Booklist Reader

Published by Booklist, an imprint of the American Library Association. Booklist Reader features diverse book and audiobook recommendations, for readers and listeners of all ages. Filled with high-interest, themed lists that showcase books for your family or book discussion group.

From the Editor & Publisher

Booklist Reader

Top 10 Mysteries & Thrillers • The best crime novels breathe new life into some genre staples—the extended chase story and the psychosexual thriller, for example—while confronting contemporary social and racial issues and delivering a remarkable range of fully fleshed characters.

Top 10 Debut Mysteries & Thrillers • This year’s top-10 crime fiction debuts showcase domestic thrillers—perhaps today’s hottest subgenre—along with some noir and several gripping historical mysteries.

The Essentials Music-Loving Sleuths • Music is everywhere in crime fiction, sometimes at the center of the story but most often providing the soundtrack for sleuths whose playlists help keep them sane amid the blood splatter. Here’s a list of music-loving sleuths organized by their preferred sounds.

Read-alikes Women as Spies • When the Iron Curtain fell, pundits predicted the death of the spy novel. How wrong they were. We now know that Russia would remain an adversary of the West, but beyond that, the critics forgot that the best spy novels have always been about secrets and questions of loyalty to ideology or to individuals, human concerns that will be with us forever. They also failed to realize that a new generation of writers would deepen the resonance of spy stories by focusing on a different kind of protagonist—women. Like The Lunar Housewife (review adjacent), these books feature women as spies and women thrust into the perfidious world of those seeking to exploit the secrets of others.

Read-alikes Crime & Punishment Close to Home • In Lisa Forbes’ I Can Take It from Here (review-adjacent), the author recounts her harrowing experience serving prison time for stabbing the father of her child, who later died, and her near-impossible climb to re-enter civilian life afterwards. The true-crime memoirs below are all courageously written by people convicted of crimes or by individuals otherwise touched by crime, whether by location, personal connection, or both.

The Essentials Recent Latinx Fiction & Memoir • These exceptional works of fiction and memoir spotlight many aspects of Latin American life, exploring dreams and trauma, love and resiliency, sometimes with a touch of magic.

The Essentials Citizens, Strangers, & Dreamers Come of Age • Although the U.S. is traditionally defined as a nation of immigrants, people seeking asylum and better lives are often seen as an existential threat. Thus migrant families face trauma and heartache, while safety and success remain elusive. Children are additionally burdened with their parents’ high expectations. These powerful coming-of-age novels feature immigrant children and/or the children of immigrants.

Reserve These Reads Adult • Get your hands on these hotly anticipated books, all out this month.

LibraryReads September Picks

SEPTEMBER 2022 • The LibraryReads Hall of Fame designation honors authors who have had multiple titles appear on the monthly LibraryReads list since 2013. When their third title places on the list via library staff votes, the author moves into the Hall of Fame.

Top 10 Mysteries & Thrillers on Audio • A body on an elevator? A modern Greek tragedy? A group hiding from white supremacists at Monticello? These top ten crime audiobooks showcase stellar narrators and nail-biting suspense.

Must Listen Narrators of Hispanic Heritage • In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate the many narrators whose work offers an authentic voice for Hispanic characters...