Lettering Image by Katherine C.

Hello and happy beach read month! We’re here to announce our book for August: We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride. The author is a community college teacher in Las Vegas, and this book is her first novel.

Published in April 2015, We Are Called to Rise tells the story of Avis, Bashkim, Luis, and Roberta. Four very different people living very different lives in Las Vegas. These lives—a young immigrant boy, a middle-aged housewife, a military veteran, and a social worker—all converge into one uplifting story. Or so we’ve heard. It seems to us like it might be kind of like a literary version on the movie Crash. We’ll have to read and see. But the few people we know who’ve read it have loved it! So that bodes well.

“This is a story about families—the ones we have and the ones we make. It’s a story about America today, where so many cultures and points of view collide and coexist. We Are Called to Rise challenges us to think about our responsibilities to each other and reminds us that no matter how cruel life can be in a given moment, it is ultimately beautiful to live, and live fully.”

From the reviews we’ve read, this book should both test and restore our faith in humanity. We can’t speak for you all, but we’d really like a restoration of our faith in humanity. It seems like people put so much negativity out there these days. This could be a chance for a few feel-good moments. Even if it is fiction, we’ll take it.

Well, there’s not much else to say about this one. We hope it’s a quick, fun and entertaining read, and we hope you’ll read along with us!

And one more thing, here’s a fun playlist to listen to while reading along…

Oh! And don’t forget to share with us on social media using #booklymark, pleeeeease 🙂