Book Reviews

15 recommended books by Black authors

In the spirit of Black History Month, a good place to start the celebration might be with some history.

The idea of honoring the African-American experience each February came from students and faculty at Kent State University in 1969. They started the tradition the following year, and it quickly caught on nationwide.

President Gerald Ford made Black History Month official during America’s bicentennial in 1976, and participation has been growing ever since.

Nowhere can the Black experience be seen more vividly than in literature, and volunteers with the Tucson Festival of Books offered to share their own favorite books by Black authors … many of whom will be at the festival in March:

“People of Means” by book-festival-bound Nancy Johnson offers parallel stories of a young Black woman in the 1960s South and her daughter, a young woman facing her own racial challenges in 1990s Chicago. As the alternating narratives unfold, we see how the choice made by Freda eventually affect Tulip. — Jody Hardy

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“I Am Nobody’s Slave” by festival author Lee Hawkins explores his family’s long pursuit of the American Dream, and how the trauma faced by previous generations is still felt today. It is a story of struggle, resilience and ultimate success. — Lynn Wiese Sneyd

“Nature Swagger” by Rue Mapp is a collection of stories and photographs that celebrate Black involvement in conservation and the outdoors. Black history is an important part of the story. Rapp, who will appear on the Western National Parks Stage at the book festival, is the founder of the online community Outdoor Afro. — Bret Muter

“Death of the Author” by festival author Nnedi Okorafor of Phoenix is a book-within-a-book story of a disabled Nigerian-American author who decides to write something just for herself. When it becomes a surprising bestseller, and she becomes a literary star, events conspire to negate everything she wanted the book to be. — Anne Gardner

“The Real Hoosiers” by Jack McCallum is the story of Oscar Robertson and the all-Black basketball team at Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis in the mid-1950s. More importantly, it is the story not told in the movie “Hoosiers.” The film celebrated a small-town, all-White team from Milan, Indiana, that won the state championship in 1954. Perhaps more noteworthy was Attucks, an all-Black school in a state that had long been a bastion of the Ku Klux Klan … and a team that won the state title the next two years. — Jack Siry

“A More Perfect Party” by Juanita Tolliver invites us to a star-studded party hosted by actress and singer Diahann Carroll in 1972. It was a fundraiser and friend-maker for Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman ever to run for the American Presidency. Each chapter focuses on one of the celebrities who were there. — Maria Parham

“The Barn” by Wright Thompson recounts the horrific lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955. Thompson grew up in Mississippi, less than 23 miles from the barn where Till was tortured and then killed, but he did not learn of it until he was in college. Deeply researched and brilliantly written, Thompson’s book shines light on one of the darkest events in American history … and the conspiracy that kept the details hidden for more than 60 years. — Pamela Treadwell-Rubin

“Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor is a loving novel for middle schoolers that spotlights a Black family facing racism and poverty in the South during the Great Depression. All they have is their land and themselves. First published in 2001, this book still resonates today. — Lori Riegel

“Before I Let Go” by Kennedy Ryan is a romance novel about a divorced couple that has settled into a new normal, co-parenting two kids and running a successful business together. Their new relationship is strictly platonic … isn’t it? — Jessica Pryde

“An Amerikan Family” by Santi Elijah Holley chronicles one of the most creative and influential Black families in American history, the Shakurs. Author Assata Shakur and rapper Tupac are well-known, but Holley introduces other family members who have also been deeply involved in the fight for racial justice. — Brooke Blizzard

“Life on Other Planets” by Aomawa Shields is an inspiring memoir charting her life as an astronomer, classically trained actor, mother and Black woman searching for life in the universe while building a meaningful life here on Earth. — Jennifer Casteix

“A Pair of Wings” by festival author Carole Hopson is a historical novel inspired by the true story of Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman pilot in the United States. Hopson is a Boeing 737 captain for United Airlines who founded the Jet Black Foundation, which will send 100 Black women to flight school by the year 2035. — Thea Chalow

“What You Leave Behind” by festival author Wanda M. Morris is a legal thriller featuring Deena Wood, a Black attorney who has returned to her Georgia home after her mother’s death. She soon learns of a scheme by white developers to sell Black-owned properties against their will. — Tricia Clapp

“What Fire Brings” by Rachel Howzell Hall is an again-timely tale of an aspiring writer’s search for her real-life friend in the Topanga Canyon area of West Los Angeles. As the fire season approached in the canyon, she knows she is running out of time. — Shannon Baker

“Jax Freeman and the Phantom Shriek” by Kwame Mbalia takes young readers to a fantasy world rooted in Black lore and traditions. Twelve-year-old Jax arrives in Chicago and is drawn into an underground world of magical summoners who call on the power of ancestral spirits. — Kathy Short

Keep current with news from the Tucson Festival of Books by visiting tucsonfestivalofbooks.org.


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