Índex per October 2022 a Booklist Reader

When I watch film or television, without fail, I get drowsy. Programs with loud bangs, action, and energetic musical scores often lull me into a deep sleep. Yes, I’m sleep-deprived; and yes, it’s frustrating, especially if I’m watching with someone. But a good book has the opposite effect (most of the time). Perhaps it’s because reading allows my imagination to run wild in ways images emanating from a screen don’t (or maybe I’m just watching the wrong things!). This is especially true for certain genres, like SF/Fantasy & Horror, the theme of this issue. Give me a creative science fiction story and my imagination jumps into light speed, taking me into realms of the unknown and unexplored. Yep, this can be frustrating, too, because I can stay up too late…

The Annual Migration of Clouds. By Premee Mohamed. 2021. ECW. In a novel that combines sf and horror, a young woman carries a parasite that has meaning for the global pandemic and climate crisis, but making an impossible choice would mean abandoning her mother, her friends, and the community in which she lives. Appleseed. By Matt Bell. 2021. Custom. Across three storylines—about a faun and his human brother in eighteenth-century Ohio, the near-future abandoned western U.S., and a far-future Earth covered in ice—Bell explores the intersection of myth and technology while asking what progress is good for humanity. Blackfish City. By Sam J. Miller. 2018. Ecco. A floating city in the Arctic, home to millions of people who survived the climate wars, is facing destruction when a mysterious woman from…

City of the Plague God. By Sarwat Chadda. Read by Vikas Adam. 2021. 10.5hr. Listening Library. Gr. 3–7. In the world of the Mesopotamian pantheon, Sik searches for a cure for a mysterious plague. Vibrant character voices, fast pacing, and humorous snark are balanced with heart and emotional growth. Gallant. By V. E. Schwab. Read by Julian Rhind-Tutt. 2022. 8hr. HarperAudio. Gr. 7–10. In Gallant Manor, Olivia finds ghouls and family (both alive and dead) and discovers an alternate world. Rhind-Tutt has the perfect voice to reflect this young-adult dark fantasy: resonant, gravely, intense, and creepy. Iron Widow. By Xiran Jay Zhao. Read by Rong Fu. 2021. 12.5hr. Listening Library. Gr. 9–12. This fresh, feminist, LGBTQ-inclusive offering benefits from Fu’s emotionally attuned reading with clear pronunciation of non-English words and…

All the Seas of the World. By Guy Gavriel Kay. 2022. Berkley. In an immersive world resembling fifteenth-century Europe, Rafel and Nadia work together as seafaring merchants and Kay dances into the minds of various flawed characters. August Kitko and the Mechas from Space. By Alex White. 2022. Orbit. When the Vanguards, giant space-death robots, arrive, one goes rogue and pulls jazz musician August Kitko into his chest, while Ardent Violet, a global superstar, tries to save August and the Earth. The Fervor. By Alma Katsu. 2022. Putnam. A mysterious illness runs through a Japanese internment camp during WWII when a prisoner is attacked by a strange invader, evidence that the debris of a nearby explosion is proof of something unthinkable. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven. By Juno Dawson. 2022. Penguin.…

(Ballantine Books) “First love between golden boy Asher and intriguing new girl Lily ends with one teen dead and the other under suspicion of murder. This stellar collaboration is more layered, surprising, and emotional than any story has a right to be- and readers should eagerly devour every page. For fans of: The Bad Daughter, and Defending Jacob.” —Sharon Layburn, South Huntington Public Library, Huntington Station, NY NoveList read-alike: Miracle Creek by Angie Kim October 2022- The top ten books published this month that library staff across the country love. Anywhere You Run A Novel by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow Paperbacks) “This fast-paced heart stopper is set in Jim Crow Mississippi, where two sisters are on the run after a murder in their town. And as they run, their…

Alone out Here. By Riley Redgate. 2022. Disney/Hyperion. Gr. 9–12. It’s 2072, and the only people to escape a cataclysmic volcanic eruption on Earth are a group of teens touring a spaceship. Leigh Chen, First Daughter of the U.S., quickly takes charge of the shell-shocked teens as they grapple with the magnitude of their situation. Dust & Grim. By Chuck Wendig. 2021. Little, Brown. Gr. 5–8. Wendig blends fantasy, horror, and humor in his middlegrade debut, which sees 13-year-old Molly learn some disconcerting truths about her family, chief among them that her brother runs a funeral home—for monsters. Hell Followed with Us. By Andrew Joseph White. 2022. Peachtree Teen. Gr. 9–12. Benji, a 16-year-old trans boy, attempts to leave the cult in which he grew up, but its members, who…

Nowadays, these epic tales of heroes adventuring through magical worlds comprise one of the most popular genres—especially in middle grade—regularly peppering best-seller lists and even influencing pop culture. Yes, Newbery committees are explicitly charged with rewarding that enigmatic “literary quality” rather than mere popularity, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive, and high fantasy is more than just popular; it’s powerful and uniquely capable of serving young readers. How, then, to explain the scant five medals, not enough gold to even get Smaug out of bed? A skim through the genre’s history—its roots and evolution—sheds some light and makes a case for the distinguished power and potential of modern high fantasy. The absence of high fantasy in the first 40 years of Newbery is easy enough to explain: the fledgling genre…

Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race. By Walter Isaacson. 2021. Simon & Schuster. Isaacson portrays Jennifer Doudna, a pioneer of the revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR and winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and delves into how CRISPR can be used for good and to “hack our own evolution,” raising moral issues and the risk of misuse. Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance. By Richard C. Francis. 2011. Norton. Francis explicates the radical finding that trauma (war, famine) and our behavior and environment can change the way our genes work over generations. The Gene: An Intimate History. By Siddhartha Mukherjee. 2016. Scribner. Pulitzer-winning writer and physician Mukherjee illuminates the basic building blocks of humanity and the complex genetic scientific developments spurred by…

Heather Booth: The characters in No One Goes Alone seek to communicate with the unknown. As an author, do you see yourself as communicating with “the beyond”? Erik Larson: With my nonfiction I’m not so interested in communicating with the beyond as I am in transporting people back in time so that they feel themselves as immersed in the action as if they really were present as events unfolded. Same thing with fiction, of course. It’s the beauty of reading: If you tell a story properly, readers will suspend their grasp of reality and willingly climb into whatever world you create for them. Booth: Your characters talk about their love of reading, and the importance of books and stories, and the evening salon that the characters host harkens back to…

I Have Lost My Way. By Gayle Forman. 2018. Viking. Gr. 10–12. Freya, Harun, and Nathaniel are thrown together after a chance encounter in this quiet, sophisticated examination of loss. The bulk of the narrative takes place over the course of just one day, during which the three, who come from varying backgrounds and families, face their individual demons and try to find the paths they’ve lost. Kings of B’more. By R. Eric Thomas. 2022. Penguin/Kokila. Gr. 9–12. This lyrical, contemplative novel follows Harrison as he contrives a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off–like surprise for his best friend, Linus, who’s about to move away. They travel to DC for a museum visit, return to Baltimore to celebrate Pride, and, over the day, weigh how well they truly know each other while…