Tabla de contenidos para Booklist, Vol. 120, No. 16, 4/15/24 en Booklist

Philosophy & Psychology First Love: Essays on Friendships. By Lilly Dancyger. May 2024. 224p. Dial, $28 (9780593447574); e-book (9780593447581). 177. This penetrating collection from the author of the memoir Negative Space (2021) and editor of Burn It Down: Women Writing about Anger (2019) takes place on a fire escape and in New York City parks; in the middle of the night and during truant schooldays. The author’s first best friend was her cousin Sabina. Their family called them Snow White and Rose Red, and, as in a fairy tale, Dancyger lost Sabina young and tragically. Encompassing many friendships and, accordingly, much of the author’s life, these 15 essays are lean yet expansive, with multitudinous truths and images placing readers right with the author as she rebels, flounders, triumphs, and carries on—always,…

Older Readers Don’t Wait: Three Girls Who Fought for Change and Won. By Sonali Kohli. June 2024. 176p. Beacon, paper, $16.95 (9780807010952). Gr. 7–12. 305.42. Kohli, an award-winning L.A. journalist covering all things social justice, focuses her first book on the journeys of three young women of color as they become activists. Each teenager jumps into the life of a social justice leader after being affected by major issues: Nalleli lived across the street from an active oil well and suffers from serious health issues. Kahlila fights for the right to feel safe at school and joins the Black Lives Matter movement to defund the school police in L.A. Sonia starts interning with the ACLU to demand arts education in schools. The book is a well of inspiration, pulling interviews…

When I was in the eighth grade, I was admitted to Linden Oaks Behavioral Health Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, for anorexia nervosa, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, and depression. I wanted to scream at the intake counselor and psychologist. I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs, “I DON’T have an eating disorder! You’re LYING! I’m FINE! I’m OK! You’re trying to TRICK me! This is all an AWFUL misunderstanding!” During my first night at Linden Oaks, I pleaded with the night nurse to let me go home—to let me call my grandma to rescue me. Grandma would convince everyone that I would “take care of her boy.” She’d drive me home in her red car. She’d remind me to slow down. We’d watch Family Matters and Full House.…

Older Readers And Then There Was Us. By Kern Carter. Apr. 2024. 232p. Tundra, $17.99 (9781774883402). Gr. 9–12. When Coi was 14, her father won complete custody of her and she moved out of her mother’s house. For Coi, it was a relief to escape her mother’s abuse, but she also had to cut off all contact, including with her half sister, Kayla, and stepfather, Dave. Five years later, her mother gets in a car accident and, after a while in a coma, she dies. Coi’s reunion with her estranged family is awkward and strained, especially when she refuses to go to her mother’s funeral. All Coi can remember is her mother’s anger and abuse, and her rigid grandmother Lady doesn’t help, since she tears Coi down at any opportunity.…

Behind You Is the Sea. By Susan Muaddi Darraj. Read by Rasha Zamamiri and Ali Nasser. 2024. 6.5hr. HarperAudio, DD (9780063324268). While the cover labels Darraj’s (A Curious Land, 2015) latest offering as a novel, the nine chapters here read more like exquisitely interlinked stories, revealing the connections and estrangements of a Baltimore Palestinian American community. Rasha Zamamiri narrates six, Ali Nasser three, animating the residents and their intersecting lives. Nasser is the stronger, more confident reader, imbuing his characters with a broader distinguishable range. Nasser deftly creates recognizable continuity, for example, between the second and final stories: in “Ride Along,” a police detective navigates complicated relationships, particularly with his unforgiving father; in “Escorting the Body,” that son accompanies his father’s body back to Palestine. Zamamiri is less effective in…

Providing an accurate, accessible, and high-interest collection of books on a range of health and wellness topics is of vital importance to public libraries. This selection of recent and forthcoming books in Spanish, comprising topics ranging from healthy habits to healing from trauma, is a step toward extending that critical library service to the Spanish speakers in your community. If a translator is not listed, the title is a Spanish original. Offering Spanish translations and Spanish originals communicates the library’s recognition of the importance of providing a deep and well-rounded collection to Spanish-speaking patrons. La belleza de ser tú (The Beauty of Being You): La historia real de cómo sobreviví al TCA. By Olga Alejandre. 2024. Ediciones B., $21.95 (9788466676175); e-book (9788466676182). El dolor crónico no es para siempre (Chronic Pain…

Adult Haruki Murakami Manga Stories 2: The Second Bakery Attack, Samsa in Love, Thailand. By Haruki Murakami and Jean-Christophe Deveney. Art by PMGL. Apr. 2024. 128p. Tuttle, $19.99 (9784805317679). 741.5. Three Murakami short stories are adapted into graphic format in this second volume of Manga Stories. In “The Second Bakery Attack” (originally published in 1985), a newlywed couple awakens in the middle of the night famished and with little in their home to eat, then decides to reenact the husband’s earlier offbeat bakery robbery. In “Samsa in Love” (originally published in 2013), a newly human man awakens in an empty house with no memory of his life, but he is forced to interact with the woman who arrives to fix a broken lock. In “Thailand” (originally published in 2000), a…

Adult Fiction At First Spite. By Olivia Dade. Read by Joy Nash. 2024. 13hr. HarperAudio, DD (9780063215931). Johnny Vine promised to always take care of his fiancé, Athena Greydon, but at their engagement party in historic Harlot’s Bay, she eavesdrops on Johnny being convinced by his unmarried brother, Dr. Matthew Vine III, that she would never be an acceptable spouse, declaring her irresponsible, careless, and too spoiled to be loved. Weeks later, Johnny abandons Athena, leaving her emotionally and financially shattered. Deciding to be joyful against unfavorable odds, she moves into the Spite House (her wedding gift to Johnny) and chases retribution against annoying Johnny and hypercritical Matthew, who live tangibly close. But that decision sparks a steamy and quite unforeseen romantic entanglement that becomes electrifying. Dade (Ship Wrecked, 2022)…

The best health and wellness books reviewed in Booklist over the past 12 months include advice-filled memoirs and works that illuminate reproductive health, overlooked medical history, and health risks. Activate Your Greatness. By Alex Toussaint. 2023. Holt, $27.99 (9781250852038). Popular Peloton instructor Toussaint, the child of Haitian immigrants, had a very rough start to life, but learned to transform pain into success, experiences he shares in an inspiring mix of memoir and self-help. The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis. By Maria Smilios. 2023. Putnam, $29 (9780593544921). Smilios tells the hidden story of how the cure for tuberculosis was discovered at the Sea View Hospital in Staten Island, where the nursing staff was overwhelmingly African American. Fertility Rules: The Definitive Guide to Male and…

General Fiction 888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers. By Abraham Chang. May 2024. 400p. Flatiron, $29.99 (9781250910783). In November 1995, Young Zheng Wang—he of endless nicknames: Young Sun, Young Gun, Young Hun, as if he would always be so mutable—is a commuting NYU freshman, still living at home in Queens, working at Jim’s Undertow where Erena Ji-Yoon Renee Valentina Yasuda walks in seeking anime. She’s destined to be Young’s sixth love—he’s rather numbers-obsessed—and maybe even his “divine 888 love.” She follows Young’s first (freckled, nose-picking Denise with her chocolate milk allergy), third (wintergreen Tic Tac-demanding Jenny), and fifth (childhood pen pal Wen Ding who leaves him infectiously heartbroken). Meanwhile, his beloved, lottery-winning uncle sends reports of peripatetic romantic adventures. Lifelong BFFs Paris and Gina, of course, remain ever-supportive,…

The top 10 relationship fiction books of the year, reviewed in Booklist between April 15, 2023, and April 1, 2024, explore grief, redemption, motherhood, and societal ills in novels that are by turns humorous and heartrending, sometimes all at once. After Annie. By Anna Quindlen. 2024. Random, $30 (9780593229804). In an exquisitely sensitive novel that reveals human frailty and re-silience, Quindlen explores the aftermath of the sudden death of a suburban mother for her beloved husband, four children, and best friend. Colton Gentry’s Third Act. By Jeff Zentner. 2024. Grand Central, $30 (9781538756652). A reeling country star rants about gun control, loses his record deal and his wife, and ends up in his Kentucky hometown, where he encounters his high-school girlfriend, now a restaurateur, in this charming, poignant redemption story.…

Nonfiction manga can take many different forms, from humorous or contemplative to historical documentation, and often memoir manga or nonfiction manga can have interesting and individual artistic expression. Here’s just a sampling of nonfiction manga for adults and teens that can offer fascinating perspectives and insight. Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey. By Akiko Higashimura. Art by the author. Seven Seas. Gr. 7–12. From the mangaka of Princess Jellyfish comes this autobiographical work about her journey to becoming a professional manga creator. Akiko wants to become a popular mangaka, but she has one issue: she needs to get better at drawing. Higashimura’s journey is a fascinating one and offers excellent insight into the worlds of manga creation, artistic expression, and apprenticeship. The Bride Was a Boy. By Chii. Art by…

Here are the best of our health and wellness books for readers of all ages. With reviews published in Booklist between April 15, 2023, and April 1, 2024, these books address both physical health and mental health and the relationship between the two. All That’s Left to Say. By Emery Lord. 2023. Bloomsbury YA, $19.99 (9781681199412). Gr. 9–12. After Hannah’s beloved cousin, Sophie, dies of an opioid overdose, Hannah struggles with her grief even as she enrolls at Sophie’s prestigious prep school to investigate who and what were fueling her cousin’s substance-abuse disorder. Big. By Vashti Harrison. Illus. by the author. 2023. Little, Brown, $19.99 (9780316353229). PreS–Gr. 3. When she was littler, being told she was getting big was a compliment for one young girl. As she grows up, those…