashed by author’s extraordinary imagination. Despite the intricate narrative form, the text is clearly carried by freedom of interpretation and excellently drawn characters which Bennett presents with care and a differentiating focus; the reader clearly enjoys the sparkles of the characters’ wisdom and their dry humor. The author,…

Two series finales, two EGOT winners, two political memoirs: (never) too many exciting new books coming up! —Annie Bostrom 107 Days. By Kamala Harris. Simon & Schuster, $30 (9781668211656). Sep. Harris, the first woman elected vice president of the U.S., reflects on the 107 days of her 2024 presidential campaign and ultimate loss to Donald Trump. The Daughter Who Remains. By Nnedi Okorafor. DAW, $23 (9780756418991). Feb. The conclusion to Okorafor’s Africanfuturist She Who Knows trilogy sees sorcerer Najeeba at the height of her powers and facing her most formidable foe yet. London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth. By Patrick Radden Keefe. Doubleday, $35 (9780385548533). Apr. Expanding on a New Yorker piece, Keefe investigates the death of a London teenager caught…

General Fiction The Burning Origin. By Daniele Mencarelli. Tr. by Octavian MacEwen. Nov. 2025. 192p. Europa, paper, $18 (9798889661429). Gabriele, a young architect and designer in Milan who has been away from his family and his working-class neighborhood in Rome for years, comes home to celebrate his parents’ fortieth anniversary. He is quickly enfolded back into the family—but Gabriele is uncomfortable, because he has been hiding who he is for years, and he has no intention of telling anyone. Immediately smothered by love from his mother and faced with tentative questions from his sister and a surprise visit from childhood friends, Gabriele struggles to fit back in with his family and friends as well as with telling those he loves who he has become. Mencarelli’s prose is, unlike his protagonist,…

Adult The A Word: A Global History of the Abortion Struggle. By Elizabeth Casillas. Art by Higinia Garay. Tr. by Karen Simon. Oct. 2025. 160p. Univ. of Regina, paper, $29.95 (9781779400963). 741.5. In tackling, even briefly, a world history of abortion, The A Word attempts a monumental feat. Readers will learn about abortifacient plants used by historical indigenous and enslaved peoples, Ancient Greek views on interrupting pregnancy, and many ways the Catholic Church has influenced reproductive rights policies. More modern topics are also featured, including sections on countries granting or removing abortion access depending on political affairs of the day. Groups helping women access abortion are highlighted, including the Dutch abortion pirates of Women on Waves and travel agencies specializing in discreet getaways. The narrator in the stylishly crisp art…

Author/illustrator Brian Lies is well known for his expressive paintings, such as in the Caldecott Honor book The Rough Patch (2018), but Cat Nap—one of our Top 10 Arts Books for Youth—is a big departure from his usual techniques. There are still paintings in his signature style, of course, but the bulk of the illustration is composed of captivating recreations of artworks from the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Some are paintings, but there’s also basrelief, wood carving, gilded rococo frames, and stained glass—all of which Lies made by hand. It’s a playful introduction to art history but also a staggering work of creativity. Read on for more insight into Lies’ techniques and inspiration, as well as the importance of encouraging kids to value the process of making art, not…

Older Readers All the Stars in the Daylight Sky. By Maya MacGregor. Oct. 2025. 272p. Astra, $19.99 (9781662620980). Gr. 8–12. Venturing out into the Scottish woods, one wouldn’t expect to stumble upon another world, but folklore makes it seem possible. Cam, an agender, autistic teen tired of fighting with her mums, certainly doesn’t consider it as she storms off from her Granaidh’s cottage into the night after a particularly tense argument. And yet, she happens upon an unexpected path to a door in the woods and out comes Ezra, an enigmatic, charming teen with a knack for gender-affirming shapeshifting. Cam is instructed to run, and she is eventually found by the otherworldly Deirdre and Daibhidh, who present her with a choice: since she is a mortal, she can either become…

Books about music and musicians are nothing new, but what David Levithan and Jens Lekman have done in the audiobook version of Songs for Other People’s Weddings is new, notable, and brings readers an experience they can only get through this format. It’s an unexpected and welcome treat for the audio production to offer this richness. For listeners seeking other books with supporting musical enhancements, try any of these tuneful works of fiction and musical memoir. Broken Horses. By Brandi Carlile. Read by the author. 2021. 10hr. Books on Tape, CD (9780593340110). Carlile’s warm and evocative voice carries the same raw honesty as her music, but it’s the music itself that makes this book so powerful. She recorded new acoustic versions of more than 30 songs for the audiobook. Between…

Readers know that books are the cure for much of what ails us, providing escape from headlines and headaches. These comforting and diverting tales are part of a burgeoning international genre known as J- and K-healing, books from Japan and Korea, respectively, that are enjoying impressive success. Here’s an assortment of recent soul-nurturing best-sellers with wide appeal. The Curious Kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen. By Yuta Takahashi. Tr. by Cat Anderson. 2025. Penguin. A certain seaside restaurant outside Tokyo can only be found by word-of-mouth. Visitors are welcomed by a friendly feline—Chibineko, meaning “little cat”—and a chalkboard announcing, “The Chibineko Kitchen / We serve remembrance meals.” Their kagezen—gustatory offerings added to late loved ones’ altars—provide a magical portal for brief reunions with the beloved dead: “You can hear your loved…