Black History Month Reading
Black History Month Reading: Books with Black Authors or Protagonists
By: Brittany Shields
February is the month we celebrate Black History!
A quick google search indicates that only about 5% of authors are black and 11% of book protagonists are black.
I admit I don’t intentionally seek out black authors or protagonists— not purposefully to avoid— but race of character or author is not my typical criteria I select books based on unless a particular reading challenge calls for it (like my Fall Reading Challenge.)
So let’s give these authors and protagonists some love this month!
Here is a list of books with a black author and/or black main character.
Happy reading!
Chains (Seeds of America Series) by Laurie Halse Anderson
Genre: Historical Fiction/YA
Goodreads Summary: As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.
Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been by Jackie Hill Perry
Genre: Christian Living/Memoir
Goodreads Summary: Jackie grew up fatherless, experienced gender confusion, and embraced both masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could?
At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel.
Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.
Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Woman Who Bound Them Together by Ron Hall
Genre: Memoir/Nonfiction
Goodreads Summary: A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery.
An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel.
A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream.
A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it.
It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana . . . and an East Texas honky-tonk . . . and, without a doubt, inside the heart of God. It unfolds at a Hollywood hacienda . . . an upscale New York gallery . . . a downtown dumpster . . . a Texas ranch.
Gritty with betrayal, pain, and brutality, it also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.
Little Boy Lost by J.D. Trafford
Genre: Mystery/Fiction
Goodreads Summary: In a city divided and broken, this revelation will set it on fire…
Attorney Justin Glass’s practice, housed in a shabby office on the north side of Saint Louis, isn’t doing so well that he can afford to work for free. But when eight-year-old Tanisha Walker offers him a jar full of change to find her missing brother, he doesn’t have the heart to turn her away.
Justin had hoped to find the boy alive and well. But all that was found of Devon Walker was his brutally murdered body—and the bodies of twelve other African American teenagers, all discarded like trash in a mass grave. Each had been reported missing. And none had been investigated.
As simmering racial tensions explode into violence, Justin finds himself caught in the tide. And as he gives voice to the discontent plaguing the city’s forgotten and ignored, he vows to search for the killer who preys upon them.
Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe by Voddie T. Baucham Jr.
Genre: Christian Living/Theology/Cultural
Goodreads Summary: The death of George Floyd at the hands of police in the summer of 2020 shocked the nation. As riots rocked American cities, Christians affirmed from the pulpit and in social media that “black lives matter” and that racial justice “is a gospel issue.”
But what if there is more to the social justice movement than those Christians understand? Even worse: What if they’ve been duped into preaching ideas that actually oppose the Kingdom of God?
In this powerful book, Voddie Baucham, a preacher, professor, and cultural apologist, explains the sinister worldview behind the social justice movement and Critical Race Theory—revealing how it already has infiltrated some seminaries, leading to internal denominational conflict, canceled careers, and lost livelihoods. Like a fault line, it threatens American culture in general—and the evangelical church in particular.
What They Meant for Evil: How a Lost Girl of Sudan Found Healing, Peace, and Purpose in the Midst of Suffering by Rebecca Deng
Genre: Memoir
Goodreads Summary: One of the first unaccompanied refugee children to enter the United States in 2000, after South Sudan's second civil war took the lives of most of her family, Rebecca's story begins in the late 1980s when, at the age of four, her village was attacked and she had to escape. What They Meant for Evil is the account of that unimaginable journey. With the candor and purity of a child, Rebecca recalls how she endured fleeing from gunfire, suffering through hunger and strength-sapping illnesses, dodging life-threatening predators-lions, snakes, crocodiles, and soldiers alike-that dogged her footsteps, and grappling with a war that stole her childhood.
Her story is a lyrical, captivating portrait of a child hurled into wartime, and how through divine intervention, she came to America and found a new life full of joy, hope, and redemption.
Straight Shooter: A Memoir of a Second Chances and First Takes
Genre: Memoir
Goodreads Summary: America’s most popular sports media figure tells it like it is in this surprisingly personal book, not only dishing out his signature, uninhibited opinions but also revealing the challenges he overcame in childhood as well as at ESPN, and who he really is when the cameras are off.
Stephen A. Smith. An ESPN household name. Accurately self-described as bombastic, you’ll typically come across Stephen A. yelling— I mean speaking passionately— about all matters of things, not just sports, and giving you his hot take, ready to defend everything he says.
He tells all in this book and walks us through his childhood, his college years, his first jobs, his big break, his suspension, his return, and everything in between. He doesn’t avoid the controversies that have become attached to his name or pretend he’s never made mistakes.
Sports is his job, but there’s a lot more that makes up the person of Stephen A. Smith and you’ll find that in these pages.
Enjoy: Finding the Freedom to Delight Daily in God’s Good Gifts by Trillia J. Newbell
Genre: Christian Living
Goodreads Summary: Watching a gorgeous sunset. Sharing a laugh with a friend. Tasting a sun-ripened strawberry. Each day is full of opportunities for you to savor the countless gifts the Creator has given.
But do you feel free to delight in God’s abundant gifts, or is your joy sometimes distorted by guilt, fear of idolatry, or simply an overwhelming awareness of sin’s effects on this world?
Trillia Newbell explains how we often miss opportunities to participate in God’s divine delight because we’re discouraged, fixated on selfish fulfillment, or paralyzed by guilt. Enjoy serves as an encouraging reminder of God’s gracious gifts and also challenges women to view all of these gifts—from relationships and careers to food and sex—as reasons to rejoice in the Lord and grow in our understanding and appreciation of who He is.
This thought-provoking book invites you to explore the truth of God’s Word and discover how to nurture daily a spirit of gratitude and deep satisfaction.
The Eighth Sister (Charles Jenkins Series) by Robert Dugoni
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Goodreads Summary: Former CIA case officer Charles Jenkins is a man at a crossroads: in his early sixties, he has a family, a new baby on the way, and a security consulting business on the brink of bankruptcy. Then his former bureau chief shows up at his house with a risky new assignment: travel undercover to Moscow and locate a Russian agent believed to be killing members of a clandestine US spy cell known as the seven sisters.
Desperate for money, Jenkins agrees to the mission and heads to the Russian capital. But when he finds the mastermind agent behind the assassinations—the so-called eighth sister—she is not who or what he was led to believe. Then again, neither is anyone else in this deadly game of cat and mouse.
Pursued by a dogged Russian intelligence officer, Jenkins executes a daring escape across the Black Sea, only to find himself abandoned by the agency he serves. With his family and freedom at risk, Jenkins is in the fight of his life—against his own country.
Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation by Candace Owens
Genre: Nonfiction/Political/Cultural
Goodreads Summary: What do you have to lose? This question, posed by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump to potential black voters, was mocked and dismissed by the mainstream media. But for Candace Owens and many others, it was a wake-up call. A staunch Democrat for all of her life, she began to question the left’s policies toward black Americans, and investigate the harm they inflict on the community.
In Blackout, social media star and conservative commentator Owens addresses the many ways that liberal policies and ideals are actually harmful to African Americans and hinder their ability to rise above poverty, live independent and successful lives, and be an active part of the American Dream. Weaving in her personal story that brought her from the projects to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, she demonstrates how she overcame her setbacks and challenges despite the cultural expectation that she should embrace a victim mentality.
Well-researched and intelligently argued, Blackout lays bare the myth that all black people should vote Democrat—and shows why turning to the right will leave them happier, more successful, and more self-sufficient.
Behind Her Lives by Briana Cole
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Goodreads Summary: Secrets, suspense, and a missing sister—who may not want to be found—are at the center of Brianna Cole’s latest enthralling multicultural drama.
Deven is called to the morgue to identify the body of a woman found dead in her apartment, apparently by drug overdose. They say it is her (half) sister, Kennedy.
But when Deven sees the picture of the body she is certain that it’s not her sister. It can’t be. The body doesn’t reflect her cosmetic surgeries and her sister would never have done drugs. Something is amiss.
The police think she’s in denial and aren’t treating it as anything other than a routine suicide, so Deven is on her own to find her sister and find out what really happened.
Even though it was a psychological thriller, it was also an exploration of grief and familial bonds— what would we do to protect our family and how much can we forgive?
Fair warning, though, that there is a decent amount of swearing in this one.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Genre: Nonfiction
Goodreads Summary: An unforgettable true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to end mass incarceration in America — from one of the most inspiring lawyers of our time.
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated to defending the poor, the incarcerated, and the wrongly condemned.
Just Mercy tells the story of EJI, from the early days with a small staff facing the nation’s highest death sentencing and execution rates, through a successful campaign to challenge the cruel practice of sentencing children to die in prison, to revolutionary projects designed to confront Americans with our history of racial injustice.
How to Fight Racism Young Readers Edition: A Guide to Standing Up for Racial Justice by Jemar Tisby
Genre: Nonfiction/Cultural
Goodreads Summary: Racism is pervasive in today's world, and in the wake of protests and a call for change, many kids are eager to confront it but aren’t always sure how. Jemar Tisby, author of How to Fight Racism and The Color of Compromise, believes we need to move beyond mere discussions about racism and begin equipping young people with the practical tools to fight against it.
In How to Fight Racism Young Reader’s Edition, Dr. Tisby uses history to explore how racism has affected America since before its founding and how it’s continued to grow, as well as examines how true social justice is rooted in the Christian faith. In a format that provides kids with a handbook for pursuing racial justice, readers ages 8-12 will discover:
The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby
Genre: Nonfiction/Cultural/History
Goodreads Summary: In The Color of Compromise, Jemar Tisby takes us back to the root of this injustice in the American church, highlighting the cultural and institutional tables we have to flip in order to bring about progress between black and white people.
Tisby provides a unique survey of American Christianity's racial past, revealing the concrete and chilling ways people of faith have worked against racial justice. Understanding our racial history sets the stage for solutions, but until we understand the depth of the malady we won't fully embrace the aggressive treatment it requires. Given the centuries of Christian compromise with bigotry, believers today must be prepared to tear down old structures and build up new ones. This book provides an in-depth diagnosis for a racially divided American church and suggests ways to foster a more equitable and inclusive environment among God's people.
Not So Perfect Strangers by L.S. Stratton
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Goodreads Summary: “One fateful encounter upends the lives of two women in this tense domestic thriller, a modern spin on Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train that flips the script on race and gender politics.”
This book is a bit twisted and keeps you hooked until the end.
How convenient would it be for two women (strangers) to murder each other’s dastardly husbands?
I was immediately invested in the story knowing the premise and reading the very first chapter. It begins at the scene of a crime, victims shot and house ablaze.
If you can get past the swearing, I would definitely recommend this book. With short chapters, it’s hard to put down and it’s a story that will probably stay with you longer than you’d think.
This blurb on the back of the book is accurate: “A gripping, twisted ride! You think you know what’s happening, but you don’t!”
What’s Left Unsaid by Emily Bleeker
Genre: Fiction
Goodreads Summary: After a series of devastating losses, Chicago journalist Hannah Williamson has landed in Senatobia, Mississippi, to care for her bedridden grandmother and endure grunt work at a small newspaper. But in cleaning out its archives, Hannah discovers a compelling distraction from her life: a series of rejected articles from the 1930s that illuminate a long-hidden mystery.
The articles, penned by a young woman named Evelyn, are haunting accounts of first love, trauma, and surviving a mysterious shooting that left Evelyn paralyzed at the age of fourteen. The articles stir up more questions than answers, and Hannah becomes consumed by what’s left unsaid. Encouraged by Guy Franklin, a local middle school teacher, Hannah’s investigation into Evelyn’s past becomes more personal with each new reveal.
What Hannah’s about to discover next is that, even after nearly a century, the truth she’s been looking for still has the power to change lives. Especially her own.
Legacy of Lies (Bocephus Haynes Series) by Robert Bailey
Genre: Legal Thriller/Mystery
Goodreads Summary: Small-town lawyer Bocephus Haynes comes home late one night to find District Attorney General Helen Lewis waiting for him. Her ex-husband has just been killed. She’s about to be arrested for his murder. And she wants Bo to represent her.
There’s a lot working against them. Just before his death, Helen’s ex-husband threatened to reveal a dark secret from her past. Bo has been in a tailspin since his wife’s death. What’s more, his whole life has been defined by a crime committed against his family, and he continues to face prejudice as the only African American litigator in Pulaski, Tennessee.
Bo’s back is against the wall, and Helen resigns herself to a dismal fate—but a stunning discovery throws everything into chaos. There’s a chance for justice, but to achieve it, the cost might be too much for Bo to bear.
Thieves’ Gambit (Thieves’ Gambit #1) by Kayvion Lewis
Genre: YA
Goodreads Summary: At only seventeen years old, Ross Quest is already a master thief, especially adept at escape plans. Until her plan to run away from her legendary family of thieves takes an unexpected turn, leaving her mother's life hanging in the balance. In a desperate bid, she enters the Thieves' Gambit, a series of dangerous, international heists where killing the competition isn't exactly off limits, but the grand prize is a wish for anything in the world--a wish that could save her mom.
With Ocean’s Eleven vibes, this is an action-packed fun read that takes you from the Bahamas to Paris to Egypt to the BVI.
It is a YA book so it is on the lighter side and requires a little suspension of belief, but I didn’t mind and I felt like for a YA book it was great!
We Go On: Finding Purpose in All of Life’s Sorrows and Joys by John Onwuchekwa
Genre: Christian Living
Goodreads Summary: Do you often ask the question "What is my purpose in life?" Rich with black-and-white photography, powerful stories, and life-changing reflections from the book of Ecclesiastes, We Go On , by pastor and entrepreneur John Onwuchekwa calls you to find the true answer to the Why am I here? This hope-filled exploration of this biblical book of wisdom turns our attention to what our true purpose is and how to let that purpose shape our relationships, career, and life choices.
Honest is a good descriptor for John and this book. He shares of his own experiences of the death of his brother, his strained relationship with his other brother, and years of infertility.
The way he writes is like a conversation with a friend and I think it will attract readers young and old. The pangs of the writer of Ecclesiastes can be felt at any age and ‘We Go On’ is a valuable resource to help us get our thoughts straight.
John does a really good job at acknowledging the sorrows of life, validating the feeling, but nudging us to the One who walks us through them.
Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson
Genre: Memoir
Goodreads Summary: Just as I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. Here, 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.
Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell
Genre: Nonfiction/Economics
Goodreads Summary: Discrimination and Disparities gathers a wide array of empirical evidence to challenge the idea that different economic outcomes can be explained by any one factor, be it discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. This revised and enlarged edition also analyzes the human consequences of the prevailing social vision of these disparities and the policies based on that vision--from educational disasters to widespread crime and violence.
Sis, Take a Breath: Encouragement for the Woman Who’s Trying to Live and Love Well (but Secretly just Wants to Take a Nap) by Kirsten Watson
Genre: Christian Living
Goodreads Summary: As a mom of seven kids, wife of a professional athlete and cohost of a popular podcast, Kirsten is often asked by other women, “How do you do it?” They see her with her hands full and wonder, What keeps her going―and smiling―with everything she’s juggling? Kirsten’s answer begins with a simple first take a breath. The second step is also lean in and understand that the Word of God gives us the breath we need to handle every situation because when we inhale God’s Word, we exhale peace.
I found this book very relatable and encouraging because she acknowledges the struggles of being a mom and a wife in all its chaos and then she points us to Christ and the gospel of his sufficiency and redemption. That’s the only place with real hope.
This book will remind you the Source of our oxygen, our life. The energy we need to breathe through the hard stuff can only be found in Christ and that is the best reason to read this book.
Trauma Bonds: How a Woman's Insight Into Escaping Her Invisible Prisons Sets Her Free: An Informed Memoir by Alexis Taiwo
Genre: Memoir
Amazon Summary: Strength. Courage. Resilience. Share one woman's personal, spiritual journey as she speaks out against abuse and neglect and stands her ground after a lifetime of trauma.
Seeing the truth of your experiences can be painful and difficult. When someone is willing to hold a mirror up to your story with a vulnerable account of their own you may see patterns and cycles of which you weren’t aware.
Whether you have abuse of your own to unravel or you’re simply a compassionate and curious ally, Alexis Taiwo’s account is an enlightening insight into the extraordinary power and resilience of those who survive abuse.
Break Every Rule by Brian Freeman
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Goodreads Summary: “a breathtaking thriller about a man whose only chance to rescue his family is to return to the past he thought he’d left behind.”
This book is Taken meets Epstein’s private island and is a little hard to read if sex trafficking is a trigger for you.
The black character in this story is a female detective who is investigating the main character’s wife’s disappearance and suspects him as being involved. Part of her character is seeing what she is up against in a male-dominated and mostly white profession in the police force.
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