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Diverse Reads

June Reading Wrap-up

June 30, 2020      milelongtbr      1 Comment

june stack @milelongtbr

June ended up being a pretty good reading month for me, especially because when the month started I’d been in a bit of a slump.

I ended up reading 9 books, though I included Jane Eyre on my wrap-up stack because I’ll be finishing it soon and it’s my classic book pick for the month.

Of the 9 books I finished, so many of them I absolutely loved, and while a few of them I struggled to give some of them a starred rating, they were all four and five star reads for me.

My June reading goals took a dramatic shift, because while I initially thought this would be the month of the thriller for me, I didn’t finish a single one. Instead, I reassessed my reading, prioritized books by BIPOC authors, LGBTQ perspectives, and I unexpectedly fell in love with YA again. It had been a year since I’ve read a YA book, and I read three this month!

Despite my reading plans changing, I’m very happy with everything I’ve read and several of the titles have the potential to change ratings and earn my “all the stars” rating.

June Five-Star Reads

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

This book spoke to my heart more than I could ever have anticipated and also helped rekindle my love for the YA genre.

You can’t help but love Felix and root for him as he tries to navigate high school, his future, and figuring out who he is. And as a trans-boy none of that comes easily.

This is my first time reading a book from a trans perspective and as much as I loved the character, voice, and story, this book will forever stand out to me for the insight it provides about identity, marginalization, and how much the same we all are, despite our differences.


I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown


I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness is a powerful book that explores author  Austin Channing Brown’s experiences with racial inequality.
⁣
⁣ From her upbringing in a white neighborhood in Ohio to her career working in predominantly white offices she’s dealt with it all; microaggressions from “nice” white people, discrimination, being the target of racial slurs, and looks of disbelief that she is, in fact, the person in charge.
⁣
⁣While I classify the book as a memoir, this isn’t merely a personal account of one Black woman. That’s not to say that all Black stories are the same, but rather that  Brown has done a phenomenal job of discussing the broader scope of how these experiences are shared in the Black community, and examining why these problems exist & why they’re harmful.
⁣
⁣This book reaffirms so much of what we’ve been hearing over the past month about structural racism,  white fragility, & social justice. ⁣It’s a must-read for these times and those working to be a better antiracist ally. Check out my full review of I’m Still Here.


Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Beartown was one of those books I knew I was going to love, but put off actually reading for way too long.

Well, luckily I recommended it to a friend, which gave me the motivation to finally take it off my TBR.

Leave it to Fredrick Backman to give us characters that take up your heart, and a story that utterly destroys it.

This small hockey town will never be the same after what happens, and neither will I. Backman’s simple prose cuts right to the core and the book made me feel the full spectrum of emotions in such a visceral way. I look forward to reading more in this series.


On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Despite reading nothing but rave reviews about On The Come Up, I didn’t think it would be a book that interested me. I haven’t been reading much YA, I’m not especially a fan of rap music… blah, blah.

Well, I’m happy to say I could not have been more wrong. I absolutely adored this book, especially listening to the rap parts on audiobook.

On The Come Up has so much to say, and the message is especially relevant to the conversations about white privilege as Bri is profiled and mistreated by the security officers at her school.

This book is funny and full of heart as much as it is hard truths. I loved the characters Thomas gave us and especially that Bri is more focused on pursuing her passion than she is on boys. I’m looking forward to reading more from her.


⁣


The Last Train to Key West

I am a huge fan of Chanel Cleeton, so it should come as little surprise that I loved The Last Train to Key West and binged it in under 12 hours.


Cleeton has quickly become one of my favorite writers in the historical fiction genre, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on The Last Train to Key West and see what her latest adventure has in store for us.


As a Florida girl, I loved that Cleeton explored a little-known part of our state’s- and country’s history in the book. She brings us to the Great Depression Era and the Labor Day Hurricane that devastated the Keys in 1935, while the three women are under pressure from both natural and other destructive forces in their lives.


The Half Sister by Sandie Jones

“It’s funny what we thought the other one had.”

The Half Sister by Sandie Jones is a gripping domestic suspense novel perfect for fans of her earlier books and those who enjoy fast-paced novels exploring the dark secrets and inner workings of families.

Kate and Lauren have never been the closest sisters, but the months after their fathers’ death has only brought them further apart. Then one day a young woman shows up with the news that they share the same father, something confirmed by an online DNA test, and these four women; Lauren, Kate, their mother Rose, and half-sister Jess try to make sense of the man they knew and find the truth.

But with each of them guarding secrets from one another, will they ever find out what really happened? Or will they end up destroying each other in the process?

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press; Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for the advance copy.


June Four-Star Reads

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochan

A strong lead, supportive female friendships, and plenty of steam… what more could you ask for from a contemporary romance?

Not only is the book a fun read, it also explores some important and relevant themes like the discrimination faced by black women in the workplace and the pressure society places on women to be with a man.

This book had great character development! I loved seeing Samiah and Daniel come together and look forward to reading the next books in this series.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for the advance copy. Check out my full review of The Boyfriend Project here.


Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall is a fun, flirty romance about Luc, a man finding himself in a bit of a mess. Though only peripherally famous- his parents were rock stars decades ago- the paparazzi still to catch him at his worst moments, much to the dismay of his job at a charity where he’s expected to appear to have it together for the donors he’s courting. To improve his image and keep his job, Luc needs the right man on his arm- so he sets out to find someone to be photographed with and take to his work fundraising event as his “boyfriend.”

The only person he can find is Oliver- the last person on earth he wants to spend time with. The complete opposite of Luc, Oliver has it all together. A rising career as a lawyer, a perfect body, a socially conscious world-view. They reluctantly begin “dating” but realize they may enjoy spending time with each other more than either of them realized.

While this book initially appears light and fun, there is some great character development here as Luc and Oliver both come to realize things about themselves that’s more than you’d expect from the average romance novel. There’s also the discussion of the homophobia and mistreatment the men are subject to in their personal and professional lives, making this a book.

While you’ll enjoy the fake-dating trope, British humor, and witty banter, this book has a lot more substance and is definitely one to read and think about.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for the advance copy.


By the Book by Amanda Sellet

By the Book by Amanda Sellet is a charming modern retelling of Persuasion, and the YA book is sure to be enjoyed by teen and adult readers alike.

Mary Porter-Malcolm lives her life by the book, always looking to classic literature to find answers about life. While this is something many bookworms can relate to, she finds that her books don’t all translate well to public high school, and when she finds herself after a career at a smaller school. She’s got a lot to learn if she’s going to make it through high school in one piece. and with the new group of friends she sets out to learn about normal teenage experiences while introducing the girls to the lessons she’s learned from her beloved books. Some things, though, you just have to experience for yourself. The book is filled with quirky characters, myriad literary references, and plenty of moments that will make you laugh.

Many thanks to HMH Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for the advance copy.


Well, there you have it: my June Reading Wrap-up! I loved each of these books, and if any of the titles sound interesting to you definitely add it to your summer TBR!

Go check me out on Instagram to hear more about what I’m reading!

Book Review: I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown

June 25, 2020      milelongtbr      1 Comment

I'm Still Here Review

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness is a powerful book that explores author  Austin Channing Brown’s experiences with racial inequality. From her upbringing in a white neighborhood in Ohio to her career working in predominantly white offices, she’s dealt with it all; microaggressions from well-meaning “nice” white people, discrimination, being the target of racial slurs and looks of disbelief that she is, in fact, the person in charge. 

Hell, she’s even met with looks of disbelief that her name is, in fact, Austin Channing Brown.

Now, I’m all for androgynous names for girls. But the fact that her parents christened their baby Austin because it’s a white man’s name, so that later in life she, as a black woman, could get a seat at the table because she hadn’t already been discriminated against by someone who only read her name on a job application should speak multitudes about just how far we are from eradicating racism in this country.  

If you can’t believe people have to worry about such a thing-YOU NEED THIS BOOK. 

If you think that racism is a thing of the past -YOU NEED THIS BOOK. 

If you think that racists are only the overt white supremacists -YOU NEED THIS BOOK. 

If you are working to become a better antiracist ally -YOU NEED THIS BOOK. 

If you ARE NOT working to become a better antiracist ally- YOU REALLY NEED THIS BOOK!



While I primarily classify I’m Still Here as a memoir, (some chapters read more like essays) this is not merely a personal account of one Black woman.

That’s not to say that all Black stories are the same, but rather that  Brown does a phenomenal job of discussing the broader scope of how these experiences are shared in the Black community, and examining why these problems exist and why they’re so harmful. 

And that the racial inequality ingrained in our society creates a similar set of challenges for marginalized individuals, regardless of whether they live across the street or across the country from each other.

To say this is a powerful read is an understatement.

It’s even more powerful listening to it as an audiobook, where Austin Channing Brown tells her story in her own voice. I love listening to self-narrating memoirs and I’m Still Here is a fantastic one to experience this way. She brings emotion and rawness to her story and it only makes what she has to say pack that much more of a punch.

Brown discusses her earliest encounters with racism and how it’s impacted her education, career, and family life.

The chapters that stood out most to me were the ones that followed her experience in education, from early school days through college. Particularly, the whitewashed history that was taught and Brown frequently called out and how from a young age Brown had to actively seek out and be her own advocate for finding representation in literature.

While I think it’s commendable that Brown took her education into her own hands, this is yet another failing of our system. This should not be the case and diversity in school reading lists should be the norm rather than the exception.

The one thing that concerned me going into this book is the fact that I have a strong preference to not read books that have religious overtones.

While it’s evident that the author’s faith is important to her, the religious discussion did not dominate the conversation or come off as if she were trying to preach to anyone.

If this is something you tend to avoid as well, I’d still recommend going in with an open mind and giving it a read. I’ve seen this book categorized with religious nonfiction, and while Brown certainly discusses her experiences with religion, I’m Still Here is an antiracism book. The religious aspect is examined through the lens of racial inequality and I feel could be useful and appreciated regardless of your personal affiliation as a reader.


Takeaway:

I’m so glad that Reese Witherspoon selected it as one of June’s RBC books. Without her recommendation, I (and I’m sure many other readers) would likely not have chosen or even discovered it. If you’re looking for another summer read, go check out my review of her other June Book Club pick, Lucy Foley’s The Guest List.

I’m Still Here reaffirms so much of what we’ve been hearing over the past month about structural racism,  white fragility, & social justice. 

But let’s be real. 

This book was published two years ago.

These messages are not new. The need for change did not arise when George Floyd was murdered a month ago. 

Those with privilege have been complicit too long & it’s beyond time to listen up to Black stories and speak out against social injustice.

“Doing nothing is no longer an option for me.”

 

Luckily for us, Austin Channing Brown is still here, and so is her book. 

I’m Still Here is without a doubt a five-star book. Whether you’re just starting to do the work or looking for more books to add to your antiracist TBR, this is bound to be one of the most important books you’ll read this year.

Go order your own copy of I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made For Whiteness from your favorite Black-owned book store or consider an audiobook to hear Brown tell her story in her own voice.

Upcoming Romance by BIPOC Authors

June 11, 2020      milelongtbr      Leave a Comment

BIPOC Romance books

I’ve seen many great, diverse reading lists pop up around the internet but wanted to extend this to highlight upcoming releases of fiction by BIPOC authors. These 6 romance titles that are scheduled for publication in the coming months are perfect to add to your TBR.

With so many of us committing to diversify our reading in light of current events, it’s important to remember to keep reading books from BIOPC authors even when it’s not “trendy.”

Keeping up with upcoming book releases can be a great way to do that. Whether you’re looking for books to keep your teens busy this summer or want to get lost in a good read yourself, this is the perfect list.

This list features 6 romance novels from BIPOC authors in general fiction and romance. They’re all are set to be published in the next few months and are currently available to read now or request on NetGalley.

If you have already bought and read other recommended titles by BIPOC authors, are on a tight budget, or simply want to help amplify BIPOC writers by supporting their emerging titles, this can be a fantastic way to get more relevant titles to read.

I have listed the publisher and scheduled U.S. publication date with each title, but please bear in mind that these may vary based on your country and that COVID-19 has impacted a number of publication dates, so these are subject to change.

Unlike most of my recommendations, the books on this list are not all ones which I have read personally, but am suggesting for those trying to find new and diverse romance stories by BIPOC.

They all sound like great choices, and if you aren’t approved through NetGalley I’d consider preordering a physical copy from a Black-owned bookstore.


Romance Novels by BIPOC : 

The Wrong Mr. Darcy by Evelyn Lozada

This book is set to release on 25 August 2020 by St. Martin’s Press

NetGalley Description:

In Evelyn Lozada and Holly Lorincz’s lightly inspired Pride and Prejudice romantic comedy, two unlikely people discover the error of judging by first impressions and the beauty of family, friendship and love. This book will entice you through the last page.

Hara Isari has big ambitions and they won’t be sidetracked by her mother’s insisting that she settle down soon. She dreams of leaving her small-town newspaper behind, as well as her felon father, and building a career as a sports writer, so when she is chosen to exclusively interview a basketball superstar, she jumps at the chance. It’s time to show the bigwigs what she’s truly made of.

At the same time, she meets a rookie on the rise, Derek Darcy. Darcy is incredibly handsome, obnoxiously proud, and has a major chip on his shoulder. Hara can’t think of a man more arrogant and infuriating. However, fate keeps bringing them together—from locker rooms to elegant parties, to the storm of the century—and what begins as a clash might just be more complicated than Hara anticipated. When she begins to see Darcy in a new light, Hara is not quite sure if she should drop the ball or play the love game.


Ties That Tether by Jane Igharo

This book is set to be published on 29 September 2020 by Berkley Publishing group. 

NetGalley Description: 

When a Nigerian woman falls for a man she knows will break her mother’s heart, she must choose between love and her family.

At twelve years old, Azere promised her dying father she would marry a Nigerian man and preserve her culture, even after immigrating to Canada. Her mother has been vigilant about helping—well forcing—her to stay within the Nigerian dating pool ever since. But when another match-made-by-mom goes wrong, Azere ends up at a bar, enjoying the company and later sharing the bed of Rafael Castellano, a man who is tall, handsome, and…white.

When their one-night stand unexpectedly evolves into something serious, Azere is caught between her feelings for Rafael and the compulsive need to please her mother. Soon, Azere can’t help wondering if loving Rafael makes her any less of a Nigerian. Can she be with him without compromising her identity? The answer will either cause Azere to be audacious and fight for her happiness or continue as the compliant daughter.


How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams

This book is scheduled to be published by Berkley Publishing Group on 01 December 2020.

NetGalley Description:


NetGalley Description:

One daring to-do list and a crash course in flirtation turn a Type A overachiever’s world upside down.

When her flailing department lands on the university’s chopping block, Professor Naya Turner’s friends convince her to shed her frumpy cardigan for an evening on the town. For one night her focus will stray from her demanding job and she’ll tackle a new kind of to-do list. When she meets a charming stranger in town on business, he presents the perfect opportunity to check off the items on her list. Let the guy buy her a drink. Check. Try something new. Check. A no-strings-attached hookup.  Check…almost.

Jake makes her laugh and challenges Naya to rebuild her confidence, which was left toppled by her abusive ex-boyfriend. Soon she’s flirting with the chance at a more serious romantic relationship—except nothing can be that easy. The complicated strings around her dating Jake might destroy her career.

Naya has two options. She can protect her professional reputation and return to her old life or she can flirt with the unknown and stay with the person who makes her feel like she’s finally living again.


You Had Me At Hola by Alexis Daria

This book is scheduled to be published on 04 August 2020 by Harper Collins Publishers.

NetGalley Description: 

“Soapy, smart and so sexy… with vibrant characters and electric chemistry comparable to the telenovelas that inspired it, you’ll be thrilled You Had Me At Hola doesn’t come with commercials!”–Sarah MacLean, New York Times bestselling author

RITA® Award Winning author Alexis Daria brings readers an unforgettable, hilarious rom-com set in the drama-filled world of telenovelas—perfect for fans of Jane the Virgin and The Kiss Quotient.

Leading Ladies do not end up on tabloid covers. 

After a messy public breakup, soap opera darling Jasmine Lin Rodriguez finds her face splashed across the tabloids. When she returns to her hometown of New York City to film the starring role in a bilingual romantic comedy for the number one streaming service in the country, Jasmine figures her new “Leading Lady Plan” should be easy enough to follow—until a casting shake-up pairs her with telenovela hunk Ashton Suárez. 

Leading Ladies don’t need a man to be happy. 

After his last telenovela character was killed off, Ashton is worried his career is dead as well. Joining this new cast as a last-minute addition will give him the chance to show off his acting chops to American audiences and ping the radar of Hollywood casting agents. To make it work, he’ll need to generate smoking-hot on-screen chemistry with Jasmine. Easier said than done, especially when a disastrous first impression smothers the embers of whatever sexual heat they might have had. 

Leading Ladies do not rebound with their new costars. 

With their careers on the line, Jasmine and Ashton agree to rehearse in private. But rehearsal leads to kissing, and kissing leads to a behind-the-scenes romance worthy of a soap opera. While their on-screen performance improves, the media spotlight on Jasmine soon threatens to destroy her new image and expose Ashton’s most closely guarded secret.


Destination Wedding by Diksha Basu

This book is scheduled to be published on  30 June 2020 by Ballantine Books.

NetGalley Description:

From the internationally bestselling author of The Windfall. . . . What could go wrong at a lavish Indian wedding with your best friend and your entire family?

“A witty and romantic novel perfect for all readers.”—Terry McMillan, author of It’s Not All Downhill From Here

When Tina Das finds herself at a crossroads both professionally and personally, she wonders if a weeklong trip to Delhi for her cousin’s lavish wedding might be just the right kind of escape. Maybe a little time away from New York will help get her mind straight about her stalled career, her recent breakup, and her nagging suspicion that she’ll never feel as at home in America as she does in India. Tina hopes this destination wedding, taking place at Delhi’s poshest country club, Colebrookes, will be the perfect way to reflect and unwind. 

But with the entire Das family in attendance, a relaxing vacation is decidedly not in the cards. Her amicably divorced parents are each using the occasion to explore new love interests—for her mother, a white American boyfriend, for her father, an Indian widow arranged by an online matchmaker—and Tina’s squarely in the middle. A former fling is unexpectedly on the guest list, a work opportunity is blurring the lines of propriety on several fronts, and her best friend Marianne’s terrible penchant for international playboys is poised to cause all sorts of chaos back home. The accommodations are swanky, the alcohol is top-shelf, but this family wedding may be more drama than Tina can bear and could finally force her to make the choices she’s spent much of her life avoiding.

Infused with warmth and charm, Destination Wedding grapples with the nuances of family, careers, belonging, and how we find the people who make a place feel like home.


The Single Mom’s Second Chance by Kathy Douglass

This book’s scheduled publication date is 21 Jul 2020 by Harlequin Special Edition.

NetGalley Description:


In Harlequin Special Edition stories, relate to finding comfort and strength in the support of loved ones and enjoy the journey no matter what life throws your way. Believe in love. Overcome obstacles. Find happiness.

She could use a shoulder to lean on…

“We’ll get through this. I promise.”
Facing the fight of her life after a cancer diagnosis, widow Roz Martin is forced to ask her estranged brother-in-law to help care for her children. Being there for his nieces and nephew is a no-brainer for gym owner Paul Stephens. But being there for the woman who’d betrayed him by marrying his half brother is hard. Especially when he discovers the feelings he once had for Roz never died…


The books on this list are a great starting point for upcoming romance by BIPOC authors.

Please keep publication dates in mind as reading and posting timely and constructive reviews to retail sites is a great way to amplify BIPOC voices.

And, of course, also consider requesting your local library buy these books, purchasing a copy for family or friends (preferably from a Black-owned bookstore), posting honest favorable reviews to retailer sites, and searching for backlist titles by one of these authors.

Start reading these romance books by BIPOC authors and stay tuned for more upcoming own voice titles in nonfiction.

Review: The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon

June 9, 2020      milelongtbr      1 Comment

Boyfriend Project Review
What would you do if the man you’re dating & the TWO other women he’s dating all meet at a restaurant? 

That’s how Farrah Rochon’s The Boyfriend Project, which was published today, begins. The rest of the book is just as much fun to read. I adored the characters and seeing the relationship between them unfold between them more than I have with any other romance novel this year. (Beating Beach Read and a couple of Christina Lauren books.) Keep reading this full review to see why The Boyfriend Project is an important book to read right now, and why it’s shaping up to be one of my favorite romances of the year.

Synopsis:

After Samiah accidentally discovers on Twitter that a woman is on a date with the man she’s been going out with, she rushes to the restaurant to confront him. When she and the third girl he’s seeing show up to crash the couple’s dinner plans, the three women instantly form a united front against the man who’s been deceiving them. They leave together, determined not to let him spoil their night.

Unfortunately, a bystander catches the scene on video. Before Samiah returns to work at her high-profile tech job on Monday it’s gone viral. Everyone has seen her in one of her worst moments.

Brought together by the experience, the women become fast friends. They’re true squad goals as they encourage each other to put themselves first and focus on their personal goals instead of finding a man to meet societal expectations. 

So, they commit to meeting for dinner and drinks weekly and to giving up dating while they work on their respective projects.

Samiah wants to focus on finally developing the app she’s had on her mind for years.
London, a successful doctor with not much of a personal life wants to find a hobby she’s passionate about.
And Taylor wants to get her career as a personal trainer on track.

Samiah is ready to commit to herself and finally making her dream a reality and getting the app finished,. Then the new guy in her office threatens to distract her from her mission.

Daniel is sexy, smart, and seems to care more about Samiah’s well-being after the incident and the fallout from the video than the coworkers she’s worked with for years.

The more time they spend time together, the more she likes him… but isn’t this the time she’s supposed to be focusing on herself and how she doesn’t need a man?

Daniel has his own reasons for why he should not get involved with Samiah, He’s hiding a number of secrets… including who he really is and what he’s doing working at Trendsetters.


Analysis:

The first thing that makes this book so endearing is its characters. Farrah Rochon really gave us some great insight and even the characters with smaller roles are multidimensional and well-personified.

Samiah’s character in particular is strong, ambitious, kind, and completely believable. I love her level of self-awareness and honesty with herself and others. She is a Black woman working in the male-dominated tech industry, and there is a lot of timely social commentary about how hard she’s had to work to make it to where she is in her career.

And Samiah isn’t only looking out for herself. She also talks about how important it is to exceed expectations in the office to help pave the way for other women of color in the industry.

This priovides insight into discrimination in the workplace and the systematic racism that too often goes unnoticed by those who aren’t subject to it. Additionally, there is discussion that no matter how successful a women is in her career, society still puts pressure on her to find a man.

Rochan manages to incorporate all these important social themes while still keeping the tone of the book fun and exciting.

Another thing in this book that stands out about The Boyfriend Project is female friendship in the book. It warmed my heart to see these women come together and build each other up. I love seeing books that show women supporting and uplifting each other and this girl group was absolute squad goals. The other two women in the group have stories just as interesting as Samiah’s.

This book provides a lot of insight into what’s going on in the character’s heads. While I loved much of what this exposed, I feel that on Daniel’s part, this was a bit overdone. I do understand why Rochon had to include this element. Because of Daniel’s deception, we readers need to believe that he had good intentions and feels bad about betraying Samiah. Unfortunately, at a point it seemed like he was harping on himself. I feel that Rochon could have made this point without being so repetitive.

The steamy bits of this book are HOT! There was some real passion, and definitely more explicit than some romance novels out there. I did notice a few phrases that were repetitive here too. Still, overall very sexy and the chemistry between Daniel and Samiah is strong and believable.

At times the pacing of the story in The Boyfriend Project seemed a bit off, and I had to reveiw the previous pages to see if I’d missed something because the previous scene ended abruptly.

Still, the book worked overall and I love the way the elements of the novel come together for a smart, sexy, and fun read.


Takeaway:

If this review of The Boyfriend Project tells you anything, it’s that you should go order a copy right now!

I rated this book four stars, with only a few of the above things keeping me from giving it a full five stars. Still, it’s an enjoyable and smart read and discusses a number of relevant social issues.

It’s also worth noting that this book will be the first book in a series. It looks like we’ll get to continue the journey with these characters as Taylor and London realize their own goals- and maybe find love as well. Hopefully there will be lots of appearances by Samiah and Daniel in the upcoming books! Check out Farrah Rochon’s website to sign up for the newsletter to keep you up to date with new releases.

Go purchase a copy for yourself from your favorite Black-owned bookstore.

Many thanks to @readforeverpub @netgalley for the Advance Copy!

Content Warning:

Explicit sexual content, discusses gender inequality and racial discrimination in the workplace.

New Poetry and Memoirs by BIPOC

June 7, 2020      milelongtbr      Leave a Comment

Upcoming poetry, biographies, and memoirs from BIPOC authors.

I’ve seen many wonderful reading lists pop up around the internet with memoirs and other nonfiction by Black writers, but I wanted to extend this to highlight upcoming releases of fiction by BIPOC authors.

With so many of us committing to to diversifying our reading in light of current events, it’s important to remember to keep reading from BIOPC authors even when it’s not “trendy.”

Keeping up with upcoming book releases can be a great way to do that Whether you’re looking for books to keep your teens busy this summer or want to get lost in a good read yourself, this is the perfect list.

Since poetry, biographies, and memoirs are all such personal stories that they’re a great way to better understand what life is like for these BIPOC authors.

This list features 12 books from BIPOC authors in memoirs, biographies, and poetry. They’re all are set to be published in the next few months and are currently available to read now or request on NetGalley.

If you have already bought and read other recommended titles by BIPOC authors, are on a tight budget, or simply want to help amplify BIPOC writers by supporting their emerging titles, this can be a fantastic way to get more relevant titles to read.

I have listed the publisher and scheduled U.S. publication date with each title, but please bear in mind that these may vary based on your country and that COVID-19 has impacted a number of publication dates, so these are subject to change.

Unlike most of my recommendations, the books on this list are not all ones which I have read personally, but am suggesting for those trying to find new and diverse fiction by BIPOC.

They all sound like great choices, and if you aren’t approved through NetGalley I’d consider preordering a physical copy from a Black-owned bookstore.

BIPOC Biographies & Memoirs: 

Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu 

BIPOC MEMOIR BY NADIA OWUSU

This book is scheduled to be published on 12 January 2021 by Simon & Schuester. 

NetGalley Description:

This poetic, genre-bending work—blending memoir with cultural history—from Whiting Award winner Nadia Owusu grapples with the fault lines of identity, the meaning of home, black womanhood, and the ripple effects, both personal and generational, of emotional trauma.

Nadia Owusu grew up all over the world—from Rome and London to Dar-es-Salaam and Kampala. When her mother abandoned her when she was two years old, the rejection caused Nadia to be confused about her identity. Even after her father died when she was thirteen and she was raised by her stepmother, she was unable to come to terms with who she was since she still felt motherless and alone.

When Nadia went to university in America when she was eighteen she still felt as if she had so many competing personas that she couldn’t keep track of them all without cracking under the pressure of trying to hold herself together. A powerful coming-of-age story that explores timely and universal themes of identity, Aftershocks follows Nadia’s life as she hauls herself out of the wreckage and begins to understand that the only ground firm enough to count on is the one she writes into existence.


My Time to Speak : Reclaiming Ancestry and Confronting Race by Ilia Calederon

BIPOC memoir by ILIA CALDERON

This book is scheduled to be published on 05 August 2020 by Atria Books. 

NetGalley Description: 

An inspiring, timely, and conversation-starting memoir from the barrier-breaking and Emmy Award–winning journalist Ilia Calderón—the first Afro-Latina to anchor a high-profile newscast for a major Hispanic broadcast network in the United States—about following your dreams, overcoming prejudice, and embracing your identity.

As a child, Ilia Calderón felt like a typical girl from Colombia. In Chocó, the Afro-Latino province where she grew up, your skin could be any shade and you’d still be considered blood. Race was a non-issue, and Ilia didn’t think much about it—until she left her community to attend high school and college in Medellín. For the first time, she became familiar with horrifying racial slurs thrown at her both inside and outside of the classroom.

From that point on, she resolved to become “deaf” to racism, determined to overcome it in every way she could, even when she was told time and time again that prominent castings weren’t “for people like you.” When a twist of fate presented her the opportunity of a lifetime at Telemundo in Miami, she was excited to start a new life, and identity, in the United States, where racial boundaries, she believed, had long since dissolved and equality was the rule.

Instead, in her new life as an American, she faced a new type of racial discrimination, as an immigrant women of color speaking to the increasingly marginalized Latinx community in Spanish.

Now, Ilia draws back the curtain on the ups and downs of her remarkable life and career. From personal inner struggles to professional issues—such as being directly threatened by a Ku Klux Klan member after an interview—she discusses how she built a new identity in the United States in the midst of racially charged violence and political polarization. Along the way, she’ll show how she’s overcome fear and confronted hate head on, and the inspirational philosophy that has always propelled her forward.


The Butterfly Effect : How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America by Marcus J. Moore

This book is scheduled to be published on 13 October 2020 by Atril Books. 

NetGalley Description:

This first cultural biography of rap superstar and “master of storytelling” (The New Yorker) Kendrick Lamar explores his meteoric rise to fame and his profound impact on a racially fraught America—perfect for fans of Zack O’Malley Greenburg’s Empire State of Mind.

Kendrick Lamar is at the top of his game.

The thirteen-time Grammy Award­–winning rapper is just in his early thirties, but he’s already won the Pulitzer Prize for Music, produced and curated the soundtrack of the megahit film Black Panther, and has been named one of Time’s 100 Influential People. But what’s even more striking about the Compton-born lyricist and performer is how he’s established himself as a formidable adversary of oppression and force for change. Through his confessional poetics, his politically charged anthems, and his radical performances, Lamar has become a beacon of light for countless people.

Written by veteran journalist and music critic Marcus J. Moore, this is the first biography of Kendrick Lamar. It’s the definitive account of his coming-of-age as an artist, his resurrection of two languishing genres (bebop and jazz), his profound impact on a racially fraught America, and his emergence as the bona fide King of Rap.

The Butterfly Effect is the extraordinary, triumphant story of a modern lyrical prophet and an American icon who has given hope to those buckling under the weight of systemic oppression, reminding everyone that through it all—“we gon’ be alright.”


The Dead Are Arising : The Life of Malcom X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne

This book is scheduled to be published on 29 Sep 2020 by W.W. Norton & Company.

NetGalley Description:

An epic biography of Malcolm X finally emerges, drawing on hundreds of hours of the author’s interviews, rewriting much of the known narrative.

Beginning in 1990 on a quest that would consume him for the rest of his life, the Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Les Payne started interviewing all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to create a portrait of Malcolm X that would separate fact from fiction. Interweaving unknown details of Malcolm X’s life—from harrowing vignettes culled from his Depression-era Nebraska and Michigan youth; to his Massachusetts prison years and religious conversion; to his recruitment for Elijah Muhammad; and, finally, to a moment-by-moment retelling of the 1965 assassination—Payne has written a groundbreaking biography that brings to vivid life the story of one of the most politically relevant figures in twentieth-century American history.

Framed by essays from Tamara Payne, Payne’s daughter and primary researcher, who heroically completed the biography after her father’s death, The Dead Are Arising affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle.

About the Author: Les Payne (1941-2018), born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and a former editor at Newsday. A founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, Payne also wrote an award-winning syndicated column.

Tamara Payne served as Les Payne’s principal researcher. She lives in New York.


A Knock at Midnight : A Story of Hope, Justice and Freedom by Brittany K Barnett

BIPOC Memoir by Brittany K. Barnett

This book is scheduled to be published on 08 September 2020 by Crown Publishing.

NetGalley Description:

An urgent call to free those buried alive by America’s legal system, and an inspiring true story about unwavering belief in humanity—from a gifted young lawyer and important new voice in the movement to transform the system.

“An essential book for our time . . . Brittany K. Barnett is a star.”—Van Jones, author of Beyond the Messy Truth and host of The Van Jones Show

This book from Crown Publishing is scheduled to be released on 08 September 2020. 

Brittany K. Barnett was only a law student when she came across the case that would change her life forever—that of Sharanda Jones, single mother, business owner, and, like Brittany, Black daughter of the rural South. A victim of America’s devastating war on drugs, Sharanda had been torn away from her young daughter and was serving a life sentence without parole—for a first-time drug offense. In Sharanda, Brittany saw haunting echoes of her own life, both as the daughter of a formerly incarcerated mother and as the once-girlfriend of an abusive drug dealer. As she studied this case, a system came into focus: one where widespread racial injustice forms the core of America’s addiction to incarceration. Moved by Sharanda’s plight, Brittany set to work to gain her freedom.

This had never been the plan. Bright and ambitious, Brittany was a successful accountant on her way to a high-powered future in corporate law. But Sharanda’s case opened the door to a harrowing journey through the criminal justice system. By day she moved billion-dollar deals, and by night she worked pro bono to free clients in near-hopeless legal battles. Ultimately, her path transformed her understanding of injustice in the courts, of genius languishing behind bars, and the very definition of freedom itself.

Brittany’s riveting memoir is at once a coming-of-age story and a powerful evocation of what it takes to bring hope and justice to a system built to resist them both.


Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey 

BIPOC Memoir by BIPOC

This book is scheduled to be published on 28 July 2020 by HarperCollins Ecco. 

NetGalley Description:

A chillingly personal and exquisitely wrought memoir of a daughter reckoning with the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of her former stepfather, and the moving, intimate story of a poet coming into her own in the wake of a tragedy

At age nineteen, Natasha Trethewey had her world turned upside down when her former stepfather shot and killed her mother. Grieving and still new to adulthood, she confronted the twin pulls of life and death in the aftermath of unimaginable trauma and now explores the way this experience lastingly shaped the artist she became.

With penetrating insight and a searing voice that moves from the wrenching to the elegiac, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Natasha Trethewey explores this profound experience of pain, loss, and grief as an entry point into understanding the tragic course of her mother’s life and the way her own life has been shaped by a legacy of fierce love and resilience. Moving through her mother’s history in the deeply segregated South and through her own girlhood as a “child of miscegenation” in Mississippi, Trethewey plumbs her sense of dislocation and displacement in the lead-up to the harrowing crime that took place on Memorial Drive in Atlanta in 1985.

Memorial Drive is a compelling and searching look at a shared human experience of sudden loss and absence but also a piercing glimpse at the enduring ripple effects of white racism and domestic abuse. Animated by unforgettable prose and inflected by a poet’s attention to language, this is a luminous, urgent, and visceral memoir from one of our most important contemporary writers and thinkers.


BIPOC Poetry

Finna by Nate Marshall 

This book is scheduled to be published on 11 August 2020 by One World Publishing. 

NetGalley Description:

Sharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular—its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacy

Definition of finna, created by the author: fin·na /ˈfinə/ contraction: (1) going to; intending to [rooted in African American Vernacular English] (2) eye dialect spelling of “fixing to” (3) Black possibility; Black futurity; Blackness as tomorrow

These poems consider the brevity and disposability of Black lives and other oppressed people in our current era of emboldened white supremacy, and the use of the Black vernacular in America’s vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets. Finna explores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative; asks how gendered language can provoke violence; and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope:

nothing about our people is romantic

& it shouldn’t be. our people deserve

poetry without meter. we deserve our

own jagged rhythm & our own uneven

walk towards sun. you make happening happen.

we happen to love. this is our greatest

Action.

The Half-God of Rainfall by Inua Ellams

This book is scheduled to be published on 29 September 2020 by Fourth Estate Publishers. 

NetGalley Description:

From the award-winning poet and playwright behind Barber Shop Chronicles, The Half-God of Rainfall is an epic story and a lyrical exploration of pride, power and female revenge.

There is something about Demi. When this boy is angry, rain clouds gather. When he cries, rivers burst their banks and the first time he takes a shot on a basketball court, the deities of the land take note.

His mother, Modupe, looks on with a mixture of pride and worry. From close encounters, she knows Gods often act like men: the same fragile egos, the same unpredictable fury and the same sense of entitlement to the bodies of mortals.

She will sacrifice everything to protect her son, but she knows the Gods will one day tire of sports fans, their fickle allegiances and misdirected prayers. When that moment comes, it won’t matter how special he is. Only the women in Demi’s life, the mothers, daughters and Goddesses, will stand between him and a lightning bolt.

Somebody Give This Heart a Pen by Sophia Thakur

This book is set to be published on 08 September 2020 by Candlewick Press. 

NetGalley Description: 

In a powerful debut, rising star Sophia Thakur brings her spoken word performance to the page.

Be with yourself for a moment.

Be yourself for a moment.

Airplane mode everything but yourself for a moment.

From acclaimed performance poet Sophia Thakur comes a stirring collection of coming-of-age poems exploring issues of identity, difference, perseverance, relationships, fear, loss, and joy. From youth to school to family life to falling in love and falling back out again—the poems draw on the author’s experience as a young mixed-race woman trying to make sense of a lonely and complicated world. With a strong narrative voice and emotional empathy, this is poetry that will resonate with all young people, whatever their background and whatever their dreams.

Owed by Joshua Bennet

This book is scheduled to be published by Penguin Books on 01 September 2020. 

NetGalley Description:

From “one of the most impressive voices in poetry today” (Dissent magazine), a new collection that shines a light on forgotten or obscured parts of the past in order to reconstruct a deeper, truer vision of the present

Gregory Pardlo described Joshua Bennett’s first collection of poetry, The Sobbing School, as an “arresting debut” that was “abounding in tenderness and rich with character,” with a “virtuosic kind of code switching.” Bennett’s new collection, Owed, is a book with celebration at its center. Its primary concern is how we might mend the relationship between ourselves and the people, spaces, and objects we have been taught to think of as insignificant, as fundamentally unworthy of study, reflection, attention, or care. Spanning the spectrum of genre and form–from elegy and ode to origin myth–these poems elaborate an aesthetics of repair. What’s more, they ask that we turn to the songs and sites of the historically denigrated so that we might uncover a new way of being in the world together, one wherein we can truthfully reckon with the brutality of the past and thus imagine the possibilities of our shared, unpredictable present, anew.


Guillotine by Eduardo C. Corral

This book is scheduled to be published on  04 Aug 2020 by Graywolf Press

NetGalley Description:

The astonishing second collection by the author of Slow Lightning, winner of the Yale Younger Poets Prize

Through the voices of undocumented immigrants, border patrol agents, and scorned lovers, award-winning poet Eduardo C. Corral writes dramatic portraits of contradiction, survival, and a deeply human, relentless interiority in Guillotine. With extraordinary lyric imagination, these poems traverse desert landscapes cut through by migrants, the grief of loss, betrayal’s lingering scars, the border itself—great distances in which violence and yearning find roots. A harrowing second collection, Guillotine solidifies Corral’s place in the expanding ecosystem of American poetry.


Anodyne by Khadijah Queen

This book is scheduled to be published by Tin House on 18 Aug 2020.

NetGalley Description:

“I recommend this book to anyone who ever had a child or a parent, who ever had a body or loved, to anyone who was ever sick or tried to sleep a good night’s sleep, and failed, and tried again. . . . This is a powerful and dazzling collection, filled with wisdom and experience. Anyone who reads Anodyne will remember it for a long time.” – Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic

“Khadijah Queen’s poems are fire and sacred song. From heart-stopping familial narratives—a son awash in sadness, an aging mother’s boulder-smiting love, a brother turned to dust by a bullet—to formal inventiveness and experimentation, this is writing that makes the hardship of being alive transcendent. These poems swirl the pain of our lives with a neon kind of sweetness. Queen’s writing endures the revolt of the body with verbal play and a powerful, radical vulnerability. Anodyne is urgent and fragile, manifesting the beautiful danger in being alive.” – Alex Lemon, author of Another Last Day and Feverland: A Memoir in Shards

“Anodyne captivates with poignant, resilient poems; ones that face toughness with lucidity: of losing family and facing landscapes full of “untended loveliness of the forsaken.” All of which builds an affective and luminous sense of record, of observing and perceiving. The poems speak to ‘How we fail is how we continue’ and construct insight with breathtaking momentum through frank, sonorous, and delicate diction; furthermore, the poems carry forth an analysis from the person to the systemic, recognizing and remembering ‘when pain was not to be seen or looked at,/but institutionalized. Invisible, unspoken,/transformed but not really transformed.’ The poems are full of a vital and recuperative prosody: erasures, odes, synesthetic centers; Queen’s commanding style: building the poetic edges that are laced with endeavors, hurdles, grace, and truth into an eye-wide and powerfully-deep poetry collection.” – Prageeta Sharma, author of Grief Sequence

“Khadijah Queen’s newest collection, Anodyne is a study of form & cavedwell, feminism as foresight, and archives the articulation of black excellence & resilience. This is the complexity fans of Queen’s work have grown because of. How she shapes each poem to the sound of a hand, photograph, fractured reflection and a throat. Anodyne as a noun is a painkilling medicine. These poems are a painkilling medicine. They provoke, incite and steer steady as scripture. Each meter is breath, each beat encourages reassessment by the reader unto themselves. Who we be beneath the dust & dust & fallen arches of our name? Many (re)discoveries are assured with the preciseness of Queen’s poetic legend. ” – Mahogany L. Browne, author of Woke Baby, Black Girl Magic, and co-editor of Black Girl Magic Anthology


Make Me Rain by Nikki Giovanni

This book is scheduled to be published HaperCollins Publishers , William Morrow on 20 Oct 2020.

NetGalley Description:

One of America’s most celebrated poets challenges us with this powerful and deeply personal collection of verse that speaks to the injustices of society while illuminating the depths of her own heart.For more than thirty years, Nikki Giovanni’s poetry has inspired, enlightened, and dazzled readers. As sharp and outspoken as ever, this artist long hailed as a healer and a sage returns with this profound book of poetry in which she continues to call attention to injustice and give readers an unfiltered look into the most private parts of herself.

In Make Me Rain, she celebrates her loved ones and unapologetically declares her pride in her black heritage, while exploring the enduring impact of the twin sins of racism and white nationalism. Giovanni reaffirms her place as a uniquely vibrant and relevant American voice with poems such as “I Come from Athletes” and “Rainy Days”—calling out segregation and Donald Trump; as well as “Unloved (for Aunt Cleota)” and “”When I Could No Longer”—her personal elegy for the relatives who saved her from an abusive home life. 

Stirring, provocative, and resonant, the poems in Make Me Rain pierce the heart and nourish the soul. 


The books on this list are a great starting point for upcoming poetry collections, biographies, and memoirs by BIPOC authors.

Please keep publication dates in mind as reading and posting timely and constructive reviews to retail sites is a great way to amplify BIPOC voices.

And, of course, also consider requesting your local library buy these books, purchasing a copy for family or friends (preferably from a Black-owned bookstore), posting honest favorable reviews to retailer sites, and searching for backlist titles by one of these authors.

Start reading these works by BIPOC authors and stay tuned for more upcoming own voice titles in nonfiction.

Upcoming General Fiction by BIPOC Authors

June 7, 2020      milelongtbr      Leave a Comment

Fiction by BIPOC

Recently I’ve seen many great diverse reading lists pop up around the internet but wanted to extend this to highlight upcoming releases of fiction by BIPOC authors.

With so many of us committing to diversifying our reading in light of current events, it’s important to remember to keep reading books from BIOPC authors even when it’s not “trendy.”

Keeping up with upcoming book releases can be a great way to do that Whether you’re looking for books to keep your teens busy this summer or want to get lost in a good read yourself, this is the perfect list.

This list features 9 books from BIPOC authors in general fiction. They’re all are set to be published in the next few months and are currently available to read now or request on NetGalley.

If you have already bought and read other recommended titles by BIPOC authors, are on a tight budget, or simply want to help amplify BIPOC writers by supporting their emerging titles, this can be a fantastic way to get more relevant titles to read.

I have listed the publisher and scheduled U.S. publication date with each title, but please bear in mind that these may vary based on your country and that COVID-19 has impacted a number of publication dates, so these are subject to change.

Unlike most of my recommendations, the books on this list are not all ones which I have read personally, but am suggesting for those trying to find new and diverse fiction by BIPOC.

They all sound like great choices, and if you aren’t approved through NetGalley I’d consider preordering a physical copy from a Black-owned bookstore.


Fiction by BIPOC Authors

A Girl is A Body of Water by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

This book is set to be published on 01 September 2020 by Tin House. 

NetGalley Description:

“International-award-winning author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s novel is a sweeping and powerful portrait of a young girl and her family: who they are, what history has taken from them, and—most importantly—how they find their way back to each other.

In her twelfth year, Kirabo, a young Ugandan girl, confronts a piercing question that has haunted her childhood: who is my mother? Kirabo has been raised by women in the small village of Nattetta—her grandmother, her best friend, and her many aunts, but the absence of her mother follows her like a shadow. Complicating these feelings of abandonment, as Kirabo comes of age she feels the emergence of a mysterious second self, a headstrong and confusing force inside her at odds with her sweet and obedient nature.

Seeking answers, Kirabo begins spending afternoons with Nsuuta, a local witch, trading stories and learning not only about this force inside her, but about the woman who birthed her, who she learns is alive but not ready to meet. Nsuuta also explains that Kirabo has a streak of the “first woman”—an independent, original state that has been all but lost to women.

Kirabo’s journey to reconcile her rebellious origins, alongside her desire to reconnect with her mother and to honor her family’s expectations, is rich in the folklore of Uganda and an arresting exploration of what it means to be a modern girl in a world that seems determined to silence women. Makumbi’s unforgettable novel is a sweeping testament to the true and lasting connections between history, tradition, family, friends, and the promise of a different future.

About the Author:     

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize and her first novel, Kintu, won the Kwani Manuscript Project Prize in 2013 and was longlisted for the Etisalat Prize in 2014. Her story “Let’s Tell This Story Properly” was the global winner of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Jennifer lives in Manchester, UK with her husband and son.”


His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

This book is set to be published on 01 September 2020 by Algonquin Books. 

NetGalley Description :

“Elikem married me in absentia; he did not come to our wedding.”

Afi Tekple is a young seamstress whose life is narrowing rapidly. She lives in a small town in Ghana with her widowed mother, spending much of her time in her uncle Pious’s house with his many wives and children. Then one day she is offered a life-changing opportunity—a proposal of marriage from the wealthy family of Elikem Ganyo, a man she doesn’t truly know. She acquiesces, but soon realizes that Elikem is not quite the catch he seemed. He sends a stand-in to his own wedding, and only weeks after Afi is married and installed in a plush apartment in the capital city of Accra does she meet her new husband. It turns out that he is in love with another woman, whom his family disapproves of; Afi is supposed to win him back on their behalf. But it is Accra that eventually wins Afi’s heart and gives her a life of independence that she never could have imagined for herself.

A brilliant scholar and a fierce advocate for women’s rights, author Peace Adzo Medie infuses her debut novel with intelligence and humor. For readers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Candice Carty-Williams, His Only Wife is the story of an indomitable and relatable heroine that illuminates what it means to be a woman in a rapidly changing world.


Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

This book is published by Park Row (Harlequin) and is scheduled for release 16 June 2020.

NetGalley Description:

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by The Every Girl, PureWow, Book Riot, Library Journal and more.

“Forever and to the end. That’s what they say instead of I love you.”

When Ruby King’s mother is found murdered in their home in Chicago’s South Side, the police dismiss it as another act of violence in a black neighborhood. But for Ruby, it’s a devastating loss that leaves her on her own with her violent father. While she receives many condolences, her best friend, Layla, is the only one who understands how this puts Ruby in jeopardy.

Their closeness is tested when Layla’s father, the pastor of their church, demands that Layla stay away. But what is the price for turning a blind eye? In a relentless quest to save Ruby, Layla uncovers the murky loyalties and dangerous secrets that have bound their families together for generations. Only by facing this legacy of trauma head-on will Ruby be able to break free.

An unforgettable debut novel, Saving Ruby King is a powerful testament that history doesn’t determine the present and the bonds of friendship can forever shape the future. 


Memorial by Bryan Washington

This book is set to be published on 06 October 2020 by Riverhead Books. 

NetGalley Description:

“This book, in what feels like a new vision for the 21st century novel, made me happy.” —Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

“This book made me think about the nature of love, and family, and anger, and grief, and love again.”  —Jasmine Guillory, author of The Wedding Date and The Proposal

What happens when a love story collides with the limits of love–and everyone has an opinion?

Benson and Mike are two young guys who live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson’s a black day care teacher, and they’ve been together for a few years — good years — but now they’re not sure why they’re still a couple. There’s the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other.

But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Without Mike’s immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it.

Both men will change in ways that will either make them stronger together, or fracture everything they’ve ever known. And just maybe they’ll all be okay in the end. Memorial is a funny and profound story about family in all its strange forms, joyful and hard-won vulnerability, becoming who you’re supposed to be, and the limits of love.


Buck Black by Mateo Askaipour


This book will be published on 19 January 2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

NetGalley Description:

For fans of Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street—a crackling, satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.

There’s nothing like a black salesman on a mission.

An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother’s home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor.

After enduring a “hell week” of training, Darren, the only black person in the company, reimagines himself as “Buck,” a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family. But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he’s hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.

Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America’s workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.


Luster by Raven Leilani

This book is scheduled to be published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux on 04 August 2020. 

NetGalley Description:

“Exacting, hilarious, and deadly . . . A writer of exhilarating freedom and daring.” —Zadie Smith, Harper’s Bazaar

“Impossible to put down.” —Ling Ma, author of Severance

No one wants what no one wants.

And how do we even know what we want? How do we know we’re ready to take it?

Edie is stumbling her way through her twenties—sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage—with rules.

As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren’t hard enough, Edie finds herself unemployed and invited into Eric’s home—though not by Eric. She becomes a hesitant ally to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie may be the only black woman young Akila knows.

Irresistibly unruly and strikingly beautiful, razor-sharp and slyly comic, sexually charged and utterly absorbing, Raven Leilani’s Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her life—her hunger, her anger—in a tumultuous era. It is also a haunting, aching description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent, and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way.


The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

This book is scheduled to be published on

NetGalley Description:

Margot Lee’s mother, Mina, isn’t returning her calls. It’s a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the tenuous strings that held together her single mother’s life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother.

Interwoven with Margot’s present-day search is Mina’s story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she’s barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love. But that love story sets in motion a string of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.

Told through the intimate lens of a mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand each other, The Last Story of Mina Lee is both a gripping page-turner and a profound family saga that explores identity, secrets and what it truly means to belong.


The White Coat Diaries by Madi Sinha

This book is scheduled to be published on

NetGalley Description:

Grey’s Anatomy meets Scrubs in this brilliant debut novel about a young doctor’s struggle to survive residency, love, and life. 

Having spent the last twenty-something years with her nose in a textbook, brilliant and driven Norah Kapadia has just landed the medical residency of her dreams. But after a disastrous first day, she’s ready to quit. Disgruntled patients, sleep deprivation, and her duty to be the “perfect Indian daughter” have her questioning her future as a doctor.

Enter chief resident Ethan Cantor. He’s everything Norah aspires to be: respected by the attending physicians, calm during emergencies, and charismatic with his patients. And as he morphs from Norah’s mentor to something more, it seems her luck is finally changing.

But when a fatal medical mistake is made, pulling Norah into a cover-up, she must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect the secret. What if “doing no harm” means putting herself at risk?


Aria by Nazanine Hozar

This book is scheduled to be published on

NetGalley Description:

An extraordinary, cinematic saga of rags-to-riches-to-revolution–called a “Doctor Zhivago of Iran” by Margaret Atwood–that follows an orphan girl coming of age at a time of dramatic upheaval.

It is the 1950s in a restless Iran, a country rich in oil but deeply divided by class and religion. The government is unpopular and corrupt and under foreign sway. One night, an illiterate army driver hears the pitiful cry of a baby abandoned in an alley and menaced by ravenous wild dogs. He snatches the child up and takes her home, naming her Aria–the first step on an unlikely path from deprivation to privilege. Over the next two decades, the orphan girl acquires three mother figures whose secrets she willonly learn much later: reckless and self-absorbed Zahra, who abuses her; wealthy and compassionate Fereshteh, who adopts her; and mysterious Mehri, whose connection to Aria is both a blessing and a burden. A university education opens a new world to Aria, and she is soon caught up in the excitement and danger of the popular uprising against the Shah that sweeps through the streets of Tehran. The novel’s heart-pounding, explosive finale sees the Ayatollah Khomeini’s brutal regime seize power–even as Aria falls in love and becomes a mother herself.

Nazanine Hozar’s stunning debut gives us an unusually intimate view of a momentous time, through the eyes of a young woman coming to terms with the mysteries of her own past and future.


The books on this list are a great starting point for upcoming general fiction by BIPOC authors.

Please keep publication dates in mind as reading and posting timely and constructive reviews to retail sites is a great way to amplify BIPOC voices.

And, of course, also consider requesting your local library buy these books, purchasing a copy for family or friends (preferably from a Black-owned bookstore), posting honest favorable reviews to retailer sites, and searching for backlist titles by one of these authors.

Start reading this fiction by BIPOC authors and stay tuned for more upcoming own voice titles in nonfiction.

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I’m Danielle and I have a mile long TBR!

You can usually find me surrounded by books and cats, listening to an audiobook and designing something cute.

I love making new bookish friends and am so glad you’re here!

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Mile Long TBR has read 22 books toward her goal of 75 books.
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Happy Caturday from sweet Scribbles! I absolutely Happy Caturday from sweet Scribbles! I absolutely love it when she sits like this.. too cute ! 😻

After finishing a book last night I have a question for y'all... do you prefer a book ending that neatly ties everything up, or an ending that leaves you wanting more because it ends in the midst of things? 

The book I was reading ended mid conversation... and I think that was a very powerful (and mildly infuriating) choice, but it worked!
Really, this pic is for the flowers, but I also lo Really, this pic is for the flowers, but I also loved Good Company by @cynthiadsweeney which I read last year. Her characters and their messy and real relationships stay in my mind long after I finish reading.
I took no vacation photos from this trip, but here I took no vacation photos from this trip, but here's an obligatory plane photo from the trip home. 

What's the best part about coming home from vacation for you? Im looking forward to my bed and seeing the cats!
✨Book recommendations needed! ✨ I'm looking f ✨Book recommendations needed! ✨

I'm looking for something very specific, and am hoping you awesome Bookstagram folks can help.

If my library haul doesn't give it away, I'm looking for literary fiction. Two of these titles I've read and loved (Silver Sparrow and Good Company) -the rest were titles that called to me, but not exactly what I was looking for. 

I've already gone through the blacklists of these two authors, plus Lily King,  Emily St John Mandel. Books with stories like This is Where I Leave You, The Sweeney Sisters.

Specifically, I'm looking for something:

💛written and set in the set in 21st century (this is most important to me-most of what I've been able to find is period and I need contemporary) 

💛 Preferably set in US/Canada

💛 Priority to female authors 

💛Dealing with dysfunctional family; themes of blood, home, self-discovery

💛Angsty adult characters 

💛 Full of beautiful writing 

💛 Setting that becomes central to story, esp. a small town or family home

💛Nothing too genre; speculative/scifi, romance, whatever. Looking for pure lit fic or contemporary fiction with literary bend. 

It's a long shot and I know I'm being picky, but if you can recommend something close to the above, I'd be eternally grateful! 💛
Don't think I could have fit another book in this Don't think I could have fit another book in this tote if i tried! 😂

I've been enjoying flipping through what I checked out during my latest library haul, but I couldn't resist snapping a pic before taking them out of the bag. Especially not when everything was so coordinated and the lighting was perfection.

I'm trying to get back into this Bookstagram thing- I've missed y'all too much!
On Wednesday we... A. Wear pink B. Read Toni C. S On Wednesday we...

A. Wear pink
B. Read Toni
C. Smash the Patriarchy
D. All of the Above

D 💯
When in doubt... I took a couple intentional phot When in doubt...

I took a couple intentional photos of my library trip this afternoon, but decided I liked this accidental one I must have accidentally snapped while putting my phone in my pocket best.

I hadn't been to the library in far too long and left with a full tote of books I probably won't read. So I guess you could say it was a good day! 

How's your week so far? 💛
Neera is my little shadow today while I'm getting Neera is my little shadow today while I'm getting some reading done in my the pool.

What are you reading today? I'm enjoying The Paris Apartment!
In two weeks this will be my reading view... ...b In two weeks this will be my reading view... 
...but for today I'm at my desk, working away on my computer. 

If you have any fun trips planned let me know in the comments!
Coffee and currently planning out my week... While Coffee and currently planning out my week... While listening to What She Witnessed. 

Any other planner girls on Bookstagram? 

I love a fresh week/spread... and decorating it with beautiful bookish stickers! These are ones I designed and made for my store and had to test out myself!
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