Starting the Conversation: Adult Nonfiction

In our commitment to serve our community and foster the pursuit of knowledge, we offer these resources to help begin important conversations.

Showing 1 - 20 of 21  There are a total of 82 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Becoming"
Star rating for Becoming
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Michelle Obama describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private in a deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations.
Book cover for "The black and the blue"
Star rating for The black and the blue
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"An unforgettable account of the racism and crimes that permeate America's law enforcement-- and a blueprint for change"--Jacket flap.
Book cover for "Black is the body"
Star rating for Black is the body
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"A collection of essays on race"--
Book cover for "The color of water"
Star rating for The color of water
Average Rating:
4.9 stars
Description:
An African American man describes life as the son of a white mother and Black father, reflecting on his mother's contributions to his life and his confusion over his own identity.
Book cover for "A dreadful deceit"
Star rating for A dreadful deceit
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Traces the lives of six African Americans from the colonial era to the late 20th century, using their stories to illustrate the complex ways in which racial ideologies in this country have changed since the first Africans arrived on the nation's shores hundreds of years ago. The very idea of 'blackness,' she shows, has changed fundamentally over this period"--
Book cover for "Eloquent rage"
Star rating for Eloquent rage
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Book cover for "The family tree"
Star rating for The family tree
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
The provocative true account of the hanging of four black people by a white lynch mob in 1912--written by the great-granddaughter of the sheriff charged with protecting them.
Book cover for "Heavy"
Star rating for Heavy
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"Laymon writes ... about the physical manifestations of violence, grief, trauma, and abuse on his own body, [examining] his own eating disorder and gambling addiction as well as similar issues that run throughout his family. Through self-exploration, storytelling, and honest conversation with family and friends, Heavy seeks to bring what has been hidden into the light and to reckon with all of its myriad sources, from the most intimate--a mother-child...
Book cover for "In search of our mothers' gardens"
Star rating for In search of our mothers' gardens
Average Rating:
4 stars
Book cover for "Just mercy"
Star rating for Just mercy
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice.
Book cover for "The making of a racist"
Star rating for The making of a racist
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"This unique blend of memoir and history interweaves autobiography with the history of the slave trade and the American South"--Provided by publisher.
Book cover for "Malcolm X"
Star rating for Malcolm X
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
An authoritative biography of Malcolm X draws on new research to trace his life from his troubled youth through his involvement in the Nation of Islam, his activism in the world of Black Nationalism, and his assassination.
Book cover for "Negroland"
Star rating for Negroland
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An extraordinary look at privilege, discrimination, and the fallacy of post-racial America by the renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning cultural critic

Jefferson takes us into an insular and discerning society: “I call it Negroland,” she writes, “because I still find ‘Negro’ a word of wonders, glorious and terrible.”
 
Margo...
Book cover for "Not quite not white"
Star rating for Not quite not white
Book cover for "On the other side of freedom"
Star rating for On the other side of freedom
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Drawing from his own experiences, DeRay Mckesson, the civil rights activist and organizer, offers ways for all Americans to work to dismantle the legacy of racism and to take responsibility for imagining and building a better world"--
Book cover for "The other Wes Moore"
Star rating for The other Wes Moore
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Traces the parallel lives of two youths with the same name in the same community, describing how the author grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar and promising business leader while his counterpart suffered a life of violence and imprisonment.
Book cover for "Rest in power"
Star rating for Rest in power
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
An intimate portrait of Trayvon Martin shares previously untold insights into the movement he inspired from the perspectives of his parents, who also describe their efforts to bring meaning to his short life through the movement's pursuit of redemption and justice.
Book cover for "Rising out of hatred"
Star rating for Rising out of hatred
Author:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
An "account of Derek Black's journey from white supremacist hero to apostle of tolerance"--
Book cover for "A sin by any other name"
Star rating for A sin by any other name
Description:
An activist, pastor, and indirect descendant of Confederate general Robert E. Lee traces his upbringing in the American South with a name associated with the double-sided realities of honor, privilege, inequality, and the misinterpretation of Christian values.
Book cover for "The song and the silence"
Star rating for The song and the silence
Description:
"'Have to keep that smile,' Booker Wright said in the 1966 NBC documentary Mississippi: A Self-Portrait. At the time, Wright spent his evenings waiting tables for whites at a local restaurant and his mornings running his own business. The ripple effect from his remarks would cement Booker as a civil rights icon because he did the unthinkable: before a national audience, Wright described what life truly was like for the black people of Greenwood, Mississippi"--Amazon.com....