black books matter
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 13: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Publisher Synopsis: Things Fall Apart tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first story traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives. It provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the individual…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 12: How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
Publisher Synopsis: N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories, Jemisin equally challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption. Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 11: An American Marriage: A Novel by Tayari Jones
Publisher Synopsis: Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness with VSB | Day 10: Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Publisher Synopsis: Go back to bed, baby, please, baby, please. Not on your HEAD, baby baby baby, please!… From moments fussy to fond, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, producer Tonya Lewis Lee, present a behind-the-scenes look at the chills, spills, and unequivocal thrills of bringing up baby! Vivid illustrations from celebrated artist…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 9: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Publisher Synopsis: Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family’s struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie’s story—Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 8: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (As Told to Alex Haley)
Publisher Synopsis: In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 6: Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member by Sanyika Shakur
Publisher Synopsis: Written in solitary confinement, Kody Scott’s memoir of 16 years as a gang banger in Los Angeles was a searing best-seller and became a classic, published in 10 languages, with more than 300,000 copies in print in the United States alone. After pumping eight blasts from a sawed-off shotgun at a group of…