November brings us a diverse set of book releases from established and debut authors. From challenging the American historical narrative to exploring self-identity and discovering feminism, the following authors and their books give us stories of love, reckoning, and challenging the status quo.

The 1619 Project: a new origin story edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones 

The groundbreaking New York Times “1619 Project” reframed our understanding of American history by centering slavery in our country’s historical narrative.

The 1619 Project: a new origin story, edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones, includes eighteen essays that continue exploring the legacy of slavery in America. From politics and music to citizenship and democracy itself, the essays demonstrate how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into contemporary American society. Alongside the essays are 36 poems and works of fiction that explore key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance.

Writers such as Yaa Gyasi, Sonia Sanchez, Nafisa Thompson-Spires, and many more speak directly to our current moment, reveal long glossed-over truths about our nation’s founding and the legacy of slavery that has persisted after emancipation.

The Teller of Secrets by Bisi Adjapon 

In this debut novel from Bisi Adjapon, we meet Esi Agyekum, her family official “secret keeper.” She is as tight-lipped about her father’s adultery as she is about the sex lives of her half-sisters. But after being humiliated and punished for her sexual exploration, Esi questions why men’s secrets and women’s secrets bear different weight. This event begins a journey of self-discovery and feminist awakening.

Set in 1960s post-colonial Ghana, Esi navigates her burgeoning womanhood, attempting to reconcile her ideals and dreams with her family’s complicated past and present, all within society’s double standards for women.

 

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich 

Flora dies on All Souls’ Day in November 2019, but she won’t leave her favorite Minneapolis bookstore. Instead, she haunts the establishment over the next year.

Recently released from prison, Tookie lands a job as a bookseller at Flora’s favorite small independent bookstore. She must investigate and solve the mystery of this haunting while simultaneously absorbing and navigating through the tumultuous events of 2020 that occur in the city.

 

 

 

 

The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu 

Jasmine Tran finds herself falling into a seemingly endless loop of donuts, Netflix, and sleep when she returns home after graduating college. With no job prospects and no boyfriend to pass her time with, Jasmine begins working at her parents’ donut shop. Unfortunately, when Jasmine wants to break free from her donut grind, a rent hike jeopardizes the future of her parent’s business, and they now need her more than ever.

But help arrives in the form of an old college crush. Alex Lai is easy on the eyes, successful, and, to the relief of her parents, Chinese. However, a disastrous dinner threatens to tarnish Jasmine’s perception of Alex and vice versa.

Suddenly, both sets of parents are against the couple’s relationship. Meanwhile, the family business is on the verge of shutting down. Jasmine takes her family’s expectations head-on to find a solution to both save the business and free her from the donut trap.

Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu 

Growing up a biracial Chinese American girl in New Jersey, Willa Chen felt both hypervisible and excluded. She believes herself to be too Asian to fit in at her predominantly white school and too white to blend in with the handful of Asian kids. To add insult to injury, Willa’s parents divorced when she was young, and both remarried, starting new families and leaving Willa feeling like a true outsider at home.

Many years pass, and the feelings of loneliness and uneasiness never leave her. But when she begins working as a nanny for the Adriens – a wealthy white family in Tribeca – she’s confronted by all the things she never had. She eventually moves in with the family and finds herself questioning her identity and the childhood where she never felt at home.