Binti: The Night Masquerade

Nnedi Okorafor

The conclusion of Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti series finds Binti trying desperately to prevent a war between the Khoush and the Meduse.

Binti: Home

Nnedi Okorafor

The second book in Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti series brings Binti back home after her dramatic transformation.

Binti

Nnedi Okorafor

The titular character in Nnedi Okorafor’s novella is the first of the Himba people to leave Earth to travel to Oomza University, the most prestigious institution of higher learning in the galaxy.

The Emissary

Yoko Tawada

Something terrible has happened in Japan, and the country has cut itself off from the world.

Melmoth

Sarah Perry

This is a horror story, and a ghost story, and an enormously compelling reflection on what it means to be complicit, to repent, to suffer punishment.

Ka

John Crowley

Ka recounts the adventures of a crow named Dar Oakley, who—nearly two thousand years ago—ventured to the underworld with a young girl and stole the gift of immortality she meant to acquire for her fellow humans.

Future Home of the Living God

Louise Erdrich

Cedar is four months pregnant when orders go out asking all pregnant women to turn themselves in amid reports that evolution is running in reverse.

Washington Black

Esi Edugyan

George Washington Black, known as “Wash,” is born enslaved on a Barbados sugar plantation where cruelty is the norm. When his master’s brother, Titch, arrives and chooses Wash to serve him, Wash is initially terrified; but the eccentric brother turns out to be a naturalist and abolitionist who takes Wash under his wing.

The Mere Wife

Maria Dahvana Headley

A masterful, modern take on Beowulf.

White Fragility

Robin DiAngelo

This is a necessary book for all white people.

The Inheritance Trilogy

N. K. Jemisin

This is an epic of (literally) Greek proportions, as it concerns a group of gods and their godling children as they love and fight among themselves and their human creations.

So Lucky

Nicola Griffith

So Lucky begins with Mara Tagarelli, the successful leader of an AIDS foundation, saying farewell to her wife, who is leaving for another woman.

Universal Harvester

John Darnielle

Someone is cutting scenes from a creepy homemade movie into the rentals from the Video Hut.

The Stone Sky

N. K. Jemisin

The third and final book in Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy focuses on Essun’s daughter—who has inherited her mother’s extraordinary abilities but with little of the training.

The Obelisk Gate

N. K. Jemisin

The second book in Jemisin’s Broken Earth series continues the story of Essun, now trying to survive and find her daughter during what may be the last season of the world.

The Stars are Legion

Kameron Hurley

Space opera meets body horror in a universe without men.

Little, Big

John Crowley

There are only bits and pieces of magic in this book—a talking fish, a witch who carries a cat’s bone—but somehow the entire book is magical.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

Samin Nosrat

Novice cooks will find this book does what it promises: teaches you how to cook well. But as an experienced (if amateur) cook myself, I also found a useful framework for thinking about my own cooking, not to mention a few new best practices.

Bloodchild and Other Stories

Octavia E. Butler

This collection of short stories, many written very early in Octavia Butler’s career, explore a number of themes that recur throughout her novels: societal disintegration, human/alien couplings, and the ways humans may need to evolve in order to survive as a species.

Gnomon

Nick Harkaway

This book has more twists and turns than an actual labyrinth, and short of a few more reads and some dedicated notetaking, I doubt I could speak clearly to what exactly happens between its covers.