Zora Neale Hurston, Ed. by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Genevieve West
RaveBooklistEditors Gates and West have created a volume that enables readers both steeped in and new to Hurston to discover her acerbic wit, her crisp prose, and the breadth of her artistic ability and interests. From trial coverage to folktales, explorations of spirituals and debacles at Howard University, Hurston’s inquiries provide an opportunity to experience the evolution of her work in context with her better-known writings ... This is an invaluable nonfiction companion to the collection of Hurston’s short stories, Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick (2020).
Derecka Purnell
PositiveBooklistCitations abound in this well-documented memoir that ties Purnell’s personal inquiry to the events that have ignited national interest in policing reform. While her narrative is densely fact-packed throughout, Purnell is able to deftly lead the reader through the ins and outs of the abolitionist mindset so that it is clear and comprehensible for all, including those who, like her, might be initially skeptical.
Nona Fernández, tr. Natasha Wimmer
RaveBooklist... a stunning exploration of memory and complicity ... Part historical exploration, part imagined scenario for what went on behind the scenes, this is a multilayered novel that weaves the narrator’s own dark obsession with this this tragic time with questions that haunt all of us about the things that we can never know. From graphic torture scenes to moments of quiet reflection on who stays silent and who speaks up, this is a propulsive novel. Aware of the intensity of the story and its dark themes, Fernández is careful to pull readers in without overwhelming them. Instead, readers won’t be able to put down this powerful translated work, whatever they did or did not know about Chile and Pinochet before entering The Twilight Zone.
