Hey everyone, it's Jananie from the channel This Story Ain't Over, and
welcome back to another episode of #EpicBookRecs.
So for those of you who are new here,
this is a monthly series that I do here on the Epic Reads channel where I recommend
a bunch of YA titles based on a certain theme each month.
But today's video's gonna be a little bit different because today's video's not
based on a theme.
I just want to amplify books by black authors and I'm gonna do that today.
So I'm gonna be recommending books in three different categories today.
So the first category is a bunch of books that I've already recommended here on
Epic Book Recs before for different themes in the past, and
I wanna kind of rehighlight them again.
And then I have a second set of books that I've read recently by black authors that
I have absolutely fell in love with, and I would love for
you guys to pick up as well.
And then the last few books that I'm gonna mention are ones that I haven't read yet,
but I'm really hoping to pick up very soon and I think that you guys might enjoy and
might want to pick up as well.
I am overall really, really excited.
And as someone who is not black, I really do want to take this opportunity
to amplify black voices not only in this moment, but always.
I encourage you all to pick up these books.
Regardless of what's going on in the world,
you should always be supporting these voices.
And I really believe that all of these books are just amazing and wonderful and
deserve all of the love, so please give them all of the love.
All right, the first that I wanna recommend today is Black Enough and
this is edited by Ibi Zoboi.
It is actually a collection of stories by black authors.
They are short stories about being black and young in America.
So each story follows a different black teen from a different kind of background,
and they all have different experiences of what it means to be black in America.
And I think that because this takes stories from so many different authors,
it is a very nuanced portrayal and I highly, highly recommend.
And I would love to highlight my favorite story in this collection, and
that was Out of the Silence by Kekla Magoon.
It is a wonderful story told in second person and
it just kind of came alive off the page, so highly recommend.
The next couple of books that I have are by an author who is now a classic
household name in YA, and that is Angie Thomas.
Both of her books that are out right now, so The Hate U Give and On The Come Up.
The Hate U Give, as many of you may already know, follows a young girl
after she witnesses the murder of her best friend by the police.
And she is kind of called upon as a witness and needs to find her voice and
speak up about what has happened.
But along the way she is supported by her community and her family.
And I think I mentioned this book in my family themed Epic Book Recs video and
I just really stand by that.
I love the Carter family in this book.
They are just so sweet and so supportive of each other and
that really shines through in the book.
Aside from the very important subjects that this book tackles.
On The Come Up similarly has a very strong family vibe, but
it also has an added element of music and rap.
And our main character is a up and coming rapper, that is her dream, life goal.
And she kind of ends up in this whirlwind opportunity where she might be able to
become famous and earn the money that she would love to have to support her family.
And there are some really awesome bits from our main character Bri when she is
rapping in this book, and I loved every moment of it.
So I definitely recommend you check this out for those bits, if not for
all of the other awesome bits of it, because they were just amazing.
The next couple of books I have are by the same author as well.
I've also recommended both of these before, and
they are by Elizabeth Acevedo, and I love Elizabeth Acevedo's books.
I especially fell in love with her first book, The Poet X,
which is a story told entirely in verse.
And it follows our Afro-Latina main character, Xiomara, as she is navigating
her high school experience and kind of coming of age, and dealing with
the expectations that her family, and especially her mother, has for her.
And she's dealing with sexuality and also finding her voice,
and finding her voice through poetry in specific, because she joins the spoken
word club at her school and starts to really find a community there.
But overall this book is so beautifully written.
And I highly recommend the audiobook if you are gonna read it because
Elizabeth Acevedo narrates it herself, and it's just a wonder to behold.
But Elizabeth Acevedo's second book is also equally amazing, but
it is not told in verse, it is told in normal prose.
And it follows her main character, Emoni Santiago,
in the aftermath of becoming pregnant while she's a teen in high school.
And now she has a young one-year-old daughter that she's been raising on her
own with the help of her abuela, and
she's just trying to get back into the rhythm of things.
She's returning to school and she's trying to figure out what she wants to do with
her life and how her little daughter fits into that picture.
And it is honestly such a heartwarming story.
And there's a little bit of a romance, but there's a lot of family aspects to it.
But the heart of it is following Emoni through her journey and
seeing her grow as a character.
But I will say another thing that I love about this book is
the amount of food that is in this book, because Emoni is amazing at cooking.
And many times in this book you will see her cooking and
creating wonderful dishes and they are just mouthwatering.
So if I didn't convince you with anything else,
then please go pick it up for the food.
All right, the next book that I have is Dread Nation by Justina Ireland,
and this is a really interesting take on history.
It is set during Civil War era, but in a reality where zombies have come and
risen from the dead.
And now black and
indigenous children are being taken into these academies where they become these
things called Attendants where they're basically used to protect white people.
And amid this all is our main character, Jane McKeene, who is this bad ass,
hilarious, and very sarcastic, and very smart main character.
And she is currently studying to become one of these Attendants, but
amidst all of that she really is imagining a life better for herself.
But she has taken on a really interesting journey throughout this book.
This book deals with some very heavy subject matter.
It takes such an interesting and funny and
satirical tone to the subject matter that it is such an enjoyable read as well.
All right,
the next book that I wanna recommend is Let Me Hear A Rhyme by Tiffany D Jackson.
One of my faves from last year.
And this is a book that is set in Brooklyn in 1998 and
it follows these three different main characters
who are all reeling from the death of their friend Steph.
So one of the main characters is Jasmine who is Steph's younger sister.
And then we have Quadir and Jarrell who are Steph's two best friends.
And Steph was this great rapper.
He was huge amongst their community and everyone loved his music.
But when Steph dies,
the three of them can't really handle the impact of his death.
But they realize that a lot of people are interested in his music and
they wanna keep him alive through his music.
So when they get the opportunity to kind of sign on Steph, or
The Architect as his stage name is,
when they get that opportunity to sign The Architect for a record deal they end up in
a crazy kind of scheme to keep their friend alive through his music.
But amidst all of that, the three of them are dealing with their own personal
struggles and demons and are really coming together in this really wonderful way.
But this book is such an ode to New York and
Brooklyn in 1998 and it is such a wonderful read.
There's also a lot of music and rapping in this.
So highly recommend for those aspects as well.
But I honestly fell in love with each of the main characters and cared so much for
them by the end.
So I highly recommend for that reason.
All right, the last book I have before I move on to to some of the books I read
recently is Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds.
This is one of my favorite books ever.
Jason Reynolds is one of my personal favorite authors.
And this is a novel written entirely in verse and
evolves around our main character, Will, after the death of his brother,
Sean, who was shot and killed.
And Will is dealing with the death of his brother.
And so this book takes place over maybe five minutes,
I would say, as Will is leaving his apartment with his brother's gun,
going down the elevator with the intention of killing his brother's killer.
But the book told the in verse and in poetry, follows Will through his thoughts
and feelings as he is moving down this elevator.
And with each level he kind of stops and see someone from his past, a ghost or
an apparition, whatever you wanna call it, but
he is facing all these ghosts of his past and people that he has lost.
And this is such a powerful book and will hit you in so many ways.
And the poetry is just gorgeous.
I definitely recommend picking up the audiobook if you can of this because
the author, Jason Reynolds, also narrates this and
he has amazing spoken word as well.
So just a wonder to listen to.
All right,
the next book that I wanna talk about is one that I don't have a physical copy of,
but that is You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson.
This is a wonderful YA contemporary with a sapphic romance.
It follows the main character Liz Lighty who lives in this small town that is a bit
homophobic, but they are also really obsessed with prom.
And for context, Liz lost her mother pre the book starting.
And so when she loses out on the opportunity for this big scholarship for
the college that her mother wanted her to attend,
Liz is struggling to find the money to pay for that college in the future.
And so she decides to join the running to become a prom queen
because prom queens get a giant prize money at the end of prom season.
And so Liz ends up in this race that kind of feels like a presidential race, and
she is doing all these events and volunteering.
And amidst all this she meets a new girl at her school named Mac and
sparks kind of fly there.
Liz is perfectly attuned to her sexuality,
but she has never really openly talked about it with her peers.
And this is kind of the book of her trying to find a way to unapologetically
be herself.
And it is such a wonderful, fun, joyful book and
it's definitely the kind of thing that will just put a smile on your face.
The next book that I have is a recent favorite of mine from this year.
That is the Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones by Daven McQueen.
And this is a book set in the 1950s in small town Alabama.
And it follows our main character, Ethan Harper, who is a biracial young boy.
His father is white and his mother is black, but
they separated when he was young.
And so he now lives in Washington state with his father and has never really had
a conversation about race, hasn't really had to talk about it in a meaningful way.
But has obviously still experienced moments of racism but more subtle.
And so when something happens at school where he gets in trouble, his father,
as punishment, sends him down south to Alabama to stay with his aunt and
uncle, his white aunt and uncle in 1950.
And so Ethan is meant to spend the summer in this small town of Ellison,
where everyone is very openly racist and
very openly makes it clear that they don't want him there.
And amidst all this the only person he can kind of find comfort in is Juniper Jones,
the town oddball.
She's a young girl with red hair and who no one really understands and
who is always chattering and going around on her bicycle.
And she and Ethan kind of hit it off and
this is the story of their summer, but this is also a story about so much more.
It is about platonic friendship, about growing up black, and to a certain extent
about innocence and how that experience is different for young black kids.
This is a book that will warm your heart but
also bring you to tears by the end, and I love it so very much.
All right, the next book is one that I finished very recently and I loved it so
very much, and that is A Song Of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A Brown.
This is a vast and epic fantasy that is inspired by West African folklore and
it followers two main characters, Malik and Karina.
And these two characters are just so very different from each other in
both personality and circumstance, but they are just so
compelling to follow, and this book is just filled with twists and turns.
So Malik is this young man who has these two sisters and they are kind of fleeing
their war-stricken home and are trying to find a new home in Ziran.
And then Karina is actually the Crown Princess of Ziran and
she's recently lost a lot of people in her life, including her older sister.
And she feels that her mother has never really cared for
her the same way that she has loved her sister.
And on the horizon of when this book starts is the giant festival of Solstasia.
And it is a moment to honor the gods but also involves a competition of sorts.
And I don't wanna give anything away because this book has so
many great plot twists, but
these two characters get thrown into the action in a very interesting way and
are fighting for what they believe in and for the people that they care about.
And I was rooting for both of them so very strongly,
even though at some points they're both on different sides.
All right, the next book that I have here is another anthology, and
that is A Phoenix First Must Burn and it's edited by Patrice Caldwell.
So this is 16 stories of a black girl magic, resistance, and hope.
And as the title and
subtitle kind of signal to you, this is a bunch of stories about black girls, but
from a sci-fi fantasy lens, and just showcasing how amazing these women are.
Each of these stories is just so very interesting.
And so very different from the other.
Some of these are set in a far future.
Some of these are set in a distant past, but
all of them just bloom with magic and hope.
And many of them I really wish there was longer full-length books for, but
overall I think if you wanted some sci-fi fantasy to pick up,
this is something great to start with.
All right, I've been talking for a very long time.
So I'm gonna move on to some books that I'm hoping to pick up very soon and
that I hope you will pick up as well.
So the first of those books is Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender.
This book recently came out and it is by a trans author.
And it follows our main character Felix Love who is a transgender teen and he is
grappling with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time.
And he understands the irony of the fact that his last name is Love and
he has never been in love.
But regardless, he is determined to find out what's so special about love and
why it's so easy for some people and not for him.
But one of Felix's fears is that although he is very proud of who he is and
of his identity, he fears that he's one marginalization away
from not being able to get his happily ever after.
He's black, he's queer, he's transgender, and he thinks that
he might not be able to have the fairytale ending that everyone else gets.
I have heard wonderful things about this book from many of my friends who have
recently picked it up.
So I'm very excited to pick this up as well.
All right, the next book that I'm hoping to pick up is Stamped: Racism,
Anti-Racism, and You and this is by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi.
So this is actually based off an adult nonfiction title by Ibram X Kendi,
and this has kind of been remixed for a younger audience by the amazing
Jason Reynolds, who I already said I admire and think is amazing.
This is a nonfiction and goes through the history of black people in America.
It really gives you a sense of where racism comes from and
what you need to do to be anti-racist.
Another book that I'm hoping to pick up is by an author that I already mentioned in
this video, and that is Grown by Tiffany D Jackson.
This is a book that's coming out this fall and I'm so darn excited for it.
Can you see this cover?
It's gorgeous, but
this is another book with a bit of mystery like Tiffany D Jackson's other books.
It involves some celebrity culture but also has a bit of a me too aspect as well.
I am overall just really excited for it.
And I don't wanna go into it knowing too much because I know Tiffany D Jackson is
just gonna blow me away.
But that is the last book that I have to recommend today.
I am really excited to be recommending these books.
But as I said at the beginning of this video,
although I'm recommending all these books in one video right now,
I will continue to be recommending them throughout the year and
more books by black authors throughout the year and always.
Because their lives and their stories and their voices always matter, and
I hope that you guys will also take that into account
when you are picking up these books and continue to support these voices.
But that's about all I have to say on my soapbox.
So I hope you will pick up one or more or many of these books or
all of them and enjoy your time with them.
And thank you so, so much for watching and please leave me your
recommendations of books by black authors down below in the comments.
I'd love to hear all of your recommendations because I
know I've definitely missed a bunch of amazing authors.
That's about all I have to say so thank you so, so much for watching and
I will see you in the next episode of #EpicBookRecs, bye.