QUICKSAND
by Malin Persson Giolito
This novel, named the Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, is tense and gripping as hell. When there's a shooting at Maja's prep school in her wealthy Stockholm suburb, she ends up in jail awaiting trial. The events that unfold raise important questions about justice, guilt, and loyalty. I tore through this dark, expertly written book.
—Katie Eelman, media + events
TELL ME HOW IT ENDS: AN ESSAY IN FORTY QUESTIONS
by Valeria Luiselli
Volunteering as a translator for an organization that helps find legal defense for undocumented residents, Valeria Luiselli had to condense the lives of the children she interviewed, many of whom fled one of the most violent regions in the world riding hundreds of miles on top of freight trains to seek sanctuary in a country rife with xenophobia, into the space provided on a questionnaire. A powerful and increasingly urgent indictment of a bureaucratic immigration machine that treats asylum seekers, even unaccompanied minors, like criminals.
—John Cleary, bookseller
HOMO DEUS: A Brief History of Tomorrow
by Yuval Noah Harari
I was listening to a recent interview with the author and knew I needed to rearrange my priorities when I heard this sentence uttered: "Humans are the only species that can tell fictional stories, and believe them." With that, I downloaded the audiobook from Libro and listened to the 14-hour audiobook, completely captivated. "Censorship works by flooding people with too much information and people don't know what to pay attention to." Sound familiar? Don't miss this one. For the sake of our future. Start the audio here.
—Kate Layte, owner + manager
THE BEST WE COULD DO
by Thi Bui
This graphic memoir dives deep into the story of a Vietnamese refugee family over three generations, facing the crises of war and migration, enduring together through love and determination. The gorgeous illustrations nearly singe off the page in oranges and browns; it is so beautiful, it makes me want to drink the whole book like it's an amber elixir. Reading through feels like walking into a fire and surviving, each frame searing with the pain of childbirth, the rock of boats, the rock of a baby in a mother's arms, cold landings in strange airports, and the threads of connection drawing Thi backwards into her parent's tormented hearts, forwards into the new country of her young son's fresh life. Simultaneously elegaic and hopeful—just the kind of story we need in the 2017 world.
—Rei Jackler, bookseller