Black History Month: Angie Thomas, Jason Mott, more recommend books by Black authors

If you're looking for your next great read, we've got you covered.

From YA to romance and more, Angie Thomas, Jason Mott, Alyssa Cole, Mateo Askaripour have all written incredibly novels. We reached out to them for recommendations for equally stellar reads form other Black authors. Here are their picks.

01 of 10

Heavy by Kiese Laymon

Kiese Laymon, Heavy CR: Scribner — Scribner

Kiese is one of my favorite writers, and not just because we're both from Jackson, Mississippi. His memoir Heavy is beautifully complex and layered; just as brutal as it is gentle, filled with both love and heartbreak. You won't be the same after reading it. -Angie Thomas

02 of 10

Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour

Few books manage to cut so sharply to the heart of the alienation felt by minorities working in corporate America. Mateo manages to show the many layers of conflict when the quest for wealth — as all Americans, from birth, are taught to exalt — butts heads with the reality of the emotional, psychological, and even cultural cost of that success while, somehow, leaving room for laughter. This is a balancing act that cannot be overlooked. -Jason Mott

03 of 10

Rebel by Beverly Jenkins

Rebel: Women Who Dare by Beverly Jenkins CR: HarperCollins — HarperCollins

I can say (and do, at every opportunity) that Beverly Jenkins is our preeminent author of African-American historical fiction, a distinction that's often overshadowed by that fact that she writes romance novels. Her works treat Black American lives as hidden jewels in the dusty terrain of American history, each book exploring a different, unique, and generally overlooked facet. In Rebel, the first book in her recent Women Who Dare series, the reader is transported to post-Civil War New Orleans, where our heroine Valinda Lacey has arrived to help educate members of the Black community after Emancipation. Our hero, the swoonworthy Drake LeVeq, is a member of a family that's a pillar of the community (and of Ms. Jenkin's historical fiction, too) that's helping to rebuild their city. Valinda is my favorite kind of historical heroine—unconventional, curious, and driven to make the world a better place—and Drake is my favorite kind of hero—the type who'll do anything to support his partner as she works to make her dreams into reality. Though it's driven by the ebbs and flows of their courtship (including Drake teaching Val some "marriage games," ahem), the story doesn't shy away from the difficulties of the Reconstruction Era. One of Jenkins' gifts, which shines through in Rebel, is her ability to place her characters and readers in settings associated with turmoil and strife, then tempering history's hard edges with an abundance of humor (of the actual laugh-out-loud variety), sex scenes that will have you taking a sip of water, and deeply romantic relationships that show that love, connection, and joy are what help communities persevere through the darkness before the dawn. -Alyssa Cole

04 of 10

Shoutin' in the Fire: An American Epistle by Danté Stewart

Do you ever think you know someone, and then something happens that awakens you to the realization that perhaps you didn't really know them at all? This question is at the core of Danté Stewart's heart-wrenching memoir, Shoutin' in the Fire. Before 2016, Stewart's path in life was all but set. He'd played football for one of the best college teams in the States. He'd married the love of his life. And he was a prodigious preacher-in-training at a church in Georgia. For the record, Stewart is Black. And this church he was going to be the first Black preacher at? Predominantly white, which wasn't a problem until a certain mango-colored man came to power, sparking a wave of anti-Black sentiments from the very people Stewart had come to know and love. In this courageous book full of vulnerability, honesty, and sentences so good you'll read 'em twice, we're given the opportunity to follow Stewart's difficult breaking with the world he'd given his all to, and his soul-affirming journey forward. -Mateo Askaripour

05 of 10

The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

From page one you know you're engaging with something special. The mastery of writing is so strong here that it's difficult to think of this as a debut novel and, yet, somehow, it is. The Prophets is a book that grips you in unexpected ways. It's a book that haunts you, follows you, and asks you to be better than you are. We need more writing like this in the world. -Jason Mott

06 of 10

Unseen: Unpublished Black History from the New York Times Photo Archives by Dana Canedy, Damien Cave, Darcy Eveleigh, and Rachel L Swarns

I found this book on a friend's coffee table and it enthralled me for the next two hours. The photos here are so candid, so genuine, and so complex that they serve to remind us that the photos we see in news articles are only a part of the story, a sliver of the lives lived by real people. This is a book that does what all art should do: make the unseen impossible to ignore. -Jason Mott

07 of 10

Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh

Every Body Looking is the story of Ada, a first-generation Nigerian woman who has never been allowed to be herself. Her absent mother doesn't see her. Her ultra-religious father doesn't see her. And no one in her midwestern town sees her. But going to Howard University, a university full of students who look like Ada, but are each a world unto themselves, gives her the opportunity to finally break free, through dance, and explore realms of herself that were previously hidden. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I believe this novel should be required reading for every young person. What Candice Iloh does on the page –– telling the story of Ada with such raw emotion, and all in verse –– is masterful. But perhaps what I love most about this work is that at no point does Iloh smooth out any of her characters' rough edges for the reader's comfort, leaving us with an authentic picture of what it means to live, which can be messy and painful, but also full of hope. What a gift. -Mateo Askaripour

08 of 10

Black Birds In the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert

As we see more attempts to remove accurate history teachings from the classroom, I cannot recommend this book by Brandy Colbert enough. Black Birds in the Sky is a necessary and profound read that unveils a moment in history that is often ignored. - Angie Thomas

09 of 10

Like A Sister by Kellye Garrett (Out March 8)

Garrett is already known for her critically acclaimed Hollywood Homicide series, two humorous mysteries about an actress-turned-private eye, and while her latest also deals with the darker side of fame, it's a crackling domestic suspense that has you turning the pages to see what happens next. In Like A Sister, Columbia grad student Lena Scott is pulled into when her estranged half-sister, reality TV star Desiree Pierce, is found dead in a Bronx playground. Though Lena isn't exactly surprised when the death is chalked up to an overdose, she knows there's more to the story. The novel explores difficult family dynamics, interrogates class and race, dismantles the "Strong Black Woman" fallacy, and highlights a search for justice that Black women are often denied. These elements are carefully layered into a suspenseful and voicey narrative with a heroine you're rooting for from page one. Garrett's wry humor, attention to detail, and deft pacing are a tension wire pulled taut against the compelling mystery driving the novel; Like A Sister is one of those books that's best prepared for ahead of time, because once you pick it up, it will be difficult to put down. -Alyssa Cole

10 of 10

Everything Abridged by Dennard Dayle (Out May 24)

Just when you think you've seen it all, Dennard Dayle comes along with Everything Abridged and proves just how wrong you are. Written as a dictionary, with hilarious and so-blunt-they're-sharp definitions of terms like "LimeWire," "mouse utopia," and "Perry, Tyler," Dayle's debut collection of stories is as likely to stun as it is to inform. In "Recent Activity," he tells an entire story about someone's (a man, I believe, even though it's never stated) descent into radicalism through transactions on a bank statement. Yes, you read that right. "Apex Competitor" details the journey of an Olympic speed walker with the honor of an entire country on his back…or in his feet. And I'm going to stop there before I ruin all of the incredibly entertaining and so damn illuminating plots that Dayle blesses us with. -Mateo Askaripour

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Updated by Alamin Yohannes