Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Nickel Boys, is out in paperback. . . The Nickel Boys follows Elwood Curtis as he is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy. Curtis falls in with a fellow “delinquent” named Turner, and the novel explores the very different reactions to the terrible system that …
. . .we have Wes Moore’s Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City. While the title sounds like it could be about any number of locations during the last few months, Five Days is about life in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, back in 2015. Moore (with assistance from Erica L. …
…and speaking of building better tomorrows, we’re delighted to see Ibram X. Kendi has cleverly put out a baby board book. Timing is everything, and nothing happens overnight in book publishing, which makes the arrival of Antiracist Baby this week a marvel. Kendi, whose Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and How to …
Superman Smashes the Klan is a update of a Golden Age radio drama that writer Gene Luen Yang and illustrator Gurihiru have updated to the modern age. Superman is an immigrant, by the way, and an orphan. Oh, and he’s an alien. So, yeah, the big blue schoolboy has more in common with the disillusioned and …
As it says on the cover, there are cowboys in Compton, which has been known to resemble the Wild West on occasion. The Compton Junior Posse was founded in 1988, and it has been instrumental in preserving the historical legacy of the black man in the opening of the West during the later part of …
Here’s a cool book. Donald R. Prothero is going to tell us how the world came to be with The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks. Each of the chapters in this book talk about an important discovery or realization in the history of geology, highlighting both a specific geological puzzle and the people who …
Marc-Uwe Kling’s Qualityland is about Peter Jobless (everyone in Qualityland gets their last name from their father’s occupation at the time of their birth) and his efforts to return a product he didn’t order. Since TheShop—the world’s most popular (and ubiquitous) online retailer—has the best (sorry, bestest) algorithm, it can’t possibly be wrong. This confusion …
Now, a couple of months ago, this book would have seemed like a charming romantic comedy, but these days? Well, it has this . . . fantastic tone to it now. See, Laurie is a hot young lawyer who is having a relationship with another hot young lawyer. In fact, they both work at the same …
If you’re interested in mysteries and secrets, Kate Messner’s Chirp is out now. Mia, a young girl with dreams of being a world-class gymnast, moves to Vermont after she breaks her arm. It’s a fresh start for the whole family, but there’s a plot afoot to drive Grandma’s cricket farm out of business. Mia, needing …
H. G. Parry’s deliciously literary bangity-bang The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is out in paperback now. The premise is pretty simple: Charlie can make characters in books come to life. The complication is, uh, as frantic as a cave full of bats caught up in silly string. Naturally, Charlie and a handful of literature’s greatest must …
