Black/African American Archives - Page 8 of 18

Five More to Go: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Friday Black [in The Booklist Reader]

09 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Chinese American, Fiction, Lists, Repost, Short Stories

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s dozen stories are disturbingly spectacular, made even more so by how he magnifies and exposes the truth. On first reading, the collection might register as speculative fiction, but current headlines about racism, injustice, consumerism, and senseless violence prove...

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston [in Library Journal]

30 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Biography, Black/African American, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Versatile, seasoned narrator Robin Miles is as comfortable narrating literary historic context as she is effortlessly adopting the vernacular patois of an octogenarian former slave. Published almost 90 years after its completion, Zora Neale Hurston’s (Their Eyes Were Watching God) presentation of Oluale Kossula,...

Friday Black: Stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah [in Booklist]

11 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Adjei-Brenyah’s dozen stories are disturbingly spectacular, made even more so for what he does with magnifying and exposing the truth. At first read, the collection might register as speculative fiction, but current headlines unmasking racism, injustice, consumerism, and senseless violence prove to be clear...

Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora [in Shelf Awareness]

06 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Repost

From an open window of a top-floor apartment on "the corner of First Street and Long Street" comes a most delicious smell. Omu (pronounced AH-moo) is preparing "a thick red stew in a big fat pot for a nice evening meal." Certain that "[t]onight's dinner...

Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson [in Shelf Awareness]

04 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW "[T]he school wanted to try something new: Could they put [six] kids together in a room with one teacher and make something amazing?" For Ms. Laverne's fifth/sixth grade Brooklyn, N.Y., class, the answer is a resounding yes. Deemed "special kids," Haley, Holly, Ashton, Amari,...

Time Traveling Audiobooks for Youth [in The Booklist Reader]

03 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Black/African American, European, Fiction, Jewish, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Pacific Islander, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Time travel, time paradoxes, time shells, time hollows – are they fantasy? Reality? The following titles are billed as fiction, but they're also a look into endless possibilities. Last week, we brought you audiobooks about time travel for adults, but it's time (sorry) younger readers got...

Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood by James Baldwin, illustrated by Yoran Cazac [in Shelf Awareness]

11 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost

To his New York City nephew and niece, iconic author and civil rights activist James Baldwin was mostly known as "Uncle Jimmy," although the siblings would realize soon enough that he was also "a famous writer" of world renown. "When you gonna write a book...

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay [in Library Journal]

13 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

"What is it like to live in a culture where it often seems like it is a question of when, not if, a woman will encounter some kind of sexual violence?" Roxane Gay (Hunger) posits in the introduction to her latest title, a "place for...

Down the River unto the Sea by Walter Mosley [in Library Journal]

04 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

The first thing Walter Mosley (Charcoal Joe) devotees will want to know is whether Joe King Oliver is getting a series of his own. That future seems currently unclear, but should King proliferate on the page, then Dion Graham must be conscripted to continue his...

Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love [in Shelf Awareness]

02 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Repost

Riding the subway after a visit to the pool with his grandmother, young Julián notices three glamorous fellow passengers he's convinced are mermaids. And, of course, "Julián LOVES mermaids." Inspired by the company, the rest of Julián's train ride morphs into a dazzling underwater daydream...

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi [in Library Journal]

26 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

Nigerian-born Akwaeke Emezi makes a double debut as both author and narrator of her autobiographical first novel. As creator, she knows precisely how her story should flow, where emphasis is required, when to draw back, push forward, add breathing space. Her stand-in is Ada who, from...

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones [in Library Journal]

18 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

Shoved onto the asphalt by police, lying "parallel like burial plots" next to her husband Roy in a motel parking lot, Celestial recalls her wedding proclamation: "What God has brought together, let no man tear asunder." But an American marriage – especially if a black...

So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo [in Library Journal]

17 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

If you eschew potentially significant discomfort, then you're probably not ready to talk about race. Then again, denial is no longer an option: "These last few years, the rise of voices of color, coupled with the widespread dissemination of video proof of brutality and injustice...

Let’s No One Get Hurt by Jon Pineda + Author Interview [in The Booklist Reader]

22 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Repost

A Poet’s Novel: Jon Pineda talks LET’S NO ONE GET HURT Even a poetry dullard like me recognizes poet/memoirist/novelist Jon Pineda’s ability to do something spectacular with language. His lean sentences are surprisingly dense, as if to defy their brevity. Surely publishing three award-winning books of...

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes [in Shelf Awareness]

21 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Twelve-year-old Jerome was always "the good kid": "I've got troubles but I don't get in trouble." He's the son of a motel receptionist mother and sanitation officer father. His grandmother keeps house, so that he and his younger sister aren't home alone. At school, Jerome...

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward [in Library Journal]

06 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

In her second National Book Award-winning title, Jesmyn Ward returns to Bois Sauvage, MS, where her first NBA winner, Salvage the Bones, played out; Bones’ Skeetah and Eschelle appear momentarily here. Jojo, 13, and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their African American grandparents. Their drug-addicted mother...

Between the Lines by Nikki Grimes [in Shelf Awareness]

16 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW "We live in the same city, go to the same school, but each of us has a different story," a student observes. "What we have in common is trying to figure out how to tell it." Welcome back to Mr. Ward's English class, introduced...

Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History by Camille T. Dungy [in Library Journal]

07 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

In writing about new motherhood, changing dynamics in her closest relationships, navigating a demanding career requiring extensive travel, and witnessing her tiny child grow into her own person, Camille T. Dungy (Tropic Cascade) is unabashedly forthright and perceptive. Her observations are made especially piercing when...

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehesi Coates [in Library Journal]

05 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Nonfiction, Repost

If you were among the millions who discovered 2015 MacArthur “Genius” Ta-Nehesi Coates in his mega-bestseller, Between the World and Me, in his own voice, or you were an earlier pioneer who heard The Beautiful Struggle (2008) elegantly read by J.D. Jackson, consider choosing the...

New People by Danzy Senna [in Library Journal]

02 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost

Danzy Senna (Caucasia), the child of a Caucasian poet mother and an African American scholar father, uses her lauded writing to examine (at times, perhaps even exorcise) her mixed-race heritage in novels, short stories, and memoir. She bestows her own middle name, Maria, to her...

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