10 books like Brother

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

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, Race Relations

Bread givers Anzia Yezierska · 1925 · ★ 3.7 · 297p · ≈ 9h · Challenging A young Jewish girl from New York's Lower East Side rebels against the tyranny and chauvinism of her immigrant father, determined to assert her freedom and independence. Shares: Children of immigrants, Immigrants

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor · 1976 · ★ 3.9 · 210p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, it is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence. It is a story of physical survival, but more important, it is a story of the survival of the human spirit. And, too, it is Cassie's story -- Cassie Logan, an independent girl raised by a family for whom independence is primary, a family determined not… Shares: Prejudices, Race Relations

The Hate U Give Angie Thomas · 2017 · ★ 4.5 · 480p · ≈ 16h · Moderate The Hate U Give is a 2017 young adult novel by Angie Thomas. It is Thomas's debut novel, expanded from a short story she wrote in college in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant. The book is narrated by Starr Carter, a 16-year-old black girl from a poor neighborhood who attends an elite private school in a predominantly white, affluent part of the city. Starr becomes entangled in a… Shares: African American, Race Relations

Let The Circle be Unbroken Mildred D. Taylor · 1981 · ★ 4.5 · 394p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Let the Circle Be Unbroken is a story of a small Mississippi town in the 1930s, and the troubles that plague its black community. Picking up where its precursor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, leaves off, Mildred Taylor recounts the trials of this small community through the characters of the Logan family. More specifically, it focuses on the children of the family; Stacey, Cassie, Little Man and… Shares: Prejudices, Race Relations

A rap on race Margaret Mead · 1971 · ★ 4.0 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate (From the introduction) On August 25, 1970, anthropologist Margaret Mead and writer James Baldwin met for the first time to have three recorded conversations, totaling more than seven hours of tape that, once transcribed, would compose the book, A Rap on Race (1971). The Mead and Baldwin Book is an amazing account documenting the meeting of two of the twentieth century's paradigmatic thinkers and… Shares: African American, Race Relations

Darktown Thomas Mullen · 2016 · ★ 4.0 · 371p · ≈ 12h · Moderate "Responding to orders from on high, the Atlanta Police Department is forced to hire its first black officers, including war veterans Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith. The newly minted policemen are met with deep hostility by their white peers: they aren't allowed to arrest white suspects, drive squad cars, or set foot in the police headquarters. When a black woman who was last seen in a car driven by… Shares: African American, Race Relations

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: African American, Race Relations

White Teeth Zadie Smith · 2000 · ★ 3.8 · 528p · ≈ 17h · Moderate One of the most talked about fictional debuts of recent years, WHITE TEETH is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike. Dealing - among many other things - with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous… Shares: Immigrants, Race Relations

Darkwater; voices from within the veil W. E. B. Du Bois · 1920 · 164p · ≈ 5h · Challenging In The Souls of Black Folk the sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois introduced the concept of the “veil,” a separation of the inner lives of black Americans from their white counterparts. Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil is a collection of essays, poems, and short fiction that attempts to provide a nuanced look behind the veil at the lives of black Americans and to give voice to their often… Shares: Musicians, Race Relations

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