Índex per March 2022 a Booklist Reader

From the Editor & Publisher The theme for Women’s History Month this year is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope” (for more information see www.nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org). This is such a relevant and essential subject, given the pandemic and all that has happened over the past two years. As we move forward, hopefully beyond the pandemic, I express my gratitude to front line workers and to authors and artists, so many of them women, who have helped us all to persevere. Our expertise here is, of course, books and audiobooks and thus we focus this month on dual themes of women’s fiction and the arts. Both topics are pertinent and timely because it’s Women’s History Month and because it’s also a pivotal period in our country and in our history. As is often…

Booklist Reader Books for Youth Top 10 Arts Books for Youth Singing, dancing, photography, fashion—these are just a few of the powerful tools of expression in these recently published best books on the arts. A Boy Named Isamu: A Story of Isamu Noguchi. By James Yang. Illus. by the author. 2021. Viking. K–Gr. 2. In this tender, imagined biography of the young Japanese American artist, spare text and illustrations reflect Isamu Noguchi’s modernist sculpture and quiet, perceptive nature. In One Ear and out the Other: Antonia Brico and Her Amazingly Musical Life. By Diane Worthey. Illus. by Morgana Wallace. 2020. Penny Candy. Gr. 3–6. Musician Antonia Brico was ahead of her time, a woman whose dreams of conducting were unfairly hindered due to her gender. An eye-catching account of determination…

Booklist Reader Adult Books Top 10 Women’s Fiction These Top 10 women’s fiction titles cover hot-button issues, generational stories, suspense and comedy, and grown-up women of all ages, each reflecting the depths to be mined by chroniclers of women’s lives and relationships. Everything Here Is under Control. By Emily Adrian. 2020. Blackstone. In this complex, intense novel, a woman returns to her rural hometown with her baby in tow and revives her complicated friendship with her childhood best friend, who is now the mother of a teenager. The Happiest Girl in the World. By Alena Dillon. 2021. Morrow. Sera Wheeler, an Olympic gymnast who experiences the highest highs and lowest lows throughout her career, is the focus of Dillon’s enthralling novel that doesn’t shy away from the darker side of…

Booklist Reader Adult Books Reserve These Reads Adult Get your hands on these hotly anticipated books, all out this month. Fiction The Diamond Eye. By Kate Quinn. Morrow. Based on a true story, best-selling Quinn’s latest historical novel, after The Rose Code (2021), traces the life of Lady Death, a quiet librarian who became a deadly sniper during WWII. The Golden Couple. By Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. St. Martin’s. From the thriller-duo behind The Wife between Us (2018) comes the tale of a maverick therapist who takes on a couple troubled by infidelity, but those secrets are just the beginning, and soon lives are at stake. The Kaiju Preservation Society. By John Scalzi. Tor. A guy stuck in a dead-end job jumps at the chance to work for an…

Booklist Reader Adult Books The Essentials Sisters in Women’s Fiction From Little Women to How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents to My Sister’s Keeper, stories about sisters have resonated with readers for generations. Authors of women’s fiction, in particular, have long found emotional gold mines in exploring these relationships. These recent standouts cover secrets, the losses of parents and children, and, in a few cases, trading lives; but they all prove, as the great Mary Ellen Maguire (my sister) says, that “nobody loves you like your sister.” By Susan Maguire The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. By Anissa Gray. 2019. Gray’s engrossing and moving debut novel considers Viola and Lillian, who must step up when oldest sister Althea and her husband are sent to prison, in a story…

Booklist Reader Adult Books Top 10 Arts Books Biographies and memoirs occupy many of the slots on the list of the best art books reviewed in Booklist over the past 12 months, including portraits of queer artists and artists of color confronting harsh discrimination; here, too, is a deep history of music and a chronicle of a reality-TV franchise. Art Is a Tyrant: The Unconventional Life of Rosa Bonheur. By Catherine Hewitt. 2021. Icon. Rosa Bonheur called it a tyrant, but art was also a liberator for this gender rebel who became the most famous woman artist in nineteenth-century France, celebrated for her powerful and anatomically precise animal portraits. Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend. By Jackie Kay. 2021. Vintage. Black lesbian Scottish poet and writer Kay…

LIBRARY READS March 2022 - The top ten books published this month that library staff across the country love. Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Berkley) “The Chan family is back! Meddy Chan is getting married, and the wedding planners are perfect--until Meddy overhears the wedding photographer talking about murdering someone at the reception. Her aunties spring into action, setting into motion a series of madcap misadventures intended to save Meddy’s special day. A charming combo of close-knit family, humor, and light mystery; great for fans of Mia P. Manansala and Jade Chang.” —Nanette Donohue, Champaign Public Library, Champaign, IL NoveList read-alike: Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim A Brush With Love A Novel by Mazey Eddings (St. Martin’s Griffin) “This debut romance set…

Booklist Reader Books for Youth Top 10 Collage Picture Books These 10 outstanding picture books tell a wide variety of stories, but they all have one thing in common: captivating illustrations composed of cut and torn paper. All Because You Matter. By Tami Charles. Illus. by Bryan Collier. 2020. Scholastic/Orchard. K–Gr. 3. With a moving message emphasizing the value of Black lives, Charles’ lyrical text is bolstered by Collier’s quilt-like collage artwork incorporating dozens of faces and bold colors. The Blue House. By Phoebe Wahl. Illus. by the author. 2020. Knopf. PreS–Gr. 3. Spreads packed with personable detail—cat scratches on the sofa, cluttered corners—help tell the story of Leo’s anger and grief when he and his dad have to leave their beloved home. The Egg. By Geraldo Valério. Illus. by…

Booklist Reader Books for Youth Reserve These Reads Children & Teens Get your hands on these hotly anticipated books, all out this month. Older All My Rage. By Sabaa Tahir. Razorbill. Gr. 10–12. Estranged friends Salahudin and Noor find their way back to each other after Salahudin’s mother’s death in this impactful generational story. Gallant. By Victoria Schwab. Greenwillow. Gr. 8–12. Olivia is transported to a mysterious, ghoul-filled world, where she may finally uncover deep secrets about her family in this standalone from popular author Schwab. Lakelore. By Anna-Marie McLemore. Feiwel & Friends. Gr. 8–12. Two nonbinary, neurodivergent teens discover themselves in the real world as well as in the magical world beneath a lake. The Lost Dreamer. By Lizz Huerta. Farrar. Gr. 7–12. Anticipation is high for this Mesoamerican fantasy…

Booklist Reader Books for Youth Trend Alert Power, Personal Growth, and Protest through Art by Heather Booth Here in Illinois, as schools were retooling their curriculum for pandemiccompatible learning in the summer of 2020, the State Board of Education released a statement about art in their Priority Learning Standards: “We find that in this time of trauma, on a national scale that has not been experienced for decades, our current students need the arts as a means of self-expression and a way to process any emotions they are experiencing at this time.” The extent to which arts education in 2020 has been made accessible to students state- and nationwide has varied extensively—just as it does every year because of inequitable funding for education in general, especially in the arts. Yet…