Table of contents for June 2022 in Booklist Reader

As I write this, in Chicago it’s still chilly; I have a cold; and it’s not yet June. Blah. But this issue really has me looking forward to summer warmth and sunshine, good health, perhaps the beach, and mindful escape from all that’s concerning in the world. I’ll be honest: I tend to worry about things. I won’t bore you with details, but by mindful escape, I mean a vacation, via reading, from my usual array of hopes and fears about seemingly ever-present risks and uncertainties. I know I’ll come back to those concerns soon enough, but a great book is a wonderful, even enlightening reprieve from myself! If you’d like to escape awhile, we have plenty of great recommendations here for readers of all ages focused on the theme…

At Your Leisure You can find lists of nail-biting thrillers anywhere, but what about the reader who wants to slow down and savor a story? Try these books: an extraordinary tale of ordinary people on vacation, a divorced couple on a trip to Maine, a tea-serving monk who decides to go off-road, and an enlightening chronicle of the mundane. ByRC Sherriff. 2021. Scribner. ByElizabethStrout2021. Random. ByBeckyChambers2021. StoplightSecretsMischievousSquirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day (And Know Nothing About). By Spike Carlsen. 2020. HarperOne. Books with a Strong Female Lead These books all feature main characters you can get behind and root for, whether it’s a librarian-turned-sniper, a civil rights activist, an artist determined to survive a tragic loss, or Black women revealing moments…

Video Game Journey. Thatgamecompany and Santa Monica Studio. 2012. Books Journey. By Aaron Becker. Illus. by the author. 2013. Candlewick. Gr. 1–4. Lost and Found. By JiWon Beck. Illus. by the author. 2019. Peter Pauper. PreS–Gr. 2. The less you know about Journey (the game), the more moving your experience will be. Suffice to say that it is a wordless expedition—even the tutorial lacks written instructions—and players embody a robed traveler who explores ancient ruins and vast, desolate deserts. This indie game’s speechless storytelling and gorgeous artwork pairs well with two wordless picture books: Journey, which follows a young, white girl as she escapes into an imaginative fantasy realm, and Lost and Found, wherein a Native Alaskan girl and a polar bear weather stunning Arctic landscapes together. Video Game King’s…

I don’t often worry about slippery slopes. Mark Bray offers a compelling argument against them in his book Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. Liberals and conservatives alike hand-wring about what will happen if we allow anti-fascism to flourish; first they came for the fascists, the argument seems to go, and who knows who they might attack next? But Bray carefully shows that these arguments are moot. Consistently and regularly, once local anti-fascist organizing has defeated local fascists, the cells go dormant, and those involved in antifa go back to their lives. They don’t pivot to, say, banning books they don’t like from public libraries or screaming at school board meetings about the imaginary threat of critical race theory in elementary education. Similarly, arguments that gay marriage might pave the way to…

Older Blade Breaker. By Victoria Aveyard. HarperTeen. Gr. 9–12. This sequel to Aveyard’s best-selling Realm Breaker finds Corayne and her crew facing new dangers and an emboldened enemy in a fast-paced fantasy plot. Our Crooked Hearts. By Melissa Albert. Flatiron. Gr. 9–12. As she discovers that her mother is a witch, Ivy must unravel the many secrets that haunt her life in this thrilling, well-crafted novel from Albert, author of the hit Hazel Wood series. This Wicked Fate. By Kalynn Bayron. Bloomsbury. Gr. 8-12. This follow-up to Bayron’s acclaimed This Poison Heart (2021) finds Briseis fully enmeshed in the legacy of her birth family and on the hunt for a mystical plant that, hopefully, will save her mother from the underworld. We Weren’t Looking to Be Found. By Stephanie Kuehn.…

American Dreamer. By Adriana Herrera. 2019. Carina. Ernesto “Nesto” Vasquez is determined to make a success of his Afro-Caribbean food truck and has no time for love. Neither does his customer, sexy librarian Jude Fuller. Best Laid Plans. By Roan Parrish. 2021. Carina. After inheriting a ramshackle house, Rye Janssen heads to Wyoming, where hardware store owner Charlie Matheson tries to help him renovate his new home and perhaps build a future together. The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows. By Olivia Waite. 2020. Avon. Waite’s brilliantly conceived Regency historical romance features Agatha Griffin, who discovers a swarm of bees in her printshop warehouse, and delightfully eccentric apiarist Penelope Flood, for whom Agatha experiences unexpected feelings. The Charm Offensive. By Alison Cochrun. 2021. Atria. As a producer for the popular…

Fiction Cult Classic. By Sloane Crosley. Farrar/MCD. Beloved comic essayist and novelist Crosley offers her original take on a New York City rom-com in which absurdity and hilarity meet and meet again. Horse. By Geraldine Brooks. Viking. Centering on the life and legacy of Lexington, a bay colt who became a racing champion in mid-nineteenth century America, Brooks’ latest brings to life the important roles filled by Black horsemen in America’s past. The Hotel Nantucket. By Elin Hilderbrand. Little, Brown. A newly renovated, and allegedly haunted, hotel offers a fresh start for hotel manager Lizbet Keaton and for her staff in this breezy pleaser that captures the sights, sounds, and tastes of Nantucket in the summer. The Many Daughters of Afong Moy. By Jamie Ford. Atria. A poet and mother…

Freshwater. By Akwaeke Emezi. Read by the author. 2018. 7hr. Highbridge. With a smooth, easy voice tinged with an accent from their Nigerian roots, Emezi, the nonbinary trans author of National Book Award Finalist Pet, reads their powerful debut, weaving Igbo myth into a narrative of mental illness. Fresh Ink. Ed. by Lamar Giles. Read by a full cast. 2018. 5hr. Listening Library. Gr. 9–12. This collection’s all-star narrating cast includes NCAA swimmer Schuyler Bailar reading his contribution: a story informed by his experience as an openly trans athlete. Melissa. By Alex Gino. Read by Jamie Clayton. 2015. 5hr. Scholastic. Gr. 4–6. Debut narrator Clayton, known for her work in Sens8, balances emotion with a straightforward, no-frills narration for this sensitive story first published as George. Author Gino narrates the…

Be Dazzled. By Ryan La Sala. 2021. Sourcebooks/Fire. Gr. 8–12. Raffy is hoping that winning the cosplay competition at Controverse with his glitzy designs will get him a scholarship to art school, but he’s going to have to team up with ex-boyfriend and rival Luca if he has any hopes of success. Bloom. By Kevin Panetta. Illus. by Savanna Ganucheau. 2019. First Second. Gr. 9–12. Art wants nothing more than to escape the sleepy town where his parents run a popular bakery, but when his dad hires adorable baker Hector, he finds a compelling reason to change his plans. Expressive artwork only adds to the swoony summer romance. Camp. By L. C. Rosen. 2020. Little, Brown. Gr. 10–12. This is the year Randy is going to catch the attention of…

The Beach House. By Rochelle Alers. 2021. Dafina. In this addition to Alers’ Book Club series, member Leah Berkley Kent, who moved to Coates Island a year ago, must decide if she is finally ready to say goodbye to her old abusive marriage and hello to the possibility of a new love with widower Derrick Johnson. The Beach House. By Mary Alice Monroe. 2021. MIRA. Caretta Rutledge returns home to the Carolina Lowcountry, where she discovers more about herself and her past than she could ever have imagined in this twentieth-anniversary edition of Monroe’s classic beach tale. Beach Read. By Emily Henry. 2020. Berkley. Henry won romance readers’ hearts with her witty novel about North Bear Shore lakeside cottage neighbors—a literary novelist and a romance writer—who challenge each other to…

By the Sea The Great Godden. By Meg Rosoff. 2021. Candlewick. Gr. 9–12. During a seaside summer vacation, two brothers turn the lives of four siblings—including an unnamed narrator whose gender is never specified—upside-down, with devastating consequences. A substantial, effortlessly characterized coming-of-age story. The Summer I Turned Pretty. By Jenny Han. 2009. Simon & Schuster. Gr. 7–10. Belly spends every summer at a beach house with her mom, Susannah, and Susannah’s sons, Jeremiah and Conrad. This year, as Conrad prepares to start college, boys begin paying attention to Belly, and family secrets linger in the background, Belly’s complicated feelings for both boys come to a head. This One Summer. By Mariko Tamaki. Art by Jillian Tamaki. 2014. First Second. Gr. 8–11. Rose spends every summer at a lake house down…