Earlier this month, we asked for your reading recommendations for Black History Month. Well, you didn’t let us down!
Let’s start with the shout outs. Thanks to Nancy J. Sukhia and Peter from the blog, and Gayle Smith Stuhrburg, Becca Snyder Loli, Sharon Klein Gorley, Kris Brassell Miller, Amy Halvorson Miller, Mary Clonts, Holly Bishop, Luciana Nechita, extra super thanks to Karen Rogers-Robinson (8 recommendations!), Kevin Taylor Jones, and Karen Miner from Facebook.
And here are your recommendations! (Note: Some we couldn’t find.) If we missed anything, let us know in the comments below and be sure to include links!
- Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
- The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley
- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
- The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
- Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Children’s books and YA novels by Jacqueline Woodson
- Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell
- Babylon Sisters Pearl Cleage
- Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation by Velma Maia Thomas
- I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Selling My Soul by Sherri Lewis
- Lady Jasmine by Victoria Christopher Murray
- Sinful by Victor McGlothin
- She Ain’t the One by Carl Weber and Mary B. Morrison
- The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
Or, Gustavus Vassa, the African by Olaudah Equiano, Shelly Eversly, and Teddy O’Connor - The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
- Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Looks like a great list. I have not read many of these, but I love “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou. I’d recommend it for sure.
The Bluest Eye and Beloved were also good reads..
QUESTION: I am looking for a book which was recommended via a postcard in a previous shipment from BWB. It was biographical about a young man in Africa who implemented his idea to teach people how to build water pumps. Can you tell me the title? Thanks!
Hi Rachel,
The book you’re looking for is titled “The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind” and it can be found at: http://www.betterworldbooks.com/the-boy-who-harnessed-the-wind-id-0061730327.aspx. Thanks for your support of Better World Books!
I recommend as an absolute must read book “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett!! A beautiful, moving story.
My name is Ronald Lee Harden, I published a book in 2010 called “Untold Architectural Black History of Tampa, Florida”. The book is about my 36 year architectural career in Tampa from 1969 to 2009. Publishers web site:
strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/UntoldArchitecturalBlackHistoryOfTampaFlorida.html