New (To You) Novels to Check Out for Black History Month

Looking for something interesting to add to your library shelves? Here are a few suggestions I think you’ll like in honor of black history month:

📕WOKE UP NO LIGHT

Leila Mottley | @leilamottley

woke up no light is a Black girl’s saunter turned to a woman’s defiant strut. These are the hymns of a new generation of poetry. Young, alive, yearning. A mouth swung open and ready to devour. A quest for home in a world that knows only wasteland and wanting. | https://amzn.to/42C3Gis

📕THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE

James McBride | @jamesmcbrideauthor

One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2023. “A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.” —Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review | https://amzn.to/4jLir8U

📕CROOK MANIFESTO

Colson Whitehead | @aragiauthors

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Harlem Shuffle continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory. | https://amzn.to/3CAPk7n

📕YONDER

Jabari Asim | @jabariasim

In an elegant work of monumental imagination that will reorient how we think of the legacy of America’s shameful past, Jabari Asim presents a beautiful, powerful, and elegiac novel that examines intimacy and longing in the quarters while asking a vital question: What would happen if an enslaved person risked everything for love? | https://amzn.to/4jHu7cG

📕BLACK CAKE

Charmaine Wilkerson | @charmspen1

NOW A HULU STREAMING SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • Two estranged siblings delve into their mother’s hidden past—and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake—in this immersive family saga, “a character-driven, multigenerational story that’s meant to be savored” (Time). | https://amzn.to/3WOmpDH

📕WAHALA

Nikki May| @nikkimaywriter

“Contemporary female friendship goes glam in this lively debut novel with remarkable depth.” — Washington Post| A sharp, modern take on friendship, ambition, culture, and betrayal, Wahala (trouble) is an unforgettable novel from a brilliant new voice. | https://amzn.to/3Elzlup

📕THE VIOLIN CONSPIRACY

Brendan Slocumb | @brendanslocumb

Ray McMillian is a Black classical musician on the rise—undeterred by the pressure and prejudice of the classical music world—when a shocking theft sends him on a desperate quest to recover his great-great-grandfather’s heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world. | https://amzn.to/4jCK6c1