Did anyone else make a New Years resolution to read more books this year? Plenty of our booksellers certainly have! Check out the page below to get some fresh recommendations to keep those pages turning.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Melinda Lo
Every time I read a book about queer women, something in my soul heals a little more. It’s remarkable how Malinda Lo’s characters really make you feel seen, all the wonderful and horrible parts of being queer discussed so honestly. Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a time machine that takes you to San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1950s. From the language, to the historical backdrop, to the culture, to the description of the city as the main character, Lily, walks through it. Watching Lily slowly learn about herself made me feel like a cheerleader, screaming my support from the sidelines as she tried to understand what it means to be queer without any of the vocabulary we have today. The layers of Lily’s struggle with identity pile up. She’s a girl who wants to study math, her other friends wondering why she won’t just date a nice boy and settle down. She’s Chinese-American during McCarthyism. She’s queer as gay clubs are being raided. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read. And of course, she meets a girl. The other math loving girl at her school who tells Lily she’s been to the Telegraph Club, a gay club for women, and will take her if she wants to go. The Telegraph Club is dazzling, welcoming anyone who walks through its doors. The club, aka this book, is a haven of confusion and longing and joy and community. I couldn’t put it down until I finished.
— Gina
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
Thank goodness for Nnedi Okorafor! In this atmosphere of uncertainty and anxiety, I can be sure that I will be captivated by the story, the characters, the writing. I finished Remote Control in one sitting, unwilling to put down this compelling story of Fatima, an intelligent, creative young girl in Ghana, who becomes possessed of a prodigious power after a meteor shower. She brings death to many around her and inspires fear, but also hope, as she seeks answers. Remote Control is the hero’s journey, filled with darkness and light, given a liberation perspective, where the damsel in distress is also the knight who rescues herself. This book is as rich as the soil of Fatima’s family farm and as deep as the roots of the shea trees that grow there. This is the kind of science fantasy I want to read more of.
— Christine
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