Reads 365: No.17
February- Black Excellence
Black authors & Black experiences
Some of the books features heavy subject matter, so please be mindful of the content warnings and research them fully.
Your mental wellbeing matters.
The Fifth Season
by N.K. Jemisin
N.K. Jemisin won THREE Hugo Awards in a row. No one had ever done that. She's the first Black author to win a Hugo. This is the book that started it all.
In a world where the earth constantly tries to kill you, people with earthquake powers are enslaved. When Essun's son is murdered and her daughter kidnapped, she sets out across a dying world for revenge. Jemisin's worldbuilding is unmatched, her prose devastating, her vision revolutionary.
If you read one fantasy series, make it this.
💫 Perfect for:
• Epic fantasy readers
• Anyone wanting fresh worldbuilding
• Fans of dark, complex narratives
• Readers who want fantasy that matters
⭐Changed the genre
🏆Hugo Award Winner
🖤Revolutionary fantasy
📚 Genre: Fantasy
#MarginsXReads #BHM #TheFifthSeason #NKJemisin #HugoAward #EpicFantasy #Afrofuturism #BlackFantasy #Revolutionary #TrilogyStart #MustRead #DiverseBooks
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
"I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."
Ralph Ellison's 1952 masterpiece is THE American novel. An unnamed Black man navigates racism in the South and North, discovering that whether you're in Alabama or Harlem, white America refuses to see Black humanity.
Surreal, angry, brilliant, essential. If you read one book about the Black American experience, read this.
💫 Perfect for:
• American literature students
• Anyone wanting to understand racism in America
• Literary fiction readers
• Essential American classics
🖤 Surreal & brilliant
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #BHM #InvisibleMan #RalphEllison #NationalBookAward #AmericanClassic #Essential #1950s #Harlem #LiteraryFiction #MustRead #DiverseBooks
Native Son
by Richard Wright
1940. Richard Wright writes about systemic racism so powerfully that America is forced to pay attention.
Bigger Thomas, a young Black man in 1930s Chicago, accidentally kills a white woman. What follows is an indictment of American racism, poverty, and the violence that systems create. Wright doesn't ask you to like Bigger, he demands you understand how America made him.
Controversial then. Still relevant now.
💫 Perfect for:
• American literature readers
• Anyone studying systemic racism
• Fans of hard-hitting social novels
• Essential American classics
⭐ Social protest novel
🖤 Controversial & essentia
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #BHM #NativeSon #RichardWright #AmericanClassic #1940s #Chicago #SystemicRacism #ProtestNovel #Essential #SocialJustice #DiverseBooks
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe was tired of white writers telling African stories badly. So he wrote the African novel that changed the world.
In pre-colonial Nigeria, Okonkwo is a respected warrior. Then white missionaries arrive. Achebe's masterpiece isn't about "noble savages" or white saviours, it's about complex African society, colonialism's violence, and the cost of cultural destruction.
💫 Perfect for:
• African literature readers
• Anyone studying colonialism
• World literature enthusiasts
• Essential classic readers
🌍 Essential world literature.
🖤 Response to "Heart of Darkness"
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #BHM #ThingsFallApart #ChinuaAchebe #NigerianLit #AfricanLit #Colonialism #WorldLiterature #Essential #Nigerian #Classic #DiverseBooks
King and the Dragonflies
by Kheryn Callender
King's brother died. His best friend disappeared. And King might be falling for another boy in his Louisiana bayou town.
Kheryn Callender's middle grade novel tackles grief, identity, homophobia, and what it means to stand up for who you are, even when everyone around you says it's wrong. Set in the Louisiana bayou with dragonflies, secrets, and the ghosts we carry.
Beautiful, necessary, and proof that middle grade can handle hard topics with grace.
💫 Perfect for:
• Middle grade readers (and adults)
• Anyone processing grief
• Black queer middle grade seekers
• Readers who love Southern settings
🏳️🌈 Black queer middle grade
📚 Genre: Middle Grade/Young Adult
#MarginsXReads #BHM #KingAndTheDragonflies #KherynCallender #BlackQueer #QueerMG #MiddleGrade #NationalBookAward #Lambda #Grief #Louisiana #DiverseBooks
Nervous Conditions
by Tsitsi Dangarembga
"I was not sorry when my brother died."
That opening line. Tsitsi Dangarembga's debut follows Tambu, a young Zimbabwean girl navigating colonial education, patriarchy, and what it costs to escape poverty. Set in 1960s-70s Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), this is about the violence of colonial systems, even when they promise "opportunity."
💫 Perfect for:
• Coming-of-age readers
• Postcolonial literature fans
• Feminist literature seekers
• African literature enthusiasts
⭐ Coming-of-age under colonialism
🖤Feminist postcolonial classic
🌍 Zimbabwean literature
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
#MarginsXReads #BHM #NervousConditions #TsitsiDangarembga #Zimbabwean #AfricanLit #Postcolonial #Feminist #ComingOfAge #Colonial #Zimbabwe #DiverseBooks
Brown Girl in the Ring
by Nalo Hopkinson
Toronto. Dystopian future. Caribbean folklore meets urban decay. Nalo Hopkinson's debut changed sci-fi forever.
In a Toronto abandoned by the rich, Ti-Jeanne lives with her grandmother who practices Caribbean folk magic. When the city's crime lord needs an organ transplant by any means necessary, Ti-Jeanne must embrace her grandmother's teachings to survive. Afro-Caribbean futurism before it had a name.
💫 Perfect for:
• Sci-fi/fantasy readers wanting Caribbean culture
• Fans of Octavia Butler
• Urban fantasy enthusiasts
• Anyone interested in folk magic & technology
🌴 Caribbean Futurism
⭐ Groundbreaking debut
📚 Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
#MarginsXReads #BHM #BrownGirlInTheRing #NaloHopkinson #CaribbeanLit #Afrofuturism #SciFi #UrbanFantasy #Toronto #Caribbean #FolkMagic #DiverseBooks
February’s Black Excellence list