Info
Reverend Jesse Jackson just passed away in February, and while we all know him as a social justice icon, what you may not know is how he got his start as an activist. Kelly Jensen writes about Jackson—a college student at the time—and one of the first protests he did, where he and other students tried to integrate the Greenville Public Library in South Carolina.
 |
As for new books, the New York Times is getting ready for spring with their list of the most exciting novels of the season (one of which is out this week and mentioned below). Other new releases include uncanny treks through grief, nonfiction accounts of bookstore ownership, and one family’s struggle for power in a changing India. There’s also a book that’s been described as “Sapphic Moby-Dick in Space,” which we obviously all need to get into immediately.
 The Complex by Karan MahajanFrom the author of the National Book Award finalist The Association of Small Bombs comes this family saga, political drama mash up. SP Chopra’s descendents live in an expansive complex in Delhi, India, where they try to take advantage of the political power their forebear gained as one of India’s political architects. Sachin Chopra tries to escape the madness of his family’s politcal ambitions when he moves to America with his wife, Gita, but the family compound keeps calling them back. The Chopras must contend with ambition, loyalty, and unburied secrets as India plunges into violence. |
 The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim FuI fell hard for Fu’s writing through their short fiction in Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century, so I was delighted to learn that we’re getting a new novel from this award-winning author. I love a novel perched in the uncanny valley and this story about a woman unmoored by the death of her controlling mother, a woman who, ever-obedient, buys a house built on shadowy foundations with her inheritance, sounds right up my alley. Lesser-Known Monsters taught me that Fu is the writer to tell an immersive story grounded in earthly issues and haunted by ghosts. —S. Zainab Williams |
 Hell’s Heart by Alexis HallIt’s hard to give a better description of this book than the cover tagline, “Sapphic Moby-Dick in Space.” It’s a queer space opera in which the Earth is gone, and the remains of humanity are forced to live in space in domes, fueled by the bodies of dead monsters. —Liberty Hardy |
 Shut Up and Read: A Memoir from Harriett’s Bookshop by Jeannine A. CookJeannine A. Cook found herself burnt out, working multiple jobs and living far from her dream of a life of reading and writing. In her journal, she started having conversations with Harriet Tubman, exploring ideas and re-finding her center. In 2020, she opened Harriet’s Bookshop. Through the pandemic and beyond, Cook’s bookstore has thrived. This is her story. —Kendra Winchester |
 The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten WhiteThe prolific Kiersten White has blessed us with another dark historical vampire fantasy! In her last novel, she imagined the world of Lucy from Dracula in Lucy Undying. In this novel, the daughter of Dracula‘s notorious vampire hunter, Abraham Van Helsing, will stop at nothing to avenge his murder. —Liberty Hardy |
 The Shipikisha Club by Mubanga KalimamukwentoThis critique of Zambia’s gender norms starts off with a murderous scandal: Sali is a mother of three who is standing trial for her husband’s, Kasunga’s, murder, a case that has rocked the nation. But how did she get here? Things really started 14 years ago, when Sali was rejecting the expectation to marry and carrying on with a rich married man.—a rich married man who just so happened to die the same day she found out she was pregnant. Fast forward a few years, and she’s married to Kasunga, whose vices she must endure. That is, until she speaks up for herself and he puts a gun to her head. |
