What to Ask for in a Recommendation Letter
Editor's Note: we've also collected the 26 Well-nigh Anticipated Books of 2022.
When it comes to the book-publishing industry, the furnishings of the COVID-19 pandemic have been far-reaching — and, honestly, something of a mixed handbag. For one, folks are spending more time at home, then whether they need to learn a new skill, deepen their knowledge or escape to a virus-free world for a few hours, books are a welcome solution.
In fact, the Los Angeles Times establish that Bookshop.org, an online retailer that aims to support independent bookstores in response to Amazon'south growing influence, saw a 400% increase in sales since the shutdown in March, and, to date, has raised over $nine.56 million for indie sellers. However, an increase in need for print books has put some strain on the production of those books, which means a rise in ebook and audiobook sales and subscription sign-ups for services like Libro.fm and Audible. And while it'due south great that folks are getting their reading materials somewhere, the ascension in ebook sales, specifically, ways less acquirement for authors, publishers and brick-and-mortar bookstores.
All of this to say, it's been a twelvemonth of ups and downs — only, on the bodily book-release side, information technology's been a lot of ups. While nosotros can't clasp in all of our favorites from 2020 here, we have rounded up a stellar sampling of must-reads.
You Should Encounter Me in a Crown past Leah Johnson
Debut author Leah Johnson has written an incredible kickoff novel — one that the publisher describes as "a smart, hilarious, Black girl magic, own voices rom-com by a staggeringly talented new writer." Chances are, if you lot haven't read Yous Should See Me in a Crown, you've at least seen other people reading this bonafide hit (and soonhoped-for archetype).
In the novel, Liz Lighty, who has "always believed she'south likewise Black, also poor, too awkward to shine in her pocket-sized, rich, prom-obsessed Midwestern town," dreams of getting abroad past way of an elite college with a globe-famous orchestra — well, until her fiscal aid falls through. After realizing in that location's a scholarship available for prom queen and king, Liz has to suffer the competition — and alluring new girl Mack — as she navigates high school, relationships and settling into her ain queerness and queer joy.
New York Times bestselling author Brit Bennett has crafted a stunning novel most twin sisters who, despite existence inseparable as children, cull to live in two very different worlds — 1 Black and one white. Later on running away from their small Black customs in the Southward as teens, one sis ends upward living in that very boondocks they tried to leave, while the other secretly passes for white, even to her husband.
Although they have seemingly concluded upwardly in very different places, with very dissimilar outlooks and identities, the sisters find that their fate is intertwined. "Bennett's tone and style recalls James Baldwin and Jacqueline Woodson," writes Kiley Reid of The Wall Street Journal. "Only it's especially reminiscent of Toni Morrison'southward 1970 debut novel, The Bluest Centre." Without a doubt, The Vanishing Half is a soonhoped-for classic.
Homie by Danez Smith
Graywolf Press notes that Danez Smith'due south Homie is a "magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship," 1 that was written in the wake of the loss of 1 of Smith's close friends. The poems collected hither confront topics similar violence and xenophobia and the feeling that nada is quite worthwhile in the face up of these, and other, hateful forces. That is, until you get that one text — that ane knock on the door — from a friend who knows just what you need.
Without a doubt, these poems are some of Smith's virtually powerful. Their ode to friendship has been called "expansive" and "big enough to hold a vast mosaic of emotion and style, of life and expiry, of survival and resilience, of pain and joy" by Lambda Literary. Fellow poet Tish Jones perhaps put information technology best, saying, "Homie is how we survive ― in verse," which feels particularly necessary in 2020.
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
In this debut paranormal novel, Yadriel, a young trans male child, is determined to prove himself, and his gender, to his traditional Latinx family. This leads Yadriel to perform a ritual — one he hopes volition help him find the ghost of his murdered cousin. Merely things don't always go equally planned, especially when yous're dealing with the supernatural. The ghost Yadriel actually summons is Julian Diaz, the resident bad male child, who has some loose ends to necktie upwardly before he passes on. And the longer the two boys work together, the more Yadriel wants Julian to stay.
Early on, Entertainment Weekly dubbed Cemetery Boys "groundbreaking" — and that couldn't be more truthful. "It was […] really important for me to write a volume where LGBTQIA and Latinx kids could see themselves being powerful heroes," author Aiden Thomas said in an interview. "Right now, these kids are living in a earth where a lot of hate and suffering is zeroed in on them. I wanted them to run into themselves being supported and loved for who they are. I wanted to write a fun book with practiced representation that they could escape into and have a happy ending."
Felix Always Later past Kacen Callender
In Felix Ever Subsequently, Stonewall and Lambda Award-winning author Kacen Callender crafts a landmark YA novel about Felix, a transgender teen who fears that he'due south "one marginalization too many — Black, queer, and transgender — to always get his own happily ever-later on." When a transphobic student publicly posts Felix'south deadname and photos on campus, our protagonist plots his revenge — and, throughout the grade of the novel, navigates both self-discovery and a blossoming, unexpected offset dearest.
Intricately plotted and beautifully written, Felix Ever Subsequently is an essential read. In a starred review, Booklist notes that "From its stunning comprehend art to the rich, messy, nuanced narrative at its heart, this is an unforgettable story of friendship, heartbreak, forgiveness, and cocky-discovery, crafted by an author whose obvious respect for teen readers radiates from every page."
Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir by Robin Ha
Nigh American Girl marks another work of nonfiction, but, this fourth dimension, one that sits firmly in the graphic memoir category. In the work, the on-the-folio version of writer Robin Ha is quite close to her unmarried mother, so when a vacation to Alabama leads to a surprise, permanent relocation, Robin is upset — not just because her mom is getting married and uprooting their life in Seoul, but because she wasn't permit in on the plan beforehand.
Completely cut off from her friends, unable to speak English and grappling with a new stride-family unit, Robin turns to comics — an escape that begins to shape Robin's future. Booklist notes that, "With unblinking honesty and raw vulnerability…presented in full-color splendor, [Ha's] energetic manner mirrors the abiding motion of her boyish cocky, navigating the peripatetic turbulence toward adulthood."
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
"It's Lovecraft meets the Brontës in Latin America," The Guardian notes, "and subsequently a slow-fire offset Mexican Gothic gets seriously weird." If that doesn't take hold of your attending, we're non sure what will. Set up in 1950s Mexico, this bestseller puts a twist on the gothic horror genre while nevertheless checking all of the genre's boxes: an isolated mansion, a charismatic aristocrat and a dauntless immature woman.
When she receives a letter from her recently married cousin, Noemí Taboada sets off from High Place, a house in the Mexican countryside, to save her kin from impending doom. Of course, it wouldn't be gothic horror if the firm wasn't full of secrets. "Deliciously creepy… Read it with your lights on," Vox warns, "and know that strange dreams might begin to haunt you, equally they haunted Noemí."
Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That a Movement Forgot past Mikki Kendall
Mainstream feminism has its detractors, but it also has its internal failings. Through a series of essays, Mikki Kendall spotlights the ways in which mainstream feminists stymie the movement past non taking into account the nuts of survival — access to nutrient, quality education, safe neighborhoods, safe medical care and a living wage.
While feminism stands for equity by definition, its aims often help out its nearly privileged supporters and go out out BIPOC, disabled and LGBTQ+ folks. "If Hood Feminism is a searing indictment of mainstream feminism, it is also an invitation," NPR notes. "[Kendall] offers guidance for how we can all do improve." Without a doubt, this landmark work cements the fact that Kendall is a leading vocalisation in Black feminist idea and feminism.
We Are H2o Protectors by Carole Lindstrom With Illustrations by Michaela Goade
"Water is the first medicine," reads We Are Water Protectors. "Information technology affects and connects us all." Inspired by the myriad Indigenous-led movements happening beyond Due north America, this breathtaking picture volume is a sort of call to action, wrapped in lyrical prose and watercolor illustrations crafted by #OwnVoices writer Carole Lindstrom and artist Michaela Goade.
Booklist notes that the book was "written in response to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline [and] famously protested by the Standing Stone Sioux Tribe" and that "these pages carry grief, simply it is overshadowed by promise in what is an unapologetic phone call to action." No matter one's age, We Are H2o Protectors is a must-read, one that gets to the centre of the things that affair and puts Indigenous ideas, groups, creators and leaders rightfully at the center of the movement to safeguard our planet from human being-caused climate change and devastation.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents past Isabel Wilkerson
Without a doubt, Isabel Wilkerson is all-time known equally the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of bestselling book The Warmth of Other Suns, and, much similar that popular and essential piece of work, Degree: The Origins of Our Discontents aims to examine truths that are often left unspoken, or get unaddressed, in America. As its proper name suggests, the book examines the caste system that shaped our country — that continues to define our lives and create hierarchies.
"Equally we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast downwards in the aisles, guiding united states of america to our assigned seats for a performance," Wilkerson writes. "The hierarchy of caste is non most feelings or morality. Information technology is about power — which groups have it and which do not." This immersive, essential read volition open your eyes to all that lies below the surface, and, hopefully, once you've seen it you won't be able to look away.
All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson
Journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George K. Johnson explores his childhood and higher years in a serial of personal essays that tackle topics like gender identity, toxic masculinity, Blackness joy and brotherhood. Schoolhouse Library Journal points out that All Boys Aren't Blue's "conversational tone volition leave readers feeling like they are sitting with an insightful friend."
Since we don't often see a memoir written specifically for young adults, this intimacy makes the book all the more than meaningful, especially for young queer Black readers. This can't-miss memoir-manifesto is also beautifully written — full of lovely language and untold amounts of guidance and support. "This title opens new doors," Kirkus Reviews notes. "[…T]he author insists that we don't take to anchor stories such as his to tragic ends: 'Many of u.s.a. are still here. Notwithstanding living and waiting for our stories to exist told―to tell them ourselves.'"
Teen Titans: Creature Male child by Kami Garcia With Illustrations past Gabriel Picolo
Author Kami Garcia and artist Gabriel Picolo brought us the bestselling Teen Titans: Raven a piddling while agone, detailing Raven Roth's pre-superhero origins. Now, the creative dream team is back with Teen Titans: Animate being Boy, a coming-of-age graphic novel entry about everyone's favorite green, shapeshifting teen, Garfield Logan.
For the uninitiated, DC's Teen Titans sees a changing lineup of young adult heroes taking on bad guys, only Animate being Male child happens before any of that. For as long as Gar can remember, he's been overlooked — and eager to stand out in his small-town high school. Despite his best friends' insistence that he shouldn't care what the popular kids think, Gar accepts a life-altering challenge, simply it's not just his social status that'll modify every bit a result.
The Metropolis We Became (Cracking Cities #1) by Due north.Grand. Jemisin
"Every great metropolis has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She'south got six." And that's merely the jacket copy for The City We Became. In the novel, some of the world's biggest cities are revealed to be alive. When New York Urban center tries to join in, its sentience is spread to living embodiments of the metropolis' boroughs.
Written past Hugo Accolade-winning author N.K. Jemisin, this glorious and gripping work of speculative fiction will transport y'all right into a vividly imagined version of NYC where five strangers must come together to protect the urban center they dearest. The New York Times praised The City We Became, noting that it "takes a broad-shouldered stand up on the side of sanctuary, family and honey. It's a joyful shout, a reclamation and a call to arms."
The Burn Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures past Noelle Stevenson
In the book earth, Noelle Stevenson might exist best-known as the author-illustrator of Nimona and creator of Lumberjanes, two bestselling queer comic serial. Outside of publishing, Stevenson was the creator of and showrunner for Dreamworks' lauded reimagining of She-Ra, which came to an stop before this year. Only Stevenson also has some personal stories to share, and the result is The Fire Never Goes Out.
This illustrated memoir is full of essays and personal mini-comics that chart eight years of her young developed life — and all of the ups and downs that punctuated that span of time. Full of wit and vulnerability, The Fire Never Goes Out spotlights how the intertwining of ane's fine art (and career) with one's personal growth and discovery tin can be the well-nigh hard — and fulfilling — mural to navigate.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Stephen Graham Jones, who is a member of the Blackfeet Native American Nation, wrote ane of the year's most highly anticipated horror novels — and all that anticipation certainly pays off. The Only Expert Indians centers on the tale of four childhood friends who grow up, move away from home and and so, a decade afterward, discover that a vengeful entity is hunting them for an deed of violence they committed long ago.
The novel combines horror, drama and social commentary quite flawlessly, proving NPR'south statement that "Jones is one of the best writers working today regardless of genre." Rebecca Roanhorse, the bestselling writer of Trail of Lightning, wrote that "Jones boldly and bravely incorporates both the difficult and the cute parts of contemporary Indian life into his story, never once falling into stereotypes or easy answers only also not shying away from the horrors caused past cycles of violence."
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
In this successor to her bestselling novel Homegoing, author Yaa Gyasi follows up her debut with something so raw and intimate. In Transcendent Kingdom, Nana, a gifted high schoolhouse athlete, is a victim of the opioid epidemic, while his sister, Gifty, is a PhD candidate at Stanford who struggles between finding herself in hard scientific discipline and organized religion.
And in the wake of Nana'due south death, the siblings' Ghanaian family unit, who call Alabama home, must grapple with grief, organized religion and habit. Amusement Weekly has noted that Transcendent Kingdom is "poised to be the literary issue of the autumn," while bestselling author Roxane Gay has called it a "gorgeously woven narrative… Non a word or thought out of identify."
Interior Chinatown past Charles Yu
Charles Yu won the 2020 National Book Laurels for Interior Chinatown — and for good reason. Dubbed "one of the funniest books of the twelvemonth" by The Washington Mail service, the novel centers on Willis Wu, a human being who doesn't think he's the protagonist of his own life. Instead, Willis views himself equally "Generic Asian Homo," or some other background character or prop. That is, until he stumbles upon the secret history of Chinatown and his family'southward legacy.
In exploring race, pop civilization, absorption, immigration and more, Interior Chinatown is function-Hollywood satire and role-moving masterpiece. "Yu has a devilish skillful time poking fun at the racially blinkered ways of Hollywood," the New York Journal of Books notes. "[Interior Chinatown is] rollicking fun, and its reclamation of Asian American history, with all its attendant sorrows and hopes, holds out the possibility of a new, true story ahead."
Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
Helen Macdonald had an instant bestseller on her hands with H Is for Hawk, an award-winner about Helen, who was dealing with grief over her father's death, and her goshawk Mabel, whose temperament was non unlike Helen's. In some means, that volume reinvigorated the nature-writing genre, proving that the lessons we larn from the natural world tin can brand for the stuff of moving memoir.
In her latest work, Vesper Flights, Macdonald collects both old and new essays on a wide range of topics into a poignant await at what information technology means, and how it feels, to make sense of the earth effectually us. The Wall Street Journal calls the book "Dazzling… Macdonald reminds u.s. how marvelously unfamiliar much of the nonhuman world remains to us."
Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
In her debut novel, Kalynn Bayron sets her story 200 years later on Cinderella found her prince. The fairy tale is over, and, as the title states, Cinderella Is Dead. Following Cinderella'southward success story, teenage girls are required to nourish the kingdom'south ball so that the men in attendance tin can select their future wives. Not a suitable match? Well, the girls that go unchosen aren't ever heard from again.
All of this is made way more complicated when Sophia realizes she would rather marry Erin, her childhood all-time friend. Fearful of what's to come, Sophia flees the brawl and ends up in Cinderella'south mausoleum, where she meets a descendant of the princess' family unit. The two team up to take out the king — and, in the process, they uncover some rather interesting secrets almost the kingdom'south by…
The Gravity of United states past Phil Stamper
If there'southward 1 affair we can't get enough of during this depressing year, information technology's the thrill of showtime love — and all of those other life experiences that only aren't the same in 2020. Luckily, The Gravity of Us offers a welcome escape. The YA novel centers on Cal, a teenager with half a meg followers on social media, who finds himself a fish out of water when his family relocates from Brooklyn to Houston for his dad's work.
Of course, his dad's work is a bit more unconventional: He's a NASA astronaut, readying to embark on a highly publicized mission to Mars. Shortly plenty, Cal falls caput-over-heels for Leon, a fellow "Astrokid," and all seems well and good until Cal discovers something nearly the Mars plan. "[It's a] big-hearted, witty, and intensely relatable debut," writes bestselling YA novelist Karen One thousand. McManus (One of Us Is Lying). "[Information technology'south] virtually reaching for your dreams without losing what grounds you."
Save Yourself by Cameron Esposito
When Cameron Esposito was a kid, she wanted to be a priest. What bowl-cutting-touting, unaware queer child wouldn't, especially when said child is raised Catholic? Well, Esposito ended upward being a wildly successful stand-upwards comic, which, if you lot retrieve about information technology, is kind of like delivering a sermon. Kind of. In Salvage Yourself, Esposito supplies funny, insightful tales that range in topic from her coming out while at a Catholic college to the messiness of get-go love.
Esposito says she wrote the memoir because it was something she needed as a child, "because at that place was a long time when she thought she wouldn't get in" as a queer person so used to seeing stories of tragedy play out for folks like her. "Esposito writes with her signature deadpan sense of humor," The Seattle Times notes, "merely her story is much more than nuanced than your typical celebrity memoir."
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