Books by Women of Color to Read in 2022

Brown Girls

A Novel

By: Daphne Palasi Andreades
Narrated by: Tashi Thomas
Length: 4 hours 26 minutes

“A gorgeous, gratifying story, evoking a strong sense of place in the 'dregs of Queens' and told from the plural perspective of the eponymous brown girls. Disguised by the book's brevity is the impressive span of rich, lively vignettes that make up a life, cradle to grave. Particularly notable is the way Andreades rejects the idea of caricature... Read more

The School for Good Mothers

A Novel

By: Jessamine Chan
Narrated by: Catherine Ho
Length: 11 hours 56 minutes

“What does it mean exactly to be a good mother? When Frida Liu’s husband leaves her for another woman, her young child Harriet gets sick and is crying incessantly, and Frida is feeling like an all-round failure, she snaps. She leaves her daughter at home to run to the office to pick up a couple of things. A neighbor hears the baby crying and... Read more

Olga Dies Dreaming

A Novel

By: Xochitl Gonzalez
Narrated by: Almarie Guerra, Armando Riesco & Inés del Castillo
Length: 11 hours 41 minutes

“Fans of witty, emotionally charged stories with a lot to say won’t want to miss Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez. As Olga, a successful wedding planner in New York City, navigates the chaos of her Puerto Rican roots, political corruption, and family secrets, her carefully constructed life starts to unravel in a compelling mix of humor,... Read more

Fiona and Jane

By: Jean Chen Ho
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Length: 7 hours 17 minutes

A TIME, NPR, VOGUE, OPRAH DAILY, AND VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (SO FAR)

One of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2022

“Ho's debut work is the perfect modern example of great American fiction. . . . You will love it.” —Jake Tapper

“Intimate, cinematic. . . . The world Ho creates between the two women feels like one friend reading the other’s story,... Read more

People Change

By: Vivek Shraya
Narrated by: Vivek Shraya
Length: 1 hour 52 minutes

*FINALIST FOR THE CITY OF CALGARY W.O. MITCHELL BOOK PRIZE*

“A deeply generous and honest gift to the world.”
—Elliot Page

The author of I’m Afraid of Men lets readers in on the secrets to a life of reinvention.

Vivek Shraya knows this to be true: people change. We change our haircuts and our outfits and our minds. We change names, titles, labels.... Read more

To Paradise

A Novel

By: Hanya Yanagihara
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Catherine Ho, BD Wong, Feodor Chin & Kurt Kanazawa
Length: 28 hours 46 minutes

“Expansive, wholly original, and utterly engrossing, To Paradise is a masterpiece. Fans of Yanagihara’s A Little Life will find themselves making a little more room in their hearts for this marvelous, emotional, and brilliant story. Read more

Manifesto

On Never Giving Up

By: Bernardine Evaristo
Narrated by: Bernardine Evaristo
Length: 6 hours 7 minutes

From the bestselling and Booker Prize–winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo’s memoir of her own life and writing, and her manifesto on unstoppability, creativity, and activismBernardine Evaristo’s 2019 Booker Prize win was a historic and revolutionary occasion, with Evaristo being the first Black woman and first Black British... Read more

Fresh Banana Leaves

Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science

By: Jessica Hernandez, Ph.D.
Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
Length: 9 hours 35 minutes

A 2022 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist in Science & Technology

An Indigenous environmental scientist breaks down why western conservationism isn't working--and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors.

Despite the... Read more

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

Admissions

A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School

By: Kendra James
Narrated by: Mela Lee
Length: 8 hours 53 minutes

A sharp-witted and deeply insightful look into the storied world of elite prep schools from the first African-American legacy student to graduate from The Taft School.

Early on in Kendra James’ professional life, she began to feel like she was selling a lie. As an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment for independent prep... Read more

Joan Is Okay

A Novel

By: Weike Wang
Narrated by: Catherine Ho
Length: 6 hours 36 minutes

“A smart, moving, and entertaining book. Joan is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and an ICU doctor in New York City. There's a pandemic looming, but Joan’s going to be okay. A witty and insightful story. Read more

Violeta [English Edition]

A Novel

By: Isabel Allende
Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi
Length: 11 hours 59 minutes

“Spanning 100 years, Isabel Allende recounts Violeta’s life in letters to her grandson. The author develops each character in Violeta’s life — children, lovers, and neighbors. This book flows easily and is hard to put down. Loved it! Read more

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

“The spirit and essence of “America” are things quintessentially, essentially elusive. In South to America, Imani Perry—native Black Southerner, award-winning author, Princeton professor—submits a gorgeously written, eminently worthy entry in the search. Crafting a compelling balance between recorded history, current events, and personal... Read more

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century

By: Kim Fu
Narrated by: Piper Goodeve, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Samara Naeymi, Gary Tiedemann & Jeena Yi
Length: 6 hours 27 minutes

In the twelve unforgettable tales of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, the strange is made familiar and the familiar strange, such that a girl growing wings on her legs feels like an ordinary rite of passage, while a bug-infested house becomes an impossible, Kafkaesque nightmare. Each story builds a new world all its own: a group of... Read more

Reclaim the Stars

17 Tales Across Realms & Space

By: Zoraida Córdova
Narrated by: Almarie Guerra & Zoraida Córdova
Length: 13 hours 6 minutes

One of Bustle's Most Anticipated Books of 2022
One of Pop Sugar's Best New YA of 2022

From stories that take you to the stars, to stories that span into other times and realms, to stories set in the magical now, Reclaim the Stars takes the Latin American diaspora to places fantastical and out of this world.

Follow princesses warring in space,... Read more

When I'm Gone, Look for Me in the East

A Novel

By: Quan Barry
Narrated by: David Lee Huynh
Length: 8 hours 24 minutes

From the acclaimed author of We Ride Upon Sticks comes a luminous novel that moves across a windswept Mongolia, as estranged twin brothers make a journey of duty, conflict, and renewed understanding.

"A dazzling achievement...The rhythms are more like prayer than prose, and the puzzlelike plot yields revelations." —The New York Times

Tasked with... Read more

The Lost Dreamer

The Lost Dreamer Duology: Book #1

By: Lizz Huerta
Narrated by: Elisa Melendez & Inés del Castillo
Length: 10 hours 52 minutes

"[Narrators] Melendez and del Castillo work together to heighten the vibrancy and tension of Huerta's narrative with forceful deliveries and dynamic characterizations. In a moving exploration of family, power, community, and love, two stories beautifully combine into a vivid, captivating adventure. A compelling debut, well suited to fans of... Read more

The Last Suspicious Holdout

Stories

By: Ladee Hubbard
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo & JD Jackson
Length: 7 hours 6 minutes

The critically acclaimed author of The Rib King returns with an eagerly anticipated collection of interlocking short stories including the title story written exclusively for this volume, that explore relationships between friends, family and strangers in a Black neighborhood over fifteen yearsThe twelve gripping tales... Read more

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

A Ballad of Love and Glory

A Novel

By: Reyna Grande
Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi & Aidan Kelly
Length: 13 hours 33 minutes

2023 International Latino Book Award Winner
Finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters’s Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Fiction

A Long Petal of the Sea meets Cold Mountain in this “epic and exquisitely wrought” (Patricia Engel, New York Times bestselling author) saga following a Mexican army nurse and an Irish soldier who must fight, at first... Read more