The Jubilee Reader Issue 16 - March/April 2025

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The Jubilee Reader

Recent books by African American authors and writers from the African diaspora, along with works on related topics.

Issue 16 • March/April 2025

Fiction

Amber Alert

A suburban mother’s criminal past endangers her children and propels her back into a world she thought she had left behind.

Autumn: A Twist of Fate

A single mom raising her nephew finds an unlikely connection with a billionaire playboy.

Beautiful Broken Love

A woman grieving her husband’s death considers the possibility of new love when an NBA star shows interest in her.

Breath of Oblivion

A coalition of city-states that stretches from Earth to Titan and beyond faces renewed threats to its progress in this sequel to Sweep of Stars

Carl Weber’s Kingpins: Charlotte Part 2

A man must fight for his freedom and life after he is falsely accused of murder.

Carl Weber’s Kingpins:

Queens 3 by Erick S. Gray

A powerful criminal organization stages a series of attacks on the rulers of New York City’s underworld.

Church Girl

Chaos in Kinshasa

by

A gangster who wins tickets to attend the “Rumble in the Jungle” becomes entangled in espionage, murder, and a plot to overthrow Zaire’s infamous President Mobutu.

A preacher’s daughter who flees her wedding and the small-town expectations of her family finds romance with a grumpy tattoo artist.

Death of the Author

A woman whose novel has been rejected by yet another publisher pens a science fiction novel that sends her on a life-altering journey.

Echo

A Chicago police detective uncovers links to a decades-old tragedy when she investigates the murder of a wealthy college student.

Fat Girls Dance

Three women determined to fight body shaming become online sensations and find their friendship stretched to the breaking point.

Guide Me Home

Good Dirt

The daughter of an affluent family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom.

A Texas Ranger facing a possible indictment investigates his mother’s dubious tale of a missing college student.

Home and Away

A journalist who moves to Nashville to interview her grandfather about his father’s Negro League baseball career finds inspiration to transform her own future.

Hood Defined Love

A young woman and young man find themselves drawn together under difficult circumstances.

Isaac’s

Song

Encouraged by his therapist to write his story, a young, queer man relates the circumstances of his life, from growing up with a difficult father to finding community in 1980s Chicago.

The Jewel of the Blues

A devastating family secret casts a shadow over the life and career of an up-and-coming Jazz Era singer.

Libra Princesses

Twin Irish sisters in dire financial and personal straits become the hired hands of a conniving drug lord.

Love in Bloom

The Life of Herod the Great

A new, unpublished novel from Zora Neale Hurston that reveals the historical Herod the Great as a religious and philosophical man who lived a life of valor and vision.

A hardworking city woman finds country love with the handsome manager of her family’s farm.

My Heart Still Beats for You

Romance blossoms when four lovers seek to uncover the true desires of their hearts.

Only for the Week

The maid of honor and best man at a wedding in Mexico agree to a one-week stand that may turn into a lifetime together.

A professional hockey player and a firefighter find romance while struggling to escape the weight of the past.

Pretty Hustlaz

Power of Persuasion

A woman hired by the cabinet of King Damon Toca of Jafir to install her revolutionary AI system finds herself drawn to the king.

Stuck In the Country With You

A one-night stand comes back to haunt a young woman who inherits her family’s farm and discovers that her new neighbor is her one-time fling.

This Time, Baby

The new boss of a New York City crime family targets the former NYPD officer who runs a competing criminal organization.

The Treacherous Wife

A decorated Arizona detective finds that his second chance at love is threatened by a new, deadly investigation.

The Trial of Mrs. Rhinelander by

In 1920s New York, an idealistic young woman who elopes with the white heir to a real estate fortune is drawn into a sensational divorce case and must fight for justice, legitimacy, and her future.

The Unexpected Diva

The founder of a high-class escort service tries to prevent the realities of her work from intruding on her closely guarded private life.

Somebody’s Husband

A grieving doctor and a nurturing professor join forces on a medical study that sparks a profound romantic connection.

A chance performance launches a young woman into fame as “the Black Swan,” a celebrated opera singer navigating the dangers of 19th-century America.

Untethered

In 1967 Alabama, a young woman who lost her twin brother to the war in Vietnam is torn between her responsibilities and her heart’s desire.

The Wind on Her Tongue

A woman with the ability to control storms embarks on a journey through 19th-century America under the guidance of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau.

Non-Fiction

Arts and Literature

The African Gaze: Photograhy, Cinema and Power

An introduction to African photography and film from the mid-twentieth century to present day.

Amy Sherald: American Sublime

A collection of almost all of the work produced by artist Amy Sherald, from her poetic early piecess to the distinctive figure paintings and portraits that have become her hallmark.

High and Rising: A Book About De La Soul

A cultural biography detailing the influence of De La Soul, whose groundbreaking debut album revolutionized hip-hop. Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.

A showcase of the role of visual art in African American history and culture, based on the exhibition of the same name at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

When It’s Over

by

NYPD detectives pursuing a criminal responsible for five murders try to avert further bloodshed.

A Thousand Threads

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Cherry offers an inside look at her career and her formative early years, when she called Sweden, Sierra Leone, London, and Watts home.

The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America

Art historian Lewis explores the connection between images of the people of the Caucasus in the 1860s and American ideas about race.

Biography and Memoir

Da Baddest

Rapper, songwriter, and television personality Trina shares the story of her coming-of-age in Miami and her ascent to stardom.

The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe

An exploration of the complex life of Henry Christophe that details his journey from enslavement to revolutionary leader, king, and suicide.

Malcolm Before X

An examination of the first 27 years of Malcolm X’s life that explores his Midwestern childhood and focuses on his time in prison.

My Pisces Heart: A Black Immigrant’s Search for Home Across Four Continents

A memoir tracing the journey of a Black, queer woman as she searches for a place of security and acceptance to call home.

The White Peril: A Family Memoir

A multigenerational memoir that blends the author’s coming-of-age story as a Black man in America with his great-grandfather’s sermons and the civil rights work of his father.

Cooking

Trap Kitchen: Wah Gwaan Jamaican Cookbook

The owners of Trap Kitchen LA delve into the history of Jamaican culinary traditions and provide new takes on more than 60 classic recipes.

Essays

If We Are Brave: Essays From Black Americana

A collection of first-person accounts that explores how differing perspectives on national identity challenge America’s democratic ideals and hinder unity.

Justice for

Marcus Garvey : Look for Me in the Whirlwind

A collection of essays and personal narratives about Black political activist Garvey.

History

An African History of Africa

A survey of Africa’s legacy from prehistory to the present that highlights African voices and perspectives to explore ancient civilizations, medieval empires, and colonialism’s impact.

Humans in Shackles: An Atlantic History of Slavery

A sweeping narrative history of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the Americas.

Juneteenth Rodeo

Photos taken between 1977 and 1982 that offer a rare portrait of the vibrant and now all-but-vanished world of small-town Black rodeos.

Kindred Creation: Parables and Paradigms for Freedom

An exploration of the impacts of settler colonialism, and a call to design better worlds rooted in African lifeways.

Law

The Gangs of Zion: A Black Cop’s Crusade in Mormon Country

The best-selling author of Black Klansman returns with another firsthand account of his trailblazing police work in 1990s Utah.

Never Saw Me

Coming: How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System by

A tech genius shares how she stole $40 million as part of a scheme designed to show up the FBI, which claimed that “these are not the kind of crimes Black people are smart enough to commit.”

No Human Involved: The Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference

An examination of the invisibility of Black women and girls as victims of targeted killings, and the lack of police interest in and media coverage of those murders.

Religion and Spirituality

The Day God Saw Me as Black : The Journey to Liberated Faith by Danyelle

A cultural critique of white supremacy in the Black Pentecostal religious experience through the lenses of race, gender, and sexual expression.

Do It Anyway Devotional: 60 Days to a Bolder Faith

by

The Grammy-winning author of Do It Anyway shares a plan to help readers experience the breakthrough that comes from trusting Jesus.

Get Your Spirit Back

by

Speaker and pastor McClellan calls readers to move beyond insecurity and negative self-talk and show up to life with God-given confidence.

Go Higher: Five Practices for Purpose, Success, and Inner Peace

The musician known as Big Sean offers spiritual practices for self-care and self-acceptance, and recalls his journey to musical stardom and his battles with depression and anxiety.

I Once Was Lost: My Search for God in America

Former CNN anchor Lemon discusses how tests of faith can make us stronger, as individuals and as a nation.

A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook

An updated edition of A Kwanzaa Keepsake, featuring proverbs, ceremonies, family projects, inspirational biographies, blessings, and recipes.

Take Your Seat at the Table

Best-selling author O’Neal discusses tools and strategies to help readers take ownership of their decisions and step into the life that God wants them to live.

Wake Up to Love: Meditations to Start Your Day

GoOD Mornings podcast host Walton presents a collection of short meditations to help start one’s day with intentionality.

Social Science

Don’t Go: Stories of Segregation and How to Disrupt It by Tonika

A collection of stories and photos that uncovers the hidden influence of the messaging that perpetuates segregation in Chicago and other “don’t go” neighborhoods.

The End of Respectability

by

In essays blending social history, analysis, and autobiography, Walton explores recent American history and race relations.

Sports

All the Smoke: All the Stars, All the Stories, No Apologies

by

NBA icons Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson take readers behind the scenes of their greatest moments and share insights from interviews with legends such as Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry.

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