Table of contents for Booklist, Vol. 121, No. 22, August 2025 in Booklist

ALA’s new fiscal year begins in September, so that makes this issue the last in the volume year. I’d like to thank the Booklist team for their incredible work amid ongoing challenges and changes occurring at Booklist and ALA over the past year. Two longtime Booklist staff retired this year and it’s impossible to put into words how much we will miss them. Cynthia Harden was part of the Booklist marketing team and oversaw digital and print advertising production. She worked for ALA for over 30 years. Her positive outlook and can-do attitude helped to make working at Booklist a great experience for everyone on the team and for advertisers and publishers. Ben Segedin, Booklist’s Production Manager, also worked for Booklist for well over 30 years. Ben kept us all…

A climate scientist, poet, chef, mail carrier, performer, activist, A and literary innovator are among those who wrote the outstanding memoirs below, each reviewed in Booklist during the last year. —Donna Seaman A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory. By Jagadish Shukla. 2025. St. Martin’s, $30 (9781250289209). Climate scientist Shukla zestfully traces the remarkable trajectory of his life from a village in India to working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change the year it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Care and Feeding. By Laurie Woolever. 2025. Ecco, $28.99 (9780063327603). Woolever spent years working for Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain and now details her own story in this beyond-absorbing memoir. Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me. By Glory Edim.…

Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham’s dishy, addictive The Academy presents a panoramic view of nine months in the life of a New England prep school, complete with secrets and lies, drama among both students and teachers, and a secret room under the dorms. Each of the following books offers a close-up look at prep schools and colleges, full of the growing pains of young adults and full-grown adults behaving badly. All Girls. By Emily Layden. 2021. St. Martin’s, $27.99 (9781250270894). Like The Academy, Layden’s debut takes a deep dive into an academic year at a prep school, this time focusing on nine different students who have different motivations and concerns as a 20-year-old scandal resurfaces. Catherine House. By Elisabeth Thomas. 2020. 240p. Morrow, $27.99 (9780062905659). With no real plan for…

Adult The Exorcism at 1600 Penn. By Hannah Rose May. Art by Vanesa Del Rey and Jordie Bellaire. Aug. 2025. 128p. IDW, $21.99 (9798887243177). 741.5. Kelly Doyle is torn between two very important jobs: first as the married mother to two teenagers, and second as the newly elected (and first woman) president of the U.S. Upon moving into the White House, she is pressured to manage a possible and unknown threat to the country, while her children start school and her daughter begins to exhibit some atypical behaviors. As the title suggests, Kelly soon learns that her daughter has been possessed by a powerful demon, and she will need to take action to save her and the entire country. This is a fairly typical possession story, complete with the necessary…

Given the popularity of YA memoirs, it appears that teen readers are eager to learn about individuals other than themselves; they want to know how others coped or failed to cope with life’s punches. When I began working on my YA memoir, I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This, I believed that the memoirist’s task was to hold the tension of the teen readers’ curiosity to learn about the life stories of others while reassuring them that they are in no risk of having to examine their own unfolding lives. If, having read the book, they felt moved to a bit of self-reflection, then what do you know? Perhaps sharing one’s story may have ever so slightly altered the arc of their identities. However, while digging into my…

Katherine Applegate’s newest novel, Pocket Bear, taps into the fantasy that toys come to life when humans aren’t around. More than a Toy Story riff, however, the book also explores the history of teddy bears and the reverberations of war—all narrated by a clever, if clumsy, cat. Here are a few books that tick some of these same boxes. Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear. By Lindsay Mattick. Illus. by Sophie Blackall. 2015. 56p. Little, Brown (9780316324908). K–Gr. 2. This heartening account of Winnie-the-Pooh’s real-life origins reveals how a bear cub named Winnipeg accompanied a division of WWI soldiers, ultimately becoming its mascot. The Great War: Stories Inspired by Items from the First World War. By David Almond and others. Illus. by Jim Kay. 2015.…

Philosophy & Psychology Mission Driven: The Path to a Life of Purpose. By Mike Hayes. Sept. 2025. 256p. Grand Central, $29 (9780306836510); e-book (9780306836534). 158.1. Hayes, former Navy SEAL and White House adviser, has strong opinions on success, focusing on the “why” rather than the “what” in life. “The process of aligning our day-to-day selves with our mission in life is what I mean by Mission Driven,” says Hayes. The first half of the book, The Long Game, encourages readers to delve into who they really want to be by using questions such as “What problem in the world are you most excited to solve?” to spark ambition and define success. To Hayes, it doesn’t matter what stage of life someone is at; it’s never too late to find true…

As I was working on what would become the first biography of the writer Evan S. Connell (Literary Alchemist, 2021), I found among Connell’s papers at Stanford University’s Green Library what seemed to be an important letter from a onetime mentor, Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Connell had shared a manuscript of his novel Mrs. Bridge with Clark and hoped to hear useful guidance. For me, if not for Connell, Clark’s comments could be essential in understanding the creation of Connell’s first and perennially admired novel. If only I could read them. Clark’s letter to Connell unfolded in the tiniest of cursive-adjacent handwriting, and as I struggled to decipher it, I reached out to special-collections librarian Jacquelyn Sundstrand at the University of Nevada-Reno. The library had Clark’s papers, and I figured…

The engrossing, often deeply affecting memoirs below are aligned with Indian writer Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me either as portraits of challenging mothers or accounts of women’s lives in India and beyond. Ants among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India. By Sujatha Gidla. 2017. Farrar, $28 (9780865478114). Beginning just before India’s independence in 1947, Gidla shares her family’s stories in a small village community of converted Christians, focusing closely on her uncle Satyam, who became a famous poet, political agitator, and influential Communist Party member. Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones. By Priyanka Mattoo. 2024. Knopf, $29 (9780593320389). Mattoo recounts her family’s loss of their home in Kashmir as they fled worsening violence in 1989 and her subsequent sojourns in Saudi Arabia, England, and the…

Like Bryan Washington’s Palaver, an intimate, empathetic story following a Jamaican American mother who shows up in Tokyo to visit the adult son she hasn’t seen in years, these novels and story collections reveal characters’ parents as dimensional people with lives of their own, and vice versa, to beguiling effect. Black Cake. By Charmaine Wilkerson. 2022. Ballantine, $28 (9780593358337). In her novel about estranged siblings grieving for their mother, Wilkerson explores how untold stories can “matter even more than the things we do say.” Feast Your Eyes. By Myla Goldberg. 2019. Scribner, $17 (9781501197857). This novel about a photographer who becomes an accidental single mother at 19 is told through letters, interviews, the mother’s journal, and the daughter’s piercing commentary on her mother’s photographs. Green Frog. By Gina Chung. 2024.…

Biographies and memoirs are a perennially rich corner of the landscape of graphic novels, and these 10 standout titles, reviewed between July 2024 and July 2025, showcase a dynamic variety of form, subject, and tone. —Sarah Hunter Brittle Joints. By Maria Sweeney. Art by the author. 2024. 160p. Street Noise (9781951491260). In deft artwork, Sweeney capably relates her experiences of living with a degenerative bone disorder and struggling to navigate the bureaucracy of the U.S. healthcare system. Dr. Werthless. By Harold Schechter and Eric Powell. Art by Eric Powell. 2025. 200p. Albatross (9781506744360). With thorough research, including details not often found in other sources, this account of the career of Fredric Wertham is made entertaining thanks to the writing and illustrations. The Giant: Orson Welles, the Artist and the Shadow. By…

10,000 Ink Stains: A Memoir. By Jeff Lemire. Art by the author. 2025. 208p. Dark Horse, $54.99 (9781506744834). 741.5. “I don’t consider myself an expert at making comics,” Eisner Award– winning, mega-acclaimed Lemire insists. Throngs of devoted fans (plus all manner of industry professionals) would certainly disagree with the legendary creator. His accomplished memoir inarguably dispels that well-intentioned declaration as he reveals “an honest and comprehensive account of [his] career” over the past quarter-century. Intertwined with “developmental and never-before-seen behind-the-scenes material,” Lemire vulnerably shares “where [he] was in [his] life when [he] did each book.” Combining dense type and signature (stupendous) visuals, Lemire moves chronologically through his rural childhood, his Toronto education, his experiences with creativity to pay the bills, his supportive marriage and eventual parenthood, his collaborations, his bouts…

Angelica and the Bear Prince. By Trung Le Nguyen. Art by the author. 224p. Random/RH Graphic (9780593125472). Gr. 7–12. Oct. When burnout finally gets to Angelica, the girl who does it all, she finds a source of comfort in her surprising crush on the local theater’s bear mascot. Fall of the Fireflies. By Guadalupe García McCall. 352p. Lee & Low/Tu (9781643796994). Gr. 8–12. Oct. This series starter expands the world of McCall’s best-selling, Odyssey-inspired Summer of the Mariposas with a retelling of Antigone. The House Saphir. By Marissa Meyer. 432p. Feiwel and Friends (9781250320957). Gr. 9–12. Nov. This forthcoming standalone from “the queen of fairy-tale retellings” is a romantasy murder-mystery based on the legend of Bluebeard. Moon Song. By Michaela Goade. Illus. by the author. 40p. Little, Brown (9780316461634). PreS–Gr. 2.…

Stevenson breaks away from his usual graphic-novel format and traverses into the world of illustrated middle-grade prose in Scarlet Morning, a fantastical, high-seas adventure he’s been cooking since childhood. Thanks to some digital browsing during lockdown, Stevenson decided to revisit his 600-page childhood manuscript, and the story of orphans Viola and Wilmur was revived. Viola and Wilmur find themselves leaving their sullen, salty home and following captain Chase and her eccentric crew (who are definitely not pirates) on a mysterious journey. Here, you’ll find a few more quirky, quippy, and quintessential adventures where there be swashbuckling crews, fantasy, and/or treasure to be had. The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone. By Jaclyn Moriarty. Illus. by Karl James Mountford. 2018. 384p. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine (9781338255843). Gr. 4–6. Bronte hasn’t heard from…

Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success. By Jeff Hiller. Read by the author. 2025. 8hr. Simon & Schuster Audio, DD (9781797193878). Listening to most author-narrated memoirs is a joy, but Hiller elevates it to an experience. The Texas-born actor and comedian, who recently found success as Joel in HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, cut his teeth on podcasts created with friends while tirelessly building his career in film and television. Despite finding success later in his life, the memoir gives equal attention to all periods—growing up Christian, moving to New York, marrying his husband, and almost giving up on acting right before he made his real break. Inspired by his own love of celebrity memoirs, Hiller regales the listener with a hilarious and touching tell-all. The audiobook…

The rise of BookTok on the popular social media app TikTok has enabled self-published authors to connect with eager readers. Romance, mysteries and thrillers, sf, and fantasy writers have built large followings, thus drawing the attention of traditional publishers who hope to bring books with a built-in audience to an even wider market. The books and authors below have made that leap and continue to grow their fan base. The Atlas Six. By Olivie Blake. 2022. Tor. Blake’s dark-academia saga about six magicians attempting to join a powerful secret society was a TikTok darling that drew the attention of Tor Books. The publisher reissued this title and published two sequels, The Atlas Paradox (2022) and The Atlas Paradox Complex (2024), and a stand-alone, Gifted & Talented (2025). Camp Damascus. By…

Find highly anticipated reads for early 2026 and late-breaking additions to autumn publishing calendars in this installment of our monthly list of titles to watch out for. —Annie Bostrom The Lucky Egg: Understanding Your Fertility and How to Get Pregnant NOW. By Lucky Sekhon. St. Martin’s, $35 (9781250408716). Jan. A half-million copies are planned for this getting-pregnant guide from reproductive endocrinologist and social media sensation Dr. Lucky. If I Ruled the World. By Amy DuBois Barnett. Flatiron, $29.99 (9781250378125). Jan. Barnett, the first Black woman to head a major U.S. magazine (Teen People), offers a debut novel set in 1999 starring a young editor who has six months to save a floundering hip-hop magazine. The Look. By Michelle Obama. Crown, $50 (9780593800706). Nov. Rather than another memoir, the former First…

The 10 best biographies reviewed in Booklist over the past year feature exceptional individuals who profoundly influenced literature, art, music, entertainment, politics, spycraft, and the long fight for civil rights. —Donna Seaman Angelica: For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution. By Molly Beer. 2025. Norton, $31.99 (9781324050216). Beer illuminates the fascinating life of Angelica Schuyler Church, who grew up in the heart of the American Revolution, then lived in Paris and London, impressing the likes of Thomas Jefferson and her brother-in-law, Alexander Hamilton. Baldwin: A Love Story. By Nicholas Boggs. 2025. Farrar, $32 (9780374178710). Boggs casts light on the parallel developments in literary giant Baldwin’s writings and relationships, including love affairs and his bond with his mentor, painter Beauford Delaney. Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life. By Dan Nadel. 2025.…

General Fiction Amputation. By Bruce Wagner. Aug. 2025. 192p. Arcade, $27.99 (9781648211614); e-book (9781648211737). Wagner (The Met Gala & Tales of Saints and Seekers, 2024) continues his late-career burst of productivity with this remarkably timely novel that depicts an eclectic cast of characters in L.A. during and after the horrific Palisades fires in early 2025. The chapters rotate in perspective among Stephen Colbert, L.A. mayor Karen Bass, a Timothée Chalamet stunt double, the disgraced fantasist Elisabeth Finch, a vociferously pro-Palestinian heiress who enrages her Zionist father, as well as hilarious and horribly accurate depictions of Nextdoor threads. Wagner’s prose about the destructive nature of the fire is as evocative and visceral as Richard Flanagan’s The Living Sea of Waking Dreams (2021), his depictions of the hyperreal world of celebrity bring to…

Manga biographies and memoirs are not as widespread as the popular and bestselling adventure stories, but these personal accounts provide important cultural context and necessary voices for readers who want to learn more about the communities producing some of their favorite series. While readers can learn from and expand their knowledge on a culture that may be new to them, reading biographical stories and memoirs from other nations provides an opportunity to build empathy bridges across the world and create a sense of belonging for readers in a complex global community. Expanding on Ashley Hawkins’ “Fascinating Nonfiction” list from April 15, 2024, which included many autobiographies and memoirs with which to build a solid manga section, this list of titles not yet covered in Booklist will be at home alongside…

Older Readers Do Not Disturb: How to Say No to Your Phone. By Brad Marshall and Lindsay Hassock. Illus. by Lauriane Bohémier. Aug. 2025. 96p. Abrams/Magic Cat, $18.99 (9781419776984). Gr. 6–10. 004.167. In an age where our daily activity, connections, and even identities are tied to our phones, it is important, particularly for young people, to understand the effect smartphones have on us. The authors describe the methods and expertise of the Screens and Gaming Disorders Clinic in Sydney, Australia, and connect psychological research to the relationships we build with our smartphones in a nonjudgmental and patient manner. Punctuated with relaxing illustrations guiding users away from screens and toward the rest of the world, the book explains that phone addiction is not the fault of the user and how app…

With subjects ranging from iconic writers and scientists tolesser-known innovators and artists, the top 10 biographies and memoirs for youth, reviewed in Booklist between June 2024 and July 2025, offer rich, illuminating portraits of notable figures and their achievements. —Sarah Hunter Alberto Salas Plays Paka Paka con la Papa: Join the Quest with Peru’s Famed Scientist and Potato Expert. By Sara Andrea Fajardo. Illus. by Juana Martinez-Neal. 2025. 40p. Roaring Brook (9781250838612). K–Gr. 3. Scientist and environmentalist Alberto Salas scours the Andes Mountains for new potato species to bring to Peru’s International Potato Center genebank in this lyrical biography. And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories. By Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illus. by Daniel Minter. 2025. 48p. Little, Brown (9780316182362). Gr. 1–3. This poetic, affectionate profile of the late…

Older Readers Between These Broken Hearts. By Lexi Ryan. 2025. 464p. HarperCollins/Storytide, $19.99 (9780063311954). Gr. 9–12. Fans of Ryan’s Beneath These Cursed Stars (2024) will be swept away by this breathtaking sequel. From deadly bargains to emotionally charged reunions, this final chapter delivers what fans have been waiting for and then some. The clock is ticking for Princess Jasalyn, who currently has only 11 days left to live. She must face the consequences of a desperate deal while racing to stop the evil fae king, Mordeus. At her side is steady, loyal Kendrick, and while their romance may feel more restrained than in the previous book, it’s nonetheless filled with genuine care and resonant emotion. Meanwhile, the sharp-tongued banter and slow-burning tension between Misha and Felicity will have fans absolutely…

Having won the 2010 Newbery Medal for her sci fi–tinged When You Reach Me—and her solo novels being few and far between as of late—anticipation is high for Rebecca Stead’s forthcoming The Experiment. It’s the story of Nathan, whose family is part of a secret alien experiment on Earth—or that’s what they’ve been led to believe. In the meantime, the following titles should slake readers’ thirst for middle-grade with similar settings and themes. Alebrijes. By Donna Barba Higuera. Illus. by David Álvarez. 2023. Levine Querido (9781646142637). Gr. 5–8. Set on a desolate Earth, Higuera’s immersive sf adventure takes a more dystopian approach to similar themes. When impoverished Leandro is arrested for stealing, one of his captors transfers the boy’s mind into a hummingbird drone and releases him to complete a…

Adult Fiction Blood on Her Tongue. By Johanna van Veen. Read by Emily Tucker. 2025. 9hr. Tantor, DD (9798765083543). In 1887, in the Netherlands, Lucy’s twin sister Sarah is afflicted by a mysterious illness after becoming obsessed with a mummified corpse found on the grounds of her husband’s isolated estate. When Sarah’s symptoms become increasingly disturbing, Lucy rushes to her sister’s bedside to protect her from institutionalization, and to hopefully find a cure for her temporary insanity. When Sarah begins craving human flesh, Lucy realizes that her sister is hiding something. She’ll have to reckon with Sarah’s secrets (and a few of her own) if she wants to save them both. In van Veen’s second atmospheric gothic horror novel (following My Darling Dreadful Thing), Tucker’s lightly accented voice offers an…