The Indie List
Local and small-press books from the shelves at Greenlight Bookstore (686 Fulton St) as selected by the employees that know them best.
by Monique Truong
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
A gay Vietnamese man ends up answering an ad requesting a cook. However, the position calls for a cook at 27 rue de Fleurus, which happens to be the home of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. One has to get used to Truong's ethereal and poetic prose, but the novel charms on many levels, especially as Binh—or “Thin Bin” as Stein calls him—relays stories of Stein and Toklas's famous salons. Truong's second novel, Bitter in the Mouth, comes out this month.
Picking Bones from Ash
By Marie Mutsuki Mockett
Graywolf Press
We follow the story of Satomi, a Japanese woman who uncharacteristically—for a postwar female—puts herself first. The novel spans many years, and locations, as the reader is introduced to Satomi's daughter, Rumi, who sets out from her father's San Francisco home to establish a relationship with her estranged mother.
Post Black: How a New Generation Is Redefining African American Identity
By Ytasha L. Womack
Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review Press
Lawrence Hill Books's progressive nonfiction related to the black experience is necessary, and Womack's attentiveness to the many identities of African-Americans and Black-Americans living in the United States is very refreshing. Her writing is comical and direct, while dispelling myths about black views on religion, sexuality, race and a slew of other topics.
