Coates is a master orator and thinker. The Message reminds us about the power of words and story, of how they impact, how they hurt and how they haunt. Stories shape the world we know and inform us on the world we don’t.

I was born in Scarborough, an urban neighbourhood that is often written off as a troubled place, full of poverty, violence and those who struggle. But Hernandez lovingly lays bare Scarborough’s beauty and crevices through families whose lives intersect via an early learning childcare centre. Scarborough inspires.

There is something about listening to the former U.S. President tell his own story. You remember the power, the promise of his leadership, the great potential of the American state and the underlying message of never giving up hope.

This fictional book is told in an innovative, experimental way that had me hooked from the start as author Naga and Amin El Gamal, narrates a love story you won’t soon forget, set in the aftermath of the Arab Spring in Cairo. This is a story of desire, identity, and the tragic reality of two worlds colliding and the aftermath.

From the start, Whitehead’s rawness of prose grabs you as you listen to the coming of age of two-spirited Jonny. Sometimes I forgot this was fiction – Jonny’s journey is a poetic, lyrical story that screams out against erasure and centres two-spirited people as powerhouses who protect all of our spirits.