Books by Black Authors Book Club Reviewed

Inharmonious by Tammye Huf

A compelling love story inspired by the author's own family history of the segregated South during and after World War II. Addressing the dangers of passing as white or enlisting as black in a segregated military with grace and showcasing a side of the story that is so rarely told, Inharmonious has been recommended for fans of books we love like Kristin Hannah's The Women and Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half.

If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

This debut short story collection reads almost like a novel as it follows an interwoven collection of characters xxxx.  Huge fans. 

A major debut, blazing with style and heart, that follows a Jamaican family striving for more in Miami, and introduces a generational storyteller.

In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed that the pet fish launches itself out of its own tank rather than stay. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment, by what the younger son, Trelawny, calls “the exquisite, racking compulsion to survive.”

Sellout by Paul Beatty

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

There's so much to unpack in this action-filled dystopian novel that depicts a brutal world in which incarcerated prisoners fight to the death as a form of televised entertainment.  The point of view shifts from different prisoner combatants to protesters against the system to prison and corporate employees, forming a kaleidoscopic look at the unholy alliance of racism, capitalism and mass incarceration.  A novel that horrifies even as it entertains, Chain Gang All-Stars will definitely get your book club talking.

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward is an auto-read author for me and for many members of my book club, so we chose Let Us Descend the month it came out, which is unusual for us.  Unfortunately, the author's first foray into historical fiction was a like, not a love for us.  While still a worthwhile read, this story of the arduous journey south by a slave sold by the white enslaver who fathered her, couldn't hold a candle to Ward's earlier fiction like Sing, Unburied, Sing or Salvage the Bones.  I also highly recommend her devastating and incisive memoir, Men We Reaped, which recounts the deaths of five young Black men in her life over a four-year span between 2000 and 2004.  

If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

This debut short story collection reads almost like a novel as it follows an interwoven collection of characters xxxx.  Huge fans. 

A major debut, blazing with style and heart, that follows a Jamaican family striving for more in Miami, and introduces a generational storyteller.

In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed that the pet fish launches itself out of its own tank rather than stay. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment, by what the younger son, Trelawny, calls “the exquisite, racking compulsion to survive.”

Masterfully constructed with heart and humor, the linked stories in Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You center on Trelawny as he struggles to carve out a place for himself amid financial disaster, racism, and flat-out bad luck. After a fight with Topper, Trelawny claws his way out of homelessness through a series of odd, often hilarious jobs. Meanwhile, his brother, Delano, attempts a disastrous cash grab to get his kids back, and his cousin Cukie looks for a father who doesn’t want to be found. As each character searches for a foothold, they never forget the profound danger of climbing without a safety net.

Pulsing with vibrant lyricism and inimitable style, sly commentary and contagious laughter, Escoffery’s debut unravels what it means to be in between homes and cultures in a world at the mercy of capitalism and whiteness. With If I Survive You, Escoffery announces himself as a prodigious storyteller in a class of his own, a chronicler of American life at its most gruesome and hopeful.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

This horror novel about a black woman in 1915 who flees California for the empty wilds of Montana with a terrible secret locked in a trunk has an incredible premise.  You will feel compelled to read on to see if Adelaide can survive and figure out just what the heck is in that trunk.  It's even more compelling to learn that LaValle's novel is based on his historical research into xxxx.  Unfortunately, the book can't keep up steam and fizzles towards the end, leaving several loose threads unanswered.  but wow did it become random and disjointed.

novel also sheds light on the little-known historical fact that single, widowed, divorced, or deserted women who where at least 21 could become homesteaders and through “proving” their claim, own their own land  . My biggest complaint is the sheer number of POVs. Sometimes, these people are referred to by their first name, sometimes by Mr. or Mrs. [Last Name]. I spent far too much time going back and trying to figure out who we were talking about and when the perspective actually changed.

Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz

Milk Blood Heat depicts the sultry lives of Floridians in intergenerational tales that contemplate human connection, race, womanhood, inheritance, and the elemental darkness in us all.

A livewire debut from Dantiel W. Moniz, one of the most exciting discoveries in today's literary landscape, Milk Blood Heat depicts the sultry lives of Floridians in intergenerational tales that contemplate human connection, race, womanhood, inheritance, and the elemental darkness in us all. Set among the cities and suburbs of Florida, each story delves into the ordinary worlds of young girls, women, and men who find themselves confronted by extraordinary moments of violent personal reckoning. These intimate portraits of people and relationships scour and soothe and blast a light on the nature of family, faith, forgiveness, consumption, and what we may, or may not, owe one another.

A thirteen-year-old meditates on her sadness and the difference between herself and her white best friend when an unexpected tragedy occurs; a woman recovering from a miscarriage finds herself unable to let go of her daughter--whose body parts she sees throughout her daily life; a teenager resists her family's church and is accused of courting the devil; servers at a supper club cater to the insatiable cravings of their wealthy clientele; and two estranged siblings take a road-trip with their father's ashes and are forced to face the troubling reality of how he continues to shape them.

Wise and subversive, spiritual and seductive, Milk Blood Heat forms an ouroboros of stories that bewitch with their truth, announcing the arrival of a bright new literary star.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

This novel was a quick and fun read, a real page turner.  Despite almost reading like a beach read, it had a lot to say about race and privilege.  The story revolves around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.  Not my favorite read but if you're looking for a smart but fast-paced and enjoyable novel consider picking this one up.  Generated great discussion. 

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone "family," and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.

Reid interrogates tropes of the white savior and unknowing racist as they play out in everyday life.^[4] Throughout the novel, the white characters assume they know what is best for the protagonist, without ever seeing anything from her perspective, and speak about her with a sense of ownership.^[5] The novel satirizes what has been described as "the white pursuit of wokeness",^[6] by having the two main white characters use their relationships with Emira as the battleground through which each intends to prove their racial virtue.^[7] Reid explained that she did not think of her characters as inherently bad, conversely, that they "were dying to help, but kind of going through mental gymnastics to ignore the broken systems that put people where they are to begin with."^[8]

The novel also deals with millennial anxiety relating to job security and confusion over career choices. Over the course of the book, Emira's main concern is to find a secure job, as she will be removed from her parents' healthcare insurance cover upon turning 26. While she remains at her babysitting job, her group of friends start advancing in their careers, intensifying her desire for "a real adult job", which neither she nor her friends consider babysitting to be.^[9][7] In the context of Emira's job, the novel also explores emotional labor and transactional relationships.^[10] Reid stated in an interview that "the history of black women taking care of white children is at the forefront [of the book]. It's this job that is so important, with really high stakes and a very small margin of error—but also, a 13-year-old could do it."^[11]

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

An absolutely devastating read.  Whitehead (author of The Underground Railroad) is a master.  Quick but xxx.  

When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.

Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers and “should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation's best" (Entertainment Weekly).

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Acevedo was raised in New York City by Dominican immigrant parents and entered her first poetry slam at the age of 14 before ultimately becoming a National Poetry Slam Champion.  

Her National Book Award-winning novel-in-verse draws heavily from her personal experiences and pulses with the rhythm of spoken word. Protagonist Xiomara's journey of self-discovery through poetry captures the complexity of being a young Afro-Latina in Harlem, navigating family expectations, faith, and first love.  

This was a 10 star read for a good chunk of my book club but while I enjoyed the characters and the coming-of-age story I personally found it hard to get into the novel given its book-in-verse style.  This is definitely one to consider listening to on audiobook!  

Heavy by Kiese Laymon

A personal narrative that illuminates national failures, Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that begins with a confusing childhood - and continues through 25 years of haunting implosions and long reverberations.

In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse. In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation, and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free. A personal narrative that illuminates national failures, Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that begins with a confusing childhood - and continues through 25 years of haunting implosions and long reverberations.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing is probably one of my favorite books of all time.  It is incredible that this was a debut novel.  Reads somewhat like a collection of short stories in that each chapter follows a different member of a family through generations.  So you don't really return to each character beyond their chapter except somewhat in passing as you learn about their descendents.  

My book club also read Gyasi's sophomore novel, Transcendent Kingdom, a xxxxxxxx, which is an excellent read but (I hate to say it), not quite as transcendent as Homegoing.

Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed.  
 
Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed—and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

An excellent novel.  My book club also read her debut novel Purple Hibiscus.  Last year's Dream Count.  

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be Black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post–9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

xxx.  We also read Giovanni's Room for Pride month one year.  

From one of the most important writers of the twentieth century comes a stunning love story about a young Black woman whose life is torn apart when her lover is wrongly accused of a crime—"a moving, painful story, so vividly human and so obviously based on reality that it strikes us as timeless" (The New York Times Book Review).

"One of the best books Baldwin has ever written—perhaps the best of all." —The Philadelphia Inquirer

Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions—affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.