Staff Picks Category: Coming-of-age

What a Happy Family by Saumya Dave [Book]

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Saumya Dave follows up her debut (Well-Behaved Indian Women, 2020) with this story about another Indian-American family. The narrative is told from varying points of view: Bina and Deepak Joshi, who immigrated to the United States to give their children opportunities they never had; eldest daughter Suhani, following in her father’s footsteps as a psychiatrist; her white husband Zack; middle daughter Natasha, who turns down a proposal from the son of lifelong family friends to pursue a career in comedy; and son Anuj, their youngest child. Natasha’s rejection of her boyfriend’s proposal, shortly after she loses her job, begins a series of events that affect the family, their connections to their community, and their ability to support each other. Dave examines happiness itself from several angles, revealing different aspects for members of the family related to their individual mental health and interpersonal dynamics. Equal parts family drama, women’s fiction, and coming-of-age story, each family member is challenged and finds their way through with the strength of their relationships intact, if changed by experience. A sure bet for vacation reading and fans of hopeful family dramas.

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson [Book]

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Miranda Brooks is a middle-school history teacher who’s just moved in with her boyfriend in Philadelphia when she learns her estranged maternal uncle, Billy, has died and left her Prospero Books. She hasn’t visited the bookstore or seen her uncle in 16 years, since he fought with her mother shortly after Miranda’s 12th birthday. Up until that time, Billy had been a fun if intermittent presence in her life, planning outings, adventures, and scavenger hunts. Miranda heads home to Los Angeles to attend Billy’s funeral and deal with her legacy, only to discover Billy left her a last scavenger hunt, one that will change everything she knows about her family. The manager and employees of Prospero Books are reluctant to welcome her into their midst, fearing imminent closure. Miranda’s parents are oddly reticent on the topic of Uncle Billy. Miranda’s boyfriend Jay is impatient for her return to Philadelphia. And Miranda needs more time to find the rest of the clues Billy left behind. Meyerson’s debut is the coming-of-age story of a young woman who thought she knew what she wanted from her life and must reckon with game-changing discoveries about her past and future.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells [Book]

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A charming story about a heavily weaponized semi-biological robot that calls itself “Murderbot”? Yes! An armed and armored security unit that has hacked its governor-module allowing it to act independently may sound like the terrifying killer robot from a “kill all humans” story from the age of classic sci-fi, but in Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries the AI in question is an awkward and kind-hearted, if incredibly sarcastic and anti-social, hero of an extended coming-of-age story. Murderbot just wants to be left alone to enjoy its favorite serials on the entertainment feed, but life keeps getting in the way and in the process Murderbot grows as a person, forming relationships and learning more about what it means to be alive than it could ever know from The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon or Timestream Defenders Orion.

The series begins with All Systems Red, a short novella that introduces Murderbot and some of the key humans who will play a part in its life. The series continues with Artificial Condition and is now a series of six books, with more on the way. Highly recommended.

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge [Book]

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I just finished Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge and loved it! It is historical fiction at its best — bringing the past to life through characters that are complex and relatable. The story begins in post-Civil War Brooklyn and is a coming of age story of a free black girl, Libertie, whose mother is a doctor. We follow Libertie through college and into her young married life which brings her to Haiti.

Such a Fun Age [Book]

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Race, class and parenting collide in this thought provoking tale centered around a special relationship between a lovable and precocious child and her amazing nanny.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides [Book]

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Middlesex is an multi-generation immigrant family drama limned by an omniscient narrator with a serious predicament. At turns funny and poignant, it is about identity and finding where you belong, including inside your own skin. Winner of the Pulitzer for fiction in 2003; I highly recommend this lushly written page turner.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell [Book]

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Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On reads like a compact and quirky alternative Harry Potter. The parallels are impossible to miss. Our protagonist had no knowledge of the magical world until he was discovered and brought to a magic school where he quickly makes friends and begins a series of fantastic adventures. We have characters who clearly have analogs in Harry, Hermione, Draco, Hagrid, and Voldemort, and there are more subtle references as well. Carry On is more than an homage, however. It is an engaging fantasy with good world building and a satisfying plot. Many aspects of the book simply seem better than they have to be, which is delightful. The story is told from a number of viewpoints, each of which satisfyingly reveals something different about the characters. (The everchanging dynamic between our protagonist Simon and his rival Baz is a driving force in the book, and the contrast between their individual perspectives is part of what makes the book work so well.) The world is well thought out with complex politics and an intriguing, novel, and entertaining magic system. And Carry On is compact—it is as if Rowling had decided to tell the entire Harry Potter story in a single Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone sized volume that concentrated mainly on Harry’s last year, only touchiching upon earlier adventures in brief flashbacks.

Sunny [Graphic Novel]

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Eisner award winner Taiyo Matsumoto’s semi-autobiographical account of the Star Kids orphanage is hands down the greatest unsung hero of contemporary manga currently being published. Why this book has not shown up on more “Best Of” and “Required Reading” lists is a puzzle, and I can only hope that this small dispatch might somehow get these books into more hands. The 6 volumes of Sunny (5 currently available – part 6 to be published any day now!) follow the day to day happenings at the Star Kids home – with each chapter showcasing one of the disparate, displaced children and their caretakers. These are mostly simple stories: the new kid tries to settle into his new home, dinner time arguments about what to watch on t.v., the fallout from a white lie about a cup… but what makes them special is Matsumoto’s ability through his poetic mastery of the language of comics to instill something stronger than empathy – the reader is actually transported into the hazy logic of youth through the combination of pictures and words.

The following chapter titles, one from each volume, hint at the simple majesty at work:
Chapter 2: “Why’re Dracula’s fingernails so long?” “‘Cause he doesn’t cut ’em.”
Chapter 12: “The city always seems angry.” “Like it’s shoutin’ ‘HEY!’ or somethin’?”
Chapter 17: “If I had my own department store, I’d make every floor for toys.” “That’s just a big toy store.”
Chapter 24: “Auoooh.” “Waaaaa.”
Chapter 29: “You think a rainbow’s hot if you touch it?” “The blue part’s gotta be cold.”

These slice of life vignettes somehow manage to capture the elusive feelings and perspective of a child – treating all of their melancholy and frustration, as well as their elation, with an uncanny sympathetic tone – all through his evocative illustration style combining scratchy pen with spots of ink wash. The ambivalence of a runny nose, the proprietary daydream space of a broken down car (a Nissan Sunny 1200, for which the series takes its name), and the powerfully charged relic of a mother’s hand salve tin are all presented with what could only be considered magic. At some moment while reading (possibly during a characters’ first foray into shoplifting, or while everyone is scurrying to get out of an oncoming storm), through some sort of literary sleight of hand you’ll realize your heart has just been inextricably joined to the Star Kids’ lives and will potentially need some mending when you flip closed the last page.

Beautifully designed and printed as part of Viz’s Signature Editions, these small hardcovers are given the proper presentation to contain the deeply affecting stories held within.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky [Audiobook]

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Johnny Heller narrates exactly the way you imaged Charlie’s voice while reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Charlie’s matter-of-fact tone and use of direct language juxtaposes with the intensity of his experiences and the sometimes stunning depth of his observations. Anyone who has been 15 knows that navigating friends, family, and high school can run the gambit from terrifying to exhilarating. Charlie is figuring out how to be a person in the world. He is called a freak, he experiences pain and love and every emotion in between. I highly recommend both the print book and the audio book to adult and teen readers. And while I’m at it, the movie is pretty great too!

Coffee Will Make You Black [Book]

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April Sinclair’s young adult novel tells the story of Stevie, a young black girl, living in Chicago in the late 60s/early 70s. Stevie has to deal with other people’s ignorance about race and sexuality as she comes into her own identity. Her mother wants her to use bleaching cremes to lighten her skin, but she’s becoming involved in the Afro-American Club at school and she begins to wear her hair natural. Stevie’s Grandma and her mama are strong influences on Stevie and she finds comfort with her Grandma and is often frustrated by her mama. This is a great book for adults, young adults, and teens.

In One Person by John Irving [Book]

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I’m glad I read John Irving’s In One Person, though I almost gave up on it in the first few pages. The rambling conversational tone took some getting used to, and the sexually explicit language did not yet seem justified. Something in the quirky characterization of the protagonist, Billy, kept me reading and as the conversational tone became familiar and Irving’s wonderful story telling took over, I soon found it difficult to put the book down.

What began as a strangely narrated story of a quirky child soon becomes an engaging coming-of-age story, then a touching examination of the life of a bisexual man in a world that is deeply uncomfortable with his bisexuality and the gender bending behavior of those he loves, and eventually a stark look at the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

Over the course of the novel John Irving illustrates the changing attitudes towards cross-dressers and transwoman in American society from the 1940s until the turn of the millennium. While his portraits are certainly not representative they are believable and always sympathetic.

There is nothing titillating about In One Person despite its sexually explicit language and themes. This is a story about friendships, crushes, prejudice and acceptance.

Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout [Book]

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In the stifling hot summer of 1971, Amy has a summer job working in the same office as her mother, Isabelle, in the small town of Shirley Falls. We quickly learn that  something has come between them to drastically change their relationship, but what exactly that is takes longer to discover with story enfolding from the differing perspectives of both Amy and Isabelle. The troubles facing the people of this town are almost too realistically drawn; under almost every ideal roof something darker lurks. Great character development and lyrical writing. This is Strout’s first novel; she later won the Pulitzer Prize for Olive Kitteridge.