Community Corner
Forest Park Library Launches 'Black Voices Matter' Collection
"A small selection of wonderful books by Black authors" are available now.
BlackLivesMatter—and Black voices matter, too. Here is a small selection of wonderful books by Black authors.
Bluebird Bluebird by Attica Locke
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Put hold on the book or audiobook.
“Duty calls Darren Matthews back to his home state of Texas, where he must work quickly to solve the murders of a black lawyer and a white woman that have stirred up racial tension in a small town.”
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The book is the first in a series. Attica Locke is an author as well as a tv writer for shows like Empire and Little Fires Everywhere.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Put a hold on the book.
“Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.”
Colson Whitehead is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of The Underground Railroad.
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Put the book on hold or the audiobook.
Stream the audiobook or download the ebook.
“An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, and told with McBride’s meticulous eye for detail and character, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing adventure and a moving exploration of identity and survival.” James McBride is a writer and musician, and the recipient of the 2013 National Book Award.
Solo by Kwame Alexander with Mary Rand Hess
Book ebook Streaming Audiobook
From award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander, with Mary Rand Hess, comes Solo, a YA novel written in poetic verse. Solo tells the story of seventeen-year-old Blade Morrison, who knows the life of a rock star isn’t really about the glitz and glamour.
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
“Tomi Adeyemi conjures a stunning world of dark magic and danger in her West African-inspired fantasy debut Children of Blood and Bone.”
This is the first of a series and the first book is being turned into a movie.
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Book ebook Streaming Audiobook
“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.”
Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James
“Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: ‘He has a nose,’ people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy.” This is the first of a series that has been described as an African Game of Thrones. Marlon James is a an award-winning author from Jamaica.
More than Enough: claiming space for who you are (no matter what they say) by Elaine WelterothBook
“Throughout her life, Elaine Welteroth has climbed the ranks of media and fashion, shattering ceilings along the way. In this riveting and timely memoir, the groundbreaking journalist unpacks lessons on race, identity, and success through her own journey, from navigating her way as the unstoppable child of a unlikely interracial marriage in small-town California to finding herself on the frontlines of a modern movement for the next generation of change makers.
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
“With heartfelt candor and her usual side-splitting bite, humorist, essayist, and blogger at bitchesgottaeat.com Samantha Irby captures powerful emotional truths while chronicling the disaster that has been her life.”
Kindred: a graphic novel adaptation by Octavia E. Butler and illustrated by John Jennings
“Octavia E. Butler’s bestselling literary science-fiction masterpiece, Kindred, now in graphic novel format. Adapted by celebrated academics and comics artists Damian Duffy and John Jennings, this graphic novel powerfully renders Butler’s mysterious and moving story, which spans racial and gender divides in the antebellum South through the 20th century.”
This press release was produced by the Forest Park Public Library. The views expressed are the author's own.