Can you believe it’s about to be a new decade? And during the 2010s came tons of required reading that not only changed the narratives of Black Americans, but also uncovered untold stories that needed to be on the page.
From introducing readers, and eventually viewers, to a woman named Henrietta Lacks, whose cells changed science forever, to our forever first lady Michelle Obama reflecting on her history-making time in the White House, the books we chose capture a moment in time.
Here are 13 titles we devoured and would recommend, especially ahead of the holiday season. Do you still need stocking stuffers? These books would be perfect.
01
Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010)
Author Rebecca Skloot uncovered the true story of Henrietta Lacks, whose whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. Lacks, who died from cancer in 1951 at the age of 31, had two samples of her cervix removed without her consent, which were then used for research.
02
Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage The Bones (2011)
The Tulane University professor won the National Book Award for this novel that follows a working class Black family in Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina.
03
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2014)
In this award-winning novel, the Nigerian author introduces us to Ifemelu, a Nigerian who comes to America for school. With her thoughtful observations about hair, school, Boston and love, Adichie also weaves in a story about Ifemelu’s lover, Obinze, as the two reunite some 15 years later.
04
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (2015)
05
Toni Morrison’s God Help The Child (2015)
The Nobel Prize winner’s eleventh novel, God Help The Child centers on a dark-skinned woman named Bride, who was punished by her light skinned parents. In her signature prose that’s made Morrison a household name, the author tackles colorism in a poignant way.
06
Bernice L. McFadden’s Gathering of Waters (2016)
In the author’s book, which centers on the mourning girlfriend of Emmett Till after his brutal murder in 1955. In Gathering of Waters, McFadden follows to families in Mississippi 40 years after Till’s murder.
07
Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (2016)
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08
Brit Bennett’s The Mothers (2016)
The Mothers centers around a Black Southern California community where a girl named Nadia makes the decision to terminate her teenage pregnancy and pursue higher education. She returns years later to find her high school boyfriend —with whom she shared the child— is in love with her best friend.
09
Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give (2017)
In this young adult novel, which was later turned into a film, Thomas centers on Star, a teenage girl who witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend and is thrust into the spotlight during the Black Lives Matter movement.
10
Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing (2017)
Each chapter of Gyasi’s intergenerational novel is strong enough to make a statement on its own. Together they tell the story of a family line that has been severed by horrific circumstances — from the African villages, to enslavement, to the Middle Passage, to Jim Crow to the Great Migration and beyond. This story vivrantly depicts the divide between Black Americans and those who captured, enslaved then freed Black Americans.
11
Michelle Obama’s Becoming (2018)
12
Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone (2018)
Tomi Adeyemi’s debut book, Children of Blood and Bone, is rooted in African mythology and follows a character named Zélie as she struggles to restore magic to her nation after a power-hungry king has killed all those who wield it, including her mother.
13
Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon: The Last Black Cargo (2018)
In an exciting literary event during 2018, Harper Collins announced a new book by the late literary giant, Zora Neale Hurston. “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo'” is a story about the last known survivor of the slave trade, who was illegally smuggled from Africa on the last slave ship to the U.S. The book is based on the author’s many interviews with Cudjo, a survivor of the slave trade who was able to speak to her about his “capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States.” Hurston spent months at time in Cudjo’s hometown of Plateau, Alabama interviewing him in the late ’20s and early ’30s.
