From Ryan
This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, is an epistolary novel about time travel, secret agents, an endless war, and love. As sworn enemy Red and Blue taunt each other throughout time, their letters filled with prose is so beautiful, they verge on poetry, revealing the loneliness and longing of two women with no place or time to call your own.
From Ryleigh
In They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib, a voice speaks from experience and honesty. In this book, Abdurraqib invites the reader in with his stunning words and images. Whether it’s an essay about Chance the Rapper, Fleetwood Mac, or Carly Rae Jepson, the experiences and words beneath the music pull the reader in. This is what essays are all about.
From Bella
Kiese Layman’s memoir Heavy is exactly that: heavy. Layman writes his story of growing up in Mississippi in entirely second person addressing his mother—an interesting point of view that immediately draws the reader in. He simultaneously creates a tone that weighs on the reader. He discusses themes including black oppression, dieting, and domestic violence. The most difficult aspect of an American memoir is being truthful—an especially dangerous case for a narrator who grew up in a lying family.
One of our favorite independent bookstores is Two Sisters Bookery in Wilmington, NC. https://www.twosistersbookerync.com/