Tabla de contenidos para Vol. 120, No. 7/8, 12/1/23 and 12/15/23 en Booklist

The cover image from Samantha Harvey’s Orbital is the perfect visual representation for this issue, which features our annual rundown of starred reviews and our 2023 Booklist Editors’ Choice selections. Reviewer Stephanie Turza writes that Harvey’s “lyrical prose skillfully contrasts the technicalities of space travel with the ever-present inspiration of the gleaming planet below.” Although the novel is about astronauts aboard the International Space Station, the quote from Turza’s Booklist review is applicable to our processes and our editors and reviewers. True, last I checked, no one I’ve ever worked with, including at ALA, has been to outer space or, aside from viewing magnificent photographs, witnessed our planet from above (I am up for the trip!). Yet here on Earth, Booklist editors artfully, deftly, and ingeniously work with our contributors…

Countless stories have remained untold about Black lives and related events and movements. Thanks to these inspired and diligent authors, key individuals, situations, and efforts are now brought to light. The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church. By Rachel L. Swarns. Random, $28 (9780399590863). With empathy and meticulous care, Swarns unravels the paper trail leading to the sale of 272 enslaved people to Louisiana plantations in order to save Georgetown University from bankruptcy. An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created. By Santi Elijah Holley. Mariner, $32.50 (9780358588764). Holley masterfully balances storytelling and research in this history of a family whose legacy stretches from the founding of the New York Chapter of the Black Panthers through the socially conscious lyrics…

Ruth Ware is considered a modern Agatha Christie, writing intricately plotted, atmospheric stories that keep the pages turning. These starred titles—including one by Ware herself—are for patrons looking for more Ware-esque thrillers. American Girl. By Wendy Walker. Blackstone, $26.99 (9798212385329). In this story of a teenage math wiz on the spectrum who is enlisted to investigate her boss’s murder, a mother and child relationship dominates an intense first-person narrative. Before She Finds Me. By Heather Chavez. Little, Brown/Mulholland, $28 (9780316531351). Two similarly beguiling, flawed women protagonists propel this intricately plotted, wildly exciting, and gritty thriller. Beware the Woman. By Megan Abbott. Putnam, $28.95 (9780593084939). Pregnant Jacy and her husband, Jed, visit Jed’s father in Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula, and gradually Jacy is overcome with a sense of foreboding. Is evil…

Adult Artificial: A Love Story. By Amy Kurzweil. Art by the author. Catapult, $38 (9781948226387). Memoirist Kurzweil explores the life of her grandfather while considering the possibility of AI-assisted immortality with her computer scientist father in this thought-provoking work. The Color of Always: An LGBTQIA+ Love Anthology. Ed. by Brent Fisher and Michele Abounader. Diamond/A Wave Blue World, paper, $19.99 (9781949518245). This rewarding and expansive anthology doesn’t shy away from the hard parts of queer relationships and emphasizes the healing power of community. Earthdivers, v.1: Kill Columbus. By Stephen Graham Jones. Art by Davide Gianfelice and others. IDW, paper, $17.99 (9798887240459). Four Indigenous time travelers undertake to assassinate Christopher Columbus in this multi–time line, alternate-history thriller from horror master Jones. Esther’s Notebooks. By Riad Sattouf. Art by the author. Tr.…

Older Readers 6 Times We Almost Kissed (and One Time We Did). By Tess Sharpe. Little, Brown, $18.99 (9780316302791). Gr. 9–12. In this brilliantly structured romance, Penny and Tate can’t seem to stop almost kissing each other, an issue that’s complicated by their mothers’ fiercely loyal friendship. Afterglow. By Phil Stamper. Illus. by May van Millingen. Bloomsbury YA, $18.99 (9781547607389). Gr. 9–12. Change is in the air in this sequel to Golden Boys, which sees the four gay best friends navigate their senior year. All That’s Left to Say. By Emery Lord. Bloomsbury YA, $19.99 (9781681199412). Gr. 9–12. After her beloved cousin dies of an opioid overdose, a grieving Hannah enrolls at her school to investigate her death. All the Dead Lie Down. By Kyrie McCauley. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen, $19.99 (9780063242982). Gr.…

Older Readers American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky. By Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein. Jan. 2024. 384p. illus. Putnam, $19.99 (9780593323984). Gr. 8–12. 629.13092. Readers intrigued by the history of Black aviation in the U.S. during the first half of the twentieth century will find a wealth of information in this book, which features several pivotal figures during the period, particularly those in the Chicago area, where Black men and women worked as mechanics, students learning to fly, and classroom or airborne flight instructors. Some became forward-thinking leaders in their field. Each of the authors has an interest in aviation history and has written nonfiction books as well as historical novels set during the period, including Smith’s Flygirl (2008) and Wein’s…

Adult Nonfiction Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon. By Melissa L. Sevigny. (Norton) Adult Fiction The Apartment, by Ana Menéndez. (Counterpoint) Adult Graphic Novel Shubeik Lubeik, by Deena Mohamed. (Pantheon) Adult Audio Cutting Teeth. By Chandler Baker. Read by January LaVoy. Macmillan Audio. Youth Nonfiction The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity, by Nicholas Day. Illus. by Brett Helquist. (Random House Studio) Youth Graphic Novel Bea Wolf, by Zach Weinersmith. Art by Boulet. (First Second) Middle Grade Fiction The Labors of Hercules Beal, by Gary D. Schmidt. (Clarion) Picture Book Mr. S, by Monica Arnaldo. Illus. by the author. (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen) Young Adult Fiction Bianca Torre Is Afraid of…

Books about birds and birding flocked together this year as bird experts celebrate the wonders of these winged beings and the crucial role they play in the biosphere and our imagination. As Emily Dickinson tells us, “Hope is the thing with feathers.” Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe. By Carl Safina. Norton, $32.50 (9781324065463). Ecologist and highly lauded writer Safina chronicles his and his wife’s experiences rescuing a sick eastern screech owl chick and helping her live in the wild during the COVID-19 pandemic. Better Living through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World. By Christian Cooper. Random, $28 (9780593242384). Cooper, a self-professed “Black queer nerd” and avid birder who was challenged by a white woman while birding in Central Park, presents a beautifully…

General Fiction Above the Fire. By Michael O’Donnell. Blackstone, $25.99 (9798200987757). A late fall getaway to Mount Washington for a man and his son turns ominous when communications with the rest of the world suddenly cease, and the pair must somehow survive the winter. Age of Vice. By Deepti Kapoor. Riverhead, $30 (9780593328798). Opening with a tragic accident and tied to the flamboyant scion of an ultrawealthy family, Kapoor’s dizzying ride of a novel portrays an India where money is the only religion. The Apartment. By Ana Menéndez. Counterpoint, $27 (9781640095830). The remarkable lives of the tenants in a South Miami Beach apartment building permeate this haunting novel, which explores loneliness and isolation with a touch of magic realism. Austral. By Carlos Fonseca. Tr. by Megan McDowell. Farrar, $27 (9780374606657). Costa…

WWII continues to be fertile ground for the imaginations of historical fiction writers, and readers can’t get enough. These starred titles all take place in the 1940s, from occupied Europe to the battlegrounds of the Pacific to the home front in the U.S. The Glass Château. By Stephen P. Kiernan. Morrow, $30 (9780063227316). In the wake of WWII, Asher, a Jewish cobbler and Resistance fighter in France, finds purpose and redemption creating stained glass windows that resemble the magical work of Marc Chagall. The Golden Doves. By Martha Hall Kelly. Ballantine, $28.99 (9780593354889). Based on true events, Kelly’s fascinating latest follows the Golden Doves, two resistance fighters in Nazi Germany who survive Ravensbrück and are reunited 10 years later in French Guiana. Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen. By Sarah…

Older Readers Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed. By Dashka Slater. Farrar, $20.99 (9780374314347). Gr. 9–12. This account of the events surrounding the creation of a racist Instagram account at a high school is meticulous and wrenching. America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History. By Ariel Aberg-Riger. Illus. by the author. HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray, $24.99 (9780063057531). Gr. 9–12. This zine-like history assembles unvarnished truths and stories typically omitted from U.S. textbooks, challenging traditional depictions of American identity. The Brontës of Haworth Moor: How the Three Daughters of a Country Parson Became the Most Revolutionary Novelists of Their Time. By Diane Browning. Illus. by the author. Rowman & Littlefield, $34 (9781538172315). Gr. 8–12. Fans of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë’s novels…

Everything from Cinderella to Hercule Poirot gets an update or a refreshed perspective in these novels that reimagine classic stories. The Alchemy of Moonlight. By David Ferraro. Page Street, $18.99 (9781645679721). Gr. 10–12. In 1873 France, Emile, who may lose his inheritance for being gay, becomes a valet to Count Morano, who has a dark supernatural secret. Enter the Body. By Joy McCullough. Dutton, $18.99 (9780593406755). Gr. 9–12. Juliet, Ophelia, and Cordelia get a chance to tell their own stories from beneath the stage in this masterful take on some of Shakespeare’s most famous girls. Her Radiant Curse. By Elizabeth Lim. Knopf, $19.99 (9780593300992). Gr. 9–12. Channi, cursed with the face of a serpent, prepares to fight the demon who cursed her for her sister’s life. Liar’s Beach. By Katie…

General Fiction The Archive of Feelings. By Peter Stamm. Tr. by Michael Hofmann. Dec. 2023. 192p. Other, paper, $15.99 (9781635422757); e-book (9781635422764). Stamm’s short novel, translated from German by Michael Hofmann, is a case study on intimate feelings that develop over a lifetime. As a young man, the narrator is engaged in a passionate relationship with Franziska. While he’s unsure of his feelings, the relationship evaporates into time and space. Years pass, yet the narrator cannot shake the intensity of his feelings and experiences with Franziska. Decades later, he’s living in his late mother’s basement, where the aging newspaper archives, remnants of his prior career, serve as a metaphor for his thoughts and feelings from long ago. Bordering on obsession, he recounts his emotions during each stage of his interactions…

Adult Absolution. By Alice McDermott. Read by Jesse Vilinsky and Rachel Kenney. 2023. 10hr. Macmillan Audio, DD (9781250911094). The much-awaited new novel from Mc-Dermott has arrived, and with a bang! Patricia (Tricia) is stationed with her military husband in Saigon during the Vietnam War and meets another military wife, Charlene. Tricia and Charlene couldn’t be more different. Charlene appears to be the perfect hostess who wants to bring all the wives together in order to aid all the broken people of Vietnam. Tricia’s point-of-view is the only one given for the 1960s time line; at first, the reader is not sure to whom she is telling her story. Slowly, Tricia begins to question Charlene’s motives: just who are all these good deeds for and what are they accomplishing? Sixty years…

Adult Books Seeking the truth about the past and the present is a mission pursued on many fronts and in remarkably varied modes in the most exceptional 2023 books for adults reviewed in Booklist this year. You will find works of intrepid history and revelatory biography, far-reaching memoirs, delving scientific and medical inquiries, and adventurous poetry. Truth-telling is also key to fiction, albeit in an imaginative way, and our best fiction titles bring us to worlds stunningly realistic and gloriously make-believe. Our editors’ choices range from sharply illuminating to deeply moving, chilling to funny, exhilarating to swoony. Each of these consummate, resonant books will appeal to readers looking for truly memorable and affecting immersions. The Arts Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures. Ed. by Kevin Strait and Kinshasha Holman Conwill.…

From farms to our refrigerators, restaurant menus to food-stained recipe cards, there’s nothing simple about what and how we eat. These cookbooks, memoirs, histories, and science titles investigate the act and art of eating through fascinating topics and galvanizing writing. Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists. By Leah Penniman. Amistad, $26.99 (9780063160897). Penniman illuminates the long, underappreciated history of Black environmental action and introduces current activists and their many reparative projects addressing the connections among environmental degradation, racism, and racial justice. Cook like Your Ancestors: An Illustrated Guide to Intuitive Cooking with Recipes from around the World. By Mariah-Rose Marie. Illus. by the author. Silver Sprocket, paper, $29.99 (9798886200300). Global in scope and reflecting diasporic flavor combinations, this cookbook in comics demystifies intuitive cooking with a gentle, encouraging…

The humor in these incisive and inventive novels and story collections is cutting and provocative, daring and exhilarating. American Mermaid. By Julia Langbein. Doubleday, $28 (9780385549677). English teacher Penelope Schleeman’s debut novel, a feminist eco-thriller, becomes a viral sensation, sending her to Hollywood, where she confronts some unexpected challenges in Langbein’s funny, downright delightful first novel. The Bandit Queens. By Parini Shroff. Ballantine, $28 (9780593498958). Geeta’s abusive husband disappeared, and soon other women in her small Indian village are turning to her for help in a debut that is a darkly hilarious take on caste, village life, and the patriarchy. The Chinese Groove. By Kathryn Ma. Counterpoint, $27 (9781640095663). Shelley, 18, leaves an unhappy existence in China for new, unexpected, and complicated struggles in San Francisco in a tale that…

For readers looking for fantasies grounded in a past reality, these starred titles are each set in a different alternative version of history, from the medieval Middle East to Depression-era Chicago. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. By Shannon Chakraborty. Harper Voyager, $32 (9780062963505). Chakraborty’s new series begins with an exhilarating tale about the high seas adventures of an unusually tall, Muslim woman pirate captain with a daughter, a bad knee, and a gold tooth. After the Forest. By Kell Woods. Tor, $28.99 (9781250852489). This lyrical, character-rich fantasy reimagines “Hansel and Gretel” 20 years after they killed the witch to save themselves, living in a village where the townspeople treat them with suspicion. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries. By Heather Fawcett. Del Rey, $28 (9780593500132). The solitary work of a scholar…

These compelling nonfiction selections for a variety of age groups are perfect for supplementing curriculum standards in science, history, and more. Ancestory: The Mystery and Majesty of Ancient Cave Art. By Hannah Salyer. Illus. by the author. Clarion, $19.99 (9780358469841). K–Gr. 3. This nonfiction picture book illuminates the wonders and splendors of prehistoric cave and rock paintings around the world. Darwin’s Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular. By Polly Owen. Illus. by Gwen Millward. Wide Eyed, $19.99 (9780711275973). Gr. 1–3. A worm narrates this lightly embellished account of Darwin’s deep dive into the study of worms in his later years. The Forest in the Sea: Seaweed Solutions to Planetary Problems. By Anita Sanchez. Holiday, $22.99 (9780823450138). Gr. 3–6. This tackles an impressive variety of topics, imparting basic scientific understanding of seaweed and its…

These novels and picture books take place in forests that range from homey to eerie to downright menacing. The Forest Demands Its Due. By Kosoko Jackson. HarperCollins/Quill Tree, $19.99 (9780063260795). Gr. 9–12. Dark academia and horror merge in this tale of a prestigious school, a murder, and an ancient curse. The Hidden World of Gnomes. By Lauren Soloy. Illus. by the author. Tundra, $19.99 (9780735271043). K–Gr. 2. Soloy welcomes readers into the magical, miniature world of gnomes with a detailed directory of all things gnome related. In the Dark. By Kate Hoefler. Illus. by Corinna Luyken. Knopf, $18.99 (9780593372838). PreS–Gr. 3. With a unique and effective design, this haunting, atmospheric picture book sheds light on building community through kindness, compassion, and connection. The Magic Cap. By Mireille Messier. Illus. by…

Philosophy & Psychology Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You. By Ali Abdaal. Dec. 2023. 288p. Macmillan/Celadon, $29 (9781250865038); e-book (9781250865052). 158.1. As a junior doctor in England, Abdaal felt as if he were drowning. There were always too many demands and too little time, and working harder didn’t seem to get him anywhere. To find a solution, Abdaal began digging into notes from his medical school psychology classes and exploring studies on productivity. He breaks his findings down into three parts: energize, unblock, and sustain. The author finds, firstly, that people are energized (and thus more productive) when they find fun in their work, have some control over its outcome, and are surrounded by positive people. He encourages readers to consider what motivates their work…

Older Readers The Bad Ones. By Melissa Albert. Feb. 2024. 400p. Flatiron, $19.99 (9781250894892). Gr. 9–12. High-school junior Nora wakes up on her estranged best friend Becca’s front porch with no memory of how she got there, a situation that quickly takes a backseat to the realization that Becca, along with three other people in their small town of Palmetto, Illinois, seems to have vanished without a trace overnight. Nora begins following a series of clues that can only have been left for her by Becca, which lead her to James (the boy Becca has been spending time with since her fight with Nora) and an old local legend known as the Goddess Game, which coincidentally (or not) ties into a game Becca and Nora played as children. As Nora…

Dearborn. By Ghassan Zeineddine. Read by Sarab Kamoo and Qarie Marshall. 2023. 7.5hr. Dreamscape, DD, $24.99 (9781666646351). A delightful fiction debut that collects short “slice of life” stories of Arab Americans living in Dearborn, Michigan. The stories span decades, from the 70s to modern day, ranging from the challenges facing new immigrants, to dealing with the continued fallout of 9/11, to LGBTQIA+ issues, and many more. From the Speedoman to “money chickens,” each chapter is filled with memorable characters and stories. Judging by how much depth and characterization is in each of these short stories, Zeineddine is one to watch. The narration helps bring the characters to life in a way only audiobooks can. Each character has a different degree of accent based on how recently they immigrated to Dearborn,…

Booklist staff are insatiable! As we officially celebrate the year’s best in this starry issue, we close by sharing some of our personal enthrallments. After Hours on Milagro Street. By Angelina M. Lopez. I love a romance in which the author builds impossible odds for the main couple. The chemistry between Alex and Jeremiah is off the charts, but they are also in the crosshairs. Throw in a little Mexican American history, gentrification issues, and a messy family and you’ve got a nearly perfect love story. —Susan Maguire All Things Bigfoot I first read Bigfoot, by B. Ann Slate and Alan Berry, in the late 1970s while on a family vacation. Now I’m slogging my way through the comprehensive Sasquatch: The Apes among Us, by John Green (not the former…