"Lottie Rebecca Lee is spoken into the world in Fayetteville, North Carolina by a Black nurse who declares, "Lord Jesus, if that ain't the blackest little baby born this side of heaven." Later, Lottie will prove that she is the ancestors' promise to unearth the Mississippi and Ghanaian atrocities that have tormented Benjamin Lee, her grandfather, who was born during the Great Depression in Mississippi's red clay tobacco fields, and Benjamin Junior,...

Welcome to the world of Duncans. By day they are upstanding citizens running one of New York’s most respected car dealerships;but by night, they’re criminals who control most of the East Coast drug traffic. No matter whether they’re on their day or night jobs, one thing is true about the Duncans: there is never a dull moment to be found. Baby momma drama takes over the Duncan clan, as there is still uncertainty about who has fathered...

"The daughter of a prostitute mother and an alcoholic father, Maggie Franklin knew her only way out was to marry someone upstanding and church-going. Someone like Hubert Wiggins, the most eligible man in Lexington, Alabama--and the son of its most revered preacher. Proper and prosperous, Hubert is glad to finally have a wife, even one with Maggie's background. For Hubert has a secret he desperately needs to stay hidden. And Maggie's unexpected charm,...

First published in 1902, this classic story about a displaced Southern family's struggle to survive and prosper in early Harlem was one of the first novels to depict the harsh realities of ghetto life. Written by the son of a former slave, this book marked the transition from the post-Civil War period to the Harlem Renaissance, and the revolutionary truths it uncovered still resonate today.

"Josie Henderson is most at home in and around water, and as a senior-level black female scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, she is practically alone in her field. But in building this impressive life for herself, she has tried to shed the one thing she cannot: her family roots back in Cleveland. When Tick, her brother and childhood ally against their alcoholic father, arrives on her doorstep fresh from rehab and teetering on the...

After the drowning death of their daughter in the Potomac River, a family leaves their rural North Carolina world in search of a better life among friends and relatives in Georgetown, as they grapple with their loss and struggle to move forward.

The National Book Award–winning author of The Women of Brewster Place explores the secrets of an affluent black community.
For its wealthy African American residents, the exclusive neighborhood of Linden Hills is a symbol of “making it.” The ultimate achievement: a home on prestigious Tupelo Drive. Making your way downhill to Tupelo is irrefutable proof of your worth. But the farther down the hill you go, the...

"Mae Townsend has always dreamed of connecting with her estranged Black family in the South. She grew up picturing relatives who looked like her, crowded dinner tables, bustling kitchens. And, of course, the Townsend family barbecue, the tradition that kept her late father flying to North Carolina year after year, despite the mysterious rift that always required her to stay behind. But as Mae's wedding draws closer, promising a future of always standing...

"Good things never happen in November--at least not for the Reynolds women. It was the month they lost their patriarch. And the month when fourteen-year-old Trinity went missing during a tropical storm. So Hope Reynolds isn't surprised when it becomes the month she walks in on her boyfriend kissing another woman. Or when she receives a panicked call from her mother about a mistake that could cost the family their treasured beach house. Meanwhile,...

"The Maxwell siblings return to their childhood home in the Dallas suburbs after the shocking news of their parents' death. They return to find the house, and the family itself, haunted by strange, inexplicable terrors"-- Provided by publisher. The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors...