A few weeks ago, I would never have imagined typing out a title like the one you just read. But these are crazy times, so here are a few book recommendations to help give you something to do while we all wait out this crisis.
You might not be able to head to your nearest bookstore, but that won’t stop you from buying these books from the Kindle store–or ordering them to be shipped. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the Kindle app for free on your smartphone.
From feminist critiques to brand-new fantasy novels, these upcoming or recently published books will have you laughing–or crying. I pinky-promise to not to sneak in any books about pandemics.
“Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot” by Mikki Kendall
Genre: Nonfiction
Length: 288 pages
Publication: February 25th 2020
Kindle price: $13.99
Mikki Kendall is a new voice in Black feminism. In “Hood Feminism,” a collection of essays in which she draws on her own experiences, Kendall addresses how today’s feminisit movement has a glaring blind spot. Kendall argues that, rather than focusing on the basic survival of many, mainstream feminists focus more on increasing privilege for the few, which ultimately results in more women rebuffing the title of feminist.
Food insecurity, access to quality education, medical care and safe neighborhoods are some of the issues that Kendall discusses as feminist issues, and she goes on to write how prominent white feminists can fail to see how things like race, class, sexual orientation and ability intersect with gender.
More details and reviews can be found here.
“The City We Became: A Novel” (Great Cities #1) by N.K. Jemisin
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 437 pages
Publication: March 24th, 2020
Kindle price: $14.99
Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N.K Jemisin delivers the first book of a new series about five New Yorkers who must come together in order to defend their city. In this world, cities have souls–and a dark side. Some are ancient, and some are as new and destructive as children.
New York, however, has five protectors. When an ancient evil stirs, they must rise to protect their city.
More details and reviews can be found here.
“The Gravity of Us” by Phil Stamper
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, LGBTQ+
Length: 314 pages
Publication: February 4th, 2020
Kindle price: $8.64
Two “Astrokids” fall for one another in this young adult novel by debut novelist Phil Stamper, who got his start writing Legend of Zelda fanfiction.
Seventeen-year-old successful social media journalist Cal is used to sharing his life online, but that still doesn’t completely prepare him for when his pilot father is selected for a highly publicized NASA mission to Mars. After they relocate from Brooklyn to Houston, Cal meets sensitive and mysterious Leon and falls for him fast.
Then secrets about the program are uncovered, and Cal must find a way to reveal the truth without hurting the people who have become important to him.
More details and reviews can be found here.
“The Herd” by Andrea Bartz
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Length: 336 pages
Publication: March 24th, 2020
Kindle price: $13.99
In this thriller from Andrea Bartz, whose previously published book “The Lost Night” is being developed for TV by Mila Kunis, The Herd is the name of an elite, women-only coworking space that prides itself on mentorship and empowerment. Its charismatic founder is Eleanor Walsh, who is also extremely private.
Writer Katie Bradley hopes she’s found her next book subject in Eleanor. Luckily, she has an in–her sister Hana is Eleanor’s best friend. As head of PR, Hana is working to prepare for a huge announcement from Eleanor that would change the trajectory of The Herd forever.
Then Eleanor vanishes without a trace, and everyone’s a suspect. As Hana struggles to unveil what her friend was hiding and Katie chases the story of her life, the sister must also face the secrets they’ve kept from one another.
More details and reviews can be found here.
“Deacon King Kong” by James McBride
Genre: Historical fiction
Length: 371 pages
Publication: March 3rd, 2020
Kindle price: $14.99
It’s September 1969. A fumbling, cranky old church deacon called Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of a south Brooklyn housing project, pulls out a .45 and in front of everybody shoots the project’s drug dealer.
At the heart of this book lies the reasons for this burst of violence as well as the consequences of the shooting. Award-winning author James McBride brings to life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the baptist church, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters and Sportcoat himself.
As the story deepens and the truth emerges, it becomes clear that the character’s lives intersect in surprising ways.
Click here for more details and reviews.
“The Last Human” by Zack Jordan
Genre: Science fiction
Length: 448 pages
Publication: March 24th 2020
Kindle price: $12.99
Humans normally fear aliens, right? Not so in this humorous debut space opera. Sarya, the main character, is the civilized galaxy’s worst nightmare: a Human. Humanity was deemed too dangerous to exist a millennium ago, but somehow Sarya, the last of the human race, lives and must hide her identity among the hundreds of alien species around her.
After an encounter with a bounty hunter and a miles-long kinetic projectile shatters her world, Sarya must navigate the galaxy in a stolen ship and discover an impossible truth.
More details and reviews can be found here.
“Chain of Gold” (The Last Hours #1) by Cassandra Clare
Genre: Young adult urban fantasy
Length: 624 pages
Publication: March 3rd 2020
Kindle price: $12.99
The Shadowhunters are back in an all-new series–this time set in Edwardian London. Cassandra Clare, nicknamed the Queen of Fantasy, has also written other series for her Shadowhunter Chronicles, such The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifices.
James and Lucie Herondale, the children of famous Shadowhunters Will and Tessa Herondale, have been raised in a peaceful London where demon sightings are rare. Meanwhile, Cordelia Carstairs and her family have traveled around the world, but, with her father under trial, Cordelia is determined to save her family from ruin.
But everything changes when the Carstairs family and another old Shadowhunter family come to London…and so does a demonic plague and a despicable plot.
Along the way, they will discover the cruel price for being a hero…and falling in love.
Find more details and reviews on Goodreads.
“The Oracle Code,” written by Marieke Nijkamp, illustrated by Manuel Preitano
Genre: Graphic Novel, superhero fiction
Length: 208 pages
Publication: March 10th 2020
Kindle price: $9.99
In this graphic novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Marieke Nijkamp and artist Manuel Preitano, Barbara Gordon must solve her first mystery: herself.
Before she was Batgirl, Barbara Gordon was Oracle. But before she was even Oracle, she was left paralyzed by a gunshot and entered the Arkham Center for Independence, where Gotham’s teens undergo rehabilitation. Now wheelchair-bound, Barbara feels something is amiss as she hears strange sounds at night and patients go missing.
But, with Barbara’s own judgment in question, could this suspicion be a result of her trauma? As Barbara pushes her fellow patients away in favor of ghost stories, she must battle her past before she can rise to meet her future.
More details and reviews can be found here.
Each of these books will stave off boredom, so treat yourself to some great reads this spring.
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