Hooray, It’s Time for New Books!

You may have heard me mention this on All the Books! a few weeks ago. It won’t be the last time by a mile – this might already be my favorite book of 2021! It’s set in a future where space travel is no biggie anymore, and teens go off to space boarding school to ready themselves for a career among the stars. June is a brilliant girl who is accepted early because of her famous uncle. While at school, a space shuttle goes missing, and everyone gives it up for lost, except for June, who is convinced the crew is still out there. But no one is interested in listening to a 12-year-old. Six years later, June embarks on her own first mission in space. But the crew of that lost shuttle still haunts her.

I loooooooooooooved this book. It’s so smart and beautiful. (also, I highly recommend skipping the publisher’s description, because it does not do the book justice.)

This book melted my brain in the best way. It’s freaking genius! It is set in the early 20th century and takes place in two parts. The first section follows the African American staff of a white family whose fortune is slipping away, and the racism and danger the staff faces every day, both at work and outside the home. And the second part is set ten years later, after a horrific crime at the home. It details the life of one of the former maids as she attempts to grow her own business, but keeps finding her dealings overshadowed by the her time at the home. It’s such a powerful novel that I immediately read it again because I didn’t want to lose that feeling it gave my brain. And you heard it here first: This is my guess for the National Book Award for Fiction in 2021!

(Just a heads up that there will be discussion of violence and death in this description.)

And this is one of the best true crime books I have read in a long time! When McGarrahan was a young reporter in Miami, they sent her to witness the execution of a man accused of killing two police officers. What she saw is too distressing to write down here, so I’ll just say that it caused her to quit her job shortly after and take off looking for answers that would make sense of the world. But many years later, hearing whispers that the man she saw executed was innocent of the crime, McGarrahan – now a private detective – decided to investigate the case herself. This is an excellent examination of trauma, the death penalty, corruption, celebrity, and the people left behind. (Related: the other amazing true crime book I have read recently is We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper, out November 10!)