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
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, August 5, 2021 — 27

