Janelle Harris, inspired by the season's upcoming hibernation-inducing weather, makes a list of suggestions at Essence.
It is by no means a comprehensive list. I don't even think we could create one because somewhere, someone is writing a great book right at this very moment that will ultimately deserve a space on many of our must-read rolls. But I hope it at least serves as a jump-off point for some thoughtful, purposeful literary consumption until the springtime thaw (which is March 20, in case you're counting days).
1. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
2. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
3. Sister Citizen by Melissa Harris-Perry
4. The Miseducation of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson
5. Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson by George Jackson
6. Cane by Jean Toomer
7. The Prisoner's Wife by asha bandele
8. Krik? Krak? by Edwidge Danticat
9. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
10. The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman
11. Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
12. Black Bourgeoise by E. Franklin Frazier
13. Jubilee by Margaret Walker
14. Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
15. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
16. Kindred by Octavia Butler
17. One Day My Soul Just Opened Up by Iyanla Vanzant
18. In Search of Satisfaction by J. California Cooper
19. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
20. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry …
Read Janelle Harris' entire piece at Clutch magazine.
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