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 Women’s Fiction • The Top 10 women’s fiction titles explore relationships of all stripes—friends, partners, mothers, and children—in slyly funny, deeply poignant, and page-turningly suspenseful ways.

Immigration and Belonging in Women’s Fiction

Chicago Art • When it comes to the arts, Chicago may be synonymous with music, theater, and architecture, but it has always also been a hub for the visual arts with vibrant and provocative artists, cutting-edge galleries, and world-class museums. These image-rich books illuminate key aspects of the city’s unique artistic energy and splendor both brash and beautiful.

Quests for Truth and Justice • Cheryl A. Head’s novel, Time’s Undoing, creatively explores the personal repercussions of racism and racist violence in Birmingham, Alabama, in both the present and the Jim Crow era, weaving these time frames together in a captivating and dramatic quest for facts and understanding undertaken by Meghan McKenzie, a young Detroit-based journalist who gradually discerns a bit of subtle otherworldly guidance. The novels below cover similar ground from equally compelling perspectives.

Performers' Memoirs • These famous and magnetic performers candidly and often wittily share stories of their private struggles and celebrity lives, offering advice and hope, along with a poet-critic who blends memoir with performing-arts history.

Top 10 Arts Books • Painting, music, film, and drag performances are all explored from fresh, dynamic, and social-justice-oriented perspectives in these exceptional recent art books.

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

Library Reads

Top 10 Women’s Fiction on Audio • This selection taps into the relationships women have with themselves, with each other, and with the larger world around them, all conveyed meaningfully through sensitive narrations.

Sounds like Shakespeare • There’s something about Shakespeare that begs to be listened to. After listening to L.A. Theatre Works’ new recording of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, keep diving deeper into Shakespearean stories and sounds with these audiobooks.

Discussable Documentaries for Teens & Families • Documentaries offer opportunities for deeper conversation and engagement with ideas and topics that matter to teens. These documentaries present a relatable moment: a topic of particular interest, an issue that hits at current hot topics, or a look into remarkable teen lives. Since books can extend the conversation, I’ve offered a few titles that can enhance dinner-table conversation or lead teens into deeper engagement with the issues.

Children & Teens • Get your hands on these hotly anticipated books, all out this month.

Ellen Heck • This year’s Top of the List Picture Book, A Is for Bee, is like no alphabet book we’ve seen before. Ellen Heck cleverly upends readers’ expectations about the alphabet by using familiar animals but, for English speakers, in an unfamiliar order: “A is for Bee,” “R is for Fox,” “X is for Bear,” and so on. Paired with each captivating scratchboard illustration of the animal (in which the featured letter is sneakily hidden) are one or more transliterated words in a variety of non-English languages. We love this book for its stunning art, its inventive concept, and the subtle way it expands young readers’ understanding of what language can do. Read on for Heck’s thoughtful answers to our questions...