A Fortune for Your Disaster: Poems

Why it's worth it

Hanif Abdurraqib braids heartbreak, Blackness and American music history into poems that move at the speed of an essay. If you've read cultural criticism and wondered where to start with contemporary verse, this is the least intimidating door in.

Abdurraqib writes about heartbreak the way a friend talks about it at one in the morning. The lines are long and conversational, the references are to songs and cities you probably know, and you're rarely stranded. That matters more than it sounds. Most people who bounce off poetry bounce off the feeling of missing something, and this book keeps handing you a way back in.

It helps that Abdurraqib came to poetry from music writing and cultural criticism, and he never sheds that voice. If you already read essays about records, tours and the places they happened, this collection is a lateral step rather than a leap. You get the same attention to detail — a chorus, a room, a year of somebody's life — pointed at grief and love instead.

From our review of 3 contemporary poetry collections, by Genevieve Dubois, Home & Living Expert

What we like

• +Abdurraqib writes about heartbreak the way a friend talks about it at one in the morning
• +It helps that Abdurraqib came to poetry from music writing and cultural criticism, and he never sheds that voice
• +Tin House put it out, and that's a useful signal
• +For a book club, it's the easiest sell here

What to know

• –It isn't the most decorated book you could buy
• –The music references do a lot of work, and if you don't recognize the songs and figures behind them, some poems lose a layer
• –It's short, and it goes fast