Daniel's Staff Picks

Here are some books that staff member Daniel enjoyed reading. Maybe you will too!

Showing 1 - 15 of 15  There are a total of 106 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Filthy animals"
Star rating for Filthy animals
Average Rating:
2.7 stars
Description:
"In the series of linked stories at the heart of Filthy Animals, set among young creatives in the American midwest, a young man treads delicate emotional waters as he navigates a series of sexually fraught encounters with two dancers in an open relationship, forcing him to weigh his vulnerabilities against his loneliness. In other stories, a young woman battles with the cancers draining her body and her family; menacing undercurrents among a group...
Book cover for "Freshwater"
Star rating for Freshwater
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
An extraordinary debut novel exploring the metaphysics of identity and mental health, centering on a young Nigerian woman as she struggles to reconcile the proliferation of multiple selves within her.
Book cover for "I have some questions for you"
Star rating for I have some questions for you
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past--the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia's death and the conviction of the school's athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers--needs--to...
Book cover for "I hope we choose love"
Star rating for I hope we choose love
Description:
"What can we hope for at the end of the world? What can we trust in when community has broken our hearts? What would it mean to pursue justice without violence? How can we love in the absence of faith? In a heartbreaking yet hopeful collection of personal essays and prose poems, blending the confessional, political, and literary, acclaimed poet and essayist Kai Cheng Thom dives deep into the questions that haunt social movements today. With the author's...
Book cover for "If I survive you"
Star rating for If I survive you
Average Rating:
2.8 stars
Description:
"A collection of humorous and harrowing linked stories following a Jamaican-American family as they seek stability upon moving to Miami."--
Book cover for "Libertie"
Star rating for Libertie
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
"Coming of age as a free-born Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her mother, a physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie will go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie feels stifled by her mother's choices and is constantly reminded that, unlike her mother, Libertie has skin that is too dark. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be...
Book cover for "A little devil in America"
Star rating for A little devil in America
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"A Little Devil in America is an urgent project that unravels all modes and methods of black performance, in this moment when black performers are coming to terms with their value, reception, and immense impact on America. With sharp insight, humor, and heart, Abdurraqib examines how black performance happens in specific moments in time and space--midcentury Paris, the moon, or a cramped living room in Columbus, Ohio. At the outset of this project,...

8. Matrix

Book cover for "Matrix"
Star rating for Matrix
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE 2022 JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION
One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2021

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, The Financial Times, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Vulture, Marie Claire, Vox, The Los Angeles Times,
...
Book cover for "The message"
Star rating for The message
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell's classic 'Politics and the English Language,' but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories--our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking--expose and distort our realities. In the first of the book's three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern...
Book cover for "The moonday letters"
Star rating for The moonday letters
Description:
An effortlessly rich and lyrical mystery wrapped in a love story that bends space, time, myth and science, perfect for fans of Octavia Butler and Emily St. John Mandel. Sol has disappeared. Their Earth-born wife Lumi sets out to find them but it is no simple feat: each clue uncovers another enigma. Their disappearance leads back to underground environmental groups and a web of mystery that spans the space between the planets themselves. Told through...
Book cover for "My favorite thing is monsters"
Star rating for My favorite thing is monsters
Author:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
In a fictional graphic diary, a 10-year-old girl describes her investigation into her neighbor's murder.
Book cover for "Nobody's magic"
Star rating for Nobody's magic
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In this glittering triptych novel, Suzette, Maple and Agnes, three Black women with albinism, call Shreveport, Louisiana, home. At the bustling intersection of the American South and Southwest, these three women find themselves at the crossroads of their own lives. Suzette, a pampered twenty-year-old, has been sheltered from the outside world since a dangerous childhood encounter. Now, a budding romance with a sweet mechanic allows Suzette to seek...
Book cover for "Small game"
Star rating for Small game
Average Rating:
1 stars
Description:
"A gripping novel about a survival reality show gone wrong that leaves a group of strangers stranded in the northern wilds"--
Book cover for "We were once a family"
Star rating for We were once a family
Description:
"The shocking, deeply reported story of a murder-suicide that claimed the lives of six children--and a searing indictment of the American foster care system"--
Book cover for "When crack was king"
Star rating for When crack was king
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan's war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey's exacting work exposes the undeniable links between the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement and the consequences we live with today-a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality. When...