[2019] Tayari Jones

POV chapters tell the love story of Celestial and Roy- from courtship thorough separation, and beyond. A hard, but moving look at how racial injustice and the US carceral system affect black marriages and black families.

[2011] Tayari Jones

Dana’s father is a bigamist with two families. Dana knows about her father’s other family, but they live their lives, as she sees it, in blissful ignorance. When Dana befriends her sister in late high school, Dana struggles to keep the truth hidden. Their relationship heads for the inevitable as Dana struggles with the truth, what is fair, and what is right.

[1973] Zora Neale Hurston

Janie is an independent woman in her time- she endures three marriages but settles for no one. Although Tea Cake may have perhaps been the Love of her life, in the end her one true love is Janie herself.

[1969] Maya Angelou

I skipped this book when it was on the summer reading list for my 11th grade lit class. I wish I hadn’t because I needed this book as a 16 year old girl far more than I did as a 30 year old woman.

Maya endures abandonment, abuse, racism, and sexual assault as a child and young woman. Years later, she learns to love herself and begins to write her story. In doing so frees herself from her own cage.

[1982] Alice Walker

Celie endures years of abuse and trauma; but eventually finds her voice, and a glimmer of hope and love.