Courage, justice, and fortitude: Our favorite October reads
1聽The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
After their youngest daughter, Ruthie, vanishes during a summer of berry-picking in Maine, a Micmac family from Nova Scotia struggles to move forward. Indigenous聽Voices Award winner Amanda Peters delivers an un-put-down-able novel of identity, forgiveness, and insistent hope.
2听罢谤别尘辞谤
by Teju Cole
Why We Wrote This
Where do we begin in a search for justice? In this month鈥檚 books roundup, characters and authors wrestle with this question as they navigate everything from spy craft to incarceration.
Tunde, a Nigerian professor living in the United States, grounds Teju Cole鈥檚 novel of ideas, moods, views, and questions. A trip to Lagos amplifies a chorus of other voices; they鈥檙e quirky and ordinary, sometimes profane, always human. The result is probing 鈥� and often revelatory.
3聽Beirut Station
by Paul Vidich
Lebanese American CIA agent Analise Assad joins a plot to assassinate a deadly terrorist holed up in Beirut in 2006. She and her partners 鈥� a Mossad agent, an old CIA hand, and a journalist 鈥� plan and parry. This well-plotted thriller deftly mixes spy craft with questions about identity and justice.
4聽The House of Doors
by Tan Twan Eng
This atmospheric novel, set in 1920s Malaysia, tells of a famous author bent on uncovering secrets for storytelling fodder. Tan Twan Eng weaves love, duty, betrayal, colonialism, and redemption into the narrative.聽
5聽The Other Princess
by Denny S. Bryce
A young Black African princess who was orphaned, kidnapped, and enslaved by a rival king goes on to become the goddaughter of Queen Victoria in England. Denny S. Bryce honors the life of the real Sarah Forbes Bonetta with meticulous storytelling, not shying away from the racism and oppression that Sarah encounters.
6聽The Reformatory
by Tananarive Due
Tananarive Due鈥檚 harrowing speculative thriller 鈥� an homage to a family member鈥檚 experiences at the notorious Dozier School for Boys 鈥� tracks Black siblings as they search for safety and justice in 1950s Florida. Imprisoned in a brutal reform school on cooked-up charges, 12-year-old Robert must survive sadistic administrators, ruthless peers, and specters both benign and tormented, while his sister races to free him. Horrors abound; fortitude wins.
7聽The Soul of Civility
by Alexandra Hudson
What can the world鈥檚 oldest book teach us about civility today? Alexandra Hudson鈥檚 thoughtful and eloquent treatise on how to live well together draws on literature from 鈥淭he Teachings of Ptahhotep,鈥� written 4,500 years ago in Egypt, to Martin Luther King Jr.鈥檚 鈥淟etter From Birmingham Jail.鈥�
8聽These Walls
by Eva Fedderly
Journalist Eva Fedderly鈥檚 compelling debut focuses on New York鈥檚 infamous Rikers Island jail complex, which is slated to be replaced by smaller penal institutions throughout the city. Using this initiative to consider both the history and future of incarceration, she profiles 鈥渏ustice architects鈥� who design humane jails, prison abolitionists, and individuals who are incarcerated.
9聽How To Say Babylon
by Safiya Sinclair
Acclaimed poet Safiya Sinclair鈥檚 searing and lyrical memoir describes her upbringing in Jamaica in a strict Rastafarian household ruled by her autocratic father. As his dreams of reggae stardom wither, he becomes increasingly rigid and violent; through poetry, she imagines a different life for herself.聽
10聽Dwell Time
by Rosa Lowinger
In this inventive and engaging work, art conservator Rosa Lowinger considers how her professional expertise in repairing damage can be applied to life as well as to art. She traces her Jewish Cuban family鈥檚 history, including losses reaching back to the Holocaust and the Cuban Revolution, seeking to understand and to heal intergenerational trauma.