Black History Month: Adult Reads

Updated February 1, 2024
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The autobiography of Malcolm X
X, Malcolm
Paper Book
ONE OF TIME'S TEN MOST IMPORTANT NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the...
Black Buck /
Askaripour, Mateo
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller  A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize "Askaripour closes the deal on the first page of this mesmerizing novel, executing a...
The Black church : this is our story, this is our song
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
Paper Book
The instant New York Times bestseller and companion book to the PBS series. "Absolutely brilliant . . . A necessary and moving work." --Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again "Engaging. . . . In Gates's telling, the Black church shines bright...
Born a crime :
Noah, Trevor,
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * More than one million copies sold! A "brilliant" (Lupita Nyong'o, Time), "poignant" (Entertainment Weekly), "soul-nourishing" (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid  
The complete poetry /
Angelou, Maya
Paper Book
The beauty and spirit of Maya Angelou's words live on in this complete collection of poetry, including her inaugural poem "On the Pulse of Morning" Throughout her illustrious career in letters, Maya Angelou gifted, healed, and inspired the world with her words. Now...
Deacon King Kong
McBride, James
Paper Book
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction   Winner of the Gotham Book Prize One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year" Oprah's Book Club Pick New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
Hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick : stories from the Harlem Renaissance
Hurston, Zora Neale
Paper Book
From "one of the greatest writers of our time" (Toni Morrison)--the author of Barracoon and Their Eyes Were Watching God--a collection of remarkable stories, including eight "lost" Harlem Renaissance tales now available to a wide audience for the first time. New York Times'...
Hokum : an anthology of African-American humor
Beatty, Paul.
Paper Book
Edited by the author of The Sellout, winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize, Hokum is a liberating, eccentric, savagely comic anthology of the funniest writing by black Americans. This book is less a comprehensive collection than it is a mix-tape narrative dubbed by a...
In Every Mirror She's Black
?kn?md?e
Paper Book
A Good Morning America Buzz Pick! As seen in Vulture, Essence, Good Morning America, The Independent, Goodreads, PureWow, and many more! "A sexy, surprising, searing debut about love, loss, desire, and the many dimensions of Black womanhood."--Deesha Philyaw, 2020 National Book...
Jubilee : recipes from two centuries of African American cooking
Tipton-Martin, Toni
Paper Book
"A celebration of African American cuisine right now, in all of its abundance and variety."-Tejal Rao, The New York Times JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER .IACP AWARD WINNER . IACP BOOK OF THE YEAR. TONI TIPTON-MARTIN NAMED THE 2021 JULIA CHILD AWARD RECIPIENT ...
Kindred /
Butler, Octavia E.
Paper Book
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. With more than 100,000 copies in print, Kindred is a classic timetravel novel by an acclaimed African-American...
The nickel boys : a novel
Whitehead, Colson
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. * "One of the most gifted novelists...
Notes from a young Black chef /
Onwuachi, Kwame,
Paper Book
This inspiring memoir, now adapted for young adults, chronicles Top Chef star and Forbes and Zagat 30 Under 30 phenom Kwame Onwuachi's incredible and odds-defying fame in the food world after a tough childhood in the Bronx and Nigeria. Food was Kwame Onwuachi's...
The risk it takes to bloom : on life and liberation
Willis, Raquel
Paper Book
A passionate, powerful memoir by a trailblazing Black transgender activist, tracing her life of transformation and her work towards collective liberation. In 2017, Raquel Willis took to the National Women's March podium just after the presidential election of Donald Trump,...
Song of Solomon
Morrison, Toni.
Paper Book
"A wise and spacious novel," is how Reynold Price described Song of Solomon, Morrison's crowning literary achievement. Her third novel's generous expanse reaches across generations of family and miles of land to tell the story of the descendants of Macon Dead, a one time slave who carved a bountiful...
Transcendent kingdom
Gyasi, Yaa
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK! * Finalist for the WOMEN'S PRIZE Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama...

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