What a gift this book is! Namwali Serpell has crafted the rare work of literary criticism that simultaneously elevates the texts of her famously difficult subject and makes them more accessible to civilian readers. Toni Morrison’s work is challenging, yes, but it is also funny, affirming, exciting, and crackling with creativity. Serpell’s blend of scholarly analysis and deep affection for Morrison’s work offers a welcoming guide for newcomers and an enriching resource for longtime Morrison fans alike. Every serious reader should have this book on their shelves. —Rebecca Joines Schinsky

My day job, side-gigs, and hobbies require me to put in about 10 hours a day at what I call The Email Factory. The constant combination of screens and sitting can’t be doing me any favors and journalist Manoush Zomorodi agrees. What are we supposed to do when so much of our lives requires looking at a screen while not leaving much space for non-sedentary activities? Zomorodi digs into this question as she explores how technology affects our brains and bodies while also dispelling some of the myths. She also offers some evidence-based advice on what we can do to mitigate the harm. This book left me inspired, hopeful, and with much to ponder. —Patricia Elzie-Tuttle

Burn Down Master’s House is a standout work of historical fiction that stares unflinchingly back at the horrors of slavery in the United States. Its focus on acts of rebellion and revolution—based on real historical events—is more important than ever in a time when our government is actively trying to whitewash over the real history of this country. This book should be required reading. —Rachel Brittain

Spending time with the Dupree women was one of the best decisions I made all year. Nikesha Elise Williams’ debut novel is a powerful and deeply satisfying read for any fan of generational sagas and Williams is especially adept at meditating on generational trauma. Through subtle magic and the engrossing stories of the Dupree women dating back to their enslavement, the chapters trace the path of an at-once protective and destructive curse that begat generations of daughters and pivotally touched their lives whether or not it was understood. —S. Zainab Williams

Screenwriter and producer Rasheed Newson is known for his work on shows like Bel-Air and The Chi. He brings his industry insider knowledge to this dazzling historical novel about queer life in Golden Age Hollywood. It tells the story of Xavier, an up-and-coming Black actor, and Aaron, the studio “fixer” tasked with keeping Xavier in the closet. That becomes much more complicated when Xavier is cast in a biopic as the Navy hero Aaron fell in love with while fighting alongside him in WWII. Newson beautifully blends real historical figures with richly layered fictional characters to create an unforgettable story that I’m already dying to see adapted for the screen. —Susie Dumond

I cannot resist a novel that fleshes out the story of a maligned woman: think Madeleine Miller’s Circe, or Malinalli by Veronica Chapa. I have long wanted someone to give Queen Cleo this treatment, and Saara El-Arifi delivered. This version of Cleopatra speaks directly to the reader, challenging us to look beyond popular narratives that reduce her to the sum of her feminine wiles. She breaks the fourth wall to tell a captivating story, in her words, not of how she died, but how she lived. This one’s for all my folks who went through an Egyptology stage, and maybe, like me, are still in it. —Vanessa Diaz

I’m a big fan of illustrator LeUyen Pham, so when I heard that she was teaming up with Frozen director Jennifer Lee for a YA graphic novel, I was intrigued. What I didn’t expect was a heart-wrenchingly beautiful love story that would leave me sobbing. Drawing on the mythology of Orpheus and Eurydice as well as Lee’s own teenage experiences with love and grief, As I Dream of You is a stunningly illustrated story with real emotional depth. Lee brings a cinematic approach to her storytelling that Pham brings to life with gorgeous art, brilliantly balancing light and dark elements. It’s a tale that will linger in your heart far beyond the last page. —Susie Dumond

Maia Kobabe (Gender Queer) makes eir’s middle grade debut with this wonderful graphic novel cowritten/illustrated with Lucky Srikumar. It grapples with gender identity, first periods, crushes, and that in-between feeling so common for middle graders. Indian American tween Saachi’s fellow seventh-graders are obsessed with dating, but the changes that come with puberty and middle school make Saachi anxious. She’d like to opt out of the mess, please! Few middle grade novels address puberty through a nonbinary lens. In a time when LGBTQ+ books are disappearing from kidlit, it’s a much-needed perspective into a difficult time for many kids. —Margaret Kingsbury

Alisha Rai is working to bring back the adventure rom-com, and she brings her trademark character-building depth to this delightfully bonkers love story. Krish is pretending to be his missing federal agent brother in order to find his missing federal agent brother. He essentially kidnaps Sejal, a low-level con artist, because he’s convinced her family of criminals has the info he needs, and the two battle each other and help each other on a cross country rescue mission. The great thing about Rai is that even when her stories are a little bananas, they never feel silly – the emotional stakes are well established, and the chaos is well earned. —Trisha Brown

Lee takes on the Gothic in this absorbing historical mystery set in 1918 on Orcas Island, Washington. When Lucy—who washed ashore the island as a baby and was taken in by a shipbuilder—discovers the severed head of her employer on the beach, she’s not convinced by rumors that the mythical sea wolves are to blame. What unravels is both a story about who is behind the killing, which Lucy must figure out in order to make the island safe, and a story of what Lucy will do when told she’s named heiress of the estate. Find here plenty of romance, intrigue, shady characters, and a love letter to orcas. —Kelly Jensen

My best advice for reading a Tia Williams romance is to dive in without reading reviews or even the description on the back of the book, because in a genre where you always have an idea about how it will end (happily!), she has a fantastic way of keeping readers guessing. Williams’ latest book is further proof that she’s the queen of romantic twists and big surprises. Without giving too much away, here’s the hook: when Sasha connects with a handsome Italian man on a transatlantic flight, she fails to get his name or number and tipsily emails her work friend to ask for help finding him. But she accidentally CCs the entire company, setting off a global search for her potential soulmate. This is the PERFECT vacation book. Even better, read it on your next flight. —Susie Dumond

This quiet stunner deserves to be read by everyone. It’s a powerful debut about a refugee family in The United States. The affluent Sharaf family seems to have achieved the American Dream. Starting with nothing in the U.S., they have become a success story, with bright children, a large home, and lots of wealth. But when one of the family members dies, it draws a lot of questions and speculation. Narrated by interviews with coworkers, neighbors, classmates, police detectives, and more, it’s a sharp tale of the country’s prejudices and assumptions about immigrants, as well as an examination of the destructive side of rumors and the internet. —Liberty Hardy

I’ve known Cynthia Pelayo’s horror game was strong since Loteria left me staring at a wall, wondering if I’d ever look at the card game I grew up playing the same way again. She’s the first Latina and first Puerto Rican to win the Bram Stoker Award and has a deep backlist of banger after chilling banger, but her name doesn’t come up in horror lists nearly as often as it should. If you’ve yet to venture into the Pelayoland, consider this twisted Peter Pan retelling set during WWI your official invitation. Pelayo’s prose is as gorgeous as the world she creates is lush and terrifying. If you’ve ever thought the idea of Neverland sounded kinda creepy, this might be your perfect read. —Vanessa Diaz

Monika Kim explored the dark depths of feminine rage in her debut novel The Eyes Are The Best Part. But in Molka, she dives even deeper. Molka is the South Korean term for hidden spy cameras often used to secretly film women against their will, stripping them of their agency. The book places us inside the mind of a man who hides molkas in women’s bathrooms. We also follow Dahye, a woman who becomes a victim of molkas and exacts her revenge with help from an unexpected source. Kim blends uncanny, dreamlike horror imagery with the very real atrocities modern women face to tell a deeply unsettling story you still somehow won’t want to put down. —Emily Martin

Tayari Jones is back to remind us that she is one exceptional storyteller and she has a lot to say about the Black American experience. Kin is the It Book of the year so far because, even as it dives into familiar territory and history, it supplies a fresh and unique perspective that begs to be shared and discussed. Protagonists Annie and Vernice start from the same place but take us on very different paths in the American South. They show us a region pushing toward and tensing against civil rights through the eyes of Black women coming of age, walking a tightrope of authenticity and survival, and doing what they can at great cost to pursue their dreams. —S. Zainab Williams

Aguda’s latest novel comes right after a National Book Award nomination for Ghostroots. It, like the story collection, takes place in modern Nigeria, where reality teeters on the otherworldly. Yosoye is a young woman with a promising future ahead of her—she’s starting an internship at an architectural firm in Lagos. But soon after she arrives in the big city, she becomes pregnant, and, lonely as she is, she wants the baby. Then the deaths begin: as new land is developed, pregnant women start having watery deaths. And Yosoye, newly pregnant herself, can’t help but become fixated on the dying women and what they mean for her. —Erica Ezeifedi

After getting swept up in the sapphic sci-fi This Is How You Lose the Time War, I will follow Amal El-Mohtar anywhere. Luckily, with this collection, I was led into more than a decade’s worth of her award-winning, lush writing. The mythologies and fairy tales referenced in these stories will be familiar to many, but the grit El-Mohtar gives them makes them wholly new. Here, nature sings and women transform, all through immersive worlds and dancing lyricism. —Erica Ezeifedi

T Kira Madden applied the thoughtfully provocative storytelling that made her 2019 debut, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, a standout memoir to her debut novel. Pulling from personal experience and insight about the systems that purport to protect victims and process predators, Madden exposes the rippling and lifelong impacts of child sex abuse. Every character in this story is rendered in full color to illustrate stories far bigger than words like survivor, ally, predator, enabler. This emotionally tense literary thriller isn’t about vengeance or reclamation but about the hard and fraught consequences of unthinkable violation and how our systems fail us. —S. Zainab Williams

The arrival of a new poetry collection from Nezhukumatathil, author of the bestselling World of Wonders and Bite by Bite, calls for confetti. Featuring four sections from “Crepuscule” to “The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn,” it showcases heaps of poetic forms: abecedarian, epistle, haibun, ode, and zuihitsu, among others. Delving into joy, love, motherhood, nature, and time, this transportive work takes readers to Arches National Park, the Jardin du Palais-Royal, an airport gate, and the ocean floor. How I hope you travel through these stirring poems. A few I keep journeying back to include “Big Night,” “Firefly Nocturne,” and “Scorpion.” —Connie Pan

One of my goals for the year has been to read more middle grade, and Miller’s latest was not only a delight, it really set a high bar for what great middle grade literature is. Luna loves being quiet—and book lovers will absolutely relate to her desire to recommend books whenever she can!—but when one of the zines she makes with her best friend takes off and she’s suddenly surrounded by popular kids, she finds herself torn between engaging with a new crowd or sticking with her tried-and-true bestie. It’s a story about self-confidence and friendship that will resonate across generations. —Kelly Jensen

For the rest of our favorite books of the year so far in every genre, make sure to check out our full list.