African American Literature Fiction

The ultimate love story began in White Lines, and now, in this stunning conclusion, Jada and Born come full circle - but not without paying a hefty price. On the surface, Jada's life is back on track - she's battled her demons, her son is a permanent part of her life - but it still feels like she's on shaky ground. What she really needs to settle her soul is to have Born back in her life - and in her arms - again. But reuniting with the man she loves is proving to be the hardest thing she's ever fought for.

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.

Since Shelbi enrolled at Windward Academy as a senior and won’t be there very long, she hasn’t bothered making friends. What her classmates don’t know about her can’t be used to hurt her—you know, like it did at her last school. Andy Criddle’s had far too much to drink. Again. Which is bad. And things are about to get worse. When Shelbi sees Andy at his lowest, she can relate. So she doesn’t resist reaching out. And there’s no doubt their connection has them both seeing stars . . . but the closer they get, the more the past threatens to pull their universes apart.

One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charlie Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old left behind by her white mother and step-family.

Life has never been easy for Ethic. Since he was a young boy he has battled loss after loss while struggling to navigate through a treacherous world. When he met Alani Lenika Hill, he knew that he had met the woman who would love him back to life. They have weathered a storm together, and their love is so fated that neither wants to let it go, but it seems their bubble of happiness is an illusion, because life around them is falling apart.

This chapter-book edition of the number-one New York Times best seller by luminaries Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds is an essential introduction to the history of racism and antiracism in America.

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.

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!

In Miracle at St. Anna, toward the end of World War II, four Buffalo Soldiers from the Army’s Negro 92nd Division find themselves separated from their unit and behind enemy lines. Risking their lives for a country in which they are treated with less respect than the enemy they are fighting, they discover humanity in the small Tuscan village of St. Anna di Stazzema—in the peasants who shelter them, in the unspoken affection of an orphaned child, in a newfound faith in fellow man. And even in the face of unspeakable tragedy, they—and we—learn to see the small miracles of life.

Tiffany Richardson went from the bottom to the top in a matter of months, because she stumbled into a job that landed her executive producer and head writer for a hit television series called Boy Crazy. All was well and things were perfect for Tiffany until the day she got the news that her show was going to be cancelled, before going home to catch her man in bed with the hired help.

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.

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.

Two families from different social classes are joined together by an unexpected pregnancy and the child that it produces. Moving forward and backward in time, with the power of poetry and the emotional richness of a narrative 10 times its length, Jacqueline Woodson's extraordinary new novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these families, and in the life of this child.

In the small college town of Troy, Alabama, amidst the backdrop of 1967, Katia Daniels lives a life steeped in responsibility. At the Pike County Group Home for Negro Boys, she pours her heart into nurturing the young lives under her care, harboring a longing for children of her own. Katia's romantic entanglement with an older man brings comfort but also stirs questions about the path she's chosen.

A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis. We’re invited to experience these events and others through the eyes and ears of Tunde, a West African man working as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus.

When World War I began, it seemed unlikely that a unit such as the Harlem Hellfighters would ever be formed. Given their nickname by their German foes who admired their bravery, the Harlem Hellfighters were members of the 369th, an all-Black regiment. The 369th played key roles in critical battles and helped secure an Allied victory.

A collection of Jackson's letters from prison, Soledad Brother is an outspoken condemnation of the racism of white America and a powerful appraisal of the prison system that failed to break his spirit but eventually took his life. Jackson's letters make palpable the intense feelings of anger and rebellion that filled Black men in America's prisons in the 1960s. But even removed from the social and political firestorms of the 1960s, Jackson's story still resonates for its portrait of a man taking a stand even while locked down.

On a Spring afternoon in London, Sam hops the stairs of his flat two at a time. There’s £1,300 missing from his and his wife, Efe’s, shared bank account and his calls are going straight to voicemail. When he finally reaches someone, he learns Efe is nearly 5,000 miles away as their toddler looks around and asks, “Where’s Mummy?”

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.

Yazmeen Franklin is as green as they come. Her only real friend is her older sister, who raised her after their mother died. Because of their father’s poor example, Yazmeen has little trust in men, so dating is foreign to her. During her sophomore year of college, she lets her guard down and finally gets close to a man. However, he is a known womanizer, and she keeps him in the friend zone to protect her heart.