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*Recommended
for Teens
ABIDE
WITH ME by E. Lynn Harris. Raymond, Nicole,
Trent and John, and Basil Henderson are all back in
the conclusion to the Invisible Life
series.
*AIN’T
NOBODY’S BUSINESS IF I DO by Valerie
Wilson Wesley. "Suddenly playing by the old rules
doesn’t make much sense to a
not-quite-so-young sister" whose husband abandons
her.
AMONG
OTHERS by Lois Griffith. After her father is
shot by two racist policemen, teenager Della Morgan
becomes an activist in the Black Panthers.
ANY
KNOWN BLOOD by Lawrence Hill. Langston Cane V
finds new meaning in life when he discovers that
Langston I was a runaway slave who fought with John
Brown at Harper’s Ferry.
AT
THE FULL AND CHANGE OF THE MOON by Dionne
Brand. The descendants of the sole survivor of a
mass slave suicide in Trinidad struggle through two
world wars and the turmoil of the late
20th century.
*BUXTON
SPICE by Oonya Kempadoo. Traces Lula's
passionate coming-of-age in Guyana during the
racial turmoil of the 1970s.
CHEATERS
by Eric Jerome Dickey. Darnell sticks to his
marriage vows…until he meets a woman who
understands his dreams.
CLIFFORD’S
BLUES by John A. Williams. A gay jazz musician
interned in WWII Germany becomes servant and lover
to a Nazi official and his wife.
CLOSE
TO THE BONE by Jake Lamar. Using the backdrop
of O.J. Simpson's trial, three men grapple with the
societal problems of race, identity and
justice.
*THE
COLDEST WINTER EVER by Sister Souljah. Life
changes for the pampered family of a rich and
powerful drug dealer once he is arrested and the
money stops flowing.
DARK
OF THE MOON by P.J. Parrish. Louis Kincaid
returns to his racially divided Mississippi town
and investigates a decades-old lynching.
DISS/ED
BANDED NATION by David Nandi Odhiambo. Benedict
Ochieng, lead singer of a Canadian jazz band,
fights to survive in the face of deportation,
discrimination and hard times.
*EVERYBODY
SMOKES IN HELL by John Ridley. After Paris
steals a cache of money and drugs, he races his
Gremlin to Vegas to escape the wrath of the
rightful owners.
FARAWAY
BLUE by Max Evans. The Ninth Cavalry, led by
former slave Sergeant Moses Williams, engages in a
long and bloody campaign against Apache chief,
Nana.
*FEEDING
THE GHOSTS by Fred D’Aguilar. After being
thrown overboard with 131 sick slaves, Mintah
climbs back on the ship and becomes the voice of
hope and resistance.
*GEOGRAPHIES
OF HOME by Loida Maritza Perez. A Dominican
mother and her adult daughters struggle with
feelings of alienation and cultural dislocation in
New York City.
THE
HARRIS MEN by R.M. Johnson. Traces a family of
men torn apart by an absentee father, and his
attempts to reunite with his sons upon learning he
is terminally ill.
HART'S
WAR by John Katzenbach. Tuskegee airman Lincoln
Scott is accused of murder in a German POW
camp.
HOMECOURT
ADVANTAGE by Rita Ewing and Crystal McCrary.
The New York Flyers are in the NBA playoffs . .
.the wives and girlfriends feel the
pressure.
*I
LEFT MY BACK DOOR OPEN by April Sinclair.
Finding love at forty ain’t easy, as DJ Daphne
Dupree finds out first hand.
*IMANI
ALL MINE by Connie Porter. Life in Buffalo's
inner city, where teenagers too often end up having
babies and where guns kill the innocent.
INCOMPARABLE
WORLD by S.I. Martin. Three runaway slaves, who
fought for the British during the American
Revolution, find themselves outcasts on the harsh
streets of London.
THE
INTUITIONIST by Colson Whitehead. In this
parody, an elevator plunges several stories. Did
psychic inspector Lily Mae make an error in
judgment?
JUNETEENTH
by Ralph Ellison. Adam Sunraider, a race-baiting
senator, has been shot by an assassin’s bullet
when he sends for Alonzo Hickman, the black
minister who raised him.
A
LONG WAY FROM HOME by Connie Briscoe. A
fictionalized account of the author’s real
life ancestry as a descendant of a slave on the
James Madison plantation.
THE
MARVELOUS ADVENTURES OF PIERRE BAPTISTE: Father and
Mother First And Last by Patricia Eakins. A
former slave attempts to cross the Atlantic in a
rum cask only to be befriended and impregnated by a
mermaid.
THE
MITT MAN by Mel Taylor. In 1920’s New
Orleans, Hustler King Fish meets the perfect pupil
for his lessons in the art of the con
games.
*THE
MOANER’S BENCH by Mars Hill. A coming of
age story in Depression-era Arkansas, when the joys
of simple pleasures are counteracted by Jim Crow
laws.
MOSQUITO
by Gayl Jones. When a Mexican illegal alien hides
in her rig, Sojourner Nadine Jane Johnson becomes
involved in the "new Underground
Railroad".
*MOTHER
OF PEARL by Melinda Haynes. In 1950’s
Mississippi, the town misfits form a makeshift
interracial family based on love and acceptance.
THE
OXFORD BOOK OF CARIBBEAN SHORT STORIES edited
by Stewart Brown and John Wickham. Includes V.S.
Naipaul, Edwidge Danticat and authors from the
French, Spanish and Dutch-speaking
Caribbean.
PARABLE
OF THE TALENTS by Octavia E. Butler. In the
23rd century, the quiet commune
Acorn’s existence is threatened by
ultraconservative American president, Reverend
Andrew Steele Jarret. A continuation of The
Parable of the Sower.
PAUL
MARCHAND, F.M.C. by Charles W. Chesnutt. In
antebellum New Orleans, a free man of color
discovers he is white, and must decide whether or
not to renounce his mulatto wife and children to
claim his inheritance.
PLEASE
PLEASE PLEASE by RenÈe Swindle. "I
always get what I want," says brazen Babysister.
And she wants her best friend’s
man.
*PSI/NET
by Billy Dee Williams and Rob MacGregor. Trent
Calloway has only a couple of days to figure out
who’s planning to bomb Washington,
D.C.
READ
BETWEEN THE LIES by Lori Bryant Woolridge. Past
secrets threaten to jeopardize the careers of three
young black women in the Big Apple.
RIGHT
HERE, RIGHT NOW by Trey Ellis. After overdosing
on expired cough syrup, TV guru Ashton Robinson
creates a religion based on bungee jumping, tantric
sex and The Gap.
*RIVER,
CROSS MY HEART by Breena Clarke. In Washington,
D.C., when a daughter drowns, family and racial
tensions erupt.
SHEER
NECESSITY by Sharon Mitchell. Toni tries to do
it all -- raise a daughter, solve the family's
problems, go to college and run her own hair
salon.
*SOMETHING’S
WRONG WITH YOUR SCALE! by Van Whitfield. Sonny
Walker joins a spa to lose weight and save his
relationship, only to find love with a large
woman.
SPEAK
RWANDA by Julian R. Pierce. From soldier to
nurse to young orphan, ten characters tell their
stories of the conflict between the Hutus and
Tutsis.
STANDING
AT THE SCRATCH LINE by Guy Johnson. Early
Twentieth Century epic about King Tremain, urban
warrior and avenger of racial injustice. Written by
Maya Angelou's son.
SUPREME
JUSTICE: A Novel of Suspense by Gary Hardwick.
When conservative Supreme Court Justice Farrel
Douglas is assassinated, radical activist Daishaya
Mbutu is quickly charged with the crime.
*SWEET
ST. LOUIS by Omar Tyree. Would you fall for the
line "I’ll trade a piece of me for a piece of
you"? Sharron does!
*A
THIRST FOR RAIN by Roslyn Carrington. During
the tension of an extended dry season in Trinidad,
Myra, pregnant by her philandering boyfriend, cares
for her rebellious teenage daughter and her father,
the town madman.
THOSE
BONES ARE NOT MY CHILD by Toni Cade Bambara.
Marzala Rawls Spencer and her estranged husband
frantically search for their missing 12 year old
son. The Atlanta child murders have just begun.
*THE
TRUE HISTORY OF PARADISE by Margaret
Cezair-Thompson. As Jean Landing makes the
dangerous drive to escape the violence that is
plaguing Jamaica, she recalls her past and the
stories of her ancestors.
TRUMPET
by Jackie Kay. Celebrated jazz trumpeter, Joss
Moody lived as a man, husband and father, but was
actually a woman. With "his" death all is
revealed.
UNTIL
. . . by Timmothy B. McCann. Love comes
unexpectedly to Betty via an Internet chat
room.
WAITING
IN VAIN by Colin Channer. With a backdrop of
London, New York and Jamaica, Sylvia, a beautiful
magazine editor, and "Fire", a Jamaican poet and
artist, become involved in a passionate romance.
WALKIN'
THE DOG by Walter Mosley. An ex-con struggles
to become part of everyday life in Watts. The
second Socrates Fortlow novel.
WATER
MARKED by Helen Elaine Lee. Two estranged
sisters reunite to unearth the truth about their
father's death.
*WHEN
ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE by Camika Spencer.
Greg proposes to Adrian before he realizes that
"she has more skeletons in her closet than a
haunted house."
*WINDWARD
HEIGHTS by Maryse Conde. Steamy and sordid love
between Rayze and Cathy in 19th century
Guadeloupe. Patterned after Wuthering
Heights.
*WINTER
NIGHTS by Francis Ray, Shirley Hailstock and
Donna Hill. Christmas and Kwanzaa romance in three
novellas.
This
selected list was compiled by: Kendall
Brothers, General Library, Teen Services,
Marylou Coveney, Dudley Branch, Joseph
Fisher, Dudley Branch, Jacqueline Hogan,
Grove Hall Branch, Janice Knight, Mattapan
Branch, Amy Manson, Chairperson, Connolly
Branch, Margaret Phillibert, General
Library, Adult Services, Amy Short, West Roxbury
Branch, Georgia Titonis, South
End Branch
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