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Organizing her thoughts around the 40 questions posed to undocumented minors, Luiselli tells the stories of child migrants from their origins, to crossing the border, to experiences with border patrol and immigration court. This compact, powerful book is required reading for public conversation about immigration, the border, and the human costs of racism and nationalism. - Clara
Temper is a tale both harrowing and humorous about the adventures of twin brothers who battle their demons, literally and figuratively, in a culture where a person’s worth is determined by the virtues and vices assigned to them as a child. A craving for blood along with lechery, deceit, and vanity run rampant through a vividly imagined world in this dark fantasy that is riddled with mysteries and secrets at every surprising turn. - Trey
The re-release of this book is a wonderful thing, we are lucky to have it back in the collective unconscious. If The Little Mermaid 2 met Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace it might look something like this. But this is better, because it’s real. It’s a story of unrequited love, and madness, and war, and mermaids, and all the ways a small town can shape a big life. It’s a story of the ocean, and its unwavering loyalty to itself. And it’s a story of family, of the ways we mark and are marked by our kin. I will be recommending this book to the people I love for a very long time. - Wren
A new novel in the old style of speculative fiction, answering “What if?” with real-world science and a social conscience. Mary Robinette Kowal has penned a thoroughly believable 1950’s where humanity must suddenly race to space for weightier motivations than a Cold War. Elma York, WWII pilot, computer, reluctant spokeswoman, will face disaster, loss, ignorance (her own and others’), social injustice, and disbelief in science to guarantee our survival among the stars, and that all are included. - Jocelyn
Growing up in the United States, the children of immigrants often feel torn between two cultures: the world of their peers and the world of their parents. Amina watches her best friend, Korean American Soojin, struggle to fit into their very American school and Amina wonders if she should be doing the same. Tackling tough questions of racism, faith, and culture, this book sheds light on the hard realities facing immigrant children today. Grades 4–6. - Ivy
My hero, culinary and otherwise, is Edna Lewis. Reading her book The Taste of Country Cooking 30 years ago was a total game-changer (and life-changer) for me: It spoke to my heart and gave me a compass in life—along with an abundance of simple, seasonal, and delicious recipes. In this new book, food-world notables such as Francis Lam, Toni Tipton-Martin, Michael Twitty, and Alice Waters reflect on the life and legacy of Miss Lewis, who grew up in a town founded by freed slaves, spent years in New York as a chef and activist, and returned to the South, where she wrote her cookbooks. Miss Lewis had a reverence for food and for the pleasure of a meal; here, the reverence is all ours. - S.B.
This is my favorite kind of cookbook: personal, welcoming, and absolutely delicious. As much a narrative of Shaya’s life (from Israel to Philadelphia, Italy to New Orleans) as a collection of recipes, the warmth and quality of his writing had me reading this book cover to cover like a novel. That Shaya’s food (Southern-Israeli-Italian) shines even brighter than his exceptional prose is no surprise, as he is an acclaimed restaurateur and a two-time James Beard Award winner. But what has caught me off guard is how much this book lingers in my mind even when I’m nowhere near the kitchen. - S.B.
When Zen practitioner and author Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) was diagnosed with a dangerous blood cancer, she was suddenly thrown into the world of hospitals, medical lingo, and life-threatening urgency. Months into her own treatment, her partner was also handed a cancer diagnosis. With her Buddhist practice and steadfast spiritual gaze, Goldberg speaks to the importance of recognizing that it is the dance between the dark and the light, the hard and the easy, that makes life full and worthy of living. - S.M.C.
We all dream big with our friends, of outlandish trips and life-changing goals. But in Shark Drunk Stroksnes and his friend Hugo Aasjord make it happen, setting out to catch a Greenland shark (roughly 26 feet long and weighing about a ton). Balancing the excursion with tales of family and science, etymology and myth, this is a beautiful narrative of our relationships with nature, the world, and ourselves. - Rachel
Barracoon would be a significant document were it only about Cudjo (Kossola) Lewis, the last survivor of the last recorded slave ship to the United States. His memories, recounted orally, preserve a trans-Atlantic history that has long been suppressed. But Barracoon is also a story about Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance, and the reclamation of African American folklore. Woven throughout Hurston and Lewis’s conversations is a yearning for roots and a fight for identity. - Clara
