Until she found her agent in 2015, Mira T. Lee thought of her writing as a “dirty little secret.” Although she started publishing short stories almost a decade ago, she didn’t start writing “seriously” until 2012, buoyed by an Artist Fellowship from Mass Cultural Council: “I...
As a boy, Nek Chand "played and planted, laughed and listened ...
Emilia Nightingale returns from Hong Kong to her childhood home in Peasebrook in the middle of the English Cotswolds when she inherits Nightingale Books after her father's death. Taking over the establishment means that the villagers immediately become part of her inheritance, including a klepto...
African American legends like Serena Williams and Michael Jordan are household names, but not long ago, professional sports were strictly segregated. Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947; the National Basketball Association allowed Earl Lloyd to play in 1950; Brown v. Board of...
Compassion goes a long way when writing about death – especially the death of loved ones. Narrating such a book requires a gentleness, a soothing rhythm. That Danticat reads her latest nonfiction – a thoughtful meditation bookended by her mother's fatal cancer diagnosis and Danticat's...
Now-adult adoptees who arrived in the United States from other countries are learning that their U.S. citizenship can’t be assumed. Two recent tragedies have highlighted the shocking realization: the May 2017 suicide of Phillip Clay, adopted at eight by a Philadelphia family and deported to Seoul 29...
Kirby Heyborne deploys his gentle charm to give voice to 12-year-old Walter Lavender Jr. who, owing to "a motor speech disorder," might seem mute to the outside world but has an imaginative soul that can't be silenced. Always an insightful observer, Walter is an unparalleled...
With raw honesty (the memoir opens with suicide ideation), debilitating angst (the unrelenting hold of mental illness), and humor when least expected (the terrors of securing a prom date), Haroon Moghul’s memoir becomes an illuminating antidote to contemporary Islamophobia. As the U.S.-born son of immigrant Pakistani...
When Diane dies in a car accident, her daughters, 18-year-old Mary and 4-year-old Hannah, are left effectively with nothing. The family's rundown New Jersey seaside motel, which has always been home, is less than worthless owing to back taxes. Without resources, Mary and Hannah head...
Maile Meloy (Madame Lazarus) makes her narrating debut with this disturbing thriller that showcases a parent's worst nightmare – the disappearance of children. Best friends and cousins Liv and Nora take their husbands and two children (each) on a holiday cruise. The families bask in...
Monsters under the bed, specters hiding in closets, demons just outside the door seem to afflict – and limit – every child at some point in their young lives. But what if those "Shadows on the wall / Noises down the hall" could be confronted...
Jule West Williams is "the kind of woman it would be a great mistake to underestimate." Her background might be imagined, but the self-assessment is exact. Her invented 10-year "highly unusual education" – not unlike the epic journeys of white hetero heroes, which she both...
I’ve been hanging with a few serious Civil War buffs the last couple weeks (one of whom is a licensed historical tour guide and descended from a Civil War lieutenant colonel) and I haven’t yet met an “expert” who’s heard this strange tale about tiny...
With her name, Aza's dad bestowed her with possibility: "It spans the whole alphabet, because we wanted to let you know you can be anything." Davis's father "made [him] a junior. Resigned [him] to juniority." The two teens have little in common – Davis is...
Although the inaugural Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing went to Deepak Unnikrishnan’s dazzling Temporary People (2017), the judges were so enthralled by the “insane and brilliant” Heartland by Cuban-born, New York-domiciled lesbian activist Simo that it, too, went to press, enabling the 73-year-old...
While Phoebe Strole stays consistently convincing in voicing characters of different genders and ages, and conveying shocks and surprises throughout, Kimberly McCreight's continuing mystery centered on teen Wylie is showing signs of fatigue, not to mention just plain disbelief. Wylie, a self-described "full-on agoraphobic" in...
*STARRED REVIEW The term "refugee" is constantly in the news. In direct response, Alan Gratz gets personal with desensitizing statistics, policies, and politics by giving names, families, and histories to three tweens fleeing three countries during three time periods. Each fits the "refugee" label but is...
Two friends return to Watersend, SC, to the childhood vacation house their families once shared. Bonny Blankenship, an ER doctor forced to take a break, needs to face her bitter marriage and stalled career. She’s hoping her teenage daughter Piper, who’s just failed her first...
What sweet agony to have so many fantabulous, freakin’ spectacular books from which to cull. I’ve got my 2017 favorite adult titles down to a baker’s dozen, chosen under great duress. They’re presented in alphabetical order – opposed to actually ranked, a feat which just might...
A young daughter is "having a hard time falling asleep tonight." To lull her to "dream," her mother offers a story about "a baby wrapped in a white sheet and her mother smiling at her." That baby is the titular jazz legend Nina Simone. Her...
