librarian picks 2016

Voila: my 2016 librarian picks - although there was much to be sad about in 2016, it was an exceptionally good year for reading. At the top of the list this year is Paul Beatty's latest, The Sellout, which made me laugh while I cried and made history as the first novel written by an American author to win the Booker prize; Ashley Hope Perez's Out of Darkness and Martha Brockenbrough's The Game of Love and Death were singular stand-outs in the YA Lit poignantly-contemporary-even-though-it's-historical fiction arena; Louise Erdrich's heartwrenching yet surprisingly uplifting LaRose was the sleeper hit of the year; Mat Jonson's ABA winner, Loving Day, tackled love, race and ghosts; Adrian Tomine returned to his special brand of wry observation with Killing and Dying; and finally, two stunning prize-winning poetry collections from American Book Award winner Laura Da' and Whiting Award winner Ocean Vuong rounded out my end-of-the-year recommendations with their perfect prose.

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