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Black History Month
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Black History Month

A list of books celebrating Black voices, recommended by the Booksellers at Powell's Books.

Hell of a Book: National Book Award Winner

A Novel

By: Jason Mott
Narrated by: JD Jackson & Ronald Peet
Length: 9 hours 39 minutes

***2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER***

***THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER***

Winner of the 2021 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize Finalist, 2022 Chautauqua Prize Finalist, Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing Shortlist, 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Shortlist, 2022 Maya Angelou Book Award Shortlist, 2022 Carnegie...
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What Napoleon Could Not Do

A Novel

By: DK Nnuro
Narrated by: Kofi Boakye, Ana Hoffman & Adam Lazarre-White
Length: 13 hours 57 minutes

One of the Books Barack Obama Is Reading This Summer
One of Vulture’s Best Books of 2023
One of Goodreads’ Buzziest Debut Novels of 2023
One of Essence’s 31 Books You Must Read
One of the most anticipated books by Town & Country and Elle

America is seen through the eyes and ambitions of three characters with ties to Africa in this gripping...
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Assembly

By: Natasha Brown
Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner
Length: 1 hour 59 minutes

This visionary and unflinching novel is about a black woman who has spent her life carefully navigating cutthroat worlds of privilege in her career and relationships—until one day she is pulled up short by a life and death decision.

Come of age in the credit crunch. Be civil in a hostile environment. Go to college, get an education, start a... Read more

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This Here Flesh

Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us

By: Cole Arthur Riley
Narrated by: Cole Arthur Riley
Length: 6 hours 8 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In her stunning debut, the creator of Black Liturgies weaves stories from three generations of her family alongside contemplative reflections to discover the “necessary rituals” that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberation.

“This is the kind of book that makes you different when you’re done.”—Ashley C....
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Master Slave Husband Wife

An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

By: Ilyon Woo
Narrated by: Janina Edwards & Leon Nixon
Length: 12 hours 54 minutes

“Ellen and William Craft, married slaves from Georgia, pulled off one of the most daring escapes from slavery in recorded history. Ellen, who was able to pass for white because she had a white father, dressed as a very ill young man. The couple convinced people that they were master and slave bound for the North to seek medical care. After four... Read more

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Of Blood and Sweat

Black Lives and the Making of White Power and Wealth

By: Clyde W. Ford
Narrated by: Julian Thomas
Length: 12 hours 34 minutes

“Ford’s overlap of past and present, narrative and commentary is masterful, and makes this volume all the more valuable to those readers wise enough to allow the past to inform the future. Of Blood and Sweat is a myth-busting work of genius that will stand as the last word on this vital subject for a long time to come.”—Elizabeth Dowling Taylor,... Read more

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Black Ghost of Empire

The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation

By: Kris Manjapra
Narrated by: Robin Miles & Kris Manjapra
Length: 8 hours 51 minutes

If the 1619 Project illuminated the ways in which life in the United States has been shaped by the existence of slavery, this “historical, literary masterpiece” (Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy) focuses on emancipation and how its afterlife further codified the racial caste system—instead of obliterating it.

To understand why the shadow of slavery... Read more

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Inciting Joy

Essays

By: Ross Gay
Narrated by: Ross Gay
Length: 8 hours 20 minutes

“I consider Ross Gay’s Inciting Joy to be a true masterpiece. Gay repeatedly took my breath away with his quiet emotional power, which dazzles in these essays in a wild, satisfying dance between the personal and political. There were at least a dozen occasions where I wanted to stand up and applaud, or weep, or cheer out loud, or reach out and... Read more

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Black Women Writers at Work

By: Claudia Tate
Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

Long out of print, Black Women Writers at Work is a vital contribution to Black literature in the twentieth century.



Through candid interviews with Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alexis De Veaux, Nikki Giovanni, Kristin Hunter, Gayl Jones, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Margret Walker,... Read more

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The Birdcatcher

By: Gayl Jones
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
Length: 5 hours 22 minutes

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST 2022

Publishers Weekly Top 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2022

“Gayl Jones’s work represents a watershed in American literature."
—Imani Perry


Legendary writer Gayl Jones returns with a stunning new novel about Black American artists in exile

Gayl Jones, the novelist Toni Morrison discovered decades ago and Tayari Jones recently called... Read more

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Constructing a Nervous System

A Memoir

By: Margo Jefferson
Narrated by: Karen Murray
Length: 5 hours 1 minute

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR From "one of our most nuanced thinkers on the intersections of race, class, and feminism" (Cathy Park Hong, New York Times bestselling author of Minor Feelings) comes a memoir "as electric as the title suggests" (Maggie Nelson, author of On Freedom).

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, TIME...
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When We Were Birds

A Novel

By: Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
Narrated by: Sydney Darius & Wendell Manwarren
Length: 8 hours 40 minutes

A mythic love story set in Trinidad, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's radiant debut is a masterwork of lush imagination and exuberant storytelling—a spellbinding and hopeful novel about inheritance, loss, and love's seismic power to heal.

"Roots the reader in [Trinidad’s] traditions and rituals [and] ... in the glorious matriarchy by which lineage is... Read more

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The Rage of Innocence

How America Criminalizes Black Youth

By: Kristin Henning
Narrated by: Karen Chilton
Length: 15 hours 42 minutes

A brilliant analysis of the foundations of racist policing in America: the day-to-day brutalities, largely hidden from public view, endured by Black youth growing up under constant police surveillance and the persistent threat of physical and psychological abuse

"Storytelling that can make people understand the racial inequities of the legal...
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An Autobiography of Skin

A Novel

By: Lakiesha Carr
Narrated by: Kacie Rogers, Zenzi Williams & Karen Chilton
Length: 9 hours 22 minutes

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • This magisterial, intimate look at Black womanhood "follows three women whose various traumas haunt them literally and metaphorically, as it explores what it means to be a Black woman in America today" (The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice).

A middle-aged woman feed slots at a secret back-room... Read more

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The Furrows

A Novel

By: Namwali Serpell
Narrated by: Kristen Ariza, Ryan Vincent Anderson & Dion Graham
Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award • One of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year • Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize

“A triumph.”—New York Magazine

From one of the most celebrated new voices in American literature, a brilliantly inventive and “enthralling” (Oprah Daily) novel about the eternal bonds of family... Read more

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You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays

By: Zora Neale Hurston, Henry Louis Gates & Genevieve West
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 15 hours 19 minutes

Introduction by New York Times bestselling author Henry Louis Gates Jr. Spanning more than 35 years of work, the first comprehensive collection of essays, criticism, and articles by the legendary author of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston, showcasing the evolution of her distinctive style as an archivist and author.“One of the greatest... Read more

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South to America

A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

By: Imani Perry
Narrated by: Imani Perry
Length: 16 hours 32 minutes

“An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South—and thus of America—by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration.” —Isabel Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our DiscontentsAn essential, surprising journey... Read more

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Speaking of Race

Why Everybody Needs to Talk About Racism—and How to Do It

By: Celeste Headlee
Narrated by: Celeste Headlee
Length: 7 hours 54 minutes

A Boston Globe Most Anticipated Fall BookIn this urgently needed guide, the PBS host, award-winning journalist, and author of We Need to Talk teaches us how to have productive conversations about race, offering insights, advice, and support.
A self-described “light-skinned Black Jew,” Celeste Headlee has been forced to speak about race—including... Read more

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A Soft Place to Land

By: Janae Marks
Narrated by: Imani Parks
Length: 6 hours 7 minutes

“When her father loses his job, causing her family to move into an apartment building, Joy Taylor’s life dramatically changes—she has to share a room with her little sister, the walls are thin, and she has to give up piano lessons. While the move ignites her parents to start arguing constantly, she discovers a group of kids living in the building... Read more

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Stacey’s Extraordinary Words

The Stacey Stories

By: Stacey Abrams
Narrated by: Stacey Abrams
Length: 14 minutes

The debut picture book from iconic voting rights advocate and #1 New York Times bestselling author Stacey Abrams is an inspiring tale of determination, based on her own childhood. Stacey is a little girl who loves words more than anything. She loves reading them, sounding them out, and finding comfort in them when things are hard. But when her... Read more

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Our 2024 impact report is here! Read now