Things No One Taught Us About Love

Things No One Taught Us About Love
By Vex King
HarperOne, 2025. 301 pages. Nonfiction

This easy-to-digest nonfiction book teaches that building healthy relationships starts with developing a strong foundation of self-love and self-awareness. It explains that many relationship struggles come from unhealed emotional wounds and learned patterns that shape how we give and receive love. The book emphasizes the importance of taking responsibility for your inner world rather than relying on others for validation or happiness.

King highlights that healthy relationships require clear boundaries, honest communication, and mutual respect rather than dependency or control. He also frames relationships as opportunities for growth, showing how partners often reflect your inner state and areas that need healing. Overall, the book presents love as a daily practice rooted in self-respect, emotional maturity, and conscious effort rather than something that simply happens. I really found that it resonated deeply with me, and the tips for daily practice are actually do-able. I highly recommend getting more in touch with yourself and learning how you, as an individual, deserve to be loved unconditionally.

If you like Things No One Taught Us About Love, you might also like:

Take Up Space, Y'All
By Tess Holiday
RP Teens, 2025. 162 pages. Nonfiction

For any readers who feel they have to change themselves to fit in, this is an encouraging message to be their most authentic selves. It's geared at teenagers, but the messages resonate with any age. This engaging and informative work offers body-positive tips and tricks while tackling important topics such as mental health, friendships, self-image, and personal habits. As exemplified by the title, the authors focus on helping readers respond to difficult situations and keep a clear head, all with an emphasis on self-love. In a supportive, energetic tone, Holliday and Coon guide readers in learning how to love themselves and develop their own relationships with food, fashion, and friends.

The Body Is Not An Apology
By Sonya Renee Taylor
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2021. 159 pages. Nonfiction

This incredible resource argues that radical self-love is a powerful tool for healing both personal and societal harm. The book explains how systems like racism, sexism, and body shaming distort our relationship with our bodies and limit our sense of worth. It encourages readers to reject these harmful narratives, embrace their bodies fully, and use self-love as a foundation for creating a more just and compassionate world. World-renowned activist and poet Sonya Renee Taylor invites us to reconnect with the radical origins of our minds and bodies and celebrate our collective, enduring strength. As we awaken to our own indoctrinated body shame, we feel inspired to awaken others and to interrupt the systems that perpetuate body shame and oppression against all bodies. When we act from this truth on a global scale, we usher in the transformative opportunity of radical self-love, which is the opportunity for a more just, equitable, and compassionate world--for us all.

The Courage To Be Disliked
By Ichirō Kishimi
Atria Books, 2018. 270 pages. Nonfiction

This book demonstrates how to unlock the power within yourself to be the person you truly want to be. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of twentieth century psychology, this book follows an illuminating conversation between a philosopher and a young man. The philosopher explains to his pupil how each of us is able to determine our own life, free from the shackles of past experiences, doubts, and the expectations of others. It's a way of thinking that is deeply liberating, allowing us to develop the courage to change, and to ignore the limitations that we and other people have placed on us. The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance. This book will help you declutter your mind of harmful thoughts and attitudes, helping you to make a lasting change, achieve real happiness, and find success.

Recipes for Self-Love
By Rachel Alison
Morrow Gift, 2019. 112 pages. Nonfiction

This graphic-style self-help book uses simple illustrations and short reflections to explore self-worth and emotional well-being. It focuses on how societal pressures, especially in a patriarchal world, can shape insecurities and negative self-perception. The author encourages readers to practice self-love through boundaries, self-acceptance, and letting go of the need for external validation. She presents healing as a gradual process, offering small, relatable “recipes” or steps for feeling better in everyday life. Overall, it delivers a gentle and accessible message that prioritizing your own needs and inner peace is both necessary and empowering.

LKA

Disappoint Me

Disappoint Me
By Nicola Dinan
The Dial Press, 2025. 305 pages. Fiction

This novel is an exploration of love, loss, trans panic, race, millennial angst, and the relationships--familial and romantic--that make us who we are. It is funny, sharp, and poignant. One of the best ways to build empathy is to read books about people who are different from us. (Check out this article from the American Psychological Association that support this claim!) Autostraddle Magazine calls this book, "One of the sharpest and most emotionally vulnerable novels on the complicated dynamic of dating cisgender straight men as a trans woman.” I'll never experience what it's like to be a trans woman, so reading a book like this is an excellent way for me to build understanding, empathy, and compassion.

Our main character Max, a 30-year-old trans woman, poet, and legal adviser at a tech company, is struggling with writer’s block following a recent breakup. After deciding to date again, she meets Vincent Chan, a cisgender corporate lawyer and son of Chinese immigrants. Despite their genuine connection, not just as Asians in the London business world but as kindred spirits, their relationship is tested by Vincent’s occasional thoughtless remarks about Max’s trans identity and her emerging health concerns resulting from her gender-affirming care. She must use love and forgiveness to determine whether it’s possible to move beyond her dissatisfaction and their shared mistakes.

The character development in this novel is compelling, and the thought-provoking plot kept me invested. Max is an incredibly complex character, and this book will leave you thinking about her and caring about her, long after you're done reading.

If you like Disappoint Me, you might also like:

Woodworking
By Emily St. James
Crooked Media Reads, 2025. 351 pages. Fiction

Erica Skyberg is thirty-five years old, recently divorced, and trans. Not that she's told anyone yet. Mitchell, South Dakota, isn't exactly bursting with other trans women. Instead, she keeps to herself, teaching by day and directing community theater by night. That is, until Abigail Hawkes enters her orbit. Abigail is seventeen, Mitchell High's resident political dissident and Only Trans Girl. It's a role she plays faultlessly, albeit a little reluctantly. She's also annoyed by the idea of spending her senior year secretly guiding her English teacher through her transition. But Abigail remembers the uncertainty--and loneliness--that comes with it. Besides, Erica isn't the only one struggling to shed the weight of others' expectations. As their unlikely friendship evolves under the increasing scrutiny of their community, both women, and those closest to them, will come to realize that sometimes there is nothing more radical than letting the world see who you really are.

A Gentleman's Gentleman
By T.J. Alexander
Vintage Books, 2025. 322 pages. Fiction

The notoriously eccentric Lord Christopher Eden is a "man of unusual make" and even more unusual habits: he wears pastels year round, prefers to live as far from the prying eyes and ears of the town as possible, and wholeheartedly prefers the comfortable company of his childhood cook and aged butler, Plinkton, to any swarm of servants that would normally befit a man of his station. His penchant for privacy makes for a pleasant, if occasionally lonely life. That life is threatened to be upended entirely when Christopher receives word from his lawyers that, according to his late father's will, he must find a wife in London by the end of the Season if he intends to maintain his status as the only living heir to the Eden's End estate. While most men his age and status would leap at the chance to marry, he cannot imagine a worse fate... Enter: the handsome-if stoic James Harding, the new valet Christopher very reluctantly hires after Cook and Plinkton remind him that if he's to stay in London, he must keep up appearances befitting that of a wealthy, eligible bachelor. After a rocky start to their relationship, the two strike up a fragile friendship amid the throes of the London Season; a friendship that threatens to shatter completely as Christopher's deadline to find a wife looms.

Bad Habit

By Alana Portero
HarperVia, 2024. 224 pages. Fiction

I read this book in 2024 and blogged about it here. It's a staggering coming-of-age novel deeply rooted in the struggles of a trans woman growing up in Madrid. Set against the very real heroin epidemic that ravaged Madrid in the 1980s and the city’s vibrant party scene that dominated its nightlife in the 1990s, the novel follows an unnamed protagonist as she grows up in a blue-collar suburb that has no place for her. Forging ahead, she discovers community and kinship in downtown Madrid, amid a lively party scene animated by junkies, pop divas, and fallen angels. But with each step she takes forward, she finds herself confronted by a violence she does not yet know how to counter; in this exciting and often terrifying world, each choice can truly be a matter of life and death.

The In-Between Bookstore
By Edward Underhill
Avon Books, 2025. 253 pages. Fiction

When thirty-year-old trans man Darby finds himself unemployed and in need of a fresh start, he moves back to the small Illinois town he left behind. But Oak Falls has changed almost as much as he has since he left. One thing is familiar: In-Between Books, Darby's refuge growing up and high school job. When he walks into the bookstore now, Darby feels an eerie sense of déjà vu--everything is exactly the same. He's transported back to 2009, and face-to-face with his teenage self, who just might give Darby the opportunity to change his own present for the better--if he can figure out how before his connection to the past vanishes forever. The In-Between Bookstore is a bingeable time travel novel of love, self-discovery, and the choices that come with both. It's for anyone who has ever wondered what their life might be like if they had the chance to go back and take a bigger, braver risk.

LKA

Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books

Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books
By Kirsten Miller
HarperCollins, 2024. 298 pages. Fiction

Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on a mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books--none of which she's actually read. To replace the books she's challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the "worthy" literature that she's sure the town's readers need. 

What Lula doesn't know is that a local troublemaker has stolen her wholesome books, removed their dust jackets, and restocked Lula's library with banned books. Finally, one of Lula Dean's enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town's disgraced mayor. That's when all the townspeople who've been borrowing from Lula's library begin to reveal themselves and start to challenge the book banners' misplaced fears.

This book was positively delightful! I listened to the incredible audio version (linked here), where the talents of the voice actors make the tiny town of Troy, Georgia come alive. This novel takes a very divisive topic and presents it in a way that allows room for conversation and nuance. The reader understands why Lula Dean does what she does, even if they don't agree with her actions. One of the most beautiful things about reading is the ability to grow empathy for those who are not like ourselves, and this book demands that its readers do just that.

If you like Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books, you might also like:

The Book Club for Troublesome Women
By Marie Bostwick
Harper Muse, 2025. 372 pages. Fiction

This charming novel explores the lives of housewives in 1963 suburban Virginia. Margaret, Viv, and Bitsy are living the American dream. However, "having it all" leaves them feeling guilty and wondering if there should be more to their lives than just domesticity. Enter Charlotte, their arty, fashionable, and eccentric new neighbor from New York City. These four women start a book club, with The Feminine Mystique as their first title, a controversial and groundbreaking book that inspires each of them to examine their own lives, illustrating why they each feel pressured, unhappy, and unfulfilled. Through their discussions of other books, they form an unbreakable bond and encourage one another not only to acknowledge their fears and dreams but also to seek change to make their longings a reality.

Bookish People
By Susan Coll
HarperCollins, 2022. 327 pages. Fiction

This intensely wonderful novel is set in the immediate aftermath of the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, in which a counter-protester was killed. Readers meet the multigenerational staff at an independent Washington, DC, bookstore as they navigate personal and professional dilemmas. The bookstore's owner, Sophie Bernstein, has just been widowed; the loss, in combination with the country's political turmoil, is causing her to have a break with reality. Overworked and underappreciated events manager Clemi is an aspiring writer who's struggling to find her footing in life. Throw in a busy and understaffed store, several controversial author events, pets running amok, and an impending solar eclipse, and you have a story where dark and comedic plot lines converge.

The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
By Shauna Robinson
Sourcebooks Landmark, 2022. 329 pages. Romance

Hapless but good-hearted Maggie arrives in Bell River to take over the local bookstore for her friend on maternity leave. It all sounds wonderfully exciting until she discovers the rules of the "Bell Society:" no contemporary novels, no books not available during hometown literary icon Edward Bell's lifetime, and no questioning the character of said author. As an outsider, Maggie lacks the unquestioning devotion to the town's beloved author, angering the Bell Society management. Versatile author Shauna Robinson relates Maggie's words evenly and calmly, bringing out her thought processes and motivations as she searches for a way to save the foundering bookshop. Maggie begins to secretly hold fun genre-themed events and starts an online presence that skyrockets the bookstore's profitability, but at what cost? Despite toxic Bell Society issues, Maggie finds herself making friends and falling in love with her adopted small town. An uplifting small-town romance with broader appeal.

LKA

We Don't Talk About Carol

We Don't Talk About Carol
By Kristen Berry
Bantam, 2025. 328 pages. Fiction

Yes, the title drew me in because when I read it, the Disney song We Don't Talk About Bruno started playing, immediately, in my head. Same for you? It's unrelated to this book, but a fun little anecdote. 

After her grandmother's passing, Sydney Singleton finds a hidden photograph of a little girl who looks more like Sydney than her own sister or mother. She soon discovers the mystery girl in the photograph is her aunt, Carol, who was one of six North Carolina Black girls to go missing in the 1960s. For the last several decades, no one has talked about Carol or what really happened to her. But now, with her grandmother gone and Sydney looking to start a family of her own, she is determined to unravel the truth behind her long-lost aunt's disappearance, and the sinister silence that surrounds her. As she delves deeper into Carol's fate, her own troubled past reemerges, clawing its way to the surface with a vengeance. Without spoiling everything, Sydney’s quest leads to a number of revealing truths about Carol’s fate and about her own family’s role in keeping the past buried. The process forces her to reckon with what it means to heal, both personally and within her family.

The novel balances suspense (a cold case, possible cover‑ups, hidden truths) with emotional, psychological drama (trauma, motherhood, trust, identity). It is also commentary on racial injustice — specifically, how cases of missing Black girls have historically been neglected or minimized by both law enforcement and the media. This book was haunting, captivating, and will stick with me for a long time.

If you like We Don't Talk About Carol, you might also like: 

The Kindest Lie 
By Nancy Johnson
William Morrow, 2021. 326 pages. Fiction

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.

The Care & Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
By Anissa Gray
Berkley, 2019. 294 pages. Fiction

The Butler family has had their share of trials, as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest, but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives. Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband Proctor are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened. As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister's teenage daughters. What unfolds is a stunning portrait of the heart and core of an American family in a story that is as page-turning as it is important.

Time's Undoing: A Novel
By Anastasia Hastings
Dutton, 2023. 371 pages. Fiction

Birmingham, 1929: Robert Lee Harrington, a master carpenter, has just moved to Alabama to pursue a job opportunity, bringing along his pregnant wife and young daughter. Birmingham is in its heyday, known as the "Magic City" for its booming steel industry, and while Robert and his family find much to enjoy in the city's busy markets and vibrant nightlife, it's also a stronghold for the Klan. And with his beautiful, light-skinned wife and snazzy car, Robert begins to worry that he might be drawing the wrong kind of attention. 2019: Meghan McKenzie, the youngest reporter at the Detroit Free Press, has grown up hearing family lore about her great-grandfather's murder--but no one knows the full story of what really happened back then, and his body was never found. Determined to find answers to her family's long-buried tragedy and spurred by the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, Meghan travels to Birmingham. But as her investigation begins to uncover dark secrets that spider across both the city and time, her life may be in danger.

LKA

Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder

Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder
By Kerryn Mayne
St. Martin's Press, 2024. 339 pages. Fiction

This delightfully dark novel is a character-driven mystery and psychological drama about Lenny Marks, a socially awkward, neurodivergent, trauma-affected woman living a carefully controlled life. She works as a teacher’s aide and spends her free time immersed in true crime shows and journaling letters to her long-absent mother. Her rigid routine unravels when a letter from the parole board informs her that someone from her past—specifically related to a traumatic event she’s repressed—is being released from prison. This triggers a cascade of memories, revelations, and emotional confrontations that force Lenny to re-examine her own history, the people around her, and what actually happened in her childhood.

The book combines dark humor, psychological suspense, and emotional depth and it explores trauma, recovery, and self-determination. While it plays with the expectations of the murder mystery genre, its focus is ultimately more on personal growth than crime-solving. Lenny Marks is a character I won't soon forget! I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator's Australian lilt is genuinely charming.

If you like Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder you might also like:

Blackmail and Bibingka
By Mia Manansala
Berkley Prime Crime, 2022. 270 pages. Mystery

Cozy meets culinary in this seasonal amateur sleuthing tale starring Lila Macapagal, who is balancing her new café and budding romance. She is forced to investigate when her estranged cousin Ronnie—back after 15 years—becomes the prime suspect in a local winery-linked murder. This book is rich with Filipino food, family dynamics, and holiday flair, and the story keeps a light tone even as it delves into greed, secrets, and the deep bonds that hold a community together.

The Woman in the Library
By Sulari Gentill
Poisoned Pen Press, 2022. 288 pages. Mystery

The tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning--it just happens that one is a murderer.

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
By Jesse Q. Sutano, 2023. 338 pages. Mystery

Vera Wong's tea shop in San Francisco's Chinatown may have lost most of its customers and her Gen-Z son rarely returns her texts, but she manages to thrive on her own. After finding a dead body in her tea shop and stealing a piece of evidence from the crime scene, Vera uses her detective skills to try to solve the murder. Using tea and home-cooked meals, Vera draws close her four suspects. Each of them has a secret that connects them to the victim and might tear their newfound family apart. The author excels at creating lovably flawed characters, the mystery has plenty of twists to keep readers guessing, and Vera's case notes at the end of some chapters add humor to the deductive process.

After Annie
By Anna Quindlen
Random House, 2024. 304 pages. Fiction

When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her children, and her closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the lynchpin of all their lives. Bill is overwhelmed without his beloved wife, and Annemarie wrestles with the bad habits her best friend had helped her overcome. And Ali, the eldest of Annie's children, has to grow up overnight, to care for her younger brothers and even her father and to puzzle out for herself many of the mysteries of adult life. Over the course of the next year what saves them all is Annie, ever-present in their minds, loving but not sentimental, caring but nobody's fool, a voice in their heads that is funny and sharp and remarkably clear. The power she has given to those who loved her is the power to go on without her. The lesson they learn is that no one beloved is ever truly gone.

LKA

Marsha

Marsha
By Tourmaline
Tiny Reparations Books, 2025. 306 pages. Nonfiction

Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson is an inspiring record of her life, love, and lessons written after nearly two decades of research by her leading archivist. Marsha P. Johnson, the legendary Black transgender LGBTQIA+ activist, is known for throwing the first brick in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising and then, rumor has it, picking up a shard of glass to fix her makeup. This book takes us through Marsha's life from growing up in racially-segregated Elizabeth, New Jersey, to her youth spent hustling in Times Square, to the LGBTQIA+ uprising that galvanized her activism. "The book masters the complex balance of joy alternating with profound sadness- inherent in Marsha's life, which despite the defiant resilience of her own statements, was rife with struggles with housing, medical care, disability, loss, and violence." This beautifully written piece of nonfiction honors the fullness of Marsha's life, and promises to inspire readers to live as their most liberated, unruly, vibrant, and whole selves. I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who wants to feel the true compassion and rage that is all wrapped up in the incredible life of Marsha P. Johnson.

If you liked Marsha, you might also like: 

The Stonewall Riots
By Gayle E. Pitman
Abrams Books, 2019. 196 pages. Nonfiction

A thorough examination of the events before, during, and in the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots that gives young readers an overview of the LGBTQIA+ activism of the 1950s and 1960s. The book traces meeting places, social clubs, and the rise of organizations and activist groups, as well as the many police raids of gay establishments, focusing on the June 28, 1969, raid on the Stonewall Inn. The story of the riots is retold in quite a few segments, but each narration provides a slightly different perspective. A timeline, notes, and a thorough bibliography round out this inviting, engaging, and well-researched book.

Tomorrow Will Be Different
By Sarah McBride
Crown Archetype, 2018. 273 pages. Nonfiction

In 2016 at the age of 25, Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person to speak at a national political convention. As a young person active in politics who had wrestled for years with a growing awareness of her gender identity, McBride knew that coming out would change the course of her life. This memoir highlights Sarah's work as an activist and the key issues at the forefront of the fight for trans equality, providing a call-to-action and empowering look at the road ahead. The fight for equality and freedom has only just begun. "We must never be a country that says there's only one way to love, only one way to look, and only one way to live," she states.

With Honor and Integrity
By Máel Embser-Herbert
New York University Press, 2021. 211 pages. Nonfiction

This is an impactful book on transgender troops in the US. In the preface, they state, “We know that not every reader comes to this volume with an understanding of or support for transgender people and we know that not every reader comes to their reading with an understanding of or support for military service.” This framing brings scholars of gender and sexuality and scholars of the military to the book on a more equal footing. This provide an inspiring look at the past, present, and future of transgender military service. At a time when LGBTQIA+ rights are under siege, and the opportunity to serve continues to be challenged, this book is a timely and necessary read.

My Child Is Trans, Now What?
By Ben Greene
Rowman & Littlefield, 2024. 203 pages. Nonfiction

As anti-trans legislation sweeps through the nation, many Americans remain underinformed about trans issues and unsure of how to support the trans children in their lives. Designed for readers at all different knowledge levels, this book is an accessible, nonjudgmental primer. Drawing on his own experience of coming out as trans in high school, Greene emphasizes the importance of making space for trans joy in a world where trans kids are often met with anger, conflict, and even violence. He also takes care to stress the fact that, because every trans person is different, the best way to know the needs of a specific trans kid in your life is always just to ask. This warm and generous book will help a wide range of readers to support and celebrate children who are trans, nonbinary, and questioning.

LKA

Black AF History

Black AF History
By Michael Harriot
William Morrow, 2023. 426 pages. Nonfiction

It's important for us, as humans, to remember that what we think of as "history" is usually just one person/group's version of the events. "A searingly smart and bitingly hilarious telling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans. It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights; after all, history was written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. In this book, Michael Harriot combines unapologetically provocative storytelling with meticulous research based on primary sources as well as the pioneering work of Black historians, scholars and journalists," states the publisher. The book begins in the year 1400 with The Age of Discovery of European exploration, and demonstrates clearly how the slave trade was human trafficking, plantations were "forced labor enterprises," Jim Crow was American apartheid, and lynch mobs were serial killers and ethnic cleansers. 

My favorite chapter was on Ida B. Wells, who helped found the NAACP, among other amazing things. The author's conversational tone peppered with occasional sarcasm makes the history come alive. According to the author, Wells was "allergic to white nonsense and patriarchy," which sounds like the kind of woman I'd want to know. This history book makes it very clear that the United States became wealthy from a race-based human trafficking system that enshrined the laws of property and white supremacy, which reduced people to chattel through violence. No matter how difficult it feels to learn about our country's true history, we owe it ourselves to bring the truth to light and deal with it, together, head-on. This book is an incredible resource for that journey and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

If you liked Black AF History, you might also like:

Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man 
By Emmanuel Acho
Flatiron Books, 2020. 244 pages. Nonfiction

This book takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, that many white Americans are afraid to ask; yet, which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With open-hearted generosity, the author explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and "reverse racism." In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader's curiosity -- but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight.

The New Jim Crow

By Michelle Alexander

New Press, 2012. 312 pages. Nonfiction

With engaging candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial cast in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting Black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control--relegating millions to a permanent second-class status--even as it formally adheres to the principles of colorblindness. This book is a call to action.

Between the World and Me
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Spiegal & Grau, 2015. 152 pages. Nonfiction.

This book takes the form of a letter to the author's teenage son and it comes to grips with what it means to be Black in America in the twenty-first century. It attempts to answer questions like: what is it like to inhabit a Black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? The stories Coates shares, beautifully woven from his personal narrative, "clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward."

LKA

Saving Five

Saving Five: A Memoir of Hope
By Amanda Nguyen
AUWA Books, 2025. 204 pages. Nonfiction

"A revelatory and powerful memoir by the Nobel Peace Prize finalist Amanda Nguyen, detailing her tumultuous childhood and groundbreaking activism in the aftermath of her rape at Harvard in 2013." Amanda was determined to not let her rape derail her goal of joining NASA after graduation, so she let her rape kit be filed under "Jane Doe." She was quickly horrified to learn that her choice to stay anonymous gave her only six months to take action before the state destroyed her kit, rendering any future legal action impossible. 

She knew then that she had two clear options: surrender to a law that denied her justice, or fight for a change for herself and survivors everywhere. Amanda chose to fight to change the laws for sexual assault survivors, and placed her dream of being an astronaut on hold - but wrote herself a note that read, "Never, never give up," to remind her that this was only a pause, not a stop, on her way to space. On, Monday, April 14th, 2025, Amanda Nguyen became the first Vietnamese woman to fly to space and she carried with her the note she wrote for herself! The words "never, never give up" were her zero-G indicator; the object that astronauts bring to space to indicate when microgravity conditions begin. This is truly a memoir of hope and so, much more.

If you like Saving Five, you might also like:

Know My Name
By Chanel Miller
Viking, 2019. 357 pages. Nonfiction

A Stanford student had been sentenced to just six months in a county jail after he was found sexually assaulting "Emily Doe" on the school's campus. The victim's impact statement was posted on BuzzFeed, where it instantly went viral, was translated globally and read on the floor of Congress. It inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. Now, Chanel Miller reclaims her identity to tell the story of her trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. She reveals her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial, reveals the oppression that victims face in even the best-case scenarios, and illuminates a culture biased to protect the perpetrators.

Women We Buried, Women We Burned
By Rachel Louise Snyder

A piercing account of the author's journey from teenage runaway to reporter on the global epidemic of domestic violence, this memoir embodies the transformative power of resistance. Rachel Louise Snyder was just eight years old when her mother died, and her distraught father thrust the family into an evangelical, cult-like existence halfway across the country. Furiously rebellious, she was expelled rom school and home at age sixteen. Living out of her car and relying on strangers, Rachel found herself masquerading as an adult, talking her way into college, and eventually traveling the globe. You don't want to miss this remarkable and gut-wrenching story.

I Have the Right To
By Chessy Prout
Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2018. 404 pages. Nonfiction

The numbers are staggering: nearly one in five girls ages fourteen to seventeen have been the victim of a sexual assault or an attempted sexual assault. This is the true story of one of those girls. In 2014, Chessy Prout was a freshman at St. Paul's School, a prestigious boarding school in New Hampshire, when a senior boy sexually assaulted her as part of a ritualized game of conquest. She reported her assault to the police and testified against her attacker in court. In the face of unexpected backlash from her once-trusted school community, she shed her anonymity to help other survivors find their voice.

Denial: A Memoir of Terror
By Jessica Stern
Ecco Press, 2010. 300 pages. Nonfiction

When Jessica Stern was fifteen, she and her fourteen-year-old sister were raped, and the rapist was never caught. Forty years later, the case was reopened and the perpetrator, thought to have raped as many as forty-four girls between the ages of nine and nineteen, was identified. Though he had died several years earlier, Jessica felt the need to investigate him and, through her explorations, she found more than just a sense of who he was. She discovered explanations for her ability to maintain calm in moments of extreme danger, her tendency to experience enormous anxiety in nonthreatening situations and why she may have chosen her specific career path. Her book is a strong, clear-eyed study of the profound reverberations of trauma.

LKA

Banned Together

Banned Together
Edited By Ashley Hope Pérez 
Holiday House, 2025. 294 pages. Young Adult Fiction

This book of short stories, Banned Together: Our Fight For Readers' Rights, is a call-to-action for young people living in a country where banning books is a reality. It spotlights the transformative power of books while equipping teens to fight for the freedom to read; fifteen diverse, award-winning YA authors from across the country offer their stories and their advice. It's part memoir, part graphic novel, part fiction, and all heart. From moving personal accounts to clever comebacks aimed at censorship, these authors/illustrators confront the high-stakes questions of what is lost when books are kept from teens. I read this book all in one sitting because it was captivating, gut-wrenching, and gave me that wonderful feeling of knowing I'm not alone in my worry.

If you like Banned Together, you might also like: 

You Can't Say That!
Edited By Leonard S. Marcus
Candlewick Press, 2021. 220 pages. Nonfiction 

What happens when freedom of expression comes under threat? Thirteen prominent authors of children's and young adult literature talk about one thing they all have in common: All have been the targets of attempts to ban or remove their work from schools and libraries. Beginning with an introduction that traces the history of censorship back to attempts at "regulating moral behavior" in ancient Greece and Rome, the book reveals many little-known historical facts about censorship. It really comes to life, however, when the authors discuss why their books have faced censorship - both blatant and "soft" - how the challenges have or haven't affected their writing, and why some people feel they have the right to deny access to books.

Banned Book Club
By Kim Hyun Sook
Iron Circus Comics, 2020. 198 pages. Young Adult Graphic Memoir

In 1983 South Korea, Kim Hyun Sook is a college freshman, determined to get the education her mother resents but her father, thankfully, supports. When she accepts an invitation to attend a seemingly benign book club that turns out to focus on banned books, she learns to navigate the university, but also political activism. As she learns the truth about her country's oppressive fascist political environment, she becomes closer to the other book club members and authorities grow increasingly desperate to identify and punish student dissidents. A tribute to young people's resistance in the face of oppression.

On Censorship
By James LaRue
Fulcrum Publishing, 2023. 130 pages. Nonfiction

In On Censorship: A Public Librarian Examines Cancel Culture in the US, respected longtime public librarian James LaRue issues a balanced and reasonable call-to-action for citizens. The dangers of book banning and censorship in public and educational spaces are highlighted, while examples of past efforts at censorship and its dangerous impacts ask the reader to reflect on how those times are not so different from today. This book believes in free expression, supports libraries, and cherishes the central freedoms that American democracy represents. 

Our Stories, Our Voices
Edited By Amy Lynn Reed
Simon Pulse, 2018. 288 pages. Young Adult Nonfiction

This collection of essays is Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America - and the intersection with race, religion, and ethnicity. The diversity of perspectives will likely provide window and mirror moments for a wide range of readers. 

LKA

Here One Moment

Here One Moment
By Liane Moriarty
Crown Publishing, 2024. 501 pages. Fiction

"Cause of death. Age of death." A woman walks down the aisle of a two-hour flight in Australia, predicting passengers' demises. Civil engineer Leo will die of a workplace accident at age 43. Ethan will die of an assault at age 30 (he's currently 29). Sue Sullivan will die of pancreatic cancer; baby Timmy Binici will drown at age seven. Although rattled by "the Death Lady," most passengers ignore her words as the ramblings of an unwell old woman; until her predictions start coming true. The novel interweaves stories of the lives of the passengers post-flight as they contend with what they believe to be their destinies with the life of Cherry, the Death Lady, whose mother worked as a psychic, but whose relationship with fate becomes more complicated as her story is slowly revealed. 

What I loved most about this book was the questions that it left unanswered - questions of determinism versus free will and chance versus fate. Reading the physical copy of this book was also part of the experience for me - with so many characters and various stories, I liked being able to flip back and forth to check things. Would I want to know the when/how of my death? I don't think so, but Moriarty's book definitely has me evaluating my thoughts.

If you like Here One Moment, you might also like:

The Measure
By Nikki Erlick
William Morrow, 2022. 352 pages. Fiction

It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live. From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to them? As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they'll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?

Masters of Death

By Olivie Blake
Thorndike Press, 2023. 643 pages. Fiction

Fox D'Mora is a medium, and though he is also most-definitely a shameless fraud, he isn't entirely without his uses - seeing as he's actually the godson of Death. Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the mansion has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on. With the help of an unruly poltergeist, a demonic personal trainer, a sharp-voiced angel, a love-stricken reaper, and a few high-functioning creatures, Vi and Fox soon discover the difference between a mysterious lost love and an annoying dead body isn't nearly as distinct as they thought. 

Black Water Sister
By Zen Cho
Ace/Berkley, 2021. 370 pages. Fiction

A reluctant medium is about to discover the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power. When Jessamyn Teoh starts hearing a voice in her head, she chalks it up to stress. Closeted, broke and jobless, she's moving back to Malaysia with her parents - a country she last saw when she was a toddler. She soon learns the new voice isn't even hers, it's the ghost of her estranged grandmother. In life, Ah Ma was a spirit medium, avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she's determined to settle a score against a business magnate who has offended the god- and she's decided Jess is going to help her do it, whether Jes wants to or not. Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business, but dealing with her grandmother is just as complicated.

LKA