A Place for Us follows Layla and Rafiq as they immigrate from India and make a life in America. They raise their children Hadia, Huda and Amar with all the opportunities that America affords while instilling in them a reverence for their Muslim faith. Shifting perspectives in the novel lend itself to such a tender, …
I have been a book professional since 1974. In the course of my career, I have met many authors. Some have become friends. Bharti Kirchner is one. I try not to let friendship get in the way of honest reviews. Ms Kirchner has written several books in the fields of cooking and fiction. Season of Sacrifice is the first …
Musician Laura Veirs turns the spotlight on folk singer Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten for her debut picture book. Veirs traces the story of a girl who was meant to play music despite all the things going against her. Even the guitars weren’t made for a left-hander like Libba. But plucky Libba just “turned the guitar upside …
Oluo’s timely and powerful book posits that we need to talk about race but often don’t because we are afraid we will get it wrong, not know enough, not know how to answer common arguments, or otherwise cause more harm than good. In So You Want to Talk About Race, she uses straightforward language, clear …
Griffith, the author of bestselling fantasy novel Hild, gives us a compulsive psychological thriller and an important contribution to disability literature in her new novel. In the course of a week, Mara’s wife leaves her and she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. To keep herself from spiraling, Mara launches herself to the front lines of …
Originally written in Korean, this psychological thriller captures the reader’s attention from the moment Yu-Jin wakes up soaked in blood with no clear memory of what happened the night before. A 26-year-old with chronic health issues, Yu-Jin is as unreliable of a narrator as they come. He admits to the reader that he doesn’t take …
If you liked: ✓ books starring spirited & sassy girls ✓ underdog-type stories with brave main characters ✓ stories with unique world building ✓ ice skating & martial arts… together, then try Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate & Sword. –Powell’s Books, Portland, OR Many thanks to author Kelly Jones for taking a photo of …
A bare-knuckled love letter steeped in fatherly wisdom written to Coates’s son that rendered me speechless, angry, and hopeful. Coates writes with an urgency and a sensitivity that begs to be shared with those looking toward a future in which systemic oppression has no home in this country. –Blair, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA Find …
On August 18, the Hugo Awards were handed out. This is a big deal mostly in the Science Fiction and Fantasy community, but, this year it should be a big deal to everyone who values inclusive writing, especially the voices of women and more particularly women of color. For years, Science Fiction and Fantasy were …
For me there are two main kinds of books with queer characters: those where queerness plays an integral role in the story and those where no one in the book bats an eye at a character’s queerness. Both are tremendously important. The first so that we can tell stories about our culture, how we got …
