Table of contents for January 2023 in Booklist Reader

We at Booklist are thrilled to bring you Booklist Reader digitally and now in print. Booklist is the American Library Association’s premier pre-publication book review magazine and it has been trusted by library workers for over 100 years. Booklist Reader, which launched digitally in September 2021, is intended for readers of all ages and in all communities. The books and audiobooks highlighted here are highly recommended by our professional and talented team of editors and reviewers. Each monthly issue has a topical theme, but also includes the month’s hot new books in Reserve These Reads, articles by and interviews with authors, Top 10 lists, and much more. You will also find content from LibraryReads in each issue, showcasing the top books library workers are reading each month. The themes in…

The Bright Continent: Breaking Rules and Making Change in Modern Africa. By Dayo Olopade. 2014. HMH. Nigerian American journalist Olopade traveled across sub-Saharan Africa and found Africans offering creative, homegrown solutions to big problems, from a woman turning cast-off American computers into touchscreen data-bases for hospitals in Malawi to the man who turned his low-budget, straight-to-VHS movies into a multimillion-dollar film industry in Nigeria now known as Nollywood. The Challenge for Africa. By Wangari Maathai. 2009. Pantheon. Maathai, the late Kenyan visionary and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, illuminates the complex nature of the continent and, informed by her years as a political and environmental activist, offers realistic, hopeful changes for improvement in the face of international development and cultural upheaval. Also of interest is…

Augusta Savage: The Shape of a Sculptor’s Life. By Marilyn Nelson. 2022. Little, Brown/Christy Ottaviano. Gr. 8–12. In this biography told through poems of various form, style, and voice, Nelson traces the life of Harlem Renaissance sculptor Augusta Savage, while the accompanying photos provide visual context and showcase her talents. Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui. By Alison Goldberg. Illus. by Elizabeth Zunon. 2022. Lee & Low. Gr. 2–5. This robustly researched and sourced biography of contemporary Ghanian artist El Anatsui explores the development of his found-object art and the collaborative nature of his fascinating works. Crazy Horse and Custer: Born Enemies. By S. D. Nelson. Illus. by the author. 2021. Abrams. Gr. 5–8. This exemplary history tells in parallel the stories of Crazy Horse and General Custer, from…

Hunter: Minoru Yamasaki was your grandfather; what was it like to write a biography with an insider’s perspective? Yamasaki: The family perspective I have is an incredible privilege and a great responsibility. When you write about someone you are related to, you have access to all the same facts and historical information, but in a close-knit family like ours, you also have access to the emotional memory and experiences shared by the people who knew him most intimately. The challenge is how to balance all of that when writing for children. My grandfather died when I was 10, so I had a delightful child’s experience with him, as did my cousins and siblings. Then, as I grew older, I learned much more deeply of the profound complexity of his life.…

Older The Minus-One Club. By Kekla Magoon. Holt. Gr. 9–12. Printz Honor Book author Magoon’s latest follows Kermit, who is reeling from the death of his sister when he’s invited to join a secret club for teens who have lost a loved one. We Are All So Good at Smiling. By Amber McBride. Feiwel and Friends. Gr. 9–12. National Book Award finalist McBride’s sophomore novel in verse imaginatively explores the experience of clinical depression in this story about two teens drawn to a mysterious forest. Middle Heroes of Havensong: Dragonboy. By Megan Reyes. Random/Labyrinth Road. Gr. 3–6. Four kids from four sides of an endless magical war must come together to discover the truth behind the conflict and heal the fractured realm. Just Jerry: How Drawing Shaped My Life. By…

Fiction Exiles. By Jane Harper. Flatiron. Federal investigator Aaron Falk (last seen in The Dry, 2017) is back, joining friends in South Australian wine country for a celebration that soon becomes fraught with secrets and lies connected to a mother who went missing the year before. Hell Bent. By Leigh Bardugo. Flatiron. In the sequel to the dark fantasy Ninth House (2019), Galaxy “Alex” Stern and her allies are on a mission to rescue her mentor, Darlington, which entails finding a gateway to the underworld and stealing a soul out of hell. Oh, and getting home alive. The Mitford Affair. By Marie Benedict. Sourcebooks Landmark. The Mitford sisters dominated English society between the world wars, but when one divorces her husband to marry a fascist and another moves to Munich,…

Come Home, Indio. Written and illustrated by Jim Terry. 2020. Street Noise. Terry, known for his outstanding superhero illustrations, turns the lens inward in this brutally honest graphic memoir that explores his complicated childhood and young-adult self-destruction as well as his growing success as an artist and tentative nurturing of his Indigenous roots through a transformative experience at the Standing Rock protests. Commute: An Illustrated Memoir of Female Shame. Written and illustrated by Erin Williams. 2019. Abrams ComicArts. On one level of Williams’ graphic memoir, she wakes up, takes the train into Manhattan, goes to work, and heads home again. But over the course of a day, Williams’ account of her commute into Manhattan is interrupted by memories of ex-boyfriends, past sexual trauma and shame, her alcoholism, and how these…

Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend. By Jackie Kay. 2021. Vintage. Kay, a Black lesbian Scottish poet and writer, explores questions of identity, culture, and creativity in this imaginative and lyrical portrait of the profoundly influential blues singer Bessie Smith. Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. By Dana Stevens. 2022. Atria. Film critic Stevens astutely aligns Buster Keaton’s kinetic cinematic artistry and daring comedic genius with the velocity of twentieth-century innovation and change. Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus. By Maia Weinstock. 2022. MIT. Weinstock tells the too-little-known story of how Dresselhaus made key discoveries about carbon and nanoscience while blazing trails for other women scientists. Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley. By Tomiko…

“When Georgie suddenly loses her job as a personal assistant, she heads home to her parents to regroup. While there, she comes across a teenage diary and uses it to explore her life. This is a sweet, fun novel about a genuine, competent person trying to discover her true self. For fans of The Authenticity Project.”—Julie Heckert, Orem Public Library, Orem, UT NoveList read-alike: Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes January 2023 - The top ten books published this month that library staff across the country love. All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham (Minotaur Books) “One year after Isabelle’s son was taken from his bedroom in the middle of the night, the police still have no suspects or any idea of what became of her boy. The only…

Concerning My Daughter. By Kim Hye-jin. Tr. by Jamie Chang. 2022. Restless. A mother opens her home to her struggling thirty-something daughter and her partner even though she’s troubled by their lesbian relationship. She’s also unnerved by her work caring for Jen, a once internationally renowned activist, who’s now suffering from dementia and is completely alone. Everything Under. By Daisy Johnson. 2018. Graywolf. Gretel looks after her “awful, wonderful, terrifying” mother, Sarah, who is increasingly lost to dementia, and reflects on the past when they lived on a boat on the River Isis near Oxford, then above a stable until Sarah abandoned 16-year-old Gretel to the foster system. Goodbye, Vitamin. By Rachel Khong. 2017. Holt. Untethered Ruth goes home to L.A. for Christmas and her mother asks her to stay—for…

I Belong Here: A Journey along the Backbone of Britain. By Anita Sethi. 2021. Bloomsbury. After a man on a train hurled racist abuse at Sethi, whose parents migrated to the UK from Kenya, she set out to walk Britain’s long-distance trail, the Pennine Way, embarking on a journey that inspired this powerful mix of searing examinations of racial justice and lush descriptions of natural wonders. On Trails: An Exploration. By Robert Moor. 2016. Simon & Schuster. Moor offers a deeply informed study of North American trailmaking, joining researcher Alexander Liu on the Newfoundland coast to follow faint fossil trails left by ancient biota, then hiking with historian Lamar Marshall on an old Cherokee trail in North Carolina. Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau. By Ben Shattuck.…

The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found. By Frank Bruni. 2022. Simon & Schuster/Avid Reader. After a stroke causes him to lose vision in one eye, Bruni visits specialists, enlists in experimental programs, and interviews people who have refused to let their physical limitations limit their dreams. Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea. By Edith Widder. 2021. Random. Marine biologist Widder elucidates the how and why of bioluminescence, rendering the ludicrous, the terrifying, and the enthralling as she dazzles readers with dramatic tales of expeditions. Black Boy Smile: A Memoir in Moments. By D. Watkins. 2022. Legacy Lit. Watkins’ must-read exploration of white supremacy and toxic masculinity critiques the patriarchal structures of violence, abuse, and emotional guardedness that…

Black Spring. By Alison Croggon. 2013. Candlewick. Gr. 9–12. Lina, a willful, independent girl who has the violet eyes indicative of a witch, and Damek, her brooding adopted brother, have a deep and abiding connection that turns into a dangerous, ill-fated romance. Plus, magic has been unfairly outlawed for women, and Lina’s now a target of scorn. This witchy take on Wuthering Heights borrows much of the narrative style and structure of the original, and it’s dripping with gothic atmosphere. The Boneless Mercies. By April Genevieve Tucholke. 2018. Farrar. Gr. 8–12. Tucholke evokes Norse culture in this feminist retelling of Beowulf. Frey and her companions are itinerant women hired to kill those suffering. When they hear a plea from a kingdom besieged by a murderous beast, they quit their depressing…