Collection: Staff Picks

  The sweeping cultural history of a spice so coveted it launched empires across oceans, reshaped global trade, and bound generations of Sri Lankans to...

For fans of The Wild Robot and Rebecca Stead, a middle grade novel that explores what makes us human—and what it means to be irreplaceable. Summer 2.0...

A historian's guide to understanding Reconstruction and the lessons it offers for navigating our own fraught political moment In the wake of a shocking presidential...

Engaging heart and mind, this compilation of quotes by James Baldwin provides hope and renewal in troubling timesIn these times when readers are seeking hope...

In Washington, D.C.’s powerful Black elite, legacy is everything. When a young heir to one of the city’s most influential institutions seeks funding to cement...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Black Buck: a dazzling, inspiring novel about an ordinary sanitation worker whose dream of becoming a real writer comes true—until...

A lyrical, polyphonic debut about a brother and sister growing up in a Black Pentecostal Church in Detroit, exploring themes of revelation and concealment; desire...

From the author of the instant cult classic Catherine House, a story of one woman’s search to find her place in a looming uncanny future.Crystal Washington—awkward,...

A young Black man feels called irresistibly to farmland he's never seen, where a fateful feud simmers between a pastor and his protégé. A thunderous...

Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! is the go-to guide for modern pregnant Black women. In this newly updated edition in a lovely giftable package, mothers-to-be will find the sister-to-sister...

A gutting and powerful new memoir from a master of the form, Good, God probes Laymon's relationships with three generations of women in his life—his grandmother, his...

A scandalous affair drives a wedge between two best friends and business partners. One of them is sleeping with their top investor—and that’s before he...

From the award-winning author of Finna comes this moving, tender collection of poems exploring love and grief throughout the journey of lifein this luminous green cornerof a...

The most decorated athlete in track and field history reveals how her journey to becoming a mother turned into the fight of her life—and pushed...

A hilarious trivia game about Black language and its impact on culture, from the NAACP award-winning authors of Historically Black PhrasesIn Watch Ya' Mouth jarrett hill and Tre’vell...

Considers the meaning of gender in an African context. The “woman question,” this book asserts, is a Western one, and not a proper lens for...

Celebrating the history-making Black American who smashed world records and became a global cycling sensation!Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor was one of the greatest American athletes...

Whitney Houston's first two albums, Whitney Houston (1985) and Whitney (1987), propelled her to international fame and produced a record-setting run of seven consecutive No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot...

"Cheryl Clarke's ongoing gumption continues to ask us how loudly and proudly will we do what we do." --Alexis Pauline Gumbs These times need urgently...

After emancipation, freed people of all ages wanted to go to school. From the story of John McCline, who learned to read as a boy...

This deluxe hardcover edition features gorgeous sprayed stenciled edges while supplies last, stunning endpaper art of the Heart and the Boundary, and a never-before-seen bonus...

Chronicling the stories and resilience of Texas freedom colonies facing erasure, and of the efforts of descendant community members to safeguard them. Since Emancipation, Deep...

Exodus Oktavia Brownlow's stories are set in the imagined town of Honey, Mississippi, and they move through generations of shared history--the town's inhabitants are bound...