Title: Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth

Genre: Memoir

The story: As the first black detective in the Colorado Springs PD, Ron Stallworth never imagined he would join the KKK, but he did just that. When he saw a KKK recruitment ad in the local paper, he sent a response, expecting to receive some pre-printed brochures. Instead, he was invited to ( Read more... )

Title: The Pisces by Melissa Broder

Genre: uh...erotic magic realism?

Trigger warnings: Suicidal ideation, drug abuse, animal harm

The story: Lucy is thirty-eight and her life is falling apart. Her dissertation is stalled, she dumps her boyfriend, then becomes obsessed with him and falls into a low-key suicidal fugue. After running into some ( Read more... )

Title: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan MacGuire

Genre:: Fantasy

The story: What happens to children who fall through magical doorways into fantastic realms and then return to our earth? Many of them don't know how to adapt, and most long to return to what they consider their real home. Eleanor, a woman who fell through a doorway and returned to ( Read more... )

Title: I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

Genre: True Crime

The story: The Golden State Killer, who was recently captured with the help of a DNA website, was among the most prolific serial killers in America. Michelle McNamara, Patton Oswalt's late wife, was an amateur detective drawn into the case by an internet message board. Over ( Read more... )

Title: Finding Samuel Lowe by Paula Williams Madison

Genre: Memoir

The story: Paula Williams Madison's mother was half-Jamaican and half-Chinese. Her grandfather, the Samuel Lowe referenced in the title, was a Hakka Chinese man who owned a general store in Jamaica in the early 20th century. Eventually, he began a relationship and had a baby -- ( Read more... )

Title: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Genre: Literary fiction

The story: Esch is a 15-year-old African-American girl who lives in desperate poverty in the deep south. Each of her family members is on a desperate quest for hope and escape, whether by breeding prize-winning pit bulls, winning the love of a neighborhood boy, or hanging onto the ( Read more... )