18 books like Coming of Age in Mississippi

What to read after Coming of Age in Mississippi — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

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: African American Girls, 1000blackgirlbooks, African Americans

Soul on ice Eldridge Cleaver · 1863 · ★ 4.0 · 210p · ≈ 7h · Challenging A collection of essays and open letters written while a prisoner at California's Folsom State prison. Shares: Civil rights, African Americans, Biography & Memoir

Nigger Dick Gregory · 1965 · ★ 4.3 · 209p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Gregory told his story in an extremely honest way. It starts off almost in a reflective state, with him speaking to his mother in his own way. He moves on to talk about his childhood, which was unpleasant to say the least. How he, along with many other people who live under those conditions, survived it is a testament to itself. He had a lot of help along the way from friends, family, associates,… Shares: Civil rights, African Americans, Biography & Memoir

Beloved Toni Morrison · 1987 · ★ 4.0 · 362p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Toni Morrison--author of Song of Solomon and Tar Baby--is a writer of remarkable powers: her novels, brilliantly acclaimed for their passion, their dazzling language and their lyric and emotional force, combine the unassailable truths of experience and emotion with the vision of legend and imagination. It is the story--set in post-Civil War Ohio--of Sethe, an escaped slave who has risked death in… Shares: 1000blackgirlbooks, Race Relations, African Americans, History

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: Mississippi, African Americans

A Particular Eye for Villainy Ann Granger · 2012 · 373p · ≈ 12h · Moderate From "an accomplished veteran" of crime fiction, a Victorian murder mystery featuring a female sleuth and her detective husband (Kirkus Reviews).When Mr. Thomas Tapley is found bludgeoned to death in his sitting room, his neighbor, Inspector Benjamin Ross of Scotland Yard, is immediately summoned.Little is known about the elusive gentleman until Mr. Jonathan Tapley, QC, hears of the news, and the… Shares: Social conditions, History

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 Americans

Push Sapphire · 1996 · ★ 3.9 · 163p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Precious Jones, an illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible: invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem's casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and highly radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment… Shares: African American Girls, African Americans

Les confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1782 · ★ 3.6 · 674p · ≈ 22h · Demanding Je forme une entreprise qui n'eut jamais d'exemple, et dont l'execution n'aura point d'imitateur. Je veux montrer a mes semblables un homme dans toute la verite de la nature; et cet homme, ce sera moi. Moi seul. Je sens mon coeur, et je connais les hommes. Je ne suis fait comme aucun de ceux que j'ai vus; j'ose croire n'etre fait comme aucun de ceux qui existent. Si je ne vaux pas mieux, au moins… Shares: Childhood and youth, Correspondence, Biography & Memoir, History

Whistling past the graveyard Susan Crandall · 2013 · ★ 4.1 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Determined to get to Nashville to find her mother in 1963, nine-year-old spitfire Starla Claudelle runs away from her strict grandmother's Mississippi home, eventually accepting a ride from a Eula, a black woman traveling alone with a white baby. In 1963, determined to get to Nashville to find her mother, nine-year-old spitfire Starla runs away from her strict grandmother's Mississippi home. … Shares: Mississippi, Race Relations, History

Quarto de Despejo Carolina Maria de Jesus · 1960 · ★ 4.5 · 182p · ≈ 6h · Moderate A first-hand account of life in the streets of Sao Paulo from 1955 to 1960, details the plight of an artist, writer and single mother of three children who, while living in a hovel, supported her family by digging through the garbage for paper and scraps to sell. Shares: Childhood and youth, Race Relations, Social conditions, Biography & Memoir

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

Invisible Man Ralph Ellison · 1952 · ★ 3.9 · 450p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Invisible Man is the story of a young black man from the South who does not fully understand racism in the world. Filled with hope about his future, he goes to college, but gets expelled for showing one of the white benefactors the real and seamy side of black existence. He moves to Harlem and becomes an orator for the Communist party, known as the Brotherhood. In his position, he is both… Shares: Race Relations, African Americans, Social conditions

A good night for ghosts Mary Pope Osborne · 2009 · ★ 4.1 · 113p · ≈ 3h · Moderate Jack and Annie are on their second mission to find--and inspire--artists to bring happiness to millions. After traveling to New Orleans, Jack and Annie come head to head with some real ghosts, as well as discover the world of jazz when they meet a young Louis Armstrong!From the Hardcover edition. Shares: Childhood and youth, African Americans, History

The Bone Tree Greg Iles · 2012 · ★ 4.5 · 816p · ≈ 27h · Moderate A follow-up to Natchez Burning finds Southern lawyer Penn Cage desperately struggling to protect his father from false charges and corrupt officers by confronting the puppet master behind the Double Eagles terrorist group. Penn Cage's father, Dr. Tom Cage, stands accused of murder, and each effort to defend him unearths new, shocking secrets, leaving Penn to question whether he ever really knew… Shares: Mississippi, Race Relations

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

Becoming Maria Sonia Manzano · 2015 · ★ 3.7 · 267p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Set in the 1950s in the Bronx, this is the story of a girl with a dream. Emmy award-winning actress and writer Sonia Manzano plunges us into the daily lives of a Latino family that is loving--and troubled. This is Sonia's own story rendered with an unforgettable narrative power. When readers meet young Sonia, she is a child living amidst the squalor of a boisterous home that is filled with noisy… Shares: Childhood and youth, Coming-of-age, Biography & Memoir

The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois · 1903 · ★ 4.3 · 232p · ≈ 7h · Challenging 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: Race Relations, African Americans, Biography & Memoir, History

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