This post is part of a series in which Readers Services librarians suggest a good starting place for authors appearing in our LIVE from the NYPL series this fall.

James McBride will join Philip Gourevitch on Friday, Nov. 18, 7-9 p.m. at the Celeste Bartos Forum in NYPL’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Get tickets now.

The Good Lord Bird (2013)

I recommend starting with the McBride's 2013 National Book Award winner, The Good Lord Bird. Upon its release, the novel was often compared to Huckleberry Finn and definitely shares a tone as well as coming of age characters who embark on eye-opening adventures. Both books are historical, thought-provoking, and darkly comedic. In McBride's book, Henry Shackleford (note the last name), a 12-year-old slave, is mistaken for a young girl by the abolitionist John Brown. Henry does not correct Brown regarding his gender and accompanies him on his from Kansas to New York picking up support to end slavery along the way from such notables as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. —Lynn Lobash

The Color of Water  (1995)

There’s a reason this book — an autobiography about growing up as a black boy in a huge family with a white mother — is arguably McBride’s most well-known work. Quite simply, it’s amazing. McBride’s mother was an Orthodox Jew, born in the South, who moved to Harlem and embarked on an entirely different path than the one that had been set out before her. It’s moving, and beautiful, and unforgettable. My grandmother gave me this book when I graduated from high school, and I still have it on my shelf... if a librarian is willing to put a book and a box and keep it through a dozen moves in four different states, that’s a true testament to its staying power. —Gwen Glazer

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Have other ideas about the best place to start or your favorite book by these authors? Let us know in the comments.

Get tickets to see James McBride on Friday, Nov. 18.