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Recommendations based on Loveby Toni Morrison
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The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
Coming of age story of a young Black girl dealing with prejudice and racism in 1940s Ohio.
In Lorain, Ohio , nine-year-old Claudia MacTeer and her 10-year-old sister Frieda live with their parents, a tenant named Mr. Henry, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house was ... (Wikipedia)
Paradise
by Toni Morrison
An exploration of faith, hope, and the resilience of the African American spirit in the face of tragedy.
"They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time." So begins this visionary work from a storyteller. Toni Morrison's first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for ... (Goodreads)
Jazz
by Toni Morrison
A story of forbidden love, set against the backdrop of the jazz age in 1920s America.
In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At ... (Goodreads)
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
A black man's journey towards self-actualization in a world of racial oppression.
The narrator, an unnamed black man, begins by describing his living conditions: an underground room wired with hundreds of electric lights, operated by power stolen from the city's electric grid. He ... (Wikipedia)
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
A woman's journey of self-discovery, liberation and empowerment.
Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person – no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three ... (Goodreads)
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead
An escaped slave's daring escape to freedom, fighting against the brutality of slavery.
The story is told in the third person, focusing mainly on Cora. Scattered single chapters also focus on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcher Ridgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and ... (Wikipedia)
The Women of Brewster Place
by Gloria Naylor
The interconnected lives of seven African American women living in a run-down housing project. A powerful portrayal of the struggles and triumphs of black women.
The women of Brewster Place are "hard-edged, soft-centered, brutally demanding, and easily pleased". Their names are Mattie Michael, Etta Mae Johnson, Lucielia "Ciel" Turner, Melanie "Kiswana" ... (Wikipedia)
Boy, Snow, Bird
by Helen Oyeyemi
A retelling of Snow White set in 1950s America, exploring themes of identity, race and family.
Boy Novak, a young white girl, is born to an abusive father who works as an exterminator and whom she refers to as the rat catcher. In the winter of 1953, when she is twenty years old, Boy runs away ... (Wikipedia)
Nervous Conditions
by Tsitsi Dangarembga
A young girl's struggles to create her own identity amidst the oppressive colonial structures of her society.
Tambu is the main character of the novel. The novel opens up with the news that Tambu’s older brother, Nhamo, had just died. Tambu is not upset about this because Nhamo studied at a missionary school ... (Wikipedia)
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
by Ayana Mathis
A multigenerational story of an African-American family's struggles and successes.
“A remarkable page-turner of a novel.” —,Chicago Tribune, In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd, swept up by the tides of the Great Migration, flees Georgia and heads north. Full of hope, she ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Stone Diaries
by Carol Shields
A woman's life story told through a series of vignettes, examining the joys and sorrows of life.
The book is the fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, a seemingly ordinary woman whose life is marked by death and loss from the beginning, when her mother dies during childbirth. Through ... (Wikipedia)
The Book of Night Women
by Marlon James
A young slave girl in Jamaica plots a rebellion against her cruel plantation owner.
The Book of Night Women is a sweeping, startling novel, a true tour de force of both voice and storytelling. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of ... (Goodreads)
Washington Black
by Esi Edugyan
A young slave in Barbados becomes an assistant to a scientist and embarks on a journey of self-discovery and adventure.
Washington Black is an eleven-year-old field slave who knows no other life than the Barbados sugar plantation where he was born. When his master's eccentric brother chooses him to be his manservant, ... (Goodreads)
The Tortilla Curtain
by T. Coraghessan Boyle
A story of two families, one affluent and one struggling, and their intersecting paths.
Cándido Rincón (33) and América (his pregnant common law wife , 17) are two Mexicans who enter the United States illegally, dreaming of a good life in their own little house somewhere in California. ... (Wikipedia)
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
by Ntozake Shange
A powerful collection of stories exploring the struggles and triumphs of African-American women.
In celebration of its highly anticipated Broadway revival, Ntozake Shange’s classic, award-winning play centering the wide-ranging experiences of Black women, now with introductions by two-time ... (Goodreads)
The Coldest Winter Ever
by Sister Souljah
Coming of age story of a young girl's survival in a harsh, inner-city environment.
Renowned hip-hop artist, political activist, and bestselling author Sister Souljah brings the streets of New York to life in a powerful and utterly unforgettable first novel. I came busting into the ... (Goodreads)
Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler
A modern woman is thrown back in time, forced to confront the harsh realities of slavery.
Kindred scholars have noted that the novel's chapter headings suggest something "elemental, apocalyptic, archetypal about the events in the narrative," thus giving the impression that the main ... (Wikipedia)
The Crimson Petal and the White
by Michel Faber
A prostitute's journey of self-empowerment as she navigates the seedy underbelly of Victorian England.
Sugar, 19, prostitute in Victorian London, yearns for a better life. From brutal brothel-keeper Mrs Castaway, she ascends in society. Affections of self-involved perfume magnate William Rackham soon ... (Goodreads)
Parable of the Sower
by Octavia E. Butler
A post-apocalyptic story of survival, hope, and the power of community.
This highly acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror from award-winning author Octavia E. Butler "pairs well with, 1984, or, The Handmaid's Tale," (John Green,, New York Times,)–now with a ... (Barnes & Noble)
Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare
A comedic romance of misunderstandings and eventual triumph of love over deception.
In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare includes two quite different stories of romantic love. Hero and Claudio fall in love almost at first sight, but an outsider, Don John, strikes out at their ... (Goodreads)
On Beauty
by Zadie Smith
A story of two families, their struggles with identity, race, and class, and the beauty that can be found in unexpected places.
On Beauty centres on the story of two families and their different yet increasingly intertwined lives. The Belsey family consists of university professor Howard, a white Englishman; his ... (Wikipedia)
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
by Stuart Turton
A man must solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, but each day he wakes up in a different body, reliving the same day over and over again.
Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different ... (Goodreads)
My Sister, the Serial Killer
by Oyinkan Braithwaite
A darkly comedic novel about a Nigerian woman who must cover up her sister's murders.
NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 BOOKER PRIZE, WINNER OF THE LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR MYSTERY/THRILLER,FINALIST FOR THE 2019 WOMEN'S PRIZE, Korede’s sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
by Emily Dickinson
A compilation of Dickinson's poetic works, exploring themes of nature, mortality, and love.
THE ONLY ONE-VOLUME EDITION CONTAINING ALL 1,775 OF EMILY DICKINSON’S POEMS Only eleven of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published prior to her death in 1886; the startling originality of her work ... (Goodreads)
Light in August
by William Faulkner
A story of redemption and hope set in the Jim Crow South.
The novel is set in the American South in the 1930s, during the time of Prohibition and Jim Crow laws that legalized racial segregation in the South. It begins with the journey of Lena Grove, a young ... (Wikipedia)
Absalom, Absalom!
by William Faulkner
A tangled web of family secrets, betrayal, and tragedy in the American South.
Absalom, Absalom! details the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen , a white man born into poverty in West Virginia who moves to Mississippi with the complementary aims of gaining wealth and becoming a ... (Wikipedia)
Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Collection of stories exploring the complexities of family, culture, and identity.
From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories—longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written—that take ... (Goodreads)
Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel García Márquez
An epic love story spanning decades, exploring the power of true love.
The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two with the help of Fermina's ... (Wikipedia)
The Berenstain Bears' Trouble at School
by Stan Berenstain
Brother Bear struggles with schoolwork and behavior, but with the help of his family and teacher, he learns to improve.
This classic Berenstain Bears story is a perfect way to teach children about responsibility and the importance of doing your schoolwork! Come for a visit in Bear Country with this classic First Time ... (Barnes & Noble)
The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
A young girl navigates life in a poor Latino neighborhood, dreaming of a better future and finding her voice through writing.
The bestselling coming-of-age classic, acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world from the winner of the 2018 ... (Barnes & Noble)
