{ "1": { "id": 1, "edition": "june", "title": "The School for Good Mothers: A Novel", "author": "Jessamine Chan", "reviewers": [ "Anna Clarkson" ], "text": "

Should the government have a say in what makes someone a good mother? Jessamine Chan’s debut novel is a disturbing and thought-provoking look at government involvement in child welfare. The main character, Frida, is an overwhelmed single mom. After leaving her toddler home alone, Frida is sent to a dystopian facility designed to rehabilitate mothers. The program wears the women down so much that it’s nearly impossible for them to meet the government’s standard of near-perfection to regain custody of their children. It’s neither light nor cheery, but The School for Good Mothers stays with you long after the final page.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1982156120", "cover": "1982156120", "goodreads": 60051683, "itunes": 9781982156121, "bookshop": 9781982156121, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41I2ASlnjVL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982156121", "isbn10": "1982156120", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 1, "book": "The School for Good Mothers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "For Mother's Day, 10 books that celebrate every part of motherhood", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/06/1096016998/mothers-day-books-list-about-motherhood" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 1, "book": "The School for Good Mothers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "What's making us happy: 'The School for Good Mothers'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2021/12/31/1068507538/what-to-watch-read-and-listen-to-this-weekend" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 1, "book": "The School for Good Mothers: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": " 'The School for Good Mothers' offers a chilling look at the perils of 'perfect' parenting", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2022-01-31/the-school-for-good-mothers-offers-a-chilling-look-at-the-perils-of-perfect-parenting" } ] }, "2": { "id": 2, "edition": "june", "title": "Young Mungo", "author": "Douglas Stuart", "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "text": "

Douglas Stuart’s debut novel, Shuggie Bain, won a raft of awards, including the 2020 Booker Prize. I liked his second novel, Young Mungo, even more than its older sibling. The books do feel like brothers, with similar settings (Glasgow in the late 20th century) and characters (an alcoholic mother, a gay son). Young Mungo centers on a forbidden romance between two young men – one Catholic, one Protestant – and is full of pain and beauty. But as Stuart told me, “If ever I write about violence or heartbreak or sadness, I’m really only doing that to make the tenderness and the love shine more.”

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0802159559", "cover": "0802159559", "goodreads": 58891551, "itunes": 9780802159557, "bookshop": 9780802159557, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LkUxwFGiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780802159557", "isbn10": "0802159559", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 2, "book": "Young Mungo", "source": "NPR", "text": "Brace yourself for 'Young Mungo,' a nuanced heartbreaker of a novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1089215299/book-review-young-mungo-douglas-stuart" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 2, "book": "Young Mungo", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Young Mungo' tells the love story of 2 boys — one Protestant, the other Catholic", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/05/1091109403/young-mungo-tells-the-love-story-of-2-boys-one-protestant-the-other-catholic" } ] }, "3": { "id": 3, "edition": "june", "title": "The Paris Apartment: A Novel", "author": "Lucy Foley", "reviewers": [ "Arielle Retting" ], "text": "

Lucy Foley is back with her latest whodunit, this time set in an eerie Parisian apartment complex. Running from her own problems, Jess decides to visit Ben, her journalist brother. But when she gets to Paris, Ben is nowhere to be found. None of his neighbors know where he is, but they all seem to know him – maybe a little too well. As she investigates, Jess learns more about her brother, his work and those peculiar neighbors. With characters suspicious and unlikable in their own way and a fun twist, you’re in for a dark and moody escape.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063003058", "cover": "0063003058", "goodreads": 58468990, "itunes": 9780063003057, "bookshop": 9780063003057, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51M9I60ipPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063003057", "isbn10": "0063003058", "links": [] }, "4": { "id": 4, "edition": "june", "title": "Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky", "author": "Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, illustrated by Daniel Minter", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

A picture book that delves deep into the color blue is one thing, but author Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond and illustrator Daniel Minter are equally determined to also decenter whiteness in this visually stunning history. With sumptuous art that never stops surprising, this book follows the human history of our attempts, failures and successes at capturing the color blue and making it our own. Extra points for the book’s particularly elegant connections between indigo, the slavery trade and “The Blues” as they relate to Black history. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "kids’ books" ], "isbn": "1984894366", "cover": "1984894366", "goodreads": 58496722, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781984894366, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+4ppNCgKS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781984894366", "isbn10": "1984894366", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 4, "book": "Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky", "source": "NPR", "text": "A kids' book travels through history to ask: Where does 'Blue' come from?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/12/1086069085/a-kids-book-travels-through-history-to-ask-where-does-blue-come-from" } ] }, "5": { "id": 5, "edition": "june", "title": "Aviva vs. the Dybbuk", "author": "Mari Lowe", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

A mystery. An unreliable narrator. A supernatural creature. Such elements are woven skillfully together in this story of a Jewish girl growing up in a home above a mikvah (a religious pool) that is haunted by a dybbuk, or mischievous spirit. As we learn more about Aviva’s story, and why she and her mother feel ostracized from their community, it becomes clear that though this tale is regularly punctuated with action and fun, at its core is a serious consideration of the ways that familial grief can gnaw on a person’s psyche. Daring in its creativity. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1646141253", "cover": "1646141253", "goodreads": 58739419, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781646141258, "image": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/915pQRqP6RL.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781646141258", "isbn10": "1646141253", "links": [] }, "6": { "id": 6, "edition": "june", "title": "Different Kinds of Fruit", "author": "Kyle Lukoff", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Annabelle fears her uptight dad is homophobic when he’s mean and dismissive to her nonbinary friend Bailey. As such, she’s utterly unprepared for him to reveal that not only is he trans, he gave birth to her years ago. Newbery Honor winner Kyle Lukoff takes a deft hand to navigating the complexity of different generations of LGBTQIA+ activists and how their own prejudices can affect their children. While other books for kids that address queer topics are covering the basics, it’s clear that Lukoff is teaching a master class. (For ages 10 and up)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "fiction", "family matters", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0593111184", "cover": "0593111184", "goodreads": 58925325, "itunes": 9780593111185, "bookshop": 9780593111185, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51LsKRKfwmL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593111185", "isbn10": "0593111184", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 6, "book": "Different Kinds of Fruit", "source": "NPR", "text": "These kids' authors are telling the stories of trans youth. Book bans won't stop them", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/31/1089726765/these-kids-authors-are-telling-the-stories-of-trans-youth-book-bans-wont-stop-th" } ] }, "7": { "id": 7, "edition": "june", "title": "It’s the End of the World and I’m in My Bathing Suit", "author": "Justin A. Reynolds", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

A warning to the wise: When the apocalypse comes, please put on a pair of pants. Eddie’s perfect plan to do his laundry only once during the entire summer backfires magnificently when his mom bans him from Beach Bash until he finishes a massive pile. With only a swimsuit to wear, Eddie and other left-behind friends discover they might be the only kids who’ve survived a possible apocalypse. Hilarity is cranked up to high, and Justin Reynolds takes some magnificent big swings with this often surreal and consistently joke-dense paean to kids, summer and the end times. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "1338740229", "cover": "1338740229", "goodreads": 57468719, "itunes": 9781338740226, "bookshop": 9781338740226, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516qr+hS5-L.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781338740226", "isbn10": "1338740229", "links": [] }, "8": { "id": 8, "edition": "june", "title": "Knight Owl", "author": "Christopher Denise", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

It’s dangerous to label any picture book a “contemporary classic,” but Knight Owl tempts you to try. Essentially, this book is what you get if you combine tiny armored birds with the great sweeping murals of N.C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish. Owl’s dream of becoming a real knight is given a significant leg up when a number of armored warriors go missing, thanks to a local dragon. Turns out, Owl may be a pip of a squeak but he has particular skills that will aid in taming this hungry foe. Sweet and epic by turns. (For ages 2 to 5)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "031631062X", "cover": "031631062X", "goodreads": 57007688, "itunes": 9780316310628, "bookshop": 9780316310628, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WcZ3itJ4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316310628", "isbn10": "031631062X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 8, "book": "Knight Owl", "source": "WCMU", "text": "The Children's Bookshelf: 'Knight Owl'", "url": "https://radio.wcmu.org/show/the-childrens-bookshelf/2022-03-14/the-childrens-bookshelf-knight-owl-march-14-2022" } ] }, "9": { "id": 9, "edition": "june", "title": "Listen to the Language of the Trees: A Story of How Forests Communicate Underground", "author": "Tera Kelley, illustrated by Marie Hermansson", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

If you know about the “Wood Wide Web,” then you know that trees communicate through the fungi that connect their roots. Still, did you know about how they support one another with extra food? How they can tell their offspring apart from other trees? How they can warn other trees when insects attack? Consider this the preeminent book for kids on the topic, complemented with illustrations both beautiful and clear-cut, making a tangle of a topic as easy as (forgive me) falling off a log! (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "nonfiction", "science!" ], "isbn": "1728232163", "cover": "1728232163", "goodreads": 59076838, "itunes": 9781728232164, "bookshop": 9781728232164, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61XXyPwhtrL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781728232164", "isbn10": "1728232163", "links": [] }, "10": { "id": 10, "edition": "june", "title": "Little Monarchs", "author": "Jonathan Case", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

What am I reading? Oh, just your average post-apocalyptic butterfly migration tale, that’s all. Jonathan Case takes speculative fiction into an entirely new direction with this story of an Earth where exposure to the sun’s rays means instant death for any mammal. The solution? The scales of the monarch butterfly! Elvie and her guardian Flora follow the butterflies in hopes of creating a vaccine for humanity. What follows is a gripping tale filled with science facts (coming to you via Elvie’s own snarky commentary). (For ages 9 and up)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "comics & graphic novels", "science!", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0823442608", "cover": "0823442608", "goodreads": 58845991, "itunes": 9780823442607, "bookshop": 9780823442607, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517W1e7kf9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780823442607", "isbn10": "0823442608", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 10, "book": "Little Monarchs", "source": "OPB", "text": "YA graphic novel tackles climate change", "url": "https://www.opb.org/article/2022/05/26/ya-graphic-novel-tackles-climate-change/" } ] }, "11": { "id": 11, "edition": "june", "title": "Marshmallow Clouds: Two Poets at Play Among Figures of Speech", "author": "Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, illustrated by Richard Jones", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

One summer day I was boiled and salted / like a peanut. I was the meat / in a heat sandwich, the dog in a hot. And a finer collection of poetry you couldn’t hope to find this year. Little wonder, as it comes to us via working poet Connie Wanek and Ted Kooser, a former U.S. poet laureate. Some adult poets may talk down to kids when they try their hand at verse for the young. Wanek and Kooser, in contrast, revel in evocative metaphors that are deepened and appreciated with the aid of Richard Jones’ hypnotic watercolors. (For ages 10 and up)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "1536203033", "cover": "1536203033", "goodreads": 58761958, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781536203035, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510qH5czC7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781536203035", "isbn10": "1536203033", "links": [] }, "12": { "id": 12, "edition": "june", "title": "My Parents Won't Stop Talking!", "author": "Emma Hunsinger and Tillie Walden", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

It’s the moment all children dread. A universal childhood complaint (slow-moving adults who jabber with other slow-moving adults) brought to brilliantly overexaggerated life in this tale of a girl, her little brother and the moment when her two moms get trapped in a conversation with the neighbors on the way to the park. This is the perfect book for any kid who has tried to tug, pull, shove or yank their immovable grown-ups away from the irresistible force of chatter. (For ages 3 to 6)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "1250800277", "cover": "1250800277", "goodreads": 57055896, "itunes": 9781250800275, "bookshop": 9781250800275, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Ojc6cItdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250800275", "isbn10": "1250800277", "links": [] }, "13": { "id": 13, "edition": "june", "title": "Red Scare: A Graphic Novel", "author": "Liam Francis Walsh", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

If you dropped a TinTin comic in a vat of 1950s paranoia, you might end up with something similar to Liam Francis Walsh’s evocative, noir-inspired comic. Peggy is still recovering from polio, frustrated that her muscles won’t let her keep up with her brother. When a mysterious object of otherworldly origin gives her the ability to not just walk but fly, she little suspects she’ll end up in the sights of two unscrupulous FBI agents. Magnificent noir shading and a smart critique of fear-mongering elevate the action and excitement of this historical dip into the possible. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "historical fiction", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "comics & graphic novels", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1338167081", "cover": "1338167081", "goodreads": 57468678, "itunes": 9781338167085, "bookshop": 9781338167085, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ZMZ9V5-JL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781338167085", "isbn10": "1338167081", "links": [] }, "14": { "id": 14, "edition": "june", "title": "Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler", "author": "Ibi Zoboi", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Anyone can write a biography. It takes a clever pen to couple a life story with storytelling in free verse. Ibi Zoboi, who fangirled Octavia Butler early in her own writing career, now pays homage to the woman who broke barriers left, right and center. How did Butler – a Black girl labeled “slow” in school – become one of history’s preeminent science fiction writers? Zoboi shows us the shy child spurred on to do great things by devouring science fiction voraciously, knowing she could do better. As Butler herself said, she was “an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty and drive.” (For ages 10 to 13)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "young adult", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "0399187383", "cover": "0399187383", "goodreads": 57994153, "itunes": 9780399187384, "bookshop": 9780399187384, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61lfzQb4hML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780399187384", "isbn10": "0399187383", "links": [] }, "15": { "id": 15, "edition": "june", "title": "Where Butterflies Fill the Sky: A Story of Immigration, Family, and Finding Home", "author": "Zahra Marwan", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

What happens when you have to leave your home where the desert reaches all the way to the sea and 100 butterflies always fill the sky? This picture book about immigration deals with its serious subject matter while keeping heart, humor and family close at hand. The art styles of Kuwait and New Mexico mix and meld as Zahra tells the true story of how her family moved from one land to another. Utterly original and enjoyable from start to finish. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1547606517", "cover": "1547606517", "goodreads": 57552476, "itunes": 9781547606511, "bookshop": 9781547606511, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51AmGJQ5dwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781547606511", "isbn10": "1547606517", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 15, "book": "Where Butterflies Fill the Sky: A Story of Immigration, Family, and Finding Home", "source": "NPR", "text": "Zahra Marwan on Kuwaiti citizenship and the stateless Bidoon people", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/27/1095100311/kuwaiti-bidoons-went-on-hunger-strike-for-19-days-has-anything-changed" } ] }, "16": { "id": 16, "edition": "june", "title": "Fix Me a Plate: Traditional and New School Soul Food Recipes from Scotty Scott of Cook Drank Eat", "author": "Scotty Scott", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "

Fort Worth personal chef and food blogger Scotty Scott’s first cookbook is a blend of traditional family recipes alongside soul food staples, remixed. There’s his great-grandmother’s sweet potato pie – the “world’s best,” he says! – and his mother’s salmon croquettes. Red beans and rice are remade into a bright, fresh hummus. He infuses hush puppies with homemade pimiento cheese, tartar sauce with a pinch of cinnamon. Scott lets us in on the stories behind the food and pays homage to his ancestors with what he puts on the plate. This is feel-good food.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1645674509", "cover": "1645674509", "goodreads": 56347346, "itunes": 9781645674504, "bookshop": 9781645674504, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511+MmOVeWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781645674504", "isbn10": "1645674509", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 16, "book": "Fix Me a Plate: Traditional and New School Soul Food Recipes from Scotty Scott of Cook Drank Eat", "source": "NPR", "text": "Chef Scotty Scott remixes the classics with new-school soul food", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/13/1086217319/chef-scotty-scott-soul-food-cookbook" } ] }, "17": { "id": 17, "edition": "june", "title": "The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How 'Clotilda' Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning", "author": "Ben Raines", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "

Alabama journalist Ben Raines digs deep into the legacy of the Clotilda, the ship that smuggled the last enslaved Africans to America, 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed. Raines traces the voyage back to present-day Benin in West Africa and talks to modern-day leaders there about how they’re reckoning with that history. Back in Mobile, Ala., he describes how he found the remains of the Clotilda on a river bottom. The discovery has fostered a renewed hope for reconciliation and recognition for descendants of the Clotilda’s captives and the community they founded, called Africatown.

", "tags": [ "for history lovers", "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1982136049", "cover": "1982136049", "goodreads": 58438513, "itunes": 9781982136048, "bookshop": 9781982136048, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41tQ2rKMJAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982136048", "isbn10": "1982136049", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 17, "book": "The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How *Clotilda* Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning", "source": "NPR", "text": "Alabama historians say the last known slave ship to U.S. has been found", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2019/05/22/725900872/alabama-historians-say-the-last-known-slave-ship-has-been-found" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 17, "book": "The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How *Clotilda* Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning", "source": "NPR", "text": "Exploring the Clotilda, the last known slave ship in the U.S., brings hope", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1105007375/exploring-the-clotilda-the-last-known-slave-ship-in-the-u-s-brings-hope" } ] }, "18": { "id": 18, "edition": "june", "title": "The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance", "author": "Cynthia Tucker and Frye Gaillard", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "

The South plays an outsized role in shaping the nation’s political and cultural landscape – for good and bad, according to this provocative collection of essays. Historian Frye Gaillard, a white man, and Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Cynthia Tucker, a Black woman, took inspiration from historian and journalist John Egerton’s The Americanization of Dixie: the Southernization of America published in 1974. They trace the political and social upheaval the country has experienced recently to milestones in Southern history, while also sounding notes of hope. “The story of the South is the story of America with all the implied pain and promise,” they write.

", "tags": [ "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "rather short", "staff picks", "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "158838456X", "cover": "158838456X", "goodreads": 58401338, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781588384560, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nagpw3bBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781588384560", "isbn10": "158838456X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 18, "book": "The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance", "source": "NPR", "text": "A new book argues the U.S. South shapes the nation's political and cultural landscape", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/26/1088991099/a-new-book-argues-the-u-s-south-shapes-the-nations-political-and-cultural-landsc" } ] }, "19": { "id": 19, "edition": "june", "title": "Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin' in New Orleans", "author": "Mason Hereford with JJ Goode", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "

Chef Mason Hereford has put to paper some of the magic that draws locals and tourists alike to his popular New Orleans sandwich shop, Turkey and the Wolf. The cookbook is full of amped-up nostalgic recipes accessible to the home cook. There’s Hereford’s quirky take on a fried bologna sandwich, topped with house made chips, spicy mustard and “shrettuce” (yes, that’s just shredded lettuce). He gives us permission to serve caviar on a McDonald’s hash brown. The collard melt might be my favorite – a Southern twist on the Reuben. His brother William Hereford took the mouthwatering photographs. Come hungry!

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1984858998", "cover": "1984858998", "goodreads": 58070075, "itunes": 9781984858993, "bookshop": 9781984858993, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51i6nnvm4LL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781984858993", "isbn10": "1984858998", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 19, "book": "Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin' in New Orleans", "source": "NPR", "text": "A shipment of cookbooks is lost at sea. Authors hope the fish enjoy the recipes", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/1076416242/cookbooks-lost-at-sea-melissa-clark-mason-hereford-container-ship-storm" } ] }, "20": { "id": 20, "edition": "june", "title": "Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln's Vital Rival", "author": "Walter Stahr", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "

Salmon Chase, remembered mostly for his unusual name, was a founder of the Republican Party and a consistently principled anti-slavery advocate. His thinking was often ahead of that of his political peers, including Abraham Lincoln, on universal amnesty and suffrage. As Treasury secretary, he developed a national currency and banking system. As U.S. chief justice, he presided over the first presidential impeachment trial. For decades, there was speculation the reformer would be nominated for president, an honor he aspired to but never achieved. This biography captures the full life of one of the finest public servants of the 19th century.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1501199234", "cover": "1501199234", "goodreads": 56897489, "itunes": 9781501199233, "bookshop": 9781501199233, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413Z5Y+kMAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781501199233", "isbn10": "1501199234", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 20, "book": "Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln's Vital Rival", "source": "WXXI", "text": "Author Walter Stahr on his new book, \"Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln's Vital Rival\"", "url": "https://www.wxxinews.org/show/connections/2022-03-17/author-walter-stahr-on-his-new-book-salmon-p-chase-lincolns-vital-rival" } ] }, "21": { "id": 21, "edition": "june", "title": "Book Lovers", "author": "Emily Henry", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

In someone else’s rom-com, literary agent Nora Stephens is the villain — a city-slicker-workaholic the hero dumps for a small-town love. That script is flipped when Nora’s sister drags her to Sunshine Falls, an idyllic, small town in North Carolina. Nora’s vacation is off to a great start, until she runs into cold-hearted New York book editor Charlie Lastra, whose family owns the failing local bookshop. Their chemistry crackles as they try to outwit each other with taunts, teases and maybe flirts. Between laugh-out-loud exchanges about Bigfoot erotica, they consider what “happily ever after” looks like for two rom-com “villains.”

", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "love & romance", "book club ideas", "family matters", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593334833", "cover": "0593334833", "goodreads": 58701063, "itunes": 9780593334836, "bookshop": 9780593334836, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41W5Iq70wrL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593334836", "isbn10": "0593334833", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 21, "book": "Book Lovers", "source": "NPR", "text": "Big city devotees find romance in a small town in Emily Henry's 'Book Lovers'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/05/1096228170/book-lovers-emily-henry-review" } ] }, "22": { "id": 22, "edition": "june", "title": "Funny You Should Ask: A Novel", "author": "Elissa Sussman", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

Chani Horowitz lands the dream gig: She’s assigned to write a profile of a Very Hot Movie Star. The two spend a weekend together – and the ensuing article leaves readers wondering what really happened between them. A divorce, a drinking problem and a decade later, Chani and the star reunite for another interview. Is it a PR stunt or something else? Listen, it’s bad journalism to (maybe) sleep with your sources. But what warmblooded human could pass up the dream of landing an interview with a Michael B. Jordan or a Harry Styles, only to have them fall in love with you?

", "tags": [ "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "no biz like show biz", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593357329", "cover": "0593357329", "goodreads": 58065414, "itunes": 9780593357323, "bookshop": 9780593357323, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u8mS8bunL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593357323", "isbn10": "0593357329", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 22, "book": "Funny You Should Ask: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "It's Been A Minute: Best books to read this summer", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/04/1096715496/the-consequences-of-losing-roe-v-wade-plus-summer-of-books" } ] }, "23": { "id": 23, "edition": "june", "title": "I Kissed Shara Wheeler: A Novel", "author": "Casey McQuiston", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

Shara Wheeler kissed Chloe Green and then had the nerve to vanish. Thankfully, Shara has left behind a trail of pink-enveloped clues and a pair of whodunit high school boys whom she also kissed. The ragtag trio tear apart their small Alabama town in search of Shara – but what they find reveals just as much truth about themselves as it does Shara. This is a teenage Harriet the Spy – complete with romance, angst, rebellion and Taco Bell. In a year when LGBTQ youth and their families have faced intense political attacks, this book feels like a warm embrace.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "young adult", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250244455", "cover": "1250244455", "goodreads": 58756420, "itunes": 9781250244451, "bookshop": 9781250244451, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41KXqNMWltL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250244451", "isbn10": "1250244455", "links": [] }, "24": { "id": 24, "edition": "june", "title": "Sea of Tranquility: A Novel", "author": "Emily St. John Mandel", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "

World builder is a phrase that’s rightly used to describe Emily Mandel’s immersive powers as a novelist. I didn’t just read Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel or Mandel’s latest, Sea of Tranquility. I lived in those novels. In Sea of Tranquility, Mandel summons up not one, but three fully realized worlds in three time periods. A ghostly violin playing in a vast forest, a hard-boiled detective who lives in a moon colony called the Night City and a virus that wipes out most of Earth’s population are some of the elements that give this novel its eerie luster.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593321448", "cover": "0593321448", "goodreads": 58446227, "itunes": 9780593321447, "bookshop": 9780593321447, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61XaT7GlQEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593321447", "isbn10": "0593321448", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 24, "book": "Sea of Tranquility: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Sea of Tranquility' reflects our pandemic woes through a time-travel lens", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/04/1090943149/-sea-of-tranquility-reflects-our-pandemic-woes-through-a-time-travel-lens" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 24, "book": "Sea of Tranquility: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Time travel, autofiction and pandemics. Emily St. John Mandel's new novel has it all", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/11/1092083298/time-travel-autofiction-and-pandemics-emily-st-john-mandels-new-novel-has-it-all" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 24, "book": "Sea of Tranquility: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Emily St. John Mandel tackles the big questions in 'Sea of Tranquility'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/07/1091021162/emily-st-john-mandel-tackles-the-big-questions-in-sea-of-tranquility" } ] }, "25": { "id": 25, "edition": "june", "title": "The Swimmers: A Novel", "author": "Julie Otsuka", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "

In Julie Otsuka’s new novel, The Swimmers, a ragtag group of regulars shows up every day to swim laps in a university pool. One day, a crack appears at the bottom near the drain, then another, reproducing in spiderlike clusters. When the pool is shut down for safety reasons, the daily rhythm of the swimmers’ lives abruptly stops. The Swimmers is a slim, brilliant novel about the value and beauty of mundane routines that shape our days and identities. Jump in and soak up Otsuka’s distinctive style, which has all the verve and playfulness of spoken-word poetry.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "seriously great writing", "rather short", "staff picks", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593321332", "cover": "0593321332", "goodreads": 58214333, "itunes": 9780593321331, "bookshop": 9780593321331, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WukFlxjDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593321331", "isbn10": "0593321332", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 25, "book": "The Swimmers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Still waters run deep in 'The Swimmers,' a brilliant novel about routine and identity", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/14/1086009836/the-swimmers-julie-otsuka-review" } ] }, "26": { "id": 26, "edition": "june", "title": "Black Cake: A Novel", "author": "Charmaine Wilkerson", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

Do any of us really know our parents? I kept returning to this question as I read this novel about Eleanor Bennett, a Caribbean-born woman whose secrets bring her two estranged children together only after her death. In a recording made for them, Bennett reveals who she is: a runaway bride, an open-water swimmer, a member of Britain’s Windrush generation – all before she married their father. Black Cake unspools over decades and countries and ultimately is the story of a mother’s final gift to the adult children she loved more than anything else in the world.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction", "family matters", "staff picks", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593358333", "cover": "0593358333", "goodreads": 60293935, "itunes": 9780593358337, "bookshop": 9780593358337, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51J20urYWyL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593358337", "isbn10": "0593358333", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 26, "book": "Black Cake: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A lifetime of secrets unfold in 'Black Cake'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/23/1082621214/a-lifetime-of-secrets-unfold-in-black-cake" } ] }, "27": { "id": 27, "edition": "june", "title": "Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel", "author": "Bonnie Garmus", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

The 1950s weren’t just unkind to women with aspirations outside the home – they were punishing. Case in point: Elizabeth Zott, chemist. She doesn’t have her Ph.D. because she was assaulted by a professor; she’s belittled and harassed by the men she works with. She falls in love with a star scientist – and is dogged by rumors that she’s using him to get ahead. His accidental death, her surprise pregnancy and new single-mother desperation lead her to success in an unlikely place: a TV cooking show. But Zott gives her audience radical lessons that go beyond the kitchen. This book is an often funny-yet-infuriating read.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "science!", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "038554734X", "cover": "038554734X", "goodreads": 58065033, "itunes": 9780385547345, "bookshop": 9780385547345, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41qBJk+dDGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780385547345", "isbn10": "038554734X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 27, "book": "Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Lessons In Chemistry' a chemist is the star of ... a cooking show?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/07/1091451057/in-lessons-in-chemistry-a-chemist-is-the-star-of-a-cooking-show" } ] }, "28": { "id": 28, "edition": "june", "title": "Trust", "author": "Hernan Diaz", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

This novel starts with a florid-yet-tragic tale of an emotionally stunted Jazz Age tycoon whose wife gets sick and dies young. That story quite thankfully ends at page 124. The next part is drafted (badly) by a Jazz Age tycoon with a different name but oddly similar profile. His writing can be described as overblown self-hagiography. At this point, I almost quit reading. But I’m glad I didn’t. Trust takes off with blinding speed once the woman hired by the tycoon to finish writing his memoir starts her own story. Trust is a puzzle of a book, wholly satisfying and 100% brilliant.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593420314", "cover": "0593420314", "goodreads": 58210933, "itunes": 9780593420317, "bookshop": 9780593420317, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Px3xfS+tL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593420317", "isbn10": "0593420314", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 28, "book": "Trust", "source": "NPR", "text": "You can't 'Trust' this novel. And that's a very good thing", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/12/1098478246/herman-diaz-trust-novel-review" } ] }, "29": { "id": 29, "edition": "june", "title": "Yonder: A Novel", "author": "Jabari Asim", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

Somewhere in the antebellum South, a group of enslaved people call themselves “the Stolen” and the White people who rule over them “Thieves.” Two of the Stolen, William and Cato, disagree on whether there is something beyond death or even beyond the plantation where they’re brutalized daily. After Cato survives a particularly vicious punishment, he, William and three other Stolen decide to escape, no matter what may lie yonder; some of it is decidedly otherworldly, eerie, frightening and beautiful. This is a slender novel, yet it’s stunning how much emotional heft Jabari Asim has given each page.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "198216316X", "cover": "198216316X", "goodreads": 58070060, "itunes": 9781982163167, "bookshop": 9781982163167, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wpnQ5dP7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982163167", "isbn10": "198216316X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 29, "book": "Yonder: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Enslaved people imagine freedom and beyond in 'Yonder'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/25/1075553651/enslaved-people-imagine-freedom-and-beyond-in-yonder" } ] }, "30": { "id": 30, "edition": "june", "title": "The Candy House: A Novel", "author": "Jennifer Egan", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Escobar" ], "text": "

The 2010s social media hellscape depicted in The Candy House isn’t a mirror image of real life, but it’s eerily similar. In this universe, technology allows users to upload their memories to the “Collective Consciousness” – and, in turn, access those of others. Each of the book’s chapters is told from the perspective of characters whose lives are ruled by the tech, whether they’ve opted in or not. The book’s success hinges on the fact that author Jennifer Egan abstains from judgment about the Collective Consciousness and instead lets her characters (and readers) decide for themselves how they feel.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "it’s all geek to me", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "the dark side", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1476716765", "cover": "1476716765", "goodreads": 58437521, "itunes": 9781476716763, "bookshop": 9781476716763, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514tcZRdGuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781476716763", "isbn10": "1476716765", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 30, "book": "The Candy House: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Virtual memories live in 'The Candy House'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/15/1093069991/virtual-memories-live-in-the-candy-house" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 30, "book": "The Candy House: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Candy House' is a brilliant portrait of intersecting lives", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/06/1090201253/the-candy-house-is-a-brilliant-portrait-of-intersecting-lives" } ] }, "31": { "id": 31, "edition": "june", "title": "The Verifiers: A Novel", "author": "Jane Pek", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Escobar" ], "text": "

As a Veronica Mars stan, I’m a sucker for a good private investigator plotline – and as a childhood Nancy Drew wannabe, I also love an amateur sleuth protagonist. The Verifiers delivers on both fronts: Claudia Lin has ditched her boring corporate job for a secretive PI agency where she does background checks on internet Romeos for clients. But when one customer turns up dead, Claudia suspects foul play even though everyone else says it’s suicide. So naturally, she goes rogue. Come for the intriguing premise, and stay for the funny digressions about being a romantically hapless 20-something in New York City.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0593313798", "cover": "0593313798", "goodreads": 58065392, "itunes": 9780593313794, "bookshop": 9780593313794, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mYtw+oksL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593313794", "isbn10": "0593313798", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 31, "book": "The Verifiers: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "8 books to celebrate Pride Month", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/07/1101832632/what-to-read-pride-month" } ] }, "32": { "id": 32, "edition": "june", "title": "Vladimir: A Novel", "author": "Julia May Jonas", "reviewers": [ "Rommel Wood" ], "text": "

“Holy s***, where exactly is this going?” is a question I uttered out loud toward the end of Julia May Jonas’ debut novel. Our nameless narrator is a 50-something tenured professor at a liberal arts college. She’s married to her department chair, who becomes a casualty of the #MeToo movement when former students come forward with misconduct allegations. But she isn’t terribly concerned with the women or his fate because she’s infatuated with a new junior professor. Jonas builds a house made out of matchsticks where our protagonist’s desires live – until reaching a flashpoint when everything goes up in smoke.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "let’s talk about sex", "the dark side", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1982187638", "cover": "1982187638", "goodreads": 57846324, "itunes": 9781982187637, "bookshop": 9781982187637, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41FBPjHhF2S._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982187637", "isbn10": "1982187638", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 32, "book": "Vladimir: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "With a nod to 'Lolita,' 'Vladímír' makes a sly statement about sex and power", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/22/1079226179/vladimir-novel-review-julia-may-jonas" } ] }, "33": { "id": 33, "edition": "june", "title": "What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma", "author": "Stephanie Foo", "reviewers": [ "Sam Yellowhorse Kesler" ], "text": "

In her debut memoir, Stephanie Foo confronts her history growing up in an abusive household and, as an adult, battling complex PTSD, a disorder that many refuse to even recognize. As doggedly as she might have chased a story as a producer for This American Life and Snap Judgment, Foo documents the search for treatment for her diagnosis and brings the reader along in the journey toward understanding her own mind. It’s an unflinching reminder of the hidden struggles many face, told with the keen eye of a researcher and the brutality of a documentarian.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "science!" ], "isbn": "0593238109", "cover": "0593238109", "goodreads": 58214328, "itunes": 9780593238103, "bookshop": 9780593238103, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51hTm6dcrTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593238103", "isbn10": "0593238109", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 33, "book": "What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'What My Bones Know' is Stephanie Foo's memoir on living with complex PTSD", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/27/1083361192/what-my-bones-know-is-stephanie-foos-memoir-on-living-with-complex-ptsd" } ] }, "34": { "id": 34, "edition": "june", "title": "Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life: A Memoir", "author": "Delia Ephron", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "

I don’t actually know Delia Ephron, but I feel like I do after reading Left on Tenth. Even though her memoir is about a Very Bad three years in her life (her husband died, she got cancer, her dog died, she tussled with Verizon), she is still, somehow, incredibly delightful. And it’s not all doom and gloom. After her internet troubles, Ephron writes an essay that introduces her to her now-husband and a second chance at love in her 70s. Like her best screenplays with her sister Nora Ephron, this memoir is sparkly and full of love, good dialogue and excellent humor.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "love & romance", "family matters", "funny stuff", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0316267651", "cover": "0316267651", "goodreads": 58684300, "itunes": 9780316267656, "bookshop": 9780316267656, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41TP4RlZx0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316267656", "isbn10": "0316267651", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 34, "book": "Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "How Delia Ephron let herself fall back in love after heartbreak", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/15/1093103846/how-delia-ephron-let-herself-fall-back-in-love-after-heartbreak" } ] }, "35": { "id": 35, "edition": "june", "title": "African Town", "author": "Irene Latham and Charles Waters", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "

The Clotilda was the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to the U.S. more than 150 years ago. African Town tells the ship’s story from multiple perspectives: the king who sold fellow Africans into slavery, the plantation owner who illegally smuggled the ship in and the men, women and children who survived the trans-Atlantic journey. Authors Irene Latham and Charles Waters write in verse, using different styles of poetry for each character, and the result is a haunting, beautifully told history. Today, the Clotilda rests under the muddy waters of Alabama’s Mobile River. The ship is well preserved, and so too is its story for young readers.

", "tags": [ "for history lovers", "short stories, essays & poetry", "young adult", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0593322886", "cover": "0593322886", "goodreads": 58284113, "itunes": 9780593322888, "bookshop": 9780593322888, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vxEpzjP1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593322888", "isbn10": "0593322886", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 35, "book": "African Town", "source": "NPR", "text": "Exploring the Clotilda, the last known slave ship in the U.S., brings hope", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1105007375/exploring-the-clotilda-the-last-known-slave-ship-in-the-u-s-brings-hope" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 35, "book": "African Town", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'African Town' traces the history of the last slave ship sent to the U.S.", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/02/1069739420/african-town-traces-the-history-of-the-last-slave-ship-sent-to-the-u-s" } ] }, "36": { "id": 36, "edition": "june", "title": "Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?: A Novel", "author": "Lizzie Damilola Blackburn", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Yinka has done everything her Nigerian-born mother expected – except find a husband, something her mother prays for loudly at their family gatherings. But Yinka has to figure out what she wants: from her career, in love and for herself on her own terms. Set in London, the novel depicts the challenge of navigating two cultures, both of which Yinka is a part of and apart from. In her commitment to being her whole self and true to her faith and ideals, Yinka writes a prayer for herself, a rallying cry to which we can all shout, “Amen!”

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "staff picks", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593299000", "cover": "0593299000", "goodreads": 58395050, "itunes": 9780593299005, "bookshop": 9780593299005, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ii0H4aedL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593299005", "isbn10": "0593299000", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 36, "book": "Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Writers Lizzie Damilola Blackburn and Edmund White want to talk about sex", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/25/1075553860/writers-lizzie-damilola-blackburn-and-edmund-white-want-to-talk-about-sex" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 36, "book": "Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?: A Novel", "source": "KAXE", "text": "Learning to love yourself first in Lizzie Damilola Blackburn's 'Yinka, Where is Your Huzband?'", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/podcast/91-7-kaxe-90-5-kbxe-morning-show/2022-03-07/learning-to-love-yourself-first-in-lizzie-damilola-blackburns-yinka-where-is-your-huzband" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 36, "book": "Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?: A Novel", "source": "BSPR", "text": "Idaho Matters: 'Yinka, Where is Your Huzband?' author Lizzie Damilola Blackburn", "url": "https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/show/idaho-matters/2022-02-07/yinka-where-is-your-huzband-author-talks-with-idaho-matters" } ] }, "37": { "id": 37, "edition": "june", "title": "I Love You Like Yellow", "author": "Andrea Beaty, illustrated by Vashti Harrison", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Yellow! my toddler exclaims, crashing a book into my lap. “Read.” Happily, as this lovely story is a delight for caregivers and kids alike. Andrea Beaty – creator of Ada Twist and pals – pens a simple ode to the enduring and vast nature of love. It’s cheerful like yellow, as bright as the stars, as varied as the weather. Vashti Harrison’s gorgeous illustrations show families of all types with members of differing abilities experiencing and showing their love for one another. The vibrant, rich stories of the images and the simple, relatively spare prose complement each other beautifully. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1419748076", "cover": "1419748076", "goodreads": 58667409, "itunes": 9781419748073, "bookshop": 9781419748073, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cwRq5LWnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781419748073", "isbn10": "1419748076", "links": [] }, "38": { "id": 38, "edition": "june", "title": "Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas", "author": "Jennifer Raff", "reviewers": [ "Alan Yu" ], "text": "

This book answers a simple question: When did the first humans come to the Americas? The answer takes readers through decades of science and the ugly history of racism in science. Geneticist and anthropologist Jennifer Raff explains the various answers researchers have come up with over the years, and how they arrived at those answers. She explains the flawed assumptions scientists have questioned, leading to new discoveries. And she ties it all together with a compelling story, akin to how a skilled detective novelist might guide readers through the details of an investigation. The book includes all of the nuance without losing any of the narrative force that keeps you hooked.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "science!", "identity & culture", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "1538749718", "cover": "1538749718", "goodreads": 53916158, "itunes": 9781538749715, "bookshop": 9781538749715, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41XEg9r4UcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781538749715", "isbn10": "1538749718", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 38, "book": "Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas", "source": "KCUR", "text": "KU professor's first book lands on 'New York Times' best-seller list", "url": "https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date/2022-03-11/ku-professors-first-book-lands-on-new-york-times-best-seller-list" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 38, "book": "Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas", "source": "SDPB", "text": "History 605: 'Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas'", "url": "https://listen.sdpb.org/podcast/history-605/2022-03-07/history-605-s1-ep-19-xxxxx" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 38, "book": "Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas", "source": "KERA", "text": "How the first Americans really got here", "url": "https://www.kera.org/think_new/how-the-first-americans-really-got-here/" } ] }, "39": { "id": 39, "edition": "june", "title": "One for All: A Novel", "author": "Lillie Lainoff", "reviewers": [ "Alethea Kontis" ], "text": "

In this gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, 16-year-old Tania de Batz has a chronic illness that can incapacitate her – frustrating for someone who wants to follow in the footsteps of her former Musketeer father. After her father’s death, Tania is sent to Madame de Treville, who trains young women to be Musketeers. With Portia, Théa and Aria, Tania searches for evidence to uncover a plot to assassinate King Louis XIV – and to find the identity of her father’s murderer. But handsome Étienne Verdon becomes an obstacle, because a Mousquetaire is not supposed to fall for her target.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0374314616", "cover": "0374314616", "goodreads": 51238708, "itunes": 9780374314613, "bookshop": 9780374314613, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51l61Ub7KbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374314613", "isbn10": "0374314616", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 39, "book": "One for All: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'One For All' is a gender-bent retelling of 'The Three Musketeers'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/15/1086623099/one-for-all-is-a-gender-bent-retelling-of-the-three-musketeers" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 39, "book": "One for All: A Novel", "source": "NPRI", "text": "View from the Back Row interviews Lillie Lainoff, author of 'One for All'", "url": "https://www.nprillinois.org/podcast/front-row-network/2022-04-14/view-from-the-back-row-interviews-author-lillie-lainoff" } ] }, "40": { "id": 40, "edition": "june", "title": "One True Loves", "author": "Elise Bryant", "reviewers": [ "Alethea Kontis" ], "text": "

After Lenore Bennett graduates from her Los Angeles arts high school, her family embarks on a Mediterranean cruise. But Lenore has yet to nail down a specific discipline for her major. Handsome fellow traveler Alex Lee quickly discovers that beneath Lenore’s sassy exterior lies an emotional young woman who needs a little more time to figure out exactly what she wants to be when she grows up. One True Loves is a fantastic tale full of shenanigans and lighthearted banter that also delves into deeper issues of race and the perception of the successful futures of young people of color.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "0062982869", "cover": "0062982869", "goodreads": 57698597, "itunes": 9780062982865, "bookshop": 9780062982865, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Zv6HAyjUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780062982865", "isbn10": "0062982869", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 40, "book": "One True Loves", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'One True Loves' stirs a journey to a successful future with a bit of love", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/06/1070931025/one-true-loves-stirs-a-journey-to-a-successful-future-with-a-bit-of-love" } ] }, "41": { "id": 41, "edition": "june", "title": "The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea", "author": "Axie Oh", "reviewers": [ "Alethea Kontis" ], "text": "

In this absolutely gorgeous Korean folk tale retelling, 16-year-old Mina jumps into the sea and gives herself to the Sea God in place of the beautiful Shim Cheong. In a magical underwater land filled with spirits, demons, gods and creatures of legend (including the giant snake Imugi), the Red String of Fate binding Mina to the Sea God is severed by the handsome-but-coldhearted Lord Shin. But the Red String of Fate reappears, only this time attaching her to Lord Shin. Mina has a month to investigate the Sea God’s curse and detach herself from Lord Shin before losing her mortality forever.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250780861", "cover": "1250780861", "goodreads": 56978100, "itunes": 9781250780867, "bookshop": 9781250780867, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512TYOSWJ2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250780867", "isbn10": "1250780861", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 41, "book": "The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea' asks: What is it that defines our destiny?", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/10/1085679585/the-girl-who-fell-beneath-the-sea-asks-what-is-it-that-defines-our-destiny" } ] }, "42": { "id": 42, "edition": "june", "title": "Moon Witch, Spider King (The Dark Star Trilogy)", "author": "Marlon James", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

This long-anticipated sequel to Black Leopard, Red Wolf was well worth the wait. Tracker, the protagonist of the first book, had nothing pleasant to say about Sogolon, but the sequel gives her the opportunity to tell her own story. From tortured childhood to enslaved adolescence to empowered adulthood, from gaining a family to losing everything, Sogolon’s life has been one hardship after another. Everything she endures circles back to the titular Spider King and his seemingly unkillable accomplice, the Aesi. Marlon James once again gives us a novel that is unrelentingly intense yet absolutely unforgettable.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0735220204", "cover": "0735220204", "goodreads": 58446722, "itunes": 9780735220201, "bookshop": 9780735220201, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-kuSQh2DL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780735220201", "isbn10": "0735220204", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 42, "book": "Moon Witch, Spider King (The Dark Star Trilogy)", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Moon Witch, Spider King' is a rare sequel that is better than its predecessor", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/15/1080058279/moon-witch-spider-king-is-a-rare-sequel-that-is-better-than-its-predecessor" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 42, "book": "Moon Witch, Spider King (The Dark Star Trilogy)", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Moon Witch, Spider King' takes us back into Marlon James' fantastical world", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/18/1081690233/moon-witch-spider-king-takes-us-back-into-marlon-james-fantastical-world" } ] }, "43": { "id": 43, "edition": "june", "title": "Siren Queen", "author": "Nghi Vo", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

It’s pre-Code Hollywood, and Luli Wei wants to be a star. Magic permeates everything in Nghi Vo’s version of the world, with Wild Hunts stalking the backlots and monstrous studio heads devouring the unlucky and the unfavored. To get what she wants without lashing herself to a man’s power, Luli must decide how much of herself she can sacrifice without losing her sense of self completely. Nghi Vo’s prose is gorgeous, like tiptoeing through a book of poetry. She can take even the most ordinary of actions and describe it in a way you never thought of before and do it with heartbreaking beauty and layers of subtext.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "no biz like show biz", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250788838", "cover": "1250788838", "goodreads": 58724597, "itunes": 9781250788832, "bookshop": 9781250788832, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lbwlX5FxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250788832", "isbn10": "1250788838", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 43, "book": "Siren Queen", "source": "WUWM", "text": "Celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month with 'Siren Queen'", "url": "https://www.wuwm.com/2022-05-02/celebrate-asian-american-pacific-islander-month-with-siren-queen" } ] }, "44": { "id": 44, "edition": "june", "title": "Ballad & Dagger (An Outlaw Saints Novel)", "author": "Daniel José Older", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

Years ago, the secretive island of San Madrigal sank into the Caribbean, and its people – the descendants of pirates, Sephardic Jews and Cuban Santeros – found refuge in Brooklyn. Now, after witnessing a murder at the hands of Chela Hidalgo, the girl he has heart-eyes for, 16-year-old Mateo Matisse discovers he’s at the center of a confluence of chaotic events. Gods, magic and a battle for power threaten what’s left of his community. It’s everything you know and love about Daniel José Older’s work: thrilling, funny and charming with a dash of romance.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1368070825", "cover": "1368070825", "goodreads": 57121666, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781368070829, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516vZDFvKoL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781368070829", "isbn10": "1368070825", "links": [] }, "45": { "id": 45, "edition": "june", "title": "Goliath: A Novel", "author": "Tochi Onyebuchi", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

Biblical references abound in this novel set in the near future. The wealthy and privileged once abandoned Earth for the moon, but now they are returning to their homeworld as gentrifiers and disaster tourists. Tochi Onyebuchi guides the reader through the lives of those who left and those who were left behind as they reckon with a world that no longer belongs to them. He plays with tone, style, genre, point-of-view and character development in ways that are both mind-boggling impressive and impossible to describe.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250782953", "cover": "1250782953", "goodreads": 57693493, "itunes": 9781250782953, "bookshop": 9781250782953, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZBpXNDtpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250782953", "isbn10": "1250782953", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 45, "book": "Goliath: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Goliath,' only the rich and white can escape to space as the Earth collapses", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/30/1076798527/in-goliath-only-the-rich-and-white-can-escape-to-space-as-the-earth-collapses" } ] }, "46": { "id": 46, "edition": "june", "title": "Ordinary Monsters: A Novel", "author": "J.M. Miro", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

J.M. Miro drags his readers from the U.K. to the U.S. and beyond as the staff of the Cairndale Institute track down children with magical powers, known as Talents. Something terrible and deadly is hunting the children, and the inscrutable Dr. Berghast who runs the institute is up to some very nefarious activities. One by one the children and their allies are picked off by forces from another realm who seek the power in the youngest Talent, Marlowe, the boy with the strange blue light. A creepy, unsettling dark historical fantasy with enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "rather long", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250833663", "cover": "1250833663", "goodreads": 58725025, "itunes": 9781250833662, "bookshop": 9781250833662, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ab+GH7W+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250833662", "isbn10": "1250833663", "links": [] }, "47": { "id": 47, "edition": "june", "title": "Nettle & Bone", "author": "T. Kingfisher", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "

Marra is a third princess, not a hero. But only she can stop the prince responsible for one sister’s death and the other sister’s abuse. She’ll need the help of a motley crew – a witch who commands the dead, a disgraced knight, a fairy godmother, and an undead hound. They all must play their parts in this fractured fairy tale that mixes Bluebeard with a generous helping of “The Six Swans” and a dash of “Goblin Market.” The result feels like a very cozy but still perilous D&D adventure, full of found-family, second chances, and tons of winks at the folklore that inspired it.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250244048", "cover": "1250244048", "goodreads": 56179377, "itunes": 9781250244048, "bookshop": 9781250244048, "image": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/811TEfd-2fL.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250244048", "isbn10": "1250244048", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 47, "book": "Nettle & Bone", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Nettle & Bone' creates a once-upon-a-time that is familiar, yet original", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/27/1094971041/nettle-bone-creates-a-once-upon-a-time-that-is-familiar-yet-original" } ] }, "48": { "id": 48, "edition": "june", "title": "The Red Palace", "author": "June Hur", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "

A palace nurse becomes entangled in a murder investigation when four women are found dead and her beloved mentor is accused of being the killer. It soon becomes clear that the intrigue runs far deeper than she could have anticipated and, in solving it, she may destroy the fragile balance that holds a royal dynasty in power. The Red Palace is an expertly choreographed mystery with a touch of romance and an emotionally satisfying conclusion that beautifully binds fiction to historical fact.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "young adult", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250800552", "cover": "1250800552", "goodreads": 56978115, "itunes": 9781250800558, "bookshop": 9781250800558, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51LHoW8hebL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250800558", "isbn10": "1250800552", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 48, "book": "The Red Palace", "source": "NPR", "text": "A young nurse investigates murders in 18th century Korea in 'The Red Palace'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/27/1074791071/the-red-palace-june-hur-review-historical-fiction" } ] }, "49": { "id": 49, "edition": "june", "title": "The Summer of Bitter and Sweet", "author": "Jen Ferguson", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "

Métis teen Lou is looking forward to her last summer working at her uncle’s ice-cream shack. But then she gets a letter from her biological father, the man who assaulted her mother. The more Lou pulls away from the pains of her family’s past, the more she realizes that they run deeper than she realized. Lou’s life is so immersive that I could feel the heat of summer on the prairies on my skin and taste the amazing color-named ice creams served at the shack. It’s a stunning debut.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "young adult", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0063086166", "cover": "0063086166", "goodreads": 58782872, "itunes": 9780063086166, "bookshop": 9780063086166, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413ZUzHumxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063086166", "isbn10": "0063086166", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 49, "book": "The Summer of Bitter and Sweet", "source": "NPR", "text": "5 YA books that offer a nuanced reading experience for summer", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/10/1104112421/5-ya-books-for-summer-reading" } ] }, "50": { "id": 50, "edition": "june", "title": "Ophelia After All", "author": "Racquel Marie", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "

Everyone knows exactly who Ophelia Rojas is. She’s a boy-crazy, rose-gardening senior who tells her parents everything and just wants to have a perfect moment where she dances with her dream date at prom. But when she pictures her prom date, it isn’t one of her boy crushes at all. It’s Talia Sanchez. Ophelia may not have a label for her sexuality, but she endearingly bumbles through her identity crisis and discovers that everyone’s understanding of themselves is much more fluid than she could have imagined.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "young adult" ], "isbn": "1250797306", "cover": "1250797306", "goodreads": 56978109, "itunes": 9781250797308, "bookshop": 9781250797308, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WARois8NL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250797308", "isbn10": "1250797306", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 50, "book": "Ophelia After All", "source": "NPR", "text": "Coming of age with three contemporary YA novels", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/04/1077546455/coming-of-age-with-three-contemporary-ya-novels" } ] }, "51": { "id": 51, "edition": "june", "title": "Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir", "author": "Margo Jefferson", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Memoir meets criticism in this singular work. Author Margo Jefferson is an acclaimed cultural critic and memoirist, and those paths merge in this sprawling yet cohesive work. At the top of her game in both literary traditions, Jefferson turns her critical eye on herself, charting a life through reflection on pivotal moments in her past and reflections on the artists who shaped her. The result is this stylish and innovative book that defies easy categorization.

", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "152474817X", "cover": "152474817X", "goodreads": 58231065, "itunes": 9781524748173, "bookshop": 9781524748173, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-nFxsF+3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781524748173", "isbn10": "152474817X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 51, "book": "Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Margo Jefferson's new memoir is like a kaleidoscope into someone's life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/15/1093121748/margo-jeffersons-new-memoir-is-like-a-kaleidoscope-into-someones-life" } ] }, "52": { "id": 52, "edition": "june", "title": "The No-Show: A Novel", "author": "Beth O'Leary", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

I loved this confounding book. It’s like a romance wrapped in a puzzle inside an enigma. At the start, the “hero” of the piece disappoints three very different women on Valentine’s Day. That sounds terrible, but there’s more to the story than those facts. In reality, there are four sides to this story, but it’s more like a romantic Rubik’s Cube than a traditional romance. The truth is gently devastating and lovely, a secret slowly revealed while you fall in love with everyone involved.

", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "0593438442", "cover": "0593438442", "goodreads": 58678549, "itunes": 9780593438442, "bookshop": 9780593438442, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51TQ1N8cpbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593438442", "isbn10": "0593438442", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 52, "book": "The No-Show: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The No-Show' is an adventure in romantic storytelling", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/01/1095799689/the-no-show-is-an-adventure-in-romantic-storytelling" } ] }, "53": { "id": 53, "edition": "june", "title": "A Lady for a Duke", "author": "Alexis Hall", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

With Boyfriend Material, Alexis Hall delivered the funniest rom-com of 2020. Now his beautiful and moving new historical romance, which has just enough humor to lighten the angst, may be the sweetest book of this summer. In A Lady for a Duke, friends long thought lost are found and slowly, gingerly, become lovers. Viola Carroll, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars, was long presumed dead. Injured on the battlefield, she gave up her family, wealth and title to live as her true self. Then she returns to public life after years of absence and finds love with her grief-stricken best friend who’s still mourning her.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "historical fiction", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "rather long", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1538753758", "cover": "1538753758", "goodreads": 57007967, "itunes": 9781538753750, "bookshop": 9781538753750, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DSFbwIm-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781538753750", "isbn10": "1538753758", "links": [] }, "54": { "id": 54, "edition": "june", "title": "Love Marriage: A Novel", "author": "Monica Ali", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Monica Ali’s new novel is an absorbing and meaty exploration of love, family and culture. Yasmin Ghorami is a young doctor following in her ambitious immigrant father’s footsteps. She’s newly engaged to Joe Sangster, a fellow doctor who’s the son of an infamously outspoken feminist and public intellectual with boundary issues. There are differences in race, class and religion to navigate between the middle-class, Muslim and Indian-born Ghoramis and the white, upper-middle-class Sangsters, and Ali delineates those distinctions with nuance. Yet, to its credit, the characters of Love Marriage are more interesting than their well-worn challenges.

", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1982181478", "cover": "1982181478", "goodreads": 59366233, "itunes": 9781982181475, "bookshop": 9781982181475, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BSbpvyaVL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982181475", "isbn10": "1982181478", "links": [] }, "55": { "id": 55, "edition": "june", "title": "Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free", "author": "Sarah Weinman", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Scoundrel is an unusually engrossing work of nonfiction, a true-crime thriller that intersects seamlessly with the history and politics of its 1950s to ‘70s setting. Veteran author Sarah Weinman examines the fall and rise and fall again of the charismatic convicted killer Edgar Smith and why a colorful group of prominent crusaders, including conservative stalwart William F. Buckley, wrote to him for years and fought for his exoneration. With decades of correspondence and documentary evidence to draw on, Weinman goes deep into the psychology and social dynamics of the case, exposing the factors that led so many to fall prey to Smith’s charms and get the story so tragically wrong.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "for history lovers", "eye-opening reads", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "0062899767", "cover": "0062899767", "goodreads": 58283071, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780062899767, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51UOZU8nXQS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780062899767", "isbn10": "0062899767", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 55, "book": "Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Scoundrel' examines how and why a convicted killer went free", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/22/1082137325/scoundrel-examines-how-and-why-a-convicted-killer-went-free" } ] }, "56": { "id": 56, "edition": "june", "title": "Secret Identity: A Novel", "author": "Alex Segura", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

In this creative 20th century-set novel, an artist fighting for her big break in the sexist, male-dominated world of comics lands in the middle of a murder mystery. As a queer working woman in 1975, Carmen Valdez was used to dwelling in the shadows and making compromises. She dreams of more than being an admin for a boorish boss but can’t catch a break by usual methods. So she makes a deal: She’ll be the secret brains behind a groundbreaking new female-led superhero comic and let her male colleague be the frontman. When he gets blown away before they can reveal her true role, Carmen is determined to find out what happened to her friend and hopefully claim her rightful credit.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "identity & culture", "for art lovers", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250801745", "cover": "1250801745", "goodreads": 57693604, "itunes": 9781250801746, "bookshop": 9781250801746, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oydhCK-GS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250801746", "isbn10": "1250801745", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 56, "book": "Secret Identity: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Secret Identity' is a masterful 1970s literary mystery", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/17/1087158530/secret-identity-is-a-masterful-1970s-literary-mystery" } ] }, "57": { "id": 57, "edition": "june", "title": "The Mutual Friend: A Novel", "author": "Carter Bays", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Carter Bays is best known for the long-running sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.” His debut novel The Mutual Friend is like a sophisticated literary version, centering on a New York City-based ensemble with plenty to say about the discontents of modern life and the difficulty of connection. In a sometimes frenzied satirical style, it presents a conflagration of cringe, as Bays paints a slightly heightened and terrifying vision of life in our age of distraction. More than anything else, though, the nearly 500-page novel explores people bumping into one another and deciding if they have what it takes to make it stick.

", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593186761", "cover": "0593186761", "goodreads": 59031275, "itunes": 9780593186763, "bookshop": 9780593186763, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zUQzh5l6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593186763", "isbn10": "0593186761", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 57, "book": "The Mutual Friend: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Roundtable: 'The Mutual Friend,' the debut novel by 'How I Met Your Mother' co-creator Carter Bays", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2022-05-11/the-mutual-friend-by-carter-bays" } ] }, "58": { "id": 58, "edition": "june", "title": "Now Do You Know Where You Are", "author": "Dana Levin", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

Dana Levin channels the collective pandemic subconscious and Trump-era bewilderment in these jagged, jumpy poems that ponder “the question / of whether this world, which I prefer to think of in the past / tense, will flourish.” She’s good company during the days’ dark hours but holds out hope that we may yet save ourselves if only we can communicate and “change goes viral.”

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "short stories, essays & poetry", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1556596332", "cover": "1556596332", "goodreads": 59418405, "itunes": 9781556596339, "bookshop": 9781556596339, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZfkoxesuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781556596339", "isbn10": "1556596332", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 58, "book": "Now Do You Know Where You Are", "source": "STLPR", "text": "For poet Dana Levin, St. Louis is 'the navel of the nation'", "url": "https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2022-04-15/for-poet-dana-levin-st-louis-is-the-navel-of-the-nation" } ] }, "59": { "id": 59, "edition": "june", "title": "The Kissing of Kissing: Poems", "author": "Hannah Emerson", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

The first entry in Milkweed’s Multiverse series of books focused on neurodivergent and disabled writers, Hannah Emerson’s debut is utterly beguiling, her poetry an indescribable combination of interior monologue and public address. “Please try/ to become the breath that gives/ helpful thoughts that are floating / towards you yes yes,” she writes with characteristic longing and confidence. Reading this beautiful book, I felt as though Emerson’s words had always been in my head.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "1571315497", "cover": "1571315497", "goodreads": 58944394, "itunes": 9781571315496, "bookshop": 9781571315496, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+X2IZNfbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781571315496", "isbn10": "1571315497", "links": [] }, "60": { "id": 60, "edition": "june", "title": "Canopy: Poems", "author": "Linda Gregerson", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

Linda Gregerson’s capacious, discursive new poems, often in wiry, wiley sequences, track the chaos of the last several years, cataloging, calling out, searching for connection if not consolation. The stricken environment itself cries out in her poems; Gregerson names the many inequities that have shaped the Covid pandemic (“If half/ the workers at Tyson meats come down with the virus we still/ have a plan for protecting the owners from lawsuits”). Nonetheless, this poet finds much to love about the world: “I’m here to praise.”

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "0358622255", "cover": "0358622255", "goodreads": 58311991, "itunes": 9780358622253, "bookshop": 9780358622253, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Dqu0pUSTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780358622253", "isbn10": "0358622255", "links": [] }, "61": { "id": 61, "edition": "june", "title": "The True Account of Myself as a Bird", "author": "Robert Wrigley", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

Robert Wrigley is as lavish with the music of his syllables as he is with the descriptions they compose of the natural world and where it meets the human one. He considers aging, the chaos of Trump’s America and “the ever-developing dazzling dust of earth” in these Frostian meditations. In his poems, Wrigley is always friendly and always, even in anger or pain, celebratory.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "0143137247", "cover": "0143137247", "goodreads": 59088434, "itunes": 9780143137245, "bookshop": 9780143137245, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517cf5vt9ZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780143137245", "isbn10": "0143137247", "links": [] }, "62": { "id": 62, "edition": "june", "title": "Take My Hand", "author": "Dolen Perkins-Valdez", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

The new novel Take My Hand by New York Times bestselling author of Wench, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, is a stirring fictionalized history based on actual events featuring a Black nurse in 1973 Montgomery, Ala. It’s a haunting tale of how the actions of government agencies aren’t innocent of racism, injustice, or abuse, emotional and physical, of Black people in America. Valdez offers beautifully written prose, gripping dialogue, and unforgettable characters. Take My Hand is another remarkable must-read by Dolen Perkins-Valdez – it and deserves every accolade it’s getting.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593337697", "cover": "0593337697", "goodreads": 55650158, "itunes": 9780593337691, "bookshop": 9780593337691, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xa0KHcafL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593337691", "isbn10": "0593337697", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 62, "book": "Take My Hand", "source": "NPR", "text": "Historical novel 'Take My Hand' focuses on involuntary sterilization of Black women", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/10/1091927702/historical-novel-take-my-hand-focuses-on-involuntary-sterilization-of-black-wome" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 62, "book": "Take My Hand", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Dolen Perkins-Valdez on 'Take My Hand' and its historical and timely importance", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2022-04-19/dolen-perkins-valdez-on-take-my-hand-and-its-historical-and-timely-importance" } ] }, "63": { "id": 63, "edition": "june", "title": "Memphis: A Novel", "author": "Tara M. Stringfellow", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow is an engrossing debut novel, a story about three generations of Southern Black women and their legacy, challenges, failures, joys, sorrows, and triumphs. I had heard about this novel months before its release and looked forward to reading it, but I was thrilled with the extent of Stringfellow’s storytelling talent. Beautifully written prose, unforgettable characters, messages of sisterhood and community. The author shows tremendous insight into the effects of violence on Black women in America, told from a captivating Southern female perspective that makes Memphis one of the most compelling must-reads of 2022 and beyond.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "historical fiction", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593230485", "cover": "0593230485", "goodreads": 52268640, "itunes": 9780593230480, "bookshop": 9780593230480, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51GTABOBxWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593230480", "isbn10": "0593230485", "links": [] }, "64": { "id": 64, "edition": "june", "title": "Recitatif: A Story", "author": "Toni Morrison", "reviewers": [ "Ericka Taylor" ], "text": "

Three years after her death, it still seems reasonable to mourn that we’ll have no more novels from Toni Morrison. But, luckily, Morrison’s sole foray into short fiction, Recitatif, was released in book form earlier this year. The story tracks two girls from their first meeting at a shelter for wards of the state to chance encounters later in life. It’s powerful, and the characters impeccably formed, as we would expect from Morrison. Race is central to its two characters’ interactions, but the reader is never told which character is Black and which is white. The implications of that decision require more space than is allotted here, but the result is so worth the read.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0593315030", "cover": "0593315030", "goodreads": 57282239, "itunes": 9780593315033, "bookshop": 9780593315033, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bqUM4InhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593315033", "isbn10": "0593315030", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 64, "book": "Recitatif: A Story", "source": "NPR", "text": "Toni Morrison's only short story is available in book form for the first time", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/01/1077198351/recitatif-toni-morrison-short-story" } ] }, "65": { "id": 65, "edition": "june", "title": "Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century", "author": "Kim Fu", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Kim Fu has great range, and she shows that here. This is a wonderful mix of science fiction, drama, comedy, fantasy, and everything in between. Despite its variety, the most important element here is what gives the collection a sense of cohesion; Fu’s storytelling chops. There’s something for everyone in this outstanding collection, which cements Fu as one of the most exciting short story writers in contemporary fiction.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1951142993", "cover": "1951142993", "goodreads": 58476152, "itunes": 9781951142995, "bookshop": 9781951142995, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51iuWOYKqoL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781951142995", "isbn10": "1951142993", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 65, "book": "Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sci-fi, fantasy, crime fiction blend in 'Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/02/1077546817/si-fi-fantasy-and-crime-fiction-blend-in-lesser-known-monsters-of-the-21st-centu" } ] }, "66": { "id": 66, "edition": "june", "title": "Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World", "author": "Peter S. Goodman", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

This is the kind of nonfiction book that makes you mad and stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page – and keeps making you furious. Peter S. Goodman shows, in excruciating detail and with plenty of proof, how billionaires have contributed to the development of a world economic system that allows them to amass gigantic fortunes and how they have all benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic. A truly angry, powerful look at economic inequality and the negative effects of unfettered capitalism.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0063078309", "cover": "0063078309", "goodreads": 57863480, "itunes": 9780063078307, "bookshop": 9780063078307, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41XYaoXmylL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063078307", "isbn10": "0063078309", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 66, "book": "Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Davos Man' is an angry, powerful look at economic inequality", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/20/1074378185/davos-man-is-an-angry-powerful-look-at-economic-inequality" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 66, "book": "Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World", "source": "KALW", "text": " 'Davos Man' author Peter Goodman discusses inequality, tax cuts for the rich and pandemic profiteers", "url": "https://www.kalw.org/show/your-call/2022-02-17/davos-man-author-peter-goodman-discusses-inequality" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 66, "book": "Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World", "source": "KQED", "text": "NYT’s Peter Goodman on 'How the Billionaires Devoured the World'", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101887479/nyts-peter-goodman-on-how-the-billionaires-devoured-the-world" } ] }, "67": { "id": 67, "edition": "june", "title": "Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier", "author": "Susan Jonusas", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

This is a creepy, atmospheric and wonderfully researched account of a murderous family on the American frontier. Simultaneously cinematic and packed with novelistic touches that make it feel like a serial killer novel, this is the literary equivalent of a bloody horror movie, except it all really happened. Susan Jonusas has a talent for details, and the way she reconstructs this story and the people involved makes this a truly mesmerizing read.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "1984879839", "cover": "1984879839", "goodreads": 58804246, "itunes": 9781984879837, "bookshop": 9781984879837, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-6UGfmheL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781984879837", "isbn10": "1984879839", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 67, "book": "Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier", "source": "KWIT", "text": "The Exchange: Author Susan Jonusas on the 'Bloody Benders'", "url": "https://www.kwit.org/spm-news-english/2022-03-10/the-exchange-03-09-22-the-bloody-benders-new-women-of-the-old-west-siouxland-history-artcetera" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 67, "book": "Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier", "source": "KPR", "text": "KPR Presents: The Bender Family Murders of 1873", "url": "https://kansaspublicradio.org/kpr-news/kpr-presents-bender-family-murders-1873" } ] }, "68": { "id": 68, "edition": "june", "title": "Mickey7: A Novel", "author": "Edward Ashton", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

A wildly entertaining mix of action and big ideas peppered with humor and a bizarre love story, this novel is proof that, when done right, science fiction can be one of the most entertaining genres out there. Between fighting alien creatures, pondering what it means to be human, and looking at cloning from various perspectives, there is something for everyone here, and Ashton delivers all of it with plenty of wittiness and flair.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "it’s all geek to me", "science!", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250275032", "cover": "1250275032", "goodreads": 57693457, "itunes": 9781250275035, "bookshop": 9781250275035, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Cb4ho3j9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250275035", "isbn10": "1250275032", "links": [] }, "69": { "id": 69, "edition": "june", "title": "My Annihilation: A Novel", "author": "Fuminori Nakamura, translated by Sam Bett", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

A haunting novel of ideas where secret agendas abound and narratives are wrapped inside each other, this sharp, labyrinthine tale is probably Fuminori Nakamura’s most cerebral novel to date. A gloomy study of the relationship between trauma and who we are, this is also an exploration of the psychology of crime and what can happen when we try to alter the past. Dark and complex, sure, but also thrilling and endlessly entertaining.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1641292725", "cover": "1641292725", "goodreads": 59241078, "itunes": 9781641292726, "bookshop": 9781641292726, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41N4i2xxPzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781641292726", "isbn10": "1641292725", "links": [] }, "70": { "id": 70, "edition": "june", "title": "In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial", "author": "Mona Chollet, translated by Sophie R. Lewis", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

In the span of 320 pages, Mona Chollet takes readers on a historical journey that covers how witches have been treated since the beginning of time – and then reveals why they are feminist icons and how the ideas and motivations behind their persecution are very much alive in our time. At once a celebration of womanhood and a sharp dismantling of patriarchy, this is a thought-provoking read that reclaims witches and their radical way of living.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers" ], "isbn": "125027141X", "cover": "125027141X", "goodreads": 57693411, "itunes": 9781250271419, "bookshop": 9781250271419, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51s2LCzSJaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250271419", "isbn10": "125027141X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 70, "book": "In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'In Defense of Witches' is a celebration of women", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/11/1085993346/in-defense-of-witches-is-a-celebration-of-women" } ] }, "71": { "id": 71, "edition": "june", "title": "The Fervor: A Novel", "author": "Alma Katsu", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Alma Katsu is the reigning queen of literary historical horror, and The Fervor might be her best book yet. While some supernatural elements are present, this is an honest, very well-researched and heart-wrenching view into the World War II internment camps that Japanese Americans were forced into. A scathing look at anti-Asian sentiment that also explores what happens when racism is allowed to flourish unchecked, this is a historical-fiction narrative that feels incredibly timely.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "historical fiction", "identity & culture", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593328337", "cover": "0593328337", "goodreads": 58652649, "itunes": 9780593328330, "bookshop": 9780593328330, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nVxxrs+0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593328330", "isbn10": "0593328337", "links": [] }, "72": { "id": 72, "edition": "june", "title": "The Old Woman with the Knife: A Novel", "author": "Gu Byeong-mo, translated by Chi-Young Kim", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "

The opening of The Old Woman with the Knife – 65-year-old Hornclaw hunts her mark in a subway car while riders avoid offering her a seat – sets its gripping, bone-dry tone. Originally titled Pagwa (bruised fruit), the novel is by turns a character study, a One Last Job thriller, and a dark comedy about the indignities of aging and work (her mom-and-pop assassin business is, like everything else around her, being gentrified). But some of its best moments make a poignant register of life’s little stings; rarely has a peach forgotten in the kitchen been so keenly felt.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "1335425764", "cover": "1335425764", "goodreads": 57938998, "itunes": 9781335425768, "bookshop": 9781335425768, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417KHDprqeL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781335425768", "isbn10": "1335425764", "links": [] }, "73": { "id": 73, "edition": "june", "title": "We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys", "author": "Erin Kimmerle", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "

Florida’s Dozier School for Boys was notorious for a century as a place of unspeakable cruelty, especially to boys who were Black, and was run by corrupt men who evaded any consequences. Forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle came a year after the juvenile reform school closed to investigate the claims of former prisoners and their families: The grounds held the bodies of many boys marked as missing but killed in secret. Kimmerle’s book details horrifying abuses, survivors’ trauma and an enraging fight against state institutions and lawmakers determined to prevent the past from coming to light. But its center is the value of uncovering history (however painful) and of restorative justice.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0063030241", "cover": "0063030241", "goodreads": 59028580, "itunes": 9780063030244, "bookshop": 9780063030244, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51MkRKueG7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063030244", "isbn10": "0063030241", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 73, "book": "We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys", "source": "NPR", "text": "Florida researchers complete investigation into shuttered reform school", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/01/21/463865425/florida-researchers-complete-investigation-into-shuttered-reform-school" } ] }, "74": { "id": 74, "edition": "june", "title": "The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth", "author": "Ben Rawlence", "reviewers": [ "Genevieve Valentine" ], "text": "

The trees are on the move. They shouldn’t be. Structured as a study of half a dozen trees from the boreal forest – the wide band of trees near the Arctic Circle – The Treeline traces the canopy around the world, noting where trees have vanished or are creeping ever northward. But this isn’t just a landscape diary; whether in Canada, Greenland, or Norway, author Ben Rawlence emphasizes portraits of people, especially Indigenous communities facing the front lines of climate change, and scientists chronicling the imminent, dramatic changes ahead of us. A sounding alarm, and a call to action.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "tales from around the world", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "1250270235", "cover": "1250270235", "goodreads": 56268809, "itunes": 9781250270238, "bookshop": 9781250270238, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512al8QeOPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250270238", "isbn10": "1250270235", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 74, "book": "The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth", "source": "KYUK", "text": "Trees are advancing onto the tundra", "url": "https://www.kyuk.org/podcast/coffee-at-kyuk/2022-04-04/trees-are-advancing-onto-the-tundra" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 74, "book": "The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth", "source": "WBUR", "text": "How climate change is moving the world's forests north", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/05/20/how-climate-change-is-affecting-the-worlds-great-northern-forests" } ] }, "75": { "id": 75, "edition": "june", "title": "French Braid: A Novel", "author": "Anne Tyler", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

French Braid is the narrative equivalent of its classy titular hairdo. With a sure hand, Anne Tyler twists and weaves the multiple strands and generations of her latest novel about a Baltimore family, plaiting them together and then watching them unravel. “Oh, what makes a family not work?” she asks in this chronicle of a marriage that gradually works loose over the course of more than 50 years, sending family members off in multiple directions.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "059332109X", "cover": "059332109X", "goodreads": 58065401, "itunes": 9780593321096, "bookshop": 9780593321096, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61ckK67g+1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593321096", "isbn10": "059332109X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 75, "book": "French Braid: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Authors Peng Shepherd and Anne Tyler show that family is ... complicated", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/23/1088329386/authors-peng-shepard-and-anne-tyler-show-that-family-is-complicated" } ] }, "76": { "id": 76, "edition": "june", "title": "Companion Piece: A Novel", "author": "Ali Smith", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

One of Ali Smith’s great gifts as a writer is verbal playfulness, even in dark times. Fresh off her Seasonal Quartet, Smith finds points of contact between two plagues and two female artists, five centuries apart. The narrator of Companion Piece, a painter who layers the words of poems onto canvases, is in despair over the state of the world and her inability to visit her ailing father in the hospital because of the pandemic. But she finds consolation in surprising places.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "for art lovers", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "fiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593316371", "cover": "0593316371", "goodreads": 59029642, "itunes": 9780593316375, "bookshop": 9780593316375, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51W3Yb8IOfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593316375", "isbn10": "0593316371", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 76, "book": "Companion Piece: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Companion Piece' connects two plagues and two female artists five centuries apart", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/02/1095800830/companion-piece-connects-two-plagues-and-two-female-artists-five-centuries-apart" } ] }, "77": { "id": 77, "edition": "june", "title": "The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem", "author": "Julie Phillips", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

In this sweeping, deeply researched survey of mothers who were also gifted writers and artists, Julie Phillips explores the challenges of trying to balance motherhood with work that requires intense concentration. She focuses on the life stories of women who, in the postwar years, were expected to stay home with their children and made to feel guilty for their artistic ambitions. Her subjects, which include Alice Neel, Doris Lessing, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, and Ursula K. Le Guin, struggled to find physical and mental space in which to create. Lucky for us, they did.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for art lovers", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0393088596", "cover": "0393088596", "goodreads": 58085206, "itunes": 9780393088595, "bookshop": 9780393088595, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51AAsM6WscL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780393088595", "isbn10": "0393088596", "links": [] }, "78": { "id": 78, "edition": "june", "title": "In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss", "author": "Amy Bloom", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

Love and compassion, which have been central to Amy Bloom’s fiction, are also at the heart of this gorgeously written memoir. The question overshadowing In Love is how far you’d be willing to go for the one you love. Amy Bloom’s devotion was tested when her husband of 12 years asked her, after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s in his mid-60s, to help him end his life with dignity. In writing openly and heartrendingly about euthanasia, Bloom breaks new ground. Be prepared to be shaken.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0593243943", "cover": "0593243943", "goodreads": 58065372, "itunes": 9780593243947, "bookshop": 9780593243947, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416IgaeZscL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593243947", "isbn10": "0593243943", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 78, "book": "In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'In Love' tells the true story of a writer supporting her husband's euthanasia choice", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/09/1085387825/in-love-tells-the-true-story-of-a-writer-supporting-her-husbands-euthanasia-choi" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 78, "book": "In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss", "source": "NPR", "text": "After an Alzheimer's diagnosis, her husband asked for help to die with dignity", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/03/08/1084912553/alzheimers-assisted-suicide-amy-bloom-in-love" } ] }, "79": { "id": 79, "edition": "june", "title": "Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative", "author": "Melissa Febos", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Melissa Febos’ latest essay collection is a craft book of sorts that explores the power of writing our own stories. More a meditation than a strictly practical guide, the essays in Body Work are both personal narratives in themselves and also an argument for how such narratives inevitably create space for community as well as a freer self. Rather than buying into the sexist idea that stories of trauma are dull or overdone or whiney or gauche, Febos encourages her readers to tell their stories, to write them, for themselves or others.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for art lovers", "let’s talk about sex", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "1646220854", "cover": "1646220854", "goodreads": 58393129, "itunes": 9781646220854, "bookshop": 9781646220854, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41eW2tulPgL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781646220854", "isbn10": "1646220854", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 79, "book": "Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Body Work' argues for the power of personal narratives", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/14/1086399100/body-work-argues-for-the-power-of-personal-narratives" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 79, "book": "Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative", "source": "WAMC", "text": "Praise of navel gazing and more in Melissa Febos' 'Body Work'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2022-04-18/praise-of-navel-gazing-and-more-in-melissa-febos-body-work-the-radical-power-of-personal-narrative" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 79, "book": "Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative", "source": "KERA", "text": "When telling your life story, don’t leave out your secrets", "url": "https://www.kera.org/think_new/when-telling-your-life-story-dont-leave-out-your-secrets/" } ] }, "80": { "id": 80, "edition": "june", "title": "Glory: A Novel", "author": "NoViolet Bulawayo", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Award-winning Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo’s second novel, Glory, is a resonant and stirring fable about Jidada, a fictional nation modeled after Zimbabwe, and what happens when its longtime leader is ousted. By turns funny and heartbreaking, Bulawayo’s attention to voice and cadence throughout enriches the book, which succeeds in expressing a people’s frustration, terror, resilience, uprising, and hope in a way that can be applied to a multitude of nations and political realities around the globe. Hope is not an easy thing but, like Glory, it is indeed glorious in its power.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0525561137", "cover": "0525561137", "goodreads": 58491879, "itunes": 9780525561132, "bookshop": 9780525561132, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wHvCgkE4S._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525561132", "isbn10": "0525561137", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 80, "book": "Glory: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Glory' nods to Orwell as animals explore survival under a corrupt government", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/10/1085677329/glory-nods-to-orwell-as-animals-explore-survival-under-a-corrupt-government" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 80, "book": "Glory: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "The novel 'Glory' is inspired by 'Animal Farm' and based on the 2017 coup in Zimbabwe", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/10/1085805811/author-noviolet-bulawayos-novel-glory-draws-inspiration-from-the-orwellian" } ] }, "81": { "id": 81, "edition": "june", "title": "The Family Chao: A Novel", "author": "Lan Samantha Chang", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

In Haven, Wisconsin, overbearing yet charismatic Leo Chao runs the Fine Chao restaurant with help from his wife, Winnie, and his eldest son, Dagou. Then his other two sons return: Ming, the middle son, only in town due to Winnie’s explicit request; and James, the youngest, home from college for winter break. Tensions ramp up as the brothers emotionally spar with their father and try to deal with their own individual needs for love, security, and family. Loosely based on The Brothers Karamazov, Chang’s novel is a riveting and astute character study; Dostoevsky himself would surely approve.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0393868079", "cover": "0393868079", "goodreads": 58085230, "itunes": 9780393868074, "bookshop": 9780393868074, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51B9-b5jOpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780393868074", "isbn10": "0393868079", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 81, "book": "The Family Chao: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "What does 'The Family Chao' have in common with Dostoyevsky? Murder and more", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/10/1079882438/what-does-the-family-chao-have-in-common-with-dostoyevsky-murder-and-more" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 81, "book": "The Family Chao: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Family Chao' centers on good food made by a not-so-good person", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/05/1078478658/the-family-chao-centers-on-good-food-made-by-a-not-so-good-person" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 81, "book": "The Family Chao: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Family Chao' is a riveting story of identity and belonging", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/02/1077301464/the-family-chao-is-a-riveting-story-of-identity-and-family" } ] }, "82": { "id": 82, "edition": "june", "title": "The Third Person", "author": "Emma Grove", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

When Emma Grove began seeing a therapist, Toby, she had a very clear goal in mind: receiving approval to start hormone therapy. Instead, she found herself facing a combative therapist who seemed to think that there was more going on than Grove was telling him. In her debut graphic memoir, Grove illustrates the conversations she had with Toby as slowly, bit by bit, she began to realize that he was a right. Moving, funny, and brilliant, Grove’s account of what it was like to live with and learn she had dissociative identity disorder is a must-read.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "for art lovers", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1770466150", "cover": "1770466150", "goodreads": 58772772, "itunes": 9781770466159, "bookshop": 9781770466159, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NgzK7uwIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781770466159", "isbn10": "1770466150", "links": [] }, "83": { "id": 83, "edition": "june", "title": "To Paradise", "author": "Hanya Yanagihara", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

From the author of A Little Life comes another long and riveting novel. To Paradise reads like three novels in one, each section taking place in a different time: an alternate 19th century, the 1990s, and a possible future. As for place, all three sections live in and around the same house on Washington Square Park in New York City. Exploring characters who believe they are good, their semi-doomed love affairs, and the freedoms given and curtailed in their various timelines, this novel is sweeping, lush, and gorgeously written.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0385547935", "cover": "0385547935", "goodreads": 57739876, "itunes": 9780385547932, "bookshop": 9780385547932, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31cNO7yXJWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780385547932", "isbn10": "0385547935", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 83, "book": "To Paradise: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Hanya Yanagihara grapples with pandemics in 'To Paradise'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/19/1074065652/hanya-yanagihara-grapples-with-pandemics-in-to-paradise" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 83, "book": "To Paradise: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'To Paradise' packs a staggering amount into its alternate histories", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/12/1072403100/to-paradise-packs-a-staggering-amount-into-its-alternate-histories" } ] }, "84": { "id": 84, "edition": "june", "title": "A House Between Earth and the Moon: A Novel", "author": "Rebecca Scherm", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

In the near future, erratic weather patterns are common and there’s an ongoing climate refugee crisis. Alex, a scientist hoping to reverse the effects of climate change, heads to Parallaxis, an in-progress space station for billionaires, where, supported by the mega-corporation that built it, he will continue his research. Alex’s family remains on Earth, until his daughter creates a virus that requires them to run all the way up to Parallaxis. What they don’t know is that Parallaxis is a sort of lab, and they are its unaware subjects. Rebecca Scherm blends speculative fiction, cli-fi, and family drama to great effect.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "science!", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1101980109", "cover": "1101980109", "goodreads": 58661987, "itunes": 9781101980101, "bookshop": 9781101980101, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41amGiegmnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781101980101", "isbn10": "1101980109", "links": [] }, "85": { "id": 85, "edition": "june", "title": "Fiona and Jane", "author": "Jean Chen Ho", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Many of us are thrown into friendships through sheer circumstance when we’re children; the friendships that survive as we grow older feel precious, unlikely. One such is at the tender, beating heart of Jean Chen Ho’s debut work of fiction told in alternating perspectives. Fiona is an immigrant from Taiwan and Jane is the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, and this shared identity initially draws them to one another. But as each girl grows up and becomes a woman, they circle each other, grow apart and close again in a dance that indicates that they can never stray too far.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593296044", "cover": "0593296044", "goodreads": 57238523, "itunes": 9780593296042, "bookshop": 9780593296042, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41UWOkVvktL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593296042", "isbn10": "0593296044", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 85, "book": "Fiona and Jane", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Fiona and Jane' is a life-sized story of true friendship", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/04/1069839751/fiona-and-jane-is-a-life-sized-story-of-true-friendship" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 85, "book": "Fiona and Jane", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Fiona and Jane' captures a friendship's intensity, loyalty and occasional torment", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/04/1070338059/fiona-and-jane-captures-a-friendships-intensity-loyalty-and-occasional-torment" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 85, "book": "Fiona and Jane", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Jean Chen Ho on 'Fiona and Jane' and the evolution of friendship", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2022-01-11/jean-chen-ho-on-fiona-and-jane-and-the-evolution-of-friendship" } ] }, "86": { "id": 86, "edition": "june", "title": "Teenager: A Novel", "author": "Bud Smith, illustrated by Rae Buleri", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Using some well-known tropes – the fleeing, road-tripping criminal couple; rebellious teens; the American West – Bud Smith, long-admired legend in the indie publishing scene, puts a new and sometimes surreal spin on them in this fast-paced phantasmagoria of a novel. Kody, a rash and sometimes delusional teenager, breaks out of juvenile detention in order to save his girlfriend, Teal, from her abusive family. The two embark on a road trip across the country, love each other hard and furiously, find and sow chaos, all the while vying for a kind of freedom that exists solely in fantasy.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "love & romance", "the states we’re in", "funny stuff", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "0593315227", "cover": "0593315227", "goodreads": 59317650, "itunes": 9780593315224, "bookshop": 9780593315224, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31PBvEyJ-1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593315224", "isbn10": "0593315227", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 86, "book": "Teenager: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A new Bonnie and Clyde-type adventure in 'Teenager' by Bud Smith", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/12/1098537389/a-new-bonnie-and-clyde-type-adventure-in-teenager-by-bud-smith" } ] }, "87": { "id": 87, "edition": "june", "title": "True Biz: A Novel", "author": "Sara Nović", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Charlie is a typical teenager. She snarks at her parents, who’ve long believed that her cochlear implant should have let her assimilate into the mainstream hearing world. But she struggles to follow conversations and is failing at public high school. When she enters River Valley School for the Deaf and begins to learn ASL, language starts to open up to her in a way it never has. Part family drama, part love letter to a community and a cry of rage over its active erasure, True Biz is also compulsively readable.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "love & romance", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593241509", "cover": "0593241509", "goodreads": 58395049, "itunes": 9780593241509, "bookshop": 9780593241509, "image": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/819-98GsbHL.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593241509", "isbn10": "0593241509", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 87, "book": "True Biz : A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": " 'True Biz' depicts life at a school for the deaf", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/true-biz-depicts-life-school-deaf/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 87, "book": "True Biz : A Novel", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Sara Nović on Deaf culture, access to ASL and ‘True Biz’", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/sara-novic-on-deaf-culture-access-to-asl-and-true-biz/" } ] }, "88": { "id": 88, "edition": "june", "title": "The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer", "author": "Janelle Monáe", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "

While working her day job as a pop star, Janelle Monáe has written plenty of music with science-fiction topics – most recently on her 2018 album Dirty Computer. But seeing as how Monáe tells tales in just about every medium she can get her hands on, including film, it was inevitable that she’d turn to prose one day as well. The Memory Librarian is her debut, a collection of short stories that pick up the loose threads of Dirty Computer’s. Afrofuturist, dystopian themes. Then she stitches them into an intricate, overlapping narrative that’s as dazzling and joyous as her songs.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "for music lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063070871", "cover": "0063070871", "goodreads": 58677491, "itunes": 9780063070875, "bookshop": 9780063070875, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DshZ225XL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063070875", "isbn10": "0063070871", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 88, "book": "The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer", "source": "NPR", "text": "Janelle Monáe's 'Dirty Computer' comes alive in a new collection of stories", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/17/1093240596/janelle-monae-dirty-computer-memory-librarian" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 88, "book": "The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Janelle Monáe's New Book 'The Memory Librarian'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/janelle-monaes-new-book-memory-librarian/" } ] }, "89": { "id": 89, "edition": "june", "title": "Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career", "author": "Keith Phipps", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "

In Nicolas Cage’s latest movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the legendary actor plays himself – or rather, a caricature of himself that deconstructs not only his own tumultuous persona but the entire notion of stardom. Age of Cage is a debut book by the veteran pop-culture critic Keith Phipps, and in a way, the book accomplishes much of what Cage’s strange new film does. With a sharp eye and easygoing erudition, Phipps outlines the twists and turns of Cage’s career – from leading man to art house hero to destitute has-been who’d take any role for a buck – and uses that framework as an analog for the massive changes Hollywood has gone through over the past 40 years. Equally witty, incisive and daring, Age of Cage is so good that even Cage himself has praised it.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "no biz like show biz", "biography & memoir", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "1250773040", "cover": "1250773040", "goodreads": 56347309, "itunes": 9781250773043, "bookshop": 9781250773043, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41QERmZJBXL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250773043", "isbn10": "1250773040", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 89, "book": "Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career", "source": "NPR", "text": "Why Nicolas Cage is one of the most fascinating actors working today", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/16/1105573889/why-nicolas-cage-is-one-of-the-most-fascinating-actors-working-today" } ] }, "90": { "id": 90, "edition": "june", "title": "How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain", "author": "Ryan North", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "

At a time when real-life supervillains – from brutal despots to school shooters – are everywhere, Ryan North is reclaiming the term as the wacky idea it was originally meant to be. How to Take Over the World is the latest offering from the How to Invent Everything author, and like that previous book, it’s an irreverent romp through geeky tropes that also sends up the undying self-help genre. Who among us hasn’t thought about the best way to construct a secret, technologically advanced lair from which we might conquer all humanity? North assumes we all have, and in doing so he zaps the fun back into one of pop culture’s most enduring archetypes.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "funny stuff", "it’s all geek to me", "science!", "fiction" ], "isbn": "059319201X", "cover": "059319201X", "goodreads": 58446218, "itunes": 9780593192016, "bookshop": 9780593192016, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41EdVZccpsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593192016", "isbn10": "059319201X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 90, "book": "How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain", "source": "KPR", "text": "Conversations: Ryan North, 'How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain'", "url": "https://kansaspublicradio.org/blog/dan-skinner/conversations-ryan-north-how-take-over-world-practical-schemes-and-scientific" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 90, "book": "How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain", "source": "WAMC", "text": "For aspiring supervillains, world domination is just a lot of scientific expertise and gadgetry away", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2022-03-16/for-aspiring-supervillains-world-domination-is-just-a-lot-of-scientific-expertise-and-gadgetry-away" } ] }, "91": { "id": 91, "edition": "june", "title": "Red Paint: An Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk", "author": "Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe", "reviewers": [ "Jason Heller" ], "text": "

When Sasha LaPointe isn’t singing in punk bands, she’s writing about her life as an Indigenous person of Upper Skagit and Nooksack lineage, which has culminated beautifully in her debut memoir, Red Paint. The book details her traumatic childhood and hard-won survival on a reservation in poetic, fluid imagery spiked with pop-culture reverence, but it slips into other emotional spaces as well. In particular, LaPointe dives into the story of her ancestor Comptia Koholowish, whose struggles and triumphs mirror the author’s own. It all makes for a gripping read that sheds fresh light what it means to be both punk and Indigenous in America.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "for music lovers" ], "isbn": "1640094148", "cover": "1640094148", "goodreads": 58903070, "itunes": 9781640094147, "bookshop": 9781640094147, "image": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81ypU800f-S.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781640094147", "isbn10": "1640094148", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 91, "book": "Red Paint: An Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk", "source": "KUOW", "text": "This Coast Salish punk wants you to call her anything other than 'survivor'", "url": "https://www.kuow.org/stories/sasha-lapointe-s-red-paint" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 91, "book": "Red Paint: An Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk", "source": "MTPR", "text": "Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe wears the ‘Red Paint’ and finds a home of her own", "url": "https://www.mtpr.org/podcast/the-write-question/2022-03-18/sasha-taq%CA%B7s%C9%99blu-lapointe-wears-the-red-paint-and-finds-a-home-of-her-own" } ] }, "92": { "id": 92, "edition": "june", "title": "In Sensorium: Notes for My People", "author": "Tanaïs", "reviewers": [ "Jenny Bhatt" ], "text": "

All our perceptions, interpretations and emotions are filtered through our five senses and stored as sense memories. American Bangladeshi Muslim writer, perfumer and entrepreneur Tanaïs’ In Sensorium shows how these sense memories can evoke our most powerful emotional responses across time and space. With bold and lyrical language, this singular sensorium is structured like a perfume with base, heart and head notes. It interlaces South Asian history with personal history, diasporic longing with homeland love, and ancestral trauma with present-day crises. Well-researched explorations of eroticism in ancient religions, the violence of British colonialism and South Asian patriarchal cultures, and capitalism-induced environmental damage are synthesized artfully with intensely personal revelations about love, sex, liberation, selfhood and healing.

", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "nonfiction", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0358381703", "cover": "0358381703", "goodreads": 55959443, "itunes": 9780358381709, "bookshop": 9780358381709, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51A6eeEJW-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780358381709", "isbn10": "0358381703", "links": [] }, "93": { "id": 93, "edition": "june", "title": "Mother Ocean Father Nation: A Novel", "author": "Nishant Batsha", "reviewers": [ "Jenny Bhatt" ], "text": "

History has shown us what happens when an immigrant minority community becomes more dominant than the “native-born,” especially in a postcolonial region. Whatever the end result for the nation at large, there is always unbearable loss for individual families. Nishant Batsha’s Mother Ocean Father Nation is about just such a family. On an island somewhere in the South Pacific, the Indian immigrant minority holds power, until the natives get restless and the violence escalates into an international refugee crisis. Through it all, a brother and a sister learn about survival and secrets. Batsha balances his storytelling to examine the many ways we belong within and break away from our families, societies and homelands.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "fiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0063211785", "cover": "0063211785", "goodreads": 58986626, "itunes": 9780063211780, "bookshop": 9780063211780, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ipAQRHunL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063211780", "isbn10": "0063211785", "links": [] }, "94": { "id": 94, "edition": "june", "title": "The Immortal King Rao", "author": "Vauhini Vara", "reviewers": [ "Jenny Bhatt" ], "text": "

The Immortal King Rao was more than a decade in the making. Braiding three connected stories and as many genres into a capacious narrative, journalist Vauhini Vara gives us a generational saga of a Dalit family in South India, the birth and rise of Silicon Valley and a speculative dystopia of shareholder governments. Whether she’s exploring the past or near future, Vara’s keen journalistic skills reveal aspects of post-independence India, the diasporic immigrant life, tech-driven hierarchies, climate change and more in ways that prompt questions about our present realities. The most important one, perhaps, is this: “What if I told you your social capital depended almost entirely on the privilege you were born with, not any effort of your own?”

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "rather long", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0393541754", "cover": "0393541754", "goodreads": 58999177, "itunes": 9780393541755, "bookshop": 9780393541755, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PUUy7g7hL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780393541755", "isbn10": "0393541754", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 94, "book": "The Immortal King Rao", "source": "WNYC", "text": "2022 Debuts: 'The Immortal King Rao' by Vauhini Vara", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/2022-debuts-immortal-king-rao-vauhini-vara/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 94, "book": "The Immortal King Rao", "source": "KUOW", "text": "A Puget Sound tech dystopia: Vauhini Vara's 'The Immortal King Rao'", "url": "https://www.kuow.org/stories/a-tech-dystopia-in-puget-sound-vauhini-vara-s-immortal-king-rao" } ] }, "95": { "id": 95, "edition": "june", "title": "The Velveteen Rabbit: 100th Anniversary Edition", "author": "Margery Williams, illustrated by Erin Stead", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

In the 100 years since The Velveteen Rabbit was first published, this childhood staple (and adult tear-jerker) has been illustrated numerous times, perhaps most recognizably by William Nicholson, even though Maurice Sendak also took a crack at it. For this 100th-anniversary edition, Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Erin Stead took her turn, reimagining what it means to become real with lush, emotional illustrations that are guaranteed to pull at your heartstrings. (For age 3 to 7)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "0593382102", "cover": "0593382102", "goodreads": 58438034, "itunes": 9780593382103, "bookshop": 9780593382103, "image": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91crksQDv4L.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593382103", "isbn10": "0593382102", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 95, "book": "The Velveteen Rabbit: 100th Anniversary Edition", "source": "NPR", "text": "As 'The Velveteen Rabbit' turns 100, its message continues to resonate", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092065211/as-the-velveteen-rabbit-turns-100-its-message-continues-to-resonate" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 95, "book": "The Velveteen Rabbit: 100th Anniversary Edition", "source": "NPR", "text": "In the 100th year of 'The Velveteen Rabbit,' readers ask what it means to be real", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/23/1094470418/velveteen-rabbit-centennial" } ] }, "96": { "id": 96, "edition": "june", "title": "The Aquanaut", "author": "Dan Santat", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Caldecott-winner Dan Santat’s second graphic novel, 11 years in the making, is a deft exploration of grief. Sophie, whose father was lost at sea, struggles to adapt to her new life without him. Now living with her famous uncle, Sophie embarks on a journey to fix what’s broken after the loss, whether it’s her family or the marine park that was her father’s life’s work. Poignant and often funny, The Aquanaut is Santat’s triumphant return to the graphic novel genre. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "comics & graphic novels", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0545497612", "cover": "0545497612", "goodreads": 57835890, "itunes": 9780545497619, "bookshop": 9780545497619, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51p14RDKvAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780545497619", "isbn10": "0545497612", "links": [] }, "97": { "id": 97, "edition": "june", "title": "Miss Quinces: A Graphic Novel", "author": "Kat Fajardo", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Almost-15-year-old Sue just wants to spend the summer hanging out with her friends at camp. But instead, she’s forced to go to rural Honduras to visit family — and when her mother announces they will also be celebrating her quinceañera, things go from bad to worse. No internet, no cable, but there will be a floofy dress, much to Sue’s dismay. Miss Quinces is a colorful, funny tale of growing up, finding out what’s important, and figuring out how to be yourself.

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "comics & graphic novels" ], "isbn": "1338535595", "cover": "1338535595", "goodreads": 57468683, "itunes": 9781338535594, "bookshop": 9781338535594, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xpKaQnhzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781338535594", "isbn10": "1338535595", "links": [] }, "98": { "id": 98, "edition": "june", "title": "Noor and Bobby", "author": "Praline Gay-Para, illustrated by Lauranne Quentric, and translated by Alyson Waters", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Readers don’t know exactly where Noor and Bobby takes place, but Lauranne Quentric’s gently collaged illustrations show that it’s a city under siege, a neighborhood gutted and abandoned. Only Noor, his family, and their upstairs neighbor remain — along with the neighbor’s dog, whom Noor has secretly named Bobby. One day, their neighbor also abandons the neighborhood, leaving Bobby behind. When Bobby chases his mistress’s taxi, Noor fears losing his dearest friend and searches for the dog, heedless of any danger. Spare and stark, Noor and Bobby erupts into color as the two are reunited, a compassionate and tender reminder of humanity. (For ages 4 to 7)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "tales from around the world", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1632063271", "cover": "1632063271", "goodreads": 60768563, "itunes": 9781632063274, "bookshop": 9781632063274, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wKr4wKt0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781632063274", "isbn10": "1632063271", "links": [] }, "99": { "id": 99, "edition": "june", "title": "I Must Betray You", "author": "Ruta Sepetys", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

When Ruta Sepetys wrote her latest novel, a fictionalized account of Communist Romania, she probably didn’t know the thriller would feel so timely. Set on the cusp of the country’s 1989 revolution, I Must Betray You bears witness to 17-year-old Cristian Florescu’s forced entanglement with the dictatorial Ceaușescu regime, his struggle to have normal relationships, and his deep-seated isolation and paranoia. After all, when you can’t trust your own family, whom can you trust?

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "mysteries & thrillers", "historical fiction", "young adult", "fiction" ], "isbn": "198483603X", "cover": "198483603X", "goodreads": 56970272, "itunes": 9781984836038, "bookshop": 9781984836038, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BspA5zrpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781984836038", "isbn10": "198483603X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 99, "book": "I Must Betray You", "source": "WAMC", "text": "Bestselling author Ruta Sepetys discusses new YA thriller 'I Must Betray You'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2022-03-08/bestselling-author-ruta-sepetys-discusses-new-ya-thriller-i-must-betray-you" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 99, "book": "I Must Betray You", "source": "JPR", "text": "Novelist captures life in a very repressive Romania", "url": "https://www.ijpr.org/show/the-jefferson-exchange/2022-02-16/thu-9-am-novelist-captures-life-in-a-very-repressive-romania" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 99, "book": "I Must Betray You", "source": "KAXE", "text": "Revisiting the Romanian Revolution in Ruta Sepetys' New Novel \"I Must Betray You\"", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/podcast/91-7-kaxe-90-5-kbxe-morning-show/2022-03-09/revisting-the-romanian-revolution-in-ruta-sepetys-new-novel-i-must-betray-you" } ] }, "100": { "id": 100, "edition": "june", "title": "Growing Pangs", "author": "Kathryn Ormsbee, illustrated by Molly Brooks", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Everyone experiences anxiety, but for Katie, it’s overwhelming. When she leaves her home-school environment for summer camp, her anxiety lurches to a new level: Will camp be fun? Is my best friend still my best friend? What about sixth grade? Everything will be fine, her brain says, if she moves a zipper three times or turns a lamp on and off. But if someone finds out about the buzzing in her brain, what will Katie do then? Based on her own life, Kathryn Ormbee’s latest graphic novel is eminently relatable for middle schoolers, taking the shame out of OCD and anxiety. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "comics & graphic novels" ], "isbn": "0593301315", "cover": "0593301315", "goodreads": 58065376, "itunes": 9780593301319, "bookshop": 9780593301319, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51zN4Kp7t0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593301319", "isbn10": "0593301315", "links": [] }, "101": { "id": 101, "edition": "june", "title": "Either/Or", "author": "Elif Batuman", "reviewers": [ "Kamil Ahsan" ], "text": "

When Elif Batuman published her debut novel, The Idiot, I couldn’t help but be embarrassed that I didn’t get the fuss, even though everybody else was prattling on about how funny it was. I was perhaps faintly bored by the adventures of Batuman’s protagonist Selin, a freshman at Harvard. But somehow the novel grew on me in leaps and bounds. In Either/Or, Selin’s back for her sophomore year, and I’m happy to report that it’s even better. Batuman’s masterful at making fun of self-serious academics and, somehow, Selin’s become so relatable, she seemed to merge with myself. I can’t wait for junior year.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "funny stuff", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0525557598", "cover": "0525557598", "goodreads": 58890783, "itunes": 9780525557593, "bookshop": 9780525557593, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Ho6Rpri-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525557593", "isbn10": "0525557598", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 101, "book": "Either/Or", "source": "NPR", "text": "A quest for knowledge in Elif Batuman's sequel to 'The Idiot'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/26/1101490537/a-quest-for-knowledge-in-elif-bautmans-sequel-to-the-idiot" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 101, "book": "Either/Or", "source": "NPR", "text": "Elif Batuman's sequel 'Either/Or' follows a young woman's sexual awakening", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/24/1100118428/either-or-elif-batuman-interview-the-idiot" } ] }, "102": { "id": 102, "edition": "june", "title": "Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation", "author": "Ruth Wilson Gilmore", "reviewers": [ "Kamil Ahsan" ], "text": "

Most people I know would argue that an essay collection from one of the foremost thinkers and activists of the past three decades, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, is an important read. But most may also find the prospect academic and daunting – like a homework assignment. Let me dispel you of that fear. Gilmore is clear as a bell: potent and factual on injustice, filled with sharp intelligence and even wit, but also somehow continuously surprising and emotional. With every page, Gilmore forces us to think of race, class, prisons, and the world in entirely new ways.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "the states we’re in", "rather long", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "1839761709", "cover": "1839761709", "goodreads": 56237293, "itunes": 9781839761706, "bookshop": 9781839761706, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417YZT0tIPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781839761706", "isbn10": "1839761709", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 102, "book": "Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Listen: Where Life is Precious, Life is Precious", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/wbez-motive-podcast-season-4-episode-7-illinois-prisons/19c362b0-b385-433c-b19e-1782a8a66eee" } ] }, "103": { "id": 103, "edition": "june", "title": "Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?: A Memoir", "author": "Séamas O'Reilly", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Séamas O’Reilly’s rousing grief memoir shuns sentimentality in favor of gallows humor. Its title comes from a favorite family tale: when O’Reilly was five, his mother died, leaving behind 11 (!) children. At the wake in their house in Northern Ireland, O’Reilly went around the crowd “like a chipper little maître’d, with the cheerful enquiry: ‘Did ye hear Mammy died?’” I laughed out loud reading this memoir – O’Reilly’s style and mining of family farce recall David Sedaris, but with a Derry bent.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "0316424250", "cover": "0316424250", "goodreads": 52588525, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780316424257, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51im9jPFZvS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316424257", "isbn10": "0316424250", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 103, "book": "Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?' is a grief memoir that shuns sentimentality", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/06/1080809363/did-ye-hear-mammy-died-is-a-grief-memoir-that-shuns-sentimentality" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 103, "book": "Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?' is the memoir of a widowed Irish man raising 11 children", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/04/1103075957/did-ye-hear-mammy-died-is-the-memoir-of-a-widowed-irish-man-raising-11-children" } ] }, "104": { "id": 104, "edition": "june", "title": "Heartbroke", "author": "Chelsea Bieker", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

The Central Valley of California shimmers at the edges with desire and desperation in this short story collection, told in 11 different voices that Chelsea Bieker inhabits with perfect pitch. Here’s Vangie of “Cowboys and Angels” getting acquainted with us: “I had me a cowboy once on a hot steam Friday night … just us together in his truck with old ‘Angel from Montgomery’ playing way turned up.” I could feel the steam seeping out of that truck, could hear John Prine’s voice crooning. In each story, it’s only a matter of time before hope curdles in the hellish heat.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1646221273", "cover": "1646221273", "goodreads": 58687813, "itunes": 9781646221271, "bookshop": 9781646221271, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pH6TdRJoL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781646221271", "isbn10": "1646221273", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 104, "book": "Heartbroke", "source": "NPR", "text": "There's no redemption to be had in Chelsea Bieker's 'Heartbroke'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/07/1091386380/theres-no-redemption-to-be-had-in-chelsea-biekers-heartbroke" } ] }, "105": { "id": 105, "edition": "june", "title": "Lost & Found: A Memoir", "author": "Kathryn Schulz", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

The grief story and love story that form the backbone of New Yorker staff writer Kathryn Schulz’s memoir are, in themselves, not extraordinary. Her father died at 74 after many years of ill health; 18 months earlier, she fell in love with the woman she would marry. But Schulz’s philosophical reckoning with losing and finding unlocks existential meaning out of the utterly mundane facts of human life. Lost & Found, is a call to remember that “we are here to keep watch, not to keep.”

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "love & romance", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0525512462", "cover": "0525512462", "goodreads": 57800384, "itunes": 9780525512462, "bookshop": 9780525512462, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41KFtj8FppL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525512462", "isbn10": "0525512462", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 105, "book": "Lost & Found: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "A grief story and a love story form the backbone of 'Lost & Found'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/11/1071793190/a-grief-story-and-a-love-story-form-the-backbone-of-lost-found" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 105, "book": "Lost & Found: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Kathryn Schulz's 'Lost and Found' memoir", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/04/1084602920/a-month-long-paid-break-from-work-kathryn-schulzs-lost-and-found-memoir" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 105, "book": "Lost & Found: A Memoir", "source": "KQED", "text": "Kathryn Schulz’s memoir ‘Lost & Found’ contemplates when joy and grief arrive at the same time", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101887416/kathryn-schulzs-memoir-lost-found-contemplates-when-joy-and-grief-arrive-at-the-same-time" } ] }, "106": { "id": 106, "edition": "june", "title": "Very Cold People: A Novel", "author": "Sarah Manguso", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Very Cold People may follow a girl’s coming-of-age in the 1980s and 1990s, but it is less a traditional bildungsroman than a study of whiteness and its ravages. Set a fictional town in Massachusetts obsessed with its colonial history and rigid class structures and unfolding in sharp vignettes, this is a haunting book about the loneliness of growing up in a place where you are acutely aware you don’t belong, but pretend that you do in order to survive.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "0593241223", "cover": "0593241223", "goodreads": 58082210, "itunes": 9780593241226, "bookshop": 9780593241226, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zvGJjWt4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593241226", "isbn10": "0593241223", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 106, "book": "Very Cold People: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sarah Manguso considers deprivations and predations in her novel 'Very Cold People'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/12/1079810856/very-cold-people-review-sarah-manguso-heller-mcalpin" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 106, "book": "Very Cold People: A Novel", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Sarah Manguso’s ‘Very Cold People’ and life’s overwhelming small moments", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm/sarah-manguso-very-cold-people" } ] }, "107": { "id": 107, "edition": "june", "title": "Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation", "author": "Maud Newton", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

If you’ve ever lost hours to tracing your family on Ancestry.com, you might relate to Maud Newton’s obsession over genealogy. Ancestor Trouble represents decades of research into genealogic records, genetic science, and the cultural history of “ancestor hunger,” as well as Newton’s own coming to terms with how to face and honor her family history. Her family lore is particularly intriguing –\nher maternal grandfather is rumored to have married 13 times – but it is Newton’s research, analysis, and reflections that make for a rigorous wrestling with the anxieties of ancestry that is as deep as it is broad.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "science!" ], "isbn": "0812997921", "cover": "0812997921", "goodreads": 58558175, "itunes": 9780812997927, "bookshop": 9780812997927, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LRvC8t5SS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780812997927", "isbn10": "0812997921", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 107, "book": "Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Ancestor Trouble,' Maud Newton wrestles with her family history", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1089170565/in-ancestor-trouble-maud-newton-wrestles-with-her-family-history" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 107, "book": "Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation", "source": "NPR", "text": "Maud Newton couldn't ignore her family's racist history. So she published it", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1089533698/maud-newton-couldnt-ignore-her-familys-racist-history-so-she-published-it" } ] }, "108": { "id": 108, "edition": "june", "title": "Monarch: A Novel", "author": "Candice Wuehle", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Candice Wuehle’s irresistibly weird debut novel is the kind of book that you want to start rereading immediately – not just to trace the conspiracy at its heart, but to appreciate how its kaleidoscope of beauty pageants, Y2K anxieties, and deep state machinations synthesizes into an exploration of what makes up a self. Monarch traces a young woman’s gradual awakening to her programming as an agent in an offshoot of Project MKUltra. But Wuehle is less concerned with deep state spycraft than with the question of how to differentiate who we are from who we are trained to be.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1593767072", "cover": "1593767072", "goodreads": 58597258, "itunes": 9781593767075, "bookshop": 9781593767075, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41osXphWUeL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781593767075", "isbn10": "1593767072", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 108, "book": "Monarch: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "A sleeper-agent-pageant-queen exacts revenge — and finds herself — in 'Monarch'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089121396/a-sleeper-agent-pageant-queen-exacts-revenge-and-finds-herself-in-monarch" } ] }, "109": { "id": 109, "edition": "june", "title": "Paradais", "author": "Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes", "reviewers": [ "Leland Cheuk" ], "text": "

Fernanda Melchor’s Paradais, the follow-up to the Booker Prize-nominated Hurricane Season, is another grim and powerful indictment of the depravity encouraged by Mexico’s racist, sexist and classist societal structures. Translated by Sophie Hughes, Paradais stars a a luxury housing complex’s beleaguered gardener, who’s driven by one of its residents to follow his worst impulses. Melchor’s prose is singular, with its fair share of page-long sentences that travel from the deepest psychic corners of her characters to the broadest panoramas of Mexican life.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0811231321", "cover": "0811231321", "goodreads": 58470818, "itunes": 9780811231329, "bookshop": 9780811231329, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51AtLWDRFOL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780811231329", "isbn10": "0811231321", "links": [] }, "110": { "id": 110, "edition": "june", "title": "The Stars Are Not Yet Bells: A Novel", "author": "Hannah Lillith Assadi", "reviewers": [ "Leland Cheuk" ], "text": "

Hannah Lillith Assadi’s second novel, The Stars Are Not Yet Bells, is vastly different from her dazzling debut, Sonora. While Sonora was a contemporary, coming-of-age story centered on female friendship, The Stars Are Not Yet Bells is a historical romance, spanning generations. Suffering from Alzheimer’s, Elle, the novel’s elderly protagonist, looks back on a lifetime of compromises in love and health. Assadi’s sharp and impressionistic sentences elevate a familiar premise into an exhilarating reading experience.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "family matters", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593084365", "cover": "0593084365", "goodreads": 57246931, "itunes": 9780593084366, "bookshop": 9780593084366, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41dbE8MSCbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593084366", "isbn10": "0593084365", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 110, "book": "The Stars Are Not Yet Bells: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Hannah Lillith Assadi on 'The Stars Are Not Yet Bells'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2022-02-08/hannah-lillith-assadi-on-the-stars-are-not-yet-bells" } ] }, "111": { "id": 111, "edition": "june", "title": "A Tiny Upward Shove: A Novel", "author": "Melissa Chadburn", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "

Literary alchemist Melissa Chadburn opens her debut novel with a young woman being strangled and murdered; propels the book through a tale of abuse, heartache and loss; and ends on an affirmation of love. Chadburn transposes her voice as a muckraking investigative journalist into an aswang — a Filipino spirit of the dead. It is the aswang’s job to right the wrong done to Marina, the victim. As narrator, the aswang brings readers into the heart and mind of both murdered and murderer, ripping open the underbelly of American capitalism. The result is gripping, provocative and unforgettable.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0374277753", "cover": "0374277753", "goodreads": 57693570, "itunes": 9780374277758, "bookshop": 9780374277758, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WOFGxUQCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374277758", "isbn10": "0374277753", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 111, "book": "A Tiny Upward Shove: A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "2022 Debuts: 'A Tiny Upward Shove' by Melissa Chadburn", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/2022-debuts-tiny-upward-shove-melissa-chadburn/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 111, "book": "A Tiny Upward Shove: A Novel", "source": "WABE", "text": "Matt Nixon of A Capella Books shares his summer reading list", "url": "https://www.wabe.org/matt-nixon-of-a-capella-books-shares-his-summer-reading-list/" } ] }, "112": { "id": 112, "edition": "june", "title": "Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance: A Novel", "author": "Alison Espach", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

It wasn’t exactly a sudden disappearance, but fans of Alison Espach’s first novel, the wonderful The Adults, have had to wait 11 years for her follow-up. Good news: It’s more than worth it. Her second book follows Sally, a 28-year-old woman looking back on a year of her childhood in which her older sister was killed in a car crash. While the subject matter is obviously heartbreaking, Espach’s book is often quite funny, and the structure – it’s told in the second person – is fascinating. Espach once again proves that she’s a brilliantly talented author.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1250823145", "cover": "1250823145", "goodreads": 58672976, "itunes": 9781250823144, "bookshop": 9781250823144, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yj1KgHv9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250823144", "isbn10": "1250823145", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 112, "book": "Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance: A Novel", "source": "WGCU", "text": "Gulf Coast Life Book Club: Alison Espach, 'Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance'", "url": "https://news.wgcu.org/show/gclbookclub/2022-05-17/alison-espach-notes-on-your-sudden-disappearance" } ] }, "113": { "id": 113, "edition": "june", "title": "Shit Cassandra Saw: Stories", "author": "Gwen E. Kirby", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Gwen E. Kirby doesn’t shy away from the weird in her debut short story collection. The author has a gift for writing about characters in sometimes extraordinary circumstances with a mostly straight face, revealing truths that cast a bright light on women trying to make their way in an endlessly hostile society. She’s willing to take risks, but knows when to tap the brakes, when to step back and let her carefully drawn characters speak for themselves. This is a stunning collection from a writer whose talent and creativity seem boundless.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0143136623", "cover": "0143136623", "goodreads": 57797983, "itunes": 9780143136620, "bookshop": 9780143136620, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KwUBNU4SL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780143136620", "isbn10": "0143136623", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 113, "book": "Shit Cassandra Saw: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Gwen E. Kirby's stunning collection of short stories takes readers on a wild ride", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/12/1072446914/gwen-e-kirbys-stunning-collection-of-short-stories-takes-readers-on-a-wild-ride" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 113, "book": "Shit Cassandra Saw: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Writer Gwen Kirby on debut collection and how being a complicated woman is empowering", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/12/1072548460/writer-gwen-kirby-on-debut-collection-and-how-being-a-complicated-woman-is-empow" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 113, "book": "Shit Cassandra Saw: Stories", "source": "WPR", "text": "Gwen E. Kirby takes creative risks to explore the lives of angry, funny and loud women", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/gwen-e-kirby-takes-creative-risks-explore-lives-angry-funny-and-loud-women" } ] }, "114": { "id": 114, "edition": "june", "title": "The Novelist: A Novel", "author": "Jordan Castro", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Jordan Castro is a novelist, and also a supporting character in The Novelist, a novel about a would-be novelist trying to write a novel. Got it? Sure, Castro’s fiction debut is as meta as it gets, but that’s part of its immense charm. The narrator of the book, which takes place during one morning, is determined to work on his novel but keeps getting distracted by making tea, the Internet, and his need to go to the bathroom. Castro’s book is odd – that’s undebatable – but it’s also sweet, funny and beautifully written.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "funny stuff", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "rather short", "for art lovers", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "1593767137", "cover": "1593767137", "goodreads": 59147138, "itunes": 9781593767136, "bookshop": 9781593767136, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LGAA4yeLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781593767136", "isbn10": "1593767137", "links": [] }, "115": { "id": 115, "edition": "june", "title": "A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times: Stories", "author": "Meron Hadero", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Debut books don’t get much stronger than this. Meron Hadero’s remarkable stories explore a diverse cast of people doing their best to find acceptance or at least stability – a 10-year-old Ethiopian immigrant who befriends a German man in Iowa; a pair of refugees in New York determined to learn how to cook classic American food. Hadero is deeply perceptive; her dialogue always rings true, and the regard she has for her characters is apparent. This isn’t just an excellent first book, it’s an excellent book, period.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "163206118X", "cover": "163206118X", "goodreads": 58068144, "itunes": 9781632061188, "bookshop": 9781632061188, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gNQj5anuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781632061188", "isbn10": "163206118X", "links": [] }, "116": { "id": 116, "edition": "june", "title": "Nuclear Family: A Novel", "author": "Joseph Han", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Joseph Han’s heartfelt and hilarious novel is so well executed, so self-assured, that it’s hard to believe it’s a debut. The book follows the members of a Korean American family in Hawaii whose lives are thrown into disarray when one of them, an English teacher living in South Korea, goes viral after trying to cross the DMZ. Guy Fieri, who makes a cameo in the novel, might call this book “off the chain”; we’ll just settle for “masterful.”

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1640094865", "cover": "1640094865", "goodreads": 59349398, "itunes": 9781640094864, "bookshop": 9781640094864, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ELxJACtzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781640094864", "isbn10": "1640094865", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 116, "book": "Nuclear Family: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Joseph Han on U.S. imperialism, Korean ghosts and Guy Fieri", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/13/1104602487/joseph-han-on-u-s-imperialism-korean-ghosts-and-guy-fieri" } ] }, "117": { "id": 117, "edition": "june", "title": "Rainbow Rainbow: Stories", "author": "Lydia Conklin", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

For far too long, queer, trans and non-binary people have been massively underrepresented in American fiction. Debut author Lydia Conklin aims to change that with their beautiful short story collection. The stories here tackle complex issues of identity and self-discovery with sometimes heartbreaking insight; Conklin doesn’t shy away from addressing their characters’ often painful journeys. This is an absolute triumph of a book.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "164622101X", "cover": "164622101X", "goodreads": 56149975, "itunes": 9781646221011, "bookshop": 9781646221011, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FsIkyVDqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781646221011", "isbn10": "164622101X", "links": [] }, "118": { "id": 118, "edition": "june", "title": "Thank You, Mr. Nixon: Stories", "author": "Gish Jen", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

When a story collection starts off with a letter written by a Chinese woman to Richard Nixon – in hell – you know you’re in for a fascinating reading experience. Jen’s sharp and observant stories explore the lives of Chinese and Chinese American people, and there’s not a single weak link – she writes with compassion and a keen eye for the way real people speak and think. This is an exceptional collection, written with intelligence, wit and grace; it’s one of the best books of Jen’s remarkable career.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593319893", "cover": "0593319893", "goodreads": 57933324, "itunes": 9780593319895, "bookshop": 9780593319895, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kg0e2h8DL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593319895", "isbn10": "0593319893", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 118, "book": "Thank You, Mr. Nixon: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Thank You, Mr. Nixon' is a collection written with intelligence, wit and grace", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/01/1077296906/thank-you-mr-nixon-is-a-collection-written-with-intelligence-wit-and-grace" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 118, "book": "Thank You, Mr. Nixon: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Gish Jen tells stories of the U.S. and China in 'Thank You, Mr. Nixon'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/29/1076664004/gish-jen-tells-stories-of-the-u-s-and-china-in-thank-you-mr-nixon" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 118, "book": "Thank You, Mr. Nixon: Stories", "source": "KQED", "text": "Gish Jen explores U.S.-China ties in 'Thank You, Mr. Nixon'", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101887929/gish-jen-explores-u-s-china-ties-in-thank-you-mr-nixon" } ] }, "119": { "id": 119, "edition": "june", "title": "Violets", "author": "Kyung-Sook Shin, translated by Anton Hur", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

South Korean star author Kyung-Sook Shin’s 2001 novel, newly translated into English, might not be an easy read, but it’s a great one. The book follows San, a woman still reeling from a romantic rejection years prior and who becomes obsessed with a photographer that visits her flower shop. Shin’s prose is spare but effective, and she explores dark themes beautifully. This is a smart, shocking novel from one of South Korea’s most talented authors.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1558612904", "cover": "1558612904", "goodreads": 49092634, "itunes": 9781558612907, "bookshop": 9781558612907, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dDITc4H7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781558612907", "isbn10": "1558612904", "links": [] }, "120": { "id": 120, "edition": "june", "title": "Flying Solo", "author": "Linda Holmes", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Zutter" ], "text": "

Pop Culture Happy Hour host Linda Holmes follows up Evvie Drake Starts Over with another charming tale from idyllic Calcasset, Maine. Staring down spinsterhood at 40 after calling off her wedding, Laurie Sassalyn temporarily returns home for the thankless task of cleaning out her beloved great-aunt Dot’s home. Having long aspired to Dot’s adventurous lifestyle, Laurie unearths a mystery in the form of a cunning wooden duck decoy. Holmes whisks readers on a down-to-earth art heist that’s twistier than Ocean’s Eleven, balancing second-chance romance with the reminder that families’ good daughters and single aunts should never apologize for putting themselves first.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "for art lovers", "love & romance", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0525619275", "cover": "0525619275", "goodreads": 59089710, "itunes": 9780525619277, "bookshop": 9780525619277, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41pwhiWyI8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525619277", "isbn10": "0525619275", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 120, "book": "Flying Solo", "source": "NPR", "text": "NPR host Linda Holmes' latest novel is a mystery centered on a left-behind duck decoy", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/12/1104418203/npr-host-linda-holmes-latest-novel-is-a-mystery-centered-on-a-left-behind-duck-d" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 120, "book": "Flying Solo", "source": "MPR", "text": "NPR pop culture host Linda Holmes talk about her new novel 'Flying Solo' and about film, TV, music and books", "url": "https://www.mainepublic.org/show/maine-calling/2022-06-20/npr-pop-culture-host-linda-holmes-talk-about-her-new-novel-flying-solo-and-about-film-tv-music-and-books" } ] }, "121": { "id": 121, "edition": "june", "title": "Disorientation: A Novel", "author": "Elaine Hsieh Chou", "reviewers": [ "Nayantara Dutta" ], "text": "

If you graduated only to feel disillusioned about academia, you’ll relate to Disorientation, a literary satire that takes a hilarious and refreshingly honest look at the power dynamics of college campuses. As Ph.D. student Ingrid Yang procrastinates writing her dissertation on the (fictional) poet Xiao-Wen Chou, she stumbles upon a discovery about Chou that upends her life and sense of self. It sends her on an adventure to uncover the truth, which becomes a surprising journey to social consciousness. This one will have you rolling over with laughter and texting your college group chat.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0593298357", "cover": "0593298357", "goodreads": 58350424, "itunes": 9780593298350, "bookshop": 9780593298350, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41j69eZioKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593298350", "isbn10": "0593298357", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 121, "book": "Disorientation: A Novel", "source": "WPR", "text": "Elaine Hsieh Chou delivers humor and social commentary in debut novel, 'Disorientation'", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/elaine-hsieh-chou-delivers-humor-and-social-commentary-debut-novel-disorientation" } ] }, "122": { "id": 122, "edition": "june", "title": "All This Could Be Different: A Novel", "author": "Sarah Thankam Mathews", "reviewers": [ "Nayantara Dutta" ], "text": "

If you’ve ever wanted to read a love letter to friendship, this is it. All This Could Be Different follows Sneha, a 22-year-old consultant in Milwaukee who is building a life for herself in a new city. From dating women to navigating financial anxiety to finding an unlikely group of friends, the novel explores the tenderness and troubles of Sneha’s first few years of adulthood. Through exquisite observations, Sarah Thankam Mathews reflects on the gift of having people you can count on, who anchor you through new chapters.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593489128", "cover": "0593489128", "goodreads": 59576064, "itunes": 9780593489123, "bookshop": 9780593489123, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cK5mKEZPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593489123", "isbn10": "0593489128", "links": [] }, "123": { "id": 123, "edition": "june", "title": "The Wok: Recipes and Techniques", "author": "J. Kenji López-Alt", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Yet another stir-fry book, you ask? Not exactly. In his columns, books and cooking show, Kenji López-Alt has cultivated a nerdcore charm that’s proven to be a winning recipe for process-minded cooks. The Wok’s appeal is not innovation; you can find dishes like kung pao shrimp and cumin lamb on many Chinese restaurant menus. But now you don’t have to leave your home. As far as I’m concerned, it’s worth the sticker price to learn a velveting technique – a way to keep meat tender while searing it — that actually works. It’s just one of the gems within these pages.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "0393541215", "cover": "0393541215", "goodreads": 58085211, "itunes": 9780393541212, "bookshop": 9780393541212, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31RD74Rq0KL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780393541212", "isbn10": "0393541215", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 123, "book": "The Wok: Recipes and Techniques", "source": "NPR", "text": "Chef and food writer J. Kenji López-Alt on wok cooking, working at 'Cook's Illustrated,' and more", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/24/1088623381/chef-and-food-writer-j-kenji-lopez-alt" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 123, "book": "The Wok: Recipes and Techniques", "source": "NPR", "text": "How to keep meat juicy with science", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1102406135/how-to-keep-meat-juicy-with-science" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 123, "book": "The Wok: Recipes and Techniques", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Food guru J. Kenji López-Alt explains how to 'Wok' this way", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/03/08/j-kenji-lopez-alt-wok-cookbook" } ] }, "124": { "id": 124, "edition": "june", "title": "I Am From Here: Stories and Recipes From a Southern Chef", "author": "Vishwesh Bhatt", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Born in Gujarat, India, Mississippi chef Vishwesh Bhatt had me from hello with his genteelly defiant title, I Am From Here. Western India and the Southern U.S. share more culinary parallels than you’d think, from rice varietals and sesame to okra, shrimp and fresh tomatoes. Here, these ingredients explode in gleeful fusion, the torrid affair of a spice cabinet and a well-stocked pantry. Juicy shrimp pop beneath a crust of black pepper and coriander; pork shoulder melts in a sweet arból-guajillo chile paste. What about sourcing ingredients? After two years of lockdown, don’t tell me you don’t know how to mail-order dal!

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1324006064", "cover": "1324006064", "goodreads": 58999203, "itunes": 9781324006060, "bookshop": 9781324006060, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51a01JyTceL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781324006060", "isbn10": "1324006064", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 124, "book": "I Am From Here: Stories and Recipes From a Southern Chef", "source": "NPR", "text": "Mississippi Masala: How a native of India became a Southern cooking star", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/01/28/511884777/mississippi-masala-how-a-native-of-india-became-a-southern-cooking-star" } ] }, "125": { "id": 125, "edition": "june", "title": "Milk Street: The World in a Skillet", "author": "Christopher Kimball", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Not long ago, Milk Street magazine was a scrappy startup; today the franchise sprawls like a gastronomic version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Every few months another cookbook tumbles forth from the Milk Street recipe database: Do you need another? I’d argue yes. If you, like me, routinely ax recipes that use one pan too many for a weeknight, this book is a godsend. Cook the pasta right in there with the pancetta, chard and beans. Forget about layering phyllo, just crumple it on top for “skillet spanakopita.” In other words, Christopher Kimball gleefully breaks rules in the name of simplification.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "0316387363", "cover": "0316387363", "goodreads": 58786852, "itunes": 9780316387361, "bookshop": 9780316387361, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ulu62C3JL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316387361", "isbn10": "0316387363", "links": [] }, "126": { "id": 126, "edition": "june", "title": "The Art of Pantry Cooking: Meals for Family and Friends", "author": "Ronda Carman", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

If your kitchen pantry has ballooned beyond recognition during the pandemic, you’re not alone. It’s time to face down those guilt-inducing unused heaps of artichoke hearts and quinoa, and Ronda Carman is here to help. Organized alphabetically from almonds to za’atar, this cookbook is an international romp through 35 tinned and bottled essentials. You need that kecap manis for the chicken satay and peanut sauce. And extra panko is just another way of saying “roasted lemon-herb trout.” You, too, can be a pantry ninja, though don’t be fooled: Even as you use up the capers, I swear they will beget more.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "0847871568", "cover": "0847871568", "goodreads": 58892108, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780847871568, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51U3WbNbUcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780847871568", "isbn10": "0847871568", "links": [] }, "127": { "id": 127, "edition": "june", "title": "Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids", "author": "Scott Hershovitz", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

Philosopher and law professor Scott Hershovitz explains that philosophy affects “every aspect of our lives – the sacred, the profane, and even the mundane.” Driven by openness and compassion, Hershovitz’s inquiry at once acknowledges and firmly refutes Thomas Hobbes’ view of human existence without gorvernment as “nasty, brutish, and short.” By recounting funny conversations with his two sons during bath time, before bed and on the way to and from school, Hershovitz sets out to prove that philosophy, like inquisitive, rowdy children, can offer illuminating insights. The author’s fresh approach also reminds parents to embrace our children’s “strangeness” for as long as we can and in the process find our way back to the questioning child-philosopher within us.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "funny stuff", "it’s all geek to me", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "1984881817", "cover": "1984881817", "goodreads": 58709514, "itunes": 9781984881816, "bookshop": 9781984881816, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41uy0fW0sTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781984881816", "isbn10": "1984881817", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 127, "book": "Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Nasty, Brutish, and Short' contends that all parents are raising little philosophers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/12/1096811309/nasty-brutish-and-short-contends-that-all-parents-are-raising-little-philosopher" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 127, "book": "Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids", "source": "KQED", "text": "Plato, Kant and … 6-year-olds? Scott Hershovitz celebrates a child's inner philosopher", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101889055/plato-kant-and-six-year-olds-scott-hershovitz-celebrates-a-childs-inner-philosopher" } ] }, "128": { "id": 128, "edition": "june", "title": "Present Tense Machine: A Novel", "author": "Gunnhild Øyehaug, translated by Sophie Hughes", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

In Gunnhild Øyehaug’s playful yet poignant novel, a mother misreads a word as her young daughter plays nearby – a mistake that splits the mother’s world into two parallel universes, irrevocably erasing her from her daughter’s life and vice-versa. From then on, mother and daughter continue to exist as thinkers and artists – but in their own worlds. Each woman’s identity reflects the novel’s central duality: To be a biological mother is to be divided by gestation and birth, yet to be a creator is to assume an eternal, genderless, and indivisible presence. By rejecting the classical concept of tragedy, Øyehaug’s modern Genesis story beautifully unifies life and art.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0374237174", "cover": "0374237174", "goodreads": 57693680, "itunes": 9780374237172, "bookshop": 9780374237172, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/410EtksZMdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374237172", "isbn10": "0374237174", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 128, "book": "Present Tense Machine: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Present Tense Machine,' the allegory of 'The Fall' becomes a linguistic accident", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/14/1073006018/in-present-tense-machine-allegory-of-the-fall-becomes-a-linguistic-accident" } ] }, "129": { "id": 129, "edition": "june", "title": "The Books of Jacob: A Novel", "author": "Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

Olga Tokarczuk’s propulsive doorstopper affirms heresy as a vital cure to all forms of oppression. Set in 18th century Poland among landmarks that overlap with modern-day Ukraine, the Nobel laureate’s mesmerizing epic – via a sublime translation by Jennifer Croft – celebrates mysteries and contradictions, as embodied by Jacob, a false prophet whose adopted surname Frank evokes both kinship and stranger. Spanning decades of socio-political upheavals that preceded the disappearance of Poland from the world map for 123 years due to its partitions by Russia and other neighboring empires, the novel unspools a breathtaking vista that evokes a sense of teeming otherness at the heart of the Enlightenment.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "historical fiction", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "rather long", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593087488", "cover": "0593087488", "goodreads": 58276619, "itunes": 9780593087480, "bookshop": 9780593087480, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LsUKr1sdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593087480", "isbn10": "0593087488", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 129, "book": "The Books of Jacob: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk releases 'The Books of Jacob'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/29/1076663955/nobel-prize-winner-olga-tokarczuk-releases-the-books-of-jacob" } ] }, "130": { "id": 130, "edition": "june", "title": "Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith", "author": "Grace Ellis, illustrated by Hannah Templer", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

“Murder is a kind of making love, a kind of possessing,” a young Patricia Highsmith wrote in her journal, angry and conflicted by her queerness. By visualizing the context that gave rise to The Price of Salt (later retitled Carol) – Highsmith’s iconic lesbian romance with a happy ending, and from which the title Flung Out of Space derives – Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer show how Highsmith’s self-loathing, sexual passion and aesthetic sublimation, vividly yet dispassionately rendered in panels of black, gray and orange, shaped the trajectory of her genre-defying fiction, where guilt and transcendence are inextricably bound.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "the dark side", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "141974433X", "cover": "141974433X", "goodreads": 56969413, "itunes": 9781419744334, "bookshop": 9781419744334, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51CIqTd4xZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781419744334", "isbn10": "141974433X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 130, "book": "Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith", "source": "NPR", "text": "Creators on the Cusp: Mariko Tamaki makes and curates LGBTQ-focused graphic novels", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/30/1089635307/creators-on-the-cusp-mariko-tamaki-makes-and-curates-lgbtq-focused-graphic-novel" } ] }, "131": { "id": 131, "edition": "june", "title": "The Peanutbutter Sisters and Other American Stories", "author": "Rumi Hara", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

The Peanutbutter sisters are descendants of an immigrant who “ditched his foreign name” to rename his offspring after a quintessential American food. But in recycling waste into a thriving business, riding hurricanes, and hitchhiking on whales, the sisters’ adventures are less about assimilation and more about reinventing the universe. Visual and linguistic jokes abound in other Rumi Hara tales: True love literally becomes “tree love” when two lovers are conjoined by their tree-heads; Mad Max and the parable of the Tortoise and the Hare infuse a post-apocalyptic, intergalactic race of “living things” that use repurposed vehicles to conquer harsh climate and forbidding terrains. Hara’s bold visions remap America in a time of environmental degradation, systemic prejudice, and lingering pandemic effects.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "comics & graphic novels", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the states we’re in", "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1770464956", "cover": "1770464956", "goodreads": 58772770, "itunes": 9781770464957, "bookshop": 9781770464957, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511oK8bw5fL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781770464957", "isbn10": "1770464956", "links": [] }, "132": { "id": 132, "edition": "june", "title": "Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives", "author": "Mary Laura Philpott", "reviewers": [ "Adela Bateman" ], "text": "

Bomb Shelter is a memoir of a mother’s experience after finding her son unconscious on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night. It’s a book that tugs at your heartstrings in all the right ways. In a series of essays, Mary Laura Philpott expertly weaves together comical stories about parenthood with ones about heavier themes: life, death and what we can and can’t do to protect the ones we love. I enjoyed this as an audiobook while on walks with my dog – often laughing out loud one minute and tearing up the next.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1982160780", "cover": "1982160780", "goodreads": 58438569, "itunes": 9781982160784, "bookshop": 9781982160784, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418w1TI3KvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982160784", "isbn10": "1982160780", "links": [] }, "133": { "id": 133, "edition": "june", "title": "Mouth to Mouth: A Novel", "author": "Antoine Wilson", "reviewers": [ "Anya Kamenetz" ], "text": "

When you save someone’s life, do you become responsible for them? This is the question that propels Mouth to Mouth forward. Set in the moneyed art world of Los Angeles, a young man with a secret seeks his fortune by attaching himself to a wealthy but cruel and duplicitous dealer. It’s a lean, existentialist drama, and capped with a satisfying twist ending.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "for art lovers", "rather short", "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "198218180X", "cover": "198218180X", "goodreads": 58438631, "itunes": 9781982181802, "bookshop": 9781982181802, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nZO5PRvTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982181802", "isbn10": "198218180X", "links": [] }, "134": { "id": 134, "edition": "june", "title": "Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel", "author": "Xochitl Gonzalez", "reviewers": [ "Anya Kamenetz" ], "text": "

This debut book is a gossipy, funny NYC novel with a multigenerational, queer and straight cast of characters you feel like you know, layered on top of a Puerto Rican political and historical thriller. It’s groaning with themes, like the table at a family dinner – it’s about secrets, ethics, power, identity, activism, love, guilt and healing.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1250786177", "cover": "1250786177", "goodreads": 57693171, "itunes": 9781250786173, "bookshop": 9781250786173, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Qe7XuaeaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250786173", "isbn10": "1250786177", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 134, "book": "Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "2022 Debuts: Xochitl Gonzalez's 'Olga Dies Dreaming'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/2022-debuts-xochitl-gonzalezs-olga-dies-dreaming/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 134, "book": "Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel", "source": "TPR", "text": " 'Olga Dies Dreaming': Xochitl Gonzalez’s debut novel is a story about family and betrayal.", "url": "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/book-public/2022-01-07/olga-dies-dreaming-xochitl-gonzalezs-debut-novel-is-a-story-about-family-and-betrayal" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 134, "book": "Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel", "source": "KWIT", "text": "Check It Out: Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez", "url": "https://www.kwit.org/show/check-it-out/2022-04-18/check-it-out-olga-dies-dreaming-by-xochitl-gonzalez" } ] }, "135": { "id": 135, "edition": "june", "title": "The Letters of Oscar Hammerstein II", "author": "Mark Horowitz (editor)", "reviewers": [ "Bob Mondello" ], "text": "

It turns out the lyric writer who reinvented Broadway form in Showboat and Oklahoma! just about always waxed eloquent — even in casual correspondence. In The Letters of Oscar Hammerstein II, that expressiveness is on display, whether it was to convince his own lawyer that he’d invented the phrase “Old Man River” and could therefore copyright it, or disabuse a nitpicker’s notion that the chorus of “Some Enchanted Evening” was ungrammatical. Missives politely declining to turn Tevye’s Daughters, Pygmalion and Don Quixote into Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, or urging celebrities to join him in promoting a post World War II “World Government,” are mere nuggets in a treasure trove of epistolary charm.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for music lovers", "for history lovers", "no biz like show biz", "seriously great writing", "rather long", "it’s all geek to me", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0197538185", "cover": "0197538185", "goodreads": 55397965, "itunes": 9780197538180, "bookshop": 9780197538180, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51H2Jj4HE6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780197538180", "isbn10": "0197538185", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 135, "book": "The Letters of Oscar Hammerstein II", "source": "NPR", "text": "Oh, what a beautiful archive: Oscar Hammerstein's letters reveal his many sides", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1105343623/oscar-hammerstein-book-letters-sound-of-music" } ] }, "136": { "id": 136, "edition": "june", "title": "The Nineties: A Book", "author": "Chuck Klosterman", "reviewers": [ "Bronson Arcuri" ], "text": "

I was a kid in the ‘90s. The Clinton impeachment? The Seinfeld finale? I remember those events only from a child’s point of view. This book took me back through the decade, but this time as an adult. And for the first time, everything going on in 2022 fell into place, like I’d been watching the second season of a TV show and finally caught up on the first. If you were there, The Nineties is a perfect refresher on what the decade was really like. If you were too young, it’ll tell you all you need to know.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "for music lovers", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me", "for sports lovers" ], "isbn": "0735217955", "cover": "0735217955", "goodreads": 58082714, "itunes": 9780735217959, "bookshop": 9780735217959, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41N1mgD-SuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780735217959", "isbn10": "0735217955", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 136, "book": "The Nineties: A Book", "source": "NPR", "text": "Going back to the '90s with Chuck Klosterman", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/17/1081568990/going-back-to-the-90s-with-chuck-klosterman" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 136, "book": "The Nineties: A Book", "source": "WPR", "text": "Chuck Klosterman revisits grunge, Tarantino and Zima in 'The Nineties'", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/chuck-klosterman-revisits-grunge-tarantino-and-zima-nineties" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 136, "book": "The Nineties: A Book", "source": "PRT", "text": "Studio Tulsa: Chuck Klosterman on 'The Nineties: A Book'", "url": "https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/show/studiotulsa/2022-03-01/the-nineties-a-book" } ] }, "137": { "id": 137, "edition": "june", "title": "Ramón and Julieta", "author": "Alana Quintana Albertson", "reviewers": [ "Candice Lim" ], "text": "

Julieta is a talented chef trying to save her family’s taqueria in San Diego, while Ramón runs a Taco Bell-type empire under the watchful eye of his wealth-obsessed father. On Día de los Muertos, Julieta and Ramón are masked strangers who share a kiss and assume they’ll never see each other again. That’s until Julieta finds out Ramón is her family’s new landlord and he plans to shut down their restaurant for good. This novel’s got a little Shakespeare and a lot of tacos, with a very steamy haters-to-lovers relationship at its core.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "family matters", "identity & culture", "fiction", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593336224", "cover": "0593336224", "goodreads": 57926134, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780593336229, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51v+aL3nAgL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593336229", "isbn10": "0593336224", "links": [] }, "138": { "id": 138, "edition": "june", "title": "Portrait of a Thief: A Novel", "author": "Grace D. Li", "reviewers": [ "Catie Merino" ], "text": "

At its core, Portrait of a Thief is a fun, frenetic heist novel. Readers follow five young Chinese Americans who are forcibly taking back what colonialism stole – specifically, five Chinese sculptures – from Western museums. Amid the heists, though, we watch these characters grapple with the weight of expectation specific to being part of immigrant families, and the unmoored loneliness of not feeling Chinese enough or American enough. Although the genre is a familiar one, Li establishes the stakes in a way that feels more relatable than stealing a necklace at the Met Gala ever could.

", "tags": [ "for art lovers", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "mysteries & thrillers", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593184734", "cover": "0593184734", "goodreads": 57021127, "itunes": 9780593184738, "bookshop": 9780593184738, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41F0Xlro4QL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593184738", "isbn10": "0593184734", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 138, "book": "Portrait of a Thief: A Novel", "source": "KQED", "text": "In ‘Portrait of a Thief,’ Chinese American students scheme to steal back looted art", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13910739/portrait-of-a-thief-grace-d-li-novel-review" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 138, "book": "Portrait of a Thief: A Novel", "source": "WGBH", "text": "Book Club: 2022 summer reading recommendations from three local librarians", "url": "https://www.wgbh.org/news/lifestyle/2022/06/03/book-club-2022-summer-reading-recommendations-from-three-local-librarians" } ] }, "139": { "id": 139, "edition": "june", "title": "Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century", "author": "Dana Stevens", "reviewers": [ "Danny Hensel" ], "text": "

Whether or not you’re a fan of the silent film star Buster Keaton (and, my goodness, if you are not a fan, rectify that immediately), Camera Man is an essential guide. Dana Stevens guides us through films like Sherlock Jr. and The General and places Keaton in his proper temporal context. The book creatively uses his life to explore various eddies along the river of the 20th century: the early days of cinema, women’s rights, addiction and the development of television.

", "tags": [ "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "nonfiction", "no biz like show biz", "it’s all geek to me", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1501134191", "cover": "1501134191", "goodreads": 35297506, "itunes": 9781501134197, "bookshop": 9781501134197, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41q3DZSKMsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781501134197", "isbn10": "1501134191", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 139, "book": "Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century", "source": "NPR", "text": "The genius of Buster Keaton", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/24/1075338353/the-genius-of-buster-keaton" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 139, "book": "Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century", "source": "NPR", "text": "Two new books revisit the legacy of silent film comic Buster Keaton", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/20/1082012476/new-books-buster-keaton-silent-film-star" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 139, "book": "Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century", "source": "WAMC", "text": "Dana Stevens' book 'Camera Man' celebrates the genius of Buster Keaton", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2022-03-04/dana-stevens-book-camera-man-celebrates-the-genius-of-buster-keaton" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 139, "book": "Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century", "source": "BSPR", "text": "Reader's Corner: Film critic Dana Stevens on 'Camera Man' ", "url": "https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/show/readers-corner/2022-05-20/cameraman-by-dana-stevens" } ] }, "140": { "id": 140, "edition": "june", "title": "The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future", "author": "Sebastian Mallaby", "reviewers": [ "Darian Woods" ], "text": "

Sebastian Mallaby is the master of unspooling human drama from financial systems. Here, the venture capitalists are the protagonists. Whether it’s financiers scrambling to court a pajama-wearing young Mark Zuckerberg or venture capitalist Bill Gurley’s efforts to oust Uber founder Travis Kalanick from the company, the stories are almost Shakespearean in their depictions of ambition, jealousy and ego.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "052555999X", "cover": "052555999X", "goodreads": 58009109, "itunes": 9780525559993, "bookshop": 9780525559993, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41unHz9lT2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525559993", "isbn10": "052555999X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 140, "book": "The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future", "source": "NPR", "text": "How one venture capitalist fought back against Uber's founder", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/1076514312/how-one-venture-capitalist-fought-back-against-ubers-founder" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 140, "book": "The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future", "source": "WAMC", "text": "Venture capital and the making of the new future", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2022-02-10/venture-capital-and-the-making-of-the-new-future" } ] }, "141": { "id": 141, "edition": "june", "title": "The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward", "author": "Daniel Pink", "reviewers": [ "Elise Hu" ], "text": "

This book not only reframed regret for me, it also showed me how the kinds of things we regret point us to what makes a life well-lived. It was really clarifying and transformative, and it informed the “big picture” types of decisions I’ve made since. It’s well-written and well-paced, too.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "science!" ], "isbn": "0735210659", "cover": "0735210659", "goodreads": 58446721, "itunes": 9780735210653, "bookshop": 9780735210653, "image": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71TZN+HrtzL.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780735210653", "isbn10": "0735210659", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 141, "book": "The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward", "source": "NPR", "text": "How examining our regrets can make for a more meaningful life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/16/1087010308/the-power-of-regret-how-examining-regret-can-help-you-live-a-meaningful-life" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 141, "book": "The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Daniel Pink wants to challenge what we think we know about regret", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/daniel-pink-wants-to-challenge-what-we-think-we-know-about-regret/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 141, "book": "The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward", "source": "MPR", "text": "Author Daniel Pink discusses his new book about regret, and how this emotion can be turned into a positive force", "url": "https://www.mainepublic.org/show/maine-calling/2022-03-09/author-daniel-pink-discusses-his-new-book-about-regret-and-how-this-emotion-can-be-turned-into-a-positive-force" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 141, "book": "The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward", "source": "KPCW", "text": "The Power of Regret: How looking backward moves us forward", "url": "https://www.kpcw.org/show/the-mountain-life/2022-05-18/the-power-of-regret-how-looking-backward-moves-us-forward" } ] }, "142": { "id": 142, "edition": "june", "title": "Joan Is Okay: A Novel", "author": "Weike Wang", "reviewers": [ "Erin Sells" ], "text": "

This is the first book I loved this year. It’s about a Chinese American doctor in New York City who is both grieving her father and trying to figure out what it means to be a woman, a professional, the daughter of immigrants, an American and neurodivergent. And, with growing concern, she’s monitoring reports of a strange new virus rapidly spreading around the world. It’s smart, heartfelt and insightful, and — I almost hate to say it — I literally laughed and cried.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "family matters", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0525654836", "cover": "0525654836", "goodreads": 55333768, "itunes": 9780525654834, "bookshop": 9780525654834, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51muqoHp1PL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525654834", "isbn10": "0525654836", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 142, "book": "Joan Is Okay: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Joan Is Okay' explores the meaning of home, having roots", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/21/1074670220/joan-is-okay-explores-the-meaning-of-home-having-roots" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 142, "book": "Joan Is Okay: A Novel", "source": "KUAR", "text": "Author Weike Wang explores issues of family and identity in new novel 'Joan is Okay'", "url": "https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/2022-02-01/author-weike-wang-explores-issues-of-family-and-identity-in-new-novel-joan-is-okay" } ] }, "143": { "id": 143, "edition": "june", "title": "Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home", "author": "Eric Kim", "reviewers": [ "Janet W. Lee" ], "text": "

Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home is New York Times cooking writer Eric Kim’s debut cookbook, filled with his twist on comfort-food recipes. Whether it’s his mother Jean’s napa cabbage kimchi or his homemade milk bread, every recipe is peppered with stories of Kim’s childhood in Atlanta and the loved ones who have shaped his life and food. Topped with scrumptious photos shot by Jenny Huang, it’s a lovely, warm read — not just as a cookbook but as a memoir accompanied by food. It’ll make you smile (and feel hungry too) and bring you back to your childhood kitchen.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "identity & culture", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0593233492", "cover": "0593233492", "goodreads": 58284098, "itunes": 9780593233498, "bookshop": 9780593233498, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61UYMeINIIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593233498", "isbn10": "0593233492", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 143, "book": "Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home", "source": "NPR", "text": "How to start cooking Korean American food", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089175288/authentic-cooking-korean-american-food" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 143, "book": "Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home", "source": "WNYC", "text": "A new cookbook: 'Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/new-cookbook-korean-american-food-tastes-home/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 143, "book": "Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Korean home cooking is where Eric Kim finds identity, nuance", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/free-speech-drugs-cookbook-film-reviews/korean-american-food-home-eric-kim" } ] }, "144": { "id": 144, "edition": "june", "title": "The Latinist: A Novel", "author": "Mark Prins", "reviewers": [ "Jason DeRose" ], "text": "

Oxford University graduate student Tessa Templeton trusts her dissertation adviser, Christopher Eccles — but should she? When she learns that her mentor has betrayed her, she tries to undo the damage he has done to her career, having learned that the only person she can trust is herself. Along the way, she unearths the truth about a little-known Latin lyric poet famous for a limping meter and discovers that, in the dark world of grad school, so much depends on the right footnote. The Latinist, which twists around the Daphne and Apollo myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, culminates with a deeply satisfying blow to the treachery of academia.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0393541274", "cover": "0393541274", "goodreads": 58085212, "itunes": 9780393541274, "bookshop": 9780393541274, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511p7AVtq3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780393541274", "isbn10": "0393541274", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 144, "book": "The Latinist: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Latinist' is an academic suspense story, with just a touch of Agatha Christie", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/10/1069931125/the-latinist-is-an-academic-suspense-story-with-just-a-touch-of-agatha-christie" } ] }, "145": { "id": 145, "edition": "june", "title": "Customs: Poems", "author": "Solmaz Sharif", "reviewers": [ "Jeevika Verma" ], "text": "

After the 2016 success of her debut Look, a National Book Award finalist, the American poetry world waited eagerly for Solmaz Sharif’s next collection. Customs came out in March, shortly after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, and reading it felt very relevant to the moment’s volatility. In fact, Customs is rooted in unrootedness; migration, borders and displacement are all themes in Sharif’s poems. This book asks us to consider how powerful language can be, and to use it carefully.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "identity & culture", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "1644450798", "cover": "1644450798", "goodreads": 57693625, "itunes": 9781644450796, "bookshop": 9781644450796, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41S87GK-nES._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781644450796", "isbn10": "1644450798", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 145, "book": "Customs: Poems", "source": "NPR", "text": "Poetry collection 'Customs' is rooted in un-rootedness", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/16/1086623047/poetry-collection-customs-is-rooted-in-un-rootedness" } ] }, "146": { "id": 146, "edition": "june", "title": "Time Is a Mother", "author": "Ocean Vuong", "reviewers": [ "Jeevika Verma" ], "text": "

In this highly anticipated second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong ruminates on time. It becomes a character of its own, both an obstacle and motherly, something that can nurture and hold. Written in the aftermath of his mother’s death, Vuong’s poems are raw with grief and darkness, but there are radical moments of joy and resilience even through that. Through these poems, Vuong sings loud and clear of everything worth living for and discovering – just as vividly as he did in his critically acclaimed titles On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Night Sky With Exit Wounds.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "staff picks", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0593300238", "cover": "0593300238", "goodreads": 58582927, "itunes": 9780593300237, "bookshop": 9780593300237, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416u0h5DCQL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593300237", "isbn10": "0593300238", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 146, "book": "Time Is a Mother", "source": "NPR", "text": "Poet Ocean Vuong shares his grief in 'Time Is A Mother'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/07/1091450215/poet-ocean-vuong-shares-his-grief-in-time-is-a-mother" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 146, "book": "Time Is a Mother", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Time is a Mother,' poet Ocean Vuong reflects on life, and time, without his mom", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/05/1090996745/in-time-is-a-mother-poet-ocean-vuong-reflects-on-life-and-time-without-his-mom" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 146, "book": "Time Is a Mother", "source": "NPR", "text": "Poet Ocean Vuong sifts through the aftershock of grief in 'Time Is a Mother'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/05/1090845515/poet-ocean-vuong-sifts-through-the-aftershock-of-grief-in-time-is-a-mother" } ] }, "147": { "id": 147, "edition": "june", "title": "All the Flowers Kneeling", "author": "Paul Tran", "reviewers": [ "Jeevika Verma" ], "text": "

Paul Tran’s debut poetry collection is a powerful exploration of healing in the wake of a violent past. Their poems refuse to lie, referencing memories of sexual assault and the damage it did to the poet’s self-image. So they rewrite this image – and learn to love themself in the process. They write in one poem – “Point A: me. Point B: me” – indicating just how deeply they are starting to believe in their own radiance. This book is an honest account of the role one can play in pushing forward their own grief – and it teaches us, the readers, to be free.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0143136844", "cover": "0143136844", "goodreads": 58393241, "itunes": 9780143136842, "bookshop": 9780143136842, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MFyqIzzbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780143136842", "isbn10": "0143136844", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 147, "book": "All the Flowers Kneeling", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Paul Tran’s wildly impressive debut poetry book, ‘All the Flowers Kneeling’", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm/paul-tran-all-the-flowers-kneeling" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 147, "book": "All the Flowers Kneeling", "source": "NPR", "text": "Humor, poetry and romance: Paul Tran and Hari Kondabolu on Code Switch Live", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/07/1079016052/humor-poetry-and-romance-on-code-switch-live" } ] }, "148": { "id": 148, "edition": "june", "title": "The Hurting Kind", "author": "Ada Limón", "reviewers": [ "Jeevika Verma" ], "text": "

Ada Limón’s sixth and latest collection is a testament to the power of sensitivity. As with her previous award-winning books, The Carrying and Bright Dead Things, these poems are acutely aware of the natural world. And Limón has a knack for acknowledging nature’s little mysteries in order to fully capture its history and abundance. For her, evidence of poetry is everywhere. She connects big ideas – fear, isolation, even death – with little details, like field sparrows, a box of matches or “the body moving / freely.” Above all, The Hurting Kind asks for our attention to stay tender.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1639550496", "cover": "1639550496", "goodreads": 59571658, "itunes": 9781639550494, "bookshop": 9781639550494, "image": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81q+NT3k2bL.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781639550494", "isbn10": "1639550496", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 148, "book": "The Hurting Kind", "source": "NPR", "text": "In her new poems, Ada Limón argues for turning a delicate attention to the world", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/09/1096005629/ada-limon-hurting-kind-review-poetry" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 148, "book": "The Hurting Kind", "source": "MTPR", "text": "The beauty and the grief: Ada Limón’s ‘The Hurting Kind’", "url": "https://www.mtpr.org/podcast/the-write-question/2022-05-19/the-beauty-and-the-grief-ada-limons-the-hurting-kind" } ] }, "149": { "id": 149, "edition": "june", "title": "Colu Cooks: Easy Fancy Food", "author": "Colu Henry", "reviewers": [ "Jessica Goldstein" ], "text": "

If you’re like me, you’ve been yearning to have friends gather once again for dinner. But as we bring loved ones back to our tables, it can be hard to know what to make. Luckily, Colu Henry’s cookbook is warm and inviting and will inspire the well-seasoned cook (try the “Crispy Fish with Quick Tomatillo and Jalapeño Confit”) and also the neophyte in the kitchen (check out her viral hit “My Cec”). The recipes are full of fresh herbs and staples from the pantry; they’re simple, yet elegant and delicious, and perfect for lingering over a meal.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1419747800", "cover": "1419747800", "goodreads": 58667405, "itunes": 9781419747809, "bookshop": 9781419747809, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+WV76Tq8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781419747809", "isbn10": "1419747800", "links": [] }, "150": { "id": 150, "edition": "june", "title": "Our Last Days in Barcelona", "author": "Chanel Cleeton", "reviewers": [ "Kamrun Nesa" ], "text": "

Chanel Cleeton has a cinematic way of making multigenerational stories tangible, weaving lives together like threads in a tapestry. In her recent novel Our Last Days in Barcelona, she alternates timelines about three women whose lives are irreparably affected by the injustice they see in their homelands. Cleeton shows the butterfly effects of oppression and rebellion in Cuba and Spain and what happens when you’re forced to choose among loyalty to your country, family and love. Our Last Days in Barcelona is a master class in family and political drama, in star-crossed love stories and in capturing the enormity of what home is.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593197828", "cover": "0593197828", "goodreads": 58867862, "itunes": 9780593197820, "bookshop": 9780593197820, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51LPRHGnunL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593197820", "isbn10": "0593197828", "links": [] }, "151": { "id": 151, "edition": "june", "title": "You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty: A Novel", "author": "Akwaeke Emezi", "reviewers": [ "Kamrun Nesa" ], "text": "

I never thought I’d describe a book as flavorful – but You Made A Fool of Death with Your Beauty turns cuisine into a kind of artful foreplay. Akwaeke Emezi’s protagonist, Feyi, a studio artist, never thought she’d fall for Alim, the handsome father of her friend-with-benefits. Her heart is still broken years after the death of her love. But Emezi creates tantalizing chemistry between Feyi and Alim, whose forbidden romance is scandal-worthy, and shows us that beauty and love come in many forms.

", "tags": [ "let’s talk about sex", "for art lovers", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "1982188707", "cover": "1982188707", "goodreads": 59232998, "itunes": 9781982188702, "bookshop": 9781982188702, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51TWXZqR3iL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982188702", "isbn10": "1982188707", "links": [] }, "152": { "id": 152, "edition": "june", "title": "Mecca: A Novel", "author": "Susan Straight", "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "text": "

I think of Susan Straight as the anti-Joan Didion. Both write about California, but Straight always felt her experience of California – filled with working-class refugees from Texas, Mississippi and Oaxaca – was overlooked, even dismissed, by Didion and her literary peers. Straight’s newest novel, Mecca, is a fine set of interwoven tales from her California. It’s set in a Southern California filled with desert highways, strip malls and small suburban houses where everyday people are sometimes faced with choices that are anything but. Her writing is both luminous and sharp and told, as usual, through richly layered family histories.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "fiction", "staff picks", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0374604517", "cover": "0374604517", "goodreads": 57693605, "itunes": 9780374604516, "bookshop": 9780374604516, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mRkHzJgtL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374604516", "isbn10": "0374604517", "links": [] }, "153": { "id": 153, "edition": "june", "title": "When We Were Birds: A Novel", "author": "Ayanna Lloyd Banwo", "reviewers": [ "Keishel Williams" ], "text": "

Over the past few years, we have been immersed in news about death. It often forces us to question our roles in this world and ask, why are we here? Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We Were Birds gives us a look at what it means to live surrounded by death on a daily basis. This is a novel about inheritance, loss and healing that follows the love story between a man who buries the dead and a woman whose ancestral destiny is to guide their souls after death. The book’s various threads deliver insight into life and death, written entirely in Trinidadian dialect.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0385547269", "cover": "0385547269", "goodreads": 58065031, "itunes": 9780385547260, "bookshop": 9780385547260, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518sziOGlBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780385547260", "isbn10": "0385547269", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 153, "book": "When We Were Birds: A Novel", "source": "WABE", "text": "Summer Reading: WABE staff picks", "url": "https://www.wabe.org/summer-reading-wabe-staff-picks/" } ] }, "154": { "id": 154, "edition": "june", "title": "Chilean Poet: A Novel", "author": "Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "

This book paints a beautiful, hilarious, sometimes excruciating portrait of what it means to be a cliche at different stages in your life. There’s the teenager who can’t get over a heartbreak, the young adult trying to outrun their nerdy youth, the overwhelmed new dad, the dad who leaves, the dad who doesn’t know how to come back, the son who pretends not to care. And of course, the tortured poet. Alejandro Zambra makes all of these stages feel rich and human, and the characters never become too old – or too stuck in their ways – to outgrow themselves.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "fiction", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593297946", "cover": "0593297946", "goodreads": 58492105, "itunes": 9780593297940, "bookshop": 9780593297940, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ExsrEkbvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593297940", "isbn10": "0593297946", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 154, "book": "Chilean Poet: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "The novel 'Chilean Poet' touches on and pulls apart the numerous varietals of love", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/12/1080354273/the-novel-chilean-poet-touches-on-and-pulls-apart-the-numerous-varietals-of-love" } ] }, "155": { "id": 155, "edition": "june", "title": "The Hacienda", "author": "Isabel Cañas", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "

I’m a sucker for Gothic novels, and I’ve been loving the trend of Gothics that take place somewhere unexpected (i.e., not Europe). The Hacienda is a story that takes us to, well, a hacienda – in a remote Mexican town in the 1820s, not long after the War of Independence. The protagonist, Beatriz, moves to her new husband’s large estate, eager to escape the rejection, poverty and tragedy that she’s suffered in Mexico City. What she finds instead is a ridiculously haunted house inhabited by some equally haunted-seeming people – including those meant to be closest to her.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "historical fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "family matters", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593436695", "cover": "0593436695", "goodreads": 57840571, "itunes": 9780593436691, "bookshop": 9780593436691, "image": "https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81QXis+sDXL.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593436691", "isbn10": "0593436695", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 155, "book": "The Hacienda", "source": "NPR", "text": "Romance, terror and the supernatural in Isabel Cañas' debut novel 'The Hacienda'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/04/1096669141/romance-terror-and-the-supernatural-in-isabel-canas-debut-novel-the-hacienda" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 155, "book": "The Hacienda", "source": "NPR", "text": "A new bride finds something supernatural with her rich husband in 'The Hacienda'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/01/1095809202/a-new-bride-finds-something-supernatural-with-her-rich-husband-in-the-hacienda" } ] }, "156": { "id": 156, "edition": "june", "title": "A Warbler's Journey", "author": "Scott Weidensaul, illustrated by Nancy Lane", "reviewers": [ "Marcela Davison Aviles" ], "text": "

If tragedy is the grim excavator of beauty, the era of our pandemic shutdown exemplified that. Bird song rose when noise levels from traffic, airplanes and even barking dogs plummeted. Bird-watching boomed.The world stopped, and birds and people noticed each other. A new book for children and adults by Scott Weidensaul, with gorgeous illustrations by Nancy Lane, is an epic story of a warbler’s resilient migration told through the eyes of two little girls. The story of its adventure is smart, beautiful and a reminder of what’s possible when we notice what we have in common with a tiny bird. (For ages 5 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "tales from around the world", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "0940719479", "cover": "0940719479", "goodreads": 60381160, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780940719477, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NvAcCWMzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780940719477", "isbn10": "0940719479", "links": [] }, "157": { "id": 157, "edition": "june", "title": "The Book of Wanderers", "author": "Reyes Ramirez", "reviewers": [ "Marcela Davison Aviles" ], "text": "

It’s tempting to describe the tales in this masterful debut collection of short stories as both of and for our current moment. But this painterly illumination of culture, heritage, language and humanity isn’t of the zeitgeist; rather, it tells a profound truth about the many realities constituting Latino/a/Hispanic life in the Americas. Hop on the surrealist bus to understanding that Reyes Ramirez conjures for us, and you’ll hear echoes of Dashiell Hammett, Gabriel García Márquez and Alfonsina Storni. But ultimately, Ramirez’s short story collection is singular, and the real deal.

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "short stories, essays & poetry", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0816543275", "cover": "0816543275", "goodreads": 58622187, "itunes": 9780816543274, "bookshop": 9780816543274, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vPum1T9OL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780816543274", "isbn10": "0816543275", "links": [] }, "158": { "id": 158, "edition": "june", "title": "Making Videogames: The Art of Creating Digital Worlds", "author": "Duncan Harris and Alex Wiltshire", "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "text": "

Visual beauty may not be the main explanation for video games’ hold on our culture, but this remarkable coffee table volume makes a compelling case for how the exquisite collusion of math and design contributes to their power. Non-gamers may be startled to learn how the heightened naturalism of the Hudson River School inspired the look of Red Dead Redemption 2 or how Control’s atmospheric lighting is drawn from the films of Nichols Winding Refn. Making Videogames is as immersive and impressionistic as the games it celebrates; a reminder that, like anything else, they’re an interface empty without art.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for art lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "050002314X", "cover": "050002314X", "goodreads": 57753972, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780500023143, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s8HMaZlhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780500023143", "isbn10": "050002314X", "links": [] }, "159": { "id": 159, "edition": "june", "title": "Under The Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation", "author": "Linda Villarosa", "reviewers": [ "Nick Charles" ], "text": "

In this sobering, page-turning account, Linda Villarosa identifies racism as the recessive gene in the nation’s DNA that adversely and devastatingly affects the health of Black people and continues to rob them of years of life expectancy. The systemic factors that were exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic have roots that go back centuries. As she writes, “Something about being Black is creating a health crisis, and that something is racism. It is the American problem in need of an American solution.”

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "038554488X", "cover": "038554488X", "goodreads": 59148724, "itunes": 9780385544887, "bookshop": 9780385544887, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51aGlqAkvzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780385544887", "isbn10": "038554488X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 159, "book": "Under The Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation", "source": "NPR", "text": " '1619 Project' journalist lays bare why Black Americans 'live sicker and die quicker'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/14/1103935147/linda-villarosa-under-the-skin-racism-healthcare" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 159, "book": "Under The Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation", "source": "NPR", "text": "How COVID exposed racial disparities in all aspects of the health care system", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1106256068/how-covid-exposed-racial-disparities-in-all-aspects-of-the-healthcare-system" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 159, "book": "Under The Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation", "source": "KQED", "text": "Racism's insidious toll on the health of the nation", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101889544/racisms-insidious-toll-on-the-health-of-the-nation" } ] }, "160": { "id": 160, "edition": "june", "title": "Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945", "author": "Richard Overy", "reviewers": [ "Nishant Dahiya" ], "text": "

Do we need another doorstop history of the best chronicled war of all time? When the book tries to do something wholly new – urges us to think of World War II in a completely new way – the answer is an emphatic yes. Only rarely do such books appear, and this is one of those rarest of books – and one that future histories of that conflict will likely be measured against for a while (and also one that was unexpectedly a perfect companion to the on-going conflict in Ukraine; I can’t remember the number of times I scribbled in the margins, “Just like today!”)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "067002516X", "cover": "067002516X", "goodreads": 58518225, "itunes": 9780670025169, "bookshop": 9780670025169, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QHX0IT2wL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780670025169", "isbn10": "067002516X", "links": [] }, "161": { "id": 161, "edition": "june", "title": "The Return of Faraz Ali: A Novel", "author": "Aamina Ahmad", "reviewers": [ "Nishant Dahiya" ], "text": "

It starts out as a crime novel. A murder. A cop. An investigation. And then evolves into so much more. This assured debut novel evokes an older Pakistan, with all the many complications of class, society, entitlement, entangled history. Anyone looking for a pat ending should leave this one alone; instead come for the evocative writing, the subtle characters, and plot – some of which veered in territory completely unexpected territory.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "seriously great writing", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593330188", "cover": "0593330188", "goodreads": 58542844, "itunes": 9780593330180, "bookshop": 9780593330180, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ClqKEVwwS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593330180", "isbn10": "0593330188", "links": [] }, "162": { "id": 162, "edition": "june", "title": "How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel", "author": "Sequoia Nagamatsu", "reviewers": [ "Summer Thomad" ], "text": "

Sequoia Nagamatsu’s debut is beautiful and unsparing in its depiction of a world reeling from a climate catastrophe-driven plague. From the earliest days of a pandemic, to the impacts that linger centuries into the future, the plague forces humans to reckon with immeasurable grief and loss. And the commercialization of death is inescapable: There’s a euthanasia amusement park for terminally ill children, a hotel for the dead. But despite the doom and gloom, these stories are endlessly imaginative and rich with meaning. Though the universe these stories are unfolding within is undeniably bleak, Nagamatsu imbues his characters with a sense of cosmic hope and humanity.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "staff picks", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063072645", "cover": "0063072645", "goodreads": 57850265, "itunes": 9780063072640, "bookshop": 9780063072640, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414EZZmOldL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063072640", "isbn10": "0063072645", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 162, "book": "How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Strap in for highs and lows with the pandemic novel 'How High We Go in the Dark'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/1075543294/pandemic-how-high-we-go-in-the-dark-review-sequoia-nagamatsu" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 162, "book": "How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel", "source": "KBIA", "text": "Sequoia Nagamatsu: ‘I think it's strange for writers to completely ignore that we're living in dystopic times.", "url": "https://www.kbia.org/2022-04-19/sequoia-nagamatsu-on-how-high-we-go-in-the-dark-i-think-its-strange-for-writers-to-completely-ignore-that-were-living-in-dystopic-times" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 162, "book": "How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "2022 Debuts: Sequoia Nagamatsu's 'How High We Go In the Dark'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/2022-debuts-sequoia-nagamatsus-how-high-we-go-dark/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 162, "book": "How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel", "source": "MPR", "text": "Minnesota novelist delves into pandemic grief", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/01/17/minnesota-novelist-delves-into-pandemic-grief" } ] }, "163": { "id": 163, "edition": "june", "title": "An Arrow to the Moon", "author": "Emily X.R. Pan", "reviewers": [ "Summer Thomad" ], "text": "

Hunter Yee and Luna Chang have spent their lives orbiting one another in their small town of Fairbridge, persisting under the stifling weight of their parents’ expectations. When their paths finally cross, they feel a pull to each other that they can’t explain, but there’s just one problem – a years-long feud between their families. In An Arrow to the Moon, Emily X.R. Pan melds Chinese mythology with a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet; the result is a story that glows with ethereal magic. Hunter and Luna find home in one another as they unearth their families’ secrets, navigate their futures and seek to understand the mysterious forces that surround them.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "staff picks", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0316464058", "cover": "0316464058", "goodreads": 41580931, "itunes": 9780316464055, "bookshop": 9780316464055, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51hMtL8jI+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316464055", "isbn10": "0316464058", "links": [] }, "164": { "id": 164, "edition": "june", "title": "Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island", "author": "Emily Meggett", "reviewers": [ "Wynne Davis" ], "text": "

If you’ve never heard of Edisto Island, Emily Meggett’s cookbook is a great place to start learning. Meggett is the matriarch of the island, which is home to many Gullah Geechee people and the food they’ve made for generations. The recipes are fantastic: One of my absolute favorites is Meggett’s Stuffed Fish with Parsley Rice and Roe, which is time-consuming but so worth the effort. You’re going to want to make these dishes again and again – especially Meggett’s Deviled Crab, Fried Okra, She Crab Soup, and Red Rice. And in doing so, you’ll realize the impact that the Gullah Geechee community has had on American food history.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1419758780", "cover": "1419758780", "goodreads": 58662508, "itunes": 9781419758782, "bookshop": 9781419758782, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SMzdoSMHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781419758782", "isbn10": "1419758780", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 164, "book": "Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Gullah Geechee home cooking", "url": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/gullah-geechee-home-cooking" } ] }, "165": { "id": 165, "edition": "june", "title": "Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture From My Kitchen in Mexico", "author": "Rick Martínez", "reviewers": [ "Wynne Davis" ], "text": "

Never have I wanted to take an epic road trip through Mexico more than when I read Rick Martínez write about what he learned and ate during his own travels. A few months off might not be in the cards, but lucky for me – and you – Martínez has created a roadmap to some of the best Mexican food in Mi Cocina. With seven sections focused on different regions across the country, Martínez guides you through some of the essential recipes for each. The recipes are vibrant, but what I love most are the stories alongside each of them. Food is deeply personal and with Mi Cocina, Martínez is sharing his life in food and inviting you to come along.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593138708", "cover": "0593138708", "goodreads": 58735006, "itunes": 9780593138700, "bookshop": 9780593138700, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61hQSpi+LeL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593138700", "isbn10": "0593138708", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 165, "book": "Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture From My Kitchen in Mexico", "source": "NPR", "text": "Rick Martínez brings 'rapture' to the kitchen with his new cookbook 'Mi Cocina'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/10/1097684686/rick-martinez-brings-rapture-to-the-kitchen-with-his-new-cookbook-mi-cocina" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 165, "book": "Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture From My Kitchen in Mexico", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Rick Martínez's favorite recipes from Mexico", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/rick-martinezs-favorite-recipes-mexico/" } ] }, "166": { "id": 166, "edition": "june", "title": "The Paradox Hotel: A Novel", "author": "Rob Hart", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Mixing elements of mystery, thrillers and science fiction, this is a riotously imaginative story that has everything from corpses that aren’t quite there to dinosaur-egg contraband. A fresh take on the dark possibilities of time traveling that also manages to discuss global warming. As funny as it is tense and engaging.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "it’s all geek to me", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1984820648", "cover": "1984820648", "goodreads": 58175765, "itunes": 9781984820648, "bookshop": 9781984820648, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41XMGZTy+QL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781984820648", "isbn10": "1984820648", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 166, "book": "The Paradox Hotel: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Paradox Hotel' is a mashup of sci-fi and crime fiction", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/23/1082397878/the-paradox-hotel-is-a-mashup-of-sci-fi-and-crime-fiction" } ] }, "167": { "id": 167, "edition": "june", "title": "Scattered All Over the Earth", "author": "Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani", "reviewers": [ "Kamil Ahsan" ], "text": "

This dystopian novel is one of those books I’m terrified enough people won’t read. It’s riveting, bizarre as can be, and like nothing else I’ve ever read. A refugee from a Japan that no longer exists, Hiruko is a teacher who travels through Europe speaking in her invented language that somehow just makes sense to everyone. The book’s told in episodes and strange little spells of romance and precise world-building, which is incredibly fun in itself. But the real pull is Hiruko, one of the most charming and memorable characters I’ve ever encountered. Forget Wordle: Hiroko has us doing word games in a dystopian world! What more could one ask for?

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "tales from around the world", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0811229289", "cover": "0811229289", "goodreads": 58470813, "itunes": 9780811229289, "bookshop": 9780811229289, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/311Scc1lTZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780811229289", "isbn10": "0811229289", "links": [] }, "168": { "id": 168, "edition": "fall", "title": "Nightcrawling: A Novel", "author": "Leila Mottley", "reviewers": [ "Ayesha Rascoe" ], "text": "

High school dropout Kiara Johnson has a lot on her plate – she has rent and bills to pay while caring for her brother and her young neighbor who lives next door. So she turns to something she never expected she would do to make ends meet: nightcrawling, or in other words, sex work. Through her work, she sees her city from new perspectives – ones that hold the joy, pain and resilience of its people despite failing infrastructure and corrupt police. Leila Mottley was just 17 when she began writing this debut novel, inspired by true events in the Oakland Police Department.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "staff picks", "let’s talk about sex", "seriously great writing", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593318935", "cover": "0593318935", "goodreads": 58537371, "itunes": 9780593318935, "bookshop": 9780593318935, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51GEN0pnxGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593318935", "isbn10": "0593318935", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 168, "book": "Nightcrawling: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Nightcrawling' follows a woman who turns to sex work to support her family", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/05/1103145068/nightcrawling-follows-a-woman-who-turns-to-sex-work-to-support-her-family" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 168, "book": "Nightcrawling: A Novel", "source": "MPR", "text": "Author Leila Mottley on her breakout first novel, 'Nightcrawling'", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/07/08/author-leila-mottley-on-her-breakout-first-novel-nightcrawling" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 168, "book": "Nightcrawling: A Novel", "source": "KQED", "text": "Leila Mottley’s debut novel 'Nightcrawling' tells a universal story rooted in Oakland", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101889613/leila-mottleys-debut-novel-nightcrawling-tells-a-universal-story-rooted-in-oakland" } ] }, "169": { "id": 169, "edition": "fall", "title": "Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be", "author": "Becky Kennedy", "reviewers": [ "Beck Harlan" ], "text": "

Good Inside is not just about sleep, or food, or sibling rivalry, though “Dr. Becky” does share concrete advice on all those things in this comprehensive parenting guide. (Personal shoutout to the whining section!) It’s about how to build a relationship with your kid, especially when they’re struggling and acting out. How do you set boundaries and reassure a child that you’re unconditionally on their team? Becky Kennedy’s simple, empowering connection-first approach to parenting prompted many aha moments for me. And my almost totally underlined copy has become a trusted map on the miraculous and maddening journey that is parenting.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "family matters", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0063159481", "cover": "0063159481", "goodreads": 59627738, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780063159488, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+sszrjuTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063159488", "isbn10": "0063159481", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 169, "book": "Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be ", "source": "NPR", "text": "How to change your kid's behavior, according to the host of a hit parenting podcast", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/21/1124314881/why-you-should-connect-with-your-kid-not-correct-them" } ] }, "170": { "id": 170, "edition": "fall", "title": "Undercover Latina", "author": "Aya de León", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Seamless code-switching becomes a spy technique in this tale of a Latinx teen who must pose as a white girl to expose a white supremacist terrorist. Aya de León cleverly touches on questions of authenticity and “passing” while at the same time filling her book with spy gear, hidden bombs, undercover work and even the occasional cute boy. (For ages 10 to 14)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "mysteries & thrillers", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1536223743", "cover": "1536223743", "goodreads": 60524396, "itunes": 9781536223743, "bookshop": 9781536223743, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416t8-ix8BL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781536223743", "isbn10": "1536223743", "links": [] }, "171": { "id": 171, "edition": "fall", "title": "Muhammad Najem, War Reporter: How One Boy Put the Spotlight on Syria", "author": "Muhammad Najem and Nora Neus, illustrated by Julie Robine", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

When Muhammad Najem began filming daily life in Syria as a kid, he didn’t expect his efforts would be discovered by a CNN producer. Now Muhammad and that producer, Nora Neus, have teamed up to tell his story in a graphic novel. A deeply engaging way to recount the story of one child fighting against extreme odds to tell the truth. (For ages 8 to 14)

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "kids’ books", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0759556903", "cover": "0759556903", "goodreads": 59029886, "itunes": 9780759556904, "bookshop": 9780759556904, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41igaUUVIwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780759556904", "isbn10": "0759556903", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 171, "book": "Muhammad Najem, War Reporter: How One Boy Put the Spotlight on Syria", "source": "WVGU", "text": "CNN producer and reporter Nora Neus on 'Muhammad Najem, War Reporter'", "url": "https://www.wgvunews.org/the-wgvu-morning-show/2022-09-28/muhammad-najem-war-reporter" } ] }, "172": { "id": 172, "edition": "fall", "title": "I Can Explain", "author": "Shinsuke Yoshitake", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Has your mom ever caught you picking your nose or biting your nails? In this book, bad habits yield complex explanations that justify their very existence. And really, how hard is it to believe that nose pickers are actually pushing hidden proboscis buttons that release “cheerful beams” that make everyone happy? But as the justifications get wackier and wackier, mom’s patience wears thinner and thinner. A laugh-out-loud Japanese import from a master of the ridiculous. (For ages 5 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "1797216902", "cover": "1797216902", "goodreads": 59881441, "itunes": 9781797216904, "bookshop": 9781797216904, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Z9kHMq-8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781797216904", "isbn10": "1797216902", "links": [] }, "173": { "id": 173, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Real Dada Mother Goose: A Treasury of Complete Nonsense", "author": "Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Julia Rothman", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

The dadaism art movement and The Real Mother Goose nursery rhyme collection came on the scene right around the same time in the early 1900s. Now, more than a century later, their themes collide in raucous experimentations with the nursery rhyme form. Master of mischief Jon Scieszka wreaks hilarious havoc with a sweet classic, producing one of the most thoroughly original works of the year. (For ages 7 to 10)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "0763694347", "cover": "0763694347", "goodreads": 60285633, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780763694340, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dC+UeU-uL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780763694340", "isbn10": "0763694347", "links": [] }, "174": { "id": 174, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Flamingo", "author": "Guojing", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Epic, cinema-worthy storytelling permeates a graphic novel as perfect for bedtime as it is for kids who prefer to enjoy their comics on their own. A young girl listens to her grandmother’s stories of raising a baby flamingo, and it isn’t long before her own imagination takes flight. Breathtaking imagery combines with good old-fashioned storytelling. (For ages 5 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "comics & graphic novels", "family matters", "for art lovers", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0593127315", "cover": "0593127315", "goodreads": 60372305, "itunes": 9780593127315, "bookshop": 9780593127315, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91Q7rMCYiHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593127315", "isbn10": "0593127315", "links": [] }, "175": { "id": 175, "edition": "fall", "title": "American Murderer: The Parasite That Haunted the South", "author": "Gail Jarrow", "reviewers": [ "Betsy Bird" ], "text": "

Gail Jarrow’s latest entry in the “Medical Fiascoes” series for kids focuses on the history of the hookworm and how it sucked the blood and energy out of the American South in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Good luck prying this book – terrifying and fascinating by turns – out of the hands of young readers who love getting grossed out. (For ages 10 to 17)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "science!", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "168437815X", "cover": "168437815X", "goodreads": 61255924, "itunes": 9781684378159, "bookshop": 9781684378159, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512DC9T7DqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781684378159", "isbn10": "168437815X", "links": [] }, "176": { "id": 176, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness", "author": "Meghan O’Rourke", "reviewers": [ "Bridget Bentz" ], "text": "

Shortly after graduating from college, Meghan O’Rourke began experiencing sharp, stabbing pains – almost like electric shocks or tiny beestings – up and down her arms and legs. In the decades that followed, the stings would mysteriously flare up or fade away, as would a host of other debilitating symptoms, including extreme fatigue, brain fog and chronic pain. O’Rourke shuffled between specialists and spent thousands of dollars on treatment before finally getting a diagnosis. The Invisible Kingdom is O’Rourke’s lyrical account reckoning with her own body – and with a health care system that overlooks and gaslights Americans living with autoimmune disorders. A finalist for the National Book Award, this is a particularly resonant read as the nation untangles the lingering symptoms of long COVID.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "science!" ], "isbn": "1594633797", "cover": "1594633797", "goodreads": 58574423, "itunes": 9781594633799, "bookshop": 9781594633799, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZcdnXFNYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781594633799", "isbn10": "1594633797", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 176, "book": "The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness", "source": "NPR", "text": "How long COVID sheds light on other mysterious (and lonely) chronic illnesses", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/02/28/1083458296/long-covid-autoimmune-meghan-orourke-invisible-kingdom" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 176, "book": "The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness", "source": "UPR", "text": "Meghan O’Rourke on 'The Invisible Kingdom' ", "url": "https://www.upr.org/show/access-utah/2022-03-03/the-invisible-kingdom-reimagining-chronic-illness-on-wednesdays-access-utah" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 176, "book": "The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness", "source": "WFAE", "text": "Long before 'long COVID,' chronic illness plagued many Americans", "url": "https://www.wfae.org/show/charlotte-talks-with-mike-collins/2022-03-27/long-before-long-covid-chronic-illness-plagued-many-americans" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 176, "book": "The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness", "source": "WGVU", "text": "Meghan O’Rourke on 'The Invisible Kingdom' ", "url": "https://www.wgvunews.org/the-wgvu-morning-show/2022-03-02/the-invisible-kingdom" } ] }, "177": { "id": 177, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Star That Always Stays", "author": "Anna Rose Johnson", "reviewers": [ "Cynthia Leitich Smith" ], "text": "

The Star That Always Stays is set in the early 1900s and lovingly woven from the threads left for debut author Anna Rose Johnson by her ancestors from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Johnson’s writing is gentle, unhurried and reflective – with touches of humor and heartbreak. She showcases Norvia, a courageous young hero navigating complex family dynamics, the pressure to pass and universal daily-life challenges, too. Supplemental materials provide a bridge for middle graders interested in learning more. This new release could be paired well with “The Birchbark House” series by Louise Erdrich. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "historical fiction", "identity & culture", "family matters", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0823450406", "cover": "0823450406", "goodreads": 60098525, "itunes": 9780823450404, "bookshop": 9780823450404, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Ek-tZOy0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780823450404", "isbn10": "0823450406", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 177, "book": "The Star That Always Stays", "source": "WDET", "text": " ‘The Star That Always Stays’ follows the journey of an Ojibwe teen in 1914 Michigan", "url": "https://wdet.org/2022/08/09/new-book-the-star-that-always-stays-follows-journey-of-ojibwe-teen-in-1914-michigan/" } ] }, "178": { "id": 178, "edition": "fall", "title": "Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution", "author": "Kacen Callender", "reviewers": [ "Elise Hu" ], "text": "

This is a charming story that made me feel like my 17-year-old self again – so sure of everything and yet not sure of everything at the same time. The protagonists are former besties, Lark and Kasim. They are Black, queer, nonbinary teens who are carving out who they are and their understanding of how to fight and love and be accountable, all while managing the digital versions of themselves in social media. (Pesky Twitter is a major plot point.) Deeply relatable for those of us who are a little too online … which is to say, most of us?

", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "love & romance", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "staff picks", "young adult" ], "isbn": "1419756877", "cover": "1419756877", "goodreads": 60310707, "itunes": 9781419756870, "bookshop": 9781419756870, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nRFwjJ42L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781419756870", "isbn10": "1419756877", "links": [] }, "179": { "id": 179, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Latecomer", "author": "Jean Hanff Korelitz", "reviewers": [ "Emma Gordon" ], "text": "

Desperate to become a mother, Johanna Oppenheimer is an early adopter of IVF — but she never imagined that her triplets would grow up to despise one another. With her husband still distant after a tragedy in his youth, Johanna decides to have a fourth child from an embryo frozen nearly 20 years prior. Are shared genes and one woman’s sheer will enough to constitute a family, let alone sustain it? The Oppenheimers may scatter at the first opportunity, but what binds them together is at the heart of this sharp, decades-spanning saga.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1250790794", "cover": "1250790794", "goodreads": 57693566, "itunes": 9781250790798, "bookshop": 9781250790798, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41UApdxPtnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250790798", "isbn10": "1250790794", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 179, "book": "The Latecomer", "source": "WYPR", "text": "Family affairs: 'The Latecomer' and 'Marrying the Ketchups'", "url": "https://www.wypr.org/show/the-weekly-reader-on-wypr/2022-07-20/family-affairs-the-latecomer-by-jean-hanff-korelitz-and-marrying-the-ketchups-by-jennifer-close" } ] }, "180": { "id": 180, "edition": "fall", "title": "Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change", "author": "Angela Garbes", "reviewers": [ "Emma Gordon" ], "text": "

Working from home – amid unwashed dishes and unswept floors – has been a powerful reminder for me of how our economy relies on unpaid or underpaid domestic labor. Angela Garbes argues that the often unglamorous tasks of home maintenance, care work and mothering – a verb inclusive of anyone involved in raising children – are critical to society, yet they’ve been rendered invisible by capitalism and colonialism. Garbes characterizes parenting as a reminder of our bodily needs, and an avenue for social change as valuable as protesting and voting.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0062937367", "cover": "0062937367", "goodreads": 58782831, "itunes": 9780062937360, "bookshop": 9780062937360, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51IpySBNy2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780062937360", "isbn10": "0062937367", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 180, "book": "Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change", "source": "NPR", "text": "Raising kids is 'Essential Labor.' It's also lonely, exhausting and expensive", "url": "https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/21/1105849291/essential-labor-angela-garbes-child-care-pandemic-mothering" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 180, "book": "Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change", "source": "NPR", "text": "Raising kids is hard work. The way we think about it can shift how we value mothering", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/05/1096918674/angela-garbes-essential-labor-mothering-as-social-change" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 180, "book": "Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change", "source": "WDET", "text": "New book ‘Essential Labor’ explores mothering during the pandemic", "url": "https://wdet.org/2022/08/03/new-book-essential-labor-explores-mothering-during-the-pandemic/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 180, "book": "Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change", "source": "WPR", "text": "Valuing motherhood as skilled labor and a model for social change", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/valuing-motherhood-skilled-labor-and-model-social-change" } ] }, "181": { "id": 181, "edition": "fall", "title": "Bad Sex: Truth, Pleasure, and an Unfinished Revolution", "author": "Nona Willis Aronowitz", "reviewers": [ "Emma Gordon" ], "text": "

When Nona Willis Aronowitz finally ends her marriage because of lackluster sex, she’s left with a question: Why, more than a half-century after the sexual revolution, are we still having bad sex, and what is standing in the way of our satisfaction? The daughter of prominent feminist Ellen Willis, Aronowitz is well situated for the messy work of understanding how cultural forces shape intimate desires. She deftly weaves her own story with her late mother’s writings. This spirited history paints feminism not as a fixed set of passed-down beliefs, but as an invitation to question the status quo.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0593182766", "cover": "0593182766", "goodreads": 59031272, "itunes": 9780593182765, "bookshop": 9780593182765, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KqJQF-irL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593182765", "isbn10": "0593182766", "links": [] }, "182": { "id": 182, "edition": "", "title": "Scenes from My Life: A Memoir", "author": "Michael K. Williams and Jon Sternfeld", "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "text": "

It seemed an impossible task: finishing the deeply personal memoir of groundbreaking actor Michael K. Williams months after his death from a drug overdose. But co-author Jon Sternfeld artfully completed the searingly honest story of how Williams survived a childhood filled with trauma in a Brooklyn housing project to become one of Hollywood’s most impactful actors. Known for playing tough characters who subvert traditional ideals of Black masculinity – including his breakout role as The Wire’s gay robber of drug dealers, Omar Little – Williams was the opposite of a tough guy in his neighborhood. “Way before I was anything or anyone, I was an addict,” Williams writes in the book’s introduction, previewing a hopeful tone on overcoming his addictions that lends more poignancy for readers, who already know how his story ends.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "0593240375", "cover": "0593240375", "goodreads": 60254856, "itunes": 9780593240373, "bookshop": 9780593240373, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4134H170yLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593240373", "isbn10": "0593240375", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 182, "book": "Scenes from My Life: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Michael K. Williams' memoir 'Scenes From My Life' shows how he turned trauma into art", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/23/1119038737/michael-k-williams-memoir-scenes-from-my-life" } ] }, "183": { "id": 183, "edition": "", "title": "It's Not TV: The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO", "author": "Felix Gillette and John Koblin", "reviewers": [ "Eric Deggans" ], "text": "

Published days before the 50th anniversary of HBO, this book from high-level media reporters Felix Gillette (Bloomberg News) and John Koblin (The New York Times) does more than trace the background of a programming service that has survived multiple bouts of dysfunctional ownership to define quality television. It also outlines the company’s problematic history with how female executives have been treated, further exploring previously reported allegations that former HBO Chairman Chris Albrecht choked a female staffer with whom he had had a consensual affair and then disparaged her after she took a settlement and left the network. By recounting such stories and the service’s fitful shift from male-centered programming to more diverse offerings, Gillette and Koblin present an incisive account that is more than a rosy victory lap for one of TV’s most influential channels.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "no biz like show biz", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "0593296192", "cover": "0593296192", "goodreads": 60372321, "itunes": 9780593296196, "bookshop": 9780593296196, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31bK6sP7RwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593296196", "isbn10": "0593296192", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 183, "book": "It's Not TV: The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO ", "source": "WAMC", "text": " It's Not TV' tells the tale of HBO", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2022-11-01/its-not-tv-tells-the-tale-of-hbo" } ] }, "184": { "id": 184, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Trayvon Generation", "author": "Elizabeth Alexander", "reviewers": [ "Erin Sells" ], "text": "

A meditation on the relationship between Black joy and Black pain, Elizabeth Alexander’s book of essays focuses on “The Trayvon Generation.” How did pervasive experiences and stories of anti-Black violence shape these young people and their views of the world and of themselves? Art by Black artists is interspersed throughout, but Alexander explains her work “is not a celebration, nor is it an elegy.” The Trayvon Generation is a reminder that humanity and freedom must be constantly reasserted, danced, sung, painted and proclaimed.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "1538737892", "cover": "1538737892", "goodreads": 58848151, "itunes": 9781538737897, "bookshop": 9781538737897, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41h8rc0UQjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781538737897", "isbn10": "1538737892", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 184, "book": "The Trayvon Generation", "source": "KQED", "text": "Forum: Elizabeth Alexander on 'The Trayvon Generation' and the persistence of racism in the American experience", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101889115/elizabeth-alexander-on-the-trayvon-generation" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 184, "book": "The Trayvon Generation", "source": "WNYC", "text": "The Takeaway: Elizabeth Alexander on 'The Trayvon Generation,' motherhood and philanthropy", "url": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/trayvon-generation" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 184, "book": "The Trayvon Generation", "source": "KUOW", "text": "Poet reflects on the intersection of Black art and a new generation of racial trauma", "url": "https://www.kuow.org/stories/poet-reflects-on-the-intersection-of-black-art-and-a-new-generation-of-racial-trauma" } ] }, "185": { "id": 185, "edition": "fall", "title": "Human Resources: Poems", "author": "Ryann Stevenson", "reviewers": [ "Erin Sells" ], "text": "

A woman works as an AI designer creating artificial women in the male-dominated world of Silicon Valley. Stevenson’s darkly comic and unsettling poems reveal the sexism and isolation of Big Tech. But Human Resources explores how our humanity asserts itself – even as we attempt to mimic it in a more perfect replica.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "1571315187", "cover": "1571315187", "goodreads": 59740367, "itunes": 9781571315182, "bookshop": 9781571315182, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51L6v-3jVzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781571315182", "isbn10": "1571315187", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 185, "book": "Human Resources: Poems", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Human Resources,' a poet finds her voice by working on artificial intelligence", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1104668541/human-resources-ryann-stevenson-interview" } ] }, "186": { "id": 186, "edition": "fall", "title": "It Won't Always Be Like This: A Graphic Memoir", "author": "Malaka Gharib", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "

Malaka Gharib has a gentle, bouncy line and a piercing eye for character detail and cross-cultural irony. Here Gharib – who is half-Filipina, half-Egyptian – revisits her teens in the late ’90s-early 2000s, when she traveled between her mother’s home in Los Angeles and her father’s in Egypt. Looking back at this turbulent time with adult eyes, she recalls her tween self with a mix of fondness and exasperation. Gharib’s book has a definite YA vibe, but it will also make engaging reading for grown-ups.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "young adult", "nonfiction", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1984860291", "cover": "1984860291", "goodreads": 60099713, "itunes": 9781984860293, "bookshop": 9781984860293, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+CAnF5mKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781984860293", "isbn10": "1984860291", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 186, "book": "It Won't Always Be Like This: A Graphic Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "NPR's Malaka Gharib remembers summers in Cairo in her new graphic memoir", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/20/1124008592/nprs-malaka-gharib-remembers-summers-in-cairo-in-her-new-graphic-memoir" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 186, "book": "It Won't Always Be Like This: A Graphic Memoir", "source": "WPLN", "text": "Telling stories through comics and graphic novels", "url": "https://wpln.org/post/episodes/comic-books/" } ] }, "187": { "id": 187, "edition": "fall", "title": "All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End: The Cartoons of Charles Johnson", "author": "Charles Johnson", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "

Charles Johnson’s remarkable literary career, which has encompassed a MacArthur “Genius Grant” and a National Book Award, has overshadowed his equally remarkable work as a cartoonist. The first collection of his comics in more than 50 years, All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End – which takes its title from one of his ever-caustic captions – invites the reader to roll their eyes at society’s absurdities and ponder what’s changed since the ’70s. Some of his comics memorialize a long-past cultural moment, while others remain glaringly relevant. All feature his characteristic sharp wit and supple line.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "1681376733", "cover": "1681376733", "goodreads": 59892880, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781681376738, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ePt-GSj2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781681376738", "isbn10": "1681376733", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 187, "book": "All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End", "source": "NPR", "text": "These fall graphic novels reflect the diversity of the genre", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/01/1126093558/these-fall-graphic-novels-reflect-the-diversity-of-the-genre" } ] }, "188": { "id": 188, "edition": "fall", "title": "Smahtguy: The Life and Times of Barney Frank", "author": "Eric Orner", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "

Eric Orner’s sweeping graphic novel about the life of Congressman Barney Frank isn’t just a great story, it’s an enveloping visual experience by a terrific artist. Even if you were to page through this book without looking at any of the words, it would still be a great read. Sentimental passages about Frank’s political activism in the early ’60s are both nostalgic and galvanizing, but Orner’s attention to history’s ironies ensures that his tale never loses its edge. Like Frank’s life, Smahtguy is so epic, people will doubtless be finding new aspects to contemplate for years to come.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1250191580", "cover": "1250191580", "goodreads": 55077568, "itunes": 9781250191588, "bookshop": 9781250191588, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mbGapIekL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250191588", "isbn10": "1250191580", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 188, "book": "Smahtguy: The Life and Times of Barney Frank", "source": "NPR", "text": "Through art, 'Smahtguy' tells life story of former Rep. Barney Frank", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/04/1096548445/through-art-smahtguy-tells-life-story-of-former-rep-barney-frank" } ] }, "189": { "id": 189, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night", "author": "Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "

Having dazzled audiences with 2015’s “Monstress” series, Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda have no intention of letting their fans escape them. The Night Eaters features many familiar elements: ambiguous characters, slow-building horror and Takeda’s astonishing art. Here the most ambiguous character is secretive Ipo, a onetime stuntwoman from Hong Kong who now lives in Queens. When she decides to show her adult children inside the yucky old house across the street, their smug modernity is in for a comeuppance. Luminous hues, vibrant character designs and electrifying compositions make virtually every panel its own work of art.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "identity & culture", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "rather short", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1419758705", "cover": "1419758705", "goodreads": 60656255, "itunes": 9781419758706, "bookshop": 9781419758706, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Baak3Ua8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781419758706", "isbn10": "1419758705", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 189, "book": "The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night", "source": "NPR", "text": "These fall graphic novels reflect the diversity of the genre", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/01/1126093558/these-fall-graphic-novels-reflect-the-diversity-of-the-genre" } ] }, "190": { "id": 190, "edition": "fall", "title": "Tokyo Rose – Zero Hour: A Japanese American Woman's Persecution and Ultimate Redemption After World War II", "author": "Andre Frattino, illustrated by Kate Kasenow", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "

This dynamic graphic novel rehabilitates one of the most notorious personalities of World War II: the radio broadcaster known as Tokyo Rose, the “Siren of the Pacific.” Her real name was Iva Toguri, and she was a Japanese American who wound up in Tokyo after visiting relatives there just before Pearl Harbor. Andre Frattino tells Toguri’s story of unwillingly adopting the Tokyo Rose identity, being demonized after her return to the U.S., and spending six years in prison before being pardoned in 1977. Kate Kasenow’s black-and-white drawings are energetic and expressive. This extensively researched biography is as thought-provoking as it is absorbing.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "rather short" ], "isbn": "4805316950", "cover": "4805316950", "goodreads": 62975174, "itunes": 9784805316955, "bookshop": 9784805316955, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91fzKQndtqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9784805316955", "isbn10": "4805316950", "links": [] }, "191": { "id": 191, "edition": "fall", "title": "Time Zone J", "author": "Julie Doucet", "reviewers": [ "Etelka Lehoczky" ], "text": "

Julie Doucet is back! Renowned for the brutally frank “Dirty Plotte” series and numerous books, the ’90s comics star quit drawing more than 20 years ago. She’s stored up a lot of feelings in that time. Her recollections of a love affair she embarked on back in 1989 sprawl turbulently across every page of Time Zone J – they even bleed onto the book’s endpapers. Doucet’s crowded compositions may be overwhelming, but her reflections on humanity are more tentative and nuanced than they once were. Still, even 20 years older, Doucet is as dangerous as ever.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "biography & memoir", "love & romance", "nonfiction", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1770464980", "cover": "1770464980", "goodreads": 57693683, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781770464988, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SA5dOcPML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781770464988", "isbn10": "1770464980", "links": [] }, "192": { "id": 192, "edition": "fall", "title": "Nona the Ninth", "author": "Tamsyn Muir", "reviewers": [ "Hafsa Fathima" ], "text": "

Nona can’t really remember who she is. Or why her planet is on the verge of destruction. She just wants a birthday party – and to pet all the dogs she can find. (Highly relatable.) Nona the Ninth, the third book in “The Locked Tomb” series, is a thrilling, mind-boggling and surprisingly heartwarming story, answering pertinent questions from the first two books and leaving you with more. It hurtles us through time and space, has scientists with God complexes (literally) and features many bouts of necromancy. Be prepared to find yourself yelling, “What? WHAT?” several times over.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250854113", "cover": "1250854113", "goodreads": 58662507, "itunes": 9781250854117, "bookshop": 9781250854117, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41qG0ab-u+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250854117", "isbn10": "1250854113", "links": [] }, "193": { "id": 193, "edition": "fall", "title": "Lessons: A Novel", "author": "Ian McEwan", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

In Lessons, Ian McEwan’s hapless hero combs his life trajectory from childhood to old age, seeking an overarching thread that makes sense of it all. Despite the novel’s many autobiographical elements, Roland Blaine, unlike McEwan, feels he never lived up to his potential – careerwise or otherwise. Set against a backdrop of 70 years of global cataclysms, his focus is on damaging wrong turns, including an aberrant adolescent affair with a predatory boarding school teacher, and abandonment by his wife, who left him and their infant son without notice in order to give her all to her writing. There are lessons aplenty here, including how to read literature that borrows and bends details from real lives, including the author’s.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593535200", "cover": "0593535200", "goodreads": 60092581, "itunes": 9780593535202, "bookshop": 9780593535202, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-5B-pCIkL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593535202", "isbn10": "0593535200", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 193, "book": "Lessons: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Lessons' finds some familiarity with author Ian McEwan's own life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/13/1122324203/lessons-finds-some-familiarity-with-author-ian-mcewans-own-life" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 193, "book": "Lessons: A Novel", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Acclaimed author Ian McEwan mines personal history and world events for new novel 'Lessons'", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/09/14/ian-mcewan-lessons" } ] }, "194": { "id": 194, "edition": "fall", "title": "Fellowship Point: A Novel", "author": "Alice Elliott Dark", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

This deliciously immersive novel is about the lifelong friendship between two women who share a love for the coastal peninsula in Maine where their families have summered for generations. But they’ve made very different life choices – one a never-married, stridently independent author who has preserved her privacy with a pseudonym, the other a deferential wife and mother. As they enter their 80s, their divergent paths color their stance regarding the future of Fellowship Point, which is threatened by developers. Dark’s beautifully written novel is rich with reflections on aging, writing and responsibility for the people and places we love.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "rather long" ], "isbn": "1982131810", "cover": "1982131810", "goodreads": 58438505, "itunes": 9781982131814, "bookshop": 9781982131814, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51m5h796G2L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982131814", "isbn10": "1982131810", "links": [] }, "195": { "id": 195, "edition": "fall", "title": "Lucy by the Sea: A Novel", "author": "Elizabeth Strout", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

Elizabeth Strout’s fourth novel about Lucy Barton finds the recently widowed, hypersensitive, supremely sympathetic writer at sea, awash in confusion as she agrees to flee Manhattan and ride out the pandemic in Maine with her philandering ex, William. Lucy’s plain-spoken, painfully honest narrative reads as if she were baring her heart and soul to a new friend. This chronicle of the first year of the pandemic captures its disruptions, uncertainties, anxieties and changing relationships better than any novel I’ve read on the subject. It also demonstrates once again that Strout’s warmth and understanding of the human condition are capacious.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593446062", "cover": "0593446062", "goodreads": 60657583, "itunes": 9780593446065, "bookshop": 9780593446065, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ddo5Nf0xL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593446065", "isbn10": "0593446062", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 195, "book": "Lucy by the Sea: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Lucy By The Sea' succeeds at capturing disruptions, anxieties of pandemic", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/21/1123790216/elizabeth-strout-lucy-by-the-tea-captures-anxieties-of-pandemic" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 195, "book": "Lucy by the Sea: A Novel", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Diane Rehm Book Club: 'Lucy by the Sea' by Elizabeth Strout", "url": "https://wamu.org/event/diane-rehm-book-club-lucy-by-the-sea-by-elizabeth-strout/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 195, "book": "Lucy by the Sea: A Novel", "source": "KWBU", "text": "Likely Stories: 'Lucy by the Sea' by Elizabeth Strout ", "url": "https://www.kwbu.org/show/likely-stories/2022-11-03/likely-stories-lucy-by-the-sea-by-elizabeth-strout" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 195, "book": "Lucy by the Sea: A Novel", "source": "Nebraska Public Media", "text": " All About Books: 'Lucy by the Sea' by Elizabeth Strout", "url": "https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/series-media/all-about-books-audio/standalone-audio-15890/lucy-by-the-sea-by-elizabeth-strout-50019636/" } ] }, "196": { "id": 196, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Hero of This Book: A Novel", "author": "Elizabeth McCracken", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

Decades ago, Elizabeth McCracken promised her fiercely private mother that she would never write about her. So this posthumous tribute is a lightly fictionalized memoir that interrogates genre and the act of writing as it conjures up her mother – the hero of this book – in all her splendid idiosyncrasy. It features the snappy prose and oddball sensibility we’ve come to love in McCracken’s novels and stories. “Why do I write?” her barely disguised narrator asks. “To try to get human beings on a page without the use of vivisection or preservatives or a spiritualist’s props.” Mission accomplished, delightfully.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0062971271", "cover": "0062971271", "goodreads": 60095078, "itunes": 9780062971272, "bookshop": 9780062971272, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SNPc4JzUL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780062971272", "isbn10": "0062971271", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 196, "book": "The Hero of This Book: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "The Hero of This Book' is a lightly fictionalized memoir that examines devotion", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/03/1125870020/the-hero-of-this-book-is-a-lightly-fictionalized-memoir-by-elizabeth-mccracken" } ] }, "197": { "id": 197, "edition": "fall", "title": "Spine Poems: An Eclectic Collection of Found Verse for Book Lovers", "author": "Annette Dauphin Simon", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

Spine Poems is the bibliophile’s equivalent of playing with food. The conceit: stack books, arranging titles to create social commentary moonlighting as found poetry. A sample two-liner courtesy of Sarah Frier and Joan Didion: “No Filter/Let Me Tell You What I Mean.” Fareed Zakaria’s Ten Lessons for the Post-Pandemic World sits atop a pile of 10 volumes that includes Dare to Disappoint, Keep Going and Yes, We (Still) Can. Accompanying notes and quotes add another dimension – if your eyes are up to the tiny footnote-size typeface.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "funny stuff", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "0063208229", "cover": "0063208229", "goodreads": 58842751, "itunes": 9780063208223, "bookshop": 9780063208223, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51v8WVEV3zL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063208223", "isbn10": "0063208229", "links": [] }, "198": { "id": 198, "edition": "fall", "title": "Foster", "author": "Claire Keegan", "reviewers": [ "Heller McAlpin" ], "text": "

Foster is spare, heart-rending – and perfect. This is the first release of its full text in the U.S., which, since its original publication in Claire Keegan’s native Ireland in 2010, has become part of the school curriculum. The nameless narrator is a little girl whose parents, impoverished Catholic farmers already overwhelmed by too many children and the father’s bad habits, farm her out to distant relatives before the next baby’s arrival. She has no idea what to expect – whether she’ll be worked hard or treated kindly, and for how long. The experience turns out to be life changing, as the deprivations of her former life reveal themselves through the things she notices, like the sparkling kitchen and calm efficiency of her temporary guardians.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "rather short" ], "isbn": "080216014X", "cover": "080216014X", "goodreads": 61022861, "itunes": 9780802160140, "bookshop": 9780802160140, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41S-qSHdIcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780802160140", "isbn10": "080216014X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 198, "book": "Foster", "source": "NPR", "text": "With 'Foster,' Claire Keegan asks that readers look outward", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/11/01/1131828533/with-foster-claire-keegan-asks-that-readers-look-outward" } ] }, "199": { "id": 199, "edition": "", "title": "The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir", "author": "Ingrid Rojas Contreras", "reviewers": [ "Isabella Gomez Sarmiento" ], "text": "

When you can’t return to your home country, there’s something very cathartic about reading someone else’s chance to do it. That was my feeling following Ingrid Rojas Contreras on her journey back to Colombia with her mother – a trip meant to wrap up some of her late grandfather’s unfinished business. Not any regular business: He was a curandero, a healer, and he comes to them in their dreams for this last request. In a fascinating exploration of magic, gender, family and memory, Rojas Contreras writes in such a gripping narrative that it’s easy to forget it’s about her real life.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "family matters", "identity & culture", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0385546661", "cover": "0385546661", "goodreads": 59411559, "itunes": 9780385546669, "bookshop": 9780385546669, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XdPTRiyTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780385546669", "isbn10": "0385546661", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 199, "book": "The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "A head injury gave Ingrid amnesia. Then came the journey to rediscover her history", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/07/19/1111798562/the-man-who-could-move-clouds-memoir-interview-colombia-curandero-review-time" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 199, "book": "The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir", "source": "KQED", "text": "Ingrid Rojas Contreras’ new memoir explores amnesia, family history and ghosts", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101890081/ingrid-rojas-contreras-new-memoir-explores-amnesia-family-history-and-ghosts" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 199, "book": "The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir", "source": "KALW", "text": "Ingrid Rojas Contreras writes a memoir of her curandero grandfather ", "url": "https://www.kalw.org/newarrivals/2022-07-26/ingrid-rojas-contreras-writes-a-memoir-of-her-curandero-grandfather" } ] }, "200": { "id": 200, "edition": "fall", "title": "Less Is Lost", "author": "Andrew Sean Greer", "reviewers": [ "Jason DeRose" ], "text": "

Arthur Less’ losses are legion: his former lover, his current partner, his house, his self-confidence. So – in this follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Less – he takes to the road in a rented van (with a borrowed pug) to make some money and figure out if he still loves who (and what) he thinks he loves. He’s accused of being a “bad gay” and wonders if he really might be guilty as charged. Less is a hapless Walloon: a possibly European man of letters and privilege who stumbles his way out of impending tragedies, through mounting humiliations, and into surprising successes. Yet his inability to recognize his luck as luck is why we love Less more and more.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "fiction", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "family matters", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0316498904", "cover": "0316498904", "goodreads": 60021216, "itunes": 9780316498906, "bookshop": 9780316498906, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/513Cv1BkI1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316498906", "isbn10": "0316498904", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 200, "book": "Less Is Lost", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Less' offers more in Andrew Sean Greer's follow-up to his Pulitzer-winning novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/26/1124704474/less-is-lost-review-andrew-sean-greer-pulitzer-novel-sequel" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 200, "book": "Less Is Lost", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Andrew Sean Greer gives readers more 'Less' in sequel to Pulitzer Prize-winning novel", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/09/20/andrew-sean-greer-less-sequel" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 200, "book": "Less Is Lost", "source": "WNYC", "text": "In defense of the comic novel: Andrew Sean Greer talks 'Less is Lost'", "url": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/tnyradiohour/segments/andrew-sean-greer-lost" } ] }, "201": { "id": 201, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen", "author": "Gary Eldon Peter", "reviewers": [ "Jason DeRose" ], "text": "

Carl’s self-discovery is multivariable: Infatuation. Awkward first sex. Joy. Guilt. Reprisal. He meets a boy at the start of high school who inspires him to act. The object of Carl’s affection isn’t as innocent as he lets on, which breaks Carl’s heart open to the world in ways he didn’t expect. The novel also breaks readers’ hearts open to the lives of two high school kids navigating the complexities of loves and losses. Carl’s father, a struggling dairy farmer (that’s where the cows come in), surprises as a gentle and generous figure softened by tragedies of his own. That might be why adults read YA literature – to learn the lessons we wish we’d learned in adolescence.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "young adult", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "rather short" ], "isbn": "1646032535", "cover": "1646032535", "goodreads": 59485925, "itunes": 9781646032532, "bookshop": 9781646032532, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41sQlwSAIvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781646032532", "isbn10": "1646032535", "links": [] }, "205": { "id": 205, "edition": "fall", "title": "Tumble", "author": "Celia C. Pérez", "reviewers": [ "Juana Summers" ], "text": "

Author Celia Pérez explores the ideas of belonging and what makes a family, through the eyes of Adela Ramírez. Addie is a spunky preteen who lives in a small town in New Mexico with her mom and her stepfather. She sets off on a search to learn more about her biological dad – and herself. Along the way, she learns that she comes from a lineage of luchadores and tries to make a connection with her father and with her extended family. Tumble is the kind of book I wish I’d had growing up in a blended family – to remind me that all families, the ones you choose and the ones you are born into, are worth treasuring. (For ages 9 to 12)

", "tags": [ "young adult", "family matters", "identity & culture", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0593325176", "cover": "0593325176", "goodreads": 55364931, "itunes": 9780593325179, "bookshop": 9780593325179, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51BmwatIkJL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593325179", "isbn10": "0593325176", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 205, "book": "Tumble", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Celia Pérez on challenging assumptions about what it means to grow up Latino", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/16/1117762267/author-celia-perez-on-challenging-assumptions-about-what-it-means-to-grow-up-lat" } ] }, "206": { "id": 206, "edition": "fall", "title": "Berry Song", "author": "Michaela Goade", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Radiant illustrations by Caldecott-winning illustrator Michaela Goade (We Are Water Protectors) practically leap from the pages of her latest picture book with joy and warmth. Goade’s first foray into authorship is a triumphant love song to the Tlingit people. A heartwarming story of a girl and her grandmother, and the joy they get from nature’s offerings. A rich and beautiful book meant to be shared. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0316494178", "cover": "0316494178", "goodreads": 58064775, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780316494175, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51EkGpGfgvL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316494175", "isbn10": "0316494178", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 206, "book": "Berry Song", "source": "KTOO", "text": "In ‘Berry Song,’ Lingít illustrator Michaela Sheít.een Goade shares her own story", "url": "https://www.ktoo.org/2022/07/22/in-berry-song-lingit-illustrator-michaela-sheit-een-goade-shares-her-own-story/" } ] }, "207": { "id": 207, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Keeper", "author": "Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, illustrated by Marco Finnegan", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Originally written as a movie script, The Keeper is the first graphic novel from horror duo Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes. Orphaned Aisha goes to stay with her grandmother, who is soon on the brink of death. It’s only the Keeper, the dark spirit that has protected Aisha’s family for generations, that can keep Aisha safe, but at what cost? In the tradition of Lovecraft Country and Get Out, Aisha’s horror is rooted in generational trauma and the constant struggle for survival. Emotional, creepy, highly imaginative and brilliantly illustrated.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "young adult", "comics & graphic novels", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "family matters", "rather short", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1419751557", "cover": "1419751557", "goodreads": 60310667, "itunes": 9781419751554, "bookshop": 9781419751554, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51TbVFZpkVL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781419751554", "isbn10": "1419751557", "links": [] }, "208": { "id": 208, "edition": "fall", "title": "Attack of the Black Rectangles", "author": "Amy Sarig King", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Ms. Sett does not appreciate Mac’s questions about slavery, stolen lands or early explorers in her sixth-grade history class. When Mac opens his classroom copy of the Holocaust novel The Devil’s Arithmetic and finds that many of the words are blacked out, he and his friends discover Ms. Sett is behind the black rectangles. With no help from the principal or most adults in the town, Mac and his friends are determined to find out what the blacked-out words are and take on their teacher, many parents and the school board in a battle against injustice and censorship. It’s a novel about having the freedom to read and learn – and trusting kids with hard things. (For ages 9 to 12)

", "tags": [ "fiction", "eye-opening reads", "kids’ books" ], "isbn": "1338680528", "cover": "1338680528", "goodreads": 59806035, "itunes": 9781338680522, "bookshop": 9781338680522, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bUGKbQnjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781338680522", "isbn10": "1338680528", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 208, "book": "Attack of the Black Rectangles", "source": "KPR", "text": "Conversations: Amy Sarig King on 'Attack of the Black Rectangles'", "url": "https://kansaspublicradio.org/blog/dan-skinner/conversations-amy-sarig-king-attack-black-rectangles" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 208, "book": "Attack of the Black Rectangles", "source": "KJZZ", "text": "Lit Squad: Author A.S. King explores how book censorship makes kids feel", "url": "https://kjzz.org/content/1806869/lit-squad-author-king-explores-how-book-censorship-makes-kids-feel" } ] }, "209": { "id": 209, "edition": "fall", "title": "1-2-3 Scream!", "author": "R.U. Ginns, illustrated by Javier Espila", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Imagine an app called “Instagrave” that would show you your own tombstone and how you die. Would you open it? The kids in R.U. Ginns’ creepy short story collection can’t resist. Kids who age in dog years, vending machines that don’t dispense candy but turn kids into candy, bobbleheads that come alive in the night (and day). A hilariously creepy and just-right-for-kids page turner. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "funny stuff" ], "isbn": "059337407X", "cover": "059337407X", "goodreads": 60245558, "itunes": 9780593374078, "bookshop": 9780593374078, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510w0RwykeL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593374078", "isbn10": "059337407X", "links": [] }, "210": { "id": 210, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Last Beekeeper", "author": "Pablo Cartaya", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

In a future where technology is king, the environment has collapsed, and most people subsist in desperate attempts to farm the ruined Earth, 12-year-old Yoly is determined to get out of her desolate valley and into the elite city of Silo. But when she learns that the desolation, poverty and subjugation are manufactured by the ruling class, Yoly takes matters into her own hands. Discovering that her family has managed to keep one last hive of the long-extinct honeybee alive, Yoly takes on the task of saving the valley – and maybe the world. (For ages 8 to 12)

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "kids’ books", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063006553", "cover": "0063006553", "goodreads": 59381517, "itunes": 9780063006553, "bookshop": 9780063006553, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519XKoaNE4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063006553", "isbn10": "0063006553", "links": [] }, "211": { "id": 211, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Catalogue of Hugs", "author": "Joshua David Stein and Augustus Heeren Stein, illustrated by Elizabeth Lilly", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

How many kinds of hugs can you name? What about “the Flying Squirrel,” an airborne, leaping hug from behind? Or “the Work from Home” hug, just off the side of your Zoom call? This sweet taxonomy of affection and acrobatics (see: “the Necklace”) is co-authored by a father and son and will likely get the kids in your life drawing close for snuggles of their own. (For ages 2 to 5)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "funny stuff", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "059352179X", "cover": "059352179X", "goodreads": 60747022, "itunes": 9780593521793, "bookshop": 9780593521793, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gPIvUSQSL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593521793", "isbn10": "059352179X", "links": [] }, "212": { "id": 212, "edition": "fall", "title": "My Brother Is Away", "author": "Sara Greenwood, illustrated by Luisa Uribe", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

It’s never easy to explain that a family member is incarcerated, and it can be especially hard for children. This poignantly simple picture book draws on the author’s own childhood to tell the story of a young girl whose brother is in prison far from home. What does she say to her friends who have seen him on the news? Can she pretend that he’s just away visiting a friend? And when she gets to visit him, will he remember her? Will he still love her? A gentle and hopeful story for kids about very adult situations and complex feelings. (For ages 5 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593127161", "cover": "0593127161", "goodreads": 60372302, "itunes": 9780593127162, "bookshop": 9780593127162, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kjLwuHy5L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593127162", "isbn10": "0593127161", "links": [] }, "213": { "id": 213, "edition": "fall", "title": "Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice", "author": "Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes and Dawud Anyabwile", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

On Oct. 16, 1968, Tommie Smith’s life changed forever. Not only did he win the gold medal in the 200-meter sprint at the Mexico City Olympics, but he and his teammate John Carlos made a decision that would send shock waves around the world. Raising their black-gloved fists on the medal podium to protest racial injustice, the men were vilified for decades, were called traitors and even received death threats. Smith, together with Newbery Honor-winning author Derrick Barnes, tells his singularly powerful story to young readers for the first time in this electrifyingly illustrated graphic novel. (For ages 13 to 18)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "young adult", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "for sports lovers", "comics & graphic novels", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1324003901", "cover": "1324003901", "goodreads": 60165401, "itunes": 9781324003908, "bookshop": 9781324003908, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51LBqREOB3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781324003908", "isbn10": "1324003901", "links": [] }, "214": { "id": 214, "edition": "fall", "title": "The First to Die at the End", "author": "Adam Silvera", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

It’s safe to say prequels do not always live up to the story they are supposed to precede, but that is not the case with The First to Die at the End, prequel to Adam Silvera’s 2017 smash, They Both Die at the End. The prequel takes us to the original launch of Death-Cast, a service that lets people know if today is the day they will die. A bittersweet and heart-wrenching love story, be prepared for all of the feelings. Tissues recommended.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "young adult", "love & romance", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063240807", "cover": "0063240807", "goodreads": 59723790, "itunes": 9780063240803, "bookshop": 9780063240803, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wvwJccfhL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063240803", "isbn10": "0063240807", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 214, "book": "The First to Die at the End", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The First to Die at the End' could be the newest Adam Silvera YA blockbuster", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/04/1126537811/the-first-to-die-at-the-end-could-be-the-newest-adam-silvera-ya-blockbuster" } ] }, "215": { "id": 215, "edition": "fall", "title": "If You Could See the Sun", "author": "Ann Liang", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Alice may not be able to compete with her elite classmates when it comes to money, but she’s determined to beat them at academics. Already feeling invisible as her Beijing prep school’s only scholarship student, Alice actually turns invisible when her parents reveal she can’t stay there. Academic rivalry turns romantic as Alice sets out to use her new power (and her rival) to get the money she and her family need, but how dark is she willing to go? What if what she thought she wanted wasn’t worth it? A very entertaining and fun commentary on deep social issues, this book is set to be a classic.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1335915842", "cover": "1335915842", "goodreads": 60099660, "itunes": 9781335915849, "bookshop": 9781335915849, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QlBZhzZtL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781335915849", "isbn10": "1335915842", "links": [] }, "216": { "id": 216, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Weight of Blood", "author": "Tiffany D. Jackson", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Maddy’s Southern town is getting ready to have its first integrated prom, which presents a huge problem for Maddy: She’s been passing for white at her father’s request even though she is biracial. When her true identity is revealed and she is the victim of a classmate’s cruel joke, her powers are revealed, and horror is close behind. A contemporary and prescient retake on Stephen King’s Carrie, Tiffany D. Jackson’s latest offering is a gripping page turner.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "young adult", "identity & culture", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063029146", "cover": "0063029146", "goodreads": 59816818, "itunes": 9780063029149, "bookshop": 9780063029149, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41AIVknWF7L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063029149", "isbn10": "0063029146", "links": [] }, "217": { "id": 217, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Getaway", "author": "Lamar Giles", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Lamar Giles is back with a tale that turns classic horror on its head. In an apocalyptic world, Jake and his family live and work at the world’s most famous theme park, but when it becomes apparent that the park is a permanent refuge for the wealthy and powerful, Jake realizes he and the other employees are really there to serve them, no matter how cruel or horrific their demands. Class, elitism, racism are all at The Getaway’s center, and Lamar Giles combines them for one of the best YA horror books of the year.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "young adult", "identity & culture", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1338752014", "cover": "1338752014", "goodreads": 60114406, "itunes": 9781338752014, "bookshop": 9781338752014, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bCq7g4MSL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781338752014", "isbn10": "1338752014", "links": [] }, "218": { "id": 218, "edition": "fall", "title": "Hanged! Mary Surratt and the Plot to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln", "author": "Sarah Miller", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

Sarah Miller, author of The Borden Murders, is a master at taking historical events and making them read like thrillers, and Hanged! is no exception. Mary Surratt was the first woman executed in the United States, but was she really guilty of harboring the nest of vipers at the center of Lincoln’s assassination? Or was she the victim of legal injustice? A thrilling, well-researched and revealing story of one of the best-known crimes in American history; nonfiction you won’t want to put down.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "young adult", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "0593181573", "cover": "0593181573", "goodreads": 52728729, "itunes": 9780593181577, "bookshop": 9780593181577, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91dTE6ulbqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593181577", "isbn10": "0593181573", "links": [] }, "219": { "id": 219, "edition": "fall", "title": "All My Rage", "author": "Sabaa Tahir", "reviewers": [ "Juanita Giles" ], "text": "

All My Rage is an incredibly profound story of devastating loss, friendship, family, identity and personal struggles. Torn from their life in Pakistan, Misbah, Toufiq and their teenage son Sal come to California to start over and seek the American dream, but the struggle almost destroys them. Sal and his friend Noor both fight for their families, their futures and their identities, but their overwhelming odds threaten their friendship in heartbreaking turns. This National Book Award winner is emotional, illuminating and an instant YA classic.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "young adult", "identity & culture", "fiction", "the states we’re in", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0593202341", "cover": "0593202341", "goodreads": 57899793, "itunes": 9780593202340, "bookshop": 9780593202340, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41W4VCO4bXL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593202340", "isbn10": "0593202341", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 219, "book": "All My Rage", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Roundtable: 'All My Rage' by Sabaa Tahir ", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2022-04-04/all-my-rage-by-sabaa-tahir" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 219, "book": "All My Rage", "source": "KQED", "text": " 'All My Rage': A story of love, loss and forgiveness in the Mojave Desert", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/news/11906026/all-my-rage-a-story-of-love-loss-and-forgiveness-in-the-mojave-desert" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 219, "book": "All My Rage", "source": "KAXE", "text": "Intergenerational trauma, a desert motel, and a love of music Inform Sabaa Tahir's new novel ", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/books/2022-06-28/intergenerational-trauma-a-desert-motel-and-a-love-of-music-inform-sabaa-tahirs-new-novel" } ] }, "220": { "id": 220, "edition": "fall", "title": "The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty", "author": "Neal Thompson", "reviewers": [ "Julie McCarthy" ], "text": "

The Kennedy mystique is well-trodden ground. But for the First Kennedys, it was anything but Camelot: escaping Ireland’s Great Famine aboard a coffin ship, surviving Boston’s disease-ridden tenements and searing anti-Catholic bigotry. Bridget Murphy Kennedy, John F. Kennedy’s great-grandmother, leaps from the page, an indomitable force in her newly adopted country, a grocer who stocks liquor behind the counter and wrenches her penniless family from poverty. The Irishness of this story gripped me: the sociability, the raw intelligence and, yes, a bit of larceny – all conspiring in the improbable rise of not only the Kennedys but a whole new class of immigrants.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0358437695", "cover": "0358437695", "goodreads": 55959465, "itunes": 9780358437697, "bookshop": 9780358437697, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41J1BgrhdNL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780358437697", "isbn10": "0358437695", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 220, "book": "The First Kennedys", "source": "WAMC", "text": " 'The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty' by Neal Thompson ", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2022-04-05/the-first-kennedys-the-humble-roots-of-an-american-dynasty-by-neal-thompson" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 220, "book": "The First Kennedys", "source": "KPR", "text": "Conversations: Neal Thompson, 'The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty'", "url": "https://kansaspublicradio.org/blog/dan-skinner/conversations-neal-thompson-first-kennedys-humble-roots-american-dynasty" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 220, "book": "The First Kennedys", "source": "WGVU", "text": "Neal Thompson on 'The First Kennedys,' a look at the humble roots of an American dynasty", "url": "https://www.wgvunews.org/the-wgvu-morning-show/2022-03-21/the-first-kennedys" } ] }, "221": { "id": 221, "edition": "fall", "title": "Solito: A Memoir", "author": "Javier Zamora", "reviewers": [ "Karen Grigsby Bates" ], "text": "

Poet Javier Zamora tells his childhood story of living in a tiny village with his grandparents and cousins, but without his parents – they escaped El Salvador’s crushing civil war to cross into “La USA” (Javi calls it “la oooo-suh”). His parents promise they are saving up to send for him. When they do, Javi leaves his beloved family with the (false) promise that the coyote they’ve paid will look after him. Solito is the story of Javier’s 3,000-mile journey to the U.S. and the people who help him along the way, sometimes at great cost to themselves. It’s all told in a 9-year-old’s voice, in language that is gorgeous and, yes, poetic in its simplicity.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads", "staff picks", "young adult" ], "isbn": "0593498062", "cover": "0593498062", "goodreads": 59900688, "itunes": 9780593498064, "bookshop": 9780593498064, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MuTG4YFsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593498064", "isbn10": "0593498062", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 221, "book": "Solito: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Solito' is a personal story of immigration that sheds light on the universal", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/29/1125275405/javier-zamora-solito-is-a-personal-story-of-immigration-that-is-also-universal" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 221, "book": "Solito: A Memoir", "source": "KQED", "text": "At age 9, poet Javier Zamora migrated from El Salvador alone. In 'Solito,' he tells that story", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101890526/at-age-9-poet-javier-zamora-migrated-from-el-salvador-alone-in-solito-he-tells-that-story" } ] }, "222": { "id": 222, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Newlyweds: Rearranging Marriage in Modern India", "author": "Mansi Choksi", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Frayer" ], "text": "

In Bollywood films, boy meets girl, they fall in love – and everyone dances in unison. In real life, more than 90% of Indian marriages are arranged by families. Caste and religion matter more than chemistry. This book is about the less than 10% who defy tradition and follow their hearts. Bookending The Newlyweds with her own parents’ story, Mansi Choksi braids the love stories of three couples who break boundaries of caste, religion and gender to be together. Choksi observes them like an anthropologist, documents their courtships like the investigative journalist she is – and writes like a poet. The result is a meditation on love, and what we sacrifice for it.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1982134445", "cover": "1982134445", "goodreads": 59366120, "itunes": 9781982134440, "bookshop": 9781982134440, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DRPTg6cfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982134440", "isbn10": "1982134445", "links": [] }, "223": { "id": 223, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Merry Little Meet Cute", "author": "Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

Welcome to Christmas Notch, Vt., the gingerbread-scented backdrop for the Hope Channel’s wholesome holiday movies. When adult-film star Bee Hobbes (aka Bianca Von Honey) is accidentally cast in this year’s movie, she knows she’s got to keep her porn identity under wraps – and get used to performing with her clothes on. Meanwhile, Bee’s co-star (and childhood boyband crush), Nolan Shaw, is hoping to use the Lifetime-esque movie to rehab his own bad-boy image. He’s just gotta keep his, ahem, candy cane in his pants. This holiday romance is naughty and nice and everything in between.

", "tags": [ "funny stuff", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063222574", "cover": "0063222574", "goodreads": 60121411, "itunes": 9780063222571, "bookshop": 9780063222571, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mrQdtnghL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063222571", "isbn10": "0063222574", "links": [] }, "224": { "id": 224, "edition": "fall", "title": "Love on the Brain", "author": "Ali Hazelwood", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

As someone who nearly failed high school physics, science has always produced heart palpitations of the nonromantic variety – until I read Ali Hazelwood’s books. In her latest, neuroscientist Bee Königswasser lands a gig making “fancy swag for astronauts” at NASA. Sadly, the project is run by a veritable wienerfest of science bros who struggle to listen to a woman in a lab coat. Head bro Levi Ward avoids Bee unless he’s lecturing her about the dress code. But as the two begin to work on the project, they realize they just might be able to solve for a happy ending – in and out of the lab.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "funny stuff", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "science!" ], "isbn": "0593336844", "cover": "0593336844", "goodreads": 59856881, "itunes": 9780593336847, "bookshop": 9780593336847, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/513UnC3VzHL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593336847", "isbn10": "0593336844", "links": [] }, "225": { "id": 225, "edition": "fall", "title": "Thank You for Listening", "author": "Julia Whelan", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

Full disclosure: If Julia Whelan read the dictionary aloud, I would listen. The audiobook narrator is such a frequent companion on my walks, I sometimes forget I don’t actually know her. Whelan takes on the role of author for this romance about – what else?! – two audiobook narrators falling in love. Unlike Whelan, Sewanee Chester discovers voice work after an accident cuts her acting career short. She’s sworn off romance novels, but when she gets a lucrative offer to narrate one, she breaks her boycott of the genre. Working alongside the sultry-voiced Brock McNight, things heat up, on and off mic. But Sewanee can’t seem to let go of the life she had before her accident, even as it threatens her future happiness. Listen to the audiobook version of this one if you can.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "funny stuff", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "0063095564", "cover": "0063095564", "goodreads": 59314703, "itunes": 9780063095564, "bookshop": 9780063095564, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51zHTJUDGAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063095564", "isbn10": "0063095564", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 225, "book": "Thank You for Listening", "source": "NPR", "text": "Julia Whelan on narrating her romance novel about a narrator who hates romance novels", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/02/1115267025/julia-whelan-on-narrating-her-romance-novel-about-a-narrator-who-hates-romance-n" } ] }, "226": { "id": 226, "edition": "fall", "title": "How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing", "author": "KC Davis", "reviewers": [ "Lauren Migaki" ], "text": "

Have you recently uttered the phrase “things will calm down after this week”? Does the thought of tackling your mountain of laundry send you into a deep abyss? This is the kindest, gentlest guide to the Sisyphean tasks of cleaning, grooming and generally keeping oneself alive. Part pep talk, part guidebook, KC Davis’ tips are aloe vera for a burned-out brain. Her take on tidying? There are only five things in any room: trash, dishes, laundry, things that have a place and things that do not have a place. Toss everything into those five piles and you’ve already made this monumental task smaller. Davis digs into the emotional relationship we have with chores – reminding us that mess is not a moral failure.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "rather short", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1668002841", "cover": "1668002841", "goodreads": 59345233, "itunes": 9781668002841, "bookshop": 9781668002841, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xm7JFx4xL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781668002841", "isbn10": "1668002841", "links": [] }, "227": { "id": 227, "edition": "fall", "title": "America Made Me a Black Man: A Memoir", "author": "Boyah J. Farah", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "

When Boyah J. Farah arrived in the United States as a teenager, he expected the country to be paradise. And for a while it was; when he rode his bike down the quiet streets of his Boston suburb, past smiling neighbors with their perfectly manicured lawns, he felt like he was in a sort of heaven. But try as he might to hold on to that image, the reality of American racism eventually began to surface cracks in Farah’s fantasy. This memoir tells the story of what Blackness has meant to Farah, from his childhood in Somalia to his coming-of-age in the Northeast, to the moment as an adult he decided to return to Somalia after decades spent away.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0063073358", "cover": "0063073358", "goodreads": 56304453, "itunes": 9780063073357, "bookshop": 9780063073357, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51J7VASZruL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063073357", "isbn10": "0063073358", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 227, "book": "America Made Me a Black Man: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Q&A: Author Boyah J. Farah reflects on being Black in America", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/16/1123112941/q-a-author-boyah-j-farah-reflects-on-being-black-in-america" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 227, "book": "America Made Me a Black Man: A Memoir", "source": "MPR", "text": "Boyah J. Farah on how America made him a Black man", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/09/30/boyah-j-farah-on-how-america-made-him-a-black-man" } ] }, "228": { "id": 228, "edition": "fall", "title": "Fruit Punch: A Memoir", "author": "Kendra Allen", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "

This book is called Fruit Punch, but “sangria” might be the closer metaphor for what it felt like to read. The memoir is funny and painful and sweet and angry and scared and hopeful – not at different moments, but all at once. The writing is spare and the chapters are short, but each vignette is dense: learning to slow dance in the laundromat, driving to visit her dad for the last time, losing your religion while singing in the church choir. Kendra Allen contrasts the simplicity of childhood language with the dizzying complexity of childhood emotion and experience. It’s a book best sipped on, in my experience. Drink too fast and you might lose your head.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "rather short" ], "isbn": "0063048531", "cover": "0063048531", "goodreads": 58536018, "itunes": 9780063048539, "bookshop": 9780063048539, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51tUGKy8fuS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063048539", "isbn10": "0063048531", "links": [] }, "229": { "id": 229, "edition": "fall", "title": "Mother of Strangers: A Novel", "author": "Suad Amiry", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "

Toward the beginning of this novel, Subhi – “the best mechanic in town,” despite being only 15 – is called to fix the well of a local citrus magnate. When he arrives at the grove, he is taken aback by how different the city of Jaffa looks from way up high; how seeing it from this vantage point must affect one’s hopes, fears, politics and loyalties. That sense of perspective-shifting carries throughout the book. The characters force readers to think about how our desires change when our settings do and how expansive (or limited) our sense of reality might be.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "love & romance", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "059331655X", "cover": "059331655X", "goodreads": 59575970, "itunes": 9780593316559, "bookshop": 9780593316559, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41QmoLhLyVL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593316559", "isbn10": "059331655X", "links": [] }, "230": { "id": 230, "edition": "fall", "title": "House of Hunger: A Novel", "author": "Alexis Henderson", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "

It’s a cliché, of course, to talk about a job that requires blood, sweat and tears. But in this book, author Alexis Henderson imagines a world in which certain young women are asked to devote literal blood – drained from the arm at needle-point – to their employers to drink. It’s a Gothic horror that blurs the lines between work and love, coercion and choice, freedom and servitude. And though the book’s setting involves a bit of the paranormal, the questions it asks about our relationship to work are all too real: What are you willing to give of yourself? Will you know your limits before it’s too late? Or will you gladly surrender the last and best parts of you to the person who holds your purse strings?

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593438469", "cover": "0593438469", "goodreads": 60052118, "itunes": 9780593438466, "bookshop": 9780593438466, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oj5k7PYfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593438466", "isbn10": "0593438469", "links": [] }, "231": { "id": 231, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Daughter of Doctor Moreau", "author": "Silvia Moreno-Garcia", "reviewers": [ "Leah Donnella" ], "text": "

Where, exactly, is the line between human and animal? Deep in the tropical forests of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Yucatán, the answer is intentionally unclear. A girl, Carlota, grows up helping her father with his important, but mysterious research. But it is only when their small enclave is visited by outsiders that Carlota realizes just how earth-shattering this research really is and how deeply she’s implicated in it. Part science fiction, part adventure, part social critique, this book – like many of the characters who inhabit it – is never just one thing.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593355334", "cover": "0593355334", "goodreads": 54829360, "itunes": 9780593355336, "bookshop": 9780593355336, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Dwx6qNiIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593355336", "isbn10": "0593355334", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 231, "book": "The Daughter of Doctor Moreau", "source": "NPR", "text": "13 books full of thrills and chills for Halloween", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/28/1131609633/halloween-scary-books-adults" } ] }, "232": { "id": 232, "edition": "fall", "title": "Liberation Day: Stories", "author": "George Saunders", "reviewers": [ "Linda Holmes" ], "text": "

It doesn’t take a lot of reaching to recommend a story collection from George Saunders, but I greatly enjoyed Liberation Day: Stories, which is beautifully written but also pleasantly and unsettlingly odd in a whole bunch of ways. Saunders imagines the lives of ghouls and captive living dolls, unspooling tales of disasters both recognizably human and otherworldly. A bracing letter from a grandparent who failed to save his country sits alongside the unfolding chaos of a mother who wants to save her family. The result is humane, sharp and sad.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "0525509593", "cover": "0525509593", "goodreads": 60471573, "itunes": 9780525509592, "bookshop": 9780525509592, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414jPtY-A0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525509592", "isbn10": "0525509593", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 232, "book": "Liberation Day: Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'Liberation Day,' George Saunders explores everything from misunderstandings to love affairs", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/18/1129735969/author-george-saunders-on-his-new-book-liberation-day-stories" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 232, "book": "Liberation Day: Stories", "source": "GBH", "text": "George Saunders grounds humorous and surreal stories in humanity", "url": "https://www.wgbh.org/news/arts-culture/2022/10/18/george-saunders-grounds-humorous-and-surreal-stories-in-humanity" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 232, "book": "Liberation Day: Stories", "source": "KQED", "text": "Forum: George Saunders on his new story story collection, 'Liberation Day'", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101891126/george-saunders-on-his-new-collection-of-short-stories-liberation-day" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 232, "book": "Liberation Day: Stories", "source": "KCRW", "text": "Press Play: ‘It forces me to lose control’: George Saunders on writing ‘Liberation Day’", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/iran-city-quartz-pennsylvania-senator-george-saunders/liberation-day" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 232, "book": "Liberation Day: Stories", "source": "WPR", "text": "George Saunders: 'In each of these stories, there's some kind of resolution to fix things once and for all'", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/george-saunders-each-these-stories-theres-some-kind-resolution-fix-things-once-and-all" } ] }, "233": { "id": 233, "edition": "fall", "title": "Skater Cielo", "author": "Rachel Katstaller", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "

Cielo is a fierce and fearless street skateboarder who’s excited about the new skate park. However, a wipeout on a deep drop shatters her confidence, leaving the reader to wonder if Cielo will ever skate again. The expressive art of Skater Cielo flies off the pages in this celebration of courage and community, and Rachel Katstaller’s energetic prose nails the fears, tears and pure joy of the sport. Whether you’re a skater or not, you’ll cheer Cielo on again, and again, and again. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "for sports lovers" ], "isbn": "1338751115", "cover": "1338751115", "goodreads": 58719177, "itunes": 9781338751116, "bookshop": 9781338751116, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zpRvMn6OL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781338751116", "isbn10": "1338751115", "links": [] }, "234": { "id": 234, "edition": "fall", "title": "I Am Golden", "author": "Eva Chen, illustrated by Sophie Diao", "reviewers": [ "Lisa Yee" ], "text": "

Beautifully crafted, I Am Golden is at once familiar and fresh. Like so many children of immigrants, including my own mother, Mei is “teacher and translator” for her parents. As a bridge between Chinese and American cultures, she is told, “Our destiny was you.” Past, present and hope for the future shine bright as Mei is reflected in their love. Eva Chen’s deceptively simple prose is the perfect compliment to the jubilant art by Sophie Diao. No matter where you’re from, this universal story will speak to you. (For ages 4 to 6)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "identity & culture", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1250842050", "cover": "1250842050", "goodreads": 57917070, "itunes": 9781250842053, "bookshop": 9781250842053, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Fq5T3WXqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250842053", "isbn10": "1250842050", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 234, "book": "I Am Golden", "source": "KPR", "text": "Conversations: Eva Chen, 'I Am Golden'", "url": "https://kansaspublicradio.org/tags/immigrant" } ] }, "235": { "id": 235, "edition": "fall", "title": "Thistlefoot: A Novel", "author": "GennaRose Nethercott", "reviewers": [ "Mallory Yu" ], "text": "

For centuries, the crone Baba Yaga has been a figure in Slavic folklore – the kind of character who might lend you a magical candle or kill you and use your skull to decorate her house on chicken legs. In her debut novel, Thistlefoot, author and folklorist GennaRose Nethercott reimagines Baba Yaga as a Jewish woman living in an Eastern European shtetl in 1919, during a time of civil war and pogroms. Through the crone and her story, Nethercott explores the idea of folklore as a retelling of a memory too painful to talk about plainly.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "rather long", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "059346883X", "cover": "059346883X", "goodreads": 60018639, "itunes": 9780593468838, "bookshop": 9780593468838, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51rsOFxE3mL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593468838", "isbn10": "059346883X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 235, "book": "Thistlefoot: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "GennaRose Nethercott uses folklore to explore a painful, and personal, history ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/08/1126993880/book-thistlefoot-baba-yaga-folklore-tales-jewish-slavic" } ] }, "236": { "id": 236, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams", "author": "Stacy Schiff", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "

“More than just a beer!” Perhaps that’s what Stacy Schiff should have subtitled her biography of Samuel (never “Sam”) Adams, since his popular image as a brewer has overshadowed his role as “chief incendiary” of the American Revolution. Schiff’s biography of Adams is un-put-downable. It opens on Paul Revere’s ride and charges forward at breakneck pace. Adams was an activist, tirelessly writing and organizing to whip up early support for independence; he also opposed slavery and championed universal free education. In this thrilling biography, Schiff gives us a rough-and-ready Founding Father who fought against the odds to realize democracy.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0316441112", "cover": "0316441112", "goodreads": 60468246, "itunes": 9780316441117, "bookshop": 9780316441117, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51YsO6kk47L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316441117", "isbn10": "0316441112", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 236, "book": "The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author reminds Americans that Samuel Adams was a revolutionary before he was a beer", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/11/01/1131345583/the-revolutionary-review-samuel-adams-stacy-schiff-founding-father" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 236, "book": "The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams", "source": "WABE", "text": "How Samuel Adams fomented revolution", "url": "https://www.wabe.org/tv-episodes/samuel-adams-founding-father-america-forgot-zn47fy/" } ] }, "237": { "id": 237, "edition": "fall", "title": "Search: A Novel", "author": "Michelle Huneven", "reviewers": [ "Maureen Corrigan" ], "text": "

For anyone who’s ever served on a committee and lived to rue that decision, this is the novel for you. Michelle Huneven’s narrator, Dana Potowski, is a food writer living in California who finds herself serving on the search committee for a new minister for her Unitarian Universalist church. Personality clashes and deal-making ensue, as do many potluck dinners (recipes included). Huneven is alert to the inflated language of resumes and committee-speak and her descriptions of the particular ordeal of conducting first-round interviews over Zoom are hilarious. “Search” no more for a delicious comic novel for holiday gift-giving.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "staff picks", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "059330005X", "cover": "059330005X", "goodreads": 58636923, "itunes": 9780593300053, "bookshop": 9780593300053, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51veMip64DL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593300053", "isbn10": "059330005X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 237, "book": "Search: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In the new novel 'Search,' a church searches for a new minister", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/23/1094470460/book-search" } ] }, "238": { "id": 238, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Light Pirate", "author": "Lily Brooks-Dalton", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

A near-future Florida is abandoned by the government after extreme heat and a series of devastating hurricanes that tear and soak the state. But some people don’t leave, even when electricity and communication are no longer supported. The Light Pirate is about Wanda, a girl burdened with the name of the storm that fractured her family and led to her community’s slow death. She learns to thrive as Florida re-wilds in a story that’s surprisingly beautiful and uplifting, given that it’s built on the rubble of civilization’s self-inflicted collapse.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1538708272", "cover": "1538708272", "goodreads": 60468332, "itunes": 9781538708279, "bookshop": 9781538708279, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411bkDDv6tL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781538708279", "isbn10": "1538708272", "links": [] }, "239": { "id": 239, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Pallbearers Club", "author": "Paul Tremblay", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

Creepy, funny and Gen X all the way: Art Barbara’s memoir is about his odd friendship with Mercy Brown, whom he meets in the late 1980s when he’s 17. She’s older. Cooler. She turns him on to punk music. Oh – and she feeds on his life force, or does she? While Art builds his case that she’s a New England vampire, Mercy (writing in the margins), firmly and hilariously disputes his memoir. By the end of The Pallbearers Club, you don’t know for sure if Art’s delusional or if Mercy is a gaslighter: It’s a deliciously nagging confusion that makes the book a masterful psychological thriller.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063069911", "cover": "0063069911", "goodreads": 59314692, "itunes": 9780063069916, "bookshop": 9780063069916, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jbAQCPuuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063069916", "isbn10": "0063069911", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 239, "book": "The Pallbearers Club", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Pallbearer's Club': a memoir on friendship — and a vampire thriller", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/07/03/1109607702/the-pallbearers-club-a-memoir-on-friendship-and-a-vampire-thriller" } ] }, "240": { "id": 240, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Devil Takes You Home", "author": "Gabino Iglesias", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

This story is about one man’s descent into hell, with violence so relentless I repeatedly grabbed my bookmark and took a breather. But I kept coming back, unable to resist Gabino Iglesias’ crisp, propulsive writing. His narrator, Mario, quits an honest job and becomes a hit man. Mario’s wife has left him following his young daughter’s death. He’s empty inside (so he thinks), plus there’s crushing medical debt to pay off. Mario thinks he’ll get a fresh start if he teams up with two other men to successfully hijack a drug cartel’s cash shipment before it gets to Mexico. Instead, he’s on a dark odyssey made even darker by the growing realization that he’s not as morally bankrupt as he thinks he is, but will it be too late?

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0316426911", "cover": "0316426911", "goodreads": 58978299, "itunes": 9780316426916, "bookshop": 9780316426916, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4124l6CW7OL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316426916", "isbn10": "0316426911", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 240, "book": "The Devil Takes You Home", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Devil Takes You Home' invites readers to consider the depths of darkness", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/06/1115450955/the-devil-takes-you-home-invites-readers-to-consider-the-depths-of-darkness" } ] }, "241": { "id": 241, "edition": "fall", "title": "Stories from the Tenants Downstairs", "author": "Sidik Fofana", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Gray" ], "text": "

Among the eight, interconnected short stories set in a Harlem high rise is one that will break you: a middle schooler named Najee who’s struggling to write a remorseful letter to a friend’s mother. There’s also a would-be hairdresser who’s mortified when he goes viral and a young woman wrestling with animosity and vengeance toward one of her neighbors-in-need. Sidik Fofana’s characters tell their stories in such vivid voices, rendered so completely, that you swear you can see their facial expressions and hear their breathing as you laugh at their wit and hurt at their pain: a brilliant debut.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "fiction", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1982145811", "cover": "1982145811", "goodreads": 59366136, "itunes": 9781982145811, "bookshop": 9781982145811, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51369jTTifL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982145811", "isbn10": "1982145811", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 241, "book": "Stories from the Tenants Downstairs", "source": "NPR", "text": "Short 'Stories from the Tenants Downstairs' describe the gentrification of their home", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/13/1117347618/short-stories-from-the-tenants-downstairs-describe-the-gentrification-of-their-h" } ] }, "242": { "id": 242, "edition": "fall", "title": "The More You Give", "author": "Marcy Campbell, illustrated by Francesca Sanna", "reviewers": [ "Minh Lê" ], "text": "

The More You Give starts small and quiet like a seed, but as the family’s story unfurls over generations, the book’s generous spirit will take root in your heart. A celebration of the loving gifts that we pass on to each other, this book is itself a perfect gift for those in need of an alternative to the ubiquitous The Giving Tree. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593372735", "cover": "0593372735", "goodreads": 59575984, "itunes": 9780593372739, "bookshop": 9780593372739, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515ps-RrvLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593372739", "isbn10": "0593372735", "links": [] }, "243": { "id": 243, "edition": "fall", "title": "Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus", "author": "David Quammen", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Escobar" ], "text": "

I’m normally not interested in reading about the coronavirus pandemic in my free time. This book is one of the few exceptions. David Quammen, whose book Spillover predicted that a novel coronavirus might cause the next pandemic, writes about the virus that causes the disease COVID-19 by introducing us to the scientists who raced against the clock to uncover the microbe’s origins and how it was spreading so quickly. Breathless was a National Book Award finalist for good reason: The quality of the writing succeeded in helping me understand how exactly the coronavirus jumped from animal to human, while keeping me eagerly turning the pages.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "science!", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1982164360", "cover": "1982164360", "goodreads": 60384070, "itunes": 9781982164362, "bookshop": 9781982164362, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41feiVxHMRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982164362", "isbn10": "1982164360", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 243, "book": "Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus", "source": "WHYY", "text": "Radio Times: David Quammen looks back at the scramble to identify, understand and stop the spread of COVID-19", "url": "https://whyy.org/episodes/the-scientific-race-to-defeat-a-deadly-virus/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 243, "book": "Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus", "source": "KPCW", "text": "Cool Science Radio: David Quammen on 'Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus' ", "url": "https://www.kpcw.org/show/cool-science-radio/2022-10-20/breathless-the-scientific-race-to-defeat-a-deadly-virus-csr" } ] }, "244": { "id": 244, "edition": "fall", "title": "Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta", "author": "James Hannaham", "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "text": "

When we first meet Carlotta, she’s freshly released from federal prison, or as she calls it, an “incorrectual facility” where there were “never no guards to guard the guards.” Terrible timing put her behind bars for decades, and her bad luck gives no quarter. Wearing homemade makeup and prison khakis, Carlotta swirls back to Brooklyn into a family largely indifferent to her gender transition and through a gentrified New York that leaves her – and the reader – breathless with nostalgia. Riotous and resilient, she is a supercharged survivor. Author James Hannaham’s picaresque novel, written with hedonistic verve, does Carlotta justice.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "funny stuff", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0316285277", "cover": "0316285277", "goodreads": 59227943, "itunes": 9780316285278, "bookshop": 9780316285278, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51aeQ2wIC4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316285278", "isbn10": "0316285277", "links": [] }, "245": { "id": 245, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories", "author": "Jamil Jan Kochai", "reviewers": [ "Neda Ulaby" ], "text": "

At a moment when Afghanistan’s tragedy is relegated to background noise for many Americans, Jamil Jan Kochai’s bravura collection of short stories arrives with a pulsating self-assurance that reminded me of Junot Díaz’s debut, Drown. They center, for example, on a female pediatrician in Kabul receiving mysterious, gory packages; a U.S. surveillance operative falling under the quotidian spell of the suburban immigrant family he’s spying on; and the surreal nightmare experience of playing a Call of Duty-style video game from an Afghan perspective.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "book club ideas", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "0593297199", "cover": "0593297199", "goodreads": 58988397, "itunes": 9780593297193, "bookshop": 9780593297193, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bUhxT2cZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593297193", "isbn10": "0593297199", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 245, "book": "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sci-fi elements help a family's story before and after warfare", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/07/19/1112305273/sci-fi-elements-help-a-familys-story-before-and-after-warfare" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 245, "book": "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories", "source": "NPR", "text": "It took 20 years for this author to reunite with the teacher who changed his life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/17/1117808852/after-20-years-author-jamil-jan-kochai-reunites-with-teacher-susan-lung" } ] }, "246": { "id": 246, "edition": "fall", "title": "Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm", "author": "Laura Warrell", "reviewers": [ "Neena Pathak" ], "text": "

In this stunning novel – longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction – Laura Warrell turns the “womanizer” trope inside out by centering the stories, struggles, and, yes, joys, of the diverse cast of women who populate his life. Her “womanizer” – 40-year-old jazz musician Circus Palmer – learns the woman he loves most is unexpectedly pregnant with his child. Meanwhile, his teenage daughter Koko (my favorite character in the book) struggles to understand her own blossoming sexuality, cope with her father’s rejection and deal with her mother’s deteriorating mental health. I love the way Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm’s musical, staccato prose enlivens its subject matter. This is a book for anyone who has experienced heartbreak, love and everything in between.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "for music lovers", "staff picks", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0593316444", "cover": "0593316444", "goodreads": 60048960, "itunes": 9780593316443, "bookshop": 9780593316443, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514PT+4z5tL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593316443", "isbn10": "0593316444", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 246, "book": "Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm", "source": "WAMU", "text": "The 1A: Laura Warrell’ on her novel 'Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm'", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/laura-warrells-sweet-soft-plenty-rhythm/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 246, "book": "Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Nerdette Book Club: Laura Warrell on ‘Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm’ ", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/nerdette-book-club-laura-warrell-on-sweet-soft-plenty-rhythm/c2ce2f75-fc87-47b3-b4f2-6674f16bc3b5" } ] }, "247": { "id": 247, "edition": "fall", "title": "What if? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions", "author": "Randall Munroe", "reviewers": [ "Nell Greenfieldboyce" ], "text": "

My 12-year-old says this book is “good for people who like blowing things up.” We both loved the 2014 book What if? and this sequel offers more of Randall Munroe’s answers to questions like “What would happen if the Solar System was filled with soup out to Jupiter?” Picking this book up now and then enlivens life by letting you briefly consider the effects of, say, putting an indestructible 20-meter-wide glass tube all the way down to the deepest part of the ocean. Plus, Munroe’s illustrations turn stick figures and flowcharts into the stuff of existential hilarity.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "comics & graphic novels", "eye-opening reads", "funny stuff", "science!", "it’s all geek to me", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0525537112", "cover": "0525537112", "goodreads": 60190659, "itunes": 9780525537113, "bookshop": 9780525537113, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41NUuz55BqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525537113", "isbn10": "0525537112", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 247, "book": "What if? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'What If? 2' is Randall Munroe's second round of answers to absurd questions", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/27/1125440818/what-if-2-is-randall-munroes-second-round-of-answers-to-absurd-questions" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 247, "book": "What if? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions", "source": "KPR", "text": "Conversations: Randall Munroe, 'What If? 2 - Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions'", "url": "https://kansaspublicradio.org/blog/dan-skinner/conversations-randall-munroe-what-if-2-additional-serious-scientific-answers-absurd" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 247, "book": "What if? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions", "source": "WAMU", "text": "The 1A: Asking ‘what if?’ with Randall Munroe", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/asking-what-if-with-randall-munroe/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 247, "book": "What if? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions", "source": "WPR", "text": "Silly science with 'xkcd' creator Randall Munroe", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/silly-science-xkcd-creator-randall-munroe" } ] }, "248": { "id": 248, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dark Goals: How History’s Worst Tyrants Have Used and Abused the Game of Soccer", "author": "Luciano Wernicke", "reviewers": [ "Nick Charles" ], "text": "

All manner of scoundrels, strongmen (and strongwomen) have sought to use “The Beautiful Game” as a canvas for their philosophies. Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, tried to use soccer to elevate Nazism. In Argentina, Evita Perón made it clear which team should be ascendant – and what would befall those who didn’t see to it. And the list goes on. Dark Goals chronicles the ways that the world’s most popular and democratic sport has laundered the reputations of nations and their leaders. As you watch the World Cup in Qatar, listen carefully for the echoes of a complicated past that is prologue.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "for sports lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "tales from around the world", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "1989555845", "cover": "1989555845", "goodreads": 62406853, "itunes": 9781989555842, "bookshop": 9781989555842, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/312tqfeVlML._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781989555842", "isbn10": "1989555845", "links": [] }, "249": { "id": 249, "edition": "fall", "title": "Birds of Maine", "author": "Michael DeForge", "reviewers": [ "Nicolette Khan" ], "text": "

Science fiction meets natural history in Birds of Maine – a slice-of-life-ish study of a futuristic lunar bird civilization. Michael DeForge’s bold, playful colors and trippy-but-scientific illustrations transport you to a weird and wonderful world where the internet is cool and economics isn’t real. Don’t be distracted by the fungal laneways, library orgies, or universal worm diet – these birds are preoccupied by the same dramas as you and me – completing manuscripts, falling in love, bands breaking up. This book invokes a healthy balance of hope and angst for the future.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "comics & graphic novels", "funny stuff", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1770465669", "cover": "1770465669", "goodreads": 58772752, "itunes": 9781770465664, "bookshop": 9781770465664, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nCbfQcA3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781770465664", "isbn10": "1770465669", "links": [] }, "250": { "id": 250, "edition": "fall", "title": "What is Home, Mum?", "author": "Sabba Khan", "reviewers": [ "Nicolette Khan" ], "text": "

In her graphic novel, What Is Home, Mum?, Sabba Khan examines what it means to be part of the displaced diaspora of South Asia. Through her thoughtful narration (English peppered with Pothwari, Urdu and Arabic) and brilliant illustrations, she maps the architectures of history, religion, gender, family and identity. I especially love how Khan captures the myriad and shifting ways someone can show up as a Pakistani woman. I felt like I was reading a letter from a sister or cousin and truly found a sense of belonging through this book.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels", "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1951491173", "cover": "1951491173", "goodreads": 60245111, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781951491178, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515rmj6ZBoL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781951491178", "isbn10": "1951491173", "links": [] }, "251": { "id": 251, "edition": "fall", "title": "An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville", "author": "Reza Aslan", "reviewers": [ "Peter Sagal" ], "text": "

I picked up An American Martyr in Persia not knowing or, frankly, caring much about early 20th-century Iran or the American missionaries who spread the Gospel there, but Reza Aslan does a remarkable job proving the importance of that time and place. Howard Baskerville was an evangelist of both American religious virtue and democracy when his own Jim Crow America was little more than an apartheid state. Still, the people of Persia – now Iran – believed in his ideals and risked their lives to win their own freedom. What then happened to them – and to Baskerville himself – was a tragedy that echoes down to the present day, as Iranians of a new generation attempt to claim for themselves some measure of the freedoms Americans take for granted.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for history lovers", "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "1324004479", "cover": "1324004479", "goodreads": 60384460, "itunes": 9781324004479, "bookshop": 9781324004479, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41AAf3FoLOL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781324004479", "isbn10": "1324004479", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 251, "book": "An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville ", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Why the protests in Iran today are reminiscent of a revolution in 1906", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/10/18/iran-protests-1906-revolution" } ] }, "252": { "id": 252, "edition": "fall", "title": "Sometimes, All I Need Is Me", "author": "Juliana Perdomo", "reviewers": [ "Rakiesha Chase-Jackson" ], "text": "

Sometimes, All I Need Is Me offers children an important lesson wrapped in beautiful illustrations and prose. The brightly colored pages impart a simple but powerful message: While the outside world has many wonderful offerings, like friends and music and hugs, children can draw on that special “something” inside themselves as a source of strength and solace. (For ages 2 to 5)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1536218049", "cover": "1536218049", "goodreads": 53170838, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781536218046, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51GC5GqxScL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781536218046", "isbn10": "1536218049", "links": [] }, "253": { "id": 253, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Great Zapfino", "author": "Mac Barnett, illustrated by Marla Frazee", "reviewers": [ "Samantha Balaban" ], "text": "

In The Great Zapfino, a circus performer climbs a ladder and prepares to jump off a 10-story diving board. But he can’t do it! He’s scared! He runs away from the circus and gets a job as an elevator operator, and what follows is Zapfino’s adventure to try to overcome his fear. What I love about this book is that it starts with failure, which is both refreshing and relatable. Who among us hasn’t felt like Zapfino? Mac Barnett wrote 73 words in total for this book, which means the reader gets to use their imagination – and Marla Frazee’s beautiful black and white illustrations – to write the rest of Zapfino’s journey. (For ages 0 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "no biz like show biz", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1534411542", "cover": "1534411542", "goodreads": 58067682, "itunes": 9781534411548, "bookshop": 9781534411548, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51iF1ZtUtLS._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781534411548", "isbn10": "1534411542", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 253, "book": "The Great Zapfino", "source": "NPR", "text": "Behold! 'The Great Zapfino' takes a big leap to overcome his fears ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/30/1092659789/the-great-zapfino-mac-barnett-book" } ] }, "254": { "id": 254, "edition": "fall", "title": "Mercury Pictures Presents: A Novel", "author": "Anthony Marra", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Nearly a decade after his debut, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Anthony Marra returns with a sprawling story that ushers readers through the streets of pre-World War II Rome, the backlots and front offices of a B-movie studio in Hollywood and the halls of Congress. The novel centers on Italian émigré Maria, teasing through the tangled, complex relationships she has with the men who shaped her past, empowered her career, and inhibit or expand her dreams. But as compelling as the story and characters are, the real star is the writing. Marra’s ability to capture and render both the joy and pain of life, and depict the web of fate that encompasses and shapes our lives, remains unmatched.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "no biz like show biz", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0451495209", "cover": "0451495209", "goodreads": 59109471, "itunes": 9780451495204, "bookshop": 9780451495204, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41WOhokwDPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780451495204", "isbn10": "0451495209", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 254, "book": "Mercury Pictures Presents: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Anthony Marra on his new novel, 'Mercury Pictures Presents' ", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2022-08-09/anthony-marra-on-his-new-novel-mercury-pictures-presents" } ] }, "255": { "id": 255, "edition": "fall", "title": "Our Wives Under the Sea: A Novel", "author": "Julia Armfield", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

This is a deeply strange and haunting novel in the best possible way. A married couple – Leah and Miri – try to reacclimate to life together after Leah, a marine biologist, returns from an expedition gone wrong in the deep sea. Miri is desperate to help the woman she loves, but it becomes increasingly clear Leah is slipping from her grasp. An impressive and exciting debut novel that may leave you thinking about your own relationships in a new light.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "love & romance", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250229898", "cover": "1250229898", "goodreads": 58724816, "itunes": 9781250229892, "bookshop": 9781250229892, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zJ+zVH-1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250229892", "isbn10": "1250229898", "links": [] }, "256": { "id": 256, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Year We Learned to Fly", "author": "Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Rafael López", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

This story is a testament to the universal power of children’s imaginations and an homage to the very specific power of slipping the bonds of slavery and its legacy in your mind. Jacqueline Woodson’s words recall those of Black folk tales that taught her to fly. Now she and Rafael López lift up a new generation with their words and beautifully rendered, jewel tone-saturated images. Young minds will be fired up by the book, which is also a great conversation starter or supporter when talking about the history of race in America. (For ages 5 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0399545530", "cover": "0399545530", "goodreads": 58586873, "itunes": 9780399545535, "bookshop": 9780399545535, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51chCH1Q6tL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780399545535", "isbn10": "0399545530", "links": [] }, "257": { "id": 257, "edition": "fall", "title": "Farmhouse", "author": "Sophie Blackall", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

Our lives are – ultimately – our stories. In this one Sophie Blackall manages to spin a single sentence capturing the imagined lives of a houseful of children on a farm. The images and story were inspired by the detritus she discovered in an old farmhouse in New York state. The resulting images are sure to delight adults and children alike, while the story is a reminder of what we leave behind. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "family matters", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0316528943", "cover": "0316528943", "goodreads": 58783430, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780316528948, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Ou9L-0LYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316528948", "isbn10": "0316528943", "links": [] }, "258": { "id": 258, "edition": "fall", "title": "This Story Is Not About a Kitten", "author": "Randall de Sève, illustrated by Carson Ellis", "reviewers": [ "Tayla Burney" ], "text": "

While it’s true the story is not about a kitten, there is a beautiful, amber-eyed kitten in it. But what the story is really about is community and the ways in which we can all work together and show generosity toward one another to offer help in times of need. It’s a powerful message for kids and adults alike – and as important as kittens are cute. (For ages 4 to 8)

", "tags": [ "kids’ books", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0593374533", "cover": "0593374533", "goodreads": 59730560, "itunes": 9780593374535, "bookshop": 9780593374535, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-yrufaNGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593374535", "isbn10": "0593374533", "links": [] }, "259": { "id": 259, "edition": "fall", "title": "His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice", "author": "Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa", "reviewers": [ "Adrian Florido" ], "text": "

Most of the world knows George Floyd as the symbol of a new movement for racial justice. Journalists Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa tell the story of George Floyd the man, before he was killed under a white police officer’s knee. He liked telling people he loved them. He suffered lifelong claustrophobia. A large Black man, he knew he made people nervous, so he went out of his way to put them at ease. This deeply reported biography reaches into history to help us understand how the forces of racism shaped every aspect of Floyd’s life, up to his tragic death.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "0593490614", "cover": "0593490614", "goodreads": 58890953, "itunes": 9780593490617, "bookshop": 9780593490617, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oFxM+MbAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593490617", "isbn10": "0593490614", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 259, "book": "His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice", "source": "NPR", "text": "Many know how George Floyd died. A new biography reveals how he lived", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/18/1099585400/george-floyd-biography-book" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 259, "book": "His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice", "source": "NPR", "text": "Fresh Air: Biography examines how systemic racism shaped the troubled life of George Floyd", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/18/1099739018/biography-examines-how-systemic-racism-shaped-the-troubled-life-of-george-floyd" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 259, "book": "His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice", "source": "WDET", "text": "George Floyd — his life, meaning, and how the country has changed since his murder", "url": "https://wdet.org/2022/07/21/george-floyd-his-life-meaning-and-how-the-country-has-changed-since-his-murder/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 259, "book": "His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice", "source": "TPR", "text": "The Source: George Floyd is known worldwide for his death, but how did he live and what can we learn from the life he led? ", "url": "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source/2022-05-31/george-floyd-is-known-worldwide-for-his-death-but-how-did-he-live-and-what-can-we-learn-from-the-life-he-led" } ] }, "260": { "id": 260, "edition": "fall", "title": "I'm Glad My Mom Died", "author": "Jennette McCurdy", "reviewers": [ "Aja Miller" ], "text": "

Former iCarly star Jennette McCurdy’s account of her tumultuous relationship with show business, disordered eating and abuse by her mother is the heart of her debut memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. McCurdy’s storytelling is not only fantastic but intimate and raw, full of both pain and humor. While it can be hard to read, learning about how much she was going through privately while in the public eye, I’m Glad My Mom Died is also hard to put down – and hard to forget.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "no biz like show biz", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "1982185821", "cover": "1982185821", "goodreads": 59366244, "itunes": 9781982185824, "bookshop": 9781982185824, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41iFLFkKbKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982185824", "isbn10": "1982185821", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 260, "book": "I'm Glad My Mom Died ", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Jennette McCurdy explains why she's glad her mom died", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/11/08/jennette-mccurdy-im-glad-my-mom-died" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 260, "book": "I'm Glad My Mom Died ", "source": "WABE", "text": " 'I'm Glad My Mom Died': Jennette McCurdy on her new memoir", "url": "https://www.wabe.org/tv-episodes/im-glad-my-mom-died-jennette-mccurdy-on-her-new-memoir-tthri/" } ] }, "261": { "id": 261, "edition": "fall", "title": "Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew", "author": "Michael W. Twitty", "reviewers": [ "Anastasia Tsioulcas" ], "text": "

Koshersoul is a frank, vibrant and profound follow-up to culinary historian Michael W. Twitty’s erudite and eye-opening 2017 book The Cooking Gene. This time around, Twitty explores what it means to be Black and Jewish, to be the inheritor of both African Atlantic and Jewish global diaspora traditions, and to move through the world with that multiconsciousness. Also, there are recipes. Still looking forward to trying out his pastrami-and-collards spring rolls, zested up with ginger, garlic and sesame oil.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "cookbooks & food", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0062891758", "cover": "0062891758", "goodreads": 59629542, "itunes": 9780062891754, "bookshop": 9780062891754, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Tsrx08SaL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780062891754", "isbn10": "0062891758", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 261, "book": "Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew", "source": "WAMU", "text": "The 1A: Michael Twitty on his book ‘Koshersoul’", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/michael-twittys-koshersoul/" } ] }, "262": { "id": 262, "edition": "fall", "title": "Lapvona: A Novel", "author": "Ottessa Moshfegh", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "

Lapvona is gross. Ottessa Moshfegh writes about bodies with specificity – all the orifices and odors and juices come alive so the whole book kind of smells like toe jam, in the best possible way. A young boy in the small, famine-stricken medieval town of Lapvona finds himself adopted into a powerful noble family, exposing a class discrepancy that serves as a deeper meditation on the pointlessness of life and the cruelty of God or god or “God.” Is there salvation to be found in Lapvona? I’m not sure, but if there is, it’s probably a little stinky.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "historical fiction", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593300262", "cover": "0593300262", "goodreads": 59089897, "itunes": 9780593300268, "bookshop": 9780593300268, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41U66WfYo3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593300268", "isbn10": "0593300262", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 262, "book": "Lapvona: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Life in the Middle Ages is more gross than engrossing in this ruthless novel ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/27/1107360561/lapvona-ottessa-moshfegh-book-review" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 262, "book": "Lapvona: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Ottessa Moshfegh's year of death and internet clout", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/07/21/1105495637/ottessa-moshfeghs-year-of-death-and-internet-clout" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 262, "book": "Lapvona: A Novel", "source": "WAMU", "text": "The 1A: Ottessa Moshfegh on writing the grotesque", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/ottessa-moshfegh-on-writing-the-grotesque/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 262, "book": "Lapvona: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Ottessa Moshfegh - Lapvona ", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/the-book-show/2022-07-26/ottessa-moshfegh-lapvona" } ] }, "263": { "id": 263, "edition": "fall", "title": "Luda: A Novel", "author": "Grant Morrison", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "

Aging drag artist Luci LaBang gets goaded into mentoring a young protégée in the ways of her magic. This is, of course, a horrible idea. The world Grant Morrison creates in Luda is mystical and mysterious: Is Luci actually imbued with magical abilities, or is she just that good at makeup? Does it matter? Recommended if you like going, “Wait, what the heck is going on?” – not in a confusing way, but more in bewilderment of the adventure Morrison is taking you on.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "rather long", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "no biz like show biz", "fiction" ], "isbn": "059335530X", "cover": "059335530X", "goodreads": 60706832, "itunes": 9780593355305, "bookshop": 9780593355305, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41shY9a6v9L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593355305", "isbn10": "059335530X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 263, "book": "Luda: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Luda' isn't a book you read — it's a book you experience", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1125276166/grant-morrison-luda-is-a-magical-story-about-identity-stardom-and-aging" } ] }, "264": { "id": 264, "edition": "fall", "title": "If I Survive You", "author": "Jonathan Escoffery", "reviewers": [ "Andrew Limbong" ], "text": "

I could say something buttoned-up, like “Jonathan Escoffery’s debut collection of short stories examines race, identity and class in incisive ways.” And that’d be true, but phrasing it that way betrays the lack of didacticism in his writing. Instead, the book – which follows generations of one Jamaican American family – focuses on the hunger (literal and figurative), heartbreak, horniness and (maybe?) hope that often come hand-in-hand with trying to make it in this country.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "037460598X", "cover": "037460598X", "goodreads": 59808611, "itunes": 9780374605988, "bookshop": 9780374605988, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yzsdhyO8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374605988", "isbn10": "037460598X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 264, "book": "If I Survive You", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'If I Survive You' is a sweeping portrait of a family's fight to make it in America", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/09/1120509012/if-i-survive-you-jonathan-escoffery-review-short-story-collection" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 264, "book": "If I Survive You", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'If I Survive You' navigates family and identity in the Jamaican diaspora", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/11/04/1134408825/if-i-survive-you-navigates-family-and-identity-in-the-jamaican-diaspora" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 264, "book": "If I Survive You", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Acclaimed short-story collection 'If I Survive You' explores the Jamaican American immigrant experience", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/10/27/jonathan-escoffery-if-i-survive-you" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 264, "book": "If I Survive You", "source": "KQED", "text": "Jonathan Escoffery’s ‘If I Survive You’ takes readers on a journey through identity, Blackness and Miami", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101890768/jonathan-escofferys-if-i-survive-you-takes-readers-on-a-journey-through-identity-blackness-and-miami" } ] }, "265": { "id": 265, "edition": "fall", "title": "Partners in Crime: A Novel", "author": "Alisha Rai", "reviewers": [ "Anika Steffen" ], "text": "

Mira is an accountant who wants to settle down in a boring, stable relationship using an Indian matchmaker. But when her aunt dies and Mira needs to settle the estate, she runs into ex-boyfriend Naveen. If it isn’t awkward enough to run into the gorgeous guy you ghosted, try being kidnapped – and then escaping – with him. Mira and Naveen must race to find a missing diamond necklace in Vegas, with a crime syndicate on their trail. Fast-paced Partners in Crime is Ocean’s Eleven meets The Lost City, full of high jinks and sexy capers. It’s a fun, and at times tender, read.

", "tags": [ "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063119463", "cover": "0063119463", "goodreads": 58007262, "itunes": 9780063119468, "bookshop": 9780063119468, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51C8XmeTlIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063119468", "isbn10": "0063119463", "links": [] }, "266": { "id": 266, "edition": "fall", "title": "Carrie Soto Is Back: A Novel", "author": "Taylor Jenkins Reid", "reviewers": [ "Anna Clarkson" ], "text": "

Taylor Jenkins Reid has done it again! Carrie Soto Is Back follows a legendary but unpopular tennis player as she comes out of retirement to attempt a comeback. Unable to stomach her Grand Slam record being beaten, she brings her dad back as her coach and trains with a former rival. Alternating between flashbacks and present day, readers discover the cost of fame, the struggles of being a female athlete, and that it’s OK to fail sometimes. Its release coincided with Serena Williams’ final matches, which made it even more interesting to read about another late-career female tennis star showing the world what she can do.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "for sports lovers", "fiction", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0593158687", "cover": "0593158687", "goodreads": 60435878, "itunes": 9780593158685, "bookshop": 9780593158685, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51A8UDf0G1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593158685", "isbn10": "0593158687", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 266, "book": "Carrie Soto Is Back: A Novel", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Taylor Jenkins Reid is back — with a sports novel that explores athletic ambition", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/book-review/2022-08-29/taylor-jenkins-reid-is-back-with-a-sports-novel-that-explores-athletic-ambition" } ] }, "267": { "id": 267, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Map for the Missing: A Novel", "author": "Belinda Huijuan Tang", "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "text": "

I love fiction that takes me somewhere I’ve never been, and I’ve certainly never been to rural China in the 1970s. Belinda Huijuan Tang’s debut novel has the building blocks of a page turner. There’s romance, family drama and societal upheaval. It centers on an adjunct professor in the U.S. who returns home to his family’s small village in China for the first time in years. But it’s more than just a great story. Tang’s deep research into the waning days of the Cultural Revolution allows this novel to rest on a foundation of a fascinating moment in Chinese history.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593300661", "cover": "0593300661", "goodreads": 59900654, "itunes": 9780593300664, "bookshop": 9780593300664, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41iC+2HQysL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593300664", "isbn10": "0593300661", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 267, "book": "A Map for the Missing: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Belinda Huijuan Tang weaves family history with fiction in her debut novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/17/1118012432/author-weaves-family-history-with-fiction-in-debut-novel" } ] }, "268": { "id": 268, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World", "author": "Max Fisher", "reviewers": [ "Ari Shapiro" ], "text": "

This book has actually changed the way I use social media on a daily basis. It has also changed the way I think about the role of platforms like Facebook and Twitter in politics, global affairs and my own neighborhood. At dinner parties, I have to stop myself from sharing too many jaw-dropping anecdotes from the book, like the one about what YouTube did to reach its goal of a billion hours of watch time per day. In short, if you use social media or know people who do, this one is worth your time.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "it’s all geek to me", "seriously great writing", "staff picks", "science!" ], "isbn": "031670332X", "cover": "031670332X", "goodreads": 58950736, "itunes": 9780316703321, "bookshop": 9780316703321, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519INV5bFIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316703321", "isbn10": "031670332X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 268, "book": "The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World", "source": "NPR", "text": "Does social media leave you feeling angry? That might be intentional", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/13/1122786134/does-social-media-leave-you-feeling-angry-that-might-be-intentional" } ] }, "269": { "id": 269, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Family Outing: A Memoir", "author": "Jessi Hempel", "reviewers": [ "Arielle Retting" ], "text": "

Every family has secrets. In a span of five years, everyone in Jessi Hempel’s family revealed theirs – some coming out as queer, one as trans, and one as a survivor of a traumatic experience. But as the author says, “Revealing our secrets is not the same as living our truths.” With rich detail and deep empathy, Hempel chronicles the highs and lows of their journey to healing, through marriages and divorces, personal growth and grief. Along the way, they began creating families of their own and grew stronger together.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0063079011", "cover": "0063079011", "goodreads": 59816827, "itunes": 9780063079014, "bookshop": 9780063079014, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41JGnD5YqfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063079014", "isbn10": "0063079011", "links": [] }, "270": { "id": 270, "edition": "fall", "title": "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel", "author": "Gabrielle Zevin", "reviewers": [ "Brandon Carter" ], "text": "

You know that feeling when you finally beat a video game? Emotional catharsis floods your mind and body and, drained, you set down the controller with a sigh. If you’re not much of a gamer, but you still crave that emotional release, Gabrielle Zevin’s brilliant novel about two friends’ journey to video game stardom is the perfect substitute. This story of love, loss and the constant battle between art and commercial success left me short of breath. It’s one of those books you’ll be thinking about long after “game over.”

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "for art lovers", "it’s all geek to me", "love & romance", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0593321200", "cover": "0593321200", "goodreads": 58784475, "itunes": 9780593321201, "bookshop": 9780593321201, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KhL9dOQAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593321201", "isbn10": "0593321200", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 270, "book": "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "The immersive novel 'Tomorrow' is a winner for gamers and n00bs alike", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/07/28/1114196664/video-game-novel-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-gabrielle-zevin" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 270, "book": "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Nerdette Book Club: ‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/nerdette-book-club-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow/5a5854a2-7004-4853-a55f-d654ce76ff07" } ] }, "271": { "id": 271, "edition": "fall", "title": "Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands", "author": "Kate Beaton", "reviewers": [ "Bronson Arcuri" ], "text": "

This autobiographical graphic novel gives the kind of honest look into someone’s life that feels rare when social media encourages us to share only our happiest moments. In it, Kate Beaton, author of the popular webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, shares the brutal reality of her early professional life. As a new grad who needs to pay back her student loans, she moves to an isolated part of Canada for a job in the male-dominated oil industry. The beautifully drawn Ducks offers us a haunting look at the isolation and misogyny endemic to the profession – as well as small moments of hope and tenderness.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "comics & graphic novels" ], "isbn": "1770462899", "cover": "1770462899", "goodreads": 59069071, "itunes": 9781770462892, "bookshop": 9781770462892, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZZXVyR1rL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781770462892", "isbn10": "1770462899", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 271, "book": "Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands", "source": "NPR", "text": "With 'Ducks,' the creator of Hark! A Vagrant reveals her shadow side", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/22/1124217524/with-ducks-kate-beacon-of-hark-a-vagrant-reveals-her-shadow-side" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 271, "book": "Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Kate Beaton's new graphic memoir is about the dark type of job you take for money", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/npr/1126934628/book-ducks-kate-beaton-hark-vagrant" } ] }, "272": { "id": 272, "edition": "fall", "title": "As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow", "author": "Zoulfa Katouh", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "

Salama lives in a city ravaged by war, where necessity promoted her from student pharmacist to emergency surgeon at her local hospital. When a recurring hallucination pressures her to flee Syria, she is torn between the hope of escape and the pain of leaving everything behind. This book looks trauma directly in the face. I was not expecting to race through it, clutching the pages, desperate to know what would happen next. It paints a brutal portrait of the horrific cost of oppression and violence and offers a testament to the concept of love prevailing even in the direst of circumstances.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "tales from around the world", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0316351377", "cover": "0316351377", "goodreads": 57390604, "itunes": 9780316351379, "bookshop": 9780316351379, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jp8u9cKfL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316351379", "isbn10": "0316351377", "links": [] }, "273": { "id": 273, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Scatter of Light", "author": "Malinda Lo", "reviewers": [ "Caitlyn Paxson" ], "text": "

After a topless photo of recent high school graduate Aria is shared without her permission, she goes to California to stay with her grandmother for the summer and meets Steph. Charismatic and openly queer, Steph introduces Aria to a community of artists and activists. Aria always thought she was straight, but her feelings for Steph make her question that assumption. Full of yearning, meditations on art and self-revelation, A Scatter of Light has a simmering intensity and feels like a portal to that moment when you realize that the world, and your place within it, is so much bigger than it seemed.

", "tags": [ "young adult", "fiction", "identity & culture", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "0525555285", "cover": "0525555285", "goodreads": 60093178, "itunes": 9780525555285, "bookshop": 9780525555285, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QZmEfrnCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525555285", "isbn10": "0525555285", "links": [] }, "274": { "id": 274, "edition": "fall", "title": "When in Rome: A Novel", "author": "Sarah Adams", "reviewers": [ "Candice Lim" ], "text": "

What if Ariana Grande’s car broke down in front of your house? That’s where Sarah Adams’ novel starts, on the front lawn of Rome, Kentucky’s most eligible bachelor. Amelia Rose is a mega popstar burned out by fame, and Noah Walker is a pie shop owner plagued by heartbreak. Amelia needs a place to stay and Noah has a room to spare, but their palpable chemistry and sexual tension soon become hard to ignore. When in Rome serves up a tasty small-town romance, à la Pushing Daisies, throwing together two stubborn people who are clearly meant to be.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "0593500784", "cover": "0593500784", "goodreads": 60092579, "itunes": 9780593500781, "bookshop": 9780593500781, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BGDJwzV-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593500781", "isbn10": "0593500784", "links": [] }, "275": { "id": 275, "edition": "fall", "title": "Anon Pls.: A Novel", "author": "DeuxMoi", "reviewers": [ "Candice Lim" ], "text": "

The story of DeuxMoi – an anonymously run Instagram account that posts celebrity gossip items – is now a novel, written by its still-anonymous creator. In Anon Pls., DeuxMoi is Cricket Lopez, an overworked and underpromoted assistant. Her boss is a publicly lauded but privately heinous stylist, whose tyrannical behavior has grown intolerable. This burnout leads Lopez to start DeuxMoi as a release valve that gains steam overnight. The novel does a good job of exploring the motivations and land mines that come with running an account as popular as DeuxMoi. While holding A-list celebrities accountable is fulfilling, it’s a great power that comes with great responsibility.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "no biz like show biz", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063257807", "cover": "0063257807", "goodreads": 60461939, "itunes": 9780063257801, "bookshop": 9780063257801, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61sZcsFVubL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063257801", "isbn10": "0063257807", "links": [] }, "276": { "id": 276, "edition": "fall", "title": "The World's Worst Assistant", "author": "Sona Movsesian", "reviewers": [ "Candice Lim" ], "text": "

If you know Conan O’Brien, you know Sona Movsesian. Movsesian has been the late-night host’s assistant for years, but she’s always been a star. Her extremely funny memoir spans her childhood growing up in Hacienda Heights, Calif., and travels through the highs and lows of her comedy-adjacent career. Her observations are spunky and sweet, undercutting every scene with an incisive humor that makes you laugh out loud. Whether she’s flying by private jet or printing notecards for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Movsesian remains blisteringly honest, relatable and altogether lovable.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "funny stuff", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "059318551X", "cover": "059318551X", "goodreads": 59639080, "itunes": 9780593185513, "bookshop": 9780593185513, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416HesbXUQL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593185513", "isbn10": "059318551X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 276, "book": "The World's Worst Assistant", "source": "WAMC", "text": "How Sona Movsesian went from Conan O'Brien's hard-working assistant to the 'world's worst'", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2022-07-22/how-sona-movsesian-went-from-conan-obriens-hard-working-assistant-to-the-worlds-worst" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 276, "book": "The World's Worst Assistant", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All of It: 'The World's Worst Assistant' is a how-to guide for becoming a horrible assistant while keeping a job", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/all-of-it-2022-08-10/" } ] }, "277": { "id": 277, "edition": "fall", "title": "Honey & Spice", "author": "Bolu Babalola", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Dear reader, I loved it. Bolu Babalola’s aptly titled Honey & Spice is a smartly observed mashup of sweetness and fire – Beyoncé meets Jane Austen on a London campus. Kiki is an influential college DJ spinning hip-hop-inflected feminist insight. Malakai is a filmmaker and the slick new guy in town. Despite sparks, she very publicly writes him off as a player. Then boom: An involuntary collaboration breaks through the static, and rivals become more. Babalola first made her mark with the myth-inspired story collection Love in Color (also an NPR favorite). With this swoony coming-of-age story, she cements her status as “romcomoisseur” and chronicler of Black British life.

", "tags": [ "love & romance", "identity & culture", "for music lovers", "tales from around the world", "let’s talk about sex", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063141485", "cover": "0063141485", "goodreads": 59088365, "itunes": 9780063141483, "bookshop": 9780063141483, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417OiiYFRBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063141483", "isbn10": "0063141485", "links": [] }, "278": { "id": 278, "edition": "fall", "title": "Our Missing Hearts: A Novel", "author": "Celeste Ng", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

In a heightened version of the present day, circumstances once thought unthinkable have become the new normal. Following economic and political turmoil, the U.S. embraces its worst instincts, driven by fear, discrimination and civil rights infringements run rampant. As subversive or “challenging” books are removed from shelves and dissidents ripped from their families, a 12-year-old boy called Bird goes searching for his mother, a revered Chinese American poet who went missing amid the tumult, leaving Bird’s loving but shattered white dad as his sole caretaker. Beautifully written and surprisingly hopeful, this gut punch of a novel is among my top five of the year.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593492544", "cover": "0593492544", "goodreads": 60149573, "itunes": 9780593492543, "bookshop": 9780593492543, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Tf6Ls923L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593492543", "isbn10": "0593492544", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 278, "book": "Our Missing Hearts: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Celeste Ng makes the case for art as a weapon against oppression in her new novel", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/07/1127451738/celeste-ng-our-missing-hearts-review" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 278, "book": "Our Missing Hearts: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Celeste Ng's 'Our Missing Hearts' explores a new dystopia through a teenager's eyes", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1128629001/celeste-ngs-our-missing-hearts-explores-a-new-dystopia-through-a-teenagers-eyes" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 278, "book": "Our Missing Hearts: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Celeste Ng's powerful new dystopian novel reflects our headlines back to us", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/04/1126730142/celeste-ngs-powerful-new-dystopian-novel-reflects-our-headlines-back-to-us" } ] }, "279": { "id": 279, "edition": "fall", "title": "Shutter: A Novel", "author": "Ramona Emerson", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

As a thriller, Shutter has a killer premise. What if victims could help solve their own murders? When she was growing up, seeing and hearing dead people made Rita Todacheene an outcast from her Navajo community. But in her life as a forensic photographer, these gifts enable her to capture things that others overlook. The scenario turns ugly when a dead woman delivers an ultimatum: Find her killers, or she’ll wreak unholy havoc. Split between Rita’s past and present, this mystery is elevated by the depth of the characterization and expressive, propulsive writing. This combination earned Ramona Emerson a spot on the National Book Awards longlist.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "the states we’re in", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1641293330", "cover": "1641293330", "goodreads": 59419625, "itunes": 9781641293334, "bookshop": 9781641293334, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xh93-BS-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781641293334", "isbn10": "1641293330", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 279, "book": "Shutter: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Shutter' author was inspired by her own work as a crime scene photographer", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/11/02/1133456445/shutter-author-ramona-emerson" } ] }, "280": { "id": 280, "edition": "fall", "title": "Winter Work: A Novel", "author": "Dan Fesperman", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

What happens to spies when the world shakes? As a coda to the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled staggering geopolitical and social shifts. It also put the notorious East German spy apparatus known as the Stasi out of business, leaving a trove of sensitive secrets up for grabs and impacting the lives of millions. This political thriller-murder mystery beautifully intertwines the story of a crumbling nation and the people caught in its wake. At the center is an unusual yet sympathetic leading man, a disillusioned former spy with a complicated home life and a former boss who is found dead in the woods.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "059332160X", "cover": "059332160X", "goodreads": 59575973, "itunes": 9780593321607, "bookshop": 9780593321607, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41I0iKXpd8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593321607", "isbn10": "059332160X", "links": [] }, "281": { "id": 281, "edition": "fall", "title": "Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America", "author": "Dahlia Lithwick", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Slate senior correspondent Dahlia Lithwick’s chronicle of the Trump years is about the best kind of defiance. In late 2016, when most progressives were still shellshocked over Donald Trump’s triumph, a diverse group of women attorneys took action to safeguard democracy and protect the vulnerable. They included now-legendary figures like Sally Yates, the acting U.S. attorney general who refused to sign off on the Muslim travel ban, and Georgia voting rights advocate and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, as well as other lesser-known figures. The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which ended federal protection for abortion, only magnifies the significance of their fight.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0525561382", "cover": "0525561382", "goodreads": 60097023, "itunes": 9780525561385, "bookshop": 9780525561385, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41priNhjXzL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525561385", "isbn10": "0525561382", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 281, "book": "Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America", "source": "WNYC", "text": "The Brian Lehrer Show: Dahlia Lithwick' on 'Lady Justice' and the women who fought back against Trump policies", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/dahlia-lithwicks-lady-justice/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 281, "book": "Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America", "source": "WBUR", "text": "In ‘Lady Justice,’ Dahlia Lithwick profiles women who used the rule of law to challenge Trumpism", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/09/21/journalist-dahlia-lithwick-profiles-women-of-courage-in-lady-justice" } ] }, "282": { "id": 282, "edition": "fall", "title": "Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories", "author": "Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi", "reviewers": [ "Carole V. Bell" ], "text": "

Told in interlocking stories, this bittersweet debut novel follows four girls who meet in a punishing Nigerian boarding school. The paths of Remi, Nonso, Aisha and Solape take radically different directions, but their friendship is an anchor. Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi charts their roots and trajectories across decades and continents: from West Africa in the late 1800s and the 1980s to Europe, North America and back, deep into the 21st century. Through a series of individual stories, we gain insight into the ebb and flow of relationships and the social and political landscapes they inhabit.

", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "short stories, essays & poetry", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063117045", "cover": "0063117045", "goodreads": 59882928, "itunes": 9780063117044, "bookshop": 9780063117044, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mGfbbITeL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063117044", "isbn10": "0063117045", "links": [] }, "283": { "id": 283, "edition": "fall", "title": "In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press", "author": "Katherine Corcoran", "reviewers": [ "Marcela Davison Aviles" ], "text": "

This deeply reported and riveting account of the murder of Mexican journalist Regina Martinez – who wrote about corruption and organized crime – is an epic and essential investigation. Some may use Katherine Corcoran’s findings to validate a claim of Mexico’s broken society. But In the Mouth of the Wolf paradoxically reveals the best of Mexico – the courage of Mexican journalists determined to uphold reportorial integrity, the resilience of citizens determined to find justice where the rule of law is itself hostage, and the love of family and country that has unified the Mexican people for generations.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1635575036", "cover": "1635575036", "goodreads": 57693254, "itunes": 9781635575033, "bookshop": 9781635575033, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51F0HESPNrL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781635575033", "isbn10": "1635575036", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 283, "book": "In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'In the Mouth of the Wolf' examines the murder of a Mexican investigative reporter", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/18/1126952201/review-katherine-corcoran-in-the-mouth-of-the-wolf" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 283, "book": "In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press", "source": "UPR", "text": " Access Utah: 'In the Mouth of the Wolf' with Katherine Corcoran", "url": "https://www.upr.org/show/access-utah/2022-11-14/in-the-mouth-of-the-wolf-with-katherine-corcoran-on-mondays-access-utah" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 283, "book": "In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press", "source": "KPCC", "text": "The danger of being a journalist in Mexico ", "url": "https://www.kpcc.org/2022-09-29/the-danger-of-being-a-journalist-in-mexico" } ] }, "284": { "id": 284, "edition": "fall", "title": "Diary of a Void: A Novel", "author": "Emi Yagi, translated by David Boyd and Lucy North", "reviewers": [ "Chloe Veltman" ], "text": "

On its surface, Diary of a Void is a placid book. It meanders through the details of a seemingly mundane life with its endless flow of coffee cups and trips to the gym. But at heart, Emi Yagi’s narrative – about a 34-year-old office worker in Tokyo whose life changes radically for the better when she pretends to be pregnant – is explosive. There’s something anarchic about the gentle way in which Yagi so seamlessly blends the boring with the beautiful. I binge-read this book in two days and am hungry for more from this debut novelist.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0143136879", "cover": "0143136879", "goodreads": 59629744, "itunes": 9780143136873, "bookshop": 9780143136873, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41sRrcuq6kL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780143136873", "isbn10": "0143136879", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 284, "book": "Diary of a Void: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Diary of a Void' turns a lie into an exploration of motherhood and loneliness", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/28/1119840599/diary-of-a-void-turns-a-lie-into-an-exploration-of-motherhood-and-loneliness" } ] }, "285": { "id": 285, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Angel of Rome: And Other Stories", "author": "Jess Walter", "reviewers": [ "Chris Maccini" ], "text": "

As good as Jess Walter’s novels are (2012’s Beautiful Ruins spent 69 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list), I think his short stories are even better. What I love most is his ability to blend laugh-out-loud humor with throat-catching heart. The characters in this collection – from the middle school teacher with a crush on his worst student’s mom, to the climate professors vying for a job during a freak Mississippi snowstorm, to the insecure college kid adrift in Rome in the title story – will surprise you, break your heart and ultimately leave you with a sense of hope for humanity.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "funny stuff", "love & romance", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "006286811X", "cover": "006286811X", "goodreads": 59147716, "itunes": 9780062868114, "bookshop": 9780062868114, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41U6LRiX4gL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780062868114", "isbn10": "006286811X", "links": [] }, "286": { "id": 286, "edition": "fall", "title": "In a Few Minutes Before Later", "author": "Brenda Hillman", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

There’s no summarizing Brenda Hillman’s poetry. In a lengthy collection written half during Donald Trump’s first years and half during the COVID-19 pandemic (“weeks into it, changed little, though / more people were cleaning their own houses”), Hillman speaks like an amplified inner life, an intimate friend, a conscience. “i thought of not voting but there isn’t time,” she writes, and I’m grateful for dispatches from someone who thinks that way.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "the states we’re in", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0819500151", "cover": "0819500151", "goodreads": 60906878, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780819500151, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31BT2ZKdXDL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780819500151", "isbn10": "0819500151", "links": [] }, "287": { "id": 287, "edition": "fall", "title": "The World Keeps Ending and the World Goes On: Poems", "author": "Franny Choi", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

“I was born from an apocalypse / and have come to tell you what I know,” declares Franny Choi at the outset of her electric third collection. In conversational poems that are ever-pushing against boundaries – around gender, identity, politics, love and more – Choi offers a guided tour of a pandemic-stricken America, glimpses into family history, and unabashed lamentations for a falling world. “I liked the old dystopia better,” she writes, somehow, making the apocalypse fun.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0063240084", "cover": "0063240084", "goodreads": 60147181, "itunes": 9780063240087, "bookshop": 9780063240087, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/810-3euqhBL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063240087", "isbn10": "0063240084", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 287, "book": "The World Keeps Ending and the World Goes On: Poems", "source": "NPR", "text": "Franny Choi's latest poetry finds hope for the future in our past apocalypses", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/11/03/1133051559/franny-choi-poetry-world-keeps-ending" } ] }, "288": { "id": 288, "edition": "fall", "title": "Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency", "author": "Chen Chen", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

Chen Chen’s eagerly anticipated sophomore collection has all the frenetic energy of his blockbuster debut, with perhaps a touch of new urgency, evidence of the calamities of the last few years. Chen revels in queer American culture while also crying out “about how painful this world has made our living – / as well as how hot & mustachioed.” I revel in Chen’s capaciousness, his lightning-fast modulations between silly and sober, his capacity to make poetry that is no less serious for being fun.

", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "funny stuff", "love & romance", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "1950774694", "cover": "1950774694", "goodreads": 60183497, "itunes": 9781950774692, "bookshop": 9781950774692, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/818oNfSq5rL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781950774692", "isbn10": "1950774694", "links": [] }, "289": { "id": 289, "edition": "fall", "title": "Still Life", "author": "Jay Hopler", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

Extraordinary poet Jay Hopler died a few days after this book was published, following a prolonged battle with cancer. This collection is his poetic record of that battle. In it, Hopler gestures toward the poetic tradition in formal lyrics, offers a satirical self-obituary, and even includes a musical score. It all adds up to a sturdy ship of death and a transcendent love song to life and to his wife: “it was she that lit the world.”

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1952119375", "cover": "1952119375", "goodreads": 61131697, "itunes": 9781952119378, "bookshop": 9781952119378, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31SFCH9z85L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781952119378", "isbn10": "1952119375", "links": [] }, "290": { "id": 290, "edition": "fall", "title": "Balladz", "author": "Sharon Olds", "reviewers": [ "Craig Morgan Teicher" ], "text": "

No poet has any business writing this well this much. Balladz is the third in an extraordinary sequence of books – following Arias and Odes – in which Sharon Olds alights on seemingly every topic under the sun – sex, abuse suffered in childhood, whiteness and simple everyday pleasures, to name a few – casting off every pretense and protection. “Someday,” she writes, “I will run out of tears.” But not yet, nor out of joy, or anything else that can be got into words.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "family matters", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "1524711616", "cover": "1524711616", "goodreads": 62685565, "itunes": 9781524711610, "bookshop": 9781524711610, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51P6SxehMxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781524711610", "isbn10": "1524711616", "links": [] }, "291": { "id": 291, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dear Denise: Letters to the Sister I Never Knew", "author": "Lisa McNair", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "

Lisa McNair recounts growing up in newly integrated Birmingham, Ala., after the notorious 1963 Ku Klux Klan church bombing that killed her sister Denise and three other Black girls. Lisa was born a year later, and her memoir imagines what it would have been like to have had a relationship with her big sister. The book is a series of letters to Denise describing how the McNair family endured, the ongoing fight against racism and Lisa’s own struggle to find her identity in a country changed by her family’s tragedy. This intimate historical reflection proves to be a cautionary tale about racial violence.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0817321357", "cover": "0817321357", "goodreads": 60314832, "itunes": 9780817321352, "bookshop": 9780817321352, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41WWfyzLsCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780817321352", "isbn10": "0817321357", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 291, "book": "Dear Denise: Letters to the Sister I Never Knew", "source": "NPR", "text": "Her sister was killed in the Birmingham church bombing. A new book tells their story", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/14/1122437660/sister-killed-birmingham-church-bombing-new-book" } ] }, "292": { "id": 292, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Confessions of Matthew Strong: A Novel", "author": "Ousmane K. Power-Greene", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "

This novel is a terrifying page turner. Back home in Alabama for her grandmother’s funeral, philosophy professor Allie Douglass is kidnapped by diabolical white supremacist and Christian nationalist Matthew Strong. Strong is abducting Black girls and women as part of a delusional plot to turn society back to the antebellum South. And he has the help of local law officers and powerful state players. The racial violence in the story is raw and unsettling, but it underscores the message here – that radical ideology is an enemy to be taken seriously.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "the dark side", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1635422086", "cover": "1635422086", "goodreads": 57010043, "itunes": 9781635422085, "bookshop": 9781635422085, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51UKK81hZdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781635422085", "isbn10": "1635422086", "links": [] }, "293": { "id": 293, "edition": "fall", "title": "By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners", "author": "Margaret A. Burnham", "reviewers": [ "Debbie Elliott" ], "text": "

The detailed accounts of racial terror in this book are hard to stomach, but necessary to understand the national legacy of slavery and the Jim Crow system that emerged after emancipation. Story after story reveals how white authorities used violence, fear, kidnapping and murder to perpetuate white supremacy and deny the basic human dignity of Black people. Margaret Burnham’s rich historical analysis documents the longstanding failure of federal laws and institutions to prevent racial violence and police brutality. The book also shines a light on the resourcefulness of African Americans who organized to help one another and fight for justice.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0393867854", "cover": "0393867854", "goodreads": 60165389, "itunes": 9780393867855, "bookshop": 9780393867855, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WB7yVorTL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780393867855", "isbn10": "0393867854", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 293, "book": "By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners", "source": "NPR", "text": "Fresh Air: In 'By Hands Now Known,' a law professor unearths cases of racial violence from the Jim Crow era", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/27/1125350542/law-professor-unearths-cases-of-racial-violence-from-the-jim-crow-era" } ] }, "294": { "id": 294, "edition": "fall", "title": "Reputation: A Novel", "author": "Sarah Vaughan", "reviewers": [ "Emily Dagger" ], "text": "

Reputation is half psychological thriller, half courtroom drama – think Law & Order: UK but with a constant sense of impending peril. Like her previous book, Anatomy of a Scandal, Sarah Vaughn’s latest is set in the world of British politics. Emma Webster is a member of Parliament with a rising profile. After a scandal involving her daughter erupts, the journalist who broke the story (with whom Emma had a one-night stand) is found dead in her apartment. The subsequent murder trial raises questions about reputations: what they mean to men versus women; what we’ll do to protect them; who we’d be willing to sacrifice them for.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1668000067", "cover": "1668000067", "goodreads": 59348302, "itunes": 9781668000069, "bookshop": 9781668000069, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41cCxnasqcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781668000069", "isbn10": "1668000067", "links": [] }, "295": { "id": 295, "edition": "fall", "title": "I'm Not Broken: A Memoir", "author": "Jesse Leon", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Jesse Leon’s memoir about being a “poor, sexually abused, drug-addicted Chicano kid” is at once brutal and full of hope. I’m Not Broken is the kind of narrative that vividly brings to the page the realities of someone ignored by the system and trapped by the streets, but who still manages to make it out and build a new life. As devastating as it is inspiring, this memoir delves deep into the importance of education, growth and helping others.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593466519", "cover": "0593466519", "goodreads": 59317652, "itunes": 9780593466513, "bookshop": 9780593466513, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MMQRsvXgL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593466513", "isbn10": "0593466519", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 295, "book": "I'm Not Broken: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'I'm Not Broken' is about being broken — and building a new life", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/31/1120225271/i-m-not-broken-is-about-being-broken-and-building-a-new-life" } ] }, "296": { "id": 296, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Passenger", "author": "Cormac McCarthy", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

One of the best living writers is back after 16 years with two intertwined novels about troubled siblings who love each other in an improper way. The Passenger follows a salvage diver who’s haunted by both his past and his sister as he gets involved in a bizarre case of a missing body. Stella Maris, the second novel, tells the sister’s story, but entirely through her conversations with a doctor at a mental institution. The two narratives are dense, immersive and unique, and they inhabit a bizarre interstitial space between thrillers, literary fiction, love stories, philosophy, quantum mechanics and that particular brand of weird darkness that Cormac McCarthy is known for.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593536045", "cover": "0307268993", "goodreads": 60594796, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780593536049, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71k+gTdHTOL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593536049", "isbn10": "0593536045", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 296, "book": "The Passenger", "source": "NPR", "text": "Cormac McCarthy's new books seem to try to encapsulate the human experience", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1131283160/review-cormac-mccarthy-the-passenger-and-stella-maris" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 296, "book": "The Passenger", "source": "NPR", "text": "After 16 years, author Cormac McCarthy gifts two new novels to readers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/22/1130439227/cormac-mccarthy-publishes-two-new-novels-the-passenger-and-stella-maris" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 296, "book": "The Passenger", "source": "NPR", "text": "First Reads: An excerpt from Cormac McCarthy's 'Stella Maris'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/22/1129879339/first-reads-exclusive-excerpt-from-cormac-mccarthys-forthcoming-stella-maris" } ] }, "297": { "id": 297, "edition": "fall", "title": "Lute", "author": "Jennifer Thorne", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Would you accept a calm life full of health and happiness if you knew that every seven years people would die because of it? That’s the question at the core of Lute, and the story’s characters answer with a resounding yes. Every seven years, the inhabitants of a remote English island pay a tribute of seven lives in exchange for seven more years of health and safety. A creepy, atmospheric tale of familial drama, bizarre history and supernatural events, this entertaining story explores the nature of sacrifices and the way we sometimes become prisoners of our decisions.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "family matters", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "125082608X", "cover": "125082608X", "goodreads": 57010080, "itunes": 9781250826084, "bookshop": 9781250826084, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41b3JjR+w8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250826084", "isbn10": "125082608X", "links": [] }, "298": { "id": 298, "edition": "fall", "title": "Anywhere You Run: A Novel", "author": "Wanda M. Morris", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

In 1964 (and still true today), the color of your skin played a major role in the kind of “justice” you received. In Anywhere You Run, Wanda M. Morris drops readers into the racial turmoil of early 1960s Mississippi to follow the story of two sisters forced to run away from everything they know. One runs because of an unwanted pregnancy and the stigma associated with it; the other because she knows she’ll be blamed for a crime and understands that not being guilty of anything matters less than being Black and having others think you are guilty of something.

", "tags": [ "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063082500", "cover": "0063082500", "goodreads": 60254209, "itunes": 9780063082502, "bookshop": 9780063082502, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eWCUjKd-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063082502", "isbn10": "0063082500", "links": [] }, "299": { "id": 299, "edition": "fall", "title": "We Spread: A Novel", "author": "Iain Reid", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Creepy and unnerving, Iain Reid’s We Spread reads like two novels fused together by some mad scientist. One half of this novel is a tale about getting older, loneliness, the growing importance of memories as we age and exploration of art. The other half is a narrative about an assisted living residence run by a strange woman, losing track of time, being a powerless prisoner and a strange fungus that grows on people. The wild mix works well in Reid’s capable hands, and the result is a fast, profoundly unsettling novel that leaves readers with more questions than answers.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1982169354", "cover": "1982169354", "goodreads": 60209475, "itunes": 9781982169350, "bookshop": 9781982169350, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xxQLc13xL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982169350", "isbn10": "1982169354", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 299, "book": "We Spread: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In a debut thriller, Iain Reid delivers shivers without the reader knowing why", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2016/06/12/481750699/in-debut-thriller-novel-iain-reid-delivers-shivers-without-reader-knowing-why" } ] }, "300": { "id": 300, "edition": "fall", "title": "Cruz: A Novel", "author": "Nicolás Ferraro, translated by Mallory N. Craig-Kuhn", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

A slice of Argentine noir brilliantly translated from the Spanish by Mallory N. Craig-Kuhn, Cruz is a grimy, fast, violent narrative about debts, loyalty, bad decisions and two brothers who follow in their father’s criminal footsteps. With one brother in prison, the other takes on a difficult smuggling job for a drug lord to pay his brother’s debt – and fails. With his entire family in danger, he realizes the only way to keep violence at bay is more violence. Awash in drugs, cartels and guns, this propulsive read is not to be missed by fans of gritty crime fiction.

", "tags": [ "the dark side", "mysteries & thrillers", "tales from around the world", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1641293969", "cover": "1641293969", "goodreads": 60709817, "itunes": 9781641293969, "bookshop": 9781641293969, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jQQFiSN0L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781641293969", "isbn10": "1641293969", "links": [] }, "301": { "id": 301, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Other Side of Night: A Novel", "author": "Adam Hamdy", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

The phrase “a series of mysterious deaths” is so overused in crime and horror fiction that it’s often enough to push readers away. The Other Side of Night actually delivers on the darkness that this phrase promises, and it does so while elegantly blending the lives of three characters: David, who is writing about the turmoil in his life; Harriet, a police officer who is working on clearing her name; and Ben, a mysterious man who enters Harriet’s life – and who also might be a murderer. This carefully constructed tense yarn is full of doubts, beautiful passages and as many twists as a mountain road.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1982196181", "cover": "1982196181", "goodreads": 60321515, "itunes": 9781982196189, "bookshop": 9781982196189, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LvHDqRjEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982196189", "isbn10": "1982196181", "links": [] }, "302": { "id": 302, "edition": "fall", "title": "Alive at the End of the World: Poems", "author": "Saeed Jones", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

Personal and universal, full of grief and sadness but also packed with hope and humor, stylish and entertaining but also profound and touching. The work of Saeed Jones has always been those things, but perhaps never as much as it is in this poetry collection. We knew great work would come from the pandemic, and mixed with his own life, experiences and losses, Jones has delivered what we all knew was coming: beautiful, shining work about the darkness that often envelops us.

", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "short stories, essays & poetry", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "1566896517", "cover": "1566896517", "goodreads": 60753258, "itunes": 9781566896511, "bookshop": 9781566896511, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5133wzJ-QwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781566896511", "isbn10": "1566896517", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 302, "book": "Alive at the End of the World: Poems", "source": "NPR", "text": "Saeed Jones confronts the end of the world in new poems", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/22/1123050384/saeed-jones-confronts-the-end-of-the-world-in-new-poems" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 302, "book": "Alive at the End of the World: Poems", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Talking to Saeed Jones at the end of the world", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/talking-to-saeed-jones-at-the-end-of-the-world/" } ] }, "303": { "id": 303, "edition": "fall", "title": "Men in Blazers Present Gods of Soccer: The Pantheon of the 100 Greatest Soccer Players (According to Us)", "author": "Roger Bennett, Michael Davies and Miranda Davis, illustrated by Nate Kitch", "reviewers": [ "Gus Contreras" ], "text": "

Whether you’re a super fan or someone who just enjoys the World Cup every four years, Gods of Soccer is a fun and highly opinionated compendium of stories about the sport’s all-time great players. The hilarious soccer-obsessed commentators of the Men in Blazers podcast and TV show run down early stars like Brazilian legend Pelé to the women making a splash right now like Megan Rapinoe. The entries are accompanied by vibrant photo illustrations of each superstar. My favorites are of France’s speedy goal scorer Thierry Henry and U.S. shot stopper Briana Scurry. Gods of Soccer would definitely look nice on any coffee table.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "for sports lovers", "funny stuff", "staff picks", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "1797208012", "cover": "1797208012", "goodreads": 60420632, "itunes": 9781797208015, "bookshop": 9781797208015, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51yWQqHPOyL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781797208015", "isbn10": "1797208012", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 303, "book": "Men in Blazers Present Gods of Soccer: The Pantheon of the 100 Greatest Soccer Players (According to Us) ", "source": "NPR", "text": "Roger Bennett on his book 'Gods of Soccer' and how he chose the 100 greatest players", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/11/1128184367/roger-bennet-on-his-book-gods-of-soccer-and-how-he-chose-the-100-greatest-player" } ] }, "304": { "id": 304, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Woks of Life: Recipes to Know and Love from a Chinese American Family: A Cookbook", "author": "Bill Leung, Kaitlin Leung, Judy Leung and Sarah Leung", "reviewers": [ "Janet W. Lee" ], "text": "

The debut cookbook from the Leung family – sisters Sarah and Kaitlin, who run the food blog of the same name, and their parents Judy and Bill – has something for both nerds and newbies: lists of Chinese American pantry items, tips for cooking rice, and recipes for restaurant-style dishes like siu mai, spicy biang biang noodles and more. The Woks of Life is a multigenerational family story told through food. It’s a delightful read accompanied by vibrant photos; it’ll make you smile – and hungry too.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food", "family matters", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0593233891", "cover": "0593233891", "goodreads": 60372319, "itunes": 9780593233894, "bookshop": 9780593233894, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511H46OCusL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593233894", "isbn10": "0593233891", "links": [] }, "305": { "id": 305, "edition": "fall", "title": "Which Side Are You On: A Novel", "author": "Ryan Lee Wong", "reviewers": [ "Janet W. Lee" ], "text": "

A stunning debut novel from Ryan Lee Wong, Which Side Are You On follows a young Korean American activist who grapples with police brutality and racism. Through intimate conversations with his mother, who was once the leader of a Korean-Black coalition in Los Angeles, Reed seeks new ways of healing, to understand and act on his outrage. It’s an intense read – funny, too – but you still may close the book in anger. It will leave you with a lot to process, from your feelings to the Korean American and Los Angeles history it touches on.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "rather short", "identity & culture", "family matters", "fiction", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1646221486", "cover": "1646221486", "goodreads": 58523656, "itunes": 9781646221486, "bookshop": 9781646221486, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ElHjlAghL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781646221486", "isbn10": "1646221486", "links": [] }, "306": { "id": 306, "edition": "fall", "title": "Golden Ax", "author": "Rio Cortez", "reviewers": [ "Jeevika Verma" ], "text": "

In Golden Ax, Rio Cortez writes, “I’m a light. Fed by an other light.” Her ancestors – Black pioneers who moved West after Reconstruction – “embodied the Afrofrontier,” and Cortez holds space for them in her poems: “the land where Utah exists haunts our story, but we are even more vast.” With a careful balance of lyric and detail, Cortez considers the pursuit of freedom passed down to her. She writes, “I do the work of knowing” – because it is work looking back at a violent past. But she also shows us how looking back can be beautiful and how claiming that past is the loudest celebration of it.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "seriously great writing" ], "isbn": "0143137131", "cover": "0143137131", "goodreads": 58984757, "itunes": 9780143137139, "bookshop": 9780143137139, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nZhKPVcuL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780143137139", "isbn10": "0143137131", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 306, "book": "Golden Ax", "source": "WAMU", "text": "Poet Rio Cortez on ‘Afropioneerism’ and Black settlers in the West", "url": "https://the1a.org/segments/poet-rio-cortez-on-afropioneerism-and-black-settlers-out-west/" } ] }, "307": { "id": 307, "edition": "fall", "title": "Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism", "author": "Glory M. Liu", "reviewers": [ "Jeff Guo" ], "text": "

Once and for all, let’s bury the myth of Adam Smith. The Scottish economist who first wrote of “the invisible hand” was no free market fundamentalist. In fact, Smith also authored some of the keenest critiques of capitalism. How did we so badly garble his legacy? In Adam Smith’s America, Glory M. Liu reveals the American mythmaking machine at work. She traces the brazen misreadings that flattened this Enlightenment intellectual into a neoliberal folk hero. It’s a history of a fantasy – a parable about America’s talents for inventing heroes and dodging inconvenient truths.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "it’s all geek to me", "for history lovers", "the states we’re in", "eye-opening reads" ], "isbn": "0691203814", "cover": "0691203814", "goodreads": 60015569, "itunes": 9780691203812, "bookshop": 9780691203812, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LPHlsuzEL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780691203812", "isbn10": "0691203814", "links": [] }, "308": { "id": 308, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida", "author": "Shehan Karunatilaka", "reviewers": [ "Jenny Bhatt" ], "text": "

Set in 1990 Colombo, Sri Lanka, Shehan Karunatilaka’s Booker Prize-winning novel is everything all at once: magical realism, satire, political fiction and thriller. It’s also bold storytelling from a Sri Lankan author for how it includes everything – colonialism, ethnic identity, politics, religion – that factored into the country’s civil war and its aftermath. Shady and brash photojournalist Maali Almeida is dead and in a limbo state. He has seven moons to deal with unfinished business before he can move on. He (re)encounters mythical and folkloric characters, war victims, friends and enemies. Karunatilaka’s irreverent humor keeps the pace breezy and the mood whimsical, but this novel holds nothing back.

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "132406482X", "cover": "132406482X", "goodreads": 62346648, "itunes": 9781324064824, "bookshop": 9781324064824, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dH0BihK4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781324064824", "isbn10": "132406482X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 308, "book": "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida", "source": "NPR", "text": "Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka wins 2022 Booker Prize", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/17/1129460606/sri-lankan-author-shehan-karunatilaka-wins-2022-booker-prize" } ] }, "309": { "id": 309, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Book of Everlasting Things: A Novel", "author": "Aanchal Malhotra", "reviewers": [ "Jenny Bhatt" ], "text": "

Aanchal Malhotra’s groundbreaking oral histories of the India-Pakistan Partition have already filled two door-stopper nonfiction books and won her much acclaim. With this first novel, she shapes some of her monumental research material into a far-reaching love story about two people who practice the ancient arts of Indian perfumery and Urdu calligraphy. Malhotra’s detailed world-building gives the narrative sensory layers and textured depths. Moving from the early 1900s to the present day, she explores how Partition continues to be a living, breathing catastrophe and how the violence and trauma have been inherited by later generations, no matter where they live now.

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "family matters", "historical fiction", "love & romance", "book club ideas", "rather long", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250802024", "cover": "1250802024", "goodreads": 59808042, "itunes": 9781250802026, "bookshop": 9781250802026, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510mEkWq5OL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250802026", "isbn10": "1250802024", "links": [] }, "310": { "id": 310, "edition": "fall", "title": "Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion: A Novel", "author": "Bushra Rehman", "reviewers": [ "Jenny Bhatt" ], "text": "

With her second novel, Bushra Rehman returns to the time, setting and protagonist of her first: 1980s Corona, Queens, in New York City, and Razia Mirza, a Pakistani American girl. As before, this narrative is structured as fragmentary vignettes. Razia’s growing pains with her cultural heritage, Muslim faith, parental pressures, queer sexuality, and more lead to self-discoveries that help her reshape complex family and friendship ties. These pages are filled with plenty of 1980s Pakistani and American markers – music, movies, books, clothing – to evoke a singular worldview of the Pakistani immigrant community of that time and place.

", "tags": [ "the states we’re in", "identity & culture", "fiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1250834783", "cover": "1250834783", "goodreads": 59808046, "itunes": 9781250834782, "bookshop": 9781250834782, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wux7NzjJL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250834782", "isbn10": "1250834783", "links": [] }, "311": { "id": 311, "edition": "fall", "title": "When We Were Sisters: A Novel", "author": "Fatimah Asghar", "reviewers": [ "Jenny Bhatt" ], "text": "

This first novel by Fatimah Asghar – one of the finest poets in the South Asian American diaspora – tells the story of three orphaned immigrant sisters and is narrated in the lyrical voice of the youngest, Kausar. Asghar pulls no punches: In addition to dealing with grief over their parents’ deaths and neglect by their guardian, the girls also navigate cultural dissonance, sexuality, Muslim Americanness, physical and sexual abuse, racism and more. Rendered in fragments and collages, Asghar’s narrative is an ever-shifting kaleidoscope, revealing how each sister works to find her individual place in a hostile, indifferent world. A heartbreaking and elegantly told story.

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "fiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0593133463", "cover": "0593133463", "goodreads": 60279775, "itunes": 9780593133460, "bookshop": 9780593133460, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-iDC5qzrL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593133460", "isbn10": "0593133463", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 311, "book": "When We Were Sisters: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'When We Were Sisters' details the pain and perseverance of orphanhood ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/19/1129910009/when-we-were-sisters-details-the-pain-and-perseverance-of-orphanhood" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 311, "book": "When We Were Sisters: A Novel", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Fatimah Asghar's debut novel plumbs a complex place — everyday life", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/fatimah-asghar-follows-brown-girls-with-debut-novel-when-we-were-sisters/2861088c-0b20-4478-bb8b-089781d99bd9" } ] }, "312": { "id": 312, "edition": "fall", "title": "Meet Us by the Roaring Sea: A Novel", "author": "Akil Kumarasamy", "reviewers": [ "Jenny Bhatt" ], "text": "

What happens when you braid a dystopic future and a conflict-ridden past together and then let it unfurl across multiple continents? You get Akil Kumarasamy’s second book. Exploring memory and language, reality and imagination, loss and grief, climate change and personal privacy, agency and accountability, this novel demands the kind of close reading that its unnamed protagonist, a Tamil-to-English translator, does with the historical text she’s translating. Employing the uncommon second-person and first-person plural points of view, Kumarasamy complicates our sense of intimacy and distance with her characters. An ambitious scope, but such capaciousness also allows for dynamic characters, ideas, histories and possibilities.

", "tags": [ "tales from around the world", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0374177708", "cover": "0374177708", "goodreads": 58772703, "itunes": 9780374177706, "bookshop": 9780374177706, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51BHCaYQuZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374177706", "isbn10": "0374177708", "links": [] }, "313": { "id": 313, "edition": "fall", "title": "Walking the Bowl: A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka", "author": "Chris Lockhart and Daniel Mulilo Chama", "reviewers": [ "Jennifer Schmidt" ], "text": "

This extraordinary book may be the most honest portrayal of street children ever written. It took years of research and the help of formerly homeless children to penetrate the culture of the streets in Lusaka, Zambia. It reads like a thriller, beginning with the body of a boy discovered at the city dump. As we travel into a dystopian world where adults play almost no role, we meet a cast of kids – from the scavenger Lusabilo to Kapula, who worked in a brothel to survive – who maintain their humanity despite immense cruelty. Ultimately, this is a tale about how small acts of kindness can transform lives.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "tales from around the world", "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "1335425748", "cover": "1335425748", "goodreads": 57938996, "itunes": 9781335425744, "bookshop": 9781335425744, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51btMVPiSsL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781335425744", "isbn10": "1335425748", "links": [] }, "314": { "id": 314, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Marriage Portrait: A Novel", "author": "Maggie O'Farrell", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "

This is one of those books you finish, then immediately reread for sheer pleasure. Maggie O’Farrell’s magnificent novel The Marriage Portrait is set during the Italian Renaissance. After Lucrezia de’ Medici marries Alfonso II, duke of Ferrara and real-life inspiration for Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess,” she begins to think her life is in danger. Is it? The author’s historical note tells us yes, definitely. I cannot emphasize enough how gorgeous this novel is: how sharp its characterizations, how skillfully O’Farrell makes us question what we’re told will happen, how masterfully Lucrezia is brought to life.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "historical fiction", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "059332062X", "cover": "059332062X", "goodreads": 60353768, "itunes": 9780593320624, "bookshop": 9780593320624, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+AB16a4qL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593320624", "isbn10": "059332062X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 314, "book": "The Marriage Portrait: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Marriage Portrait' is a renaissance story of marriage, survival and murder", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/07/1121556509/the-marriage-portrait-is-a-renaissance-story-of-marriage-survival-and-murder" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 314, "book": "The Marriage Portrait: A Novel", "source": "MPR", "text": "How art and poetry inspired Maggie O'Farrell's new novel", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/09/23/how-art-and-poetry-inspired-maggie-ofarrells-new-novel" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 314, "book": "The Marriage Portrait: A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All of It: Maggie O'Farrell's 'The Marriage Portrait'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/maggie-ofarrells-marriage-portrait/" } ] }, "315": { "id": 315, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Wild Hunt: A Novel", "author": "Emma Seckel", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "

Emma Seckel’s novel takes place after World War II on a Scottish island where the sluagh, lost souls in the shape of crows, gather each October. Down-on-her-luck Leigh returns to the island for her father’s funeral to find that, like so much else, the sluagh have changed after the war. They’ve become unpredictable, more dangerous, and when a boy goes missing, Leigh delves into the island’s secrets. This debut novel is haunting; it deals in the liminal, asking questions about homecoming, perception, communal grief, memory – and hope. The Wild Hunt is perfect for a wuthery, gray day.

", "tags": [ "rather short", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "tales from around the world", "historical fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1953534228", "cover": "1953534228", "goodreads": 59580653, "itunes": 9781953534224, "bookshop": 9781953534224, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ziodlK3eL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781953534224", "isbn10": "1953534228", "links": [] }, "316": { "id": 316, "edition": "fall", "title": "High Times in the Low Parliament", "author": "Kelly Robson", "reviewers": [ "Jessica P. Wick" ], "text": "

High Times in the Low Parliament by Kelly Robson is witty, warmhearted, frequently gorgeous and an awful lot of fun. Robson’s alternate 18th century England (“Angland”) sings. When a favor goes awry, Lana – scribe, flirt and “family despair” – is sent to work in the fairy-policed Low Parliament. Good news is Lana might have a shot at friendship and romance. Bad news: Parliament’s hung. If the politicians can’t come to an agreement, fairies will drown Parliament and everybody inside. High Times in the Low Parliament is an enchanting comedy of law and clever Lana, a character I’d love to have a drink with.

", "tags": [ "rather short", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250823021", "cover": "1250823021", "goodreads": 58724605, "itunes": 9781250823021, "bookshop": 9781250823021, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51d0P8waTRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250823021", "isbn10": "1250823021", "links": [] }, "317": { "id": 317, "edition": "fall", "title": "Booth: A Novel", "author": "Karen Joy Fowler", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Block" ], "text": "

How did the spawn of an abolitionist, vegetarian father become the rabid secessionist who assassinated Abraham Lincoln? That question underpins this gripping novel, but Karen Joy Fowler also centers John Wilkes Booth’s family members: among them, father Junius, a wildly famous Shakespearean actor as well as a manic drunk, and sister Rosalie, retrieved from obscurity and given a story of her own. Booth is historical fiction, but it’s impossible to ignore the resonance with present-day America. In her author’s note, Fowler writes: “The more I read of Lincoln’s warnings concerning the tyrant and the mob … the more brightly lit the road from there to here became.”

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "rather long", "staff picks", "family matters", "the dark side", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593331435", "cover": "0593331435", "goodreads": 58502673, "itunes": 9780593331439, "bookshop": 9780593331439, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51X3Rkc2SlL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593331439", "isbn10": "0593331435", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 317, "book": "Booth: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Booth' looks at the family life of President Lincoln's notorious assassin", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/31/1089896988/booth-looks-at-the-family-life-of-president-lincolns-notorious-assassin" } ] }, "318": { "id": 318, "edition": "fall", "title": "Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files: A Cookbook", "author": "Deb Perelman", "reviewers": [ "Melissa Kuypers" ], "text": "

Deb Perelman, creator of the Smitten Kitchen blog, is forever rooting for us to succeed in the kitchen so that we might live our best weeknight dinner or cocktail party lives. The philosophy behind Smitten Kitchen Keepers is that it doesn’t matter how good a recipe tastes if it’s too cumbersome, so she’s made these recipes as easy as possible while sacrificing nothing. With her casual coaching, I made an Instagrammable carrot tarte tatin, whipped up ricotta gnocchi with pistachio pesto on a weeknight, and am in love with the honey-buttery-almondy bee sting bars.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "0593318781", "cover": "0593318781", "goodreads": 60279801, "itunes": 9780593318782, "bookshop": 9780593318782, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pPlBy6-pL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593318782", "isbn10": "0593318781", "links": [] }, "319": { "id": 319, "edition": "fall", "title": "Faith, Hope and Carnage", "author": "Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Adapted from a series of conversations between post-punk legend Nick Cave and journalist Seán O’Hagan, this book sees the Australian rocker open up about music, art, belief and the loss of his teenage son Arthur, who died in 2015 after falling from a cliff. It’s quite dark in parts, of course, but beautiful throughout; Cave is one of music’s most brilliant thinkers. Anyone who has ever been moved by art – or lost a loved one – will find a lot to admire in this powerful book.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "for music lovers", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "0374607370", "cover": "0374607370", "goodreads": 59851730, "itunes": 9780374607371, "bookshop": 9780374607371, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rfT37edtL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374607371", "isbn10": "0374607370", "links": [] }, "320": { "id": 320, "edition": "fall", "title": "Runaway: Notes on the Myths That Made Me", "author": "Erin Keane", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

How much do we really know about where we came from, and how we are affected by the popular culture that we’re exposed to? Salon Editor-in-Chief Erin Keane explores those questions in her fascinating memoir about her mother, who ran away from home as a teenager. It’s a compelling story enriched by Keane’s original takes on everything from Gilmore Girls to Return of the Jedi. Memoirs this smart and absorbing don’t come around all the time.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "family matters", "no biz like show biz", "the states we’re in", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "195336831X", "cover": "195336831X", "goodreads": 58596103, "itunes": 9781953368317, "bookshop": 9781953368317, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bkA4dy5oL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781953368317", "isbn10": "195336831X", "links": [] }, "321": { "id": 321, "edition": "fall", "title": "Maybe We'll Make It: A Memoir", "author": "Margo Price", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

If you haven’t heard the songs of Margo Price, you’re missing out on one of country music’s brightest stars. Her new memoir, which covers her childhood and her years struggling to start her career in Nashville, proves that she’s just as talented at penning prose as she is at writing songs – which is to say, really damn good. Reading this book feels like hanging out with one of your smartest, liveliest friends. Check it out along with her album That’s How Rumors Get Started, and thank me later.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for music lovers", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1477323503", "cover": "1477323503", "goodreads": 60402664, "itunes": 9781477323502, "bookshop": 9781477323502, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51koYJi3VcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781477323502", "isbn10": "1477323503", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 321, "book": "Maybe We'll Make It: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Margo Price recalls the uppers, downers & out-of-towners of early motherhood", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/05/15/1098755908/margo-price-recalls-the-uppers-downers-out-of-towners-of-early-motherhood" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 321, "book": "Maybe We'll Make It: A Memoir", "source": "WLPN", "text": "Margo Price on music, her memoir and making it in Nashville", "url": "https://wpln.org/post/episodes/margo_price/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 321, "book": "Maybe We'll Make It: A Memoir", "source": "IPR", "text": "In 'Maybe We'll Make It,' Margo Price offers candor, reflection", "url": "https://www.interlochenpublicradio.org/2022-10-19/in-maybe-well-make-it-margo-price-offers-candor-reflection" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 321, "book": "Maybe We'll Make It: A Memoir", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Margo Price's new memoir, 'Maybe We'll Make It'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/margo-prices-new-memoir-maybe-well-make-it/" } ] }, "322": { "id": 322, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Book of Goose: A Novel", "author": "Yiyun Li", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

There’s no American author more consistently surprising than Yiyun Li. One of the country’s most brilliant novelists, Li seems incapable of repeating herself. Her latest book follows a pair of poverty-stricken teenage girls in post-World War II France who decide to pull off a literary hoax; the results come as a surprise not just to them, but to the reader. Witty, dark and beautifully written, this is a great place to start if you’ve never read Li before. (Honestly, though, there’s no bad place to start.)

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "037460634X", "cover": "037460634X", "goodreads": 59808607, "itunes": 9780374606343, "bookshop": 9780374606343, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ajO08LONL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374606343", "isbn10": "037460634X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 322, "book": "The Book of Goose: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'The book of Goose,' two French girls write a book that alters their lives", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/17/1123629676/in-the-book-of-goose-two-french-girls-write-a-book-that-alters-their-lives" } ] }, "323": { "id": 323, "edition": "fall", "title": "Aesthetica: A Novel", "author": "Allie Rowbottom", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

This debut novel follows a 35-year-old woman undergoing a surgery to reverse the plastic surgeries she underwent while she was a teenage Instagram influencer living under the thrall of an abusive manager and lover. Allie Rowbottom’s book is as dark as it sounds, but it’s also vital, written with real anger and compassion. One of the best American novels so far about social media, it’s a chilling look at the state of today’s world – both real and virtual, although those boundaries keep blurring.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "fiction", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "1641294000", "cover": "1641294000", "goodreads": 60291217, "itunes": 9781641294003, "bookshop": 9781641294003, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41dIncxKQjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781641294003", "isbn10": "1641294000", "links": [] }, "324": { "id": 324, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dinosaurs: A Novel", "author": "Lydia Millet", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Here’s a unicorn: a literary novel that addresses urgent social issues – climate change, economic inequality, hatred – that won’t make you give up what hope you have left. Lydia Millet’s beautiful novel follows an unhappy oil heir who moves from New York to Phoenix, befriends the family living next door and tries to figure out how to do good in the world. Millet is no Pollyanna; she knows how urgent our present problems are. But this novel emphasizes hope, making it a welcome tonic for our … interesting times.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1324021462", "cover": "1324021462", "goodreads": 63099889, "itunes": 9781324021469, "bookshop": 9781324021469, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41OHpJfDi-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781324021469", "isbn10": "1324021462", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 324, "book": "Dinosaurs: A Novel", "source": "KJZZ", "text": "Why novelist Lydia Millet plopped her latest protagonist in Phoenix for reflection", "url": "https://kjzz.org/content/1816572/why-novelist-lydia-millet-plopped-her-latest-protagonist-phoenix-reflection" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 324, "book": "Dinosaurs: A Novel", "source": "WNYC", "text": "The Brian Lehrer Show: A climate novelist on hope and dread", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/climate-novelist-hope-and-dread/" } ] }, "325": { "id": 325, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dr. No: A Novel", "author": "Percival Everett", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

OK, stay with us. The latest novel from the always brilliant Percival Everett is about a Black professor who studies the concept of nothing and is recruited by a wannabe James Bond villain to rob Fort Knox, which contains not gold, but nothing. But the nothing is actually something. Kind of. This book is (obviously) hard to explain, but at its heart, it’s a sharp-witted satire about racism, violence and academia – and it proves why Everett is one of the most unpredictable and original novelists working today.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1644452081", "cover": "1644452081", "goodreads": 59808430, "itunes": 9781644452080, "bookshop": 9781644452080, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416PlDznkpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781644452080", "isbn10": "1644452081", "links": [] }, "326": { "id": 326, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family", "author": "Kerri K. Greenidge", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimke were two of America’s most well-known abolitionists, inspired to speak out against slavery by their Quaker faith. But the story of their family goes even deeper – their brother was a cruel sadist who fathered three children with an enslaved woman. Historian Kerri K. Greenidge digs deep into the history of the family, both its white and Black members, and the result is a fascinating examination of the legacy of slavery in America. This beautifully written book isn’t just important; it’s actually essential.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "book club ideas", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1324090847", "cover": "1324090847", "goodreads": 60165460, "itunes": 9781324090847, "bookshop": 9781324090847, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yiSCd4sLL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781324090847", "isbn10": "1324090847", "links": [] }, "327": { "id": 327, "edition": "fall", "title": "Singer Distance: A Novel", "author": "Ethan Chatagnier", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

Is there life on Mars? David Bowie never answered the question one way or the other, but the characters in Ethan Chatagnier’s entrancing debut novel have no doubt. The book follows a group of graduate students seeking to make contact with the red planet; when one disappears after the project, her boyfriend goes in search of her. Chatagnier writes with a real compassion and sensitivity — this is a love story at its heart, one that’s both beautiful and unforgettable.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "love & romance", "science!", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1953534430", "cover": "1953534430", "goodreads": 60583990, "itunes": 9781953534439, "bookshop": 9781953534439, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Z+XN7KnnL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781953534439", "isbn10": "1953534430", "links": [] }, "328": { "id": 328, "edition": "fall", "title": "Sinking Bell: Stories", "author": "Bojan Louis", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

This debut short-story collection from Diné writer Bojan Louis is slim in length, but it packs a serious emotional punch. The stories collected here, which take place in and around Flagstaff, Ariz., deal with working-class characters who long for lives free of poverty, addiction and racism; their hopes and desires often go unmet. Louis’ writing is unfailingly gorgeous, and his characters unforgettable. This is a collection filled with compassion and a gritty, sharp-edged beauty.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1644452030", "cover": "1644452030", "goodreads": 59808506, "itunes": 9781644452035, "bookshop": 9781644452035, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31CazumT+UL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781644452035", "isbn10": "1644452030", "links": [] }, "329": { "id": 329, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Consequences: Stories", "author": "Manuel Muñoz", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

It’s hard to imagine a more gorgeous collection of short fiction than the latest book from Arizona-based author Manuel Muñoz. The stories here, set in California’s Central Valley, focus on the lives of immigrants, queer men and others in the 1970s and ‘80s; an underlying theme is the obligations that we have toward our friends and families. Muñoz’s prose is shining and hypnotic, and suffused with care and tenderness. This is one of the best short story collections to come around in recent years.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1644452065", "cover": "1644452065", "goodreads": 59808459, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781644452066, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nTWxCHLtL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781644452066", "isbn10": "1644452065", "links": [] }, "330": { "id": 330, "edition": "fall", "title": "Reward System: Stories", "author": "Jem Calder", "reviewers": [ "Michael Schaub" ], "text": "

After the first coronavirus lockdown, a lot of us developed love-hate relationships with our smartphones. That’s the case for many of the characters in Jem Calder’s excellent debut book, a collection of short stories about millennials whose lives have been reduced to bad jobs, uncertain identities and constantly checking their apps. Calder can be funny and wrenching, often on the same page; he does a wonderful job depicting millennial anomie and rootlessness. This book is beyond promising – but maybe don’t read it on your smartphone.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "seriously great writing", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0374602425", "cover": "0374602425", "goodreads": 58772718, "itunes": 9780374602420, "bookshop": 9780374602420, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/21wz6tAV27L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374602420", "isbn10": "0374602425", "links": [] }, "331": { "id": 331, "edition": "fall", "title": "Masa: Techniques, Recipes, and Reflections on a Timeless Staple", "author": "Jorge Gaviria", "reviewers": [ "Milton Guevara" ], "text": "

Author and entrepreneur Jorge Gaviria considers masa to be one of the greatest human achievements, up there with taming fire and inventing the wheel. Entire civilizations were made possible, in part, because of it, he argues in his book Masa. Tortillas, tamales, pupusas, tlayudas and so much more are all made from this corn dough. And Gaviria’s book offers a deep dive into almost everything you need to know about the ancient staple: history, science, techniques and recipes (both traditional and modern). After reading Masa, I’d have to agree, it’s an underrated miracle.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "cookbooks & food", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1797209922", "cover": "1797209922", "goodreads": 58739590, "itunes": 9781797209920, "bookshop": 9781797209920, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41uTIzNIk6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781797209920", "isbn10": "1797209922", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 331, "book": "Masa: Techniques, Recipes, and Reflections on a Timeless Staple", "source": "WBUR", "text": "How to make the best corn tortillas at home, according to 'Masa' author Jorge Gaviria", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/11/11/masa-tortillas-jorge-gaviria" } ] }, "332": { "id": 332, "edition": "fall", "title": "Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks", "author": "Patrick Radden Keefe", "reviewers": [ "Rachel Treisman" ], "text": "

Patrick Radden Keefe’s last two books were among my favorite peak-pandemic reads, and Rogues did not disappoint. It’s a collection of a dozen articles Keefe wrote over the years, focused on a cast of shady, scandalous, sympathetic and generally complicated characters in fields ranging from finance to entertainment to vintage wines. Some of the stories and subjects are better known than others, but all make for page-turners in their own way. I love that Keefe closes each chapter with a short epilogue describing what has happened since each story was originally published – linking past to present and reportage to reality.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "for history lovers", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0385548516", "cover": "0385548516", "goodreads": 59148726, "itunes": 9780385548519, "bookshop": 9780385548519, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41cR-45koxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780385548519", "isbn10": "0385548516", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 332, "book": "Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Rogues' showcases Patrick Radden Keefe's preternatural gift for reading people", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/27/1107254895/rogues-showcases-patrick-radden-keefes-preternatural-gift-for-reading-people" } ] }, "333": { "id": 333, "edition": "fall", "title": "You Gotta Be You: How to Embrace This Messy Life and Step Into Who You Really Are", "author": "Brandon Kyle Goodman", "reviewers": [ "Sarah Handel", "Ailsa Chang" ], "text": "

What if fitting in wasn’t worth the energy, the pain? Who would you be if you could shove off other people’s expectations? Brandon Kyle Goodman, who is Black, queer and nonbinary, has done a lot of work trying to figure that out for themself, and they’re sharing all they’ve learned – the highs, the lows, the mess – in this book. How can we show up better to love others, while respecting our own boundaries so we can better love ourselves? We laughed, we cried, we cry-laughed — and by the end, felt better about bringing our full selves to everything we do.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "identity & culture", "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters" ], "isbn": "0306826194", "cover": "0306826194", "goodreads": 60021172, "itunes": 9780306826191, "bookshop": 9780306826191, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kAFqKa+yL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780306826191", "isbn10": "0306826194", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 333, "book": "You Gotta Be You: How to Embrace This Messy Life and Step Into Who You Really Are", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'You Gotta Be You,' Brandon Kyle Goodman says we should embrace who we are", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/06/1127160313/in-you-gotta-be-you-brandon-kyle-goodman-says-we-should-embrace-who-we-are" } ] }, "334": { "id": 334, "edition": "fall", "title": "Imagine a City: A Pilot's Journey Across the Urban World", "author": "Mark Vanhoenacker", "reviewers": [ "Scott Horsley" ], "text": "

Part travelogue, part memoir, Mark Vanhoenacker’s latest book takes you on a guided tour of far-flung destinations like Nairobi, Brasília and Kuwait City, while never losing sight of his hometown, Pittsfield, Mass. Growing up, Vanhoenacker built model airplanes, and while studying a globe and sketching imaginary skylines, he dreamed of the places those planes might carry him. Today, he pilots real jetliners on long-distance routes linking continents. While his earlier book Skyfaring described the exhilaration of flying, this book is about what Vanhoenacker finds when he lands: cities rich in poetry, birdsong and stories.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0525657509", "cover": "0525657509", "goodreads": 59334639, "itunes": 9780525657507, "bookshop": 9780525657507, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vE2u5+pCL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525657507", "isbn10": "0525657509", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 334, "book": "Imagine a City: A Pilot's Journey Across the Urban World", "source": "NPR", "text": "Flying around the world — and back home again — in 'Imagine a City' ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/07/05/1109781522/flying-around-the-world-and-back-home-again-in-imagine-a-city" } ] }, "335": { "id": 335, "edition": "fall", "title": "Delicious Gatherings: Recipes to Celebrate Together", "author": "Tara Teaspoon", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Perhaps better known by her nom de blog, “Tara Teaspoon,” Tara Bench is one of those old hands in food publishing who never seem to run out of good ideas. From just half a dozen ingredients, Bench conjures up novelties that deliver: za’atar cauliflower with golden raisins, pasta with Brussels sprouts and walnut-sage browned butter. Spinach and artichoke tarte soleil, a spectacular centerpiece made with store-bought puff pastry, will have guests giving you way more credit than you’re due. (But isn’t that the point?)

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1639930450", "cover": "1639930450", "goodreads": 60439679, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781639930456, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61k4DZGzIdL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781639930456", "isbn10": "1639930450", "links": [] }, "336": { "id": 336, "edition": "fall", "title": "Plant-Based India: Nourishing Recipes Rooted in Tradition", "author": "Sheil Shukla", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

In this first cookbook from osteopath Sheil Shukla, vegan mains take glamorous center stage. Shukla, who describes himself as a food artist, did all of his own photography for the book, and these cinematically lit, larger-than-life images will have you eating with your eyes long before the dal hits the pan. Indian cuisine is plant-friendly to begin with; where it is not, it’s been veganized in these pages with enthusiasm and attention to detail: palak tofu, shahi gobi, butternut squash and mushroom biryani. What’s more, the dessert section will galvanize your relationship with nondairy milks.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1615198539", "cover": "1615198539", "goodreads": 58328357, "itunes": 9781615198535, "bookshop": 9781615198535, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51BIMgAqZjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781615198535", "isbn10": "1615198539", "links": [] }, "337": { "id": 337, "edition": "fall", "title": "Chinese-Ish: Home Cooking Not Quite Authentic, 100% Delicious", "author": "Rosheen Kaul and Joanna Hu", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Chinese-Ish takes questions of culinary identity, tosses them up in the air, and lets them land where they may. Australians Rosheen Kaul and Joanna Hu confront their blended-Chinese heritage by exploring classics of home cooking like wontons, fried rice and stir-fries – while also going where nobody’s grandma has gone before, with “very Inauthentic Shrimp Toast” and “Microwave Cheong fun” rice noodle rolls. Refreshingly uninterested in purity tests and irresistibly illustrated by Hu, Chinese-Ish is an irreverent charmer and more evidence (if more were needed) of the unending global love affair with Chinese cuisine.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "162371799X", "cover": "162371799X", "goodreads": 60320648, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781623717995, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41JuekFqY4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781623717995", "isbn10": "162371799X", "links": [] }, "338": { "id": 338, "edition": "fall", "title": "(Serious) New Cook: Recipes, Tips, and Techniques", "author": "Leah Su Quiroga and Cammie Kim Lin", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Sisters Leah Su Quiroga (ex-head chef at Chez Panisse) and Cammie Kim Lin (Brooklyn-based food writer) have some serious kitchen chops, but this book was written for the next generation: one that loves cooking, but not always cookbooks. These recipes attend to texture and flavor with chef-like finesse and eclecticism (Bulgogi meatballs! Handmade arepas! Biscuit-topped chicken pot pie!) while also including painstaking process photos and taking no skills or steps for granted. It’s a delicate balance to pull off cringe-free. This one’s well worth gifting to your 20-something, along with their first good knife.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1599621657", "cover": "1599621657", "goodreads": 62892050, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781599621654, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51O7wteR5LL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781599621654", "isbn10": "1599621657", "links": [] }, "339": { "id": 339, "edition": "fall", "title": "Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef's Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird", "author": "Jacques Pépin", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

“Proust had his madeleine, I have chickens.” So says Jacques Pépin, legendary French chef and artist of the dinner plate, who turns out to be as adept with canvas, oil and acrylic as he is with a knife and skillet. Colorfully daubed, brilliantly wattled roosters strut across these pages. Pépin has lived a gloriously full life, and his reminiscences are as savory as his artwork. What you won’t find here, though, is recipes – just soulful little paragraphs rendering homage to oeufs en gelée or coq au vin or poulet Pavillon. It’s a feast for the eyes that leaves you tantalizingly hungry for more.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food", "for art lovers", "biography & memoir", "nonfiction" ], "isbn": "0358654513", "cover": "0358654513", "goodreads": 60012493, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780358654513, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ikcurLnjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780358654513", "isbn10": "0358654513", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 339, "book": "Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef's Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird", "source": "NPR", "text": "America's most famous French chef on the 'Art of the Chicken' and a life well lived ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/01/1124582510/jacques-pepin-french-chef-julia-child" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 339, "book": "Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef's Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird", "source": "WPR", "text": "Food Friday: How Jacques Pépin cooks -- and paints -- chicken", "url": "https://www.wpr.org/food-friday-how-jacques-pepin-cooks-and-paints-chicken" } ] }, "340": { "id": 340, "edition": "fall", "title": "Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things", "author": "Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Everything restaurateur and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi touches takes on a life of its own, and the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen is no exception. Following last year’s Shelf Love, Noor Murad and the OTK team have set out again to “Ottolenghify” the plant-based palate – meaning each recipe gets a special extra: cinnamon almonds on the sweet and savory chicken pie, ginger pickle on the sambal tofu with cashews. Bookended by useful indexes, Extra Good Things brims over with an almost excessive exuberance: I don’t know why I needed to preheat my oven for the sambal, but I do know it was delicious.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "0593234383", "cover": "0593234383", "goodreads": 60751766, "itunes": 9780593234389, "bookshop": 9780593234389, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51V1r5FtrjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593234389", "isbn10": "0593234383", "links": [] }, "341": { "id": 341, "edition": "fall", "title": "Fabulous Modern Cookies: Lessons in Better Baking for Next-Generation Treats", "author": "Paul Arguin and Chris Taylor", "reviewers": [ "T. Susan Chang" ], "text": "

Do we need another cookie book? As far as I’m concerned, the answer is always “yes.” Here we have the classic cookie food groups (bar, drop, rolled, slice-and-bake, etc.), but they’ve been wickedly turbocharged with unique flavor hacks. Why wouldn’t you insinuate a layer of ganache into your black-bottom lemon squares? Why wouldn’t you powder freeze-dried raspberries for your sugar cookies? And for heaven’s sake, why wouldn’t you add milk powder to your browned butter for the world’s most insanely malty chocolate chip cookies? Prepare your secret-stash cookie jar, folks – you’re gonna need it.

", "tags": [ "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1682686590", "cover": "1682686590", "goodreads": 58085316, "itunes": 9781682686591, "bookshop": 9781682686591, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/613oZC1yA8S._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781682686591", "isbn10": "1682686590", "links": [] }, "342": { "id": 342, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Last White Man: A Novel", "author": "Mohsin Hamid", "reviewers": [ "Taylor Haney" ], "text": "

Anders wakes up one day to find he no longer recognizes himself. His white skin has turned brown. Soon, he’s not alone. The Last White Man’s opening chapter suits a novel that grew from a Kafkaesque era of pandemic and protest. The device feels familiar to readers of author Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West. The laws of reality mutate. What was once surreal becomes normal, but not before exposing the societal fissures that many felt, but not all could see. Some react with suspicion, others with tenderness. The Last White Man insists: When you feel the earth shift, who will you offer kindness to?

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "eye-opening reads", "book club ideas", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593538811", "cover": "0593538811", "goodreads": 58885796, "itunes": 9780593538814, "bookshop": 9780593538814, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41EV1smadiL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593538814", "isbn10": "0593538811", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 342, "book": "The Last White Man: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Last White Man' spins a deft, if narrow, fantasy about identity", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/09/1116137982/the-last-white-man-mohsin-hamid-review" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 342, "book": "The Last White Man: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "In 'The Last White Man,' these neighbors find their skin colors are changing", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/07/30/1114697004/in-the-last-white-man-these-neighbors-find-their-skin-colors-are-changing" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 342, "book": "The Last White Man: A Novel", "source": "WDET", "text": "New novel explores whiteness, loss and a changing world", "url": "https://wdet.org/2022/10/10/new-novel-explores-whiteness-loss-and-a-changing-world/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 342, "book": "The Last White Man: A Novel", "source": "WBEZ", "text": "Exploring race, belonging in Mohsin Hamid’s ‘The Last White Man’", "url": "https://www.wbez.org/stories/exploring-race-belonging-in-mohsin-hamids-the-last-white-man/9ab481b7-d6a0-4fde-b71c-6ec093fa9b4b" } ] }, "343": { "id": 343, "edition": "fall", "title": "Who Will Make the Pancakes: Five Stories", "author": "Megan Kelso", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

Megan Kelso’s graphic anthology thoughtfully examines American feminism in diverse social contexts. “Watergate Sue” juxtaposes Eve’s ambivalent Nixon-era pregnancy with her daughter Sue’s hopeful, self-absorbed gestation during the administration of George W. Bush. “Cats in Service” illustrates the slippery slope between sheltering homeless cats and exploiting them as domestic servants. “Korin Voss” shows how a single mother’s professional and romantic pursuits – while ahead of her time during postwar America – clash with her daughters’ need for stability. A mountain climber’s lost innocence (“The Golden Lasso”) and an avant-garde filmmaker’s wistful acceptance of flawed manhood ("The Egg Room”) round out this astute and groundbreaking collection.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1683966708", "cover": "1683966708", "goodreads": 60594917, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781683966708, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vSoHYpVRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781683966708", "isbn10": "1683966708", "links": [] }, "344": { "id": 344, "edition": "fall", "title": "Tangier in the Rain", "author": "Fabien Grolleau, illustrated by Abdel de Bruxelles and translated by David Christensen", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

Recounting Matisse’s two visits to Tangier, Morocco, between 1912 and 1913, this sumptuous graphic novel belies a mordant critique – by showing how the French master perceives the North African landscape as a place to be exploited aesthetically, rather than a country with its complex truths. Since it rains almost nonstop during his initial trip, Matisse has to find ways to reconcile with the intemperate environment. Tangier in the Rain comically illustrates Matisse’s dependence on so-called secondary characters, such as Madame Matisse, his headstrong model Zorah and local Moroccans, who greatly contribute to Matisse’s artistic vision but are not adequately credited by posterity.

", "tags": [ "comics & graphic novels", "eye-opening reads", "for art lovers", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "", "cover": "B09XBRLZ7Y", "goodreads": 61047526, "itunes": "", "bookshop": "", "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51g3KKOR9iL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "links": [] }, "345": { "id": 345, "edition": "fall", "title": "Bronze Drum: A Novel of Sisters and War", "author": "Phong Nguyen", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

Thrillingly cinematic, Bronze Drum recounts the legend of Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, two sisters barely out of their teens who liberated Vietnam from colonial rule in A.D. 40. Combining meticulous historical research with emotional immediacy, Phong Nguyen vividly evokes the cultural chasm between Chinese and Vietnamese worldviews, in which the former’s repressive patriarchal system directly conflicts with the natives’ matriarchal model, where women can inherit property, have multiple romantic partners and form flexible family arrangements. As syncopated weapon and storytelling instrument, the bronze drum in the novel symbolizes Vietnam’s unyielding spirit and rich cultural heritage.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "historical fiction", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1538753707", "cover": "1538753707", "goodreads": 59530653, "itunes": 9781538753705, "bookshop": 9781538753705, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41S4UfQMStL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781538753705", "isbn10": "1538753707", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 345, "book": "Bronze Drum: A Novel of Sisters and War", "source": "NPR", "text": "Two sisters fight for Vietnam's independence", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/08/1116384927/bronze-drum-book-review" } ] }, "346": { "id": 346, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Fortunes of Jaded Women: A Novel", "author": "Carolyn Huynh", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a multigenerational saga about Vietnamese women cursed to give birth only to female offspring who in turn cannot find true love. These jade-adorned, loungewear matriarchs regularly consult gnomic herbalists and fortunetellers to revise their daughters’ errant fates. Other life forms in Southern California’s Little Saigon include smooth-talking Kevin Nguyens, bikini-clad baristas and nail salon workers who are employed illegally and well-versed in post-Marxist arguments. Despite its satiric content, the novel poignantly addresses the after-effects of war and diaspora, showing how the characters’ bulldozing quest for stability manifests a precarious hold on their adopted land.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "fiction", "family matters" ], "isbn": "1982188731", "cover": "1982188731", "goodreads": 59894742, "itunes": 9781982188733, "bookshop": 9781982188733, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41c8q5s102L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982188733", "isbn10": "1982188731", "links": [] }, "347": { "id": 347, "edition": "fall", "title": "Spadework for a Palace", "author": "László Krasznahorkai, translated by John Batki", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

László Krasznahorkai’s deranged protagonist, herman melvill – a small librarian with fallen arches and the grand delusions of John Milton’s fallen archangel – yearns to gain true understanding of Herman Melville’s genius, which he idealizes as a palace of eternal knowledge. Roaming New York City’s Lower East Side, melvill links Melville’s humble, post-Moby Dick existence at 104 East 26th Street to Malcolm Lowry’s harrowing experience at Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, and to the apocalyptic, seemingly nonfunctional architectural designs of Lebbeus Woods – who lived in Tribeca and taught at Cooper Union. Breathtaking and hypnotic, this unorthodox novella boldly merges fiction, travelogue and literary criticism into one 96-page sentence.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "rather short", "the states we’re in", "the dark side", "short stories, essays & poetry" ], "isbn": "0811228401", "cover": "0811228401", "goodreads": 52974298, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780811228404, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5182bNWNZqL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780811228404", "isbn10": "0811228401", "links": [] }, "348": { "id": 348, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Woman Who Killed the Fish", "author": "Clarice Lispector, translated by Benjamin Moser", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

Clarice Lispector’s anthology of animal stories reflects her acerbic view that human compassion for animals doesn’t prevent the latter from being eaten or exploited. As bought pets, animals must either conform to our anthropomorphic lens or, as “uninvited natural creatures,” remain too repellent to merit our sympathy. The title story’s sly narrator implicates both herself and the reader, by justifying the fatal neglect of her son’s fish on her all-consuming work as a fiction writer. Nevertheless, in one instance Lispector does allow a rabbit to escape his cage like Houdini, and in another ensures a hen is protected by a cyclops from Jupiter.

", "tags": [ "eye-opening reads", "rather short", "short stories, essays & poetry", "young adult" ], "isbn": "0811229602", "cover": "0811229602", "goodreads": 52974317, "itunes": 9780811229609, "bookshop": 9780811229609, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LGr9CZzWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780811229609", "isbn10": "0811229602", "links": [] }, "349": { "id": 349, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Rupture Tense: Poems", "author": "Jenny Xie", "reviewers": [ "Thúy Ðinh" ], "text": "

Chinese photojournalist Li Zhensheng’s astounding photos of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) were kept hidden until their publication 40 years later. Inspired by these images, Jenny Xie’s The Rupture Tense gives voice to powerful poetry of witness, capturing the poet’s unflinching gaze at both recorded history and forms of rupture – corporeal, metaphysical and environmental – triggered by Mao Zedong’s catastrophic movement that still impact her family. Affirming memory as a supple, restorative force, Xie incisively observes, “The left-behind and dead are alike / they travel / shouldering a simple bag, and form / the lightest of predictions / about how to make a passage.”

", "tags": [ "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "short stories, essays & poetry", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1644452014", "cover": "1644452014", "goodreads": 59808546, "itunes": 9781644452011, "bookshop": 9781644452011, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81VcD4pYsWL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781644452011", "isbn10": "1644452014", "links": [] }, "350": { "id": 350, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Good Day to Bake: Simple Baking Recipes for Every Mood", "author": "Benjamina Ebuehi", "reviewers": [ "Wynne Davis" ], "text": "

I love a weekend baking project just as much as the next person, but sometimes I just want to pull out ingredients I already have and turn them into a weeknight treat. Benjamina Ebuehi gets that and, in A Good Day to Bake, offers up recipes that make the most of what you have on hand – rarely did I need to hit the grocery store before getting started. From the sweet potato, chorizo and spinach turnovers to the peanut butter cookies filled with dark chocolate, you’ll find recipes that help you slow down during the week, even if just for an hour.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1787138011", "cover": "1787138011", "goodreads": 58739545, "itunes": 9781787138018, "bookshop": 9781787138018, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+NcPKcwjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781787138018", "isbn10": "1787138011", "links": [] }, "351": { "id": 351, "edition": "fall", "title": "Persiana Everyday", "author": "Sabrina Ghayour", "reviewers": [ "Wynne Davis" ], "text": "

If you’re looking to spice up your weeknight dinners, Persiana Everyday is a great guide. Sabrina Ghayour’s goal is flavor-packed, satisfying dishes – not necessarily to make everything from scratch. From quick hits like ultimate tuna salad, which involve zero cooking, to the pork, cilantro and scallion meatballs, great for banh mi sandwiches, it’s easy to find new favorites for weekly rotation. Veggies get a lot of love, too. Ghayour’s recipes are perfect for whether you’re looking for a new soup to get you through winter or trying to avoid turning your oven on during summer.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "cookbooks & food" ], "isbn": "1783255145", "cover": "1783255145", "goodreads": 60383096, "itunes": 9781783255146, "bookshop": 9781783255146, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61L1aKGnivL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781783255146", "isbn10": "1783255145", "links": [] }, "352": { "id": 352, "edition": "fall", "title": "Even Though I Knew the End", "author": "C.L. Polk", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

A decade ago, magical detective Elena made a deal with the devil, trading her soul for a gift. Now in 1940s Chicago, her side of the bargain is coming due. Luckily, a client offers her a way out – by finding the White City Vampire who is leaving the remains of human sacrifices all over town. Elena has three days to solve the case so she can secure her soul and spend the rest of her life with her beloved, Edith. This is an entrancing mystery novella of queer romance, hard-boiled detectives and Faustian bargains.

", "tags": [ "rather short", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "love & romance", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250849454", "cover": "1250849454", "goodreads": 59807975, "itunes": 9781250849458, "bookshop": 9781250849458, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nPSKVLNmL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250849458", "isbn10": "1250849454", "links": [] }, "354": { "id": 354, "edition": "fall", "title": "Just Like Home", "author": "Sarah Gailey", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

I love a good, old-fashioned haunted house story, and this one is chilling and very unsettling. With her mother’s impending death looming over her, Vera finally returns to her childhood home. That house was a source of pain and darkness for many, but for Vera her father was the light of her life. When he’s tossed in jail for being a serial killer, everything falls apart. Now Vera is grown, and something bloody and terrible is waiting for her back home. Evil lurks, but it’s not what Vera is expecting.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "the dark side", "family matters", "mysteries & thrillers", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250174724", "cover": "1250174724", "goodreads": 57693472, "itunes": 9781250174727, "bookshop": 9781250174727, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31fDJzp2KbL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250174727", "isbn10": "1250174724", "links": [] }, "355": { "id": 355, "edition": "fall", "title": "Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution", "author": "R.F. Kuang", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

This new doorstopper of a historical fantasy novel reimagines the rise of the British empire as intrinsically intertwined with the colonization and consolidation of magic. Robin, stolen from his home in Canton and brought to Oxford’s Royal Institute of Translation in the mid-19th century, finds himself at the center of a plot to bring down the imperial machine. Although the stories are very different, Babel gave me serious Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell vibes, from the fascinating footnotes to the lush prose to the creeping sensation that there is far more going on than what appears on the surface.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "rather long", "seriously great writing", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for history lovers", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063021420", "cover": "0063021420", "goodreads": 57945316, "itunes": 9780063021426, "bookshop": 9780063021426, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1lv97-jJoL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063021426", "isbn10": "0063021420", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 355, "book": "Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution", "source": "WBUR", "text": "New fantasy novel 'Babel' explores translation as a tool of imperialism", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/08/31/babel-rebecca-kuang" } ] }, "356": { "id": 356, "edition": "fall", "title": "Tread of Angels", "author": "Rebecca Roanhorse", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

Looking for a little mystery with a weird-west genre hook? Look no further! In a world of mechanical wonders powered by the divine magic of a dead angel live sisters Celeste and Mariel, descendents of the Fallen angels. Celeste will do anything to save Mariel from execution after she’s accused of killing one of the righteous Virtues – including making deals with demons, scamming her fellow Fallen, and trying to outsmart the enemy Virtues.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1982166185", "cover": "1982166185", "goodreads": 60321430, "itunes": 9781982166182, "bookshop": 9781982166182, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519ABUHzM8L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781982166182", "isbn10": "1982166185", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 356, "book": "Tread of Angels", "source": "KJZZ", "text": "From TV to novels to comics, author Rebecca Roanhorse is bringing whole worlds to life", "url": "https://kjzz.org/content/1810961/tv-novels-comics-author-rebecca-roanhorse-bringing-whole-worlds-life" } ] }, "357": { "id": 357, "edition": "fall", "title": "Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction", "author": "edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Zelda Knight", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

This was one of my most anticipated 2022 anthologies, and for good reason. The stories range all over the speculative realm, from past to present to future, from the continent to the diaspora, from authors with bibliographies a mile long to those who are making a name for themselves. With nearly three dozen writers represented, there’s a little something for everyone here. If you like short stories, are looking for an entry point to short speculative fiction, or need something to break a reading slump, you can’t go wrong with Africa Risen.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250833000", "cover": "1250833000", "goodreads": 59807971, "itunes": 9781250833006, "bookshop": 9781250833006, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91EKvi1MxFL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250833006", "isbn10": "1250833000", "links": [] }, "358": { "id": 358, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Honeys", "author": "Ryan La Sala", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

After his sister dies trying to murder him, Mars forces his way into the prestigious and very conservative summer camp she had attended as a way to uncover what pushed her to kill. There he’s tormented by bigoted boys and taken in by The Honeys, girls his sister was friends with who live in a bee-obsessed commune at the far edge of the camp. Mars is determined to expose their secrets even if it kills him. Ryan La Sala’s brilliant young adult horror novel details the difficulties of being queer and genderfluid in a world that demands conformity.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "the dark side", "family matters", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "133874531X", "cover": "133874531X", "goodreads": 58874675, "itunes": 9781338745313, "bookshop": 9781338745313, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61vLNHaReAL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781338745313", "isbn10": "133874531X", "links": [] }, "359": { "id": 359, "edition": "fall", "title": "Rust in the Root", "author": "Justina Ireland", "reviewers": [ "Alex Brown" ], "text": "

It’s 1937 and large swaths of the U.S. are being decimated by Blights, zones where magic has corrupted and decayed every living thing. Laura is the newest recruit to the Bureau of the Arcane’s Conservation Corps’ colored division. She and her crew head deep into Ohio to face necromancy, the klan and all the horrors of racism in America. Justina Ireland returns to young adult alternate history with a crackling, epic fantasy complete with real historic photos from the Library of Congress.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "young adult", "for history lovers", "the dark side", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063038226", "cover": "0063038226", "goodreads": 59947670, "itunes": 9780063038226, "bookshop": 9780063038226, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51gYdWq4mYL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063038226", "isbn10": "0063038226", "links": [] }, "360": { "id": 360, "edition": "fall", "title": "Before I Let Go", "author": "Kennedy Ryan", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

USA Today bestselling romance author Kennedy Ryan delivers another scorching tale of love, desire, heartbreak and heartache in her new second-chance romance Before I Let Go. Ryan is a fantastic storyteller and superb writer who expertly explores complex and realistic situations from depression and divorce to success and failure – to the reincarnation of love. With her witty, insightful dialogue and a cast of remarkable, believable characters, Ryan’s immersive storytelling leaves no corner of the heart untouched. You will be hard-pressed to let go of Yasmen, Josiah, Deja, Kassim and Otis, to name a few of her unforgettable characters.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "1538706792", "cover": "1538706792", "goodreads": 60568471, "itunes": 9781538706794, "bookshop": 9781538706794, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51d0oPmP8oL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781538706794", "isbn10": "1538706792", "links": [] }, "361": { "id": 361, "edition": "fall", "title": "Killers of a Certain Age", "author": "Deanna Raybourn", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

New York Times bestselling author Deanna Raybourn turns in a delightful, edge-of-your-seat action-adventure-thriller in Killers of a Certain Age. A retirement vacation turns into a fight for survival when four 60-year-old female assassins realize they are being targeted by the Museum, the organization they’ve spent 40 years working for. This is Raybourn’s first contemporary novel, and she knocks it out of the park with excellent storytelling, relatable characters and fun (and believable) dialogue in a highly effective thriller. Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie are fully developed characters who are physical, smart and excellent at what they do. This is a ride you don’t want to miss.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593200683", "cover": "0593200683", "goodreads": 60149532, "itunes": 9780593200681, "bookshop": 9780593200681, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41TF0zcR4rL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593200681", "isbn10": "0593200683", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 361, "book": "Killers of a Certain Age", "source": "KAXE", "text": "Deanna Raybourn's first contemporary novel shows older women can 'kick ass' too", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/books/2022-09-06/deanna-raybourns-first-contemporary-novel-shows-older-women-can-kick-ass-too" } ] }, "362": { "id": 362, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Last Dreamwalker", "author": "Rita Woods", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

This stunning novel by the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award-winning author Rita Woods tells the tale of Layla Hurley and her connection to the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina. The islands are the home of the Gullah/Geechee people, who have retained the ethnic traditions of West Africa since the mid-1700s. Layla is a complicated, emotional protagonist who learns she has a unique gift, passed from generation to generation, following her mother’s death. The book contains imaginative mythology, exquisite prose and wonderfully paced storytelling. It’s a beautifully written, gripping contemporary story and a must-read work of fiction.

", "tags": [ "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "seriously great writing", "the dark side", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250805619", "cover": "1250805619", "goodreads": 59770988, "itunes": 9781250805614, "bookshop": 9781250805614, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nJZjnuO-L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250805614", "isbn10": "1250805619", "links": [] }, "363": { "id": 363, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Monsters We Defy", "author": "Leslye Penelope", "reviewers": [ "Denny S. Bryce" ], "text": "

Leslye Penelope’s latest is a genre-bending mashup that delights as much as it intrigues. A fantasy novel set in 1925 Washington, D.C., the book features a girl who can talk to spirits, a heist, an awesome crew of magical misfits and a heart-pounding romance. All this and more in a well-researched journey through African American culture in the nation’s capital in the 1920s. Clara Johnson, the novel’s protagonist, is as “ornery as a red hornet,” but beneath the hard-boiled exterior is a determined young woman – and one of the most inventive characters in fantasy.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "mysteries & thrillers", "for history lovers", "book club ideas", "love & romance", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0316377910", "cover": "0316377910", "goodreads": 59801784, "itunes": 9780316377911, "bookshop": 9780316377911, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51BkMqb-8CL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316377911", "isbn10": "0316377910", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 363, "book": "The Monsters We Defy", "source": "NPR", "text": "Black reality in a world of fantasy: Tochi Onyebuchi and Leslye Penelope", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/11/1128226741/tochi-onyebuchi-leslye-penelope-black-science-fiction-fantasy" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 363, "book": "The Monsters We Defy", "source": "WABE", "text": "Author Talk: Lucinda Roy and Leslye Penelope", "url": "https://www.wabe.org/tv-episodes/author-talk-lucinda-roy-leslye-penelope-9juknh/" } ] }, "364": { "id": 364, "edition": "fall", "title": "Lessons From the Edge: A Memoir", "author": "Marie Yovanovitch", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "

Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, was vilified by then-President Donald Trump and chose to fight when her reputation was questioned. But this book is about much more than the political headlines. Her 33-year career in the Foreign Service was a testament to good judgment and initiative, proving that values and interests equal the diplomatic equation. This is a real-life textbook of a career under pressure, even in low-profile assignments that take unexpected twists and turns.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "staff picks", "biography & memoir" ], "isbn": "0358457548", "cover": "0358457548", "goodreads": 53968466, "itunes": 9780358457541, "bookshop": 9780358457541, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yzW9v+TpL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780358457541", "isbn10": "0358457548", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 364, "book": "Lessons From the Edge: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Marie Yovanovitch reflects on disinformation and her removal as ambassador to Ukraine", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/03/12/1086270962/marie-yovanovitch-reflects-on-disinformation-and-her-removal-as-ambassador-to-uk" } ] }, "365": { "id": 365, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Violin Conspiracy: A Novel", "author": "Brendan Slocumb", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "

Ray McMillian is practicing for the Tchaikovsky competition in Russia when his family violin is stolen from his New York hotel room and replaced with a new sneaker and a ransom note. The whodunit becomes a tour through the pressure of competition and family feuds and an exposé on the prejudice faced by Black performers. This is a fast-paced, crisp read infused with a love of music, determination and perseverance.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "for music lovers", "staff picks", "identity & culture", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593315413", "cover": "0593315413", "goodreads": 58386733, "itunes": 9780593315415, "bookshop": 9780593315415, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51iZhiIIUjL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593315415", "isbn10": "0593315413", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 365, "book": "The Violin Conspiracy: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": "Thriller 'The Violin Conspiracy' addresses racism in classical music", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/02/07/1078283114/thriller-the-violin-conspiracy-addresses-racism-in-classical-music" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 365, "book": "The Violin Conspiracy: A Novel", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'The Violin Conspiracy' shows what it can be like to play classical music while Black", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/1076514270/the-violin-conspiracy-shows-what-it-can-be-like-to-play-classical-music-while-bl" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 365, "book": "The Violin Conspiracy: A Novel", "source": "MPR", "text": " 'The Violin Conspiracy' is a musical who-done-it with deep notes", "url": "https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/02/16/the-violin-conspiracy-is-a-musical-whodoneit-with-deep-notes" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 365, "book": "The Violin Conspiracy: A Novel", "source": "WGBH", "text": "Book Club: Brendan Slocumb's 'The Violin Conspiracy'", "url": "https://www.wgbh.org/news/arts/2022/04/01/book-club-brendan-slocumbs-the-violin-conspiracy" } ] }, "366": { "id": 366, "edition": "fall", "title": "River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile", "author": "Candice Millard", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "

The 19th-century race to definitively establish the source of the Nile was full of adventure and motivation for great achievement. Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke are not household names today, but their quest for glory makes for an enjoyable read about characters who, while deeply flawed, persevered through personal grudges, disease and dangerous elements in their journey for the source of the Nile. Ultimately, neither could have survived without Sidi Mubarak Bombay, arguably the real hero in the group.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "0385543107", "cover": "0385543107", "goodreads": 58783797, "itunes": 9780385543101, "bookshop": 9780385543101, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oqLPA64aL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780385543101", "isbn10": "0385543107", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 366, "book": "River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'River of the Gods' captures the epic quest to find the source of the Nile ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1105189330/river-of-the-gods-captures-the-epic-quest-to-find-the-source-of-the-nile" } ] }, "367": { "id": 367, "edition": "fall", "title": "Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War", "author": "Deborah Cohen", "reviewers": [ "Edith Chapin" ], "text": "

The American foreign correspondent burst on the scene in the 1920s and 1930s, urging Americans to abandon their isolationist preferences for a full-on engagement in world leadership. Four of the highest-profile correspondents, John Gunther, H.R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean and Dorothy Thompson, chased each other across Europe, mixing friendships and professional rivalries as well as advocacy and reporting. This is an insightful look at early pack journalism trying to make sense of the dictators who would bring the U.S. fully into the global chess game.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "tales from around the world", "staff picks", "for history lovers", "rather long" ], "isbn": "0525511199", "cover": "0525511199", "goodreads": 58394774, "itunes": 9780525511199, "bookshop": 9780525511199, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wbdQmu2TL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525511199", "isbn10": "0525511199", "links": [] }, "368": { "id": 368, "edition": "fall", "title": "Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life", "author": "Alice Wong", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

“Ableism conscripted me into activism,” Alice Wong writes in this collection of funny, fierce, original and precise essays. But every activist is also other things, and Wong explores friendships, community, food and joy, as well as the acrid scent of discrimination. In addition to her own writing, Wong includes interviews, art, recipes and other formats, making the book a mosaic of a thoroughly lived (and living) life rather than a neatly linear narrative. Year of the Tiger invites readers to witness the beauty in imagining and creating a better world for one another.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0593315391", "cover": "0593315391", "goodreads": 59900658, "itunes": 9780593315392, "bookshop": 9780593315392, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51f-TMKE7cL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593315392", "isbn10": "0593315391", "links": [] }, "369": { "id": 369, "edition": "fall", "title": "Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery", "author": "Casey Parks", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

When Casey Parks first learned of Roy Hudgins, a “woman who lived like a man” during her grandmother’s childhood in Louisiana, her interest was piqued. Newly out to her family and recently condemned to hell by their preacher, Parks begins a yearslong scavenger hunt of sorts. Finding all the clues to Roy’s story proves difficult, but in the process, Parks beautifully portrays her interview subjects in the South and what she both loves and finds painful about home. A blend of reportage, research and memoir, Diary of a Misfit is a riveting read.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "for history lovers", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "052565853X", "cover": "052565853X", "goodreads": 58988176, "itunes": 9780525658535, "bookshop": 9780525658535, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51BTElsR8dL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525658535", "isbn10": "052565853X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 369, "book": "Diary of a Misfit", "source": "NPR", "text": " 'Diary of a Misfit' blends reportage, research and memoir", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/30/1120028903/diary-of-a-misfit-blends-reportage-research-and-memoir" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 369, "book": "Diary of a Misfit", "source": "WWNO", "text": "Casey Parks explores southern queerness in 'Diary of a Misfit,' a surprising journey of acceptance ", "url": "https://www.wwno.org/show/louisiana-considered/2022-09-22/in-diary-of-a-misfit-casey-parks-explores-southern-queerness-in-a-surprising-journey-of-acceptance" } ] }, "370": { "id": 370, "edition": "fall", "title": "Patricia Wants to Cuddle: A Novel", "author": "Samantha Allen", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

When the last four contestants on The Catch, a reality TV dating show, arrive on Otters Island, their most pressing concern is surviving the upcoming Elimination Event. But survival takes on a whole new meaning as Renee, Vanessa, Amanda and Lilah-Mae’s clashes become heated, secrets begin to spill and doubts become blaring alarm bells. Plus, there seems to be something in the woods on Otters Island. Will they make it out in love, alive, both or neither? Journalist Samantha Allen, author of Real Queer America, has written a debut novel that’s a hilarious sendup of and love letter to The Bachelor franchise.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "funny stuff", "identity & culture", "love & romance", "no biz like show biz", "fiction" ], "isbn": "163893004X", "cover": "163893004X", "goodreads": 59093587, "itunes": 9781638930044, "bookshop": 9781638930044, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41m-TMExipL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781638930044", "isbn10": "163893004X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 370, "book": "Patricia Wants to Cuddle", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All of It: 'Patricia Wants to Cuddle,' a debut novel about a reality dating show that turns into a survival situation", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/2022-debuts-patricia-wants-cuddle/" } ] }, "371": { "id": 371, "edition": "fall", "title": "On the Rooftop: A Novel", "author": "Margaret Wilkerson Sexton", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

It’s 1953 in San Francisco’s Fillmore district, and Vivian just knows that her daughters – Ruth, Esther and Chloe – are on the brink of stardom. They’ve been singing together for years, but it’s Vivian who drives the dream. While the sisters love singing together and are the pride and joy of their local community, they have other desires too, as yet unvocalized to their mama. When Ruth drops a bombshell on the family and white men come sniffing around the neighborhood that they’re hoping to clear and “develop,” Vivian’s dream begins to crumble. Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s newest is a moving, warm and beautifully rendered family portrait.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0063139960", "cover": "0063139960", "goodreads": 57822346, "itunes": 9780063139961, "bookshop": 9780063139961, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xzB4r4p3L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063139961", "isbn10": "0063139960", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 371, "book": "On the Rooftop", "source": "KQED", "text": "Novel 'On the Rooftop' recalls San Francisco's Fillmore district, once known as 'Harlem of the West'", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101890597/novel-on-the-rooftop-recalls-san-franciscos-fillmore-district-once-known-as-harlem-of-the-west" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 371, "book": "On the Rooftop", "source": "WNYC", "text": "Get Lit Preview: 'On the Rooftop' by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/get-lit-preview-rooftop-margaret-wilkerson-sexton/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 371, "book": "On the Rooftop", "source": "WWNO", "text": "The Reading Life: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton ", "url": "https://www.wwno.org/podcast/the-reading-life/2022-10-21/the-reading-life-margaret-wilkerson-sexton" } ] }, "372": { "id": 372, "edition": "fall", "title": "Before All the World: A Novel", "author": "Moriel Rothman-Zecher", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

“I do not believe that all the world is darkness,” Gittl, a Jewish teenager, thinks one day upon waking from a strange dream. Soon, she is faced with the darkest of darknesses, a pogrom that leaves her and one child, Leyb, the sole survivors of their village. Years later, Leyb, living in Philadelphia, meets Charles, a Black man who speaks Yiddish, at a gay bar. In startling language filled with the flavor of Yiddish’s combination words, Moriel Rothman-Zecher’s book moves forward and back and forward again in a dreamlike trance that acknowledges how the worst suffering exists side by side with the tender beauty of memory, friendship, words and the silences of recognition.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "historical fiction", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the dark side" ], "isbn": "0374231664", "cover": "0374231664", "goodreads": 59808596, "itunes": 9780374231668, "bookshop": 9780374231668, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411XotLOawL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374231668", "isbn10": "0374231664", "links": [] }, "373": { "id": 373, "edition": "fall", "title": "Body Language: Writers on Identity, Physicality, and Making Space for Ourselves", "author": "Nicole Chung and Matt Ortile (editors)", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

The collected essays in Body Language reckon with the many ways we do and do not occupy the silly, unruly, beautiful, strong, disabled, uncomfortable, painful, joyful fleshiness of our humanity. With meditations on race, weight, ability and more, these writers give voice to the complexity of having a body in all its multifaceted needs, desires and disconnects. As a person who dwells in a genetically disordered and chronically pained body, I tend to feel entirely separate from it, a mind trapped in a meat suit, and in these essays I find both kinship and inspiration to strive toward being at peace with my physicality.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "1646221311", "cover": "1646221311", "goodreads": 59546193, "itunes": 9781646221318, "bookshop": 9781646221318, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81s9qkma4ZL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781646221318", "isbn10": "1646221311", "links": [] }, "374": { "id": 374, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dead-End Memories: Stories", "author": "Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Asa Yoneda", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

Banana Yoshimoto’s 11th book to be translated into English, Dead-End Memories (originally published in 2003) is a collection of stories, each of which, while specific and distinct, has at its center a woman both losing and finding something of herself. In Asa Yoneda’s elegant translation of this collection – whose title story Yoshimoto herself considers her best – the soothing rhythm of the everyday and the mundane is broken by equally quiet moments of profundity. “I know now,” the narrator of the title story tells us, “that just then, under the worst possible conditions, I was in the midst of my greatest happiness.”

", "tags": [ "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1640093699", "cover": "1640093699", "goodreads": 59892213, "itunes": 9781640093690, "bookshop": 9781640093690, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41p-2MxHlNL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781640093690", "isbn10": "1640093699", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 374, "book": "dead-end memories", "source": "NPR", "text": "5 translated books from Japan to soothe battered souls this fall", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/30/1119890551/5-translated-books-from-japan-to-soothe-battered-souls-this-fall" } ] }, "375": { "id": 375, "edition": "fall", "title": "How to Read Now: Essays", "author": "Elaine Castillo", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

On the opening page of this collection of essays, Elaine Castillo writes: “it feels like first I became a reader; then I became a person.” It is with this deep, abiding love of reading – books, yes, but also other media – that Castillo explores how we read and what we bring with us to the text. What assumptions, beliefs and status quos have we inherited, and how do they affect our reading practice? What do we embrace, and what should we strip away? How might we face ourselves in the practice of reading as well as embrace the interconnectedness of our stories?

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "seriously great writing", "it’s all geek to me" ], "isbn": "0593489632", "cover": "0593489632", "goodreads": 60018643, "itunes": 9780593489635, "bookshop": 9780593489635, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wz3Vgr-EL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593489635", "isbn10": "0593489632", "links": [] }, "376": { "id": 376, "edition": "fall", "title": "Gods of Want: Stories", "author": "K-Ming Chang", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

K-Ming Chang, author of Bestiary, brings her distinctive style and imagery to her first collection of stories. The 16 stories in the collection explore themes of family, inherited truths and myths, queer desire and the stark and sometimes violent beauty of the natural world. In one story, a woman accompanies her wife to photograph a hurricane, her many dead cousins in tow. In another, the narrator’s endless aunts are listed one after another in a poetic kind of litany. A lifeblood of desire courses through the bodies of the girls and women peopling the stories – a desire to love, lust, live and thrive.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "let’s talk about sex", "love & romance", "family matters", "seriously great writing", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593241584", "cover": "0593241584", "goodreads": 57485174, "itunes": 9780593241585, "bookshop": 9780593241585, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51zw25MLk+L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593241585", "isbn10": "0593241584", "links": [] }, "377": { "id": 377, "edition": "fall", "title": "When the Angels Left the Old Country", "author": "Sacha Lamb", "reviewers": [ "Ilana Masad" ], "text": "

In a small Eastern European shtetl, an angel and a demon sit together in chavrusa, or partnership, to study the Talmud, as they’ve been doing for centuries. But the demon, Little Ash, convinces his partner, a variously named angel, that they should follow up on one of the young folks, who, along with many others, has gone to the United States. Passing through Ellis Island and entering the promised land of Amerike, Ash and the angel reckon with good and evil, with gender and sexuality, and with the mixing of new and old selves in this place so far from where they started.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "for history lovers", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in", "young adult", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1646141768", "cover": "1646141768", "goodreads": 60420448, "itunes": 9781646141760, "bookshop": 9781646141760, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41TIXi-W2lL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781646141760", "isbn10": "1646141768", "links": [] }, "378": { "id": 378, "edition": "fall", "title": "Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World", "author": "Gaia Vince", "reviewers": [ "Joanna Kakissis" ], "text": "

Political leaders almost always frame migration as a threat. In her book, British environmental writer Gaia Vince makes the case that migration might actually be the best way to adapt to a real existential threat: climate change. As rising temperatures make large swaths of the globe uninhabitable, she urges countries to form a global group that would plan mass migration, from ravaged areas to livable ones, and work on geoengineering solutions. She offers a confidence in humankind that it hasn’t earned – consider how nationalists have weaponized migration. But it’s refreshing to read someone asking us to reexamine our prejudices as we consider life- and planet-saving options.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "science!", "it’s all geek to me", "eye-opening reads", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "1250821614", "cover": "1250821614", "goodreads": 58724998, "itunes": 9781250821614, "bookshop": 9781250821614, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fqIHDVFGL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250821614", "isbn10": "1250821614", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 378, "book": "Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World", "source": "NPR", "text": "Gaia Vince details how migration will help billions survive in new book", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/30/1120128406/gaia-vince-details-how-migration-will-help-billions-survive-in-new-book" } ] }, "379": { "id": 379, "edition": "fall", "title": "Better Than Fiction", "author": "Alexa Martin", "reviewers": [ "Kamrun Nesa" ], "text": "

If you think life is better than fiction, then you haven’t read Alexa Martin’s fiction. Inheriting a bookstore is often a bibliophile’s dream. But in this story, it’s not. Drew Young doesn’t read books and wants to be a photographer but feels obligated to carry on her grandma’s legacy. When a meddling book club invites romance author Jasper Williams to the store for an event, she not only develops feelings but becomes his tour guide for book research. After all, if a soft hero who makes a career out of happy endings wants to sweep you off your feet, who can resist? Even at its most tender and aching moments, Better Than Fiction is charming and honey-sweet to its core. We watch Drew reckon with the choices of putting herself first and keeping her grandma’s dreams alive, and we fall for the community around her that encourages her to pursue happiness in whatever form that is.

", "tags": [ "let’s talk about sex", "book club ideas", "family matters", "love & romance" ], "isbn": "0593337220", "cover": "0593337220", "goodreads": 60417459, "itunes": 9780593337226, "bookshop": 9780593337226, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rRLPy1P4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593337226", "isbn10": "0593337220", "links": [] }, "380": { "id": 380, "edition": "fall", "title": "Are You Sara? A Novel", "author": "S.C. Lalli", "reviewers": [ "Kamrun Nesa" ], "text": "

It starts off with a nightmarishly riveting conceit: Two women with the same name accidentally switch cabs and one of them gets murdered at her wrong drop-off location. That’s what happens to Saraswati “Sara” Bhaduri and the rich college student Sarah Ellis after meeting at a bar one night. Now Sarah is gone, the police have no leads, and Sara is paranoid that she was supposed to be the target because of her past. Are You Sara? cogently navigates the duality of identity, what it says about social hierarchy, and the things people will do to survive. Perhaps one of the most striking moments in the book is when Sara wonders if the police would’ve paid her any attention had she gone missing. S.C. Lalli’s debut thriller is punchy and an introspective reminder that money and power always come with dangerous strings attached.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "book club ideas", "identity & culture", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0063226278", "cover": "0063226278", "goodreads": 59420583, "itunes": 9780063226272, "bookshop": 9780063226272, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/811e9BA-WxL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063226272", "isbn10": "0063226278", "links": [] }, "381": { "id": 381, "edition": "fall", "title": "You're Invited", "author": "Amanda Jayatissa", "reviewers": [ "Kamrun Nesa" ], "text": "

You know serious drama is about to go down when an ex-best friend invites you to her wedding to your ex-boyfriend in Sri Lanka. And by drama, I mean the bride goes missing on the day of the wedding and all eyes are on Amaya, the jilted friend who had a falling out with the rest of the family. But in Sri Lanka’s high society, nothing is what it seems, and behind the Louis Vuitton bags and the extravagant saris sits a crowd willing to protect their own even as they throw them to the vultures. Amanda Jayatissa’s atmospheric novel careens toward a sinister ending that has readers questioning everything and reminds us to keep our enemies close – but our friends and family closer.

", "tags": [ "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "the dark side", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593335120", "cover": "0593335120", "goodreads": 60097417, "itunes": 9780593335123, "bookshop": 9780593335123, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Gk3uK3jPL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593335123", "isbn10": "0593335120", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 381, "book": "You're Invited", "source": "NPR", "text": "Ex-besties feud over a messy wedding in 'You're Invited'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/14/1117418894/ex-besties-feud-over-a-messy-wedding-in-youre-invited" } ] }, "382": { "id": 382, "edition": "fall", "title": "Mademoiselle Revolution", "author": "Zoe Sivak", "reviewers": [ "Keishel Williams" ], "text": "

Zoe Sivak’s debut novel Mademoiselle Revolution truly accomplishes what this author set out to do with her work – “explore famous male figures through the lens of the women beside them.” As a fan of historical fiction, this novel captured and kept my attention as it follows a privileged biracial woman caught in the middle of political and social revolutions in Haiti and France. What I love about this book is the author’s ability to take a well-known event in history and give it a fresh take through the eyes of a fictional female character, who might as well have been a part of these famous men’s real lives.

", "tags": [ "historical fiction", "tales from around the world", "identity & culture", "book club ideas", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593336038", "cover": "0593336038", "goodreads": 59575976, "itunes": 9780593336038, "bookshop": 9780593336038, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nK-wG6dcL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593336038", "isbn10": "0593336038", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 382, "book": "Mademoiselle Revolution", "source": "KAXE", "text": "A powerful story of a biracial heiress during the French Revolution: Zoe Sivak's ambitious debut", "url": "https://www.kaxe.org/books/2022-08-29/a-powerful-story-of-a-biracial-heiress-during-the-french-revolution-zoe-sivaks-ambitious-debut" } ] }, "383": { "id": 383, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Islands: Stories", "author": "Dionne Irving", "reviewers": [ "Keishel Williams" ], "text": "

The Islands: Stories by Dionne Irving is an expansive collection that takes readers through time and place, including Canada, Europe, the U.K. and the Caribbean – following the lives of Jamaican first-generation immigrants, or descendants of immigrants. For many of the characters, finding their place in the world, where they will be accepted and truly assimilate, is the running theme of their lives – the quintessential immigrant story, no matter where and when in time. I love this new voice giving life to Caribbean stories.

", "tags": [ "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "short stories, essays & poetry", "the states we’re in", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "1646220668", "cover": "1646220668", "goodreads": 60679371, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781646220663, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qmzpg92iL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781646220663", "isbn10": "1646220668", "links": [] }, "384": { "id": 384, "edition": "fall", "title": "Acceptance: A Memoir", "author": "Emi Nietfeld", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Throughout her traumatic adolescence, author Emi Nietfeld clung to the dream of getting into an Ivy League university as a means of escape. She grew up with a mother who was a hoarder, endured stints in a residential treatment facility and foster care, and was homeless while on breaks from boarding school. She did get into Harvard University and had a job offer in hand from Google upon graduation. But Acceptance isn’t a phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes tale, and for precisely this reason it’s a must-read. Instead, the memoir refuses silver linings and serves as a necessary corrective to the gospel of “grit.”

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0593489470", "cover": "0593489470", "goodreads": 59576065, "itunes": 9780593489475, "bookshop": 9780593489475, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rtGSfvyRL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593489475", "isbn10": "0593489470", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 384, "book": "Acceptance: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Emi Nietfeld is done reaching for redemption in 'Acceptance'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/08/03/1115445101/emi-nietfeld-acceptance-book-review" } ] }, "385": { "id": 385, "edition": "fall", "title": "Life's Work", "author": "David Milch", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

If, like me, you’re a dedicated fan of David Milch’s transformative television – from Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue to Deadwood and John from Cincinnati – you’ll come to this memoir for its behind-the-scenes stories. But the real gifts of Life’s Work are Milch’s meditations on writing and how to live. Milch, who has Alzheimer’s disease, collaborated on this book with his wife and adult daughters, who helped him piece together his recollections. What results is an exigent reflection on a truly remarkable life, one that holds lessons about humanity and the power of art to make those lessons visible.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "no biz like show biz", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0525510745", "cover": "0525510745", "goodreads": 60254790, "itunes": 9780525510741, "bookshop": 9780525510741, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31AVsUt+DlL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780525510741", "isbn10": "0525510745", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 385, "book": "Life's Work", "source": "NPR", "text": "David Milch's 'Life's Work' holds lessons about humanity and the power of art ", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/14/1122670687/deadwood-creator-david-milch-lifes-work" } ] }, "386": { "id": 386, "edition": "fall", "title": "Stay True: A Memoir", "author": "Hua Hsu", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Stay True is an ode to a time and place – UC Berkeley, the mid ‘90s – and to the stuff that forges friendships: mixtapes and zines, late-night talks and long drives. It’s also an ode to a friendship cut short. Ken initially seems to embody the mainstream that Hsu defined himself against. But soon their conversations would shape his worldview – and then Ken was gone, killed in a carjacking. After, Hsu writes, “I became obsessed with the possibility of a sentence that could wend its way backward.” Stay True marks a wrenching, reverent attempt at that sentence.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "identity & culture", "the states we’re in", "for music lovers" ], "isbn": "0385547773", "cover": "0385547773", "goodreads": 59900070, "itunes": 9780385547772, "bookshop": 9780385547772, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/3191IBmkMmL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780385547772", "isbn10": "0385547773", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 386, "book": "Stay True: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Fresh Air: Culture critic Hua Hsu says music and mixtapes helped make sense of himself", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/18/1129644971/new-yorker-culture-critic-says-music-and-mixtapes-helped-make-sense-of-himself" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 386, "book": "Stay True: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Bullseye with Jesse Thorn: 'New Yorker' writer Hua Hsu on his new book 'Stay True'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/06/1127360219/hua-hsu-on-his-new-book-stay-true" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 386, "book": "Stay True: A Memoir", "source": "NPR", "text": "Hua Hsu's coming of age memoir 'Stay True' is a dive into the nature of friendship, and grief", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/24/1124915503/new-yorker-writer-hua-hsus-coming-of-age-memoir-stay-true-is-out-now" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 386, "book": "Stay True: A Memoir", "source": "WILL", "text": "The 21st Show: Hua Hsu on being second generation Taiwanese American and growing up in the 1980s and 1990s", "url": "https://will.illinois.edu/21stshow/story/author-interview-hua-hsu-stay-true-a-memoir" } ] }, "387": { "id": 387, "edition": "fall", "title": "Tell Me I'm an Artist: A Novel", "author": "Chelsea Martin", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Joey, a sophomore from a lower-class family, feels out of her depth at art school, where wealth seems necessary for self-realization. As she tries to avoid getting roped into fixing her sister’s and mother’s problems, she procrastinates on an experimental-film assignment – hilariously, she has decided to remake the movie Rushmore without ever having seen it. Told through fragmented scenes interspliced with handwritten notes, Google searches (“how do you know what you like,” “cheap dinner that isn’t beans”) and Rushmore rewrites, Tell Me I’m an Artist perfectly probes the collision of financial insecurity and artistic self-doubt.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "family matters", "no biz like show biz", "funny stuff", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "1593767218", "cover": "1593767218", "goodreads": 60199552, "itunes": 9781593767211, "bookshop": 9781593767211, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51G1Fh7SSoL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781593767211", "isbn10": "1593767218", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 387, "book": "Tell Me I'm an Artist: A Novel", "source": "KQED", "text": "In ‘Tell Me I’m An Artist,’ an art student's greatest work is herself", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/arts/13918778/tell-me-im-an-artist-chelsea-martin-book-review" } ] }, "388": { "id": 388, "edition": "fall", "title": "Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family", "author": "Erika Hayasaki", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

In 1998, identical twin sisters were born in Vietnam, only to be separated soon after. Isabella was adopted by a wealthy white American family, while Hà remained in Vietnam. As teenagers, they reunited. On the surface, this sounds like a fairy tale about long-lost family. But Somewhere Sisters is not a fairy tale – it’s the product of intensive reporting that distills the five years that journalist Erika Hayasaki spent with Isabella, Hà and their families, tracing how they came to live such divergent lives. Crucially, Hayasaki contextualizes their stories in the larger history of transracial and transnational adoption, as well as nature-nurture science, making for a nuanced portrait.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "1616209127", "cover": "1616209127", "goodreads": 59891842, "itunes": 9781616209124, "bookshop": 9781616209124, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nRLeR+aIL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781616209124", "isbn10": "1616209127", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 388, "book": "Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family", "source": "WBUR", "text": " 'Somewhere Sisters' explores identity and the nature-nurture debate", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/10/28/somewhere-sisters-erika-hayasaki" } ] }, "389": { "id": 389, "edition": "fall", "title": "Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us", "author": "Rachel Aviv", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

For years, I have devoured Rachel Aviv’s nuanced New Yorker features on challenging topics like brain death, the “troubled teen” industry, and the mutability of memory. Her first book is just as gripping and subtle in its exploration of how psychiatric explanations of behavior can both limit and fail to capture who we are. Starting with her own story of being hospitalized for anorexia at age 6, Aviv explores the “psychic hinterlands,” profiling how five others journeyed through “the outer edges of human experience.” This deeply empathetic book raises probing questions about our psychiatric system and the very nature of self-identity.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "science!", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0374600848", "cover": "0374600848", "goodreads": 59808605, "itunes": 9780374600846, "bookshop": 9780374600846, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ikOuf71SL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374600846", "isbn10": "0374600848", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 389, "book": "Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us", "source": "KCWR", "text": " ‘Strangers to Ourselves’: How we internalize ‘what’s gone wrong’", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/midterms-menstrual-mental-health-social-media/strangers-ourselves-book" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 389, "book": "Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us", "source": "KQED", "text": "Forum: ‘Strangers To Ourselves’ explores limits of mental health diagnoses", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101890657/strangers-to-ourselves-explores-limits-of-mental-health-diagnoses" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 389, "book": "Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us", "source": "NPR", "text": "Rachel Aviv's new book 'Strangers to Ourselves' tackles mental health diagnoses", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/11/1122250687/rachel-avivs-new-book-strangers-to-ourselves-tackles-mental-health-and-questioni" } ] }, "390": { "id": 390, "edition": "fall", "title": "Night of the Living Rez: Stories", "author": "Morgan Talty", "reviewers": [ "Kristen Martin" ], "text": "

Hair frozen in snow. A jar of teeth. A highway carpeted with caterpillars. These are just a handful of the indelible images that Morgan Talty conjures in his debut linked short-story collection set on the Penobscot reservation in Maine. Night of the Living Rez jumps back and forth in time, tracing the decisions that have shaped a boy named David, from scheming to steal root clubs to climbing out a window with his sister’s baby in his arms. Talty’s book haunted and thrilled me in its raw explorations of inheritance, grief and survival, imbued with humor and warmth.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "short stories, essays & poetry", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "195353418X", "cover": "195353418X", "goodreads": 56648158, "itunes": 9781953534187, "bookshop": 9781953534187, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vx99V9A6L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781953534187", "isbn10": "195353418X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 390, "book": "Night of the Living Rez", "source": "Maine Public Radio", "text": "Author Morgan Talty discusses his new book, his writing, and growing up Penobscot in Maine", "url": "https://www.mainepublic.org/show/maine-calling/2022-10-10/author-morgan-talty-discusses-his-new-book-his-writing-and-growing-up-penobscot-in-maine" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 390, "book": "Night of the Living Rez", "source": "NEPM", "text": "Morgan Talty tells the story of a Penobscot boy trying to 'come back' to his family after tragedy", "url": "https://www.nepm.org/regional-news/2022-07-22/morgan-talty-tells-the-story-of-a-penobscot-boy-trying-to-come-back-to-his-family-after-tragedy" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 390, "book": "Night of the Living Rez", "source": "NHPR", "text": "Rising New England author on his debut novel, ‘Night of the Living Rez’", "url": "https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2022-08-09/rising-new-england-author-speaks-about-debut-novel-night-of-the-living-rez" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 390, "book": "Night of the Living Rez", "source": "NPR", "text": "Morgan Talty uses humor to tell the story of an indigenous tribe's struggles", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/07/08/1110504821/morgan-talty-uses-humor-to-tell-the-story-of-an-indigenous-tribes-struggles" } ] }, "391": { "id": 391, "edition": "fall", "title": "A Woman's Battles and Transformations", "author": "Édouard Louis, translated by Tash Aw", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "

Current enfant terrible of French letters Édouard Louis is known for exposing the underbelly of France’s undervalued, underserved, struggling working class, as well as what it feels like to be gay outside a major metropolis. Now Louis turns his autofiction to his mother, a woman who has suffered from poor education, lack of financial resources and abusive men. The result is a searing and meaningful exploration of a mother-son relationship, against the challenges and cruelties of men and within France’s rigid class structures.

", "tags": [ "family matters", "identity & culture", "rather short", "tales from around the world", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0374606749", "cover": "0374606749", "goodreads": 59380854, "itunes": 9780374606749, "bookshop": 9780374606749, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vnC+afMJL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374606749", "isbn10": "0374606749", "links": [] }, "392": { "id": 392, "edition": "fall", "title": "Mr. B: George Balanchine's 20th Century", "author": "Jennifer Homans", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "

New Yorker dance critic Jennifer Homans, known for her encyclopedic study of ballet titled Apollo’s Angels, has written another indispensable volume for ballet lovers. Her study of the 20th century’s most celebrated and elusive choreographer, George Balanchine, takes readers into fascinating, dusty corners of history – from Russian iconography and its influence on Balanchine to the impact of the violence on St. Petersburg streets during the Russian Revolution, and from Balanchine’s complex and codependent relationship with impresario Lincoln Kirstein to the dancers Balanchine trained and loved and abandoned and worshipped. Homans’ writing is exquisite and her research awe inspiring.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "nonfiction", "rather long", "for art lovers", "biography & memoir", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "0812994302", "cover": "0812994302", "goodreads": 60373437, "itunes": 9780812994308, "bookshop": 9780812994308, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41V2tbAHlSL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780812994308", "isbn10": "0812994302", "links": [] }, "393": { "id": 393, "edition": "fall", "title": "Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time", "author": "Natalie Hodges", "reviewers": [ "Martha Anne Toll" ], "text": "

In spare, carefully considered prose, recent Harvard University graduate Natalie Hodges recalls a lifetime of playing the violin – and what a long-term, professional career in music might mean for her. She doesn’t stint on describing the hardships of a musician’s life, including those of one in training. Hodges undertakes a captivating study of the science of time – physics and music – in this very special memoir that defies categorization.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "for music lovers", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "science!" ], "isbn": "1942658974", "cover": "1942658974", "goodreads": 60009498, "itunes": 9781942658979, "bookshop": 9781942658979, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vXLqZf83L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781942658979", "isbn10": "1942658974", "links": [] }, "394": { "id": 394, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Book Eaters", "author": "Sunyi Dean", "reviewers": [ "Natalie Zutter" ], "text": "

Imagine learning Morse code from eating a manual or literally growing up on a diet of Jane Eyre in the Yorkshire moors. Sunyi Dean’s contemporary fantasy debut features extrahuman creatures who consume more books than we could ever attempt to read, yet possess a stunning lack of imagination for stepping outside the pages of their own toxic fairy-tale narrative. Princesses, knights, dragons, weddings – these words lose their meanings when queer mother Devon must protect her monstrous, beloved mind-eater son, Cai, from the intergenerational abuse in their family tree. Unlike her book eaters, Dean pulls from a nigh-infinite well of inspiration.

", "tags": [ "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "the dark side", "fiction" ], "isbn": "1250810183", "cover": "1250810183", "goodreads": 58724745, "itunes": 9781250810182, "bookshop": 9781250810182, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rD5MVc8zL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781250810182", "isbn10": "1250810183", "links": [] }, "395": { "id": 395, "edition": "fall", "title": "Best of Friends", "author": "Kamila Shamsie", "reviewers": [ "Nayantara Dutta" ], "text": "

Best of Friends follows Zahra and Maryam’s friendship through their teenage years in Karachi and mid-40s in London, from being inseparable in school to recognizing important differences in their politics and ideas of justice later in life. On the face of it, they couldn’t be more different – sensible but impulsive Zahra and privileged but street-smart Maryam – and over time, their shared experiences are no longer enough. The novel explores how lifelong friendships follow different rules: We are tied to our childhood friends, not because they share our values or interests but because they are a part of our history.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "identity & culture", "tales from around the world", "book club ideas" ], "isbn": "0593421825", "cover": "0593421825", "goodreads": 60410888, "itunes": 9780593421826, "bookshop": 9780593421826, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41r10KtfZKL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593421826", "isbn10": "0593421825", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 395, "book": "Best of Friends", "source": "NPR", "text": "Kamila Shamsie's novel 'Best of Friends' asks if all friendships are meant to last", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/09/24/1124915573/kamila-shamsies-novel-best-of-friends-asks-if-all-friendships-are-meant-to-last" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 395, "book": "Best of Friends", "source": "KMUW", "text": "Kamila Shamsie discusses her new novel, 'Best of Friends'", "url": "https://www.kmuw.org/podcast/marginalia/2022-10-25/kamila-shamsie-joins-us-again-this-time-with-her-new-novel-best-of-friends" } ] }, "396": { "id": 396, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Symmetry of Fish", "author": "Su Cho", "reviewers": [ "Nayantara Dutta" ], "text": "

This is a book about food, tradition and language – how we shape words like water, what we pass down between generations, and what we lose when we move to new countries. It details folk tales, superstitions and immigrant vignettes, from the rituals of making kimchi and staining your nails from peeling tangerines to feeling the presence of Korean ghost Cheonyeo Gwishin. The stories strike a balance between the author’s South Korean culture and life in Wisconsin and Indiana. It’s beautifully evocative and captures small, meaningful moments in life.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "book club ideas", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "tales from around the world" ], "isbn": "0143137255", "cover": "0143137255", "goodreads": 60095426, "itunes": 9780143137252, "bookshop": 9780143137252, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51725+OTe1L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780143137252", "isbn10": "0143137255", "links": [] }, "397": { "id": 397, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson", "author": "Jeff Pearlman", "reviewers": [ "Mike Katzif" ], "text": "

Bo Jackson awed fans with the impossible. The sensational, two-sport, baseball and football superstar has a highlights reel packed with moonshot homers, crazy throws, unstoppable touchdown runs and iconic Nike ads. If you grew up in the 1980s and ‘90s, you probably wanted to be like Bo. In The Last Folk Hero, Jeff Pearlman shows us how Vincent Jackson became “Bo” with engrossing reporting that takes us from his early childhood to his athletic apex to that fluke, career-changing injury. Along the way, Pearlman unpacks the real story from the embellishments and myths that seem to grow in each retelling.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "rather long", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "for sports lovers", "the states we’re in" ], "isbn": "0358437679", "cover": "0358437679", "goodreads": 60012371, "itunes": 9780358437673, "bookshop": 9780358437673, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41OWbqfT60L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780358437673", "isbn10": "0358437679", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 397, "book": "The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson", "source": "NPR", "text": "Author Jeff Pearlman says Bo Jackson is the greatest athlete who's ever lived", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1131279324/author-jeff-pearlman-says-bo-jackson-is-the-greatest-athlete-whos-ever-lived" } ] }, "398": { "id": 398, "edition": "fall", "title": "How to Be Eaten: A Novel", "author": "Maria Adelmann", "reviewers": [ "Lulu Miller" ], "text": "

If not for the title (its innuendo), if not for the cover (its brilliant and naughty heightening of the innuendo), if not for the premise (fairy-tale heroines in group therapy for their traumas), then read it for the question at the heart of the whole thing: Can telling your story free you from reliving your story? Maria Adelmann’s book reads quick and popcorny, like a reality show come to life. But it deepens as it goes, peeking at not just the wolves behind the camera, but those sitting, with popcorn on their laps, in front of the screen.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "book club ideas", "funny stuff", "eye-opening reads", "the dark side", "sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0316450847", "cover": "0316450847", "goodreads": 58950713, "itunes": 9780316450843, "bookshop": 9780316450843, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417P+Nrv7nL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780316450843", "isbn10": "0316450847", "links": [] }, "399": { "id": 399, "edition": "fall", "title": "Transforming Space Over Time: Set Design and Visual Storytelling with Broadway’s Legendary Directors", "author": "Beowulf Boritt", "reviewers": [ "Jeff Lunden" ], "text": "

Theatrical set designers are both chameleons and problem solvers – depending on the script and budget, their work can be seemingly simple and abstract, or elaborate and highly detailed. Tony Award-winning set designer Beowulf Boritt raises the curtain on the design process in Transforming Space Over Time, detailing his work on six shows, as well as engaging in conversation with directors like James Lapine, Susan Stroman and the late Hal Prince about their long careers, along with the late composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Lavishly illustrated, the book is a fascinating glimpse into a theatrical world that’s seldom explored.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "it’s all geek to me", "no biz like show biz", "for art lovers" ], "isbn": "1493064843", "cover": "1493064843", "goodreads": 59145638, "itunes": 9781493064847, "bookshop": 9781493064847, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41R7QI7bhmL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781493064847", "isbn10": "1493064843", "links": [] }, "400": { "id": 400, "edition": "fall", "title": "Mothercare: On Obligation, Love, Death, and Ambivalence", "author": "Lynne Tillman", "reviewers": [ "Ann Powers" ], "text": "

“Not everything can be put away,” Lynne Tillman concludes in the opening paragraph of this spare, saturated memoir of her mother’s long decline and its effects on her sisters and herself. What reappears like dust, in Tillman’s telling, is both emotional and practical: the medical industry’s failures, the tensions between professional caregivers and family, the roil of emotions continually exposed as a difficult parent becomes more and more like a problem child. A great formal experimenter in her many other books, Tillman aims here for absolute, unsentimental clarity. She spares no one, including herself, facing death’s trap and the equally inevitable human urge to avoid it. A must-read for anyone with an ailing elder, or really anyone who is mortal.

", "tags": [ "staff picks", "nonfiction", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "family matters", "rather short" ], "isbn": "159376717X", "cover": "159376717X", "goodreads": 60199551, "itunes": 9781593767174, "bookshop": 9781593767174, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+4nVY294L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781593767174", "isbn10": "159376717X", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 400, "book": "Mothercare: On Obligation, Love, Death, and Ambivalence", "source": "WNYC", "text": "The Challenges of Caretaking", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/challenges-caretaking/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 400, "book": "Mothercare: On Obligation, Love, Death, and Ambivalence", "source": "WGCU", "text": "Lynne Tillman on 'Mothercare: On Obligation, Love, Death, and Ambivalence'", "url": "https://news.wgcu.org/show/gclbookclub/2022-11-15/lynne-tillman-mothercare-on-obligation-love-death-and-ambivalence" } ] }, "401": { "id": 401, "edition": "fall", "title": "Stella Maris", "author": "Cormac McCarthy", "reviewers": [ "Gabino Iglesias" ], "text": "

One of the best living writers is back after 16 years with two intertwined novels about troubled siblings who love each other in an improper way. The Passenger follows a salvage diver who’s haunted by both his past and his sister as he gets involved in a bizarre case of a missing body. Stella Maris, the second novel, tells the sister’s story, but entirely through her conversations with a doctor at a mental institution. The two narratives are dense, immersive and unique, and they inhabit a bizarre interstitial space between thrillers, literary fiction, love stories, philosophy, quantum mechanics and that particular brand of weird darkness that Cormac McCarthy is known for.

", "tags": [ "seriously great writing", "mysteries & thrillers", "family matters", "fiction" ], "isbn": "0593536045", "cover": "0307269000", "goodreads": 60594796, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9780593536049, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71X1rXO-0tL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593536049", "isbn10": "0593536045", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 401, "book": "Stella Maris", "source": "NPR", "text": "Cormac McCarthy's new books seem to try to encapsulate the human experience", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1131283160/review-cormac-mccarthy-the-passenger-and-stella-maris" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 401, "book": "Stella Maris", "source": "NPR", "text": "After 16 years, author Cormac McCarthy gifts two new novels to readers", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/22/1130439227/cormac-mccarthy-publishes-two-new-novels-the-passenger-and-stella-maris" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 401, "book": "Stella Maris", "source": "NPR", "text": "First Reads: An excerpt from Cormac McCarthy's 'Stella Maris'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/10/22/1129879339/first-reads-exclusive-excerpt-from-cormac-mccarthys-forthcoming-stella-maris" } ] }, "402": { "id": 402, "edition": "fall", "title": "Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop", "author": "Danyel Smith", "reviewers": [ "Sidney Madden" ], "text": "

Danyel Smith takes a unique look at some female pop music greats by considering them in moments between the flashbulbs – and interweaving their stories with her own. As the pages recount how Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Janet Jackson and more battled industry double standards, interpersonal strife and even their own demons, Smith gives context and credit where it’s due with a care that Black women’s stories are rarely granted. Along the way, the heralded music and culture journalist shares tricks of the trade (like how to convince a gatekeeping publicist that all she needs is 20 minutes with Whitney Houston) and coming-of-age lessons about love, compromise, failure and success that only music could teach her.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "book club ideas", "eye-opening reads", "for music lovers", "identity & culture", "no biz like show biz" ], "isbn": "0593132718", "cover": "0593132718", "goodreads": 56212888, "itunes": 9780593132715, "bookshop": 9780593132715, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81kwSq1WmNL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593132715", "isbn10": "0593132718", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 402, "book": "Shine Bright", "source": "NPR", "text": "Danyel Smith highlights Black female artists who defined pop music in 'Shine Bright'", "url": "https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092933738/danyel-smith-highlights-black-female-artists-who-defined-pop-music-in-shine-brig" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 402, "book": "Shine Bright", "source": "WBUR", "text": "In 'Shine Bright,' music journalist Danyel Smith looks back on Black women in pop", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/04/14/shine-bright-danyel-smith" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 402, "book": "Shine Bright", "source": "KQED", "text": "Danyel Smith on the Black women artists who ‘Shine Bright’ in pop music history", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101888845/danyel-smith-on-the-black-women-artists-who-shine-bright-in-pop-music-history" } ] }, "403": { "id": 403, "edition": "fall", "title": "Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm", "author": "Dan Charnas", "reviewers": [ "Nate Chinen" ], "text": "

James DeWitt Yancey – the Detroit producer who, both as Jay Dee and J Dilla, created an irresistibly destabilized pulse in pop music – was not a man who gave up his secrets easily. So Dilla Time, this magnificent book by veteran hip-hop journalist Dan Charnas, feels a bit like a miracle. It’s not just a deeply revealing portrait of Dilla, who died in 2006, or an exploration of the neo-soul and hip-hop movements that coalesced around him. It’s also a lucid study of the new rhythm science he invented, in language more tactile than technical: an approachable head-nod sort of read.

", "tags": [ "nonfiction", "staff picks", "biography & memoir", "for music lovers", "rather long", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0374139946", "cover": "0374139946", "goodreads": 57693653, "itunes": 9780374139940, "bookshop": 9780374139940, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ttFibjizL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780374139940", "isbn10": "0374139946", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 403, "book": "Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm", "source": "WNYC", "text": "All Of It: Dan Charnas on 'Dilla Time'", "url": "https://www.wnyc.org/story/dilla-time-life-and-afterlife-j-dilla-hip-hop-producer-who-reinvented-rhythm/" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 403, "book": "Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm", "source": "WGBO", "text": "Digging into 'Dilla Time,' and the legacy of a rhythm pioneer", "url": "https://www.wbgo.org/season-2/2022-01-28/digging-into-dilla-time-and-the-legacy-of-a-rhythm-pioneer" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 403, "book": "Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm", "source": "KQED", "text": "The genius of hip-hop producer J Dilla shines in new book 'Dilla Time' by Dan Charnas", "url": "https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101887686/the-genius-of-hip-hop-producer-j-dilla-shines-in-new-book-dilla-time-by-dan-charna" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 403, "book": "Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm", "source": "WCLK", "text": "The S.O.U.L Of Jazz: Dan Charnas on 'Dilla Time'", "url": "https://www.wclk.com/show/soul-of-jazz/2022-02-18/dilla-time-the-life-and-afterlife-of-j-dilla-the-hip-hop-producer-who-reinvented-rhythm" } ] }, "404": { "id": 404, "edition": "fall", "title": "Punks: New & Selected Poems", "author": "John Keene", "reviewers": [ "Jeevika Verma" ], "text": "

Punks is a magnificent collection of poems built on the setting of Black history, queer memory and New York City. John Keene’s poems document the world around him and the world inside him, going deep into anecdotal, experimental stories of love and transformation while still aware of the surface (the obstacles that have historically stood in the way). And every time Keene tells us a story – of mourning, or celebration – he flirts with daydream. At root, this National Book Award-winning collection is about free desire. Singing of a uniquely gay, Black love, Keene writes, “I have learned / to love myself and love black people.” These poems will hold you very tight.

", "tags": [ "short stories, essays & poetry", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "love & romance", "let’s talk about sex" ], "isbn": "1737277522", "cover": "1737277522", "goodreads": 59461858, "itunes": "", "bookshop": 9781737277521, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Gc6tQas4L._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9781737277521", "isbn10": "1737277522", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 404, "book": "Punks: New & Selected Poems", "source": "KCWR", "text": "Bookworm: John Keene: 'Punks: New & Selected Poems' (The Song Cave)", "url": "https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm/john-keene-punks-new-selected-poems-song-cave" } ] }, "405": { "id": 405, "edition": "fall", "title": "Demon Copperhead: A Novel", "author": "Barbara Kingsolver", "reviewers": [ "Cory Turner" ], "text": "

This reimagining of Charles Dickens’ classic coming-of-age novel David Copperfield swaps Victorian England for southern Appalachia, as the eponymous orphan hurtles through a wasteland of post-coal poverty and opioid addiction in search of love and belonging. If that sounds like a downer, it’s anything but. The miracle of Barbara Kingsolver’s menagerie here, led by the indomitable Demon – and the playfulness of her prose – is that they animate every page with an unrelenting hopefulness.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "the states we’re in", "family matters", "identity & culture", "seriously great writing", "book club ideas", "rather long", "staff picks" ], "isbn": "0063251922", "cover": "0063251922", "goodreads": 60194162, "itunes": 9780063251922, "bookshop": 9780063251922, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91mP0HKLEwL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780063251922", "isbn10": "0063251922", "links": [ { "year": 2022, "id": 405, "book": "Demon Copperhead: A Novel", "source": "WBUR", "text": "Barbara Kingsolver takes a Dickensian journey through Appalachia for new novel 'Demon Copperhead'", "url": "https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2022/11/18/demon-copperhead-kingsolver" }, { "year": 2022, "id": 405, "book": "Demon Copperhead: A Novel", "source": "WAMC", "text": "The Book Show: Barbara Kingsolver - Demon Copperhead", "url": "https://www.wamc.org/show/the-book-show/2022-11-01/barbara-kingsolver-demon-copperhead" } ] }, "406": { "id": 406, "edition": "fall", "title": "The Rabbit Hutch: A Novel", "author": "Tess Gunty", "reviewers": [ "Anika Steffen" ], "text": "

Tess Gunty’s debut novel, The Rabbit Hutch, takes place in a dying Midwest town that industry left behind and focuses mainly on the inhabitants of an affordable-housing building there. Their lives are varied – there’s the new mother afraid of her newborn’s eyes, the single woman who moderates an obituary website and a group of four teens who have aged out of foster care. Their ways of coping with their lives are also varied: One man rubs himself in glow-stick liquid, while one girl is obsessed with female Catholic saints. The book, which won the National Book Award for fiction, is at times darkly funny, at times absurd and at times heavy, but it is creative and fascinating throughout.

", "tags": [ "fiction", "staff picks", "the states we’re in", "identity & culture" ], "isbn": "0593534662", "cover": "0593534662", "goodreads": 59576076, "itunes": 9780593534663, "bookshop": 9780593534663, "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1CYv-zR0mL._SL500_.jpg", "year": 2022, "isbn13": "9780593534663", "isbn10": "0593534662", "links": [] } }