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 Cookbooks • What’s food without a story, and vice versa? These superb cookbooks offer depth, richness, and satisfaction for bellies and minds.

The Essentials Fictional Worlds, Real Meals • Yeah, sure: Proust and his madeleine-dipped-in-tea set the barometer for toothsome leitmotifs. I admit to the possibility that my academic indoctrination in his long, long musings made me quite the hungry reader. Or maybe I’m just always greedy for nourishment, with preferences in the belly—as well as on the page—tending toward the ethnic. Here are some notable novels that, despite even their most drastic, intense narrative circumstances, left me ravenous and sent me foraging in the kitchen, or, more likely, out to other kitchens. True confession: I’m cooking-averse but eating-obsessed!

The Essentials Foundational Cookbooks • In the galaxy of cookbooks, there are a few that can reasonably be said to be giant stars: one-stop titles that are perennial favorites. Find cherished and new recipes in these timeless classics.

Read-alikes Food & Memories • Various writers recall the foods that accompanied them in good times and bad in My First Popsicle (review adjacent): a grandmother’s unparalleled kindness and peanut butter cookies; a breakup forever linked with a delicious, unwieldy meatball. These memoirs and anthologies prove again and again food’s amazing tendency to create indelible memories.

The Essentials Infographic Reference • If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an infographic, which uses heavy images and light text to explain a topic, is priceless. Looking for a quick, unvarnished explanation of a subject? Take a look at these excellent titles covering a wide variety of topics, from science to history to pop culture to WWII.

LIBRARY READS

Listen Up Debut Narrators • To close out the year, we're celebrating new voices in audiobooks that we reviewed in 2022. We welcome these notable voice talents and hope to hear more from each of them in years to come.

Must Listen Classics • Audio is an ideal format for understanding old favorites in a new light, and discovering how vibrant, relatable, and relevant classic titles continue to be. These new recordings of lasting titles just hint at the range of audio classics available for a new generation to enjoy.

Top 10 Picture Books for Deep Thinkers • These beautiful, mind-expanding picture books explore abstract concepts—grief, beauty, memory, and more—in accessible ways.

Top 10 Wordless Picture Books • While picture books are a largely visual medium, it’s nonetheless a challenge for artists to tell—and a treat for readers to be told—an entirely wordless story. The following 10 titles do just that.

The Essentials Giving Shape to Big Feelings • Emotional literacy can be tough to achieve (even for adults!), but with approachable visual metaphors, picture books are helping kids grasp big feelings. In these pages, sometimes amorphous shapes swallow kids right up. These blobby figures reflect not only the weightiness of emotions but also the sometimes-confusing way they emerge, and in every case, recognizing their presence makes them far less intimidating.

The Essentials Illustrations I'd Hang on My Walls (and Some I Already Have) • I’d wager that picture books are the toughest category of books for youth for authors to get right. Think about how important every single word is when you only have 150 or so to work with!...