Cyclopedia Exotica
by Aminder Dhaliwal

This volume of cartoons is a rad work of social satire in which the world is composed of two types of folks: Cyclopes and Two-Eyes. Dhaliwal’s great wit helps the bitter pill of how badly people treat each other go down with a snort. Puns abound! My affection for the cyclopes was immediate. They navigate all aspects of life while enduring marginalization, sometimes gracefully, sometimes angrily, sometimes comically. The reader sees not only these public and personal interactions, but also how they continue to resonate in the inner lives of the cyclopes. It is kooky and rings true, delightful and deep at once.
––Beverly

The Rock from the Sky
by Jon Klassen

Jon Klassen knows how to make the simplest dialogue absolutely laugh-out-loud funny. Each of the characters are drawn so simply, yet so expressively. I maybe find this book a little too relatable…
— Juliette

The Anthropocene Reviewed
by John Green

For avid fans of John Green, this is him at his most solemn and introspective. Yet this book radiates an awe and faith that had me tearing up — in appreciation — throughout. As Green notes various elements of human life, from our temporal range as a species, to the artwork of the Lascaux Caves, he connects to small moments of his own life, the lives of those long passed and expresses a profound faith in us all. This book was the steadiest and most intense form of catharsis I’ve felt in a while, and after this year, I definitely needed it.
—KT

Stamped (For Kids)
Adapted by Sonja Cherry-Paul

You loved Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning and Jason Reynolds’ YA adaptation Stamped: Race, Racism, and You; now get ready to share this powerful work with a new world of young readers. Like Kendi’s original work, Stamped (For Kids) makes a distinction between segregationists (“people who hate you for not being like them”), assimilationists (“people who like you only if you act like them”), and antiracists (“They love you because you are you”). Dr. Cherry-Paul expertly breaks down the history of race and racism in language that is accessible, informative, and engaging for older-elementary and middle-school readers.
—Sally

Women Street Photographers
Edited by Gulnara Samoilova

Starkly beautiful, intimate, and extraordinarily ordinary — immerse yourself in the world of women street photographers, collected in this volume by Gulnara Samoilova. An essential, remarkable addition to any coffee table, personal library, or (high school or college) classroom.
—Steph

How to Resist Amazon and Why
by Danny Caine

This book dives deep into the many ways amazon negatively affects the world’s data privacy, work culture, and economy. While this book is written by an indie bookseller, it goes far beyond calling out unfair bookselling competition in defense of local economies. The invasive breaches of privacy, data harvesting, work safety deterioration, union retaliation, and misleading publicity are all important reasons to resist reliance on a global, power-hungry behemoth.
—Kim

The Secret to Superhuman Strength
by Alison Bechdel

From the brilliant mind of Alison Bechdel (author of Fun Home and Essential Dykes to Watch For) comes the newest meditation on aging and wellness. A graphic memoir told through a series of athletic endeavors seeking out the secret to superhuman strength, we process what it means to experience the ongoing seasons of life.
—Kim

Best Friend in the Whole World

by Sandra Salsbury

I was a quiet child who was prone to having more imaginary friends than real ones. This beautiful book deeply spoke to that child and told her that it was okay – wonderful even! – to have both. With impeccable, delicate illustrations that melt my heart, this is a tender story about friendship and doing the right thing, even if it’s hard sometimes. I connected immediately with the protagonist Roland and fell absolutely in love with his friend Milton. I know everyone else will, too. 
— Amy

Bruised

by Tanya Boteju

Daya relies on her tough exterior to push down the trauma of losing both her parents in a tragic car accident, throwing herself (literally) into skateboarding and using the bruises and sore muscles to distract from difficult feelings. As her emotional pain becomes harder to control, she hopes to up her bruise game in roller derby. What she finds instead is undersanding, friendship, support, and a new definition of strength.
— Kim

Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story
Remaking a Life from Scratch

by Erin French

Founder of the unique and wildly successful Lost Kitchen restauerant, Erin French provides a brutally honest narrative of the determination, against all odds, to build a distinctive restaurant in rural Maine. This is a page-turning memoir that reads like a novel. An amazing story!
— Mary

The Night Always Comes

by Willy Vlautin

Second chances are hard to come by. Lynette has worked her ass off to save enough money to buy her family’s home. When the bottom falls out of her plan, we watch her increasing desperation to find another way. Haunted by past events that keep crawling into the light, Lynette’s determination is something to behold. Gritty, realistic fiction for fans of Ottessa Mosfegh and Raymond Carver (also Breaking Bad).
— Beverly

When the Stars Go Dark

by Paula McClain

This will get your heart racing! Missing persons detective Anna Hart is on the run from her own life. While grieving in Mendocino, she gets involved in a missing person case which might or might not be related to an unsolves crime from when Anna was a teen. Can she solve the crime? This psychological thriller explores the effects of trauma on individuals and communities.
—Shirley

Mary Jane

by Jessica Anya Blau

I went into Mary Jane cautiously; Daisy Jones and the Six had been such a fun summer read that I doubted this could hold up. I was wrong. Daisy was fun, Mary Jane is going to stay with me for a lot longer.

Set in the mid 70s, 14-year-old Mary Jane becomes the summer nanny for Dr. and Mrs. Cone who live down the street. At first, she is aghast at how they live — messy, unconcerned with appearances, and never cooking meals. But as the summer goes on, she falls in love with the whip-smart 5-year-old, becomes friends with Dr. Cone’s rock star patients, and starts to envision a life different from the one she’s seen her parents live. The book is full of life, fun, love, and music. I can’t wait for it to release in May so I can start gleely shoving it into people’s hands!
— Christine

Amber & Clay

by Laura Amy Schlitz

I am in love with this book. Just when you think Greek Gods and Goddesses could not be presented in a fresh way… Prose, poetry, artifact descriptions fill the page. The writing feels contemporary – it is fast-paced, you get Greek tales, fantasy, philosophy, war, poverty, and pure Magic.
— Cheryl

brood: a novel

by Jackie Polzim

Chickens are maybe the most hapless animals on the planet. A whole book about chickens is very funny to me. Once you have sat down to write a book about chickens and only chickens, I think that there is little that you can do wrong. I am very excited about Brood, by Jackie Polzin, which has the same dry wit and matter-of-factness that you get from an E.B. White essay about his miserable pig farm in Maine or a Richard Brautigan tangent about the dogs barking in his back yard. Reading what I just wrote, it is amazing that none of these are boring, but oh wow, jumpin’ jehosahphats, etc., what quiet beauty there is in the banality of the work it takes to keep chickens from freezing to death in Minnesota. Like all of my favorite books, it takes something simple and makes it seem strange and unfamiliar.
— Phil

Firekeeper’s Daughter

by Angeline Boulley

This is not your typical YA novel. The storyline follows Daunis, a recently graduated hockey enthusiast and Ojibwa girl who passes up the opportunity to attend U of M to stay close to her mother who is grieving the unexpected loss of Daunis’s uncle.

Local Tribal politics seem to have a way of glossing over tragedies that occur within their city and Daunis knows something isn’t right. A new boy in town playing on the local hockey team (the local heroes) is intriguing and gets close to Daunis. They begin an investigation into some serious misdeeds. The suspense kicks up a notch and takes you on a nail-biting journey. All of the characters in this story are rich and detailed. This is so well-crafted and offers a real glimpse into a large pocket of culture set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I loved this story.
— Juliette

frank: sonnets

by Diane Seuss

When you hear “sonnets” what comes to mind? Shakespeare likely. Maybe you also turn away thinking sonnets are not your thing? Turn back and read these for a fresh, urgent, beautiful change of mind. I read the whole book in one sitting because I couldn’t stop. By the end it felt like I’d read a book of short stories. I immediately flipped back to certain pages and lines that were so stunning I just had to see them again. One made me laugh out loud. Another so sharply devastating that it took my breath.
— Amy A

The Hare

by Melanie Finn

Rosie Monroe is a sheltered first-year college student in New York City when she meets Bennett – a dashing, enigmatic man at turns charming, cultured, treacherous, and unpredictable. He demands total devotion and obedience, resulting in a whirlwind ride of deception and instability that leads to him effectively abandoning Rosie and their infant daughter in a remote Vermont cabin, with no insulation, income, or car.
Backed into a corner that culminates in a desperate act that haunts Rosie for the rest of her life, we watch her painfully grow up and grow older with the things she saw and the things she did to survive.
A gripping, transcendent tale that will have you by the throat until the very end.
— Steph

Klara and the Sun

by Kazuo Ishiguro

It’s no secret that Kazuo Ishiguro is a brilliant author, and his most recent novel, Klara and the Sun, is certainly no exception. Klara is an “Artificial Friend” who is thrilled to be chosen by a girl named Josie. Something is wrong, though — Josie seems to be experiencing a serious illness. As a narrator, Klara is at once intimately perceptive and sweetly naive about the human world. Fans of Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go will recognize some of Ishiguro’s favorite themes of memory, longing, impermanence, and the honor in serving others.
— Sally

No One Is Talking About This

by Patricia Lockwood

yes yes YES. My favorite art provides unexpected experiences and I follow blindly where the creator takes me. P Lockwood did that! Right here in this book, with its spotlight freezing the absurdities of our times dead in their tracks. It’s hilarious, disturbing, beautiful and stupidly modern.

Excerpt: “On slow news days, we hung suspended from meathooks, dangling over the abyss. On a fast news day, it was like we had swallowed all of NASCAR and were about to crash into the wall. Either way, it felt like something a dude named Randy was in charge of.” Open to any page and find such things! Keep reading and the heart of this novel grows and grows.
— Beverly

The Old Boat

Jarrett Pumphrey & Jerome Pumphrey

A beautiful tribute to loss, love, change, and beginning anew. Our lives are full of “hellos” and “goodbyes,” beginnings and endings. This book perfectly captures the challange and beauty that comes with an ever-changing world.
— Syd

Persephone Station

by Stina Leicht

The Mandalorian
meets
Leverage
Need I say more?
— Jaclyn

Rissy No Kissies

by Katey Howes, illustrated by Jess Engle

What a wonderful book about Body Autonomy! Rissy knows that kissies make her feel icky, and her wonderful and caring parents listen to her and help her find ways to express care and affection in her own way. So sweet, heartfelt, with Darling illustrations.
— Amy O

Join us for an empowering online event with Katey Howes and Carrie Finison, author of Don’t Hug Doug (He Doesn’t Like It) — where body autonomy and consent are key

Strong as Fire, Firece as Flame

by Supriya Kelkar

Meera, from a small village in India in 1857, is about to turn 13, which means she will need to join the boy from the next village to whom she has been married since age 4. Both families also believe in sati (which the author emphasizes as an infrequent tradition followed by a small percentage of the population, whereby a widow has to immolate herself on her husband’s pyre). Meera’s husband becomes ill and dies just before her birthday. Minutes before Meera is expected to follow the tradition, an aunt helps her escape. The rest of the story follows her escape and subsequent employment as a servant for a captain in the British East India Company. Meera comes of age while trying to understand where her loyalties lie – with the captain’s family who seems to be taking decent care of her while she saves money for a life on her own or with her friends who are resisting the East India Company and all that it has taken from their lives. Great story!
— Shirley

Thirsty Mermaids

by Kat Leyh

Looking for a fun, unique and (of course) queer graphic novel for grown ups?

From the amazing Kat Leyh (author of Snapdragon and contributor to Lumberjanes) comes Thirsty Mermaids, the adventures of Tooth, Pearl, and Eezy — oddballs in the undersea world — on the hunt for some booze and a good time. They drunkenly turn themselves into humans with no known way back. After a night passed out in an alley, they find a human friend to help them and while Eezy tries to find them a way back to their mer-selves, Tooth and Pearl have to get jobs so they can earn this money stuff people are so into.

Gorgeously weird humor. Radical acceptance of self and others. Fun and quick. I loved it so so much. It made my whole heart happy.
— Kim

We Begin at the End

by Chris Whitaker

An absorbing, thrilling mystery set in a tiny tourist town on the California coast. One of the locals is being released from prison after serving thirty years for killing a young girl, and the town’s wounds are still raw. With plot twists and suspense that will keep you on edge, a 13-year-old, self-proclaimed “outlaw” named Duchess drives this engrossing novel. I could not put it down!
— Mary