SJPL Picks: Black Women's VoicesLike this list

47 items

• Little Movements

  a Novel

  Morrow, Lauren,

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  Fiction: Contemporary. "Thirty-something Layla Smart was raised by her mother to dream medium. But all Layla's ever wanted was a career in dance, which requires dreaming big. So when she receives an offer to be the choreographer-in-residence at…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Catch

  Daley-Ward, Yrsa,

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  Fiction: Contemporary. "Long estranged after being adopted into different families, twin sisters Clara and Dempsey encounter a woman identical to their vanished mother who seems to have lived a childless life, and their opposing views on her true…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Zeal

  a Novel

  Jerkins, Morgan,

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  Fiction: Historical, Contemporary, Romance. "Harlem, 2019. Ardelia and Oliver are hosting their engagement party. As the guests get ready to leave, he hands her a love letter on a yellowing, crumbling piece of paper . . . Natchez, 1865. Discharged…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Kin

  Jones, Tayari,

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  Fiction: Contemporary, Friendship. "Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Ready to Score

  a Novel

  Slaughter, Jodie,

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  Fiction: Romance, LGBTQ, Sports. "Jade Dunn has spent years trying to climb her way to the top of the southern high school football food chain. Now, the only thing standing between her and that future head coach spot is years of small-town good 'ol…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Conjuring of America

  Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic

  Stewart, Lindsey (Lindsey L.),

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  Non-fiction. "Emerging first on plantations in the American South, enslaved conjure women used their magic to treat illnesses. These women combined their ancestral spiritual beliefs from West Africa with local herbal rituals and therapeutic remedies…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Happy Land

  Perkins-Valdez, Dolen,

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  Fiction: Contemporary. "In the hills of Appalachia, there once existed a land ruled by a king and a queen. Inspired by distant memories of African kingdoms, a community of formerly enslaved men and women grasped freedom and started lives on mountain…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A New New Me

  Oyeyemi, Helen,

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  Fiction: Contemporary. "What if you had to share your body and life with six different versions of yourself? Kinga-Alojzia lives alone in Prague, but she's never lonely. A different personality takes up residence in her mind each day of the week.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• These Heathens

  a Novel

  McKenzie, Mia

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  Fiction: Historical, Coming-of-age. "Where do you get an abortion in 1960 Georgia, especially if the town midwife goes to the same church as your parents? For seventeen-year-old Doris Steele, the answer is Atlanta, where her favorite teacher, Mrs.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Psychopomp & Circumstance

  Royce, Eden,

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  Fiction: Fantasy, Alternative History, Novella. "Phee St. Margaret is a daughter of the Reconstruction, born to a family of free Black business owners in New Charleston. Coddled to within an inch of her life by a mother who refuses to let her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Flower Bearers

  a Memoir

  Griffiths, Rachel Eliza,

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  Non-fiction: Memoir. "On September 24, 2021, Rachel Eliza Griffiths married her husband, the novelist Salman Rushdie. On the same day, hundreds of miles of away, Griffiths' closest friend and chosen sister, the poet Kamilah Aisha Moon, who was…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Listen to Your Sister

  a Novel

  Viel, Neena,

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  Fiction: Horror, Thriller. "Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. When Jamie’s actions at a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• History Lessons

  a Mystery

  Wallbrook, Zoe B.,

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  Fiction: Cozy Mystery, Romance. "As a newly minted junior professor, Daphne Ouverture spends her days giving lectures on French colonialism, writing her first academic book, and going on atrocious dates. Her small world suits her just fine. Until…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Wilderness

  a Novel

  Flournoy, Angela,

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  Fiction: Contemporary, Friendship. "An era-defining novel about five Black women over the course of their twenty-year friendship. Desiree, Danielle, January, Monique, and Nakia are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Once Upon a Time in Dollywood

  Jordan, Ashley, 1987-

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  Fiction: Contemporary, Romance. "Eve Ambroise may be a rising star playwright, but her personal life is falling part. Desperate for a fresh start, she breaks up with her fiancé, cuts off her parents, and heads to the Tennessee mountains. But keeping…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Without Fear

  Black Women and the Making of Human Rights /

  Blain, Keisha N., 1985-

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  Non-fiction: Hisory. "Even before they were recognized as citizens of the United States, Black women understood that the fights for civil and human rights were inseparable. Over the course of two hundred years, they were at the forefront of national…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• We Don't Talk About Carol

  a Novel

  Berry, Kristen L.,

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  Fiction: Mystery, Suspense. "In the wake of her grandmother's passing, Sydney Singleton finds a hidden photograph of a little girl who looks more like Sydney than her own sister or mother. She soon discovers the mystery girl in the photograph is her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Waterbearers

  a Memoir of Mothers and Daughters

  Bonét, Sasha,

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  Non-fiction: Memoir. "A sharp, tender, sweeping history of three single Black mothers--the author's grandmother, mother, and the author herself--interwoven with the stories of the Black women they saw on the screen and heard on the radio every day.

• The Payback

  Cauley, Kashana,

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  Fiction: Contemporary. "Jada Williams is good at judging people by their looks. From across the mall, she can tell not only someone's inseam and pants size, but exactly what style they need to transform their life. Too bad she's no longer using this…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Lonely Crowds

  a Novel

  Wambugu, Stephanie,

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  Fiction: Historical, LGBTQ. "Ruth, an only child of recent immigrants to New England, lives in an emotionally cold home and attends the local Catholic girl's school on a scholarship. Maria, a beautiful orphan whose Panamanian mother dies by suicide…Read moreRead more of this annotation