African American Literature Fiction

Sportswriter Nina Richardson had the perfect life away from her family's famous shadow. But a social media blowup and rejection by her boyfriend brought her back to their peaceful Charleston, South Carolina B&B to figure out what went wrong. So there's no way she's going to trust the crazy-hot sparks flying between her and handsome new employee Clinton Jefferson. It's just reckless, rip-his-clothes-off, one-night-and-forget-it lust - right?

Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret.

Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she’d expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she’s locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives.

With a newborn in tow, Bubbles Jones escapes a brutal sanctuary for “wayward girls” to confront the hypocritical shame of her pastor father and the betrayal of a lover. But Bubbles is accompanied by a woman who offers her shelter and a dream. Forging an unpredictable path ahead, Bubbles will not yield and will not hide in her unwavering commitment to make a big life real in a world determined to keep her small.

The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.

Uzoamaka’s miracle baby, Obiefuna, arrives after a series of miscarriages. As a young boy, he brings luck to his family and joy to those in his orbit, from the teachers at his school to the ladies getting their hair braided at Uzoamaka’s salon. But by adolescence, Obiefuna has grown unsure of himself. After his father brings home an apprentice from a nearby village, the lightness Obiefuna feels is quickly dashed when the two are caught sharing a moment of intimacy.

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Kwame Mbalia's epic fantasy, a middle grade American Gods set in a richly-imagined world populated with African American folk heroes and West African gods. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his grandparents' farm in Alabama, where he's being sent to heal from a tragedy. But on his first night there, he accidentally ripps open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world.

Brooklyn Melody James has finally gotten the punishment she deserves after leaving a web of lies, heartache, and betrayal behind her. As her life slips away, Brooklyn remembers the events that shaped her into the cold, calculating creature she became.

Michelle Obama became First Lady on January 20, 2009. But before she lived at the White House, she was a powerful lawyer. Learn about her childhood, education, and goals as First Lady of the United States.

Nashawna "NuNu" Spearman, a local Chicago native, lives her life by one simple motto: Use what you got to get what you want. She's a certified bad bish that knows how to use her honey to make money. But when her one of her many honey moneymaking plans falls through, she suddenly finds herself having to life normally...for once. The prospect of prison forces her to take a plea deal that requires community service. One thing leads to another, and NuNu finds herself scheming and scamming once again. But will her plan backfire? Find out more in Pastors Eat Pwussy Too!

This edition of Margot Lee Shetterly’s acclaimed book is perfect for young students. It's the powerful story of four African-American female mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of the greatest moments in our space program. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.

The king is dead - and with him, the last thread holding the kingdom together. Deep cracks are forming throughout the kingdom of Nri with whispers of deadly successors lurking beneath the shadows. Despite having the same face, it seems the deepest crack is forming between Naala and Sinai, the reunited twin goddesses, who must put their differences aside as they travel through a broken Nri.

The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Now it's 1910, and the Davenports live surrounded by servants, crystal chandeliers, and endless parties, finding their way and finding love—even where they’re not supposed to.

Washington D. C., 1925. Clara Johnson talks to spirits, a gift that saved her during her darkest moments in a Washington D. C. jail. Now a curse that’s left her indebted to the cunning spirit world. So, when the Empress, the powerful spirit who holds her debt, offers her an opportunity to gain her freedom, a desperate Clara seizes the chance. The task: steal a magical ring from the wealthiest woman in the District.

In 1920s America, a plague is spreading fast. From New Orleans to Chicago to New York, the "Jes Grew" epidemic makes people desperate to dance, overturning social norms in the process. Anyone is vulnerable and when they catch it, they'll bump and grind into a frenzy. Working to combat the Jes Grew infection are the puritanical Atonists, a group bent on cultivating a "Talking Android", an African American who will infiltrate the unruly black communities and help crush the outbreak.

In his new position as head of the Baptiste family business, Saint faces many challenges. Nothing could have prepared him for the challenges that came with dealing with the alluring Naoki Childs. She was the insoluble problem his big brother, Jahad, talked about. A problem that couldn't be handled with a phone call, a meeting, or by simply emptying his clip. Saint thought he'd never be faced with a problem he couldn't handle, especially where a woman was concerned. But he quickly learned that Naoki wasn't just some woman. She was much, much more than that.

Debut novelist Michele Grant pens a juicy tale in Heard It All Before. Best friends Jewellen and Renee think they know Dallas men like the backs of their hands. But that’s before Jewellen unexpectedly falls for a guy from the wrong side of the tracks, and Renee gets lured away from her own man by a hard-bodied hottie.

It’s 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She’s brilliant, but she’s also a young Black woman working in an old boys’ club. Her career has stalled out, she’s overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she’s given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes.

Unlike their younger brother, André, whose star as a comedian is rising, neither Dwayne nor Brick Duquesne is having luck with his career - and they're unluckier still in love. Former child star Dwayne has just been fired from his latest acting role and barely has enough money to get by after paying child support to his spiteful former lover, while Brick struggles to return to his uninspiring white-collar job after suffering the dual blows of a health emergency and a nasty breakup with the woman he still loves.

A thousand years in the future, a Black elite class reigns. The lower classes toil in the fields or scrape by in blighted cities, serving their rulers in a cruel, divided world. Among the Elites is eighteen-year-old Avi Jore, born to a powerful father and destined to rule. But as she comes of age, Avi cannot help but notice the injustices in her world - the treatment of enslaved workers, the oppression of the lower classes. Her disillusionment grows when she meets Saige Wilde, a mixed-race enslaved girl whose only goal is escaping beyond the borders of their brutal nation.