Mrs. Fusaro's Picks Kindred by Octavia Butler
Time-traveling between the early 19th century and 1976, Dana, a young, black woman, is transported to the antebellum south on a plantation where she is mistaken as a slave. Unable to control her time-traveling abilities, she must learn how to toggle between two very different worlds as a black woman, facing feelings and circumstances she never expected to encounter. Octavia Butler mingles science fiction with historical fiction to bring a beautiful, captivating feminist work to highlight the complexities of human relationships in various power dynamics and the breadth of emotion as she stretches our empathy muscles.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Song of Achilles bears all of the accuracies of The Iliad but is humanized through the lens and voice of Patroclus. Madeline Miller is a master of bridging classical mythology for the modern world through an LGBTQ lens; she ignites our passions, breaks our hearts, and brings us on a journey like never before.
Mr. Luu' s Picks Eon by Alison Goodman
The first in a series, Eon is a coming of age story where a 16-year old disabled girl masquerades herself as a boy to learn techniques to become a stronger version of herself. If the secret about her identity gets out, the penalty is death! We see her struggle against the odds as she tries to change the world. Themes include politics, eastern culture, and a bit of fantasy with dragons in the mix. Death Note Tsugumi Ohba Ace student Light Yagami is intrigued by a notebook that has the power to kill any human simply by writing their name in the book. He vows to use this power to rid the world of evil! Will power cloud Light’s judgement? Is this a power any human should ever have? This is the first in a 12 volume series that will have you wanting more.
Ms. Mannino's Picks
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
This is my favorite of Steinbeck's work, it has a compelling narrative, great characters, some of whom you'll love and others you'll love to hate, food for thought, and something beautiful to say about the human condition- there's hope in there! It's a big book, but the type of book you'll want to reread as soon as it's done and tell all your friends to read.
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
A 1999 detective/mystery novel with a most unique (and loveable) first-person narrator, the narrative is told from the perspective of a private detective with Tourette's Syndrome, and it's one of the most quirky and entertaining reads I've picked up in the past 5 years. I love the way the narrator fixates on a word and riffs on it without letting those tics distract him from his purpose. The novel is hilarious at times; nevertheless, it says something important about how our differences are perceived and can affect the people we encounter, and how all of this affects us too (and not always in a bad way!)
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