Índex per June 2025 a Booklist Reader

Beyond WWII WWII tales continue to dominate the historical-fiction market, but these novels reach beyond that popular period, featuring a circle of American women in 1960s Saigon, a family enduring the Tulsa Race Massacre, the building of the Panama Canal, a trip across Depression-era America, and a century in South America as seen through the life of an indomitable woman. • Absolution. By Alice McDermott. 2023. Farrar. • The Filling Station. By Vanessa Miller. 2025. Thomas Nelson. • The Great Divide. By Cristina Henríquez. 2024. Ecco. • The Trackers. By Charles Frazier. 2023. Ecco. • Violeta. By Isabel Allende. 2022. Ballantine. How to Survive an Apocalypse These fiction and nonfiction books offer advice and clues on how to survive impending disaster, featuring a “prisoner scientist” surviving a Siberian labor camp;…

Epilogue. By Anne Roiphe. 2008. HarperCollins. After the death of her beloved husband of 39 years, Roiphe is unprepared for the abject loneliness that follows. Then her daughters run a singles ad on her behalf. Here After. By Amy Lin. 2024. Zibby. During the COVID lockdowns, Lin’s 32-year-old husband died after running a half marathon. While navigating this loss, Lin received a serious medical diagnosis of her own. Ghosting: A Widow’s Voyage Out. By Barbara Lazear Ascher. 2021. Pushcart. In sailing terms, to ghost is to make headway slowly when there appears to be no wind. Ascher writes beautifully of her struggles to find her place in the world after her husband, a physician and an avid sailor, dies of cancer. Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life. By…

Bhai for Now. By Maleeha Siddiqui. Read by Shawn K. Jain. 2022. Scholastic. Gr. 3–7. Shaheer and Ashar discover that they’re twin brothers and hatch a scheme to pull a Parent Trap–like switch, impersonating one another to meet the parents they’ve never known. Listeners will enjoy Jain’s narration as he pulls off the trick of playing two different personalities. Details of Pakistani immigrant culture are woven throughout, and fans of Gordon Korman’s realistic fiction will be pleased. Julieta and the Diamond Enigma. By Luisana Duarte Armendáriz. Read by a full cast. 2021. Live Oak. Gr. 3–5. For listeners who’d like Ramona Quimby even more if she helped Interpol solve art heists, meet Julieta! Julieta’s parents work in the world of international art museums, and she jumps in to solve the…

And the Ocean Was Our Sky. By Patrick Ness. Illus. by Rovina Cai. 2018. HarperTeen. Gr. 9–12. Ness’ experimental novel presents a pared down, inverted take on Moby Dick from the perspective of the whale. Teens encountering the classic novel in English class will especially appreciate this fable-like story. At the End of the World. By Nadia Mikail. 2023. Feiwel and Friends. Gr. 9–12. Aisha and her mother attempt to repair familial relationships in the year before an asteroid hits Earth in this spare, emotional, and elegiac story about community, connection, memory, and family. A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe. By Mahogany L. Browne. 2025. Crown. Gr. 9–12. Browne’s “quilt of stories, poems, fables, and woes circling the moment we all survived” centers teens of color…

1. Who is Elise Hooper when she is at home? You can find me listening to an audiobook and making something in my art area with my sewing machines, laser cutter, and miniature-making tools. I will not be cooking. 2. What can you tell us about The Library of Lost Dollhouses? It’s a dual-time line historical novel about a mysterious collection of dollhouses that reveal the secrets of their former owners. This book takes readers on a whirlwind adventure ranging from San Francisco to Belle Époque Paris to a rural English estate to Walt Disney’s bustling 1950s Burbank studio. 3. What five words best describe The Library of Lost Dollhouses? “Every woman needs a dollhouse.” 4. Is the Belva Curtis LeFarge library you write about in The Library of Lost…

The Banks We Deserve: Reclaiming Community Banking for a Just Economy. By Oscar Perry Abello. 2025. Island. This slim volume punches way above its weight in examining the chasm between the financial needs of underserved urban communities—with special focus on local development and environmental sustainability—and a banking infrastructure often unable or outright unwilling to help them. CRUSH Your Money Goals: 25 Smart Money Habits to Save, Invest, and Fast-Track Your Financial Freedom. By Bernadette Joy. 2024. Adams Media. In this refreshing personal-finance guide, Joy leads readers through reflective stages, allowing them to define the best actions for their unique situations, from directing readers to consider what financial independence means for them to calculating their net worth, developing an awareness of spending intentionally, and healing money wounds. How the World Ran…

Fiction Atmosphere: A Love Story. By Taylor Jenkins Reid. Ballantine. A professor selected to go on a 1984 NASA expedition, and the men and women who will join her on the mission, form the cast of Reid’s (Daisy Jones & the Six, 2019) next character-driven novel. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. By V. E. Schwab. Tor. The latest from Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, 2020; The Fragile Threads of Power, 2023) is a genre-defying powerhouse, following three young women in three different time lines whose lives entangle in unexpected ways. El Dorado Drive. By Megan Abbott. Putnam. Two sisters get involved in a women-supporting-women pyramid scheme with potentially deadly results in Abbott’s next twisty, perceptive thriller. The First Gentleman. By Bill Clinton and James Patterson. Little,…

Edoardo Ballerini “Voice is such an intimate instrument to me, akin to touch or eye contact,” Ballerini told Booklist. That intimacy comes through with incisive clarity in his recordings, which range from classics to crime fiction and everything in between. • The Lost Van Gogh. By Jonathan Santlofer. 2024. Brilliance. • The Night Travelers. By Armando Lucas Correa. 2023. Simon & Schuster Audio. • Tao Te Ching. By Lao-Tzu. 2018. Books on Tape. Dion Graham Graham sets the standard for high-quality narration with his passionate commitment to his craft and attention to detail. His credo demands that he “tell the story, be open to creative impulses, respond to the text, and trust my instincts.” • Devil Is Fine. By John Vercher. 2024. Macmillan Audio. • The Every. By Dave Eggers.…

Big Family Beach Day. By Nina Crews. Illus. by the author. 2025. Greenwillow. PreS–Gr. 3. In Crews’ engaging picture book, Maya describes in vivid detail her biracial extended family’s favorite summer outing: beach day. Bubbles… Up! By Jacqueline Davies. Illus. by Sonia Sánchez. 2021. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen. PreS–Gr. 3. Dynamic artwork matches the effervescent mood in this story of a child enchanted by the underwater world at a community swimming pool, where bubbles rise up—and so do her spirits. Cooler than Lemonade. By Harshita Jerath. Illus. by Chloe Burgett. 2023. Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky. K–Gr. 2. The lemonade-stand competition is fierce on Eva and Aru’s block, but instead of trying to one-up their neighbors, they set up a stand selling a family-favorite frozen treat. A Day for Sandcastles. By JonArno Lawson. Illus. by Qin…

Older Amelia, If Only. By Becky Albertalli. HarperCollins. Gr. 9–12. Best-selling Albertalli is back with another heartfelt and funny novel, this time about teens on a road trip to meet a chaotic YouTuber on whom Amelia has an impossible parasocial crush. A Girl Walks into the Forest. By Madeleine Roux. HarperCollins/Quill Tree. Gr. 8–12. A girl walks into the forest, but something much different walks out in Roux’s latest offering, a genre-blending folk-horror that follows Valla, who loses her physical beauty and finds her true self in exchange. Lady’s Knight. By Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. HarperCollins/Storytide. Gr. 10–12. Blacksmith’s daughter Gwen (disguised as Sir Gawain) helps Lady Isobelle escape her awful guardian’s plans for her in this hilarious, sparklingly witty medieval romcom. We Can Never Leave. By H. E.…

American Hippo. By Sarah Gailey. 2018. Tor.com. In this version of the United States, the government introduced hippos en masse to Louisiana as an alternative meat source and Winslow Houndstooth, along with his talented crew, are hired to take back the waterways from the feral beasts. This work of alternative historical fiction is a phenomenal romp through the bayou in the 1890s with queer and trans cowboys, outlaws, con artists, and assassins. Dead Collections. By Isaac Fellman. 2022. Penguin. Eccentric archivist Sol and widow Elsie are kept apart by Sol’s secret—his vampirism keeps him locked in his basement office, hidden from the sun. This gorgeous queer fantasy novel dives into themes of finding a sense of place in your own body, grief, archivist work, trans identity, the queer/trans body as…

Fiction The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye. By Briony Cameron. 2024. Atria. This novel begins in 1665 with infamous pirate captain Jacquotte Delahaye in prison, then goes back to tell her story as a poor, young shipwright who dreamed of leaving her stifling life in Yáquimo, Santo Domingo. An absolute treasure for fans of LGBTQ+ historical fiction and tales of notorious figures from the past. Experienced. By Kate Young. 2024. Penguin. Bette is blissed out in bed when her girlfriend, Mei, drops the bomb. She wants them to take a three-month break so Bette can see other women. Delightful through and through, Experienced brings together a winning cast and a series of romcom-worthy setups for a love story as heartfelt as it is fun. Hammajang Luck. By Makana Yamamoto. 2025. Harper…

Audio Makes It Easy Easier These titles are notoriously difficult to read in print, but listening on audio can help demystify these stellar novels and play. • Finnegans Wake. By James Joyce. Read by Barry McGovern and Marcella Riordan. 2021. Naxos. • Lincoln in the Bardo. By George Saunders. Read by a full cast. 2017. Books on Tape. • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. By Tom Stoppard. Read by a full cast. 2022. L.A. Theatre Works. • Stella Maris. By Cormac McCarthy. Read by Julia Whelan and Edoardo Ballerini. 2022. Books on Tape. Author-Narrated Memoir Sometimes the story is best told by the person who lived it. In these emotional and poignant memoirs, the authors’ experiences shine through in their voices. • Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV…

CITY. By Keiichi Arawi. Art by the author. Vertical. Gr. 9–12. Arawi’s previous hit, Nichijou, inspired an anime with a cult following, and CITY will likely follow in its predecessor’s footsteps. With a similar tone of ridiculous hilarity, this gag manga is about a trio of college students navigating life in a city that oscillates from normal to absurd from moment to moment. This will be a great pick for fans of Nichijou and Azumangah Daioh. Sakamoto Days. By Yuto Suzuki. Art by the author. Viz Media. Gr. 9–12. Going into its second season, the anime adaptation of this action-comedy manga is already a crowd favorite. When a former hitman turns away from his profession to enjoy married bliss as a convenience-store owner and proud father, he eventually discovers…