Table of contents for January 2022 in Booklist Reader

Booklist Reader Adult Books Reserve These Reads Adult Get your hands on these hotly anticipated books, all out this month. Nonfiction South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. By Imani Perry. Ecco. Alabama native Perry (Looking for Lorraine, 2018) recounts her travels throughout the South, presenting readers with a complex, surprising, and sensitive look at the history and influence of the region while portraying an array of people who live there. Fiction Anthem. By Noah Hawley. Grand Central. The next blockbuster from the author of Before the Fall (2016) is a Vonnegutian adventure of a man who breaks out of rehab with a woman named Louise to join a man called the Prophet in a setting that skewers present-day America. Goliath. By…

Booklist Reader Books for Youth Top 10 Biographies for Youth This past year proved a particularly strong one for memoir, and here you’ll find unforgettable accounts of survival, creation, and innovation. Apple: Skin to the Core. By Eric Gansworth. Illus. by the author. 2020. Levine Querido/Arthur A. Levine. Gr. 10–12. Playing off the derogatory term apple, Gansworth uses art, verse, and lyric prose to explore the realities of growing up on the rez and learning to navigate the white world. Call Me American: The Extraordinary True Story of a Young Somali Immigrant. By Abdi Nor Iftin. 2020. Delacorte. Gr. 7–12. Iftin affectingly adapts his memoir for young adults here, recounting his childhood in war-torn Somalia and his immigration to the U.S. after winning a spot in an American green-card lottery. The…

Booklist Reader Adult Books The Essentials Graphic Memoirs It’s easy to understand the perpetual appeal of memoirs; they give us close, intimate glimpses into the hearts and minds of writers and opportunities to find understanding, solidarity, and connection to our own lives. Graphic memoirs compellingly add art into that equation, using body language, evocative page layouts, and facial expressions to communicate emotion with even more depth and nuance. This list of memoirs offers a rich variety of themes, demonstrating the dynamic possibilities of the graphic format. by Sarah Hunter And Now I Spill the Family Secrets. By Margaret Kimball. Art by the author. 2021. HarperOne. Pristine, fine-lined artwork helps tell the story of Kimball’s quest to understand what led her mother to attempt suicide 15 years earlier, leading to a nuanced…

Booklist Reader Audiobooks Listen-alikes Author-Narrated Memoirs Memoirs offer intimate glimpses into lives of interest and impact. That intimacy is only increased when authors bring their own voices to the narration, a choice that welcomes listeners into a personal and often emotional listening experience. For listeners who appreciated the power of Elizabeth Nyamayaro’s starred narration of I Am a Girl from Africa and want more moving author-narrated memoirs, these will fit the bill. by Heather Booth Broken (in the best possible way). By Jenny Lawson. 2021. 8.5hrs. Macmillan. Lawson’s perfect comedic timing, quirky asides, and soft chuckles enhance her humor and bring heart to her struggles. Brilliantly read and brutally honest. Calypso. By David Sedaris. 2018. 6.5hr. Hachette. The frequent NPR voice shares stories from hilarious to heartbreaking. The two live-concert performances (complete…

Booklist Reader Adult Books Avid Explorations Travel has been more imaginary than actual for many of us during the pandemic, making reading about adventures in distant lands or even around the corner especially delectable. by Donna Seaman The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design. By Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt. 2020. HMH. Based on the authors’ podcast, this finely illustrated book highlights the underappreciated aspects and outright curiosities of our built environment in entertaining, bite-size entries. America the Beautiful: A Story in Photographs. By National Geographic. 2020. National Geographic. This selection of evocative photographs from National Geographic’s archives of more than 20 million images spotlights the distinct landscapes, unique cultures, and famed offspring of every state and territory. The Appalachian Trail. By Philip…

Booklist Reader Books for Youth The Essentials All Together Now As the scope of nonfiction grows for young readers and more and more biography writers delve into the sea of overlooked people in history, the collective biography emerges as a functional, accessible resource. Here, we’ve gathered a selection of those collective biographies that highlight women changemakers and make an effort to center stories from the margins. The titles listed feature brief biographies of cis and trans women across time and culture, and are suitable for middle grade, upper-middle grade, and older readers, and have plenty of crossover appeal. by Maggie Reagan 50 Unbelievable Women and Their Fascinating (and True!) Stories. By Saundra Mitchell. Illus. by Cara Petrus. 2016. Penguin/Puffin. Gr. 5–8. Spanning every field from politics to fashion design, this book…

Booklist Reader Books for Youth Reserve These Reads Children & Teens Get your hands on these hotly anticipated books, all out this month. Older Ain’t Burned All the Bright. By Jason Reynolds. Illus. by Jason Griffin. Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy. Gr. 7–11. Reynolds and Griffin’s genre-defying title combines text and art in a sharp, expressive exploration of what it means to be Black today. Akata Woman. By Nnedi Okorafor. Viking. Gr. 7–10. Sunny puts her skills as a Leopard Person to the test in this third book in Okorafor’s lauded Nsibidi Scripts series, which started with Akata Witch. At the End of Everything. By Marieke Nijkamp. Sourcebooks/Fire. Gr. 9–12. Best-selling Nijkamp offers a tense thriller about teens abandoned in a juvenile detention facility while a plague rages outside the compound’s boundaries. Augusta Savage:…