Washoe County Library System

""Rarely does one encounter a book that can so profoundly change a reader. Moon and the Mars is that book. Corthron, a true heir to James Baldwin, presents a startlingly original exposure of the complex roots of American racism and classism as well as a sweeping exploration of love in all its myriad forms. The best work of fiction I have read in many years." -Naomi Wallace, MacArthur "Genius" Playwriting Fellow and author of One Flea Spare Set in...

Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation. After his rescue, Northup published...

This is the highly anticipated second novel by Angie Thomas, the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning The Hate U Give. Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least win her first battle. As the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died right before he hit big, Bris got massive shoes to fill. But its hard to get your come up when youre labeled a hoodlum at school, and your fridge...

Under the cover of night, twelve-year-old Homer flees Southerland Plantation with his little sister Ada, unwillingly leaving their beloved mother behind. Much as he adores her and fears for her life, Homer knows there’s no turning back, not with the overseer on their trail. Through tangled vines, secret doorways, and over a sky bridge, the two find a secret community called Freewater, deep in the swamp. In this society created by formerly enslaved...

The celebrated civil rights leader outlines the trends in the African American struggle during the sixties, and pleads for peaceful coexistence between the African American and white communities.

An award-winning historian shows how the experiences of the Black working class, from the earliest days of the republic to the essential worker of the Covid pandemic, is essential to a full understanding of the American story.

This book profiles the historical achievements of 11 historical black figures from Estevanico de Dorantes to Rosa Parks.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is arguably the most controversial novel ever written by an American. The impetus for the story was the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, which required all residents of the United States to report to the proper authorities any knowledge they may have had of the whereabouts of escaped slaves.

The critique of greed and inhumanity, innocence and redemption, continues to spark debate about the role and the...

Told from two viewpoints, Atlanta high school seniors Lena and Campbell, one black, one white, must rely on each other to survive after a football rivalry escalates into a riot.

"Parable of the Sower is the Butlerian odyssey of one woman who is twice as feeling in a world that has become doubly dehumanized. The time is 2025. The place is California, where small walled communities must protect themselves from hordes of desperate scavengers and roaming bands of people addicted to a drug that activates an orgasmic desire to burn, rape, and murder. When one small community is overrun, Lauren Olamina, an 18 year old black woman...