"Three Asian American teenagers meet in the New York suburbs in the 1980s. Drawn together by their shared sense of alienation from their conventionally domestic immigrant families, each wants to live a meaningful life. They envision a future defined by freedom and creativity, but on the brink of adulthood in New York City, their fortunes quickly diverge. Giselle Chin is a performance artist, pushing the boundaries of the form while socializing with...

"Rastafarians, reggae music lovers, and teachers from around the world converge on a small community in Florida called Coreville to rally around and show their support for an elementary school teacher who was suspended for allowing one of her students to do his oral book report on a book about the Rastafarian culture, which wasn't approved by the local school district. When reggae came to town, it changed Coreville forever. If you already know reggae,...

An intimate look at the lives, loves, horrors, and dreams of girls and women in an Afghan mountain village under Taliban rule. A heartbreaking tragedy in the vein of The Kite Runner from a major English-speaking Afghan figure famous for his books and long career in politics. Siamak Herawi brings Afghan women centerstage and takes us deep into the heart of his motherland to witness the reality of their lives under the Taliban's most extreme interpretation...

"Belâen Dolores Itzel del Toro wants the normal stuff: to experience love or maybe have a boyfriend or at least just lose her virginity. But nothing is normal in East Oakland. Her father left her family. She's at risk of not graduating. And Leti, her super-Catholic, nerdy-ass best friend, is pregnant--by the boyfriend she hasn't told her parents about, because he's Black, and her parents are racist. Weighed by a depression she can't seem to shake,...

"For fans of Donna Barba Higuera's Lupe Wong Won't Dance and Aida Salazar's The Moon Within, comes Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice -- a contemporary middle grade novel full of spunk and activist heart. Manuela Mani Semilla wants two things: to get her period, and to thwart her mom's plan of taking her to Guatemala, a place that has always been more of a mystery than an answer. Mani can't imagine leaving behind Las Nerdas, her band of misfit friends,...

"This is the story of Corey Fah, a writer who has hit the literary jackpot: their novel has just won the prize for the Fictionalization of Social Evils. But the actual trophy, and with it the funds, hovers peskily out of reach. Neon-beige, with UFO-like qualities, the elusive trophy leads Corey, with their partner Drew and eight-legged companion Bambi Pavok, on a spectacular quest through their childhood in the Forest and an unlikely stint on reality...

"After her son Lydan suffers traumatic injuries in a school shooting, single mom Elisabeth Ross grows enraged at men in power. If they won't do anything to help end this epidemic of violence, she will. Believing it's her destiny, she sets out to awaken the world to the cowards these men are and commits her own shocking act of violence. Going by the name Lilith -- the first wife of Adam who fled Eden rather than serve a man -- she posts a video of...

"For fans of Interior Chinatown and American War, a surreal, hilarious, and sneakily profound debut novel that casts our current climate of gun violence and environmental destruction in a surprising new mold. Erin is a plastic girl living in a plastic world. Every day she eats a breakfast of boiled chicken, then coveys her articulated body to Tablet Town, where she sells other figurines Smartbodies: wearable tech that allows full, physical immersion...