Beach Reads by Black Authors You Need To Read

A magnificent new novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of An American Marriage — Tayari Jones has written an unforgettable novel that sparkles with wit and intelligence and deep feeling about two lifelong friends whose worlds converge after many years apart in the face of a devastating tragedy.

A sweeping family saga about inheritance and the enduring legacy of Southern Black cowboy culture, from the acclaimed author of Redwood Court, a Reese’s Book Club pick. Fairfield County is at once a moving exploration of the ties that bind us and a bold reclamation of the American Cowboy — taking this iconic image out of the whitewashed Old West and deep into the heart of the Black South, where it has always resided.

A cowboy romance enthusiast discovers that everything’s bigger in Texas — even love — in this swoony novel from beloved author Alexa Martin.

A gripping novel about two trailblazing women on opposite sides of the law — a prosecutor and a madam — who team up to bring down notorious Mob boss Lucky Luciano in 1930s New York, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the million-copy bestseller The Personal Librarian.

The Longe siblings are really botching their parents’ American Dream. Big-hearted, hilarious, and wise, Leave Your Mess At Home is a poignant exploration of forgiveness, unconditional love, and becoming who you want to be, asking the question: What do we owe to our families, and what do we owe to ourselves?

A ravishingly beautiful and emotionally incendiary reinvention of the love story by the legendary Nobel Prize winner. Jadine Childs is a Black fashion model with a white patron, a white boyfriend, and a coat made out of ninety perfect sealskins. Son is a Black fugitive who embodies everything she loathes and desires. As Morrison follows their affair, which plays out from the Caribbean to Manhattan and the deep South, she charts all the nuances of obligation and betrayal between … men and women.

From the bestselling author of Everything Inside comes a vivid, timely story, moving from Haiti to Brooklyn to Miami, of a woman whose sense of self and family are called into question when she gets caught in a random act of violence one sunny Florida day. Dèy celebrates the complexity of life in a brave and striking novel that is one of Danticat’s most powerful and deeply affecting works yet, told with a signature “unfaltering voice and evocative beauty” (The Boston Globe).

Mara Brock Akil, the award-winning creator of Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane, Love Is, and Forever, pens an emotionally enthralling debut novel about enduring love, world-shattering secrets, and self-awakening. The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is at once a deeply moving and provocatively gripping novel that shows when you dig deep enough into the shadows of your life, light can be revealed. It’s a novel of broken lovers, a fractured family, and distant friendships all making their way back to one another.

In Washington, D.C.’s powerful Black elite, legacy is everything. When a young heir to one of the city’s most influential institutions seeks funding to cement her future, a shadowy organization offers to help — but it could cost her far more than she’s willing to give.

A gripping novel of two young women fighting for survival on the edge of the wilderness, and the love that simultaneously sustains them and threatens their very existence, from the author of the Good Morning America Book Club pick River Sing Me Home. With evocative prose and immersive storytelling, Fireflies in Winter is a powerful novel about love — love for the wilderness in all its unforgiving beauty, and love between two women who risk everything to be together.

When the men in their lives prove less than reliable, Savannah, Bernadine, Gloria, and Robin find new strength through a rare and enlightening friendship as they struggle to regain stability and an identity they don’t have to share with anyone. Because for the first time in a long time, their dreams are finally OFF hold …

A dark, provocative, adrenaline-rush of a novel about a graduate student who murders bad men and justifies it in the name of feminism, by a bold new voice in fiction.

A floundering twenty-something who’s sworn off romance finds herself roped into her meddling sister’s matchmaking business in this sparkling debut rom-com that asks: Can we protect ourselves while falling in love?

A bold debut from an exhilarating, multi-award-winning young writer, following two lifelong friends who suddenly find themselves in an emotional deadlock when one abruptly proposes to break up after years of subtle betrayals. “Sexy, infuriating, and unbelievably fun to read . . . This is a writer who can read someone to filth in just one line.” —Katie Yee, author of Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar

From the beloved Today show host Sheinelle Jones comes an inspiring collection of heartfelt life-lessons from hard working moms who raised some of our favorite celebrities. Combining insights from celebrity mothers with her own journey through modern parenting, Sheinelle reveals how to make it through the hard parts of motherhood and still tap into the joys of it with empathy, generosity, and solidarity. Through Mom’s Eyes is a beautiful celebration of those who are the guiding light for their loved ones — mothers.

In this crackling portrayal of friendship in peril, a young woman’s world is upended when a tragedy in her best friend’s life tests the boundaries of their sisterhood — a sharp and compelling debut novel from a Ghanaian American writer. A riveting exploration of sisterhood, what it means to mother and be mothered, and what it means to be well, Somewhere Soft to Land reckons with the sometimes funny, sometimes fraught friendship between women with divergent ideologies, aspirations, personalities, and paths.

A dedicated journalist unearths a generations-old family secret — and a connection to a string of missing girls that hits way too close to home — in this “nail-biting debut” (Booklist). Delving into family, community, secrets, and motherhood, We Don’t Talk About Carol is a gripping and deeply emotional story about overcoming the rot at the roots of our family trees — and what we’ll do for those we love.