Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Difference Between Inequality and Poverty

Question: What is the distinction among disparity and neediness? Answer: Presentation: The term disparity and neediness started from every single contemporaneous society. They are very obvious and obtrusive in certain social orders than others. The relationship among destitution and imbalance isn't clear and particular. Neediness and disparity are viewed as investigative ideas. The association of neediness and disparity happens in a specific way, past which it isn't sufficiently significant to state that they figure on one another. Truth be told, destitution and disparity change autonomously of one another. It gets hard to characterize the connection among destitution and imbalance as it isn't clear regarding which idea of neediness and which measurement of disparity one has at the top of the priority list. We can say that destitution and disparity doesn't change at a similar pace and degree, it might even change incomprehensibly. To investigate and comprehend the relationship just as the uniqueness among neediness and disparity, it is important to secure the definitio n and key issues identified with imbalance and destitution. (Beteille, 2003) Destitution and disparity: The degree of destitution and disparity stays a subject of standing enthusiasm for the whole world. Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize champ in the field of Economics, characterized destitution as the absence of insist opportunities which incorporate the capacities to choose a real existence when one has motivation to assess and esteem. He additionally portrayed that a unimportant low degree of pay doesn't imply a person to be poor it is the idea of hardship of fundamental capacities that recognize somebody to be poor. At the end of the day, destitution can be characterized as the shortage and inadequacy of material belonging or absence of money related assets. The meaning of destitution is multifaceted as it incorporates social, conservative, political angles. Destitution has differing classifications. It very well may be relentless or brief, supreme or relative, etc. More often than not, neediness is related with the idea of disparity. Neediness can likewise be viewed as a unique idea which adjusts and acclimates to changes in the utilization design, social headway and innovative improvement. (Characterizing Poverty, 2015) Presently taking about the two winning sorts of destitution, the outright neediness is an idea that is increasingly identified with hardship of essential human needs which conventionally incorporate food, water, sanitation, apparel, cover, social insurance and training. The other sort which is relative neediness is depicted actually as monetary disparity inside the general public in which individuals dwell. As per the definition gave by the World Bank, Poverty is a clear hardship in the prosperity of individuals. Destitution is distinguished as low degrees of pay, failure to get to the fundamental products and enterprises that are required to have an honorable existence. Destitution likewise encompasses low degrees of medicinal services and instructive accomplishment, no appropriate access to clean water and sanitation, small physical security and absence of adequate and good conditions to improve ones life. An assessment of the information from the World Health Organization has uncovered that consistently around 40,000 individuals bite the dust which is 15 million every year since they don't approach the fundamental necessities of life, for example, food, attire, water, sanctuary and medicinal services offices. The official neediness rate is recorded to have expanded from 12.5 percent in 2007 to 15 percent in 2012. The causes behind the advancement of destitution are different. A few causes can be dispensed with by legitimate usage of measures and destruction programs. Considering the less evolved economies and the creating economies the disposal of the reasons for neediness despite everything stays a predicament. The mainstream reasons for destitution remember adjusting patterns for the economy of a nation, absence of training, high pace of separation which can prompt feminization of neediness, overpopulation, and spread of a pestilence malady like AIDS or tuberculosis. Ecological issues like absence of precipitation, extraordinary climate conditions that cause states of dry spell or flooding can bring about neediness. The essential drivers of destitution incorporate absence of cash. Neediness wins in a financial framework where the joblessness rate is high or works are working with low wages so as to attract adequate speculation the nation. Absence of access and control to neighborhood assets , commonness of debasement, absence of vote based system in the nation, the vast majority are denied of the likely advantages of the accomplishment in an economy, no legitimate peace, constrained property rights and forestalling organizations to hold the majority of their benefits, all these are the reasons for destitution. We have just talked about that neediness and imbalance are connected yet havent explained the method of reasoning of disparity. Disparity is a dangerous marvel and has been articulated as a blossoming social issue. Monetary disparity is depicted as the degree of dissemination of certain financial measurements among people inside a gathering or among bunches inside the populace. Financial specialist recognizes three measurements meaning monetary difference. They are riches disparity, salary imbalance and utilization imbalance. Exceptional disparity can be hindering to the financial as salary imbalance and centralization of riches can obstruct long haul development. A senior researcher related with the Luxembourg Income Survey, Branko Milanovic had embraced a careful exploration dependent on the worldwide salary imbalance. His exploration derived that disparity inside the countries was expanding. The rise of white collar class families in China and India appeared to marginally decrease the overall disparity. Additionally the salary levels of regular families in the United States alongside other rich countries appeared to deteriorate and even will in general lessening. Another Millennium Development objective (Un.org, 2015) perceives and adjusts measures to diminish imbalance is probably not going to push forward emphatically. Throughout the decades the disparity appeared to rise strongly which are delineated by the pay of the universes top 1.75% of workers outperformed those of the base 77%.(MAKWANA, 2013) There are numerous reasons for disparity that are resolved inside the social orders. They are work advertise results which are liable for wage incongruities of the common laborers, strategy changes, backward nature of tax collection, various degrees of separation, nepotism. Globalization is another significant factor that causes disparity by stifling the compensation in the low gifted work surplus nations, giving speculation suggestion to the rich countries and so on. (Inequality.org, 2015) Investigation of academic articles: The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality had arranged The Poverty and Inequality Report, 2014 which concentrated on seven key domains that comprehensively evaluated the presence of the issue of destitution and disparity and composed undertaking to decrease neediness and democratize openings. Dissecting this report we can uncover that after the Great Recession finished, there wasnt considerable age of occupations. This suggests individuals are left jobless and no salary which offered ascend to imbalance. In November 2013, the extent of every one of the 25-multi year olds who have work was around five percent lower than it was recorded in December 2007. Taking the destitution picture, the report uncovers that neediness rates had expanded from 12.5 percent in 2007 to 15 percent in 2012. Salary imbalance and utilization disparity had additionally expanded during the year 2009. There had been decrease in the wellbeing results that mirrored a diminishing in the destitution rates. Just because, the riches disparity had seen an ascent since the mid 1980s. The Gini Coefficient for 2010 was recorded to be higher than any level in the close to three decades. The pay difference has additionally caused an imbalance in the instructive segment. (The Poverty and Inequality Report 2014, 2014) The paper on Growth, Inequality And Poverty Reduction In Developing Countries: Recent Global Evidence by Augustin Kwasi FOSU distributed by OECD Development Center (FOSU, 2015) has concentrated on the creating nations with respect to the development, pay imbalance and destitution decrease. We have consistently observed that neediness and pay imbalance are associated that is we can figure that as at whatever point there is salary disparity or riches imbalance, there comes in destitution inside the economy. This suggests the presence of disparity in an economy offers ascend to destitution. In any case, it not generally the situation as the course of event of neediness and disparity can be inverse. This paper discloses to us that in China neediness decrease had assumed a significant position which happened without expanding pay imbalance alongside monetary development. Again the article dissected the double circumstance in Botswana and Ghana, it was discovered that in Botswana salary ex panded very however there was no slight decrease in neediness followed by development. The moderate development in Ghana has prompted significant decrease in neediness. These two unique degrees of pay imbalance between the previously mentioned two nations uncovered the uniqueness in the exhibition. Bolivia portrays an extraordinary situation where its month to month pay highlighted somewhat from USD 175.1 (2005 PPP-balanced) in 1990 to USD 203.5 in 2005 and the neediness rates in Bolivia at the USD1 standard complemented from 4 percent to 19.6 percent for a similar period ( an impressive increment had been seen in the Gini Coefficient from 0.42 to 0.58 during a similar timespan). (Fosu, n.d.) Thus, a positive connection between's the destitution and imbalance is accepted to be a fantasy and there lies a few contrasts between the neediness and disparity which we will talk about in the following area. (Fosu, 2010) Perspectives regarding distinction among disparity and destitution: Destitution and disparity are more often than not are viewed as related yet they are most certainly not. It is to some degree clarified in the above investigation of the OECD article where we see that neediness gets decreased to a great extent in cou

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Alias Grace essays

Assumed name Grace expositions Assumed name GRACE BY MARGATET ATWOOD The book, Alias Grace, is the absolute first book I read in a long, long time. At the point when I saw that it was 550 pages, I was thinking, How on earth will I ever have the option to peruse this book in a month! It didnt truly help me much perusing the back spread and seeing that it was about a young lady. Regular girly book I thought! In any case, the notice of a wrongdoing made me intrigued. I like the way that the writer begins the principal part as the area of the homicide, and how every section in the books prompts this homicide. The news cut-outs were fascinating as well. I didnt realize this was a genuine story, so perusing those extracts made me progressively inspired by the book. Margaret Atwood composed the book in a style that anybody would have the option to peruse, there wasnt any early English and the book was let me become acquainted with the character better. The book changed in the story structure, occasionally all through the book. At the point when Grace is conversing with Dr. Jordan, you get the primary individual experience, for example, Today Dr. Jordan looks more disarranged than expected, as though he has something at the forefront of his thoughts; he doesn't appear to know how to start. At that point you get the third individual account, It is somewhat you to save me the time says Simon. Every part has a title that is referenced in the section, a model would be: Pandoras Box. You do not understand what it is about until you perused the section. I loved that there were numerous characters engaged with this story, you had the specialists mother who might compose letters, Revered Viringerr who needed to assist Grace with getting out, and a cast of others. I imagine that this book has the ideal chance to be a blockbuster film. I never recognized what might occur straightaway, there was tension when Grace and James traversed to the US and thought they were protected, until the police got them. Everywhere throughout the world there are numerous chi... <! False name effortlessness expositions Graces Tree of Paradise comprises of one huge tree upon a foundation of white. The Tree itself is made by a montage of triangles, where the leaves are purple and the natural products are red. Yet, there are three triangles that stand separated from the rest. The first of them is white and it originates from Mary Whitneys underskirt. Another originates from Graces own jail nightdress and is hued a blurred yellow. The last triangle, when having a place with Nancy, is adorned with pink and white blossoms. So as to finish her Tree, Grace chooses to weave around every last one of them with red plume sewing (Atwood, 460). Elegance says that she wishes to mix these three extremely novel pieces into her example, so we will all be together (Atwood, 460). However, for what reason would she need this? For what reason would she need these three very various ladies to be together? One clarification for this could be that each of the three of these ladies, Grace, Mary Whitney, and Nancy, all mutual a similar story. Despite the fact that Grace says that she imagined that she was well past the ideal opportunity for childbearing, she speculates that she is pregnant (Atwood, 459). In any case, Grace likewise offers a fascinating remark when she says that it is bizarre to realize you convey inside yourself either an actual existence or a demise, yet not to know which one (Atwood, 459). For what reason would she say something like this? She may have said this due to Mary Whitneys and Nancys terrible encounters. Both of these ladies were pregnant, yet neither of them had the chance to appreciate the endowment of having a kid. Beauty likewise specifies that there are two distinct trees in the Bible, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. Be that as it may, Grace chooses to just make one tree, since she accepts that the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge are one. She even says that the Fruit of Life and the Fruit of Good and Evil wer ... <!

Monday, August 10, 2020

Must-Read April New Releases

Must-Read April New Releases Wishlist upcoming releases youre dying to read. Get exclusive podcasts and newsletters. Enter to win swag. Do it all when you join Insiders. Subscribe to Book Riot Insiders! Never fear, our contributors are here to topple your To-Be-Read stacks with their April new releases recommendations! Whether we’ve read them and can’t wait to see them on the shelves, or we’ve heard tell of their excellence in the book world and have been (not-so) patiently waiting to get our hot little hands on them, these are the new titles we’re watching our libraries and bookstores for this month. What books are you looking forward to in April? Let us know in the comments below! Liberty Hardy How To Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee (April 24, HMH): While I am a devoted fan of Chee’s two previous books, which were fantastic novels, it must be said that his nonfiction is even better. He is such a smart, considerate writer that pretty much everything he writes is wonderful. This is a magnificent collection of essays, ranging in subject from his identity as a gay man, his identity as a Korean American, his father, past jobs, his writing, the government, and more. They are thoughtful and moving pieces of work. Forgive me if I sound like a fangirl, but that’s exactly what I am. And you will be too after you read this book! Patricia Elzie-Tuttle Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (April 3, Balzer + Bray): I received an advanced copy of this book and I absolutely devoured it. I’m counting the days until it comes out so I can purchase copies for multiple readers in my life. Sparked by the idea of Pride Prejudice and Zombies, Justina Ireland thought that the real people who would be fighting the zombies would be the handmaidens and staff. Dread Nation takes this idea to the end of the Civil War in the U.S., where special schools are set up to train Native Americans and “freed” Blacks in zombie-killing so they can be hired on by the rich to protect their homes (and still serve the tea). Readers are quick to learn there is something much more treacherous than the zombies afoot. Dana Lee Every Other Weekend by Zulema Renee Summerfield (April 17, Little, Brown and Company): Every Other Weekend is a charming coming-of-age story told from the perspective of Nenny, a slightly neurotic 8-year-old who finds herself splitting time between her dad’s run-down apartment and her mom and step-dad’s house. I love how Nenny sees and interprets the world and how she makes sense of all the adults dealing with their adult problems. Summerfield captures all the bigness of a young kid’s everyday life: how everything means so much; how you wish for the parents you think you should have and how most of the time, they’re not that. I just had a real moment with this book, I mean there’s a lovable stray dog, a mean nun at Catholic school, and it all takes place in the late 80s. My excitement level for this book: Liz Lemon high-fiving a million angels. Cecilia Lyra The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer (April 3, Penguin Publishing Group): I am a huge Meg Wolitzer fanâ€"and for good reason. Her novels never disappoint: they are witty, layered, insightful, and unputdownable. Megs new novel follows two women: Greer and Faith, Mentee and Mentor. It tackles the themes of womanhood and ambitionâ€"a combination that, not too long ago, wouldve been viewed by our society as an oxymoron. I cant wait to read it! Jamie Canaves The Trauma Cleaner: One Womans Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein (April 10, St. Martins Press): An excellent biography that has left me feeling like I’ll never be able to do justice to Sandra Pankhurst or Sarah Krasnostein in a review other than to say I am certain the world needs more people like both these women. Pankhurst has had a difficult life filled with abuse and more experiences than a large group of people combined have probably had. Currently she’s a trauma cleaner who goes into people’s home, whether because of death or hoarding or myriad reasons, and is tasked with bringing some kind of order back into the home. While I picked this book up because of a fascination with the job, it was immediately replaced with a fascination with Pankhurst, a woman who spends her life bringing order and kindness into places that haven’t seen much of either, in some cases, for some time. Elisa Shoenberger Circe by Madeline Miller (April 10, Little, Brown and Company): Song of Achilles broke me. Haunting and beautiful. I’ll never look at Achilles and Patroclus in the same way again. Generally, I can’t seem to get enough of modern re-tellings of myths, but I think Song of Achilles is one of the best. I can’t wait to see what Miller can do with Circe and presumably Odysseus. It’s time for some rehabilitation of Circe. Lacey deShazo Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren (April 10, Gallery Books): I love writing duo Christina Lauren and their romance novels. However, I was a little worried that since this title has been marketed as their first “women’s fiction” book it wouldn’t be as romantic as the others. I’m happy to say I was wrong, y’all! This book absolutely cracked me open. It’s about the reunion of two best more-than-friends who haven’t spoken in years. It also has alternating POV, and there’s a mysterious element involved that makes it quite a page turner. I kept picturing Elliot as actor John Patrick Amedori, which was really satisfying. Pick this one up if you want to cry all the happy, longing tears. Kate Krug Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert (April 10, Disney Hyperion): I honestly haven’t shut up about this book since I read it back in January and I’m so happy that everyone will have access to this heart wrenching story. This is the story of Danny Cheng and his Chinese immigrant family. Danny is a senior, a talented artist, and set on attending RISD in the fall. One day he finds a box hidden away in the closet and the contents reveal a long-held family secret. There’s so much more to this book that I don’t want to give awayâ€"just pick it up (grab some tissues, first) and picture yourself in the light. Priya Sridhar Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli (April 24, HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray): This is a companion, or sequel, to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, about Simon’s best friend. Leah is shy and in the closet, mostly. Her mother knows she is bisexual but her friends don’t. Then they start to drift apart. I know I want to pick up this book before even reading Simon. Adiba Jaigirdar The Summer of Jordi Perez by Amy Spalding (April 3, Sky Pony Press): This is an absolutely adorable book about a young fashion-forward girl called Abby who has just landed a summer internship her favourite boutique. Unexpectedly, she ends up crushing on the other intern, Jordi, who she’s also competing with for an end-of-summer job. The Summer of Jordi Perez is a wonderfully funny and lighthearted book that is ultimately about a girl trying to figure out her first love, along with herself! Kim Ukura The Recovering by Leslie Jamison (April 3, Little, Brown): I absolutely adored Leslie Jamison’s last book, a collection of essays called The Empathy Exams. It was one of those books that just bent my brain and made me think about the world in a new way. In The Recovering, Jamison takes a more personal topicâ€"her own battle with alcoholismâ€"and partners it with an exploration of addiction stories and the recovery movement. This one is getting a lot of buzz already, and I just can’t wait to dig in. Emily Martin My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris (April 3, Quirk Books): I’m a sucker for a fun Choose Your Own Adventure book, and 18th century lit for that matter, so this book seems right up my alley. In this CYOA, you play a “plucky but penniless heroine in the center of eighteenth century society,” which all sounds very Jane Austen. What suitor will you end up falling for? Or will you run off with Lady Evangeline? Or something else entirely? The choice is yours. I’m looking forward to grabbing a glass of wine and playing through these satiric scenarios when my pre-ordered copy arrives. Erin McCoy Never Been Good by Christi Barth (April 3, Avon Impulse): I loved the first book of this series so much that I’ve reread it multiples times in the last six months. So Never Been Good, the second addition to Barth’s Bad Boys Gone Good series about three brothers in Witness Protection, has been on my list for months and months. Flynn and Sierra’s book cannot get her fast enough. Bring on small-town wonderfulness! Rebecca Hussey Betwixt and Between: Essays on the Writing Life by Jenny Boully (April 3, Coffee House Press): A subtitle like “Essays on the Writing Life” will never not get my interest. This is a slim book by a writer I’ve been meaning to read for a long time and is put out by the wonderful small publisher Coffee House Press. It’s a book for fans of the lyric essay and for those who want to think about writing and the creative life. Here she explores not so much the craft of writing, but what it means to work creatively. Emma Nichols And Now We Have Everything by Meaghan O’Connell (April 10, Little Brown and Company): We need more books like O’Connell’s debut memoir, a raw and honest account of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood. I mean, she spends sixty pages on her birth story alone. Funny, sarcastic, and blisteringly sincere, OConnell doesnt pull any punches. She willingly exposes the fears, anxieties, and selfish thoughts none of us like to admit to and all of us have. And Now We Have Everything is part manual, part memoir, a little horrifying, and completely endearing. Alison Doherty Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian (April 24, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers): This YA summer read is being pitched as being about “first love, feminism, and ice cream.” Honestly, the book had me at first love, but the feminism and ice cream totally sealed the deal. Siobhan Vivian has approached young adult stories with feminist and friendship-centric in the past without being too preachy, so I’m excited for her new book about what happens when an all-female ice cream stand’s new boss is a college boy, wannabe entrepreneur. Margaret Kingsbury Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente (April 10, Saga Press): Catherynne M. Valente is my favorite author! Okay, okay, one of three favorite authors! Her books are so smart and lyrical, and with each book she takes new risks and pushes her writing even further. Like her last full-length novel Radiance, Space Opera is science fiction, but where Radiance melded noir with SF, Space Opera utilizes humor. I can’t wait to read it! Feliza Casano The Defiant Heir by Melissa Caruso (April 24, Orbit Books): The sequel to October 2017’s The Tethered Mage will take the eponymous heir, Lady Amalia Cornaro, and Zaira, the fire warlock tethered to Amalia, into the enemy territory of Vaskandar, where they must convince the other nation to avoid warâ€"or unleash Zaira’s fire. The Tethered Mage was one of my favorite fantasy releases this fall, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter in Amalia and Zaira’s adventure. Sarah S. Davis Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean (April 10, Grove Atlantic): Since I was old enough to read the Arts section of the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer, I knew I wanted to be a critic when I grew up. I wasâ€"and still amâ€"obsessed with criticism and reviews, and it was possible to imagine being one because of trailblazing writers like Carrie Rickey and Michiko Kakutani. In Sharp, Michelle Dean, contributing editor at the New Republic, profiles influential 20th century female critics like Pauline Kael, Susan Sontag, and Hannah Arendt who braved being a “bitch” in a still very male-dominated field. Kate Scott The Path Between Us by Suzanne Stabile (April 10, IVP Books): The Path Between Us is a new book about using the Enneagram to build healthy relationships. It’s written by the co-author of The Road Back to You, which is one of my favorite Enneagram books. It focuses on understanding the motivations of each of the nine personality types and the dynamics between the types. Jaime Herndon What Would Virginia Woolf Do?: And Other Questions I ask Myself as I Attempt to Age Without Apology by Nina Lorez Collins (April 10, Grand Central Pub): Full disclaimer: Collins was a colleague of mine at Columbia; I met her in a Narrative Medicine class during my MFA. I knew as soon as I heard about this book that I had to read it. Part memoir, part self-help, and all smart and wit, this book is packed with information about health and aging, as well as funny anecdotes. Reading this was like having a conversation with older, wiser friends who know all the inside details and tips. Pierce Alquist Fox by Dubravka Ugresic (April 17, Open Letter Books): I’ve been waiting months for Foxâ€"the latest from internationally renowned author Dubravka Ugresicâ€"and as the reviews and buzz keep growing I just get more excited. Ugresic’s writing is wickedly clever and funny and I’ve loved her previous works, notably her essay collections. In Fox she uses the sly, shape-shifting figure of the fox of Eastern folklore as she explores the “power of storytelling and literary invention.” It’s been called “essential reading for writers and lovers of writing alike” by Publishers Weekly. Beth O’Brien You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession by Piper Weiss (April 10, William Morrow): This one is both an insiderâ€"true crime tale and a coming-of-age memoir. Those are two of my absolute favourite things. This one is about teenage Weiss growing up in Manhattan in the 90s. The prep school circle in the Upper East Side was shaken when her prestigious tennis coach was found to be preying on children. In You All Grow Up and Leave Me, Weiss looks back at what it was like to witness this horror as a teenager, and pairs that with the eye of a journalist twenty years removed. Laura Sackton Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith (April 3, Graywolf): Ever since discovering Smith’s work, I have been devouring it. Her poetry is both sparse and lush, imaginative and deeply grounded. It’s brilliant, but accessible. You feel her poems in your gut. Her newest book includes poems that not only deal with our tumultuous present but that dive into the past, examining slavery, the Civil War, and the Declaration of Independence. I’m pretty sure it’s going to wreck me in the best possible way. Nikki VanRy Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (April 10, Copper Canyon Press): Nezhukumatathil’s poetry weaves together the waves and our worries, the ocean floor against her own observations. She’s a gorgeously lush poet who can write deftly about love and loss, or the (hilarious) one star review poems about the world wonders. While all of these are the reason to read her work, stay for lines like: “And that’s how you feel after tumbling like sea stars on the ocean floor over each other.” James Wallace Harris The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 2-B edited by Ben Bova (April 10, Blackstone Audio): I’ve been waiting decades for audiobook editions of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Volume One was released in December, and Volume 2-A was released in February. The Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) began awarding Nebula Awards in 1965. Just after that SFWA members conducted a poll for the best stories written before 12/31/64 to be included into a series of anthologies called The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Their history can be found here. Elizabeth Allen In Conclusion, Don’t Worry About It by Lauren Graham (April 3, Ballantine Books): If you know me, you know it’s not at all surprising that I’m looking forward to Lauren Graham’s next book. I have a bit of a Gilmore Girls obsession, my daughter’s name is Lorelai…all facts for which I will not apologize! But I’m also someone who is bored with the same old graduation book go-tos (seriously, can we stop with Oh the Places You’ll Go already?). And as someone who was legitimately touched by her imploring of people to “Look up!” in her last book Talking As Fast As I Can, I’m very much looking forward to a dose of Graham’s quirky charm in her advice to recent grads. Aimee Miles CatStronauts: Robot Rescue by Drew Brockington (April 24, Little, Brown Books for Kids): I haven’t told my 4-year-old son that there is another CatStronauts book coming out because he will be bananas for it and we will read it over and over. Cat-Stro-Bot goes missing on one of Jupiter’s moons, so Major Meowser, Blanket, Pom Pom, and Waffles must sneak away from their CATSUP AI and rescue their robot pal. Come for the silly drawings of cats in space suits; stay for the eye-rollingly good humor. Michelle Hart Animals Eat Each Other by Elle Nash (April 3, Dzanc): There are so many big books coming out in Aprilâ€"most, if not all, of which are somewhere on this listâ€"but, for my money, one of the best books dropping is pretty small: Elle Nash’s sexy-as-hell debut, Animals Eat Each Other, which runs just over 100 pages and is published by an indie press. Centered on a wayward, nameless girl engaging in a three-way relationship with a couple of polyamorous metalheads, AEEO is a scintillating work of literary erotica. Its narrator, whom her lovers refer to as “Lilith,” is something of an ingénue without the innocence; the way she elucidates and wrestles with her sexuality and identity is perceptive and raw. Susie Dumond The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya (April 24, Crown): Wamariya lived through a devastating massacre as a child in Rwanda that ripped her family apart. This book, though, is about more than tragedy. It’s about hope, and picking up the pieces of your life to build something new. After being granted asylum in the U.S., she and her sister created a new life in Chicago where they had to make their own family and their own future. It’s a story of the human cost of war and finding a way to move forward. Trisha Brown After the Wedding by Courtney Milan (April 24, Independently Published): I’d read pretty much anything by Courtney Milanâ€"her books are smart and funny with brilliantly constructed relationship dynamics and social settings that ring frustratingly true. But what makes me especially eager to read her newest book, the second in the Worth Saga, is the way she’s written so honestly about the difficulty she had writing it and the shift she’s taken as a writer in the last several months. Milan is so thoughtful and so honest when she writes about herself and her work, and knowing how much care and time she put into making sure After the Wedding reflected the story she wanted to tell and who she wanted to be as a writer makes me want to read her stories that much more. Want even MORE book recommendations?