18 books like Passing

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

Kingsblood royal Sinclair Lewis · 1947 · ★ 4.0 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Challenging "A neglected tour de force by the first American to win the Nobel Prize in literature, Kingsblood Royal is a stirring and wickedly funny portrait of a man who "resigns from the white race." When Neil Kingsblood - a typical middle-American banker with a comfortable life - makes the shocking discovery that he has African-American blood, the odyssey that ensues creates an unforgettable portrayal of… Shares: Racially mixed people, Race Relations

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: Passing, Racially mixed people, African American women

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: Afro-Americans, Race Relations, Criticism and interpretation

The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett · 2020 · ★ 4.1 · 376p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Brit Bennett’s chart topping novel, The Vanishing Half, is a story that tracks the lives of twin African American twin sisters who, after witnessing the murder of their father, run away at age 16. One sister begins passing as white and the other sister remains true to her identity. The Vanishing Half explores the intricacies of identity, family, and race in a provocative, but compassionate way. Shares: Passing, African American women, Identity

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: Afro-Americans, Race Relations, Criticism and interpretation

Giovanni's Room James Baldwin · 1956 · ★ 4.3 · 185p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Considered an 'audacious' second novel, GIOVANNI'S ROOM is set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence. This now-classic story of a fated love triangle explores, with uncompromising clarity, the conflicts between desire, conventional morality and sexual identity. Shares: Afro-Americans, Race Relations, Classics

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: African American women, Female friendship, Open_syllabus_project

Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray · 1800 · ★ 3.8 · 699p · ≈ 23h · Demanding No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles - military and domestic - are fought,… Shares: Married women, Female friendship, Classics

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson Mark Twain · 1758 · ★ 3.8 · 159p · ≈ 5h · Demanding A young slave woman attempting to protect her son from the horrors of slavery, switches her light-skinned infant with the master's white son. This novel features a literary first — the use of fingerprinting to solve a crime. Shares: Passing, Race Relations, Classics

Cry, The Beloved Country Alan Paton · 1940 · ★ 3.9 · 258p · ≈ 8h · Challenging This book is the most famous and important novel in South Africa's history, and an immediate worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1948. Alan Paton's impassioned novel about a black man's country under white man's law is a work of searing beauty. The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, " We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from… Shares: Race Relations, Open_syllabus_project, Classics

A Passage to India E. M. Forster · 1924 · ★ 3.7 · 325p · ≈ 10h · Challenging When Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced 'Anglo-Indian' community. Determined to escape the parochial English enclave and explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, a cultivated Indian Muslim. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are… Shares: Race Relations, Open_syllabus_project, Classics

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: Afro-Americans, Race Relations

Mama Day Gloria Naylor · 1988 · ★ 4.2 · 312p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Mama day is about many things. It's the story of Ophelia and George two black American's and how they fall in love in try to reconcile their differences of upbringing and culture. It's about the dying culture of Gullah on the Georgia sea islands and it is even a reworking of Shakespeare's Tempest. Shares: Afro-Americans, African American women

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

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

Emma Jane Austen · 1815 · ★ 4.0 · 536p · ≈ 17h · Challenging Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a… Shares: Female friendship, Open_syllabus_project, Classics

Young Wives Olivia Goldsmith · 2000 · ★ 3.5 · 512p · ≈ 17h · Moderate Three thirty-something women, all betrayed by their husbands, bind together for friendship and revenge. Shares: Married women, Female friendship

Novels (Pudd'nhead Wilson / Those Extraordinary Twins) Mark Twain · 1882 · 312p · ≈ 10h · Challenging The first work is the story of Roxana, a light-skinned slave who switches her baby with her master's. Shares: Passing, Race Relations

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