18 books like Let The Circle be Unbroken

What to read after Let The Circle be Unbroken — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

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: Depressions, Prejudices, Race Relations, African Americans

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Horace McCoy · 1935 · ★ 3.8 · 319p · ≈ 10h · Challenging "The depression of the 1930s led people to desperate measures to survive. The Marathon Dance Craze, which flourished at that time, seemed a simple way for people to earn extra money--dancing the hours away for cash. But, the underside of that Craze was filled with a competition and violence unknown to most ballrooms. [author's] classic American story captures that dark side in this powerful… Shares: Depressions, Social life and customs

Sounder William H. Armstrong · 1969 · ★ 4.0 · 116p · ≈ 3h · Moderate Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding by learning to read and through his relationship with his devoted dog Sounder. Shares: African Americans in fiction, African Americans, Historical Fiction

And this too shall pass E. Lynn Harris · 1996 · ★ 4.3 · 347p · ≈ 11h · Moderate A stellar quarterback, an ambitious sportscaster. What happens when rising stars collide?In And This Too Shall Pass, Harris takes us into the locker rooms and newsrooms of Chicago, where four lives are about to intersect in romance and scandal. At the heart of the novel is the celibate Zurich, a rookie quarterback for the Chicago Cougars whose trajectory for superstardom is interrupted by a… Shares: African Americans in fiction, African Americans

Fallen angels Patricia Hickman · 2003 · 442p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Jeb Nubey hides a secret about his past that has left him alienated from his family and hiding from the law. Shares: Depressions, Historical Fiction

The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck · 1939 · ★ 4.0 · 642p · ≈ 21h · Challenging Steinbeck’s classic novel of the Great Depression is as vivid now as ever. The story focuses on a family of Oklahoma sharecroppers, farmers who work another man’s land for a share of the crops. Driven from their home by drought and poverty they take to the road in a battered old truck and make their way to California to look for work. When they arrive they find hundreds of others like them being… Shares: Depressions, Historical Fiction

A Bird in the House Margaret Laurence · 1963 · ★ 4.0 · 207p · ≈ 6h · Moderate A Bird in the House is a series of eight interconnected short stories narrated by Vanessa MacLeod as she matures from a child at age ten into a young woman at age twenty. Wise for her years, Vanessa reveals much about the adult world in which she lives. Shares: Depressions, Social life and customs

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

Intruder in the Dust William Faulkner · 1948 · 247p · ≈ 8h · Challenging 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: Race Relations, African Americans, Historical Fiction

Brother David Chariandy · 2018 · ★ 4.1 · 192p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Toronto Book Award, and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize Named a Best Book of the Year by Globe and Mail, National Post, Guardian, Esquire, New York Public Library, NOW Magazine, Chatelaine, CBC, Quill & Quire, Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette, Kirkus Reviews, and more A Canada Reads Finalist A Penguin… Shares: Prejudices, Race Relations

The Summer of My German Soldier Bette Greene · 1973 · ★ 4.0 · 240p · ≈ 8h · Moderate When her small hometown in Arkansas becomes the site of a camp housing German prisoners during World War II, 12-year-old Patty Bergen learns what it means to open her heart. Although she's Jewish, she begins to see a prison escapee, Anton, not as a Nazi--but as a lonely, frightened young man with feelings not unlike her own, who understands and appreciates her in a way her parents never will. And… Shares: Prejudices, Young Adult, Historical Fiction

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: Race Relations, African Americans

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

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: Race Relations, African Americans, Historical Fiction

Home as found James Fenimore Cooper · 1800 · ★ 5.0 · 432p · ≈ 14h · Challenging "No society, dear!--Why you were at the Henderson's, and the Morgan's, and the Drewett's; three of the greatest _réunions_ that we have had in two winters!"' "I did not know that you meant those unpleasant crowds, by society". "Unpleasant crowds! Why, child, that is society, is it not?' "Not what I have been taught to consider such; I rather think it would be better to call it company". "And is… Shares: Historical Fiction

The Border Empire Ralph Compton · 1997 · ★ 4.0 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Wes Stone was a lawman—until the Sandlin gang gunned down his legendary father. Now, he's giving up his badge for vengeance... Shares: Historical Fiction

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: Race Relations, African Americans

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

About the book Let The Circle be Unbroken →