A Personal Juneteenth Reading List: Books by Black Authors

I openly admit, I wasn’t familiar with Juneteenth. Even though I’m a Black woman, it wasn’t until 2021, when President Biden made it a federal holiday, that I started to educate myself on its importance. It makes me sad to think that it took more than two years to free 250,000 slaves—who were already legally free. Thankfully, though long overdue, it happened and that is to be celebrated.

Juneteenth being tomorrow, it felt like the right time to share some books I love by Black authors, and one I’m currently reading. I hope you enjoy them as well.

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Indigo by Beverly Jenkins

It’s hard for me to capture all of my feelings around this book. It was researched obviously well. I learned so much about the Underground Railroad, and those free, freed, and never enslaved. At its heart, there is a love story between Hester, a freed slave whose arms and legs show the permanent dye stains from working on an indigo plantation, and Galon, a rich Black man working the Underground Railroad, much like Hester—but with an alternate identity. And on top of it all, Beverly Jenkins is one of the foremost authorities and legends of historical fiction in the Black community.

I remember finishing this book and thinking I could find nothing negative to say about it. First editions of Indigo can go for up to $700 on eBay. A fellow book lover on YouTube came across one in a used bookstore for mere dollars. They clearly didn’t know the treasure they had on their shelves.

Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon

This will debut as a Hallmark Mystery channel movie in July, starring one of the Mowry twins. But come on, you know the book is always better. The first in a series, the Gethsemane Brown Mystery series, this book is set in Dunmullach, a small fictional village in Ireland. Gethsemane is a musician, who is house sitting a cottage and lighthouse while teaching music at a boy’s preparatory school.

Saddled with the pressure of winning a local competition that will bring the prep school’s music program back to glory, she’s also been tasked with solving a 25-year-old crime that’s already been solved. But since the ask is coming from Eamon, the ghost living in the house she’s inhabiting, who also happens to be one of the accused and victims, it’s hard for her to say no. This one was hard for me to put down. And since Ireland is on my long list of places to visit, I will one day seek out the inspiration for the village while I’m there.

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes

I am probably the only person on the planet who hasn’t watched Grey’s Anatomy. And I’m ok with that because back in the day, every Thursday, I was in front of the TV watching Scandal. Most people know who Rhimes is, and I don’t know how many people I have recommended her memoir to and I pass that recommendation along to you. She is so funny—but we knew that. When her sister tells her she says no to everything, she decides to take a year and turn that on its head by saying yes to the opportunities coming her way, inside and outside of Hollywood.

I listened to the audiobook, which I loved. I enjoy memoirs told in the voice of the author. Who better to know where inflection should and shouldn’t happen? Plus, there is the bonus of Rhimes having inserted her actual commencement speech from her undergrad alma mater, Dartmouth.

Murder is the Plot by V. M. Burns

Described as a cozy mystery, this book is so much fun. Samantha is in the process of opening her dream bookstore and café after the passing of her husband. In the process, she’s also writing a British murder mystery, which starts to have some unintentional parallels to the real-life murder that happened in her little Michigan town. With the help of her grandmother and her grandmother’s assisted living posse on the case, they’ll surely solve it before Officer Brad “Stinky” Pitt.

It’s a very short and fast read but you fall in love with the characters, except the murder victim—he wasn’t a nice guy. And while there are a few serious undertones, it is lighthearted at its core. And with the heroine writing a book of her own, it’s like getting two books in one. This is the first in the Mystery Bookshop series, and I am on to the next one!

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Growing up there were many stories told by my parents, aunts, uncles, and my grandfather. They could fill a book. One of those stories is a little fuzzy, but it was one of my father’s. I was young and only half listening to his telling of a Black woman who was able to ‘pass.’ I believe she used to go to stores where Black people weren’t permitted to purchase what others in her community couldn’t. I don’t think she was related to us but clearly, the story stuck with me.

I’m in the middle of this book about Black twin girls born in a small southern town who decide to run away and wind up leading very different lives. One marries and has a little girl but ultimately returns to Mallard, her hometown. And the other twin decides to live her life as a white woman. It’s not an easy read but it is an interesting one, so far.

I read all over the literary spectrum. And as a thank you to my newsletter subscribers, I put together a summer reading list. Everything from laugh-out-loud hijinks to slow burn romance and thought-provoking whodunits. If you’re looking for something to take to the beach, pool, carry on—or your favorite reading spot, feel free to check it out!