Winning the City by Theodore Weesner

Dale Wheeler is all set to take his Detroit school's basketball team to the city championships until a rich dad kicks him off to make room for his sons.


Highly Recommended

Am I the Last Virgin?: Ten African American Reflections on Sex & Love ed. by Tara Roberts

A great collection of memoirs on a wide variety of sexual and coming-of-age issues. They will make you laugh and cry but you will feel stronger for it. Definitely a book that should be updated.


Highly Recommended

The Uses of Enchantment by Heidi Julavits

Fifteen years after her supposedly faked abduction, Mary returns home for her mother's funeral only to be sucked back into the web of deceit.


Highly Recommended

Remember Me: a lively tour of the new American way of death by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

With humor and respect Mrs. Cullen explores the latest innovations in the funeral business and the people who choose them.


Highly Recommended

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Told in three alternating story lines: the story of the Monkey King, Jin Yang trying to adjust to life as one of a handful of Asians in a White school, and a sitcom: "Everyone Ruvs Chin-Kee."


If you only read one graphic novel this year, make it this one.


Highly Recommended

SchoolGirls: young women, self-esteem and the confidence gap by Peggy Orenstein

Peggy Orenstein does spectacular job of examining the school and home cultures that contribute to low self-esteem in females during adolescence. In her book she follows girls at two different schools: one mostly White, middle-class and suburban, the other mostly African-American and Latino, working class and urban.

Highly Recommended