Ready to pick up a book and get lost in its pages this month? Take advantage of the extra daylight time in spring to read more books and explore new genres. Whether it’s exciting memoirs from Aurora James and Cassandra Jackson, a children’s book on autism or a stunning coffee book from photography duo Regis and Kahran Bethencourt, there are plenty of options to choose from. Reading is a great way to relax and unwind after a long day. If you’re looking for something new to dive into this spring season, don't hesitate to pick up one of these great books!
Homebodies
Tembe Denton-Hurst (Harper, May 2, 2023)
It’s a peek inside the glam and the gore of the media world. Mickey Hayward flees home after she’s fired from her media job and writes a no-turn-back manifesto. Home is a great hiding place until her words resurfaces, catapulting her into the spotlight she thought she always wanted.
Price: $30
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A Day With No Words
Tiffany Hammond (Wheat Penny Press, May 9, 2023)
Tiffany Hammond takes us into the life of a family that communicates just as their autistic child does, without spoken language. She based this enlightening children’s book on her own experiences bringing up two children with autism.
Price: $15
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Disruptive Thinking: A Daring Strategy to Change How We Live, Lead, and Love
TD Jakes (Faithwords, May 9, 2023)
A book for leaders, thinkers, doers and creators, faith leader T.D. Jakes lays out a formula to transform visions into reality and provides the tools you need to create groundbreaking and meaningful change in your life and in the world around you.
Price: $19
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Queen Charlotte
Julia Quinn and Shonda Rhimes (Avon Books-HarperCollins Imprint, May 9, 2023)
Bridgerton author Julia Quinn and TV pioneer Shonda Rhimes re-envision a queen’s rise to power, examining the life of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz—who had African roots—and her marriage to King George III.
Price: $30
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Wildflower
Aurora James (Crown, May 9, 2023)
Fashion pioneer Aurora James shares her complicated childhood, her drive and determination in the fashion world, her creation of the fashion brand Brother Vellies and the depth of her activism in this intimate memoir.
Price: $25
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The Wreck: A Daughter’s Memoir of Becoming a Mother
Cassandra Jackson (Viking, May 16, 2023)
Cassandra Jackson exposes how the medical field has failed Black Americans, revealing her own harrowing journey of infertility treatments and revisiting the horrific car crash that took the lives of several family members in the 1960s.
Price: $28
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Dances
Nicole Cuffy (One World, May 16, 2023)
Leap into the world of professional ballet in this fictitious and yet so-real tale of a young Black ballerina. Promoted to principal dancer in the New York City Ballet at the tender age of 22, Cece Cordell must navigate the sudden rise to fame as “the first” and the complications of her past that lead to an intersection between her new existence and a different life dream.
Price: $27
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A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining
Rachel E. Cargle (Ballantine Books, May 16, 2023)
The founder and CEO of The Loveland Group peels back the curtain on her own journey, revealing what it took for her to live a life of the highest values. She also offers readers self-guided prompts to design their own journeys of reimagining.
Price: $29
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Forever Is Now
Mariama J. Lockington (Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR, May 23, 2023)
The author of For "Black Girls Like Me" and "In the Key of Us" pens another poignant and lyrical young adult novel-in-verse, this time about an anxious, queer Black teen suffering from agoraphobia (the fear of leaving the house). She finds salvation and self-discovery through family, friends and an online community of activists.
Price: $19
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CROWNED: Magical Folk and Fairy Tales from the Diaspora
Regis and Kahran Bethencourt (St. Martin’s Press, May 23, 2023)
World-renowned photographers Regis and Kahran Bethencourt reimagine and revisualize classic fairy tales through their CreativeSoul African and African American lens and folklore, adding a few new stories created by the husband and wife duo themselves.
Price: $32
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The Overnights: An Ashe Cayne Novel
Ian K. Smith (Amistad Books, May 30, 2023)
Chicago PD detective-turned-PI Ashe Cayne is back! This time, he's providing security for Morgan Shaw, Chicago’s number one news anchor, as she's working on a shocking killing of an unarmed black man. But all is not as it seems in this case as Cayne finds himself dealing with perilous power players and the return of an old love.
