New Books By Black Women To Add To Your Reading List
By Jessica Morgan & Stephanie Long
Welcome to Book-ish, Unbothered’s book hub for black girls who put the ‘lit’ in literature! Book-ish is a space for black women who love to read, by black women who love to read. We’re excited to bring you content highlighting must-read black women authors and more.
We’re bringing you a list of books by black women we can’t wait to read this year. From a brand-new Zora Neale Hurston collection to Bola Babalola’s anthology of lost love stories, Stephanie Yeboah’s buzzworthy debut about living unapologetically as a plus-size black girl and the long-awaited debut from award-winning journalist Kenya Hunt, read on for the books you should be adding to your bookshelf in 2020.
Such A Fun Age, Kiley Reid
When 25-year-old Emira Tucker becomes the babysitter of Alix Chamberlain, “a woman who gets what she wants,” the last thing she expects is to be interrogated by a supermarket security guard while caring for Alix’s daughter…yet here she is. Accused of kidnapping, Emira is in the middle of a quarter-life crisis when a video of the incident thrusts both her and Alix into the spotlight, and now they must navigate this political circus together.
“An exploration of race and racism and misguided perceptions of the issue, executed with wit and a sharp edge…[Such a Fun Age] reveals how trapped black people who work in service jobs for white people feel, how easily privileged whites — who would protest any claims of prejudice — can fetishise blacks, or fail to see them as fully three-dimensional humans. And yes, dear reader, you are implicated in this too,” says The Boston Globe.
Take it from us, we’re reading it right now and we’re all the way into it.
Buy your copy here.
Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women White Feminists Forgot, Mikki Kendall
“I am a strong person; I am a flawed person. What I am not is a superhuman. Nor am I a Strong Black Woman.” Mikki Kendall’s introduction is clear: she won’t be tiptoeing around mainstream feminism, nor will she put up with the erasure of the black experience. Mikki is here to ruffle the feathers.
And it’s timely. Mikki makes the case for addressing the needs of marginalised women, those — like she — who have experienced violence, hypersexualisation and hunger while juggling the complex worlds of politics, pop culture and mental health. Hood Feminism fights to have minorities addressed and acknowledged within modern feminism and makes it known that black women aren’t just a sassy motif on a T-shirt but ordinary people who are fighting to have their voices heard.
Purchase your copy here.
Loud Black Girls: 20 Black Women Writers Ask: What’s Next? Yomi Adegoke & Elizabeth Uviebinené (1st October)
Nearly every black girl owns a copy of the black girl bible, Slay In Your Lane, and now the pair behind the wildly successful and inspirational guide are back with the anthology, Loud Black Girls. Featuring 20 essays from established and up-and-coming black British writers, Loud Black Girls explores what really matters to black women today.
Expect frank and fearless words from Paula Akpan, Siana Bangura, Candice Brathwaite, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Fiona Rutherford and Kuba Shand-Baptiste among others who try to navigate through words what life is really like for black women in a post-Brexit and Trump world.
Pre-order your copy here.
Love in Colour: Mythical Tales From Around The World, Retold, Bolu Babalola (20th August)
Writer and pop culture sweetheart Bolu Babalola makes her author debut with a brilliant collection of love stories from across the globe. Bolu modernises these 18 stories, which span Nigerian folk tales, Greek myths and south Asian ancient tales, by removing sexism, racism and violence from them. We meet a high-born Nigerian goddess who feels beaten down and under-appreciated by her gregarious lover, a young businesswoman who attempts to make a great leap in her company and an even bigger one in her love life, and a powerful Ghanaian woman who is forced to decide whether to uphold her family’s politics or be true to her heart.
These vibrant stories navigate the most complex human emotion and try to understand why it holds us hostage, while decolonising tropes by forming new stories that already exist in so many cultures and communities around the world.
Pre-order your copy here.
F*ck Your Diet: And Other Things My Thighs Tell Me, Chloé Hilliard
Chloé Hilliard was wearing a size 12 shoe by the time she reached middle school, easily one of the most anxiety-inducing times of an adolescent’s life. In F*ck Your Diet, the comedian gets candid about navigating the world with what she refers to as the “unholy trinity” of bodily characteristics: slow metabolism, baby weight and big bones.
“I, like most Americans, am the result of the working class who survived on processed foods, fast-food chains, and a lack of education when it came to nutrition and exercise,” Hilliard shares in a press release. “You’re only as healthy as your options and, for me, those options were determined by socioeconomics, culture, ill-informed, deep-rooted traditions, and my zip code.”
Touted as the perfect read for fans of Issa Rae’s The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl and Phoebe Robinson’s Don’t Touch My Hair, F*ck Your Diet has received stellar reviews from everyone from Marc Lamont Hill to MTV Decoded’s Franchesca Ramsey, who called it “a witty whip-smart exploration of the ways society has screwed up the way we see our bodies.”
Let Ramsey tell it, your younger, less secure self needed this.
Grab your copy here.
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston
Two years after the release of Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon — which highlighted the story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade — Amistad brings readers Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance. The book is exactly as the title suggests: a collection of illuminating stories from, as Toni Morrison called her, “one of the greatest writers of our time,” including eight of Hurston’s “forgotten” stories that will be read by eyes everywhere for the very first time.
In true Hurston fashion, the beloved author and anthropologist details the African American experience in the critical way that only she could. Booklist says “her rediscovered stories will electrify book media and draw in readers.”
Purchase your copy here.
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls, Anissa Gray
This isn’t a new one but because it was undeniably one of the most talked about novels to be released by a black author in 2019, we had to feature its paperback rerelease. ICYMI, Anissa Gray’s The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls tells the story of a woman whose family goes from being one of the most revered to getting arrested. The crime she and her husband commit force the family members who are left behind to care for one another, and they learn some heavy truths along the way.
Oprah Magazine stated that “the inequities of the justice system, the fortitude of women of colour, and the bittersweet struggle to connect are rendered ravishingly in this bighearted novel.”
Purchase your copy here.
So We Can Glow: Stories, Leesa Cross-Smith
In So We Can Glow, Kentucky author (Every Kiss A War and Whiskey & Ribbons) Leesa Cross-Smith presents readers with what some have already lauded as an engrossing collection of stories to look forward to. From friendships to motherly bonds, Cross-Smith writes about the experiences of women in a way that will both tug at your heart and have you kiki’ing as well.
“I so admire these stirring, sexy, haunting stories about the darkest corners of women’s inner lives,” Alexia Arthurs, award-winning author of How to Love a Jamaican, says in her review. “A treat for the soul and the senses, and funny too. Leesa Cross-Smith is a wonderful storyteller.”
Purchase your copy here.
GIRL: Essays On Womanhood And Belonging In The Age Of Black Girl Magic, Kenya Hunt (12th November)
In a world which often feels against us, black women have never been more visible. In the last few years, we’ve seen black women grace every magazine cover, smash every box office record and reach every new milestone. But the reality of being a black woman is complex, nuanced and a contradiction-laden experience.
Kenya Hunt, the award-winning American journalist in London, provocatively threads cultural observations through relatable stories that illuminate our current cultural moment while transcending it. Alongside her own experiences we have guest contributors such as Candice Carty-Williams, Jessica Horn, Ebele Okobi, Funmi Fetto and Freddie Harrel, all adding their unique voices and perspectives to this ever-changing world.
Pre-order your copy here.
These Ghosts Are Family, Maisy Card
Author Maisy Card makes her debut with a gripping tale of generational trauma and what happens when it goes unaddressed. Rooted in Jamaica, Card’s novel tells the story of a man who changes his identity and leaves his family behind. Over 35 years later, he reunites with his daughter, who — until this very moment — thought her father was dead. As the two put the pieces together, he’s forced to face the strain he’s placed upon his family, while his daughter’s life is changed forever.
“In this fascinating debut, Maisy Card reveals her spectacular range and scope,” says The Need author Helen Phillips. “Part immigrant narrative, part ghost story, part historical fiction, part family drama, These Ghosts Are Family explores and illuminates the complexities of race and lineage in Jamaica and the United States.”
This may be your next page-turner.
Lakewood, Megan Giddings
Lakewood finds protagonist Lena Johnson making the sacrifice of a lifetime after her grandmother dies. Dropping out of college for a job in Lakewood, Michigan so she can take care of her family, Johnson finds herself questioning her new, cushy reality — especially since her new job puts black bodies in jeopardy. Is her high-paying job free housing worth it?
“Megan Giddings’ Lakewood is a gripping thriller of ideas in the tradition of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, depicting a terrifying world of public complicity and government-sponsored malpractice,” Matt Bell, author of Scrapper, details. “Giddings asks: What happens when our want to be useful is weaponised against us, when the only way we see to help others is to invite harm upon ourselves?”
Purchase your copy here.
We Want Our Bodies Back, jessica Care moore
From poet-activist powerhouse jessica Care moore comes We Want Our Bodies Back, a powerful, full-length collection of poignant prose written as an ode to black women’s power, pain and the fight against the patriarchal forces that inflict the latter upon them. The founder and CEO of Moore Black Press and the executive producer of Black WOMEN Rock!, moore has long made it her mission to advocate for the underserved, lending her voice to multiple causes within the black community — including the international fight against AIDS.
“We Want Our Bodies Back is a lyric encyclopaedia, a psalm book, a conflagration of fire and fierce black joy. And jessica Care moore is the 21st century poet warrior America desperately needs,” says Tracy K. Smith, US poet laureate.
Purchase your copy here.
I Am Not Your Baby Mother, Candice Brathwaite
After Candice Brathwaite got pregnant and noticed that women like her weren’t represented in the media, she found herself asking the question: where are all the black pregnant women?
Starting off as a motherhood blog in 2016, Candice has now turned her observations into a thought-provoking and wholly necessary guide for black mothers, exploring the stages between pregnancy and waving your child off at school while tackling the tough topics of white privilege, racial microaggressions, unconscious bias and the ethnic pay gap. Written in her brilliantly witty manner, this book is every black British woman’s motherhood manual.
Order your copy here.
Luster, Raven Leilani (4th August)
Edie — the protagonist of Raven Leilani’s debut novel, Luster — is an aspiring artist in her 20s who is just trying to figure things out. In the middle of her self-discovery, and while chasing an art career, she lands herself in many sticky situations…including in the middle of a man’s open marriage. A coming-of-age story that’s sure to keep you turning pages, Luster is described as “sharp, comic, disruptive” and “tender”.
Pre-order your copy here.
Fattily Ever After: A Black Fat Girl’s Guide to Living Life Unapologetically, Stephanie Yeboah (3rd September)
From being bullied at school to being objectified and humiliated in her dating life, blogger Stephanie Yeboah has taken these harsh experiences and sprinkled them with black girl magic to change the narrative around body image. Fattily Ever After is her love letter to black women that explores the ways in which we navigate society, from love and relationships to the way we are portrayed in the media.
In her long-awaited debut, Stephanie opens up about her experiences of being a black, plus-size woman and her journey to self-acceptance in an otherwise judgemental world, as well as sharing her thoughts on the treatment of black women throughout history, the marginalisation of black, plus-size women in the media and stories of misogynoir and fetishisation. Each page includes tips and advice on how to live an unapologetic, unbothered life as a plus-size black woman.
Pre-order your copy here.
Originally published at https://www.refinery29.com.
