Initially skeptical to read a book about a young musician with just a couple albums out (who may not have even hit his creative peak yet), I quickly understood just why, in the year 2020, this book needed to come out. Using the framework of the 4 albums of Kendrick Lamar, Marcus J. Moore writes a …
This Is My America released at the beginning of a reckoning that’s been long overdue—the untended roots of race in America. These origins draw parallels not only to slavery and mass incarceration but to open wounds festering below the surface. My novel was born from many early lessons on race as a Black girl growing …
This summer a highly anticipated title is the YA debut by the author of the adult title Mem. Morrow sets her story in a contemporary alternative world where portions of the population have various mythical abilities and identities. Inherent in these identities are built in assumptions and prejudices, the most heightened of which are towards “sirens,” …
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. …
From Boise Weekly/ idahopress.com by Sydney Kidd Salvador “Sal” Alamilla is no stranger to the ugly face of racism. Born in Michoacan, Mexico, he grew up in the United States, where he said he has faced both explicit and implicit racial bias. As a business owner, he usually shies away from taking a stand on …
Saidiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments contains some of the most imaginative, inventive, and radical history writing I’ve ever encountered. Taking as her subjects the black women excluded from the US historical archive, Hartman challenges and unsettles dominant understandings of who “makes” history. In vibrant and ecstatic prose, Hartman tells the story of how the wayward, the …
A humorous but pointed look at race, privilege and our motivation to act. Never preachy, Kiley Reid studies human nature. Her debut is a literary novel that reads like suspense. –Melanie, The Well-Read Moose, Coeur d’Alene, ID “When I attempted to write a review for Such a Fun Age, I was at a loss for words. …
Treat yourself to an immersion in the community feeling and sense of self-worth that shine throughout this gorgeous book. It’s difficult to choose, but I think my favorite pages might be the second-to-last about tipping the barber. This picture book has earned many crowns: Winner of the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers A Newbery …
As farmers’ markets and CSA boxes offer up the richest bounties, you might crave fresh recipe inspiration to go with your fresh produce. Seattle chef Makini Howell, owner of Plum Bistro in Capitol Hill, shares over 60 plant-based recipes in her gorgeous cookbook of “gratifying vegan dishes,” Plum. These recipes are delicious ways to incorporate …
