Black & African American

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A new Jesmyn Ward novel is a literary event. Ward has won the National Book Award twice with works that encapsulate the U.S.’s horrific history of racism and inequality.

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“Despite the magnetic pull of eagerly described physical attraction, there’s never a moment when Alex Walton yields control over her own heart and life.”

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“the best thing about Juneteenth is the joyful tone of the narrative, which is conveyed by the artwork. The illustrations are colorful, vibrant, and clear.”

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“Onuzo has created a character that readers will want to cheer for. She has also crafted a believable and powerful story filled with hope and forgiveness.”

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“The era, the landscape, and the people are etched in fine and imaginative detail.

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“Reading Light Skin Gone to Waste will remain with us as a multilayered experience and an exquisite example of the art of contemporary American short fiction.”

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“the thoughtful writing and masterful portraits of flawed people and their struggle for survival in a dystopian world is elegant and rewarding.”

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“Lapierre has intimately portrayed a woman whose true worth was hidden in plain sight for decades.

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Greenland is another fine contribution to a growing canon of Black queer fiction.”

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Engaging, suspenseful, courageous, and brimming with a warm heart, Take My Hand will stay with you long after the last page.”

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“Midnight Hour operates from a stimulating conceit: an anthology of 20 crime stories, all taking place at midnight, all written by writers of color.”

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“From the first page, As the Wicked Watch, told in first person through the eyes of Jordan Manning, straps readers in and takes them on a breathless and bumpy ‘whodunit’ ride that

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“a top-notch literary novel.”

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The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois is a serious novel, a terrible but ultimately uplifting saga . . .”

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“The Personal Librarian is a good, well-paced creative nonfiction book about a real person that will snag the reader and hold his or her attention from beginning t

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A young, Black woman in Parsons, Georgia, raised by her grandmother and living somewhat contentedly in a community of God-fearing good folk comes of age in 1936, surrounded by a world built on slav

Jerkins adeptly delivers a timely message as well as a novel replete with symbolism and metaphor.”

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“In its winding subterranean travelogue, and profoundly evocative, allegorical blues surrealism, The Man Who Lived Underground reads less like a follow-up to Wright’s naturalist

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Most historians agree that the Reconstruction—the attempt to build a more equitable country following the Civil War—ultimately failed.

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Tim Fielder’s book Infinitum tells the story of Aja Oba, an ancient African king who steals the son of his concubine and is cursed with immortality in revenge.

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“What’s perhaps most remarkable about Blood Grove—as with all Easy Rawlins novels—is Mosley’s undiminished gift for embedding the poignant messaging of the protest novel in hard-bo

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It’s 2008, Barack Obama has been elected president. Ruth Tuttle and her husband Xavier are excited about what lies ahead for them.

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The writing is strong, the dialogue is realistic, and her characters are well depicted and believable.

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“As a feat of reclamation for the Camelot-like heyday of Black Detroit, Black Bottom Saints, like the legendary impresario at its center, makes plentiful Motown magic.

“Edie just wants to be herself, but trapped somewhere between the luster of her skin and her own lust for rough sex and only half-requited love, she never seems to figure out exactly who th

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