Best Books for Adults 2022

11 Books Found

Filtered by 'Black Experiences'
  • Against Heaven: Poems

    Deftly blending the personal and the political, Alabi's unrestrained debut collection is equal parts prayer, praise, and protest.

    Cover of Against Heaven: Poems
  • Black Boy Smile: A Memoir in Moments

    D. Watkins grew up in East Baltimore, surrounded by violence and intergenerational trauma that bred toxic masculinity. Sprinkled with fleeting moments of joy, these personal essays track how he grew beyond societal expectations, surviving and thriving as a Black man of his own invention.

    Cover of Black Boy Smile: A Memoir in Moments
  • Content Warning: Everything

    Emezi builds identity and family from chosen elements in these poems, describing the commonness of growing into divinity with wit, candor, and clarity.

    Cover of Content Warning: Everything
  • Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta

    Just released from prison after a 20-year sentence, Carlotta spends the Fourth of July weekend marveling at, and recoiling from, a gentrified Brooklyn, reconnecting with her past while struggling to assert her present as a proud, fiercely independent trans woman.

    Cover of Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
  • Goliath

    In the 2050s, the privileged have fled Earth to space colonies, leaving behind a broken world and the people who fight to survive in what remains. With interwoven perspectives, Goliath probes issues of race, class, gentrification, and the power of narrative.

    Cover of Goliath
  • The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere—A Memoir

    James found acceptance amongst the West Coast punk scene but, as a biracial teen, still struggled to find his place in the world at large. This eye-opening memoir has the makings of an instant classic with its reflections on what it meant to be Black and punk.

    Cover of The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere—A Memoir
  • The Hookup Plan

    For pediatric surgeon London, a weekend hookup with her former high-school archnemesis Drew is exactly what the doctor ordered. But when he shows up for work at her hospital a few days later, London must devise rules and a plan to keep it casual. What could go wrong?

    Cover of The Hookup Plan
  • How to Survive the Apocalypse: Poems

    In poems with titles like "What If the Supreme Court Were Really the Supremes?," Trimble speaks to the contemporary African American experience with works that are historical, humorous, and bitingly inquisitive.

    Cover of How to Survive the Apocalypse: Poems
  • Miss Chloe

    Reading this contemplative and invigorating book is like sitting on a couch with a cup of tea and an old friend, talking about the peaks and valleys of life and relationships. Only the friend is Toni Morrison, and the conversation reveals the impact she had on a young Black writer. | Full title: Miss Chloe: A Memoir of a Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison

    Cover of Miss Chloe
  • Wash Day Diaries

    Art by Robyn Smith | Four Black women share their experiences with lovers, friends, and family through the ritual of hair washing. Authentic, relatable, and artistically captivating through its palette of cool tones, this title teaches appreciation and commonality through the upkeep of hair.

    Cover of Wash Day Diaries
  • When They Tell You to Be Good: A Memoir

    In this autobiography, Shakur, a queer, Jamaican American essayist and activist, charts his political journey as he reckons with his identity, his family’s immigration from Jamaica, and the intergenerational impacts of patriarchal and colonial violence.

    Cover of When They Tell You to Be Good: A Memoir