Booklist Reader

The Booklist team has been reflecting on our activities at ALA’s Annual Conference in Philadelphia. I thought it was an all-around incredible and affirming experience. For us, if I may speak for the group, there is nothing better than being surrounded by booklovers, library workers, publishers, and anyone who contributes to this vibrant world. Books are our comfort food. This Booklist Reader’s focus is on health and wellness, so we can look to books (unlike some favorite if decadent snacks!) to give us the care and nourishment we need to be able to focus and center, yet also to escape, to understand and grow, to laugh and even cry. May the rest of your summer be healthy and well no matter what literal or figurative comfort foods you choose to…

The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker. By Suzanne O’Sullivan. 2025. Thesis. O’Sullivan examines the concerning rise of overdiagnosis and overmedicalization, noting that fear and billing requirements are two possible forces behind the rush to apply unnecessary medical labels to individuals. The Centered Heart: Evidence-Based, Mind-Body Practices to Stress Less and Improve Cardiac Health. By Susi Amendola. 2024. Rowman & Littlefield. Yoga therapist Amendola offers instructions for “centering” moments, gentle movements, relaxation, meditation, compassion, nature consciousness, and unity to reduce stress and support healing. The Chair and the Valley: A Memoir of Trauma, Healing, and the Outdoors. By Banning Lyon. 2024. Penguin/Open Field. Lyon details his horrific experiences, at age 15, in a psychiatric facility where violent abuse was masked as treatment. Everything…

Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America. By Kate Washington. 2021. Beacon. Washington chronicles the exhausting caregiving stint she took on when her husband was diagnosed with lymphoma, then widens the lens to consider the challenges faced by caregivers and call for new and improved caregiver-centered government, employer, medical, and insurance policies. First in the Family: A Story of Survival, Recovery, and the American Dream. By Jessica Hoppe. 2024. Flatiron. Hoppe, a high-fashion-focused social media influencer, delves into her family’s traumas, how such hardships can lead to drug and alcohol use as a coping mechanism, and how often BIPOC individuals are omitted from recovery research and practices. Get Rooted: Reclaim Your Soul, Serenity, and Sisterhood through the Healing Medicine of the Grandmothers. By Robyn Moreno. 2022. Hachette Go. TV host,…

The American Game: History and Hope in the Country of Lacrosse. By S. L. Price. 2025. Atlantic Monthly. Price meticulously elaborates on lacrosse players past and present, social issues surrounding the game, and the persistent racism that has plagued the sport. The Black Widow. By Jeanette Lee and Dana Benbow. 2024. Triumph. Billiards icon Lee shares her remarkable ascent, from rebellious child of Korean immigrants in Brooklyn to becoming the number-one female pool player worldwide. Globetrotter: How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports. By Mark Jacob and Matthew Jacob. 2024. Rowman & Littlefield. Meticulously researched and written in an easy and entertaining style, Globetrotter provides a lively and honest look at Harlem Globetrotters founder Abe Saperstein. I Felt the Cheers: The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride. By…

Across the Board: How Games Make Us Human. By Tim Clare. 2025. Abrams. This illuminating look into various games, their history, and the impact they have had on the people who play them and on society as a whole reveals that games are probably as old as humanity itself. Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games. Ed. by Carmen Maria Machado and J. Robert Lennon. 2023. Graywolf. This ambitious set of essays straddles the line between memoir and media criticism, featuring essayists, fiction writers, poets, and comic book artists musing on their relationship to video games, whether as escapist fantasies, objects of scholarship, or new frameworks for relationships and moral dilemmas. Exploring the History of Childhood and Play through 50 Historic Treasures. By Susan A. Fletcher. 2020. Rowman & Littlefield. Drawing…

1. Who is Stella Hayward when she is at home? Good question. Stella Hayward is me, Rowan Coleman, longtime novelist owned by dogs and whimsical Brit who lives in Yorkshire and writes in a turret in the seaside town of Scarborough. 2. What can you tell us about The Good Boy? When Genie’s accidental wish turns her golden retriever, Rory, into a human, he is very upset because being a human is rubbish (except that he is allowed chocolate). But as Genie and her best friend, boy-next-door Miles, search for a way to reverse the wish, Rory teaches them some of the wisdom and ways of being a dog and shows Genie her true feelings for Miles. Will they turn Rory back in time, and will Genie finally tell Miles…