The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie, in his first book for young adults, tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the reservation to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Felix Ever After
by Kacen Callender
Felix Love, a transgender seventeen-year-old, attempts to get revenge by catfishing his anonymous bully, but lands in a quasi-love triangle with his former enemy and his best friend.
Lakewood
by Megan Giddings
A stunning debut novel that delves fearlessly into the taboo subject of modern-day medical experimentation on African Americans
Half of a Yellow Sun
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Adichie’s historical novel follows the fortunes of five characters living through the tumultuous 1960s–a time when the Biafran-Nigerian War raged in southern Africa.
Horse
by Geraldine Brooks
Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in a horse–one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.
Chain-Gang All-Stars
by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
A kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
by Angie Cruz
Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life.
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead
A magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South.