Our expert librarians selected the year's best books for kids, teens, and adults. Check out these outstanding titles.
Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Hip-Hop History (Young Adult Edition)
By Jeff Chang & Dave "Davey D" Cook
A comprehensive history of hip-hop from its origins in the Bronx to its current status as one of the biggest cultural phenomena in American history.
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The Dish: Alexander Smalls on music career, becoming a restaurateur
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Mine is not an easy story to tell. I have been crying for days as I've watched history repeat itself at the border. I try to process emotions that are as complex as my identity – Haitian, Black, immigrant, woman, mother, daughter.
Throughout my childhood, my mother repeated the narrative of our journey from Haiti to America countless times: how her father vanished, presumed murdered by the Duvalier regime; how my father maneuvered to sponsor our visas and scraped together money for our plane tickets; how my mother made the journey to a foreign country where she knew no one with two toddlers in tow. We weren’t fleeing political persecution, although our country was rife with that plague. But our plight was still dire. We were pleading for a reprieve from poverty, for relief from hunger and hopelessness.
And we had immigrated to the United States the “right way,” as American politicians and immigration agents insist. They flippantly refer to the arduous and excruciating “alien” registration process with no understanding of its deliberately invincible obstacles. The route to legal immigration is barricaded by stacks of complex and undecipherable application forms atop impossible-to-find documentation to prove our existence. It is mired with the condescension of U.S. Embassy examiners, the irrepressible disdain of racist officials and the insult of rejection. After many failed attempts at seeking entry via normal channels, after being turned away from the golden gates by doing things the “right way,” my people risk their lives on more dangerous routes to America.
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Here & Now's Tonya Mosley speaks with Francesca Momplaisir, a native Haitian and author of the novel "My Mother's House" about what it's like for Haitians to flee their country.
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If Dominican Were a Color by Sili Recio has been nominated for an International Latino Book Award.
The International Latino Book Awards is a major reflection that the fastest growing group in the USA has truly arrived. The Awards are now by far the largest Latino cultural Awards in the USA and with the 276 finalists this year in 105 categories, it has now honored the greatness of 3,470 authors and publishers over the past two decades. The size of the Awards is proof that books by and about Latinos are in high demand. In 2020 Latinos will purchase over $750 million in books in English and Spanish.
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In this latest work, Cullors (co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement; author of the best-selling When They Call You a Terrorist) sets out 12 principles for activists in the movement to abolish policing and mass incarceration. Cullors is adamant that current American police establishments cannot be reformed and must be built anew. Here she proposes that accomplishing abolition will require activists to engage in courageous conversation, active forgiveness and accountability, community-building, and thinking creatively about reform. For each precept, she writes an analysis illustrated by examples from her experience and the experiences of other activists, tips for growth, and practical scenarios. Cullors uses her own experiences to illustrate her theories in a way that helps readers make connections. She aims to set out a space for developing healthy communication and reflection skills, which she argues are not taught or modeled effectively in the United States. Cullors invites readers to engage critically with the text, which is accessible to a wide audience; there are key questions at the end of each chapter to help direct readers’ actions.
VERDICT A useful and surprisingly personal handbook for activists. Recommended for all readers interested in social change activism, particularly prison reform and the defund-the-police movement.
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In this special edition of KidsLIVE, NYPL librarians talk to world-renowned ballet dancer Misty Copeland, author of Bunheads, and bestselling author and journalist Denene Millner.
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Me and Mama by Cozbi Cabrera has been named as a finalist in the 2021 Heartland Booksellers Awards in the "Children's Picture Book" category.
The Heartland Booksellers Award is a reflection of handselling at its best, as all the books are selected directly by independent booksellers, and celebrate literature in the Great Lakes and Midwest, with content either about the region, or an author from our region.
The Heartland Booksellers Award is a joint award given annually by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association and the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association.
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The Book of the Little Axe by Lauren Francis-Sharma has been nominated for a 2021 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award in the Fiction category.
The 2021 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards continues the foundation’s tradition of recognizing literary excellence by Black writers from the United States and around the world. Now in its 20th year, the Annual Legacy Awards Ceremony honors an esteemed group of authors and brings together writers, readers, scholars, publishers, journalists, and cultural activists to celebrate the best in Black literature. The evening will culminate in the announcement of the winners of the juried awards for books by Black authors published in 2020 in the categories of debut fiction, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. More than 160 books were submitted by publishers and self-published authors. The judges – all Legacy Award Honorees from previous years – worked independently of the foundation to evaluate the books for artistic excellence and contribution to the literary canon.
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Ever since he launched his first restaurant, one of the first African American fine-dining concepts, in New York City in 1994, chef Alexander Smalls has been traveling the length and breadth of the African continent, connecting with his roots and, as he puts it, “understanding the regional vernacular of food”.
He has since been on a mission to make food from Africa get the respect it deserves.
Smalls won the James Beard Foundation Award, which recognises achievements by US culinary professionals, for his 2018 book Between Harlem and Heaven: Afro-Asian-American Cooking for Big Nights, Weeknights, and Every Day.
His latest book, Meals, Music, and Muses: Recipes from My African American Kitchen, which came out last year, is an ode to his musical past, as well as his African roots.
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Gabino Iglesias takes a closer look at the suburban noir novel The Hunting Wives by May Cobb. Mr. Iglesias writes “Brass Ovaries: Reading Women” column for Mystery Tribune. He is the author of Coyote Songs, Zero Saints, and Gutmouth and his nonfiction has appeared in places like The New York Times and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Crime and horror fiction only truly work when there’s empathy present. That said, complicating those feelings of empathy by creating deeply flawed characters that more or less deserve whatever they get is something only great storytellers with a deep understanding of human nature can do. May Cobb’s The Hunting Wives accomplishes that and much more while exploring the way in which friendship, desire, and secrets can collide in unexpected ways to create chaos in the least likely places.
Sophie O’Neill was tired of life in the big city, so she left Chicago and moved to Mapleton, a small Texas town, with her husband and toddler son. Sophie wants to work on her blog and garden, and the quietness of Mapleton, a town of about 50,000 residents, is perfect for that. Unfortunately, while she doesn’t miss the hectic pace and sounds of suburban Chicago, small-town living soon gets to her and Sophie starts feeling bored and a little agitated.
When she meets a group of wealthy local women that call themselves the Hunting Wives at a party, Sophie thinks her uninteresting days are over. However, nothing is exactly as it seems. For starters, Sophie starts obsessing about Margot, the leader of the group, and gets pulled into her manipulative persona and inexplicable outbursts. Also, while there is shooting and the Hunting Wives use Margot’s land for late-night target practice, gossiping, and drinking, the group also partake of darker and more dangerous pastimes, including sleeping with teenagers and cheating on their husbands.
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Carolina De Robertis’ exceptional new novel is about a humble statesman, a man who quietly leaves office after one presidential term and retreats to his small farmhouse and his vegetable garden. Yes, such leaders exist. But they’re about as common as talking frogs.
Which brings us to the book’s key supporting character. “The President and the Frog” reserves an important role for a loquacious amphibian who helps the politician understand himself and the world. Inspired by the life of José Mujica, former president of De Robertis’ native Uruguay, and Aristophanes’ 2,400-year-old comedy “The Frogs,” the Oakland writer beguilingly blends the earthbound and the fantastical. Her fifth novel is a hopeful, entertaining paean to language, justice and perseverance.
De Robertis’ protagonist never shares his name, but he’s forthcoming on many other subjects. Decades before he’s elected — he takes office in his 70s — he’s imprisoned for challenging his country’s dictatorship. He spends lots of time in solitary confinement.
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The story of José Mujica, the president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015, is one of extraordinary political reconciliation. Mujica was a leader of the Marxist guerrilla group known as the Tupamaros, who were admired for their ideological earnestness and fancied themselves the avant-garde of change: Their radical communiqués and Robin Hood-like heroics would, they believed, provoke a popular uprising that would lead to the overthrow of the government and a new Uruguay.
In the late 1960s, when the Tupamaros were the epitome of revolutionary cool, their strategy appeared to be working. But by 1970 the government cracked down, assassinating guerrilleros. They responded in kind and a predictable spiral of violence followed. Mujica was shot six times by the police before they were able to arrest him. Three years later the military took power, unleashing a reign of state terror upon the population, and support for the Tupamaros turned into resentment. It wasn’t until the end of the dictatorship that Mujica was released from prison, in 1985. He entered mainstream politics and 25 years later, having charmed the country with his modest way of living and his bracingly spontaneous campaign style, he was elected Uruguay’s 40th president.
The main character of Carolina De Robertis’s fifth novel, “The President and the Frog,” is a thinly veiled version of this unusual man. When De Robertis picks up the story, he is simply “the ex-president”: retired and in his 80s, living in quiet reflection on his wife’s small farm. He is still an international celebrity — because of his lifestyle rather than the relatively tame progressive policies he promulgated in office. His circumstances are so humble they are almost a form of ostentation. As head of state he refused to reside in the presidential palace and preferred his old Volkswagen Beetle to the usual black limousine. Like Mujica’s, his entire worth was the meager value of the Beetle. The novel opens with a young Norwegian journalist arriving to interview him, one of many reporters he has entertained since leaving office; “the Poorest President in the World” makes for good copy.
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A co-founder of Black Lives Matter compiles a tool kit for activists hoping to abolish “oppressive systems, institutions, and practices” and to repair the harm they’ve caused.
Inspired partly by her father’s experiences in Alcoholics Anonymous, Cullors blends polemic and self-help in a 12-step program for getting rid of “prisons, jails, police, courts and surveillance” and otherwise “dismantling white supremacy.” As she sees it, abolition means more than demolishing institutions or practices and replacing them with more humane alternatives. It also involves taking personal and interpersonal steps to foster “healing and liberation,” such as having “courageous conversations” with friends, family, co-workers, and movement allies or colleagues about difficulties in relationships. Cullors begins each chapter by discussing one of her 12 steps, such as “Build Community” and “Forgive Actively Not Passively,” and ends each with practical tips on topics such as “What To Read/Watch/See/Hear” and “Guiding Questions” for reflection (listen to Beyoncé’s Lemonade to hear about “actively forgiving”).
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The Hunting Wives, by May Cobb
I read this in a day while on vacation with my family. I’m not entirely sure where I net out on it. There’s a lot to unpack. This is about a group of housewives in Texas who are (in some cases) bored in their marriages. They get together on Friday to drink and skeet shoot, drink, and hunt. Our narrator Sophie has recently moved there. Struggling with a bit of boredom after ditching her glamorous job as a magazine editor, she starts a gardening blog and yearns for female camaraderie. She quickly becomes obsessed with Margot – a beautiful, mysterious, (and very wealthy) brunette.
There’s a lot to unpack. First of all, (and I like to drink so this should tell you something) there is SO much drinking. I felt a little hungover at times while I read it. These women in their late thirties constantly swigging bourbon and taking tequila shots. I swear I’m not a prude but MAN. Also: the levels of infidelity made me super uncomfortable at times. There’s an Idea of You-esque plotline but more sordid – I won’t say anymore. My last complaint: the first sixty percent of the book was like watching a really bad trainwreck about to happen. You want to shake the main character and I felt so frustrated by her actions.
But, there are good points too. The plot kept me guessing. There were some good steamy parts. And the ending was really good. A great twist that I didn’t see coming. I would say that if you like murdery stuff and you want a fun beach read that you’ll breeze through in a day or two, pick this up.
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We've spent the past 15 months in the global equivalent of a diabolic Chuck E. Cheese ticket blaster. Locked in a quasi-preventable situation, the result of bad luck and worse decisions, we've been grasping at whatever will keep us safe, keep us sane, get us out, while being whipped by a virus, and often violence, that won't quit.
Some of us have been lonely. Others frightened, or angry. We're all exhausted. It's been a natural time to appraise how we got to this point of fracture and fragility, and how we heal; we want to know who we've been, and who we're becoming, and for that we've always turned to books. Which books have foretold the present, lit our paths, warned us back, egged us on? What books stand with us now, reflecting the present?
Our 50 Books for 50 Years list comes from this place of self-reflection, and is inspired by Powell's 50th anniversary year. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11; Edward Abbey's nascent environmental movement to Barry Lopez's luminous Arctic Dreams; Alice Walker's Celie and Shug to Jennifer Finney Boylan's groundbreaking work of trans autobiography; Jeff Chang's treatise on hip-hop to Patricia Lockwood's autopsy of Living Online, these 50 books not only show us who we have been as a country and a species and where we are going, but the power of the right words, at the right time, to act as a mirror and a beacon.
Can't Stop Won't Stop by Jeff Chang
Journalist, historian, and music critic (and cofounder of one of the greatest hip-hop labels of all time!) Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop is a sweeping cultural, political, and musical history of hip-hop (now the globe’s most lucrative genre). Spanning over three decades from its humble beginnings to the start of the new millennium, Chang’s comprehensive account of hip-hop culture has become its definitive text. As much a sociological examination as a proper historical account, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop situates a burgeoning musical movement within its contextual milieu of race, economics, disenfranchisement, social change, unrest, political policy, art, and more. Like an unforgettable novel with an exceptionally well-drawn cast of characters, Chang’s book isn’t just about hip-hop, it’s the story of late 20th-century America writ large.
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With so much distrust, anger, and hate in the air, a genuine expression of welcome is just the balm we so desperately need.
Whether offered in English or Urdu, Japanese or Lakota Sioux, the sentiment opens doors to friendships unimagined. Shared among family, friends, or strangers around a table of food, no matter how humble, the sense of welcome can build more bridges than political edicts. From celebrating Sukkot to offering shelter from a storm, smiles and greetings level many barriers. “May the road rise to meet you, / and walls fall away.” Donovan’s gentle, multilingual poem, although bumpy at times (“Ahlan wa sahlan. // Bienvenida. // Huānyíng. / I greet you in sunshine / or by light of the moon”), whispers a call to the souls of those in want of comfort. The belief that each of us matters, regardless of religion, nationality, or race, comes through with sincerity. “Tell me your stories, / sing me your songs. / Life has more flavor / since you came along.” Cho’s warm watercolor portrayals of myriad faces from different cultures meld seamlessly with the text, depicting welcoming households all over the globe. The diversity of ages and family configurations adds to the affirmation of life and good cheer. The concluding guide to languages included, including pronunciation and number of speakers, enriches this multicultural experience. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Céad mile fáilte to this heartfelt message of inclusivity and compassion. (introduction, author's note, artist's note, sources, bibliography)
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A diabolically twisty, psychologically unsettling novel about a woman with no recollection of her past from the authors of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick The Last Mrs. Parrish and The Wife Stalker.
Addison’s about to get married, but she’s not looking forward to the big day. It’s not her fiancé; he’s a wonderful man. It’s because Addison doesn't know who she really is. A few years ago, a kind driver found her bleeding next to a New Jersey highway and rescued her. While her physical wounds healed, Addison’s memory never returned. She doesn’t know her real name. Or how she ended up injured on the side of a road. Or why she can’t shake the notion that she may have done something very, very bad . . .
In a posh home in the Boston suburbs, Julian tries to figure out what happened to his loving, caring wife, Cassandra, who disappeared without a trace two years ago. She would never have left him and their seven-year-old daughter Valentina of her own free will—or would she?
As these two lives intersect, The Stranger in the Mirror hooks readers with riveting drama, told with Liv Constantine’s hallmark blend of glamour, tense psychological thrills, and jaw-dropping twists.
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