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 First Novels • The ten most astonishing debut novels from the last year took us to worlds familiar and not, introducing families, lovers, loners, and warriors. These novels haunted us, challenged us, and spoke to us with love. As every year, we hope that each is the first of many novels by these promising writers.

Trend Alert First Novels Exploring Social Media • Smartphones are our constant companions and social media is a ready source of information and disinformation, an addiction and a plague, a realm of entertainment and creativity, and a weapon for bullying and worse. These cutting-edge first novels explore the consequences of our pursuit of identity, love, success, and power in the hypnotic and risky hurly-burly of social media.

High-Demand Read-alikes Healing Powers • Bonnie Jo Campbell’s mythic and mesmerizing The Waters brings to life a teeming and endangered Michigan swamp and a family of women healers in a time of wrenching change. The novels below dramatize similar themes of place, tradition, betrayal, loss, and love.

Top 10 Poetry • This top 10 list of poetry collections published during the last 12 months celebrates National Poetry Month and the radiance poetry brings readers every day.

Writer’s Backstory Translanguaging Myself through Poetry

Essentials Poets’ Memoirs • Poets are keenly attentive, sensitive, and imaginative, and poetry often rises from a deep well of hurt as well as a profound engagement with language, making for exceptionally inquisitive and, well, poetic memoirs.

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

April 2024 • The Top Ten Adult Fiction and Nonfiction Chosen Monthly by America’s Library Staff

PBS Books April Celebrations

Voice of Choice Edoardo Ballerini • This year’s Voice of Choice is a name and voice that will be familiar to any audiobook fan. Edoardo Ballerini’s narrations are often rich in accent work, frequently vast in scope, and so perfectly paced and fluid that it is easy for listeners to get swept away in the stories he has conveyed in over 400 audiobooks. He is also a two-time winner of the Audio Publisher Association’s Best Male Narrator Audie Award, an AudioFile Magazine “Golden Voice,” and a prolific screen actor, having appeared in over 50 films and TV series, including The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and the cult favorite, Dinner Rush. He can currently be seen in Hulu’s A Murder at the End of the World.

Must Listen Poetry, 2020–24 • Poetry and audiobooks are a perfect pairing! These recent poetry collections are notable for bringing compelling poetic voices to life.

Top 10 First Novels on Audio • Fine narrations of first novels bring promising literary voices to a broader audience. From all-star casts to superb accent work, each of these 10 narrations is notable.

Lightning Round 2023 Debuts • Short on time but need to meet 7 debut novelists in a series of rapid-fire Q&As? You’ve come to the right place.

Top 10 First Novels for Youth • Debut titles this past year were marked by a focus on history, whether through historical fiction, family histories, or historical figures, as seen in many of these outstanding titles.

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

High-Demand Read-alikes Orris & Timble • Dynamic duos are a...