Transcendent Kingdom is the second novel by Yaa Gyasi, who burst onto the scene a couple of years ago with her brilliant and celebrated historical fiction novel, Homegoing, which followed several generations of a Ghanian family experiencing slavery in Europe and America. Gyaasi’s sophomore novel has a narrower focus than Homegoing, which spanned decades and… Continue reading Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Author: jecrandall44
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Torrey Peters’ buzzy new novel, Detransition, Baby, reclaims the rare phenomenon of detransition, a tool used by transphobes to question the legitimacy of transitioning in the first place. Peters’ novel includes a character, named Ames, who has detransitioned, not because he had made a mistake transitioning to living as a female, or because he doesn’t… Continue reading Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Memorial by Bryan Washington
Memorial, the debut novel from Bryan Washington, begins with a fracturing that becomes the center of the book’s emotional landscape. The novel begins with Mike, a young chef living in the Third Ward in Houston with his boyfriend Benson, jetting off to Japan to be with his estranged father, who has received a fatal cancer… Continue reading Memorial by Bryan Washington
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
“Hi! My name is Nao, and I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you”, are the first lines of the diary that has washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox on the coast of an island in British Columbia,… Continue reading A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
In one of 2020’s buzziest new releases, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, novelist V.E. Schwab offers a modern take on the Faustian bargain, when the titular heroine disobeys advice to “Never pray to the gods that answer after dark.” Born in 1691 in a tiny village in France, Adeline LaRue quickly becomes disenchanted with the… Continue reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Holiday Gift Guide 2020: Part 1
Memoirs A PROMISED LAND BY BARACK OBAMA This memoir is the perfect gift for politics junkies or anyone in your life who misses our former president! It’s a thoughtful and beautifully written book, I really can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t like to receive this gorgeous book as a gift! I think it would be… Continue reading Holiday Gift Guide 2020: Part 1
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
The first installment of Barack Obama’s presidential memoirs, A Promised Land, has finally reached its long awaited release date almost a full presidential term after President Obama left the White House in January of 2017. For a less capable writer, this long lead time could render the book outdated or irrelevant, especially after the particularly… Continue reading A Promised Land by Barack Obama
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
In 2020, four years after Donald Trump promised Americans he would “build a wall” and make Mexico pay for it, the first formerly undocumented immigrant writer was nominated for the National Book Award. Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, whose anonymous essay for the Daily Beast that chronicled her experience as an DACA recipient and student at Harvard… Continue reading The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Sisters by Daisy Johnson
Daisy Johnson’s chilling new novel feels like a literary version of the twins from The Shining come to life. The novel, Sisters, is mostly narrated by July, a shy teen whose domineering older sister, September, gets her into all sorts of trouble. September maintains a mysterious hold over July, constantly forcing her into uncomfortable situations.… Continue reading Sisters by Daisy Johnson
Daughter of Black Lake by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Cathy Marie Buchanan brings first century Britannia to life in her latest novel, Daughter of Black Lake, which follows the twin narrative arcs of a mother and daughter coming-of-age during troubled times as villagers of the remote tribe living on Black Lake. Thirteen year old Hobble (she gets her name from her affliction with a… Continue reading Daughter of Black Lake by Cathy Marie Buchanan