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Recommendations based on Waiting to Exhaleby Terry McMillan
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Disappearing Acts
by Terry McMillan
A love story between two African American working-class individuals, exploring the complexities of relationships and personal growth.
He was tall, dark as bittersweet chocolate, and impossibly gorgeous, with a woman-melting smile. She was pretty and independent, petite and not too skinny, just his type. Franklin Swift was a ... (Goodreads)
Friends and Lovers
by Eric Jerome Dickey
A romantic comedy of two couples navigating the ups and downs of relationships.
"Recommended....Dickey uses humor, poignancy and a fresh, creative writing style....The reader is hooked from the first sentence." —,USA Today, In this sexy, soulful tale of love, betrayal, and ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Coldest Winter Ever
by Sister Souljah
Coming of age story of a young girl's survival in a harsh, inner-city environment.
Renowned hip-hop artist, political activist, and bestselling author Sister Souljah brings the streets of New York to life in a powerful and utterly unforgettable first novel. I came busting into the ... (Goodreads)
Beloved
by Toni Morrison
A haunting story of loss and resilience in the aftermath of slavery.
Beloved begins in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio , where the protagonist Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, has been living with her eighteen-year-old daughter Denver at 124 Bluestone Road. The book ... (Wikipedia)
Flyy Girl
by Omar Tyree
A coming-of-age story of a young woman's journey to success in the music industry, navigating love, friendship, and betrayal along the way.
The bestselling urban classic novel about a young woman coming of age in the late 1980s. Tracy Ellison, a young knockout with tall hair and attitude, is living life as fast as she can. Motivated by ... (Barnes & Noble)
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
A woman's journey of self-discovery, liberation and empowerment.
Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person – no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three ... (Goodreads)
Addicted
by Zane
A story of a woman's struggle to overcome an addiction to drugs, alcohol and sex.
For successful African-American businesswoman Zoe Reynard, finding the pleasure she wants, the way she wants it, is not worth the risk of losing everything she has: marriage to the man she has loved ... (Goodreads)
The Darkest Child
by Delores Phillips
A young girl's struggle to find her place in a world of racial prejudice and inequality.
Bakersfield, Georgia, 1958: Thirteen-year-old Tangy Mae Quinn is the sixth of ten fatherless siblings. She is the darkest-skinned among them and therefore the ugliest in her mother, Rozelle's, ... (Goodreads)
Flowers in the Attic
by V.C. Andrews
A family's dark secrets emerge as four siblings are held captive in an attic.
In 1957, the Dollanganger family lives an idyllic life in Gladstone, Pennsylvania until Mr. Dollanganger dies in a car accident, leaving his wife Corinne deep in debt with four children and no ... (Wikipedia)
Sula
by Toni Morrison
Story of two childhood friends, exploring social and racial issues in a small Ohio town.
The novel begins when the construction of a golf course is announced, the site being the destroyed remnants of what used to be the Bottom. The Bottom is a black neighborhood on the hill above the ... (Wikipedia)
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
Coming of age story of a young Black girl dealing with prejudice and racism in 1940s Ohio.
In Lorain, Ohio , nine-year-old Claudia MacTeer and her 10-year-old sister Frieda live with their parents, a tenant named Mr. Henry, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house was ... (Wikipedia)
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
by Ntozake Shange
A powerful collection of stories exploring the struggles and triumphs of African-American women.
In celebration of its highly anticipated Broadway revival, Ntozake Shange’s classic, award-winning play centering the wide-ranging experiences of Black women, now with introductions by two-time ... (Goodreads)
Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler
A modern woman is thrown back in time, forced to confront the harsh realities of slavery.
Kindred scholars have noted that the novel's chapter headings suggest something "elemental, apocalyptic, archetypal about the events in the narrative," thus giving the impression that the main ... (Wikipedia)
Peachtree Road
by Anne Rivers Siddons
A multigenerational saga of a wealthy Atlanta family, exploring themes of love, loss, and the changing South.
Tenth anniversary edition! Set amidst the grandeur of Old Southern aristocracy, here is a novel that chronicles the turbulent changes of a great city–Atlanta--and tells the story of love and hate ... (Goodreads)
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day
by Pearl Cleage
A woman's journey to discover her strength and identity in a small town.
The novel is separated into five parts: June, July, August, September, and November. , Ava Johnson, a young black woman living in Atlanta, is diagnosed with HIV which she contracted from an unknown ... (Wikipedia)
Silver Sparrow
by Tayari Jones
Two teenage girls navigate their complicated relationship as sisters and daughters of a bigamist father in 1980s Atlanta.
Dana Lynn Yarboro's parents meet in Atlanta, Georgia when her father is buying an anniversary present for his wife. Her mother, a young divorcée named Gwen Yarboro, becomes James Witherspoon's ... (Wikipedia)
Giovanni's Room
by James Baldwin
A man's struggle for identity and acceptance amidst a tumultuous romantic relationship.
David, a young American man whose girlfriend has gone off to Spain to contemplate marriage, is left alone in Paris and begins an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni. The entire story is narrated by ... (Wikipedia)
The Lost World
by Michael Crichton
Explorers uncover a prehistoric world and use science to battle its inhabitants.
In 1993, four years after the disaster at Jurassic Park, chaos theorist and mathematician Ian Malcolm – who is revealed to have survived the events of the previous novel , despite being declared dead ... (Wikipedia)
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
by Ayana Mathis
A multigenerational story of an African-American family's struggles and successes.
“A remarkable page-turner of a novel.” —,Chicago Tribune, In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd, swept up by the tides of the Great Migration, flees Georgia and heads north. Full of hope, she ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Pilot's Wife
by Anita Shreve
A woman's journey of overcoming personal tragedy to find strength and courage.
The novel is about Kathryn Lyons, whose husband, Jack Lyons, dies in a plane crash over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Malin Head , Ireland. As she and her daughter Mattie try to cope with this ... (Wikipedia)
Petals on the Wind
by V.C. Andrews
The Dollanganger siblings struggle to overcome their traumatic past, but their secrets and desires threaten to tear them apart.
They were such brave children to withstand such suffering. Such clever children to escape such terror! For Carrie, Chris and Cathy, the attic was a dark horror that would not leave their minds, even ... (Goodreads)
The Hypnotist's Love Story
by Liane Moriarty
A hypnotherapist's new love interest is stalked by his ex-girlfriend, who happens to be one of her patients.
Ellen O’Farrell is a professional hypnotherapist who works out of the eccentric beachfront home she inherited from her grandparents. It’s a nice life, except for her tumultuous relationship history. ... (Goodreads)
Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel García Márquez
An epic love story spanning decades, exploring the power of true love.
The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two with the help of Fermina's ... (Wikipedia)
Breath, Eyes, Memory
by Edwidge Danticat
A young girl's exploration of her family's history and her own identity in Haiti.
At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York, to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers. There she discovers secrets that no child ... (Goodreads)
Interpreter of Maladies
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Collection of stories exploring the struggles of Indian-American immigrants in the US.
A married couple, Shukumar and Shoba, live as strangers in their house until an electrical outage brings them together when all of sudden "they [are] able to talk to each other again" in the four ... (Wikipedia)
The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen
A family drama exploring the complexities of relationships, aging and life’s choices.
The novel shifts back and forth through the late 20th century, intermittently following spouses Alfred and Enid Lambert as they raise their children Gary, Chip, and Denise in the traditional ... (Wikipedia)
The Horse Whisperer
by Nicholas Evans
A young girl and her horse are traumatized in a riding accident, and a horse trainer helps them both heal.
A forty-ton truck hurtles out of control on a snowy country road, a teenage girl on horseback in its path. In a few terrible seconds the life of a family is shattered. And a mother's quest beings - ... (Goodreads)
If There Be Thorns
by V.C. Andrews
A family drama exploring the dark corners of love, secrets, and forbidden passion.
The book is narrated by two half-brothers , Jory and Bart Sheffield. Jory is a handsome, talented fourteen-year-old boy who wants to follow his mother Cathy in her career in the ballet , while ... (Wikipedia)
The King of Torts
by John Grisham
A young lawyer's rise to power and wealth through mass tort litigation, but at what cost?
Clay Carter is a poorly paid Washington, D.C. public defender who dreams of joining a large law firm . One day he reluctantly takes on the case of Tequila Watson, a man accused of a random street ... (Wikipedia)
Yellow Crocus
by Laila Ibrahim
A story of courage and resilience in the face of slavery and racism in the Antebellum South.
Moments after Lisbeth is born, she’s taken from her mother and handed over to an enslaved wet nurse, Mattie, a young mother separated from her own infant son in order to care for her tiny charge. ... (Goodreads)
