18 books like An unkindness of ghosts

What to read after An unkindness of ghosts — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Homegoing Yaa Gyasi · 2016 · ★ 4.5 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Homegoing is the debut historical fiction novel by Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi, published in 2016. Each chapter in the novel follows a different descendant of an Asante woman named Maame, starting with her two daughters, who are half-sisters, separated by circumstance: Effia marries James Collins, the British governor in charge of Cape Coast Castle, while her half-sister Esi is held… Shares: African American, Slavery, Literary, African Americans

After the flare Deji Bryce Olukotun · 2017 · 301p · ≈ 10h · Moderate "A catastrophic solar flare reshapes our world order as we know it - in an instant, electricity grids are crippled, followed by devastating cyberattacks that paralyze all communication. With America in chaos, former NASA employee Kwesi Bracket works at the only functioning space program in the world, which just happens to be in Nigeria. With Europe, Asia, and the U.S. knocked off-line, and… Shares: Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction

Lightning men Thomas Mullen · 2017 · ★ 4.1 · 374p · ≈ 12h · Moderate "Reads like the best of James Ellroy."--Publishers Weekly (starred review, on Darktown) "Mullen is a wonderful architect of intersecting plotlines and unexpected answers."--The Washington Post, on Darktown From the acclaimed author of The Last Town on Earth comes the gripping follow-up to Darktown. Officer Denny Rakestraw and "Negro Officers" Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith have their hands full in… Shares: Racism, African American, African Americans

Kindred Octavia E. Butler · 1979 · ★ 4.3 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more… Shares: African American, Slavery, African Americans, Science Fiction

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Becky Chambers · 2014 · ★ 4.5 · 518p · ≈ 17h · Moderate When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, a patched-up ship that's seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past. But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash… Shares: LGBTQ science fiction & fantasy, Interplanetary voyages, Science Fiction

Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward · 2017 · ★ 4.0 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Moderate A SEARING AND PROFOUND SOUTHERN ODYSSEY BY NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER JESMYN WARD In Jesmyn Ward's first novel since her National Book Award-winning Salvage the Bones, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America. Drawing on Morrison and Faulkner, The Odyssey and the Old Testament, Ward gives us an epochal story, a journey through… Shares: African American, Literary, African Americans

The Unvanquished William Faulkner · 1938 · ★ 3.8 · 293p · ≈ 9h · Challenging Set in Mississippi during the Civil War and Reconstruction, THE UNVANQUISHED focuses on the Sartoris family, who, with their code of personal responsibility and courage, stand for the best of the Old South's traditions. Shares: African American, Slavery, African Americans

Life, the Universe and Everything Douglas Adams · 1982 · ★ 4.2 · 222p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Life, the Universe and Everything is the third book in the five-volume Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy science fiction "trilogy" by British writer Douglas Adams. The title refers to the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. ---------- Also contained in: [Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Four Parts][1] Hitchhiker's Trilogy [More Than Complete Hitchhiker's… Shares: Interplanetary voyages, Science Fiction

The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin · 2015 · ★ 4.4 · 505p · ≈ 16h · Moderate A SEASON OF ENDINGS HAS BEGUN. IT STARTS WITH THE GREAT RED RIFT across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. IT STARTS WITH DEATH, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. IT STARTS WITH BETRAYAL and long-dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon.… Shares: LGBTQ science fiction & fantasy, LGBTQ novels

Starman Jones Robert A. Heinlein · 1953 · ★ 3.9 · 312p · ≈ 10h · Moderate When his stepmother's remarriage drives him from home, Max and a hobo fake their way into the Space Stewards, Cooks, and Purser's Clerks brotherhood to get an opportunity for space travel in an age when only the wealthy are privileged. Shares: Interplanetary voyages, Science Fiction

Swan Song Robert R. McCammon · 1978 · ★ 4.0 · 956p · ≈ 31h · Moderate An ancient evil roams the desolate landscape of an America ravaged by nuclear war. He is the Man with the Scarlet Eye, a malevolent force that feeds on the dark desires of the countless followers he has gathered into his service. His only desire is to find a special child named Swan -- and destroy her. But those who would protect the girl are determined to fight for what is left of the worldŠand… Shares: Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick Zora Neale Hurston · 2020 · ★ 4.3 · 192p · ≈ 6h · Moderate From “one of the greatest writers of our time” (Toni Morrison)—the author of Barracoon and Their Eyes Were Watching God—a collection of remarkable stories, including eight “lost” Harlem Renaissance tales now available to a wide audience for the first time. New York Times’ Booksto Watch forBuzzfeed’sMost Anticipated BooksNewsweek’sMost Anticipated BooksForbes.com’sMost Anticipated BooksE!’sTop… Shares: African American, African Americans

In the Heat of the Night John Ball · 1981 · 176p · ≈ 5h · Moderate A small southern town in the 1960s. A musician found dead on the highway. It's no surprise when white detectives arrest a black man for the murder. What is a surprise is that the black man-Virgil Tibbs-is a skilled homicide detective, passing through racially tense Wells, South Carolina, on his way back to California. Even more surprising, Wells's new police chief recruits Tibbs to help with the… Shares: African American, African Americans

The house behind the cedars Charles Waddell Chesnutt · 1900 · 194p · ≈ 6h · Challenging "The House Behind the Cedars tells of John and Lena Walden, mulatto siblings who pass for white in the postbellum American South. The drama that unfolds as they travel between black and white worlds constitutes a riveting portrait of the shifting and intractable nature of race in American life. This edition revitalizes a much-neglected masterpiece by one of our most important African-American… Shares: Racism, African Americans, Science Fiction

2312 Kim Stanley Robinson · 2012 · ★ 3.5 · 583p · ≈ 19h · Moderate "The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future. The first event takes place on Mercury,… Shares: LGBTQ science fiction & fantasy, Science Fiction

Amari and the Night Brothers B. B. Alston · 2021 · ★ 4.4 · 416p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Quinton Peters was the golden boy of the Rosewood low-income housing projects, receiving full scholarship offers to two different Ivy League schools. When he mysteriously goes missing, his little sister, 13-year-old Amari Peters, can’t understand why it’s not a bigger deal. Why isn’t his story all over the news? And why do the police automatically assume he was into something illegal? Then Amari… Shares: African American, African Americans

Grace Will Lead Us Home Jennifer Berry Hawes · 2019 · ★ 4.5 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2019 BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER GREAT NEW WRITERS PICK OPRAH MAGAZINE SUMMER 2019 READING LIST SELECTION NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE “A soul-shaking chronicle of the 2015 Charleston massacre and its aftermath... [Hawes is] a writer with the exceedingly rare ability to observe sympathetically both particular events and the horizon against which they take place… Shares: Racism, African Americans

Rendezvous with Rama Arthur C. Clarke · 1973 · ★ 4.1 · 254p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Written in 1973, a massive 50 kilometre long alien cylinder begins to pass through the solar system provoking a hurried effort to intercept it. The closest available ship rushes to rendezvous so as to have a quick study before it gets too close to the sun. Able to enter via an airlock on one end of the ship, the crew explores the huge world found inside, a world full of wonder and mystery. As… Shares: Interplanetary voyages, Science Fiction

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