Shayna Small
Author
Language
English
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Black History Month
Black History Month 2023
Book Discussion Sets - Fiction
NPL Staff Favorites for 2022
Black History Month 2023
Book Discussion Sets - Fiction
NPL Staff Favorites for 2022
Description
"The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and...
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English
Description
"Two familes from different social classes are joined together by an unexpected pregnancy and the child that it produces. As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier,...
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"Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Grace Steele and Eliza Jones may be from completely different backgrounds, but when it comes to the army, specifically the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), they are both starting from the same level. Not only will they be among the first class of female officers the army has even seen, they are also the first Black women allowed to serve. As these courageous women help to form the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, they are dealing with...
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Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs. But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity-and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death. Then a mysterious woman comes...
9) Swift River
Author
Pub. Date
2024.
Language
English
Description
It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere they go. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: she’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so that they can collect his...
10) Champion of fate
Author
Language
English
Description
"Aristene are an order of mythical female warriors. Though heroes might be immortalized in legends, it's the Aristene who guide their paths to victory. They are the Heromakers. Raised by the order after being orphaned, Reed grew up surrounded by her future sisters-in-arms and the incredible stories of their quests. She's been counting the days until her initiation, and now one final test stands in her way: shepherding her first hero to glory on the...
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English
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"Following an unforgettable cast of characters and a jaded female P.I. enmeshed in a criminal conspiracy in 1980s Mississippi, a Southern noir unravels the greed, corruption and racism at the heart of the American Dream"-- Dust jacket flap.
Meridian, Mississippi--once known as the Queen City for its status in the state--has lost much of its royal bearing by 1985. Overshadowed by more prosperous cities such as New Orleans and Atlanta, Meridian attracts...
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Language
English
Description
"In the last few decades, any hope of economic progress for black Americans has been slowly and steadily undermined. This quiet crisis was only exacerbated by the recession, which cut black households' wealth by over 30 percent. Black millennials watched their parents try to play by the rules, buying homes and aspiring to the trappings of middle-class life, only to sink deeper and deeper into debt. Now, in the post-Obama era, young black Americans...
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English
Description
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kendare Blake returns to the world of the Aristene in this epic fantasy novel as a young member of the order faces down old loves and old foes. A must-read for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Shelby Mahurin.
The cost was steep, but Reed is officially an Aristene.
And not just any Aristene, but a Glorious Death, guiding only those heroes whose glory costs them their lives. It is a heavy burden, but to forget the...
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English
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Description
After the murder of a white man in Jim Crow Mississippi, two Black sisters run away to different parts of the country...But can they escape the secrets they left behind? Two sisters on the run--one from the law, the other from social shame. What they don't realize is that there's a man hot on their trails. This man has his own brand of dark secrets and a disturbing motive for finding the sisters that is unknown to everyone but him. --Adapted from...
16) What She Missed
Author
Language
English
Description
Sixteen-year-old Ebony Jones is devastated when her family moves from Houston to her grandmother's house in the country. There's nothing for Ebony in Alula Lake, Texas. Absolutely nothing.
Award-winning author Liara Tamani's “What She Missed” is a rich and emotional novel that celebrates change, nature, friendship, growing up, and love, for readers of Sarah Dessen's “The Rest of the Story” and Elizabeth Acevedo's “Clap When You Land.”
When...
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English
Description
From the author of Sisters in Arms comes the incredible, untold story of Effa Manley, a black businesswoman in the male dominated baseball industry, and, currently, the only woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1930s, New York City
An ambitious Harlem woman's husband upends her social climbing when he buys a Negro Leagues baseball team and appoints her as the team's business manager. Overnight, Effa Manley goes from 125th Street's civil...
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English
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Description
"From the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of Happily Ever Afters comes a dual POV rom-com about Reggie and Delilah, who fall in love through missed connections and chance meetings on holidays over the course of a year. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Jenny Han, with crossover appeal for readers of Jasmine Guillory and Talia Hibbert romances. Delilah always keeps her messy, gooey insides hidden behind a wall of shrugs and yeah, whatevers. She...
19) The antidote
Author
Pub. Date
2025.
Language
English
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Description
"A gripping Dust Bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraska town"-- Provided by publisher.
"The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing--not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl drought, but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a 'Prairie Witch,' whose...
20) Stella: A Novel
Author
Language
English
Description
In this "spare, effecting novel," a playboy in WWII Berlin discovers that the bliss of romance cannot shield him from the horrors of war (Publishers Weekly).
Friedrich, a wealthy but naïve young man, arrives in Berlin from Switzerland in 1942 with dreams of becoming an artist. He is hypnotized by Kristin, a beautiful artist's model who teaches him how to navigate a bustling city filled with danger. Yet the horror of war feels far...
Friedrich, a wealthy but naïve young man, arrives in Berlin from Switzerland in 1942 with dreams of becoming an artist. He is hypnotized by Kristin, a beautiful artist's model who teaches him how to navigate a bustling city filled with danger. Yet the horror of war feels far...