Well-Read Black Girl @ QRB

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm

A Novel

By: Laura Warrell
Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
Length: 13 hours 8 minutes

“Sexy, gritty, robust characters. Immerse yourself in the life of Circus Palmer, jazz musician, and the astounding women who rumble in and out of his life in love and disdain. Outrageous debut novel! Read more

Take My Hand

By: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Narrated by: Lauren J. Daggett
Length: 10 hours 56 minutes

“This novel about sexual sterilization of poor, Black, women in the American South in the early 1970s raises important and timely questions about reproductive choice and explores intersections of class, race and gender. The narrator conveys the heartfelt emotion behind the story beautifully. The characters were well-developed and complex, and the... Read more

My Sister, the Serial Killer

A Novel

By: Oyinkan Braithwaite
Narrated by: Adepero Oduye
Length: 4 hours 14 minutes

“Does family always come first? In My Sister, the Serial Killer, a resentful older sister continues to enable her younger sister's serial killer tendencies. If you are looking for a dark and sardonic crime story, I recommend this unique audiobook! Read more

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick

Stories from the Harlem Renaissance

By: Zora Neale Hurston
Narrated by: Aunjanue Ellis
Length: 8 hours 57 minutes

“Zora Neale Hurston’s (Their Eyes Were Watching God, Barracoon) body of work continues to grow and impress. In Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, 21 short stories, including several “lost” pieces depicting the Great Migration to northern cities and Harlem’s educated New Negro middle class, offer an updated perspective of Hurston’s... Read more

No One Is Coming to Save Us

A Novel

By: Stephanie Powell Watts
Narrated by: Janina Edwards
Length: 10 hours 57 minutes

JJ Ferguson has returned home to Pinewood, North Carolina, to build his dream house and to pursue his high school sweetheart, Ava. But as he reenters his former world, where factories are in decline and the legacy of Jim Crow is still felt, he’s startled to find that the people he once knew and loved have changed just as much as he has. Ava is... Read more

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty

A Novel

By: Akwaeke Emezi
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 9 hours 57 minutes

“This is my top read of 2022 so far! I just loved this steamy gorgeously written novel about a young artist finding a second chance at love in the most unconventional of ways, five years after her husband's tragic death. Filled with lush descriptions of tropical gardens, transformative sunsets, and mouth-watering Michelin star concoctions! It's... Read more

Here Comes the Sun

A Novel

By: Nicole Dennis-Benn
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Capturing the distinct rhythms of Jamaican life and dialect, Nicole Dennis-Benn pens a tender hymn to a world hidden among pristine beaches and the wide expanse of turquoise seas. At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is... Read more

Beloved

By: Toni Morrison
Narrated by: Toni Morrison
Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A spellbinding novel that transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. With a new afterword by the author. 

This "brutally powerful, mesmerizing story” (People) is an unflinchingly look into the abyss of slavery, from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner.

Sethe... Read more

Swing Time

By: Zadie Smith
Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner
Length: 13 hours 45 minutes

“If you liked “Swing Time”, “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” is your next good read! Both have intensely interesting (albeit frustrating) female protagonists that will make you see even the most mundane things in an entirely new light. Read more

Finding Me

A Memoir

By: Viola Davis
Narrated by: Viola Davis
Length: 9 hours 15 minutes

Winner of the 2023 Grammy for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording!Audie Award Winner for Audiobook of the Year!Narrated by Viola DavisIn my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever.This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central... Read more

The Other Black Girl

A Novel

By: Zakiya Dalila Harris
Narrated by: Aja Naomi King, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Heather Alicia Simms & Bahni Turpin
Length: 13 hours 33 minutes

“This is the tale of two Black women co-workers in the cutthroat publishing industry trying to determine if they are friends or enemies. A literary fiction tale with a side of suspense, this expertly woven critique on society is bound to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Read more

Summer on the Bluffs

A Novel

Summer Beach: Book #1

By: Sunny Hostin
Narrated by: January LaVoy
Length: 9 hours 49 minutes

“Be prepared to be transported to Martha's Vineyard and become invested in these four women's lives, Ama, the matriarch and her three beloved and grown god daughters. The three girls are summer sisters and have tight bonds with each other and with Ama, but are now in competition for Ama's house. As the summer unfolds, long held secrets and old... Read more

Nightcrawling

A novel

By: Leila Mottley
Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
Length: 10 hours 48 minutes

“I have a feeling this book will be one that sticks with me for years to come. Nightcrawling is full of grit, emotion, and the strength of women from all walks of life. It explores many themes, including sexual exploitation, sex work, inner city life, and poverty. Leila Mottley (Oakland, CA) wrote this book when she was just 19, and it is both... Read more

Black Cake

A Novel

By: Charmaine Wilkerson
Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman & Simone Mcintyre
Length: 12 hours

COMING SOON TO HULU • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • Two estranged siblings delve into their mother’s hidden past—and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake—in this immersive family saga, “a character-driven, multigenerational story that’s meant to be savored” (Time).
 ... Read more

Wild Women and the Blues

By: Denny S. Bryce
Narrated by: Tracey Conyer Lee & Ronald Peet
Length: 12 hours 21 minutes

“Why would I talk to you about my life? I don't know you, and even if I did, I don't tell my story to just any boy with long hair, who probably smokes weed. You wanna hear about me. You gotta tell me something about you. To make this worth my while.”
1925: Chicago is the jazz capital of the world, and the Dreamland Café is the ritziest... Read more

Seven Days in June

By: Tia Williams
Narrated by: Mela Lee
Length: 10 hours 32 minutes

“Fans of second chances and epic teenage love will fall hard for this book. There is just so much feeling and feelings. Chemistry just crackles off the page. Read more

Parable of the Sower

Earthseed: Book #1

By: Octavia E. Butler
Narrated by: Lynne Thigpen
Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Octavia E. Butler paints a stunning portrait of an all-too-believable near future. As with Kindred and her other critically-acclaimed novels, Parable of the Sower skillfully combines startling visionary and socially realistic concepts. God is change. That is the central truth of the Earthseed movement, whose... Read more

Libertie

By: Kaitlyn Greenidge
Narrated by: Channie Waites
Length: 12 hours 12 minutes

“This fascinating story of Libertie is set in and around the Civil War in Brooklyn, NY. Libertie, the daughter of a free black doctor, feels obligated to live up to her mothers’ expectations for her, all the while attempting to forge for herself her own path through the world. Themes of racism, colorism, and gender are all grappled with. Though... Read more

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

An Oprah’s Book Club Novel

By: Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Karen Chilton & Prentice Onayemi
Length: 29 hours 48 minutes

“This is the best book I’ve read this year. An ambitious debut novel tracing the history of one family against the backdrop of American history and showing the stories that are remembered and the ones that are forgotten. Read more

When No One Is Watching

A Thriller

By: Alyssa Cole
Narrated by: Susan Dalian & Jay Aaseng
Length: 8 hours 54 minutes

“This is a must-read thriller rooted deeply in Brooklyn and its racist past. As the neighborhood makes plans for the annual block party, Sydney ends up battling more than the microaggressions from her new white neighbors. When her best friends go missing, her mom's prized garden is threatened, and a fake meter reader breaks into her home, she... Read more