Praise Song for My Children

Written by: Patricia Jabbeh Wesley  

First line: Some of us are made of steel. 

Why you should read this book: This collection of new and selected poems offers a stunning journey through the author's work, the central thesis of which goes something like—the world is very hard and painful but women, by necessity, are tough and good at survival. Wesley's voice carries the reader through the war in Liberia and its aftermath, love and marriage and motherhood, the refugee experience, her fight with cancer, her life in America. Each poem stands as its own microcosm, a perfectly formed bubble of reality and experience, into which the reader can enter and be immersed. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It took me two months to finish, because I had to put it down every time it made me cry, and it made me cry a *lot*.  

What If It's Us

Written by: Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera 

First line: I am not a New Yorker, and I want to go home. 

Why you should read this book: Arthur, who's never been kissed, is in town for a summer internship to beef up his college applications the summer before his senior year; Ben, who's mourning the loss of his first serious relationship, is in summer school so he'll be allowed to start his senior year. Following a chance encounter outside the post office, the two teens activate their in person and digital networks, and defying all odds, managed to find one another in the big city and intitiate a relationship, but Arthur's lack of experience and Ben's issues with his ex complicate the romance between two guys who don't have a whole lot in common aside from being awkward, self-conscious, and out. Will this summer romance blossom or whither on the vine? 

Why you shouldn't read this book: So one convention of romantic comedies is that there must always be some force keeping the potential lovers apart, and in this case, the "force" is the fact that they are teenagers who don't know anything about relationships; I think I was just too old for this one.

I'm Not Dying with You Tonight

Written by: Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal 

First line: "Waiting for Black in on your agenda, not mine," LaShunda barks as we leave the building. 

Why you should read this book: Lena, a stylish, popular Black girl with a best friend and an older boyfriend and big plans for her evening, and Campbell, the new kid in school, a white girl who's given up hope after being abandoned by her family and cut from the track team, find themselves unlikely allies when a high school football game erupts into violence. Running from the police at the football field, they head downtown, right into a bigger and much more violent riot, knowing they better stick together if they're going to survive the night. Told from two points of view, written by two different authors, this sadly realistic live-through-the-night narrative highlights issues of racial and socioeconomic inequality, family ties, young love, and the understanding that we each have to work at understanding other people's perspectives. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: A lot of violence, possibly senseless, but not gratuitous.

We Are Totally Normal

Written by: Rahul Kankia

First line: The music in the car was so loud that my teeth vibrated.

Why you should read this book: Nandan hangs out with the popular kids, even though he doesn't really like any of them except Avani, who he used to hook up with but doesn't anymore because sex is weird; right now, while his bro-friends are trying to get Nandan laid, Nandan is really focused on helping out his weird buddy Dave, who is totally adorable and knows less about girls than Nandan does. But Nandan's efforts to help Dave get a girlfriend lead to Nandan having drunken sex with Dave, and now he has to figure out whether he's actually gay or what, because he loves Dave, but he doesn't really love having sex with him, and he doesn't want people to think he's just being queer to get attention, or to get closer to Avani. This is a very inwardly-focused story, rife with Nandan's dissection of high school social dynamics, relationships, and, of course, sex, which covers honest ground about sex and queerness that doesn't often hit the page in YA novels.

Gone Crazy in Alabama

Written by: Rita Williams-Garcia

First line: Vonetta, Fern, and I didn't sleep well last night or the night before.

Why you should read this book: School's out and the Gaither girls are off again, this time headed to Alabama, where Big Ma has returned to live with her own mother. Alabama is even more different from New York than Oakland was, and Black people in the south still live by different rules that clash with the ideals they learned in California: how can they even be related to a sheriff who's white and in the KKK? Delphine, who has always taken care of her family, finds that she has to deal with all the same problems, plus a whole passel of new issues including a decades-old family feud, the clashing of the old and the new, unpleasant chores, the return of their once-beloved uncle, an amorous neighbor, overt racism, and really, really bad weather.

Why you shouldn't read this book: While it ends well, I felt this one was a bit sadder/scarier than the first two books in the trilogy.

P.S. Be Eleven

Written by: Rita Williams-Garcia

First line: You'd think that after flying six-odd hours from New York to Oakland, then flying six-odd hours back, Vonetta, Fern, and I would be world-class travelers, and those bumps and dips would be nothing.

Why you should read this book: Picking up where One Crazy Summer leaves off, this book follows Delphine and her sisters as they return to New York, much changed from the girls who went to visit their mother at the beginning of the summer, thanks to their new revolutionary mindset. But New York has changed too: their father has a girlfriend, their uncle is a different person since his return from Viet Nam, and while their grandmother has stayed the same, they can't help but see Big Ma in a different light after hanging out with the Black Panthers. While still trying to manage her sisters, Delphine has to navigate a new grade, a very new teacher, new boys, her very serious feelings about a new boy band called The Jackson Five, and a series of letters from her unusual mother, which don't feel very helpful now, but might be later on.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I thought it was a little disingenuous of the mother to constantly tell Delphine to "be eleven" when Delphine became the parentalized child solely because her mom didn't want to be a parent.

Native Son

Written by: Richard Wright

First line: BRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNG!

Why you should read this book: In Chicago, in 1940, a young Black man, Bigger Thomas, is forced to take a job as a chauffeur for a wealthy white family in order to keep his mother and siblings fed and housed, but the Daltons are like no people he's ever encountered, and a lifetime of being forcibly othered by white people makes it difficult for Bigger to comprehend them, let along navigate their universe. Forced by their rebellious daughter Mary to associate with Communists and confront inequality, Bigger's fate seems sealed his first fateful day on the job, but suddenly, in the midst of chaos and despair, Bigger begins to come alive and starts thinking critically about the world and his place in it. There may be no justice for a Black man in Bigger's shoes, but with the help of a Jewish Communist layer, Mr. Max, he begins to see himself, his situation, and his country in a different light.

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you're a Black person who is currently feeling traumatized by systemic racism and inequality, this might not be a happy journey for you.

Go with the Flow

Written by: Lily Williams and Karen Schneeman

First line: Wakey wakey eggs...and bakey!

Why you should read this book: On her first day at a new school, late-blooming sophomore Sasha gets her first period and everyone notices before she does, but, fortunately, she is swept up by a powerful friend squad who do their best to alleviate the stigma of menstruation for the new girl. But Sasha's dilemma reminds the girls of other time-of-the-month issues: Brit's undiagnosed condition (probably endometriosis) means that she's missing way too much school due to way too much pain, and Abby is incensed that the school sanitary pad dispensers are always empty, while Christine is just trying to navigate her own feelings and everyone else's. When Abby can't get satisfaction from the faculty, she takes her outrage to the internet, and she's about to find out what everybody else thinks about menstrual inequality.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're not ready for a frank discussion of menstruation.

From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation

Written by: Gene Sharp

First line: One of my major concerns for many years has been how people could prevent and destroy dictatorships.

Why you should read this book: Based on a study of numerous countries that made a shift from dictatorship to democracy, Sharp outlines the process of employing proven tactics of nonviolent struggle to overthrow fascist regimes. His findings can be summarized in two words—solidarity and persistence—and the very short book does an excellent job of explaining how to employ these tactics, and why they work. The appendix comprises a list of 198 nonviolent actions that can be employed by the resistance to chip away at a regime's power, generate sympathy for the cause, and cause oppressive governments to crumble and cede power to the people.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You support a fascist dictator.

Venus Plus X

Written by: Theodore Sturgeon

First line: "Charlie Johns," urgently cried Charlie Johns: "Charlie Johns, Charlie Johns!" for that was the absolute necessity—to know who Charlie Johns was, not to let go of that for a second, for anything, ever.

Why you should read this book: Charlie Johns, an average, twentieth century man,  wakes up to find he has been inexplicably summoned to a seemingly utopian, technologically advanced future where gender doesn't exist and all people therefore live in perfect harmony. The Ledom, presumptive inheritors of an Earth destroyed by careless homo sapiens, want Charlie to know them, their culture and customs, and to offer up his honest opinion of their civilization, so that they may better know themselves. With wide-eyed wonder tinged with a yearning for home, Charlie agrees to a complete tour of paradise, down to its greatest secrets, while a parallel story interspersed with Charlie's journey offers up a picture of flawed egalitarianism in a modern (1960) nuclear family.

Why you shouldn't read this book: While Sturgeon was, in so many ways, ahead of his time, he was also, like the rest of us, a product of his time; I'd like to believe that our understanding of sex, sexuality, and gender has advanced substantially in the last 60 years.