May 2024 Selection:
The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
Reyna Grande's memoir is about her life before and after coming to the United States from Mexico and becoming a U.S. citizen. The book is "“funny, heartbreaking, and lyrical.”
March 2024 Selection:
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and
Victoria Christopher Murray
This book tells the little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian, who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret (her race) that she kept in order to make her dreams come true. Belle became a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating skills.
January 2024 Selection:
Up Home: One Girl's Journey by Ruth J. Simmons
"An inspiring, indelible memoir from the daughter of sharecroppers in East Texas who became the first Black president of an Ivy League university (Brown University) — an uplifting story of girlhood and the power of family, community, and the classroom to transform one young person’s life."
November 2023 Selection:
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdich
Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a New York Times Bestseller, and winner of multiple other honors, this beautifully-crafted book is based on the life of the author's grandfather, who lived on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. In 1953, a bill was introduced in Congress to "terminate" recognition of the tribe and sell off the reservation, which would leave the residents "emancipated" and homeless. Erdich recounts the story of how the tribe fought the legislation, weaving in stories of memorable characters like Pixie Paranteau, a recent high school graduate struggling to make a life for herself while dealing with her impoverished family and a missing sister.
September 2023 Selection:
You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
“A must-read that will have Black women feeling seen and heard, and will allow others to better understand the effects of racism” Library Journal
“Expertly balancing laugh-out-loud humor and descriptions of deplorable actions…while the writing is consistently funny, the severity of the racism is never downplayed. Ruffin and Lamar show the necessity of embracing humor as a coping mechanism.” Publishers Weekly
July 2023 Selection:
The House is on Fire by Rachel Beanland
An 1811 fire in a theater in Richmond, Virginia "shocked a young nation and tore apart a community." This book of historical fiction weaves together the lives of the rich and poor, enslaved and free.
May 2023 Selection:
Stamped:Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
This book, written at a young adult reading level, investigates why the poison of racism lingers, with hope for an antiracist future.
March 2023 Selection:
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
The focus of the book is the devastation caused by war, in this case, by the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, seen through the eyes of Henry Lee, who, as a boy, saw his friend taken away.
January 2023 Selection:
I have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with forward by Amanda Gorman
This new HarperCollins edition contains the text of the speech and a reflection by Amanda Gorman, American poet and activist.
November 2022 Selection:
Bedrock Faith by Eric Charles May
"After 14 years in prison, Gerald "Stew Pot" Reeves, 31, returns home to Parkland, a Black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. A frightening delinquent before being sent away, his return sends Parkland residents into a religiously-infused tailspin, which only increases when Stew Pot announces that he experienced a religious awakening in prison."
September 2022 Selection:
Thea's Song: The Life of Thea Bowman by Charlene Smith and John Feister
Sister Thea, a candidate for canonization, left a lasting mark on the U.S. Catholic Church in the late 20th century through her music, her work, and her prophetic voice to the bishops, especially through the National Black Sisters Conference. This is a biography of an extraordinary woman.
July 2022 Selection:
New Kid by Jerry Craft
Like Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin, New Kid is a semi-autobiographical "coming of age book," But this one is contemporary and written in the form of a graphic novel, making it a good choice for a summer read. The writing and illustrations are terrific and it won a Newberry Award. It has also been banned in many school districts because it refers to micro-aggressions.
After you read it, pass it on to a young relative or donate it so that it is re-read!
March and May 2022 Selection:
Racial Justice and the Catholic Church by Bryan N. Massingale
Brian Massingale, a priest and leading Black Catholic moral theologian, writes from an abiding conviction that the Catholic faith and the Black experience make essential contributions to the continuing struggle against racial injustice that is the work of all people.
January 2022 Selection:
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Based on the historical figure Sarah Grimke, this novel traces the lives of an enslaved girl in Charleston, SC, and the 11-year-old girl who "owned" her.
November 2021 Selection:
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
"#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX • A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time." (from Amazon.com)
September 2021 Selection:
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
"First published in 1953, [this] is Baldwin's first major work, a semi-autobiographical novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935."
July 2021 Selection:
Be the Bridge by Latasha Morrison
"Latasha Morrison is a champion of racial reconciliation and an advocate for racial justice." "In this perspective-shifting book, [Be the Bridge] founder Latasha Morrison shows how you can participate in this incredible work and replicate it in your own community. With conviction and grace, she examines the historical complexities of racism."