african american history – Reading While Fat

These Heathens

I was a big fan of Mia McKenzie’s 2021 Skye Falling, so I was thrilled to come across her newest, These Heathens, (publication day June 15, 2025), on NetGalley! Told from the perspective of Doris, a seventeen-year old pregnant Black girl in 1960 rural Georgia who had to leave school at fifteen to take careContinue reading “These Heathens”

The Vanishing Half

I’m late to The Vanishing Half (2020) by Brit Bennett, which was deservedly named a best book of the year by many popular news outlets, and was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year. Beginning in 1968, when one of the “lost twins” of Mallard, Louisiana, returns after having run away at 16Continue reading “The Vanishing Half”

Master Slave Husband Wife

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo (2023) read like fiction, although it is an exhaustively-researched true story. Ellen and William Craft were enslaved in the same town in Georgia, married, though living in different households. Ellen, a seamstress, was a very light-skinned woman and the half-sister ofContinue reading “Master Slave Husband Wife”

The Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois (2021) by Honorée Fannone Jeffers was an Oprah’s club pick, a finalist for the Kirkus prize that year, along with several Goodreads nominations, and I’m disappointed that it wasn’t honored more. Overall, it’s a sprawling, beautifully written, epic work of historical fiction, poetic and heartbreaking and intricate. At nearlyContinue reading “The Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois”

Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden

I loved Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (2023) by Camille T. Dungy so much that I had to buy my own copy after reading my library copy. Soil really defies categorization–it’s a memoir (much of which she wrote during the COVID-19 pandemic), but she also writes about black history and social justiceContinue reading “Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden”