Black Authors

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

By: Deesha Philyaw

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

Length: 4 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double... Read more

Quietly Hostile

By: Samantha Irby

Narrated by: Samantha Irby

Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GLAMOUR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A hilarious new essay collection from Samantha Irby "engages readers with her characteristic combination of laugh-out-loud moments, heartfelt passages and plenty of awkward experiences.... Quietly Hostile will delight established fans and newcomers alike (Parade).
 
“Brilliant and one... Read more

The Will to Change

By: bell hooks

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

Length: 6 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

From New York Times bestselling author, feminist pioneer, and cultural icon bell hooks, a timelessly necessary treatise on how patriarchy and toxic masculinity hurts us all, with a new introduction by poet Ross Gay.

Feminist writing did not tell us about the deep inner misery of men.

Everyone needs to love and be loved—including men. But to know... Read more

Their Eyes Were Watching God

By: Zora Neale Hurston

Narrated by: Ruby Dee

Length: 6 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” —Zadie SmithOne of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love... Read more

Somebody's Daughter

By: Ashley C. Ford

Narrated by: Ashley C. Ford

Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

"Ashley C. Ford brings listeners into her life in this outstanding coming-of-age story...Listeners will cheer as Ford attends college and weep as she visits her father in prison, and when he is finally released." -- AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

This program is read by the author, and includes a bonus conversation between the author... Read more

Ain't I a Woman

By: Bell Hooks

Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo

Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

A classic work of feminist scholarship, Ain't I a Woman has become a must–read for all those interested in the nature of black womanhood. Examining the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, the devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism among feminists, and the black woman's involvement with feminism, Hooks attempts to... Read more

Rest Is Resistance

By: Tricia Hersey

Narrated by: Tricia Hersey

Length: 5 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy by connecting to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice. Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to elevate rest as a form of resistance and a divine human right.

What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too... Read more

So Let Them Burn

By: Kamilah Cole

Narrated by: Keylor Leigh & Kamali Minter

Length: 11 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

Whip-smart and immersive, this Jamaican-inspired fantasy follows a gods-blessed heroine who’s forced to choose between saving her sister or protecting her homeland—perfect for fans of Iron Widow and The Priory of the Orange Tree. 
 
Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island... Read more

Black Cake

By: Charmaine Wilkerson

Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman & Simone Mcintyre

Length: 12 hours

Abridged: No

NOW A HULU STREAMING SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • Two estranged siblings delve into their mother’s hidden past—and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake—in this immersive family saga, “a character-driven, multigenerational story that’s meant to be savored” (Time).... Read more

Transcendent Kingdom

By: Yaa Gyasi

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 8 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK! • Finalist for the WOMEN'S PRIZE

Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford... Read more

The World We Make

By: N. K. Jemisin

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 12 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

Four-time Hugo Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N.K. Jemisin crafts a glorious tale of identity, resistance, magic and myth.

All is not well in the city that never sleeps. Even though the avatars of New York City have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading—and destroying the entire universe in the... Read more

Sankofa

By: Chibundu Onuzo

Narrated by: Sara Powell

Length: 9 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

The exhilarating story of a mixed-race woman who goes in search of the African father she never knew.

After years of being a daughter, a wife, and a mother, Anna finally has the time to wonder who she really is. But the only person who can tell her—her mother, the only parent who raised her—is dead.

Searching through her mother's belongings... Read more

Hip-Hop Is History

By: Questlove

Narrated by: Questlove

Length: 11 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Recorded at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in New York City, the audiobook features narration and storytelling by Questlove, who expertly weaves together a rich sonic tapestry of hip-hop tales large and small, well-known and obscure. From hearing “Rapper’s Delight” for the first time in 1979 to directing and producing the 50th Anniversary... Read more

Stamped from the Beginning

By: Ibram X. Kendi

Narrated by: Avery Kidd Waddell

Length: 23 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America—it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.



In... Read more

Raising Antiracist Children

By: Britt Hawthorne

Narrated by: Stephanie Keiko Kong

Length: 8 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A must-have guide to raising inclusive, antiracist children from educator and advocate, Britt Hawthorne.

Raising antiracist children is a noble goal for any parent, caregiver, or educator, but it can be hard to know where to start. Let Britt Hawthorne—a nationally recognized teacher and advocate—be your guide. Raising... Read more

The Stone Sky

By: N. K. Jemisin

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 14 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Humanity will finally be saved or destroyed in the shattering conclusion to the post-apocalyptic and highly acclaimed NYT bestselling trilogy that won the Hugo Award three years in a row.

The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something worse will depend on two women.

Essun has inherited the power of... Read more

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

By: N. K. Jemisin

Narrated by: Casaundra Freeman

Length: 11 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

After her mother's mysterious death, a young woman is summoned to the floating city of Sky in order to claim a royal inheritance she never knew existed in the first book in this award-winning fantasy trilogy from the NYT bestselling author of The Fifth Season.

Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under... Read more

Heavy

By: Kiese Laymon

Narrated by: Kiese Laymon

Length: 6 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

*Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, NPR, Broadly, Buzzfeed (Nonfiction), The Undefeated, Library Journal (Biography/Memoirs), The Washington Post (Nonfiction), Southern Living (Southern), Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times Critics*

In this powerful, provocative, and universally lauded memoir—winner... Read more

Four Hundred Souls

By: Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain

Narrated by: Various

Length: 14 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present—edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.

The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower—when the White Lion... Read more

The Other Black Girl

By: Zakiya Dalila Harris

Narrated by: Aja Naomi King, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Heather A...

Length: 13 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Now a Hulu Original Series

“Riveting, fearless, and vividly original” (Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author), this instant New York Times bestseller explores the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing.

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant... Read more

When I Think of You

By: Myah Ariel

Narrated by: DeWanda Wise

Length: 10 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

In this sweeping second chance romance from debut author Myah Ariel, the unexpected spark of two former flames may force them to choose between their dreams and each other.

Kaliya Wilson has paid her dues. But all the years behind the reception desk at a flashy film studio have only pushed her movie-making dreams further out of reach. That is,... Read more

Against the Currant

By: Olivia Matthews

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

Length: 7 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Little Caribbean, Brooklyn, New York: Lyndsay Murray is opening Spice Isle Bakery with her family, and it’s everything she’s ever wanted. The West Indian bakery is her way to give back to the community she loves, stay connected to her Grenadian roots, and work side-by-side with her family. The only thing getting a rise out of Lyndsay is Claudio... Read more

Act Your Age, Eve Brown

By: Talia Hibbert

Narrated by: Ione Butler

Length: 10 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERIn Talia Hibbert’s newest rom-com, the flightiest Brown sister crashes into the life of an uptight B&B owner and has him falling hard—literally.Featured on Parade, PopSugar, Marie Claire, Oprah Mag, Bustle, Shondaland, CNN.com, Kirkus Magazine, Vulture, Bookpage, USA Today, Bookish, Bookriot, and more!Eve... Read more

The Saint of Bright Doors

By: Vajra Chandrasekera

Narrated by: Sid Sagar

Length: 12 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

The Saint of Bright Doors sets the high drama of divine revolutionaries and transcendent cults against the mundane struggles of modern life, resulting in a novel that is revelatory and resonant.

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

He walked among invisible... Read more