lives lived

 

Upcoming programs:

Sun, Dec 4th 7-9pm Ghost Stories for Christmas

Thu, Dec 8th 6-8pm  PENAmerica community discussion of South to America by Imani Perry 

Wed, Dec 21st 11am-noon Samford String Quartet holiday concert 

Tue, Dec 27 6:30-8pm It’s the last meeting of the year for Books & Beyond and it is Reader’s Choice so there’s no assigned topic. For the 2023 BAB topic selections, click here.

Books & Beyond met this week to discuss biographies, autobiographies, and memoir.

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of GeorgeWashington by Alexis Coe

With irresistible style and warm humor, You Never Forget Your First combines rigorous research and lively storytelling that will have readers--including those who thought presidential biographies were just for dads--inhaling every page.

Monarchy by David Starkey (eaudio on Hoopla)

The crown of England is the oldest surviving political institution in Europe. Throughout this book Dr. David Starkey emphasizes the Crown's endless capacity to adapt to circumstances and reshape national policy, whilst he unmasks the personalities and achievements, the defeats and victories, which lie behind the kings and queens of British history. 

Monarchy by David Starkey (tv show)

Hosted by the erudite, energetic Dr. David Starkey (The Six Wives of Henry VIII), this series tells the epic and bloody stories of Britain's kings and queens from the Saxon era (Alfred the Great) to the early 20th century (Victoria).

Assassinations that Changed the World by Nigel Cawthorne (eaudio on Hoopla)

We live in an age of asymmetric warfare. Huge armies no longer face each other on the battlefield. Instead heads of major powers and lone assassins (or martyrs) target each other to pursue their agendas. There are forty-eight assassinations that changed the world in this book. Rest assured that in the coming years we will see many more.

And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham

Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Jon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how—and why—he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America.

Crowned in a Far Country: Portraits of Eight Royal Brides by Princess Michael of Kent

More than just a window into the politics and power brokering of royal marriage, Crowned in a Far Country charts the transformations of privileged princesses into women of power and historical importance.

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker).

Da Vinci’s Demons (tv show)

A tortured genius defies authority and throws himself into the future, forever changing the fate of mankind.

Sleepwalk With Me: And Other Painfully True Stories by Mike Birbiglia

I’m Mike Birbiglia and I’m a comedian. You may know me from Comedy Central or This American Life or The Bob & Tom Show, but you’ve never seen me like this before. This is my first book. It’s difficult to describe. It’s a comedic memoir, but I’m only 32 years old so I’d hate for you to think I’m “wrapping it up,” so to speak. But I tell some personal stories. Some REALLY personal stories. Some of the stories are about my childhood, some are about girls I made out with when I was thirteen, some are about my parents, and some are, of course, about my bouts with sleepwalking. Bring this book to bed. And sleepwalk with me.

New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad by Mike Birbiglia

With laugh-out-loud funny parenting observations, the New York Times bestselling author and award-winning comedian delivers a book that is perfect for anyone who has ever raised a child, been a child, or refuses to stop acting like one.

A Strong and Steady Pulse: Stories from a Cardiologist by Greg Chapman

A Strong and Steady Pulse: Stories from a Cardiologist provides an insider’s perspective on the field of cardiovascular medicine told through vignettes and insights drawn from Gregory D. Chapman’s three decades as a cardiologist and professor of medicine. In twenty-six bite-sized chapters based on real-life patients and experiences, Chapman provides an overview of contemporary cardiovascular diseases and treatments, illuminating the art and science of medical practice for lay audiences and professionals alike.

All that Moves Us: A Pediatric Neurosurgeon, His YoungPatients, and Their Stories of Grace and Resilience by Jay Wellons

In All That Moves Us, Dr. Jay Wellons pulls back the curtain to reveal the profoundly moving triumphs, haunting complications, and harrowing close calls that characterize the life of a pediatric neurosurgeon, bringing the high-stakes drama of the operating room to life with astonishing candor and honest compassion. 

Noble Blood  (podcast)

Author Dana Schwartz explores the stories of some of history’s most fascinating royals: the tyrants and the tragic, the murderers and the murdered, and everyone in between. Because when you’re wearing a crown, mistakes often mean blood.

Slow Burn (podcast)

A narrative podcast produced by Slate that is in it’s 7th season (discussing Roe v. Wade), Slow Burn tackles big topics in politics and popular culture.

Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee

From Hermione Lee, the internationally acclaimed, award-winning biographer of Virginia Woolf and Willa Cather, comes a superb reexamination of one of the most famous American women of letters. Delving into heretofore untapped sources, Lee does away with the image of the snobbish bluestocking and gives us a new Edith Wharton-tough, startlingly modern, as brilliant and complex as her fiction. 

Initiated: Memoir of a Witch by Amanda Yates Garcia

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes meets Women Who Run With The Wolves in this "gorgeously written, fierce, political, personal, and deeply inspiring" (Michelle Tea) memoir about finding meaning, beauty, and power through a life in witchcraft.

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life.

Don’t Blow Yourself Up: The Further True Adventures andTravails of the Rocket Boy of October Sky by Homer Hickam

From Homer Hickam, the author of the #1 bestselling Rocket Boys adapted into the beloved film October Sky, comes this astonishing memoir of high adventure, war, love, NASA, and his struggle for literary success.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

“Reading rocker Smith’s account of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, it’s hard not to believe in fate. How else to explain the chance encounter that threw them together, allowing both to blossom? Quirky and spellbinding.” -- People

The Automat (film)

A charming, fascinating look at one of the first and most unique restaurant chains in America with Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Colin Powell.

Thomas Paine: A Lifetime of Radicalism by David Benner (not in the library system, selling on Amazon)

As an unremarkable English commoner, former tax collector, and one-time privateer, Thomas Paine was the most unlikely person to carry the torch of American independence. Nevertheless, his succinct and wildly-popular argument in favor of the idea, Common Sense, proved to be the exact catalyst to bring such a provocative cause to fruition. Benner's work pays particular focus on to the polemicist's great successes in transforming his day's political landscape.

Clockwork Basilisk: The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier & Artemas Wheeler by Ben E. Nicholson (not available in the library system, currently in funding mode on Kickstarter)

Clockwork Basilisk: The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier & Artemas Wheeler reveals the first attempt to put a multi-shot firearm in the hands of the common soldier and sportsman. This novel device—patented in America in 1818 by Artemas Wheeler—was taken to England by his partner, Elisha Collier, to be trialed by the military shortly after the Napoleonic wars. Rejected by both the British and French militaries, the Collier revolver with its clockwork-advanced cylinder eventually found its place as a bespoke self-defense and hunting weapon.

Mimosa: Memories of Marilyn & the Making of “The Misfits” by Ralph L. Roberts (not in the library system, selling on Amazon)

Ralph Roberts, actor, masseur, and former Pentagon liaison, could frequently be found in the kitchen of Lee Strasberg’s NYC apartment on Central Park West. One pleasant spring morning he by chance met Marilyn. Not the turned-on public persona of Marilyn Monroe he had crossed paths with in the past, but the honest, casual Marilyn who existed outside the public eye. Thus set in motion the beginnings of a deep friendship that forever changed Ralph, and unquestionably altered the course of his life. 

 

 

Booktok recommendations

Booktok is more than just Colleen Hoover!  Here, Bookriot has collected the top non-COHO Tiktok book recommendations! (book descriptions via Bookriot)

ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN BY TALIA HIBBERT

The third book in the Brown Sisters series, Act Your Age, Eve Brown is an adorable romance novel from sensational writer Talia Hibbert. Eve Brown is a mess, and she always is. Jacob Wayne always has it together. When these two find themselves with their lives intertwined their spiteful relationship might just turn into something a little more romantic. That is if they don’t kill each other first.

ALL MY RAGE BY SABAA TAHIR

Sal and Noor used to be best friends. Then the fight happened and everything changed. Sal is trying to run the family business while his moms health keeps declining and his dad turns to alcoholism. Meanwhile Noor is hiding a deep secret, she’s applying to schools and hoping to leave her family and her life behind. Soon the two must decide if they can reconcile with each other, or risk letting the monsters from their past get the better of them.

THE ATLAS SIX BY OLIVIE BLAKE

There are six contestants for an elite spot with the Alexandrian Society, but there are only five spots available. As our six main characters work to improve their magical ability and compete against each other, it’s soon revealed that each of them is carrying a secret. If they aren’t careful it could be their downfall. As the time for the final trials draws nearer the relationship with each other deepens, but looming in the background is the knowledge that one of them will not survive until the end.

BABEL BY R. F. KUANG

Robin Swift, orphaned as a child due to a cholera outbreak, is found by a professor and is brought up in world of languages, all so he can attend the legendary translation institute at Oxford called Babel. When he gets there at first it’s everything he hoped for, but soon he realizes that translation isn’t just a tool for education, but also as a tool for colonization. Now Robin finds himself faced with two options, fight for the world he was raised for, or fight for the world he wants to see.

BOOK LOVERS BY EMILY HENRY

Nora is one of the best literary agents in the world. When her little sister proposes a girls trip, Nora agrees to try and take some time for herself. The sisters weekend is growing great until Nora realizes that Charlie, an annoying uptight editor, also happens to be vacationing in the same spot. As they keep bumping into each other via more and more absurd scenarios they realize that they might not be the hero of their own story, but they could be the hero of each other’s.

CRAVE BY TRACY WOLFF

The first book in a supernatural trilogy, Crave tells the story of a young woman named Grace who finds herself falling for a vampire. As she tries to navigate going to school with monsters who just as soon kill her as look at her, she starts to realize that maybe there is more to this school than meets the eye. Grace must now try to survive all the while wondering if maybe her coming to this school wasn’t just an accident, maybe it was arranged, and Grace doesn’t know which sounds scarier.

DELILAH GREEN DOESN’T CARE BY ASHLEY HERRING BLAKE

Delilah is forced to go back to Bright Falls to photograph her sisters wedding. Even though she always said she would never come back, the guilt trip and the money mean that it’s time to go home. However when she gets there she encounters an old friend of her sister named Claire. The two find themselves stuck together while working on wedding preparation. And maybe, just maybe these two have much more chemistry than they’d like to believe.

THE FLATSHARE BY BETH O’LEARY

Rent is expensive. So two people become roommates without ever meeting each other. Leon works nights so he only needs the flat during the day. Tiffy has the opposite schedule so she occupies the flat the rest of the time. They begin to communicate with each other via notes, and soon they find themselves becoming something maybe a little bit more than just roommate. Of course there’s still the problem of them never having met before.

HANI AND ISHU’S GUIDE TO FAKE DATING BY ADIBA JAIGIRDAR

Hani is bisexual, but when she tells her friends, they start to question her. In a panic she lies and tells them she does have a girlfriend. Ishu just wants her to show up her perfect sister, and becoming head girl is the perfect way to do that. Fake dating Hani might be the perfect way to become more popular and secure the votes she needs. So their plan is hatched! What could possibly go wrong?

HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK BY SEQUOIA NAGAMATSU

The year is 2030 and an ancient corpse is discovered in the melting permafrost. However, this young woman was killed by a deadly and contagious virus that is now free to rampage across the world. This epic follows the virus and its devastating effects for years to come. Each person is affected wholly differently and what follows is an interwoven tale of endurance and perseverance.

I’M GLAD MY MOM DIED BY JENNETTE MCCURDY

A memoir from Jennette McCurdy that tells the tale of her abusive mother and Jennette’s experience as a former child star. It’s a heartbreaking story about the dangers that many young actors face when no one has their back. McCurdy writes with wit and class even while detailing some of the most painful experiences of her life. It’s a book you won’t want to put down, and will be thinking about for years to come.

THE INHERITANCE GAMES BY JENNIFER LYNN BARNES

The first book in a trilogy, Avery Grambs finds herself in the running for a vast inheritance from an unknown man. As long as she lives in this house with the old man’s family, attends the school he wants her to go to, and abides by a few other rules, her whole life will change. But why was she chosen? Is he a relative? A friend of the family? Or is it something even more sinister than that. Avery has a year to figure it out and survive the trials put before her.

KAIKEYI BY VAISHNAVI PATEL

This retelling is entirely transportive. Kaikeyi is brought up on wonderful stories of the gods and the great deeds they accomplish. But when she sees her father banish her mother and try to marry her off she realizes perhaps the gods aren’t as benevolent as the stories make them out to be. Kaikeyi turns to the books her mother read to her and transforms herself into the powerful woman she was always destined to become. But there are always those who wish to see a powerful woman fail.

LAURA DEAN KEEPS BREAKING UP WITH ME BY MARIKO TAMAKI AND ROSEMARY VALERO-O’CONNELL

This is a delightful graphic novel about the perils and pitfalls of high school dating. Freddy wants Laura Dean to stop breaking up with her. This weird on and off relationship is as confusing as it is complicated. So Freddy turns to anyone who will help her figure out what’s going on. From mystics to advice columns Freddy is determined to get to the bottom of her topsy-turvy relationship.

MALIBU RISING BY TAYLOR JENKINS REID

It’s 1983, and one of the greatest fires to rage across California is about to start. A fire started accidentally at a house party for the rich, famous, and beautiful people of Malibu. But the story of the fire, and those who cause it start years earlier when the hosts are children just trying to understand why their dad would leave their mom like that. This is a wonderful story about family, fame, and what can happen when sparks catch.

NORMAL PEOPLE BY SALLY ROONEY

Connell and Marianne pretend they don’t each other at school. They run in completely different circles, so it’s just easier to pretend. But, secretly they have a connection that amazes and scares them. A year later as they study at the same school in Dublin things start to shift. Over the next four years they find themselves circling each other being drawn close only to be flung apart. As their own lives get more and more complicated, they have to decide what they are to each other once and for all. And it’s not going to go smoothly.

THE SECRET HISTORY BY DONNA TARTT

Credited as one the pieces to bring “dark academia” into the literary lexicon, this is a classic that still draws attention from new readers to this day. When a group of friends studying classics kill their schoolmate, their lives start to spiral out of control. What follows is a story of passion, deception, and academia that haunts its readers. The group tries to keep it together, but they find themselves slipping from the high minded ideal image they had of themselves to something a lot more sinister.

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN BY SHELLEY PARKER-CHAN

Her brother was told that his fate will be greatness not seen by anyone alive today. Her fate is nothingness. But when her brother passes away, Zhu decides she’s going to steal her brother’s fate. Disguised in boy’s clothes, Zhu heads to study at the monastery her brother was promised to, and from then on, she hides her identity from everyone, including the gods themselves. As she rises to lead armies she is struck by one question: how long before it is realized that she is not who she says she is.

THE SONG OF ACHILLES BY MADELINE MILLER

A retelling of the myth of Achilles that is as heart warming as it is devastating. Two young men find themselves training together. Soon a bond is formed and they fall more in love with each other than they know what to do with. But when the war with Troy begins, these two lovers find that sometimes love can’t survive a battlefield. And perhaps even worse, sometimes it can.

THE SPANISH LOVE DECEPTION BY ELENA ARMAS

Catalina was under a lot of pressure and might have let it slip that she’s bringing her American boyfriend to her sister’s wedding. There’s only one problem — she doesn’t have one. Luckily her colleague, Aaron, offers to step in and pose as her fake boyfriend. Even though she can’t stand him, Catalina agrees to the plan and the game is afoot. But as they spend more and more time together she starts to realize something. Maybe she likes him way more than she thought.

THIS WOVEN KINGDOM BY TAHEREH MAFI

Alizeh has a secret. To the world she’s just an ordinary servant. But in reality she’s descended from royalty. The crown prince is struggling to keep it all together. His father’s passing has been predicted to happen any time now. But he keeps finding himself by a servant who seems to know a lot more than she’s letting on. Their kingdom — and indeed their world — hangs in the balance. Each of them will have to tread carefully to avoid sending their people into chaos.

TO PARADISE BY HANYA YANAGIHARA

It’s 1893 in New York City, but it’s not the New York we know. Now it’s 1993 and the AIDS epidemic is causing the deaths of so many innocent young men. Now it’s 2093 and the world is run by corrupt officials and is plagued by sickness. What follows is an intricate weaving of three people’s lives spread out over three hundred years. As their lives intersect in strange ways, it seems that despite the vast time difference, things haven’t actually changed all that much.

WEATHER GIRL BY RACHEL LYNN SOLOMON

Ari is a meteorologist on TV and loves her job. But her boss is too distracted with personal matters to give Ari’s career the attention it deserves. Enter Russel. Russel offers to step in and team up with Ari to fix their bosses’ personal lives so that Ari’s life can get back on track. But amidst all their hijinks, a storm starts brewing. And Ari realizes that she’s starting to have feelings for Russel. But can she let him in enough to see the real her? Or will he be stuck with the weather girl persona she puts on for TV?

WE WERE LIARS BY E. LOCKHART

This book originally came out in 2014, but has made a comeback thanks to BookTok. When a group of friends goes to visit a remote island for some away time, things don’t go exactly as planned. What follows is a series of events so shocking that it will shape the friends forever. If they can make it out alive, and with their secrets in tact that is. But can they even remember what the truth is? Or have they managed to lie even to themselves.

To this list I will add a series that recently came to our attention via a patron request they'd seen on Tiktok.  Micalea Smeltzer's Wildflower Duet: The Confidence of Wildflowers and The Resurrection of Wildflowers. from Amazon.com: "My future is a big 'what if' at the moment and I'm fine with that. For the most part. When Thayer Holmes moves in next door, the grumpy landscaper both fascinates and amuses me. When he asks me to nanny his kid, it's a great way to make some extra money. It's impossible not to fall in love with Thayer and his adorable son. There's a big problem though. Falling for someone almost fifteen years older than me wasn't part of my plans, but sometimes things happen when you least expect them.

https://bookriot.com/tiktok-book-recommendations-2022/

great debut novels of the 21st cent

 

It isn’t widely considered a genre or topic on its own, but one of my favorite kinds of books to seek out and read/listen to are debut novels.  Brand new authors with fresh voices and innovative ideas are being published all the time and often don’t get the same traction as the usual NYT bestsellers.  A recent article in Booklist magazine (the Nov 1/15, 2022 issue) listed some of the very best debut novels published between 2000-2021 that have won major prizes, appeared on best-seller lists, stunned book groups, made it to the big screen, and launched exciting careers.  Find your next great book here!

Happy reading,
Holley

American War by Omar El Akkad

A second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle—this gripping debut novel asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself. 

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

Lucy Hull, a children’s librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. Desperate to save him from his family, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian when she finds him camped out in the library after hours, and the odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip. 

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man—also named Jonathan Safran Foer—sets out to find the woman who might or might not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war, an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior, and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.

The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez

It’s Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and thirty-three-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his fifteen-year-old daughter Angel shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans for personal redemption. With weeks to go until her due date, tough, ebullient Angel flees her mother’s house, setting her life on a startling new path. Vivid, tender, funny, and beautifully rendered, The Five Wounds spans the baby’s first year as five generations of the Padilla family converge.

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

The debut from an astonishing young writer, Freshwater tells the story of Ada, an unusual child who is a source of deep concern to her southern Nigerian family. Young Ada is troubled, prone to violent fits. Born “with one foot on the other side,” she begins to develop separate selves within her as she grows into adulthood. And when she travels to America for college, a traumatic event on campus crystallizes the selves into something powerful and potentially dangerous, making Ada fade into the background of her own mind as these alters―now protective, now hedonistic―move into control. 

Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum

Bellwether Award winner Susan Nussbaum’s powerful novel invites us into the lives of a group of typical teenagers―alienated, funny, yearning for autonomy―except that they live in an institution for juveniles with disabilities. This unfamiliar, isolated landscape is much the same as the world outside: friendships are forged, trust is built, love affairs are kindled, and rules are broken. But those who call it home have little or no control over their fate. Good Kings Bad Kings challenges our definitions of what it means to be disabled in a story told with remarkable authenticity and in voices that resound with humor and spirit.

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong         

Freshly disengaged from her fiancé and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, thirty-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town and arrives at her parents’ home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized. Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth’s mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic. But as Ruth's father’s condition intensifies, the comedy in her situation takes hold, gently transforming all her grief.

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn

In this radiant, highly anticipated debut, a cast of unforgettable women battle for independence while a maelstrom of change threatens their Jamaican village. Capturing the distinct rhythms of Jamaican life and dialect, Nicole Dennis- Benn pens a tender hymn to a world hidden among pristine beaches and the wide expanse of turquoise seas.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini        

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, caught in the tragic sweep of history, The Kite Runner transports readers to Afghanistan at a tense and crucial moment of change and destruction. A powerful story of friendship, it is also about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

The “devastatingly moving” (People) first novel from the author of the short story collection, Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented

The Love Songs of W.E.B. du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

The 2020 NAACP Image Award-winning poet makes her fiction debut with this National Book Award-longlisted, magisterial epic that chronicles the journey of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era. 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Fredrik Backman’s beloved first novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year,’ this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down” (Booklist, starred review).

The Mothers by Britt Bennett

In entrancing, lyrical prose, The Mothers asks whether a "what if" can be more powerful than an experience itself. If, as time passes, we must always live in servitude to the decisions of our younger selves, to the communities that have parented us, and to the decisions we make that shape our lives forever.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as seven other awards, The Sympathizer was a breakthrough novel of 2015. The narrator, a communist double agent, is a “man of two minds,” a half-French, half-Vietnamese army captain who arranges to come to America after the Fall of Saigon, and while building a new life with other Vietnamese refugees in Los Angeles is secretly reporting back to his communist superiors in Vietnam. The Sympathizer is a blistering exploration of identity and America, a gripping espionage novel, and a powerful story of love and friendship.

There, There by Tommy Orange

A wondrous and shattering award-winning novel that follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. A contemporary classic, this “astonishing literary debut” (Margaret Atwood, bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale) “places Native American voices front and center before readers’ eyes” (NPR/Fresh Air).

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children through the slave trade and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today’s most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen.

What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons

Raised in Pennsylvania, Thandi views the world of her mother’s childhood in Johannesburg as both impossibly distant and ever present. She is an outsider wherever she goes, caught between being black and white, American and not. She tries to connect these dislocated pieces of her life, and as her mother succumbs to cancer, Thandi searches for an anchor—someone, or something, to love.

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and The Swimmers, this commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese American incarceration camps that is both a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and a resonant lesson for our times.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith's dazzling first novel plays out its bounding, vibrant course in a Jamaican hair salon in North London, an Indian restaurant in Leicester Square, an Irish poolroom turned immigrant café, a liberal public school, a sleek science institute. A winning debut in every respect, White Teeth marks the arrival of a wondrously talented writer who takes on the big themes--faith, race, gender, history, and culture--and triumphs.