Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude

best black books in 2018

Beauty + Style

‘The People Are the Real Power’: Tayari Jones’ An American Marriage Wins the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction

There is grace, and then, there is the kind of grace that unconditional, enduring love requires; the kind of love Tayari Jones’ Celestial and Roy are struggling to keep alive in her celebrated novel, An American Marriage. Already published in several countries and on pretty much every recommended reading list of 2018 (including Oprah’s, the…

By

Maiysha Kai

Published

June 6, 2019
Culture

These 28 Brilliant Books by Black Authors Are the Standouts in What Was a Stellar Year in Black Literature

Let’s talk about books because, as usual, the past year has been an amazing one for books by black writers. The only problem is narrowing a list to under 30 books standouts when all the books are so good. From Michelle Obama’s autobiography to the latest collection from the poet laureate of the United States,…

By

Hope Wabuke

Published

December 17, 2018
Beauty + Style

Black Girls Rock! And Founder and DJ Beverly Bond Does, Too

This International Women’s Day, the ultimate present arrived in my mailbox, gifted by my favorite person: me! It was a brand-spanking-new, hardcover edition of my new favorite coffee-table book, Black Girls Rock! Owning Our Magic. Rocking Our Truth. The book is a compilation of first person essays, insights and affirmations from a multigenerational cross section…

By

Maiysha Kai

Published

March 9, 2018
Beauty + Style

In An American Marriage, Tayari Jones Gets to the Heart of Our Matter

“When love calls, you better answer”—at least, that’s what Atlantic Starr once told us. But what happens when Oprah calls? The Glow Up asked writer Tayari Jones, who got the call from the great and powerful O in October when her latest novel, An American Marriage, was chosen as the first Oprah’s Book Club selection…

By

Maiysha Kai

Published

February 13, 2018
These New and Upcoming Books by Black Authors Will Give You Life in These Perilous Times

In these dark, cold winter months, let us take comfort in the amazing things black people are doing in literature. 2018 is going to be lit, y’all. Morgan Jerkins’ newly released debut essay collection, This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America, is, simply, incendiary. The…

By

Hope Wabuke

Published

February 11, 2018