Slavery

Audiobooks Fiction Listicles Listicles - Featured

7 Brilliant and Affecting Historical Fiction Audiobooks

Just in time for the last lazy days of summer listening, I give you four authors and seven — seven! — historical fiction titles that will spirit you away in your own private time machine. This story appears through BookTrib’s partnership with AudioFile. It first appeared on AudioFile’s website.

Aurelia C. ScottSeptember 8, 2022

Audiobooks Fiction Listicles Listicles - Featured Romance Thrillers

Wrap Up The Summer with These 10 August Audiobooks

Every month, AudioFile Magazine reviewers and editors select the best new audiobooks just for BookTrib’s readers. Get ready for the last beach days of the season, back-to-school preparation and cooler days ahead with these August picks! This story appears through BookTrib’s…

AudioFileSeptember 2, 2022

Nonfiction

“Prophet of Freedom” Illuminates Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (Simon and Schuster) by prize-winning historian and Yale Professor David Blight is based on nearly a lifetime of research as well as letters and private documentation to which no biographer has previously had access. It’s this revealing collection that helped shed new light on Douglass, particularly…

Just The Right Book PodcastNovember 16, 2018

Fiction

“By His Side” Portrays a Bond That Transcended Racial Inequality

“My hope is that this work will help us take a step closer to understanding slavery and the scars the system left on our country,” says Jinny Powers Berten of her poignant historical novel By His Side: The Story of George Washington and William Lee (Fountain Square Publishing). At its…

Jim AlkonApril 21, 2021

Fiction

Review: ‘The Underground Railroad’ is the Best Book of the Year — Maybe the Decade

Decades before the Civil War, a slave woman named Cora risks her life and runs off a cotton plantation in Georgia. Colson Whitehead’s hero in The Underground Railroad is afraid to take a gamble on so much until she realizes she wouldn’t be risking that much to begin with. Being…

Matt GillickNovember 17, 2016

Fiction

Tall Poppy Review: “Yellow Wife” Is a Powerful and Immersive Historical Novel

“Johnson achieves a powerful, unflinching account of determination in the face of oppression.” — Publishers Weekly —∞— One of the very best parts of being a writer is getting a glimpse into colleagues’ books in various states of pre-publication. I had the pleasure of hearing about Sadeqa Johnson’s concept for…

Aimie K. RunyanFebruary 25, 2021

Fiction

“Washington Black” Paints a Fresh Slave Narrative

With history, science and creativity, Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black (Knopf) tells the story of an 11-year-old slave in Barbados and his adventurous escape to freedom. Washington Black, or Wash, brought up in the sugar cane fields, experienced more than his share of oppression, suffering and abuse. When the slave master's brother,…

Jennifer BlankfeinNovember 12, 2018

Nonfiction Nonfiction - Featured

Road to Understanding The Bahamas Paved in Historical and Agricultural Guide

We’ve all heard the saying, “You can’t know what a person is going through without walking a mile in their shoes,” and the same is true of our fellow countries and cultures. Stereotypes have been created for every country, and only the people who live in that country or are…

Mckenzie TozanOctober 21, 2022

Nonfiction

American Truth or Mythology? Historian Revisits the Illustrious Grimke Family

During the late sixties, women scholars began to urge their male colleagues to carve out a place for “herstory” alongside “history.” Over time, with the establishment of women’s studies departments in colleges and universities, second-wave feminists would correct many longstanding legends of American history. Their research produced transformative knowledge while…

Claudia KeenanNovember 17, 2022

Author Spotlight Author Spotlight - Featured Fiction

Marshall Highet and Bird Jones Challenge Attitudes Surrounding Our Nation’s History

Marshall Highet and Bird Jones, two professors/writers whose partnership came together in an exercise class (if you can believe it), make a point to weave together diverse threads of history and culture in their writings to offer their readers fresh perspectives. Their new historical fiction novel, Blue-Eyed Slave (Koehler Books),…

BookTribMarch 14, 2022

Audiobooks Listicles Miscellany

10 February Audiobook Picks You’ll Love Listening To

Every month, AudioFile Magazine reviewers and editors select the best new audiobooks just for BookTrib's readers. This month, selections include several audiobooks perfect for rounding out Black History Month, a duke-themed romance, a fascinating memoir, pulse-pounding thrillers set in the past and the future, and more. Queue 'em up! This…

AudioFileFebruary 22, 2021

Listicles Miscellany

A Brief Primer For Black Poetry Day

Black Poetry Day was established in 1985 to honor Black poets from past to present. Why October 17th you may ask? It’s the birthday of the first Black poet to be published in the United States, Mr. Jupiter Hammon, and the road he paved for those to come. Every year,…