A kingdom built on magic that sits precariously on the coast's edge, nefarious deeds in dark rooms, witchcraft and severed heads; this beautiful graphic novel has all the trappings of a good dark and spooky story, but at it's depths it has a heart.
Meaghan
These stories are haunted not with ghosts, but with the loss of innocence, the debts that get demanded of girls when their hips start to curve, and the terror of not quite knowing what happens to the girls who venture behind closed doors with boys.
Meaghan
It's nothing new to say that a book is the book we need right now, but Transcendent Kingdom is the book we need right now. Narrator Gifty is both eloquently observant and clinical as she recounts the struggle of her Ghanaian immigrant family to survive in America while being Black, while being poor, while facing addiction and depression and tragedy. But she still finds hope.
Meaghan
If you know or have ever been a townie in a New England seaside town, this book will feel like home, like riding your bike through the warm twilight of summer. Even if you've hardly left Boston, this book will sweep you up and break your heart and then put the pieces back together with tape and bits of string. Kate Allen's writing is both lyrical and straightforward, mature and yet captures the enthusiasm and confusion of being thirteen.
Meaghan
First, I was arrested by the cover; seriously, what a beautiful cover. Then I was taken in by the story, a relatively simple plot of smuggling contraband from point A to point B, but the addition of the nun Guet Imm to the smuggling party led by Lau Fung Cheung (but really by his second, Tet Sang), unravels the simple plot spectacularly. Because then the novella sneaks up on you with commentary on gender, honor, religion, and, ultimately, love. A genuinely fun and immersive read.
Meaghan
The folk revival of the 1950s and 60s didn't just stem from Pete Seeger or Peter, Paul, and Mary. It was built on the back of one of the most famous folk singers of the day who I'd never heard of Odetta. In this thorough biography tells her story, which is fascinating and unfortunately familiar.
Meaghan
A beautifully written tale of a 1600s witch hunt and trial on a small Norwegian island. It is a nuanced look at the power of a female community, the toxicity of patriarchy, and the whirlwind of a village descending into madness, eating itself from the inside.This book will sweep you up in its whirlwind.
Meaghan
The Regrets is the rom-com for those of us who hate rom-coms for being heartwarming and unrealistic. (Yes, there are ghosts in this book and still it's more realistic than your standard Meg Ryan fare.) Bonnaffons takes the set pieces of the New York romance and turns them into a prescient meditation on the nature of identity and the ways that romantic relationships can threaten one's sense of self. Also, and I can't stress this enough, there are ghosts.
Meaghan
What if the inevitable alien takeover happened not with a bang, but with a caress? The sweet caress of intoxicants, immortality, and easy access to everything you ever wanted. There’d be at least one person who found the whole “the world is perfect thing” utterly depressing, right? Meet Trina FastHorse Goldberg-Oneka. Her story is a funny, heartfelt ride.
Meaghan
A refugee who escaped Iran under threat of religious persecution in 1989, Dina Nayeri writes with lyricism and incredible clarity about the refugee experience. She weaves her own story in with those of fellow Iranian refugees, as well those waiting in the camps in Greece today to show the insidious power of Western privilege, the hopelessness of the asylum seeker, and to make the plea for dignity for the misplaced. A necessary read.
Meaghan
