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

Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror • The top science fiction, fantasy, and horror books show the full range of the genres’ possibilities, from magical heists to historical horror to giant space-death robots.

Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror Debuts • The top 10 science fiction, fantasy, and horror first novels showcase fresh new voices exploring near-future worlds, body horror, and folkloric reimaginings.

The Essentials SF/Fantasy & Horror Cli-fi • Writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror have long used conventions of the genres to address societal ills; works that imagine the ways the world might adapt to environmental devastation are called climate fiction or cli-fi. Cities in space or under the sea, governmental collapse and resource wars, never-ending storms or floods: these are hallmarks of the genre. The cli-fi titles listed here posit many possible futures with one common theme: the destructive power of rampant climate change.

Read-alikes Fictional Scientists • As we celebrate science fiction in this issue, we are inspired to also call out fictional scientists. The novels and short-story collections below, like Andrea Barrett’s Natural History (review adjacent), imaginatively portray scientists to profound effect.

The Essentials Genetics in the Age of CRISPR • Say “genetics” and everything from home DNA kits to determine one’s ancestry to dystopian visions of genetically engineered superbabies come to mind. Discoveries in this crucial realm, including the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR, are fraught with profound and troubling implications even as their potential for eradicating disease and helping us better understand ourselves and all of life on Earth is high. These entertaining and elucidating books below profile leading scientists and address both the science and the ethics of genetic research and technology.

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

LIBRARY READS • Mad Honey

A Conversation Erik Larson • Audiobook listeners got quite a treat when Erik Larson’s first novel, No One Goes Alone—an eerie ghost story infused with the kind of historical detail that the nonfiction author’s many fans will love—was released exclusively as an audiobook. Larson gave Booklist Reader insight into his first venture in writing fiction, and writing it for audio.

Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror Audiobooks for Youth • Thrills, chills, and adventures abound in these starred youth audiobooks.

Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror for Youth • Including everything from literal monsters to those lurking inside us and magical tea to apocalyptic end-times, this year’s batch of science fiction, fantasy, and horror is an exemplary one.

A Conversation Pure Joy • Writing Three Kisses, One Midnight

Trend Alert Microtrend Roundup • Science fiction, fantasy, and horror are incredibly popular genres, but there are so many subcategories, genre-blends, and niche themes that one reader’s golden thread might be another’s pile of straw. If your middle-grade, tween, and YA readers are craving a little more specificity, here are a handful of subgenres we’ve noticed spiking in the past several years.

Navigating Newbery The Plight of High Fantasy • One of the beautiful things about children’s literature is its open-mindedness. Over the years, the space has evolved into a haven for experimentation, diversity, and speculative fiction. And yet! When...