Title: The Hate U Give
Author: Angie Smith
Publication Date: February 2017
Starr is torn between two worlds-her fancy prep school and the poor neighborhood where she lives. She experiences tragedy when she witnesses her best friend, Khalil, being fatally shot by a police officer. Protests begin and everyone in Starr’s life has questions as to what really happened that night.
The Hate U Give was chosen as a Coretta Scott King Honor Book, a William C. Morris Award Winner, a National Book Award Longlist, a Printz Honor Book and a Goodreads Choice Awards Best of the Best. Purchase a copy here. Click here to rent the movie on Amazon Prime or watch with a Hulu subscription.

Title: Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America
Editor: Ibi Zoboi
Contributors: Rita Williams-Garcia, Justina Ireland, Nic Stone, Jason Reynolds, Leah Henderson, Lamar Giles, Tracey Baptisite, Brandy Colbert, Ibi Zoboi, Liara Tamani, Tochi Onyebuchi, Kekla Magoon, Dhonielle Clayton and Varian Johnson

Title: Between the World and Me
Author Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publication Date: 2015
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is an intimate, powerful letter from a father to his teenage son about what it means to be Black in America. He writes from his own experience and others. Between the World and Me is a National Book Award Winner, named a must read by Toni Morrison, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a National Book Critics Award Finalist and named One of the Best Books of the Decade by CNN.

Click here to purchase a copy and click here to listen to the podcast based on the book. A documentary special is available on HBO for current subscribers.

Title: The Coming Race Wars: A Cry for Justice, from Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter
Author: William Pannell
Publication Date: June 2021
The Coming Race Wars was a controversial book when it was originally published in 1993 after the Los Angeles riots. Many critics regarded William Pannell, author and Fuller Seminary theologian, as an “alarmist.” Pannell updates his 1993 publication to tie in with current events and speaks openly about his love for the church, which he believes need to take a deeper look at institutional racism and unjust systems still going on today. Click here to pre-order.

Title: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent
Author: Isabel Wilkerson
Publication Date: August 2020
Wilkerson writes about the unspoken, powerful caste system that has always existed in history by linking America, India and Nazi Germany. Caste is a look at how hierarchy influences human lives and the nation today.
Caste is a #1 New York Times Bestseller, an Oprah’s Book Club selection, a #1 Nonfiction Book by TIME Magazine and chosen as One of the Best Books of the Year Award by People, NPR, The Washington Post, Publisher’s Weekly, Smithsonian Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Slate and several others. Click here to purchase copy and click here to read about the upcoming special on Netflix. To learn more about Caste, view the Oprah’s Book Club special on Apple TV.

Title: Libertie
Author: Kaitlyn Greenidge
Publication Date: March 30, 2021
Libertie Sampson is born during the Reconstruction-era in America. Her mother encourages Libertie to become a practicing physician so they can run a joint practice in the future. Instead of listening to her mother, she marries and moves to Haiti, with the promise that she will be her spouse’s equal. Libertie arrives on the island only to find out that she is considered an insubordinate to her husband and the men in Haiti. Libertie is a story of one young women’s journey to find freedom for herself.
Libertie is named one of the most anticipated books of the year by: Refinery29, O Magazine, Buzzfeed, The Rumpus, Harper’s Bazaar, Publishers Lunch and more. Click here to pre-order.

Title: Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults): A True Story of the Fight for Justice
Author: Bryan Stevenson
Publication Date: September 2018
Lawyer and social advocate, Bryan Stevenson, writes about the wrongfully imprisoned and his fight for their freedom. Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults) is perfect for teens.

Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight For Justice (Young Adult Adaptation) is a Kirkus Review Best Book of the Year, was a feature on CBS This Morning and selected as a New York Public Library Best Book of the Year. Click here to purchase a copy. Just Mercy was adapted into a movie starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. Click here to learn more and to watch the movie via Amazon Prime. Stream for free with a HBO subscription. To visit the Equal Justice Initiative website, click here, and to view Stevenson’s TED Talk, click here.

Title: She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman
Author: Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Publication Date: November 2019
My first presentation as a student was in the 4th grade. I was assigned to research Harriet Tubman and I loved it, so when I read about She Came to Slay on a blog list, I had to order a print copy for the college students. She Came to Slay includes photos, commissioned illustrations, an expansive timeline of Harriet Tubman’s life, and details about her impact on the Underground Railroad. Critics refer to She Came to Slay as “a powerful mix of pop culture and scholarship.” Click here to purchase a copy and click here to watch an interview with the author, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, provided by the 20th annual National Book Festival, which is hosted by the Library of Congress.

Title: Somebody’s Daughter
Author: Ashley C. Ford
Publication Date: June 1, 2021
Ashley C. Ford, co-host of HBO’s Lovecraft Country Radio and a TIME 100 Talks correspondent, writes the story of her childhood in her upcoming memoir, Somebody’s Daughter. Ford would like a healthy relationship with her father, who spent most of her childhood in prison for a crime she didn’t know about as a young girl. In her memoir, Ford writes about living in poverty, the complicated relationship with her mother and a personal, traumatic life event that changed how she viewed the world around her, including the relationship with her father.
Somebody’s Daughter is named by journalists as One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2021 and is an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Ford is one of the most important voices in the Black community for her generation. Her works have appeared in The Guardian, ELLE magazine, Buzzfeed, Slate, I-D, Matter Magazine, Ladies Home Journal and several other publications. She is currently the host of PROFILE by Buzzfeed News. Click here to purchase a copy.

Title: Just As I Am: A Memoir
Author: Cicely Tyson
Publication Date: January 2021
Cicely Tyson was one of the most legendary actresses in the world. She described what her memoir meant to her:
“Just As I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. In these pages, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by His hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.” –Cicely Tyson

Ms. Tyson, you will be dearly missed.

Click here to purchase copy of her bestselling memoir.