This is a book that I had been wanting to pick up for a few months now, and it was also super great to purchase it from one of my new favorite local book stores. It’s a a cozy little spot complete with a resident cat, and every time I go there it lifts my spirit. I feel at home. So there were already great vibes surrounding this title before I even opened it to read. But when I did… I was wrapped into a complicated and intimate portrayal of a marriage that was full of unexpected surprises. Sorry folks — spoilers ahead.
Read MoreChildren of Blood and Bone
You should read this book (and give it to the children in your life to read!) because it opens your eyes to what Black imagination looks like. We should have the space to imagine ourselves in every way possible. Science fiction is not a genre reserved for people who do not look like us; I’ve never considered any of the faeries or wizards I’ve read about in my youth could have been Black like me. In Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi reminds us that we can be anything.
Read MoreWhite Teeth
Past and present are tethered to us all. White Teeth unravels the history of the Jones and Iqbal families and leaves you pondering the baggage you may be carrying from your own bloodlines. I may have plodded through, but at it’s conclusion, I think all the history and context were necessary. It frames the present more clearly.
Read MoreReading and Discussion Guide: What We Lose
Wow. This is Clemmons’ debut novel, and if this is her just getting started, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for her. Told through a series of short vignettes, this story is aptly titled.
Read MoreReading and Discussion Guide: When They Call You a Terrorist
This was such a spectacular read. I don’t mean that in the flippant casual sense… it was a book that hurt me to read, that triggered my own sense of fear for the folks that I could lose at the hands of police violence. There were moments that were beautiful and tender, juxtaposed by the stories of what should be unconsciounable and unimaginable harm and neglect being done to the people whom Patrisse loved most in the world.
Read MoreReading and Discussion Guide: Barracoon
What an incredible read. I was so excited to dive into this book, and Ms. Hurston did not let me down! In her foreward, Alice Walker calls it a “maestrapiece,” defined as “the feminine perspective or part of the structure, whether in stone or fancy, without which the entire edifice is a lie.” Walker’s writes an opening blessing over this work that primes you for the breadth and depth of the experience you are about to embark upon.
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@LitBlkGrl Summer Reading Community
I am super excited to announce Literary Black Girl’s first ever reading community! Over the next three months, June through August, I invite you (and your friends!) to join me as we read and come together over two books monthly.
Read MoreSister Outsider
You should read Sister Outsider because Audre Lorde is critical reading for understanding Black feminism broadly, but also because her way of writing and speaking is incredibly insightful, sharp and articulate. Much of her work was originally delivered in the 70s and 80s, but it just as timely and applicable now as it was then.
Read MoreMy Soul Looks Back
Jessica B. Harris was a part of Baldwin’s New York circle in the 1970s, and while this book is about her life as a part (and outsider) of that circle, I was initially intrigued by the opportunity to gain another perspective on the great James Baldwin — and from a Black woman at that. Harris offers much more than that.
Read MoreSwing Time
Swing Time by Zadie Smith I’ve been hearing about Zadie Smith for some time now, and Swing Time in particular over the last few months. She’s one of England’s premier authors, and I’m not quite sure how she escaped my voracious high school book appetite. I’m elated to have finally found her. I was pleasantly…
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Literary Black Girl 