Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism
This is a meticulously researched and excellently written examination of history that everyone who has a child, works in education, or cares about education should read.
Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices
I feel genuinely better prepared to decide what kinds of things are personally worth my effort (and my guilt). The time I spent listening to this audiobook was time extremely well spent.
Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe
This book is not only hopeful and optimistic, but also instructive and motivational in terms of what kinds of policies and proposals are worth fighting for here in the US.
Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People Perry, Imani
Trust Imani Perry to rewrite the rules on what it means to tell the history of an entire people. If this isn’t nominated for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, I will riot.
Death of the Author
Unsurprisingly after all that hype, this genre-bender not only delivers but also hits differently than anything else Okorafor has written.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
If you’re looking for someone to put very simply why what’s happening in Palestine is not “complicated,” this is it. Required reading.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
I savored this book over the course of a month, sinking in every time I opened it. Prose, pacing, plot, character — Schwab truly does it all and does it better than most.
We Do Not Part
This book is surreal and disorienting (in a good way), deeply affecting, and the kind of book that’s so good and readable you have to stop yourself from inhaling it
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
If you haven’t read On Tyranny, please do so as soon as possible. This is an extremely short book — it’s 1:47 on audio and pocket-sized in print — that is nothing short of required reading, especially right now.
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension
This book is both sad and hopeful, scathing and uplifting. Brb, time to (finally) go read Abdurraqib’s entire backlist.
Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders
As a lover of all things fantasy and magical realism, obviously I had to pick this up. And the hype is so justified!
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
This book was an utter delight, indeed very cozy and interesting and a must-read for bookstore lovers everywhere.
The Bone Season (The Bone Season, #1)
Y’all. I am so mad at myself for waiting this long to read The Bone Season. It was exactly the kind of fantasy I was craving — a series that starts with a banger with a rich world and great plot and promises a good, long journey with a set of beloved characters over many books.
Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win
I don’t know how to explain to you how important it is that you read this book.
How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom
I picked up How to Tell When We Will Die near the start of a period in which my brain wanted only nonfiction, and it only added fuel to the fire. What an incredibly smart, powerful, incisive essay collection.
Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy, #1)
I’ve been meaning to read Robin Hobb for years — at this point, as a fantasy reader who champions women authors, it’s become a bit embarrassing, lol. I was craving a big, long adventure, and so I decided it was finally time! So glad I finally dove in.
What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures
What If We Get It Right? is one of the best books I’ve read this year, and almost certainly the best audiobook specifically. I am going to be pushing this into people’s hands (or headphones) for years.
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space
I downloaded this audiobook (thank you Penguin Audio!) because everyone I knew who’d read it was recommending it. And then when I was halfway through, it won the Kirkus Prize! So you don’t have to take my word for it when I say this book is totally worth reading.