“Go follow the trail lined with cherry blossoms,’ he told me. ‘It is not a trail of tears, son. It is a trail leading westward, without sadness or sickness or death. It is a trail to your home.” THE REMOVED by Brandon Hobson is a lyrical story about a Cherokee family coping with loss, grief,…
Category: contemporary
Infinite Country
“What he wanted to say was that something is always lost; even when we are the ones migrating, we end up being occupied.” Patricia Engel’s INFINITE COUNTRY is a soaring story about a family torn apart by borders and immigration status. Set in Colombia and the US, the book explores not only the trauma undocumented…
Milk Fed
“Life was a lot less bleak when you were staring straight down the barrel of a burrito.” Melissa Broder’s MILK FED is a compulsively readable book about food, sex, and Judaism. Though the concept may sound bizarre, MILK FED is an absurdly funny, remarkably clever, and surprisingly emotional read. Trust me, once you get a…
Detransition, Baby
Torrey Peters’s DETRANSITION, BABY is a novel that everyone needs to be reading and talking about! It is a provocative, raw, and wholly original exploration of gender, sexuality, motherhood, and the expanding definition of family. Witty and sexy as well as emotional and vulnerable; DETRANSITION, BABY is unlike any other book out there! Trust me,…
Transcendent Kingdom
“I’m no longer interested in other worlds or spiritual planes. I’ve seen enough in a mouse to understand transcendence, holiness, redemption. In people, I’ve seen even more.” TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM by Yaa Gyasi is an intimate story about grief, addiction, and mental illness told through the experiences of a Ghanaian family living in Alabama. The story…
Leave the World Behind
I need to get this out of the way: LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND by Rumaan Alam scared the shit out of me! Never have I felt so unsettled by a book! This story burrowed a worm hole into my brain and I cannot stop thinking about it. An upper middle class white family rents a…
Luster
“‘I’m an open book,’ I say, thinking of all the men who have found it illegible.” LUSTER by Raven Leilani is a mesmerizing debut novel with stunning prose, complex characters, and a story that is unconformable, darkly comical, and absolutely fascinating!! Edie – a 23-year-old black woman living in New York City – is unenthusiastic…
A Burning
“If the police didn’t help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean that the government is also a terrorist?” As the title of Megha Majumdar’s debut novel implies, A BURNING is a blaze of a book that burns brightly from start to finish. The story begins after…
The Beauty of Your Face
THE BEAUTY OF YOUR FACE by Sahar Mustafah is a complex story about Muslim identity and Islamic faith centered around a school shooting. As Afaf Rahman – the principal of a school for Muslim girls in the suburbs of Chicago – comes face-to-face with active shooter at her school, we are brought back through Afaf’s…
This is My Brain in Love
I knew that THIS IS MY BRAIN IN LOVE by I. W. Gregorio was going to be a cute read but, boy oh boy, there is so much more to this book than I expected! As a YA contemporary romance novel I was very impressed that the book not only depicted a budding romance well…
Booky Nooky 