18 books like Beloved

What to read after Beloved — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Stardust Neil Gaiman · 1997 · ★ 4.1 · 220p · ≈ 7h · Moderate E-book extra: Neil Gaiman's "Writing and the Imagination."In the tranquil fields and meadows of long-ago England, there is a small hamlet that has stood on a jut of granite for 600 years. Just to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here, in the hamlet of Wall, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. And here, one crisp… Shares: Community pick

Sula Toni Morrison · 1973 · ★ 4.1 · 188p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Their devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the… Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, Ohio, African American women, African Americans

In love & trouble Alice Walker · 1973 · 138p · ≈ 4h · Moderate The desires and fears of the American black woman are explored with compassion and understanding in these thirteen short stories. Admirers of The Color Purple will find in these stories more evidence of Walker's power to depict black women-women who vary greatly in background yet are bound together. Dating back to the early 1970s and 1980s, respectively, these short stories cover the Pulitzer… Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, African American women, African Americans

Meridian Alice Walker · 1976 · ★ 3.8 · 228p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Set in the 1960s and 1970s, Meridian centers on Meridian Hill, a student at the fictitious Saxon College, who becomes active in the Civil Rights Movement. She becomes romantically involved with another activist, Truman Held. They have a turbulent on-and-off relationship, during which she becomes pregnant by him. After Meridian has an abortion, Truman becomes far more attached to her and longs… Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, African American women, African Americans

The secret life of bees Sue Monk Kidd · 2000 · ★ 4.1 · 302p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest… Shares: African American women, Race Relations, Historical Fiction

Coming of Age in Mississippi Anne Moody · 1968 · ★ 4.4 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Born to a poor couple who were tenant farmers on a plantation in Mississippi, Anne Moody lived through some of the most dangerous days of the pre-civil rights era in the South. In this now classic autobiography, she details the sights, smells, and suffering of growing up in a racist society and candidly reveals the soul of the black girl who had the courage to challenge it. The result is a… Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, Race Relations, African Americans, History

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 women, Slavery, African Americans

To Take B. Love · 2017 · 82p · ≈ 2h · Moderate iii, 72 pages ; 20 cm Shares: African American women, African Americans

Passing by Samaria Sharon Ewell Foster · 1999 · 383p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Eighteen-year-old African-American Alena's sheltered life on her parent's Mississippi farm has not prepared her for the truth about racism, but a shocking discovery leads her to leave her home in 1919 and travel to Chicago in search of answers and justice. Shares: African American women, African Americans

Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · 1969 · ★ 4.3 · 768p · ≈ 25h · Moderate Americanah is a 2013 novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for which Adichie won the 2013 U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Americanah tells the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who immigrates to the United States to attend university. The novel traces Ifemelu's life in both countries, threaded by her love story with high school classmate Obinze. Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, African Americans, History

The Black Door Velvet · 2007 · ★ 4.1 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "Ariel Vaughn is high powered attorney and a partner at her firm, dating one of the most eligible bachelors in New York City, who is also a powerful judge firmly on the political path. She's living the high life, but her sex life has hit a low point. Once a tiger in the sheets, his interest has cooled considerably, and she's wound so tight she's about to explode. But when a hot young escort… Shares: African American women, 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: Slavery, African Americans, Historical Fiction, History

Such a Fun Age Kiley Reid · 2019 · ★ 3.8 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both. Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing… Shares: African American women, Race Relations

Yellow Wife Sadeqa Johnson · 2021 · ★ 4.4 · 288p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life. Shielded by her mother’s position as the estate’s medicine woman and cherished by the Master’s sister, she is set apart from the others on the plantation, belonging to neither world. She’d been promised freedom on her eighteenth birthday, but instead of the idyllic life she imagined with… Shares: Slavery, African Americans, Historical Fiction, History

Angela Davis Angela Y. Davis · 1974 · ★ 3.5 · 400p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Her own powerful story to 1972, told with warmth, brilliance, humor & conviction. The author, a political activist, reflects upon the people & incidents that have influenced her life & commitment to global liberation of the oppressed. Shares: African American women, African Americans

Pan Michael An historical novel Henryk Sienkiewicz · 1893 · ★ 4.2 · 542p · ≈ 18h · Challenging The third and final book of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy takes a closer and more intimate look at one of the series’ protagonists: Pan Michael Volodyovski. The Polish Commonwealth has been through intense periods of war, and the peace that follows leaves one of its greatest heroes, Pan Michael, finally free to marry his beloved Panna Anusia. But in a twist of fate, she falls ill and dies, leaving… Shares: Historical Fiction, History

St. George and St. Michael George MacDonald · 1876 · 450p · ≈ 15h · Challenging It was the middle of autumn, and had rained all day. Through the lozenge-panes of the wide oriel window the world appeared in the slowly gathering dusk not a little dismal. The drops that clung trickling to the dim glass added rain and gloom to the landscape beyond, whither the eye passed, as if vaguely seeking that help in the distance, which the dripping hollyhocks and sodden sunflowers… Shares: Historical Fiction, History

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: Slavery, African Americans, Historical Fiction, History

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