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Black genre fiction to pick up this History Month
ResumeWhen casting around for ideas for Black History Month books, Here & Now's go-to book expert and "The Stacks" podcast host Traci Thomas got a lot of requests for genre books: romance, mystery-thriller, horror and sci-fi. She shares some of her favorites with host Scott Tong.
Black genre fiction recommendations
Romance
- "A Love Song for Ricki Wilde" by Tia Williams
- "Indigo" by Beverly Jenkins
- "The Wedding Date" by Jasmine Guillory
- "Before I Let Go" by Kennedy Ryan
- "Honey & Spice" by Bolu Babalola
- "Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute" by Talia Hibbert
- "Disappearing Acts" by Terry McMillan
- "You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty" by Akwaeke Emezi
- "I’m So (Not) Over You" by Kosoko Jackson
- "A Princess in Theory" by Alyssa Cole
- "Friends and Lovers" by Eric Jerome Dickey
Horror
- "Beloved" by Toni Morrison
- "Lone Women" by Victor LaValle
- "The Reformatory" by Tananarive Due
- "Out There Screaming: An Anthology of Black Horror" edited by Jordan Peele
- "Lakewood" by Megan Giddings
- "Jackal" by Erin E. Adams
- "Fledgling" by Octavia Butler
- "Let's Play White" by Chesya Burke
- "White is for Witching" by Helen Oyeyemi
- "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
Thriller/mystery
- "Devil in a Blue Dress" by Walter Mosley
- "Bluebird, Bluebird" by Attica Locke
- "Zone One" by Colson Whitehead
- "Monday's Not Coming" by Tiffany Jackson
- "Razorblade Tears" by S. A. Cosby
- "My Sister the Serial Killer" by Oyinkan Braithwaite
- "While Justice Sleeps" by Stacey Abrams
- "The Violin Conspiracy" by Brendan Slocumb
- "When No One Is Watching" by Alyssa Cole
- "Good Man Gone Bad" by Gar Anthony Haywood
Speculative fiction/science fiction/fantasy
- "Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler
- "Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead
- "PET" by Akwaeke Emezi
- "We Cast a Shadow" by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
- "Conjure Women" by Afia Atakora
- "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" by Marlon James
- "An Unkindness of Ghosts" by Rivers Solomon
- "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin
- "Binti" by Nnedi Okorafor
- "Brown Girl in the Ring" by Nalo Hopkinson
- "Riot Baby" by Tochi Onyebuchi
- "Rosewater by Tade Thompson
- "Dhalgren" by Samuel R. Delany
- "Chain-Gang All-Stars" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
This segment aired on February 28, 2024.