18 books like The Color Purple
Stolen Innocence
In September 2007, a packed courtroom in St. George, Utah, sat hushed as Elissa Wall, the star witness against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, gave captivating testimony of how Jeffs forced her to marry her first cousin at age fourteen. This harrowing and vivid account proved to be the most compelling evidence against Jeffs, showing the harsh realities of this closed community and the…
Shares: Adult child sexual abuse victims, Abused wives
The secret life of bees
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, Sisters, Domestic fiction, Historical Fiction
Upstate
Harlem, 1985. Antonio has been seeing Natasha for a while now. Their relationship is full of the drama, the passion and the intensity of every first love affair. But their story is different. For Antonio is on trial for the murder of his father. This is Natasha and Antonio's story, one struggling to cope with life in jail, the other with life outside. Extraordinarily vivid and honest, their…
Shares: Epistolary fiction, African American women
Adrian Mole
He's back. Aged 30¼.
Twenty-first century Mole.
Now in his thirties, Adrian's still worrying: Can he be a good father? Is Viagra cheating? Why won't the BBC produce 'The White Van', his serial killer comedy?
Will he find the fulfilment he seeks as a celebrity offal chef, single parent and celibate novelist? Is there a place for Adrian Mole in Blair's Brave New Britain?
'Thank goodness for his…
Shares: Epistolary fiction, Domestic fiction, Social life and customs
Yesterday I Cried
“The most powerful spiritual healer, fixer, teacher on the planet.” —Oprah WinfreyWhat if your deepest pain held the key to your greatest healing?In Yesterday, I Cried, New York Times bestselling author and spiritual teacher Iyanla Vanzant shares her powerful personal story—a journey marked by abuse, neglect, heartbreak, and loss. With unflinching honesty and raw emotion, she invites us to…
Shares: Blacks, African American women
The Vanishing Half
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: African American women, Sisters, Historical Fiction
In love & trouble
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: African American women, Social life and customs
Roots
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: Blacks, Historical Fiction
The foremother figure in early black women's literature
Originally published in 1999 The Foremother Figure in Early Black Women's Literature looks at how stereotypical foremother figure exists in nineteenth century American literature. The book argues that older black woman portrayed in early black women’s works differs significantly from the older black women portrayed in early white women’s works. The foremother figure, then emerging in early black…
Shares: African American women, Domestic fiction
Home as found
"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
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
The Help
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared…
Shares: African American women, Domestic fiction, Historical Fiction
No name
No Name is a 19th-century novel by the master of sensation fiction, Wilkie Collins. A country gentleman is killed in an accident and his wife dies shortly after him. The blow is double for their daughters, who discover that they were born before their parents were married. Their sudden illegitimacy robs them of their inheritance and their accustomed place in society.
Shares: Sisters, Social life and customs
On Beauty
"Howard Belsey is an Englishman abroad, an academic teaching in Wellington, a college town in New England. Married young, thirty years later he is struggling to revive his love for his African American wife Kiki. Meanwhile, his three teenage children - Jerome, Zora and Levi - are each seeking the passions, ideals and commitments that will guide them through their own lives." "After Howard has a…
Shares: African American women, Domestic fiction
Dust tracks on a road
xii, 308, 16 pages: 21 cm
Shares: African American women, Social life and customs
The Glass Palace
Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest.
When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love…
Shares: Domestic fiction, Historical Fiction
Sula
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, Domestic fiction
The Newcomes
The Newcomes is Thackeray's most essentially 'Victorian' novel, generous in its proportions, sharp in its criticism of the moral convolutions of the age, and encyclopaedic in its reference. Set in the 1830s and 1840s, a period of rapid change and of political and economic development, the novel considers the fortunes and misfortunes of a 'most respectable' extended middle-class family. The action…
Shares: Domestic fiction, Social life and customs