Black History Month 2025: Reading Suggestions

• A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross
• Nature Swagger: Stories & Visions of Black Joy in the Outdoors by Rue Mapp
• An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by Kyle T. Mays
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (also on audiobook)
• Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance by Alvin Hall
• Respect Yourself: The Story of Stax Records and the Soul Explosion by Robert Gordon
• All About Love by bell hooks
• The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee (only audiobook)
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (only audiobook)
• Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall
• Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal by Bettina L. Love
• We Refuse: a Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson (audiobook only)
• The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America by Sarah Lewis (audiobook only)

• Quilt of Souls by Phyllis Biffle Elmore
• Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston (also on audiobook)
• Becoming Richard Pryor by Scott Saul
• Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz
• The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison
• My Song by Harry Belafonte
• Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay (also on audiobook)
• In Love & Trouble by Alice Walker
• The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
• All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson (also on audiobook)
• Heavy by Kiese Laymon (only audiobook)
• Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert
• The Talk by Darrin Bell
• Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tya Miles and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
• The American Queen by Vanessa Miller (audiobook only)

• Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (also on audiobook)
• Dear Martin by Nic Stone (also on audiobook)
• The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb (also on audiobook)
• Kindred by Octavia Butler (also on audiobook and available as a graphic novel)
  • Now streaming on Hulu! 
• The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (also on audiobook)
• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (also on audiobook)
• Family Meal by Bryan Washington
• On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
• The Davenports by Krystal Marquis (audiobook only)
• You Truly Assumed by Laila Sabreen (also on audiobook)
• Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (also on audiobook)

• This is the Honey edited by Kwame Alexander
• Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal
• The Homewood Trilogy by John Edgar Wideman
• Tender Headed by Olatunde Osinaike
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
• I've Been Here All the While by Alaina Roberts
• The Dream Keeper and Other Poems by Langston Hughes
• Kindred by Octavia Butler
• King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
• Built from the fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District by Victor Luckerson
• Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives by Linda Villarosa
• The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson
• Big Papa and the Time Machine by Daniel Bernstrom
• Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor
• Southwest Sunrise by Nikki Grimes
• The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcom X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne

If you want to read any of these titles as ebooks, or listen to them as audio books, follow these steps to use your MavCard:

1. Download the Libby app

2. "Do you have a library card?" --> Yes!

3. "Search for library" by zipcode

4. "Marmot Library Network"

5. "Sign in with my card"

6. "Colorado Mesa University"

7. Use your MavZone login.

8. Enjoy!

Don't have a CMU MavCard to access Libby? 

• You can use Libby with your Mesa County Public Libraries card, too! 
  
• Don't have one? Get the process started today!

Want to access the book in print?

• Chat with Librarians at CMU--or Librarians at MCPLD--for help getting access to titles of interest in the format you prefer!