Looking for your next great read? See what the Newfields librarians are reading and loving this month…
James by Percival Everett
I realize I am a little late to this party but I recently finished reading James by Percival Everett and had to add my endorsement to the many it has already received. As you may already know, James is the winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the 2024 National Book Award, and a finalist for the Booker Prize, among others. Now, official awards in literature can be hit or miss or come with an air of pretension or inaccessibility. But I was pleased to find that this is not the case with James.
James is a reimagining of the Mark Twain classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We follow the same broad plot points as the original, but told from the perspective of the slave Jim (aka James). The novel is written beautifully but without pretension or aloofness. I found it immediately engaging, with a compelling point of view, strong character development, and solid pacing that never lingers too long or belabors the scene.
This made for a deeply entertaining read while also tickling my brain with its subtly and sharp observations and commentary. The book deals with heavy themes that elevates it from the original classic adventure tale. I was completely engrossed in James’ interior world, which he keeps hidden from his white oppressors. James is enslaved in body, but not in mind. We see this play out not only in the way he speaks and interacts differently to white and Black people (code switching), but also in his secret ability to read and write, and his thirst for greater knowledge. He is an intellectual man, forced to play a fool to his “masters.” Often powerless to stop the physical and emotional violence that pervades life daily.
James is a story of survival, literacy, identity, and hope. It forces the reader to consider:
- What role does literacy play in power, identity, and agency?
- Who gets to tell the story and how does this shape our understanding of the events of Huckleberry Finn?
- How is dehumanization essential to maintaining structural racism?
Though the story is set in the Antebellum South, it offers a clear lens to understand the foundations of the American Black experience and U.S. history and how those roots continue to shape our nation and its people today.
While this is not a light read, it was not gritty or gratuitous. Violence is described on the page, but we never linger too long on any one scene or description. I found it to be unputdownable and will be mulling over its themes and message for a long time.
You don’t need to have read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to enjoy James. However, I do recommend reading both at some point because James is written in conversation with the classic and it is a pairing that can offer additional depth to the experience.
📖📲🎧This book is available to check out in our collection and on audiobook and ebook on the Libby app.
-Brittney T.
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
We’ve all been told not to judge a book by its cover. But I took one look at the dust jacket (art beautifully done by Ivan Belikov) and immediately knew I had to read the book inside. Little did I know the story waiting for me would bring about just as much wonder as the cover.
Amina is a justifiably retired pirate, finally getting to appreciate all the joys that life can offer. A daughter, a home, her mother, and consistent work are all she needs to be happy. Unfortunately, her former life comes calling in the form of a rich (like, buy your house with the jewelry she’s wearing rich) woman, desperate to see her loved one returned. As much as she tries to refuse, her new “benefactor” will not take no for an answer, so Amina is drawn back into her old world for one last job.
Set in the Great Indian Ocean, you’ll be immersed in a world not unlike our own. You can feel Chakraborty’s extensive research and familiarity with the culture her world is based on. Though it may take a minute to get acclimated, you’ll find yourself lost in this sprawling nautical tale.
Join Amina as she reunites with old crewmates, sets off on a quest, and is pushed to the limit of her resolve (not easily done). She’ll encounter monsters, demons, magic, and more adventure than she’d ever asked for. Along the way, you’ll begin to meet an interesting cast of characters, all quirky (and slightly terrifying) in their own unique ways.
Being the first book in a series, I look forward to getting to know these characters more as the story unfolds. Set in the same world (albeit at an earlier time) as her best-selling Daevabad trilogy, Chakraborty gives us just a taste of what might be waiting in store for our brave nakhudha as the next chapter in her life unfolds.
📖 📲🎧This book series is available in our collection and as an audiobook on the Libby app and in audiobook and ebook format on the hoopla app.
–Andy S.
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Oh, how to discuss this book? Considering it is one of my all time favorites, you’d think it would be easy. But somehow The Sparrow defies easy description.
The quickest synopsis? Jesuits in space.
I know. It doesn’t exactly inspire. And while, yes, the Jesuits do fund an expedition into space to investigate possible life on another planet (spoiler alert—there is life on another planet), The Sparrow is so much more than that. Superstar librarian Nancy Pearl called it “a philosophical novel about the nature of good and evil and what happens when a man tries to do the right thing, for the right reasons and ends up causing incalculable harm.” Russell herself commented that she was not interested in “technological changes and differences between groups, but continuity across vast swaths of time and the commonalities that unite us. This habit of mind suggested the centrality of both music and religion in [the] story.”
Music and religion are, indeed, central to the story, as are found family, science, philosophy, love, nature, curiosity, moral ambiguity, the complexity of faith, the human condition…the list goes on. The story is told in a dual timeline, starting with the protagonist, Father Emilio Sandoz, who has returned to Earth after a multi-decade journey to the planet Rakhat. The following chapter tells the story about how and why Sandoz and the rest of his party came to travel to Rakhat in the first place. Calling the other characters “the rest of the party” definitely does them a disservice, as they are all strong, memorable personalities in their own rights.
Before becoming an author, Russell was an anthropologist. She was also raised as Catholic and converted to Judaism as an adult. She brings all those experiences to bear in creating her multiple worlds and all the inhabitants.
At the end of the afterword, Russell writes, “In science, all sensibly phrased questions are at least potentially answerable, while answers to the questions of faith are, by their very definition, unknowable. With The Sparrow, I hoped to show that both kinds of questions are worth asking, and worth thinking deeply about.”
She accomplishes that and so much more.
📖 This book is available in our collection.
-Susan M.