This reimagining of Sleeping Beauty features Harrow’s signature elements that I love: strong & smart female characters, wit that makes you audibly laugh, and prose that leaves you in awe of the magic of words. While a delightful read, this novella also doesn’t shy away from the darkness that is found in both our world and the fairytale world, and it is all the more powerful for it.
This book captured me immediately. Aisato's illustrations are absolutely stunning; so many pages in this book could be stand-alone art pieces. While words are used sparingly, they join the art so well in conveying the beauty and struggle of the stages of life. I found solace in the beauty of this book and imagine many others would, too.
Kate Baer’s erasure poems pull beauty, truth, and humor from unexpected places. From weight loss solicitation emails to comments of appreciation to emails deriding her politics and her body, Baer uses these sources to create poems that pack a punch. A solid collection worth revisiting regularly.
I absolutely adored this book. Chambers places us centuries into the future, and it is a bright, lush world. We follow a traveling tea monk who is joined along the way by a robot they meet in the wild, a robot who is seeking to learn what humans need. This was a comforting book that balanced warmth, humor, and existential questions (without the navel-gazing). I'm eager to see where this series leads.
Smith's second collection of poetry is stirring and devastating and absolutely beautiful. It's been a long time since a book of poetry stuck with me in the ways this one has, and I am so grateful to have encountered this work.
A gripping history of the Black Panther Party and its wide-ranging impact and influence. Illustrated in a crisp, beautiful fashion, this book covers the Black Panthers' origins, major events, key players, bold actions, and enduring & complicated legacy.
Aubrey Gordon has been writing powerful essays about her experience as a fat person under the pseudonym Your Fat Friend for several years. Now, she stands out with this work that effectively weaves research with personal storytelling and cultural critique. Gordon shares about the hostility she faces in moving through the world in a fat body while also highlighting the many ways anti-fat bias shows up in our society, from denial of healthcare to legal discrimination, and plenty more. This book will challenge you and cause you to examine your own internalized bias, and you'll be all the better for it.
This collection of personal essays by disabled writers should be required reading for all nondisabled people. Edited by disabled activist, Alice Wong, Disability Visibility addresses topics as wide-ranging as the disability community: from the isolation of being deaf in prison to the need for fashion that accommodates medical devices to facing harassment just moving through the world, and plenty more.
A gorgeous novel set in the late 1890s that is still too relevant today with characters fighting to live just as they are and using magic to further their cause. I adored this beautiful story and was sad to say good-bye to the Eastwood sisters at the end. This book lifts up the power of women, of resistance, and will have you wanting to learn some spells.
If you've read Hillbilly Elegy (or even if you haven't), read this book for a more nuanced and honest take on the Central Appalachian region. Catte packs a lot into these pages, including history of radical union organizing among coal miners to how the region has become "othered" and used as a scape goat for our country's ills. This is a must read for anyone living outside the region to better understand the history and complexity of Appalachia.
Picture this: You've stopped to pick-up coffee on your way to work when suddenly you, and everyone around you, begin to float. In this world created by Nick Taplansky and beautifully illustrated by Kate Glasheen, we follow Noah, a journalist and father, who grapples with the ways gravity shifts have forever altered his life and humanity as a whole. Figuring out how to live a good life during times of vast uncertainty is something we all face, and this book portrays this in an effective and moving way.
This is the first book I read when I was young that showed me what a book can be. Roy's writing still astounds on every re-read.
If you can't imagine your life without your close friends, this book will be deeply validating and rewarding. Friendship doesn't tend to be discussed at the same level as romantic relationships or familal relationships, but Sow and Friedman do a great job lifting up its importance--the joy and growth friendships bring and why they're worth the hard work. You'll want to talk to your people after reading this.
