Tabla de contenidos para Vol. 118, No. 7, 12/1/21 en Booklist

ADULT NONFICTION Journalism & Publishing ★ Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom. By Carl Bernstein. Jan. 2022. 384p. illus. Holt, $29.99 (9781627791502). 070. Readers of All the President’s Men and The Final Days learned about Bernstein’s most consequential days as a journalist. And Nora Ephron wrote about his failings as a husband in Heartburn. In this memoir of his earliest days working for the Washington Star, a different Bernstein emerges: the scrappy kid in love with newspapers, who saw his path and followed it with determination and aplomb. Bernstein was a high-schooler when he started at the paper, working his way up from copy boy to reporter. Here, he chronicles a longgone time when the presses clanged, Runyonesque characters abounded, and a teenager could rub shoulders with topnotch journalists…

ADULT FICTION General Fiction Be Here to Love Me at the End of the World. By Sasha Fletcher. Feb. 2022. 224p. Melville, paper, $17.99 (9781612199474). Fletcher’s unusual debut novel evokes a surreal, heightened version of reality. It follows Sam and Eleanor, two Brooklynites whose lives are constantly unsettled by a bombardment of shocking news—potential nuclear wars, unexplained planes crowding the sky, and the growing threat of the secret police. In this world, everything is precarious, including Sam’s work as a freelancer. Sam finds solace in constantly devising sumptuous meals to cook for Eleanor, described in exacting detail by the narrator, whose voice and opinions often take over the novel. The digressive prose of the narrator is relentless, hyperactive, and indignantly and understandably angry at police brutality, student loans, and the…

AUDIO Adult Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend. By Jackie Kay. Read by the author and Adjoa Andoh. 2021. 5.5hr. Books on Tape, DD, $57 (9780593458365). Kay, Scotland’s National Poet, has not written a typical biography, but has instead fused fact, fiction, and prose with the panache of imagination and poetic truth. In analyzing how our identity can be affected by who and what we love, Kay creates a tribute to an unsung legend who will never stop singing the blues. Listeners may react viscerally to the poetic mastery and distinctive timbre of Kay’s voice as she adds biographical contexts to her moving and personal introduction. Andoh demonstrates poignant and sobering perspectives in narrating the blues legend’s complex life. This audio will appeal to audiences interested in…

High-Demand Hot List Look for reviews of these high-demand titles in forthcoming issues of Booklist. While everyone is pulling together their best-of-2021 lists, the High Demand Hot List is here to show you the most holdable books for 2022, including plenty of thrillers, historical fiction, memoirs, and a few speculative fiction titles, too. —Susan Maguire The Diamond Eye. By Kate Quinn. Morrow, $27.99 (9780062943514). Mar. 2022. Based on a true story, bestseller Quinn’s latest historical novel (after The Rose Code, 2021) traces the life of Lady Death, a quiet librarian who became a deadly sniper during WWII. Fevered Star. By Rebecca Roanhorse. Gallery/Saga, $27.99 (9781534437739). Apr. 2022. In the hotly anticipated sequel to Black Sun (2020), Roanhorse’s critically acclaimed epic fantasy inspired by legends of Central and South America, a…

Spotlight Top 10 Sci-Tech Books Scientists’ remarkable life stories, new perspectives on pigeons and insects, deep-sea discoveries, and rampaging wildlife are all illuminated in the most excellent science and technology titles reviewed in Booklist over the past year. —Donna Seaman Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings. By Earl Swift. 2021. Custom, $28.99 (9780062986535). Swift details the significance of the final, often wrongly overlooked Apollo moon landings, covering the development of the lunar rover and other advances. Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction. By Michelle Nijhuis. 2021. Norton, $27.95 (9781324001683). Nijhuis tracks the many-faceted debate over protecting imperiled species and profiles ardent and intrepid animal advocates. Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life…

YOUTH NONFICTION Older Readers ★ Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America (Young Reader’s Edition). By Candacy Taylor. Jan. 2022. 272p. illus. Abrams, $22.99 (9781419749490). Gr. 7–12. 305.800973. The rise of the automobile gave Americans freedom on the open road—but not all Americans. To help Black travelers navigate stores, gas stations, hotels, and other businesses, Harlem postal carrier Victor Hugo Green created the Green Book in 1936. In this young adult adaptation of her New York Times Notable Book, Taylor goes beyond the history of the Green Book to place it within the context of the country’s struggles with race and social mobility. While the author gives a chronological progression of the Green Book, from a short, New York City–based guide to an international…

Podcast Connection Seeing Ghosts. By Kat Chow. Read by the author. 2021. 10hr. Hachette Audio, DD, $25.98 (9781549124273). Making her dual print and audio debut, journalist Chow relies on words to resurrect her late mother—and lost family, by extension—who died of cancer in 2004. Not yet 50, her mother seemed to fulfill the superstition that the women in her family tended to die young: her mother’s mother passed away at 41. With her two older sisters already off to college, 13-year-old Chow was left mostly alone with a distant father. Chow traces her mother’s life—her Chinese birth, Hong Kong escape, U.S.education and immigration, complicated marriage to Chow’s father, their premature son’s death before Chow’s birth, and their financial insecurities that likely hastened her early death. Once she’s gone, Chow continues…

Booklist Backlist Books & Video Games That Level Up Reading by Biz Hyzy Wine and cheese. Dinner and a movie, sure. But have you ever thought of pa iring a book with a video game? If you, like me, played far too many games while quarantining, you might have noticed similarities between your favorite RPGs and novels, be they thematically, structurally, or visually. Below you’ll find a list of books for children, teens, and adults that might interest avid gamers, especially when the novel mirrors a video game they already know and love. Video Game Journey. Thatgamecompany and Santa Monica Studio. 2012. Books Journey. By Aaron Becker. Illus. by the author. 2013. Candlewick, $15.99 (9780763660536). Gr. 1–4. Lost and Found. By JiWon Beck. Illus. by the author. 2019. Peter Pauper,…

Spotlight Top 10 Sci-Tech Books for Youth Perilous journeys, insects galore, and captivating biographies of scientists make up this list of outstanding science and technology titles, reviewed in Booklist between December 1, 2020, and November, 2021. —Sarah Hunter 13 Ways to Eat a Fly. By Sue Heavenrich. Illus. by David Clark. Charlesbridge, $16.99 (9781580898904). Gr. 1–3. 595.77 Well stocked with easy-to-digest facts and cartoon illustrations of 13 kinds of flies, this disquisition on flies as food will draw swarms of young readers. Anteaters, Bats and Boas: The Amazon Rainforest from the Forest Floor to the Treetops. By Roxie Munro. Illus. by the author. Holiday, $18.99 (9780823446568). Gr. 2–5. 591.7340981. Munro transports readers to the Amazon rain forest in this exquisitely illustrated picture book. Thirty different animal species are rendered at…

YOUTH FICTION Older Readers ★ Ain’t Burned All the Bright. By Jason Reynolds. Illus. by Jason Griffin. Jan. 2022. 384p. Atheneum/Caitlin Dlouhy, $19.99 (9781534439467). Gr. 7–12. Reynolds and Griffin’s searing indictment of the status quo is expressed in the voice of a young, unnamed Black man, whose timely comments resonate beyond the personal to the universal. Divided into three parts called “Breaths,” the text begins as the boy ponders why his mother won’t change the TV channel from repetitive news stories, what keeps his brother glued to his video game, and the implications of his sister’s plan to attend a protest. Breath Two introduces the boy’s sick father, who, isolated in his bedroom, can’t stop coughing. Breath Three finds the boy feeling suffocated and searching for an oxygen mask, eventually…