An American Marriage : a Novel by Tayari Jones

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.

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.