Stay Close
By Harlan Coben

Coben’s title describes perfectly how the suspense in this tour-de-force stand-alone works. It stays close in an unbelievably sustained way, giving the reader a steady steam of jolts and sinking feelings, as Coben’s three main characters face danger from without and from their own tricky psyches. These three characters are mired in the past. They all got stuck there when a family man with a secret life went missing 17 years ago.

The Manley Arts: Trivializing History
By Will Manley

It has become a certainty that whenever there is a labor struggle in professional football or basketball, certain racially charged words will be used as weapons in the heat of negotiations. Specifically, it is inevitable that the commissioners of both leagues will be called “massa” and will be accused of running a plantation. That’s because more than 65 percent of the players in the National Football League and more than 80 percent of the players in the National Basketball Association are black, and more than 95 percent of the owners in both leagues are white.

But that’s not the only reason for the racial accusations. There is also the problem of free will.

Top 10 Black History Books for Youth: 2012
By Ann Kelley

Whether through syncopated language, deeply personal poems, or an era-defining photograph, these top black-history titles—all of which received starred reviews in the past year—offer unique ways of presenting the African American experience, then and now. —Ann Kelley

Black & White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene “Bull” Connor . By Larry Dane Brimner. 2011. illus. Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek, $16.95 (9781590787663). Gr. 7–12.

With archival pictures, primary-source documents, and accessible text, Brimner brings Reverend L. Shuttlesworth, civil rights pioneer, and Eugene “Bull” Connor, symbol of racial hatred and violence, into acute focus.

The Back Page: Best Personal Reading, 2011
By Bill Ott

I have to tip my hat to some of my Booklist colleagues. When they sit down to read something for fun—or at least not for review—they like a challenge. Donna Seaman reads Dreiser; Ann Kelly reads Forster; Ilene Cooper reads the Old Testament; Sue-Ellen Beauregard reads Emily Bronte. And perhaps most daunting of all, Annie Bostrom does long division. Ah, but then there’s Annie McCormick. Really, though, we need to go easy on Annie M.: she has an excuse for enjoying Glamourpuss. She’s in library school, and nothing will fry a brain like library-science textbooks. You won’t find my own favorite personal reading choice listed below. That’s because I have three. It wouldn’t be proper to choose one of my colleagues over another, so here are my three co-favorites: Ilene Cooper’s Angel in My Pocket, Keir Graff’s The Other Felix, and Dan Kraus’ Rotters.

Off the Shelf: Reference—I’ve Got an App for That!
By Sue Polanka

These days, it seems there’s an app for everything. So it should come as no surprise that several reference publishers are producing apps for Apple- and Android-based tablets and phones. Why should reference publishers develop apps? “Our focus is on helping libraries reach new users where they reside. We believe that one of the most effective ways to do this is through apps,” says Nader Qaimari, senior vice president of marketing for Cengage Learning. Mike Robinson, e-book sales and marketing manager at Oxford University Press, agrees, stating, “Apps represent a means by which people all over the world are using devices to help them. We provide authoritative content to meet people’s reference needs, and it’s important to us to do so in the most useful ways possible.” Gale/Cengage, OUP, and a host of other reference publishers have a variety of apps available. A sampling follows:

Booklist Editors’ Choice: Reference Sources, 2011
By Rebecca Vnuk

American Civil War: The Essential Reference Guide. Ed. by James R. Arnold and Roberta Wiener. 2011. 321p. illus. ABC-CLIO, $85 (9781598849059); e-book, $85 (9781598849066).

A surprising amount of information and research help is packed into a manageable, single-volume format.

The Atlas of Birds: Diversity, Behavior, and Conservation. By Mike Unwin. 2011. 144p. illus. Princeton, paper, $22.95 (9780691149493).

This handsome book is well conceived, beautifully produced, and a great value—even nonbirders will find important environmental information here.