African American Century

If Cotton Could Talk," is a civil war era historical fiction novel about 19th-century slave life in the South. You will be introduced to a cast of characters; Black mothers and fathers who are fearless, smart, and devoted to family and justice. Heroes and heroines whose leadership gave enslaved people hope. But before freedom comes, they must survive other slaves who prove to be untrustworthy. At the same time ruthless, hostile, hateful men are determined to keep the status quo. Pre-Civil War, 1850, enslaved people could sense that their lives were going to change. Slaves reasoned that they...

A 2025 Audie Awards WINNER | A WOMAN EVOLVE BOOK CLUB PICK | A NORTH CAROLINA READS PICK | A Christy Award WINNER | A 2024 American Fiction Award WINNER | Best Historical Fiction of 2024 (She Reads) | FEATURED IN GMA, WASHINGTON POST, AND ESSENCE | There is only one known queen who truly ruled a...

The country is changing, and her own world is being turned upside down. Nothing—and no one—will ever be the same. Georgia, 1962. Rose Perkins Bourdon returns home to Parsons, GA, without her husband and pregnant with another man’s baby. After tragedy strikes her husband in the war overseas...

It was 1905, in New Orleans, three years after Earl’s family escaped the KKK in Mississippi. People thought Betty Jones, a brothel madam, was a witch because of her bright blue eyes when she was young. Betty assumes the role of elder to Earl’s daughter Linda. Linda is like a sponge! Betty and Linda want to create a business no black person had ever tried, requiring a complex dangerous scheme just to get started. Failure would place both of them in harm’s way. Linda’s brother, Charlie, abandons his family to find respect but only creates enemies when he dares to cross the color ...

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels “If one had to identify the single most influential shaping force in modern Black literary history, one would probably have to point to Wright and the publication of Native Son.” – Henry Louis Gates Jr. ""The most powerful American novel to...

“A nail-biting narrative, setting stark human dilemmas against a lush, exotic backdrop.”— People “Extraordinary. . . . Nothing is as it seems, and the ending is as shocking as it’s satisfying.” — Boston Globe From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett, a...

“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” —Zadie Smith One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century...

In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company’s ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo, Leopold II’s vast new African colony. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber...

BEFORE GOLD. BEFORE SILVER. THERE WERE PEARLS. In 1498, Christopher Columbus made a discovery that would change the world forever. Not gold. Not silver. 👉 Pearls. Hidden beneath the Caribbean lay unimaginable wealth — and the beginning of a system built on exploitation, slavery, and human suffering. A STORY ROOTED IN REAL HISTORY Blood for Pearls is inspired by true events and reveals a forgotten chapter of history: 👉 the first economic engine of the Americas — powered by pearls. Through the lives of: Charaima, an Indigenous boy torn from his world Dembe, an African forced into ...

Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own...

The autobiography of global human rights icon Nelson Mandela is "riveting . . . both a brilliant description of a diabolical system and a testament to the power of the spirit to transcend it" (Washington Post). Nelson Mandela was one of the great moral and political leaders of his time: an...

Leah Johnson has spent years hiding her heartache. As a Black woman in a town where society dictates who she can be—and who she can love—she knows better than to dream of a future with Adam Davenport. Her best friend. Her fiercest protector. The only man she has ever wanted. But longing for him is dangerous, and giving in could cost her everything. Adam Davenport has built his life around keeping Leah safe, even from himself. He has always known that loving her openly would put a target on her back. In Bonham, a man like him can take whatever woman he pleases—except her. So he forces ...

In this fascinating tale set in 1919, the Thomas family leaves New Orleans for Chicago as part of the Great Migration, seeking equality denied in the South. They are confident and optimistic. But hope is extinguished when they are met by 6,000 National Guard troops deployed to quell an earlier race riot. Linda and Ben prepare their nephew Trey to lead the family through the treacherous landscape of a big city plagued by segregation, police violence, and corruption. Is he ready? They devise a risky plan to challenge real estate covenants banning Blacks from buying homes in white ...

"[Narrator Suehyla] El-Attar expertly creates a vibrant version of Cairo that captures a heady blend of the cosmopolitan and the supernatural that will win many new fans." -- AudioFile Magazine Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns to his popular alternate Cairo universe...

The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn...

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’ TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A sweeping history of one of the nation’s most important African American churches and a profound story of courage and grace amid the fight for racial justice—from Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Kevin Sack “A masterpiece...

Look for The Land of Sweet Forever, a posthumous collection of newly discovered short stories and previously published essays and magazine pieces by Harper Lee, coming October 21, 2025. Performed by Reese Witherspoon #1 New York Times Bestseller “Go Set a Watchman is such an important book...

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A “richly imagined biography” (The New York Times Book Review) of General Alex Dumas, who rose from slavery to command vast armies in the French Revolutionary Wars—and whose exploits were immortalized in his son’s novels The Count...

Soon to be a streaming series! From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, a tale playful, profound, and rife with mayhem and mischief―one of ten classic Gaiman works repackaged with elegant original watercolor art by acclaimed artist Henry Sene Yee When Fat Charlie’s dad named...

The most intimate and elaborately enhanced addition to the Hemingway Library series: Hemingway’s memoir of his safari across the Serengeti—presented with archival material from the Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Library and with the never-before-published safari journal of...