For Readers: Blog

Bold and beautiful

We love a cover trend that brightens up our shelves! Add a little color to a gray wintry day with these eye-catching covers, lovingly known in publishing as the book blob. The blob has spread across the genres, ranging in style from portraiture to the truly abstract. This is the perfect time to judge a book by its cover; if any of these designs catch your eye, give the book a try! 

Fans of The Vanishing Half (another book blob cover) will find plenty to appreciate in Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel, Black Cake. Estranged siblings are reunited when their mother dies and leaves them a voice recording and a traditional Caribbean black cake. As the siblings look into their mother’s mysterious past, they find culturally rich roots in the Caribbean that their mother fled in the shadow of a murder. From the 1960s to present day, this lush character-driven family saga has no shortage of secrets as it is revealed through multiple perspectives. [e-book | print | large type]

Akwaeke Emezi packs quite a punch in under 250 pages with The Death of Vivek Oji. Emotionally and stylistically challenging but ultimately rewarding, this story explores gender identity and the concept of otherness through a death in a Nigerian community. After the discovery of their untimely death, readers unravel Vivek’s life through the eyes of friends, family, and neighbors. While the mystery of Vivek’s death lurks in the background, the core of this read is a candid and poignant look at grief, self-identity, and acceptance. [e-book | print]

Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford is a frank memoir about the ripple effects of a fragmented family. Raised in a tense household by her single mother, Ashley’s tenuous link to her incarcerated father always lurked in the background. As Ashley’s story unfolds, punctuated with trauma but also a resounding sense of resilience, she works to understand and move beyond the shadow of her father’s crime. This is a bittersweet reflection on coming-of-age in a world that means you harm, and finding strength in the parts of the past you can’t always leave behind. Narrated by the author, the audiobook version is especially moving. [e-book | print | audiobook | large type]

Bolu Babalola’s Love in Color is an engaging short story collection that refreshes love stories and folklore from West Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. Whether sticking close to a myth’s roots or updating the tale with a contemporary setting, these charming stories are perfect to cozy up with on Valentine’s Day or any cold winter night. While readers may be treated to new-to-them folklore or captivating looks at different cultures, the universal threads of love and the complexities of relationships will resonate with everyone. [e-book | print]

Just Pursuit by former federal prosecutor Laura Coates provides an eye-opening insider’s look at the inequities of our country’s criminal justice system. Through the lens of her personal experiences as a Black woman and her time in the courtroom as a prosecutor for the Department of Justice, Coates calls out the overwhelming bias that has permeated the legal system. Impacting those caught within the system as well as those working with it, she pairs her sobering observations with a moving appeal for reform. [e-book | print]

More of a cousin to the book blob (maybe geometric is the next trend?), The Sentence by Louise Erdrich more than merits a place on this list. Set in a fictionalized version of Erdrich’s Minneapolis bookshop, this complex and character-driven read is an intriguing combination of realistic literary fiction and metaphorical ghost story. Darkly humorous and at times difficult, Erdrich has painted a picture of a city consumed by the pandemic and racial tensions as the bookshop and its staff try to make it through 2020. As always, Erdrich narrates her own audiobook with an award-winning level of excellence. [e-book | print | audiobook | large type]

⏤Laura