What Lauren Wilkinson Is Reading
Photograph by Niqui Carter
Explore this recommended reading list from author Lauren Wilkinson. Her debut novel, American Spy, was a Washington Post bestseller and a 2019 nominee for the NAACP Image Award, the Anthony Award, and the Edgar Award. It was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, was a Barnes & Noble Book of the Month, a PBS book club pick, and included on the Library's Best Books for Adults 2019 list and President Barack Obama's 2019 recommended reading list.
Lauren earned an MFA in fiction and literary translation from Columbia University, and has taught writing at Columbia and the Fashion Institute of Technology. She was a Center for Fiction Emerging Writers Fellow and has received support from both the MacDowell Colony and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Her writing has appeared in Granta, The Believer, New York magazine, and The New York Times, among other publications. She splits her time between New York and Los Angeles where she works as a writer for television.
"I am really drawn to books which vividly and authentically transport me into a different place, time, or identity, especially the stories and perspectives that have been hidden, forgotten, or overlooked."
The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen
A slave to a wealthy Virginia family, Mary Bowser secretly joins the abolition movement to bring fugitive slaves to freedom—a cause that leads her to deceive even those who are closest to her.
The Compatriots: The Brutal And Chaotic History Of Russia's Exiles, Emigres And Agents Abroad by Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan
From Trotsky to Litvinenko, the authors of The Red Web explore the shifting role of Russian expatriates throughout history and their complicated, unbreakable relationship with the mother county.
Buenos Aires Noir Edited by Ernesto Mallo
The Noir Series dives deeper into Latin America, into a city with a long history, both glorious and sinister.
Book of the Little Axe by Lauren Francis-Sharma
Quietly but purposefully rebelling against the life others expect of her in late-18th-century Trinidad, Rosa loses her family's farm when her homeland transitions to British rule, before her half-Crow son finds his coming-of-age challenged by decades-old secrets.
The Party Upstairs by Lee Conell
Tensions escalate throughout a single day in a genteel New York City apartment building where a superintendent and his adult daughter spark a crisis involving class distinctions, family bonds, and the expectations of privilege.
Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn
Dogeaters follows a diverse set of characters through Manila, each exemplifying the country's sharp distinctions between social classes. Celebrated novelist and playwright Jessica Hagedorn effortlessly shifts from the capital's elite to the poorest of the poor. From the country's president and first lady, to an idealist reformer, from actors and radio DJs to prostitutes, seemingly unrelated lives become intertwined.
Still Water Saints by Alex Espinoza
The owner of a botánica in Southern California, Perla Portillo sells traditional remedies, until a boy with a mysterious past forces her to face her dreams and her role in the world, in a tale that interweaves Perla's story with those of her customers—a teacher, a drag queen, and others.
Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold
A powerful and richly textured novel set in 1920 follows Charles Carter, a.k.a. Carter the Great, who has become a master illusionist borne out of loneliness and desperation, as he creates the most outrageous stunt of all involving President Harding—one that could cause his downfall.
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton
Drawing on 19th and 20th-century medical illustrations, pickup notices, fugitive-slave narratives, true-crime books, documentary films, and poetry, the author analyzes the connections between Blackness and Trans identity in the context of ongoing Black and Trans deaths.
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Summaries provided via NYPL's catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through on each book title for more information.