For $1 name a Black author
a list of books to add to your "listening & learning to be an Anti-racist" curriculum
“I’ve learned three things…I never used these words much but now I am happy to use them pretty much all the time. One is ‘no.’ The other one is ‘shut up.’ And the last one is ‘get out.’ Now that I have that arsenal, I could go forth.” -Toni Morrison
Happy Black History Month, read a book! I compiled a list of books by Black authors that I would recommend adding to your TBR. They are mostly written by women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community because I love Girls™. I’ve read all of them in the past few years so feel free to share your thoughts with me! There is nothing I love more than talking about books.
I listed these books in descending order by recency, starting with what I read in 2023 —> when I first joined Goodreads. Favorites in bold!
Recitatif by Toni Morrison
Black Friend: Essays by Ziwe
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson
Sula by Toni Morrison
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith
Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans
All About Love: New Visions by Bell Hooks
Assembly by Natasha Brown
Passing by Nella Larsen
Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry
Pet by Awkwaeke Emezi
What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Small Doses: Potent Truths for Everyday Use by Amanda Seales
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker
The Warmth of Other Sons: the Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Women, Race & Class by Angela Davis
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae
Memorial by Bryan Washington
Intimations by Zadie Smith
Luster by Raven Leilani
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
I’m Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits by Raven Smith
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
The Chiffon Trenches by André Leon Talley
Becoming by Michelle Obama
“In fact, we sometimes disagreed profoundly with each other. But we were the kind of friends who understood that we were forever on the same side: the side of the poor, the economically, spiritually and politically oppressed, ‘the wretched of the earth.’” -Alice Walker