African American Family Fiction

You gotta know the rules to play the game. Ball is life. Take it to the hoop. Soar. What can we imagine for ourselves? What if we were the star players, moving and grooving through the game of life? What if we had our own rules of the game to help us get what we want, what we aspire to, what will enrich our lives? The Playbook is intended to provide inspiration for kids ages 10 and up to help them succeed on and off the court.

Freshly 45, Aja James knows that her life is good, complete with a loving, wealthy husband, well-adjusted children, and a beautiful home. Yet the truth is, she feels painfully unfulfilled, stuck in the present, haunted by a painful past. When a friend suggests a girls' trip to a tropical paradise, Aja hopes a change of scene will also change her perspective. On vacation, filled with fun and freedom, Aja is relieved to find her spirits lifting. But her good time also shines a light on what's troubling her: She's spent nearly her whole life taking care of everyone - except herself.

Jakari Bolton: protector and provider… He takes on those roles when his father gets incarcerated for hideous crimes that are still bothering him ten years later. Jakari is so busy taking care of those he loves he forgot that he needed care too. Anger, guilt, and hurt have guided his life’s trajectory, and he doesn’t know any other way to be. So when he has to pick up his cousins from school and runs into librarian, Yendi Odom, he doesn’t know how to handle her.

Professional basketball player Nate Guillory has a good life. He enjoyed his childhood as the only child in a single-parent home. There is only one thing he feels he missed out on: knowing his father. Although he had a great upbringing, he feels that it is his right to know the identity of his father and why they weren’t afforded the opportunity to have a relationship. Because his mother isn’t as forthcoming with information, Nate seeks out rapper, Noah Brooks, who is the bonus son of his now deceased father.

A fun listen-aloud written in upbeat rhyming verse, Girl Dad is a book that honors the strong men who raise, love, and uplift strong girls.

Fourteen years after the end of slavery, Lord Henry Hardin and his wife, Lady Bertha, enjoy an entitled life in Union County, Arkansas. Until he faces a devastating reality: Bertha is unable to bear children. If Henry doesn't produce an heir, the American branch of his family name will die out. So Henry, desperate to preserve his aristocratic family lineage, does the unthinkable.

It’s a warm, bright October afternoon, and Ozro Armstead walks out into the brilliant sunshine on his thirty-seventh birthday. At home, his wife Deborah and daughter Trinity prepare a surprise celebration; down the street, his brother waves as Oz heads back to his office after having lunch together. But he won’t make it to the party or even to his briefcase back at his desk. He's about to disappear.

African-American police officer and family man Carson Blake pulls over a young black man for speeding. When the man reaches for his cell phone, Carson thinks he's going for a weapon and shoots to kill. Now a promising life has been snuffed out, and Carson must begin a painful journey toward redemption.

In the early 1900s an important ship sinks into the Caribbean Sea, just as the Virgin Islands are transferred from Danish to American rule. Orphaned by the sunk vessel are two sisters and their half-brother, now faced with an uncertain identity and future. Each of them is unusually beautiful, and each is in possession of a particular magic that will either sink or save them. Chronicling three generations of an island family from 1916 to the 1970s, Land of Love and Drowning is a novel of love and magic.

Embark on an extraordinary journey through the segregated South of 1957 with Drunetta Brown, a woman determined to rewrite her story of struggle and heartbreak. Fleeing her shattered dreams and an alcoholic husband, Drunetta takes her children to New York City for a fresh start. There, she finds unexpected allies in Raycie, a talented bar singer, and Rose, a devoted church secretary. As Drunetta navigates the challenges of her new life, her friendships become her lifeline, offering the strength she needs to carve her own path in a changing world.

Niles has just returned from eight years of serving his country as a Special Forces sniper. He's looking forward to a consulting job with Dynamic Defense and spending time with his family, including his bipolar mother, Lorna, and his hard-drinking uncle, Willie. What Niles doesn't know is that Dynamic Defense is actually a CIA front. He's not interested in joining them, but they won't take no for an answer.

The infamous Reverend Curtis Black's sordid past is no secret, as his wife, Charlotte, is well aware. But when Curtis' long-time mistress and mother of his illegitimate two-year-old, dies, he and Charlotte have no choice but to raise Curtina together. While the living, breathing reminder of her husband's infidelity infuriates Charlotte, Curtis couldn't be happier to finally have his whole family together....

This recently rediscovered and critically acclaimed 1937 novel tells the story of Janie Crawford, a long-legged, articulate, and fiercely independent African-American woman of the 1930s. Janie's quest for identity includes three marriages and a return to her roots. Despite her struggles, Janie never defines herself by regret, fear, or unrealistic dreams, and refuses to be anything but her own person.

Rylan Douglas, a calf roper and assistant CFO for Henderson Ranch and Farms, finds himself in a predicament. He’s fallen in love with a woman eight years his junior. That wouldn’t be a problem if they were older. While she’s an adult, he’s still hesitant about pursuing her. He doesn’t want anyone to think he’s taking advantage of her, especially since she’s extremely trusting of him. Her intellectual disability makes her even more vulnerable. However, he can’t seem to move on because he knows his heart belongs to her.

Through the darkest tunnel comes the light, but for Caesar King, there is nothing but more darkness on the other side. After the failed attempt on his life, he is afraid that the Pact of the Five Families is no more. He can trust nobody. Whoever murdered Barry is now aiming for Caesar's crown, and the only way to flush them out and figure out who's responsible is to go to war...with everybody.

Lindsay Winthrop's weekly podcast on sex and dating has garnered thousands of listeners across the country, thanks to experience with a loving fiancé she's been with for years. Except, her husband-to-be doesn't exist, and now she's in a bind. With a book deal on the line, she has to find a man fast, and Malik Brooks might be just the man she's looking for. When a major deal falls through, Lindsay makes Malik an offer he can't refuse, and all he has to do is pretend to be her fiancé. Sounds easy at first, but after one kiss, he wants more. Then, things really get interesting.

In Clan MacKenzie, we fight for each other. We die for each other. And when I fell for Chevelle, those same rules applied to her. She loves me, but hates the family business. So, I hid the villain in me until today. Today, I need to do what must be done and that requires the help of the same people she would rather us keep our distance from.

Shannon Sanders’s sparkling debut brings us into the company of the Collins family and their acquaintances as they meet, bicker, compete, celebrate, worry, keep and reveal secrets, build lives and careers, and endure. Moving from Atlantic City to New York to DC, from the 1960s to the 2000s, from law students to drag performers to violinists to matriarchs, Company tells a multifaceted, multigenerational saga in thirteen stories.

In this season of giving, love is in the air for the Rose and Valentine families. Because of the addition of in-laws, they both are in pursuit of new land and developments to build lasting memories with the ones they hold dear. So when they submit bids against one another, their rivalry heats to a level that will bring them to a head; until they both become outbid by a new competitor. On the heels of a love affair brewing, the need for a partnership arises that may shut down the foundation of their feud permanently, or possibly, extend it.

In this powerful, edgy, and funny debut novel about making right and wrong choices, Bump gives us an unforgettable and lovable protagonist, Claude McKay Love. Claude is a young black man in search of a place where he can fit; born on the South Side of Chicago, he is raised by his civil rights-era grandmother, who tries to shape him into a principled actor for change. After a riot consumes his neighborhood, Claude decides to escape Chicago for another place, to go to college, to find a new life and identity. But he discovers, there's no escaping the people and places that made him.