LET’S GET BACK TO THE PARTY by Zak Salih

In sparkling prose, Zak Salih examines a theme in Let’s Get Back to the Party that is one of the more interesting topics for me as a gay man today: “the paradoxes of queer life in contemporary America through the generations.” Zak doesn’t tell, he shows, and the result is a truly memorable, one-of-a-kind portrait of queer friendship and a textbook for what it means to be a gay man in America over the past 50 years. This book is one to party over! Now, let’s get to reading it.

Tim will be interviewing Zak Salih on Friday, June 17, at 3 p.m. at the Methodist Church for Nantucket Book Festival.

BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY by Qian Julie Wang

This is one of my favorite memoirs I’ve ever read, about an undocumented immigrant living in poverty in America after leaving China in 1994 with her parents. Qian Julie writes so vividly that you feel her fears and excitement, applaud her courage and resilience, and reflect on her deep themes and message. I loved the lyrical observations about everything from the books and TV shows of my own generation to her daily musings on growing up in New York City. A “Read with Jenna” pick in 2021, this is a coming-of-age story about the American Dream as a struggle to survive, beautifully told through the senses of a memorable young girl. Our theme this year for the Nantucket Book Festival is “connection,” and this book proves the power of literature to connect us to stories that are not our own but that profoundly change us after reading them.

Tim will be interviewing Qian Julie Wang on Saturday, June 18, at 3 p.m. at the Methodist Church for Nantucket Book Festival.

THE LATECOMER by Jean Hanff Korelitz

I was curious to see what Jean Hanff Korelitz wrote after The Plot, one of 2021’s most suspenseful thrillers and The Tonight Show’s Summer Reads winner. I absolutely devoured The Latecomer. It’s a different type of book than its predecessor, more of a slowburn character study than a thriller, but it still provides plenty of suspenseful moments. In fact, I was on the edge of my reading chair toward the end. The Latecomer is a story about three siblings desperate to escape one another and not all that likable at times, and the upending of their family by the late arrival of a fourth.

Jean Hanff Korelitz | Friday, June 17 | 11 a.m. | Methodist Church

SURVIVAL MATH by Mitchell S. Jackson

Race. Toxic masculinity. Gangs. Guns. Addiction. Family. This collection of essays, written by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Mitchell S. Jackson, is one of those you want to read slowly, both for the shock of the content and the artistry of the sentences. Praised as one of the best books of 2019 by most publications, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family is a brutally honest look at one man’s life that also manages to be a commentary on racism in America. Don’t miss Jackson’s “Twelve Minutes and a Life” from Runner’s World, the moving Pulitzer Prize– winning essay on the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.

Mitchell Jackson | Saturday, June 18 | 10 a.m. | Methodist Church

ALL THAT SHE CARRIED by Tiya Miles

You can choose any positive adjective to describe All That She Carried and many reviewers have: gorgeous, brilliant, powerful, fearless and extraordinary, to name a few. Winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction, All That She Carried is expertly researched and tenderly written, as Tiya Miles traces the life of a cotton sack handed down through three generations of Black women. On the surface this is an important history and narrative on slavery, but peel back the many layers and you’ll discover a poignant example of resilience and love during an impossible time.

Tiya Miles | Friday, June 17 12 p.m. | Methodist Church

READ DANGEROUSLY by Azar Nafisi

This book perfectly encapsulates the Nantucket Book Festival’s mission “to celebrate the transformative power of words to inspire, illuminate, educate and connect.” In the midst of rampant book banning across the world today, we need to remember to “read dangerously” for ourselves and for the next generation of readers. Azar Nafisi has structured the book as a series of letters to her father and presents us with a reading list and guide to the power of literature in turbulent times. Within these pages, Nafisi covers the works of Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Margaret Atwood and many more.

Azar Nafisi | Saturday, June 18 2 p.m. | Methodist Church

HOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE by Imbolo Mbue

Speaking of beautiful, how beautiful is this book? Imbolo Mbue charmed us at the Nantucket Book Festival in 2018, and we are thrilled to welcome her back to the island to discuss her latest novel. It’s a sweeping, wrenching story about the collision of a small African village and an American oil company. Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula, who grows up to become a revolutionary, it’s about community and connection with not a sentence or word wasted in its pages. These characters stay with you. After all, I first read this book in 2019, and I still think about Thula, Woja Beki, Jakani and Sakini, and many more.

Imbolo Mbue | Friday, June 17 | 2 p.m. | Methodist Church