Here in Kentucky, the grass is a lush green across the yard. The Corgis happily frap about, bickering over sticks and racing each other to see who can reach the ball first. I love seeing them enjoying my hometown. There’s always something special about being back home again, crossing the many bridges over the Ohio River and watching the Appalachian hills roll by the car window.
This week in the newsletter, it’s all about new books! Before we get to that, make sure to check out Book Riot’s newest newsletter The Deep Dive The Deep Dive. It’s full of informed takes, useful advice, and more from experts in the world of books and reading. Subscribe and choose your membership level today at bookriot.substack.com
Bookish Goods
Books Are Magic Waterproof Sticker by Meaggie Moos
I adore stickers. I’m not sure what it is, but I definitely feel like 30s me may even like stickers more than 13-year-old me. This one has one of my favorite book-isms: “Books Are Magic.” That’s a true story in my book. $3.50
New Releases
Black and Queer on Campus by Michael P. Jeffries
Michael P. Jeffries examines how Black queer students are treated across the U.S. In mostly white queer spaces, they face microaggressions and outright racism. In predominantly straight Black spaces, they feel ignored and deprioritized. Jeffries then ponders what campuses can do to make spaces more welcoming to Black queer students.
Homegirls and Hand Grenades by Sonia Sanchez
In 1984, Sonia Sanchez first published Homegirls & Handgrenades. In this stunning collection centering around the Black Arts movement, Sanchez includes prose, prose poems and lyric verses.
For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
In case you missed it, here are a couple of my top nonfiction books of the year — so far!
Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond
Like much of the bookish world, I became engrossed by Matthew Desmond’s Evicted. Now Desmond is back with Poverty, By America, which delves into how America has systematically built itself around keeping the poor, well, poor. While Evicted is a very structured book around the people Desmond meets during his research, Poverty, By America is structured thematically around his ideas. Desmond’s latest is a very slim book, but in its pages, he continues his discussion of America’s economically disadvantaged and the structures in place to keep them from building wealth.
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H
When she is 14, Lamya H is sitting in her high school classroom in a country in the Middle East when she realizes that she’s gay. After she moves to the U.S. for college, she begins to find a life of her own as a queer, hijab-wearing Muslim. She finds a community of other queer Muslims, some of whom become her found family. Lamya’s book is my favorite memoir of the year so far. She writes in such beautiful prose and possesses this incredible ability to create intimacy between the text and her readers.
That’s it for this week! You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave, over on Instagram @kdwinchester, or on my podcast Read Appalachia. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
Happy reading, Friends!
~ Kendra