Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists

"A first book by the prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist shares personal essays that chronicle his childhood, adolescence and college years as a Black queer youth, exploring subjects ranging from gender identity and toxic masculinity to structural marginalization and Black joy." (description from catalog)

When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn's alternating viewpoints. (description from LBPL catalog)

Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him. (description from LBPL catalog)

"Black high school football captains Russell (Rus) Boudreaux and Marion LaSalle are painfully aware of the racially divided towns of Westmond and Monroe in Louisiana. They are antagonized by two white rival players, Bradley Simmons and Lawrence Perkins, at a game at Westmond High. Marion is arrested by Officer Reynaud on trumped-up charges and kicked off the team. Rus takes a knee during the national anthem at the following game in an act of solidarity; is kicked off the team by his coach; and is villainized by the media, his teammates, and his parents. Rus also starts falling for old friend Gabby Dupre. He questions his political stance when his and Marion's futures are on the line." (description from School Library Journal)

When the man responsible for killing his best friend Ed is murdered and all signs point to his other best friend Jack, gamer VZ must level up to help Jack while trying to keep Ed's legacy alive through a video game.

"When seventeen-year-old Avery moves to rural Georgia to live with her ailing grandmother, she encounters decade-old family secrets and a mystery surrounding the town's racist past." (description from catalog)

"Upon arriving at the prestigious Wooddale University, seventeen-year-old Savannah Howard comes face-to-face with microaggressions and outright racism--but if she stands up for justice, will she endanger her future?" (description from catalog)

When you look like us-brown skin, brown eyes, black braids or fades-everyone else thinks you're trouble. No one even blinks twice over a missing black girl from public housing because she must've brought whatever happened to her upon herself. I, Jay Murphy, can admit that, for a minute, I thought my sister Nicole just got caught up with her boyfriend-a drug dealer-and his friends. But she's been gone too long. Nic, where are you? If I hadn't hung up on her that night, she would be at our house, spending time with Grandma. If I was a better brother, she'd be finishing senior year instead of being another name on a missing persons list. It's time to step up, to do what the Newport News police department won't. Bring her home -- Publisher's description.

"A smash up of art and text that viscerally captures what it means to not be able to breathe, and how the people and things you love most are actually the oxygen you most need" (description provided by publisher.)

"After spending two months in a juvenile detention center for a crime he did not commit, seventeen-year-old Andre Jackson returns home and tries to adapt to a Covid-19 world and find his missing best friend." Published from Catalog

After witnessing her friend's death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter's life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died. (description from Novelist)

In the midst of civil unrest in the summer of 2020 following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, one of the great literary voices of our time, Elizabeth Alexander, wrote a moving reflection on the psyche of young Black America, turning a mother's eye to her sons' generation.
(Description from catalog)

A collection of The New Yorker‘s groundbreaking writing on race in America—including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and more—with a foreword by Jelani Cobb. (Description from Amazon)

A memoir by the lawyer, activist, and county councilman Will Jawando.
(Description from catalog)

As America's only Black prime-time anchor, Don Lemon and his daily monologues on racism and antiracism, on the failures of the Trump administration and of so many of our leaders, and on America's systemic flaws speak for his millions of fans. Now, in an urgent, deeply personal, riveting plea, he shows us all how deep our problems lie, and what we can do to begin to fix them. (Description from NoveList)

A landmark biography by two prize-winning Washington Post reporters that reveals how systemic racism shaped George Floyd's life and legacy--from his family's roots in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to ongoing inequality in housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and policing--telling the singular story of how one man's tragic experience brought about a global movement for change.
(Description from catalog)

Sharing her storied career spanning five decades, a legendary Emmy Award-winning journalist presents this collection of groundbreaking reportage, from the Civil Rights Movement through the election and inauguration of America's first Black president and beyond, chronicling the Black experience through trials, tragedies and triumphs and everyday lives (Description from NoveList)

From a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a devastating exploration of the racial disparities in violent death and injury in America and a blueprint for ending this fundamental social injustice. (Description from Amazon.)

James Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the Civil Rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race; in the era of Trump, what can we learn from his struggle? (Description from NoveList.)

"From renowned scholar Dr. Victor Ray, On Critical Race Theory seeks to explain the centrality of race in American history and politics, and how the often mischaracterized intellectual movement became a political necessity. Dr. Ray draws upon the radical thinking of giants such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ida B. Wells, and W.E.B. Du Bois to clearly trace the foundations of Critical Race Theory in the Black intellectual traditions of emancipation and the civil rights movement. From this foundation, Dr. Ray explores the many facets that CRT interrogates, from deeply embedded structural racism to the historical connection between Whiteness and property, ownership, and more"-- Provided by publisher.

A memoir by the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement explains the movement's position of love, humanity, and justice, challenging perspectives that have negatively labeled the movement's activists while calling for essential political changes.
(Description from catalog)

A political analyst discusses American Democracy and the role that African Americans have played in its shaping while exposing political forces aligned to subvert and suppress black voters. (Description from NoveList.)

The award-winning House Democratic Leader and best-selling author of Lead from the Outside draws on extensive national research to outline an empowering blueprint for ending voter suppression, reclaiming identity and reshaping progressive politics in America. (Description from NoveList.)

Argues that the War on Drugs and policies that deny convicted felons equal access to employment, housing, education, and public benefits create a permanent under caste based largely on race. (Description from NoveList.)