A Black History Month Book Roundup from Author Diane Marie Brown

With my debut book, Black Candle Women, now out in the world, I’m ready to focus on writing my next manuscript while also reading books by other authors that will keep me invigorated and inspired. There are so many great selections that it’s going to be a challenge, but one I’m committed to. Without further ado, here are a few new and upcoming books that are worth picking up, especially during February, as we celebrate Black History Month.

From a New and Talented Literary Friend:

De’Shawn Charles Winslow and I were on a panel together last summer in New Orleans. He was the 2019 winner of the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize for his novel In West Mills. I was a debut author whose book wouldn’t hit shelves for another five months. We managed to make a connection while speaking about our books with their integrations of family secrets and historical connections. His second novel, Decent People (out now), gives us a close-up look into a small-town murder where apathy and fear threaten to keep justice from being served. I finished this book quickly, although I loved sinking deeply into his lively and gritty portrayals of life impacted by racism, homophobia, and drug use. Just like In West Mills, the characters here will draw you in and keep you guessing. 

Giving Black Candle Women Vibes:

I absolutely loved Sarah Penner’s debut The Lost Apothecary, its concoctions mixed to help women are reminiscent of the work my characters take on in Black Candle Women. Her latest, The London Seance Society (3/7) keeps the magic going, but with a mystery that takes us to Europe in the late 1900s. This will be something I stay up reading well into the night once its out. (And both are great companions to my book.)

In Love With Remarkable Prose:

If you read the prologue to Tyriek White’s We Are a Haunting (4/25), you’ll wonder if he can keep up the heart-aching beauty of his prose. Spoiler alert: he does. The book is haunting indeed, focused on a family gifted with the ability to hear from ghosts as they deal with the realness of life in New York City and beyond. This is a debut, so I’m excited to see what else Tyriek White will bring us in the future.

Looking to Dive Into Short Stories:

I admit that a big selling point for me in reading the anthology Peach Pit: Sixteen Stories of Unsavory Women (9/12) is Deesha Philyaw’s contribution to the collection. Her book The Secret Lives of Church Ladies was easily one of my 2020 favorites. But there’s also the lovely potential of unsavory women (the best kind of women, in my opinion). And so many other illustrious authors: Lauren Groff, Maisy Card, and Chana Porter, among others. I’ll be at my favorite Indie to pick this up the Tuesday it comes out.

Next Book from a Literary Legend:

I read White Teeth by Zadie Smith over 20 years ago. And I read Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones when it was first published in 2011. Both made me want to burn my notebook, their literary grace—extraordinarily powerful and breathtaking—reaches places I couldn’t even fathom with my own pen. Yes, I’m a major fangirl of these two, who each have books out this year. The Fraud (9/5) by Zadie Smith is set in Victorian England and involves a trial, one based on actual events. Ward’s latest Let Us Descend (10/3) was recently announced and promises to be as riveting as her previous novels, imbued with magical realism and, surely, Ward’s wrenching and poetic realness. 

An Epic Memoir:

I can’t wait to get my hands on Dionne Ford’s Go Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, and Intergenerational Healing (4/4). This very personal journey shares the history of her family’s enslavement and its impact on her, manifesting in alcoholism, stress, and other trauma. But there’s redemption, too, which lets me know that I’ll be better after reading this story. 

A Little Bit of Romance:

Lunar Love (out now) has a lot of what I love in a romance—matchmaking, magic, enemies-to-lovers, family business, tradition, legacy, and baked goods. It tells the story of a young Chinese-American woman pitted against the most eligible bachelor in Los Angeles, the two with competing businesses that help others find love. It’s romance, so I’m betting they’ll eventually find love for themselves, but the beauty in this book will be watching them get there.

An “Auto-Buy” Author’s New Book:

A masterful artist with historical fiction, I would read Sadeqa Johnson’s shopping lists with pleasure. The author had me enthralled last year with her 2021 novel Yellow Wife, telling the brave and harrowing account of a young Black woman battling to find her way out of enslavement. Her latest, The House of Eve (out now), promises to be just as sharp and captivating, following two women whose lives intersect in the 1950s. Coming from Johnson, I expect this book to be skillfully detailed and beautifully told.

Ready for This Page-to-Screen Adaptation:

Tia Williams’ Seven Days in June has been lauded for its portrayal of reignited love, mother-daughter relationships, and “invisible” disabilities. But I’m looking forward to the Netflix movie adaptation of her earlier novel The Perfect Find (out now). With superstars including Gabrielle Union and La La Anthony attached, I’m ready to grab my bowl of popcorn and chill once it’s released. Adaptations always offer great backlist titles to consider, and this one is definitely on my list.

++

Diane Marie Brown is a professor at Orange Coast College and a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department. She has a BA and MPH from UCLA and a degree in fiction from USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program. She grew up in Stockton and now lives in Long Beach, California, with her husband, their four daughters, and their dog, Brownie. 

Brown’s debut novel, Black Candle Women, available here. Told from four irresistible perspectives, it is a richly imagined story about redemption and changing one’s destiny and a deeply moving portrait of the unbreakable bonds between mothers, daughters, and sisters.