Your Brandon Blackwood overnight duffel is packed and you're ready to spend a full weekend with the family, with a few nights back in your old childhood bedroom. After gorging on your mom's savory Thanksgiving dishes, curl up with a frothy mug of goodness and dip into these good reads that are out just in time for us all to give thanks.
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times
Easily one of the most anticipated books of the year, Michelle Obama’s new book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times is honest and thoughtful, revealing her thoughts on motherhood, marriage and maintaining sanity in unpredictable times. One of our biggest takeaways is the incredible relationship she shares with her mother. Breaking down how Marian Shields Robinson became “granny-in-chief” when she moved into the White House to help her daughter and son-in-law for the entire eight years that President Barack Obama was in office is a true testament to how Black families have consistently risen to the occasion to take care of their own.
Before I Let Go
USA Today's best-selling author is taking us on a romantic roller coaster with her latest love saga Before I Let Go. Ryan once again crafts a heroine who is empowered, inspiring the men in her world to do whatever it takes to keep that connection alive. Outside circumstances crushed their marriage, but Yasmen and her ex Josiah have found a way to co-parent, leaving her the space to move forward with her life and business. But she finds herself drawn back to him, with stolen kisses that lead to an illicit affair, inevitably opening old wounds. Can love really come a second time around?
Pride and Protest
Pride and Protest (Berkley), Nikki Payne, $16, amazon.com. Image: courtesy of Amazon.
This novel is one of Meena Harris' (Vice President Kamala Harris' niece) Phenomenal Book Club picks for November 2022. Anthropologist Nikki Payne is taking the classics and giving them a modern-day twist. With a fresh retelling of the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice, her debut novel Pride and Protest revolves around Liza Bennett, a round-the-way girl in Washington D.C. who goes head-to-head with Dorsey Fitzgerald, the adopted Filipino son and CEO of his family's corporation threatening to destroy her neighborhood. But Liza soon discovers that discord can lead the heart to unbridled passion in this transracial love story.
Little Black Girl: Oh the Things You Can Do
Killing Eve star Kirby Howell-Baptiste shifts into the realm of author with a new rhythmic children’s picture book series that inspires young children to dream big. The world of robotics fascinates the main character of Little Black Girl. She has her Wakanda Forever moment sketching and building a robot for the school fair as she’s supported by a community of strong women. Howell-Baptiste has also penned Little Black Boy, sharing the environmental lessons this future marine biologist discovers to protect all aquatic creatures. These books are a perfect choice to read with your nieces and nephews, or to reignite your own inner fire.
Speak: Find Your Voice, Trust Your Gut, and Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
Speak (Avid Reader Press), Tunde Oyeneyin, $16, amazon.com. Courtesy of Amazon.
If you’ve been putting off finding your voice, now’s the time to book yourself a session with Peloton cycling star Tunde Oyeneyin. In Speak: Find Your Voice, Trust Your Gut, and Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, she lays out the tools you need to pedal forward in life. It starts with a vision and a willingness to set out on a ride that may not happen in a day—or even a year—but in the belief that you’ll actually get to where you want by battling that uphill climb, one stroke at a time.
