May 2021 Staff PicksLike this list

17 items

• Acts of Desperation

  Nolan, Megan,

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  A young Irish woman falls for a beautiful guy and gradually gives up most of her social life (and her considerable love of the drink) to be with him. Aside from his occasional grumpiness, fussiness and tendency towards control, the main trouble is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Arsenic and Adobo

  Manansala, Mia P.,

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  Tita Rosie's restaurant is in trouble and not just the financial kind. When a hostile restaurant critic suddenly dies face first in a comforting bowl of ginataang bilo-bilo, a Filipino dessert, suspicion falls on the kitchen. Lila Macapagal was…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Black Church

  This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song

  Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.,

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  Henry Louis Gates, the literary scholar, historian, filmmaker, and New York Times bestselling author of Stony the Road, provides a recollection of how the Black church has molded and transformed the African American experience from slavery to the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Everybody Else Is Perfect

  How I Survived Hypocrisy, Beauty, Clicks, and Likes

  Korn, Gabrielle, 1989-

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  Everybody Else is Perfect is an essay collection from Nylon's former editor in chief, Gabrielle Korn. Korn felt that her entry into the fashion world felt more innate than accidental. Stuck between the struggle of feminism and fashion, Korn began to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Good Company

  a Novel

  Sweeney, Cynthia D'Aprix,

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  Sweeney's latest novel explores close relationships through the lens of a revealed secret and the repercussions of having your world turned upside down. This well-paced, engaging story unfolds when Flora discovers a secret her husband kept from her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Hospital

  Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town

  Alexander, Brian,

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  In a stunning work of investigative journalism, a reporter embedded himself in the life of rural Bryan, Ohio and the struggle of its small nonprofit hospital to maintain its independence. At stake is its ability to provide a robust range of services…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Infinite Country

  a Novel

  Engel, Patricia,

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  Engel's slim novel is a beautifully written, moving migration story that spans two countries and twenty years. The book opens with 15-year-old Talia escaping a reform school in Colombia and navigating her way across the country in hopes of boarding…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Jigsaw Man

  a Novel

  Matheson, Nadine,

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  Body parts are found scattered along the Thames in southeast London, and the scene looks horribly familiar to Detective Inspector Anjelica Henley. It looks like the work of a notorious serial killer known as "The Jigsaw Man." However, after Henley…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Last Call

  a True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York

  Green, Elon,

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  Green's captivating and humane true crime story is about a series of murders in 1990s New York that, refreshingly, prioritizes the victims. Green gives a rich portrait of gay bars (in particular, piano bars) operating in the city during the height…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Northern Spy

  Berry, Flynn, 1986-

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  Tessa is a busy single mother with a young child and a job at BBC Belfast when she is drawn into a dangerous dance with the IRA. When video surfaces of her sister, Marian, participating in an IRA robbery, and investigators begin to grill Tessa and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Project Hail Mary

  a Novel

  Weir, Andy,

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  Rylan Grace wakes up with no memory of who he is or what he's supposed to be doing. He quickly realizes that he is on a spaceship and that his other two crewmates didn't survive the journey. The problem is that they were sent here as a last-ditch…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Rope

  a True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP

  Tresniowski, Alex,

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  Tresniowski's The Rope is a gripping true crime tale and also an account of racial injustice. At the heart of the book is the murder of 10 year-old Marie Smith in Ashbury Park, N.J. in 1910 for which a local African-American man, Tom Williams,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Rose Code

  a Novel

  Quinn, Kate,

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  Following the recent trend of historical fiction set during WWII, The Rose Code takes readers to Bletchley Park, where 3 very different women navigate friendship, love and war, then reunite years later to solve a mystery that ruined their…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Secrets of Happiness

  a Novel

  Silber, Joan,

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  Author Joan Silber is quietly one of the finest practitioners of fiction around. She writes novels and story collections structured like nautilus shells, with each subsequent chapter shifting to a new character's point of view, gradually circling…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Things We Lost to the Water

  a Novel

  Nguyen, Eric, 1988-

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  In this beautifully written debut novel, Nguyen tells the journey of a refugee family who flees Vietnam and settles in the United States. Along the way, they tragically get separated from each other, with the father staying behind and the mother,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Three Mothers

  How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

  Tubbs, Anna Malaika,

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  In her fascinating debut, Tubbs dives into history to spotlight three mothers' amazing historic contributions and the sacrifices each one made for her families. For example, Martin Luther King's mother, Alberta, forfeited her teaching career to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Winter's Orbit

  Maxwell, Everina,

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  Fun-loving Kiem gets the surprise of his life one day: he will be married to straight-laced Jainan. There's no time to plan a wedding, because Jainan's former husband was killed under suspicious circumstances, and someone is trying to disrupt an…Read moreRead more of this annotation