October is here. Time for some PSL’s and a good book.

Dreaming of You: a novel in verse by Melissa Lozada-Oliva (Novel in verse)

A young Latinx poet struggling with loneliness and heartache decides to bring Selena Quintanilla back to life.

The séance that brings the Tejano pop superstar back to life is the start of a preternatural trip narrated by a Greek chorus of gossiping spirits. The poet’s journey takes her to a dead celebrity prom, an encounter with her shadow self, and a karaoke performance in hell.

At the helm of millennial angst, conversations overheard at coffee shops, and unhinged Twitter rants is a gruesome and eerie love story.

Playful, morbid, and candid, Dreaming of You interrogates Latinidad, womanhood, obsession, and disillusionment all while grappling with the cost of being seen as your true self.

 

 

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Saenz  (Young Adult)

In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Ari and Dante fell in love in the border town of El Paso, Texas. But falling in love is different from staying in love and building a relationship, especially in a world that seems to challenge their very existence.

In Saenz’s follow-up, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World, Ari finds that falling in love with Dante seems to have cracked him open. Before this love, Ari always managed to stay silent and invisible. But in his senior year, he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies, and making his voice heard.

Dante and Ari are determined to move forward together. But when Ari experiences a sudden loss, he will have to fight for a life all on his own.

 

On Girlhood: 15 stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library by Glory Edim (Anthology)

Since launching the Well-Read Black Girl book club in 2015, Glory Edim is now a literary tastemaker for a new generation.

This anthology is the first in her Well-Read Black Girl Library Series. Divided into four themes — Innocence, Belonging, Love, and Self-Discovery — the young protagonists of the carefully selected short stories experience the trials of coming-of-age through events that will shape who they are and who they will become. Each section features profound stories from writers such as Jamaica Kincaid, Toni Morrison, Dana Johnson, and Edwidge Danticat.

Much like growing up, the stories are both hilarious and heartbreaking, conveying the beauty and pain of Black girlhood. With an array of influential writers featured within the book, Edim has created an indispensable anthology that should be a part of every home library.

 

We Are Not Like Them by Jo Piazza and Christine Pride (Fiction)

A lifelong bond between two women, one Black and one white, is challenged after a tragic event.

Jen and Riley, best friends since kindergarten, have remained close despite their different paths in life. Jen, after marrying young and years of trying to conceive, is now six months pregnant. Riley, a television journalist, is poised to become the first Black female anchor for a news station in their hometown of Philadelphia.

But their bond is tested when Jen’s husband, a police officer, shoots and kills an unarmed Black teenager. Jen begins spiraling as her future, her husband’s freedom, and her friendship with Riley become uncertain. Riley wrestles with the implications of this tragedy on her Black community, her ambitions, and her close bond with her best friend as she covers this career-making story.

Piazza and Pride explore complex questions of race and how they shape the most intimate parts of our lives and the love that persists in the face of difficult challenges.

 

 

Home in Florida: Latinx Writers and the Literature of Uprootedness edited by Anjanette Delgado (Non-Fiction)

For the writers and poets selected for this collection, Florida has been a crossroads and land of contradictions. Editor Anjanette Delgado describes the theme of this collection as literature of uprootedness or literatura del desarraigo, a Spanish literary tradition. It’s a perspective of being a part of two places at once, and the writers share stories about attempting life in environments not their own.

The collection features fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from Jaquira Diaz, Richard Blanco, Judith Ortiz Cofer, and many others. Many of the writers are first-, second and third-generation immigrants to Florida from Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Peru, Argentina, Chile, and many other Latin American countries, reflecting the diversity of Latinx experiences across the state of Florida.

Together, the writers explore what makes Florida home for those struggling between memory and presence and the what-ifs of making a new place their home.