Politics and Prose Black History Month Picks

Their Eyes Were Watching God

By: Zora Neale Hurston
Narrated by: Ruby Dee
Length: 6 hours 44 minutes

“This book is a masterpiece. Zora Neale Hurston explores stages in a woman’s life so powerfully. Ruby Dee’s audiobook narration is the best audiobook narration I’ve ever heard. She expresses so much emotion and personality. She brings the characters to life and she savors every perfectly chosen word of the text. Read more

Good Dirt

A Novel

By: Charmaine Wilkerson
Narrated by: January LaVoy
Length: 11 hours 26 minutes

“What a wonderful story! Read more

Harlem Rhapsody

By: Victoria Christopher Murray
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 15 hours 5 minutes

“This book was an amazing addition to my Black History Month TBR. I absolutely loved meeting Jessie and learning how all of our famous authors of the Harlem Renaissance came to be. Well done!! Read more

James

A Novel

By: Percival Everett
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 7 hours 48 minutes

“Percival Everett, deep into his brilliant career, adds another indelible novel into his vast canon. James reimagines an emblematic — and yes, problematic — American classic and asks about life, history, and our cultural psyche. Read more

Ours

A Novel

By: Phillip B. Williams
Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
Length: 22 hours 47 minutes

“I never expected a poet to deliver such a doorstop as a debut novel, and I never expected to be so engrossed by it. This broad cast of characters all play important roles, and are all brilliantly and tangibly real in their imbalance of good and evil. This is one of the most human novels I've encountered. Read more

The Unsettled

A novel

By: Ayana Mathis
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 11 hours 26 minutes

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR •  WINNER OF THE GABE HUDSON PRIZE • From the best-selling author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, a searing multi-generational novel—set in the 1980s in racially and politically turbulent Philadelphia and in the tiny town of Bonaparte, Alabama—about a mother fighting for her sanity and... Read more

Let Us March On

A Novel

By: Shara Moon
Narrated by: Karen Chilton
Length: 9 hours 41 minutes

Devoted wife, White House maid, reluctant activist…A stirring novel inspired by the life of an unsung heroine, and real-life crusader, Lizzie McDuffie, who as a maid in FDR’s White House spearheaded the Civil Rights movement of her time.I’m just a college-educated Southerner with a passion for books. My husband says I’m too bold, too sharp, too... Read more

Blues in Stereo

The Early Works of Langston Hughes

By: Langston Hughes
Narrated by: Danez Smith
Length: 1 hour 24 minutes

Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten Fall 2024 Poetry Books

From Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, a stunning collection of early works written from 1921-1927 and curated by award winning poet and National Book Award finalist, Danez Smith. Before Langston Hughes and his literary prowess became synonymous with American poetry, he was a... Read more

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

By: Frederick Douglass
Narrated by: Charles Turner
Length: 4 hours 36 minutes

Uncertain of his date of birth or the identity of his father, Frederick Douglass came into the world with one surety: he was born a slave, and would die a slave. But as he grew up, Douglass determined that he would teach himself to read and write, and that one day he would be free from slavery. In 1832, Douglass was sent to a plantation in St.... Read more

New Prize for These Eyes

The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement

By: Juan Williams
Narrated by: Juan Williams
Length: 9 hours 10 minutes

In this highly anticipated follow-up to Eyes on the Prize, bestselling author Juan Williams turns his attention to the rise of a new 21st-century civil rights movement.

More than a century of civil rights activism reached a mountaintop with the arrival of a Black man in the Oval Office. But hopes for a unified, post-racial America were deflated... Read more

Gather Me

A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me

By: Glory Edim
Narrated by: Glory Edim
Length: 8 hours 5 minutes

A “dramatic [and] ingeniously crafted” (Los Angeles Times) memoir of family, community, and resilience, and an ode to the power of books to help us understand ourselves, from the renowned founder of Well-Read Black Girl.

“A beautiful portrait of a full life that has been buoyed by an expansive and ever-growing love for words and for... Read more

Medgar and Myrlie

Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened America

By: Joy-Ann Reid
Narrated by: Joy-Ann Reid
Length: 10 hours 52 minutes

#1 New York Times BestsellerNAACP Image Award WinnerFrom Joy-Ann Reid, a triumphant work of biography that repositions slain Civil Rights pioneer Medgar Evers at the heart of America's struggle for freedom, and celebrates Myrlie Evers's extraordinary activism after her husband's assassination in the driveway of their Mississippi home.“Medgar... Read more

Black in Blues

How a Color Tells the Story of My People

By: Imani Perry
Narrated by: Imani Perry
Length: 9 hours 3 minutes

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY: Time, USA Today, People, AARP, Today.com, BookRiot, Bustle, LitHub, BookPage, Our Culture, and VultureA surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue—and its fascinating role in Black history and culture—from National Book Award winner Imani PerryThroughout history, the concept of Blackness has been... Read more

Calling In

By: Loretta J Ross
Narrated by: Loretta J Ross
Length: 8 hours 39 minutes

From a pioneering Black feminist and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, an urgent and exhilarating memoir-manifesto-handbook about how to rein in the excesses of cancel culture so we can truly communicate and solve problems together.

In 1979, Loretta Ross was a single mother who’d had to drop out of Howard University. She was working at Washington, DC’s... Read more

Make Me Rain

Poems & Prose

By: Nikki Giovanni
Narrated by: Nikki Giovanni
Length: 2 hours 7 minutes

“I would not call myself a poetry reader, but there is something about Nikki Giovanni’s poetry that speaks to me so deeply. Sentimental and comforting, Make Me Rain covers a wide range of topics, from quilts and rising bread to the social change we so desperately need in our world. Giovanni’s wisdom and understanding once again prove why she is... Read more

Pure Innocent Fun

Essays

By: Ira Madison, III
Narrated by: Ira Madison, III
Length: 6 hours 50 minutes

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this nostalgic and raucous collection of sixteen original essays, Ira Madison III—critic, television writer, and host of the beloved Keep It podcast—combines memoir and criticism to offer a brand-new pop-culture manifesto.

“This is the most fun I’ve had reading all year. Like Chuck Klosterman before him, Ira Madison III... Read more

In Open Contempt

Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space

By: Irvin Weathersby Jr.
Narrated by: Irvin Weathersby Jr.
Length: 6 hours 36 minutes

“An awe-striking masterpiece of love.”
—Jason Reynolds, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“The sentences alone in In Open Contempt make it one of the most memorable books of the decade. But it’s the unexpected lingering and genius crafting of consequential action that makes this one of the freshest explorations of space I’ve ever read. Irvin... Read more

I Lived to Tell the Story

By: Tamika D. Mallory
Narrated by: Tamika D. Mallory
Length: 13 hours 40 minutes

A raw, heartfelt memoir of perseverance, redemption, and triumph from Tamika D. Mallory, trailblazing social justice leader, activist, and cofounder of the Women’s March.

In I Lived to Tell the Story, Tamika Mallory takes us beyond the headlines and podiums, offering an unfiltered look at the moments that shaped her—not just as an activist but... Read more

Black Panther Woman

The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins

By: Mary Frances Phillips
Narrated by: Deanna Anthony
Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

The first biography of Ericka Huggins, a queer Black woman who brought spiritual self-care practices to the Black Panther Party.



In this groundbreaking biography, Mary Frances Phillips immerses listeners in the life and legacy of Ericka Huggins, a revered Black Panther Party member, as well as a mother, widow, educator, poet, and former political... Read more

Will's Race for Home

By: Jewell Parker Rhodes
Narrated by: Christopher Hampton
Length: 4 hours 18 minutes

“An excellent and compelling book that touches upon the triumphs and struggles of an African American family through the eyes of Will. Will is the first person in his family to be born free, and when his father finds out about the Oklahoma Land Rush, he sees an opportunity for his son to not have to live under another form of oppression: share... Read more