Table of contents for August 2023 in Booklist Reader

Fiction After that Night. By Karin Slaughter. Morrow. The eleventh thriller featuring investigator Will Trent (of the ABC/Hulu series Will Trent) and medical examiner Sara Linton, following The Silent Wife (2020), finds the pair investigating a series of rapes with a personal connection that sends Will undercover. The Breakaway. By Jennifer Weiner. Atria. A plus-sized bike tour leader finds two surprise cyclists on her latest ride—a guy she hooked up with two years prior, and her mother—in best-selling Weiner’s funny, heartfelt latest. Family Lore. By Elizabeth Acevedo. Ecco. In her first book for adults, National Book Award–winning YA author Acevedo introduces four sisters who reunite their entire family when one of them decides to have a living wake. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. By James McBride. Riverhead. McBride’s first…

Beautiful Ruins. By Jess Walter. 2012. 13hr. Harper. This narration of Walter’s tale of love found, lost, and refound with a backdrop of old Hollywood won Ballerini his first Audie Award for solo-male narration. And it’s much deserved for his deft navigation of the book’s various formats and intuitive character voices, including a brilliantly rendered Richard Burton! Bewilderment. By Richard Powers. 2021. 8hr. Books on Tape. Powers’ probing tale of a father seeking treatment for his troubled son is written without chapter numbers or titles, but Ballerini’s judicious employment of pacing and intensity variations easily guides listeners through this thoughtful and memorable read. Leaves of Grass. By Walt Whitman. 2020. 4hr. Dreamscape. In the early pandemic days, Ballerini offered to read people’s favorite poems on Twitter to stave off the…

Adventuregame Comics: Leviathan. By Jason Shiga. Art by the author. 2022. Abrams/Amulet. Gr. 4–7. Shiga’s inventive, gamelike comic offers readers choices that lead them down several narrative paths, ultimately toward two morally and emotionally complicated “proper” endings that give the book surprising depth. Bea Wolf. By Zach Weinersmith. Art by Boulet. 2023. First Second. Gr. 4–7. Rowdy kids eating too much candy, stockpiling toys, and building an epic tree house raise the ire of a grouchy old neighbor. Sound like the makings of a classic middle grade romp? Well, yes, but it’s also Beowulf. Enemies. By Svetlana Chmakova. Art by the author. 2022. Yen/JY. Gr. 5–8. Felicity feels pressure to succeed in a young entrepreneurs club at school, and it puts a strain on her friendships in this latest installment…

A Last Goodbye. By Elin Kelsey. Illus. by Soyeon Kim. 2020. Owl Kids. PreS–Gr. 2. Rooted in research and illustrated with breathtaking dioramas, this tender yet powerful pick gently explores animal mourning habits and celebrates community support in times of grief and loss. A Place to Stay: A Shelter Story. By Erin Gunti. Illus. by Estelí Meza. 2019. Barefoot. PreS–Gr. 2. An unhoused mother and child harness the power of imagination to adjust to shelter life. Also see A Shelter in Our Car (2004) for conversations around financial insecurity. Dear Wild Child: You Carry Your Home Inside You. By Wallace J. Nichols and Wallace Grayce Nichols. Illus. by Drew Beckmeyer. 2022. Abrams. PreS–Gr. 2. Inspired by the loss of the authors’ home to wildfire, this affirms the physical and emotional…

Eerie Tales The audio versions really amp up the chills of these suspenseful tales, which cover such discussable topics as colonialism, Japanese and Japanese American internment during WWII, surveillance technology and start-ups, a personal quest to solve a crime, and racism in classical music. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. By Silvia Moreno-Garcia. 2022. Del Rey. Audio read by Gisela Chípe. Books on Tape. The Fervor. By Alma Katsu. 2022. Putnam. Audio read by Traci Kato-Kiriyama and Louis Ozawa. Books on Tape. One by One. By Ruth Ware. 2020. Scout. Audio read by Imogen Church. Simon & Schuster Audio. Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders. By Kathryn Miles. 2022. Algonquin. Audio read by Gabra Zackman. Workman. The Violin Conspiracy. By Brendan Slocumb. 2022. Anchor. Audio read by JD…

Youth Allergic. By Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter. Read by a full cast. 2021. 2hr. Scholastic. Gr. 4–6. Maggie’s dream dog causes her severe allergies! For crowded family scenes, voices overlap to create a realistic and lively effect, but when Maggie speaks to the listener directly, her voice is clear. Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel. By Mariah Marsden and Brenna Thummler. Ed. by Kendra Phipps. Read by a full cast. 2021. 1.5hr. Simon & Schuster Audio. Gr. 2–6. This audio version of the classic extends the book’s reach and uses a variety of thoughtful elements to tell the story shown in wordless frames. The First Helping: Lunch Lady Books 1 & 2. By Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Read by a full cast. 2022. 1hr. Listening Library. Gr.…

Forest Hills Bootleg Society. By Dave Baker and Nicole Goux. Art by the authors. 2022. Atheneum. Gr. 9–12. When Kelly and her friends mistakenly buy a bootleg DVD of Super Love XL, they’re shocked, but then they recognize a money-making opportunity: selling copies to their classmates at their Christian boarding school. Giantess. By JC Deveney. Art by Nuria Tamarit. 2022. Magnetic. Gr. 10–12. When a woodcutter finds a gigantic baby in the forest, he raises her as his own, and in remarkable folk art style, this fable-like tale follows the giant, Celeste, as she learns about religion, power, community, and perseverance. Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales. By Melanie Gillman. Art by the author. 2022. Random/RH Graphic. Gr. 7–12. This delightful collection showcases new stories inspired by traditional tales.…

Older Beastly Brains: Exploring How Animals Think, Talk, and Feel. By Nancy F. Castaldo. 2017. Clarion. Gr. 7–10. With a menagerie of fascinating examples, Castaldo lays out the history of ideas about animal smarts before covering the myriad ways researchers evaluate intelligence. Each chapter highlights a component of intelligence. The main attractions, of course, are the surprising and illuminating ways the animals demonstrate intelligence. A Dog in the Cave: The Wolves Who Made Us Human. By Kay Frydenborg. 2017. Clarion. Gr. 8–12. With vast scope and thorough research, Frydenborg explores the evolution of humans and their most constant companions. Dogs, she says, have been our most enduring animal partners, and as we tamed and domesticated them, they changed the course of our own development, perhaps even helping to keep our…

Beautiful Darkness. By Fabien Vehlmann. Art by Kerascoët. Tr. by Helge Dascher. 2014. Drawn & Quarterly. When Princess Aurora’s world implodes, she puts her courtship with the handsome prince aside to help make a life for herself and the other fairylike folk of her kingdom, but the more Aurora blithely goes about putting things in order, the more those around her scheme, betray, belittle, and disregard. The delicate, haunting, and beautiful watercolor artwork enhances the fairy-tale setting. Beauty. By Hubert. Art by Kerascoët. Tr. by Joe Johnson. 2014. NBM/ComicsLit. This simple fairy tale about beauty being in the eye of the beholder is actually a dark, twisted story of envy, obsession, manipulation, and power. Coddie has her wish to be beautiful granted by an evil fairy, but her now Helen-like beauty…

Nonfiction And Finally: Matters of Life and Death. By Henry Marsh. 2023. St. Martin’s. This is a tender account of a doctor-turned-patient whose chronic disease and awareness of the inevitability of death are compellingly navigated, ultimately arriving at gratitude for every moment gifted. Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family. By Rabia Chaudry. 2022. Algonquin. From discovering fast food as a U.S. immigrant to craving her mother’s cooking and return trips to Pakistan, Chaudry shares a candid and bighearted story about her lifelong love/hate relationships with food and her body. The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast. By Kirk Wallace Johnson. 2022. Viking. Johnson tackles xenophobia, environmental disaster, the psychological effects of war, and more as he…

Annie and the Wolves. By Andromeda Romano-Lax. 2021. Soho. Small-town historian Ruth McClintock is working on a book about sharpshooter Annie Oakley. When she receives an old journal that seems to document Annie’s sessions with a Viennese psychoanalyst, their stories begin to merge in supernatural juxtapositions that yield psychological and historical revelations. The Book of Form and Emptiness. By Ruth Ozeki. 2021. Viking. “Has it ever occurred to you that books have feelings, too?” As does every object in supersensitive Benny Oh’s world after his father’s death. Benny lands in a psychiatric ward, which leads to his involvement with an intrepid teen artist and a down-and-out philosopher-poet. All three misfits find sanctuary in the public library, and the book of Benny’s life becomes a marvelously vociferous character. The Department of…

PBS Books partners with Library of Congress National Book Festival to celebrate Diverse Literary Voices Between July 20 and August 31, PBS Books, with local PBS stations and libraries across the country, is sharing 10 interviews with 11 authors, who will be featured at the National Book Festival. Free to the public, the 23rd annual Library of Congress National Book Festival one-day event will be held on August 12, from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. This marks the eighth collaboration between the Library of Congress National Book Festival and PBS Books, a national programming initiative produced by Detroit Public Television. The 2023 series features interviews with authors including Claribel A. Ortega, Shelby Van Pelt, Tananarive Due, S. A. Cosby, Luis…

Older Forty Words for Love. By Aisha Saeed. Penguin/Kokila. Gr. 7–11. Yasmine and Rafay reside in a town touched by magic, and as their long-standing friendship grows into something more, they must contend with prejudice, particularly directed at Rafay, who’s considered an outsider. Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh. By Rachael Lippincott. Simon & Schuster. Gr. 9–12. When Audrey travels back in time to 1812, she meets Lucy, with whom she finds a deep connection. This sweet, queer, time-traveling take on Austen is perfect for fans of regency romance with a twist. A Quantum Life (Adapted for Young Adults): My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars. By Hakeem Oluseyi and Joshua Horwitz. Delacorte. Gr. 8–11. This absorbing, suspenseful memoir depicts the author’s journey of transformation from neglected child of…