Reading List: NBWJI's Book Suggestions to Inspire Hope

Now more than ever, home is where many of us are seeking refuge and solace for ourselves and our families in light of the novel coronavirus. It's so important to stay centered and encouraged during times like these. For this reason, the NBWJI team has compiled a reading list of personal favorites to help connect you and your family to the hope, strength, and resiliency of Black women and girls.

These books fall under a wide range of genres. They illuminate larger truths and themes that guide our work here at NBWJI, speaking to the human condition and experiences of Black women and girls without sacrificing heritage, language, or voice.

Now: Call a friend to discuss, read with your child, share a passage with your roommate, and/or let us know what you are reading night now by leaving a comment below.

It is a difficult season. But, rest assured, we are a community. We are all in this together. And as history shows us, we will persevere.

Stay safe, healthy, and let’s get the conversation going!

Young Adult

• Who Put This Song On, by Morgan Parker

• SLAY, by Brittney Morris

• The Mothers, by Brit Bennett

• Black Girl Unlimited, by Echo Brown

• The Stars and the Blackness Between Them, by Junauda Petrus

• Pet, by Akwaeke Emezi

• The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo

bell hooks’ books about love

• All About Love

• The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

• Communion: The Female Search for Love

• Salvation: Black People and Love

Fiction

• Patsy, by Nicole Dennis-Benn

• Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi

• Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry Banned, by Mildred D. Taylor

Non-Fiction

• We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood, by Dani McClain

• Dressed in Dreams, A Black Girl’s Love Letter to Fashion, by Tanisha C. Ford

• The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love, by Sonya Renee Taylor

• The Sisters are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America, by Tamara Winfrey Harris

• Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot, by Mikki Kendall

• Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, by Adrienne Marie Brown

• Pushout : The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, by Dr. Monique W. Morris

• Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance, by Edgar Villanueva

Memoir

• Thick and Other Essays, by Tressie McMillan Cottom