Trending
Book descriptions are adapted from publisher and library catalog materials.
Here is a look at a few novels that I've been enjoying recently. All are included in the Peter White Public Library's Adult Fiction collection.
"Nevada" by Imogen Binnie (FIC BINNIE) - Maria Griffith is spiraling. Her life in New York has grown stagnant: she hates working at the same old bookstore, she's mentally checked out with her girlfriend, and she only reaches out to friends (let's be real, friend) when she wants drugs or a place to crash. Not to mention, she's never experienced life as a single woman. That's because she's been in one relationship or another ever since coming out as transgender. After a recent break up and in need of a long overdue estrogen shot, Maria steals her ex-girlfriend's car and heads to Star City Nevada in an attempt to figure! things! out! If you're looking for a moody, grungy, inner monologue of a late-twenties trans girl, this novel is for you.
"Drown" by Junot Díaz (FIC DIAZ) - compiled of 10 short stories, this semi-autobiographical work moves between life growing up in the Dominican Republic and the Dominican Immigrant experience in New Jersey. Most stories follow Yunior, a young man with an absent, cheating father, an overly machismo brother, and whose family has moved to New Jersey with hopes to obtain the American Dream. Raw, poignant, and immersive, these stories explore feelings of alienation among friends and family, the pressures to perform masculinity, poverty, drug abuse, misogyny, and ultimately, the struggle faced by suburban communities in their stride to reach an unattainable promise. "Drown" is referenced as inspiration for Imogen Binnie's novel "Nevada." If you're looking for books like this, our online resource NoveList recommends James McBride's "Five-carat Soul" or Alex Espinoza's "The Sons of El Rey," which are both available at the Peter White Public Library.
"Swimming in the Dark" by Tomasz Jedrowski (FIC JEDROWS) is a beautiful yet heartbreaking coming of age story set primarily in 1980's Poland during the fall of the Polish Communist regime. Written in the form of a letter, our narrator Ludwik reflects on how growing up in communist Poland has shaped his relationship with himself, his country, and Janusz, his first love and the man he writes to. After meeting at a mandatory, post-university agricultural camp, the two men fall into an all-consuming, almost dreamlike affair. However, when the summer comes to an end and with social unrest on the rise, the lovers find themselves struck by each other's opposing ideologies, and must decide what it means to love and be free in a society working against them. During their time together, Ludwik and Januzs bond over an underground publication of James Baldwin's novel "Giovanni's Room," providing a parallel to their experience of fear and hope throughout the story.
"Giovanni's Room" by James Baldwin (FIC BALDWIN) - This groundbreaking queer classic set in 1950's Paris follows David, a young American man caught between two worlds. When David's fiancée, Hella, leaves him to contemplate marriage, David becomes entangled with a man named Giovanni who he meets at a local gay bar. An intense yet tragic love story, David is forced to grapple with his queer identity, internalized shame, and the expectations placed on him by conventional society. If you're looking for similarly poetic, queer, melancholic reads, our online resource NoveList recommends Sarah Winman’s "Tin Man" or Edmund White’s "The Married Man," which are both available at the Peter White Public Library.
Elliot Coldwater is a Reference Department Adult Services Assistant at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.