18 books like A Raisin in the Sun

What to read after A Raisin in the Sun — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Roots Alex Haley · 1861 · ★ 4.5 · 476p · ≈ 15h · Challenging Roots is a novel written by Alex Haley and published in 1976. It portrays the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his alleged descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural… Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans, History

The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois · 1903 · ★ 4.3 · 232p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Du Bois' 1903 collection of essays is a thoughtful, articulate exploration of the moral and intellectual issues surrounding the perception of blacks within American society. Shares Afro-Americans, Race Relations, African Americans, History

River, Cross My Heart Breena Clarke · 1999 · ★ 3.5 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate The impact of a child's drowning on a black family in 1925 Washington, especially on the 12-year-old sister who was baby-sitting the girl. Told against the background of the lot of African Americans at the time. Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans

Autobiography and Black identity politics Kenneth Mostern · 1999 · 287p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "Why has autobiography been central to African-American political speech throughout the twentieth century? What is it about the racialization process that persistently places African-Americans in the position of speaking from personal experience? In Autobiography and Black Identity Politics: Racialization in Twentieth-Century America Kenneth Mostern illustrates the relationship between narrative… Shares Afro-Americans, Race Relations, African Americans

The fire next time James Baldwin · 1962 · ★ 4.5 · 120p · ≈ 4h · Moderate **From Amazon.com:** A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, *The Fire Next Time* galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of… Shares Afro-Americans, Race Relations, African Americans, History

Going to Meet the Man James Baldwin · 1965 · ★ 4.4 · 226p · ≈ 7h · Moderate African-American fiction Shares Afro-Americans, Race Relations, African Americans

Giovanni's Room James Baldwin · 1956 · ★ 4.3 · 185p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Considered an 'audacious' second novel, GIOVANNI'S ROOM is set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence. This now-classic story of a fated love triangle explores, with uncompromising clarity, the conflicts between desire, conventional morality and sexual identity. Shares Afro-Americans, Race Relations, African Americans

Mama Day Gloria Naylor · 1988 · ★ 4.2 · 312p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Mama day is about many things. It's the story of Ophelia and George two black American's and how they fall in love in try to reconcile their differences of upbringing and culture. It's about the dying culture of Gullah on the Georgia sea islands and it is even a reworking of Shakespeare's Tempest. Shares Afro-Americans, 20th Century, African Americans

Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand · 1897 · 192p · ≈ 6h · Challenging A Representation at the Hotel de Bourgogne. The hall of the Hotel de Bourgogne, in 1640. A sort of tennis-court arranged and decorated for a theatrical performance. The hall is oblong and seen obliquely, so that one of its sides forms the back of the right foreground, and meeting the left background makes an angle with the stage, which is partly visible. On both sides of the stage are benches.… Shares Drama

Dead Men's Money Joseph Smith Fletcher · 1920 · ★ 3.7 · 212p · ≈ 7h · Moderate A mysterious one-eyed stranger, a midnight meeting at a lonely spot on the Scottish border, the secret password "Panama", and a corpse This is the situation Hugh Moneylaws, a young law clerk finds himself facing. Who murdered the man he was sent to meet, and why? With the only two men who knew the purpose of the meeting dead, it would seem a puzzle that would never be solved. Yet to save himself… Shares History

The Lady of the Rivers

The Lady of the Rivers Philippa Gregory · 2011 · ★ 4.0 The Lady of the Rivers tells the story of Jacquetta, daughter of the Count of Luxembourg, and kinswoman to half the royalty of Europe, who was married to the great Englishman John, Duke of Bedford, uncle to Henry VI. Widowed at the age of nineteen she took the extraordinary risk of marrying a gentleman of her house­hold for love, and then carved out a life for herself as Queen Margaret of Anjou's… Shares History

The Awful Secret

The Awful Secret Bernard Knight · 2006 · 356p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Shares History with this book.

Intruder in the Dust William Faulkner · 1948 · 247p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Using his preferred stream-of-consciousness style the author tells a story of a black farmer in Mississippi accused of murdering a white man. Shares Afro-Americans, Race Relations, African Americans

By the Fire We Carry Rebecca Nagle · 2024 · ★ 4.4 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Shares Social Science, History with this book.

Up from Slavery Booker T. Washington · 1900 · ★ 4.1 · 168p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Booker T. Washington, the most recognized national leader, orator and educator, emerged from slavery in the deep south, to work for the betterment of African Americans in the post Reconstruction period. "Up From Slavery" is an autobiography of Booker T. Washington's life and work, which has been the source of inspiration for all Americans. Washington reveals his inner most thoughts as he… Shares Afro-Americans, African Americans, History

Song of Solomon Toni Morrison · 1634 · ★ 4.4 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Challenging Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s… Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans

Paradise Toni Morrison · 1997 · ★ 4.3 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Moderate "Rumors had been whispered for more than a year. Outrages that had been accumulating all along took shape as evidence. A mother was knocked down the stairs by her cold-eyed daughter. Four damaged infants were born in one family. Daughters refused to get out of bed. Brides disappeared on their honeymoons. Two brothers shot each other on New Year's Day. Trips to Demby for VD shots common. And what… Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans

Thurber Carnival James Thurber · 1940 · ★ 4.2 · 290p · ≈ 9h · Moderate James Thurber's unique ability to convey the vagaries of life in a funny, witty, and often satirical way earned him accolades as one of the finest humorists of the twentieth century. A bestseller upon its initial publication in 1945, The Thurber Carnival captures the depth of his talent and the breadth of his wit. The stories compiled here, almost all of which first appeared in The New Yorker,… Shares Drama, History

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