Booklist Reader March 2025의 목차

Print and Audio Discussion Standouts Fiction Adaptations Does the movie or series match what you saw in your head while you were reading? These books will spark conversations on their own, but considering their adaptations for the screen will add an extra dimension to your discussions. Apples Never Fall. By Liane Moriarty. 2021. Holt. Audio read by Caroline Lee. Macmillan Audio. The Electric State. By Simon Stålenhag. 2018. Atria. Audio read by Sura Siu and Shaun Taylor-Corbett. Simon & Schuster Audio. Fool Me Once. By Harlan Coben. 2016. Dutton. Audio read by January LaVoy. Brilliance. A Gentleman in Moscow. By Amor Towles. 2016. Viking. Audio read by Nicholas Guy Smith. Books on Tape. Long Bright River. By Liz Moore. 2020. Riverhead. Audio read by Allyson Ryan. Books on Tape. The…

Bridges Instead of Walls: The Story of Mavis Staples. By Mavis Staples and Carole Boston Weatherford. Read by Mavis Staples and Adenrele Ojo. 2024. Listening Library. Gr. 1–4. Staples’ picture-book memoir offers young listeners a window into the intertwining worlds of Black musicianship and civil rights with an authentic voice at its core. Listen-alikes • The 5 O’Clock Band. By Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews. Read by Dion Graham. 2019. Live Oak. Gr. 1–4. In this companion to the award-winning Trombone Shorty (2015), music accents the text and Graham gives each character a distinct, robust speaking voice. • I and I Bob Marley. By Tony Medina. Read by Jaime Lincoln Smith and the author. 2021. Live Oak. Gr. 4–8. This title melds poetry and music, and addresses the musician’s social influence. Smith…

Christo and Jeanne-Claude Wrap the World: The Story of Two Groundbreaking Environmental Artists. By G. Neri. Illus. by Elizabeth Haidle. 2023. Candlewick. Gr. 1–4. In striking watercolors and a serious textual tone, Neri and Haidle recount the romance and artistic journey of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, as well as their public art installations, which offered social commentary on the role of boundaries and borders and what constitutes art. Dazzling Zelda: The Story of Fashion Designer Zelda Wynn Valdes. By Aura Lewis and Farai Simoyi. Illus. by Aura Lewis. 2024. Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane. K–Gr. 2. Zelda Wynn Valdes pioneered as a haute couture designer for stars of the 1950s and as the first African American woman to open a women’s clothing boutique in Manhattan. Valdes’ legacy is included by Lewis and…

Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico. By Noé Álvarez. 2024. Catapult. Álvarez (Spirit Run, 2020) chronicles his perilous search for his Mexican grandfather, an accordion-player who abandoned his family, a journey that affirms the healing power of music. Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song. By Judith Tick. 2023. Norton. Ella Fitzgerald overcame a traumatic childhood to become an innovative vocalist with “astonishing agility” who fused jazz and pop and attained global renown. Drawn Testimony: My Four Decades as a Courtroom Sketch Artist. By Jane Rosenberg. 2024. Hanover Square. High-profile courtroom sketch artist Rosenberg recounts her extraordinary story, sharing her techniques, dramatic moments, and insights into the law, people, and society. Hip-Hop Is History. By Questlove and Ben Greenman. 2024. AUWA. Grammy– and Academy…

Concerning My Daughter. By Kim Hye-jin. Tr. by Jamie Chang. 2022. Restless. In Kim’s impassioned English-language debut about the meaning of family—by blood, by choice—a mother is desperate to help and accept her thirtysomething lesbian daughter. The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness. By Kyung-sook Shin. Tr. by Hayun Jung. 2015. Pegasus. At 16, Shin (the author’s autofictional stand-in), is sent from her village to Seoul with her oldest brother and cousin to work tedious hours in an electronics factory for the opportunity to attend high school at night. Korea in 1978 is an economically and politically unstable country whose youth will pay the highest price for the phenomenal success to come. If I Had Your Face. By Frances Cha. 2020. Ballantine. Cha’s debut unblinkingly exposes the wrenching consequences of contemporary gender…

The Jackal’s Mistress: A Novel Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday) Buffalo Hunter Hunter Stephen Graham Jones (Simon & Schuster) When the Moon Hits Your Eye John Scalzi (Tor Books) Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave Elle Cosimano (Minotaur Books) Ward D Freida McFadden (Poisoned Pen Press) Just Our Luck Denise Williams (Berkley) Fan Service Rosie Danan (Berkley) Kills Well with Others Deanna Raybourn (Berkley) This Book Will Bury Me Ashley Winstead (Sourcebooks Landmark) Find out more at LibraryReads.org/HOF…

It is Women’s History Month, and the PBS Books Readers Club selection is The Women, by best-selling author Kristin Hannah. Set in the 1960s and ’70s, this incredible novel is an epic coming-of-age story. The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era. The PBS Books Readers Club talks with Kristin on March 26 at 8 p.m. ET to gain insights into her outstanding work and her process. Watch it…

Ashley Leffel: In your books you’ve dealt with Black girl joy, race, class, gender, and now grief. Why did you decide to tackle this particular topic? Renée Watson: I wrote All the Blues in the Sky shortly after we were coming out of quarantine and the pandemic, when a lot of people were asking whether I would ever write about quarantine. And I was like, “Well, I don’t want to write about the particulars of quarantine and the pandemic.” But that feeling of back-to-back loss and hardship and uncertainty and all the emotions that we all experienced on some level—I wanted to explore that with young people. I’m not sure that educators and adults in general were good at processing what we had just gone through with young people. I…

Bet My Soul on Rock ’n’ Roll: Diary of a Black Punk Icon. By Jean Beauvoir and John Ostrosky. 2022. Chicago Review. Haitian American Beauvoir, best-known as the bass player in the punk band Plasmatics, with his signature platinum mohawk, shares tales of his collaborations with Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, KISS, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Justin Timberlake, and the Ramones. Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll. By Maureen Mahon. 2020. Duke. Mahon centers the many African American women who profoundly influence rock ’n’ roll, including Big Mama Thornton, LaVern Baker, Merry Clayton, the Shirelles, and Tina Turner. Dreams: The Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac. By Mark Blake. 2024. Pegasus. Blake’s fun and eccentric account of an eccentric rock band that turned its…

After Elias. By Eddy Boudel Tan. 2020. Dundurn. Tan’s novel is both a deeply emotional exploration of loss and a suspenseful thriller as two men planning a destination wedding are thwarted when the plane one of them was piloting crashes into the ocean. Amazing Grace Adams. By Fran Littlewood. 2023. Holt. A woman abandons her car to walk across heat-wave stricken North London to deliver a birthday cake to her estranged teenage daughter; though hilarity ensues, the heart of the story is a woman coming to terms with powerful grief. Grace after Henry. By Eithne Shortall. 2019. Putnam. After her husband dies suddenly, a woman hires a plumber who, to her surprise, looks exactly like him—he’s her husband’s long-lost twin—in this touching account of moving on after great tragedy. The…

Fiction Dream Count. By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Knopf. The lives of four women—a wealthy Nigerian travel writer; her closest friend, a successful lawyer; her brainy and tough cousin; and her heartbreaking housekeeper—united by culture, geopolitics, immigration, sexism, trauma, and longing, intersect in Adichie’s first novel since the award-winning Americanah (2013). Elphie: A Wicked Childhood. By Gregory Maguire. Morrow. You’ve probably heard of a little thing called Wicked. Now, the author of the original 1995 novel tells the origin story of the green-skinned girl who would become the Wicked Witch of the West, focusing on her childhood, her mother’s death, her strained relationship with her sister, and her discovery of the Animals of Oz. The Jackal’s Mistress. By Chris Bohjalian. Doubleday. Best-selling Bohjalian returns to historical fiction, this time with the…

Nonfiction Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism. By Amanda Montell. Read by Ann Marie Gideon. 2021. HarperAudio. With sharp analysis and humor, Montell (of the Sounds like a Cult podcast) invites readers to reconsider what defines a cult and how persuasive language shapes our lives. It’s a fascinating, thought-provoking look at the fine line between community and coercion. Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!). By Bethany Joy Lenz. Read by the author. 2024. Simon & Schuster Audio. Known for her long-running role on the teen hit show One Tree Hill, Lenz opens readers’ eyes to just how easy it is to be in a cult and not even know it. Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing. By Lauren Hough. Read by the author…

Older Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights. Ed. by Ashley Hope Pérez. Illus. by Debbie Fong. Holiday. Gr. 8–12. Authors of banned or challenged books offer insight into their personal experiences while explaining how damaging books bans are to the community at large in this galvanizing anthology. A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe. By Mahogany L. Browne. Crown. Gr. 9–12. This “quilt of stories, poems, fables, and woes circling the moment we all survived” centers teens of color who endured the COVID-19 pandemic. Dear Manny. By Nic Stone. Crown. Gr. 9–12. As he navigates a school election and love, Yale student Jared writes letters to Manny, his former best friend, who was killed by a police officer. I Am the Swarm. By Hayley Chewins. Viking.…