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

Booklist Reader

At the Intersection of Art and Love Read-alikes for Barbara Kingsolver’s Partita • Barbara Kingsolver’s Partita juxtaposes the rarefied realm of classical music with the challenges of a Tennessee family farm as it tells the story of an aspiring pianist forged in the fires of artistic and sensual passion. The novels below also consider the radiance and darkness of musical and artistic ardor as well as the pull of place and home, family and love.

Recent Native American Reads • We celebrate National Native American Heritage Month by recommending books that deepen and extend our understanding and appreciation of Native American lives and cultures past and present. You’ll find a variety of imaginative novels and a shortstory collection, one volume of poems, works of history offering fresh and critical perspectives, a cookbook and guide to Native foodways, and a moving memoir. All are thought-provoking and affecting; all sharpen our sense of America’s profound complexities, crimes, tragedies, struggles, and promise.

Evann Normandin • Evann Normandin is a writer with a career in educational publishing. She studied English and theater at Middlebury College, then got her MSc at the University of Edinburgh in modern and postmodern literature. After a stint as a theater critic for BroadwayWorld in Washington, DC, she moved to Massachusetts where she lives in a small, quirky town she takes inspiration from daily. When she’s not working or writing she’s exploring New England with her husband and son.

Realistic Recipes • While saving time is always in style, a spate of cookbooks from recent years takes that directive very seriously and with seriously delicious results. What better time to highlight these schedule (and sanity!) savers than in the frenzy of the holiday season? These books make it possible, and even easy, to soup up common classics, play around, and enjoy international fare and cake, too, with minimal time and ingredients. Cooks and eaters will welcome mealtimes free of toil and trouble.

Food Books • Year after year, a spin through the best-reviewed cookbooks proves how much more these books do than simply offer recipes. They also showcase history, global cultures, sustainability efforts, and the endlessly modifiable ways in which we feed ourselves and each other.

Time for Crafts • As the season turns toward the holidays and indoor fun, crafters look for fresh ideas and techniques. The books below offer an enticing array of techniques, materials, and projects, including gifts for beloved pets!

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

HALL OF FAME TITLES • The LibraryReads Hall of Fame designation honors authors who have had multiple titles appear on the monthly list since 2013. As of the October 2018 list, when an author’s third title places on a monthly list via library staff votes, the author moves into our Hall of Fame.

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month • This November, PBS Books honors Native American Heritage Month by exploring the stories, voices and traditions that have shaped—and continue to enrich—our understanding of Native American history and culture. Through books and programming that connect generations, audiences can discover stories rooted in tradition, resilience, community and a deep connection to place.

Voice of Choice Saskia Maarleveld • Any audiobook listener who has been impressed with the empathy expressed in a poignant scene, wowed by the virtuosic accent work in a globe-trotting title with...