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'T is the season to strive for perfection. Yes, it is December and we are getting ready for Veganuary, updating our personal philosophies and gathering the tools we need to [...]

As the end of another publishing year approaches, and I mark 24 years of writing these previews, I've been reflecting on the perennial pleasure and privilege of an almost daily [...]

BookLife Reviews are paid reviews of independently published books. A lightning bolt ([??]) indicates an Editor's Pick, a book of outstanding quality. FICTION [??] EDITOR'S PICK The Triumph of Elly [...]

FICTION POP FICTION Austin, Emily. We Could Be Rats. Atria. Jan. 2025. ISBN 9781668058145. 256p. $27.99. POP FICTION Bestselling Austin (Interesting Facts About Space) returns with a story about the [...]

This season's noteworthy titles explore the continued rise of Christian nationalism, as well as more evergreen topics, including the nuances of karma, the history of the Bible, and the benefits [...]

It's difficult enough for me, trying to make space for all the books I admire this month. So spare a thought for valiant book publicists at this already loaded time [...]

ABRAMS It's Hard to Be a Baby by Cheryl B. Klein, illus. by Juana Medina (Oct. 8, $18.99, ISBN 978-1-4197-6733-3), celebrates the challenges, changes, and cheers that come with being [...]

THE REVIEWS TEAM at SLJ is just starting to put together committees for this year's Best Books list, our annual much-anticipated selection of the titles that spoke to us, sang [...]

FROM DEBUTS BY NEW VOICES to the latest work by beloved authors, our starred 2024 books thus far offer something for everyone. There are stories of intergenerational bonds, with a […]

The first half of 2024 has been full of astronomical events--the eclipse, the northern lights, and sublime images of space. Here on Earth, LJ reviewers have discovered 500+ stars of [...]

September's paperbacks arrive with a new-term feeling. Non-fiction dominates in the month's submissions, meaning plenty of new topics to be enthralled by. Subjects range from Bollywood cinema (Sunny Singh's A [...]

Northern writers, illustrators, publishers and books concerned with the North of England present a strong offering for the book trade in the coming year. Once again, geography proves a challenge, [...]

This season's crop includes new books from bestseller list mainstays, inquiries into the limits of AI, and explorations of animal communication. TOP 10 AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can [...]

America's rightward drift, reproductive healthcare in a post-Roe world, and players behind the January 6 Capitol attack feature in this fall's noteworthy titles. TOP 10 Blessings and Disasters: A Story [...]

Fall's offerings reimagine parenting styles, navigate the challenges of the American healthcare system, and advise on forging connections at a time of increasing isolation. TOP 10 Blind Spots: When Medicine [...]

Fall's notable books focus on Black activism, Indigenous resistance, the Iranian hostage crisis, professors who became spies, and race and the Supreme Court. TOP 10 Black in Blues: How a [...]

This season, celebrities venture into the kitchen, baked goods get their due, and the rich and varied flavors of the South shine. TOP 10 Bayou: Feasting Through the Seasons of [...]

This season's notable titles document pop culture innovations, take the measure of towering architects including I.M. Pei, and bring a fresh eye to canonical figures like Albrecht Durer. TOP 10 [...]

Fiction Anna Bright Is Hiding Something Susie Orman Schnall. Sparkpress. $17.95 paper (344p), ISBN 978-1-68463-252-7; $9.49 e-book, ISBN 978-1-68463-253-4 Amazon Multibillion-dollar tech CEO Anna Bright has kept her fraud a [...]

MYSTERY/THRILLER The Poison Dart: A Debbie Bradley Mystery Geri L. Dreiling 314p, e-book, $3.99, ISBN 978-1-7350303-2-6 Dreiling plunges readers into the heartland fentanyl epidemic in the gripping second installment of [...]

FICTION When the Tamarind Tree Blooms Elaine Russell | Belles Histoires 398p, e-book, $4.99, ISBN 978-1-7324994-9-2 Russell (author of Across the Mekong River) gracefully captures the fraught atmosphere of 1931 [...]

Booksellers, publishers, librarians, and agents are encouraged to look at the 66 selfpublished titles below. Each appears with a list of retailers that are selling the book and a description [...]

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS [??] EDITOR'S PICK Black Justice: The Awakening David Washington | Washington Comix 108p, trade paper, $21.99, ISBN 979-8-218-18350-9 This rousing superhero debut and origin story boasts [...]

MYSTERY/THRILLER [??] EDITOR PICK. Fatal Harvest: A Hunter and Tate Mystery Brenda Chapman | Ivy Bay Press 332p, e-book, $6.99, ISBN 978-0-9784284-9-5 Chapman's gripping, emotionally resonant third Hunter and Tate [...]

FICTION Marriage and Hanging Genevieve Morrissey 290p, e-book, $3.99, ISBN 978-1-7351096-9-5 Inspired by a notorious real 19th century case, Morrissey (author of the Antlands science-fiction series) delivers an engrossing murder [...]

MEMOIR EDITION'S PICK Unbroken Optimist Kofi Douhadji | FlyingWings 175p, e-book,$14.99, ISBN 978-1-7376243-2-5 This heartening memoir tells us what diligence and optimism can achieve in the face of seemingly insurmountable [...]

HERE IN THE NORTHEAST, IT FEELS LIKE IT started raining in January and never stopped--which is another way of saying summer can't come soon enough. While we wait for the [...]

MEMOIR EDITION'S PICK And Always One More Time: A Memoir Margaret Mande 11 | Atmosphere Press 146p, e-book, $16.99, ISBN 979-8-89132-149-6 Mandell stuns with a riveting debut memoir chronicling her [...]

There has been some press coverage of the rise in religious involvement among younger generations. Lamorna Ash's Don't Forget We're Here Forever (Bloomsbury) is an ideal introduction to this growing [...]

As with a lot of publishing across the arts and lifestyle sectors, we are seeing a lean towards publishing at a lower price point and, in many cases, this is [...]

Inclusion and play seem to be the watchwords for this roundup. Disabilities are no longer a spotlight feature in dozens of board books we combed through, but simply part of […]

FICTION EDITION'S PICK Lack of Moral Fibre Helena P. Schrader | Cross Seas Press 72kp,e-book, $1.99, IASIN B09HJ97DT2 In her Bridge to Tomorrow series, novelist and World War II historian [...]

In this edition of our monthly thematic roundup of BookLife titles, we feature romance and relationship-focused books. Want to see your book featured? Check out the Indie Spotlight calendar at [...]

42 Terrible Humans: The World's Most Corrupt Super-Villains And The Fight To Bring Them Down Patrick Alley An insight into the world's worst warlords, grifters and kleptocrats who can be [...]

MYSTERY/THRILLER [??] EDITOR'S PICK The Delusion T.O. Paine | Dark Swallow Books 426p, e-book, $3.99,ASIN 80CNY7MPC9 Paine (The Abduction) spins a first-rate thriller that serves as an incisive metaphor for [...]

THE SUMMER OF 2023 WAS THE SUMMER OF POWERFUL WOMEN, from mega-concerts by monumental stars like Taylor Swift and Beyonce to the blockbuster film Barbie inspiring conversations about gender and [...]

BookLife Reviews are paid reviews of independently published books. A lightning bolt ([??]) indicates an Editor's Pick, a book of outstanding quality. COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS EDITOR'S PICK Naked: The Confessions of [...]

BookLife Reviews are paid reviews of independently published books. A lightning bolt ([??]) indicates an Editor's Pick, a book of outstanding quality. POETRY [??] EDITOR'S PICK Skies of Blur Elijah [...]

This season's slate of notable debut fiction draws on Native American and Igbo lore; Chinese numerology; class divisions in London, Rio de Janeiro, and Berkeley, Calif.; familial strife; and reparations. [...]

Nature runs through this month's preview. Jane Burn, the Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year, explores nature, folklore, autism, art and imagination in the Apothecary of Flight (Nine Arches), [...]

SLICE OF LIFE Caitlin Rozakis's fantasy debut, Dreadful, 'opens on a bewildered amnesiac waking up 'with no eyebrows and no idea how he'd gotten into such a position,'' according to [...]

IT IS OKAY, by Ye Guo. (Eerdmans, $17.99, ages 4 to 8.) Goat and Bunny first meet at the grocery store, where they realize they both like the same brand [...]

THE MONSTROUS KIND, by Lydia Gregovic. (Delacorte Press, $19.99.) Inspired by ''Sense and Sensibility,'' Gregovic's latest is a blend of fantasy, romance and horror about a young aristocrat whose future [...]

My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel The Known World, by Edward P. Jones The Corrections, by Jonathan [...]

Forbidden Notebook, by Alba de Cespedes. Translated by Ann Goldstein. (Astra House, 288 pp., $18.) Originally serialized in an Italian magazine in the early 1950s, this novel follows Valeria, a [...]

NEXT DAY: New and Selected Poems, by Cynthia Zarin. (Knopf, $35.) With a rich array from Zarin's first five collections, this book evokes not just a career but a life, [...]

AN EXORCISM: A Photo Romance, by Penny Slinger. (Fulgur Press, $65.) Slinger's influential collection, first published in 1977, offered a torrent of largely monochrome photo collages paired with meditative notes [...]

BRABA: A Brazilian Comics Anthology, edited by Rafael Grampá and Janaina de Luna. (Fantagraphics, paperback, $29.99.) This collection showcases the work of 16 contemporary Brazilian artists, from Paulo Crumbim and [...]

'HE INSPIRED NEITHER love nor fear, nor even respect…He originated nothing, he could keep the routine going—that's all.' As a description of your typical middle manager, it is hard to [...]