Book Club Kits

All This Could Be Different, by Sarah Thankam Mathews

Graduating into the long maw of an American recession, Sneha is one of the fortunate ones. She's moved to Milwaukee for an entry-level corporate job that, gruelling as it may be, is the key that unlocks every door: she can pick up the tab at dinner with her new friend Tig, get her college buddy Thom hired alongside her, and send money to her parents back in India. She begins dating women--soon developing a burning crush on Marina, a beguiling and beautiful dancer who always seems just out of reach.
But before long, trouble arrives. Painful secrets rear their heads; jobs go off the rails; evictions loom. Sneha struggles to be truly close and open with anybody, even as her friendships deepen, even as she throws herself headlong into a dizzying romance with Marina. It's then that Tig begins to draw up a radical solution to their problems, hoping to save them all.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones

Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by unimaginable circumstances. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime he didn't commit. As Roy's time in prison passes, Celestial is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy's conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson

1986, Cold War. Marie Mitchell is a brilliant intelligence officer with the FBI, but she’s also a young black woman working in an old boys’ club. When she’s given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso, she says yes.  Inspired by true events—Thomas Sankara is known as “Africa’s Che Guevara”—American Spy knits together a gripping spy thriller, a heartbreaking family drama, and a passionate romance.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Anita de Monte Laughs Last, by Xóchitl González

1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten—certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.
But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.
 

Barracoon, by Zora Neale Hurston

In 1927, Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo’s past—memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Beartown, by Fredrik Backman

A poignant, charming novel about a forgotten town fractured by scandal, and the amateur hockey team that might just change everything.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Becoming , by Michelle Obama

In a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama shares her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private.

Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.
Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.
 

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race"; a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black men and women-- bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up and murdered out of all proportions. In this profound letter to his adolescent son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation's history and current crisis. 

This kit generously funded through a grant from Beyond the Page, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Madison Community Foundation.

Black Buck, by Mateo Askaripour

An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother’s home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor.
After enduring a “hell week” of training, Darren, the only Black person in the company, reimagines himself as “Buck,” a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family. But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he’s hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Black Cake, by Charmaine Wilkerson

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking journey Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child, challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their family, and themselves. 

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Black Ghost of Empire, by Kris Manjapra

To fully understand why the shadow of slavery haunts us today, we must confront the flawed way that it ended. We celebrate abolition - in Haiti after the revolution, in the British Empire in 1833, in the United States during the Civil War. Yet in Black Ghost of Empire, acclaimed historian Kris Manjapra argues that during each of these supposed emancipations, Black people were dispossessed by the moves that were meant to free them. Emancipation, in other words, simply codified the existing racial caste system - rather than obliterating it.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Blood Test, by Charles Baxter

In this fresh take on love and trouble in America, Brock Hobson, an insurance salesman and Sunday-school teacher, finds his equilibrium disturbed by the results of a predictive blood test. Baxter, a master storyteller, brings us a gradually building rollercoaster narrative, and a protagonist who is impertinent, searching, and hilariously relatable. From his good-as-gold, gentle girlfriend to the excessively macho subcontractor guy his ex-wife left him for, not to mention his well-raised teenage kids, now exploring sex and sexuality, the secondary characters in Brock's life all contribute meaningfully to the drama, as increasing challenges to his sense of self and purpose crash over him. The final battle—no spoilers, but there is one—couldn't be more delightful, as this quick and bracing novel reminds us to choose the best people to love, accept the ones we love even if we didn’t choose them, and love them all well.

Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson

Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system.  Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Using riveting stories about people she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Courting the Sun, by Peggy Williams

France, 1670. On her sixteenth birthday, Sylvienne d’Aubert thinks her dream has come true. She holds in her hands an invitation from King Louis XIV to attend his royal court. However, her mother harbors a longtime secret she's kept from both her daughter and the monarch, a secret that could upend Sylvienne’s life.
In Paris, Sylvienne is quickly swept up in the romance, opulence, and excitement of royal life. Assigned to serve King Louis's favorite mistress, she is absorbed into the monarch's most intimate circle. But the naïve country girl soon finds herself ill-prepared for the world of intrigue, illicit affairs, and power-mongering that takes place behind the shiny façade of Versailles.
 

Darius the Great is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram

Darius Kellner is about to take his first-ever trip to Iran, and it's pretty overwhelming—especially when he's also dealing with clinical depression, a disapproving dad, and a chronically anemic social life. Darius has never had a true friend before, but he meets Sohrab in Iran and soon Darius has never felt more like himself.  But when it’s time to go home to America, he’ll have to find a way to be himself on his own. (YA)

Dear Martin, by Nic Stone

Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. (YA)

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Educated, by Tara Westover

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home. 

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Empathy, by Rage Sinclaire

The reader will be immersed in poetic prose and vibrant life hues. With connections to the heart and mind, this kinetic array of spiritual voices through poetry and art will capture the reader in every way.

The End of the Beginning, by Carrie Schonhoff

Schonhoff captures the spirit of her native Wisconsin while encapsulating the growth of her life’s journey and exciting next chapter.  This work will resonate deeply with readers from the Midwest and pull at the heartstrings of those that continue to face challenges but never stop dreaming. Her second book of poems addresses the importance of healing, moving on, and being ready to face a new beginning. Schonhoff’s newest work is a continuation of beliefs that we can heal by connecting and understanding one another on a deeper level through poetry.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Family Chao, by Lan Samantha Chang

The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao Restaurant’s delicious Americanized Chinese food for thirty-five years, happy to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. But when brash, charismatic, and tyrannical patriarch Leo Chao is found dead―presumed murdered―his sons discover that they’ve drawn the exacting gaze of the entire town. The ensuing trial brings to light potential motives for all three brothers: Dagou, the restaurant’s reckless head chef; Ming, financially successful but personally tortured; and the youngest, gentle but lost college student James.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin

At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, this intensely personal and provocative document in the form of two letters written on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement- and still lights the way to understanding race in America today.

This kit generously funded through a grant from Beyond the Page, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Madison Community Foundation.

Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley

As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in—both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When her family is struck by tragedy, Daunis puts her dreams on hold to care for her fragile mother. After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. (YA)

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Forbidden, by Beverly Jenkins

Rhine Fontaine is building the successful life he's always dreamed of--one that depends upon him passing for White. But for the first time in years, he wishes he could step out from behind the facade. The reason: Eddy Carmichael, the young woman he rescued in the desert. Outspoken, defiant, and beautiful, Eddy tempts Rhine in ways that could cost him everything...and the price seems worth paying.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah

Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains.  The Dust Bowl era has arrived with a vengeance.  In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe

In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

This kit generously funded through a grant from Beyond the Page, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Madison Community Foundation.

The Girl With the Louding Voice, by Abi Daré

The unforgettable, inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a rural Nigerian village who longs to get an education so that she can find her “louding voice” and speak up for herself.  Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her path, Adunni never loses sight of her goal of escaping the life of poverty she was born into so that she can build the future she chooses for herself - and help other girls like her do the same.

This kit generously funded through Read Africa, a grant from the African Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas

16-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. Starr is the only person who knows what actually happened that night, but what she does or does not say could upend her community... and even endanger her life. (YA)

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing development, the last thing they expected to uncover was a human skeleton. Who the skeleton was and how it got buried there were just two of the long-held secrets that had been kept for decades by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side, sharing ambitions and sorrows. 
Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served the neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents—roused by Chona's kindess and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin—banded together to keep the boy safe.
As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. When the truth is revealed about the skeleton, the boy, and the part the town’s establishment played in both, McBride shows that it is love and community—heaven and earth—that ultimately sustain us.

The Henna Artist, by Alka Joshi

Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But while trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own.

This kit generously funded through the South Asia in Wisconsin Books Project grant from the Center for South Asia at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Hidden Figures, by Margot Shetterly

Set amid the civil rights movement, the true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program. Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as ‘Human Computers’, calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts, these women used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets and astronauts, into space.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi

Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Her sister, Esi, will be imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle's women's dungeon, and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, where she will be sold into slavery. Stretching from the tribal wars of Ghana to slavery and Civil War in America, from the coal mines in the north to the Great Migration to the streets of 20th century Harlem, Yaa Gyasi's has written a modern masterpiece, a novel that moves through histories and geographies and captures the troubled spirit of our own nation.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar

A deeply personal work about hope and identity in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of belonging and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque adventure -- at its heart, it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.

This kit generously funded through the South Asia in Wisconsin Books Project grant from the Center for South Asia at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

How Minds Change, by David McRaney

In this lively journey through human psychology, bestselling author and creator of the You Are Not So Smart podcast David McRaney investigates how minds change-and how to change minds. What made a prominent conspiracy-theorist YouTuber finally see that 9/11 was not a hoax? How do voter opinions shift from neutral to resolute? Can widespread social change only take place when a generation dies out? From one of our greatest thinkers on reasoning, HOW MINDS CHANGE is a book about the science, and the experience, of transformation. When self-delusion expert and psychology nerd David McRaney began a book about how to change someone's mind in one conversation, he never expected to change his own. But then a diehard 9/11 Truther's conversion blew up his theories-inspiring him to ask not just how to persuade, but why we believe, from the eye of the beholder. Delving into the latest research of psychologists and neuroscientists, HOW MINDS CHANGE explores the limits of reasoning, the power of groupthink, and the effects of deep canvassing. Told with McRaney's trademark sense of humor, compassion, and scientific curiosity, it's an eye-opening journey among cult members, conspiracy theorists, and political activists--from Westboro Baptist Church picketers to LGBTQ campaigners in California-that ultimately challenges us to question our own motives and beliefs. In an age of dangerous conspiratorial thinking, can we rise to the occasion with empathy?

How the Word is Passed, by Clint Smith

Poet and contributor to The Atlantic Clint Smith’s revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a slave owning nation. Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks-those that are honest about the past and those that are not-that offer an inter-generational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

How We Fight For Our Lives, by Saeed Jones

A stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears; a portrait of what we all do for one another- and to one another- as we fight to become ourselves.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin

It's 1969 in New York, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die so the Gold children sneak out to hear their fortunes. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

James, by Percival Everett

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

January First, by Michael Schofield

Diagnosed at age six with one of the most severe cases of child-onset schizophrenia on record, January Schofield hallucinated constantly and the line dividing delirium from reality grew dangerously blurry. This is her father's soul-bearing memoir of the daily challenges and unwavering commitment to save his daughter from the edge of insanity while doing everything he can to keep his family together.

The Kindest Lie, by Nancy Johnson

It’s 2008, and the inauguration of President Barack Obama ushers in a new kind of hope. In Chicago, Ruth Tuttle, an Ivy-League educated Black engineer, is married to a kind and successful man. He’s eager to start a family, but Ruth is uncertain. She has never gotten over the baby she gave birth to—and was forced to leave behind—when she was a teenager. She had promised her family she’d never look back, but Ruth knows that to move forward, she must make peace with the past.
Returning home, Ruth discovers the Indiana factory town of her youth is plagued by unemployment, racism, and despair. As she begins digging into the past, she unexpectedly befriends Midnight, a young white boy who is also adrift and looking for connection. Just as Ruth is about to uncover a burning secret her family desperately wants to keep hidden, a traumatic incident strains the town’s already searing racial tensions, sending Ruth and Midnight on a collision course that could upend both their lives.
 

Kindred, by Octavia Butler

The first science fiction written by a Black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of Black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

The Last Black Unicorn, by Tiffany Haddish

Placed in the foster care system as a teen, and struggling to read at a basic level in ninth grade, Haddish found that humor and jokes helped her endure. When offered a choice between the Laugh Factory comedy camp or counseling to help recover from issues within the foster system, she chose the former and found her calling. In her first book, Haddish recounts her early life straight through to her powerhouse success both on the comedy circuit and in Hollywood with the 2017 film Girls Trip.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave

Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.  As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered; as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss; as a US Marshal and FBI agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Less, by Andrew Greer

Arthur Less is a failed novelist.  A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: his ex- boyfriend is getting married. Arthur can’t accept the invitation--it would all be too awkward--and he can’t say no--it would look like defeat.  On desk are a series of half-baked literary invitations he has received from around the world.  Arthur decides to accept all of them in order to skip town. Thus begins a trip that will take Arthur to Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India and Japan.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Life Beyond Measure, by Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier reflects on his amazing life in Life Beyond Measure, offering inspirational advice and personal stories in the form of extended letters to his great-granddaughter. Writing for all who admire his example and who search for wisdom only a man of great experience can offer, this American icon shares his thoughts on love, faith, courage, and the future.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the work farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter. When the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng

Elena Richardson lives in a Cleveland suburb where everything is planned and people play by the rules. But her family's idyllic life is upended by the arrival of Mia Warren- enigmatic artist and single mother- who creates a stir when another family tries to adopt a Chinese-American baby. A novel that explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, the ferocious pull of motherhood, and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Lost City of the Monkey God, by Preston Douglas

Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God.  Three quarters of a century later, author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest - to find the lost city. Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to explore, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quick-mud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. 

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Lost Man, by Jane Harper

Two brothers meet at the border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of outback Queensland. They are at the stockman’s grave, a landmark so old, no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron. The Bright family’s quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish. Something had been troubling Cameron. Did he lose hope and walk to his death? Because if he didn’t, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Malice, by Keigo Higashino

Acclaimed novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he's planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock solid alibis. Malice is one of the bestselling novels in Keigo Higashino's series featuring police detective Kyoichiro Kaga.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

March (1-3), by John Lewis

The inside story of the Civil Rights Movement, as told through the eyes of one of its most iconic figures, Congressman John Lewis. This award-winning graphic novel trilogy brings the lessons of history to vivid life, urgently relevant for today's world.
March is a 3-book series. Book groups may borrow any one or all three of the books, subject to availability.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. Would any of these other lives be better?  Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Mighty Red, by Louise Erdrich

In Argus, North Dakota, a collection of people revolve around a fraught wedding. 
Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed Goth who can't read her future but seems to resolve his.  Hugo, a gentle red-haired, home-schooled giant, is also in love with Kismet. He’s determined to steal her and is eager to be a home wrecker.  Kismet's mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary's family, and on her nightly runs, tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future, her daughter’s and her own.
Human time, deep time, Red River time, the half-life of herbicides and pesticides, and the elegance of time represented in fracking core samples from unimaginable depths, is set against the speed of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the sudden economic meltdown of 2008-2009. How much does a dress cost? A used car? A package of cinnamon rolls? Can you see the shape of your soul in the everchanging clouds? Your personal salvation in the giant expanse of sky? These are the questions the people of the Red River Valley of the North wrestle with every day.

This kit generously funded through a grant from Beyond the Page, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Madison Community Foundation.

Missing White Woman, by Kellye Garrett

It was supposed to be a romantic getaway weekend in New York City. Breanna’s new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything—the train tickets, the dinner reservations, the rented four-story luxury rowhouse in Jersey City with a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline.
 But when Bree comes downstairs their final morning, Ty is nowhere to be found and there’s a stranger dead in the foyer—the missing woman the entire Internet has become obsessed Janelle Beckett. Soon, both the police and an army of Internet sleuths are asking questions Bree doesn't know how to answer. Desperate to find Ty and to keep her own secrets buried, Bree realizes there’s only one person she can turn her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past. 

Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening, by Carol Wall

Carol Wall is at a crossroads in her life: children grown; beloved parents getting older. One day she meets a man tending her neighbor's yard. His name is Giles Owita. He comes from Kenya and he's very good at gardening. Soon Giles is transforming not only Carol's yard, but her heart. Despite their differences, a caring bond grows between them.

Motherhood So White, by Nefertiti Austin

In America, Mother = White.  That's what Nefertiti, a single African American woman, discovered when she decided she wanted to adopt a Black baby boy out of the foster care system. Eager to finally join the motherhood ranks, Nefertiti was shocked when people started asking her why she wanted to adopt a "crack baby" or said that she would never be able to raise a Black son on her own. She realized that American society saw motherhood through a white lens, and that there would be no easy understanding or acceptance of the kind of family she hoped to build.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

The Mothers, by Brit Bennett

Set within a contemporary Black community in California, this debut novel follows 17-year-old Nadia Turner, grieving her mother's suicide. She takes up with the local pastor's son, resulting in a pregnancy and subsequent cover-up that will have an impact far beyond their youth. A surprising story about young love, a big secret in a small community, and the things that ultimately haunt us the most.

This kit generously funded through a grant from Beyond the Page, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Madison Community Foundation.

Mrs. Everything, by Jennifer Weiner

A  timely exploration of two sisters' lives from the 1950s to the present as they struggle to find their places in a rapidly evolving world. Do we change, or does the world change us?

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander

With dazzling candor, legal scholar Alexander challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signaled a new era of colorblindness, arguing that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it" -- and examines how the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

On Juneteenth, by Annette Gordon-Reed

Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth provides a historian’s view of the country’s long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant — and that her lover is married — she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.

This kit generously funded through a grant from The Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.
But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle's complexion isn't dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.  Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.  All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

A Promised Land, by Barack Obama

In the first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.  Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Quietly Hostile, by Samantha Irby

Samantha Irby invites us to share in the gory particulars of her real life, all that festers behind the glitter and glam.
The success of Irby's career has taken her to new heights. She fields calls with job offers from Hollywood and walks the red carpet with the iconic ladies of Sex and the City. Finally, she has made it. But, behind all that new-found glam, Irby is just trying to keep her life together as she always had.
Her teeth are poisoning her from inside her mouth, and her diarrhea is back. She gets turned away from a restaurant for wearing ugly clothes, she goes to therapy and tries out Lexapro, gets healed with Reiki, explores the power of crystals, and becomes addicted to QVC. Making light of herself as she takes us on an outrageously funny tour of all the details that make up a true portrait of her life, Irby is once again the relatable, uproarious tonic we all need.

Real Friends Talk About Race, by Yseult P. Mukantabana

Real Friends Talk About Race is an essential guide for those who want to have stronger interracial relationships —whether it’s with friends, colleagues, or loved ones.  Having conversations about race is uncomfortable. But for progress between individuals (and our communities) to happen, we need to be able to speak openly and honestly. Podcast hosts of The Kinswomen Yseult and Hannah use their own friendship and experiences from different racial backgrounds to offer guidance on navigating these layered conversations.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

This poetry collection captures the essence of the pianist and strong Black woman, Mary Lou Williams, in a poignant, moving, and expressive way.  This book presents the struggles and triumphs of Mary Lou Williams, and readers can feel the connection between the pianist and poet leap off the page.  The "conversations" between the Poet Fabu and Mary Lou provide a strong historical context of the type of wisdom that generations of Black women have engaged in, in an effort to navigate their way through the social, political, and economic obstacles that have attempted to silence their voices and negate their presence in the world.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Sag Harbor, by Colson Whitehead

The year is 1985. Benji Cooper is one of the only black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. After a tragic mishap on his first day of high school his social doom is sealed for the next four years. But every summer, Benji escapes to the Sag Harbor, where a small community of African American professionals has built a world of their own. Because their parents come out only on weekends, he and his friends are left to their own devices for three glorious months.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Sandwich, by Catherine Newman

For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod. Their humble beach-town rental has been the site of sweet memories, sunny days, great meals, and messes of all kinds: emotional, marital, and—thanks to the cottage’s ancient plumbing—septic too.
This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.
It's one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.

The Seed Keeper, by Diane Wilson

Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, who tells her stories the origins of the Dakota people. One morning, Ray doesn't return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato where she meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they've inherited.  Many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband's farm, finding solace in her garden. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. 

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation

Send For Me, by Lauren Fox

Annelise works at her parents' popular bakery in Feldenheim, Germany. There are rumors that anti-Jewish sentiment is on the rise, but Annelise and her parents can't quite believe that it will affect them; they're hardly religious at all. But as Annelise falls in love, marries, and gives birth to her daughter, the dangers grow closer. Annelise and her husband are given the chance to leave for America, but they must go without her parents. Two generations later, Annelise's granddaughter is a young woman newly in love. But when she stumbles upon a trove of her grandmother's letters from Germany, she sees the history of her family's sacrifices in a new light, and suddenly she's faced with an impossible choice: the past, or her future. 

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Seven Days in June, by Tia Williams

Brooklynite Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer. Shane Hall is a reclusive, award-winning literary author who, to everyone's surprise, shows up in New York. When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising the eyebrows of New York's Black literati. What no one knows is that twenty years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. They may be pretending that everything is fine now, but they can't deny their chemistry - or the fact that they've been secretly writing to each other in their books ever since. Over the next seven days in the middle of a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect, but Eva's not sure how she can trust the man who broke her heart.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation

She Would Be King, by Wayétu Moore

Moore’s debut novel reimagines the dramatic story of Liberia’s early years through three unforgettable characters. Gbessa, exiled from the West African village of Lai, is starved and left for dead, but still she survives. June Dey, raised on a plantation in Virginia, hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. Norman Aragon, the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica, can fade from sight when the earth calls him. When the three meet in the settlement of Monrovia, their gifts help them salvage the tense relationship between the African American settlers and the indigenous tribes, as a new nation forms around them.

This kit generously funded through Read Africa, a grant from the African Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward

Jojo and his sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she’s high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie’s children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.

This kit generously funded through a grant from Beyond the Page, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Madison Community Foundation.

Sitting Pretty, by Rebekah Taussig

A memoir-in-essays from disability advocate and creator of the Instagram account @sitting_pretty Rebekah Taussig, processing a lifetime of memories to paint a beautiful, nuanced portrait of a body that looks and moves differently than most.
Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling.
Writing about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn’t fit, Rebekah reflects on everything from the complications of kindness and charity, living both independently and dependently, experiencing intimacy, and how the pervasiveness of ableism in our everyday media directly translates to everyday life.

Small Game, by Blair Braverman

 Four strangers and six weeks: this is all that separates Mara from one life-changing payday. She was surprised when reality TV producers came knocking at Primal Instinct—the survival school where she teaches rich clients not to die during a night outdoors—and even more shocked to be cast in their new show, Civilization. Now she just has to live off the land with her fellow survivors for long enough to get the prize money.
Whisked by helicopter to an undisclosed location, Mara meets her teammates: The grizzled outdoorsman. The Eagle Scout. The white-collar professional. And Ashley, the beautiful but inexperienced one who just wants to be famous. Mara’s unusual, rugged childhood has prepared her for the discomforts and hard work ahead. But trusting her fellow survivors Not part of Mara’s skill set. When the cast wakes one morning to find something has gone horribly wrong, fear ripples through the group. Are the producers giving them an extra challenge Or are they wrapped up in something more dangerous Soon Mara and the others face terrifying decisions as “survival” becomes more than a game.

So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo

Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

South to America, by Imani Perry

We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

A Spark of Light, by Jodi Picoult

From one of the most provocative storytellers of our time, a timely and harrowing novel about a hostage situation at a women's reproductive health services center and the people caught up in it. Among them, a doctor and nurse, a pro-life protester disguised as a patient, the gunman, and the police hostage negotiator who learns that his teenage daughter is among those in the center.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

State of Terror, by Hillary Rodham Clinton

State of Terror, co-authored by Louise Penny,  follows a novice Secretary of State who has joined the administration of her rival, a president inaugurated after four years of American leadership that shrank from the world stage. A series of terrorist attacks throws the global order into disarray, and the secretary is tasked with assembling a team to unravel the deadly conspiracy, a scheme carefully designed to take advantage of an American government dangerously out of touch and out of power in the places where it counts the most.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

And Still I Rise , by Maya Angelou

A collection of poems from Maya Angelou which are powerful, distinctive and as always, full of lifting rhythms of love and remembering.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid

Alix Chamberlain is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is accused by a store's security guard- seeing a young black woman out late with a white child- of kidnapping. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right, but Emira is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. Both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Survivalists, by Kashana Cauley

In the wake of her parents’ death, Aretha, a habitually single Black lawyer, has had only one obsession in life—success—until she falls for Aaron, a coffee entrepreneur. Moving into his Brooklyn brownstone to live along with his Hurricane Sandy-traumatized, illegal-gun-stockpiling, optimized-soy-protein-eating, bunker-building roommates, Aretha finds that her dreams of making partner are slipping away, replaced by an underground world, one of selling guns and training for a doomsday that’s maybe just around the corner.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See

In a remote mountain village where life revolves around the seasons and the farming of tea, a stranger in a jeep marks the arrival of the modern world, and Li-yan begins to reject generations-old customs. She leaves a baby born out of wedlock at an orphanage, and leaves her insular village for an education and city life. Her daughter is raised by loving adoptive parents in California. Over the course of years, each searches for meaning in the study of Pu'er, the tea that has shaped their family's destiny for centuries. A powerful story about circumstances, culture, distance and the bond of family.

This kit generously funded through a grant from The Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix Harrow

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, young January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As a ward of wealthy Mr. Locke in the early 1900s, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place. Then she finds a strange book, one that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Tiger's Wife, by Téa Obreht

In a Balkan country mending from years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, arrives on a mission of mercy at an orphanage by the sea. By the time she and her lifelong friend Zóra begin to inoculate the children there, she feels age-old superstitions and secrets gathering everywhere around her. Secrets her outwardly cheerful hosts have chosen not to tell her. Secrets involving the strange family digging for something in the surrounding vineyards. Secrets hidden in the landscape itself.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi

Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.  But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

Francie Nolan is growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn. With an alcoholic father and an aunt with frequent marriages, no one- least of all Francie- could say that the Nolans' life lacks drama. By turns overwhelming, heartbreaking and uplifting, the Nolans' daily experiences are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connections.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, by Emmanuel Acho

Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask—yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and “reverse racism.”

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

The Ungrateful Refugee, by Dina Nayeri

At age eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotel-turned-refugee-camp. Eventually she was granted asylum in America. She settled in Oklahoma, then made her way to Princeton University. In this book, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, bringing us inside their daily lives and taking us through the different stages of their journeys, from escape to asylum to resettlement.

This kit generously funded through a grant from Beyond the Page, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Madison Community Foundation.

The Violin Conspiracy, by Brendan Slocumb

Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can't afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world. And when he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather's fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise. Then with the international Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—fast approaching, his prized family heirloom is stolen. Ray is determined to get it back. But now his family and the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray's great-grandfather are each claiming that the violin belongs to them. 

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

The Water Dancer, by Ta'Nehisi Coates

Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.  This journey takes Hiram from Virginia’s plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously movements in the North. Throughout it all, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

We are the Light, by Matthew Quick

Lucas Goodgame lives in Majestic, Pennsylvania, a quaint suburb that has been torn apart by a recent tragedy. Everyone in Majestic sees Lucas as a hero--everyone, that is, except Lucas himself. Insisting that his deceased wife, Darcy, visits him every night in the form of an angel, Lucas spends his time writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl. It is only when Eli, an eighteen-year-old young man whom the community has ostracized, begins camping out in Lucas's backyard that an unlikely alliance takes shape and the two embark on a journey to heal their neighbors and, most importantly, themselves.

We Ride Upon Stick, by Quan Barry

Set in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts (which in 1692 was the site of the origins of the Salem Witch Trials), the story follows the Danvers High field hockey team as they discover that the dark impulses of their Salem forebears may be the key to a winning season. The 1989 Danvers Falcons are on an unaccountable winning streak.  Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza, whose bleached blond "Claw" sees and knows all, the DHS Falcons prove to be as wily and original as their North of Boston ancestors, flaunting society's stale notions of femininity in order to find their glorious true selves through the crucible of team sport.

What the Fireflies Knew, by Kai Harris

After her father dies of an overdose and the debts incurred from his addiction cause the loss of the family home in Detroit, almost-eleven-year-old Kenyatta Bernice (KB) and her teenage sister, Nia, are sent by their overwhelmed mother to live with their estranged grandfather in Lansing.  Pinballing between resentment, abandonment, and loneliness, KB is forced to carve out a different identity for herself and find her own voice. As she examines the jagged pieces of her recently shattered world, she learns that while some truths cut deep, a new life--and a new KB--can be built from the shards.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. In late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist, she takes life lessons from the land. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world--until the unthinkable happens.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

White Fragility, by Robin Diangelo

Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, anti-racist educator Robin DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what can be done to engage more constructively.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, by Beverly Tatum

Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about communicating across racial and ethnic divides and pursuing antiracism. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.

Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena's a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn't even get a paperback release. So when June witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena's just-finished masterpiece. So what if June edits Athena's novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song--complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? But June can't get away from Athena's shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June's (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

This kit generously funded by the Friends of the Library.

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, by Amber Ruffin

Writer and talk show host Amber Ruffin lives in New York, where everyone is, as she puts it, "stark raving normal." But her sister, Lacey, still lives in their home state of Nebraska, where she encounters racist donut shops and strangers putting their hand in her hair, mistaking her for a prostitute and for Harriet Tubman. Lacey is the perfect mix of polite, beautiful, petite, and Black that apparently makes people think "I can say whatever I want to this woman." Amber and Lacey’s entertainingly horrifying stories- painfully relatable or shockingly eye-opening- tackle modern-day racism with the perfect balance of levity and gravity.

This kit generously funded by the Library Foundation.