Washoe County Library System

"Nineteen years old, broke, and effectively an orphan, Magnolia doesn't have much to look forward to. She feels stuck and haunted: by her overdrawn bank account, by her predatory landlord, by the ghost of her late grandmother Mama Brown. One night while working at her dead-end gas station job, a mysterious, slick stranger named Cotton walks in and offers to turn Magnolia's luck around. He offers her a lucrative "modeling" job at his family's funeral...

Follows four generations of African American women from slavery to the early twentieth century as they struggle for economic security and the future of their families along the Cane River in rural Louisiana.

"“Extraordinarily brave...plain funny as hell, too.” —Zakiya Dalila Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Black Girl “A subtle, ironic, wise, state-of-the-nation novel, sharp enough to draw blood, hidden inside a moving, intimate, sincere and very real love story--or vice versa.” —Nick Hornby On Jess’s first day at Goldman Sachs, she’s less than thrilled to learn she’ll be on the same team as Josh, her white, conservative...

''The best-selling classic about a mixed-race child in the Civil War–era South that "chronicles the triumph of a free spirit over many kinds of bondage" (New York Times Book Review). Jubilee tells the true story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner and his black mistress. Vyry bears witness to the antebellum South in both its opulence and its brutality, its wartime ruin, and the promises of Reconstruction. Weaving her own family's oral...

''All children are told fairytales. Some are epic adventures with high stakes and exciting twists, while others are tales of pitiful princesses trapped in boring towers pining for their Prince Charmings to come and rescue them. Growing up, Cherry always hated those stories. Why didn't the princesses just get up and rescue themselves? Little did she know that her own fate would take an ironically similar turn. Because now, here she is. Stuck. In a...

After Blanch White returns to Farleigh, North Carolina to help a friend, she investigates a young woman's murder and recognizes the suspect as her rapist from years ago who was able to escape prosecution, but this time she is determined that he will not get away. "Blanche White returns to Farleigh, North Carolina for the summer to help her best friend with her catering business. It's a homecoming rich with the potential for new romance and fraught...

"Set in the suburbs of Los Angeles and New York City, I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both is an immersive journey into the life and mind of Khaki Oliver, who's perennially trying to disappear into something: a codependent friendship, an ill-advised boyfriend, the punk scene, or simply, the ether. These days it's a meaningless job and a comfortingly empty apartment. Then, after a decade of estrangement, she receives a letter from her former best...

"National bestselling author Kiki Swinson's novels set it off with killer plot twists, merciless characters—and an unsparing portrayal of Southern struggling, lying, betraying . . . and dying. Now everything is on the line as a female firefighter desperate for money gets caught up in a man-made disaster . . . Set your schemes . . . A volunteer Virginia Beach firefighter, Alayna Curry faces death every day—and is proud to carry on her retired...

Promoted to principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, Cece Cordell, a young black woman, still feels like she doesn't belong, and, despite her dream achievement, is faced with a choice that may derail her career, sending her on a pilgrimage to find her missing older brother and reclaim the parts of herself lost in the pursuit of her art. 'A ballerina at the height of her powers becomes consumed with finding her missing brother in this “striking...

"Following her New York Times bestseller Summer on the Bluffs, The View cohost and three-time Emmy Award winner Sunny Hostin spirits readers away to the warm beaches of Sag Harbor for the compelling second novel in her acclaimed Summer series. In a hidden enclave in Sag Harbor, affectionately known as SANS—Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Nineveh—there’s a close-knit community of African American elites who escape the city and...