Gene Luen Yang and Leuyen Pham
[isbn]
Gene Luen Yang and Leuyen Pham have created a moving romantic comedy, with a wise script and exceptionally expressive art. This book is an exquisite treat from two masters of the medium.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Kimberly Lemming
[isbn]
A romantasy that will satisfy readers of either genre, and give them a little something extra, too. She’s a spice trader who isn’t interested in adventures. He’s a demon, but that’s not as bad as it sounds. Off they go to defeat a witch and maybe… fall in love?
Recommended by Keith M.
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Sean Michaels
[isbn]
A famed poet gets an offer to collaborate with an advanced AI on a book length poem for a large sum of money. She accepts. This exhilarating novel explores what it really means to be an artist, a parent, and a consciousness. Anyone anxious about AI should read this book.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Isle McElroy
[isbn]
Isle McElroy has taken a well-used trope and breathed fresh life into it. People Collide has exactly what I look for in literary fiction: intriguing characters, keen insights, and great pacing, all in service of addressing big themes. This is an immensely enjoyable and thought-provoking novel.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Michael Lewis
[isbn]
Michael Lewis has always been smart about the people he chooses to profile. He started shadowing Sam Bankman-Fried for what was sure to be an interesting book about cryptocurrency and philanthropy. Then his subject’s empire crumbled and the result is a much more interesting book than he set out to write.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Curtis Chin
[isbn]
Curtis Chin’s memoir of growing up in his family’s Detroit Chinese restaurant is by turns moving and hilarious as he recounts the growing pains that come with being the third son in a large immigrant family amidst a time of national economic, racial, and health crises.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Roz Chast
[isbn]
Supposedly, describing your dreams is a faux pas that will bore anyone unlucky enough to be within earshot. This is just another rule that doesn’t apply to Roz Chast. Her new book explores the experience and meaning of dreams with characteristic wit and insight.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Zadie Smith
[isbn]
A rollicking work of historical fiction, Zadie Smith takes readers from Charles Dickens’s London to colonial Jamaica and back. Asking big questions about social roles, public morality, the value of art, and the usefulness of truth; Smith’s latest is entertaining and thought-provoking. A joy to read!
Recommended by Keith M.
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Kate Leth
[isbn]
Kate Leth’s delightful look at mall culture in the early 2000s has a lot to say about when to let keep your guard up, when to let it down, and the problems that come from misjudging that balance.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Amanda Gorman and Christian Robinson
[isbn]
The difficulty of making change can be overwhelming. Amanda Gorman’s beautiful poetry and Christian Robinson’s gorgeous art will inspire readers of any age who want to help make a better world.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Aaron Blabey
[isbn]
A hilarious look at the precarity of fame, this action-packed book is purr-fect for fans of cute cat videos and big explosions. Litter-ally, something for everyone!
Recommended by Keith M.
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Lydia Kiesling
[isbn]
Mobility is simultaneously a coming-of-age story and a meditation on the state of the world. It’s about finding your place in the world just as the world seems to spin out of control. Lydia Kiesling’s skillful layering of theme and compelling storytelling is an absolute masterclass.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Davide Cali and Benjamin Chaud
[isbn]
This whimsical picture book offers many important lessons. Among them: 1. space is cool, 2. life keeps you busy, and 3. teachers just don’t understand.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Colson Whitehead
[isbn]
Is there anything better than a new Colson Whitehead book? Crook Manifesto is a strong argument that the answer is “no.” Continuing the story of Ray Carney, Whitehead brings his usual exceptional writing and keen insights. He is also clearly having a blast, making this book a compulsive and joyful read.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Deena Mohamed
[isbn]
Set in a world where wishes exist, but are a resource to be extracted and commoditized, Deena Mohamed’s Shubeik Lubeik is the most sophisticated work of literature that I have read so far this year. Her linework is every bit as clear and expressive as her writing. Focusing in on a few individuals navigating their wish-fueled society, Mohamed has crafted a smart, engaging, and moving masterpiece.
Recommended by Keith M.
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David Grann
[isbn]
David Grann’s reputation precedes him — he writes incredibly smart and propulsive nonfiction — and his latest more than lives up to his high standards. This tale of disaster and mutiny in the 18th century British navy is absolutely amazing, in every sense of the word.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Fiona McFarlane
[isbn]
This story of a lost child in nineteenth-century Australia and the people who go looking for him is riveting, beautiful, and wise. I don’t know how to better say it: this is literature at its best.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jen Beagin
[isbn]
This book is a wild ride; it is full of lines so funny that you will be compelled to text them out of context to your friends while you read. But Jen Beagin is also doing something more profound that will keep resonating long after you finish.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Oindrila Mukherjee
[isbn]
In this panoramic view of a new city in India, Oindrila Mukherjee creates an exhilarating polyphonic novel. This is a book that has so much to say, and skillfully gives voice to a multitude of characters to say it.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Allegra Goodman
[isbn]
Allegra Goodman follows Sam from girlhood to adulthood, taking the reader on a journey that would seem incredible, if it didn’t seem so incredibly true. This book is a marvel of skilled writing and unparalleled empathy.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Mohsin Hamid
[isbn]
I am often resistant to allegory in practice (or even in concept, to be honest), but Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man has me questioning my priors, because he uses the literary device to create that rarest of things: a novel that is both simple and nuanced. This tale of the consequences that flow from an inexplicable racial upheaval is both gripping and gentle, full of a generous, yet restrained wisdom.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jeff Kinney
[isbn]
I started as a bookseller 20 years ago, not long before Greg Heffley first appeared on the scene. In the time since, it would seem that neither of us has matured, but we’re both still in bookstores. I think he’s having more fun, thö .
Recommended by Keith M.
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Suzette Mayr
[isbn]
The Sleeping Car Porter is an engaging and illuminating novel about the costs of work, service, and secrets.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Megan Volpert
[isbn]
A wonderfully idiosyncratic appreciation of the right song at the right time, filled with smart analysis of song construction, the artist’s mindset, the record industry, and the lasting power of a writer and performer committed to truth.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Rachel King
[isbn]
A richly-textured set of interlinked stories set in Colorado, Rachel King’s Bratwurst Haven offers moving glimpses of the many costs of underpaid labor and the profound and sustained difficulty of moving on from misfortunes, mistakes, or unforced errors.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Prince Shakur
[isbn]
Prince Shakur’s riveting memoir about coming of age, coming out, and standing up to systematic oppression is a moving examination of the many ways we fail each other, and the strength required to recognize it and move forward.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Saeed Jones
[isbn]
When I read the opening poem in Saeed Jones’ new collection, I was so struck by his insight into our intractable problems that I felt I needed to set the book down and walk it off. I went back to it. I’ll keep coming back to it.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
[isbn]
The team behind Monstress presents a beautiful new graphic horror novel that digs into family dynamics and finds some skeletons buried there. Also, monsters. And creepy dolls. Fun!
Recommended by Keith M.
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Kate Beaton
[isbn]
Kate Beaton’s autobiographical graphic novel about years spent working amidst the fracking boom in Alberta skillfully uses the medium to show the rhythms and realities of a hostile workplace: it often seems fine; it never stays that way.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jennifer Dugan and Kit Seaton
[isbn]
Esmy’s life is pretty good until her parents abruptly announce that they’re moving across the country. Now she has to adjust to a new school — oh, and there’s maybe a death witch coming for her, too. This fast-paced graphic novel delivers both angst and action.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Sarah Andersen
[isbn]
Sarah Andersen’s new collection is everything we’ve come to expect from her, and more: smartly conceived, truly funny, and monstrously heartwarming.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Sidik Fofana
[isbn]
I love it when a book leaves me debating with myself whether I responded more to the exciting voice or the skillful craft on display. Such was the case with Stories from The Tenants Downstairs, the stand-out story collection from Sidik Fofana. What an impressive debut!
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jane Campbell
[isbn]
This is a compassionate book, made up of stories that are delightfully caustic. Sometimes it feels like a primal scream, and other times like a withering look. Unwilling to be constrained by form or expectation, Cat Brushing has the dangerous air of a book wherein anything can happen.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Nick Drnaso
[isbn]
Is there anything more marvelously unsettling than a Nick Drnaso graphic novel? Acting Class is an inspired exploration of identity with an ever-present air of menace, and likely the smartest graphic novel that’ll be released this year.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Charlie Jane Anders
[isbn]
Charlie Jane Anders’s All the Birds in the Sky is a carefully crafted story with a clear narrative and a robust set of themes and metanarratives running parallel to it, just below the surface. The novel follows Patricia, a young girl who learns that she will become a powerful witch, and Laurence, a boy with an incredible aptitude for technology. Neither child is popular at school or well-supported by their parents. They find each other... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
[isbn]
It’s hard to argue with the assertion that Saga is the best graphic series of the last decade — just look at the pile of awards it has amassed. The magic of this book is in the incredible alchemy that comes from the creative partnership of writer Brian K. Vaughan and illustrator Fiona Staples. Together, they take an eclectic blend of sci-fi and fantasy tropes mixed with piercingly authentic emotions and then combine them with incredible... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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William Gibson
[isbn]
Set in the then-present day of 2002, William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition is the work of a mind that is usually thinking ahead, but has paused to look deeply at the present. Reading it today, it’s remarkable how — although it may no longer be about the present — it remains shockingly current. Gibson foresaw — any write-up of a William Gibson novel will contain at least one sentence starting this way — that information merchants would... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Juan José Millás
[isbn]
In Juan José Millás’s world, the line between eccentricity and menace is always hard to find. In Let No One Sleep, his newly-translated, unsettling, and masterful novel, all sorts of lines are thin (or pretend-thin). Distinctions between art and reality, truth and pretense, friend and foe all blur as the story builds to a true, powerful crescendo.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Andrew Sean Greer
[isbn]
When I read Less, I was surprised by the degree to which it utterly delighted me. When I read its unexpected, wonderful sequel, I was not surprised. But I was again utterly delighted just the same.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Gayl Jones
[isbn]
Like a smashed mirror, Gayl Jones’ The Birdcatcher is reflecting so many things, all at once, usually in pieces. When I finished, I felt like I had just read three books, all in conversation with each other, and I was just glad I got to overhear their brilliant back and forth.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Gavin Grimm and Kyle Lukoff and J Yang
[isbn]
If You’re a Kid Like Gavin is a tale of true courage told with a humble sensibility that really conveys to readers the idea that standing up to injustice may be daunting, but it is what dignity requires.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Victoria Chang
[isbn]
Victoria Chang’s intriguing new collection is mostly composed of short, symbolic poems using Japanese waka forms. The book has a unique tall, narrow trim size that makes this a literal standout in a section that’s home to no shortage of great poetry. Rarely have I been so captivated by a collection; each brief poem demands your full attention for repeated readings. Though small, these poems have an outsized gravitational pull, like that of a... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Leila Mottley
[isbn]
Leila Mottley is somehow able to simultaneously honor the perspective of her narrator — who finds herself swept up in a dangerous situation — while also showing the reader the wider political and legal landscape of a city on the cusp of a reckoning. This is an electric debut.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jacqueline Woodson and Leo Espinosa
[isbn]
Jacqueline Woodson and Leo Espinosa capture a time and place with such incredible vibrancy! Every time I read this beautiful picture book, I am absolutely transported. Delightful and timeless, The World Belonged to Us is an instant classic.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Ada Limon
[isbn]
Ada Limón’s new book is the work of a poet at the height of her powers. The poems in this collection are welcoming and wise; reverent to nature and well-informed about human relations. I think the best word to describe this volume is: heartening.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Kat Fajardo
[isbn]
Sue hates to be the center of attention. She’s refused to participate in a public quinceañera. But her mother has other plans. Kat Fajardo’s debut graphic novel shows how difficult it can be to balance the different interests in a family, even an extremely loving one.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Sy Montgomery
[isbn]
Like a bird of prey, this short book may not weigh a lot, but its grip is fierce. Sy Montgomery’s account of her encounters with hawks and a master falconer is full of heart. This is superb nature writing.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Lillian Fishman
[isbn]
Lillian Fishman’s debut is a smart and extremely current interrogation of queerness and modern sexual ethics, populated with intriguingly complex characters, all told in an enthralling voice.
Recommended by Keith M.
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David Sedaris
[isbn]
What a relief it is to have a new David Sedaris collection! Oh sure, much of this book is devoted to the fear and inconveniences of the pandemic, but there’s also many descriptions of encountering awful people all over the world, and that’s a real source of comfort.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Harmony Becker
[isbn]
Harmony Becker has infused the story of the residents of a share house for foreign exchange students in Japan with an astonishing amount of emotional complexity. This book is the product of so much skill and care; it’s a true masterpiece.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Kali Fajardo-Anstine
[isbn]
Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s debut novel is a vibrant tale of the West, and what connects — and divides — families across generations. Each character is infused with perspective and rich detail, resulting in a canvas so saturated that the novel teems with life and love.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Leigh Newman
[isbn]
Leigh Newman’s debut story collection is a stunner. Her tales of rough-and-tumble Alaskan women fighting their way through the landscape — whether that be the Bush, the ALCAN Highway, or the shag carpets of Anchorage — are each an incredible alchemy of insight, humor, and attitude.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jenny Tinghui Zhang
[isbn]
Four Treasures of the Sky follows the tenacious Daiyu, and her incredible and difficult odyssey from China to America at the end of the nineteenth century. Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s novel is a richly imagined, moving reflection on personal honor and societal injustice.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Ocean Vuong
[isbn]
Ocean Vuong’s new collection centers on loss and mourning, but it is also filled with playful experimentation and wry humor. The central thesis of Vuong’s work, I think, is that pain makes us more human, but it doesn’t define us. These poems pay homage to both sides of that coin.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Marjorie Liu, Teny Issakhanian
[isbn]
Zuli must brave a world she doesn’t remember in this adventure story rich with Marjorie Liu’s skillful pacing and Teny Issakhanian’s wonderfully expressive illustrations.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Melissa Febos
[isbn]
Melissa Febos makes a compelling case that the work of crafting memoir — of recking with your own story enough to tell it fully and truly — will make you a better writer and a healthier person. Body Work is an engaging book about the intersection of art and personal development.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Christopher Denise
[isbn]
You could go on any number of quests, but you won’t find a picture book more charming than Christopher Denise’s Knight Owl. You’ll want to keep this instant classic in your library for ages and ages.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Mark Budman and Susan O'Neill
[isbn]
In this collection of short fiction about the immigrant experience, the voices of forty authors become a chorus, each hitting different notes, but all singing the same song about the human will to find and build community.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jordan Crane
[isbn]
Jordan Crane manages to make a meditation on fear, grief, alienation, and other relationship-destroying emotions, and transmute it into a beautiful book about transcendence. I watched it happen on the page, but I’m still not sure how it worked. But it did.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Maria Gainza
[isbn]
Maria Gainza takes readers on a thought-provoking quest for truths about forgery in an atmospheric neo-noir novel. Just what an artist — and an art market — should aspire to are questions that loom over the narrator’s obsessive quest to learn about a largely unremembered past, and an entirely forgotten artist.
Recommended by Keith M.
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John Darnielle
[isbn]
John Darnielle has created an intriguing, multilayered novel that interrogates the true crime genre’s highest aspirations and basest instincts. Devil House is a gripping read that raises important questions about what the true costs of salacious stories are, and who pays them.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Xochitl Gonzalez
[isbn]
Olga, a high-powered wedding planner, works to keep her life as controlled as she can — until she meets a man in a bar. If this sounds like a rom-com set-up, it is, but Olga Dies Dreaming refuses to fall into formula. Trump-era American politics won’t allow for a limited perspective.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin
[isbn]
Jason Reynolds’s poem about living through the tumult of 2020, about the experience of Black America as life was changing in some ways and maddeningly unchanging in others, is made all the more powerful by being in dialogue with Jason Griffin’s breathtaking art.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Sheila Heti
[isbn]
You may have heard that this novel is different. You may come to it expecting something unlike anything you’ve read before. Even if you feel prepared for it, this novel will astonish and move you. I cannot imagine that there’ll be another book this year that I spend so much time thinking about after I’ve finished it.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jory John and Pete Oswald
[isbn]
This cookie feels a bit crumby; it's not always able to keep up in class. But that idea was half-baked, and when the teacher asks for each student to create something truly original, this is one cookie that doesn’t crumble. This tale is smart and sweet!
Recommended by Keith M.
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Calvin Kasulke
[isbn]
Initially, Calvin Kasulke’s debut novel seems like an absurdist take on the remote worker’s sense of being disembodied — by making it literal. It is that, but also a great deal more. Several People Are Typing is consistently smart and hilarious, which is harder than it seems. It also makes innovative use of the pervasive tools and lifestyles of the modern office. How is it that this novel is a satire in which nothing seems to be... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Sang Young Park
[isbn]
We’re in a real renaissance of great Korean literature being translated into English. Sang Young Park has continued that trend, but opened up a window into a milieu I’ve never seen depicted before: contemporary queer life in Seoul. His book is revealing, moving, and beautiful.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Nikole Hannah-Jones
[isbn]
The 1619 Project from The New York Times, as conceived of by Nikole Hannah-Jones, is one of the most influential undertakings in journalism in recent years. And it was met, in many places, with an angry backlash; making this book-length expansion as vital and important as volumes of history get.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jason Reynolds, Raúl the Third
[isbn]
With a vibrant visual and textual flair, Jason Reynolds and Raúl the Third have created an entrancing fusion of image and text in this story that sensitively depicts a difficult and confusing situation with just the right amount of whimsy and pathos.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Angela Chen
[isbn]
Angela Chen shares a set of feelings and experiences — her own and others' — that are under-expressed and under-explored, and that is a tremendously valuable project. It's truly above and beyond that she does it so smartly, making this book both delightful and essential.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Sarah Ruhl
[isbn]
Perhaps it’s because Sarah Ruhl is a genius playwright that the voice of her memoir about motherhood and illness is so wise and true and generous. This is such a beautiful and important book; I know it will be a tremendously helpful and profound reading experience for many.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Antonella Capetti, Melissa Castrillón
[isbn]
How Beautiful, indeed! I was absolutely stunned by Melissa Castrillón’s illustrations: fascinating to explore, without being too busy. And Antonella Capetti’s text asks all the right questions about what we call “beautiful.”
Recommended by Keith M.
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Louise Glück
[isbn]
I am overjoyed to have a new collection from Nobel Laureate Louise Glück! These poems are beautiful and haunting, and I have many rereads ahead of me as I continue to engage with their language and consider their depths.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Daniel Levy, Eugene Levy
[isbn]
Schitt’s Creek is basically universal: almost everyone I know reveres this show as much as I do. It was essential 2020 comfort watching (or re-watching). I’m so glad this book exists, because I feel like that needs to be celebrated.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Anthony Doerr
[isbn]
I’m not sure how Anthony Doerr made this beautiful novel simultaneously epic and intimate, but he did. It’s also impressively imaginative, hopeful, and a glorious celebration of the power of books and stories. Just what I needed.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Amanda Gorman
[isbn]
Like so many, I was transfixed and moved by Amanda Gorman’s performance of her poem "The Hill We Climb" at President Biden's inauguration, and now I can’t wait to read her first full collection.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Colson Whitehead
[isbn]
Colson Whitehead has shown himself to be a master of multiple genres, and here he adds to that list with his take on crime fiction. Following a furniture salesman in 1960s Harlem, Whitehead shows that when historical forces meet a fast-changing city, it creates many opportunities for the crooked.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Natasha Brown
[isbn]
This short book packs an outsized punch, as a Black British woman with a high-flying career must confront the dehumanizing treatment she experiences in every aspect of her carefully assembled life. This powerful novel is revelatory and unflinching.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Emily Itami
[isbn]
Rarely has a story of domestic discontent been this much fun. This is due entirely to the charm and clear-eyed honesty of Mizuki, a mother residing in a Tokyo high-rise who is not living the life she once imagined for herself. Fault Lines explores the social conventions of modern Japan, and the costs of violating them.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Maggie Nelson
[isbn]
Maggie Nelson reclaims the concept of “freedom” from overused, empty rhetoric and examines what it truly means in four areas of contemporary life. Once again, Nelson’s rigorous analysis and unique perspective show her to be an essential voice in uncertain times.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Susie Yi
[isbn]
These cats want snacks. Infinite snacks. That seems like a tall order, but they also have magic and an ability to think (and land) on their feet. They’ll need both on this quest.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jaimal Yogis, Vivian Truong
[isbn]
Grace just moved to Hong Kong and she’s at a new school with no friends. The last thing she needs is a newly hatched dragon, but that’s what she’s got. She was chosen to care for it for a reason, and she better figure it out fast because dark forces are gathering…
Recommended by Keith M.
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Assata Shakur
[isbn]
This may be the book on this list that will have the most altered emotional valence for many — but by no means all — readers today, as opposed to when it was published. In 1977, Assata Shakur was convicted of the murder of a New Jersey State Trooper, after years of acquittals or dismissals of various charges. Perhaps her trial was fair, but her treatment surely wasn’t. In the era of COINTELPRO, Shakur was held up by the government as the face of... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Leigh Stein
[isbn]
Initially, you may think these poems are witty. They are. Upon reflection, you may decide these poems are piercingly honest reflections of contemporary desires, run headlong into a plague year. They are. In the dark of a sleepless night, you may feel that these poems saw through your ironic façade and got at something deeper. They did.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Kat Chow
[isbn]
Rarely have I been so completely sold on a book after reading just the first page. Seeing Ghosts is often doing two things at once: it is deftly guided and also meandering; it is self-possessed while self-interrogating; and, at its heart, it is grieving a loss and honoring a legacy.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Anthony Veasna So
[isbn]
This collection of stories about the Cambodian American community in central California is funny, insightful, and exuberant. Anthony Veasna So was an author with an eye for both the precision of the telling detail and the generalized weight of history.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Simon Orpana, Imre Szeman, Mark Simpson
[isbn]
Graphic storytelling is the perfect format for this book, as its message is simultaneously complex and painfully simple: we are killing our planet, and the means of our destruction is so embedded in our society that we can’t fully see the extent of its influence. Gasoline Dreams makes difficult and urgent truths digestible and actionable.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Kristen Radtke
[isbn]
In Seek You, Kristen Radtke approaches the epidemic of American loneliness from a variety of angles. Each view is taken with tremendous empathy and conveyed with Radtke’s engaging and elegant illustrations. Seek You is a thoughtful exploration of a complex problem that offers understanding, not easy answers.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Amy Stanley
[isbn]
This captivating tale of one woman’s life and difficult path to Edo during the Shogun era reads like a novel, but is obviously the product of extensive research. Amy Stanley has beautifully recreated the experience of an “ordinary” woman, the kind of life story that is seldom recorded and rarely told.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Eve L. Ewing
[isbn]
Maya has been looking forward to fifth grade — year of the science fair! — forever, but she’s put in a class without her BFFs. She needs a friend, and maybe a robot that has never quite worked will do. What could possibly go wrong? (The answer is on page one.)
Recommended by Keith M.
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John Lewis
[isbn]
At the end of his life, Congressman John Lewis took time to explain his philosophy and give advice to a new generation of activists. In a series of succinct chapters, the "Conscience of Congress” lays out everything you need to know to make a difference and get into “good trouble.”
Recommended by Keith M.
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David Sedaris
[isbn]
David Sedaris’s second book — and his first to be composed entirely of autobiographical essays — Naked is the rare sophomore effort that is a truer reflection of the author than the debut. Sedaris was already known for "Santaland Diaries," his essay about working as a Macy’s elf that he read aloud on NPR. His voice is so distinctive that it became inseparable from his writing before he published anything. Sedaris is now an icon of... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Denis Johnson
[isbn]
Some books are unforgettable. This one is indelible. Denis Johnson’s short stories don’t quite start, and they don’t quite end. They’re connected, but just how they fit together is unclear. Addiction is front and center in most of the stories, but this isn’t a cautionary tale, or at least not quite. There is a distinctive lack of authorial judgement of the decisions made and the impulses indulged. Questions about how to regard the book, its... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Chanel Miller
[isbn]
As a society, we expect a lot from our victims. We’d like them to be faultlessly virtuous and silent, or deeply flawed and perhaps culpable, because either scenario allows third parties to feel neither susceptible to, nor responsible for, such an outcome. Victims are often unnamed for many good reasons, but it has the perhaps unintended effect of making their suffering abstract, their pain unattributable to a specific face. In Know My... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Michelle Alexander
[isbn]
There are a lot of important books on this list, but I hope this one is the most influential. It is said of the Velvet Underground that everyone who heard their first album started a band, and I suspect that a significant number of the readers of this book immediately became activists. What other reaction is appropriate, when the case made by this book — that the American carceral system is largely a racialized means of social control — is so... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Valeria Luiselli
[isbn]
In 2015, when Valeria Luiselli started interpreting for migrant youths in the New York immigration court, the system was in crisis and a target of demagogues and disinformation, but not nearly to the extent that it soon would be as American politics took a dehumanizing turn. When this book was published in 2017, it offered a much-needed corrective — it is a humane account that doesn’t traffic in answers; rather, it is literally centered on... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Nate Powell
[isbn]
Working with John Lewis on the March trilogy gave Nate Powell an enviable education and perspective on the history of entrenched American inequalities and how to combat them. His new graphic memoir is a thoughtful reflection on how to put that into practice as a parent during one of the most tumultuous times in American history.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Espe
[isbn]
Told in a series of vivid memories of growing up with a severely mentally ill mother, Espé's heartbreaking graphic novel is, through some extreme feat of empathy, completely free of anger or bitterness.
Recommended by Keith M.
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James Albon
[isbn]
This beautifully painted graphic novel about the modern London restaurant scene expertly balances a well-informed look at culinary realities with a mythic tale of two brothers, ambition, and limited resources.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Francine Prose
[isbn]
During the height of the Red Scare, a young editor at a prestigious publisher is assigned a scandalous novel he suspects is intended to perpetuate lies. The Vixen explores the power of fiction and truth in an age of conformity.
Recommended by Keith M.
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