Black History in Fiction

Each February, many readers come to the library to check out the latest titles on Black history. Don’t read history books? No worries! Whether you enjoy historical or literary fiction, thrillers or fantasy, romance or mysteries, here are some recent books that immerse us in the lived experiences of Black Americans throughout our history.

• By Her Own Design: A Novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register, by Piper Huguley.
  This captivating novel relates the true story of a forgotten fashion designer who overcame the indignities of the Jim Crow South to dress high society. Then, at the height of her career, just days before the posh nuptuals of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier, a flood in Lowe’s shop ruins several dresses, including the bride’s.
• A Woman of Endurance, by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa.
  Even surviving the endless brutalities confronting enslaved forced laborers of Puerto Rico’s El Paraiso sugar cane plantation was more than many could hope. For Pola, surviving was just the beginning. A harrowing story of chattel slavery in the Caribbean.
• Empty Vows, by Mary Monroe.
  In this sequel to Monroe’s Mrs. Wiggins, generous and kind hearted widow Jessie Tucker decides it is high time she had someone to look after her, setting her sights on newly widowed Hubert Wiggins, an upstanding leader in Lexington, Alabama with secrets of his own. Intrigue and romance in midcentury South.
  

  

  

  

• Anywhere You Run, by Wanda M. Morris.
  As simmering racial violence burts into flame in the summer of 1964, sisters Violet and Marigold Richards have no choice but to flee their Jackson, Mississippi home. This  meticulously researched historical thriller brings the everyday terrors of the “Freedom Summer” for those who were not yet truly free.
• Black Cloud Rising, by David Wright Faladé.
  The Black freedmen of the African Brigade risked worse than death fighting for the Union and to free the enslaved during the American Civil War. Among their ranks, Richard Etheridge moves toward an uncertain future, while enduring present indignities that feel an awful lot like the supposed past.
• The Monsters We Defy, by Leslye Penelope.
  For residents of Washington D.C.’s Black community in the 1920’s, life – to quote Langson Hughes – “ain’t been no crystal stair.” Small wonder, then, that they should turn to magic to right the more than occassional wrong. Vivid historical fantasy, deeply rooted in fact.
• One Shot Harry, by Gary Phillips.
  Hardboiled LA Photojournalist Harry Ingram suspects an auto accident involving an old Korean War buddy is anything but accidental, following a trail of corruption and white supremacist backlash to the Civil Rights movement, and the upcoming visit of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Find even more in our list of recent Black History in Fiction, in the Library catalog.

   ~ Posted by David W.