Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Before I began attending The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library System’s Social Justice Book Clubs and Learning Circles devoted to teaching and discussing Black History, I had never heard of Octavia E. Butler....
Author: Kate
Surviving: Visual Poetry Anthology by Madison Cowles Serna
Madison Cowles Serna earned her Master of Fine Arts in Art Studio from the University of Kentucky and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at San Antonio....
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
When I was a kid, I drove my mother nuts. I began each day with questions I believed critical to life and limb and needed to be answered immediately. I continued...
The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
This novel is brilliant. One of the many perfect decisions the author makes is to write in the voice of Adunni, a fourteen-year-old girl living in the current-day, small rural Nigerian...
Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story) by Danel Nayeri
When I was teaching third grade, my students would celebrate their writing every few months with a Publishing Party for anyone who wanted to listen to them read their masterpieces. On...
The Girl Who Reads on the Métro by Christine Féret-Fleury
I will begin by saying that some reviews have not been especially kind to The Girl Who Reads on the Métro, but I loved it. Originally written in French [La Fille...
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Before Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie revealed her gifts as a storyteller in Purple Hibiscus, longlisted for the Booker prize, and Half a Yellow Sun, winner of the Orange prize. With Americanah,...
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez
Sigrid Nunez does not use a question mark after the title What Are You Going Through (2020). She has stated that she views the phrase not as a question but more...
Little Gods by Meng Jin
What do you do when your debut novel is a masterpiece? In Meng Jin’s case, I have no doubt, she’ll produce another and another. It is rare that an author creates...
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
I was a little nervous when I read that one of the most important voices in America today, Ta-Nehisi Coates, had written a novel. I cherished his nonfiction starting with We...
