Black History Month
Our recommending reading list of new books for Black History Month. Please also see our Black Voices list for more books by Black authors.
Hollywood Blackout
-
Hardcover
$33.99
Reader Reward Price: $30.59
A Hollywood history told from the perspective of those that fought for diversity, inclusion and acknowledgement
On 29 February 1940, African American actor Hattie McDaniel became the first person of color, and the first Black woman, to win an Academy Award. The moment marked the beginning of Hollywood's reluctant move toward diversity and inclusion.
Since then, minorities and women have struggled to attain Academy Awards recognition within a system designed to discriminate against them. For the first time, Hollywood Blackout reveals the untold story of their tumultuous journey from exclusion to inclusion; from segregation to celebration.
Author Ben Arogundade interweaves the experiences of Black actors and filmmakers with those of Asians, Latinos, South Asians, indigenous peoples and women. Throughout the decades their progression to the Oscars podium has been galvanized by defiant boycotts, civil rights protests and social media activism such as #OscarsSoWhite.
Whether you are a film fan, history lover or diversity advocate, Hollywood Blackout is the quintessential choice for all those who wish to know the real story of Hollywood, the Oscars and the talents who fought to make change.
A Season of Light
-
Hardcover
$38.00
Reader Reward Price: $34.20
For fans of Behold the Dreamers, comes a compelling novel about a tightly bound Nigerian family living in Florida and the wounds that get passed down from generation to generation, from the author of the acclaimed Mr. and Mrs. Doctor.
When 276 schoolgirls are abducted from their school in Nigeria, Fidelis Ewerike, a Florida-based barrister, poet, and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War, begins to go mad, consumed by memories of his younger sister Ugochi, who went missing during that conflict. Consumed by survivor's guilt and fearful that the same fate awaits Amara, his sixteen-year-old daughter who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ugochi, Fidelis locks her in her bedroom, offering no words of explanation, only lovingly--if poorly--made meals and sweets.
Amid that singular action, the Ewerike family spirals into chaos: After unsuccessful attempts to free her daughter from her room, his wife Adaobi seeks the counsel of a preacher, praying for spiritual liberation from the curse she is certain has plagued her family since leaving Nigeria. Fourteen-year-old Chuk, beset by his own war with the neighborhood boys, receives a painful education on force, masculinity, and his tenuous position within his family. And rebellious, resentful Amara is hungry for her life to be hers, so the moment she is able to escape her imprisonment, she falls in love--not with the Aba-born engineer-in-training her mother envisages, but with Maksym Kostyk, the son of the town drunk. Before long, the two have concocted a plan to run away from the trappings of their familial traumas.
Perfect for readers of Sing, Unburied, Sing, Julie Iromuanya's A Season of Light is an all-consuming masterpiece. To peer into the window of the Ewerike family's lives is a gift.]]>
Harlem Rhapsody
-
Hardcover
$39.00
Reader Reward Price: $35.10
"A gripping narrative, don't miss this historical fiction about the woman who kicked off the Harlem Renaissance."--People Magazine
"A page turner and history lesson at once, Harlem Rhapsody reminds us that our stories are our generational wealth."--Tayari Jones, New York Times bestselling author of An American Marriage (Oprah's Book Club Pick)
She found the literary voices that would inspire the world.... The extraordinary story of the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance, written by Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian.
In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all.
W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie's boss, he's her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart. Amidst rumors of their tumultuous affair, Jessie is determined to prove herself. She attacks the challenge of discovering young writers with fervor, finding sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends. Under Jessie's leadership, The Crisis thrives...every African American writer in the country wants their work published there.
When her first novel is released to great acclaim, it's clear that Jessie is at the heart of a renaissance in Black music, theater, and the arts. She has shaped a generation of literary legends, but as she strives to preserve her legacy, she'll discover the high cost of her unparalleled success.
We, the Kindling
- Otoniya J Okot Bitek 
Hardcover
$32.95
Reader Reward Price: $29.66
As this spare and luminous novel begins, we meet Miriam, Helen and Maggie&three friends who, years ago when they were school children, survived capture by the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda. Now, as the women go about their new lives in the city, shopping, caring for their children, planning and thinking about what the future might hold, we come to understand how deeply their past haunts the present.
In graceful yet unflinching prose, Otoniya Okot Bitek weaves vivid folk tales with taut realism, revealing flashes of life before the war that ravaged Uganda, unspooling the terrible events that led to abductions of children from supposedly safe schools, and tracing perilous journeys home again. Facing endless treks across the ravaged countryside and through narrow mountain passes, gun battles and constant brutality, many girls did not survive. Those who did make it back home, some carrying small children of their own, bore the unspoken weight of their experiences within families and communities that often wished to forget and move on.
In We, the Kindling, Okot Bitek insistently refuses to turn away or to spectacularize tragedy, shaping a chorus of women's voices into a hauntingly beautiful novel, suffused with care and humanity.
The Beautiful Dream
- Atiba Hutchinson , Dan Robson
Trade paperback
$36.00
Reader Reward Price: $32.40
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
&A captivating read from one of our country&s greatest athletes.&
―Christine Sinclair, former captain of the Canadian Women's National Soccer Team and National Bestselling Author of Playing the Long Game
Out of the Toronto suburb of Brampton comes an irresistible story of trials, perseverance, the limelight of international soccer, and&above all&heart.
Despite debuting on Canada&s senior national soccer team 20 years ago, scarce is known of Atiba Hutchinson. We&ve watched him win Canadian Men&s Player of the Year six times; celebrated his club team championships; and mourned his injuries. We&ve lamented the state of Canadian soccer and cursed the lost potential&and years. Yet, we know little about Atiba&s personal life, or how he rose from suburban Brampton to becoming Canada&s most-capped national men&s team player, often described as the country&s greatest athlete you haven&t heard about.
For the first time, Atiba is ready to share the extraordinary story of his ascent to the heights of professional soccer, nationally and internationally, and what he believes makes a true champion. The Beautiful Dream is an intimate account of Atiba&s awe-inspiring career, from his humble beginnings to playing across Europe; the crushing disappointment of failing national team competitions in the 2010s that nearly led to his resignation from the national program; all the way to his triumphant arrival in Qatar to face off against 31 other nations at the world&s most pre-eminent soccer competition. He has strived to better not only his own game but the landscape of Canadian soccer for over two decades, culminating in Canada&s first trip to the FIFA World Cup since 1986. Yet, as the reflective midfielder shows, this isn&t just his story: The Beautiful Dream is the story of countless Canadians, who strive and scrape for a seemingly unreachable dream&until their fingertips finally graze the surface. It&s a lesson about the unyielding belief required when taking the long road to success. Atiba's journey mirrors the progression of Canadian soccer, and the story of Canada itself: goals that may begin as outsized but as we work towards them, our world changes with us.
Atiba&s journey of hope, belief, and resilience connects the country&s modest soccer past to a bold, exciting future in the game. It&s a story that transcends the pitch, exploring what it means to be a kid who dares to dream of achieving the impossible, and the man who perseveres to get there.
Blackness Is a Gift I Can Give Her
-
Hardcover
$34.00
Reader Reward Price: $30.60
From the founder of Black Girl Hockey Club, a collection of deeply insightful and piercing essays shedding light on the history of Black excellence in hockey, the future of Black joy within the sport, and the ways we can all do better when it comes to recognizing--and upheaving--systemic and institutionalized racism.
Growing up, R. Renee Hess didn't care about hockey. In fact, she was barely aware of it. She was born and raised in Southern California, hardly a hotbed for the game, despite the state having three NHL teams. But, as Hess puts it, she is "a fan of being a fan," and when she found herself stuck in traffic after a Pittsburgh Penguins game, the streets filled with cheers, something sparked within her. Ever since Hess made that discovery, she has been actively trying to bust the myth that "Black folks don't like hockey."
In this collection, Hess shares her hockey origin story and how she came to recognize hockey culture's lack of authentic engagement with Black communities, tracing her journey to becoming a true game changer. But, as an academic, Hess knows that her singular viewpoint can't tell the full story, so she reached out to former hockey players, league executives, activists, fans, media, and to the parents and youth shaping the future of the game. We hear directly from players such as Sarah Nurse and Saroya Tinker; from trailblazers like Bernice Carnegie and Kim Davis; and from the collective of Black Girl Hockey Club scholarship awardees and their families, emphasizing the importance of community and support for marginalized players. The result is a hockey book truly unlike any other.
With essays that touch on representation and harmful stereotypes, the many nuanced aspects of biracial identity, being the only person of colour in the room, and the virtues of a lively group chat, Blackness Is a Gift I Can Give Her is a love letter to Black women everywhere, as well as a scathing ode to a game that Hess loves, even if it doesn't always love her back.
Code Noir
- Canisia Lubrin
Hardcover
$34.95
Reader Reward Price: $31.46
FINALIST FOR THE 2024 ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE & FINALIST FOR THE 2024 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION & Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2024 & CBC's Best Canadian Fiction of 2024 & Groundbreaking, dazzling debut fiction from one of Canada's most exciting and admired writers.
Canisia Lubrin's debut fiction is that rare work of art&a brilliant, startlingly original book that combines immense literary and political force. Its structure is deceptively simple: it departs from the infamous real-life &Code Noir,& a set of historical decrees originally passed in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire. The original Code had fifty-nine articles; Code Noir has fifty-nine linked fictions&vivid, unforgettable, multi-layered fragments filled with globe-wise characters who desire to live beyond the ruins of the past.
Ranging in style from contemporary realism to dystopia, from futuristic fantasy to historical fiction, this inventive, shape-shifting braid of stories exists far beyond the enclosures of official decrees. This is a timely, daring, virtuosic book by a young literary star. The stories are accompanied by black-and-white drawings&one at the start of each fiction&by acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson.
In the Upper Country
- Kai Thomas
Trade paperback
$23.00
Reader Reward Price: $20.70
*NATIONAL BESTSELLER*
*WINNER OF THE 2023 WRITER'S TRUST ATWOOD GIBSON PRIZE*
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOVERNER GENERAL'S AWARD FOR FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 HURSTON/WRIGHT LEGACY AWARD IN DEBUT FICTION
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 WALTER SCOTT HISTORICAL FICTION AWARD
The fates of two unforgettable women--one just beginning a journey of reckoning and self-discovery and the other completing her life's last vital act--intertwine in this sweeping, deeply researched debut set in the Black communities of Ontario that were the last stop on the Underground Railroad.
Young Lensinda Martin is a protegee of a crusading Black journalist in mid-18th century southwestern Ontario, finding a home in a community founded by refugees from the slave-owning states of the American south--whose agents do not always stay on their side of the border.
One night, a neighbouring farmer summons Lensinda after a slave hunter is shot dead on his land by an old woman recently arrived via the Underground Railroad. When the old woman, whose name is Cash, refuses to flee before the authorities arrive, the farmer urges Lensinda to gather testimony from her before Cash is condemned.
But Cash doesn't want to confess. Instead she proposes a barter: a story for a story. And so begins an extraordinary exchange of tales that reveal the interwoven history of Canada and the United States; of Indigenous peoples from a wide swath of what is called North America and of the Black men and women brought here into slavery and their free descendents on both sides of the border.
As Cash's time runs out, Lensinda realizes she knows far less than she believed not only about the complicated tapestry of her nation, but also of her own family history. And it seems that Cash may carry a secret that could shape Lensinda's destiny.
Sweeping along the path of the Underground Railroad from the southern States to Canada, through the lands of Indigenous nations around the Great Lakes, to the Black communities of southern Ontario, In the Upper Country weaves together unlikely stories of love, survival, and familial upheaval that map the interconnected history of the peoples of North America in an entirely new and resonant way.
James
-
Hardcover
$37.99
Reader Reward Price: $34.19
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER o NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER o A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST o ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR o SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE o KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER
In development as a feature film to be produced by Steven Spielberg o A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times Book Review, LA Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Economist, TIME, and more.
"Genius"--The Atlantic o "A masterpiece that will help redefine one of the classics of American literature, while also being a major achievement on its own."--Chicago Tribune o "A provocative, enlightening literary work of art."--The Boston Globe o "Everett's most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful."--The New York Times
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river's banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin...), Jim's agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a "literary icon" (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.
The Message
-
Hardcover
$39.99
Reader Reward Price: $35.99
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER o NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER o The renowned author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell--and the ones we don't--shape our realities.
"Ta-Nehisi Coates always writes with a purpose. . . . These pilgrimages, for him, help ground his powerful writing about race."--Associated Press
"Coates exhorts readers, including students, parents, educators, and journalists, to challenge conventional narratives that can be used to justify ethnic cleansing or camouflage racist policing. Brilliant and timely."--Booklist (starred review)
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Vanity Fair, Town & Country, Electric Lit
Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell's classic "Politics and the English Language," but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories--our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking--expose and distort our realities.
In the first of the book's three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind. Then he takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on his own book's banning, but also explores the larger backlash to the nation's recent reckoning with history and the deeply rooted American mythology so visible in that city--a capital of the Confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares. Finally, in the book's longest section, Coates travels to Palestine, where he sees with devastating clarity how easily we are misled by nationalist narratives, and the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground.
Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country's most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world--and our own souls--and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.
And So I Roar
-
Hardcover
$37.99
Reader Reward Price: $34.19
A stunning, inspiring new novel from Abi Daré, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl with the Louding Voice
When Tia accidentally overhears a whispered conversation between her mother&terminally ill and lying in a hospital bed in Port Harcourt, Nigeria&and her aunt, the repercussions will send her on a desperate quest to uncover a secret her mother has been hiding for nearly two decades.
Back home in Lagos a few days later, Adunni, a plucky fourteen-year-old runaway, is lying awake in Tia&s guest room. Having escaped from her rural village in a desperate bid to seek a better future, she&s finally found refuge with Tia, who has helped her enroll in school. It&s always been Adunni&s dream to get an education, and she&s bursting with excitement.
Suddenly, there&s a horrible knocking at the front gate. . . .
It&s only the beginning of a harrowing ordeal that will see Tia forced to make a terrible choice between protecting Adunni or finally learning the truth behind the secret her mother has hidden from her. And Adunni will learn that her &louding voice,& as she calls it, is more important than ever, as she must advocate to save not only herself but all the young women of her home village, Ikati.
If she succeeds, she may transform Ikati into a place where girls are allowed to claim the bright futures they deserve&and shout their stories to the world.
The Black Fantastic
-
Trade paperback
$33.95
Reader Reward Price: $30.56
A cutting-edge collection of the best short stories in contemporary Afrofuturist fiction&from Hugo, Nebula, and Stoker award-winning Black authors
20 mind-blowing, horror-strewn, weird, and woke tales celebrate Black identity, community, and imagination
Black speculative fiction has never been better than it is here and now. On the shoulders of Afrofuturist masters like Octavia E. Butler and Samuel R. Delany and pioneering visionaries before them, a new, abundant, and brilliant generation of contemporary Black authors, some of them just beginning their careers, is conjuring up a very real renaissance.
Edited by SF-expert andré carrington, and including Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award winners alongside emerging and experimental voices, The Black Fantastic showcases the artistry of these breakout literary stars and celebrates the diversity of their talents.
Including Afrofuturist science fiction, weird and fantastic tales, horror and the paranormal, apocalyptic lyricism, time travel, superheroes, and more, here are twenty mindblowing, horror-strewn, weird, woke, nerdy, terrifying, liberating, fantastic, utopian, surreal, genre-defying and empowering short stories, all of them worth reading and rereading now and far into futurity.
Reclaiming histories of racism and oppression and seizing the day, these writers are forging kaleidoscopic new senses of Black identity, community, and imaginative freedom.
Black Panther
- ,
Trade paperback
$18.00
Reader Reward Price: $16.20
Brand-new foreword by rapper and activist Killer Mike
Presented in a newly designed book-format edition
National Book Award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me) and acclaimed illustrator Brian Stelfreeze revolutionize the Black Panther mythos in this powerful graphic novel that blends high-tech futurism with the resonate themes of modern day.
As esteemed author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates brings his considerable talents to Marvel, will he usher in a new age of glory for Wakanda and its king, T'Challa, A.K.A. the Black Panther? Or will he enter the proud kingdom into its final days?
The high-tech African nation has been ravaged by outside forces, its queen has fallen and the people have turned against their king. As dissidents seek violent change, two of T'Challa's own Dora Milaje forge their own brave path. And while outside forces pour fuel on the fire, the Black Panther recruits his own crew to aid in the struggle.
Meanwhile, on the spiritual plane, a journey of transformation begins. This is a story of a king who must find a new way to lead. Of a queen whose tale is not yet fully told. Of angels fighting for change and devils fomenting chaos. Of allies and enemies, friends and foes, love and hate. This is the story of Wakanda.
COLLECTING: Black Panther (2016) 1-12
This is a selection of our current Black History Month titles. To find other titles or authors, or just to browse, please use the search box.
