Remember the documentary film 20 Feet From Stardom, which told the story of backup singers for famous rock stars? Well, Dancing Man is kind of a Broadway version. In this fun, gossipy memoir, Bob Avian talks about being a Broadway chorus member, dancing in Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand and Hello Dolly! with Mary Martin, and choreographing such shows as Miss Saigon and Sunset Boulevard. But, by far, the most fascinating part of the book is the time that Avian served as assistant to brilliant director-choreographer Michael Bennett, so we get intimate glimpses of the creation of such classic musicals as A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls and Follies, among others, as well as famous bombs, such as Coco, which starred Katharine Hepburn, who could neither sing nor dance.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for music lovers", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "9781496825889", "cover": "9781496825889", "goodreads": 53039451, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781496825889, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gXqLoiu8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781496825889", "isbn10": "1496825888", "links": [] }, "2": { "id": 2, "title": "American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps, And The Marriage Of Money And Power", "author": "Andrea Bernstein", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "Grasping our own time while living through it is the work of the best journalists. Andrea Bernstein is one of them. Her book looks at the many untruths on which the Trump administration has been built. American Oligarchs takes on the layers of lies one by one, with stories that stretch from prewar Poland to suburban New Jersey to the White House. It’s a riveting family drama that would be hard to believe – if in fact we weren’t living it.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9780393541304", "cover": "9780393541304", "goodreads": 54621153, "itunes": 9780393541304, "bookshop": 9780393541304, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515MscZ8rML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780393541304", "isbn10": "0393541304", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 2, "book": "American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps, And The Marriage Of Money And Power", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'American Oligarchs' Reveals How Trump, Kushner Families Learned To Work The System", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/08/794509417/american-oligarchs-reveals-how-trump-kushner-families-learned-to-work-the-system" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 2, "book": "American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps, And The Marriage Of Money And Power", "source": "NPR", "text": "Behind The Kushners And The Trumps With 'American Oligarchs' Author Andrea Bernstein", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/07/794320899/behind-the-kushners-and-the-trumps-with-american-oligarchs-author-andrea-bernste" } ] }, "3": { "id": 3, "title": "A Castle In The Clouds", "author": "Kerstin Gier, translated by Romy Fursland", "reviewers": [ "Alethea Kontis" ], "text": "17-year-old high school dropout Sophie Spark is interning at Castle in the Clouds, a picturesque hotel in the Swiss Alps populated by an international cast, their complex back stories and a mystery. Yes, it’s a lot to juggle, but I promise everything happens exactly when it needs to. Kerstin Geir makes it look easy – we accompany Sophie on her adventure through ups and downs and ultimately slide into a dramatic and satisfying conclusion. A Castle in the Clouds is a rollicking, nonstop romp full of characters and character, and it kept me smiling all the way to the end!
", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction", "tales from around the world", "young adult" ], "isbn": "9781250300195", "cover": "9781250300195", "goodreads": 44281041, "itunes": 9781250300195, "bookshop": 9781250300195, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250300195", "isbn10": "1250300193", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 3, "book": "A Castle in the Clouds", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'A Castle In The Clouds' Is A Grand Hotel Romp", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/30/800856008/a-castle-in-the-clouds-is-a-grand-hotel-romp" } ] }, "4": { "id": 4, "title": "Wagnerism: Art And Politics In The Shadow Of Music", "author": "Alex Ross", "reviewers": [ "Anastasia Tsioulcas" ], "text": "This book is emphatically not a biography of one of music’s most notable – and notorious – figures. Rather, it’s a sweeping and often surprising history of just how pivotal composer Richard Wagner’s work has been across many realms, including the visual arts, literature and politics. (Among Wagner’s ardent fans: W.E.B Du Bois, Willa Cather, Luis Buñuel, Philip K. Dick, Theodor Herzl and, infamously, Hitler.) Even if you feel no particular affinity for Wagner’s music or for opera more generally, Ross will draw you into a world of modernism that he persuasively argues was actively shaped by Wagner and those influenced by his music, ideas and aesthetics.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9780374285937", "cover": "9780374285937", "goodreads": 50403493, "itunes": 9780374285937, "bookshop": 9780374285937, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IY03-+X-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374285937", "isbn10": "0374285934", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 4, "book": "Wagnerism: Art And Politics In The Shadow Of Music", "source": "Connecticut Public Radio", "text": "The New Yorker's Alex Ross On 'Wagnerism' ", "url": "https://www.wnpr.org/post/new-yorkers-alex-ross-wagnerism" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 4, "book": "Wagnerism", "source": "Connecticut Public Radio", "text": "The New Yorker's Alex Ross On 'Wagnerism'", "url": "https://www.wnpr.org/post/new-yorkers-alex-ross-wagnerism" } ] }, "5": { "id": 5, "title": "The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade And The Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World", "author": "Vincent Bevins", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "The CIA at one point discussed just straight up assassinating the Indonesian President in order to squash the country’s growing political left. They decided against it in favor of hiring a lookalike to film a fake sex tape. That plan didn’t work out either. Turns out the most effective strategy was a lot less outlandish – propaganda, disinformation and demonization. In The Jakarta Method, journalist Vincent Bevins uses declassified documents and one-on-one interviews to lay out in fascinating and frustrating detail how the U.S. fueled the anti-left rhetoric that led to the mass killings of anywhere between 500,000 to 1 million people in Indonesia – and then used that same playbook elsewhere in the world.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9781541742406", "cover": "9781541742406", "goodreads": 53054943, "itunes": 9781541742406, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dmg0Pq6vL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781541742406", "isbn10": "15417424011", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 5, "book": "The Jakarta Method", "source": "KCRW", "text": "The ‘Mass Murder Program’ Behind America’s Rise To Power", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/scheer-intelligence/the-mass-murder-program-behind-americas-rise-to-power" } ] }, "6": { "id": 6, "title": "Luster: A Novel", "author": "Raven Leilani", "reviewers": [ "Anya Kamenetz" ], "text": "This fearless debut novel hurtles into some uncomfortable areas, centering on an erotic relationship that is interracial, intergenerational, cross-class, kinky and extramarital. The prose is sleek and perpetually surprising, as when the protagonist takes refuge in the bathroom at a party: “I have come to the part of the night where I am incapable of any uppercase emotion, and every circuit responsible for my cellular regeneration has begun to smoke.”
", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9780374194321", "cover": "9780374194321", "goodreads": 51541496, "itunes": 9780374194321, "bookshop": 9780374194321, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Fa8vRlXqS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374194321", "isbn10": "0374194327", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 6, "book": "Luster", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Luster' Shines With Sharp Wit And Dark Humor", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/23/904901813/luster-shines-with-sharp-wit-and-dark-humor" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 6, "book": "Luster", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Luster' Combines Nicely Tailored Prose With A Stinging Sense Of Humor", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/898905803/luster-combines-nicely-tailored-prose-with-a-stinging-sense-of-humor" } ] }, "7": { "id": 7, "title": "Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents", "author": "Isabel Wilkerson", "reviewers": [ "Anya Kamenetz" ], "text": "I’ve recommended this book to many friends because it begs careful unpacking. Isabel Wilkerson, whose The Warmth of Other Suns is one of the towering achievements of 21st century nonfiction, draws parallels between the American racial hierarchy, the anti-Semitic regime of the Nazis and India’s highly complex caste system. She moves between her own experiences with casteism as a highly educated and upwardly mobile Black woman, and vignettes about the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Einstein.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9780593230251", "cover": "9780593230251", "goodreads": 51152447, "itunes": 9780593230251, "bookshop": 9780593230251, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wEjaxjCRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593230251", "isbn10": "0593230256", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 7, "book": "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents ", "source": "NPR", "text": "It's More Than Racism: Isabel Wilkerson Explains America's 'Caste' System", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/898574852/its-more-than-racism-isabel-wilkerson-explains-america-s-caste-system" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 7, "book": "Caste", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Caste' Argues Its Most Violent Manifestation Is In Treatment Of Black Americans", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/10/900274938/caste-argues-its-most-violent-manifestation-is-in-treatment-of-black-americans" } ] }, "8": { "id": 8, "title": "A Children's Bible: A Novel", "author": "Lydia Millet", "reviewers": [ "Anya Kamenetz" ], "text": "A group of families is vacationing when bad weather hits. Actually, it’s a full-fledged natural disaster; in fact, maybe it’s the end of the world? The parents are lost in hedonistic oblivion, leaving the teens in charge. This is not like any climate change novel you’ve ever read. Allegorical but never pat, it pivots on young people’s anger about the world they’ve inherited. And you know what? We deserve it.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "family matters", "the dark side", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781324005032", "cover": "9781324005032", "goodreads": 53122391, "itunes": 9781324005032, "bookshop": 9781324005032, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515PJ3KWNlL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781324005032", "isbn10": "1324005033", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 8, "book": "A Children's Bible", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Writing Fiction About A Changing Climate", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/841568847/writing-fiction-about-a-changing-climatee" } ] }, "9": { "id": 9, "title": "All Because You Matter", "author": "Tami Charles, illustrated by Bryan Collier", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "From the matter of the universe to Black Lives Matter, this lushly illustrated book pulls together the very cosmos to make it clear that its young readers are special beyond belief. Drawing inspiration from his own grandmother’s quilt-making, Bryan Collier pairs with Tami Charles to deliver an important message in a beautiful package. The kind of book you wish you could frame, page by page by page. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "9781338574852", "cover": "9781338574852", "goodreads": 49090441, "itunes": 9781338574852, "bookshop": 9781338574852, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781338574852", "isbn10": "133857485X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 9, "book": "All Because You Matter", "source": "NET", "text": "All About Books: 'All Because You Matter'", "url": "http://netnebraska.org/interactive-multimedia/other/all-about-books-all-because-you-matter-tami-charles" } ] }, "10": { "id": 10, "title": "Black Heroes Of The Wild West", "author": "James Otis Smith", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "Catching crooks, fighting off wild wolves, taming mustangs – meet three real-life heroes of the past! Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves, mail carrier Stagecoach Mary and cowboy Bob Lemmons share the spotlight in this little history comic that is short, sweet and to the point. We glimpse a slice of the life of Reeves, hunting down villains, while Mary Field’s life is told in full. Then there’s Lemmons, the least famous of the three, who gets the quietest and most satisfying tale. With an intro from Caldecott winner Kadir Nelson, this is the most fun you can have debunking faulty historical records! (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "kids’ books", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "9781943145522", "cover": "9781943145522", "goodreads": 53903409, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781943145522, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qrVILxImL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781943145522", "isbn10": "19431455211", "links": [] }, "11": { "id": 11, "title": "Echo Mountain", "author": "Lauren Wolk", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "Everyone blames Ellie for her father’s accident, but this city girl turned mountain expert is determined to find him a cure for his coma. Lauren Wolk’s basic writing mode is what I like to call “long and gripping,” and her storytelling makes this Depression-era tale of fortitude scintillating. There’s not a dull word on any of these pages (and I hope you don’t mind maggots!) (For ages 10 to 13)
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "kids’ books", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780525555568", "cover": "9780525555568", "goodreads": 51969326, "itunes": 9780525555568, "bookshop": 9780525555568, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qko6KzkgL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525555568", "isbn10": "05255555611", "links": [] }, "12": { "id": 12, "title": "Everybody Counts: A Counting Story From 0 To 7.5 Billion", "author": "Kristin Roskifte, translated by Siân Mackie", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "A seek-and-find book for the 21st century. Every person has a story, but can you figure out what those stories are? It’s a book that’s part puzzle, part ode to humanity. What appears at first to be a simple Norwegian counting book takes a strange turn. “Five people in a family. Three of them love reading. One of them is secretly in love.” Expect a grand romance, a crook, innocent people in jail and more! Shows that anyone you see in this great big wonderful world may have a life that you are not privy to. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "9780711245242", "cover": "9780711245242", "goodreads": 45730969, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780711245242", "isbn10": "071124524X", "links": [] }, "13": { "id": 13, "title": "Go With The Flow", "author": "Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "Period parity for the 21st-century kid. When Abby discovers that the tampon and pad machines in her school are always empty, she and her friends band together to fight for what’s right. Are you ready for a book that’s all about menstruation? This once-taboo topic of children’s literature is breached in every possible way. From the economic inequity of schools never stocking the bathroom machines, to the pain some girls suffer from their periods, to just the casual embarrassment of wearing white on the wrong day, it’s an issue book, sure, but it’s the friendships and character development that stand out. (For ages 10 to 14)
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9781250143174", "cover": "9781250143174", "goodreads": 44280849, "itunes": 9781250143174, "bookshop": 9781250143174, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/513ePX-U+IL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250143174", "isbn10": "1250143179", "links": [] }, "14": { "id": 14, "title": "The Lights And Types Of Ships At Night", "author": "Dave Eggers, illustrated by Annie Dills", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "“Did you realize that of all the world’s most beautiful sights, there is nothing more beautiful than a ship and its lights on the sea at night?” Dave Eggers takes young readers on a tour of his favorite seafaring vessels, as you’ve never seen them before. Here hyperbole is a force for good rather than evil! Each ship is described lovingly, yet the star of the show is the art of Annie Dills. Imagine Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors turned into a boat book for preschoolers. Void and light and the blur of water melt into the ultimate bedtime fare. (For ages 6 to 10)
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "kids’ books", "for art lovers", "the dark side", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9781952119071", "cover": "9781952119071", "goodreads": 51135321, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781952119071, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781952119071", "isbn10": "1952119073", "links": [] }, "15": { "id": 15, "title": "The Most Beautiful Thing", "author": "Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Khoa Le", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "Kalia’s grandmother has only one tooth, but her smile is the most beautiful her granddaughter has ever seen. In this moving picture book memoir about growing up with little money in a Hmong American home, financial insecurity isn’t seen as cute or charming. These immigrant kids just want the same lives as their peers. Still, it’s intergenerational love that is the heartbeat of the story, accompanied by visuals designed to engulf readers into the heart and heat of the tale. Gorgeous and searing. (For ages 5 to 9)
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781541561915", "cover": "9781541561915", "goodreads": 50420562, "itunes": 9781541561915, "bookshop": 9781541561915, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781541561915", "isbn10": "15415619111", "links": [] }, "16": { "id": 16, "title": "The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth", "author": "Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson (editors)", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "Many children get “the talk” from their parents, but which talk you get depends on who you are. In this collection, 30 authors and illustrators of varying races and ethnicities share the conversations they have with their own kids. These discussions don’t deal in false platitudes or falser reassurances. Instead, talks about race, identity, self-esteem, prejudice and injustice are doled out alongside advice and open dialogue. It’s the kind of book that respects the intelligence of the young readers living through the protests and marches of 2020. Practical information, relevant as ever. (For ages 10 to 16)
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "kids’ books", "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "young adult" ], "isbn": "9780593121610", "cover": "9780593121610", "goodreads": 51457308, "itunes": 9780593121610, "bookshop": 9780593121610, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ar2tBX+3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593121610", "isbn10": "0593121619", "links": [] }, "17": { "id": 17, "title": "Twins", "author": "Varian Johnson, illustrated by Shannon Wright", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "Shy Maureen can’t understand why her twin sister Francine keeps pulling away from her. Hurt and betrayed, their split culminates with each girl running against the other for class president. Varian Johnson (a twin himself) presents a heartfelt tale of what it means when your twin wants to establish their own personality before you’re ready to do the same. And thanks to some nice twists in the plotting, you may find yourself switching your loyalties. May the best twin win! (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9781338236132", "cover": "9781338236132", "goodreads": 49090414, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781338236132, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781338236132", "isbn10": "133823613X", "links": [] }, "18": { "id": 18, "title": "Wink", "author": "Rob Harrell", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "How do you get humor out of a book about a kid with a rare eye cancer? It’s an idea so crazy it kind of works. It’s hard to blend in when you’re losing your hair, forced to wear a floppy cowboy hat and get called “the cancer kid” behind your back. But when Ross Maloy gets obsessed with learning the guitar, things go from awful to awesome. This funky little book mixes comic book elements with sly jokes and characters that should be two-dimensional but always find a way to show another side. (For ages 9 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "funny stuff", "for music lovers" ], "isbn": "9781984815149", "cover": "9781984815149", "goodreads": 52516178, "itunes": 9781984815149, "bookshop": 9781984815149, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KwUnfLhbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984815149", "isbn10": "1984815148", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 18, "book": "Wink", "source": "KAXE/KBXE", "text": "Rob Harrell's Wink: A 12 year-old's Cancer Battle And A Great Story For Middle Readers", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/post/rob-harrells-wink-12-year-olds-cancer-battle-and-great-story-middle-readers#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 18, "book": "Wink", "source": "KPR", "text": "Conversations: Rob Harrell, 'Wink: Surviving Middle School With One Eye Open'", "url": "https://kansaspublicradio.org/blog/dan-skinner/conversations-rob-harrell-wink-surviving-middle-school-one-eye-open" } ] }, "19": { "id": 19, "title": "A Game Of Fox & Squirrels", "author": "Jenn Reese", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "If you could have only one wish, what would it be? Magical realism, for the upper elementary school set, this book mixes a tempestuous plot with lyrical writing and primo character development. Sam and her sister are sent away to live with their aunt – a refuge from their violent home. When Sam meets a charming fox, resplendent in a fitted suit, she has a chance to return to her old life. But should she? If Jumanji were a game you played not for escape but for possession of your very soul, it would be the Game of Fox & Squirrels. (For ages 10 to 14)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "seriously great writing", "family matters", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9781250243010", "cover": "9781250243010", "goodreads": 44280976, "itunes": 9781250243010, "bookshop": 9781250243010, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ggUA+3rhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250243010", "isbn10": "1250243017", "links": [] }, "20": { "id": 20, "title": "Mad, Bad & Dangerous To Know", "author": "Samira Ahmed", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "Indian American, Muslim and French, Khayyam is a girl who exists in the liminal space between identities. She’s also obsessed with art history. On a visit to Le Petit Palais museum in Paris, she meets the charming descendant of writer Alexandre Dumas. Together, they investigate the connection between his ancestor and the painter Eugène Delacroix and search for the woman who may have inspired them both. Lively and passionate, this book tackles issues of cultural identity and examines which stories are passed down through time – all while indulging in a romantic amateur sleuthing romp through the City of Lights.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "for art lovers", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9781616959890", "cover": "9781616959890", "goodreads": 51094449, "itunes": 9781616959890, "bookshop": 9781616959890, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vW-CCDmIS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781616959890", "isbn10": "1616959894", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 20, "book": "Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Mad, Bad & Dangerous,' Romantic Sleuths Uncover A Byronic Secret", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/11/831873365/in-mad-bad-dangerous-romantic-sleuths-uncover-a-byronic-secret" } ] }, "21": { "id": 21, "title": "The Invisible Life Of Addie LaRue", "author": "V.E. Schwab", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "Addie LaRue was born in France at the very end of the 17th century – but no one remembers that. Addie has traded her soul for immortality, but she didn’t realize that the hidden price is her legacy – for she is doomed to be instantly forgotten by everyone she meets as she slips through the centuries. It’s a bit cheeky to call this book Faust for romantic bisexual goths, but it’s not wrong. Meta and elegant, it reveals itself like the prestige of a particularly elegant magic trick, leaving us with the feeling that we, too, have been part of Addie’s long and invisible life.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for art lovers", "for history lovers", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780765387561", "cover": "9780765387561", "goodreads": 50623864, "itunes": 9780765387561, "bookshop": 9780765387561, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FVPBt51ZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780765387561", "isbn10": "0765387565", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 21, "book": "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Addie LaRue' Is Invisible — But Memorable", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/08/921305498/addie-larue-is-invisible-but-memorable" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 21, "book": "The Invisible Life Of Addie LaRue", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Nerdette Book Club: V.E. Schwab On ‘The Invisible Life Of Addie LaRue’", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/book-club-ve-schwab-on-the-invisible-life-of-addie-larue/730cad14-b108-4b7b-b44a-67d9a3ee8e15" } ] }, "22": { "id": 22, "title": "The Mermaid, The Witch, And The Sea", "author": "Maggie Tokuda-Hall", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "Florian is a pirate, and he does whatever violence he must – because before he joined his pirate crew, Florian was Flora, a helpless street urchin. Lady Evelyn Hasegawa is on her way to an arranged marriage, only to be kidnapped by Florian and his fellow pirates. When the opportunity comes for the two of them to save a dying mermaid and change their fates, they find themselves adrift in a conspiracy of empires, pirates and the Sea herself. Queer, diverse and full of kissing, double-crosses and magic, this is an imaginative and adventurous debut.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781536204315", "cover": "9781536204315", "goodreads": 51710973, "itunes": 9781536204315, "bookshop": 9781536204315, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ol7uYCTAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781536204315", "isbn10": "1536204315", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 22, "book": "The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea", "source": "NPR", "text": "Mermaids, Werewolves And Witches: Welcome Summer With These 6 New YA Novels", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/30/883960845/mermaids-werewolves-and-witches-welcome-summer-with-these-6-new-ya-novels" } ] }, "23": { "id": 23, "title": "Burnt Sugar: A Novel", "author": "Avni Doshi", "reviewers": [ "Catherine Whelan" ], "text": "How do you take care of a parent who failed to take care of you? Burnt Sugar (also published as Girl in White Cotton) is, at its core, a love story: Mother Tara chooses a life that comes at an appallingly neglectful cost to her daughter Antara. Thirty years later, Tara has developed dementia, and adult Antara takes her in and grapples with whether and how to forgive. I read Burnt Sugar with awe, fury and compassion, electrified by the question of whether time does heal all wounds, and whether it even should.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9781419752926", "cover": "9781419752926", "goodreads": 54776209, "itunes": 9781419752926, "bookshop": 9781419752926, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414aCaoCGXL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781419752926", "isbn10": "1419752928", "links": [] }, "24": { "id": 24, "title": "No Filter: The Inside Story Of Instagram", "author": "Sarah Frier", "reviewers": [ "Christopher Doorley" ], "text": "Bloomberg tech reporter Sarah Frier captures the birth and growth of Instagram in her well-reported book No Filter – the story of the rise of a little photo-sharing app that would become arguably the world’s most influencial social media platform. Frier’s narrative writing brings the often-complicated world of tech and startups to a human level and is a real joy to read. She brings her reader along on Instagram’s journey while keeping a critical eye on the business of social media – and the mark Instagram has had on society. No Filter has made me consider Instagram’s place in my own life as well.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9781982126803", "cover": "9781982126803", "goodreads": 50772888, "itunes": 9781982126803, "bookshop": 9781982126803, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417fi-blMIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982126803", "isbn10": "1982126809", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 24, "book": "No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram", "source": "NPR", "text": "Instagram Allowed For Truth To Be Crafted, Despite 'No Filter' Options", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/836832207/instagram-allowed-for-truth-to-be-crafted-despite-no-filter-options" } ] }, "25": { "id": 25, "title": "Race For Profit: How Banks And The Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership", "author": "Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor", "reviewers": [ "Colette Rosenberg" ], "text": "In Race for Profit, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor disrupts the notion that housing discrimination in the United States exists in some distant past. Following the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the outlawing of redlining, Taylor shows how the exclusion of Black Americans from the real-estate market continued within a state-sanctioned system of discriminatory homeownership – what Taylor calls “predatory inclusion.” You’ll come away from this book with a new understanding of space and race in America, how the past is inextricable from our present and, ultimately, how the American Dream and ideals of property, homeownership and citizenship are fraught with violence.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9781469653662", "cover": "9781469653662", "goodreads": 44601366, "itunes": 9781469653662, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41iaG7G0TzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781469653662", "isbn10": "1469653664", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 25, "book": "Race For Profit", "source": "NPR", "text": "This List Of Books, Films And Podcasts About Racism Is A Start, Not A Panacea", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/06/06/871023438/this-list-of-books-films-and-podcasts-about-racism-is-a-start-not-a-panacea" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 25, "book": "Race For Profit", "source": "KPCW", "text": "Mountain Money: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor On 'Race For Profit'", "url": "https://www.kpcw.org/post/mountain-money-december-16-keeanga-yamahtta-taylor#stream/0" } ] }, "26": { "id": 26, "title": "Cooking For One: Scaled Recipes, No-Waste Solutions, And Time-Saving Tips", "author": "America's Test Kitchen", "reviewers": [ "Connor Donevan" ], "text": "Cooking for One is a scrappy collection of recipes that coax a little celebration from the slog of solo cookery. America’s Test Kitchen recipes can be – and I say this with love – neurotically specific. This book applies that same rigor but encourages improvisation: swap half a bell pepper for a zucchini, if that’s what’s rattling around your crisper drawer. You’ll also find a whole philosophy of solo dining, from shopping hacks to leftover strategies. It’s a cookbook-shaped reminder to make time for yourself, specifically: the 15 minutes it takes to make a legitimately luxurious single-serving apple crisp in the microwave.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9781948703284", "cover": "9781948703284", "goodreads": 51687849, "itunes": 9781948703284, "bookshop": 9781948703284, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lPqL6r+7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781948703284", "isbn10": "1948703289", "links": [] }, "27": { "id": 27, "title": "13th Balloon", "author": "Mark Bibbins", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "Mark Bibbins takes a leap back in time to the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the heart of the AIDS epidemic that took the life of the poet’s first serious partner. Bibbins is guided by memory and longing and the true wish to have back some of what’s gone. This speaker, who is as vulnerable as language allows, knows these poems have arrived too late: “I have only language for you now/ a language/ that morphs like a virus/ to elude to survive to connect,” Alas, Bibbins seems to have anticipated this year’s seasons of grief, and he is kind company.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "the states we’re in", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9781556595776", "cover": "9781556595776", "goodreads": 45010957, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781556595776, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418J5g9s60L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781556595776", "isbn10": "1556595778", "links": [] }, "28": { "id": 28, "title": "How To Carry Water: Selected Poems Of Lucille Clifton", "author": "Lucille Clifton, Aracelis Girmay (editor)", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "Clifton is simply a pillar of contemporary American poetry. Her body of work, about Black experience, motherhood and spirituality, is collected in a 700-page doorstopper, a treasure but not a book you can take on the go. This new career-spanning selection of her poetry is the book Clifton’s readers have been waiting for. Edited by Aracelis Girmay, a breathtaking poet in her own right, this is the Clifton collection that will be the standard text for decades. In it – and I’m only exaggerating a little – you’ll find all the answers, as well as all the questions.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9781950774142", "cover": "9781950774142", "goodreads": 53405683, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781950774142, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mTp4wXoyL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781950774142", "isbn10": "1950774147", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 28, "book": "How to Carry Water", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Aracelis Girmay: 'How To Carry Water: Selected Poems Of Lucille Clifton'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm/aracelis-girmay-how-to-carry-water-selected-poems-of-lucille-clifton" } ] }, "29": { "id": 29, "title": "Music For The Dead And Resurrected: Poems", "author": "Valzhyna Mort", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "Valzhyna Mort is well-known in Europe as a crusader on behalf of Belarusian language and identity. Her poems seem to channel her country’s complicated and highly pressurized history into a voice that is simultaneously strange, intimate, lonesome, hilarious, surreal and all too real: “Here, history comes to an end/ like a movie/ with rolling credits of headstones.” Her images are so funny – she recalls, for instance, how “a street opened my mouth like a doctors spatula” – yet precisely tuned, boring into us when our consciences are at their heaviest and we need some serious levity to help us carry them.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780374252069", "cover": "9780374252069", "goodreads": 50403458, "itunes": 9780374252069, "bookshop": 9780374252069, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41A6QKOWE0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374252069", "isbn10": "0374252068", "links": [] }, "30": { "id": 30, "title": "Postcolonial Love Poem", "author": "Natalie Diaz", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "Natalie Diaz makes the love poem into a frame for contemplating the politics and injustices that have long oppressed Native Americans. There’s no separation between personal and political when every circumstance is inflected by the wars “which started me.” Diaz locates battles everywhere, but her most important muse is the figure of her brother, whose failed struggle against addiction wrecked his own life and drew his family into a swirling storm from which they can’t break free: “he’d keep calling, hour after hour, day after day,/ lifetime after miserable lifetime, until I answered.” This is a book we’ll keep talking about.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9781644450147", "cover": "9781644450147", "goodreads": 44094069, "itunes": 9781644450147, "bookshop": 9781644450147, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41sZcx7INgS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781644450147", "isbn10": "1644450143", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 30, "book": "PostColonial Love Poem", "source": "NPR", "text": "Within A Legacy Of Colonization, 'Postcolonial Love Poem' Empowers Native Voice", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/06/812488532/within-a-legacy-of-colonization-postcolonial-love-poem-empowers-native-voice" } ] }, "31": { "id": 31, "title": "Runaway: New Poems", "author": "Jorie Graham", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "Every new book by Jorie Graham is worth reading. These new poems don’t pretend to try to reach conclusions – they barely conclude, trailing off, half-punctuated, abbreviating, rushing past the utilitarian words, substituting “u” for “you” and “yr” for “your,” running on, asking “what shall I search for in the/ city of searches.” Frustrating, frustrated, afraid, panicked, pleading, Graham has once again written the poems of our moment.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9780063036703", "cover": "9780063036703", "goodreads": 50622442, "itunes": 9780063036703, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41RhBA5xnYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780063036703", "isbn10": "0063036703", "links": [] }, "32": { "id": 32, "title": "Seeing The Body", "author": "Rachel Eliza Griffiths", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "This is a searing elegy for a mother who died after years of illness that held her family in its thrall. With astonishing frankness and detail, Griffiths anticipates, experiences, reexperiences and works to meaningfully incorporate her mother’s memory and death into the everyday fabric of life. This grief goes far beyond the mourner’s typical self-questioning (“Could I have ever saved her?”) into more complex realms of inheritance: “I remember/ her voice like a thorn I never want/ to pull out of my heart.” It’s one of the most empathic and transcendent books of poetry in years.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9781324005667", "cover": "9781324005667", "goodreads": 53122452, "itunes": 9781324005667, "bookshop": 9781324005667, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51GF1wthNBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781324005667", "isbn10": "1324005661", "links": [] }, "33": { "id": 33, "title": "Apple: (Skin To The Core)", "author": "Eric Gansworth", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "When I recommend a certain touching, funny, vulnerable, scathing, endearing YA poetry memoir to my Native cousins, they do a doubletake at the title, Apple. After all, it’s considered a slur in Indian Country (“red on the outside, white on the inside”). Then I add the words that follow, Skin to the Core, which prompts a smile at the author’s cleverness. In Apple (Skin to the Core), Onondaga Eric Gansworth is wry and engaging as he reflects upon a lifetime of topics, including the impact of U.S. federal Indian boarding schools, the complexities of modern Native identity and pop culture, especially music and visual arts.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "young adult", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781646140138", "cover": "9781646140138", "goodreads": 50623593, "itunes": 9781646140138, "bookshop": 9781646140138, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41RnE86rQQL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781646140138", "isbn10": "1646140133", "links": [] }, "34": { "id": 34, "title": "Mary And The Trail Of Tears: A Cherokee Removal Survival Story", "author": "Andrea L. Rogers, illustrated by Matt Forsyth", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "When kids need reassurance in tough times (like now, for instance), we often point them to examples from the past, to moments of resilience and courage. Mary and the Trail of Tears is ideal for that. The book was lovingly crafted by Cherokee author, mama and educator Andrea L. Rogers. It’s a window to the forced relocation of Cherokee people from what’s currently called Georgia to Indian Territory. But more than that, the story offers an opportunity for kids to really get to know and care about Mary and her family, to relate to the Cherokees of their era as human beings. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "historical fiction", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781496592163", "cover": "9781496592163", "goodreads": 51138864, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781496592163, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781496592163", "isbn10": "1496592166", "links": [] }, "35": { "id": 35, "title": "The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga", "author": "David A. Robertson", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "Here’s the perfect seasonal read for curling up at home with the kids. We’re talking about a wintry portal story with echoes of Narnia’s charm but fully grounded in Indigenous belief systems. The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga (Book 1) kicks off a middle grade series by David A. Robertson, who’s a member of the Norway House Cree Nation. Young readers will join his heroes Morgan and Eli – in the company of the otherworldly Ochek and a sassy Squirrel named Arik – as they struggle to save themselves and the village of Misewa from an icy fate. (For ages 10 to 13)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780735266100", "cover": "9780735266100", "goodreads": 49291521, "itunes": 9780735266100, "bookshop": 9780735266100, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FIwhcXv+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780735266100", "isbn10": "0735266107", "links": [] }, "36": { "id": 36, "title": "Utopia Avenue: A Novel", "author": "David Mitchell", "reviewers": [ "Danny Hensel" ], "text": "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream. David Mitchell’s Utopia Avenue, the eighth novel from the English novelist who has spent his career building an interconnected cast of characters across continents and centuries, may be his most human work. We follow a literal band of misfits in London’s psychedelic 1960s as they struggle to find success as a musical act and learn about each other. It’s so much fun to read a book brimming with reverence for music on both sides of the Atlantic: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "for music lovers", "tales from around the world", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780812997446", "cover": "9780812997446", "goodreads": 53316656, "itunes": 9780812997446, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5161xkGUrFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780812997446", "isbn10": "0812997441", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 36, "book": "Utopia Avenue: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Utopia Avenue,' The Greatest Sixties Band That Never Was", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/11/889862161/utopia-avenue-the-greatest-sixties-band-that-never-was" } ] }, "37": { "id": 37, "title": "Remembrance", "author": "Rita Woods", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "Rita Woods’ debut Remembrance is an ambitious and absorbing novel. Gaelle, a Haitian refugee, is a nurse’s aide at the Stillwater Care Facility in present-day Cleveland. Back in 1857, Margot and her younger sister Veronique are slaves, and slaveowner Mistress Catherine promises to free the two girls. And in 1791 Haiti – then called Saint-Domingue – Abigail is a devoted mother and wife owned by Monsieur Rousse. Remembrance is a complex but memorable story of loss and survival told across two centuries by four women, united by skin color and the supernatural powers they command.
", "tags": [ "for history lovers", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "family matters", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250298454", "cover": "9781250298454", "goodreads": 45046609, "itunes": 9781250298454, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/415lymHWPEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250298454", "isbn10": "1250298458", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 37, "book": "Remembrance", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pain Drives The Creation Of A Sanctuary In 'Remembrance'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/25/799285531/pain-drives-the-creation-of-a-sanctuary-in-remembrance" } ] }, "38": { "id": 38, "title": "Night Letters: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar And The Afghan Islamists Who Changed The World", "author": "Chris Sands with Fazelminallah Qazizai", "reviewers": [ "Diaa Hadid" ], "text": "Islamic militancy has many fathers, and Chris Sands, with Fazelminallah Qazizai, tell a cinematic story of one of them: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The restless black-turbaned fanatic smashed Kabul into rubble and killed untold numbers of Afghans in his failed quest to rule Afghanistan. And the rest of the world must also bear the burden of his other legacy: his adoption of foreign fighters who flocked to Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden – and the ideological framework for jihad that he helped pollinate within extremists across the world, which finds justification for the deaths – even murder – of all those who do not follow their fiery creed.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "rather long", "tales from around the world", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9781787381964", "cover": "9781787381964", "goodreads": 44278986, "itunes": 9781787381964, "bookshop": 9781787381964, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781787381964", "isbn10": "178738196X", "links": [] }, "39": { "id": 39, "title": "God-Level Knowledge Darts: Life Lessons From The Bronx", "author": "Desus & Mero", "reviewers": [ "Ed McNulty" ], "text": "Somehow this book is the loudest thing in whatever room you open it. It reads like an argument on a Bronx street corner, or shouty podcast, mainly because that’s what it’s based on. It’s also authentic, disarmingly frank and really, really funny. Daniel “Desus Nice” Baker and Joel “The Kid Mero” Martinez are two guys from the Bronx who made it good (a smash-hit podcast, a new show on Showtime) but haven’t moved on, and God-Level Knowledge Darts: Life Lessons From The Bronx is full of their advice on everything from finding a life partner based on shared gastrointestinal issues to being washed (read: “unhip”). They said they gave it short chapters so it could be read during visits to the toilet – so here’s hoping it’s loud enough to muffle the sounds of your laughter.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "funny stuff", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "9780525512332", "cover": "9780525512332", "goodreads": 48995022, "itunes": 9780525512332, "bookshop": 9780525512332, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51b5pgHjSkL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525512332", "isbn10": "05255123311", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 39, "book": "God-Level Knowledge Darts: Life Lessons from the Bronx", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Bodega Boys' Desus And Mero Offer Life Advice In New Book", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/20/914949233/-the-bodega-boys-desus-and-mero-offer-life-advice-in-new-book" } ] }, "40": { "id": 40, "title": "Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs Of A Neurotic Filmmaker", "author": "Barry Sonnenfeld", "reviewers": [ "Emiko Tamagawa" ], "text": "Barry Sonnenfeld has directed entertaining (though not always critically acclaimed) films including “The Addams Family” and the first three “Men in Black” movies. But as listeners of “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” know, he’s also an engaging storyteller. In his memoir, Sonnenfeld is both hilarious and tragic as he talks about working with the Coen brothers, surviving a plane crash and growing up with a cousin who sexually abused him. Somehow the combination works: Sonnenfeld’s breezy style engages us and makes us believe, as Will Smith has joked, that if Barry Sonnenfeld can be a director, anyone can.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "no biz like show biz", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9780316415613", "cover": "9780316415613", "goodreads": 51196840, "itunes": 9780316415613, "bookshop": 9780316415613, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51B-ITYABLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316415613", "isbn10": "0316415618", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 40, "book": "Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker", "source": "NPR", "text": "Not My Job: Director Barry Sonnenfeld Gets Quizzed On Confessions", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/15/806015737/not-my-job-director-barry-sonnenfeld-gets-quizzed-on-confessions" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 40, "book": "Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": " 'Call Your Mother': Filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld Looks Back With Humor In New Memoir", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/call-your-mother-filmmaker-barry-sonnenfeld-looks-back-humor-new-memoir" } ] }, "41": { "id": 41, "title": "Here For It: Or, How To Save Your Soul In America", "author": "R. Eric Thomas", "reviewers": [ "Emily Bogle" ], "text": "R. Eric Thomas, who grew up with “Al Gore’s” Internet, outlines how he went viral in various digital eras, from college newspaper satire gone awry to a thirsty Facebook post that eventually landed him a job as a columnist for Elle.com. In this essay collection, Thomas examines growing up in a dangerous area but feeling more unsafe in the suburbs’ wide expanses filled with possible Babadooks. He also discusses navigating his sexuality and spirituality while dating his husband, a reverend; chronicling early adulthood haze where he finds himself with a work family at the Hard Rock Cafe; and moving to a different city on a whim. Thomas finds hope in a chaotic world and encourages readers to laugh and acknowledge Beyoncé, for all that she does.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "funny stuff", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9780525621034", "cover": "9780525621034", "goodreads": 45915136, "itunes": 9780525621034, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WPcs8HEnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525621034", "isbn10": "0525621032", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 41, "book": "Here for It", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Interview: R. Eric Thomas On ‘Here for It: Or, How To Save Your Soul In America’", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/interview-r-eric-thomas-on-here-for-it-or-how-to-save-your-soul-in-america/9cbed7c8-7ad9-4ada-ac36-0aa3b3244047" } ] }, "42": { "id": 42, "title": "Lifting As We Climb: Black Women's Battle For The Ballot Box", "author": "Evette Dionne", "reviewers": [ "Emily Bogle" ], "text": "Evette Dionne’s book spotlights women we don’t hear enough about in the suffrage movement. Many Black women were instrumental in national and local pushes to guarantee voting for all Americans. The book is designed to look like a textbook by showcasing photographs, original documents and breakout sections with short biographies. It appeals to readers 10 and older, as well as adults who want to discover more about the lives of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary McLeod Bethune and Anna Julia Cooper, among others. Reading this book can help add more context to political movements of the past, and today, in the U.S.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "kids’ books", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9780451481542", "cover": "9780451481542", "goodreads": 45553400, "itunes": 9780451481542, "bookshop": 9780451481542, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nNLB1tSiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780451481542", "isbn10": "0451481542", "links": [] }, "43": { "id": 43, "title": "Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That A Movement Forgot", "author": "Mikki Kendall", "reviewers": [ "Ericka Taylor" ], "text": "Anyone who identifies as a feminist would be well-served by reading Mikki Kendall’s brilliant debut essay collection, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot. In this searing indictment of mainstream feminism in the United States, Kendall examines how a movement that purports to represent over half the planet’s population has, in fact, consistently overlooked women of color, trans women, differently abled women and other marginalized people. She elevates the experiences of those who are too often excluded, while also giving voice to how violence, hunger, poverty, education, housing, reproductive justice and more are all feminist issues.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "9780525560548", "cover": "9780525560548", "goodreads": 49614207, "itunes": 9780525560548, "bookshop": 9780525560548, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519rMWsoNiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525560548", "isbn10": "0525560548", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 43, "book": "Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot", "source": "NPR", "text": "What Does 'Hood Feminism' Mean For A Pandemic?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/05/850963562/what-does-hood-feminism-mean-for-a-pandemic" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 43, "book": "Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hood Feminism' Is A Call For Solidarity In A Less-Than-Inclusive Movement", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/26/808943234/hood-feminism-is-a-call-for-solidarity-in-a-less-than-inclusive-movement" } ] }, "44": { "id": 44, "title": "Intimations: Six Essays", "author": "Zadie Smith", "reviewers": [ "Ericka Taylor" ], "text": "Of all the books published this year, I’m betting that few speak to the current moment as directly as Zadie Smith’s most recent essay collection, Intimations. Drafted soon after “the global humbling” of the pandemic began, and completed in the days after the killing of George Floyd, these six essays feel as intimate as a long walk with an old friend. Smith deftly tackles an array of questions brought to the forefront in recent months, from the nature of isolation and what it means to be confined with the people we love to addressing police brutality and economic injustice. It’s worth a read.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780593297612", "cover": "9780593297612", "goodreads": 53825991, "itunes": 9780593297612, "bookshop": 9780593297612, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+CkF5lVOL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593297612", "isbn10": "059329761X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 44, "book": "Intimations", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Intimations,' Zadie Smith Reflects Back To Us The Early Days Of Now", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/896612060/in-intimations-zadie-smith-reflects-back-to-us-the-early-days-of-now" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 44, "book": "Intimations", "source": "NPR", "text": "Zadie Smith Hopscotches From The Personal To The Political In 'Intimations'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/22/894155221/zadie-smith-hopscotches-from-the-personal-to-the-political-in-intimations" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 44, "book": "Intimations", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "Writer Zadie Smith Reflects On Pandemic, Black Lives Matter Movement In 'Intimations'", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/07/27/zadie-smith-essay-collection-blm" } ] }, "45": { "id": 45, "title": "Apsara Engine", "author": "Bishakh Som", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "The images and concepts in this exceptional graphic novel (actually a collection of short stories) come from a place all their own. Bishakh Som’s imagination is science-fictiony without being particularly technological, mythic without being particularly traditional, and humanistic without cherishing any particular assumptions about where we, as a species, are headed. Addressing romance, friendship, trans identity and the potential of contemporary technologies, these stories evade standard categories and complicate familiar patterns while experimenting with the limits of comic art. Apsara Engine is a testament to how trans experiences can teach us entirely new ways of imagining our humanity.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781936932818", "cover": "9781936932818", "goodreads": 48500732, "itunes": 9781936932818, "bookshop": 9781936932818, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61R5ydEWaYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781936932818", "isbn10": "1936932814", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 45, "book": "Apsara Engine", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Apsara Engine' Doesn't Break The Graphic Novel Rules — It Ignores Them", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/18/837026665/apsara-engine-doesnt-break-the-graphic-novel-rules-it-ignores-them" } ] }, "46": { "id": 46, "title": "Fantastic Four: Grand Design", "author": "Tom Scioli", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "In 2018 Marvel took a step across the mainstream/alternative-comics divide when it hired Hip Hop Family Tree creator Ed Piskor to re-imagine the X-Men. Piskor’s success has emboldened the company to entrust another valuable property to an indie barnstormer: the Xeric Grant-winning Tom Scioli, who co-authored the deeply weird Transformers vs. G.I. Joe. Like Piskor’s book, Fantastic Four: Grand Design features such retro touches as yellowed pages, small panels and the clear, sunny colors of a more optimistic era. Scioli brings a seditious hint of an arched eyebrow to his history-spanning retelling. His soft-edged style deliberately copies that of Fantastic Four co-creator Jack Kirby, whom he celebrated in another terrific book this year, his graphic biography Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "it’s all geek to me", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for art lovers", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781302917692", "cover": "9781302917692", "goodreads": 49617512, "itunes": 9781302917692, "bookshop": 9781302917692, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411dpT+XsML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781302917692", "isbn10": "1302917692", "links": [] }, "47": { "id": 47, "title": "Glass Town: The Imaginary World Of The Brontës", "author": "Isabel Greenberg", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "The Brontës – bestselling Charlotte, oddball Emily, underestimated Anne and unstable Branwell – have long fascinated literary critics, history buffs, feminist theorists and anyone interested in the roots of creativity. Growing up in isolated Yorkshire, enduring the deaths of their mother and two sisters, the siblings escaped by writing elaborate stories about imaginary kingdoms. Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel (named for one of their realms) deftly intermingles quotation with storytelling and history with fantasy. Her drawings are harsh and deliberately untidy, channeling the frantic, awkward passion of a precocious child. Sometimes they seem poised to burst forth from the page, defying physics in tribute to the seething spirits that gave us Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "family matters", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "9781419732683", "cover": "9781419732683", "goodreads": 50159157, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781419732683, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51MmgiqdtgL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781419732683", "isbn10": "1419732684", "links": [] }, "48": { "id": 48, "title": "Black Sunday: A Novel", "author": "Tola Rotimi Abraham", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "Some novels dig into your soul and stay there. This is one of them. With a deceptively simple plot about four siblings coming of age in Nigeria, Black Sunday lulls you into a false sense of security before dragging you through a world of poverty, death, abuse and heartbreak. Luckily, if you survive, there is a lot of love and hope waiting for you on the other side. Black Sunday is so believable it often reads like nonfiction, and that makes it even more powerful. Tola Rotimi Abraham is a great new voice, and this novel will hopefully help her land on many readers’ radars.
", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781948226561", "cover": "9781948226561", "goodreads": 42515198, "itunes": 9781948226561, "bookshop": 9781948226561, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51q-WBffMhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781948226561", "isbn10": "1948226561", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 48, "book": "Black Sunday", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Black Sunday' Will Destroy You — Let It", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/09/803800065/black-sunday-will-destroy-you-let-it" } ] }, "49": { "id": 49, "title": "Blackwood", "author": "Michael Farris Smith", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "Some of the most exciting and unique stories in contemporary fiction are growing out of the interstitial space between crime and horror, and Blackwood is one of the finest examples. Overrun by kudzu and smelling of wet earth, this haunting novel of ghosts, broken people and lost childhood is packed with nightmarish imagery, great writing and a noir atmosphere that puts the darkest realities of small town America on full display.
", "tags": [ "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780316529815", "cover": "9780316529815", "goodreads": 51197807, "itunes": 9780316529815, "bookshop": 9780316529815, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51P7WyuCVlS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316529815", "isbn10": "0316529818", "links": [] }, "50": { "id": 50, "title": "Children Of The Land: A Memoir", "author": "Marcelo Hernandez Castillo", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "Migration and the U.S.-Mexico border have been so politicized that it’s easy to forget people are at the heart of the conversation. Marcelo Hernández Castillo does a superb job of rehumanizing the discussion by sharing his story of undocumented migration to the U.S. and eventual journey to citizenship. Along the way, he exposes the flaws in the immigration system, discusses the realities of undocumented immigrants, and shares the story of his absent father, caught in a long battle for citizenship after being deported. This is nonfiction with a lot of heart that shines a light on the human side of an ongoing political discussion.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9780062825636", "cover": "9780062825636", "goodreads": 52640931, "itunes": 9780062825636, "bookshop": 9780062825636, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QX0+zvMHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062825636", "isbn10": "0062825631", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 50, "book": "Children of the Land ", "source": "NPR", "text": "Marcelo Hernandez Castillo On 'Children of the Land'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/25/799470733/marcelo-hernandez-castillo-on-children-of-the-land" } ] }, "51": { "id": 51, "title": "I Don't Want To Die Poor: Essays", "author": "Michael Arceneaux", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "There’s nothing funny about student loan debt (trust me, I know!), but Michael Arceneaux finds a way to talk about it with honesty and humor in this collection of biographical essays that touch on everything from poverty and sexuality to Blackness and popular culture. Touching and hilarious, this book of essays can be taken as a whole because the topics and Arceneaux’s voice give it a great sense of cohesion. If you like to laugh while you cry, don’t miss this one.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "biography & memoir", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9781982129309", "cover": "9781982129309", "goodreads": 49663570, "itunes": 9781982129309, "bookshop": 9781982129309, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41igrZLrDCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982129309", "isbn10": "1982129301", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 51, "book": "I Don't Want to Die Poor: Essays", "source": "NPR", "text": "Saddled With Student Loans, Bestselling Author Worries, 'I Don't Want To Die Poor'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/12/854440708/saddled-with-student-loans-best-selling-author-worries-i-don-t-want-to-die-poor" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 51, "book": "I Don't Want to Die Poor: Essays", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'I Don't Want To Die Poor' Maintains Sense Of Humor Amid Stories Of Struggle", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/09/828818788/i-don-t-want-to-die-poor" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 51, "book": "I Don't Want to Die Poor: Essays", "source": "NPR", "text": "Many Can Identify With Arceneaux's Book: 'I Don't Want To Die Poor'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/08/829544252/many-can-identify-with-acrceneauxs-book-i-dont-want-to-die-poor" } ] }, "52": { "id": 52, "title": "I Hold A Wolf By The Ears: Stories", "author": "Laura van den Berg", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "This is the best short story collection I read in 2020. Laura van den Berg has a talent for reinventing herself, and here she does it with each story. Magical, creepy, strange, heartbreaking and globetrotting, this collection challenges readers with every page, submerging them in modern fairy tales that shatter reality while also, at times, feeling a little too real. The best literature makes you feel things, and this collection will unsettle you. Profoundly.
", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "short stories, essays & poetry", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780374102098", "cover": "9780374102098", "goodreads": 51540889, "itunes": 9780374102098, "bookshop": 9780374102098, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ka2o+-ojL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374102098", "isbn10": "03741020911", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 52, "book": "I Hold A Wolf By The Ears: Stories", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'I Hold A Wolf By The Ears' Is Another Short Story Collection Worth Exploring ", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/book-review-i-hold-wolf-ears-another-short-story-collection-worth-exploring" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 52, "book": "I Hold a Wolf by the Ears", "source": "NPR", "text": "This 'Wolf' Will Bite You — And You'll Like It", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/03/897738241/this-wolf-will-bite-you-and-youll-like-it" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 52, "book": "I Hold A Wolf By The Ears: Stories", "source": "WBUR", "text": "In Collection 'I Hold A Wolf By The Ears,' Women Are Haunted By A Series Of Entitled Men", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/artery/2020/07/27/i-hold-a-wolf-by-the-ears-laura-van-den-berg-review" } ] }, "53": { "id": 53, "title": "MS-13: The Making Of America's Most Notorious Gang", "author": "Steven Dudley", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "A lot has been said about the Mara Salvatrucha, the gang known as MS-13. Most of it has been wrong. For this book, perhaps the most complete look at MS-13, Steven Dudley looked at the historical, political, cultural and financial elements that came together to create one of the world’s most notorious criminal organizations. Both a scholar with research expertise and a journalist who’s reported for NPR, The Washington Post, The Economist and the BBC, Dudley has written a book that engages fully with the darkest, most violent side of the gang – while also recognizing that some of its members are victims of circumstances beyond their control. An incredibly informative, harrowing read.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "the dark side", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781335005540", "cover": "9781335005540", "goodreads": 43986725, "itunes": 9781335005540, "bookshop": 9781335005540, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WQG7xPdeL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781335005540", "isbn10": "1335005544", "links": [] }, "54": { "id": 54, "title": "The Boatman's Daughter: A Novel", "author": "Andy Davidson", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "Creepy and dark, this book was pulled from the mud of some nameless bayou in the middle of the night. Yes, there’s plenty of weirdness, violence and gore here, but also memorable characters and a lot of heart. This is a supernatural Southern Gothic in which the darkness of the past and the bloodshed of the present dance together beautifully via superb prose and the kind of pacing you seldom find in this subgenre. It’s rare to find novels that give you profound familial love and severed heads in Styrofoam coolers, but this one does that and more.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780374538552", "cover": "9780374538552", "goodreads": 45892207, "itunes": 9780374538552, "bookshop": 9780374538552, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51CCp9o9mqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374538552", "isbn10": "0374538557", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 54, "book": "The Boatman's Daughter ", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Boatman's Daughter' Dips Her Toes In Horror, Crime And Poetry", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/15/806053160/the-boatmans-daughter-dips-her-toes-in-horror-crime-and-poetry" } ] }, "55": { "id": 55, "title": "The Book Of Atlantis Black: The Search For A Sister Gone Missing", "author": "Betsy Bonner", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "Be warned: This is a sad book that asks more questions than it answers. Losing a sibling is hard, but losing one under mysterious circumstances might be worse. Betsy Bonner applies the tools of a great fiction writer to the real story of her childhood with her sister, and the events that preceded her sister’s untimely death. More than a straightforward biography, this book is an exploration of a sister’s disappearance that digs deep into the messy past that shaped her life as well as Bonner’s. Part true crime and part literary exorcism, this is a story that will haunt you long after the last page.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9781947793774", "cover": "9781947793774", "goodreads": 49233743, "itunes": 9781947793774, "bookshop": 9781947793774, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kN1WSMf4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781947793774", "isbn10": "1947793772", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 55, "book": "The Book of Atlantis Black: The Search for a Sister Gone Missing", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Sister Explores Her Sibling's Mysterious Death In 'The Book Of Atlantis Black'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/05/898937735/a-sister-explores-her-siblings-mysterious-death-in-the-book-of-atlantis-black" } ] }, "56": { "id": 56, "title": "The Dead Are Arising: The Life Of Malcolm X", "author": "Les Payne and Tamara Payne", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "The Dead Are Arising is the definitive Malcolm X biography. 28 years of meticulous research and hundreds of hours of interviews with friends, family and scholars went into creating a deep, nuanced picture of not only Malcolm X, but the country he was born into, the racism he lived with and the way his assassination changed the United States forever. This isn’t a book about Malcolm X being a hero; it’s a biography that shows him as a flawed, complex individual who did heroic things.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads", "rather long", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9781631491665", "cover": "9781631491665", "goodreads": 50489321, "itunes": 9781631491665, "bookshop": 9781631491665, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BWZsQ-FKS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781631491665", "isbn10": "16314916611", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 56, "book": "The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Dead Are Arising' Sheds Light On Malcolm X — And Those That Influenced Him", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/28/928595226/the-dead-are-arising-digs-deep-on-malcolm-x-and-time-people-that-influenced-him" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 56, "book": "The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Full Bio: 'The Dead Are Arising: The Life Of Malcolm X' ", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/dead-are-arising-life-malcolm-x-part-1/" } ] }, "57": { "id": 57, "title": "The Socrates Express: In Search Of Life Lessons From Dead Philosophers", "author": "Eric Weiner", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "“Philosophy for Starbucks people” probably doesn’t sound too flattering, but that’s exactly what this is, and I mean that in a good way. Eric Weiner, a New York Times bestselling author and a former foreign correspondent for NPR, explores all the ways the teachings of philosophers like Socrates, Nietzsche, Rousseau and Confucius might improve his own life. With a lot of humor and plenty of coffee, Weiner takes readers on a literary/philosophical journey to a better life. Part travelogue and part soul-searching memoir, this is philosophy simplified – but also made more useful for the layman.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "short stories, essays & poetry", "biography & memoir", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781501129018", "cover": "9781501129018", "goodreads": 52756428, "itunes": 9781501129018, "bookshop": 9781501129018, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nSFbQd5zL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781501129018", "isbn10": "1501129015", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 57, "book": "The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Socrates Express' Takes Readers On A Ride Through Applied Philosophy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/27/906607702/the-socrates-express-takes-readers-on-a-ride-through-applied-philosophy" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 57, "book": "The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers", "source": "NPR", "text": "In His New Book, Eric Weiner Finds Life Lessons From Those Long Dead", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/22/905015292/in-his-new-book-eric-weiner-finds-life-lessons-from-those-long-dead" } ] }, "58": { "id": 58, "title": "Winter Counts: A Novel", "author": "David Heska Wanbli Weiden", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "On the surface, Winter Counts is a novel about a man making a living dishing out justice with his fists, in the name of people who can’t rely on the law to do so. However, right below its surface, it’s also a story about how the law has neglected all Native American reservations for decades, allowing awful crimes to go unpunished and marginalizing the people who live there. It also explores the way the opioid epidemic has affected Native American communities – in this case, the Sicangu Lakota living in the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Timely and smart, this is a powerful narrative about identity and heritage in a shifting world.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062968951", "cover": "9780062968951", "goodreads": 49753270, "itunes": 9780062968951, "bookshop": 9780062968951, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZxBwXHbFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062968951", "isbn10": "0062968955", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 58, "book": "Winter Counts", "source": "CPR", "text": "Local Author Delves Into Native American Injustices In Upcoming Novel, Literary Festival", "url": "https://www.cpr.org/show-segment/local-author-delves-into-native-american-injustices-in-upcoming-novel-literary-festival/" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 58, "book": "Winter Counts", "source": "MPR", "text": "Wanbli Weiden's 'Winter Counts' Deserves More Fanfare", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/11/09/thread-wanbli-weidens-winter-counts-deserves-more-fanfare" } ] }, "59": { "id": 59, "title": "Magnetized: Conversations With A Serial Killer", "author": "Carlos Busqued, translated by Samuel Rutter", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "Over the course of one week in September of 1982, Ricardo Melogno killed four taxi drivers in Buenos Aires. Science has been grappling with him ever since. A mellow, intelligent man, Melogno has vivid recollections of the killings, but shows none of the behaviors psychologists, lawyers and psychiatrists expect from him. Journalist Carlos Busqued tried to get to the bottom of Melogno’s complex psyche during a series of interviews, which eventually became this book. Haunting and unsettling, Magnetized is a narrative that reminds us how little we know about the inner workings of serial killers.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "biography & memoir", "rather short" ], "isbn": "9781948226684", "cover": "9781948226684", "goodreads": 48577217, "itunes": 9781948226684, "bookshop": 9781948226684, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781948226684", "isbn10": "1948226685", "links": [] }, "60": { "id": 60, "title": "King And The Dragonflies", "author": "Kacen Callender", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "King is grieving: his family’s reeling from the loss of his brother Khalid, and he’s cut ties with his best friend for reasons that he can’t quite face yet. It would be crushing, except for the one hope he has: his brother isn’t really dead – he’s a dragonfly, and King just has to find him. Kacen Callender deftly centers the book on the rawness and transformativity of grief, as King struggles with complex family dynamics, with his own queerness and with navigating personal responsibility against powerlessness at the precipice of coming of age.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "identity & culture", "family matters", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9781338129335", "cover": "9781338129335", "goodreads": 44575111, "itunes": 9781338129335, "bookshop": 9781338129335, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oWTkGLhdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781338129335", "isbn10": "1338129333", "links": [] }, "61": { "id": 61, "title": "Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession Of Native Americans And The Road To Indian Territory", "author": "Claudio Saunt", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "In this grim history, Claudio Saunt traces the forced deportation of Native American nations by an administration whose greed, bolstered by a growing rhetoric of white supremacy, robbed sovereign land and condemned thousands to die while publicizing a narrative of Native Americans as inevitably doomed. They were not – and, as Saunt documents, ably defended themselves by word and deed against the looming removal – but white America’s avarice bent the law at will. Unworthy Republic traces the government hypocrisy, civil uproar, petty despotism, chilling bureaucracy and human cost of an attempted genocide America has yet to reckon with.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "9780393609844", "cover": "9780393609844", "goodreads": 45894124, "itunes": 9780393609844, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+1jsXyuHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780393609844", "isbn10": "0393609847", "links": [] }, "62": { "id": 62, "title": "When Stars Are Scattered", "author": "Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, illustrated by Iman Geddy", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "Omar Mohamed and his brother Hassan are always waiting. Waiting for news of the war in Somalia; waiting for their mother to find them in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya; waiting for water and food; waiting for something to change. At the start of When Stars are Scattered, they’ve already been waiting seven years. This middle-grade graphic novel (taken from Mohamed’s own life, co-authored and engagingly drawn by Victoria Jamieson) follows Omar through the next decade. Though unsparing about grim realities in the camp and the trauma behind it, it’s ultimately a deeply affecting story of community, endurance and hope. (For ages 9 to 12)
", "tags": [ "family matters", "comics & graphic novels", "identity & culture", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "kids’ books" ], "isbn": "9780525553908", "cover": "9780525553908", "goodreads": 52024838, "itunes": 9780525553908, "bookshop": 9780525553908, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525553908", "isbn10": "0525553908", "links": [] }, "63": { "id": 63, "title": "The New Map: Energy, Climate And The Clash Of Nations", "author": "Daniel Yergin", "reviewers": [ "Greg Myre" ], "text": "For decades, no one has written in more sweeping terms about the international energy industry and how it shapes the world than Daniel Yergin. He has done it again with The New Map. His eloquent narratives take you from the first successful fracking operation in tiny Dish, Texas, in 1998, to China’s obsession with dominating the South China Sea, to the global reckoning on energy and climate change. He offers a 360-degree analysis on how nations are moving fitfully from a dependence on oil toward renewables. Spoiler alert: Whatever your preferred energy source, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "tales from around the world", "it’s all geek to me", "rather long", "science!" ], "isbn": "9781594206436", "cover": "9781594206436", "goodreads": 51122895, "itunes": 9781594206436, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51GJVT+TYLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781594206436", "isbn10": "15942064311", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 63, "book": "The New Map", "source": "KUOW", "text": "Where A Booming Oil Market Meets Wind And Solar Alternatives, Geopolitics Happens", "url": "https://kuow.org/stories/where-a-booming-oil-market-meets-wind-and-solar-alternatives-geopolitics-happens" } ] }, "64": { "id": 64, "title": "Finna: Poems", "author": "Nate Marshall", "reviewers": [ "Hope Wabuke" ], "text": "In Finna, Nate Marshall’s lyrical genius waxes electric: “before we get started we would like to acknowledge that we live on some unceded bones,” Marshall begins in “landless acknowledgment,” the first poem from his sophomore poetry collection, which deconstructs the uneasy relationship of Black Americans to home before understanding that “why you think I call my compatriots/ homies? maybe ain’t no home except for how your beloveds cuss or pray or pronounce.” Turning on an apex of complex craft, imagistic narrative and rhythmic resonance, Marshall’s Finna weaves an intricately detailed tapestry of Blackness, masculinity and society.
", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780593132456", "cover": "9780593132456", "goodreads": 48984964, "itunes": 9780593132456, "bookshop": 9780593132456, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51TWXIOWmwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593132456", "isbn10": "0593132459", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 64, "book": "Finna", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Finna,' Poet Nate Marshall Is 'All About What Happens Next'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/08/900144186/in-finna-poet-nate-marshall-is-all-about-what-happens-next" } ] }, "65": { "id": 65, "title": "Homie: Poems", "author": "Danez Smith", "reviewers": [ "Hope Wabuke" ], "text": "There is a propulsive energy permeating the poems in Danez Smith’s Homie – a gnawing, gut-wrenching fire that bends form to its will to create new ways of looking at language. “my poems are fed up & getting violent./ I whisper to them tender tender bridge bridge but they say bitch ain’t no time, make me a weapon!” Through the use of the fragment and the coordinating conjunction made symbolic signifier, Smith embeds the line with both the declamatory pause and a forward momentum that moves, in carefully crafted arrangement, to a volta couched in wonderfully resonant images and ideas.
", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "9781644450109", "cover": "9781644450109", "goodreads": 44094014, "itunes": 9781644450109, "bookshop": 9781644450109, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/312LcOn2h0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781644450109", "isbn10": "16444501011", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 65, "book": "Homie: Poems", "source": "NPR", "text": "#NPRPoetry: Danez Smith", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/19/838195063/-nprpoetry-danez-smith" } ] }, "66": { "id": 66, "title": "Love Child's Hotbed Of Occasional Poetry: Poems & Artifacts", "author": "Nikky Finney", "reviewers": [ "Hope Wabuke" ], "text": "In the tradition of Toni Morrison’s Black Book, this collection creates meaning through juxtaposition of text, images and historical artifacts. Consider the quotation of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1844 statement “the sugar they raised was excellent – nobody tasted blood on it,” which erases the enslaved Black body as a site of white violence on sugar cane plantations; this is juxtaposed with an exclamation from Sandra Bland in 2014 – “Good morning, my beautiful kings and queens!” – whose own Black body became a site for white violence and embodies the white violence toward Black bodies that is off-screen in Emerson’s quote. Nikky Finney explores the presence of anti-Black violence embedded within American cultural norms as well as the Black love that sustains throughout.
", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780810142015", "cover": "9780810142015", "goodreads": 48587623, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780810142015, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41KndZfnz4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780810142015", "isbn10": "0810142015", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 66, "book": "Love Child's Hotbed of Occasional Poetry: Poems & Artifacts", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Just Sit Where You Are.' Poet Nikky Finney Says Your Poem Is Right In Front Of You", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/29/823320345/npr-national-poetry-month-nikky-finney" } ] }, "67": { "id": 67, "title": "Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir", "author": "Natasha Trethewey", "reviewers": [ "Hope Wabuke" ], "text": "In Memorial Drive, Natasha Trethewey’s achingly beautiful memoir, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet reflects upon the trauma of her youth while unearthing the legacy of women in her family. Here is the full range of Trethewey’s brilliance: her soft nuance, depth of looking and her shimmering constructions of language and imagery. “All my adult life I have lived with the guilt that I am implicated in my mother’s death – or, more precisely that she is dead because I am not,” writes Tretheway, whose life turns upon this moment when her abusive stepfather came to the teenage Tretheway’s school to kill her and then decided to kill her mother instead.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9780062248572", "cover": "9780062248572", "goodreads": 48613168, "itunes": 9780062248572, "bookshop": 9780062248572, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ExEndxuFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062248572", "isbn10": "006224857X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 67, "book": "Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "After Years Of 'Willed Amnesia,' Trethewey Opens Up About Her Murdered Mother", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/28/895724155/after-years-of-willed-amnesia-trethewey-opens-up-about-her-murdered-mother" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 67, "book": "Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Trethewey's 'Memorial Drive' Tells The Story Of Her Mother's Murder", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/26/895480898/tretheweys-memorial-drive-tells-the-story-of-her-mothers-murder" } ] }, "68": { "id": 68, "title": "Survivor Song: A Novel", "author": "Paul Tremblay", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "The entire book takes place over just a few hours; the main character is an angry, scared pregnant woman in the middle of a viral zombie outbreak. And even though we know – absolutely know – how Survivor Song must end from almost the very first page, Paul Tremblay uses our own bone-deep understanding of the zombie story format and our own trope-exhaustion against us by telling a story where the narrative beats feel almost foreordained, leaving the details of character, place and response to an immediate, ticking-clock disaster as the one true focus. There are entire histories hidden inside here, and whole, sprawling architectures of need and anger and redemption. But no one inside the book (and none of us reading it) get to escape the lunacy of panic or the unforgiving countdown Tremblay hangs over everything.
", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062679161", "cover": "9780062679161", "goodreads": 52581895, "itunes": 9780062679161, "bookshop": 9780062679161, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KQaiv4R0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062679161", "isbn10": "0062679163", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 68, "book": "Survivor Song", "source": "NPR", "text": "You Know How 'Survivor Song' Will End. It's Still Horrifying", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/11/889759658/you-know-how-survivor-song-will-end-its-still-horrifying" } ] }, "69": { "id": 69, "title": "Foreign Bodies: Poems", "author": "Kimiko Hahn", "reviewers": [ "Jeevika Verma" ], "text": "There are so many things we hold on to: relics, memories, grief – all tied to the body. In her 10th poetry collection, Kimiko Hahn was inspired by a collection of ingested and retrieved objects at a museum in Philadelphia, and she uses the foreign bodies of the material world to intimately excavate human behavior. As she explains at the end of the book, she embodies Japanese poetics and leans into ambiguity. So if you have to read the poems more than once to really touch upon the depth of your feelings, you’re doing it right.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "9781324005216", "cover": "9781324005216", "goodreads": 45894183, "itunes": 9781324005216, "bookshop": 9781324005216, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wamxBLi5L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781324005216", "isbn10": "1324005211", "links": [] }, "70": { "id": 70, "title": "Black Sun", "author": "Rebecca Roanhorse", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "Just when you thought prophecy in epic fantasy was passé – enough with the chosen ones already – Rebecca Roanhorse gives us Black Sun, first in a trilogy set in a world inspired by the empires of pre-Columbian America. A young man who’s the vessel of a god travels to reach the holy city Tova by the day of Convergence, escorted by a captain able to sing the sea under control; meanwhile, the young Sun Priest is determined to atone for old wrongs, but generational trauma and fear are difficult to ease. Here destiny and fanaticism drive unforgettable characters forward, without losing a sense of agency, and the worldbuilding is perfection. This is superlative work: inventive, gripping, rich. Best I’ve read in a while.
", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781534437678", "cover": "9781534437678", "goodreads": 50892360, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51h4gbI24MS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781534437678", "isbn10": "1534437673", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 70, "book": "Black Sun", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'I Longed To See Something Different, So I Wrote It': Questions For Rebecca Roanhorse", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/17/924734316/i-longed-to-see-something-different-so-i-wrote-it-questions-for-rebecca-roanhors" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 70, "book": "Black Sun", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Black Sun' Offers A Fantasy Set In Ancient Pre-Columbian Americas", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/16/924648210/black-sun-offers-a-fantasy-set-in-ancient-pre-columbian-americas" } ] }, "71": { "id": 71, "title": "Flyaway", "author": "Kathleen Jennings", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "Prepare to be unsettled, to catch dread welling up in your bones, to pause often on a turn of phrase or image so spare and vivid and lovely it will draw blood. I want to bite Kathleen Jennings’ prose and feel it snap between my teeth it’s so damn good. Flyaway braids together folk horror and fairy tale, things older than the hills, and wild, uncanny and awful politeness. Bettina’s dad and brothers disappeared; she doesn’t think about it. “Once you start forgetting, it’s easy.” Then a letter sets her and two friends on a quest to uncover the truth in this atmospheric Australian gothic.
", "tags": [ "rather short", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250260499", "cover": "9781250260499", "goodreads": 52381384, "itunes": 9781250260499, "bookshop": 9781250260499, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51CjzyamseL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250260499", "isbn10": "1250260493", "links": [] }, "72": { "id": 72, "title": "Hench", "author": "Natalie Zina Walschots", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "Hench counts the human cost of superheroes. And Anna, traumatized and injured by the hero Supercollider while henching for a minor villain, wants to make them pay. Anna is funny, the rage of collateral damage, one of us – where “us” is survivor, is anybody who’s ever worried about making rent or worked for a company that does some not-so-great things. Hench is both high-concept (BAM!) campy (POW!) Silver and Golden Age superhero stuff, and the mundane minutiae of a world where superpowers are real. It’s also the horror of a world with little privacy and information as weapon. Hench is thought-provoking – and a lot of fun!
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "funny stuff", "it’s all geek to me", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062978578", "cover": "9780062978578", "goodreads": 49867430, "itunes": 9780062978578, "bookshop": 9780062978578, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-Yrs5jWtL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062978578", "isbn10": "0062978578", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 72, "book": "Hench", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hench' Counts The Cost Of Those High-Powered Superhero Battles", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/26/917017722/hench-counts-the-cost-of-those-high-powered-superhero-battles" } ] }, "73": { "id": 73, "title": "The Empress Of Salt And Fortune", "author": "Nghi Vo", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "This subtle fantasy novella gives us an exquisitely crafted puzzle box of a tale about a young cleric who discovers 60-year-old intrigues eddying around an exiled empress. It’s a masterclass in storytelling, elegantly unspooled; the kind of story you want to gnaw, sucking on the marrow. The Empress of Salt and Fortune reminds us of the importance of women’s and queer voices in spite and in the face of erasure. It shows us deftly and with understated grace how the rage of marginalized people is raw and powerful and might change history. Even if history doesn’t know it.
", "tags": [ "rather short", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250750303", "cover": "9781250750303", "goodreads": 49882356, "itunes": 9781250750303, "bookshop": 9781250750303, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-OWI0OeHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250750303", "isbn10": "125075030X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 73, "book": "The Empress of Salt and Fortune", "source": "NPR", "text": "Uncovering The Secrets Of A Fallen Ruler In 'Empress Of Salt And Fortune'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/28/822621732/uncovering-the-secrets-of-a-fallen-ruler-in-empress-of-salt-and-fortune" } ] }, "74": { "id": 74, "title": "The Once And Future Witches", "author": "Alix E. Harrow", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "Three wayward sisters find each other and their hope for a better future – one where witching is legal and women have the vote – in Alix Harrow’s gorgeous, passionate fantasy, set in an alternate United States during the suffrage movement. There’s old magic in these pages, a spell to catch a heart and keep it. I love The Once and Future Witches unabashedly. This is a book I want to press into the hands of all my friends and say, see here, this is us. It doesn’t hurt that all the clever allusions to fairy tales and American labor history are just my kind of thing, or that Harrow’s writing is as beguiling and crisp as autumn itself.
", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "family matters", "book club ideas", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780316422048", "cover": "9780316422048", "goodreads": 49504061, "itunes": 9780316422048, "bookshop": 9780316422048, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51k8hGVhT6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316422048", "isbn10": "0316422045", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 74, "book": "The Once and Future Witches", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Once And Future Witches' Will Have You Spellbound", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/17/924561383/the-once-and-future-witches-will-have-you-spellbound" } ] }, "75": { "id": 75, "title": "So We Can Glow: Stories", "author": "Leesa Cross-Smith", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "If you are in the mood for damn good writing but don’t have time to commit to a long novel, consider reading Leesa Cross-Smith’s latest short story collection. She is a gifted storyteller with an economical approach, and has written the most well-observed slices of girlhood and womanhood that I have read in years. She also plays with form – for example, “Girlheart Cake With Glitter Frosting” reads like a recipe. I am a picky short story reader, but this collection floored me.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781538715338", "cover": "9781538715338", "goodreads": 51202686, "itunes": 9781538715338, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+-Nl2qzJL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781538715338", "isbn10": "1538715333", "links": [] }, "76": { "id": 76, "title": "The Roommate", "author": "Rosie Danan", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "I love when a romance novel flawlessly executes a far-fetched premise. Clara Wheaton is a button-downed woman who heads to Los Angeles on a whim to move in with her crush. He flakes, and she’s left with a random Craigslist roommate. She soon learns that she is cohabitating with porn star Josh Darling. It’s common for romance novels to be sex-positive with an emphasis on women’s pleasure, but The Roommate takes this notion a step further and is unabashedly porn-positive. This is Rosie Danan’s debut, and I can’t wait to read what she writes next.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "9780593101605", "cover": "9780593101605", "goodreads": 45023611, "itunes": 9780593101605, "bookshop": 9780593101605, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41u9KewQYrL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593101605", "isbn10": "059310160X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 76, "book": "The Roommate", "source": "NPR", "text": "For September, 3 Romances Almost — ALMOST — Derailed By Work", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/26/917025134/for-september-3-romances-almost-almost-derailed-by-work" } ] }, "77": { "id": 77, "title": "Transcendent Kingdom: A Novel", "author": "Yaa Gyasi", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "Yaa Gyasi’s debut Homegoing is one of my favorite books, and I wondered if her latest novel could possibly live up to my unreasonably high expectations. I shouldn’t have worried; I absolutely loved Transcendent Kingdom. Gifty is a Ghanian American neuroscientist at Stanford, studying the behavior of mice, but she yearns to understand the behavior of humans. As Gifty looks to science to shed light on the addiction and mental health struggles within her own family, she feels drawn to the evangelical faith in which she was raised. Gyasi’s works are often framed as “important” – and they are – but they are also a profound pleasure to read.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "science!", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780525658184", "cover": "9780525658184", "goodreads": 48570454, "itunes": 9780525658184, "bookshop": 9780525658184, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41owccmC8IS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525658184", "isbn10": "0525658181", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 77, "book": "Transcendent Kingdom: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: Yaa Gyasi's 'Transcendent Kingdom' Is A Story Of Science, Suffering And Salvation ", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/book-review-yaa-gyasis-transcendent-kingdom-story-science-suffering-and-salvation" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 77, "book": "Transcendent Kingdom: A novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Yaa Gyasi Says Writing Can Be 'An Act Of Love And Justice'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/09/910679634/author-yaa-gyasi-says-writing-can-be-an-act-of-love-and-justice" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 77, "book": "Transcendent Kingdom: A novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Scientist Feels The Pull Of Faith In 'Transcendent Kingdom'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/29/907225403/a-scientist-feels-the-pull-of-faith-in-transcendent-kingdom" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 77, "book": "Transcendent Kingdom: A Novel", "source": "WFDD", "text": "Yaa Gyasi On 'Transcendent Kingdom' And Communing With Our Childhood Selves ", "url": "https://www.wfdd.org/story/yaa-gyasi-transcendent-kingdom-and-communing-our-childhood-selves" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 77, "book": "Transcendent Kingdom: A Novel", "source": "KQED", "text": "A Quest To Understand Suffering In Yaa Gyasi’s Novel 'Transcendent Kingdom'", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101879777/a-quest-to-understand-suffering-in-yaa-gyasis-novel-transcendent-kingdom" } ] }, "78": { "id": 78, "title": "The Death Of Vivek Oji: A Novel", "author": "Akwaeke Emezi", "reviewers": [ "Jolie Myers" ], "text": "“If nobody sees you, are you still there?” wonders the titular character early in The Death of Vivek Oji. The answer to that question plays out over the course of this tragic and somehow hopeful novel about what it means to live as one’s true self. The rich, gleaming narrative comes courtesy Akwaeke Emezi, a Nigerian author now based in the U.S., who paints their country of birth with vivid color, brutal honesty and fierce love.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780525541608", "cover": "9780525541608", "goodreads": 48595550, "itunes": 9780525541608, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41HDLs+VNHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525541608", "isbn10": "0525541608", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 78, "book": "The Death Of Vivek Oji: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Love Triumphs Over Death In 'The Death Of Vivek Oji'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/04/898733187/love-triumphs-over-death-in-the-death-of-vivek-oji" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 78, "book": "The Death Of Vivek Oji: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Vivek Oji' Is Very Much Alive In This Boundary-Breaking New Novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/03/898545741/vivek-oji-is-very-much-alive-in-this-boundary-breaking-new-novel" } ] }, "79": { "id": 79, "title": "A Good Neighborhood: A Novel", "author": "Therese Anne Fowler", "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "text": "Therese Anne Fowler’s latest novel takes place in Oak Knoll, an imaginary, mildly integrated community in North Carolina. Fowler’s protagonist is Valerie Alston-Holt, a widowed Black university professor, a botanist with a brilliant biracial son, Xavier. Their lives are turned upside down when the Whitmans, a new white family, build a McMansion next door to the Alston-Holts’ modest home, upsetting the ecological balance of Valerie’s carefully maintained land, and killing an ancient, much-beloved tree. The families clash and the result is Shakespearian. An unseen narrator, a neighbor, serves as the Greek Chorus to this story of race, class, region and, yes, tragic love. I hope HBO or Netflix or somebody is paying attention.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781250237279", "cover": "9781250237279", "goodreads": 44084930, "itunes": 9781250237279, "bookshop": 9781250237279, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Y2p6tfy4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250237279", "isbn10": "12502372711", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 79, "book": "A Good Neighborhood", "source": "WUNC", "text": "Gentrification In A Fictional N.C. Suburb", "url": "https://www.wunc.org/post/gentrification-fictional-nc-suburb" } ] }, "80": { "id": 80, "title": "Take A Hint, Dani Brown: A Novel", "author": "Talia Hibbert", "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "text": "In 2019, Talia Hibbert introduced us to the Brown sisters, three winsome, Jamaican-descended Londoners from a loving, affluent family. Her first book focused on eldest sister Chloe. Now, our protagonist is middle sister Danika, a crispy PhD candidate who loves beautiful shoes and sex with no complications – and definitely no romance. But things get plenty complicated when Dani agrees to publicize a fake romance with Zafir, the hunky security guard at her university, to boost interest in the nonprofit he runs. Zaf is a former rugby star (good!) and a hopeless romantic (uh-oh!). The pair’s mutual attraction snaps and sizzles, all set against modern, multicultural London. The perfect antidote to the dumpster fire that is 2020.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "tales from around the world", "for sports lovers" ], "isbn": "9780062941237", "cover": "9780062941237", "goodreads": 52090948, "itunes": 9780062941237, "bookshop": 9780062941237, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Amw5olTpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062941237", "isbn10": "0062941232", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 80, "book": "Take a Hint, Dani Brown ", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sex, Love And Money In 'Take A Hint, Dani Brown'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/09/25/396393913/sex-love-and-money-in-take-a-hint-dani-brown" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 80, "book": "Take a Hint, Dani Brown ", "source": "NPR", "text": "Battle Of The Books", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/21/915222213/battle-of-the-books" } ] }, "81": { "id": 81, "title": "When No One Is Watching: A Thriller", "author": "Alyssa Cole", "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "text": "A neighborhood in Brooklyn is gentrifying at breakneck speed – many of its longtime residents, elderly and Black, are moving suddenly, just … disappearing. Sydney Green, born and raised in Brooklyn, has escaped an abusive marriage on the West Coast and returned to her childhood brownstone to nurse her ill mother. The more Sydney pushes to discover what’s happening to her neighborhood, the stronger the story’s underlying vein of menace gets. (There’s even a website that sounds an awful lot like Nextdoor where the white gentrifiers make secret plans to make sure they will soon be in the majority.) Alyssa Cole, well-known for her romances, manages to combine elements of race, class, conspiracy and history (and a little love) into one satisfyingly creepy book.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062982650", "cover": "9780062982650", "goodreads": 49398072, "itunes": 9780062982650, "bookshop": 9780062982650, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pUp67dtUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062982650", "isbn10": "0062982656", "links": [] }, "82": { "id": 82, "title": "Mexican Gothic", "author": "Silvia Moreno-Garcia", "reviewers": [ "Kayla Lattimore" ], "text": "This gothic tale set in 1950s Mexico follows Noemí, a posh Mexican socialite, who receives a distressing letter from her recently married cousin Catalina. When Noemí goes to check on her, she finds there is something very strange happening at High Place, Catalina’s countryside estate, and sets out to understand what’s haunting her cousin. Silvia Moreno-Garcia skillfully weaves themes of class, race and eugenics into a tale of horror that truly creeped me out.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "identity & culture", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780525620785", "cover": "9780525620785", "goodreads": 53152636, "itunes": 9780525620785, "bookshop": 9780525620785, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-cpoVG7WL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525620785", "isbn10": "0525620788", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 82, "book": "Mexican Gothic", "source": "NCPR", "text": "North Country Bookmarks: What Scares Us And Why? ", "url": "https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/42398/20201002/north-country-bookmarks-what-scares-us-and-why" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 82, "book": "Mexican Gothic", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Jane Eyre' Meets 'Dracula' In This Sharp, Inventive 'Mexican Gothic' Tale", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/09/889365673/jane-eyre-meets-dracula-in-this-sharp-inventive-mexican-gothic-tale" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 82, "book": "Mexican Gothic", "source": "NPR", "text": "Pitch-Perfect 'Mexican Gothic' Ratchets Up The Dread", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/02/886008274/pitch-perfect-mexican-gothic-ratchets-up-the-dread" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 82, "book": "Mexican Gothic", "source": "NPR", "text": "Colonialism, Eugenics And Downright Terror In 'Mexican Gothic'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/09/24/398263892/colonialism-eugenics-and-downright-terror-in-mexican-gothic" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 82, "book": "Mexican Gothic", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia On Her New Haunted House Mystery", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/27/884213548/author-silvia-moreno-garcia-on-her-new-haunted-house-mystery" } ] }, "83": { "id": 83, "title": "You Never Forget Your First: A Biography Of George Washington", "author": "Alexis Coe", "reviewers": [ "Kelsey Page" ], "text": "Alexis Coe doesn’t succumb to larger-than-life caricatures or gloss over flaws in her biography of George Washington – the first written by a woman in 40 years, she says. The resulting narrative of Washington’s life feels refreshingly human. Every anecdote is enhanced with details from the lives of the people around him – friends, foes, family, people he enslaved – and lists like “Frenemies” and “Pettiest Acts” add plenty of personality to the historical figure you thought you knew. Coe’s take on Washington is fun to read, and you’ll soon wonder why you assumed Washington biographies were only meant to be Father’s Day gifts.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "9780735224100", "cover": "9780735224100", "goodreads": 51239966, "itunes": 9780735224100, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oG7Wna-rL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780735224100", "isbn10": "0735224102", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 83, "book": "You Never Forget Your First", "source": "KQED", "text": "The George Washington You Don't Know Emerges in Alexis Coe's 'You Never Forget Your First'", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101876031/the-george-washington-you-dont-know-emerges-in-alexis-coes-you-never-forget-your-first" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 83, "book": "You Never Forget Your First", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Nerdette Book Club: ‘You Never Forget Your First’", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/nerdette-book-club-you-never-forget-your-first/97f121d7-d087-44a3-995f-73a9cf9c524e" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 83, "book": "You Never Forget Your First", "source": "WOSU", "text": "You Never Forget Your First' Isn't Your Traditional Biography Of A President", "url": "https://radio.wosu.org/post/you-never-forget-your-first-isnt-your-traditional-biography-president#stream/0" } ] }, "84": { "id": 84, "title": "Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close", "author": "Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman", "reviewers": [ "Khalon Richard", "Kelsey Page" ], "text": "Big Friendship – the name Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow gave to intentional, committed, long-term friendships – is part memoir, part thesis for elevating how we view platonic relationships. Backing up their experiences with sociological research, these besties (who co-host the Call Your Girlfriend podcast) write in the collective “we” about the ups and downs of their own friendship, ultimately inventing a new framework for relationship maintenance. We read Big Friendship as a two-person book club and an exercise in understanding our own friendship – and we came away with a new sense of what it means to invest in the Big Friendships in our lives.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9781982111908", "cover": "9781982111908", "goodreads": 52766000, "itunes": 9781982111908, "bookshop": 9781982111908, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41JV+V6GeqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982111908", "isbn10": "1982111909", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 84, "book": "Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close", "source": "Iowa Public Radio", "text": "New Book Explores The Power Of Longstanding Friendships ", "url": "https://www.iowapublicradio.org/show/talk-of-iowa/2020-07-22/new-book-explores-the-power-of-longstanding-friendships" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 84, "book": "Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close", "source": "KQED", "text": "Friendship: The Other Love of Your Life", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/531/friendship-the-other-love-of-your-life" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 84, "book": "Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close", "source": "NPR", "text": "Aminatou Sow, Ann Friedman And Their 'Big Friendship'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/22/894415118/aminatou-sow-ann-friedman-and-their-big-friendship" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 84, "book": "Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Big Friendships Take Work, But They Have Big Rewards", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/big-friendships-take-work-but-they-have-big-rewards/d8311907-460d-4bd9-bb9b-feca1ce89a18" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 84, "book": "Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "In 'Big Friendship,' Best Friends Share How To Stay Close For The Long Haul", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/09/29/call-your-girlfriend-rebroadcast" } ] }, "85": { "id": 85, "title": "Hidden Valley Road: Inside The Mind Of An American Family", "author": "Robert Kolker", "reviewers": [ "Linda Holmes" ], "text": "Robert Kolker tells the true story of the Galvin family. They had 12 children, and six of their 10 boys were diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1960s and 1970s, when far less was known about the disease. From the problems with institutions and ineffective treatments to the family’s work with researchers who wanted to study them, it’s a sobering look at the lives the brothers lived and the way the family as a whole was changed.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9780385543767", "cover": "9780385543767", "goodreads": 50088631, "itunes": 9780385543767, "bookshop": 9780385543767, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51s+M6jHpfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780385543767", "isbn10": "038554376X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 85, "book": "Hidden Valley Road: Inside The Mind Of An American Family", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'Hidden Valley Road' Explores One Family's Harrowing Battle With Schizophrenia ", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/hidden-valley-road-explores-one-familys-harrowing-battle-schizophrenia" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 85, "book": "Hidden Valley Road: Inside The Mind Of An American Family", "source": "KWGS", "text": " 'Hidden Valley Road: Inside The Mind Of An American Family'", "url": "https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/post/hidden-valley-road-inside-mind-american-family" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 85, "book": "Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Hidden Valley Road,' A Family's Journey Helps Shift The Science Of Mental Illness", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/05/826695581/in-hidden-valley-road-a-familys-journey-helps-shift-the-science-of-mental-illnes" } ] }, "86": { "id": 86, "title": "One To Watch: A Novel", "author": "Kate Stayman-London", "reviewers": [ "Linda Holmes" ], "text": "In Kate Stayman-London’s novel, Bea is a plus-size fashion blogger who writes a piece about her frustration with a dating show that is very similar, let’s say, to The Bachelorette. Before she knows it, she finds herself invited to become the next season’s star. The book is sharp-eyed about media, about reality television and about the bodies we live in. But it’s also funny and hopeful and terribly charming.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "no biz like show biz", "identity & culture", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "9780525510444", "cover": "9780525510444", "goodreads": 53103895, "itunes": 9780525510444, "bookshop": 9780525510444, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zz8QfLG-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525510444", "isbn10": "0525510443", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 86, "book": "One To Watch: A Novel", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "With ‘One To Watch,’ Author Kate Stayman-London Corrects A Reality TV Blind Spot", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/one-to-watch-corrects-a-reality-tv-blind-spot/9b16a584-0343-4d71-9b69-91841b2cf89d" } ] }, "87": { "id": 87, "title": "This Is One Way To Dance: Essays", "author": "Sejal Shah", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "The essays in Sejal Shah’s finely wrought debut explore congruent realities: to be born and bred in America while simultaneously embedded in the Gujarati diaspora. Shah brings refreshing and depressing observations about having dark skin and an “exotic” name when the only country you’ve lived in is America – and reminds us that India is a giant place with multitudinous cultures. Shah also goes beyond cultural commentary, exploring both her development as a writer and the meaningful relationships in her life, including those she’s lost.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780820357232", "cover": "9780820357232", "goodreads": 53106817, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780820357232, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/410BAg5qp0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780820357232", "isbn10": "0820357235", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 87, "book": "This Is One Way to Dance: Essays", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'This Is One Way To Dance' Explores A Life Straddling Congruent Realities", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/04/868326004/this-is-one-way-to-dance-explores-a-life-straddling-congruent-realities" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 87, "book": "This Is One Way to Dance: Essays", "source": "KNPR", "text": " 'This Is One Way To Dance' Explores A Life Straddling Congruent Realities", "url": "https://knpr.org/npr/2020-06/one-way-dance-explores-life-straddling-congruent-realities" } ] }, "88": { "id": 88, "title": "Leave The World Behind: A Novel", "author": "Rumaan Alam", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "If I had to choose one novel for readers of the future to help them understand what it was like to live through 2020, I’d choose Leave the World Behind. A slippery and duplicitous marvel, Rumaan Alam’s story opens on the domestic bickering of a family vacation car trip. It quickly takes on aspects of both a suspense story and a witty comedy of manners about race. Very slowly, it morphs into a vision of disaster that both the characters and we readers keep denying. Atmospheric and prescient, Alam’s novel captures the rhythms of how we live right now.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9780062667632", "cover": "9780062667632", "goodreads": 50358031, "itunes": 9780062667632, "bookshop": 9780062667632, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41TMXm+kG7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062667632", "isbn10": "0062667637", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 88, "book": "Leave the World Behind: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Leave The World Behind,' 2 Families Face The Unknown Together", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/07/921093816/in-leave-the-world-behind-2-families-face-the-unknown-together" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 88, "book": "Leave the World Behind: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Leave The World Behind' Is A Signature Novel For This Blasted Year", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/915978294/leave-the-world-behind-is-a-signature-novel-for-this-blasted-year" } ] }, "89": { "id": 89, "title": "You Deserve Each Other", "author": "Sarah Hogle", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "This small-town romance has a deliciously wicked premise: Naomi and Nicholas are engaged, but they utterly loathe each other. Alas, neither can afford to call off the wedding – so obviously, they must each make the other person mad enough to call it quits. Thus ensues a series of pranks and deliberate attempts to push one another’s buttons in the way that only former lovers can. And in trying to go out in a blaze of glory, Naomi and Nicholas find they might want to stay together after all.
", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "love & romance", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780593085424", "cover": "9780593085424", "goodreads": 49758584, "itunes": 9780593085424, "bookshop": 9780593085424, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ulIqXaZnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593085424", "isbn10": "0593085426", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 89, "book": "You Deserve Each Other ", "source": "NPR", "text": "For April, 3 Romances That Provide Delicious Escapes", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/23/841740928/for-april-3-romances-that-provide-delicious-escapes" } ] }, "90": { "id": 90, "title": "Life Of A Klansman: A Family History In White Supremacy", "author": "Edward Ball", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "In Life of a Klansman, Edward Ball does not shirk from his ancestor’s role in preserving white supremacy, and neither should you. Ball’s great-great-grandfather was a “petit-blanc” or “little white” who belonged to a Ku Klux Klan-affiliated militia in postbellum New Orleans that terrorized Black Americans and tried to overthrow the government. In 363 pages, Ball details the events and attitudes that normalized violence in pursuit of a cruel cause, checking his own assumptions and that of his readers that history is only about the past.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "identity & culture", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "nonfiction", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780374186326", "cover": "9780374186326", "goodreads": 51542218, "itunes": 9780374186326, "bookshop": 9780374186326, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414olQ4QuZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374186326", "isbn10": "0374186324", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 90, "book": "Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Life Of A Klansman,' Edward Ball Traces A Difficult Family History", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/02/898274929/in-life-of-a-klansman-edward-ball-traces-a-difficult-family-history" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 90, "book": "Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "White Author Reflects On Finding, Bringing Together Descendants Of Enslaved People In His Family", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/08/10/edward-ball-life-of-a-klansman" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 90, "book": "Life Of A Klansman: A Family History In White Supremacy", "source": "WWNO", "text": "The Reading Life: Edward Ball On 'Life Of A Klansman'", "url": "https://www.wwno.org/post/reading-life-edward-ball" } ] }, "91": { "id": 91, "title": "Temporary", "author": "Hilary Leichter", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "All the narrator of Hilary Leichter’s satirical first novel really wants is permanence. Or to be more precise, “the steadiness”: i.e., a permanent job. It’s a dream, though, that seems unlikely to happen. Her mother was a temp, and the chances are good (bad?) that she will be, too. As she reports for work at a series of increasingly bizarre workplaces – from window washing to delivering mail to a gig on a pirate ship to one where she reports for duty as a barnacle – the pace of the novel speeds up and becomes ever more surreally delectable.
", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "rather short" ], "isbn": "9781566895668", "cover": "9781566895668", "goodreads": 45011012, "itunes": 9781566895668, "bookshop": 9781566895668, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+ZWJ7+hiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781566895668", "isbn10": "1566895669", "links": [] }, "92": { "id": 92, "title": "The Cactus League: A Novel", "author": "Emily Nemens", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "You don’t absolutely have to love baseball to enjoy this, but it’s a bonus if you do. However, any fan of character-driven fiction will find much to appreciate in this smart, crisply written novel-in-stories of a baseball team during spring training in Arizona. But Emily Nemens isn’t interested in just the players: In nine chapters (one for each inning, of course), she vividly portrays a diverse group of people associated with the Lions, including players, concession stand workers, owners, coaches, agents and hangers-on (think Annie Savoy in Bull Durham) and even the team’s organist.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "for sports lovers", "the states we’re in", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "9780374117948", "cover": "9780374117948", "goodreads": 45892265, "itunes": 9780374117948, "bookshop": 9780374117948, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374117948", "isbn10": "0374117942", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 92, "book": "The Cactus League: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Batting Around The Edge Of The Bigs In 'The Cactus League", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/08/804056799/batting-around-the-edge-of-the-bigs-in-the-cactus-league" } ] }, "93": { "id": 93, "title": "How To Wash The Dishes", "author": "Peter Miller", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Friedman Winston" ], "text": "If you’re like me, you’ve probably washed more dishes in quarantine than any other time in your life. So how fortuitous that Peter Miller’s How to Wash the Dishes arrived on my doorstep the first week of March. It’s exactly what it sounds like, with chapters like: “Tools, Tricks, and Troublemakers” (never put your knives in soapy water), “Three Recipes from the Dishes’ Point of View” (how to make an omelet and have the dishes cleaned before you serve it) and “Quiet Villains and Unexpected Friends” (large bowls hog all the space in the sink – get them cleaned first). Read this little ode to dishwashing and you may never look at a pile of dirty dishes with despair again.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "rather short", "it’s all geek to me", "cookbooks & food", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9781611807622", "cover": "9781611807622", "goodreads": 51696468, "itunes": 9781611807622, "bookshop": 9781611807622, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31HhUK217AL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781611807622", "isbn10": "161180762X", "links": [] }, "94": { "id": 94, "title": "I Want You to Know We're Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir", "author": "Esther Safran Foer", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Friedman Winston" ], "text": "Growing up, Esther Safran Foer didn’t know much about her family’s history. The child of two Holocaust survivors, she was used to the silence. “My parents were reluctant to speak of the past, and I learned to maneuver around difficult subjects” she writes in I Want You to Know We’re Still Here. Eventually she wanted to know more, and so she set out with just a faded photograph and some historical records to try to find the family that hid her father from the Nazis. Part mystery, part memoir, she takes you on a journey to a small Ukrainian town to try to fill in the gaps of her history.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780525575986", "cover": "9780525575986", "goodreads": 51231528, "itunes": 9780525575986, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Kp45WHlJL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525575986", "isbn10": "0525575987", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 94, "book": "I Want You to Know We're Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Discusses Her 'Post-Holocaust Memoir'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/29/823592902/author-discusses-her-post-holocaust-memoir" } ] }, "95": { "id": 95, "title": "No Rules Rules: Netflix And The Culture Of Reinvention", "author": "Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer", "reviewers": [ "Neal Carruth" ], "text": "We all know Netflix has been a disruptive force in business – first in video rental and then in film/TV production. Less well-known is Netflix’s unusual corporate culture, shaped by co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings. Hastings has evangelized an ethos of “freedom and responsibility.” Managers are given great latitude to make major decisions – but they are subjected to candid feedback that’s withering at times. In a twist on a traditional management book, Hastings doesn’t just ask us to take his word for the wisdom of his approach. His co-author, business school professor Erin Meyer, gets equal billing – and provides some skeptical balance – in a fascinating dissection of what makes Netflix such a dominant company.
", "tags": [ "no biz like show biz", "nonfiction", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9781984877864", "cover": "9781984877864", "goodreads": 51718082, "itunes": 9781984877864, "bookshop": 9781984877864, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sHbkWQbwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984877864", "isbn10": "19848778611", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 95, "book": "No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention", "source": "NPR", "text": "Netflix CEO Embraces 'No Rules,' But Work Is Anything But Chill", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/15/912917612/netflix-ceo-embraces-no-rules-but-work-is-anything-but-chill" } ] }, "96": { "id": 96, "title": "Trouble The Saints: A Novel", "author": "Alaya Dawn Johnson", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "Phyllis LeBlanc has saint’s hands. Her knives never miss; it’s a terrible gift that’s made her into a Manhattan mob boss’ most feared enforcer. She has another troublesome gift: She can pass for white. Downtown, she’s Phyllis, but uptown, she’s Pea – a fraught and dangerous balance to hold. And both sides of her are tired of life as a killer, even though refusing to use her saint’s hands puts her own life in danger. Phyllis has been telling herself she only kills people who deserve it, but how much good does that really do in a world broken by racism and hatred? This is a knotty, painful, gorgeously told historical fantasy in which nobody’s hands are clean, nobody escapes the consequences of their own actions and the past will not stay buried.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "for history lovers", "the dark side", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250175342", "cover": "9781250175342", "goodreads": 52380207, "itunes": 9781250175342, "bookshop": 9781250175342, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417wwcU5VGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250175342", "isbn10": "1250175348", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 96, "book": "Trouble the Saints", "source": "NPR", "text": "Think Fantasy Is Kid Stuff? Try 'Trouble The Saints'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/23/894362344/think-fantasy-is-kid-stuff-try-trouble-the-saints" } ] }, "97": { "id": 97, "title": "Ring Shout", "author": "P. Djèlí Clark", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "In P. Djéli Clark’s version of the Jim Crow South, The Birth of a Nation wasn’t just a movie – it was a summoning spell that brought the pointy headed, pale-skinned demons called Ku Kluxes to Earth to feed off the hatred of human Klansmen. Standing against the Klan are demon-hunters Maryse, Sadie and Chef, backed by the power of the ring shouts, chants led by the old Gullah woman Nana Jean. But hatred goes both ways, and Maryse must learn how to use her own before the demons do. Ring Shout is a novella, but it packs cinematic excitement, shuddering body horror, real history and wrenching emotion into its short length.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "book club ideas", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250767028", "cover": "9781250767028", "goodreads": 49247242, "itunes": 9781250767028, "bookshop": 9781250767028, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41uN1OQlLNL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250767028", "isbn10": "1250767024", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 97, "book": "Ring Shout", "source": "NPR", "text": "History And Hatred Drive The Horror In 'Ring Shout'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/924604118/history-and-hatred-drive-the-horror-in-ring-shout" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 97, "book": "Ring Shout", "source": "NPR", "text": "History And Hatred Drive The Horror In 'Ring Shout'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/924604118/history-and-hatred-drive-the-horror-in-ring-shout" } ] }, "98": { "id": 98, "title": "Wow, No Thank You.: Essays", "author": "Samantha Irby", "reviewers": [ "Preeti Aroon" ], "text": "Buckle in for TMI hilarity with Samantha Irby’s essay collection. No topic is too intimate or too gross for this always-frank writer, a woman who has depression, Crohn’s disease and a history of passing “gerbil-size” period clots. With raw honesty, Irby makes the mundanity of living in Kalamazoo, Mich., laugh-out-loud hilarious – everything from homeownership (“must I really learn things about grass”) to buying a car (which her wife immediately “defiled” with “MOM S***” like reusable grocery bags and granola bars). Irby offers desperately needed comic relief from pandemic stress.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9780525563488", "cover": "9780525563488", "goodreads": 49960031, "itunes": 9780525563488, "bookshop": 9780525563488, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MFLYMaIvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525563488", "isbn10": "0525563482", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 98, "book": "Wow, No Thank You.: Essays", "source": "NPR", "text": "Samantha Irby: 'This Is The Glamorous Life Of A Writer'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/28/822561360/samantha-irby-this-is-the-glamorous-life-of-a-writer" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 98, "book": "Wow, No Thank You.: Essays", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Samantha Irby On 'Wow, No Thank You.'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/wow-no-thank-you/" } ] }, "99": { "id": 99, "title": "Sisters: A Novel", "author": "Daisy Johnson", "reviewers": [ "Sarah Handel" ], "text": "Looking for a creepy read to take your mind away from the horrors of now? July and September, the titular sisters born 10 months apart, are completely enmeshed with one another, living just this side of wild in a mouldering house on the English coast. Daisy Johnson dials up the dread notch by notch as you slowly learn the story of how the teen sisters arrived at their decrepit destination, after being bullied at their Oxford school. So good I mailed copies to three friends.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780593188958", "cover": "9780593188958", "goodreads": 50788186, "itunes": 9780593188958, "bookshop": 9780593188958, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51GnJK-Bw3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593188958", "isbn10": "05931889511", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 99, "book": "Sisters: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Fraught Relationship Between 'Sisters' Lies At The Heart Of Daisy Johnson's Latest", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/26/905838743/fraught-relationship-between-sisters-lies-at-the-heart-of-daisy-johnsons-latest" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 99, "book": "Sisters: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Sisters': A Thriller About A Terrifying Co-Dependent Relationship", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/20/904383276/-sisters-a-thriller-about-a-terrifying-co-dependent-relationship" } ] }, "100": { "id": 100, "title": "Whistleblower: My Journey To Silicon Valley And Fight For Justice At Uber", "author": "Susan Fowler", "reviewers": [ "Steve Mullis" ], "text": "In 2017, Susan Fowler, a software engineer at Uber, wrote a blog post that detailed a toxic culture of sexism, sexual harassment and chaos at the rapidly growing ride-share company. The post forced a reckoning at the company and put a spotlight on Silicon Valley culture. What Fowler’s memoir does so well is show how these stories, and the characters in them (meaning her), did not just spring up from the earth. In Fowler’s recounting of her life and the story we get an understanding of all of the factors and complexities that led to the moment she decided to hit publish on her post – and in turn what life was like afterward. In the end, she is much more than “the woman who wrote the blog post,” and in telling that story she sends the reader away with a deeper understanding of the story behind the headlines.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9780525560128", "cover": "9780525560128", "goodreads": 51137754, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-xM97sELS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525560128", "isbn10": "0525560122", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 100, "book": "Whistleblower: My Journey to Silicon Valley and Fight for Justice at Uber", "source": "NPR", "text": "Uber Whistleblower Takes On Silicon Valley, Armed With Stoic Philosophy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/18/804501264/uber-whistleblower-takes-on-silicon-valley-armed-with-stoic-philosophy" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 100, "book": "Whistleblower: My Journey to Silicon Valley and Fight for Justice at Uber", "source": "NPR", "text": "In New Book, Uber Whistleblower Takes On Silicon Valley", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/18/806886944/in-new-book-uber-whistleblower-takes-on-silicon-valley" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 100, "book": "Whistleblower: My Journey to Silicon Valley and Fight for Justice at Uber", "source": "KQED", "text": "Susan Fowler Shares Her Story of Standing Up To Uber In 'Whistleblower'", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101876021/susan-fowler-shares-her-story-of-standing-up-to-uber-in-whistleblower" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 100, "book": "Whistleblower: My Journey to Silicon Valley and Fight for Justice at Uber", "source": "WAMU", "text": " ‘One Very, Very Strange Year’ And What Happened After: A Conversation With Uber Whistleblower Susan Fowler", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/one-very-very-strange-year-and-what-happened-after-a-conversation-with-uber-whistleblower-susan-fowler/" } ] }, "101": { "id": 101, "title": "Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide To Cooking With The World's Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, With 125 Recipes", "author": "Joe Yonan", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "If you want to kick the boring out of beans, ask a vegetarian; better yet, ask a food editor. The Washington Post’s Joe Yonan is both. In Cool Beans, his third cookbook, Yonan explores both classic bean territory (New England baked beans, pasta fagioli), and leguminous frontiers (cardamom, lime and white bean Bundt cake!). Yonan likes to say that “Anything meat can do, beans can do better.” As so many of us reacquaint ourselves with our kitchens, there’s no better time to test that theory, one crunchy spiced roasted chickpea at a time.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9780399581489", "cover": "9780399581489", "goodreads": 45754812, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780399581489, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lIVCuQUML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780399581489", "isbn10": "03995814811", "links": [] }, "102": { "id": 102, "title": "Simply: Easy Everyday Dishes", "author": "Sabrina Ghayour", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "Sabrina Ghayour won much-deserved praise for her 2014 debut, Persiana. Simply, her fifth book, promises to be a breakout title for the British chef and cooking instructor. Its flavor palate will be familiar to her fans – saffron, pistachios, yogurt, walnuts and the (suddenly ubiquitous) rose harissa. But these are streamlined techniques that yield up weeknight showstoppers, like sticky harissa, sesame and pistachio chicken and green bean salad with tahini, preserved lemon and pine nuts. Colorful and unfussy, these flavor-packed recipes cook up looking just like their pictures, which is bound to be a relief for quarantined cooks old and new.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9781784727031", "cover": "9781784727031", "goodreads": 51476670, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781784727031, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41atQwmZ9RL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781784727031", "isbn10": "1784727032", "links": [] }, "103": { "id": 103, "title": "The Full Plate: Flavor-Filled, Easy Recipes For Families With No Time And A Lot To Do", "author": "Ayesha Curry", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "Actress and restaurateur Ayesha Curry’s second cookbook is one of those “unicorns”: among the hundreds of “fast,” “family-friendly,” “flavor-filled” titles published every year, this one somehow feels new. Born in Canada to a Jamaican immigrant family, Curry draws on subtropical flavors – pineapple, coconut, Scotch bonnet peppers, lime, Sriracha – to produce swoonworthy effects in no time flat. The glaze on honey-garlic lamb chops, the crunch on pancake-battered coconut shrimp, the sticky skin of pineapple chicken thighs with spiced turmeric cauliflower – these are textures and tastes that keep your fork on the move until your plate is empty.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9780316496179", "cover": "9780316496179", "goodreads": 50358132, "itunes": 9780316496179, "bookshop": 9780316496179, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51YfwqzM-3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316496179", "isbn10": "03164961711", "links": [] }, "104": { "id": 104, "title": "Clean: The New Science Of Skin", "author": "James Hamblin", "reviewers": [ "Taylor Haney" ], "text": "James Hamblin knows his timing is awkward. He published a book that questions our cleansing rituals during a pandemic. There’s a line, though, between how we lather up to avoid disease and how we scrub down to feel clean. Where you draw it may help or harm the microscopic creatures living on your body’s largest organ. Who better to investigate than a doctor and journalist who hasn’t showered in years? I myself read Clean and tweaked my soap habits. The results were, at times, pungent, but at least social distancing gave me cover.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "science!" ], "isbn": "9780525538318", "cover": "9780525538318", "goodreads": 48984802, "itunes": 9780525538318, "bookshop": 9780525538318, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31Bsl6FYJLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525538318", "isbn10": "0525538313", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 104, "book": "Clean: The New Science of Skin", "source": "NPR", "text": "In The Era Of Hygiene, 'Clean' Author Makes The Case For Showering Less", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/26/917019912/in-the-era-of-hygiene-clean-author-makes-the-case-for-showering-less" } ] }, "105": { "id": 105, "title": "Where Things Touch: A Meditation On Beauty", "author": "Bahar Orang", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "This is not a collection so much as a lyric essay, poetry as conversation, as correspondence, as exploration, intimate as hands brushing while passing a note between them. Bahar Orang’s musing on the nature, parameters and accessibility of beauty is precise as a scalpel and diffuse as a bouquet, thoughtful and intense, thoroughly embodied and restlessly questing. I scribbled in the margins of almost every page; once I finished it, I put it in a care package and posted it to dear friends.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9781771665704", "cover": "9781771665704", "goodreads": "", "itunes": 9781771665704, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31KoK+AygfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781771665704", "isbn10": "177166570X", "links": [] }, "106": { "id": 106, "title": "Recipe For Persuasion: A Novel", "author": "Sonali Dev", "reviewers": [ "Anjuli Sastry Krbechek" ], "text": "Struggling chef Ashna Raje and former soccer star Rico Silva are torn apart at a young age, only to be reunited later in life in an unideal-but-fun rom-com situation. The book chronicles the backstory of Ashna’s estranged relationship with her mother, who married into a wealthy Indian family, upending her life and, in turn, her daughter’s. I love Sonali Dev’s flair for character descriptions and her descriptions of South Asian culture – without the explanatory comma. In the vein of Jasmine Guillory and Helen Hoang, Dev weaves her characters’ lives together in each of her books, bringing background characters into the foreground in subsequent stories. The family dynamics are stronger and more realized as you, the reader, come across a favorite character in another book. This book provided some much-needed escapism for me this summer.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "fiction", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9780062839077", "cover": "9780062839077", "goodreads": 52695036, "itunes": 9780062839077, "bookshop": 9780062839077, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51rNxZ+31UL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062839077", "isbn10": "0062839071", "links": [] }, "107": { "id": 107, "title": "The Mountains Sing", "author": "Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai", "reviewers": [ "Audrey Nguyen" ], "text": "Informed by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s family history, The Mountains Sing is a fictionalized remembrance of a turbulent 20th-century Việt Nam. Told alternately through the eyes of Diệu Lan and her granddaughter Hương, we follow four generations of the Trần family as they experience the French colonial period, the Great Hunger of 1945, Land Reform and the Vietnam War (or the American War, as it’s known in Việt Nam). Quế Mai’s first novel in English is lyrical and at once heart-wrenching and hopeful. Quế Mai has described the book as her “desperate call for peace and for humans to love other human beings more.” After a year like 2020, I think that call will resonate with many.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "for history lovers", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781616208189", "cover": "9781616208189", "goodreads": 49631287, "itunes": 9781616208189, "bookshop": 9781616208189, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516GdlIJNFS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781616208189", "isbn10": "161620818X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 107, "book": "The Mountains Sing", "source": "NPR", "text": "Memories Of Tragedy Stay With Author Nguyen Phan Que Mai", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/835258024/memories-of-tragedy-stay-with-author-nguyen-phan-que-mai" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 107, "book": "The Mountains Sing", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Mountains Sing' A Song Of Many Voices", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/19/817857822/the-mountains-sing-a-song-of-many-voices" } ] }, "108": { "id": 108, "title": "Vesper Flights", "author": "Helen Macdonald", "reviewers": [ "Beck Harlan" ], "text": "Did you know that a starling flock is called a murmuration? Or that a queen ant can live up to 30 years? In this collection of essays on the natural world, Helen Macdonald serves as a thoughtful tour guide, revealing myriad everyday miracles with encyclopedic knowledge. Her curiosity doesn’t stop at studying other creatures, though. Her observations of nature, sprinkled with personal anecdotes and history lessons, often seamlessly pivot to reflections on humanity – as so many of our fellow creatures’ flourishing depends on us taking a closer look at our behaviors, communities and values.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780802128812", "cover": "9780802128812", "goodreads": 48637750, "itunes": 9780802128812, "bookshop": 9780802128812, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51t0QQoGZ6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780802128812", "isbn10": "0802128815", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 108, "book": "Vesper Flights ", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Vesper Flights' Offers Hope To A World In Desperate Need Of It", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/29/906979271/vesper-flights-offers-hope-to-a-world-in-desperate-need-of-it" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 108, "book": "Vesper Flights ", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "In 'Vesper Flights,' Naturalist Helen Macdonald's Imagination Takes Wing", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/09/10/helen-macdonald-vesper-flights" } ] }, "109": { "id": 109, "title": "Loathe At First Sight: A Novel", "author": "Suzanne Park", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "Melody Joo, a Korean American, is a new production assistant at Seventeen Studios, her first job in the very male-dominated gaming industry. She doesn’t expect it to be easy – but still, she’s shocked and angered by the blatant sexism and racism that flows widely and directly from the CEO’s desk. A slow-burning romance is at the center of Loathe at First Sight, a delightful, eye-opening story about a young woman’s quest to gain her stripes in an industry she loves – and a man who doesn’t mind taking a back seat and letting his heroine shine.
", "tags": [ "love & romance", "it’s all geek to me", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062990693", "cover": "9780062990693", "goodreads": 48716987, "itunes": 9780062990693, "bookshop": 9780062990693, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51h+4puQDpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062990693", "isbn10": "0062990691", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 109, "book": "Loathe At First Sight", "source": "NPR", "text": "Winning The Game Of Love In 'Loathe At First Sight'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/22/904884099/winning-the-game-of-love-in-loathe-at-first-sight" } ] }, "110": { "id": 110, "title": "The Boyfriend Project", "author": "Farrah Rochon", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "The Boyfriend Project is the first novel in Farrah Rochon’s new rom-com series, and it uses a clever premise to introduce a memorable hero and heroine – and an equally captivating group of female friends. After being catfished, Samiah Brooks puts her career first and her boyfriend prospects on the back burner. But then she meets her new officemate, Daniel Collins. It’s a romp with plenty of laughs and dialogue that pops, and much more: Rochon also layers in a sweet dose of intrigue to fuel the sexy fun.
", "tags": [ "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781538716625", "cover": "9781538716625", "goodreads": 52211784, "itunes": 9781538716625, "bookshop": 9781538716625, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NkpB7SGkL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781538716625", "isbn10": "1538716623", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 110, "book": "The Boyfriend Project", "source": "NPR", "text": "For June, 3 Romances Where Sisterhood Is The Secret Ingredient", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/10/873054505/for-june-3-romances-where-sisterhood-is-the-secret-ingredient" } ] }, "111": { "id": 111, "title": "Solutions And Other Problems", "author": "Allie Brosh", "reviewers": [ "Elena Burnett" ], "text": "No one sums up the hilarity, devastation and bizarreness of life quite like comic artist and blogger Allie Brosh. Her long-awaited follow-up to Hyperbole and a Half couldn’t have come at a better time than this absurd and awful year. From stories about mystery poop and a dandelion-fearing child to the struggle for self-acceptance and the heartbreaking loss of her sister, it’s a road trip through a brilliant and inquisitive mind, driven by colorful illustrations, sharp wit and refreshing honesty. And if you’re just looking for laughs, Brosh has elevated the funny pet story to a literal art form.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "funny stuff", "rather long", "nonfiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9781982156947", "cover": "9781982156947", "goodreads": 51323365, "itunes": 9781982156947, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fA55NzTbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982156947", "isbn10": "1982156945", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 111, "book": "Solutions and Other Problems", "source": "NPR", "text": "There's No 'Convenient Structure To Life,' Says Allie Brosh", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/22/915685128/theres-no-convenient-structure-to-life-says-allie-brosh" } ] }, "112": { "id": 112, "title": "Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art", "author": "James Nestor", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Baker" ], "text": "Between COVID-19 and wildfire smoke exposure, the health of my lungs has been top of mind this year. James Nestor’s perfectly timed book looks at what is known through research and what is known by experience – often his own painful experience – as he submits to experiments and breathwork techniques to learn more about something we typically take for granted. Reading this book, I gained both a greater appreciation for my respiratory system and a personal-best long-distance run (breathing through the nose = greater endurance)!
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for sports lovers", "science!", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9780735213616", "cover": "9780735213616", "goodreads": 48890486, "itunes": 9780735213616, "bookshop": 9780735213616, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41aYi-hfFOL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780735213616", "isbn10": "0735213615", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 112, "book": "Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art", "source": "Connecticut Public Radio", "text": "Learning How To Breathe", "url": "https://www.wnpr.org/post/learning-how-breathe" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 112, "book": "Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art", "source": "NPR", "text": "How The 'Lost Art' Of Breathing Can Impact Sleep And Resilience", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/27/862963172/how-the-lost-art-of-breathing-can-impact-sleep-and-resilience" } ] }, "113": { "id": 113, "title": "Conjure Women: A Novel", "author": "Afia Atakora", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Baker" ], "text": "This extraordinary novel made me realize that I haven’t really challenged myself with complex novels since graduating from high school. Because that’s what I was feeling – challenged – in the first chapters following secretive Rue, a young Black woman enslaved on a plantation during the Civil War. Rue’s story gradually unfolds with a series of jaw-dropping plot twists that blur superstition with reality and transform the way the reader sees both Rue and her world. The result is one of the most imaginative and intricate stories I’ve read in a long time – one that almost made me wish I was back in English lit class.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780525511489", "cover": "9780525511489", "goodreads": 51220325, "itunes": 9780525511489, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516tKjciBHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525511489", "isbn10": "0525511482", "links": [] }, "114": { "id": 114, "title": "Roadside Americans: The Rise And Fall Of Hitchhiking In A Changing Nation", "author": "Jack Reid", "reviewers": [ "Emiko Tamagawa" ], "text": "Why read a book about hitchhiking? Because Jack Reid uses the practice to examine shifts in American culture during the 20th century. From being an economic necessity during the Great Depression to becoming a part of the counterculture in the 1960s, by the late ‘70s and ‘80s hitchhiking was seen as dangerous: The hitchhiker was often depicted in TV and film as a deranged psychopath. Roadside Americans carries the reader back to a time when Americans gave people rides without being paid for it.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9781469655000", "cover": "9781469655000", "goodreads": 53046359, "itunes": 9781469655000, "bookshop": 9781469655000, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ntwomBJpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781469655000", "isbn10": "1469655004", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 114, "book": "Roadside Americans: The Rise and Fall of Hitchhiking in a Changing Nation", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "Looking At America Through A Hitchhiking Lens", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/04/08/hitchhiking-america-jack-reid" } ] }, "115": { "id": 115, "title": "Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, And The Birth Of 24-Hour News", "author": "Lisa Napoli", "reviewers": [ "Emiko Tamagawa" ], "text": "Now that “the 24-hour news cycle” is a catchphrase, it’s hard to remember a time when there was no news between 11:30 p.m. and 7 a.m. Lisa Napoli’s book is an engrossing reminder. She takes us into the thrown-together beginnings of CNN, introduces us to the players (including a pre-NPR Daniel Schorr) and gives us a fascinating portrait of founder Ted Turner, the man who wasn’t a fan of the news but did more to make it ubiquitous than almost anyone. It’s a fun and instructive read that will give you more respect for what the network has become.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "9781419743061", "cover": "9781419743061", "goodreads": 50157946, "itunes": 9781419743061, "bookshop": 9781419743061, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61jF92Rr2NL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781419743061", "isbn10": "1419743066", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 115, "book": "Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News", "source": "NPR", "text": "Tune In To 'Up All Night' For The Story Of Daniel Schorr And The Birth Of CNN", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/13/865768820/tune-in-to-up-all-night-for-the-story-of-daniel-schorr-and-the-birth-of-cnn" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 115, "book": "Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "How Ted Turner's Vision For CNN Sparked The 24-Hour News Cycle", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/05/12/cnn-ted-turner-lisa-napoli" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 115, "book": "Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News", "source": "GPB", "text": "Author Lisa Napoli's New Book 'Up All Night' Tells The Story Of Ted Turner's Moonshot To Launch CNN", "url": "https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/07/17/author-lisa-napolis-new-book-all-night-tells-the-story-of-ted-turners-moonshot" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 115, "book": "Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News", "source": "WABE", "text": "Atlanta Author’s Book ‘Up All Night’ Tells The Story Behind 24-Hour News", "url": "https://www.wabe.org/atlanta-author-lisa-napolis-book-up-all-night-tells-the-story-behind-24-hour-news/" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 115, "book": "Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News", "source": "Boise State Public Radio", "text": "Up All Night' By Lisa Napoli", "url": "https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/post/all-night-lisa-napoli#stream/0" } ] }, "116": { "id": 116, "title": "Weather: A Novel", "author": "Jenny Offill", "reviewers": [ "Eric McDaniel" ], "text": "I think ahead to my death the way it must feel to experience it: a time when the present is finally over. Though I also worry, as we all must now, about a death one order higher: the end, as the world warms, of the future. Weather is Jenny Offill’s surreal and oddly buoyant novel about a woman going about the soft tedium of life – her work as a librarian, her responsibilities to her young son and brother (recovering from addiction) – while staring down inevitable demise, of her present and all of our futures.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780385351102", "cover": "9780385351102", "goodreads": 37506228, "itunes": 9780385351102, "bookshop": 9780385351102, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gBoXDe1PL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780385351102", "isbn10": "03853511011", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 116, "book": "Weather: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Jenny Offill's 'Weather' Offers Comic Twist To Modern Cli-Fi", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/jenny-offills-weather-offers-comic-twist-modern-cli-fi" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 116, "book": "Weather: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Marginalia: Jenny Offill On 'Weather' ", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/marginalia-jenny-offill-weather" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 116, "book": "Weather: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Stormy 'Weather' Captures Our Anxious Age With Bracing Wit", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/11/804579851/stormy-weather-captures-our-anxious-age-with-bracing-wit" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 116, "book": "Weather: A Novel", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "Jenny Offill Pioneers The Pre-Apocalyptic Novel With 'Weather'", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/jenny-offill-pioneers-pre-apocalyptic-novel-weather" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 116, "book": "Weather: A Novel", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Writing Fiction About A Changing Climate", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/841568847/writing-fiction-about-a-changing-climate" } ] }, "117": { "id": 117, "title": "Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel", "author": "S.A. Cosby", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "Blacktop Wasteland is a powerful read full of racial commentary that looks at what it means to be Black in Appalachia – Black people are a big part of Appalachian culture, but rural noir hasn’t done a great job of presenting that. This novel does, and that makes it a necessary, timely read. It’s also a galloping thriller that explores the ways in which crime is often inevitable – and sometimes just too good to pass up. With great dialogue and enough horsepower to make Evel Knievel smile, Blacktop Wasteland moves forward at breakneck speed and establishes S.A. Cosby as a crime writer to watch.
", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "mysteries & thrillers", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250252685", "cover": "9781250252685", "goodreads": 51182571, "itunes": 9781250252685, "bookshop": 9781250252685, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LPrzV9b9S._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250252685", "isbn10": "1250252687", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 117, "book": "Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Take A Dangerous Ride Through 'Blacktop Wasteland'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/19/892331415/take-a-dangerous-ride-through-blacktop-wasteland" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 117, "book": "Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Mean Ghost Story And A Souped-Up Crime Novel Will Wise You Up Fast", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/30/893517798/a-mean-ghost-story-and-a-souped-up-crime-novel-will-wise-you-up-fast" } ] }, "118": { "id": 118, "title": "Summer: A Novel", "author": "Ali Smith", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "With Summer, Ali Smith wraps up her amazing seasonal quartet, written and set over the last four years, from the 2016 Brexit vote to the COVID-19 pandemic. This final volume, like the others, is fueled by dismay, hope, heart and flat-out brilliance and reveals overarching connections between recurrent characters and themes. What will keep these books fresh long after the news cycle has moved on is their passionate engagement with the life-enhancing powers of love, art, decency and human connection.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "for art lovers", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781101870792", "cover": "9781101870792", "goodreads": 48989370, "itunes": 9781101870792, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414WKcj2AAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781101870792", "isbn10": "1101870796", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 118, "book": "Summer: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Ali Smith Brings Her Seasonal Quartet To A Close With 'Summer'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905525916/ali-smith-brings-her-seasonal-quartet-to-a-close-with-summer" } ] }, "119": { "id": 119, "title": "Beowulf: A New Translation", "author": "Maria Dahvana Headley", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "This might be the best thing you read all year. It will absolutely be the weirdest. The most exuberant. The bro-iest literary sensation of the age. No matter how you think you feel about the source material – if you loved it/hated it, if it traumatized you, if it ruined and/or energized the English language for you or whatever – Headley’s Beowulf is something different entirely. Yes, it tells the story of Beowulf and Hrothgar and Grendel and Grendel’s mom and the dragon and Wiglaf and everything. Only here, in Headley’s version, Beowulf becomes its truest self: an epic poem made to be shouted over the howls of mead-drunk Spear-Danes as they toast the fallen and lovingly punch each other to sleep. It is thousand-year-old slam poetry full of blood and honor, rap battles, sea monsters and treasure hoards. And if you don’t love it, you’re gonna absolutely despise it, because with Headley’s Beowulf, there is no middle ground.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads", "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780374110031", "cover": "9780374110031", "goodreads": 41940267, "itunes": 9780374110031, "bookshop": 9780374110031, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41o85Mg4X8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374110031", "isbn10": "0374110034", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 119, "book": "Beowulf: A New Translation", "source": "NPR", "text": "Bro, This Is Not The 'Beowulf' You Think You Know", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/27/906423831/bro-this-is-not-the-beowulf-you-think-you-know" } ] }, "120": { "id": 120, "title": "The Hidden Girl And Other Stories", "author": "Ken Liu", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "Ken Liu’s new collection of shorts spools out less like a series of discrete stories and more like a series of tightly interlinked, self-referential chapters of a distributed novel, broken up by diversions, digressions, thought experiments and a couple of pieces that read like intellectual exercises in imaginary brand PR. But there’s beauty to be found in them. Occasionally a deep strangeness. And always an intelligence that feels sharply forward-looking, if sometimes a little bit cold.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781982134037", "cover": "9781982134037", "goodreads": 52163147, "itunes": 9781982134037, "bookshop": 9781982134037, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51f7VThutvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982134037", "isbn10": "1982134038", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 120, "book": "The Hidden Girl and Other Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Hidden Girl' Is Smart, But Not Entirely Human", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/27/809212959/the-hidden-girl-is-smart-but-not-entirely-human" } ] }, "121": { "id": 121, "title": "The Missing American", "author": "Kwei Quartey", "reviewers": [ "Jerome Socolovsky" ], "text": "A lonely widower from Washington, D.C., goes missing in Ghana after he’s duped in a trans-Atlantic love scam blessed by an influential fetish priest. Emma Djan, a 26-year-old newbie private investigator in Accra, immerses herself in the world of sakawa Internet fraud and finds that it reaches the upper echelons of power in the West African country, putting her in mortal danger. The Missing American is a mystery and thriller that kept me spellbound – and rooting for Emma.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "love & romance", "tales from around the world", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9781641290708", "cover": "9781641290708", "goodreads": 53172044, "itunes": 9781641290708, "bookshop": 9781641290708, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5189KqFf8-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781641290708", "isbn10": "1641290706", "links": [] }, "122": { "id": 122, "title": "Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story Of The Oldest Person To Ever Run A Marathon", "author": "Simran Jeet Singh, illustrated by Baljinder Kaur", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "Lace up your running shoes! Young Fauja’s legs are too weak to carry him to school, yet he’s determined to become strong and healthy. A lifetime later, after leaving Punjab to join his family in London, he’s in his 80s when he discovers the joy of running marathons. When fame follows, Fauja is happy his fans are learning about his Sikh background. With lively art by Baljinder Kaur and fast-moving text by Simran Jeet Singh, Fauja Singh Keeps Going will have you cheering as he becomes the first 100-year-old in history to run all 26.2 miles of the marathon. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "kids’ books", "family matters", "for sports lovers", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780525555094", "cover": "9780525555094", "goodreads": 49023847, "itunes": 9780525555094, "bookshop": 9780525555094, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525555094", "isbn10": "0525555099", "links": [] }, "123": { "id": 123, "title": "Prairie Lotus", "author": "Linda Sue Park", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "This is not your mother’s Little House on the Prairie. Though the era, area and some of the characters in Prairie Lotus may feel familiar, the circumstances are wildly different. Upon the death of her Chinese mother, Hanna, who is half white, is uprooted from California to the Dakota Territory, where her father plans to open a dry goods store. A talented seamstress, the 14-year-old is immediately subject to suspicion and prejudice. In Linda Sue Park’s triumphant novel, Hanna must rely on her humor, determination and wits to succeed in this refreshingly different viewpoint of 1880s prairie life. (For ages 10 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "historical fiction", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781328781505", "cover": "9781328781505", "goodreads": 44230407, "itunes": 9781328781505, "bookshop": 9781328781505, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519sPRZJM-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781328781505", "isbn10": "132878150X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 123, "book": "Prairie Lotus", "source": "WXXI", "text": "Connections: Author Linda Sue Park On 'Prairie Lotus'", "url": "https://www.wxxinews.org/post/connections-author-linda-sue-park-her-new-book-prairie-lotus" } ] }, "124": { "id": 124, "title": "Show Me A Sign", "author": "Ann Clare LeZotte", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "Wow! I was unprepared for the power of Show Me a Sign. In 1805, Martha’s Vineyard’s large deaf community includes 11-year-old Mary Lambert. Though hearing and deaf residents communicate easily, many choose to ignore the undercurrents of prejudice and racism between the English settlers and the indigenous Wampanoag. Unannounced, a scientist shows up, determined to uncover the cause of deafness on the island. Mary’s curiosity about him turns to terror when she’s kidnapped and smuggled to Boston as a “live specimen” to be studied. Ann Clare LeZotte’s page turner is sure to leave your breathless. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "science!", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9781338255812", "cover": "9781338255812", "goodreads": 44575095, "itunes": 9781338255812, "bookshop": 9781338255812, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41qOlS5AqjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781338255812", "isbn10": "1338255819", "links": [] }, "125": { "id": 125, "title": "Once I Was You: A Memoir Of Love And Hate In A Torn America", "author": "Maria Hinojosa", "reviewers": [ "Marisa Peñaloza" ], "text": "Maria Hinojosa traces her path to becoming an award-winning journalist, starting with her roots in Mexico City and her upbringing in Chicago. Hinojosa worked for NPR, CNN and others before launching her own media company dedicated largely to telling the stories of immigrants. Hinojosa reveals challenges in her marriage and her struggles with impostor syndrome – doubting her skills and accomplishments. She recounts being treated as “other” – female and Latina – in mostly white newsrooms. As Hinojosa describes her own career, Once I Was You also weaves in the history of a broken U.S. immigration system – creating a powerful chronicle of the country’s complicated relationship with immigrants.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781982128654", "cover": "9781982128654", "goodreads": 50892261, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wr5kcpEYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982128654", "isbn10": "1982128658", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 125, "book": "Once I Was You: A Memoir Of Love And Hate In A Torn America", "source": "Connecticut Public Radio", "text": "Journalist Maria Hinojosa On Her New Memoir, 'Once I Was You' ", "url": "https://www.wnpr.org/post/journalist-maria-hinojosa-her-new-memoir-once-i-was-you-0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 125, "book": "Once I Was You: A Memoir Of Love And Hate In A Torn America", "source": "NPR", "text": "Journalist Maria Hinojosa Tells Latinos, Silenced Voices: 'We Need You'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/13/912335900/journalist-maria-hinojosa-tells-latinos-silenced-voices-we-need-you" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 125, "book": "Once I Was You: A Memoir Of Love And Hate In A Torn America", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "Maria Hinojosa's Memoir Of Love And Hate In A Torn America", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/shows/maria-hinojosas-memoir-love-and-hate-torn-america" } ] }, "126": { "id": 126, "title": "Born To Be Public", "author": "Greg Mania", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "After this year, we could all use a laugh – or, better yet, a lot of them. Enter Greg Mania (not a pen name!) and his hilarious debut memoir about coming out as gay, spending time in New York clubs and becoming a comedy writer. Mania is charming, honest and, above all, laugh-out-loud funny, and while he doesn’t take himself too seriously, he writes elegantly about both the low and high points of his life. This is a gift of a book from a young writer who seems likely to become a comedy star.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "rather short", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9781944866693", "cover": "9781944866693", "goodreads": 51736714, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781944866693, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51crZzULilL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781944866693", "isbn10": "1944866698", "links": [] }, "127": { "id": 127, "title": "His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life", "author": "Jonathan Alter", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "You’ve probably heard the cliché about Jimmy Carter: His presidency was largely a failure, but he’s the best ex-president the country has ever had. But in this fascinating biography of the man from Plains, Jonathan Alter paints a much more complex portrait of the president and his legacy. Alter obviously admires Carter, but the book is fair-minded, portraying Carter as a man with his own flaws and not a saint. Anyone who’s interested in modern American history will find a lot to love in this captivating book.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9781501125485", "cover": "9781501125485", "goodreads": 50363137, "itunes": 9781501125485, "bookshop": 9781501125485, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Bxn1g14vL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781501125485", "isbn10": "1501125486", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 127, "book": "His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'His Very Best' Calls Jimmy Carter 'Perhaps The Most Misunderstood President'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/918289286/his-very-best-calls-jimmy-carter-perhaps-the-most-misunderstood-president" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 127, "book": "His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life", "source": "KJZZ", "text": "Author Examines Jimmy Carter's Life, Presidency In 'His Very Best'", "url": "https://kjzz.org/content/1629127/author-examines-jimmy-carters-life-presidency-his-very-best" } ] }, "128": { "id": 128, "title": "I Will Take The Answer: Essays", "author": "Ander Monson", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Fans of Ander Monson have long known there’s no topic he can’t make interesting. His new essay collection tackles a wide range of subjects – Renaissance fairs, lawn darts, water, the 2011 Tucson massacre – and he writes about each one with his trademark idiosyncratic curiosity and considerable intellect. Monson is a brilliant yet unpretentious thinker, and this collection – original, surprising and moving – is full of some of his best work to date.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9781644450116", "cover": "9781644450116", "goodreads": 45892215, "itunes": 9781644450116, "bookshop": 9781644450116, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51afxCTbFUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781644450116", "isbn10": "1644450119", "links": [] }, "129": { "id": 129, "title": "The Glass Hotel: A Novel", "author": "Emily St. John Mandel", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 pandemic-themed novel, Station Eleven, proved to be especially timely this year, but her newest book, about two half siblings haunted by their pasts, is just as good – if not better – than its predecessor. It’s a stunning look at how people react to disasters, both small and large, and the temptation that some have to give up when faced with tragedy. As she writes, “The problem with dropping out of the world is that the world moves on without you.”
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9780525521143", "cover": "9780525521143", "goodreads": 45754981, "itunes": 9780525521143, "bookshop": 9780525521143, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41FAPO417YL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525521143", "isbn10": "0525521143", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 129, "book": "The Glass Hotel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Staying At Home? Check Into Emily St. John Mandel's Haunting 'Glass Hotel'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/30/818866108/staying-at-home-check-into-emily-st-john-mandels-haunting-glass-hotel" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 129, "book": "The Glass Hotel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'The Glass Hotel,' The Disasters Are Smaller But Still Disruptive", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/24/820146139/in-the-glass-hotel-the-disasters-are-smaller-but-still-disruptive" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 129, "book": "The Glass Hotel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'The Glass Hotel,' Emily St. John Mandel Asks: How Many Chances Do We Get?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/21/818491556/in-the-glass-hotel-emily-st-john-mandel-asks-how-many-chances-do-we-get" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 129, "book": "The Glass Hotel: A Novel", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Nerdette Book Club: Emily St. John Mandel On ‘The Glass Hotel’", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/book-club-emily-st-john-mandel/33ce4e5b-18ee-44ac-af59-b5fccb8edc28" } ] }, "130": { "id": 130, "title": "The Redshirt: A Novel", "author": "Corey Sobel", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Corey Sobel’s stunning debut novel follows two college football players – Miles, a closeted gay man, and Reshawn, a quiet prodigy – as they navigate their lives at a Southern college. Sobel, who played football for Duke University, looks at the toxic masculinity that has defined the sport since its inception, with a gimlet eye and a rare sensitivity. The Redshirt is an understated yet seething novel about what it means to be a man and is one of the best football novels to come along in recent years.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "for sports lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780813180212", "cover": "9780813180212", "goodreads": 53232746, "itunes": 9780813180212, "bookshop": 9780813180212, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oy6aOazeL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780813180212", "isbn10": "081318021X", "links": [] }, "131": { "id": 131, "title": "The Regrets", "author": "Amy Bonnaffons", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "You don’t get to choose whom you fall in love with. That’s the lesson that Rachel, a young librarian living in Brooklyn, learns in this enchanting debut novel – she develops a big crush on Thomas, a handsome young man who, inconveniently, happens to be a ghost. Bonnaffons follows the couple as the two navigate their fiery relationship, and she handles the conceit beautifully. It’s a miracle of a love story, asking perceptive questions about the line between love and (literal) possession.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780316516167", "cover": "9780316516167", "goodreads": 46207678, "itunes": 9780316516167, "bookshop": 9780316516167, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419UeLwB-uL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316516167", "isbn10": "0316516163", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 131, "book": "The Regrets", "source": "NPR", "text": "Love Has A Ghost Of A Chance In 'The Regrets'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/08/803788058/love-has-a-ghost-of-a-chance-in-the-regrets" } ] }, "132": { "id": 132, "title": "Run Me To Earth", "author": "Paul Yoon", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "When I was reading this tragic and beautiful novel, I thought of Wilfred Owen’s lines: “My subject is War, and the pity of War. / The Poetry is in the pity.” Paul Yoon tells the story of teenage orphans Alisak, Prany and Noi, who in the 1960s have come together in the Laotian countryside to make a family united by loss as the U.S. bombing raids on their small country (less than half the size of Texas) continue unabated. The stunning prose – like poetry, really – is spare, subtle and unsentimental, creating a novel that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "seriously great writing", "family matters", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781501154041", "cover": "9781501154041", "goodreads": 46221896, "itunes": 9781501154041, "bookshop": 9781501154041, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514vWltaCFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781501154041", "isbn10": "1501154044", "links": [] }, "133": { "id": 133, "title": "The Voyage Of The Morning Light: A Novel", "author": "Marina Endicott", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "Twelve-year-old orphan Kay Ward accompanies her older half sister, Thea, aboard a merchant ship in 1912, traveling from Nova Scotia to Micronesia and home again, under the command of Kay’s new brother-in-law. On one of their stops, Thea trades some tobacco for a little boy who is then raised as Kay’s brother. One might fear that the big issues raised by this beautiful novel – questions of colonialism, what “goodness” means, cultural differences – might sink it into didacticism, but the amazing descriptions of the voyages themselves and the three-dimensionality of the characters, especially Kay, make this a journey worth taking.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781324007067", "cover": "9781324007067", "goodreads": 48580593, "itunes": 9781324007067, "bookshop": 9781324007067, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41aJj9d2PLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781324007067", "isbn10": "13240070611", "links": [] }, "134": { "id": 134, "title": "Shuggie Bain: A Novel", "author": "Douglas Stuart", "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "text": "A bravura roar of a first novel plunges readers into the heart of one boy’s life in a Scottish housing project in the 1980s. Shuggie Bain, a “wee poofter” by community consensus, holds himself together amid pounding abuse – his own at the hands of other boys, his father’s savagery toward his mother, his mother’s hopeless addiction to alcohol and the wrenching experience of Glasgow’s industrial class during Thatcher-era privatization. But Shuggie Bain is rapturously resilient. Douglas Stuart’s exultant pleasure in recounting the small, lovely details of existence make this powerful novel a work of absolute joy.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "fiction", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780802148049", "cover": "9780802148049", "goodreads": 52741293, "itunes": 9780802148049, "bookshop": 9780802148049, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zOynmVSgL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780802148049", "isbn10": "0802148042", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 134, "book": "Shuggie Bain: A Novel ", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: Douglas Stuart On 'Shuggie Bain'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm/douglas-stuart-shuggie-bain" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 134, "book": "Shuggie Bain: A Novel ", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Shuggie Bain' Will Lift You Up — And Tear You Up", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/14/934548946/shuggie-bain-will-lift-you-up-and-tear-you-up" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 134, "book": "Shuggie Bain: A Novel ", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Shuggie Bain,' Douglas Stuart's First Novel, Wins 2020 Booker Prize", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/19/936751956/shuggie-bain-douglas-stuarts-first-novel-wins-2020-booker-prize" } ] }, "135": { "id": 135, "title": "Cemetery Boys", "author": "Aiden Thomas", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "In Yadriel’s family, men guide the spirits of the dead, while women heal the living. So how can this young trans man prove himself to his traditionally minded relatives? Summon a ghost, of course. Except that when Yadriel tries to find and free the ghost of his murdered cousin, he ends up with the spirit of snarky, troubled bad boy Julian. Yadriel can’t get rid of him – Julian is somehow bound to this world – but does Yadriel even want to? Cemetery Boys grapples with serious issues of identity and acceptance (and it has a couple of real scares), but at heart it’s a sweet, hopeful story of a tightknit family, a first love – and a hot ghost.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "family matters", "the dark side", "love & romance", "young adult", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250250469", "cover": "9781250250469", "goodreads": 52339313, "itunes": 9781250250469, "bookshop": 9781250250469, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gWeABd93L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250250469", "isbn10": "1250250463", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 135, "book": "Cemetery Boys", "source": "NPR", "text": "Family, Identity And A Hot Ghost: Questions For 'Cemetery Boys' Author Aiden Thomas", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909323820/family-identity-and-a-hot-ghost-questions-for-cemetery-boys-author-aiden-thomas" } ] }, "136": { "id": 136, "title": "Kent State: Four Dead In Ohio", "author": "Derf Backderf", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "Derf Backderf brings historical context and a propulsive sense of narrative to this graphical history of the Kent State shootings. On May 4, 1970, at an anti-Vietnam War rally at Kent State University, the Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed students and seriously wounded nine others. Backderf’s noodly style uncannily evokes that era, and his sparse palette (black and white with some restrained gray shading) imbues his tale with force and urgency. His attention to the guardsmen’s side of things – their lack of training in de-escalation, systemic hostility and paranoia toward anti-war demonstrators – strikes a resonant chord in a year marked by images of police and National Guard troops brutalizing Black Lives Matter protesters.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "the dark side", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "comics & graphic novels" ], "isbn": "9781419734847", "cover": "9781419734847", "goodreads": 50159458, "itunes": 9781419734847, "bookshop": 9781419734847, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Zct6uYX6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781419734847", "isbn10": "1419734849", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 136, "book": "Kent State: Four Dead In Ohio", "source": "WOSU", "text": "Ohio Native Peers Back At Kent State Shooting In New Graphic Novel", "url": "https://radio.wosu.org/post/ohio-native-peers-back-kent-state-shooting-new-graphic-novel#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 136, "book": "Kent State: Four Dead In Ohio", "source": "NET", "text": "All About Books: 'Kent State: Four Dead In Ohio' By Derf Backderf", "url": "http://netnebraska.org/interactive-multimedia/other/all-about-books-kent-state-four-dead-ohio-derf-backderf" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 136, "book": "Kent State: Four Dead In Ohio", "source": "WKSU", "text": "Derf's Graphic Novel About May 4th Delivers An Emotional Wallop", "url": "https://www.wksu.org/arts-culture/2020-09-08/derfs-graphic-novel-about-may-4th-delivers-an-emotional-wallop" } ] }, "137": { "id": 137, "title": "Every Reason We Shouldn't", "author": "Sara Fujimura", "reviewers": [ "Alethea Kontis" ], "text": "Olivia Kennedy is 15 going on 16 and the prodigal daughter of two Olympic figure skating darlings. A gold medal pairs skater at the junior level, Olivia no longer competes due to lack of funds and a crash-and-burn performance when she was 13. But things start looking up when short track speed skater Jonah Choi comes to town. The two bond immediately over mild teenage rebellions, workouts and the concept of being “normal.” They challenge each other because they know no other way – second best is not an option in the life of champions.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "family matters", "for sports lovers", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250204073", "cover": "9781250204073", "goodreads": 45043735, "itunes": 9781250204073, "bookshop": 9781250204073, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4157QwmD-3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250204073", "isbn10": "12502040711", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 137, "book": "Every Reason We Shouldn't", "source": "NPR", "text": "There's 'Every Reason' To Read This Charming Love Story On Ice", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/08/809999529/theres-every-reason-to-read-this-charming-love-story-on-ice" } ] }, "138": { "id": 138, "title": "Foul Is Fair: A Novel", "author": "Hannah Capin", "reviewers": [ "Alethea Kontis" ], "text": "Hannah Capin’s Foul is Fair opens with a content warning and a dedication to every girl who wants revenge. At its bloody heart, the story of Elizabeth Jade Kanjara is a modern-day version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, from the point of view of Lady Macbeth. It’s an absolutely gorgeous retelling, artistry on every page. This revenge fantasy is as brutal as it is beautiful.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "seriously great writing", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250239549", "cover": "9781250239549", "goodreads": 42595554, "itunes": 9781250239549, "bookshop": 9781250239549, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51W0iloLzRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250239549", "isbn10": "12502395411", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 138, "book": "Foul is Fair: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Foul Is Fair,' Lady Macbeth Goes To Prep School", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/23/808052899/in-foul-is-fair-lady-macbeth-goes-to-prep-school" } ] }, "139": { "id": 139, "title": "Dance On Saturday: Stories", "author": "Elwin Cotman", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "Elwin Cotman’s third collection of short fiction is only six stories long, but each story is packed with rich depth, like jeweled fruits glinting in wet loam. Mixing mythic and contemporary, humor and horror, melancholy and optimism, Cotman’s stories range from present-day Pittsburgh to fantasy Africa, with a beautifully flexible polyvocal prose. My two favorite stories make up about half the book: “Seven Watsons” and the title story both deliver all the sophistication and complexity of a novel at a third of the length, and center Black joy and endurance.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781618731722", "cover": "9781618731722", "goodreads": 54638570, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781618731722, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51MgxuHYc5L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781618731722", "isbn10": "1618731726", "links": [] }, "140": { "id": 140, "title": "Elatsoe", "author": "Darcie Little Badger, illustrated by Rovina Cai", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "Elatsoe – Ellie to her friends – is an asexual Lipan Apache girl who can raise the ghosts of dead animals, in a world where fairies and vampires are acknowledged members of American society. When she’s visited in a dream by a cousin telling her he’s been murdered, she and her parents resolve to support his widow and child through their mourning – as well as solve the mystery of his murder and bring his killer to justice. Warm and spooky, charming and devastating by turns, Elatsoe brims over with love and deep grief, held in the stronger arms of family and community.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "young adult", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781646140053", "cover": "9781646140053", "goodreads": 49089632, "itunes": 9781646140053, "bookshop": 9781646140053, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781646140053", "isbn10": "1646140052", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 140, "book": "Elatsoe", "source": "NPR", "text": "The World Of 'Elatsoe' Mixes Humor And Horror (And Ghost Dogs)", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/909802296/the-world-of-elatsoe-mixes-humor-and-horror-and-ghost-dogs" } ] }, "141": { "id": 141, "title": "A Silenced Voice: The Life Of Journalist Kim Wall", "author": "Ingrid Wall and Joachim Wall", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "The reporter Kim Wall was 30 when she was murdered on assignment. This book by her parents, the journalists Ingrid and Joachim Wall, is an intimate portrait of their daughter. A Silenced Voice is also intended to raise awareness for the Kim Wall Memorial Fund, an organization they set up to send women on reporting projects around the world. With it, the Walls are working to make sure that Kim Wall’s name will not be a warning, but a tag under ambitious investigative pieces, a line on resumes, a ticket and a calling card. What an act of love.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9781542018142", "cover": "9781542018142", "goodreads": 52276426, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781542018142, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41JwR2Y5xKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781542018142", "isbn10": "1542018145", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 141, "book": "A Silenced Voice: The Life of Journalist Kim Wall", "source": "NPR", "text": "Journalist Kim Wall's Parents Show She Was More Than A Victim In 'A Silenced Voice'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/07/886539792/journalist-kim-walls-parents-show-she-was-more-than-a-victim-in-a-silenced-voice" } ] }, "142": { "id": 142, "title": "Funny Weather: Art In An Emergency", "author": "Olivia Laing", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "Olivia Laing’s new nonfiction collection, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency, is a group of essays loosely constellated around the question “What use is art – and the people who think and talk about it – in a moment of crisis?” The pieces, which jump from Freddie Mercury to gardening to migration to Ali Smith, showcase Laing as an imaginative and empathetic critic. She gets at texture, technique, feeling and politics all at once. And even better, her question is never “Is this good?” but rather “What might this work of art do for someone?”
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "for art lovers", "seriously great writing", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9781324005704", "cover": "9781324005704", "goodreads": 50755102, "itunes": 9781324005704, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51o7dYx-9rL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781324005704", "isbn10": "132400570X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 142, "book": "Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Funny Weather' Asks What Art Can Do In A Crisis", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/13/854153765/funny-weather-asks-what-art-can-do-in-a-crisis" } ] }, "143": { "id": 143, "title": "Notes From An Apocalypse: A Personal Journey To The End Of The World And Back", "author": "Mark O'Connell", "reviewers": [ "Annalisa Quinn" ], "text": "Mark O’Connell’s new book about the end of the world is not called Notes from the Apocalypse, but rather Notes from an Apocalypse – a gesture of articular modesty that points to a larger truth: Despite the climate crisis, despite a global pandemic, it has always been “the end of the world for someone, somewhere.” In a chain of charming, anxious and tender essays, O’Connell examines his own apocalyptic frame of mind by taking “a series of perverse pilgrimages” to subcultures devoted to preparing for the end. It’s a morbid delight.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9780385543002", "cover": "9780385543002", "goodreads": 52019031, "itunes": 9780385543002, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Lp+fdGRHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780385543002", "isbn10": "038554300X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 143, "book": "Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Notes From An Apocalypse,' The End Of The World Is A State Of Mind", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/14/833351047/in-notes-from-an-apocalypse-the-end-of-the-world-is-a-state-of-mind" } ] }, "144": { "id": 144, "title": "Piranesi", "author": "Susanna Clarke", "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "text": "Susanna Clarke’s debut novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, was an epic blockbuster about the return of ancient magic to England during the Napoleonic wars. After it was published, Clarke struggled with an illness that left her disoriented and housebound. Now, 16 years later, she has returned with this mythic story about a man who is himself disoriented and trapped in a mysterious sort of house. His labyrinth is a mansion with oceans roaring through the basement and endless halls of marble statues. Piranesi is smaller than its predecessor in every way, but it is no less bewitching.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781635575637", "cover": "9781635575637", "goodreads": 50202953, "itunes": 9781635575637, "bookshop": 9781635575637, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41PUPnhiHAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781635575637", "isbn10": "163557563X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 144, "book": "Piranesi", "source": "NPR", "text": "Home Sweet Labyrinth: Susanna Clarke's Mysterious 'Piranesi' Will Lock You In", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/14/911998413/home-sweet-labyrinth-susanna-clarkes-mysterious-piranesi-will-lock-you-in" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 144, "book": "Piranesi", "source": "NPR", "text": "Susanna Clarke Divines Magic In Long-Awaited Novel 'Piranesi'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/20/914369450/susanna-clarke-divines-magic-in-long-awaited-novel-piranesi" } ] }, "145": { "id": 145, "title": "Swimming In The Dark: A Novel", "author": "Tomasz Jedrowski", "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "text": "Remember the feeling of the last day of summer camp? Nostalgia for something you haven’t quite lost yet? Tomasz Jedrowski captures that wistfulness in his debut novel, set in 1980s communist Poland. Two young men meet and fall in love. One chafes against the restrictions of society; the other finds ways to thrive within the confines of the regime. Jedrowski’s writing reminds us that even in the face of oppression, life continues. As he told me, “People still fall in love. People still go skinny-dipping. People still smoke cigarettes. And people still dream.”
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "love & romance", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062890009", "cover": "9780062890009", "goodreads": 49977811, "itunes": 9780062890009, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41pYrthP1EL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062890009", "isbn10": "006289000X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 145, "book": "Swimming in the Dark: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Tomasz Jedrowski's Debut Novel Tells Teenage Love Story In '80s Poland", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/10/874340053/tomasz-jedrowskis-debut-novel-tells-teenage-love-story-in-80s-poland" } ] }, "146": { "id": 146, "title": "Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story Of Loss, Love, And The Hidden Order Of Life", "author": "Lulu Miller", "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "text": "This is the book I’ve recommended to people more than any other in the past year. Lulu Miller, founder and former host of NPR’s Invisibilia podcast, weaves together personal memoir and scientific history to ask questions about how we maintain optimism in the face of adversity and find order amid chaos. If that sounds weighty, let me reassure you – the book is surprising and delightful, with one unexpected turn after another. There’s a murder mystery … and also fish. Actually, there aren’t fish. Y’know what? Just read the book.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "mysteries & thrillers", "science!", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781501160271", "cover": "9781501160271", "goodreads": 55855526, "itunes": 9781501160271, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Wcr78QQOS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781501160271", "isbn10": "1501160273", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 146, "book": "Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story Of Loss, Love, And The Hidden Order Of Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "Learning Lessons From Inspiration, Despite Complexity, In 'Why Fish Don't Exist'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/836139237/learning-lessons-from-inspiration-despite-complexity-in-why-fish-dont-exist" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 146, "book": "Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story Of Loss, Love, And The Hidden Order Of Life", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "We Call Them Fish. Evolution Says They're Something Else.", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/we-call-them-fish-evolution-says-theyre-something-else" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 146, "book": "Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story Of Loss, Love, And The Hidden Order Of Life", "source": "WNYC Studios", "text": "Radiolab: 'Why Fish Don't Exist'", "url": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/why-fish-dont-exist" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 146, "book": "Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story Of Loss, Love, And The Hidden Order Of Life", "source": "WVTF", "text": "Lulu Miller On 'Why Fish Don't Exist'", "url": "https://www.wvtf.org/post/why-fish-dont-exist#stream/0" } ] }, "147": { "id": 147, "title": "Honeybee: The Busy Life Of Apis Mellifera", "author": "Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "A lusciously illustrated Apis mellifera rendered in velvety oil paints cycles through multiple chores in a hive. Young readers get a front row seat to the natural world while jaunty narration ratchets up the suspense leading to the bee’s first flight. Think each bee has just one job? Think again. Bees hold a variety of occupations during their short, lovely lives – and you thought you were busy! (For ages 6 to 9)
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "kids’ books", "science!", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "9780823442850", "cover": "9780823442850", "goodreads": 42245182, "itunes": 9780823442850, "bookshop": 9780823442850, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780823442850", "isbn10": "0823442853", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 147, "book": "Honeybee", "source": "WVXU/WMUB", "text": "A New Book About The Life And Importance Of The Honeybee", "url": "https://www.wvxu.org/post/new-book-about-life-and-importance-honeybee#stream/0" } ] }, "148": { "id": 148, "title": "I Talk Like A River", "author": "Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "“I wake up each morning with the sounds of words all around me. And I can’t say them all.” The experience of stuttering is rendered with empathy in this tale of a kid who finds comfort in his father’s advice. Eventually we’re going to have to ask artist Sydney Smith to do us a favor and take a year off; it’s just unfair that he should make books this beautiful at such a consistent clip. Part story, part memoir, with art so keen that I dare you to look at the image of the sun setting between the trees and not squint. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "9780823445592", "cover": "9780823445592", "goodreads": 52886132, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780823445592, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780823445592", "isbn10": "0823445593", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 148, "book": "I Talk Like A River", "source": "NPR", "text": "Finding A Voice And Coming To Terms With A Stutter In 'I Talk Like A River'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/28/938970206/a-stutterer-finds-his-voice-in-i-talk-like-a-river" } ] }, "149": { "id": 149, "title": "Outside In", "author": "Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Cindy Derby", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "Even when you forget about Outside, it has ways of making itself known. In this book, sunbeams, sounds, spiders and other messengers of Nature creep into living spaces: “I’m here, Outside says, I miss you.” This is much subtler and smarter than all those put-down-your-screen stories kids get hit with, and the atmospheric watercolors on these pages mesmerize. Now, more than ever, we need books to remind us that Outside “beckons with smells, sunbaked, fresh, and mysterious.” (For ages 4 to 7)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "science!", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9781328866820", "cover": "9781328866820", "goodreads": 44493709, "itunes": 9781328866820, "bookshop": 9781328866820, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781328866820", "isbn10": "1328866823", "links": [] }, "150": { "id": 150, "title": "Planet Omar: Accidental Trouble Magnet", "author": "Zanib Mian, illustrated by Nasaya Mafaridik", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "If you have a kid who’s a fan of the “Wimpy Kid” or “Big Nate” books, it’s time to introduce them to Omar. He’s an affable Pakistani Muslim boy living in England, and he’s just started school in a new town. He faces prejudice from a class bully and a cranky lady next door, but Omar somehow finds the funny in almost every situation. A book for younger readers that isn’t afraid to tackle real issues head-on in its own, inimitable, Omar-ish way. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780593109212", "cover": "9780593109212", "goodreads": 45864035, "itunes": 9780593109212, "bookshop": 9780593109212, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593109212", "isbn10": "059310921X", "links": [] }, "151": { "id": 151, "title": "Snail Crossing", "author": "Corey R. Tabor", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "A book all about escargot but with very little “GO!” When an intrepid gastropod spies a field of tasty lettuce on the other side of the road, it wastes no time. And while speed may not be its greatest skill, its good-hearted nature will see it through. The anxious child may fret over the little snail’s laissez-faire attitude toward oncoming traffic. But rest assured that all will be well and that the book features at least one very good joke that will have adults and kids alike in stitches. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "9780062878007", "cover": "9780062878007", "goodreads": 45730139, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780062878007, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51N52kMU-nL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062878007", "isbn10": "006287800X", "links": [] }, "152": { "id": 152, "title": "Antkind: A Novel", "author": "Charlie Kaufman", "reviewers": [ "Bradley Babendir" ], "text": "In screenwriter and director Charlie Kaufman’s debut novel Antkind, the film critic protagonist is the only person to see what he believes to be the greatest film of all time – and then the lone copy is destroyed in a fire that also injures him and erases much of his memory. He tries to re-create the film based on a lone surviving frame. The quest takes readers through the darkest corners of the protagonist’s mind and to the front of an apocalyptic war. This chaotic novel is a remarkable experience, especially for fans of Kaufman’s films such as Adaptation.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "no biz like show biz", "it’s all geek to me", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780399589683", "cover": "9780399589683", "goodreads": 52111503, "itunes": 9780399589683, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51C-rRpIpHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780399589683", "isbn10": "0399589686", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 152, "book": "Antkind: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "If Surprise Makes A Great Novel, 'Antkind' Is A Great Novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/08/855650326/if-surprise-makes-a-great-novel-antkind-is-a-great-novel" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 152, "book": "Antkind: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Charlie Kaufman On His Strange New Debut Novel, 'Antkind'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/11/890000856/charlie-kaufman-on-his-strange-new-debut-novel-antkind" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 152, "book": "Antkind: A Novel", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Charlie Kaufman's Debut Novel 'Antkind' Is Full Of Zingers And Petty Paybacks", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/artery/2020/07/31/charlie-kaufman-antkind-review" } ] }, "153": { "id": 153, "title": "How Much Of These Hills Is Gold: A Novel", "author": "C Pam Zhang", "reviewers": [ "Bridget Bentz" ], "text": "The Western gold rush is in full swing. Ma’s long gone, and when Ba dies, siblings Lucy and Sam are suddenly on their own – Chinese American orphans in a scrappy mining town. They set out for the hills with Ba’s body in a chest, determined to give him a proper burial. But nothing comes easy in a place that is as cruel as it is beautiful. C Pam Zhang’s stunning debut novel wends forward and backward in time, asking in stark terms what it takes to claim a piece of the American dream.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780525537205", "cover": "9780525537205", "goodreads": 45895362, "itunes": 9780525537205, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51iuwR33P3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525537205", "isbn10": "0525537201", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 153, "book": "How Much of These Hills is Gold", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'How Much Of These Hills Is Gold,' This Land Is Not Your Land", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/10/830569652/in-how-much-of-these-hills-is-gold-this-land-is-not-your-land" } ] }, "154": { "id": 154, "title": "A Song Below Water: A Novel", "author": "Bethany C. Morrow", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "A Song Below Water is a refreshing new take on the “Supernatural Beings Walk Among Us” trope. Tavia is a siren, forced to hide her ability to compel others with her voice. Effie is trying to start over, leaving the traumas of her past behind. Their friendship sustains them as they try to seem like normal high school juniors and protect each other from the forces that seek to dismantle their literal Black Girl Magic. In this magic-infused version of America, having a voice is literally a superpower – a powerful message for the times we’re living in.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250315328", "cover": "9781250315328", "goodreads": 39085465, "itunes": 9781250315328, "bookshop": 9781250315328, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51OVf5Y8bXS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250315328", "isbn10": "1250315328", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 154, "book": "A Song Below Water: A Novel", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": " 'A Song Below Water' Uses Magic To Talk About The Dilemmas Black Girls Face In America", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/06/08/a-song-below-water-black-girls" } ] }, "155": { "id": 155, "title": "Each Of Us A Desert", "author": "Mark Oshiro", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "This book is a prayer, and it also feels like a warning. In a possible future, after a terrible environmental cataclysm, a desert society clings to life. As her community’s cuentista, teenage Xochtil absorbs the sins of her neighbors to protect them from physical manifestations of their guilt. But when a terrible act forces her to flee her community alongside a girl who ought to be her enemy, she begins to question everything she’s always believed. By turns the desert and the oasis, this lyrical book feels like the journey its characters embark upon as we walk with them through a stark but beautiful landscape.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250169211", "cover": "9781250169211", "goodreads": 41555962, "itunes": 9781250169211, "bookshop": 9781250169211, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xiIFxxutL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250169211", "isbn10": "1250169216", "links": [] }, "156": { "id": 156, "title": "Ghost Squad", "author": "Claribel A. Ortega", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "For as long as she can remember, loving ghosts of Lucely Luna’s extended family have been there to help her and keep her company. When a dark force threatens them, she teams up with her best friend, Syd, and accidentally unleashes a terrible magic spell. Together, they must try to save their town from the curse – or else Lucely may lose her family ghosts for good. This middle grade adventure tale has all the best elements of an old-timey girl detective story combined with spooky supernatural high jinks and a loveable cast. And there’s a chubby tabby cat named Chunk. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781338280128", "cover": "9781338280128", "goodreads": 43319573, "itunes": 9781338280128, "bookshop": 9781338280128, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515YysPWDvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781338280128", "isbn10": "13382801211", "links": [] }, "157": { "id": 157, "title": "Girl Gone Viral: A Novel", "author": "Alisha Rai", "reviewers": [ "Candice Lim" ], "text": "Going viral can be stressful for anyone, but investor Katrina King is dealing with past trauma, and she really values her privacy. So when Katrina ends up in the public eye, her bodyguard Jas whisks her away to his family’s peach farm. As Katrina learns more about Jas’ upbringing, she starts to see him as more than just her quiet, dashing security detail. This is the second novel in Alisha Rai’s “Modern Love” series, which deftly explores technology and dating app culture without being cheesy or overdone.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062878137", "cover": "9780062878137", "goodreads": 50804765, "itunes": 9780062878137, "bookshop": 9780062878137, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41k43OzGT9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062878137", "isbn10": "0062878131", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 157, "book": "Girl Gone Viral", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Girl Gone Viral' Is A Peach Of A Read", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/25/844319699/girl-gone-viral-is-a-peach-of-a-read" } ] }, "158": { "id": 158, "title": "Party Of Two", "author": "Jasmine Guillory", "reviewers": [ "Candice Lim" ], "text": "Jasmine Guillory’s fantastic fifth novel follows Olivia, a lawyer who strikes out on her own and moves to Los Angeles to start her own firm. While sitting alone at a bar, she meets Max, a mysterious man who turns out to be a U.S. senator. As she falls for Max, Olivia grapples with the complications of dating a public figure, and with the complexities of an interracial relationship. It kind of made me think: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry … the American version.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780593100820", "cover": "9780593100820", "goodreads": 50617739, "itunes": 9780593100820, "bookshop": 9780593100820, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FwkQojA2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593100820", "isbn10": "0593100824", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 158, "book": "Party of Two", "source": "NPR", "text": "For This 'Party Of Two', Distance Isn't The Only Bump On The Road", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/21/880320224/for-this-party-of-two-distance-isnt-the-only-bump-on-the-road" } ] }, "159": { "id": 159, "title": "A Shadow Intelligence", "author": "Oliver Harris", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "Modern spy thrillers are increasingly high-tech and cyber-focused. Agent Elliot Kane receives a text message with a video attachment that shows him in a room he is certain he has never been in. It all launches a personal mission to Kazakhstan where the lines between love, truth, fiction and geopolitical interests blur. The vivid description of the less familiar landscape makes the race to get answers even more compelling because the terrain turns out to be the only thing that is what it appears to be. This is a spy novel that will leave you thinking about what cyberthreats each of us could face – and it’s still good entertainment despite the disturbing questions it poses.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780358206651", "cover": "9780358206651", "goodreads": 52491060, "itunes": 9780358206651, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51j7T0YCUBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780358206651", "isbn10": "03582066511", "links": [] }, "160": { "id": 160, "title": "Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, And Compromise In Putin's Russia", "author": "Joshua Yaffa", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "If you want to understand life in Russia under Vladimir Putin, this book is a must-read. Joshua Yaffa unspools a series of portraits, each of which reveals the choices, accommodations and compromises facing modern Russians who want to get ahead and get along in a state system that doesn’t leave much room for doing your own thing your own way. Each character portrayed is comfortable figuring out how to work within and occasionally gently around the system. The people, their stories and their decisions are utterly fascinating looks into an authoritarian mind game.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "tales from around the world", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9781524760595", "cover": "9781524760595", "goodreads": 50215644, "itunes": 9781524760595, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51APUHyWouL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781524760595", "isbn10": "1524760595", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 160, "book": "Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, And Compromise In Putin's Russia", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Between Two Fires' Asks: At What Point Are We Responsible For Our Actions?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/13/794863661/between-two-fires-asks-at-what-point-are-we-responsible-for-our-actions" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 160, "book": "Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, And Compromise In Putin's Russia", "source": "NPR", "text": "Journalist Joshua Yaffa On New Book, 'Between Two Fires'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/26/799741455/journalist-joshua-yaffa-on-new-book-between-two-fires" } ] }, "161": { "id": 161, "title": "Djinn Patrol On The Purple Line", "author": "Deepa Anappara", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "This is an empathetic story of disappearing children in India told from a child’s point of view. This fictional account of a serious problem is told with humor, grace and tension – giving a sense of the overcrowded slums and the friendship, suspicion and love found within them. It is amazing that this is a debut novel.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780593129197", "cover": "9780593129197", "goodreads": 45755173, "itunes": 9780593129197, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61W5Fps4Q+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593129197", "isbn10": "0593129199", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 161, "book": "Djinn Patrol On The Purple Line", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Djinn Patrol' Captures The Lost Light Of India's Vanished Children", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/12/803730942/djinn-patrol-captures-the-lost-light-of-india-s-vanished-children" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 161, "book": "Djinn Patrol On The Purple Line", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Djinn Patrol On The Purple Line,' A Mystery In India", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/03/802392368/in-djinn-patrol-on-the-purple-line-a-mystery-in-india" } ] }, "162": { "id": 162, "title": "Rust: A Memoir Of Steel And Grit", "author": "Eliese Goldbach", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "Eliese Goldbach is not your typical steelworker. But in the difficult, dangerous work, she finds camaraderie with her fellow laborers and the perspective necessary to face past trauma and find her place in the world. This is a journey of discovery for both the reader and the author.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781250239402", "cover": "9781250239402", "goodreads": 45046930, "itunes": 9781250239402, "bookshop": 9781250239402, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MtLZHKycL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250239402", "isbn10": "12502394011", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 162, "book": "Rust: A Memoir of Steel and Grit", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Steel Mill 'Becomes A Family' Author Of 'Rust' Memoir Reveals", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/03/811504581/the-steel-mill-becomes-a-family-author-of-rust-memoir-reveals" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 162, "book": "Rust", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Steel Mill 'Becomes A Family' Author Of 'Rust' Memoir Reveals", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/03/811504581/the-steel-mill-becomes-a-family-author-of-rust-memoir-reveals" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 162, "book": "Rust", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Author Eliese Goldbach On Steel, Trauma And Family", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/author-eliese-goldbach-on-steel-trauma-and-family/" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 162, "book": "Rust", "source": "WESA", "text": "Millennial Woman's Memoir Of Life In A Cleveland Steel Mill", "url": "https://www.wesa.fm/post/millennial-womans-memoir-life-cleveland-steel-mill#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 162, "book": "Rust", "source": "WOSU", "text": "Life And Steel Mix In New Memoir, 'Rust'", "url": "https://radio.wosu.org/post/life-and-steel-mix-new-memoir-rust#stream/0" } ] }, "163": { "id": 163, "title": "Even As We Breathe: A Novel", "author": "Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Blair" ], "text": "Even As We Breathe captures those awkward moments when you’re trying to impress a crush or a new colleague, but you’ve never really learned to play it cool. Set in western North Carolina during World War II, 19-year-old Cowney leaves his home on the Cherokee reservation for a summer job in Asheville as a groundskeeper at the opulent Grove Park Inn. “Heard it’s built on graves,” Cowney says, trying to impress his fellow Cherokee member Essie, who takes a job cleaning rooms at the Inn. This is a novel of intimacy and poignancy but also an exploration of how war and racism affect people’s daily lives. As Cowney puts it, “Empathy is fossilized in our bones.” Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle is herself a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and a high school teacher.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "fiction", "young adult", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781950564064", "cover": "9781950564064", "goodreads": 53451131, "itunes": 9781950564064, "bookshop": 9781950564064, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41YkZYo8QKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781950564064", "isbn10": "1950564061", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 163, "book": "Even As We Breathe: A Novel", "source": "Blue Ridge Public Radio", "text": "First Published Eastern Band Novelist Hopes To Raise The Bar For Rural Writers", "url": "https://www.bpr.org/post/first-published-eastern-band-novelist-hopes-raise-bar-rural-writers" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 163, "book": "Even As We Breathe", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Even As We Breathe': A First Novel From A Teacher Who Writes For Her Students", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/22/931451076/even-as-we-breathe-a-first-novel-from-a-teacher-who-writes-for-her-students" } ] }, "164": { "id": 164, "title": "Overstated: A Coast-to-Coast Roast Of The 50 States", "author": "Colin Quinn", "reviewers": [ "Elizabeth Blair" ], "text": "Standup comedian Colin Quinn has a thick Brooklyn accent, a passion for history and a serious commitment to poking fun at the absurdities of human nature. In Overstated, no state looks too good. The chapter on New York is called “The Quiet State with the City That Never Shuts Up.” In Texas, “the toxic masculinity is thicker than the methane from the cattle.” Quinn writes like he talks. And if you like how he talks, you’ll love this book. If you’re unfamiliar with his standup, I recommend watching either Red State Blue State or The New York Story before picking up this book.\nAnd if you don’t laugh, check your pulse.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "for history lovers", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "9781250268440", "cover": "9781250268440", "goodreads": 51952357, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vXsA6xJaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250268440", "isbn10": "1250268443", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 164, "book": "Overstated: A Coast-to-Coast Roast of the 50 States", "source": "NPR", "text": "In A 'Coast-To-Coast Roast,' Colin Quinn Finds Humor In The State We're In", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/21/915316297/in-a-coast-to-coast-roast-colin-quinn-finds-humor-in-the-state-we-re-in" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 164, "book": "overstated ", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Colin Quinn's Take On The Not-So-United States", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/colin-quinns-take-not-so-united-states/" } ] }, "165": { "id": 165, "title": "Notes On A Case Of Melancholia: Or, A Little Death", "author": "Nicholas Gurewitch", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "Nicholas Gurewitch’s The Perry Bible Fellowship graphic novel may be jarringly at odds with our current moment, or it may be perfectly suited to it. It’s a comedy about death – or Death, to be more precise, as in the Grim Reaper himself. Entirely free of dialogue, it has a tiny little story: Death, feeling depressed, seeks psychoanalytic treatment. But Gurewitch’s virtuosic illustrations make every one of these 48 pages an event. They’re in chilly black and white with a few touches of hot pink, and they’re etched – not inked with a brush or written onto a chip by a stylus, but painstakingly scratched into clay. Combined with the playful mordancy of Gurewitch’s story, the effect is both striking and seditious.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "the dark side", "funny stuff", "for art lovers", "rather short" ], "isbn": "9781506715384", "cover": "9781506715384", "goodreads": 51171777, "itunes": 9781506715384, "bookshop": 9781506715384, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wKtVcNPbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781506715384", "isbn10": "1506715389", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 165, "book": "Notes on a Case of Melancholia: or, A Little Death", "source": "NPR", "text": "Grim Reaper Comedy 'Melancholia' Is Surprisingly Uplifting", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/05/826955138/grim-reaper-comedy-melancholia-is-surprisingly-uplifting" } ] }, "166": { "id": 166, "title": "The Plain Janes", "author": "Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg’s young adult comic about four teenagers-turned-guerrilla-artists charmed critics when it debuted in 2007. Now, in a reissue that includes the original tales along with a new story, Castellucci ages up her message. While the Janes’ lives have grown more complicated, Castellucci’s theme remains earnest, peppy and – in these trying times – something many of us struggle to keep in mind: That art has the power to transform and invigorate us. Rugg stretches his wings here, too. He generally strikes a balance between realism and abstraction, but his experiments with character design in the last story add a hint of insurgency.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "young adult", "for art lovers", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9780316522816", "cover": "9780316522816", "goodreads": 44055244, "itunes": 9780316522816, "bookshop": 9780316522816, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ydIuFb97L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316522816", "isbn10": "0316522813", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 166, "book": "The Plain Janes", "source": "NPR", "text": "Art Attack! The 'Plain Janes' Deliver A Shot Of Creative Optimism", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/12/795388959/art-attack-the-plain-janes-deliver-a-shot-of-creative-optimism" } ] }, "167": { "id": 167, "title": "Sports Is Hell", "author": "Ben Passmore", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "In this incendiary graphic novel, Ben Passmore (Bttm Fdrs, Your Black Friend) uses pro sports as the backdrop for a fable of societal breakdown. When a city’s football team stands poised for a Super Bowl victory, the locals seek to capitalize on post-victory rioting. Some want to loot; others see a chance to foment anarchy. When riots duly break out, a group of strangers must dodge armed gangs of every political stripe. Passmore’s takes on political action, race, violence and capitalism are like icy-hot blasts of judgment. His curly line and cartoony way of depicting violence function as visual antidotes to his grim narrative.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "for sports lovers", "the dark side", "rather short" ], "isbn": "9781927668757", "cover": "9781927668757", "goodreads": 48708304, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mSy2swHJL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781927668757", "isbn10": "1927668751", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 167, "book": "Sports is Hell", "source": "NPR", "text": "In Ben Passmore's Latest, 'Sports Is Hell' And The World Is On Fire", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/04/802415592/in-ben-passmores-latest-sports-is-hell-and-the-world-is-on-fire" } ] }, "168": { "id": 168, "title": "The Daughters Of Ys", "author": "M.T. Anderson, illustrated by Jo Rioux", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "If you’ve felt your brimming anxiety overflow this year as you’ve tried to keep up with the tide of the news, you’ll appreciate M.T. Anderson’s reworking of a folktale about a city swept away by the sea. Like his National Book Award-winning The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, this graphic novel is both accessible to a wide age range and rich with ideas that will intrigue adults. (Note, however, that due to dark themes, some gore and the fact that the characters have sex, it may be best kept away from immature readers.) Jo Rioux’s character designs – which reference fifth century Anglo-Saxon art – aren’t just beautiful, they allow her to test the evocative possibilities of minimalist cartooning.
", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "young adult", "seriously great writing", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "for art lovers", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781626728783", "cover": "9781626728783", "goodreads": 46223363, "itunes": 9781626728783, "bookshop": 9781626728783, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781626728783", "isbn10": "162672878X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 168, "book": "The Daughters of Ys", "source": "NPR", "text": "Feeling Deluged By News? Let 'The Daughters Of Ys' Wash Over You", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/16/902632771/feeling-deluged-by-news-let-the-daughters-of-ys-wash-over-you" } ] }, "169": { "id": 169, "title": "Why We Swim", "author": "Bonnie Tsui", "reviewers": [ "Greta Pittenger" ], "text": "Why We Swim is a cultural history of humankind’s relationship to bodies of water, an exploration of the benefits and dangers of submerging one’s own body in it, a highlight reel of athletic feats of swimming and diving – and so much more. Author Bonnie Tsui creates space for readers to meditate on their own experiences in the water. As I read it I found an escape, but also a connection to the water and to fellow humans who are called to it.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for sports lovers", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9781616207861", "cover": "9781616207861", "goodreads": 52905471, "itunes": 9781616207861, "bookshop": 9781616207861, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Nq9RqZNCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781616207861", "isbn10": "1616207868", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 169, "book": "Why We Swim", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Why We Swim' Looks For Answers In People And Places Across The Globe", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/25/844410893/why-we-swim-looks-for-answers-in-people-and-places-across-the-globe" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 169, "book": "Why We Swim", "source": "KALW", "text": "Bonnie Tsui's 'Why We Swim' Is A Love Letter To Water", "url": "https://www.kalw.org/post/bonnie-tsuis-why-we-swim-love-letter-water#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 169, "book": "Why We Swim", "source": "WICN", "text": "Bonnie Tsui On 'Why We Swim'", "url": "https://www.wicn.org/podcast/bonnie-tsui-why-we-swim/" } ] }, "170": { "id": 170, "title": "World Of Wonders: In Praise Of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, And Other Astonishments", "author": "Aimee Nezhukumatathil, illustrated by Fumi Nakamura", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "From its gorgeous illustrations to its unusual combination of lyrical nature writing and memoir, World of Wonders is hands-down one of the most beautiful books of the year. It’s about identity – both cultural and horticultural – and finding one’s place in the world, in part by keeping one’s eyes wide open to natural wonders. A catalpa tree on the Mississippi campus where Aimee Nezhukumatathil teaches creative writing stirs memories of the state mental institution in Kansas where her Filipina mother was a doctor. Peacocks, the national bird of her father’s native India, evoke unpleasant memories of a narrow-minded teacher in Arizona. The man she ends up marrying passed the corpse flower test: He doesn’t disparage her enthusiasm for them or “wince when I said the word inflorescence.”
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "identity & culture", "science!", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "9781571313652", "cover": "9781571313652", "goodreads": 48615751, "itunes": 9781571313652, "bookshop": 9781571313652, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781571313652", "isbn10": "1571313656", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 170, "book": "World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'World Of Wonders' Urges Us To Take A Breath And Look Around", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/07/909717123/world-of-wonders-urges-us-to-take-a-breath-and-look-around" } ] }, "171": { "id": 171, "title": "Writers & Lovers: A Novel", "author": "Lily King", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "Writers & Lovers, Lily King’s fifth novel, won’t transport you to an exotic locale like Euphoria, her most recent, but it’s a wonderful read. Set in 1997, it’s narrated by utterly sympathetic Casey Peabody, who’s struggling to finish her first novel – as King was at that time – under the weight of college loan debts and grief over her mother’s sudden death. Things aren’t going so great in her love life, either, but soon Casey has two very different men to choose from – an older, established author and a high school teacher with a rusted-out car. This is a winning, beautifully written novel about passion, determination, finding one’s way, and the choices involved in holding onto a dream.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "9780802148537", "cover": "9780802148537", "goodreads": 52715989, "itunes": 9780802148537, "bookshop": 9780802148537, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51givlm7zWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780802148537", "isbn10": "08021485311", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 171, "book": "Writers & Lovers: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Lily King's 'Writers & Lovers' Is A Reminder To Stick To Your Dream", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/lily-kings-writers-lovers-reminder-stick-your-dream" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 171, "book": "Writers & Lovers: A Novel", "source": "New England News Collaborative", "text": "Maine Novelist Lily King Weaves Parts Of Her Own Story In ‘Writers & Lovers’", "url": "https://nenc.news/podcast/foster-care-rhode-island-lily-king/" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 171, "book": "Writers & Lovers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Droll Wit And Delightful Details Make 'Writers & Lovers' A Winning Read", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/05/809667744/droll-wit-and-delightful-details-make-writers-lovers-a-winning-read" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 171, "book": "Writers & Lovers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Writers & Lovers' Captures The Cost Of Following A Dream That May Not Pay Off", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/11/814445010/writers-lovers-captures-the-cost-of-following-a-dream-that-may-not-pay-off" } ] }, "172": { "id": 172, "title": "Miss Iceland", "author": "Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "This book is a find. Set mostly in 1963 in windy, overcast Reykjavik, Miss Iceland is an atmospheric portrait of insidious sexism and homophobia in a society that had yet to open up to either women or gay men. Its wry narrator, Hekla, named for a volcano, is a copiously talented but thwarted young writer, constantly harassed by male patrons at her waitressing job and belittled by her boyfriend, a preening poet jealous of her clearly superior work. Hekla’s queer, persecuted best friend, Jón John, dreams of becoming a theatrical costume designer. The two plot their escape to Denmark, where they hope to live more fulfilled lives, but even that comes with unsettling tradeoffs.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9780802149237", "cover": "9780802149237", "goodreads": 48637765, "itunes": 9780802149237, "bookshop": 9780802149237, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wC8alpH7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780802149237", "isbn10": "0802149235", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 172, "book": "Miss Iceland", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Miss Iceland' Is A Subdued, Powerful Portrait Of A Suppressed Society", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/877631987/miss-iceland-is-a-subdued-powerful-portrait-of-a-suppressed-society" } ] }, "173": { "id": 173, "title": "Owls Of The Eastern Ice: A Quest To Find And Save The World's Largest Owl", "author": "Jonathan C. Slaght", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "Like the best nature writing, this is a book fueled by obsession – with both Russia’s remote, forested Primorye Province and with the endangered, oversized, salmon-eating raptor called Blakiston’s fish owl that lives there. Part wilderness adventure, part patient scientific research, part doctoral fieldwork and wholly engaging narrative nonfiction, Owls of the Eastern Ice is filled with daunting, frigid challenges and the rare birds and colorful characters who brave them.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9780374228484", "cover": "9780374228484", "goodreads": 51542211, "itunes": 9780374228484, "bookshop": 9780374228484, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Am7-yXfOS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374228484", "isbn10": "0374228485", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 173, "book": "Owls Of The Eastern Ice", "source": "Boise State Public Radio", "text": " 'Owls Of The Eastern Ice' By Jonathan C. Slaght", "url": "https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/post/owls-eastern-ice-jonathan-c-slaght#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 173, "book": "Owls Of The Eastern Ice", "source": "MPR", "text": "Author Ventures Into The Russian Wilds To Save A Magnificent Owl", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/08/04/author-ventures-into-the-russian-wilds-to-save-a-magnificent-owl" } ] }, "174": { "id": 174, "title": "Wintering: The Power Of Rest And Retreat In Difficult Times", "author": "Katherine May", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "English writer Katherine May’s beautiful and unintentionally but uncannily timely book is about what she calls “wintering,” a way to weather tough periods when you feel cut off, sidelined or overwhelmed. Brought low by a perfect storm of personal challenges, May learns to slow down, hibernate and regroup. She becomes convinced that the cold has healing powers and explores how other creatures and cultures cope with the dark, frigid season. She takes up ice swimming, cradles an amazingly soft hibernating dormouse and considers the profusion of wolves and snow in fairy tales. May finds solace in her explorations, and readers, especially in these trying times of social distancing, will too.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780593189481", "cover": "9780593189481", "goodreads": 52623750, "itunes": 9780593189481, "bookshop": 9780593189481, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51f1Z4V0RyL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593189481", "isbn10": "0593189485", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 174, "book": "Wintering", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Wintering,' Katherine May Encourages 'The Active Acceptance Of Sadness'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/10/933008027/in-wintering-katherine-may-encourages-the-active-acceptance-of-sadness" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 174, "book": "Wintering", "source": "WAMC", "text": "How To Survive When Life Is Frozen: Interview With Katherine May", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/post/how-survive-when-life-frozen-interview-katherine-may" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 174, "book": "Wintering", "source": "Public Radio Tulsa", "text": "Katherine May On 'Wintering: The Power Of Rest And Retreat In Difficult Times'", "url": "https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/post/wintering-power-rest-and-retreat-difficult-times#stream/0" } ] }, "175": { "id": 175, "title": "Collective Gravities", "author": "Chloe N. Clark", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "Two of the best stories in Collective Gravities, the debut collection by Chloe N. Clark, deal with disease. “Bound” is the tale of a mysterious pandemic and the tangled lives of the scientists searching for a cure for it; “Thematic Cartography” traces the progress of a strange disease that leaves graphs and text across the skin of the afflicted. Collective Gravities was written before COVID-19, but its speculation about illness, disconnection and the future of love is uncannily prescient. At the same time, Clark veers from science fiction and magical realism in a way that’s both mind-blowing and tender.
", "tags": [ "love & romance", "short stories, essays & poetry", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781733466387", "cover": "9781733466387", "goodreads": 53201869, "itunes": 9781733466387, "bookshop": 9781733466387, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31zExSIt1RL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781733466387", "isbn10": "173346638X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 175, "book": "Collective Gravities", "source": "NPR", "text": "Gently Weird 'Collective Gravities' Grounds The Extraordinary In The Ordinary", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/09/888934194/gently-weird-collective-gravities-grounds-the-extraordinary-in-the-ordinary" } ] }, "176": { "id": 176, "title": "Dark Blood Comes From The Feet", "author": "Emma J. Gibbon", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "While the prospect of wallowing in the murkier end of the emotional spectrum isn’t exactly high on anyone’s list right now, there’s a lot to be said for confronting our demons on the printed page as well as in real life. Emma J. Gibbon gets it. In Dark Blood Comes From the Feet, her debut story collection, Gibbon serves up 17 acidic tales that eat away at society’s thin veneer of normalcy, convention and even reality. At the same time, these horrific confections – like those of Shirley Jackson – leave a bittersweet aftertaste of humanity
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "short stories, essays & poetry", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781950305285", "cover": "9781950305285", "goodreads": 53364781, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781950305285, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fYXfJdLML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781950305285", "isbn10": "1950305287", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 176, "book": "Dark Blood Comes from the Feet", "source": "NPR", "text": "Shirley Jackson Meets Johnny Rotten In 'Dark Blood Comes From The Feet'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/28/883957471/shirley-jackson-meets-johnny-rotten-in-dark-blood-comes-from-the-feet" } ] }, "177": { "id": 177, "title": "Hearts Of Oak", "author": "Eddie Robson", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "Today’s speculative fiction is full of astounding innovations and lavish spectacles. Within that genre-expanding sprawl, however, there’s still room for short, humble, understated works like Hearts of Oak. British author Eddie Robson packs his quirky novel – about a strange, wooden town ruled by a construction-mad king – with social satire, swift-witted dialogue and an air of absurdist sci-fi/fantasy in the tradition of Robson’s fellow Brits Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250260536", "cover": "9781250260536", "goodreads": 50904323, "itunes": 9781250260536, "bookshop": 9781250260536, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nOQriX5zL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250260536", "isbn10": "1250260531", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 177, "book": "Hearts of Oak", "source": "NPR", "text": "Under The Quirk, 'Hearts Of Oak' Beats With A Thoughtful Pulse", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/22/818986736/under-the-quirk-hearts-of-oak-beats-with-a-thoughtful-pulse" } ] }, "178": { "id": 178, "title": "Anna K: A Love Story", "author": "Jenny Lee", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "This is a soapy YA book that reads, well, like a Russian novel. Jenny Lee remixes and updates Anna Karenina, this time with a Korean American teenage socialite anchoring the story. I’ll admit Tolstoy is a blindspot, so the twists were new to me. But I think Tolstoy fans and novices alike will find Anna K to be a satisfying read.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "young adult", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "9781250236432", "cover": "9781250236432", "goodreads": 45043369, "itunes": 9781250236432, "bookshop": 9781250236432, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s4v8UHstL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250236432", "isbn10": "1250236436", "links": [] }, "179": { "id": 179, "title": "Headliners: An Enemies-To-Lovers Romance", "author": "Lucy Parker", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "If you love The Morning Show and Broadcast News like I do, you’ll likely have a soft spot for Lucky Parker’s latest book. Sabrina and Nick are rival television presenters who must team up to save a floundering London morning show and their careers. Sparks fly, of course, and Parker is one of the best romance writers in the game. The banter is top-notch, and the hosts have undeniable chemistry. This book is a wonderful distraction.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "no biz like show biz", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781335215994", "cover": "9781335215994", "goodreads": 52224528, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41NBbAYb8CL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781335215994", "isbn10": "1335215999", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 179, "book": "Headliners", "source": "NPR", "text": "For January, 3 Enemies-To-Lovers Romances (Our Favorite!)", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/15/796251056/for-january-3-enemies-to-lovers-romances-our-favorite" } ] }, "180": { "id": 180, "title": "Barn 8: A Novel", "author": "Deb Olin Unferth", "reviewers": [ "Jolie Myers" ], "text": "A wild romp with a sneaky message, Barn 8 wonders what it means to engage in protest – and how far you have to go to actually get anything to change. Our heroes: two USDA egg auditors, Janey and Cleveland. Their mission: Liberate a million chickens from an Iowa farm. High jinks and sly social commentary ensue. Also, there’s a chapter told from the point of view of a nonconformist chicken that should tell you everything you need to know about this sharply absurdist heist novel.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781644450154", "cover": "9781644450154", "goodreads": 45892219, "itunes": 9781644450154, "bookshop": 9781644450154, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51OuDTklCaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781644450154", "isbn10": "1644450151", "links": [] }, "181": { "id": 181, "title": "Obit", "author": "Victoria Chang", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "Victoria Chang experiments with the skinny, rectangular form of the obituary, writing memorials for all the things that she lost following her father’s stroke and her mother’s death: optimism, friendships, a green chair, a potted tree, language. Chang’s sharp crystallizations of the pain and disorientation of death, and the way it reverberates through life, bring us to the raw heart of grief without the overblown language of classical elegy. These are poems that reproduce the logic and feeling of loss – a gift for anyone who has struggled to find words to express grief.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9781556595745", "cover": "9781556595745", "goodreads": 53029244, "itunes": 9781556595745, "bookshop": 9781556595745, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51BDTcDsFxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781556595745", "isbn10": "1556595743", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 181, "book": "Obit", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: Victoria Chang On 'Obit'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm/victoria-chang-obit-part-one" } ] }, "182": { "id": 182, "title": "Thin Places: Essays From In Between", "author": "Jordan Kisner", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "Jordan Kisner’s essays range from circling her curiosity around a neurosurgical procedure for obsessive compulsive disorder, to reporting on a debutante ball in a Texas border town where Mexican American girls dress as Martha Washington, to shadowing a medical examiner performing autopsies in Cleveland. What unites them all is an exploration of the liminal – states of in-between, or the titular “thin places,” where potential and tension swell. Kisner’s curiosity is contagious, and as she glides smoothly between cultural commentary, reportage and personal probing, she illuminates how flimsy boundaries are when we look at them hard enough.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780374274641", "cover": "9780374274641", "goodreads": 45892253, "itunes": 9780374274641, "bookshop": 9780374274641, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41PBkqJl-BS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374274641", "isbn10": "0374274649", "links": [] }, "183": { "id": 183, "title": "Efrén Divided", "author": "Ernesto Cisneros", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "The news is full of statistics about undocumented immigrants. In Efrén Divided, Ernesto Cisneros brings it home with an unblinking look at how a mother’s deportation to Mexico affects her eldest child. Born an American citizen, seventh-grader Efrén desperately tries to remain a model student, a loyal friend, a responsible big brother and good son. This brutally honest portrayal of a life in flux celebrates kindness, love and compassion, while not shying away from the heartbreaking reality of families torn apart. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9780062881687", "cover": "9780062881687", "goodreads": 52507955, "itunes": 9780062881687, "bookshop": 9780062881687, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517ug78DjTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062881687", "isbn10": "006288168X", "links": [] }, "184": { "id": 184, "title": "Midnight At The Barclay Hotel", "author": "Fleur Bradley, illustrated by Xavier Bonet", "reviewers": [ "Mary Glendinning" ], "text": "Recipients of an unexpected invitation arrive at the historic and haunted Barclay Hotel in the Rockies, looking forward to a free and relaxing weekend getaway. The catch? They’ve been unwittingly convened to solve a crime. It turns out one of them is … a murderer! Read on as kid “stragglers” JJ and Penny team up with their new friend Emma to solve the mystery. Ghost hunting, malfunctioning machinery, deadly desserts, a spring snowstorm, no Wi-Fi and a nice bit of teamwork are all in store for this trio. This book is for those kids who might have a secret or feel a little out of place, and are ready for a sweet and mild first taste of red herrings. Cheers to those meddling kids. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "kids’ books", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780593202906", "cover": "9780593202906", "goodreads": 49189728, "itunes": 9780593202906, "bookshop": 9780593202906, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593202906", "isbn10": "0593202902", "links": [] }, "185": { "id": 185, "title": "Hamnet", "author": "Maggie O'Farrell", "reviewers": [ "Mary Louise Kelly" ], "text": "Verbatim transcript of my last book club meeting:\n“So, what should we read for our next book?”\n“We should read … um … Oh, hell, can’t we just read Hamnet again? And again? Like, just keep reading it? It was soooo good.”\nMy book club, a dozen seriously sharp ladies of all ages, never unanimously loves anything. Hamnet was the exception. It’s a novel that explores the connection between what was arguably William Shakespeare’s greatest play, Hamlet, and the death of his only son four years before. It’s a beautiful love story, and the writing is so gorgeous that I was often reading it through tears.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780525657606", "cover": "9780525657606", "goodreads": 48677123, "itunes": 9780525657606, "bookshop": 9780525657606, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xAe3KUXeS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525657606", "isbn10": "0525657606", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 185, "book": "Hamnet", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Maggie O'Farrell's 'Hamnet' Is A Tragic Tale Of Shakespeare's Only Son ", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/maggie-ofarrells-hamnet-tragic-tale-shakespeares-only-son" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 185, "book": "Hamnet", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Real 'Hamnet' Died Centuries Ago, But This Novel Is Timeless", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/21/893184307/the-real-hamnet-died-centuries-ago-but-this-novel-is-timeless" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 185, "book": "Hamnet", "source": "NPR", "text": "British Novelist Reimagines The Life And Death Of Hamnet Shakespeare", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/21/893880210/british-novelist-reimagines-the-life-and-death-of-hamnet-shakespeare" } ] }, "186": { "id": 186, "title": "The Women In Black: A Novel", "author": "Madeleine St. John", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "This little novel powered me through the first dismaying weeks of the pandemic and, immediately after reading it, I ordered five more copies to distribute as “emergency mental health reading” for friends having a tough time. Written in 1993 and published in America for the first time, The Women in Black is set in a fictional Australian department store in the 1950s and focuses on four saleswomen who work in the “better dresses” department. Tart, beguiling, witty and compassionate, Madeleine St. John’s novel is a literary boost for the spirits.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781982134082", "cover": "9781982134082", "goodreads": 50977406, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781982134082, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fBrxC2quL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982134082", "isbn10": "1982134089", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 186, "book": "The Women in Black: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Need A Mental Escape? These Books Offer Solace In Troubled Times", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/13/831684823/need-a-mental-escape-these-books-offer-solace-in-troubled-times" } ] }, "187": { "id": 187, "title": "The Care and Feeding Of Waspish Widows", "author": "Olivia Waite", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "In Regency England, the widowed owner of a London printshop, Agatha Griffin, finds more than she bargained for in her warehouse in a small town outside the city – a swarm of bees and a very enticing beekeeper, Penelope Flood. First friendship, then attraction, blossoms – though plenty of complications ensue, including the return of Penelope’s husband and the rise of an anti-vice society. This is a gorgeously written novel with beautiful worldbuilding and vividly composed characters that leaves the reader with a feeling that a happy ever after is possible at any age, in any age.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing", "for history lovers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062931825", "cover": "9780062931825", "goodreads": 49867370, "itunes": 9780062931825, "bookshop": 9780062931825, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kITn+oUFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062931825", "isbn10": "0062931822", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 187, "book": "The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows ", "source": "NPR", "text": "For August, 3 Love Interests Who'll Fight By Your Side", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/20/904021934/for-august-3-love-interests-wholl-fight-by-your-side" } ] }, "188": { "id": 188, "title": "Interior Chinatown: A Novel", "author": "Charles Yu", "reviewers": [ "Meghan Keane" ], "text": "Interior Chinatown is written partly like a screenplay and takes the idea that we’re all at the center of our own movie literally. You’re never quite sure whether Willis Wu really works as an actor playing “Generic Asian man,” but it ultimately doesn’t matter. Charles Yu plays with how we internalize stereotypes in the movies in this sometimes devastating, sometimes hilarious, but always captivating novel.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "no biz like show biz", "fiction", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780307907196", "cover": "9780307907196", "goodreads": 44436221, "itunes": 9780307907196, "bookshop": 9780307907196, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51tX2DDFxLS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780307907196", "isbn10": "0307907198", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 188, "book": "Interior Chinatown: A Novel", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: Charles Yu On 'Interior Chinatown'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm/charles-yu-interior-chinatown-2020-10-22" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 188, "book": "Interior Chinatown: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Interior Chinatown' Puts That Guy In The Background Front And Center", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/25/799340952/interior-chinatown-puts-that-guy-in-the-background-front-and-center" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 188, "book": "Interior Chinatown: A Novel", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "Charles Yu's Novel 'Interior Chinatown' Explores Racism Through The Lens Of A Cop TV Show", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/charles-yus-novel-interior-chinatown-explores-racism-through-lens-cop-tv-show" } ] }, "189": { "id": 189, "title": "The Wax Pack: On The Open Road In Search Of Baseball's Afterlife", "author": "Brad Balukjian", "reviewers": [ "Mike Katzif" ], "text": "The Wax Pack begins with one unopened pack of baseball cards from 1986 – and an ancient slice of chalky gum. Curious to know what happened to more than a dozen former baseball players after they hung up their caps and gloves, writer Brad Balukjian embarks on a cross-country quest to find out. It’s part baseball history, part personal travelogue, part rumination on the passage of time. But what makes The Wax Pack so compelling is that it’s not particularly interested in the heroic rise of a champion, nor the tragic decline of a baseball career, but rather the everyday lives that unfold after the fleeting spotlight of the big leagues dims.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for sports lovers", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781496218742", "cover": "9781496218742", "goodreads": 51312349, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781496218742, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511NS1oB25L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781496218742", "isbn10": "1496218744", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 189, "book": "Wax Pack", "source": "WLRN", "text": "Mapping A Journey From A Deck Of Baseball Cards", "url": "https://www.wlrn.org/culture/2015-07-28/mapping-a-journey-from-a-deck-of-baseball-cards" } ] }, "190": { "id": 190, "title": "My Best Friend", "author": "Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "The magic of friendship is that it isn’t bound by the typical rules of time. A deep connection can take root in an instant and a lifetime’s worth of friendship can be condensed into a single afternoon on the playground. Julie Fogliano and Jillian Tamaki capture this feeling so well, showing two rambunctious children reveling in the thrill of discovering a kindred spirit. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "9781534427228", "cover": "9781534427228", "goodreads": 43419423, "itunes": 9781534427228, "bookshop": 9781534427228, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781534427228", "isbn10": "1534427228", "links": [] }, "191": { "id": 191, "title": "The Blue House", "author": "Phoebe Wahl", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "What makes a house a home? This story thoughtfully dives into this question, following a father and son who are devastated when forced to move. The two go through a whirlwind of emotions – disappointment, anger and heartbreak – before coming to truly understand that home is far more than four walls and the roof over your head. Like a beloved home, Phoebe Wahl’s cozy book is filled with rich textures and loving details that make every page feel fully lived in. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9781984893369", "cover": "9781984893369", "goodreads": 52224885, "itunes": 9781984893369, "bookshop": 9781984893369, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61wPWDJp1+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984893369", "isbn10": "198489336X", "links": [] }, "192": { "id": 192, "title": "The Old Truck", "author": "Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "This timeless book feels like it could have been published 50 years ago or 50 years in the future. By following a truck as it passes through the seasons, the Pumphrey brothers show that while things inevitably change, with persistence (and perhaps a good amount of elbow grease) our hopes and dreams can be carried along from generation to generation. (For ages 3 to 5)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9781324005193", "cover": "9781324005193", "goodreads": 45894182, "itunes": 9781324005193, "bookshop": 9781324005193, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51czeeXFjRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781324005193", "isbn10": "132400519X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 192, "book": "The Old Truck ", "source": "NPR", "text": "Ever Wonder About That 'Old Truck'? 2 Brothers Wrote Its Backstory", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/09/801206134/ever-wonder-about-that-old-truck-2-brothers-wrote-its-backstory" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 192, "book": "The Old Truck ", "source": "WCMU", "text": "The Children's Bookshelf: 'The Old Truck'", "url": "https://radio.wcmu.org/post/childrens-bookshelf-old-truck#stream/0" } ] }, "193": { "id": 193, "title": "You Matter", "author": "Christian Robinson", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "A much-needed antidote to the heaviness of this year, this book hits just the right note. Deftly zooming in and out between the microscopic and the cosmic, Christian Robinson reminds readers (old and young) that they matter. It’s a simple but necessary affirmation for all of us caught up in the hectic swirl of the day. Beneath the positive message and colorful imagery, there is an underlying melancholy that rings true and makes the book all the more powerful – like a rainbow appearing while it’s still gray and raining. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books" ], "isbn": "9781534421691", "cover": "9781534421691", "goodreads": 52768168, "itunes": 9781534421691, "bookshop": 9781534421691, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Xuur41WYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781534421691", "isbn10": "1534421696", "links": [] }, "194": { "id": 194, "title": "Eat A Peach: A Memoir", "author": "David Chang with Gabe Ulla", "reviewers": [ "Molly Seavy-Nesper" ], "text": "Chef and Ugly Delicious TV host David Chang didn’t start his career in the kitchen as a natural talent. In fact, he was a notorious underdog. So how did he become a beloved culinary force? Plenty of mistakes, hard work and a fixation on the details. I devoured Chang’s vulnerable and funny memoir. It’s an unflinching story about battling your demons and finding identity in creative work.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "cookbooks & food", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9781524759216", "cover": "9781524759216", "goodreads": 51700803, "itunes": 9781524759216, "bookshop": 9781524759216, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xhXbcGCaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781524759216", "isbn10": "152475921X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 194, "book": "Eat A Peach: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "David Chang Discusses Mental Health And His New Memoir", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/909969011/david-chang-discusses-mental-health-and-his-new-memoir" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 194, "book": "Eat A Peach", "source": "NPR", "text": "Chef David Chang On Depression, Being A Dad And The Burden Of 'Authenticity'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/938518645/chef-david-chang-on-depression-being-a-dad-and-the-burden-of-authenticity" } ] }, "195": { "id": 195, "title": "One Life", "author": "Megan Rapinoe and Emma Brockes", "reviewers": [ "Molly Seavy-Nesper" ], "text": "I would give anything to go back in time and relive the pure joy and electricity of the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Luckily, with Megan Rapinoe’s memoir, I (sort of) can. The pink-haired co-captain has always been a fierce voice for social justice. She was one of the first high-profile white athletes to take a knee during the national anthem in solidarity with Black Americans protesting police brutality. The team famously sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for pay discrimination and became a symbol of gender inequality. Rapinoe’s memoir brings you onto the field for key moments in her soccer career – but also shows the making of an intersectional activist.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "for sports lovers", "identity & culture", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9781984881168", "cover": "9781984881168", "goodreads": 53387955, "itunes": 9781984881168, "bookshop": 9781984881168, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wMwhDyG7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984881168", "isbn10": "1984881167", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 195, "book": "One Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe's 'One Life' Is Mostly A Call To Action", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/12/933919101/soccer-star-megan-rapinoes-one-life-is-mostly-a-call-to-action" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 195, "book": "One Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe On Equal Pay, And What The U.S. Flag Means To Her", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/09/933018609/soccer-star-megan-rapinoe-on-equal-pay-and-what-the-u-s-flag-means-to-her" } ] }, "196": { "id": 196, "title": "Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide To Modern Cinema", "author": "Lindy West", "reviewers": [ "Molly Seavy-Nesper" ], "text": "In 2013, humorist and culture critic Lindy West wrote an essay on Jezebel in which she hilariously eviscerated the movie Love Actually. (The movie’s message, she argues, is that the more a woman speaks, the less lovable she is.) The essay served as the genesis for this book, wherein West revisits 23 classic movies – from Titanic to Forrest Gump – to see how they hold up to modern sensibilities. If you miss going to the movies these days, I highly recommend Shit, Actually to re-create the joy of movie nerds picking apart a film as soon as the credits roll and the lights come up.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "funny stuff", "it’s all geek to me", "no biz like show biz", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "9780316449823", "cover": "9780316449823", "goodreads": 50998099, "itunes": 9780316449823, "bookshop": 9780316449823, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51C9DAjh2FL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316449823", "isbn10": "0316449822", "links": [] }, "197": { "id": 197, "title": "All The Way To The Tigers: A Memoir", "author": "Mary Morris", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "When Mary Morris was badly injured in an ice skating accident, it took a quote from Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice to get her out of her funk: “He would go on a journey. Not far. Not all the way to the tigers.” Morris, a longtime traveler and memoirist, decided that when she could walk again she would go all the way to the tigers, to India. The best travel memoirs offer readers three pleasures woven together: accounts of “what I saw,” “how I came to understand myself better” and “what I learned about the world” – and Morris’ memoir doesn’t skimp on any of them.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9780385546096", "cover": "9780385546096", "goodreads": 52058886, "itunes": 9780385546096, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51e3BF8gOZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780385546096", "isbn10": "0385546092", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 197, "book": "All the Way to the Tigers", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Tigers' Two-Way Travelogue Is A Journey Both Within And Without", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/23/882090078/the-tigers-two-way-travelogue-is-a-journey-both-within-and-without" } ] }, "198": { "id": 198, "title": "The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas Illustrated", "author": "Gertrude Stein, illustrated by Maira Kalman", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "Originally published in 1933, Stein’s “autobiography” of her longtime lover Toklas and their life together in literary and artistic Paris in the first half of the 20th century remains as fascinatingly quirky now as it did when it was first published. Was there a writer or artist who didn’t make their way to Toklas and Stein’s salon? Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway, Ford Madox Ford … the list goes on. What makes this new edition so special are the terrific illustrations by Maira Kalman, whose colorful paintings capture the spirit of Stein’s idiosyncratic text (and prose) perfectly.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "for art lovers", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9781594204609", "cover": "9781594204609", "goodreads": 50178082, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781594204609, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781594204609", "isbn10": "1594204608", "links": [] }, "199": { "id": 199, "title": "Here We Are: A Novel", "author": "Graham Swift", "reviewers": [ "Nancy Pearl" ], "text": "What characterizes every novel by Graham Swift are its brilliant, spare prose and beautifully conceived characters whose seemingly quietly ordinary lives contain multitudes. During the summer of 1959, in a vaudeville show on the pier in Brighton, England, the intertwined lives of three performers – Jack Robbins, the show’s master of ceremonies, Ronnie Deane, magician extraordinaire, and his assistant Evie White – are related in flashbacks and flashforwards. In 200 pages Swift, a magician with words, shows us life’s mysteries, its rewards and its tragedies.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "rather short", "no biz like show biz", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780525658054", "cover": "9780525658054", "goodreads": 49959058, "itunes": 9780525658054, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NgCLMMtWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525658054", "isbn10": "052565805X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 199, "book": "Here We Are: A novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Here We Are' Conjures Magic From Ordinary Lives", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/912058420/here-we-are-conjures-magic-from-ordinary-lives" } ] }, "200": { "id": 200, "title": "The Paper Kingdom", "author": "Helena Ku Rhee, illustrated by Pascal Campion", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "Daniel’s already tucked into bed when the babysitter calls to say she can’t make it. So Daniel’s parents bring him along to the building where they work as night janitors and transform the office into the setting of a fairy tale. They’re here to clean up after the Paper King, and this conference room is really his throne room! Watch out for the dragons in the toilet stalls! Based on author Helena Ku Rhee’s own childhood (and gorgeously illustrated by Pascal Campion), The Paper Kingdom is a moving portrayal of a working-class family and an ode to parents who work hard to turn a less-than-ideal experience into something magical. (For ages 3 to 7)
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9780525644613", "cover": "9780525644613", "goodreads": 50090434, "itunes": 9780525644613, "bookshop": 9780525644613, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525644613", "isbn10": "052564461X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 200, "book": "The Paper Kingdom ", "source": "NPR", "text": "Behold: The Magic Of Take Your Child To Work Night", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/14/815250760/behold-the-magic-of-take-your-child-to-work-night" } ] }, "201": { "id": 201, "title": "This Is My America", "author": "Kim Johnson", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "Seventeen-year-old Tracy has 267 days to get her father, an innocent Black man, off death row. Every week she writes letters to Innocence X asking the organization to help, but she’s never heard back. When a classmate is killed, events propel Tracy to start her own investigation into her Texas town’s racist history. But will what she knows put her in danger, too? This Is My America is a page turner with all the bells and whistles: a love triangle, bad guys with guns, multiple unsolved murders, a ticking clock and a present-day Nancy Drew heroine. Tracy is a brave and dogged advocate for her friends, her family and the truth – a character sure to inspire activists of all ages who are interested in the pursuit of justice.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "young adult", "identity & culture", "family matters", "mysteries & thrillers" ], "isbn": "9780593118764", "cover": "9780593118764", "goodreads": 52855024, "itunes": 9780593118764, "bookshop": 9780593118764, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/513Zitfj08L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593118764", "isbn10": "0593118766", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 201, "book": "This Is My America", "source": "NPR", "text": "Kim Johnson Talks Racism, Mass Incarceration In Debut Novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/01/898099608/kim-johnson-talks-racism-mass-incarceration-in-debut-novel" } ] }, "202": { "id": 202, "title": "Inventing Latinos: A New Story Of American Racism", "author": "Laura E. Gómez", "reviewers": [ "Shereen Marisol Meraji" ], "text": "Latinos are the second-largest demographic in the United States, but is “Latino” an ethnic identity or a racial one? How can Latino be a race if Latinos themselves can be various races? In her book, Inventing Latinos, UCLA Law professor Laura E. Gómez makes the case that Latinos are both. She does so by examining the ways that American colonialism in Latin America and laws in the United States have led to the racialization of Latinos by denying them “full and equal participation in American life.”
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "9781595589170", "cover": "9781595589170", "goodreads": 53237434, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781595589170, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411ygkCPXuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781595589170", "isbn10": "1595589171", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 202, "book": "Inventing Latinos", "source": "KUNM", "text": "Laura E. Gómez On 'Inventing Latinos: A New Story Of American Racism'", "url": "https://www.kunm.org/post/inventing-latinos-new-story-american-racism" } ] }, "203": { "id": 203, "title": "Tender Is The Flesh", "author": "Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses", "reviewers": [ "Silvia Moreno-Garcia" ], "text": "In a near-future in which cannibalism is legal, humans are bred to be eaten and graves are ransacked for tasty cadavers. A man who works in a meat processing facility suddenly finds himself with a costly luxury gift: a human who should be consumed for her flesh. This is a bleak, relentless dystopia that astounds with its precise, cutting prose. It’s also a delight to read fiction that does not fit into the magical realist mold that the publishing industry demands of most Latin American writers.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781982150921", "cover": "9781982150921", "goodreads": 49090884, "itunes": 9781982150921, "bookshop": 9781982150921, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982150921", "isbn10": "19821509211", "links": [] }, "204": { "id": 204, "title": "Amnesty: A Novel", "author": "Aravind Adiga", "reviewers": [ "Steve Mullis" ], "text": "Dhananjaya “Danny” Rajaratnam is living illegally in Sydney, Australia, cleaning houses and working in a grocery store (the stockroom doubles as his living quarters). Danny needs to be seen as legal but also invisible. He offers wry observations of the people, politics and attitudes around him and reflects on the life he fled in Sri Lanka. Oh, also, there’s a murder and Danny believes he knows who did it. But who can he tell? He will be caught if he goes to the police. Despite the heavy premise, author Aravind Adiga knows how to add humor and absurdity where it counts. His well-timed comedic beats keep the pages turning, making this an easy weekend read that tackles a serious subject with wit and humanity.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "mysteries & thrillers" ], "isbn": "9781982127305", "cover": "9781982127305", "goodreads": 54304204, "itunes": 9781982127305, "bookshop": 9781982127305, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FbhdacD6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982127305", "isbn10": "1982127309", "links": [] }, "205": { "id": 205, "title": "The Journeys Of Trees: A Story About Forests, People, And The Future", "author": "Zach St. George", "reviewers": [ "Steve Mullis" ], "text": "Spoiler alert: forests migrate. They are on the move away from danger and always have been. Now, these are not the dour-faced Ents of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, who are downright speedy compared to the agonizingly slow march of Earth’s trees and forests. But the journeys of trees, and the forces that drive that titular phrase, are an engrossing tale of nature’s survival, the increasing speed of climate change and of the people working to preserve these most ancient creatures. Author and reporter Zach St. George presents a thoroughly researched story about what we can learn from some of Earth’s oldest residents if we just stop and listen.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "science!", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781324001607", "cover": "9781324001607", "goodreads": 53122379, "itunes": 9781324001607, "bookshop": 9781324001607, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fBizMuhPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781324001607", "isbn10": "1324001607", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 205, "book": "The Journeys of Trees: A Story about Forests, People, and the Future", "source": "NPR", "text": "Believe It Or Not, Forests Migrate — But Not Fast Enough For Climate Change", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/28/896030567/believe-it-or-not-forests-migrate-but-not-fast-enough-for-climate-change" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 205, "book": "The Journeys of Trees: A Story about Forests, People, and the Future", "source": "Public Radio Tulsa", "text": "Zach St. George On 'The Journeys Of Trees'", "url": "https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/post/journeys-trees-story-about-forests-people-and-future#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 205, "book": "The Journeys of Trees: A Story about Forests, People, and the Future", "source": "JPR", "text": "How Forests Migrate, In 'The Journeys Of Trees'", "url": "https://www.ijpr.org/show/the-jefferson-exchange/2020-06-22/tue-9-am-how-forest-migrate-in-the-journeys-of-trees" } ] }, "206": { "id": 206, "title": "Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook", "author": "Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "Yotam Ottolenghi, the prolific cookbook author and restaurateur, has a thing for vegetables. In Flavor, the third in the series of vegetable-forward books that began with Plenty and Plenty More, he and test kitchen chef Ixta Belfrage prove that the Ottolenghi alchemical workshop has many more secrets to share – like one-pan orecchiette puttanesca, eggplant with herbs and crispy garlic, spicy roast potatoes with tahini and soy. Through slow-roasting, infusing, charring, and about a million different routes to umami, the authors coax unexpectedly glamorous notes out of the most humble and familiar roots, fruits and leaves.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9780399581755", "cover": "9780399581755", "goodreads": 50669534, "itunes": 9780399581755, "bookshop": 9780399581755, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51yyeDmrv-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780399581755", "isbn10": "0399581758", "links": [] }, "207": { "id": 207, "title": "Pie Academy: Master The Perfect Crust And 255 Amazing Fillings", "author": "Ken Haedrich", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "If the U.S. had a piemaster general, it would probably be Ken Haedrich. Among his many previous books are three devoted to pie-crustean delights; the current title is a direct descendant of his definitive 2004 Pie. The Pie Academy is Haedrich’s online community of fellow pie obsessives; this book is their print avatar. Whether your tastes run to the classic (Washington State Granny Apple Pie), the indulgent (Chocolate Chip-Macadamia Cookie Pie), the adorable (Half-Moon Peach Pies), or the quirky (Wheatena Breakfast Pie!), Haedrich has got you covered. Clear process photographs and 25(!) different doughs ensure success for pie newbies and veterans alike.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9781635861112", "cover": "9781635861112", "goodreads": 49150966, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781635861112, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DhlKepwaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781635861112", "isbn10": "163586111X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 207, "book": "Pie Academy", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "Can't Make A Pie? Don't Panic! 'Pie Academy' Cookbook Comes To The Rescue", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/11/18/pie-academy-cookbook" } ] }, "208": { "id": 208, "title": "See You On Sunday: A Cookbook For Family And Friends", "author": "Sam Sifton", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "The New York Times’ Sam Sifton is unfussy about entertainment, championing a weekly table filled to groaning – pots of legumes, proteins by the pound, salads by the head. Whether it’s two boxes of pasta tossed warm with parsnips and bacon, a stack of grilled and dry-rubbed steaks, a sheet pan of chicken shawarma or the weirdly comforting “mapo ragu,” each recipe easily serves eight to 10 of whomever drops in – at least in theory. In these COVID-haunted times, this big-hearted book has an unintentionally elegiac air. But it will effortlessly stock a freezer until we all break bread together again.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9781400069927", "cover": "9781400069927", "goodreads": 42526642, "itunes": 9781400069927, "bookshop": 9781400069927, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Z6cSRqR8S._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781400069927", "isbn10": "14000699211", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 208, "book": "See You On Sunday: A Cookbook For Family And Friends", "source": "NPR", "text": "Cooking During COVID-19: Family Meals And Fantasies Of Future Dinner Parties", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/07/828498977/cooking-during-covid-19-family-meals-and-fantasies-of-future-dinner-parties" } ] }, "209": { "id": 209, "title": "100 Cookies: The Baking Book For Every Kitchen", "author": "Sarah Kieffer", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "Though sourdough has been America’s lockdown sweetheart, for me the antidote to every grim newsflash has been the humble cookie. Baking blogger Sarah Kieffer sorts her cookies into categories, including classics (snickerdoodles) and bars (rocky road brownies), fruits (white chocolate, rosemary and apricot cookies) and fillings (ginger cookies with salted caramel ice cream). And her viral “pan-banging” technique, which gives cookies a crisp ridged edge, gets its own chapter. Whether you nibble to make them last or wolf them down like it’s the end times, I can’t think of a sweeter justification for your quarantine 15.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9781452180731", "cover": "9781452180731", "goodreads": 50998813, "itunes": 9781452180731, "bookshop": 9781452180731, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gMlxH51CL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781452180731", "isbn10": "1452180733", "links": [] }, "210": { "id": 210, "title": "A Burning: A Novel", "author": "Megha Majumdar", "reviewers": [ "Anjuli Sastry Krbechek" ], "text": "A Burning begins with some tragic news: There’s been a terrorist attack at an Indian train station; some 100 people have died in a train station bombing. A woman named Jivan posts about the attack on Facebook without a second thought. Days later, she’s arrested and blamed for the attack. When I started reading A Burning, I had no idea what to expect. I got angrier as I read, anticipating how it would end and frustrated at the injustice the Muslim main character faces. It’s interesting to note that while the book was a bestseller in America, it was met with mixed reviews in India. All I can say is that I wasn’t able to put this book down thanks to the power of Megha Majumdar’s writing. This book is a must-read.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9780525658696", "cover": "9780525658696", "goodreads": 51792100, "itunes": 9780525658696, "bookshop": 9780525658696, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41pNK3Hqg-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525658696", "isbn10": "0525658696", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 210, "book": "A Burning: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'A Burning,' Striving, Dreaming And Joking In The Face Of Oppression", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/06/870968579/in-a-burning-striving-dreaming-and-joking-in-the-face-of-oppression" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 210, "book": "A Burning: A Novel", "source": "Texas Public Radio", "text": " 'A Burning': Megha Majumdar Discusses The Book Of The Summer ", "url": "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/book-public/2020-07-17/a-burning-megha-majumdar-discusses-the-book-of-the-summer" } ] }, "211": { "id": 211, "title": "Heart Of Junk: A Novel", "author": "Luke Geddes", "reviewers": [ "Andee Tagle" ], "text": "Heart of Junk might just be the most fun I’ve ever had with kidnapping and sleazy salespeople. Set in a failing antique mall in Kansas, Luke Geddes’ debut novel follows a fantastically colorful cast of characters, each with their own emotional – and literal – baggage: Neurotic Delores is out for every Barbie ever made (she enjoys holding conversations with each one in her sizable collection), and Ronald, a recent widower, is the resident deltiologist (that’s postcard collector for us laypeople). Follow along as they work to save the mall and find a missing local celebrity. It’s a story full of heart, packed with wit and, yes, overflowing with (lovable) junk.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "funny stuff", "the states we’re in", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9781982106669", "cover": "9781982106669", "goodreads": 46221979, "itunes": 9781982106669, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QYFfrKeUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982106669", "isbn10": "1982106662", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 211, "book": "Heart Of Junk: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Book Review: 'Heart Of Junk' Is A Quirky Treat Wichita Readers Will Treasure", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/book-review-heart-junk-quirky-treat-wichita-readers-will-treasure" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 211, "book": "Heart Of Junk: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Marginalia: Luke Geddes On His Time In Wichita, And The Novel That Followed ", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/marginalia-luke-geddes-his-time-wichita-and-novel-followed" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 211, "book": "Heart Of Junk: A Novel", "source": "WVXU", "text": "There's Comedy And Warmth In Luke Geddes' New Novel, 'Heart Of Junk'", "url": "https://www.wvxu.org/post/theres-comedy-and-warmth-luke-geddes-new-novel-heart-junk#stream/0" } ] }, "212": { "id": 212, "title": "Beach Read", "author": "Emily Henry", "reviewers": [ "Anjuli Sastry Krbechek" ], "text": "Beach Read lives up to its name. In 2020, I sought out romantic stories that allowed me to escape this dumpster fire of a year, and this book fit the bill. Two writers find themselves reunited in the same town one summer and – surprise! – they may or may not fall in love. There is a meet-cute (reunion) moment, a little connecting over mutual writer’s block and road trips, some witty banter with a bit of miscommunication thrown in and a ton of chemistry. Some dark elements in both writers’ pasts keep them from giving their full selves over to the relationship. If you’re looking to lose yourself in a fun romance, Beach Read is for you.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "love & romance", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781984806734", "cover": "9781984806734", "goodreads": 52867387, "itunes": 9781984806734, "bookshop": 9781984806734, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411INV992kL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984806734", "isbn10": "1984806734", "links": [] }, "213": { "id": 213, "title": "Uncanny Valley: A Memoir", "author": "Anna Wiener", "reviewers": [ "Brandon Carter" ], "text": "There’s a certain haze one feels following a day spent bouncing among social media platforms, group chat apps and the various other products of Silicon Valley that our work and personal lives revolve around. You’re never quite sure what you’ve done or how much time has passed. Anna Wiener’s first-person account of her journey into the world of startups and tech companies captures that fog through the eyes of someone living and working right in the thick of it. If you’re a normal reader, you’ll love this book for its unflinching honesty about the Big Tech world we all now live in, for better or for worse. And if you, like me, spend your days immersed in the Internet, you’ll finish reading with a clearer view – like some of that haze has faded away.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9780374278014", "cover": "9780374278014", "goodreads": 45186565, "itunes": 9780374278014, "bookshop": 9780374278014, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nQdzPf0oL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374278014", "isbn10": "0374278016", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 213, "book": "Uncanny Valley: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Living An Everyday Life Amid The Disrupters In 'Uncanny Valley'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/11/795293661/living-an-everyday-life-amidst-the-disruptors-in-uncanny-valley" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 213, "book": "Uncanny Valley: A Memoir", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Exploring The 'Uncanny Valley' Of Tech Startup Culture", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/01/24/exploring-the-uncanny-valley-of-tech-startup-culture" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 213, "book": "Uncanny Valley: A Memoir", "source": "KQED", "text": "Anna Wiener Reflects On Silicon Valley's Dark Side In 'Uncanny Valley'", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101875654/anna-wiener-reflects-on-silicon-valleys-dark-side-in-uncanny-valley" } ] }, "214": { "id": 214, "title": "To Calais, In Ordinary Time", "author": "James Meek", "reviewers": [ "Holly Morris" ], "text": "Some lowlife archers, a cleric, a gender-fluid pigkeeper, a dumb-but-hot peasant and a wronged noblewoman head to France and smack into the Black Death. James Meek gives both merciless pandemic Real Talk and a sort of Lonely Planet guide to medieval England. Master local lingo like gnof (lout), freke (brave man) and how to ask for the nearest confessor! Visit the hippest reliqueries, jousts and sickhouses! Learn which villages to avoid but blunder into anyway because you believe the plague is a hoax perpetrated by priests! And think deep thoughts about human responses to incoming doom, no matter the era.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "for history lovers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781786896742", "cover": "9781786896742", "goodreads": 42006017, "itunes": 9781786896742, "bookshop": 9781786896742, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512t8QYmNGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781786896742", "isbn10": "1786896745", "links": [] }, "215": { "id": 215, "title": "The City We Became: A Novel", "author": "N.K. Jemisin", "reviewers": [ "J.C. Howard" ], "text": "If your hometown was a person, what would she look like? What kind of shoes would they wear? How would he smell? What would you do if you came face to literal face with New York City? This is the world that N.K. Jemisin imagines in her fantasy novel The City We Became. This year, we need all the fantasy we can get, and Jemisin offers a multidimensional version of the world just outside your front door. New York’s five boroughs each become human avatars and walk through a world that is recognizable as our own yet wholly different, as they are under attack from a supernatural – and betentacled – enemy.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780316509848", "cover": "9780316509848", "goodreads": 43521693, "itunes": 9780316509848, "bookshop": 9780316509848, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519ySdAeHGS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316509848", "isbn10": "0316509841", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 215, "book": "The City We Became", "source": "NPR", "text": "New York Comes Alive — Literally — In 'The City We Became'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/25/820833531/new-york-comes-alive-literally-in-the-city-we-became" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 215, "book": "The City We Became", "source": "NPR", "text": "Exclusive 1st Read: 'The City We Became,' By N.K. Jemisin", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/10/810532807/exclusive-1st-read-the-city-we-became-by-n-k-jemisin" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 215, "book": "The City We Became: A Novel", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Nerdette Book Club: A Not-Too-Spoilery Conversation With Sci-Fi Author N.K. Jemisin", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/a-convo-with-author-nk-jemisin/ccceb290-3ba0-4474-b97d-d1b053a36af6" } ] }, "216": { "id": 216, "title": "Legendary Children: The First Decade Of RuPaul’s Drag Race And The Last Century Of Queer Life", "author": "Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "This book cleverly weaves aspects of RuPaul’s Drag Race – lip syncing, the Snatch Game, serving lewks – with the queer cultural history behind the show. In the introduction, Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez style bloggers Tom + Lorenzo, encourage readers to Google as they go, diving into Internet rabbit holes on various aspects of queer culture outlined in the book. Reading this book led me to discover a treasure trove of YouTube videos, documentaries and Wikipedia pages that I never would have found on my own.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me", "no biz like show biz", "for history lovers", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9780143134626", "cover": "9780143134626", "goodreads": 44657349, "itunes": 9780143134626, "bookshop": 9780143134626, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61jOzztFy5L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780143134626", "isbn10": "01431346211", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 216, "book": "Legendary Children", "source": "KQED", "text": "New Book Showcases The 'Legendary Children' In Drag History And 'RuPaul's Drag Race'", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101877643/new-book-showcases-the-legendary-children-in-drag-history-and-rupauls-drag-race" } ] }, "217": { "id": 217, "title": "New Waves: A Novel", "author": "Kevin Nguyen", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "I don’t want to read any more stories about incompetent white tech bros. Thankfully, Kevin Nguyen has written a refreshing satire of startup culture. Lucas and Margo are close friends and coworkers who often commiserate about the racism they face at work. Lucas, a low-level customer service rep, is Asian American, and Margo is a programmer and the lone Black employee at their company. When Margo dies in a car accident, Lucas decides to excavate Margo’s online persona and virtual life in order to process his grief and better get to know his friend. The novel unpacks varying types of loneliness, whether caused by grief or online interaction or because you are a POC facing racism in the workplace.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781984855237", "cover": "9781984855237", "goodreads": 49820160, "itunes": 9781984855237, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516PWgGNeML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984855237", "isbn10": "1984855239", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 217, "book": "New Waves: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'New Waves' Asks: How Can We Form True Friendships In An Online World?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/10/814164937/new-waves-asks-how-can-we-form-true-friendships-in-an-online-world" } ] }, "218": { "id": 218, "title": "Having And Being Had", "author": "Eula Biss", "reviewers": [ "Jolie Myers" ], "text": "Having and Being Had is a handbook, told in vignettes, on how to reckon with a life that bends toward owning things. Through Biss’ inquiry, one is reminded that capitalism is not inevitable and that currency goes well beyond the money in one’s pocket. This collection is curious, sharp, funny (truly) and full of questions we, as a society, have forgotten how to ask about how we spend, what we buy, why we work, what labor is and how we calculate worth.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780525537458", "cover": "9780525537458", "goodreads": 51151745, "itunes": 9780525537458, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ujDVRKnsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525537458", "isbn10": "0525537457", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 218, "book": "Having And Being Had", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Having And Being Had,' Eula Biss Maps Capitalist Game Rules Without Breaking Them", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/03/908253578/in-having-and-being-had-eula-biss-maps-capitalist-game-rules-without-breaking-th" } ] }, "219": { "id": 219, "title": "We Ride Upon Sticks: A Novel", "author": "Quan Barry", "reviewers": [ "Jolie Myers" ], "text": "It’s 1989 and the Danvers, Mass., field hockey team is looking for a win. And so, hundreds of years after a coven of teen girls kicked off the Salem witch trials nearby, the Lady Falcons give themselves over to a dark force known as Emilio (they seal the deal by signing their names in a notebook with Emilio Estevez on the cover). What follows is the story of teen girls figuring out where power comes from – who has it, who doesn’t and what it means to bump up against gender norms and social conventions. We Ride Upon Sticks is an absolute gift – a genuinely funny page turner with enough heart to win any championship.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "funny stuff", "for sports lovers", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781524748098", "cover": "9781524748098", "goodreads": 50215350, "itunes": 9781524748098, "bookshop": 9781524748098, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kCDCCRW2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781524748098", "isbn10": "1524748099", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 219, "book": "We Ride Upon Sticks: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Witchcraft, Field Hockey And 1980s Massachusetts Meet In 'We Ride Upon Sticks'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/04/809741338/witchcraft-field-hockey-and-1980s-massachusetts-meet-in-we-ride-upon-sticks" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 219, "book": "We Ride Upon Sticks: A Novel", "source": "GBH", "text": "Book Club: 'We Ride Upon Sticks' By Quan Barry", "url": "https://www.wgbh.org/news/arts/2020/04/03/book-club-we-ride-upon-sticks-by-quan-barry" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 219, "book": "We Ride Upon Sticks: A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Quan Barry On 'We Ride Upon Sticks'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/quan-barry-we-ride-upon-sticks/" } ] }, "220": { "id": 220, "title": "Everything Sad Is Untrue: (A True Story)", "author": "Daniel Nayeri", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "This book hooks you with the opening line – “All Persians are liars and lying is a sin” – and takes you on a journey through myth, youth and cultural clash as a young boy and his family flee Iran and end up in Oklahoma. It’s a version of the author’s own life. The circuitous structure puts you inside the narrator’s mind as he navigates indignities at every turn. Oh – and it’s infused with big love, delicious food and snort-inducing laughs. (For ages 10 and up)
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "kids’ books" ], "isbn": "9781646140008", "cover": "9781646140008", "goodreads": 49089631, "itunes": 9781646140008, "bookshop": 9781646140008, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61jMEmKJx2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781646140008", "isbn10": "1646140001", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 220, "book": "Everything Sad Is Untrue: (A True Story)", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Everything Sad Is Untrue' Is Funny And Sad And (Mostly) True", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/02/908467288/everything-sad-is-untrue-is-funny-and-sad-and-mostly-true" } ] }, "221": { "id": 221, "title": "Just Us: An American Conversation", "author": "Claudia Rankine", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "The title, says it all. Just Us is a collection of essays, photos, poems and conversations that poet Claudia Rankine has been having with friends and strangers about race. While Americans gather in demographic silos with a wink (“it’s just us, we can speak honestly here”) Rankine, who’s Black, invites us all to join in “An American Conversation.” It’s a tough, heartfelt and worthy exercise.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9781644450215", "cover": "9781644450215", "goodreads": 50403499, "itunes": 9781644450215, "bookshop": 9781644450215, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41a8wf+2C6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781644450215", "isbn10": "1644450216", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 221, "book": "Just Us: An American Conversation", "source": "NPR", "text": "Claudia Rankine's 'Just Us' Is A Conversation, Not A Prescription", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/03/909225677/claudia-rankines-just-us-is-a-conversation-not-a-prescription" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 221, "book": "Just Us: An American Conversation", "source": "NPR", "text": "Poet Claudia Rankine And 'Just Us'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/03/909478797/poet-claudia-rankine-and-just-us" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 221, "book": "Just Us", "source": "KQED", "text": "Poet Claudia Rankine's Book 'Just Us' Seeks Out 'True Conversation' About Race", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101879621/poet-claudia-rankines-book-just-us-seeks-out-true-conversation-about-race" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 221, "book": "Just Us", "source": "KUOW", "text": "Claudia Rankine On The Unbearable Lightness Of Whiteness In America", "url": "https://www.kuow.org/stories/claudia-rankine-on-the-unbearable-lightness-of-american-whiteness" } ] }, "222": { "id": 222, "title": "Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study Of Sex, Power, And Assault On Campus", "author": "Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "Over five years, professors Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan interviewed more than 150 Columbia and Barnard College undergrads about their sex lives. The research explored what students wanted out of sex, how troubling encounters unfolded and how layers of misunderstandings led to assault. This is the book to read to help lead conversations about sex. It reframes the dialogue and helps prepare young people for sexual relationships. Read it, share it. Empower the young folks in your life.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "let’s talk about sex", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9781324001706", "cover": "9781324001706", "goodreads": 45894162, "itunes": 9781324001706, "bookshop": 9781324001706, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nlnoV4s0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781324001706", "isbn10": "1324001704", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 222, "book": "Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study Of Sex, Power, And Assault On Campus", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Sexual Citizens,' Students Open Up About Sex, Power And Assault On Campus", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/23/798545780/in-sexual-citizens-students-open-up-about-sex-power-and-assault-on-campus" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 222, "book": "Sexual Citizens", "source": "WNYC", "text": "A Landmark Study Of Sexual Assault On Campus", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/landmark-study-sexual-assault-campus/" } ] }, "223": { "id": 223, "title": "The Other Bennet Sister: A Novel", "author": "Janice Hadlow", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "Oh, what joy this year to be transported to Jane Austen’s England by revisiting and reconsidering her characters in Pride and Prejudice. Janice Hadlow explores whatever did happen to Mary, the middle Bennet sister? How does the oft-forgotten Bennet daughter use the city of London to define her life and allow her to grow into herself? This is an engaging coming-of-age story for Austenites and non-Austenites alike.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "love & romance", "rather long", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250129413", "cover": "9781250129413", "goodreads": 45186556, "itunes": 9781250129413, "bookshop": 9781250129413, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250129413", "isbn10": "1250129419", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 223, "book": "The Other Bennet Sister: A Novel", "source": "KRCU", "text": "Martin's Must Reads: 'The Other Bennet Sister'", "url": "https://www.krcu.org/post/martins-must-reads-other-bennet-sister#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 223, "book": "The Other Bennet Sister: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Elizabeth's More Serious Sister Mary Takes The Spotlight In 'The Other Bennet Sister'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/09/830069319/elizabeths-more-serious-sister-mary-takes-the-spotlight-in-the-other-bennet-sist" } ] }, "224": { "id": 224, "title": "They Went Left", "author": "Monica Hesse", "reviewers": [ "Justine Kenin" ], "text": "This is the third of Hesse’s World War II-era novels, and like The War Outside and Girl in the Blue Coat, the perspective is totally novel. Eighteen-year-old Zofia has survived the war and is determined to reconnect with her little brother. We follow Zofia as she searches traumatized, war-torn Europe for a single boy. They Went Left is a story about saying yes to the next chapter of life, thankful to be alive.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "young adult", "for history lovers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780316490573", "cover": "9780316490573", "goodreads": 52701968, "itunes": 9780316490573, "bookshop": 9780316490573, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51MIy82j9qL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316490573", "isbn10": "0316490571", "links": [] }, "225": { "id": 225, "title": "The Midnight Bargain", "author": "C.L. Polk", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "Set in a fantasy world with echoes of British Regency, The Midnight Bargain is a smart, compassionate book about the costs of making deals, who pays them and who profits. Beatrice Clayborn’s family counts on her to make a good marriage and save them from debt. She would much rather study magic in secret and use her considerable sorcerous powers on her family’s behalf. But that’s not something that is done in Chasland, where women must give up magic in favor of marriage or risk their children being born possessed. A sharp examination of birth control and parental leave delivered in gorgeous, velvety prose, this was an absolute pleasure to read.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781645660071", "cover": "9781645660071", "goodreads": 49151031, "itunes": 9781645660071, "bookshop": 9781645660071, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pRB3YdKGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781645660071", "isbn10": "1645660079", "links": [] }, "226": { "id": 226, "title": "The Space Between Worlds", "author": "Micaiah Johnson", "reviewers": [ "Amal El-Mohtar" ], "text": "The multiverse is real, and travel between worlds is possible – but landing in a world where a version of you is alive will kill you on arrival. Consequently, the wealthy and powerful who want to plunder alternate worlds of resources and information need the most marginal people to do their dirty work for them: Only those whose existence is a small miracle can “traverse” effectively. Enter Cara, one of the best traversers – because in over 300 worlds, versions of her are only alive in eight. An absolutely stunning thriller, queer and fierce and smart: think Fury Road meets Orphan Black.
", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780593135051", "cover": "9780593135051", "goodreads": 48848254, "itunes": 9780593135051, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fRdiSkFiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593135051", "isbn10": "0593135059", "links": [] }, "227": { "id": 227, "title": "Anxious People: A Novel", "author": "Fredrik Backman, translated by Niel Smith", "reviewers": [ "Arielle Retting" ], "text": "This is a story “about idiots.” It’s about a failed bank robbery and a highly unusual hostage situation. But what should be a nightmare scenario – a bunch of strangers held at gunpoint at an apartment open house – turns into a surprisingly sweet tale. It’s the perfect balance of heartwarming and heart-wrenching, and Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called Ove, has a way of simply yet elegantly describing relationships. We can all be idiots, but we’re still all human beings worthy of connection and love.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781501160837", "cover": "9781501160837", "goodreads": 49127718, "itunes": 9781501160837, "bookshop": 9781501160837, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781501160837", "isbn10": "1501160834", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 227, "book": "Anxious People", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Marginalia: Fredrik Backman On Ove, Mental Health, And 'Anxious People'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/marginalia-fredrik-backman-ove-mental-health-and-anxious-people" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 227, "book": "Anxious People", "source": "WVIA", "text": "Author Interview: Frederik Backman On 'Anxious People'", "url": "https://soundcloud.com/wvia-public-media/frederik-backman-fiona-powell-october-16-2020?in=wvia-public-media/sets/artscene-1" } ] }, "228": { "id": 228, "title": "Ghosting The News: Local Journalism And The Crisis Of American Democracy", "author": "Margaret Sullivan", "reviewers": [ "Arielle Retting" ], "text": "News flash: Local news is disappearing. Margaret Sullivan, media columnist for The Washington Post, offers a stark warning about what could happen to our democracy if that trend continues. She writes that the health of a community is directly linked to the health of its local news and that good local reporting requires good resources. Readers know it – they just don’t always want to pay for it. With news deserts on the rise, people in power will remain unchecked. Sullivan explains why we should all be worried and start working to keep local news alive.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "the dark side", "rather short" ], "isbn": "9781733623780", "cover": "9781733623780", "goodreads": 53260197, "itunes": 9781733623780, "bookshop": 9781733623780, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41arTPSleiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781733623780", "isbn10": "1733623787", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 228, "book": "Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Ghosting The News' Author Says Local Journalism 'Freefall' Is Accelerating", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/03/898547327/ghosting-the-news-author-says-local-journalism-freefall-is-accelerating" } ] }, "229": { "id": 229, "title": "The Night Watchman", "author": "Louise Erdrich", "reviewers": [ "Christine Arrasmith" ], "text": "When I find a new Louise Erdrich novel, I grab it with a grin and open it immediately. In The Night Watchman, we join Chippewa tribal councilman Thomas Wazhushk on his overnight shift at a factory near his band’s North Dakota reservation. It’s 1953, and Wazhushk is fighting a brutal federal plan to terminate his tribe’s sovereign status and rights to its land. He and other tribal members have an aching love for this place as they watch the turning of “the great wheel of the year,” “the leaves gold on green.” But the tribe is desperately poor, and its existence is under dire threat from a faraway bureaucracy. Wazhushk is based on Erdrich’s own grandfather, who waged a real-life struggle for his tribe’s survival. Reflecting on this, Erdrich writes, “… if you should be of the conviction that we are powerless to change … let this book give you heart.” I know it does me.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "identity & culture", "for history lovers", "historical fiction", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9780062671189", "cover": "9780062671189", "goodreads": 46206688, "itunes": 9780062671189, "bookshop": 9780062671189, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oHsCqi2cS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062671189", "isbn10": "0062671189", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 229, "book": "The Night Watchman", "source": "NPR", "text": "Louise Erdrich's Grandfather Inspired Her New 'Night Watchman'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/29/809976395/louise-erdrichs-grandfather-inspired-her-new-night-watchman" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 229, "book": "The Night Watchman", "source": "MPR", "text": "Author Louise Erdrich On ‘The Night Watchman’", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2020/03/10/author-louise-erdrich-on-the-night-watchman" } ] }, "230": { "id": 230, "title": "We Are Water Protectors", "author": "Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "Water is life! The Water Protectors at Standing Rock and beyond have been battling to defend Mother Earth’s sacred water to honor our ancestors, to provide for our peoples and for future generations. This exquisite picture book – seriously, it’s breathtaking – was written by Anishinabe/Métis Carole Lindstrom of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe and illustrated by Tlingit Michaela Goade. It’s not only one of the all-time best Native children’s books, but it’s one of the most beautiful and important picture books ever published – period. (For ages 3 to 6)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "for art lovers", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9781250203557", "cover": "9781250203557", "goodreads": 44581496, "itunes": 9781250203557, "bookshop": 9781250203557, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250203557", "isbn10": "1250203554", "links": [] }, "231": { "id": 231, "title": "Sisters In Hate: American Women On The Front Lines Of White Nationalism", "author": "Seyward Darby", "reviewers": [ "Danielle Kurtzleben" ], "text": "Sisters in Hate profiles three women who are, or have been, prominent figures in America’s white nationalist movement. That means it’s an intense read, but also a consistently compelling one – and journalist and author Seyward Darby’s unforced, artful writing keeps you turning the pages through the disturbing details of their beliefs and actions. The tales in Sisters are together a sort of dark counterpart to books like How to Be an Anti-Racist, which encourage white Americans to do the hard work of undoing a lifetime of racist programming. Darby presents becoming a white nationalist as the opposite of hard work. These women chose to go down a repulsive path, yes, but the path is well-paved.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9780316487771", "cover": "9780316487771", "goodreads": 52588606, "itunes": 9780316487771, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s-f98fkRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316487771", "isbn10": "0316487775", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 231, "book": "Sisters in Hate: American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Sisters In Hate' Profiles 3 Women Who Find Bonds In White Nationalist Movement", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/20/890752575/sisters-in-hate-profiles-3-women-who-find-bonds-in-white-nationalist-movement" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 231, "book": "Sisters In Hate", "source": "WGBH", "text": "Woman Thought Leader: Seyward Darby", "url": "https://www.wgbh.org/program/to-the-contrary/woman-thought-leader-seyward-darby" } ] }, "232": { "id": 232, "title": "Capital And Ideology", "author": "Thomas Piketty, translated by Arthur Goldhammer", "reviewers": [ "Darian Woods" ], "text": "Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideology surveys global inequality over the last few hundred years. Its first half is history backed up by inequality accounting. We’re taken through medieval Europe, slave and colonial societies, through Asia to reach the present, where the top 1% acquired 27% of global income growth between 1980 and 2018. Piketty’s later chapters describe policies and shifting political coalitions that could explain this rise in inequality. Charts show left-wing parties in the U.S. and Europe becoming parties for people with higher education and, increasingly, higher income. This reversal of postwar class coalitions, Piketty argues, is to blame.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "rather long", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9780674980822", "cover": "9780674980822", "goodreads": 50849430, "itunes": 9780674980822, "bookshop": 9780674980822, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780674980822", "isbn10": "0674980824", "links": [] }, "233": { "id": 233, "title": "Hanging Tree Guitars", "author": "Freeman Vines with Zoe van Buren, photography by Timothy Duffy", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "Part memoir, part photo essay, Hanging Tree Guitars is the story of North Carolina luthier Freeman Vines. He crafts guitars from found materials and hunks of old wood, including some from a tree once used for a lynching. Vines, 78, explains how the wood talks to him, and he reflects on growing up in a sharecropper’s family under Jim Crow. “I had learned that the white man was what controlled the code,” he says. Timothy Duffy’s tintype images of Vines and his guitars are stunning, including one where Vines is sitting in a field with his guitars strung on a frame overhead.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "biography & memoir", "for art lovers", "identity & culture", "rather short", "for music lovers" ], "isbn": "9780578624037", "cover": "9780578624037", "goodreads": 55071381, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780578624037", "isbn10": "0578624036", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 233, "book": "Hanging Tree Guitars", "source": "NPR", "text": "Hanging Tree Guitars: The Wood's 'Not Good, Not Bad, Not Ugly — Just Strange'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/13/909213376/hanging-tree-guitars-the-woods-not-good-not-bad-not-ugly-just-strange" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 233, "book": "Hanging Tree Guitars", "source": "WUNC", "text": "Aging Southern Musical Artists Celebrate 25 Years Of Music Maker", "url": "https://www.wunc.org/post/aging-southern-musical-artists-celebrate-25-years-music-maker" } ] }, "234": { "id": 234, "title": "Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens The Unsolved Murder Cases Of The Civil Rights Era", "author": "Jerry Mitchell", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "I’m a longtime fan of Mississippi investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell, and his memoir doesn’t disappoint. It’s a page-turner that reads like a mystery novel. But it’s frighteningly real – chronicling reporting that ultimately resulted in justice for some of the most notorious murders carried out by the Ku Klux Klan. Mitchell takes readers inside the investigations and prosecutions that, decades later, held Klansmen to account for killing civil rights leaders and workers in Mississippi, and four Black girls in a Birmingham church. I covered most of these trials for NPR, and Jerry’s memoir re-creates those historic events in riveting detail.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781451645132", "cover": "9781451645132", "goodreads": 52754197, "itunes": 9781451645132, "bookshop": 9781451645132, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JjK91QPzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781451645132", "isbn10": "1451645139", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 234, "book": "Race Against Time", "source": "WOSU", "text": "Journalist Jerry Mitchell's Investigation Of Civil Rights Era Murders", "url": "https://radio.wosu.org/post/journalist-jerry-mitchells-investigation-civil-rights-era-murders-1#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 234, "book": "Race Against Time", "source": "WYPR", "text": "Jerry Mitchell's Race Against Time: Solving The Unsolved Murders Of The Civil Rights Era", "url": "https://www.wypr.org/post/jerry-mitchells-race-against-time-solving-unsolved-murders-civil-rights-era" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 234, "book": "Race Against Time", "source": "WAMU", "text": " ‘Race Against Time:’ Is It Too Late To Solve Civil Rights Era Cases?", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/race-against-time-is-it-too-late-to-solve-civil-rights-era-cases/" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 234, "book": "Race Against Time", "source": "GPB", "text": "Race Against Time': Journalist Jerry Mitchell Brings Justice To Unsolved Civil Rights Era Cases", "url": "https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/02/07/race-against-time-journalist-jerry-mitchell-brings-justice-unsolved-civil-rights" } ] }, "235": { "id": 235, "title": "The Deepest South Of All: True Stories From Natchez, Mississippi", "author": "Richard Grant", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "This book is a delicious profile of a city that both glorifies and grapples with its Old South legacy. The Mississippi River town is known for elaborate antebellum homes, a raucous port culture and the lasting impact of being a center for the slave trade. The real-life characters are quirky and unflinchingly honest. There are dueling garden clubs, bourbon-soaked conversations and the first Black gay mayor in Mississippi.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9781501177828", "cover": "9781501177828", "goodreads": 50890764, "itunes": 9781501177828, "bookshop": 9781501177828, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dmJqJZI-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781501177828", "isbn10": "1501177826", "links": [] }, "236": { "id": 236, "title": "Broken Faith: Inside The Word Of Faith Fellowship, One Of America's Most Dangerous Cults", "author": "Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr", "reviewers": [ "Denise Couture" ], "text": "Cults are fascinating. How do people get sucked in? And when they realize their mistake, what makes them stay? This book is the result of dogged work by Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr, two journalists who investigated allegations of abuse in the evangelical Word of Faith Fellowship based in North Carolina. What they discovered – in hundreds of interviews, secret recordings and documents – is as shocking as it is heartbreaking.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "the dark side", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9781335145239", "cover": "9781335145239", "goodreads": 45734779, "itunes": 9781335145239, "bookshop": 9781335145239, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41PKREbqsgL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781335145239", "isbn10": "13351452311", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 236, "book": "Broken Faith: Inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, One of America's Most Dangerous Cults", "source": "NPR", "text": "Word Of Faith's Pattern Of Abuse 'Got Worse Over Time,' Says 'Broken Faith' Author", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/17/806052660/word-of-faiths-pattern-of-abuse-got-worse-over-time-says-broken-faith-author" } ] }, "237": { "id": 237, "title": "Clap When You Land", "author": "Elizabeth Acevedo", "reviewers": [ "Elissa Nadworny" ], "text": "In 2001, just months after Sept. 11, a plane flying from New York to the Dominican Republic crashed in Queens, killing everyone on board. This is the starting point of Elizabeth Acevedo’s new novel, written in verse, about two teenage sisters, one in New York and the other in the Dominican Republic, who discover each other’s existence when their father dies in the crash. Written in two voices, each sister tells the story from her perspective – navigating the grief, the uncertainty and ultimately the connection to family, together. It’s a beautifully written trip into the lives of two young people in totally different worlds, both yearning for the same things: belonging and identity.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "young adult", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9780062882769", "cover": "9780062882769", "goodreads": 52516332, "itunes": 9780062882769, "bookshop": 9780062882769, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51uDGghRmFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062882769", "isbn10": "0062882767", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 237, "book": "Clap When You Land", "source": "NPR", "text": "Tragedy Reveals 2 Secret Families In 'Clap When You Land'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/10/853415104/author-elizabeth-acevedo-on-her-new-novel-clap-when-you-land" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 237, "book": "Clap When You Land", "source": "NPR", "text": "Mermaids, Werewolves And Witches: Welcome Summer With These 6 New YA Novels", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/30/883960845/mermaids-werewolves-and-witches-welcome-summer-with-these-6-new-ya-novels" } ] }, "238": { "id": 238, "title": "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, And You", "author": "Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi", "reviewers": [ "Elissa Nadworny" ], "text": "In this accessible yet strikingly powerful book, children’s book author Jason Reynolds teams up with historian Ibram X. Kendi to adapt Kendi’s award-winning history of racism (by the same name) for a younger audience. The book traces the history of racist ideas and offers readers a path to see how those ideas played out and shaped the America we know today. It won’t feel like a traditional book about history – this one is cool – chapters draw on contemporary experiences and pop culture to help explain and contextualize historical moments, demonstrating that history isn’t just in the past, it’s in our present and future. Oh – and just because they wrote it with kids in mind doesn’t mean it’s not a great read for adults, too!
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "young adult", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9780316453691", "cover": "9780316453691", "goodreads": 52220686, "itunes": 9780316453691, "bookshop": 9780316453691, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511YfuNoncS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316453691", "isbn10": "0316453692", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 238, "book": "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You", "source": "NPR", "text": "A History Book That Isn't: Finding A Way To Teach Racism To A New Generation", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/14/814630039/a-history-book-that-isnt-finding-a-way-to-teach-racism-to-a-new-generation" } ] }, "239": { "id": 239, "title": "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, And The Dangerous Distortion Of Truth", "author": "Brian Stelter", "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "text": "It’s the revelation that launched a thousand late-night TV punchlines: President Trump gets policy ideas from watching Fox News. But this book, by CNN chief media correspondent and Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter, goes deeper, unveiling just how insidious connections are between the right-wing cable news channel and the 45th president. From Fox News star Sean Hannity serving as a “shadow” chief of staff to a stable of stars who downplayed the expanding coronavirus pandemic as a Democratic Party plot, Stelter expertly details how Trump’s need for a supportive media outlet and Fox News’ thirst for ratings-driven profits led to an alliance unprecedented in modern media or politics.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "9781982142445", "cover": "9781982142445", "goodreads": 52759441, "itunes": 9781982142445, "bookshop": 9781982142445, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51q8SykbgvS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982142445", "isbn10": "1982142448", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 239, "book": "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Hoax' Traces The 'Grotesque Feedback Loop' Between President Trump And Fox News", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905805029/hoax-traces-the-grotesque-feedback-loop-between-president-trump-and-fox-news" } ] }, "240": { "id": 240, "title": "The Searcher: A Novel", "author": "Tana French", "reviewers": [ "Gisele Grayson" ], "text": "Cal Hooper – a disillusioned, retired Chicago cop – moves to rural Ireland for a simpler life, but then he gets dragged into searching for a missing local teenager. The boy has possibly been murdered, though possibly he has just fled for the city. Of course Cal jumps in, despite his yearning for solitude. Tana French beautifully and slowly unspools the story, all the while carrying tension in every sentence and scene. Cal and the reader take the journey together, exploring both the opportunity and the danger that a city has to offer and the peace and complications of a village that is increasingly depleted of young people. (I listened to the audiobook, and Roger Clark was a wonderful reader – I highly recommend.)
", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "staff picks", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9780735224650", "cover": "9780735224650", "goodreads": 52661162, "itunes": 9780735224650, "bookshop": 9780735224650, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BGbFVQkcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780735224650", "isbn10": "073522465X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 240, "book": "The Searcher: A Novel", "source": "KAXE/KBXE", "text": "An American Western In Ireland: Tana French's New Novel, 'The Searcher'", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/post/american-western-ireland-tana-frenchs-new-novel-searcher" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 240, "book": "The Searcher", "source": "NPR", "text": "An Outsider Is Drawn Into The Quest To Find A Missing Teen In 'The Searcher'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/06/920740876/an-outsider-is-drawn-into-the-quest-to-find-a-missing-teen-in-the-searcher" } ] }, "241": { "id": 241, "title": "The Age Of Phillis", "author": "Honorée Fanonne Jeffers", "reviewers": [ "Hope Wabuke" ], "text": "“Morning shards, and a mother wondered/ if her daughter forgot her real name,” writes Honorée Fanonne Jeffers in the poem “An Issue of Mercy #1” in her latest collection. In this vast, imaginative opus on Black female genius, Fanonne Jeffers excavates the figure of Phillis Wheatley Peters, the first Black woman to publish a book in America. Here, too, is a virtuosic deconstruction of the figure of Phillis, stolen from her home in the Gambia at age 7 and enslaved in America during the 18th century – and what she means as a representation of this time in our history that’s still influencing American social institutions and life today in relation to power, agency and the histories that are told.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780819579492", "cover": "9780819579492", "goodreads": 51805158, "itunes": 9780819579492, "bookshop": 9780819579492, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vBvgKB2qL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780819579492", "isbn10": "0819579491", "links": [] }, "242": { "id": 242, "title": "The Shadow King", "author": "Maaza Mengiste", "reviewers": [ "Hope Wabuke" ], "text": "“Her hair is neatly braided and sleek and she has been careful to hide the long scar that puckers at the base of her neck and trails over her shoulder like a necklace,” writes Maaza Mengiste of her main character Hirut in the opening of her Booker Prize-longlisted novel. Hirut’s scar marks her as a survivor – of war, of capture, of learning to defend herself against war and other violences of men. In this luminous exploration of the lives of Ethiopian women who fought back against the fascist regime of Mussolini’s invading army, Mengiste both un-erases history and crafts a stunning novel that resonates with imagistic lyricism and depth.
", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "for history lovers", "the dark side", "rather long", "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780393358513", "cover": "9780393358513", "goodreads": 50489307, "itunes": 9780393358513, "bookshop": 9780393358513, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Nv9lFWzXL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780393358513", "isbn10": "0393358518", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 242, "book": "The Shadow King", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Nerdette Book Club: A Conversation On ‘The Shadow King’ With Author Maaza Mengiste", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/a-conversation-about-the-shadow-king-with-maaza-mengiste/bc01683c-c9e6-46a9-98b5-22a1cc11e851" } ] }, "243": { "id": 243, "title": "And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories And Other Revenges", "author": "Amber Sparks", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "It’s impossible to pick favorites among 22 stories (“& other revenges”) full of vivid language, compelling imagery, sharp wit and an abiding tenderness. Running the gamut from friendship to hauntings to cult leader boyfriends to forgotten historical figures, none of these stories allow men to have the final say. Evocatively titled (“In Which Athena Designs a Video Game with the Express Purpose of Trolling Her Father,” “Mildly Happy, With Moments of Joy”), each story feels it belongs to the whole, like a track on a curated playlist, but each stands alone so well you’ll want to read it on repeat.
", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9781631496202", "cover": "9781631496202", "goodreads": 45894105, "itunes": 9781631496202, "bookshop": 9781631496202, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51H0J4q7MyL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781631496202", "isbn10": "1631496204", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 243, "book": "And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories and Other Revenges", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'And I Do Not Forgive You' Pokes Piquant Fun At The Patriarchy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/12/804887422/and-i-do-not-forgive-you-pokes-piquant-fun-at-the-patriarchy" } ] }, "244": { "id": 244, "title": "Bestiary: A Novel", "author": "K-Ming Chang", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "K-Ming Chang’s debut is a kind of compendium of real and mythical beasts — some human, some animal, most a bit of both — that roam through a family’s lineage and the stories its members tell each other from one generation to another. Bestiary’s primary narrator is Daughter, who is trying to understand the gulf between Mother and Grandmother as well as the new tiger tail she’s grown. Everything is alive in this book: The ground grows mouths, rivers become women, roads become rivers, crabs give birth to girlchildren, trees get up and march off in search of lost loves.
", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780593132586", "cover": "9780593132586", "goodreads": 43297216, "itunes": 9780593132586, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-sdv-Y-KL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593132586", "isbn10": "05931325811", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 244, "book": "Bestiary: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "This 'Bestiary' Lives In A Family's Multigenerational Stories", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/918354509/this-bestiary-lives-in-a-familys-multigenerational-stories" } ] }, "245": { "id": 245, "title": "Crooked Hallelujah", "author": "Kelli Jo Ford", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "Justine is a 15-year-old living in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma with her mother, Lula, when she learns she’s pregnant. In chapters voiced by different narrators, debut novelist Kelli Jo Ford shows how Lula, Justine and Justine’s daughter, Reney, are both alike and different, each woman stubborn and acting on convictions all her own. With love binding them together even through historical and present trauma, Lula, Justine and Reney carve unexpected paths and try to find a way to feel at home and safe in a world of unpredictability.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780802149121", "cover": "9780802149121", "goodreads": 48637764, "itunes": 9780802149121, "bookshop": 9780802149121, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411MWI-fsaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780802149121", "isbn10": "080214912X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 245, "book": "Crooked Hallelujah", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Crooked Hallelujah' Sings Of Beauty And Trouble Between Mothers And Daughters", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/26/895215822/crooked-hallelujah-sings-of-beauty-and-trouble-between-mothers-and-daughters" } ] }, "246": { "id": 246, "title": "High As The Waters Rise: A Novel", "author": "Anja Kampmann, translated by Anne Posten", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "This gorgeously written novel by German poet Anja Kampmann, translated superbly by Anne Posten, focuses on Waclaw, a middle-aged oil rig worker. In the opening pages, Waclaw learns that his dear friend, Mátyás, has gone missing from the rig and is presumed dead. Waclaw, who has already been injured once in this dangerous line of work, begins an unintentional pilgrimage to places he and Mátyás made meaningful. Eventually, as he sinks deeper into grief, Waclaw returns also to the places that shaped him and that he fled in search of a better life.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781948226523", "cover": "9781948226523", "goodreads": 43300954, "itunes": 9781948226523, "bookshop": 9781948226523, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781948226523", "isbn10": "1948226529", "links": [] }, "247": { "id": 247, "title": "Homeland Elegies: A Novel", "author": "Ayad Akhtar", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "If you’re looking around and wondering how on earth we got here, check out Ayad Akhtar’s latest tour de force. The narrator in Homeland Elegies is a first-generation American born to Pakistani immigrants to the U.S. His father treated Donald Trump for a heart condition once and has decided, on that basis alone, that he’s trustworthy, which is deeply frustrating to the narrator. Meanwhile, the narrator gets involved in a scheme run by a charming capitalist whose consequences are more far-reaching than he knows. A romp, a tragedy and a serious look at the American obsession with money: You don’t want to miss this.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780316706483", "cover": "9780316706483", "goodreads": "", "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Za1oeKgPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316706483", "isbn10": "0316706485", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 247, "book": "Homeland Elegies: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "It's Real, It's Fiction, It's A Paradox: Ayad Akhtar On His 'Homeland Elegies'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/14/911981941/its-real-it-s-fiction-it-s-a-paradox-ayad-akhtar-on-his-homeland-elegies" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 247, "book": "Homeland Elegies: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Homeland Elegies' Novelist Reflects On Homesickness And The Immigrant Experience", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/14/912667645/homeland-elegies-novelist-reflects-on-homesickness-and-the-immigrant-experience" } ] }, "248": { "id": 248, "title": "Lakewood: A Novel", "author": "Megan Giddings", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "Following her grandmother’s death, Lena Johnson is left carrying grief, debt and too much responsibility. Luckily – is it? – a letter arrives inviting her to become a medical test subject in a top-secret project. The pay and the benefits are too good to pass up, so Lena signs the dotted line, drops out of college and lies to everyone about her new job. For a while, things are weird but OK – until they’re weird and distinctly not OK. Haunted by eugenicist theories and the real conspiracies of the American scientific establishment, this chilling and startling debut is unputdownable.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "family matters", "science!", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062913197", "cover": "9780062913197", "goodreads": 51166519, "itunes": 9780062913197, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416y9bC6bFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062913197", "isbn10": "00629131911", "links": [] }, "249": { "id": 249, "title": "The Freedom Artist", "author": "Ben Okri", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "Ben Okri’s new novel begins with an ominous tone, telling readers that “civilizations became so successful that [people] forgot they were in prison. They began to think they were free.” This prison is both literal and metaphorical, and the novel’s characters puzzle over what it is, where it is, who its prisoners are and how it can be escaped or evaded or transcended. A modern fable in which humans walk around while sleeping and lay awake at night screaming, this unsettling read is still cautiously hopeful, pointing to storytelling as a way of understanding how to exist.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781617757921", "cover": "9781617757921", "goodreads": 45431466, "itunes": 9781617757921, "bookshop": 9781617757921, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781617757921", "isbn10": "1617757926", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 249, "book": "The Freedom Artist", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Freedom Artist' Is A Perfect Read For A Post-Truth Era", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/08/803778668/the-freedom-artist-is-a-perfect-read-for-a-post-truth-era" } ] }, "250": { "id": 250, "title": "Tomboyland: Essays", "author": "Melissa Faliveno", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "Melissa Faliveno has lived in Brooklyn for more than a decade now and has witnessed how “especially after the 2016 election … people on the coast began to talk about Midwesterners as if they were nothing more than uneducated, gun-toting rednecks.” She complicates and nuances this narrative in Tomboyland, a collection of essays that are a love letter to, reckoning with and examination of her Midwestern upbringing in Wisconsin. To have roots, Faliveno implies, is to have the ability to grow upward, out and sometimes away, but to always have a context to return to.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781542014182", "cover": "9781542014182", "goodreads": 48724818, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781542014182, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51W483zEfpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781542014182", "isbn10": "1542014182", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 250, "book": "Tomboyland: Essays", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Tomboyland' Stresses The Importance Of Roots — And Knowing When To Grow Up And Away", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/898949880/tomboyland-stresses-the-importance-of-roots-and-knowing-when-to-grow-up-and-away" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 250, "book": "Tomboyland: Essays", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": " 'Tomboyland:' A Love Letter To Midwestern Strength, Complexities", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/tomboyland-love-letter-midwestern-strength-complexities" } ] }, "251": { "id": 251, "title": "Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, And A Woman's Search For Justice In Indian Country", "author": "Sierra Crane Murdoch", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "When Sierra Crane Murdoch and Lissa Yellow Bird first met at Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, Lissa was knee deep into an investigation of a missing man, an oil worker. Oil had changed the reservation while Lissa had been away from it, and it was the oil boom’s effect that brought Murdoch, a journalist for High Country News, to Fort Berthold. Soon, though, Murdoch turned her own investigation to Lissa herself, and the two became allies, each intent on finding the truth and exposing it, as expansive, complicated, nuanced and multi-layered as it might be.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780399589157", "cover": "9780399589157", "goodreads": 46180988, "itunes": 9780399589157, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416GSCJZhCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780399589157", "isbn10": "0399589155", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 251, "book": "Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Native American Woman's Search For Truth In 'Yellow Bird'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/11/814603295/a-native-american-womans-search-for-truth-in-yellow-bird" } ] }, "252": { "id": 252, "title": "The New Wilderness", "author": "Diane Cook", "reviewers": [ "Jamie York" ], "text": "It’s entirely understandable that in trying times you might want to avoid reading stories about people trying to survive dystopia, but Diane Cook’s The New Wilderness is my best argument for giving it a shot. In this beautiful novel, the United States has become largely unlivable and so Bea takes her ailing daughter Agnes to live in one of the last patches of wilderness. Life there is unremittingly hard but possible, and in that possibility Cook finds humor, incredible heart and something like hope. Buried deep inside is a reckoning with our place in nature and what wilderness and wildness look like when we don’t turn away in fear.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062333131", "cover": "9780062333131", "goodreads": 48836769, "itunes": 9780062333131, "bookshop": 9780062333131, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ak2azUgBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062333131", "isbn10": "0062333135", "links": [] }, "253": { "id": 253, "title": "Father Of Lions: One Man's Remarkable Quest To Save Mosul's Zoo", "author": "Louise Callaghan", "reviewers": [ "Jane Arraf" ], "text": "Who could resist a book that starts, “Abu Laith was not the kind of man to let another man insult his lion”? This book sparkles. Louise Callaghan writes about Iraq and the bonds that transcend war to tell the story of a Mosul zookeeper and his struggle to keep his family and his beloved lions safe. Against the backdrop of tragedy, it’s an ultimately uplifting story.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "tales from around the world", "eye-opening reads", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9781250248947", "cover": "9781250248947", "goodreads": 44453054, "itunes": 9781250248947, "bookshop": 9781250248947, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xRdkdhDEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250248947", "isbn10": "1250248949", "links": [] }, "254": { "id": 254, "title": "Sisters Of The War: Two Remarkable True Stories Of Survival And Hope In Syria", "author": "Rania Abouzeid", "reviewers": [ "Jane Arraf" ], "text": "Rania Abouzeid wrote this adaptation of her book No Turning Back with her teenage nieces in mind. It does a beautiful job of distilling the war in Syria into a story of both loss and resilience as seen through the lives of two sets of sisters trapped on different sides of the conflict. These are real stories of real people based on Abouzeid’s extensive reporting on the ground, and she writes with clarity and compassion without ever talking down to her readers. I also love the sumptuous description of the souk in Damascus that helps bring to life Syria’s vibrant society behind the headlines. (For ages 12 and up)
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "young adult", "kids’ books", "nonfiction", "tales from around the world", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9781338551129", "cover": "9781338551129", "goodreads": 49090552, "itunes": 9781338551129, "bookshop": 9781338551129, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pAW9CVDrL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781338551129", "isbn10": "1338551124", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 254, "book": "Sisters of the War", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'No Turning Back,' The 'Epic' Journeys Of Four Syrians In Wartime", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/11/592437348/in-no-turning-back-the-epic-journeys-of-four-syrians-in-wartime" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 254, "book": "Sisters of the War", "source": "NPR", "text": "Blacklisted From Syria, A Journalist Says: 'I Couldn't Imagine Staying Away'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/03/12/592882533/blacklisted-from-syria-a-journalist-says-i-couldn-t-imagine-staying-away" } ] }, "255": { "id": 255, "title": "Mutations: The Many Strange Faces Of Hardcore Punk", "author": "Sam McPheeters", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "As the incendiary singer of the ’90s band Born Against, Sam McPheeters is a legendary figure in hardcore punk. It’s a status he hates – and he spends much of Mutations deconstructing the entire notion of icons and subcultures. Through personal essays, record reviews and features on other musicians, he dissects his own cracked heart and teeming brain with cynical insight and disarming self-deprecation. For those familiar with McPheeters, Mutations is a catch-up session with a wise, witty cousin; for those who aren’t, it’s a brilliant look at how creativity, social forces, mental illness and growing older can make for a potent literary cocktail, Molotov or otherwise.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for music lovers", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9781947856981", "cover": "9781947856981", "goodreads": 48566540, "itunes": 9781947856981, "bookshop": 9781947856981, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zxf6fQOkL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781947856981", "isbn10": "1947856987", "links": [] }, "256": { "id": 256, "title": "Rust Belt Femme", "author": "Raechel Anne Jolie", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "Coming-of-age memoirs work best when the author is unafraid to dig deep into the context of their childhood, as well as the actual events. In her debut memoir, Rust Belt Femme, Raechel Anne Jolie gets it: On the surface, Femme is an exploration of trauma, queer identity and determination in the life of a Midwest kid trapped in a cycle of poverty and tragedy. But Jolie also stages this achingly personal story against the backdrop of the 1990s and early 2000s, with punk, emo and indie music playing as much of a role in her young life as the working-class environs that she rebelled against – and that she eventually came to grips with.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "for music lovers", "rather short" ], "isbn": "9781948742634", "cover": "9781948742634", "goodreads": 53127663, "itunes": 9781948742634, "bookshop": 9781948742634, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51MEYGqfmML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781948742634", "isbn10": "1948742632", "links": [] }, "257": { "id": 257, "title": "The Heap: A Novel", "author": "Sean Adams", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "Sean Adams’ debut novel The Heap takes place in the ruins of Los Verticalés, a leviathan 500-story building in the American desert that collapsed mysteriously years ago. The vast pile of rubble is called The Heap, and a loose-knit community has sprung up in order to salvage those remains. Trapped somewhere inside The Heap is a lone survivor, Bernard Anders, who broadcasts a radio show from the depths of the ruins – and when his brother Orville decides to find him, he exhumes devastating truths about not only The Heap, but the entire, teetering social experiment that is America.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062957757", "cover": "9780062957757", "goodreads": 53240813, "itunes": 9780062957757, "bookshop": 9780062957757, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/412HAbA3ouL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062957757", "isbn10": "0062957759", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 257, "book": "The Heap: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "There's Heart Amid The Ruins Of 'The Heap'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/07/791838101/theres-heart-amidst-the-ruins-of-the-heap" } ] }, "258": { "id": 258, "title": "The Human Cosmos: Civilization And The Stars", "author": "Jo Marchant", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "The gravity that the Earth exerts on humanity is obvious. But in The Human Cosmos: Civilization and the Stars, Jo Marchant compellingly argues that the stars have always pulled at us just as strongly. With whirlwind curiosity and gripping storytelling, Marchant takes us on a trip through time and space, pointing out how our perceptions of the heavens have informed every step of our evolution as a civilization. Dazzling and profound, The Human Cosmos is a skyward gaze at the void we can never stop trying to fathom.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "science!" ], "isbn": "9780593183014", "cover": "9780593183014", "goodreads": 50165550, "itunes": 9780593183014, "bookshop": 9780593183014, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-9WdVCLyL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593183014", "isbn10": "05931830111", "links": [] }, "259": { "id": 259, "title": "The Lost Book Of Adana Moreau: A Novel", "author": "Michael Zapata", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "Books within books: That’s the main motif of Michael Zapata’s debut novel, The Lost Book of Adana Moreau. Ping-ponging through time, between cultures and across geography, the book traces the fictional life of a forgotten author named Adana Moreau whose work has nonetheless reverberated – and sparks a life-changing mystery for a man named Saul Drower who has his own links to lost works of literature. Where does one story end and another begin? Lost Book poses this heady question, and in unpacking his answer, Zapata illuminates the reality-inventing power of storytelling itself.
", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781335010124", "cover": "9781335010124", "goodreads": 45734773, "itunes": 9781335010124, "bookshop": 9781335010124, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5155rerNuVS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781335010124", "isbn10": "1335010122", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 259, "book": "The Lost Book of Adana Moreau: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Multiple Universes Fill The Pages Of 'The Lost Book Of Adana Moreau'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/05/802654221/multiple-universes-fill-the-pages-of-the-lost-book-of-adana-moreau" } ] }, "260": { "id": 260, "title": "Upright Women Wanted", "author": "Sarah Gailey", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "Taking place in an indeterminate future where the U.S. has devolved into a patriarchal society that resembles the Old West, Sarah Gailey’s novella Upright Women Wanted centers on Esther Augustus, a young Arizona woman who runs away to join the Librarians, an ostensibly nunlike order of women who travel in wagon trains disseminating printed information – which is strictly controlled by the government. Gailey populates the book with forces we know all too well today: homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, patriarchy, fascism and the fraught, post-truth minefield we find ourselves navigating. But it’s also a breezy, rousing and unrelentingly fun gallop.
", "tags": [ "rather short", "identity & culture", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250213587", "cover": "9781250213587", "goodreads": 45320365, "itunes": 9781250213587, "bookshop": 9781250213587, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51C6shgW9mL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250213587", "isbn10": "1250213584", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 260, "book": "Upright Women Wanted", "source": "NPR", "text": "In A Dark Future, These 'Upright Women' Bring Hope", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/04/802355116/in-a-dark-future-these-upright-women-bring-hope" } ] }, "261": { "id": 261, "title": "Empire Of Wild: A Novel", "author": "Cherie Dimaline", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "This is a small book. Not in pages, but in the scope and reach of the story it tells. It is about Joan, who lost her husband and who means to get him back. And that’s all. But in this tiny thing lives the fiercely beating heart of a family, a town, a community – the Métis indigenous community living around Georgian Bay, Ontario. Joan’s entire family gets drawn into the hunt for her missing husband – whether they believe he simply walked out or whether something … darker might’ve befallen him. Cherie Dimaline uses the legend of the rogarou to square her narrative architecture and give weight (and nightmares) to Joan’s search and private hurt. The rogarou is the bogeyman that scares children home before dark. It makes Métis girls walk in pairs. It keeps men from doing wrong by women. The rogarou is part man, part dog. Intelligent. Vicious. It comes for you if you deserve it. Or sometimes, if you’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062975942", "cover": "9780062975942", "goodreads": 48613330, "itunes": 9780062975942, "bookshop": 9780062975942, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KkVWpCThS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062975942", "isbn10": "0062975943", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 261, "book": "Empire of Wild: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Empire Of Wild' Tells A Small Story — But Not A Slight One", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/896445003/empire-of-wild-tells-a-small-story-but-not-a-slight-one" } ] }, "262": { "id": 262, "title": "Harrow The Ninth", "author": "Tamsyn Muir", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "The actual plot of Tamsyn Muir’s follow-up to her excellent lesbian-necromancers-in-space novel, Gideon the Ninth, is one-sentence simple: Harrow must overcome her damaging past to fight off a bunch of gross space monsters and save God. But the book is so deliciously bonkers and heartbreakingly twisted that narrative barely matters. Muir puts you in the head of an unfathomably powerful teenaged necromancer trying (and failing) to recover from the trauma she suffered in the first book, and though the book is deeply disorienting and very challenging, there’s just something so gorgeously Baroque about it all that you can’t help sliding through, rolling around blood-drunk in the mess of it all, and waiting, waiting to see how Muir brings it all home. There will come a moment when you think you can’t take another sentence and right then – right at that last moment – that’s when it all comes together. You’ll know the place when you get there and you’ll thank me for counseling patience.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250313225", "cover": "9781250313225", "goodreads": 39325105, "itunes": 9781250313225, "bookshop": 9781250313225, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eBlhyIrKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250313225", "isbn10": "1250313228", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 262, "book": "Harrow the Ninth", "source": "NPR", "text": "Whatever You're Expecting, 'Harrow The Ninth' Is Not That Kind Of Book", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/899472593/whatever-youre-expecting-harrow-the-ninth-is-not-that-kind-of-book" } ] }, "263": { "id": 263, "title": "Little Eyes: A Novel", "author": "Samanta Schweblin", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "Little Eyes supposes a world that is our world, 5 minutes from now. It is a place with all our recognizable horrors, all our comforts and sweetnesses, as familiar (as if anything could be familiar these days) as yesterday’s shoes. It then introduces one small thing — one little change, one product, one tweaked application of a totally familiar technology — and tracks the ripples of chaos that it creates. In this case, that single application is the kentucki: basically a Furby with a webcam and a single link to another human being somewhere in the world. One person owns the toy/pet, the other person controls it and sees through its eyes. Think for just a moment the kind of joy and the kind of horror something like that would create. Then read Little Eyes and see how whatever it was that you imagined was just the beginning of how awful it could be.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780525541363", "cover": "9780525541363", "goodreads": 48635845, "itunes": 9780525541363, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nFaVGjnhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525541363", "isbn10": "0525541365", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 263, "book": "Little Eyes: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "These 'Little Eyes' Watch The World Burn", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/09/852690493/these-little-eyes-watch-the-world-burn" } ] }, "264": { "id": 264, "title": "Shiner: A Novel", "author": "Amy Jo Burns", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "Wren Bird, 15-year-old daughter of a lightning-struck preacher called White Eye, may live isolated on the outskirts of a dying Appalachian coal town, but she understands myths and secrets. It is local myths that anchor her snake-handling father’s dwindling gas station congregation, secrets that keep her mother and her mother’s best friend, Ivy, so close, lies that bind family and community together. Amy Jo Burns writes a version of Appalachia that is one step removed from magic – all strychnine and moonshine and powerful wonder. There are pieces of Shiner that read like dreams and others that come on like nightmares, creating the push-pull tension in Wren’s heart: the desire to escape her Appalachian home and the sure knowledge that she’ll carry it with her no matter how far she runs.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "family matters", "the states we’re in", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780525533641", "cover": "9780525533641", "goodreads": 45697147, "itunes": 9780525533641, "bookshop": 9780525533641, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418VvUPjVYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525533641", "isbn10": "0525533648", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 264, "book": "Shiner: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Amy Jo Burns On Her Debut Novel 'Shiner'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/09/853216996/author-amy-jo-burns-on-her-debut-novel-shiner" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 264, "book": "Shiner", "source": "WOSU", "text": "A Conversation With Amy Jo Burns, Author Of 'Shiner'", "url": "https://radio.wosu.org/post/conversation-amy-jo-burns-author-shiner#stream/0" } ] }, "265": { "id": 265, "title": "The Worst Best Man", "author": "Mia Sosa", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Reedy" ], "text": "I often find romance novels set in the wedding industry too treacly, but this book is a salty-sweet delight. Carolina Santos is a brilliant wedding planner who was left at the altar. She’s offered a major career opportunity that unfortunately reunites her with Max Hartley, her ex-fiancé’s brother and the so-called worst best man. Mia Sosa deftly uses this unexpected reunion as a way for the leads to unpack their emotional baggage, work through their pain and eventually fall in love. Sosa sets herself apart with a story focusing on two well-written characters who have a lot of depth and heart.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "family matters", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "9780062909879", "cover": "9780062909879", "goodreads": 45446379, "itunes": 9780062909879, "bookshop": 9780062909879, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514wsHyRnRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062909879", "isbn10": "0062909878", "links": [] }, "266": { "id": 266, "title": "Cleanness", "author": "Garth Greenwell", "reviewers": [ "Jim Zarroli" ], "text": "The world Garth Greenwell writes about is a lonely place of anonymous sexual encounters and attempts at real intimacy that inevitably fall short. Cleanness tells the story of a rootless gay American teaching at a university in Bulgaria whose life is briefly transformed by a love affair with a young Portuguese man referred to only as “R.” A follow-up to Greenwell’s What Belongs to You, the book is not so much a novel as a series of linked episodes bound together by the narrator’s search for connection in a world he knows can’t really provide it. Greenwell is a relentless truth-teller with a poet’s eye for detail and a shimmering prose style that’s reason enough to read the book.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780374124588", "cover": "9780374124588", "goodreads": 45892271, "itunes": 9780374124588, "bookshop": 9780374124588, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419dlh5IGkL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374124588", "isbn10": "0374124582", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 266, "book": "Cleanness", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Cleanness' Revisits Familiar Ground, Beautifully", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/19/797107106/cleanness-revisits-familiar-ground-beautifully" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 266, "book": "Cleanness", "source": "KUOW", "text": "Bookworm: Garth Greenwell On 'Cleanness'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm/garth-greenwell-cleanness" } ] }, "267": { "id": 267, "title": "Godshot: A Novel", "author": "Chelsea Bieker", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "Chelsea Bieker draws us in with a scarily plausible premise: Peaches, a fictional town in California’s Central Valley besieged by a years-long drought, falls under the sway of a charismatic pastor who promises to bring back rain. But at its heart, Godshot is the story of Lacey May, a teenager whose mother abandons her in a culture that represses women’s ambition. As Lacey May grapples with needing to find her way alone, she gradually comes to terms with the lies the pastor has fed Peaches. Come for the cult; stay for the meditations on grief and belief.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9781948226486", "cover": "9781948226486", "goodreads": 41719463, "itunes": 9781948226486, "bookshop": 9781948226486, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61cPlxk8KVL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781948226486", "isbn10": "19482264811", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 267, "book": "Godshot: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Chelsea Bieker's 'Godshot' Explores Girlhood, Motherhood, Heartbreak And Faith", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/chelsea-biekers-godshot-explores-girlhood-motherhood-heartbreak-and-faith" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 267, "book": "Godshot: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Godshot' Author Explains How Fiction Helps Us Face Real-World Adversity", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/06/827856418/godshot-author-explains-how-fiction-helps-us-face-real-world-adversity" } ] }, "268": { "id": 268, "title": "Unspeakable Acts: True Tales Of Crime, Murder, Deceit, And Obsession", "author": "Sarah Weinman (editor)", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "Born of the post-Serial boom of investigative and reflective true crime, Unspeakable Acts brings together 13 articles and essays that scratch our itch for grisly puzzles while interrogating our obsession with them. Sarah Weinman’s picks include propulsive narrative features like Pamela Colloff’s “The Reckoning,” following one victim for 50 years after the University of Texas tower shooting, and essays like Sarah Marshall’s “The End of Evil,” which reconsiders our tendency to view Ted Bundy as a monstrous genius. These sharp pieces challenge true-crime tropes, looking critically at the stories we want to tell ourselves about criminals and victims.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9780062839886", "cover": "9780062839886", "goodreads": 48613296, "itunes": 9780062839886, "bookshop": 9780062839886, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dpWfKxRcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062839886", "isbn10": "0062839888", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 268, "book": "Unspeakable Acts", "source": "NPR", "text": "True Crime Stories And The Obsession With Them Form 'Unspeakable Acts'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/30/897131869/true-crime-stories-and-the-obsession-with-them-form-unspeakable-acts" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 268, "book": "Unspeakable Acts", "source": "WGCU", "text": "Book Club: Sarah Weinman On 'Unspeakable Acts'", "url": "https://news.wgcu.org/show/gclbookclub/2020-10-07/sarah-weinman-and-lynn-steger-strong" } ] }, "269": { "id": 269, "title": "Want: A Novel", "author": "Lynn Steger Strong", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "The narrator of Want is in a relatable rut, exhausted by the grind of late-stage capitalism. She has a Ph.D. but can’t get a tenure-track job; she and her husband sleep in the closet of the tiny Brooklyn apartment they share with two young daughters; and they are filing for bankruptcy to get out from under their debt. Where another kind of book would see its narrator fold into herself, Want explores the ramifications of pushing for more than what we’ve been relegated to. I’ll keep returning to Lynn Steger Strong’s gut-punch lines on the repercussions of our desires.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781250247544", "cover": "9781250247544", "goodreads": 44009968, "itunes": 9781250247544, "bookshop": 9781250247544, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mh27yz3NL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250247544", "isbn10": "1250247543", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 269, "book": "Want: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Want' Captures The Precariousness Of America's Middle Class", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/07/883937226/want-captures-the-precariousness-of-america-s-middle-class" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 269, "book": "Want: A Novel", "source": "WGCU", "text": "Gulf Cost Life Book Club: Lynn Steger Strong And Sarah Weinman", "url": "https://news.wgcu.org/show/gclbookclub/2020-10-07/sarah-weinman-and-lynn-steger-strong" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 269, "book": "Want: A Novel", "source": "WGCU", "text": "Book Club: Lynn Steger Strong On 'Want'", "url": "https://news.wgcu.org/show/gclbookclub/2020-10-07/sarah-weinman-and-lynn-steger-strong" } ] }, "270": { "id": 270, "title": "Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music And Changed American Culture", "author": "Grace Elizabeth Hale", "reviewers": [ "Lars Gotrich" ], "text": "Take it from someone who lived there: Athens exists in its own space and out of time. You already know R.E.M., the B-52s and maybe even Pylon – their origin stories are told in this deeply researched (but personally written) history of the ‘80s music scene with a lived-in attention to detail. But there are so many musicians, professors, painters, poets and indescribable personalities who have made and still make Athens a Southern bohemia. Grace Elizabeth Hale weaves together a history of the university’s art school, punk’s do-it-yourself ethos and queer communities (both out and not) as the South’s ever-evolving identity sprawled and crawled like kudzu.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781469654874", "cover": "9781469654874", "goodreads": 50078178, "itunes": 9781469654874, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Zwv3BjaAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781469654874", "isbn10": "1469654873", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 270, "book": "Cool Town", "source": "GPB", "text": " 'Cool Town': Author Grace Hale On How The Athens Music Scene Launched A New American Bohemia", "url": "https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/08/28/cool-town-author-grace-hale-on-how-the-athens-music-scene-launched-new-american" } ] }, "271": { "id": 271, "title": "Wonder Woman: Dead Earth", "author": "Daniel Warren Johnson with Mike Spicer", "reviewers": [ "Lars Gotrich" ], "text": "You’ve never seen Wonder Woman drawn this way: defeated and despondent, but also raw and resilient. Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, Diana suddenly wakes from a centuries-long, cryogenically induced slumber with weakened powers and little memory. What begins as a survival story against an unforgiving landscape, broken humanity and mutant gods becomes a heartfelt and hard-won quest for radical forgiveness. As in Extremity and Murder Falcon, Daniel Warren Johnson delivers an emotional gut punch with each spectacularly grotesque monster.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "comics & graphic novels", "the dark side", "rather short", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781779502612", "cover": "9781779502612", "goodreads": 52352359, "itunes": 9781779502612, "bookshop": 9781779502612, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51v2DSolSTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781779502612", "isbn10": "1779502613", "links": [] }, "272": { "id": 272, "title": "Catherine House: A Novel", "author": "Elisabeth Thomas", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "What would it look like to fall in love with a place? And what would happen if that place turned out to be all wrong for you? In Catherine House, the protagonist, Ines, starts school at a gorgeous, mysterious, cloistered college in the Pennsylvania woods. But the more she becomes invested in her surroundings, the more readers get the sense that she needs, desperately, to get out. A beautiful, chilling read for those of us who might also be in need of a change in scenery.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062905659", "cover": "9780062905659", "goodreads": 51934838, "itunes": 9780062905659, "bookshop": 9780062905659, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51TI1a3qJCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062905659", "isbn10": "0062905651", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 272, "book": "Catherine House: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Surreally Diverse World Of 'Catherine House'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/09/26/394819507/surrealworldofcatherinehouse" } ] }, "273": { "id": 273, "title": "Days Of Distraction: A Novel", "author": "Alexandra Chang", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "Does anyone else hate their job, partner, friends and city? OK, maybe that’s the pandemic talking. But this book is a slow walk through the realization that it might be worth reconsidering literally every part of your life. As the narrator rethinks her dead-end job as a low-level tech reporter, she also imagines what it would be like to ask for more from the people around her and, eventually, herself.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "identity & culture", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "9780062951809", "cover": "9780062951809", "goodreads": 52973514, "itunes": 9780062951809, "bookshop": 9780062951809, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ijSuI6x6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062951809", "isbn10": "0062951807", "links": [] }, "274": { "id": 274, "title": "Followers: A Novel", "author": "Megan Angelo", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "You ready for a book that hits a little too close to home? In this one, a massive digital leak means that everyone’s private online presence – emails, DMs, snapchats – becomes public. The narration bounces between the “before” and the “after,” two equally dystopian (and, well, familiar) worlds in which people’s lives are almost entirely dictated by how they’re perceived on social media. The book is funny and engrossing, but warning: It may leave you wanting to crawl into a hole and delete every record that you’ve ever existed.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "the dark side", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction" ], "isbn": "9781525809965", "cover": "9781525809965", "goodreads": 52515619, "itunes": 9781525809965, "bookshop": 9781525809965, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rUibJa-9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781525809965", "isbn10": "1525809962", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 274, "book": "Followers", "source": "KAXE/KBXE", "text": "Megan Angelo's Debut Book 'Followers'", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/post/megan-angelos-debut-book-followers#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 274, "book": "Followers", "source": "WAMC", "text": " 'Followers' Debut Novel By Megan Angelo", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/post/followers-debut-novel-megan-angelo" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 274, "book": "Followers", "source": "KPR", "text": "Conversations: Megan Angelo, 'Followers'", "url": "https://kansaspublicradio.org/blog/dan-skinner/conversations-megan-angelo-followers" } ] }, "275": { "id": 275, "title": "If I Had Your Face: A Novel", "author": "Frances Cha", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "“I would live your life so much better than you, if I had your face.” In this book, set in modern-day Seoul, beauty is a means to an end. The women at its center are bluntly aware of this fact and have no qualms about using and acquiring beauty as a means to achieve their dreams. As their lives and friendships unfold, readers become increasingly attuned to how utterly weird it is that something so arbitrary governs so many of our relationships, aspirations and opportunities.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "fiction", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9780593129463", "cover": "9780593129463", "goodreads": 52696537, "itunes": 9780593129463, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oWmVj-yOL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593129463", "isbn10": "0593129466", "links": [] }, "276": { "id": 276, "title": "The Only Good Indians", "author": "Stephen Graham Jones", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "Though it’s a horror novel, The Only Good Indians may have you laughing despite yourself. Equal parts biting sarcasm and impending dread, the book plays with our ideas of who we are and what our lives are meant to look like. The characters face dramatic consequences for trying to live outside the expectations people have for them, and yet, in some ways, sticking to tradition turns out to be just as dangerous.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781982136451", "cover": "9781982136451", "goodreads": 52180399, "itunes": 9781982136451, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ds-MSV7SL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982136451", "isbn10": "1982136456", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 276, "book": "The Only Good Indians", "source": "NPR", "text": "Grief And Guilt Spawn Horrors In 'The Only Good Indians'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/16/891433693/grief-and-guilt-spawn-horrors-in-the-only-good-indians" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 276, "book": "The Only Good Indians", "source": "NPR", "text": "In His New Book, Stephen Graham Jones Explores The Idea Of 'Good Indians'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/896840079/in-his-new-book-stephen-graham-jones-explores-the-idea-of-good-indians" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 276, "book": "The Only Good Indians", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "Stephen Graham Jones' Novel Asks What It Means To Be A 'Good Indian'", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/stephen-graham-jones-novel-asks-what-it-means-be-good-indian" } ] }, "277": { "id": 277, "title": "Flamer", "author": "Mike Curato", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "If there’s a Boy Scout badge for Great Graphic Novels, then Mike Curato deserves one for Flamer. While at camp, during the summer between middle school and high school, Aiden is taunted about his race (white and Filipino), about his weight and for being gay. In denial, his feelings toward a fellow Boy Scout are confusing and complex. Black-and-white illustrations with jolts of color illuminate Aiden’s journey in this humorous, tragic and ultimately life-affirming story. This book has the power to change lives and is for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "comics & graphic novels", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9781250756145", "cover": "9781250756145", "goodreads": 52751434, "itunes": 9781250756145, "bookshop": 9781250756145, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xZGN7wNaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250756145", "isbn10": "1250756146", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 277, "book": "Flamer", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Flamer' Offers Real Hope — Not Just Rainbows — To Queer Kids", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/22/926285834/flamer-offers-real-hope-not-just-rainbows-to-queer-kids" } ] }, "278": { "id": 278, "title": "Larger Than Life: A History Of Boy Bands From NKOTB To BTS", "author": "Maria Sherman", "reviewers": [ "Lyndsey McKenna" ], "text": "It’s quite likely that Maria Sherman is the first writer who’s ever compared the Backstreet Boys’ Brian Littrell and Nick Carter to Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, respectively. But as a cultural critic possessing both sharp wit and a true fan’s reverence, Sherman just may be the preeminent scholar of boy bands. With a clever layout that pays tribute to the teen magazines of yesterday, Larger Than Life offers a historical account of the format across history and genre – from Lisztomania to New Edition to One Direction – with humor and heart.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "no biz like show biz", "funny stuff", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780762468911", "cover": "9780762468911", "goodreads": 48692602, "itunes": 9780762468911, "bookshop": 9780762468911, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61WhTwPWkqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780762468911", "isbn10": "0762468912", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 278, "book": "Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands From NKOTB to BTS", "source": "NPR", "text": "A New Book Traces The History Of Boy Bands, The Pop Phenomenon 'Larger Than Life'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/28/896334949/a-new-book-traces-the-history-of-boy-bands-the-pop-phenomenon-larger-than-life" } ] }, "279": { "id": 279, "title": "Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir", "author": "Robin Ha", "reviewers": [ "Malaka Gharib" ], "text": "In this eye-opening graphic memoir, author Robin Ha tells the story of how she and her mother moved to the U.S. from South Korea when she was a young girl. Honest, funny and at times painful, Ha chronicles her earnest efforts to understand American culture, fit in with her Korean American cousins and make sense of her mother’s deep desire to live and work in the U.S. The book sheds light on what life is like in America through the lens of a new immigrant family – and the powerful bond between mom and daughter.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "young adult", "identity & culture", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780062685094", "cover": "9780062685094", "goodreads": 45449810, "itunes": 9780062685094, "bookshop": 9780062685094, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PmKlJSVeL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062685094", "isbn10": "00626850911", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 279, "book": "Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Long Summer Ahead: What Writers Are Reading As The Pandemic Goes On", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/15/855423898/a-long-summer-ahead-what-writers-are-reading-as-the-pandemic-goes-on" } ] }, "280": { "id": 280, "title": "What Are You Going Through: A Novel", "author": "Sigrid Nunez", "reviewers": [ "Mandalit del Barco" ], "text": "This book feels sort of like a sequel to The Friend, Sigrid Nunez’s novel about a writer who inherits a dog after a friend dies by suicide. In What Are You Going Through, the narrator, a writer and teacher, allows everyone she encounters to tell their own stories – even a cat she meets at an Airbnb. Unmarried and childless, the narrator muses about growing older, having never met “the one.” She brilliantly describes one friend’s fading beauty and her ex’s pomposity and despair. This novel is smart, witty, empathetic and so relatable – offering observations about companionship, connection and the powerful act of listening.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780593191415", "cover": "9780593191415", "goodreads": 51152434, "itunes": 9780593191415, "bookshop": 9780593191415, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mHRnyEF9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593191415", "isbn10": "0593191412", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 280, "book": "What Are You Going Through: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Attachment Brings Joy, And Inevitably, Loss In 'What Are You Going Through'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/09/910738263/attachment-brings-joy-and-inevitably-loss-in-what-are-you-going-through" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 280, "book": "What Are You Going Through: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sigrid Nunez Wants To Know: 'What Are You Going Through?'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/06/910194871/sigrid-nunez-wants-to-know-what-are-you-going-through" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 280, "book": "What Are You Going Through: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Friend' Novelist Grapples With Suicide, Grief And Student-Teacher Relationships", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/01/24/688185092/the-friend-novelist-grapples-with-suicide-grief-and-student-teacher-relationship" } ] }, "281": { "id": 281, "title": "Something To Talk About", "author": "Meryl Wilsner", "reviewers": [ "Margaret Willison" ], "text": "Assistant-boss romance blooms despite a power imbalance. Rumors of a relationship are so deafening they almost prevent the real thing from growing. One half of the couple is tough and inscrutable where the other is warmly expressive. These are all tropes you’ve encountered before – but here, in Meryl Wilsner’s Something to Talk About, they are realized with such freshness, specificity and nuance that even before you factor in both halves of the main couple being women, it’s evident you’re dealing with an unusually delightful story. Am I only recommending this novel on such a large platform to make a Lucy Liu/Merritt Wever film adaptation more likely? PERHAPS. But once you’ve read it, when you’ve read it, I cannot imagine that you’ll blame me.
", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "no biz like show biz", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780593102527", "cover": "9780593102527", "goodreads": 52915426, "itunes": 9780593102527, "bookshop": 9780593102527, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-fQcNKulL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593102527", "isbn10": "0593102525", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 281, "book": "Something to Talk About", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Something To Talk About' Is A Slow-Burn Showstopper Romance", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/31/865369932/something-to-talk-about-is-a-slow-burn-showstopper-romance" } ] }, "282": { "id": 282, "title": "Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke The Binary", "author": "Sasha Geffen", "reviewers": [ "Marissa Lorusso" ], "text": "Popular music has long provided a space for challenging gender norms and essentialism; think Little Richard, David Bowie, Wendy Carlos or Janelle Monáe. In Glitter Up the Dark, critic Sasha Geffen traces this history of gender fluidity in popular music and argues that these transgressions aren’t incidental. From disco to techno, punk rock to hip-hop, Geffen digs deep to explore the way popular music can facilitate exchange between listeners and performers, loosening the grip of gender roles and providing fertile ground for asking questions, seeking liberation and creating change.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9781477318782", "cover": "9781477318782", "goodreads": 49950157, "itunes": 9781477318782, "bookshop": 9781477318782, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51rmReNlyaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781477318782", "isbn10": "147731878X", "links": [] }, "283": { "id": 283, "title": "My Autobiography Of Carson McCullers: A Memoir", "author": "Jenn Shapland", "reviewers": [ "Marissa Lorusso" ], "text": "While interning at a writers’ archive as a graduate student, Jenn Shapland stumbled upon love letters between American novelist Carson McCullers and a woman named Annemarie. The discovery, Shapland says, was a turning point for her; less than a year later, Shapland was comfortable identifying as a lesbian for the first time. The letters also inspired Shapland to engage in a years-long process of research into aspects of McCullers’ life that traditional biographies overlooked; namely, her gender transgressions and her relationships with other women. My Autobiography Of Carson McCullers asks sharp questions not just about the details of McCullers’ life but, more broadly, how we understand historical figures who confound the social expectations of their time (and our own) and how, in turn, they can help us understand ourselves.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "for history lovers", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9781947793286", "cover": "9781947793286", "goodreads": 41817577, "itunes": 9781947793286, "bookshop": 9781947793286, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cosMSCG4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781947793286", "isbn10": "1947793284", "links": [] }, "284": { "id": 284, "title": "At Night All Blood Is Black: A Novel", "author": "David Diop, translated by Anna Moschovakis", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "This novel brings readers into the trenches of World War I via Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese soldier who has enlisted in the French army as a “Chocolat.” Alfa declines to slit his wounded compatriot’s throat in what would be a mercy killing and descends into madness. At Night All Blood is Black takes readers on a vertiginous tour of war and home, in writing that feels at once accurate and delusional. The result: A stark warning about the savage consequences of war, a masterful dive into colonial domination and the invocation of canonical texts against a world that is anarchic, violent and surreal.
", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "rather short", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "historical fiction", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780374266974", "cover": "9780374266974", "goodreads": 50403480, "itunes": 9780374266974, "bookshop": 9780374266974, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374266974", "isbn10": "0374266972", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 284, "book": "At Night All Blood Is Black", "source": "NPR", "text": "For Fall's Dark Days, 3 Tales In Translation To Match The Mood", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/29/938975673/for-falls-dark-days-3-three-tales-in-translation-to-match-the-mood" } ] }, "285": { "id": 285, "title": "Blood On The River: A Chronicle Of Mutiny And Freedom On The Wild Coast", "author": "Marjoleine Kars", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "A fascinating, hitherto untold account of the 1763-64 slave rebellion in Dutch Berbice (modern Guyana), predating the better-known Haitian slave rebellion by nearly three decades. Blood on the River comes alive with period illustrations, as well as meticulous attention to primary sources. Kars recounts a tale of oppression, bloodshed and some triumph; rebelling slaves held off their masters for nearly a year. Her book is a gripping tale about the human need for freedom. It is also a story of shifting loyalties among slaves, between slaves and Amerindians, and among the Europeans themselves.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9781620974599", "cover": "9781620974599", "goodreads": 54615365, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781620974599, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51AC9QlW4cL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781620974599", "isbn10": "1620974592", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 285, "book": "Blood on the River: James Town 1607", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Blood On The River,' The Berbice Rebellion Foreshadows Later Insurgencies", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/12/901229439/in-blood-on-the-river-the-berbice-rebellion-foreshadows-later-insurgencies" } ] }, "286": { "id": 286, "title": "Counterpoint: A Memoir Of Bach And Mourning", "author": "Philip Kennicott", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "How to mourn a mother whose harsh judgments framed your childhood? This question haunts Philip Kennicott’s gorgeous memoir. Kennicott, the Washington Post’s senior art and architecture critic, is at pains to empathize with his mother, while also asking, “What does it mean to truly know a piece of music?” He braids his fraught maternal relationship with his fraught relationship to music, rendering a story that operates masterfully on several levels. In the end, Counterpoint meets Kennicott’s own criterion that “every good book or great piece of music carries with it the possibility of redemption.”
", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "for music lovers", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9780393635362", "cover": "9780393635362", "goodreads": 45894127, "itunes": 9780393635362, "bookshop": 9780393635362, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417n8xD6b9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780393635362", "isbn10": "0393635368", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 286, "book": "Counterpoint: A Memoir of Bach and Mourning", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Counterpoint' Bach Helps An Art Critic Mourn A Mother Whose Criticism Lingers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/19/802635104/in-counterpoint-bach-helps-an-art-critic-mourn-a-mother-whose-criticism-lingers" } ] }, "287": { "id": 287, "title": "Later: My Life At The Edge Of The World", "author": "Paul Lisicky", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "Later is a deeply affecting memoir recalling life in Provincetown, Mass., at a time when there was no treatment or prevention for AIDS. Paul Lisicky luxuriates in Provincetown’s accessible and public sex, its embrace of queerness, and an atmosphere that allows him to be the man he seeks to be. He courts risk, flirts with unsafe sex – which is to say, flirts with death – but, too, chooses life. Writing with meticulous emotional nuance, Lisicky not only captures his day-to-day but manages to translate lessons from that day-to-day into a manual for living.
", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "let’s talk about sex" ], "isbn": "9781644450161", "cover": "9781644450161", "goodreads": 45892220, "itunes": 9781644450161, "bookshop": 9781644450161, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51TE33oF-fL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781644450161", "isbn10": "164445016X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 287, "book": "Later: My Life at the Edge of the World", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Later' Takes Us To 1990s Provincetown, As Hope For AIDS Treatment Rises", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/17/813631154/later-takes-us-to-1990s-provincetown-as-hope-for-aids-treatment-rises" } ] }, "288": { "id": 288, "title": "The Book Collectors: A Band Of Syrian Rebels And The Stories That Carried Them Through A War", "author": "Delphine Minoui, translated by Lara Vergnaud", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "The Book Collectors reminds us that heroes emerge in unpredictable places. Author Delphine Minoui, Middle East correspondent for Le Figaro, homes in on Daraya, a suburb of Damascus where the Syrian civil war began. Despite constant bombardment and near starvation, a small group of people manages to set up an underground library in Daraya. Within two months, the library houses 15,000 volumes collected from the rubble. It’s an oasis of calm and a gathering place for surviving neighbors to enjoy that lifesaving marker of civilization: reading.
", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "rather short", "eye-opening reads", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9780374115166", "cover": "9780374115166", "goodreads": 50403465, "itunes": 9780374115166, "bookshop": 9780374115166, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374115166", "isbn10": "0374115168", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 288, "book": "The Book Collectors", "source": "NPR", "text": "Amid Violence And Tragedy, A Library Brings Hope In 'The Book Collectors'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/05/931674459/amid-violence-and-tragedy-a-library-brings-hope-in-the-book-collectors" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 288, "book": "The Book Collectors", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Book Collectors' Opens The Door To A Secret Library Amidst Syria's Civil War", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/935741257/the-book-collectors-opens-the-door-to-a-secret-library-amidst-syrias-civil-war" } ] }, "289": { "id": 289, "title": "The Book Of V.: A Novel", "author": "Anna Solomon", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "In a literary scavenger hunt, Anna Solomon creates a trio of stories that riff on forsaken Queen Vashti, who preceded the biblical Queen Esther as Ahasuerus’ wife. Solomon’s triptych includes a re-creation of Esther’s journey to wed the king in ancient times, but now the characters are Vee, a beleaguered 1970s political wife, and Lily, a contemporary woman who is her husband’s second wife. Each woman struggles to forge her own destiny while navigating the costs and challenges of marriage. Their unique stories, and how they ultimately collide with one another, make for a compelling read.
", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250257017", "cover": "9781250257017", "goodreads": 52078691, "itunes": 9781250257017, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250257017", "isbn10": "1250257018", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 289, "book": "The Book Of V.: A Novel", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Author Anna Solomon Explores Feminism Through The Ages In 'The Book Of V.'", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/artery/2020/05/27/anna-solomon-feminism-book-of-v" } ] }, "290": { "id": 290, "title": "Black Bottom Saints: A Novel", "author": "Alice Randall", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "I can’t think of a more sparkling way to learn about the entertainment history of Black Detroit beyond Motown than to read Alice Randall’s novel about the section of that city known as “Black Bottom,” which was once lined with nightclubs. As its short chapters whiz by, you get a taste of being in the audience of one of those magical nightclubs where, maybe, Moms Mabley was onstage while Dinah Washington and her husband, the NFL superstar Dick “Night Train” Lane, were arriving. Black Bottom Saints is a gorgeous swirl of fiction, history, motor oil and cocktail recipes.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "eye-opening reads", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "no biz like show biz", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062968623", "cover": "9780062968623", "goodreads": 52091261, "itunes": 9780062968623, "bookshop": 9780062968623, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cpWjy58ZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062968623", "isbn10": "0062968629", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 290, "book": "Black Bottom Saints: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Black Bottom Saints' Is A Gorgeous Swirl Of Fiction, History And Detroit Motor Oil", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/19/899350683/black-bottom-saints-is-a-gorgeous-swirl-of-fiction-history-and-detroit-motor-oil" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 290, "book": "Black Bottom Saints: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Black Bottom Saints': A Love Letter To Detroit's History", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/19/903982587/black-bottom-saints-a-love-letter-to-detroits-history" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 290, "book": "Black Bottom Saints: A Novel", "source": "WDET", "text": "Detroit Author Alice Randall Brings Black Bottom Back to Life", "url": "https://wdet.org/posts/2020/09/04/89977-detroit-author-alice-randall-brings-black-bottom-back-to-life/" } ] }, "291": { "id": 291, "title": "Monogamy: A Novel", "author": "Sue Miller", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "I’ve been an admirer of Sue Miller’s novels ever since The Good Mother came out in 1986. But throughout all these years, I’ve always found her to be a challenging writer to review: that’s because, in summary, her plots tend to sound contrived, and this story is no exception. A married couple – a bookseller and a photographer in Cambridge, Mass. – are about to celebrate their 30th anniversary when the husband suddenly dies and the wife subsequently learns of an affair. In Miller’s hands, this melodramatic premise becomes transformed into felt life. She continues to be one of our most emotionally profound and nuanced writers.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "seriously great writing", "fiction", "family matters", "book club ideas", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "9780063048928", "cover": "9780063048928", "goodreads": 52662544, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41UiuZntk1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780063048928", "isbn10": "0063048922", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 291, "book": "Monogamy: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Widow Discovers That Her Marriage Wasn't 'Monogamy'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/15/911934941/after-her-husbands-death-a-widow-discovers-that-it-wasn-t-monogamy" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 291, "book": "Monogamy: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Monogamy,' Sue Miller Explores Widowhood", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/12/912224816/in-monogomy-sue-miller-explores-widowhood" } ] }, "292": { "id": 292, "title": "The Rakess", "author": "Scarlett Peckham", "reviewers": [ "Maya Rodale" ], "text": "Seraphina Arden, lady rake, is supposed to be working on her memoirs, which will expose the powerful man who ruined her. But she is distracted by an impossible attraction to Adam Anderson, an architect with two children to protect and an aversion to scandal. And of course, their no-strings affair becomes so much more complicated than they anticipated. Adam and Seraphina are haunted by their pasts – but will the past determine their futures? This an especially sexy, feminist, smart and luscious historical romance.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780062935618", "cover": "9780062935618", "goodreads": 49978975, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780062935618, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519plLoVLfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062935618", "isbn10": "0062935615", "links": [] }, "293": { "id": 293, "title": "Like A Bird", "author": "Fariha Róisín", "reviewers": [ "Milton Guevara" ], "text": "Fariha Róisín is troubled by ghosts. They’re on her mind a lot. And writing poetry wasn’t enough, so she explores her obsession with ghosts – and the trauma they represent – in her debut novel, Like a Bird. Protagonist Taylia Chatterjee is trying to find her way on her own; her parents have disowned her after a sexual assault, and her life is full of ghosts. Like a Bird is a story about survival and healing. Like a melancholy song, this novel is both intimate and sincere.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "identity & culture", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781951213091", "cover": "9781951213091", "goodreads": 53252651, "itunes": 9781951213091, "bookshop": 9781951213091, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51B93BuH+IL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781951213091", "isbn10": "1951213092", "links": [] }, "294": { "id": 294, "title": "Something That May Shock And Discredit You", "author": "Daniel M. Lavery", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Escobar" ], "text": "If you were a devotee of The Toast, you know that Daniel Lavery has long been one of the funniest writers to grace the Internet, thanks to his brand of extremely niche but oddly relatable humor. So it stands to reason that his memoir, Something That May Shock and Discredit You, is exactly that: a collection of essays that wrestle with gender and Lavery’s decision to transition but that are also about the Rapture, Gomez Addams and why Star Trek’s Capt. James T. Kirk is actually a “beautiful lesbian.” It’s the kind of book that only could have sprung out of Lavery’s mind palace, and the world is better for it.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9781982105228", "cover": "9781982105228", "goodreads": 50892366, "itunes": 9781982105228, "bookshop": 9781982105228, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wjJ9QACsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781982105228", "isbn10": "1982105224", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 294, "book": "Something That May Shock And Discredit You", "source": "NPR", "text": "Daniel Mallory Ortberg On 'Something That May Shock and Discredit You'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/04/812072352/daniel-mallory-ortberg-on-something-that-may-shock-and-discredit-you" } ] }, "295": { "id": 295, "title": "Falastin: A Cookbook", "author": "Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley", "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "text": "A misguided friend of mine went on a recent Twitter rampage against parsley, which she views as “tasteless” and “superfluous.” I immediately lent her Falastin. The fresh green herb is foundational to many of the cookbook’s gems, such as winter tabbouleh with a blood orange dressing and falafel with sumac onion. Authors Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley are best known for their longtime collaborations with celeb chef Yotam Ottolenghi. Tamimi, who’s Palestinian, owns restaurants with the Israeli-born Ottolenghi; together, they authored the bestselling cookbooks Jerusalem and Ottolenghi. Palestinians are featured in this one, with profiles of peacemakers, innovators, humanitarians and entrepreneurs. “Sharing food is not just about sharing food,” the authors write. “It’s about sharing time, space, ideas, and stories.”
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780399581731", "cover": "9780399581731", "goodreads": 52520675, "itunes": 9780399581731, "bookshop": 9780399581731, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fMNSocq0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780399581731", "isbn10": "0399581731", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 295, "book": "Falastin", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sami Tamimi Peppers Palestinian Cuisine Cookbook With Stories From The Region", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/27/884307579/sami-tamimi-peppers-palestinian-cuisine-cookbook-with-stories-from-the-region" } ] }, "296": { "id": 296, "title": "Ten Ways To Hear Snow", "author": "Cathy Camper, illustrated by Kenard Pak", "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "text": "A gentle, affirmative story of a little girl’s winter walk through her neighborhood to visit a beloved grandmother. Lina is Lebanese American, she addresses her grandmother as “Sitti” and the two joyously cook stuffed grape leaves together. But the story’s focus is on Lina’s independence and connection to the sensory magic of a snowy day. Author Cathy Camper humorously evokes the “snyak, snyek, snyuk” of a child’s boots “crunching snow into tiny waffles” and the “scraaape, scrip, scrape” of shovels against the sidewalk. Kenard Pak’s softly saturated watercolors evoke winter’s diffused light and vivid pop of children’s mittens and hats, making cold days something to savor. (For ages 4 to 8)
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "kids’ books", "family matters", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9780399186332", "cover": "9780399186332", "goodreads": 51341829, "itunes": 9780399186332, "bookshop": 9780399186332, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780399186332", "isbn10": "0399186336", "links": [] }, "297": { "id": 297, "title": "Banned Book Club", "author": "Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada, illustrated by Ko Hyung-Ju", "reviewers": [ "Nell Clark" ], "text": "State-sponsored violence, censorship and youth-led protests are a reality of life in 1980s South Korea, which is ruled by a fascist military regime. Amid this harsh political climate, Kim Hyun Sook starts her first week at college and plans to stay apolitical. But her plans change when she accidentally joins a secret club that reads books banned by the government – and makes friends among the tear gas of the protests. Ko Hyung-Ju’s stylized art depicts powerful scenes of authoritarianism and activism while also skillfully weaving in recognizable moments, like the fear of disappointing loved ones and the butterflies of new love. A timely read about friendship amid chaos, how to fight oppression, and, for Kim Hyun Sook, at least, what it means to consider oneself apolitical in a world where politics is everywhere.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "young adult", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "nonfiction", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9781945820427", "cover": "9781945820427", "goodreads": 51056298, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781945820427, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781945820427", "isbn10": "194582042X", "links": [] }, "298": { "id": 298, "title": "Desert Notebooks: A Road Map For The End Of Time", "author": "Ben Ehrenreich", "reviewers": [ "Nicholas Cannariato" ], "text": "Ben Ehrenreich’s Desert Notebooks is a uniquely unsettled book. It takes on a lot at once – history, climate change, myth, politics – but at its heart is a fascinating look at the question of time. Time here is charged with a sense of apocalypse, or time’s own end. And throughout, Ehrenreich channels his thoughts in a way that feels alternately visionary and polemical. Desert Notebooks is a work of fervent humility. It’s great because it contemplates the wages of injustice, the mysteriousness of the world and how the present feels when a sense of an ending relentlessly permeates it.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "book club ideas", "science!", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "9781640093539", "cover": "9781640093539", "goodreads": 50762115, "itunes": 9781640093539, "bookshop": 9781640093539, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61xDjpULUbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781640093539", "isbn10": "1640093532", "links": [] }, "299": { "id": 299, "title": "Red Pill: A Novel", "author": "Hari Kunzru", "reviewers": [ "Nicholas Cannariato" ], "text": "You want to read Hari Kunzru’s Red Pill to understand the madness of the past few years. It’s about a writer who’s trying and failing to write. He starts spiraling and, among other things, can’t resist watching a TV show about police. Eventually he meets the show’s creator, Anton: a demagoguing-bigot type robbing the world of its sanity-giving oxygen. Hopelessly compelled, the writer peers deep into Anton’s hard-right vision, where raw power declares what reality is, where dominance is truth. It feels dream-like, all-consuming. Then Election Day 2016 arrives – and his paranoia becomes reality.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9780451493712", "cover": "9780451493712", "goodreads": 49188384, "itunes": 9780451493712, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417hn4qxehL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780451493712", "isbn10": "04514937111", "links": [] }, "300": { "id": 300, "title": "The Sprawl: Reconsidering The Weird American Suburbs", "author": "Jason Diamond", "reviewers": [ "Nicholas Cannariato" ], "text": "The Sprawl is something you should read whether you grew up in the suburbs or not. Jason Diamond intersperses historical accounts with personal anecdotes from his own suburban Chicago childhood, and he finds the right balance. He doesn’t look to idealize suburbs, given their socially dubious origins. Instead, he expertly explores a common suburban sentiment – that something seems to be missing. And that desire to fill that missing something is what potentially makes suburban life the last thing its original advocates conceived it could be: dynamic.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9781566895828", "cover": "9781566895828", "goodreads": 48994695, "itunes": 9781566895828, "bookshop": 9781566895828, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51YDEnAN-nL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781566895828", "isbn10": "15668958211", "links": [] }, "301": { "id": 301, "title": "Moms", "author": "Yeong-shin Ma, translated by Janet Hong", "reviewers": [ "Nicolette Khan" ], "text": "Drawn from a notebook of day-to-day experiences of his mother, Yeong-shin Ma’s Moms candidly captures the stories of a group of Korean women in their 50s. Centered around Lee Soyeon, we learn the histories and struggles of the friends and enemies (and those in-between) surrounding her. The people and events in Soyeon’s life are often disappointing but she perseveres as a sardonic, stubborn hero who finds contentment in her imperfect relationships and life’s mundane drama.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "comics & graphic novels", "family matters", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781770464001", "cover": "9781770464001", "goodreads": 51542159, "itunes": 9781770464001, "bookshop": 9781770464001, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781770464001", "isbn10": "177046400X", "links": [] }, "302": { "id": 302, "title": "The Apple Lover's Cookbook: Revised And Updated", "author": "Amy Traverso", "reviewers": [ "Nina Gregory" ], "text": "First published a decade ago, this updated cookbook includes sweet and savory recipes like Apple and Chestnut-Stuffed Pork Loin with Cider Sauce, Cider-Glazed Root Vegetables, Vermont Apple Cider Donuts and Baked Apple French Toast with Hazelnut Crumb Topping. Aside from tasty recipes, there’s also an exploration of apple festivals, orchards and the best time to buy each apple. The book offers a handy in-depth guide to “70 Great Apple Varieties,” including photos, origin, taste and best use, with varieties including Hudson’s Golden Gem, Spencer and Winter Banana (yep, that’s an apple).
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9780393540703", "cover": "9780393540703", "goodreads": 50519877, "itunes": 9780393540703, "bookshop": 9780393540703, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41VPmZJ40mL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780393540703", "isbn10": "0393540707", "links": [] }, "303": { "id": 303, "title": "The Look Of The Book: Jackets, Covers, And Art At The Edges Of Literature", "author": "Peter Mendelsund and David J. Alworth", "reviewers": [ "Nina Gregory" ], "text": "A good primer for people interesting in understanding something as complex as transforming a book into an image, The Look of the Book presents a wide historical range of visual storytelling through the art and design of the book cover. A sort of survey of graphic design history, it offers graphic wit and cleverness in its own construction. Of course, you can judge a book by its cover – a good cover will catch your eye and capture the essence of the story inside.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "for art lovers", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9780399581021", "cover": "9780399581021", "goodreads": 38255179, "itunes": 9780399581021, "bookshop": 9780399581021, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-VB-E0yCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780399581021", "isbn10": "0399581022", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 303, "book": "The Look of the Book", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Jacket Designer's Challenge: To Capture A Book By Its Cover", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2014/10/16/345548582/the-jacket-designers-challenge-to-capture-a-book-by-its-cover" } ] }, "304": { "id": 304, "title": "The Malevolent Volume", "author": "Justin Phillip Reed", "reviewers": [ "Nina Gregory" ], "text": "Justin Phillip Reed’s debut book of poetry, Indecency, won the 2018 National Book Award, and The Malevolent Volume is his second collection. Reed uses a narrative structure as well as a visual one to weave a deep and connected universe of references, from Nas lyrics to the monster in Ridley Scott’s film Alien, as well as Hillary Clinton’s 1996 use of the phrase “super-predator.” Nature creeps in, as does musicality and dreaminess, quickly transporting the reader into a world of Reed’s careful crafting.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "for art lovers", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9781566895767", "cover": "9781566895767", "goodreads": 53056340, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781566895767, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41JWq+qAWqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781566895767", "isbn10": "1566895766", "links": [] }, "305": { "id": 305, "title": "Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto", "author": "Miren Arzalluz", "reviewers": [ "Nina Gregory" ], "text": "While many books have been written about Gabrielle Chanel’s style and complicated personal history (especially recent examinations of her actions during World War II), this book accompanies the first ever retrospective of the couturiere’s work in Paris. Dazzling photographs of Chanel’s archives allow a peek at dresses that would look chic and modern today but date back to the 1920s – a midnight-blue crepe georgette evening dress with silk fringing dyed in graduating shades of blue, or a monochromatic drop-waist silvery silk crepe number. To see the silhouettes and materials up close is to see the evidence of Chanel’s mastery as both a modernist and a couturier. Essays add depth and context to the book, and fashion lovers who can’t make it to Paris may find it to be a great escape.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for art lovers", "for history lovers", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9780500023464", "cover": "9780500023464", "goodreads": 51482447, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780500023464, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cVPQFe5QS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780500023464", "isbn10": "0500023468", "links": [] }, "306": { "id": 306, "title": "The Vanishing Half: A Novel", "author": "Brit Bennett", "reviewers": [ "Noel King" ], "text": "To be American is to self-invent, and if you think you’re not part of that, talk to a grandparent. In The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett’s novel about Black identical twins who can pass as white, nearly everyone is self-invented. Stella Vignes leaves her Louisiana town and crosses the color line; she marries a white man, has a white daughter, then mistreats them to keep her secret. (It’s a testament to Bennett’s writing that Stella is not unlikeable.) Stella’s niece and foil, Jude, is unwilling and unable to pass. Instead, she reinvents herself as something deeply satisfying: a happy, successful adult. The past always catches up, though, and when the family reunion comes, it’s spectacular. To reinvent yourself is to add and subtract, as Bennett makes clear. This book adds.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "family matters", "historical fiction", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780525536291", "cover": "9780525536291", "goodreads": 54482639, "itunes": 9780525536291, "bookshop": 9780525536291, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41EzNnr4YUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525536291", "isbn10": "0525536299", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 306, "book": "The Vanishing Half: A Novel", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Bookworm: Brit Bennett On 'The Vanishing Half'", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm/brit-bennett-the-vanishing-half" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 306, "book": "The Vanishing Half: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Brit Bennett Set Her Novel 50 Years Ago — She Didn't Expect It To Be 'Timely'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/05/870303515/brit-bennett-set-her-novel-50-years-ago-she-didnt-expect-it-to-be-timely" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 306, "book": "The Vanishing Half: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Vanishing Half' Counts The Terrible Costs Of Bigotry And Secrecy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/03/868197705/the-vanishing-half-counts-the-terrible-costs-of-bigotry-and-secrecy" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 306, "book": "The Vanishing Half: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Identical Twins Become Divided By Race In 'The Vanishing Half'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/01/866729537/identical-twins-become-divided-by-race-in-the-vanishing-half" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 306, "book": "The Vanishing Half: A Novel", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Nerdette Book Club: ‘The Vanishing Half’", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/nerdette-book-club-the-vanishing-half/29f20081-13cd-4e66-8a60-53fadb51d160" } ] }, "307": { "id": 307, "title": "Missionaries: A Novel", "author": "Phil Klay", "reviewers": [ "Peter Breslow" ], "text": "Phil Klay was a Marine and you can feel it. Missionaries takes us around the world, from the chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan to turmoil in rural Colombia. Along the way, we meet a cascade of fascinating characters whose allegiances change quickly from narcos to rebels to militias. This is a gray universe where it’s difficult to distinguish the good guys and gals from the bad, and it rings true to those of us who have spent time in these places. The interconnected worlds of the military medic, the Colombian army officer, the burned-out reporter and the death squad recruit will stick with you long after you close this book.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "fiction", "tales from around the world", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "9781984880659", "cover": "9781984880659", "goodreads": 50482979, "itunes": 9781984880659, "bookshop": 9781984880659, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oqNpCEeUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984880659", "isbn10": "1984880659", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 307, "book": "Missionaries: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Missionaries,' Phil Klay Explores How 'Wars Bleed Into Each Other'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/11/922653098/in-missionaries-phil-klay-explores-how-wars-bleed-into-each-other" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 307, "book": "Missionaries: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Phil Klay's New 'Missionaries' Is An Ambitious Novel Of Ideas", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/08/921194920/phil-klays-new-missionaries-is-an-ambitious-novel-of-ideas" } ] }, "308": { "id": 308, "title": "Alien Oceans: The Search For Life In The Depths Of Space", "author": "Kevin Hand", "reviewers": [ "Philip Ewing" ], "text": "Many of us seem to remember learning as kids that water is scarce in our universe. That understanding has changed a lot as Kevin Hand also describes in his engrossing study. A number of planets and moons in our solar system have water, and some of them have entire oceans sloshing around, in the depths of which could be, maybe, life. If you enjoy imagining a mission in which humans launch a rocket that contains a spacecraft that releases a lander that launches a space boat – or even a space submarine – Hand’s book will help you grasp the full picture.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "science!", "eye-opening reads", "nonfiction", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "9780691179513", "cover": "9780691179513", "goodreads": 51801208, "itunes": 9780691179513, "bookshop": 9780691179513, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51LRfdciycL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780691179513", "isbn10": "0691179514", "links": [] }, "309": { "id": 309, "title": "My Town: An Artist’s Life In London", "author": "David Gentleman", "reviewers": [ "Philip Ewing" ], "text": "The coronavirus lockdown era generates a furious desire for escape, and there’s no place I go more in my imagination than London. As the home of Sherlock Holmes, Bertie Wooster, Hercule Poirot and other heroes of our imagination, it exists as a rare kind of double place – a beloved fictional mise en scène on top of a real, living city. When my wife and I eloped, we notified the world with a photo captured across the River Thames from the Palace of Westminster. Artist David Gentleman has spent his career depicting the real London through its decades of evolution, and his beautiful book was a mental boarding pass to the metropolis he has been capturing for decades.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "9781846149757", "cover": "9781846149757", "goodreads": 52071688, "itunes": 9781846149757, "bookshop": 9781846149757, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411NpLwP0EL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781846149757", "isbn10": "1846149754", "links": [] }, "310": { "id": 310, "title": "I Got A Monster: The Rise And Fall Of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad", "author": "Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg", "reviewers": [ "Rebecca Hersher" ], "text": "This book made me want to cry and scream at the same time. It’s the story of an elite group of police officers in Baltimore who spent years stealing, lying and physically attacking people in the city. The FBI prosecuted the officers with the same statutes that it uses to take down organized crime, and the book reads like a mob story. Except it’s not the mob – it’s the police.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781250221803", "cover": "9781250221803", "goodreads": 51171365, "itunes": 9781250221803, "bookshop": 9781250221803, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cFhDXSUEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250221803", "isbn10": "1250221803", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 310, "book": "I Got A Monster", "source": "WYPR", "text": "New Book Unmasks The Enablers Of Police Corruption In Baltimore", "url": "https://www.wypr.org/post/new-book-unmasks-enablers-police-corruption-baltimore" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 310, "book": "I Got A Monster", "source": "WWNO", "text": " 'America's Most Corrupt Police Squad': Baltimore And The Gun Trace Task Force", "url": "https://www.wwno.org/post/america-s-most-corrupt-police-squad-baltimore-and-gun-trace-task-force" } ] }, "311": { "id": 311, "title": "X+Y: A Mathematician's Manifesto For Rethinking Gender", "author": "Eugenia Cheng", "reviewers": [ "Rebecca Ramirez" ], "text": "I get it: A book that tears down gender constructs through high-level math doesn’t necessarily sound like a fun, engaging read. But this book changed my life in the most beautiful way. Eugenia Cheng doesn’t just explain why the way our society conceptualizes gender is all wrong – she proposes a new way of thinking about – and beyond – gender. Through accessible graphs and brilliant metaphor, Cheng pushes her readers instead to think about a person’s behavior. For example, is an action “ingressive,” single-track thinking or “congressive,” focused on the collective good? With plenty of references to relevant literature, Cheng gives readers the sense they’ve been in an in-depth conversation with her. Stunning.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "science!" ], "isbn": "9781541646506", "cover": "9781541646506", "goodreads": 53054836, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781541646506, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41B8tIyrjWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781541646506", "isbn10": "1541646509", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 311, "book": "X+Y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Mathematician's Manifesto For Rethinking Gender", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/911691013/a-mathematicians-manifesto-for-rethinking-gender" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 311, "book": "X+Y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Rethinking Gender With Mathematician Eugenia Cheng", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/09/16/rethinking-gender-with-mathematician-eugenia-cheng" } ] }, "312": { "id": 312, "title": "Members Only", "author": "Sameer Pandya", "reviewers": [ "Reena Advani" ], "text": "Who hasn’t felt excluded from a group or regretted a remark? In Sameer Pandya’s heart-pounding novel, every word Raj Bhatt says, every action he takes, is consequential. Raj is an Indian American anthropology professor, and in separate incidents, his words are used against him at his private tennis club and at the liberal arts college where he teaches. He is constantly “otherized,” and he’s desperate to find connections in historically white spaces. This is a nail-biting read because Raj’s fate – a comfortable life unraveled by misinterpretations and words taken out of context – is all too familiar in today’s world.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "identity & culture", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9780358379928", "cover": "9780358379928", "goodreads": 52778685, "itunes": 9780358379928, "bookshop": 9780358379928, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Cc3LHHKEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780358379928", "isbn10": "035837992X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 312, "book": "Members Only", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Members Only,' Pandya Examines Brown Space Between Black And White", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/07/888102313/in-members-only-pandya-examines-brown-space-between-black-and-white" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 312, "book": "Members Only", "source": "Texas Public Radio", "text": " 'Members Only': Sameer Pandya’s Campus Novel Explores Racial Identity ", "url": "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/book-public/2020-08-07/members-only-sameer-pandyas-campus-novel-explores-racial-identity" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 312, "book": "Members Only", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Nerdette Book Club: A Spoiler-Free Conversation About ‘Members Only’ With Author Sameer Pandya", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/members-only-with-author-sameer-pandya/81196ebd-d626-4238-b4ff-5c76431712fd" } ] }, "313": { "id": 313, "title": "Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, And The Meaning Of Sex", "author": "Angela Chen", "reviewers": [ "Rhaina Cohen" ], "text": "This book affirms the experiences of people who are asexual (aces) – people who are, at best, misunderstood and, at worst, believed to be in need of a “cure.” Ace has a second audience in mind: people who could benefit from deeper reflection on intimacy, romance and sex – which is to say, pretty much all of us. Angela Chen points out that aces, because they subvert norms related to sex, can help everyone else notice societal pressures that they’re too submerged in to see. The book allows us to imagine how much more we could get from our relationships if we were able to free ourselves from restrictive ideas of what we’re supposed to feel and do.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex" ], "isbn": "9780807013793", "cover": "9780807013793", "goodreads": 52128695, "itunes": 9780807013793, "bookshop": 9780807013793, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bl2COkLRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780807013793", "isbn10": "080701379X", "links": [] }, "314": { "id": 314, "title": "What Can A Body Do?: How We Meet The Built World", "author": "Sara Hendren", "reviewers": [ "Rhaina Cohen" ], "text": "If you’ve ever sat in a chair that’s uncomfortable because it doesn’t conform to your body, you know what it’s like when the built world fails to meet you where you are. People with disabilities encounter this reality frequently – that furniture and technology and buildings weren’t designed with them in mind. Sara Hendren, a design researcher, presents case after case of ingenious design that helps bodies of all shapes and needs adapt to the world. In prose infused with tenderness, Hendren tosses away the idea that disability is a problem to be solved and instead shows how humans’ adaptation to the built environment is a wonder to behold.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9780735220003", "cover": "9780735220003", "goodreads": 49349641, "itunes": 9780735220003, "bookshop": 9780735220003, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oT2ArY9EL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780735220003", "isbn10": "073522000X", "links": [] }, "315": { "id": 315, "title": "Dirt: Adventures In Lyon As A Chef In Training, Father, And Sleuth Looking For The Secret Of French Cooking", "author": "Bill Buford", "reviewers": [ "Rose Friedman" ], "text": "I have been waiting for this book for years. Ever since I got swept up in Bill Buford’s memoir Heat, in which he quit his plum job editing fiction at The New Yorker, volunteered in a restaurant as a kitchen grunt, then moved to Italy and apprenticed with a butcher. “I could do that!” I thought to myself. Well, maybe. But no way would my resulting memoir have been as delightful. Now Buford is back, this time with his twin toddlers in tow, as he moves to Lyon, looking for the origins of French cuisine. Buford is a self-deprecating writer who merrily catalogs his failures in the kitchen, always seems to be running late, and is perpetually bungling the language of his adopted country. It’s only once you’ve zipped through the book, learning reams about the history of famous chefs and ancient dishes, that you realize you’re actually in the hands of a master.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9780307271013", "cover": "9780307271013", "goodreads": 48983247, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41F5IFRrLaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780307271013", "isbn10": "0307271013", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 315, "book": "Dirt", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Dirt,' Bill Buford Is Able To Offer An Authentic Adventure In French Cooking", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/08/852496954/in-dirt-bill-buford-is-able-to-offer-an-authentic-adventure-in-french-cooking" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 315, "book": "Dirt", "source": "NPR", "text": "Cooking Chicken In A Pig's Bladder (It Sounds Better In French) With Bill Buford", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/15/891290856/bill-buford-discusses-his-culinary-journey-in-new-memoir-dirt" } ] }, "316": { "id": 316, "title": "Moonflower Murders: A Novel", "author": "Anthony Horowitz", "reviewers": [ "Rose Friedman" ], "text": "Thank God for Anthony Horowitz, who has reliably churned out cozy detective fiction for the past several years. If the pandemic has you craving the comfort and structure of a whodunit, look no further. I won’t spoil the plot of this detective novel within a detective novel except to say it’s set, deliciously, at a small family-run hotel somewhere in the English countryside complete with a wedding ruined by the discovery of a body, jealous siblings and feuding staff. Honestly, what else do you need?
", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9780062955456", "cover": "9780062955456", "goodreads": 51179955, "itunes": 9780062955456, "bookshop": 9780062955456, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IdEa-q7hL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062955456", "isbn10": "0062955454", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 316, "book": "Moonflower Murders", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Alex Rider' Novelist On The Joys Of Reading (And Writing) Mysteries", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936176429/alex-rider-novelist-on-and-the-joys-of-reading-and-writing-mysteries" } ] }, "317": { "id": 317, "title": "Before The Ever After", "author": "Jacqueline Woodson", "reviewers": [ "Sacha Pfeiffer" ], "text": "It doesn’t seem like an obvious topic for young adult readers: chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the degenerative brain disease that afflicts many former NFL players. But Jacqueline Woodson takes on this subject in a beautiful, touching way through the story of a boy whose football star father – a mountain of a man who wears a glittering Super Bowl ring and signs autographs for adoring fans – suddenly can’t remember his son’s name. She writes about love and loss, and dreams and decline, and offers a cautionary tale without being preachy. Her book could also help young athletes and their parents have difficult, important conversations about the risks and benefits of playing football.
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "young adult", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for sports lovers", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780399545436", "cover": "9780399545436", "goodreads": 51988656, "itunes": 9780399545436, "bookshop": 9780399545436, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51X4nXJCt0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780399545436", "isbn10": "0399545433", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 317, "book": "Before the Ever After", "source": "NPR", "text": "Jacqueline Woodson Wants Kids To Know The Beauty — And The Danger — Of Football", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/911175550/jacqueline-woodson-wants-kids-to-know-the-beauty-and-the-danger-of-football" } ] }, "318": { "id": 318, "title": "Dear Justyce", "author": "Nic Stone", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "Quan and Justyce are both smart, they grew up in the same area and they went to the same schools. So how did Justyce end up at Yale University while Quan is in jail on a murder charge? Dear Justyce is a story about the many flaws of the American juvenile justice system, and it somehow simultaneously broke my heart and gave me hope. It’s heartbreaking because while Quan has a shot at a happy ending, it’s because of Justyce, social workers and lawyers, and the reality is that most kids like him never will get that kind of support. And it’s hopeful because I imagine a generation of young adults reading this book and seeing the potential for a better, more just system. Fans of Nic Stone’s previous book, Dear Martin, will love being reunited with Justyce McAllister in this sequel.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "young adult", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781984829665", "cover": "9781984829665", "goodreads": 37829267, "itunes": 9781984829665, "bookshop": 9781984829665, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41dQdrmjt1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984829665", "isbn10": "1984829661", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 318, "book": "Dear Justyce", "source": "NPR", "text": "Nic Stone Discusses Her New Children's Novel, 'Dear Justyce'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/26/917185916/nic-stone-discusses-her-new-childrens-novel-dear-justyce" } ] }, "319": { "id": 319, "title": "Eat The Buddha: Life And Death In A Tibetan Town", "author": "Barbara Demick", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "Barbara Demick is a master at bringing faraway places to life. Her 2010 book, Nothing to Envy, was about North Korea and her latest is about Tibet, which has been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party since the 1950s and is, in many ways, hard to reach. For Eat the Buddha, Demick brings to life one town, Ngaba, through profiles of a handful of people: a nearsighted nomad who becomes a monk, a schoolgirl faced with the choice between family and money, and a princess named Gonpo, the daughter of the last king of Ngaba. They’re beautifully wrought portraits that Demick paints with depth, complexity and uncommon insight. A fully absorbing and compelling book that goes way beyond the headlines.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "9780812998757", "cover": "9780812998757", "goodreads": 33877608, "itunes": 9780812998757, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510rbYrzsPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780812998757", "isbn10": "0812998758", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 319, "book": "Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town", "source": "NPR", "text": "Barbara Demick's 'Eat The Buddha' Profiles A Little-Known Tibetan Town", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/25/895329222/barbara-demicks-eat-the-buddha-profiles-a-little-known-tibetan-town" } ] }, "320": { "id": 320, "title": "I Am Every Good Thing", "author": "Derrick Barnes, illlustrated by Gordon C. James", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "After the success of Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James have reunited for a book full of empowering affirmations for their Black sons. In I Am Every Good Thing, young boys are compared to the center of a cinnamon roll, Saturday mornings in the summertime, a perfect paper airplane. Written like a poem, the book gradually grows more serious, ending with an unfortunately much-needed reminder: “I am worthy of success, / of respect, of safety, of kindness, of happiness … I am worthy / to be loved.” (For ages 3 to 7)
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "family matters", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "9780525518778", "cover": "9780525518778", "goodreads": 49024173, "itunes": 9780525518778, "bookshop": 9780525518778, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525518778", "isbn10": "05255187711", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 320, "book": "I Am Every Good Thing", "source": "NPR", "text": "A New Picture Book Reminds Black Sons: You Are 'Every Good Thing'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/24/925482149/a-new-picture-book-reminds-black-sons-you-are-every-good-thing" } ] }, "321": { "id": 321, "title": "Ikenga", "author": "Nnedi Okorafor", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "When Nnamdi’s father, the chief of police in their Nigerian town, is killed, Nnamdi vows revenge. But he’s just a 12-year-old kid! Then he’s given an ikenga, a magical object that turns Nnamdi into a superhero known as “The Man.” How will Nnamdi wield his new power? Young readers will be drawn in by magic, adventure, depictions of vibrant West African culture and fun villain names like Mama Go-Slow and Bad Market. But Ikenga also offers subtle yet important lessons about truth, power and the justice system. (For ages 10 to 12)
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780593113523", "cover": "9780593113523", "goodreads": 48998055, "itunes": 9780593113523, "bookshop": 9780593113523, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vb7pypQCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593113523", "isbn10": "0593113527", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 321, "book": "Ikenga", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Boy Avenges His Murdered Father, With The Help Of A Magical 'Ikenga'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/23/904501664/a-boy-avenges-his-murdered-father-with-the-help-of-a-magical-ikenga" } ] }, "322": { "id": 322, "title": "Memorial: A Novel", "author": "Bryan Washington", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "Mike and Benson have been together for a while, but their relationship is rocky. When Mike learns his father is dying, he flies to Osaka to be with him – leaving Benson living in a one-bedroom apartment with Mike’s mother, a woman he’d never met before, now in town for a long visit. This is a novel that builds on 1,000 small moments between the characters as they cook, fight, co-exist and leave most things unsaid. It’s a quiet kind of book, with sparing language, but Memorial still says a lot: about who we consider family, where we call home, how we love, how we forgive and how sometimes forgiveness is the purest form of love. (There are also mouth-watering descriptions of food that will make you wish for a companion cookbook!)
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "love & romance", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780593087275", "cover": "9780593087275", "goodreads": 51152396, "itunes": 9780593087275, "bookshop": 9780593087275, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Y3fa+7vBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593087275", "isbn10": "0593087275", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 322, "book": "Memorial: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Yes, There's Conflict — But No One's The Bad Guy In 'Memorial'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/24/927209285/yes-theres-conflict-but-no-ones-the-bad-guy-in-memorial" } ] }, "323": { "id": 323, "title": "Pizza Girl: A Novel", "author": "Jean Kyoung Frazier", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "Pizza Girl is a pregnant teenager who works at a pizza shop, lives with her mom and boyfriend, and drinks beer after beer in the shed at night while wondering if she’s turning into her alcoholic father. When a woman named Jenny orders a pizza with pickles, Pizza Girl slowly becomes a part of Jenny’s life. And then she becomes a little bit more than that. Is it friendship? Attraction? Obsession? This slim novel about the often confusing feelings we can have for other people is a little scary, a little sad and a little funny. A perfect read for when you want to escape deep into someone else’s head.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "funny stuff", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780385545723", "cover": "9780385545723", "goodreads": 44088751, "itunes": 9780385545723, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KqpVz09RL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780385545723", "isbn10": "038554572X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 323, "book": "Pizza Girl: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Jean Kyoung Frazier On Pizza And Friendship In Her Debut Novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/13/876521975/jean-kyoung-frazier-on-pizza-and-friendship-in-her-debut-novel" } ] }, "324": { "id": 324, "title": "Sex And Vanity: A Novel", "author": "Kevin Kwan", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "The settings: A lavish Capri wedding, Italian villas, mansions in the Hamptons and a mega yacht. The drama: Wall Street fortune-bearing Lucie Churchill (of yes, those Churchills) is stuck in a love triangle. As a teenager she falls for George Zao, a Chinese Australian surfer who is “not the right kind of rich.” But disaster strikes, and Lucie doesn’t see George again until years later when she’s engaged to status-obsessed, nouveau riche Cecil Pike, who has somehow been named “The Most Desired Dude On The Planet.” What’s a girl to do? This book could not possibly be written by anyone other than Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians, who writes about the (relatively) subdued glitz of the East Coast with as much color and verve as he does the decadent worlds of Hong Kong and Singapore. This book has almost no relationship to (the average person’s) reality, making it the perfect escape from it.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "family matters" ], "isbn": "9780385546270", "cover": "9780385546270", "goodreads": 55379018, "itunes": 9780385546270, "bookshop": 9780385546270, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41RtArOosbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780385546270", "isbn10": "03855462711", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 324, "book": "Sex and Vanity: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Kevin Kwan's New 'Sex And Vanity' Is A Summer Romp With A Satirical Sting", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/28/883876810/kevin-kwans-new-sex-and-vanity-is-a-summer-romp-with-a-satirical-sting" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 324, "book": "Sex and Vanity", "source": "WAMU", "text": " ‘Sex And Vanity’ With Author Kevin Kwan", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/sex-and-vanity-with-author-kevin-kwan/" } ] }, "325": { "id": 325, "title": "Super Fake Love Song", "author": "David Yoon", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "Sunny Dae is a self-described total nerd who loves cosplay and his two best friends. He’s definitely not the front man of a rock band, at least not until Cirrus Soh mistakes him for one. What could go wrong? And while this is the classic (YA at its best) story of a boy and his first high school relationship, at its heart Super Fake Love Song is also the story of an even more important relationship: the one you have with yourself. Because before anything else can fall into place, Sunny has to figure out which version of himself he likes the best. It’s a big-hearted novel full of delightful, funny, empathetic characters.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "young adult", "for music lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "9781984812230", "cover": "9781984812230", "goodreads": 51256637, "itunes": 9781984812230, "bookshop": 9781984812230, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51m0cup6vmL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984812230", "isbn10": "1984812238", "links": [] }, "326": { "id": 326, "title": "Neon Girls: A Stripper's Education In Protest And Power", "author": "Jennifer Worley", "reviewers": [ "Sascha Cohen" ], "text": "This sex worker memoir begins as a typical babe in the woods tale about a young woman drawn to the adult industry for extra cash, but it quickly turns into something more galvanizing and urgent. A graduate student who danced at San Francisco’s storied Lusty Lady peep show during its 1990s heyday, Jennifer Worley confronted the controlling, exploitative rules of management by organizing her fellow strippers – many of them radical lesbians – into the world’s first unionized strip club and, later, worker-owned co-op. Neon Girls is lively and crucial – a slice of queer urban history and a necessary rethinking of sex work as a site of collective labor struggle.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9780062971326", "cover": "9780062971326", "goodreads": 52167706, "itunes": 9780062971326, "bookshop": 9780062971326, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51v06lGdCZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780062971326", "isbn10": "0062971328", "links": [] }, "327": { "id": 327, "title": "Political Sign (Object Lessons)", "author": "Tobias Carroll", "reviewers": [ "Sascha Cohen" ], "text": "During a moment in which Americans are besieged by an onslaught of political messaging from the sublime to the ridiculous, this slim, thoughtful volume helps make sense of what we’re seeing. Tobias Carroll has written a timely meditation on the political sign, an object that telegraphs our deeply held beliefs and exists in “the space between poetry and prose.” It’s not only billboards, bumper stickers and lawn signs that count here, but also Banksy’s street art, Roger Stone’s Richard Nixon tattoo and David Wojnarowicz’s leather jacket – tools used to curate our identities, proto-memes that marry art and protest. You won’t look at a MAGA hat the same way again.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers", "rather short", "it’s all geek to me", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "9781501358104", "cover": "9781501358104", "goodreads": 48776512, "itunes": 9781501358104, "bookshop": 9781501358104, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31hOdu0oMgL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781501358104", "isbn10": "1501358103", "links": [] }, "328": { "id": 328, "title": "The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir", "author": "André Leon Talley", "reviewers": [ "Seth Kelley" ], "text": "For months after the longtime Vogue editor was on Fresh Air, we’d quote him to each other around the office: “I wanted to look like a pirate! And I dressed like a pirate!” So I was delighted that André Leon Talley’s memoir captures his voice in all its glorious melodrama and encyclopedic use of proper nouns. (He loves to drop a name!) Talley narrates his decades-long career in fashion – the people who took him in, and those who spit him out – and, as he writes, “how a black man survived and thrived in the chiffon trenches.”
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "no biz like show biz", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "9780593129258", "cover": "9780593129258", "goodreads": 51794442, "itunes": 9780593129258, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cYC7DL2CL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593129258", "isbn10": "0593129253", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 328, "book": "The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "André Leon Talley Writes About Wintour, Lagerfeld In 'Chiffon Trenches'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/25/861819277/andr-leon-talley-writes-about-wintour-lagerfeld-in-chiffon-trenches" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 328, "book": "The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "For 'Vogue' Titan André Leon Talley, Fashion Was A 'Gateway To The World'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2018/05/31/615752676/for-vogue-titan-andr-leon-talley-fashion-was-a-gateway-to-the-world" } ] }, "329": { "id": 329, "title": "The Undocumented Americans", "author": "Karla Cornejo Villavicencio", "reviewers": [ "Shereen Marisol Meraji" ], "text": "An undocumented immigrant who graduated from Harvard and is pursuing a Ph.D. from Yale refused to write another “DREAMer” memoir. Instead, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio wrote about the immigrants who don’t “inspire hashtags or t-shirts”; undocumented immigrants who, if they’re acknowledged at all, are just seen as workers. In The Undocumented Americans, Villavicencio writes about the rich, complex lives of those so-called workers in a style so unique it defies description. She was nominated for a National Book Award.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "rather short", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "9780399592683", "cover": "9780399592683", "goodreads": 41880092, "itunes": 9780399592683, "bookshop": 9780399592683, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51C12KhLtOL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780399592683", "isbn10": "0399592687", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 329, "book": "The Undocumented Americans", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Undocumented Americans", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/23/882551486/the-undocumented-americans" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 329, "book": "The Undocumented Americans", "source": "KQED", "text": "Author Aims For Punk Rock Memoir With 'The Undocumented Americans'", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101878579/author-aims-for-punk-rock-memoir-with-the-undocumented-americans" } ] }, "330": { "id": 330, "title": "Cook With Me: 150 Recipes For The Home Cook", "author": "Alex Guarnaschelli", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "Chef, restaurateur and cooking show host Alex Guarnaschelli inhabits the center of the food media Web; her books bring a swooning maximalism within reach of the home cook. Spicy browned butter and sambal potato skins? That’s no-holds-barred decadence in just four ingredients, including the salt. The sauce for “Godfather” spaghetti and meatballs seethes and beckons with a pound of hot Italian sausage, and that’s before you even start in on the meatballs. Do you need a dark chocolate-dipped “pretzel” butter cookie? Why even ask? Make no mistake – Cook With Me is a permission structure for your most unbridled cravings.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9780593135082", "cover": "9780593135082", "goodreads": 52623732, "itunes": 9780593135082, "bookshop": 9780593135082, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nZi4ysduL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593135082", "isbn10": "0593135083", "links": [] }, "331": { "id": 331, "title": "East: 120 Vegan And Vegetarian Recipes From Bangalore To Beijing", "author": "Meera Sodha", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "U.K. food columnist Meera Sodha’s previous two books focused on India; here she goes global – or anyway, demi-global. East is as encompassing as the title suggests, blithely hopscotching across the vastness of Asia and returning with bold, combinations of form and flavor. You won’t find paneer kofta with tomato and cashew sauce in any other cookbook; nor do miso brownies typically rub shoulders with mushroom bao. Exuberantly untraditional yet not as fussy as “fusion,” the vegetables and fruits parading through these colorful and brightly lit pages defy categorization. For anyone jaded by a beige-tinted palate, that’s a good thing.
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781250750730", "cover": "9781250750730", "goodreads": 49247113, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781250750730, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wRZsdSehL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250750730", "isbn10": "1250750733", "links": [] }, "332": { "id": 332, "title": "Quick & Delicious: 100 Recipes To Cook In 30 Minutes Or Less", "author": "Gordon Ramsay", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "Ubiquitous celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is back! With his umpteenth book. Despite its can’t-be-bothered title, Quick & Delicious has much to offer the home cook. Its ingredients are a little aspirational (pink peppercorns, lemongrass paste), its techniques a little “extra.” Yet these recipes mostly really do deliver in about half an hour. According to Ramsay, the secret is “bold flavors and clever labor-saving cheats”: fresh and preserved lemons in “Double Lemon Chicken,” gochujang in Korean-style lamb rib chops, harissa oil and lime crème fraîche in your roasted cauliflower. More trouble than microwaving some Trader Joe’s? Sure. Worth it? Definitely!
", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9781538719336", "cover": "9781538719336", "goodreads": 50998947, "itunes": 9781538719336, "bookshop": 9781538719336, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51I5JHUiqfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781538719336", "isbn10": "1538719339", "links": [] }, "333": { "id": 333, "title": "Scorpionfish", "author": "Natalie Bakopoulos", "reviewers": [ "Tamar Charney" ], "text": "Late into the night, Mira and her former sea captain neighbor have deep conversations, separated by a balcony wall. The characters share their recent losses of loved ones, their past relationships and their sense of belonging. The city of Athens echoes the turbulence of their personal lives – altered by the economic crisis and the refugee crisis, and haunted by the violent legacy of the Greek junta. Natalie Bakopoulos shines at capturing friendships between men and women – and this quiet novel speaks loudly about the power of friendship, art and place to help us shape who we are despite wounds from our pasts.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781947793750", "cover": "9781947793750", "goodreads": 50970256, "itunes": 9781947793750, "bookshop": 9781947793750, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ULV7pO0xL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781947793750", "isbn10": "1947793756", "links": [] }, "334": { "id": 334, "title": "Dancing After TEN", "author": "Vivian Chong and Georgia Webber", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "On vacation in 2004, Vivian Chong, a Canadian graphic artist, fell ill. Her boyfriend gave her ibuprofen to treat her condition, which triggered the horrific symptoms of TEN – toxic epidermal necrolysis – a severe allergic reaction that caused Chong’s skin to peel off. She suffered multiple skin grafts, as well as gradual blindness and loss of hearing because of scar tissue buildups in her corneas and eardrums. As Chong’s weakened vision began to impair her art, she teamed up with Georgia Webber – another Canadian artist who specializes in the graphic medicine genre – to help round out her experience from trauma to triumph. Dancing After TEN represents an extraordinary testament to Chong’s indomitable spirit.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "eye-opening reads", "nonfiction", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781683963165", "cover": "9781683963165", "goodreads": 53174570, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781683963165, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DI1sGTKlL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781683963165", "isbn10": "1683963164", "links": [] }, "335": { "id": 335, "title": "Family In Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, An American Daughter", "author": "Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "As a mother, Vietnamese American novelist Lan Cao struggles to provide emotional security for Harlan – her teenage daughter – while suffering from the “hybrid, chaotic, unstable” legacy of her refugee experience. As a daughter, Harlan intuitively accepts that she and Lan are exiled in their own separate ways but at the same time “very attached to each other.” As a mother-and-daughter memoir, Family in Six Tones poetically captures fragmentation and the search for wholeness through a full reckoning with the past.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "9781984878168", "cover": "9781984878168", "goodreads": 54908414, "itunes": 9781984878168, "bookshop": 9781984878168, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41QxtE2TVzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984878168", "isbn10": "1984878166", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 335, "book": "Family In Six Tones", "source": "WBUR & NPR", "text": "A Mother, Daughter And The Shadow Of Vietnam", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/10/12/family-in-six-tones-book" } ] }, "336": { "id": 336, "title": "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982: A Novel", "author": "Cho Nam-Joo, translated by Jamie Chang", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "The offspring of Virginia Woolf and Franz Kafka, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 imagines the modern day Korean woman as a “mom roach” – a creature gradually stripped of all human agency, metaphorically turned into vermin by the patriarchy’s crushing prerogatives. Endowed with a generic Korean female name, Jiyoung is an educated, 33-year-old woman who gives up her job at a marketing firm to care for her infant daughter. Soon she begins to experience psychotic episodes where she channels the voices of other women – both living and dead – to assert herself in public situations. In her dis/integration, Jiyoung represents the collective fate of all modern Korean women whose inexorable oppression – perpetuated by seemingly supportive fathers and husbands – becomes doubly devastating. The novel also asks a salient question: “Do laws and institutions change values, or do values drive laws and institutions?”
", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "fiction", "tales from around the world", "rather short" ], "isbn": "9781631496707", "cover": "9781631496707", "goodreads": 46041199, "itunes": 9781631496707, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781631496707", "isbn10": "16314967011", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 336, "book": "Kim Jiyoung, Born in 1982", "source": "NPR", "text": "South Korean Bestseller 'Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982' Gives Public Voice To Private Pain", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/19/835486224/south-korean-bestseller-kim-jiyoung-born-1982-gives-public-voice-to-private-pain" } ] }, "337": { "id": 337, "title": "Year Of The Rabbit", "author": "Tian Veasna", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "French Cambodian comic artist Tian Veasna (his last name means “destiny”) was born in Cambodia in April 1975, three days after the Khmer Rouge takeover, during his family’s harrowing exodus from the capital city of Phnom Penh. Year of the Rabbit eloquently captures the new order’s horrors – starvation, paranoia and violence – through firsthand accounts of the artist’s parents and close relatives. Thanks to good karma, Veasna’s father Khim – a doctor under the old regime – would be miraculously spared at several critical moments by those who remembered his past kindnesses. At once stark and vivid, Year of the Rabbit is a stupendous achievement, comparable to Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa and Art Spiegelman’s Maus.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "comics & graphic novels", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "nonfiction", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781770463769", "cover": "9781770463769", "goodreads": 43317483, "itunes": 9781770463769, "bookshop": 9781770463769, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pRWHuwpvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781770463769", "isbn10": "1770463763", "links": [] }, "338": { "id": 338, "title": "Dessert Person: Recipes And Guidance For Baking With Confidence", "author": "Claire Saffitz", "reviewers": [ "Wynne Davis" ], "text": "If you’re someone who “doesn’t like sweets,” you might think there’s nothing for you in this book devoted entirely to dessert – but Claire Saffitz would say: not so fast. In Dessert Person, Saffitz hopes to help every reader find their dessert, whether it’s sweet or savory. Her Recipe Matrix lets bakers of all levels look at how much time they have and pick out a recipe that matches their skill level. Whether you’re going for an easier option like almond butter banana bread or chocolate chip cookies, or trying your hand at blueberry slab pie or spelt croissants, Saffitz will help you out and cheer you on along the way.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9781984826961", "cover": "9781984826961", "goodreads": 52028349, "itunes": 9781984826961, "bookshop": 9781984826961, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51luwA6xSUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984826961", "isbn10": "1984826964", "links": [] }, "339": { "id": 339, "title": "Dinner In French: My Recipes By Way Of France", "author": "Melissa Clark", "reviewers": [ "Wynne Davis" ], "text": "I love French food, but I never considered it a fast or easy weeknight option. That’s no longer the case thanks to Melissa Clark’s Dinner in French. Meals of brown butter scallops with parsley and lemon, asparagus almondine and Campari olive oil cake come together quickly, as Clark shares stories of her childhood visits to France that sparked her love for the country’s cuisine. Since 2020 is not the year to go out for a luxurious French meal, why not make one at home? If you are a Francophile or have one in your life, this book is a must-have.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9780553448252", "cover": "9780553448252", "goodreads": 50747216, "itunes": 9780553448252, "bookshop": 9780553448252, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51g+ZcU6-AL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780553448252", "isbn10": "05534482511", "links": [] }, "340": { "id": 340, "title": "The Splendid And The Vile: A Saga Of Churchill, Family, And Defiance During The Blitz", "author": "Erik Larson", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Erik Larson is one of America’s greatest writers of nonfiction, and with his latest book, he turns his sharp eye to Winston Churchill’s first year as prime minister of the United Kingdom. Larson delves into Churchill and his family and also provides a gripping account of the Blitz, paying attention to its effects on ordinary Britons. You don’t have to be a history buff to love this bravura performance by one of America’s greatest storytellers.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "family matters", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9780385348713", "cover": "9780385348713", "goodreads": 51227088, "itunes": 9780385348713, "bookshop": 9780385348713, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41OpMz7sA+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780385348713", "isbn10": "0385348711", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 340, "book": "The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz", "source": "NPR", "text": "Churchill's 1st Year As Prime Minister Is Electric In 'The Splendid And The Vile'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/20/807027681/churchills-first-year-as-prime-minister-is-electric-in-the-splendid-and-the-vile" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 340, "book": "The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz", "source": "NPR", "text": "Exclusive 1st Read: Erik Larson's 'The Splendid And The Vile'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/20/807361348/exclusive-first-read-erik-larsons-the-splendid-and-the-vile" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 340, "book": "The Splendid And The Vile: A Saga Of Churchill, Family, And Defiance During The Blitz", "source": "WWNO", "text": "The Reading Life With Authors Erik Larson And Rita Woods ", "url": "https://www.wwno.org/post/reading-life-erik-larson-and-rita-woods" } ] }, "341": { "id": 341, "title": "Tokyo Ueno Station: A Novel", "author": "Yu Miri, translated by Morgan Giles", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "The latest book by Korean Japanese author Yu Miri to be published in English is a gorgeous but dark read. The novel tells the story of Kazu, a homeless man who comes back as a ghost to the park where he used to live. Yu’s writing is unsparing, never letting the reader forget the enormities of poverty and loss, but it’s also quite beautiful – a stunning novel, as well as a harsh, uncompromising look at the unfairness of poverty and the pain of existential despair.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780593088029", "cover": "9780593088029", "goodreads": 48890205, "itunes": 9780593088029, "bookshop": 9780593088029, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593088029", "isbn10": "0593088026", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 341, "book": "Tokyo Ueno Station", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Painful Past And Ghostly Present Converge In 'Tokyo Ueno Station'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/27/883949974/a-painful-past-and-ghostly-present-converge-in-tokyo-ueno-station" } ] }, "342": { "id": 342, "title": "Where The Wild Ladies Are", "author": "Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "The ghost stories in Aoko Matsuda’s collection aren’t your average spooky tales – they’re based on traditional Japanese stories of yokai, ghosts and monsters that figure prominently in Japan’s folklore. But Matsuda puts her own clever spin on them, making them feel contemporary, unique and unapologetically feminist. Matsuda writes with a subtle self-assuredness mixed with a sly, unexpected sense of humor, and the results are downright addictive.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781593766900", "cover": "9781593766900", "goodreads": 51168664, "itunes": 9781593766900, "bookshop": 9781593766900, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781593766900", "isbn10": "1593766904", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 342, "book": "Where the Wild Ladies Are", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Where The Wild Ladies Are' Is Perfect Halloween Reading", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/20/924709298/where-the-wild-ladies-are-is-perfect-halloween-reading" } ] }, "343": { "id": 343, "title": "You Want More: Selected Stories Of George Singleton", "author": "George Singleton", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "If you think you don’t like short stories, you’ve probably never read George Singleton. The South Carolina author has perfected the art form with his hilarious tales of ordinary people in the American South. Singleton writes with a real sympathy toward his characters and a skewed, original sense of humor (his debut novel was called Novel). This book collects some of his best work, and after reading it, you’re going to want to get your hands on everything he’s written. You want great comic literature? You want George Singleton.
", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9781938235696", "cover": "9781938235696", "goodreads": 53328050, "itunes": 9781938235696, "bookshop": 9781938235696, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xTzdsHr-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781938235696", "isbn10": "193823569X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 343, "book": "You Want More", "source": "WUTC", "text": "Author George Singleton On 'You Want More'", "url": "https://www.wutc.org/post/author-george-singleton-you-want-more" } ] }, "344": { "id": 344, "title": "Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel", "author": "Martha Wells", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "Everyone’s favorite grumpy, TV-obsessed security robot is back, in its first full-length adventure. Over the course of four novellas, we’ve watched Murderbot grow closer to its human companions, figure out its place among them and even make a real friend (all while insisting it just wants to be left alone to rewatch its favorite series, Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon). Now, all those relationships are in danger, so what’s a Murderbot to do? Well, probably some murdering at the very least. Lots of stories don’t stand up when stretched to novel length – luckily for us, Network Effect not only stands up, it soars.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250229861", "cover": "9781250229861", "goodreads": 52381770, "itunes": 9781250229861, "bookshop": 9781250229861, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SdHncuqcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250229861", "isbn10": "1250229863", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 344, "book": "Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Murderbot Makes A Triumphant (And Cranky) Return In 'Network Effect'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/10/852739193/murderbot-makes-a-triumphant-and-cranky-return-in-network-effect" } ] }, "345": { "id": 345, "title": "Raybearer", "author": "Jordan Ifueko", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "This is Jordan Ifueko’s debut novel, but it reads like the work of a seasoned world-builder. Tarisai, raised in isolation by a mother she knows only as The Lady, goes to the capital city to compete with children from all over the country for a chance at being one of the crown prince’s magically bonded councilors. But The Lady has put a curse on Tarisai: She must gain the prince’s love, then kill him. (Fantasy can fall flat when the Big Bad is evil for pure evil’s sake – luckily, The Lady has a backstory that will punch you right in the feels.) Ifueko has created a rich, fresh, fully rounded world and a cast of characters to match; you’ll be on tenterhooks as Tarisai figures out how to balance destiny and compulsion, but her prince and her palace companions command equal attention.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "young adult", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781419739828", "cover": "9781419739828", "goodreads": 50158128, "itunes": 9781419739828, "bookshop": 9781419739828, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZLcH8gBVL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781419739828", "isbn10": "1419739824", "links": [] }, "346": { "id": 346, "title": "Slippery Creatures", "author": "KJ Charles", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "KJ Charles is my go-to for queer historical romance; Slippery Creatures is the first book in her Will Darling Adventures, and luckily for you the second one came out this summer. Will Darling, back from the Great War, is making his way in the civilian world as a humble bookstore owner – but things don’t stay calm or humble for long, because both the War Office and a zodiac-themed criminal gang are convinced he’s holding some vital information. Enter the aptly named Kim Secretan, who’s hiding vital information of his own but who may be the only person who can help Will. Mayhem (and hot sex, of course) ensue!
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "historical fiction", "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781912688166", "cover": "9781912688166", "goodreads": 53412855, "itunes": 9781912688166, "bookshop": 9781912688166, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FlOdSu3DL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781912688166", "isbn10": "1912688166", "links": [] }, "347": { "id": 347, "title": "Snapped", "author": "Alexa Martin", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "The fourth book in Alexa Martin’s football-inspired Playbook series has everything I’ve come to expect from Martin: smart, competent women, hunky, intelligent football stars, and a supportive cast of female friends who all have their own fully realized stories. But Snapped goes deeper; Elle, the heroine, is figuring out what it means to be biracial after being raised “colorblind” by her white single father, now dead. Quinton, our hero, is dealing with the repercussions of taking a knee on the field during the first game of the season – and taking care of his father, a former player now incapacitated by CTE. Snapped never feels didactic or heavy-handed, though. Martin brings it all together with skill and care, for a romance that – OK, I’m gonna say it – SCORES.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "for sports lovers", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780593102503", "cover": "9780593102503", "goodreads": 50689389, "itunes": 9780593102503, "bookshop": 9780593102503, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41R5Ky-k3vL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780593102503", "isbn10": "0593102509", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 347, "book": "Snapped", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Snapped' Grounds A Sparky Romance In Real-World Experience", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/24/927256986/snapped-grounds-a-sparky-romance-in-real-world-experience" } ] }, "348": { "id": 348, "title": "The Faithless Hawk", "author": "Margaret Owen", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "I don’t generally recommend books that aren’t the first in a series; it’s hard to tell readers to pick up somewhere in the middle of the story. But I’m making an exception for The Faithless Hawk – go pick up the first volume, The Merciful Crow, and dive face-first into Margaret Owen’s alien – yet sadly recognizable – world, ruled by a bird-themed caste system in which the lowly Crows are the only people immune to a terrible plague that ravages the land. Fie, future chieftain of her band of Crows, is one of my favorite recent fantasy discoveries; straight-talking, swift-acting, fierce and confident in her skills. Watch her extract payment from upper-caste Phoenixes for carting their plague dead away, and you’ll be willing to follow her anywhere.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250191946", "cover": "9781250191946", "goodreads": 46223430, "itunes": 9781250191946, "bookshop": 9781250191946, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qx6YS6ieL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250191946", "isbn10": "1250191947", "links": [] }, "349": { "id": 349, "title": "The Last Emperox", "author": "John Scalzi", "reviewers": [ "Petra Mayer" ], "text": "John Scalzi’s Interdependency series gives us a vast galactic empire on the verge of chaos as the interstellar pathways it depends on have begun to collapse. In this last installment, Emperox Grayland II is trying desperately to save as many people as she can from a death of interstellar isolation, while dodging coup attempts from self-interested corporate goons. Scalzi has said that he didn’t intend the series to be quite as topical as it turned out to be: “Some of that was completely unintentional, it was just the pace of the story. But some of it was. I live in the world.”
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780765389169", "cover": "9780765389169", "goodreads": 45046555, "itunes": 9780765389169, "bookshop": 9780765389169, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+4g9pgVZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780765389169", "isbn10": "0765389169", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 349, "book": "The Last Emperox", "source": "NPR", "text": "Set 1,500 Years From Now, 'The Last Emperox' Is Still Pretty Timely", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/11/832191830/set-1-500-years-from-now-the-last-emperox-is-still-pretty-timely" } ] }, "350": { "id": 350, "title": "Me And White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change The World, And Become A Good Ancestor", "author": "Layla F. Saad", "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "text": "When George Floyd died beneath a white policeman’s knee, legions of people shocked by the video rushed to understand how systemic racism works in America and their lives. So it’s a good thing Layla F. Saad had already created this workbook; a detailed plan walking readers through definitions, questions and concepts needed to understand how racial stereotypes are embedded in American society and how we reflexively reference those stereotypes in our own thinking. Readers go on a journey of discovery – which Saad calls “the work” – with masterful guidance on how to examine your own ideas, how to talk about these ideas across race and gender lines, and how to turn your own revelations into action aimed at unwinding systemic racism wherever you can.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781728209807", "cover": "9781728209807", "goodreads": 55105561, "itunes": 9781728209807, "bookshop": 9781728209807, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pt9W85qzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781728209807", "isbn10": "1728209803", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 350, "book": "Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Me And White Supremacy' Helps You Do The Work Of Dismantling Racism", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/06/887646740/me-and-white-supremacy-helps-you-do-the-work-of-dismantling-racism" } ] }, "351": { "id": 351, "title": "An Incomplete List Of Names", "author": "Michael Torres", "reviewers": [ "Andrea Gutierrez" ], "text": "One line sticks out to me from early in Michael Torres’ debut poetry collection, An Incomplete List of Names: “Most often I want to be / uncategorized.” These poems wrestle with the tension between knowing who you are, and knowing that you can’t be all parts of yourself in all places. That titular incomplete list of names goes back and forth between being that “foo” on the streets of Pomona, or a poetry teacher in a prison, or the guy who unironically mentions his “homies” back home in California to an incredulous partygoer in Minnesota. Torres writes in the poem “[Mexican] America”: “He tells me, when buying the newspaper, pay for one / but make sure to take two: one for yourself; / one for who you cannot be.” It’s not just the presence of who we are, but the absence of who we are not.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780807046746", "cover": "9780807046746", "goodreads": 50609058, "itunes": 9780807046746, "bookshop": 9780807046746, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516txlyAQnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780807046746", "isbn10": "0807046744", "links": [] }, "352": { "id": 352, "title": "Hood Criatura", "author": "féi hernandez", "reviewers": [ "Andrea Gutierrez" ], "text": "It had been a while since I last read a book of poetry, and féi hernandez’s Hood Criatura came to me during the pandemic, a liminal space in and of itself, where this book of shifting lives and identities and a sense of ni de aquí, ni de allá fits perfectly. hernandez’s Los Angeles – and especially their beloved Inglewood – is one that feels deeply familiar and cozy, yet belies a similar longing that hernandez feels about their body, their gender, their immigration status and even their relationship to their ancestors. The language weaves a tapestry that is at once dreamy, gritty and homesick. It’s a book that will stay with me for a long time.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9781951979089", "cover": "9781951979089", "goodreads": 55885392, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781951979089, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781951979089", "isbn10": "1951979087", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 352, "book": "Hood Criatura", "source": "NPR", "text": "A Bouquet Of Poets For National Poetry Month", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/04/28/700903340/a-bouquet-of-poets-for-national-poetry-month" } ] }, "353": { "id": 353, "title": "Everything Man: The Form And Function Of Paul Robeson", "author": "Shana L. Redmond", "reviewers": [ "Ann Powers" ], "text": "In her deeply innovative exploration of the cultural resonances of the titanic – yet often now overlooked African American song interpreter, actor, athlete and Freedom Fighter Paul Robeson – scholar Shana L. Redmond writes: “The story that unfolds over these chapters is more than a praise song for a singular man.” Going beyond conventional biography or criticism, Redmond pioneers a new form as she explores how Robeson, his movements suppressed by the U.S. government because of his leftist politics, still managed to leave his mark on the culture. Considering Robeson as a hologram, a recorded voice, the subject of multiple artworks and a vivid presence within sites that become more than memorials, Redmond returns Robeson to his rightful place at the center of the American conversation.
", "tags": [ "for history lovers", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "rather short", "staff picks", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "9781478006619", "cover": "9781478006619", "goodreads": 44025230, "itunes": 9781478006619, "bookshop": 9781478006619, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51P9o36NpjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781478006619", "isbn10": "1478006617", "links": [] }, "354": { "id": 354, "title": "The Meaning Of Mariah Carey", "author": "Mariah Carey with Michaela Angela Davis", "reviewers": [ "Ann Powers" ], "text": "Supreme diva Mariah Carey doesn’t reveal every detail of her tumultuous, self-made life in this deeply felt and fun-to-read remembrance, but she does reflect on how her childhood as a biracial social outcast on Long Island and her bad marriage to music-biz executive Tommy Mottola, among other events, gave her primary material from which she shaped her stealth R&B sound and her butter-and-Teflon persona. Carey and veteran editor Michaela Angela Davis also make sure the world knows she is a serious musician who thinks as seriously about her song structures and sampled beats as her perfume lines.
", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9781250164681", "cover": "9781250164681", "goodreads": 53265647, "itunes": 9781250164681, "bookshop": 9781250164681, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250164681", "isbn10": "12501646811", "links": [] }, "355": { "id": 355, "title": "Looking To Get Lost: Adventures In Music And Writing", "author": "Peter Guralnick", "reviewers": [ "Ann Powers" ], "text": "In the introduction to this collection of profiles from throughout his long and venerable career (plus some new ones), much-loved American roots music chronicler Peter Guralnick plays that old game of imagining his favorite dinner party, composed of the subjects of his book. And what a gathering! Guralnick writes with deep empathy and respect about legends like Johnny Cash and Willie Dixon, lesser-known key figures like bluesman Lonnie Mack and music-adjacent kindred spirits like the novelist Lee Smith. This book will make you feel nostalgic for up-close conversations as Guralnick gently reaches the heart and soul of his subjects.
", "tags": [ "for history lovers", "for music lovers", "nonfiction", "rather long", "staff picks", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "9780316412629", "cover": "9780316412629", "goodreads": 50998081, "itunes": 9780316412629, "bookshop": 9780316412629, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fL29iNv4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316412629", "isbn10": "0316412627", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 355, "book": "Looking To Get Lost", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Looking To Get Lost' Profiles Iconic Musical Performers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/940037955/looking-to-get-lost-profiles-iconic-musical-performers" } ] }, "356": { "id": 356, "title": "Jack: A Novel", "author": "Marilynne Robinson", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "Jack is the fourth of Marilynne Robinson’s novels set in Gilead, Iowa, and it is the story of John Ames Boughton, the son of Gilead’s Presbyterian minister. The Jack we have met in previous books is a ne’er do well, a prodigal son whose sins are large and small, who has encountered tragedy as well as created it. This book tells the story of his romance with Della Miles, a black woman who is also the daughter of a preacher. The first 80 pages we watch them falling in love while trapped in a graveyard – but the rest of the book they are trapped in the racism of America in the late 1940s. It is quite a time for Robinson to be explicitly addressing our racist past as we confront our racist present. In typical Robinson fashion, she is concerned with the question of whether or not this wayward man can be loved, forgiven, changed.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "historical fiction" ], "isbn": "9780374279301", "cover": "9780374279301", "goodreads": 50403478, "itunes": 9780374279301, "bookshop": 9780374279301, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QpvzkQ1QL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780374279301", "isbn10": "0374279306", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 356, "book": "Jack", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Jack,' Marilynne Robinson Shows Grace Is For Everyone", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/10/01/918850554/in-jack-marilynne-robinson-shows-grace-is-for-everyone" } ] }, "357": { "id": 357, "title": "Long Bright River: A Novel", "author": "Liz Moore", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "Liz Moore’s thriller Long Bright River is a book that a lot of different readers can enjoy: It’s a contemporary novel about the opioid epidemic, it’s a novel about sisters and families, it’s a book about the police and how they fall short of the communities they serve, and it’s a really well-plotted crime novel. Its central story revolves around Mickey, a patrol officer raising a young son in a working-class neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, and her missing sister, who’s addicted to drugs. Both women are the children of addicts, raised by a tough grandmother. The central mystery is the hunt for a killer targeting sex workers, but truly, this is a great literary novel about a city in the age of opioids and two sisters navigating their past. And in the tradition of many great literary thrillers, I promise you, you will not see the end coming.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "the dark side", "rather long", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9780525540670", "cover": "9780525540670", "goodreads": 43834909, "itunes": 9780525540670, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sMJykjeYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525540670", "isbn10": "0525540679", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 357, "book": "Long Bright River", "source": "WHYY", "text": "Liz Moore On 'Long Bright River'", "url": "https://whyy.org/episodes/liz-moore-on-long-bright-river/" } ] }, "358": { "id": 358, "title": "Real Life: A Novel", "author": "Brandon Taylor", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "Before Brandon Taylor’s excellent novel Real Life was published, I knew him mostly through his thriving Twitter feed, but his debut is a pleasure to sink into: a campus novel about a queer Black grad student from the South coming to terms with the whiteness of his environment. Wallace, the main character, has the kind of interactions with his peers that novels are made for – kinetic, uncomfortable, honest – and that are so well written I felt like I was watching the events, rather than just reading the prose. This book operates on many levels – and I assure you there is one for you here – whether you are in it for the portrait of academic life, the precision of the characters or Real Life’s lingering descriptions of what it is like to be Black in a place that insists, wrongly, that it is a bastion of progressive values.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9780525538882", "cover": "9780525538882", "goodreads": 46263943, "itunes": 9780525538882, "bookshop": 9780525538882, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Zk5d5E4SL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525538882", "isbn10": "0525538887", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 358, "book": "Real Life: A Novel", "source": "Iowa Public Radio", "text": "Brandon Taylor's Debut Novel 'Real Life'", "url": "https://www.iowapublicradio.org/show/talk-of-iowa/2020-03-04/brandon-taylors-debut-novel-real-life" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 358, "book": "Real Life", "source": "NPR", "text": "Science Is For Everyone. Until It's Not.", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/01/825409532/science-is-for-everyone-until-its-not" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 358, "book": "Real Life: A Novel", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "Brandon Taylor Reflects On 'Real Life,' Time In Madison", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/brandon-taylor-reflects-real-life-time-madison" } ] }, "359": { "id": 359, "title": "Such A Fun Age", "author": "Kiley Reid", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "It’s tempting to call Kiley Reid’s debut, Such A Fun Age, a novel about race and privilege – but that might not capture how smooth and funny a read it is. It’s the story of a young black babysitter, Emira, and her white employer, Alix. The two women are both sophisticated and well drawn – Alix becoming borderline obsessed with the younger, cooler woman who babysits her daughter, Emira dealing with the complex power dynamic between her and her employer. It’s funny and contemporary and will ring true for anyone living in the year of our Lord 2020. At a time when race and class are topics that have hopefully become a part of our lives in a more honest way, Such A Fun Age is a kind of contemporary novel of manners, and it’s also a reminder that those manners exact a higher toll on some Americans than others.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9780525541905", "cover": "9780525541905", "goodreads": 43923951, "itunes": 9780525541905, "bookshop": 9780525541905, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51hIl6tBb+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525541905", "isbn10": "052554190X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 359, "book": "Such A Fun Age", "source": "Iowa Public Radio", "text": "Author Kiley Reid Casts A Sharp Eye On Race And Privilege In Her Novel 'Such A Fun Age'", "url": "https://www.iowapublicradio.org/show/talk-of-iowa/2020-06-25/author-kiley-reid-casts-a-sharp-eye-on-race-and-privilege-in-her-novel-such-a-fun-age" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 359, "book": "Such A Fun Age", "source": "KAXE/KBXE", "text": " 'Such A Fun Age': Kiley Reid's Modern Story On Race And Privilege ", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/post/such-fun-age-kiley-reids-modern-story-race-and-privilege#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 359, "book": "Such A Fun Age", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Marginalia: Kiley Reid On Tackling Issues Without Judgement ", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/post/marginalia-kiley-reid-tackling-issues-without-judgement" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 359, "book": "Such a Fun Age", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Such A Fun Age' Is A Complex, Layered Page-Turner", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/12/28/791747689/such-a-fun-age-is-a-complex-layered-page-turner" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 359, "book": "Such a Fun Age", "source": "NPR", "text": "Books For Your Mind, Belly And Soul", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/28/800589806/books-for-your-mind-belly-and-soul" } ] }, "360": { "id": 360, "title": "The List Of Things That Will Not Change", "author": "Rebecca Stead", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "Reading The New York Times’ feature on what famous people read, By the Book is either instructive or irritating – and rarely in between. Often a list of doorstops that are just a touch too virtuous to be true, but occasionally you can mine for gems. Jia Tolentino recommended middle grade author Rebecca Stead last summer and truly, I cannot thank her enough. (Is this review a review of another’s review? Readers, unite!). Narrated by 12-year-old Bea, this book tells the story of life since her parents’ divorce. While Bea is funny and charming and insightful, she is, in that quirk that only the best writers can pull off, a real child, and her perspectives and emotions are authentic. But the adults in the book are real people too, and Stead also creates a family that feels familiar and warm without being sentimental or maudlin. (For ages 8 to 12)
", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9781101938096", "cover": "9781101938096", "goodreads": 44900082, "itunes": 9781101938096, "bookshop": 9781101938096, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418bxqiPaaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781101938096", "isbn10": "1101938099", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 360, "book": "The List of Things That Will Not Change", "source": "NPR", "text": "With Her Parents Divorcing, A Child Makes 'The List Of Things That Will Not Change'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/04/13/833623290/with-her-parents-divorcing-a-child-makes-the-list-of-things-that-will-not-change" } ] }, "361": { "id": 361, "title": "The Mirror & The Light", "author": "Hilary Mantel", "reviewers": [ "Barrie Hardymon" ], "text": "It is not an exaggeration to say that The Mirror and the Light, the last book in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII, is the book I have most looked forward to in my entire adult life. (Remember too, I am old enough to remember when the last Harry Potter book came out.) Yes, you must start with Wolf Hall – but I can tell you that if you make it here, you will be greatly rewarded. There are no possible spoilers for a book about a historical figure – we’ve known all along that Cromwell’s head will end up in a basket – but I also can’t possibly spoil for you, or even describe honestly, the pleasure of living inside his intricate brain, watching him rise to power through intellect and compromise and sometimes brute emotion. And know also, inhabitant of this particular universe, this is a book about pandemics and marriage and influence and sycophancy and men that wield power in increasingly wild and terrifying ways.
", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "for history lovers", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "rather long", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780805096606", "cover": "9780805096606", "goodreads": 45992717, "itunes": 9780805096606, "bookshop": 9780805096606, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dvIwF1TUS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780805096606", "isbn10": "0805096604", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 361, "book": "The Mirror and the Light", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Mirror & The Light' Is A Triumphant End To A Spellbinding Story", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/02/809727472/the-mirror-the-light-is-a-triumphant-end-to-a-spellbinding-story" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 361, "book": "The Mirror and the Light", "source": "NPR", "text": "Hilary Mantel Says Now-Complete Trilogy Was 'The Central Project Of My Life'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/08/813384354/the-mirror-and-the-light-author-says-trilogy-is-the-central-project-of-my-life" } ] }, "362": { "id": 362, "title": "Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning", "author": "Cathy Park Hong", "reviewers": [ "CJ Riculan" ], "text": "Cathy Park Hong defines minor feelings as “when American optimism is enforced upon you, which contradicts your own racialized reality, thereby creating a static of cognitive dissonance.” In this memoir, Hong examines her own conflicting ideas of being an individual versus the idea of the model minority myth that American society forced on to Asian Americans. She explores the trauma she felt growing up in America after immigrating to the U.S. from South Korea; her complex relationship with the English language; and her identity as a mother, a writer, an artist, a friend and a citizen in the U.S.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781984820365", "cover": "9781984820365", "goodreads": 52845775, "itunes": 9781984820365, "bookshop": 9781984820365, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FfJwOiDOL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984820365", "isbn10": "1984820362", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 362, "book": "Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Minor Feelings,' Asian American Racial Trauma Is Laid Bare", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/27/802298200/in-minor-feelings-asian-american-racial-trauma-is-laid-bare" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 362, "book": "Minor Feelings", "source": "KQED", "text": "Poet Cathy Park Hong On 'Minor Feelings' And Anti-Asian Racism In The Age Of COVID", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101878885/poet-cathy-park-hong-on-minor-feelings-and-anti-asian-racism-in-the-age-of-covid" } ] }, "363": { "id": 363, "title": "Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America", "author": "Nora Shalaway Carpenter", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "When I say “rural life,” what springs to mind? Do you smile, thinking fondly of your hometown? Are you a lifelong city dweller, soaking in media and pop culture stereotypes? Or do you navigate the ‘burbs in between? In any case, Rural Voices, edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter, is a page-turning YA anthology that illuminates the diversity of rural communities – their conflicts, nuances and blessings. The young protagonists span geography, socio-economic class and sexual orientation as well as ethnic and Indigenous identities, resulting in a layered, compelling collection that helps close the distances between us all.
", "tags": [ "young adult", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "9781536212105", "cover": "9781536212105", "goodreads": 46196016, "itunes": 9781536212105, "bookshop": 9781536212105, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fkUDgzBGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781536212105", "isbn10": "1536212105", "links": [] }, "364": { "id": 364, "title": "The Things They Fancied", "author": "Molly Young", "reviewers": [ "Emma Bowman" ], "text": "The only thing that might’ve been more fun than breezing through this NSFW zine is researching it. In the early days of the pandemic, Molly Young spent two voyeuristic weeks immersed in the ridiculous obsessions of the rich. Mini chapters include countryside manors, French teeth, pineapples, pubic mist, pet squirrels, luxury fragrance. With the right social marketing, she suggests, we’ll fall for anything. Young diagnoses us as the gluttons we are: “People spend money on the dumbest s*** … rich people just spend a lot more of it.” While I – like many – was stuck inside during the bleakest of summers, Young’s wry romp into how the other half lives, today and throughout history, was a fizzy tonic. I emerged grateful for modern amenities like fresh produce, dentistry, bleach and toilets. Recommended if you fancy: Airbnb cottage getaways, JSTOR rabbitholes, Marie Antoinette, The Favourite, sneering at the 1%.
", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "identity & culture", "funny stuff", "rather short" ], "isbn": "", "cover": "2020364X", "year": 2020, "links": [] }, "365": { "id": 365, "title": "The Lying Life Of Adults", "author": "Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein", "reviewers": [ "Hannah Bloch" ], "text": "Is there any contemporary international novelist better than Elena Ferrante at plumbing the depths of adolescent girls’ souls? I loved Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet and found The Lying Life of Adults a satisfying return to form. Ferrante tells the story of Giovanna, a young teenager who feels “like a cake made with the wrong ingredients.” Disillusioned with her all-too-human parents, Giovanna takes her first steps toward independence and seeks understanding, inspiration and love – from her father’s estranged sister, lonely and profane, living in a rough Naples neighborhood, and later from a friend’s fiancé. The lies that Giovanna tells herself, her parents and her friends are how she creates a private life and her own story – she’s determined to become an adult “as no one ever had before.”
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "9781609455910", "cover": "9781609455910", "goodreads": 48616787, "itunes": 9781609455910, "bookshop": 9781609455910, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781609455910", "isbn10": "1609455916", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 365, "book": "The Lying Life of Adults", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sex Is The Most Powerful Force In This 'Lying Life'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/02/908438357/sex-is-the-most-powerful-force-in-this-lying-life" } ] }, "366": { "id": 366, "title": "The Pull Of The Stars: A Novel", "author": "Emma Donoghue", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Block" ], "text": "A pandemic so virulent the world has become “a machine grinding to a halt.” Shops shuttered, coffins stacked and the public admonished to “refrain from shaking hands, laughing, or chatting closely together.” This is Dublin, 1918, at the height of the so-called Spanish Flu pandemic in Emma Donoghue’s eerily timely novel (written before COVID-19). Donoghue, author of the bestselling Room, sets her new book almost entirely in a tiny hospital supply room that’s been converted into a maternity ward for women suffering from the flu. These women, Donoghue writes, have been “worn down to the bone” by poverty and the deadly trauma of far too many pregnancies: “She doesn’t love him unless she gives him twelve,” the ghastly saying goes. At the novel’s center is narrator Julia Power, a nurse-midwife struggling valiantly to save her patients and their babies, with unexpected volunteer Bridie Sweeney at her side. It’s Sweeney who opens Power’s eyes – and ours – to Ireland’s brutal treatment of unwed mothers and their children. A warning: Donoghue’s graphic descriptions of early 20th century childbirth are not for the faint of heart.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780316499019", "cover": "9780316499019", "goodreads": 52722079, "itunes": 9780316499019, "bookshop": 9780316499019, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51t+A7IITjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316499019", "isbn10": "0316499013", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 366, "book": "The Pull of the Stars: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "1918 Flu Inspired Donoghue's 'Pull Of The Stars' — A Disquieting Pandemic Novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/20/892279658/1918-flu-inspired-donoghues-pull-of-the-stars-a-disquieting-pandemic-novel" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 366, "book": "The Pull Of The Stars: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "1918 Flu Inspired Donoghue's 'Pull Of The Stars' — A Disquieting Pandemic Novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/20/892279658/1918-flu-inspired-donoghues-pull-of-the-stars-a-disquieting-pandemic-novell" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 366, "book": "Pull Of The Stars", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Emma Donoghue On 'The Pull Of The Stars'", "url": "https://wamcpodcasts.org/podcast/donoghue-the-pull-of-the-stars/" } ] }, "367": { "id": 367, "title": "Deacon King Kong: A Novel", "author": "James McBride", "reviewers": [ "Michel Martin" ], "text": "Who might like this? Brooklynites, music lovers, baseball fans, housing project dwellers (or expats), students of urban decay, people in need of a laugh – have I left anybody out? This insane jazzy riff from musician/author/National Book Award winner James McBride brings all those folks in and then some. Set in a (fictional) Brooklyn housing project in 1969, it follows the doings of the hard-drinking Sportcoat and his one-time baseball prospect-turned-heroin dealer Deems Clemens. McBride opens the book with Sportcoat shooting Clemens’ ear off – for reasons that only become more or less clear in its final pages (no fair peeking ahead!) after twists and turns that bring in mobsters, white beat cops, church folks – you get the idea. Journalists are often frustrated and frustrating in the way the work flattens people out – especially marginalized people. McBride fills people back up and out again and makes them whole.
", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "fiction", "funny stuff", "seriously great writing", "for music lovers" ], "isbn": "9780735216723", "cover": "9780735216723", "goodreads": 51045613, "itunes": 9780735216723, "bookshop": 9780735216723, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51G0aCkGQcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780735216723", "isbn10": "073521672X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 367, "book": "Deacon King Kong: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Fast, Complex And Funny, 'Deacon King Kong' Is A Love Letter To New York City", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/07/809759063/fast-complex-and-funny-deacon-king-kong-is-a-love-letter-to-new-york-city" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 367, "book": "Deacon King Kong: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "James McBride's Advice For New Writers: 'A Simple Story Is The Best Story'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/02/29/810052791/james-mcbrides-advice-for-new-writers-a-simple-story-is-the-best-story" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 367, "book": "Deacon King Kong: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "James McBride On Race, Religion And Why He's Hopeful", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/06/10/874480358/james-mcbride-on-race-religion-and-why-hes-hopeful" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 367, "book": "Deacon King Kong: A Novel", "source": "WDET", "text": " 'Deacon King Kong' Author James McBride On The Music That Changed His Life", "url": "https://wdet.org/posts/2020/06/18/89737-deacon-king-kong-author-james-mcbride-on-the-music-that-changed-his-life/" } ] }, "368": { "id": 368, "title": "The Riches Of This Land", "author": "Jim Tankersley", "reviewers": [ "Michel Martin" ], "text": "Why are so many people, especially middle-class people, so angry? Why do so many people feel they can’t get ahead no matter what they do? Jim Tankersley has answers to these simple but powerful questions. Spoiler alert: No, it’s not immigrants, and, no, the aggrieved are not wrong to feel they’re getting screwed. Tankersley is a veteran New York Times reporter, but he didn’t produce a conventional economics tome. His reporting has revealed an alternate narrative where fighting discrimination and unchaining the doors of opportunity to women, so-called minorities and immigrants is actually what produced the great post-WWII boom, while two big economic shocks eroded it – along with economic policies that really do favor the rich and richer. Most important, he charts a path to rebuilding a solid middle class. Sound like a dream? He says the alternative is a nightmare.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "for history lovers", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "9781541767836", "cover": "9781541767836", "goodreads": 41825137, "itunes": 9781541767836, "bookshop": 9781541767836, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41VPDlqGmiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781541767836", "isbn10": "1541767837", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 368, "book": "The Riches of This Land: The Untold, True Story of America's Middle Class", "source": "NPR", "text": "Making The Middle Class Great Again", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/08/18/903660865/making-the-middle-class-great-again" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 368, "book": "Riches Of This land", "source": "WVIK", "text": "Speaking With Jim Tankersley", "url": "https://www.wvik.org/post/speaking-jim-tankersley-0#stream/0" } ] }, "369": { "id": 369, "title": "When The Light Of The World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology Of Native Nations Poetry", "author": "Joy Harjo (editor) with LeAnne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster and contributing editors", "reviewers": [ "Michel Martin" ], "text": "Maybe you love poetry; maybe you don’t. Maybe you want to know more about the experiences of Native peoples of North America, or maybe you haven’t given their stories or struggles much thought. It’s a testament to the breadth and beauty of this collection, edited by a team led by poet laureate Joy Harjo, that it doesn’t really matter. Taken together, the poems – from representatives of more than 90 Native nations, dating from the 17th century to of-the-moment spoken-word pieces – are accessible and powerful and refuse to be ignored.
", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "short stories, essays & poetry", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9780393356809", "cover": "9780393356809", "goodreads": 52247906, "itunes": 9780393356809, "bookshop": 9780393356809, "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780393356809", "isbn10": "0393356809", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 369, "book": "When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry", "source": "NPR", "text": "Anthology Of Native Nations Poetry Is A 'Doorway,' Says Editor Joy Harjo", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/12/911306413/anthology-of-native-nations-poetry-is-a-doorway-says-editor-joy-harjo" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 369, "book": "When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry", "source": "KNPR", "text": "An Echo of Something Not Finished': Poet Laureate On These Turbulent Times", "url": "https://knpr.org/knpr/2020-09/echo-something-not-finished-poet-laureate-these-turbulent-times" } ] }, "370": { "id": 370, "title": "A Promised Land", "author": "Barack Obama", "reviewers": [ "Ron Elving" ], "text": "Barack Obama began his literary career with Dreams From My Father, recalling the struggles of his youth while still in his early 30s. Now in A Promised Land, approaching 60, he recalls how his most audacious dreams came true in 2008 and details his first 30 months as U.S. president – from the Great Recession through Obamacare to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Obama continues the story he began telling before the world was listening. Whatever one’s deepest feelings about this man, they are likely to be brought to the surface by this book: We hear his voice in every sentence.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "for history lovers", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9781524763169", "cover": "9781524763169", "goodreads": 55359022, "itunes": 9781524763169, "bookshop": 9781524763169, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41L5qgUW2fL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781524763169", "isbn10": "15247631611", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 370, "book": "A Promised Land", "source": "NPR", "text": "Democracy Is 'Strained' But Not 'Broken,' Former President Obama Tells 'Fresh Air'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/19/936191600/democracy-is-strained-but-not-broken-former-president-obama-tells-fresh-air" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 370, "book": "A Promised Land", "source": "NPR", "text": "Former President Obama Tells His Story His Way — And Makes His Case For History", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/12/933894064/former-president-obama-tells-his-story-his-way-and-makes-his-case-for-history" } ] }, "371": { "id": 371, "title": "In Bibi's Kitchen: The Recipes And Stories Of Grandmothers From The Eight African Countries That Touch The Indian Ocean", "author": "Hawa Hassan with Julia Turshen", "reviewers": [ "Rose Friedman" ], "text": "If you’ve spent any time eating in places that have large communities of African immigrants (for me it was Minneapolis and then Washington, D.C.), you might find yourself perplexed at the dearth of African cookbooks available to American audiences. A whole continent’s worth of delicious foods deserves many shelves of literature and instruction! Alas, they are few and far between, a fact that Hawa Hassan and Julia Turshen noticed and set out to remedy. Here, they collect stories and recipes from grandmothers representing eight countries that touch the Indian Ocean: Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar and the Comoros. From a simple honey and ginger spritz, to tamarind-braised lamb, to grilled lobster tails with vanilla sauce, this book is full of delights.
", "tags": [ "family matters", "cookbooks & food", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "9781984856739", "cover": "9781984856739", "goodreads": 50482975, "itunes": 9781984856739, "bookshop": 9781984856739, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eTjPw6b2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781984856739", "isbn10": "1984856731", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 371, "book": "In Bibi's Kitchen", "source": "KCRW", "text": " 'In Bibi's Kitchen’: Touring Cuisines Of 8 East African Countries", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/economy-coronavirus-election-2020-east-african-food/in-bibis-kitchen" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 371, "book": "In Bibi's Kitchen", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Hawa Hassan On 'In Bibi's Kitchen'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/bibis-kitchen/" } ] }, "372": { "id": 372, "title": "Notes On A Silencing: A Memoir", "author": "Lacy Crawford", "reviewers": [ "Scott Detrow" ], "text": "Notes on a Silencing is a difficult, often enraging memoir to read. It’s the kind of book that left me visibly angry every time I put it down. But it’s an important and honest look at sexual assault and the institutional cover-ups that often immediately snap into place to protect not only perpetrators, but the organizations in and around where the assaults take place. In this memoir, Lacy Crawford recounts her time as a high school student at one of America’s most prestigious boarding schools. Re-creating moments in dorm hallways, cafeterias and ice rinks with detailed, engaging prose, she documents life on campus both before and after she was assaulted. She describes how students, teachers, administrators and even doctors all singled out and attacked her, and protected the two boys who assaulted her. When I interviewed Crawford, she said, “I want all of the girls and women who have ever been made to carry the blame for the aggression of men, the aggression of others – I wanted them to see that they were intended to carry that blame and that it was never theirs.” This book did just that, and did it with vivid and unforgettable writing.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "9780316491556", "cover": "9780316491556", "goodreads": 48717403, "itunes": 9780316491556, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wngsuwSaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316491556", "isbn10": "0316491551", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 372, "book": "Notes on a Silencing: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Lacy Crawford Looks Back At Her Sexual Assault In New Memoir", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/07/05/887386883/author-lacy-crawford-looks-back-at-her-sexual-assault-in-new-memoir" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 372, "book": "Notes on a Silencing", "source": "WHYY", "text": "Lacy Crawford On 'Notes On A Silencing'", "url": "https://whyy.org/episodes/notes-on-a-silencing/" } ] }, "373": { "id": 373, "title": "Rodham: A Novel", "author": "Curtis Sittenfeld", "reviewers": [ "Scott Detrow" ], "text": "Alternate histories, to put it mildly, have had a lot of mental appeal of late. But the genre can be difficult to pull off, and even more difficult to build an engaging plot around once you arrive at the initial “WHAT IF…” premise. With Rodham, a novel based around the premise that Hillary Clinton never becomes Hillary Clinton, and instead dumps Bill after law school and doesn’t marry him and move to Arkansas, Curtis Sittenfeld pulls it off. Her novel is an engaging read that at times perfectly parallels recent political history, and at other times veers off in a wild and surprising direction. (Her most interesting plot points do both at once.) I tore through this novel in a matter of days. In addition to everything else, it made me rethink some of my assumptions about how much that happened in 2016 and since had to do with the individual people on the political stage, and how much was instead tied to sentiments that are baked into American public opinion.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "the states we’re in", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "9780399590917", "cover": "9780399590917", "goodreads": 50253429, "itunes": 9780399590917, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51hl2tciHnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780399590917", "isbn10": "0399590919", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 373, "book": "Rodham: A Novel", "source": "Connecticut Public Radio", "text": "Imagining Hillary's Clinton Life If She Never Married Bill", "url": "https://www.wnpr.org/post/imagining-hillarys-clinton-life-if-she-never-married-bill" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 373, "book": "Rodham: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Rodham' Asks: Who Is Hillary Without Bill?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/18/857004158/rodham-asks-who-is-hillary-without-bill" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 373, "book": "Rodham: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Hillary Without Bill? 'Rodham' Imagines What Could Have Been", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/05/17/856884577/hillary-without-bill-rodham-imagines-what-could-have-been" } ] }, "374": { "id": 374, "title": "Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes From A Disappearing Bayou", "author": "Melissa M. Martin", "reviewers": [ "Wynne Davis" ], "text": "Chef Melissa Martin is on a mission to save the Cajun food she grew up with in Southern Louisiana. Mosquito Supper Club, which shares a name with Martin’s New Orleans restaurant, is a celebration of Cajun people and their recipes. Between recipes for shrimp boulettes and smothered okra, you’ll find stunning photos and stories of the fishers and farmers, who continue to work and adapt as coastal erosion and rising water levels threaten the region. Martin will give you a new appreciation for fresh seafood – and show you how to transform all those dried beans into countless comforting meals.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781579658472", "cover": "9781579658472", "goodreads": 53036539, "itunes": 9781579658472, "bookshop": 9781579658472, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zD5H1KJ1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781579658472", "isbn10": "1579658474", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 374, "book": "Mosquito Supper Club", "source": "Wisconsin Public Radio", "text": "Food Friday: Cajun Cooking From The Mosquito Supper Club", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/food-friday-cajun-cooking-mosquito-supper-club" } ] }, "375": { "id": 375, "title": "New World Sourdough: Artisan Techniques For Creative Homemade Fermented Breads", "author": "Bryan Ford", "reviewers": [ "Wynne Davis" ], "text": "Sourdough is having a moment, but breaking into breadmaking can be daunting; there is an abundance of information out there and it can be hard to know what to focus on first. That’s not the case with Bryan Ford’s New World Sourdough. Whether you’re trying to make a starter from scratch or looking for recipes to further your craft, Ford gives you the basics before sending you down a path to gluten wonderland. Recipes range from toasty seeded boules, to focaccias, to bananas foster loaves – the book offers room for creativity and invites you to reimagine what sourdough is and what it can be.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "9781631598708", "cover": "9781631598708", "goodreads": 52606034, "itunes": 9781631598708, "bookshop": 9781631598708, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eqApC6mvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781631598708", "isbn10": "1631598708", "links": [] }, "376": { "id": 376, "title": "One Night Two Souls Went Walking", "author": "Ellen Cooney", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Ellen Cooney’s shimmering, remarkable novel follows an unnamed chaplain as she works the night shift at a hospital. The woman is haunted by her patients, as well as by what appears to be the ghost of a therapy dog that used to be a fixture at the medical center. This is a quiet book by design; it meanders gently, eschewing big plot twists or showy dialogue. Thanks to Cooney’s gorgeous writing and generous compassion, it’s also a literary triumph.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "9781566895972", "cover": "9781566895972", "goodreads": 50937476, "itunes": 9781566895972, "bookshop": 9781566895972, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41b8F0BQZnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781566895972", "isbn10": "1566895979", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 376, "book": "One Night Two Souls Went Walking", "source": "NPR", "text": "Light Punctures The Darkness In 'One Night Two Souls Went Walking'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/11/14/934538956/light-punctures-the-darkness-in-one-night-two-souls-went-walking" } ] }, "377": { "id": 377, "title": "Creatures: A Novel", "author": "Crissy Van Meter", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Crissy Van Meter’s debut novel follows Evie, a California woman preparing for her wedding to a fisherman (who’s gone missing) while trying to come to terms with her unusual childhood: Abandoned by her mother, she was raised by her pot-dealing father. She’s a realistic, memorable character, and Creatures, filled with Van Meter’s understated but powerful writing, is a beautiful look at how we navigate the pain and heartbreak that come with being human.
", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "9781643750835", "cover": "9781643750835", "goodreads": 49150947, "itunes": 9781643750835, "bookshop": 9781643750835, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/618ay46VK2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781643750835", "isbn10": "1643750836", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 377, "book": "Creatures: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Creatures' Examines The Heartbreak Of Being Human", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/09/794681353/creatures-examines-the-heartbreak-of-being-human" } ] }, "378": { "id": 378, "title": "Processed Cheese: A Novel", "author": "Stephen Wright", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "Stephen Wright might not be a household name, but he should be. He’s an unpredictable author with an unwavering commitment to the surreal, and his newest book is more proof of his bizarre genius. Processed Cheese follows a couple who come across a huge bag of money and go on a long spending spree. Unfortunately for them, the rightful owner wants the cash back. It’s a novel as darkly funny as it is unsettling, and one of the sharpest critiques of American consumerism to come along in years.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "funny stuff", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780316043373", "cover": "9780316043373", "goodreads": 45730825, "itunes": 9780316043373, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XLbkPb8jL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780316043373", "isbn10": "03160433711", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 378, "book": "Processed Cheese", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Processed Cheese' Is Hard To Love — But Easy To Admire", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/26/799296323/processed-cheese-is-hard-to-love-but-easy-to-admire" } ] }, "379": { "id": 379, "title": "Agency", "author": "William Gibson", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "William Gibson builds bombs – beautiful clockwork architectures of plot and pressure disguised as science fiction novels. In Agency, he introduces us to Verity Jane, just coming off her 15 minutes of fame as the (now ex-) girlfriend of a venture capitalist billionaire, who finds a gig beta-testing a new artificially intelligent digital assistant named Eunice. At the same time, she is noticed by a cast of near-future Russians and Londoners who vie for control over various historical “stubs,” of which our current tomorrow is one. Agency oscillates between future London and Verity Jane’s present, ratcheting up the tension. Verity and Eunice are the rabbit. The hounds are contract assassins, military contractors, tech-bros in over their heads. And Gibson just keeps winding the wire around his explosive core, looping in gig-economy surveillance applications, a barista, a time-traveling robot and a housewarming/launch party complete with helicopter assault until Agency’s timer finally ticks down to zero.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781101986936", "cover": "9781101986936", "goodreads": 35019996, "itunes": 9781101986936, "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417DEhkurSL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781101986936", "isbn10": "110198693X", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 379, "book": "Agency", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Agency,' William Gibson Builds A Bomb That Doesn't Boom (And That's OK)", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/21/797311174/in-agency-william-gibson-builds-a-bomb-that-doesnt-boom-and-thats-okay" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 379, "book": "Agency", "source": "NPR", "text": "William Gibson Says Today's Internet Is Nothing Like What He Envisioned", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/03/19/810570879/william-gibson-says-todays-internet-is-nothing-like-what-he-envisioned" } ] }, "380": { "id": 380, "title": "Riot Baby", "author": "Tochi Onyebuchi", "reviewers": [ "Jason Sheehan" ], "text": "Riot Baby is a lot of things: A dystopian nightmare that looks startlingly similar to real life, a street-side shot of magical realism, a brilliant work of political speculative fiction that uses rocketing language and the supernatural as means to interrogate American racism and the carceral state, and a story of black people with superpowers. Kevin is the “riot baby” of the title – born in Los Angeles in 1992, just as the cops who beat Rodney King are being let off. The story follows him and his sister Ella (touched with powers that allow her to see into multiple futures) through schools and streets and prison and beyond; through decades of worsening police violence and strict order that, from all the wrong angles, looks like peace. It is sharp, cruel, occasionally brutal, surprisingly hopeful, and Ella’s visions – her “Thing,” her power – offers a vision of an end to oppression that feels like true revolution.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9781250214751", "cover": "9781250214751", "goodreads": 44804077, "itunes": 9781250214751, "bookshop": 9781250214751, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51MJS3stfXL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781250214751", "isbn10": "12502147511", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 380, "book": "Riot Baby", "source": "New England Public Media", "text": "In 'Riot Baby,' Onyebuchi's Character Takes On Police Brutality And Structural Racism ", "url": "https://www.nepm.org/post/riot-baby-onyebuchis-character-takes-police-brutality-and-structural-racism#stream/0" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 380, "book": "Riot Baby", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'This Isn't New': Questions For Tochi Onyebuchi, Author Of 'Riot Baby'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/01/26/798237707/this-isnt-new-questions-for-tochi-onyebuchi-author-of-riot-baby" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 380, "book": "Riot Baby", "source": "WBUR", "text": "How X-Men And Black Lives Matter Shaped Tochi Onyebuchi’s ‘Riot Baby’", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/artery/2020/01/23/race-latest-book-onyebuchi-riot-baby" } ] }, "381": { "id": 381, "title": "Conditional Citizens: On Belonging In America", "author": "Laila Lalami", "reviewers": [ "Joanna Kakissis" ], "text": "This is the first nonfiction book by Laila Lalami, a Moroccan-born novelist who writes searingly about outsiders. It comes at a fraught time for immigrants in America. Lalami movingly chronicles her own journey from optimistic, naturalized American to post-Sept. 11 “conditional citizen” repeatedly scrutinized as an immigrant, an Arab, a Muslim. In one scene, she describes a “white woman in a blue pantsuit” at one of her book readings pressing her on ISIS, as if “I was a specimen, culled from a group of people these readers found mysterious and perhaps dangerous.” Conditional citizens, Lalami writes, are those who cannot dissent without their patriotism being questioned, who cannot move freely, who are jailed without cause. Though the U.S. prides itself on being a country of immigrants, it has often treated new Americans with exclusion and mistrust.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "rather short", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "9781524747169", "cover": "9781524747169", "goodreads": 52366322, "itunes": 9781524747169, "bookshop": 9781524747169, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nkOHuwXZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781524747169", "isbn10": "1524747165", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 381, "book": "Conditional Citizens", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Conditional Citizens' Examines What It Means To Be An American", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/22/915555307/conditional-citizens-examines-what-it-means-to-be-an-american" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 381, "book": "Conditional Citizens", "source": "NPR", "text": "Americans Who Can't Enjoy Full Rights Deemed 'Conditional Citizens' In New Book", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/23/915613933/americans-who-cant-enjoy-full-rights-deemed-conditional-citizens-in-new-book" } ] }, "382": { "id": 382, "title": "The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons From World War To Cold War", "author": "David Nasaw", "reviewers": [ "Joanna Kakissis" ], "text": "After WWII, more than a million Eastern Europeans — concentration camp survivors, forced laborers and even Nazi collaborators — ended up in American and British-run refugee camps in post-fascist Germany. They stayed for as many as five years, as the former Allied powers turned their backs on the most vulnerable. The U.S. let in thousands of war criminals but often refused Jewish refugees due to blatant anti-Semitism. David Nasaw’s engrossing, infuriating and meticulously researched book shows the heartlessness with which the West dealt with refugees, a dehumanizing pattern that continues today in the U.S. and the EU. Nasaw also acknowledges, though incompletely, that some of those refugees went on to force out hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, creating another refugee crisis.
", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "tales from around the world", "for history lovers", "eye-opening reads", "rather long" ], "isbn": "9781594206733", "cover": "9781594206733", "goodreads": 52593655, "itunes": 9781594206733, "bookshop": 9781594206733, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41tpCmCVZYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9781594206733", "isbn10": "1594206732", "links": [ { "year": 2020, "id": 382, "book": "The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Last Million' Sheds Light On Middle East History, Newer Refugee Policy Failures", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/16/913004650/the-last-million-sheds-light-on-middle-east-history-newer-refugee-policy-failure" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 382, "book": "The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Traces What Happened To WWII's 'Last Million' Displaced People", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2020/09/10/911111217/author-traces-what-happened-to-wwiis-last-million-displaced-people" }, { "year": 2020, "id": 382, "book": "The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War", "source": "Public Radio Tulsa", "text": "David Nasaw On 'The Last Million'", "url": "https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/post/last-million-europes-displaced-persons-world-war-cold-war#stream/0" } ] }, "383": { "id": 383, "title": "Perestroika In Paris: A Novel", "author": "Jane Smiley", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "Horses have trotted through the pages of plenty of Jane Smiley’s novels, but this is the first time one has actually talked. Perestroika in Paris, a delightfully whimsical tale about creatures living in Paris’ Champs de Mars, is a balm for harsh times. Drawn by curiosity, Smiley’s titular racehorse wanders from her stall and connects with an elegant German shorthaired pointer, a pontificating raven, a squabbling pair of mallards and a rat pining for a mate. They overcome their prejudices to band together to help each other and, eventually, a lonely, orphaned 8-year-old boy. This warmhearted fable, with plenty of pathos but no villains, extols the advantages of domesticity, the joys of freedom and exploration, and the power of friendship.
", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "9780525520351", "cover": "9780525520351", "goodreads": "", "itunes": 9780525520351, "bookshop": 9780525520351, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41N8FzcciKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2020, "isbn13": "9780525520351", "isbn10": "052552035X", "links": [] } }