At LJ, we consider best books on many fronts, but mostly we are searching for titles that stop us in our tracks for more reasons than we could possibly articulate. Because that is what great reads do. They overwhelm any criteria we can list and reduce us to “Yes, that, and that too, and even more.” Listed here are books we stayed up all night reading and started the day wanting to discuss. Books we read and re-read, together and apart, books that some of us are already re-reading again. We hope you find treasures among these lists and that they make you, and the readers you help every day, stop and say, “Yes, that.”
A must for readers interested in breaking into the business of writing or running a TV show. This entertaining guidebook gives straightforward, no-nonsense advice.
Reflective yet urgent, reverberating with feeling. Dixon beautifully articulates how loneliness is paradoxically a narrative that people experience together, even as they experience it in spaces of isolation, vulnerability, and loss.
One of the best true crime books out there. It shows the anguish and toll on the investigators and witnesses to a heinous crime. True-crime and public-affairs readers will devour this well-researched book. It’s as good as the outstanding Unmasked by Paul Holes with Robin Gaby Fisher.
While some readers might be drawn to this book by Peele’s star power, this is a well-crafted anthology that’s perfect for introducing readers to emerging and established Black authors.