MIKAYLA’s staff picks!
MARTYR! by Kaveh Akbar
This book will change you. It’ll change how you talk, it’ll change how you see. You’ll find yourself bringing it up in conversation without even meaning to. Each line in this book is like poetry. Akbar does a masterful job with storytelling and character building and will have you rooting for each character introduced.
DEAR SENTHURAN by Akwaeke Emezi
This is a memoir style i have never read before and it has changed me. emezi writes personal letters to friends, lovers, family and more and covers mental health, childhood and grief. i felt so moved by each chapter as they taught many lessons in these 230 pages. so happy that this powerful deity exists in the world!
HEAVY by Kiese Laymon
This book is honest, powerful and raw with prose like no other. Laymon covers many topics in this memoir like race, grief, addiction and more. This memoir will change you and will have you thinking about it forever.
A BEAUTY HAS COME by Jasmine Gibson
If you are looking for an ethereal surrealist collection of poetry that centers love, art, Nefertiti, and Blackness, look no further! this is a remarkable book that will have every reader in awe of every page, every line and every word! I want more!
SINCE I LAID MY BURDEN DOWN by Brontez Purnell
This was the Brontez Purnell book that made me fall in love with their writing. Purnell tells the story of a man who lives in San Francisco who returns back to his roots in Alabama and is hit by flashbacks from being in the past. This is a life changing and pivotal read.
THE DRY HEART by Natalia Ginzburg
How can one put down a book when the first lines of the book are: “I shot him between the eyes”? These 90 powerful pages are full of unforgettable prose with a side of grief and rage.