The Nickel Boys is not an easy read. But it is worth all the hype, and it absolutely deserved the Pulitzer it won.

The Mirror and the Light is a feat of a conclusion to the Thomas Cromwell trilogy. It feels more like Wolf Hall than Bring Up the Bodies, but the ending was really excellent.

The Lacuna is an incredible feat of a novel that weaves real people and events together with expert fictional character-building. I can see why it is so acclaimed!

Hood Feminism is a wake-up call that should be required reading for all white and/or mainstream feminists.

Resistencia is a collection of political- and social-themed poems by Latinx poets, presented in English and Spanish. It’s incredible.

Home is a beautiful, unique sequel to Gilead, and I really enjoyed it.

The Road Home is a beautifully written about immigration and building a better life. I liked it.

Everywhere You Don’t Belong was a moving, fast-paced, poignant coming-of-age story about a young Black man from Chicago.

In the Dark, Soft Earth is a poetry collection filled with short but sharp and atmospheric poems rooted in nature.

Ordinary Hazards was a beautiful, heartbreaking novel about community and tragedy and hope and love and found family.

Intimations can be read in a single sitting, but it is packed with so much. These essays are the simultaneous balm and wake-up call we need right now.

Bring Up the Bodies is a truly great sequel to Wolf Hall. It takes the best of that book and builds dizzyingly on the world Hilary Mantel built.

A slightly mathy but surprisingly useful book about how to think critically about the information and research we read about in the news.

What Happens at Night is a dream-like and weird but very atmospheric and moving novel. I really liked it, but it won’t be for everyone.

This is a raw, gutting, absolutely beautiful book about a young Nigerian person navigating gender dysphoria. It’s incredible.

Horse Crazy is part memoir, part journalistic inquiry into the far corners of the world. Even though I don’t have a special interest in horses, I really sunk into and enjoyed it.

Luster is a searing, unflinching novel about art and sex and racism and womanhood that looks its characters right in the face. It was so good.

An Orchestra of Minorities is a stunningly beautiful, terribly sad novel written from the most unique narration I’ve ever read.

Half of a Yellow Sun is a heartbreaking novel about the Biafran war, which took place in Nigeria in the 1960s. It’s not an easy read, but it is affecting and an incredible feat of writing.

Gilead is an epistolary novel about a minister nearing the end of his life. I found it a tad slow in the middle, but very beautifully written,.