The Ann Arbor District Li-
brary is a magical place. In
fact, any local library, book-
store or streetside lending
library is likely to have the
best, most authentic book
recommendations. The Dai-
ly’s Book Review writers
certainly think so — so, in
the same spirit of small city
book recommendations, we
offer our small list of books
by Black writers that might
have slipped past the New
York Times Best Sellers list.
Some of these books are
non-fiction, others are liter-
ary fiction and some are po-
etry collections and fantasy.
Please peruse our small list
for your next spring read. —
Elizabeth Yoon, TMD Book
Review Editor
“Sag Harbor” by Colson
Whitehead
Recommended by Daily Arts
Writer Trina Pal
“Sag Harbor” isn’t Colson
Whitehead’s
most
well-
known novel. “The Under-
ground Railroad” or “The
Nickel Boys” would take
those titles. Yet, the light
charm
of
“Sag
Harbor”
makes it my favorite among
all of Whitehead’s books.
“Sag Harbor” follows a group
of Black teenagers at their
summer retreat in Sag Har-
bor, Long Island, adjacent to
the wealthy, predominantly-
white East Hamptons. The
plot is lighthearted and airy,
but Whitehead’s writing is
razor-sharp. Most of all, the
novel is just plain funny. Read
“Sag Harbor” this spring for
a glimpse of Whitehead’s
more comedic but no less ad-
ept work.
“For Black Girls Like Me”
by Mariama J. Lockington
Recommended by Daily Arts
Writer Lilly Pearce
Mariama
J.
Lockington’s
debut novel is a heartbreak-
ing novel told from the per-
spective of Makeda, a young,
adopted, Black girl who
struggles with her identity.
It’s an important story that
tackles racism and mental
illness, while also exploring
the complex and powerful
relationships between fami-
lies and friends. Lockington
incorporates several styles
of writing — prose, poetry
and letters — that create lay-
ered dynamics between the
characters and helps demon-
strate the complexity of dis-
covering who you are. While
targeted toward young read-
ers, people of all ages will be
captivated by this coming-of-
age story — it’s a poetic ren-
dition of an essential tale.
“Beyond Survival: Strate-
gies and Stories from the
Transformative Justice
Movement”
Recommended by Daily Arts
Contributor Brenna Goss
“Beyond Survival” is a col-
lection of essays by a variety
of organizers, activists and
authors of color that lays out
the steps we must take to re-
place punitive mass incarcer-
ation with community-based
transformative and restor-
ative justice practices. It’s an
incredibly important read for
anyone interested in racial
justice, criminal justice, pub-
lic health and safety.
“Homie” by Danez Smith
Recommended by Daily Arts
Writer Lilly Pearce
“Homie” is Danez Smith’s
latest collection of poems, a
radiant array of themes that
involve remarkable explora-
tions of friendship and grief
to thunderous examinations
of the violence and xeno-
phobia that infect our na-
tion. Within these themes lie
other corporeal narratives
that touch on race, queer-
ness and illness. Smith crafts
beautiful intersects between
their poems that result in
a perfect constellation of
poetry. It’s the kind of book
meant to be read again and
again, shared among friends
and held close. “Homie” is a
profound work of love that
Smith easily achieves with
their unparalleled language
and craft.
“Dread Nation” by Justina
Ireland
Recommended by Daily Book
Review Beat Editor Elizabeth
Yoon
“Dread Nation,” by Justina
Ireland seamlessly incorpo-
rates zombies into U.S. his-
tory, spinning a believably
complex, exciting and honest
story of two girls caught in an
absurd reality. While the U.S.
is divided fighting the Civil
War, the zombie apocalypse
begins. To address the grow-
ing number of deaths, the
U.S. drafts the “Native and
Negro Reeducation Act” to
train children as bodyguards
for the wealthy. Beyond be-
ing a fantastically addictive
read, Ireland tackles com-
plex identity issues with
great asexual and bisexual
representation.
“A Song of Wraiths and
Ruin” by Roseanne A.
Brown
Recommended by Daily Arts
Contributor Brenna Goss
Roseanne A. Brown’s novel
is a wonderful YA book filled
with magic, myth, tragedy
and redemption. Both of the
main characters are cap-
tivating in their own right
and even more so together —
even though they’re both try-
ing to kill each other. Brown
created a beautifully written
narrative filled with West
African folklore, adventure
and a thrilling battle of wits.
It will keep you glued to the
page until the very end.
Six Black-authored
books to read next
The great enigma of
Trisha Paytas
To a generation whose years
of crucial brain development
were spent watching Filthy
Frank bake hair into a cake,
Shane Dawson attempt to be
funny and gamers celebrate
bloodshed and gore on the
physics-based biking game
Happy Wheels, the word
“absurd” has lost its mean-
ing. One can only be shocked
by YouTube’s absolute worst
so many times; however, the
blonde-haired,
vivacious
Trisha Paytas continues to
amuse even the most jaded of
audiences. While creators on
YouTube almost always fade
into irrelevance, the mono-
lith that is Trisha Paytas has
yet to crumble, clinging onto
popularity via her unpre-
dictable style of content and
extensive history of contro-
versies long after her start in
2007.
In the beginning, Paytas
was relatively tame, post-
ing beauty-related content
on her channel “blndsun-
doll4mj.” Outside of her
YouTube channel, Paytas ap-
peared on several television
shows and music videos, in-
cluding an episode of TLC’s
“My Strange Addiction” in
which she confesses her self-
tanning obsession and an ap-
pearance in Eminem’s 2009
music video for “We Made
You.” Her humble beginnings
were
unremarkable.
Her
character — if she had one
— was that of another early-
2000s California bimbo don-
ning blonde hair and orange-
tinted skin.
When Paytas started diver-
sifying her YouTube content
in the early 2010s, things got
even more interesting. She
began “trolling” viewers in
2013, appearing to dumb her-
self down with videos like
“Why I’m Voting for Mitt
Romney,”
“Why
Women
Can’t Be Funny” and “Do
Dogs Even Have Brains?” Af-
ter glimpsing her somewhat
typical personality in previ-
ous videos, it was not hard
to tell that these titles were
written with viewers’ reac-
tions in mind; Trisha Paytas
was self-aware at this point,
she got so many views that it
didn’t matter.
From this point on, Paytas’s
steady catalog of beauty tips
and fashion hauls was inter-
rupted by more and more of
these jolting, off-topic rants
until her “normal” videos
were few and far between.
Paytas could be praised for
her savviness: She supplied
some
good
old-fashioned
not-safe-for-work shock val-
ue and, like clockwork, she
always got enough attention
to keep going with vast mo-
mentum.
The turbulent landscape of
the internet doesn’t let pop-
ular things stay popular for
long. To stay popular forev-
er, Trisha Paytas had to find
new ways to entertain.
Daily Arts Writer
LANIE BROTHERTON
Design by Meghana Tummala
This image comes from the Youtube video “Trisha & Ethan Do Oddly
Satisfying Trends - Frenemies #30,” posted by H3 Podcast
ELIZABETH YOON,
TRINA PAL,
LILLY PEARCE
and BRENNA GOSS
Daily Book Review Beat Edi-
tor, Daily Arts Writer, Daily
Arts Writer, Daily Arts Con-
tributor
TRANSCENDS
LEARNING
THAT
BORDERS
I I .U M I C H . E D U/ P I C S
Arts
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