Before we jump into sharing info about this month’s book, we’re here to remind you that we’re also still raising money to fund book-hiding in 2025! Will you help us meet our $10K goal? ❤ Once we hit our goal, anyone who donated $100 or more to the fundraiser will be entered to win a fun Tome Gnome tote full of goodies (including some signed books from one of TTG’s founding board members) 😉 You can donate at the link below:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/hiding-books-in-2025

And we’re super excited to announce that this year we launched a new monthly “Community Kindness Sponsorship,” which helps offset the cost of the extra 15 books we hide after scavenger hunt weekend every month (the “random act of kindness” books!). This month we are so grateful to share that our Instagram friend and overall lovely bookish Tucsonan, Michelle Brown, is our Community Kindness Sponsor. Thank you, Michelle!

Do you know someone who might be interested in partnering with us as a Community Kindness Sponsor in 2025 ($250)? Please send us an email (tucsontomegnome[at]gmail.com)! We have a few months still available!

AND NOW, for what you’ve been waiting for: all about this month’s hidden book!

About the book, from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt:

“There’s nothing like a Black salesman on a mission.

An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother’s home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor.

After enduring a “hell week” of training, Darren, the only Black person in the company, reimagines himself as “Buck,” a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family. But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he’s hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.

Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America’s workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.”

About the author, Mateo Askaripour:

“New York Times bestselling author Mateo Askaripour wants people to feel seen. His first novel, Black Buck, takes on racism in corporate America with humor and wit. Askaripour was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly’s “10 rising stars to make waves,” and Black Buck was a Read With Jenna Today Show book club pick. Most recently, he was named as a recipient of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” prize. This Great Hemisphere is his second novel. He lives in Brooklyn. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter at @AskMateo.”

Why I selected Black Buck for the February 2025 Giveaway:

• Ok, first of all, this book is a rollercoaster ride and gets pretty crazy at times. Prepare yourself!
• I loved that the main character, Darren, breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the reader. It feels like you’re sitting with a friend who is relaying an absolutely CRAZY story to you, which is kind of fun (but also horrifying, given some of what happens in this story).
• Parts of this book are written like a sales manual – and it’s full of legitimately useful tips if you believe everything is sales (which this book has convinced me is, perhaps, true).
• While many reviewers described Black Buck as a satire, I think many parts of Darren’s story ring true (or, truer than we might wish them to be). Although many of the scenes feel extreme, I absolutely believe that this book probably does a fair job documenting the experiences of people of color in white-dominated companies and the daily microaggressions and small humiliations that folks have to endure to fit in at work.
• And finally, as icing on the cake, you’ll be able to meet Mateo in person at the Tucson Festival of Books in March!!!