Picture Book x HudCo

We Run the Tides

“Wow, this book was hard to put down! The story feels so familiar, yet full of unexpected twists and turns. I was immersed in the beautiful and tumultuous world of these girls on the brink of adulthood. A fun, mysterious, compelling, and ultimately profound novel about power, truth, and growing up.”

Sarah Fischer, Downbound Books

Milk Blood Heat

“Milk Blood Heat grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. The prose blisters with a beauty so raw and intense it borders on horrifying. With widely differing characters, voices, and settings, each story makes its own unique contribution to the collection, yet each propels the reader onward in turn. Dantiel W. Moniz is a jaw-dropping new star on the literary stage.”

Audrey Beatty, River Bend Bookshop

The Echo Wife

“Just wow! I am so delighted that there are writers like Sarah Gailey producing science fiction of this caliber. Their latest novel, The Echo Wife, kept me riveted from beginning to end with elegant prose and a compelling, vulnerable protagonist who narrates the story in a wonderfully intimate first-person point of view. This is a refreshing, fast-paced thriller that gives center stage to questions of our humanity without asking them from a male-only perspective.”

Christine Havens, BookPeople

"A brilliant novel, lyrically lifting history towards myth. It's also compulsively readable. I devoured it in two days." ? Salman Rushdie In 1935, orphaned servant Hirut struggles to adapt to her new household as Ethiopia faces Mussolini's looming invasion. As the battles begin in earnest, Hirut and other women must care for the wounded. But... Read more »

“This debut novel about an Irish expat millennial teaching English and finding romance in Hong Kong is half Sally Rooney love triangle, half glitzy Crazy Rich Asians high living—and guaranteed to please.” —Vogue 

AN ANTICIPATED BOOK FROM:
Vogue * Elle * O, the Oprah Magazine * Esquire * Harper's Bazaar * PopSugar * LitHub

An intimate, bracingly...

Infinite Country

“Starting with one of the best first sentences of a novel that I've ever read, Infinite Country is a moving portrait of the lengths a daughter will go to in an effort to reunite her family. Engel gives an intimate look into the challenges of a Colombian family that has been separated after emigrating to America. She also provides a unique view of what it's like to be an outsider in multiple different settings and her comparisons of the violence (and possible opportunities) in both countries are fascinating. With a very emotional ending, I highly recommend this title composed in an undoubtedly distinct voice.”

Stuart, Novel Books

How Much of These Hills Is Gold

“In post-Gold Rush California, a Chinese-American family struggles to make money to improve their lives. When bad things get even worse, 10 and 11-year old Lucy and Sam take off on a stolen horse and head east, living off the land. Sam takes off on her own, and Lucy ends up in a town but never feels really at home. The two sisters meet up again several years later and decide to try to fulfill their mother's dream—traveling to China where they might finally find Home. With lyrical style that cloaks the narrative of a chain of miserable events in a dream-like quality, Zhang's writing evokes the real sense of alienation that many immigrants and displaced people feel as they search for a place to belong. The writing is beautiful. Recommended.”

Alice, Blue Willow Bookshop

A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: it’s close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and, ideally, very little thinking.Her first gig—watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods—turns out to be inconvenient. (When can she go to the... Read more »

A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers.

“Mbue reaches for the moon and, by the novel’s end, has it firmly held in her hand.”—NPR

We should have known the end was near. So begins... Read more »

All Adults Here

“All Adults Here by Emma Straub is quick, entertaining summer read. With an eclectic cast of characters, I found the Strick family endearing as they tried to navigate the complexities of family, aging, and change. These pages felt like a glimpse into the family's life, that felt satisfying in the end, but certainly not complete, a fitting reminder that life continues on.”

Tina, Leaves Book and Tea Shop

Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, a searing literary debut novel set in India about mothers and daughters, obsession and betrayal “I would be lying if I said my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure,” says Antara, Tara’s now-adult daughter. This is a love story and a story about betrayal—not between lovers but between a mother and... Read more »

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation.

“Karla’s book sheds light on people’s personal experiences and allows their stories to be told and their voices to be... Read more »

Of Women and Salt

“This is a story about women—mothers, daughters and how history shapes a life. Gabriella Garcia, a Cuban American, tells two immigration stories—one from Cuba, and the other from El Salvador—and how the past impacts decisions in their own lives. Garcia’s sentences and word choice ring with purpose when you listen to the story as an audiobook. I would recommend this story, and be on the lookout for more from Garcia.”

Leah, Birch Tree Books

Libertie

“Libertie is a beautifully written, immersive historical novel inspired by the story of a Black doctor and her daughter who lived in a free Black community in Brooklyn during the Reconstruction era. It is also a profound meditation on what it means to be truly free — whether born free or formerly enslaved, whether in America, Haiti, or Liberia — while struggling against grief, sexism, racism, colorism, or classism. Libertie’s quest to forge her own path is a much-needed inspiration!”

Alyssa Raymond, Copper Dog Books

Wintering

“When we all started our own ‘winters’ in March, some of us were more prepared than others. May writes delicately of the struggles of life and the ways we may be able to prepare ourselves for such times, something I feel we all need to learn in order to survive the emotional winter that is a worldwide pandemic. Grab a cup of tea, find a cozy blanket, and burrow into this book of thoughtfulness and comfort.”

Emma Warren, Oblong Books & Music

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

WINNER OF THE OREGON BOOK AWARDS' KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION

A wildly original, cross-country novel that subverts a long tradition of family narratives and casts new light on the mythologies—national, individual, and collective—that drive and define us.

On the day of their estranged father’s wedding, half... Read more »

The Office of Historical Corrections

“I have been holding my breath for Danielle Evans’ next book of short stories since Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, and The Office of Historical Corrections was worth the wait. She delivers the same great storytelling, insight, and sharp cultural commentary. Her touch on themes usually associated with older people, such as redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation, moved me. I read the whole collection in two days.”

Miesha Headen, Loganberry Books

Interior Chinatown

“We all make choices throughout our lives, choosing different paths to follow, different roles to play. But who selects the options we choose from? Interior Chinatown is like a rapier taken to stereotypes that inhabit society's attitudes towards Asian Americans. The main character, Willis Wu, is a minor actor in an ongoing cop drama who wants to be more than a generic Asian male in the background, maybe even someday becoming "Kung Fu Guy". The novel bounces back and forth between the script Wu is inhabiting and an interior monologue . And one of the strengths of this book, for the reader, is how thin the line sometimes feels between these stereotypical roles that Willis is acting, and the ridiculousness of the particular situation. Interior Chinatown is a brilliant novel, one that challenged this reader in the best possible ways”

Martin, Green Apple Books

Transcendent Kingdom

“Gifty immigrated from Ghana, grew up in Alabama, and is working on a PhD in neuroscience at Stanford, where she experiments with mice. She has always felt she wasn’t cool enough or white enough, and tries to prove her value through her brilliance. She tells her raw and powerful story of racism, addiction, mental illness, and especially faith and prayer, all while trying hard to mend a complicated relationship with her mother. This second novel from the author of the award-winning novel Homegoing is compelling and so, so beautifully written.”

Sally Weitzen, Wellesley Books

Memorial

“Maybe it's because I listened to this book on Libro.fm and the author was the narrator, but this novel felt so personal a story, that I kept thinking it was a memoir. The story follows two men, Benson and Mike, who live together and are in a tense, emotionally distant relationship. While Mike's mom is arriving from Japan for a long stay and visit in their home, Mike is getting on a flight to Japan to care for his father, with no plans to return anytime soon. We follow Benson, the boyfriend left behind, as he meets Mike's mother for the first time and struggles to welcome her into their home while her son leaves her behind with a stranger. The awkwardness of the characters ring so true in this story. I loved Washington's writing that allows us to peek into their very private lives, some stories they won't even tell each other. As Benson's story gets more complicated, dealing with his own family and his loyalty to Mike, the story pivots and we get to see Mike in Japan, awkwardly trying to rekindle a very strained relationship with his stoic father who is slowly dying of cancer. Both characters are nuanced, with plenty of learning and change throughout their stories, we also get glimpses into life in Japan, life as immigrants, and the lives of gay men in modern times.”

Jessica, BookBar