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5 books by Black Women everyone should read
Books by Black women for the culture
I tend to fly through books. At 12, I finished the entire Harry Potter series in two months, and spent an entire 24 hour period reading Mockingjay. As I’ve gotten older and my tastes have changed, the realization that this habit of devouring books all at once, instead of pacing myself, isn’t sustainable.
More than this, I’m a finicky reader and find myself turned off by the slightest thing. An unrealized plot detail, change of pace, complexity of the language used by the writer, really anything can turn me away from a book. This represents yet another challenge for me, as like many, I find myself putting down just as many books as I pick up. In my search for new literature, I’ve come to learn a lot about the kind of reader I am, and what types of books fuel my zeal for reading.
Through this journey, the one constant I’ve found is that I tend to like Black books by Black authors. Today, it would seem that Black and other POC storytellers have somewhat of an imperative to tell their stories and subvert the narratives that have been perpetuated by both past and present media. In my experience, Black authors are exceptionally skilled at this, and I’ve been impressed with the level of heart, thoughtfulness and creativity many contemporary Black authors have been able to imbue into their…
