Yesteryear

Written by: Caro Claire Burke

First line: This is the last day of the life I imagined for myself. 

Why you should read this book: Natalie has always known that everyone around her is stupid, and that her beliefs about marriage and family and femininity are the only intelligent ways to view those concepts, so naturally, when her marriage falters after the birth of her first child, she focuses increasingly on creating a media empire based on her identity as a "trad wife," showcasing a perfect farm life based on conservative ideals. But Natalie's perfect world is shattered when she wakes up mysteriously transported to some strange nineteenth century farm, held hostage and forced to serve as a wife and mother to a husband and children who are sort of like her real husband and children on land that is a lot like her actual home, but not quite. Told in a series of flashbacks, Natalie's journey exposes the dark side of the lifestyle and the hypocrisy of the young women influencers promoting it. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Natalie is an utterly irredeemable character, smug and self-righteous with zero self-awareness, an unreliable narrator who absolutely deserves every awful thing that happens to her, which is interesting to read, but an unusual way to write a protagonist. 

The Bog Wife

Written by: Kay Chronister

First line: On winter nights, the burned heavy bundles of dried peat in the hearth and inhaled the scent of sacred ground burning while their father paced the length of the room, reciting the history of the Haddesley compact.

Why you should read this book: All their lives, the young adult Haddlesley children have been taught to honor the ancient compact between their family and their bog, which every generation offers up one magical wife to the eldest son, to continue the family line. But their vague, eldritch bog mother has mysteriously vanished, and one of the siblings has fled the land, and there are increasing doubts about the eldest son's suitability to serve as patriarch, and meanwhile, in true southern gothic fashion, the weight of their own history is literally crushing the family home. Naturalistic and supernatural, this delightful novel chronicles the breakdown of old family narratives about power and responsibility.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You believe everything your parents told you despite all evidence to the contrary. 

Dybbuk Americana

Written by: Joshua Gottlieb-Miller

First line: I don't like to guess what kind of Jew/I could have been/in 1492, 1942; pick a year/and I would have thought, "Bad Jew,"/looking in a mirror, under my breath. 

Why you should read this book: This collection of poetry examines the questions of identity, belief, and behavior that are, perhaps, unique to American Judaism. Frankly discussing the concepts of whiteness, assimilation, mixed marriage, antisemitism, family history, world history, philosophy, child rearing, and his own relationship with his community, his relatives, and himself, the author offers an honest picture of a man haunted by the quality of Jewishness that coalesces around spirituality and ethnicity in America. This large format book allows for a layout that seems to communicate the multitude of voices and ideas informing the author's journey and evolution as he places his life in the larger context of history, culture, and family. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Some of the experimental-feeling layout makes the poetry ambiguous or difficult to read. 

Evangelina Everyday

Written by: Dawn Burns

First line: "I feel adrift," Evangelina said, sitting at the kitchen table reading but not really reading the Elkhart Truth as Russel went about his business preparing a fire for the night because on cold December nights, that is just what they had come to do over their twenty-one years of marriage. 

Why you should read this book: From the outside, Evangelina looks like an ordinary woman in an ordinary marriage, but on the inside, she's keenly aware that something about her is different, and something about her life isn't quite right, not when held up against the lives of the people around her. Told as a novel in short stories, this book gives a gripping picture of this meaningful year in her life, the year when Evangelina has to stop dismissing the quiet disconnect and occasional revulsion in her relationship with her husband and the sense of loss and longing she's felt since her best friend moved away, feelings that other women in her circles don't seem to grapple with. Evangelina is no everyday woman, and when she finds the space within herself to ask who she used to be, who she is, and who she wants to be in the future, her entire world will change. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're not ready to stop dismissing your quiet disconnect and occasional revulsion. 

The Round House

Written by: Louise Erdrich

First line: Small trees had attacked my parents' house at the foundation.

Why you should read this book: Joe Coutts's childhood comes to an end the summer his mother is brutally assaulted by an unidentified assailant on land that may or may not fall under the jurisdiction of tribal law. Distressed by his mother's trauma and retreat from the world and frustrated by the callous inefficiency of the justice system, Joe takes on his own investigation of the crime, aided explicitly by his three best friends and implicitly by his Ojibwe family and community and their history, shared and secret, old and new, and often hindered by his own adolescent sensibilities. Powerful, revelatory, upsetting, and important, this book shines a light on inequality, hypocrisy, the betrayals of the American government toward indigenous people, the power of unbroken tradition, and questions of morality in an immoral world. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: The plot turns on the violent rape and attempted murder of an indigenous woman. 

A Green Glow on the Horizon: Tales from the National Association of Tourist Attraction Survivors

 Written by: Dawn Burns

First line: This is the story I'm learning to tell.

Why you should read this book: Beneath the structure of these surreal fictions, linked by the premise that  roadside tourist attractions leave bruises upon those who don't have the luxury of simply passing through the amusement, lies a series of hard truths about parents and children, and the disconnect and betrayal that comes from irrational adult beliefs that are too rigid to accommodate "sensitive" children. Metaphorically examining religious trauma through a uniquely American fairy tale lens, these stories showcase the reluctantly expressed pain of those (usually daughters) who feel diminished in the face of others' (usually their mother's) obsessions with strange, unyielding ideals that do not serve unbelieving children. From Roswell, New Mexico to Pedro's South of the Border in South Carolina, Iowa's Corn Palace, Arizona's The Thing to The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, and even stranger settings, surprising locations lead to surprising maladies, anger, introspection, and sometimes, recovery, and redemption.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You know your teenager is wrong about their own identity, needs, and beliefs, and if you just keep ignoring what she wants, she'll get better. 

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated

Written by: Alison Arngrim

First line: The Los Angeles County Fair is probably not the first place you'd go if you were seeking to be forgiven of your sins, but I have a tendency to find strange things in strange places. 

Why you should read this book: If you were a kid in the '70s and '80s, you probably watched Little House on the Prairie and if you watched Little House on the Prairie, you probably hated that bitch, Nellie Oleson, and considered her the epitome of evil and deserving of any and all abuse heaped upon her by Laura and the show runners, but Nellie Oleson wasn't a real person; she was a conglomerate character brought to life by an earnest, clever, and dedicated child actress named Alison Arngrim, who spent her real life youth taking the lumps earned by a character she portrayed with such natural joy and intensity that people seemed to think Nellie was real and Alison didn't exist. This buoyant and fast-paced memoir tells all about what was going on behind the scenes of the popular, long-running show (Michael Landon never wore underwear, every adult in the cast and crew was drunk at all times, that wig was incredibly painful to wear, and the real bitch was the girl who played Mary) along with her own heart-wrenching stories of abuse and loss. Arngrin is candid and humorous, even when discussing the most painful memories, and illustrates how she managed to survive child stardom relatively unscathed and pivot into adult success in the entertainment industry without compromising her values and beliefs at all. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Trigger warning for candid discussions of child sexual abuse/incest including a somewhat disconcerting confrontation with the abuser in adulthood. 

Strange Animals

Written by: Jarod K. Anderson

First line: Green died and then he didn't. 

Why you should read this book: Following a very near-death encounter with a city bus, depressed and disillusioned city-dweller Green hauls himself off to Appalachia to reconnect with nature and encounters a natural world beyond the perception of most mortals. Following a terrifying encounter with not one, but two cryptids his first night outdoors, he finds himself apprenticed to Valentina Blackwood, presumably the world's oldest cryptonaturalist, and immersed in pursuit of a deadly killer. Green can see what others cannot see, so he can do what others cannot do, and with Valentina's help, he is determined to protect the natural world.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's a great fantasy story, but I think I enjoyed this author's nonfiction work more. 

American Dirt

Written by: Jeanine Cummins

First line: One of the very first bullets comes in through the open window above the toilet where Luca is standing.

Why you should read this book: Fast paced and gut wrenching, it tells the story of Lydia and Luca, a mother and young child who survive the cartel's assassination of the rest of their family and must escape Acapulco, join the procession of migrants traveling north to the border, and cross into el norte if they are to have any hope of escaping the long reach of their enemies. The journey is terrifying, treacherous, and punctuated by encounters with true monsters, but Lydia and Luca also meet kind and generous helpers along the way, and create bonds with other migrants. The writing is immersive and evocative, creating an intimate picture of the physical and emotionally devastating journey.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The author received some criticism for writing this story despite not being a Central American immigrant but it seems to me that her research was sufficient to tell it properly and well, and that gives a person the right to tell a story. 

Cry for Me, Argentina: My Life as a Failed Child Star

Written by: Tamara Yajia

First line: I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Why you should read this book: This is the type of wickedly funny writing where you feel bad that you can't stop laughing about the insane, unsavory, and sometimes abusive events of the author's recollections, but you still can't stop laughing at them. Young Yajia gets a taste of the spotlight after her wildly successful debut stripping in front of her religious school to Madonna's "Like a Prayer" and pursues it with a passion, almost tasting stardom, until her parents abruptly yank her away from her goals to live in America. She is honest about her family's foibles, her own failures, her sexuality, her struggle with addiction, and a hundred other weird personal details (like the time a cop accused her of soliciting but she countered that the gentleman fingering her in a parked car was, in fact, her own cousin, and then she paid the cop to leave her alone; or all the times her whole family--three generations, led by her grandmother--drove around the red light district to admire how beautiful all the sex workers were) that seem too crazy to be true, but they're marketing this book as a nonfiction memoir so....

Why you should read this book: If you are easily offended, especially by sex, and very particularly if you were easily offended by the end of the film Little Miss Sunshine, definitely this is not the book for you. 

Never Alone: A Solo Arctic Survival Journey

Written by: Woniya Dawn Thibeault

First line: I heave a deep sigh and watch the water vapor from my breath--a small white cloud against the backdrop of heavy, dark clouds--float out across the ice.

Why you should read this book: I rarely watch reality TV and certainly had never even heard of the show Alone, but I was fascinated by the physical and emotional journey that Woniya takes in her pursuit of living her dream of pitting herself against the elements and thriving in the face of adversity. Dropped by helicopter north of the Arctic Circle in September and carrying only some homemade clothes, a brick of pemmican, ten survival objects, a bunch of cameras, and a tracking beacon, she rejoices in the freedom and possibilities of her frigid endeavor, enduring bitter cold and near starvation, but never giving up her sense of joy and delight. She nearly starves to death, but she never stops dancing, she never stops loving nature, and she never gives up on herself. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: The producers really did these contestants dirty; if they had dropped her off north of the Arctic Circle in April and let her take fifteen survival items instead of forcing her carry a ton of camera equipment and film everything she did from three angles, this lady would have been able to survive indefinitely. 

Something in the Woods Loves You

Written by: Jarod K. Anderson

First line: In Ohio, winter is landscape poetry.

Why you should read this book: Magical and heart wrenching, these essays braid the poet's childhood memories of Ohio's plants and animals with his intentional present day reconnection with nature, and its evolution as a tool in his arsenal against depression. This book touched me on a deep level, probably because it resonated with so many of my personal experiences, both beautiful and terrible, but the prose is  also a luscious dive into the wilderness, an immersive experience of midwestern flora and fauna through the lenses of nostalgia, depression, and recovery. This book is for anyone who has ever loved the woods. 

Why you should read this book: You hate the woods. 

Crevice: A Life Between Worlds

Written by: Anna Redsand

First line: We drove across endless white alkaline flats into the Navajo Nation.

Why you should read this book: These thirteen thoughtful, provocative essays detail the relationship between the author, a white woman; and the land and people of Dinetah, the Navajo Reservation where she grew up, which will always remain her "home-not-home." Although this is the land of her childhood and her memories, Redsand's life and experience have always showed her the divide between the rich cultural traditions of her friends and neighbors and the paternalist, colonialist intentions of her missionary parents. Like all "Third Culture Kids," she struggles to locate her own identity, feeling acutely that she does not belong in either world, and it takes the space of thirteen essays to unpack all the knowledge and emotion she has accumulated around the in-between spaces in which she has always existed.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are a proponent of assimilation. 

So Far from God

Written by: Ana Castillo

First line: La Loca was only three years old when she died.

Why you should read this book: This is a story in the tradition of Spanish magical realism, but set in modern-day New Mexico. Sofi has four daughters and no help from her good-for-nothing ex, but she keeps it together throughout her life, working hard while strange things happen to her family, beginning with the death of her youngest daughter, who proceeds to fly out of her coffin before they carry her into church, and announce that she has visited heaven and hell. Things do not get any simpler or easier for Sophie, but she does her best for her children as long as she is able, and for her community when her children don't need her. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: There's a lot of Spanish in this book and a lot of it seemed to be slang or regional dialect, so the internet couldn't translate everything.

The Secret School

Written by: Avi

First line: On a cool Monday morning in early April 1925, Ida Bidson, aged fourteen, carefully guided her family's battered Model T Ford along a narrow, twisting dirt road in Elk Valley, Colorado.

Why you should read this book: Ida loves education and dreams of becoming a school teacher, but to do so she has to graduate from the tiny one-room schoolhouse, pass her exit exams, and go to high school in town. Calamity strikes when Mr. Jordan, the head of the school board, who doesn't think girls need education anyway, decides to close the school down two months early. With the democratic support of the other seven students, Ida endeavors to secretly run the school until the end of the term, playing teacher for the other kids while working to maintain her studies and follow her dream.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're one of those people who freaks out about children's stories where clever children disobey and outwit dull and stubborn adults.

Efren Divided

Written by: Ernesto Cisneros

First line: Once again, Efren Nava woke up to a chubby pajamaed foot in his face. 

Why you should read this book: Efren and his little twin siblings live a cramped but happy existence with their hard-working immigrant parents in their little apartment full of good food and good cheer, and Efren is excited for milestones like being able to walk to school by himself and help his best friend run for school president. Then, his life is turned upside down when his mother is the victim of an ICE raid and is deported to Mexico. Now Efren's father is working all the time to raise the money to bring their mother home while Efren finds himself struggling to take care of his family with the same grace and care that his mother once provided. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It doesn't exactly have a happy ending. 

Uncle Tom's Children

Written by: Richard Wright

Firstline: My first lesson in how to live as a Negro came when I was quite small.

Why you should read this book: This collection features five short stories and one biographical essay written early in the author's career. These pieces all describe the inherent terror of the Jim Crow south and the way it victimized Black people in twentieth century America, with violence and murder featuring prominently among the arsenal of tools used by segregationists to enforce social control. These are dangerous, frightening stories about a zero-sum game that is always fixed in favor of the house, wonderfully written with deep insight and wisdom, but difficult to read in terms of the suffering of the characters.

Why you shouldn't read this book: There aren't really any happy endings and four of the stories have absolutely brutal endings. 

Alternative Remedies for Loss

Written by: Joanna Cantor

First line: "You must be new."

Why you should read this book: Ever since her mother passed away, very young adult Olivia has been sleepwalking through life: sleepwalking right out of college and into an entry-level job, sleepwalking through encounters with men, sleepwalking through the entire country of India. When her father asks her to clean out her mother's office (too soon, Olivia thinks, especially considering the presence of her father's new girlfriend, who showed up only a few months after the tragedy) Olivia stumbles upon a photograph and some letters that hint at some secret, something she needs to learn about her mother to try to make sense of her death. Suddenly imbued with purpose, Olivia becomes a detective as well as a filmmaker, and returns to India to uncover the mysteries left unspoken at the end of her mother's life.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You mainly like to travel overseas for the fresh new shopping experiences. 

Sing Down the Moon

Written by: Scott O'Dell

First line: On the high mesas above our canyon, spring came early that year.

Why you should read this book: In the voice of Bright Morning, a young Navajo woman, this book presents a vivid picture of life in Canyon de Chelly in the 1860s, and what happened when white people began to encroach on this territory. Bright Morning has learned to be a diligent steward of sheep and hopes one day to marry the proud Tall Boy, a strong warrior who once killed a bear, but when she is kidnapped and sold into slavery, Tall Boy loses the use of one arm rescuing her. Shortly after that, Bright Morning's tribe, along with all the other indigenous people in the area, are forced on the Long Walk, a deadly forced relocation following the destruction of their homes and resources, and Bright Morning, and all those around her, must decide how much they are willing to risk to survive, and thrive.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Bright Morning and Tall Boy have a happy ending, but many of the people forced onto the Long Walk did not. 

Kindred

Written by: Octavia Butler 

First line: I lost my arm on my last trip home.

Why you should read this book: This is a groundbreaking novel about the perilous history of Black Americans and their relationships to the white people who enslaved them, cleverly framed as a time traveling story about a young woman named Dana who, like Billy Pilgrim before her, becomes unhinged in time. Over and over, Dana is called back from 1970's LA to the antebellum south, where she must repeatedly save the life of her distant ancestor, Rufus, a rich white man who owns slaves, including another one of her ancestors, Alice, a Black woman who is the object of Rufus's obsession. As Rufus grows up, Dana must protect him to ensure her own birth, but at the same time, she cannot protect Alice from Rufus without preventing her own conception. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Slavery is brutal.