How’s it going, Austin? Our booksellers have woken from hibernation after this week of winter, and they’re here to tell you what books they’ve been enjoying this week! Check out the page below for their best snow day recs.
One of the Good Ones by Maika and Maritza Moulite
After activist and YouTube star Kezi Smith is killed in police custody after a social justice rally, her sisters and best friends decide to honor her memory by taking a road trip through the south that Kezi herself had planned–using The Negro Motorist Green Book to make stops that intersect with the history of her own family. The Moulite Sisters offer a breathtakingly wide lens as they interrogate what it means to be Black and labeled “one of the good ones” (and what it means if you’re not) in this searing and unpredictably complex examination of racism, power, sisterhood, and fame. There’s also a lot more to this twisty tale than meets the eye, but to say more would spoil the experience of discovering that for yourself…
— Megan
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Muted by Tami Charles
A dark, powerfully told story of abuse, complicity, and exploitation of young Black and Brown women and girls in the music industry, inspired by the R. Kelly case. Muted is very similar to Tiffany D. Jackson’s Grown, but it is still absolutely worth the read. Written in verse, Tami Charles’ storytelling is brilliant and vulnerable, filled with beautiful and heartbreaking language. The ending was shocking, but a stark reality check.
— Eugenia
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The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
Sarah Gailey–just wow! I am so delighted that there are writers like them producing science fiction of this caliber. Their latest novel, The Echo Wife, kept me riveted from beginning to end with elegant prose and a compelling, vulnerable protagonist, who narrates the story in a wonderfully intimate first person POV. This is a refreshing, fast-paced thriller that gives center stage to questions of our humanity without asking them from a male-only perspective.
–Christine
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Still looking for more to read? Find more reviews like these on our website at BookPeople.com!