Reminder: Black History Month Is Almost Over, But It’s Always A Great Time To Read Books Written By Black Authors
You are probably aware that Black History Month is celebrated annually in the U.S. during the month of February, but real talk– is good ol’ short-month Feb. the only time of the year you intentionally seek out Black authors? We hope not. We are assuming the best, here. And, we’re making sure that you have additional book recommendations to continue enjoying, learning from, and supporting Black authors all year!
At Copper, we recognize the power that books have in changing our world. We believe that individual, internal change is also critically important. We encourage you to take the time to read works by authors from a variety of diverse perspectives. Reading a memoir, for instance, can be one of the quickest pathways to empathy. And empathy helps create lasting change as we all attune our thoughts and actions more towards love and solidarity.
During Black History Month and beyond, it’s so important to learn more about what’s gone down in the United States over time– the sobering, often horrific truth. And… may we not forget to celebrate the incredible storytelling history of Black authors, writers, poets, and thought leaders in America.
As February comes to a close, we hope that you keep on keeping on when it comes to reading and supporting Black authors, all year. Recommend books to your friends, especially those you suspect may not have been exposed to the gift that is Black storytelling. You can also go support your favorite Black authors on their social media pages– those follows and ‘likes’ really do mean a lot! What an easy way to build community and continue uplifting voices that have historically been muted.
See below for some of Copper’s book recommendations for your reading list, Black History Month and beyond. And, hit us up on Instagram or Twitter @copper.books to let us know what other books by Black authors we should add to our nightstand!
The Redemption of Bobby Love: A Story of Faith, Family, and Justice by Bobby Love & Cheryl Love
The inspiring, dramatic, and heartwarming true account of an escaped convict and his wife of thirty-five plus years who never knew his secret, which captured the imaginations of millions on Humans of New York. Bobby and Cheryl Love were living in Brooklyn, happily married for decades, when the FBI and NYPD appeared at their door and demanded to know from Bobby, in front of his shocked wife and children: “What is your name? No, what’s your real name?” Bobby’s thirty-eight-year secret was out. As a Black child in the Jim Crow South, Bobby found himself in legal trouble before his 14th birthday. Sparked by the desperation he felt in the face of limited options and the pull of the streets, Bobby became a master thief. He soon found himself facing a thirty-year prison sentence. But Bobby was smarter than his jailers. He escaped, fled to New York, changed his name, and started a new life as “Bobby Love.” During that time, he worked multiple jobs to support his wife and their growing family, coached Little League, attended church, took his kids to Disneyland, and led an otherwise normal life. Then it all came crashing down. With the drama of a jailbreak story and the incredible tension of a life lived in hiding, The Redemption of Bobby Love is an unbelievable but true account of building a life from scratch, the pain of festering secrets in marriage, and the unbreakable bonds of faith and love that keep a family together. (Source: HarperCollins Publishers)
While Justice Sleeps: A Novel by Stacey Abrams
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. From celebrated political figure and bestselling author Stacey Abrams, While Justice Sleeps is a gripping, complexly plotted thriller set within the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court. Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk for the legendary Justice Howard Wynn, is doing her best to hold her strained personal life together. But when the shocking news breaks that Justice Wynn — the cantankerous swing vote on the court — has slipped into a coma, Avery’s life turns upside down. She learns that Wynn has appointed her to serve as his legal guardian and hold his power of attorney, plunging her into an explosive role she never anticipated. Avery finds that Justice Wynn had been secretly researching one of the most controversial cases before the court — a proposed merger between an American biotech company and an Indian genetics firm, which promises to unleash breathtaking results in the medical field. She also discovers that Wynn suspected a dangerous conspiracy was infiltrating the highest corridors of power in Washington. As political wrangling intensifies to replace the ailing judge, Avery begins to unravel the carefully constructed, chess-like sequence of clues Wynn left behind for her. This labyrinthine puzzle, which immediately puts her in harm’s way, may ultimately to a stunning truth. (Source: Penguin Random House)
I Take My Coffee Black: Reflections on Tupac, Musical Theater, Faith, and Being Black in America by Tyler Merritt
As a 6'2" dreadlocked black man, Tyler Merritt knows what it feels like to be stereotyped as threatening, which can have dangerous consequences. But he also knows that proximity to people who are different from ourselves can be a cure for racism. Tyler Merritt’s video “Before You Call the Cops” has been viewed millions of times. He’s appeared on Jimmy Kimmel and Sports Illustrated and has been profiled in the New York Times. The viral video’s main point — the more you know someone, the more empathy, understanding, and compassion you have for that person — is the springboard for this book. By sharing his highs and exposing his lows, Tyler welcomes us into his world in order to help bridge the divides that seem to grow wider every day. In I Take My Coffee Black, Tyler tells hilarious stories from his own life as a black man in America. He talks about growing up in a multi-cultural community and realizing that he wasn’t always welcome, how he quit sports for musical theater (that’s where the girls were) to how Jesus barged in uninvited and changed his life forever (it all started with a Triple F.A.T. Goose jacket) to how he ended up at a small Bible college in Santa Cruz because he thought they had a great theater program (they didn’t). Throughout his stories, he also seamlessly weaves in lessons about privilege, the legacy of lynching and sharecropping and why you don’t cross black mamas. He teaches readers about the history of encoded racism that still undergirds our society today. By turns witty, insightful, touching, and laugh-out-loud funny, I Take My Coffee Black paints a portrait of black manhood in America and enlightens, illuminates, and entertains — ultimately building the kind of empathy that might just be the antidote against the racial injustice in our society. (Source: Hachette Book Group)
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs
“Through Tubbs’ writing, Berdis, Alberta, and Louise’s stories sing. Theirs is a history forgotten that begs to be told, and Tubbs tells it brilliantly.” — Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning
Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin’s son James, about Alberta King’s son Martin, and about Louise Little’s son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them, whose lives spanned Jim Crow, the Great Migration, the civil rights movement, and the specific prejudices Black women faced during these and many more pivotal moments in American history. Berdis, Alberta, and Louise pushed their sons toward greatness with the conviction that all human beings deserve dignity and respect, teaching resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of Black people. These women, their similarities and their differences as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue. (Source: Macmillan Publishers)
You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston
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 writers of our time.” — Toni Morrison. You Don’t Know Us Negroes is the quintessential gathering of provocative essays from one of the world’s most celebrated writers, Zora Neale Hurston. Spanning more than three decades and penned during the backdrop of the birth of the Harlem Renaissance, Montgomery bus boycott, desegregation of the military, and school integration, Hurston’s writing articulates the beauty and authenticity of Black life as only she could. Collectively, these essays showcase the roles enslavement and Jim Crow have played in intensifying Black people’s inner lives and culture rather than destroying it. She argues that in the process of surviving, Black people re-interpreted every aspect of American culture — “modif[ying] the language, mode of food preparation, practice of medicine, and most certainly religion.” White supremacy prevents the world from seeing or completely recognizing Black people in their full humanity and Hurston made it her job to lift the veil and reveal the heart and soul of the race. These pages reflect Hurston as the controversial figure she was — someone who stated that feminism is a mirage and that the integration of schools did not necessarily improve the education of Black students. Also covered is the sensational trial of Ruby McCollum, a wealthy Black woman convicted in 1952 for killing her lover, a white doctor. Demonstrating the breadth of this revered and influential writer’s work, You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays is an invaluable chronicle of a writer’s development and a window into her world and mind. (Source: HarperCollins Publishers)
Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans
“Nothing short of sublime, and the territory [Mans’] explores…couldn’t be more necessary.” — Vogue. From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity. With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself — and us — home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America — and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman. Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing. (Source: Penguin Random House)
Seven Days in June: A Novel by Tia Williams
Seven days to fall in love, fifteen years to forget and seven days to get it all back again . . . From the author of The Perfect Find, this is a witty, romantic, and sexy-as-hell new novel of two writers and their second chance at love. Brooklynite Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer, who is feeling pressed from all sides. Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award-winning literary author who, to everyone’s surprise, shows up in New York. When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their past buried traumas, but the eyebrows of New York’s Black literati. What no one knows is that twenty years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. They may be pretending that everything is fine now, but they can’t deny their chemistry — or the fact that they’ve been secretly writing to each other in their books ever since. Over the next seven days in the middle of a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect, but Eva’s not sure how she can trust the man who broke her heart, and she needs to get him out of New York so that her life can return to normal. But before Shane disappears again, there are a few questions she needs answered . . . With its keen observations of Black life and the condition of modern motherhood, as well as the consequences of motherless-ness, Seven Days in June is by turns humorous, warm and deeply sensual. (Source: Hachette Book Group)
Photo by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash
