Favorite Fridays highlight media the HCDL staff recommend. Find your next favorite book, audiobook, movie, TV show, magazine, etc.!
This week we’re sharing great books written by people of color.
*Hoopla is available to Howell library district residents only.
Call# Fiction Jones Representing both the American Dream and the New South, Celestial and Roy’s passionate love and new marriage is torn asunder when Roy is convicted of a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. As Roy serves his 12-year sentence, we see through the couple’s letters how circumstances beyond their control irrevocably change them and their relationship. When Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned after 5 years, how will Celestial and he resume their life together in Atlanta? The story’s tragedy made it hard to listen to but its raw, authentic portrayal of love, pain, and hope made it even harder to put down.An American Marriage : a Novel by Tayari Jones
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Call# 921 Obama
"An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States. When she was a little girl, Michelle Robinson's world was the South Side of Chicago, where she and her brother, Craig, shared a bedroom in their family's upstairs apartment and played catch in the park, and where her parents, Fraser and Marian Robinson, raised her to be outspoken and unafraid. But life soon look her much further afield, from the halls of Princeton, where she learned for the first time what if felt like to be the only black woman in a room, to the glassy office tower where she worked as a high-powered corporate lawyer--and where, one summer morning, a law student named Barack Obama appeared in her office and upended all her carefully made plans. Here, for the first time, Michelle Obama describes the early years of her marriage as she struggles to balance her work and family with her husband's fast-moving political career. She takes us inside their private debate over whether he should make a run for the presidency and her subsequent role as a popular but oft-criticized figure during his campaign. Narrating with grace, good humor, and uncommon candor, she provides a vivid, behind-the-scenes account of her family's history-making launch into the global limelight as well as their life inside the White House over eight momentous years--as she comes to know her country and her country comes to know her. [This book] takes us through modest Iowa kitchens and ballrooms at Buckingham Palace, through moments of heart-stopping grief and profound resilience, bringing us deep into the soul of a singular, groundbreaking figure in history as she strives to live authentically, marshaling her personal strength and voice in service of a set of higher ideals. In telling her story with honesty and boldness, she issues a challenge to the rest of us: Who are we and who do we want to become?"--Dust jacket.
The Fifth Season by N. K Jemisin
Call# Fantasy Jemisin
The Stillness is a physically unstable world whose frequent cataclysmic Seasons ravage civilization time and time again, while the small population of people born with the innate power to control Earth forces of thermal and kinetic energy are brutally oppressed and controlled by the Empire. In this maelstrom of post-apocalyptic, dystopian blend of science fiction and fantasy, the stories of three females fight to save their doomed world in the face of the coming Fifth Season. This epic tale takes a bit to get into, but once you realize how the characters’ lives are linked, you won’t be able to stop turning the pages or finding reasons to put in those headphones.
This is the start of the Broken Earth trilogy, so if you try this one out, you’re going to want to read the next two in the series, The Obelisk Gate (HCDL Catalog | Overdrive/Libby) and The Stone Sky (HCDL Catalog | Overdrive/Libby), I guarantee.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Call# Y Thomas
"Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life"--
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Call# Fiction Butler
Dana, a black woman, finds herself repeatedly transported to the antebellum South, where she must make sure that Rufus, the plantation owner's son, survives to father Dana's ancestor.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Call# Fiction Hosseini
Mariam and Laila are born a generation apart but are are brought together by war and fate. Together they endure the dangers surrounding them and discover the power of both love and sacrifice.
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
HCDL Catalog | Overdrive/Libby
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.
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
HCDL Catalog/Overdrive/Libby
This is one of those books that keeps you entertained and wondering what will happen next, and then at the end, you realize, wow, it’s explored a lot of territory. The main characters are Emira, a young black woman undecided what to do with her life, and Alix, a successful white woman who offers her a babysitting job. But you also meet many others, including a man who ties the women together in an unexpected way. And, if you’re like me, all these characters will make you think more about identity, race, and privilege.
One of my longtime favorite series is Xenogenesis by Octavia Butler (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago) – a fantastic sci fi story of rebuilding the earth after an man-made apocalypse, saved by the Oankali, who survive by genetically merging with their hosts.
Just finished “When You Were Everything” by Ashley Woodfolk and it was so poignant and heartbreaking but also full of hope. “Dread Nation” by Justina Ireland was also an amazing action packed alternate history with zombies and plenty of twists and turns.
The “Binti” series by Nnedi Okorafor is amazing – it packs so much into a small amount of space in each book. For those who really enjoy Jane Austen (like me!), I highly recommend “Pride” by Ibi Zoboi, which is a modern retelling of Pride & Prejudice. “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates is another read that will stay with you for a very long time. Finally, if you’re in the mood for a nice post-apocalyptic thriller series, get started with “Storm of Locusts” by Rebecca Roanhorse. It’s got action, it’s got magic, and it’ll keep you on the edge of your seat!
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas &
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
are some of my favorite books!