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Here are the books we love: 360+ great 2021 reads recommended by npr.

Books We Love (formerly known as NPR's Book Concierge) is back with a new name and 360+ new books handpicked just for you by NPR staff and trusted...

NPR's Books We Love , formerly the Book Concierge, has a new name and 360+ new titles handpicked by NPR staff and trusted critics. Find nine years of Concierge recommendations all in one place – that's more than 2,800 great reads.

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Books We Love

Great reads, thoughtfully curated by npr.

‹ Back to books

What is this thing?

Books We Love is NPR’s interactive reading guide. Mix and match tags such as Book Club Ideas , Biography & Memoir or Eye-Opening Reads to filter results and find the book that’s perfect for you or someone you love.

How are the books selected?

We reached out to our staffers and trusted critics and asked them to nominate their favorite books published in 2023. They responded with hundreds of titles. Then, the editors and producers at NPR Books sat down with a huge spreadsheet of responses; we resolved duplications, noted omissions, considered the overall mix and balance of books recommended and then made assignments.

Why isn’t this just a list?

Back in 2013, the NPR Books staff was suffering from an acute case of list fatigue. So we teamed up with our friends at NPR News Apps and started to think about a site that would be more Venn diagram-y than list-y – a site that could help you seek out the best biographies that were also love stories, or the best mysteries that were also set in the past. We wholeheartedly believe that human beings are capable of absorbing new information in formats that are 1) not sequentially ordered and 2) wait … dammit! and 3) never mind.

But no, really, I just want to see a list of books

We got you. To view these books as a list of titles rather than as an array of covers, you are welcome to select the “List” option in the upper right-hand corner of the site.

So what’s the deal with these tags?

At NPR Books, we’re all about discovery: helping you find your next great read – the mystery you can’t put down, the memoir you recommend to all your friends. In 2013, we hashed out a basic taxonomy that was both functional (e.g., Biography & Memoir or Kids’ Books ) and fun (e.g., It’s All Geek To Me and Let’s Talk About Sex ). Over the years, we’ve refined our filters and added new tags, like The States We’re In and No Biz Like Show Biz .

The names are cute, but what do they mean?

The States We’re In is for stories of the American experience both true and fictional. It’s All Geek To Me is for deep dives on particular topics – trees, personality tests, tiny houses, you name it. In The Dark Side , you’ll find dystopias, serial killers, true crime and people behaving badly in general. Eye-Opening Reads will give you a new perspective on the topic at hand, whether it’s the state of philanthropy or a new pair of shoes.

How do the books get tagged?

Our critics and staffers make suggestions, but to ensure we are applying tags consistently, the producers and editors at NPR Books consider and discuss every tag on every book.

That must take a very long time

Can i look under the hood.

If you want to know more about how Books We Love was designed and coded, you can read about the process here . And if you’re curious to see the code and adapt it for your own project, you can check it out here .

If I click on the links and purchase one of the books, does that purchase help NPR?

Yes. And you can read more about how that works here .

How can I stay up to date on reviews and recommendations from NPR Books?

Sign up for our newsletter ! Every week we will send interviews, stories and reviews right to your inbox.

Subscribe to our podcast ! NPR’s Book of the Day brings you today’s great reads in 15 minutes or less.

Have fun exploring Books We Love! We hope you find something wonderful to read today.

The 2023 Books We Love team: Rose Friedman , Andrew Limbong , Beth Novey and Meghan Collins   Sullivan

Project Credits

This edition of Books We Love was published on Nov. 20, 2023.

• Produced and edited by Rose Friedman, Beth Novey and Meghan Collins Sullivan
• Design and development by Alyson Hurt and Brent Jones
• Copy edited by Preeti Aroon, Arielle Retting and Pam Webster
• Branding work by Luke Medina and Alexander Reade

Previous editions of Books We Love: Annette Elizabeth Allen, Preeti Aroon, Jeremy Bowers, Tayla Burney, Nicole Cohen, Patricia Cole, Danny DeBelius, Camila Domonoske, Beth Donovan, David Eads, Juan Elosua, Jess Eng, Natalie Escobar, Rose Friedman, Alice Goldfarb, Christopher Groskopf, Geoff Hing, Clinton King, Becky Lettenberger, Megan Lim, Wes Lindamood, Petra Mayer, Amy Morgan, Koko Nakajima, Duy Nguyen, Beth Novey, Maureen Pao, Katie Park, Ashley Pointer, Christina Rees, Arielle Retting, Ellen Silva, Meghan Collins Sullivan, Ruth Talbot, Shelly Tan, Pam Webster, Glen Weldon, Thomas Wilburn, Matthew Zhang

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NPR’s Best Books of 2021

For the complete list, see the Books We Love page .

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Books we love: NPR's top picks for 2021 memoirs

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Books - what a great way to escape your own life for a few hours, dive into somebody else's life story. Books We Love, NPR's list of best reads from 2021, has hundreds of recommendations for novels and nonfiction. Want a memoir? Well, four of our colleagues have suggestions for ones that you might want to try.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: I'm Elissa Nadworny, a correspondent covering higher education. And the book I'm recommending is called "Pregnant Girl: A Story Of Teen Motherhood, College, And Creating A Better Future For Young Families."

So the author is Nicole Lewis, who went to college at William & Mary in Virginia. And as a college student there, there was just something different about her because she had been a teen mom. And most days on campus, she had her young daughter, named Nerissa, with her. And she writes about feeling alone, struggling with child care and money at the same time as doing papers and finals and, like, all the other college stuff.

The thing that's so amazing about her story is that even though Lewis felt alone, the reality is that 5 million college students today are also parents. And Lewis now, today, runs a nonprofit that helps teen moms make it through college. So I think the book helps us as a society kind of redefine who actually goes to college. And it also offers some really clear solutions for how colleges and society can help student parents.

MILTON GUEVARA, BYLINE: My name is Milton Guevara. I'm a producer with NPR's Morning Edition and Up First. A book that I loved reading this year is "The Most Fun Thing" by Kyle Beachy.

GUEVARA: It's about skateboarding. You see, skateboarding is magic. And like all magic, it's shrouded in mystery. And Beachy tries to uncover the mystery of skateboarding. It's a memoir compiled in essays he's written over the years. And what I like about it is it's really about life.

GUEVARA: Beachy writes about how skating has shaped his outlook on things like aging, marriage and life in America.

GUEVARA: I mean, look; skateboards are just toys. They're inherently childish. But they can also be so much more than that, and Beachy does a really great job illustrating why.

ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: My name's Isabella Gomez Sarmiento. I am an assistant producer with Weekend Edition. I am recommending the memoir "Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey Into The Heart Of Desire" by Tracy Clark-Flory.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Having previously been a writer for Salon, Jezebel and a number of feminist outlets, the book kind of weaves Tracy Clark-Flory's personal sexual experiences with her reporting on the adult entertainment industry and with feminist theory that she has read throughout her life and kind of comes to this conclusion that, for women who date men, our understanding of our own sexuality is completely based off of the male gaze. She writes that, you know, we're taught to be passive objects of lust rather than active participants in sex. And in a way, that can be infuriating to understand but also sad but also funny.

"Want Me" kind of decodes what it means to reclaim desire for yourself and to take agency over your sexual experiences and your sexual expression in a way that is ultimately rewarding for you with or without a partner. And I think it's really a must-read this year.

MARISSA LORUSSO, BYLINE: Hi, my name is Marissa Lorusso. I'm an associate editor for NPR Music. And the book I'm recommending is "Pop Song: Adventures In Art & Intimacy" by Larissa Pham. Larissa Pham is a cultural critic and visual artist. And "Pop Song" is her memoir in essays. In it, she tells her own story, writing beautifully about travel and romance and trauma. But she intersperses her reflections with the stories of other artists and writers she admires. She actually started out as a painter, and I think you can really notice her attention to detail when she writes about other painters she loves, like Agnes Martin and Georgia O'Keeffe.

LORUSSO: But in "Pop Song," she also finds wisdom and inspiration in musicians like Frank Ocean, poets like Sylvia Plath, and more. Overall, the book is a really touching and personal collection that shows how all of these artists have helped her understand herself and the world around her.

SIMON: That was Marissa Lorusso recommending "Pop Song," Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, who suggested "Want Me," Milton Guevara with "The Most Fun Thing," and Elissa Nadworny, who recommended "Pregnant Girl." For more ideas on what to read, you can find the full list of Books We Love at npr.org/bestbooks.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

The best reads of 2021

Jeffrey Brown Jeffrey Brown

Anne Azzi Davenport Anne Azzi Davenport

Alison Thoet Alison Thoet

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-best-reads-of-2021

As we close the book on 2021, Jeffrey Brown talks to some of NewsHour's literary friends to get their best recommendations on what books to curl up on the couch with, or share with a friend. This report is part of our arts and culture series, CANVAS.

Read the Full Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, as we close the book on 2021, we wanted to share some good reads.

Jeffrey Brown talks to some "NewsHour" literary friends to get their best recommendations on what to curl up on the couch with or share with a friend.

It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Jeffrey Brown:

I'm joined here in studio by Carlos Lozada, the nonfiction book critic of The Washington Post. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2019. And, from Brooklyn, Jacqueline Woodson, author of novels for adults, as well as Newbery Honor-winning titles for young readers. She was the Library of Congress' National Ambassador for young People's Literature and a MacArthur fellow last year.

And it's really nice to see and talk to both of you.

I feel like I always start with fiction, so, for once, we're going to start with nonfiction.

Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post:

Carlos, give us a couple of picks.

Carlos Lozada:

I want to start with two books that I think get to some current major crises we're facing, but do so in really novel ways.

First is "Under a White Sky" by Elizabeth Kolbert. She's probably best known for her book "The Sixth Extinction," which depicted the crushing of the planet's biodiversity under the human footprint. This subsequent book is kind of a perfect sequel, because it's a warning about how even very well-intentioned fixes to our environmental problems can be causing more damage.

It's kind of a pessimistic book, but I think a really important one.

The second one I want to highlight is called "Read Until You Understand" by Farah Griffin.

That's a good title.

It's a great title…

… in that the book actually suits it very well.

There have been so many books that try to get at this moment of wrestling with the challenges of racial justice, and Griffin's does so in a way that mixes memoir and political analysis and kind of a literature seminar all at once.

What I like about this book so much is that it shows that reading is a vital part of engaged citizenship.

All right, Jacqueline Woodson, so give us a couple, of well, novels, if you can. What have you got?

Jacqueline Woodson, Author, "Red at the Bone": I can. And it's so funny because Carlos and I are so much on the same page in terms of the energy of what we're reading.

I want to start with Imbolo Mbue. But her book is called "How Beautiful We Were. And it's a novel about an African village that is struggling against a big American oil company that's messing up their environment. So it's a book about environmental justice. It's a book about family. It's a book about when big American businesses come into communities in other countries and destroy them or set out to destroy them.

And one thing I love about this book is, it's so thoughtful, but it's also funny. I mean, she can get at the humor in some of the hardest places.

Another book that I came by way of accident that just last night won Center for Fiction's First Novel award is a book called "The Five Wounds" by a woman named Kirstin Valdez Quade.

It's a book about a family where the teenage girl Angel gets pregnant, and she shows up at her father's house on the day that he is practicing to play the role of Jesus in the town ceremony.

But here's the thing that stood out for about that book for me. One thing that Kirstin does is, she uses Spanish, and it's never italicized, which I love, because what she's saying in this book is, my language is not other, and this story is not other, and my people are not other.

This was a first novel that really blew me away.

All right, Carlos, I mean, in terms of themes, I know you spent a lot of time looking at our politics and our divided politics. You have a couple from the past year?

Yes, I have read a lot of Trump books, way too many Trump books in my day job at The Washington Post.

And a lot of them are of the can you believe he did this or said that kind of school?

But in the latest that are coming out, you start seeing books that are more sort of thoughtful and thematic and develop an argument.

Two I want to highlight our first "Reign of Terror" by Spencer Ackerman. This book came out just a few months ago, around the 20th anniversary of 9/11. And it draws a very bright and clear line between the excesses of the 9/11 era and the excesses of the Trump presidency.

It looks at issues such as expanding presidential power, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim sentiment, weakening oversight, and just the open-ended nature of the war on terror, and shows how a lot of those things were kind of redirected and harnessed during the Trump years.

The other is a book by Fiona Hill called "There Is Nothing for You Here." And Fiona Hill is a Russia expert who was an adviser in the Trump White House and became best known probably when she testified during the first Trump impeachment regarding Ukraine.

Yes. "NewsHour" viewers will remember that well.

She looks at three places that she knows well, her native England, where she grew up in a working class mining town, Russia, which she studied as an academic, and the United States, where she's lived for many years and is a U.S. citizen, and shows how very similar cultural and economic forces are propelling the rise of populism in all three places.

So she's uniquely positioned to tell the story, and it's the rare Trump book that doesn't obsess about Trump.

Jacqueline, put on your young readers' hat here.

Give us a couple.

Jacqueline Woodson:

Your legacy by Schele Williams, which is a book about enslaved African Americans before they were enslaved. So it takes us back to different parts of Africa and shows us the culture and the grandeur and the wealth and the civility that people had before they were brought to this country as enslaved people.

And I really love that book, because it's not starting the narrative at enslavement. It's starting the narrative when people were people who were not enslaved.

So — and another quirky book that I really love is Mo Willems, the beloved Mo Willems, wrote a book called "Opposites Abstract," which is about concepts, and it's a really thoughtful way to talk about abstract images with very young people.

I want to ask you both before we go.

I will start with you, Jacqueline Woodson, on this one. Just was there a book that you went back to this year or that — perhaps that you read for the first time, an older book that was particularly meaningful to you?

I'm so glad you asked that, Jeff, because I have been reading Ida B. Wells' autobiography.

And it's just the book I needed. I needed to think about someone who survived harder times and who was brave in them and who changed a lot of the world in the work that she did so. So, Ida B. Wells, for the win, was the book that got me through a lot this year.

Carlos, what about for you?

So, I have many unread books in my home, many yet-to-be-read books in my in my home.

And one I picked up this year was "Night Draws Near" by Anthony Shadid, the late great foreign correspondent and war reporter.

Absolutely.

So many of the best known books of — about American warfare tend to be about the Americans, tend to be about how Americans go off, try to transform distant lands, and are transformed themselves by the experience.

Shadid's this book is different. Shadid looks at how the Iraq War was lived through the eyes of ordinary Iraqi people, the depth of his reporting, the empathy of his spirit. And he was able to show, for instance, how Iraqis can both despise a domestic dictator and resent the foreign occupier. And those two things are not inconsistent.

All right, I want to thank you both for sharing your books and love of reading.

Jacqueline Woodson, Carlos Lozada, thank you very much.

Listen to this Segment

Watch the Full Episode

In his more than 30-year career with the News Hour, Brown has served as co-anchor, studio moderator, and field reporter on a wide range of national and international issues, with work taking him around the country and to many parts of the globe. As arts correspondent he has profiled many of the world's leading writers, musicians, actors and other artists. Among his signature works at the News Hour: a multi-year series, “Culture at Risk,” about threatened cultural heritage in the United States and abroad; the creation of the NewsHour’s online “Art Beat”; and hosting the monthly book club, “Now Read This,” a collaboration with The New York Times.

Anne Azzi Davenport is the Senior Producer of CANVAS at PBS News Hour.

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Looking For Some Summer Reads? Check Out These Recommendations From NPR's Petra Mayer

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<iframe width="100%" height="124" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://player.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/06/24/summer-books-recommendation"></iframe>

Here & Now 's Tonya Mosley gets some summer reading suggestions and an update on the NPR Books Summer Poll 2021 from Petra Mayer of NPR Books.

Summer Reading Recommendations From NPR's Petra Mayer

" Remembrances ," Sinead O'Connor — O'Connor proves she packs a punch on the page as well as on the airwaves in this unsparing memoir about her life. Read it to find out how she really felt about tearing up a picture of the Pope on live TV!

" The Other Black Girl , " Zakiya Dalila Harris — This summer's buzziest thriller. Harris draws on her own experience in publishing for this story of a Black woman at a publishing company who hopes for a friend and compatriot when her employers hire another Black woman, but then things get weird. Our critic Bethanne Patrick praises the book's "sad and wholly earned brilliance."

" The Woman They Could Not Silence ," Kate Moore — Elizabeth Packard, was a preacher's wife in a small town in the 1860s who committed the unpardonable sin of arguing with her husband in public, so her husband put her away in an insane asylum. This is the story of how she fought her way free and changed the laws governing both married women and mental patients. As our critic Annalisa Quinn notes, it's not the entire picture of Packard (who had some unsavory opinions about race) but it is an inspiring portrait of someone who fought the system and won.

" Crying in H Mart ," Michelle Zauner — Adapted from musician Michelle Zauner's powerful 2018 New Yorker essay, this is the story of how she came to terms with the death of her mother through learning to cook her mother's beloved Korean food. Critic Kristen Martin says the book "powerfully maps a complicated mother-daughter relationship cut much too short."

" A Most Remarkable Creature ," Jonathan Meiburg — Your new favorite animal is the caracara — or at least it will be after reading Jonathan Meiburg's account of these obscure South American birds of prey. "Meiburg's voice is poetic; where other nature writers are known for the images they paint of landscapes, here are presented impressions, concepts as complex as species' movements over geologic time, in a way that is at once clear and beautiful," says critic Anna Morris

" We Need New Stories ," Nesrine Malik — Why are people so prone to believing big lies? That's the question at the heart of Nesrine Malik's We Need New Stories. "Malik's tone is both conversational and crystalline, and her plain-spoken yet authoritative tone stirs rather than browbeats," says critic Jason Heller. "Even when she's aiming the reader inward by probing the pitfalls of self-denial and self-delusion, she doesn't come across as didactic."

" The Final Revival of Opal & Nev ," Dawnie Walton — Dawnie Walton's debut novel takes the form of a journalistic investigation into a fictional rock duo, a white British man and a Black American woman, and the moment one of their concerts was interrupted by deadly violence. "All the glitzy, quick-change narrative styles don't detract attention from the core emotional power of her story," says critic Maureen Corrigan. "I tell you, even many of the fake footnotes in this novel are moving."

" The Chosen and the Beautiful , " Nghi Vo — A lush, gorgeous retelling of The Great Gatsby where Jordan is a Vietnamese adoptee (and the center of the story), Gatsby has literally sold his soul and the beautiful people top up their cocktails with demon's blood. Critic Jessica P. Wick calls it "saturated in longing — soaked through as thoroughly as strawberries left overnight in vodka."

" Firekeeper's Daughter ," Angeline Boulley — A powerful debut YA novel from Ojibwe author Angelline Boulley about a young woman grappling with both her Native heritage and an FBI investigation into a dangerous drug that may be coming from her father's reservation. "Some books take you where they're going with such confidence and grace that you find yourself at the end, breathless and hard-pressed to believe that it's over," says critic Caitlyn Paxson.

" The Witness for the Dead ," Katherine Addison — This book was such an unexpected pleasure! Seven years ago, Katherine Addison wrote a book called The Goblin Emperor, which was about an empire of elves and goblins, and a young half-goblin who ascends to the throne unexpectedly. It's a gorgeous book — great worldbuilding, thoroughly sympathetic, complex characters — and for years readers thought it would stand alone. But now there's a sequel, which follows a fascinating minor character in a completely unexpected direction.

" The Queer Principles of Kit Webb ," Cat Sebastian — A delightful queer historical romance, set in the 1750s and starring a retired highwayman who gets drawn back into crime — and then into love — when a dissolute noble convinces him to plan a heist. Lots of historical romances involve nobles and commoners (so may dukes!) but all too frequently they gloss over the realities of what those relationships would be like. Cat Sebastian has actually thought her happy ending through in a realistic manner, and that means a lot.

" The Hellion's Waltz ," Olivia Waite — Another fabulous queer historical, this one set in the 1820s and involving two women in a small English town, one a talented young musician and the other a silk weaver, who fall for each other while plotting to take down a corrupt industrialist. Olivia Waite is another writer who doesn't neglect the historical realities that underpin her stories, which gives a solid and emotionally hefty foundation to this sexy romp.

" Snacking Cakes ," Yossy Arefi — A perfect book for anyone who became an avid pandemic baker, and still wants to bake but has actual things to do outside the house now. Snacking Cakes is designed to let you whip up tasty cakes from whatever you have in the house, even if you're not an obsessive like me who has seven kinds of flour and seven kinds of sugar on hand at all times (not joking about that).

This segment aired on June 24, 2021.

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November 30, 2021 9:14 AM

• Mia Estrada

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In what has become an annual tradition, NPR's staff and regular book critics bring you a mighty year-end guide of Books We Love . In 2021, you can find more than 360 recommendations ranging from cookbooks to realistic fiction and from graphic novels to tell-all tales.

Here are a handful of some of the most interesting staff picks — you may even find some choices that surprise you! — like The Secret History of Home Economics and Fat Chance, Charlie Vega.

We hope you enjoy our full slate of selections — and take some time to browse through for awhile!

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith

" Build Your House Around My Body begins with the disappearance of a young woman named Winnie, and works its way backwards through time, telling a story of unfinished business and long-delayed revenge. Some of its set pieces are familiar from Hollywood horror movies and Brothers Grimm fairy tales – there's an exorcism and a haunted forest. But because this book is set in Vietnam, the forest is an overgrown rubber tree plantation and the exorcism doesn't have crucifixes or holy water. It's a sprawling novel that tells a ghost story spanning generations, drawing the reader into its supernatural world." — Ari Shapiro , host, All Things Considered

Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World by Wil Haygood

"Billed as 'One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World,' this fascinating, exhaustively researched and gorgeously written tome delves deep into the background of everything from D.W. Griffith's monstrous silent Birth of a Nation , to teenager Darnella Frazier's video of the murder of George Floyd. If you've ever wondered why you can't see the Sidney Poitier/Dorothy Dandridge Porgy and Bess , or why Spike Lee had to borrow money to fly to Cannes to win Best Young Director for She's Gotta Have It , or why ... nah, I should stop. So many treasures to unearth, you'll want to do it yourself." — Bob Mondello , movie critic, Culture Desk

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

"Michelle Zauner's debut memoir eloquently lays out the complexity and the ongoing grief of losing a parent in your 20s, just as your own life is about to start. Zauner, who heads the indie band Japanese Breakfast, writes about how she turned to Korean food as a way to process her grief when her mother, her only tie to Korean culture, died of cancer. The book, which was first excerpted as viral New Yorker essay in 2018, reflects on how cooking and eating the food that her mom once prepared gives her a way to connect to her identity. As someone who also lost a parent in my 20s, it's hard to convey the loss of identity and confusion that I faced, so I'm so thankful this book exists." — Alyssa Jeong Perry , producer, Code Switch

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

"I'm glad there's a wave of YA books with fat protagonists, but the characters often possess a level of self-confidence that's too good to be true. Crystal Maldonado has created a much-needed believable protagonist with teenage and adult readers. Charlie Vega is a fat, glasses-wearing, biracial Puerto Rican with a diet-pushing mother and a beautiful, athletic best friend. When her classmate Brian pursues a romantic relationship, Charlie is plagued with-self doubt. The book is propelled by conflicts both internal and external. I'm glad this book isn't body-positive escapism, but rather a well-observed story of fat teenage life." — Jessica Reedy , producer/editor, Pop Culture Happy Hour

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke

"Kristen Radtke looks at the science of loneliness and its presence in American society – and interweaves it with poignant stories from her own life. She dives into its evolutionary purpose while retracing the surprising places where loneliness comes up: in TV laugh tracks, in the much-venerated lone cowboys in American pop culture. All the while, she shares her own brushes with isolation – mourning the end of a TV series, scrolling through her phone in bed, witnessing the death of her grandmother. It's a deeply engaging, masterful work of science and heart, and incredibly timely as the pandemic continues on." — Malaka Gharib , deputy editor, Goats and Soda, author of I Was Their American Dream

Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994-2007) by Dan Ozzi

"Let breathe new dawn - this art is dead / No sense of original thought in the mainstream" goes a lyric in the opening track of Against Me!'s first major-label album – one I (wrongly) thought sucked before ever having heard it, simply because it was on a major label. In Sellout , Dan Ozzi examines this intersection among bands trying to make a mark in the world, music labels hoping to make a buck off them and fans feeling betrayed by their idols. Even if you never spent time on punknews.org arguing about the taxonomy of "folk punk," it's a question that exists in every art form: How much is it worth to get paid? — Andrew Limbong , reporter, Culture Desk

Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford

"Ashley Ford's riveting memoir is an honest, heartbreaking story about her father's incarceration and the resulting family trauma. Her story is about race and family and about how the choices we make, plus those forced upon us, can complicate the trajectory of our lives. Ford writes with a refreshing and riveting candor. As a fellow Hoosier, I found the book particularly compelling because it is not only a coming-of-age Midwestern tale with all the typical concerns about body image and mother-daughter tension, but also a sharp commentary on the harsh realities of growing up as a Black person in Indiana. Ford also gives us an important glimpse of how prison shapes the daughters left behind." — Asma Khalid , White House correspondent, Washington Desk

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

"Anna Sun is a talented violinist in the Bay Area whose disappointing boyfriend springs a proposal on her: an open relationship. While processing her boyfriend's request and battling a creative block, Anna meets Quan and wonders if he might be the real deal. I love this book because it deals with issues that feel really relevant to today, such as creative burnout, bad boyfriends and neurodivergence, which Helen Hoang explores through these deeply rich and heartfelt characters." — Candice Lim , production assistant, Pop Culture Happy Hour

The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skateboard Life by Kyle Beachy

The year 2021 is the year of skateboarding. The "rebel" pursuit was transformed into an Olympic sport. Thrasher magazine, the skateboarding's bible, turned 40. And many have picked up skateboards for the first time. So The Most Fun Thing couldn't have come at a better time. Kyle Beachy is a longtime skater and writing professor. His memoir, compiled from essays that span a decade, ponder the meaning of skateboarding. "What percentage of skateboarding, I wonder, is talking about skateboarding?" he writes. "Half, probably. There is such rich joy to be found in these debates without stakes." Even as they "go nowhere, slowly." — Milton Guevara , production assistant, Morning Edition

The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live by Danielle Dreilinger

"The secret's out! Before I read this book, home economics was just a class that I took in junior high with the aptly named Mrs. Housekeeper. But in reading this book, I discovered that in the early 20th century, the field provided jobs for women in the sciences, corporations and government. And despite a flirtation with the eugenics movement, it was an area in which Black women could, and did, make significant contributions. Danielle Dreilinger also makes the case that cooking and managing a budget are invaluable lessons for all children and should still be part of the school curriculum. — Emiko Tamagawa , senior producer, Here & Now

The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel

"I'm among the weirdos who responded to the pandemic by upping my workouts, which made Alison Bechdel's latest graphic novel feel unexpectedly timely. A lifelong fitness freak, who's embraced everything from martial arts to mountaineering, Bechdel applies the same rigor to her analysis of her quest for a mind/body connection, which contains the sort of psychoanalytic layers, self-deprecating charm and ambitious complexities her fans have come to expect." — Neda Ulaby , correspondent, Culture Desk

Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey Into the Heart of Desire by Tracy Clark-Flory

"As a woman, dating men is kind of exhausting – especially when you consider all of the ways women's understanding of our own sexuality is shaped by the male gaze. In her new memoir, Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey Into the Heart of Desire, Jezebel writer Tracy Clark-Flory unpacks the different ways women are taught to be passive objects of lust, rather than active participants in sex. Through a combination of personal stories, previous reporting and feminist theory, Clark-Flory decodes the messy yet massively rewarding journey of taking agency over one's pleasure, with or without a partner." — Isabella Gomez Sarmiento , assistant producer, Weekend Edition

To read more recommendations from staff members, you can explore the "Staff Picks" section on the 2021 Books We Love website.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org .

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Simmering over summer books

Brittany Luse

Jessica Placzek

Corey Antonio Rose

We're at the peak of summer, which means sunny days on the grass with a good book! Bestselling authors Tia Williams and Jean Chen Ho join host Brittany Luse to give their recommendations for great summer reads. They also offer some armchair theories on why we love a gossipy summer novel. Books mentioned in this episode: The Guest by Emma Klein Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City by Jane Wong Hip-Hop Is History by Questlove with Ben Greenman Devil is Fine by John Vercher Good Material by Dolly Alderton Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams Want to be featured on IBAM? Record a voice memo responding to Brittany's question at the end of the episode and send it to [email protected].

This episode was produced by Corey Antonio Rose. It was edited by Jessica Placzek. Engineering support came from Tiffany Vera Castro. Our executive producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sangweni.

• summer book recommendations
• john vercher
• dolly alderton
• susanna clarke
• jean chen ho
• tia williams
• summer reading