In honor of Black History Month, we've rounded up some highlights from our collection. Join us in celebrating Black stories this February and year round!
 
Many of the featured titles are available in multiple formats. Click the titles to see what formats are available.
 
Interested in joining our Black History Month Read-In? Check out our website for more information. 
 
Looking for even more recommendations for Black History Month? Check out our Libby/Overdrive book list!
 
Fiction

The final revival of Opal & Nev : a novel
by Dawnie Walton

Accepting a contract from a fledgling record company, a talented music artist in early 1970s New York endures racist responses to her activism, before a reunion interview decades later reveals explosive secrets. 100,000 first printing.
Harlem shuffle
by Colson Whitehead

A furniture salesman in 1960s Harlem becomes a fence for shady cops, local gangsters and low-life pornographers after his cousin involves him in a failed heist, in the new novel from the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad.
The other black girl : a novel
by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books, 26-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel is hired until she after a string uncomfortable events, is elevated to Office Darling, leaving Nella in the dust.
The love songs of W.E.B. Du Bois : a novel
by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

To come to terms with who she is and what she wants, Ailey, the daughter of an accomplished doctor and a strict schoolteacher, embarks on a journey through her family’s past, helping her embrace her full heritage, which is the story of the Black experience in itself. 75,000 first printing.
Real life
by Brandon Taylor

Keeping his head down at a lakeside Midwestern university where the culture is in sharp contrast to his Alabama upbringing, an introverted African-American biochem student endures unexpected encounters that bring his orientation and defenses into question.
How the one-armed sister sweeps her house : a novel
by Cherie Jones

Lala must deal with a chain of events that have terrible consequences when her petty criminal husband is interrupted in his attempt to rob one of the mansions in their "paradise" home of Baxter Beach, Barbados. 30,000 first printing.
Love in color : mythical tales from around the world, retold
by Bolu Babalola

A debut anthology reimagines cultural folk and love stories from West Africa, Greek mythology and Middle East legend, from the tale of an unappreciated Nigerian goddess to the story of a powerful Ghanaian spokeswoman’s fateful decision. 75,000 first printing.
The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett

Separated by their embrace of different racial identities, two mixed-race identical twins reevaluate their choices as one raises a black daughter in their southern hometown while the other passes for white with a husband who is unaware of her heritage.
Deacon King Kong : A Novel
by James McBride

In the aftermath of a 1969 Brooklyn church deacon’s public shooting of a local drug dealer, the community’s African-American and Latinx witnesses find unexpected support from each other when they are targeted by violent mobsters. 
The Bluest Eye : A Novel
by Toni Morrison

A new edition of the first novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author relates the story of Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old Black girl growing up in an America that values blue-eyed blondes, and the tragedy that results because of her longing to be accepted. 
My Monticello : fiction
by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

A debut novel explores burdened inheritances and extraordinary pursuits of belonging, bearing witness to this country’s legacies as unforgettable characters fight to survive in America. 250,000 first printing.
It's Not All Downhill From Here : A Novel
by Terry McMillan

Confident that her best days are still ahead, a successful businesswoman relies on close friends and her resourcefulness when an unexpected loss turns her world upside down. By the best-selling author of Waiting to Exhale.
Romance

While we were dating
by Jasmine Guillory

Featuring Ben Stephens, Theo’s brother from The Wedding Party, this charming and hilarious newRomance finds Ben and a famous actress struggling to keep their working relationship strictly professional. Original.
The dating playbook
by Farrah Rochon

Taking on a former footballer who wants back in the NFL, personal trainer Taylor Powell finds her game plan turned completely upside down when they’re accidentally outed as a couple. Original. 50,000 first printing.
Seven days in June : a novel
by Tia Williams

Running into reclusive author Shane Hall at a literary event, bestselling erotica writer Eva Mercy, over the next seven days, reconnects with this man who broke her heart 20 years earlier until he disappears again, leaving more questions than answers. 60,000 first printing.
Act your age, Eve Brown : a novel
by Talia Hibbert

When his life is taken over by a purple-haired tornado of a woman named Eve Brown, B&B owner Jacob Wayne tries to fight his attraction to this sunny, chaotic woman who is his natural-born enemy
The Worst Best Man : A Novel
by Mia Sosa

The top wedding coordinator in Washington, D.C., Carolina Santos is offered an opportunity of a lifetime, but there is just one hitch—she has to collaborate with the best man from her own failed nuptials—and decides to dish out a little payback of her own until the unexpected happens. 
Wild rain
by Beverly Jenkins

In the wake of the Civil War, Spring Lee, running her own ranch in Paradise, Wyoming, second guesses her resolve to avoid men when a reporter arrives to interview her brother and becomes enamored with her instead
Once Ghosted, Twice Shy
by Alyssa Cole

While her boss the prince was busy wooing his betrothed, Likotsi had her own love affair after swiping right on a dating app that ended in heartbreak, and now months later, back in New York City again, she runs into the woman who broke her heart on a stalled subway train, but maybe this chance meeting will lead to a happily ever after.
The girl with stars in her eyes
by Xio Axelrod

"Growing up, Antonia "Toni" Bennett's guitar was her only companion...until she met Sebastian Quick. Seb was a little older, a lot wiser, and he became Toni's way out, promising they'd escape their small town together. Then Seb turned eighteen and split without looking back. Now, Toni B is all grown up and making a name for herself in Philadelphia's indie scene. When a friend suggests she try out for the hottest new band in the country, she decides to take a chance...not realizing that this opportunity will bring her face-to-face with the boy who broke her heart and nearly stole her dreams"
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
 
The City We Became
by N. K. Jemisin

"Five New Yorkers must come together in order to save their city from destruction in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin. Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six. When a young man crosses the bridge into New York City, something changes. He doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can feel the pulse of the city, can see its history, can access its magic. And he's not the only one. All across the boroughs, strange things are happening. Something is threatening to destroy the city and her six newborn avatars unless they can come together and stop it once and for all"
No gods, no monsters : a novel
by Cadwell Turnbull

When creatures from myth and legend come out of the shadows, setting off a chain of seemingly unrelated events, people start disappearing, suicides and hate crimes increase and protests erupt globally—until the world finds out what has frightened the monsters out of the dark.
Remote control
by Nnedi Okorafor

When an alien artifact turns her into Death’s adopted daughter, Sankofa, with her name being the only tie to her family and her past, searches for answers as cities fall in her wake. 150,000 first printing.
A master of djinn
by P. Djèlí Clark

In 1912 Cairo, a new world where the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities maintains an uneasy peace, the Ministry’s youngest agent, Fatima, must stop an imposter who threatens to tear apart the very fabric of this new Egyptian society. 75,000 first printing.
Riot Baby
by Tochi Onyebuchi

The author of the award-winning young-adult novel Beasts Made of Night tackles youth, race and the carceral state with magical flair, in his adult-science-fiction debut.
Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler

Dana, a black woman, finds herself repeatedly transported to the antebellum South, where she must make sure that Rufus, the plantation owner's son, survives to father Dana's ancestor.
Sorrowland
by Rivers Solomon

Fleeing from the strict religious compound where she was raised, Vern, in the safety of the forest, gives birth to twins, and to keep her small family safe, unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of. 100,000 first printing.
Moon witch, spider king : a novel
by Marlon James

This second book in the The Dark Star trilogy delves into the world of Sogolon, where she, a 177-year-old witch, tells her side of the story of what happened to a mysterious boy, as well as her century-long feud with the powerful Aesi, chancellor to the king.
Nonfiction

Black food : stories, art & recipes from across the African diaspora
by Bryant Terry

A James Beard Award-winning chef, educator and author presents a joyful celebration of Black culture by interweaving food, experiences and community through poetry, essays and recipes including Crispy Cassava Skillet Cakes,, Meatballs with Egusi and Squash and Jerk Chicken Ramen.
On Juneteenth
by Annette Gordon-Reed

In this intricately woven tapestry of American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, the descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas in the 1850s, recounts the origins of Juneteenth and explores the legacies of the holiday that remain with us.
The three mothers : how the mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin shaped a nation
by Anna Malaika Tubbs

A Gates Cambridge Scholar presents a tribute to the mothers of Malcolm X, James Baldwin and Martin Luther King, Jr., to share insights into the prejudices they endured, their commitment to education and their anti-racism advocacy. 75,000 first printing.
Caste : the Origins of Our Discontents
by Isabel Wilkerson

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns identifies the qualifying characteristics of historical caste systems to reveal how a rigid hierarchy of human rankings, enforced by religious views, heritage and stigma, impact everyday American lives.
The Black Panther Party : a graphic novel history
by David Walker

"A bold and fascinating graphic novel history of the Black Panther Party"
Call us what we carry : poems
by Amanda Gorman

The presidential inaugural poet—and unforgettable new voice in American poetry—presents a collection of poems that includes the stirring poem read at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States.
A little devil in America : notes in praise of black performance
by Hanif Abdurraqib

A poet, essayist and cultural critic presents a profound and lasting reflection on how black performance is inextricably woven into the fabric of American culture.
Hollywood black : the stars, the films, the filmmakers
by Donald Bogle

From the silent era through Black Panther, this all-encompassing overview of blacks in film tells an underappreciated history as it’s never been told and is filled with photographs and stories of stars and filmmakers on set and off. 15,000 first printing
The 1619 Project : a new origin story
by Nikole Hannah-Jones

This ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began on the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery reimagines if our national narrative actually started in late August of 1619, when a ship arrived in Jamestown bearing a cargo of 20-30 enslaved people from Africa.
All that she carried : the journey of Ashley's sack, a black family keepsake
by Tiya Miles

The story of how three generations of Black women have passed down a family treasure—a sack filled with a few precious items given from an enslaved woman to her daughter in 1850s South Carolina.
You got anything stronger? : stories
by Gabrielle Union

The best-selling author of We’re Going to Need More Wine? is back with You Got Anything Stronger?, a deeper, yet still humorous, conversation
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
by Frederick Douglass

Presents the memoirs of the famed abolitionist and statesman who escaped to the North after years of enslavement and who became a champion of human rights.
Between the World and Me : Notes on the First 150 Years in America
by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Told through the author's own evolving understanding of the subject over the course of his life comes a bold and personal investigation into America's racial history and its contemporary echoes.
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be : essays
by Nichole Perkins

Combining her sharp wit, stellar pop culture sensibility and trademark spirited storytelling, the writer and podcast host takes readers on a rollicking ride through the last 20 years of music, media and the internet from the perspective of a Southern black woman. Original. 25,000 first printing. Illustrations.
The Fire Next Time
by James Baldwin

The powerful evocation of a childhood in Harlem that helped to galvanize the early days of the civil rights movement examines the deep consequences of racial injustice to both the individual and the body politic.
How to Be An Antiracist
by Ibram X Kendi

Combines ethics, history, law, and science with a personal narrative to describe how to move beyond the awareness of racism and contribute to making society just and equitable. 
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou

The critically acclaimed author and poet recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums, in a special anniversary edition of her acclaimed autobiography. 
Overground Railroad : The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America
by Candacy A Taylor

Examines the important historical role of the “black travel guide to America” published from 1936 to 1966, celebrating the courage of black-safe businesses that advanced race relations by including themselves in Green Book listings. 
Ida : A Sword Among Lions : Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching
by Paula Giddings

Traces the life and legacy of the nineteenth-century activist and pioneer, documenting her birth into slavery and upbringing in the Victorian-era South, where she became a journalist and pioneer for civil rights and suffrage, in an account that also describes her determination to counter lynching activities. 
Black Futures
by Kimberly Drew

A curated collection of essays, photography, memes, recipes, poems and dialogues explores what it means to be Black and alive in today’s world from the perspectives of academics, activists and other prominent cultural and social-media influencers.