Book clubs provide a fantastic platform for exploring literature, sharing perspectives, and deepening understanding of diverse cultures. For those interested in delving into African American literature, forming or joining a book club can be an enriching experience. This guide offers resources, reading suggestions, and insights to help you create or participate in an engaging African American book club.
Spotlight on the AAL Book Club
The AAL Book Club, established in 2018, is designed for individuals passionate about reading and discussing African American literature. This includes both fiction and nonfiction works that shed light on the African American experience. The club also aims to facilitate the sharing of information and learning about the rich cultural heritage of African Americans.
Currently, the AAL Book Club convenes via Zoom, typically on the fourth Tuesday of most months, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM. Here's a glimpse into their upcoming reading list:
- February 25 2025: All Our Names, by Dinaw Mengestu.
- March 25 2025: Lovely One: A Memoir, by Ketanji Brown Jackson.
- April 22 2025: Godwin, by Joseph O'Neill.
- May 27 2025: Civil Rights Queen Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality, by Tomiko Brown-Nagin.
- June 24 2025: One of Our Kind, by Nicola Yoon.
- October 28 2025: Ten poems by ten African American poets. Selected by Susan B.
Featured Books and Authors
Here are some noteworthy books and authors that are perfect for African American book clubs:
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
This book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The New York Times Magazine's award-winning 1619 Project issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation's founding and construction--and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.
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Featuring contributions from: Leslie Alexander, Michelle Alexander, Carol Anderson, Joshua Bennett, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Jamelle Bouie, Anthea Butler, Matthew Desmond, Rita Dove, Camille T. Dungy, Cornelius Eady, Eve L. Ewing, Nikky Finney, Vievee Francis, Yaa Gyasi, Forrest Hamer, Terrance Hayes, Kimberly Annece Henderson, Jeneen Interlandi, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Barry Jenkins, Tyehimba Jess, Martha S. Jones, Robert Jones, Jr., A. Van Jordan, Ibram X. Kendi, Eddie Kendricks, Yusef Komunyakaa, Kevin M. Kruse, Kiese Laymon, Trymaine Lee, Jasmine Mans, Terry McMillan, Tiya Miles, Wesley Morris, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Lynn Nottage, ZZ Packer, Gregory Pardlo, Darryl Pinckney, Claudia Rankine, Jason Reynolds, Dorothy Roberts, Sonia Sanchez, Tim Seibles, Evie Shockley, Clint Smith, Danez Smith, Patricia Smith, Tracy K.
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
The year is 1948, the town is Los Angeles. Easy Rawlins, a black war veteran, has just been fired from his job at a defense factory plant. Easy has no idea that by taking this job, his life is about to change forever. Drinking in his friend's bar, he's wondering how he'll manage to make ends meet, when a white man in a linen suit approaches him and offers him good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a missing blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs. The first novel by "master of mystery" (The New York Times) Walter Mosley, featuring Easy Rawlins, the most iconic African American detective in all of fiction.
Godwin by Joseph O'Neill
Narrated in turn by Mark and his work colleague Lakesha Williams, Godwin is a tale of family and migration as well as an international adventure story that implicates the brothers in the beauty and ugliness of soccer, the perils and promises of international business, and the dark history of transatlantic money-making. Mark Wolfe, a brilliant if self-thwarting technical writer, lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Sushila, and their toddler daughter. His half-brother Geoff, born and raised in the United Kingdom, is a desperate young soccer agent. He pulls Mark across the ocean into a scheme to track down an elusive prospect known only as "Godwin"--an African teenager Geoff believes could be the next Lionel Messi. From the acclaimed author of Netherland (a New York Times Book Review Best Book of the year): the odyssey of two brothers crossing the world in search of an African soccer prodigy who might change their fortunes.
Lovely One: A Memoir by Ketanji Brown Jackson
With this unflinching account, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson invites readers into her life and world, tracing her family's ascent from segregation to her confirmation on America's highest court within the span of one generation. Named "Ketanji Onyika," meaning "Lovely One," based on a suggestion from her aunt, a Peace Corps worker stationed in West Africa, Justice Jackson learned from her educator parents to take pride in her heritage since birth. She describes her resolve as a young girl to honor this legacy and realize her dreams: from hearing stories of her grandparents and parents breaking barriers in the segregated South, to honing her voice in high school as an oratory champion and student body president, to graduating magna cum laude from Harvard, where she performed in musical theater and improv and participated in pivotal student organizations. In her "vulnerable, tender, and infinitely inspirational" (Oprah Daily) memoir, the first Black woman to ever be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States chronicles her extraordinary life story.
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
In a New York City made phantasmagorical by the events of 9/11, and left alone after his English wife and son return to London, Hans van den Broek stumbles upon the vibrant New York subculture of cricket, where he revisits his lost childhood and, thanks to a friendship with a charismatic and charming Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon, begins to reconnect with his life and his adopted country. "Netherland tells the fragmented story of a man in exile--from home, family and, most poignantly, from himself." --Washington Post Book World
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One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon
Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California hoping to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world's troubles. Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined? Jasmyn's only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents' outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life. #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicola Yoon's daring new work of dystopian horror is a propulsive satire set in an all-Black gated community.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . This acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror from an award-winning author "pairs well with 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale" and includes a foreword by N. K. Jemisin.
You Don't Know Us Negroes by Zora Neale Hurston
Collectively, these essays showcase the roles enslavement and Jim Crow have played in intensifying Black people's inner lives and culture rather than destroying it. Spanning more than three decades and penned during the backdrop of the birth of the Harlem Renaissance, Montgomery bus boycott, desegregation of the military, and school integration, Hurston's writing articulates the beauty and authenticity of Black life as only she could. You Don't Know Us Negroes is the quintessential gathering of provocative essays from one of the world's most celebrated writers, Zora Neale Hurston. She argues that in the process of surviving, Black people re-interpreted every aspect of American culture--"modif[ying] the language, mode of food preparation, practice of medicine, and most certainly religion." White supremacy prevents the world from seeing or completely recognizing Black people in their full humanity and Hurston made it her job to lift the veil and reveal the heart and soul of the race.
Additional Book Suggestions
Here are some additional suggestions for books by Black authors that are great for book club discussions:
| Month | Title | Author |
|---|---|---|
| November 2024 | Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own | Eddie S. Glaude Jr. |
| November 2023 | Up Home: One Girl's Journey | Ruth J. Simmons |
| April 2023 | Generations: A Memoir | Lucille Clifton |
| March 2022 | There's a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis | Tracy K. Smith |
| February 2021 | The Man Who Cried I Am | John A. Williams |
Tips for Starting or Enhancing Your Book Club
- Define Your Focus: Determine the specific themes, genres, or authors you want to explore.
- Choose Diverse Books: Select books that offer varied perspectives and experiences within the African American community.
- Create a Welcoming Environment: Encourage open and respectful dialogue where all members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts.
- Utilize Discussion Guides: Take advantage of available discussion guides to facilitate deeper conversations.
- Incorporate Additional Resources: Supplement your reading with documentaries, articles, and other materials to provide context and enhance understanding.
Consider exploring discussion guides available for books by Black authors to enrich your book club experience. These guides can help facilitate deeper conversations and explore themes more thoroughly. Some books are enhanced by discussion; ideas are expanded and exchanged, transformed and evolved.
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