18 books like River, Cross My Heart

What to read after River, Cross My Heart — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Right as Rain

Right as Rain George Pelecanos · 2001 Shares Washington, African Americans with this book.

What It Was

What It Was George Pelecanos · 2012 In this hard-boiled noir, former police officer turned private investigator Derek Strange's search for a lost ring leads him down a twisted path of crime and corruption—and on the chase for a dangerous killer. Washington, DC, 1972. Derek Strange has left the police department and set up shop as a private investigator. His former partner, Frank "Hound Dog" Vaughn, is still on the force. When a… Shares Washington, African Americans

Roots Alex Haley · 1861 · ★ 4.5 · 476p · ≈ 15h · Challenging Roots is a novel written by Alex Haley and published in 1976. It portrays the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his alleged descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural… Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans

Up from Slavery Booker T. Washington · 1900 · ★ 4.1 · 168p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Booker T. Washington, the most recognized national leader, orator and educator, emerged from slavery in the deep south, to work for the betterment of African Americans in the post Reconstruction period. "Up From Slavery" is an autobiography of Booker T. Washington's life and work, which has been the source of inspiration for all Americans. Washington reveals his inner most thoughts as he… Shares Afro-Americans, Washington, African Americans

Song of Solomon Toni Morrison · 1634 · ★ 4.4 · 352p · ≈ 11h · Challenging Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s… Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans, Domestic fiction

Leaving Atlanta Tayari Jones · 2002 · ★ 4.1 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "It was the end of summer, a summer during a two-year nightmare. African American children around Atlanta were vanishing, and twenty-nine would be murdered by the end of 1981. Like all kids across the city, fifth-grade classmates Tasha Baxter, Rodney Green, and Octavia Harrison were discovering that back-to-school now meant special safety lessons, indoor recess, and being thrown into a world… Shares African American families, African Americans, Domestic fiction

Paradise Toni Morrison · 1997 · ★ 4.3 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Moderate "Rumors had been whispered for more than a year. Outrages that had been accumulating all along took shape as evidence. A mother was knocked down the stairs by her cold-eyed daughter. Four damaged infants were born in one family. Daughters refused to get out of bed. Brides disappeared on their honeymoons. Two brothers shot each other on New Year's Day. Trips to Demby for VD shots common. And what… Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans, Domestic fiction

A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry · 1958 · ★ 3.9 · 146p · ≈ 4h · Moderate This groundbreaking play starred Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeill, Ruby Dee and Diana Sands in the Broadway production which opened in 1959. Set on Chicago's South Side, the plot revolves around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family: son Walter Lee, his wife Ruth, his sister Beneatha, his son Travis and matriarch Lena, called Mama. When her deceased… Shares African American families, Afro-Americans, African Americans

The visitation Frank E. Peretti · 1999 · 528p · ≈ 17h · Moderate Shares Washington with this book.

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 American families, African Americans

A thousand tomorrows Karen Kingsbury · 2005 · ★ 4.4 · 242p · ≈ 8h · Moderate In this mass market edition, #1 bestselling author Karen Kingsbury weaves a powerful story of a young couple whose love must face the ultimate challenge.Cody Gunner has no use for real love. Abandoned as a child by the person he needed the most, he swears he will never allow himself to love again. Ali Daniels denies love as well. Carrying a terrible secret, she lives life to the fullest, taking… Shares Psychological fiction

Dirty Jersey Phillip Thomas Duck · 2008 · 253p · ≈ 8h · Moderate A chance encounter with Fiasco, one of the hottest rappers around, gives Eric Posey entry into a world where he is suddenly cool and has access to anything he's ever wanted, for the price of his sister, Kenya. Shares African American families, African Americans

Along Came a Spider James Patterson · 1993 · ★ 4.1 · 454p · ≈ 15h · Moderate A missing little girl named Maggie Rose.A family of three brutally murdered in the projects of Washington, D.C.The thrill-killing of a beautiful elementary school teacher.A psychopathic serial kidnapper/murderer who calls himself the Son of Lindbergh. He is so terrifying that the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police cannot outsmart him - even after he's been captured. Gary Soneji is a… Shares Washington, Psychological fiction, African Americans

The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois · 1903 · ★ 4.3 · 232p · ≈ 7h · Moderate 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, African Americans

The Painted Veil William Somerset Maugham · 1925 · ★ 4.0 · 238p · ≈ 7h · Moderate A story of the beautiful but love-starve Kitty Fane who is forced to accompany her husband to the heart of a cholera epidemic. She is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess her life and learn how to love. Shares Psychological fiction, Domestic fiction

The Whiteoak brothers Mazo de la Roche · 1953 · 277p · ≈ 9h · Moderate The Jalna household is electric with secrecy and excited expectation. It is now 1923, and while young love blossoms between Pheasant and Piers, Aunt Augusta's friend, Dilly Warkworth, arrives at Jalna and tries to snare the heart of Renny. Eden, meets a persuasive mining broker whose new venture promises miracles. Shares Domestic fiction

The Wapshot Scandal John Cheever · 1964 · ★ 4.0 · 309p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Tells of the Wapshot family as they carom around the world with considerable velocity, at times veering into outbreaks of wild hilarity. Shares Domestic fiction

Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward · 2017 · ★ 4.0 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Moderate **A SEARING AND PROFOUND SOUTHERN ODYSSEY BY NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER JESMYN WARD** In Jesmyn Ward's first novel since her National Book Award-winning *Salvage the Bones*, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America. Drawing on Morrison and Faulkner, *The Odyssey* and the Old Testament, Ward gives us an epochal story, a journey… Shares African American families, African Americans

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