This list is not exhaustive by any means, but here are the books on my radar!
Congratulations to every BIPOC Adult Lit author celebrating their book’s birthday this week!
Check out this week's March releases below.
TO BE ALONE WITH YOU
by Jodie Slaughter
A decade ago, Naomi Porter confessed her love to the handsome, enigmatic sculptor her artist mother mentored. Ten years her senior and seemingly uninterested, his rejection sent her reeling...then it sent her running as far away from him as possible. Now, he’s more successful than ever, and she’s a burnt-out personal assistant in desperate need of a vacation. Only, she’s too broke to afford a real one.
Her mother’s solution? Calling in a favor from an old friend and getting her daughter a week-long stay in the luxe guesthouse of a gorgeous home in the California desert — all for free. The only drawback is that the house belongs to Ira Mack, the man she humiliated herself in front of all those years ago.
ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN
by Talia Hibbert
Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong. So she's given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It's time for Eve to grow up and prove herself--even though she's not entirely sure how.
BLACK GIRL, CALL HOME
by Jasmine Mans
From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity.
With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself--and us--home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America--and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman.
Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.
THE ARSONISTS' CITY
by Hala Alyan
A rich family story, a personal look at the legacy of war in the Middle East, and an indelible rendering of how we hold on to the people and places we call home
The Nasr family is spread across the globe--Beirut, Brooklyn, Austin, the California desert. A Syrian mother, a Lebanese father, and three American children: all have lived a life of migration. Still, they've always had their ancestral home in Beirut--a constant touchstone--and the complicated, messy family love that binds them. But following his father's recent death, Idris, the family's new patriarch, has decided to sell.
THE SALT FIELDS
by Stacy D. Flood
On the day that Minister Peters boards a train from South Carolina heading north, he has nothing left but ghosts: the ghost of his murdered wife, the ghost of his drowned daughter, the ghosts of his father and his grandmother and the people who disappeared from his town without trace or explanation. In the cramped car, Minister finds himself in close quarters with three passengers also joining the exodus from the South—people seeking a new life, whose motives, declared or otherwise, will change Minister's life with devastating consequences.
HOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE
by Imbolo Mbue
We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue's powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made--and ignored. The country's government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price.
LEARNED REACTIONS
by Jayce Ellis
Carlton Monroe is finally getting his groove back. After a year playing dad to his nephew and sending him safely off to college, it’s back to his bachelor ways. But when his teenaged niece shows up on his doorstep looking for a permanent home, his plan comes to a screeching halt. Family is everything, and in the eyes of social services, a couple makes a better adoptive family than an overworked bachelor father. A fake relationship with his closest friend is the best way to keep his family together.
GETTING BACK UP
by Harma Hartouni
Born in America but raised in Iran, Harma Hartouni was content in building the life his Armenian family and community had planned out for him. Fate disagreed. One day, while driving down a mountainside, Harma had a vision of a man sitting in his passenger seat who told him he was about to die. Moments later, a tragic and fatal accident dramatically shifted the course of his life forever and gave birth to the man he is today. Getting Back Up is Harma's survival story.
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