Featured Summer Releases

Did one of the book covers on our homepage catch your eye? They are newly released titles for summer 2020, and all are well-reviewed and anticipated. Read below for a description of each, and click the linked title if you'd like to request a copy or get your name on the wait list. And don't forget to watch for more featured releases next month, too!

Featured Fiction Titles for August: 

Luster by Raven Leilani

Edie is stumbling through her twenties―sharing a subpar apartment, clocking in and out of her job, making a series of inappropriate choices. She is also giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, an archivist with a family in New Jersey, including a wife who has agreed to an open marriage―with rules. Edie then finds herself unemployed and invited into Eric’s home―though not by Eric. She becomes an ally to his wife and a role model to his adopted daughter. Edie may be the only Black woman young Akila knows. Irresistibly unruly and beautiful, razor-sharp and comic, sexually charged and absorbing, Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her life in a tumultuous era. It is also an aching description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent, and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way.

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

London, 1967. Folk-rock-psychedelic quartet Utopia Avenue is formed. Guitarist Jasper, a shy, half-Dutch musical prodigy, was hearing voices long before he dropped acid. Keyboardist Elf must defy the prejudices of her bank manager father, her housewife mother, and her age to forge her own career. Bassist Dean cannot, will not, spend his life on the factory floor like everyone else in Gravesend. Band manager Levon--gay, Jewish, and Canadian--is not unduly burdened by conscience. The drummer is a drummer. Over two years and two albums, Utopia Avenue navigates the dark end of the Sixties: its parties, drugs and egos, political change and personal tragedy; and the trials of life as a working band in London, the provinces, European capitals and, finally, the promised land of America. 

Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud

After Betty's abusive husband dies, she invites a colleague, Mr. Chetan, to move in with her and her son, Solo, as their lodger. Over time, these three form an unconventional family, loving each other deeply and depending upon one another. Then, one a fateful night, Solo overhears Betty confiding in Mr. Chetan and learns a secret that plunges him into torment. This ultimately sends him running to live a lonely life in New York City, devastating Betty in the process. Yet, both Solo and Betty are buoyed by the continuing love and friendship of Mr. Chetan, until his own secret is uncovered with heart breaking consequences. In vibrant, addictive Trinidadian prose, Love After Love questions who and how we love, the obligations of family, and the consequences of choices made in desperation 

Featured Nonfiction Titles for August: 

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper

Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, D.C., she went to Harvard where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn't move with her. Her marriage at an end, Harper began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman. In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient, she came to understand that each of us is broken--physically, emotionally, psychically. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process. The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant story of Harper's journey toward self-healing. 

Make Change: How to Fight Injustice, Dismantle Systemic Oppression, and Own Our Future by Shaun King

As a leader of the Black Lives Matter movement, King has become one of the most recognizable and powerful voices on the front lines of civil rights in our time. His commitment to reforming the justice system and making America a more equitable place has brought challenges and triumphs, soaring victories and crushing defeats. Throughout his wide-ranging activism, King’s commentary remains rooted in both exhaustive research and abundant passion. In Make Change, King offers an inspiring look at the moments that have shaped his life and considers the ways social movements can grow and evolve in this hyper-connected era. He shares stories from his efforts leading the Raise the Age campaign and his work fighting police brutality, while providing a road map for how to stay sane, safe, and motivated even in the worst of political climates. 

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Betty Friedman

Two friends, Sow and Friedman, tell the story of their messy and life-affirming Big Friendship in this honest and hilarious book. As the hosts of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend, they’ve become known for frank and intimate conversations. In this book, they bring that energy to their own friendship. Aminatou and Ann define Big Friendship as a strong, significant bond that transcends life phases, geographical locations, and emotional shifts. And they should know: the two have had moments of charmed bliss and deep frustration, of profound connection and gut-wrenching alienation. They have weathered life-threatening health scares, getting fired from their dream jobs, and a Thanksgiving dinner eaten in a car in a parking lot in Rancho Cucamonga. Through interviews with friends and experts, they have come to understand that their struggles are not unique. And that the most important part of a Big Friendship is making the decision to invest in one another.