Staff Picks: Buzzy Books of 2023 (So Far!)
by eapearce
We’re far from even halfway through the year, but of course there’s already buzz about what books might make the “best of” lists this year. Often, books published earlier in the year don’t get as much press as books published in the summer and fall, so it can be easy to miss excellent titles that get released in the first quarter! If you’re wondering what titles are being talked about, read on and consider adding yourself to the hold lists!
Couplets, A Love Story, by Maggie Millner | Request Now
In this unique story told in verse, the protagonist leaves a stable relationship with a man to begin her first relationship with a woman, and thus begins the exploration of her queerness. This is more than a coming-out story, however: Millner also explores the obsession so many of us have with being a part of a “couple,” the meaning of being alive and in love, and the difference between having one or both things, and the challenging journey of self-discovery. What do we lose in partnerships and what do we gain? Is the joy of a new relationship worth the potential of it falling apart and the parties involved being left with the wreckage? There is no one answer to the questions and ideas Millner poses in Couplets, but it’s lovely to explore and consider her viewpoints and compare them with your own.
What Napoleon Could Not Do, by DK Nnuro | Request Now
This story opens with a failed marriage, but one that fails in an unexpected way: Jacob is married to Patricia, a woman he has never met, who lives across the world from him. Jacob is in Ghana, unable to secure a Visa before Patricia, who lives in America, decides to leave him. Jacob’s sister Belinda is also in America. Her grades were good enough as a young girl to attend American boarding school, followed by American university, and finally American law school. Now married to a Black American man, Belinda knows that Jacob’s vision of the American Dream is not necessarily an accurate one, but fails to convince him of such as he remains in their small Ghanaian hometown with dwindling hope that he’ll ever make it to the States. Both Belinda and Jacob seem unable to accept joy when it is presented to them, even in simple forms, but rather view it skeptically and with suspicion, mirroring the uncertainty they both feel about their life choices. This is a fabulous novel about how emigrants find–or do not find–a sense of home.
Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton | Request Now
Talking about this title, Stephen King said that it’s “a multi-layered, character driven thriller, it’s as good as it gets.” And don’t worry, we have many more copies on order! New Zealand author Catton won the Booker Prize back in 2013 for The Luminaries, but hasn’t published anything since. Her ten-year hiatus hasn’t impacted her talent, however, as Birnam Wood was an immediate international bestseller upon its publication. When a landslide cuts off a town in New Zealand and leaves a large farm on the outskirts abandoned, guerilla environmentalist group Birnam Wood sees a chance to greatly further their mission of planting crops where no one will notice. Unfortunately, an American billionaire also has an interest in the abandoned farm and town, where he wants to build his end-times bunker. It might be possible for all parties to achieve their goals, if they can trust each other… but should they? This thriller asks questions about the lengths humans will go to ensure their own survival.
Maame, by Jessica George | Request Now
Maddie lives in London, where she’s the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from Parkinsons. Her mother is supposed to be there helping, but keeps returning to her homeland of Ghana for long stretches of time, abandoning Maddie and her dad, though somehow still managing to order Maddie around from thousands of miles away. At work, Maddie is the only Black person in her department, and can barely tolerate her nightmarish boss. When her mom finally returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie seizes the opportunity to move out and start a new life of her own. But forging her own way is complicated, and, like many of us, she wonders how much we can really leave behind the bonds–good and bad–of family. This is a thought-provoking later-in-life coming of age story that celebrates a young woman trying to figure out where she belongs.
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