Books for Cancer

Cancer, you are something of a history buff, but Benedict and Murray’s bit of little-known history might surprise you. This novel is based on the remarkable true story of Belle da Costa Greene, the personal librarian hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and art. Belle becomes an important figure in New York society, known for her taste, intelligence, and wit. But she has a secret to protect: her dark complexion is not, as she has said, the result of Portuguese heritage. She is African American, passing for white, and da Costa Greene is not her given name.

Cancer, this coming-of-age novel about two young Black girls navigating their changing world will have you glued to your couch cushions until the last page. KB and her sister have recently lost their father and their home in Detroit, and their overwhelmed mother sends them to live with their grandfather in Lansing, Michigan. The storyteller, KB, finds her identity and her voice in a new place.

Cancer, this is a fun mystery to enjoy with a sweet treat. At the annual Harvest Time Festival in Win’s small Ohio town, residents enjoy hayrides, crown a Queen, and eat dessert at Win’s ice cream truck. It’s a good time, until this year, when a former Harvest Queen is poisoned at the festival, and Win is implicated. She needs to use her detective skills to clear her name before it’s too late.

Cancer, home is such an important place for you. Of all the signs, you will truly understand and empathize with Mondiant Dogon, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, as he writes about his family’s story and his lifelong search for home. They fled when he was three, to Rwanda, where they spent decades in UN tent cities. Later, he tried to return to the DRC in hope of a better life, only to be enlisted as a child soldier. Dogon managed to leave and continue on to college, and now he tells his story for refugees everywhere.

Cancer, the Kellehers have been coming to their beach house in Maine for years, because of or despite their family history. This summer, three generations of women arrive, each with their own story. Maggie is pregnant and trying to find the right time to tell her boyfriend, Ann Marie is bottling up her domestic frustration, Kathleen just frankly doesn’t want to be there, and matriarch Alice has some regrets. All their tensions and emotions rise to the surface in this funny and powerful novel.

Cancer, a brilliant new poet explores the lives of generations of women in her family through this volume. From the unnamed Black women forgotten in historical records, to her enslaved foremother Amy in Tennessee, to her great-grandmother Gentry who was married at fourteen, and down to her own mother and herself, Young tells this saga, weaving together stories of women connected by blood.

Cancer, you’ll love the way Brooks weaves history and imagination in her newest novel. The story is based on the truth of Lexington, a record-breaking thoroughbred. Brooks writes about the enslaved groom who formed a bond with the remarkable horse, the oil-painter-turned-Union-Army-soldier who made his name painting the horse, and, in contemporary times, the gallery owner, scientist, and art historian who are piecing the story back together with bones and old paintings.

Cancer, a family cake recipe and a mysterious voice recording are all siblings Byron and Benny have to go on after their mother’s passing. In the message, their mother Eleanor shares a story of a murder suspect who escaped her island home. The secrets she still withholds and the mystery of a lost child send Byron and Benny on a quest to piece together their family history. And what did she mean, “share the black cake when the time is right?”