Part 2 of July’s Must-Read Book Club Books!

This is like top-tier-level comfort food. And looks super easy to make. For exact measurements and directions, click here. For a video, click here.

You’ll need:

baby gold potatoes

parmesan

Garlic and Herb Sauce:

unsalted butter

olive oil

parsley

garlic

parmesan

salt

black pepper

dried oregano

red pepper flakes

For dipping sauce, Moribyan used Sweet Baby Ray’s chicken sauce.

Hyacinth and Ezra Kindred are two Black sisters who have a very loving upbringing in a coastal town in Maine. But in the summer of ’57, everything changes. Suddenly, it feels as though their adolescence has brought about a change in how their white neighbors — some of whom were their friends — view them. Around the country, the Civil Rights Movement is gaining steam, and the sisters have to reevaluate where they fit into everything.

The horrors of capitalism are on full display in Ripe. Cassie has gotten her dream job at a Silicon Valley startup but is also seriously regretting it. The people she works with are toxic, entitled, and downright criminal — and once her bosses start requiring she engage in illegal activity, too, the black hole that’s always been with her, that gets stronger through her depression and anxiety, feels closer than ever. 

In time for Disability Pride Month — and beyond, of course — Alshammari has written a memoir sharing her experiences as a Kuwati Palestinian English professor. A diagnosis of multiple sclerosis at 18 makes her come face to face with mortality, as she is told she only has a short time to live. Years, later, having outlived the lethal warning, she completes a graduate degree in the UK and returns home to become a professor. One of her students becomes a confidante and encourages her to put her experiences on the page. The result is an intimate weaving of Alshammari’s life as a professor of English in Kuwait, as a disabled person, and as a woman.

Nelson’s follow-up to the award-winning Open Water sees Stephen, a natural-born dancer, as he tries to navigate the tricky waters of being a first generation Ghanian in England. He dances to find joy — in church, with friends, in basements, with his band, and even to his father’s music as a way to bond with the man he doesn’t know. But then the dynamic between him and his father turns sour, and he has to readjust and figure out how to repair things — or not.