Share in the childhood tales of A Girl Named Zippy. Hear Kenneth Branagh read Samuel Pepys' exuberant 17th-century diary. Be transformed by the extraordinary women of Half the Sky. You'll find these and other remarkable life stories under biography and memoir.
A captivating memoir of a biracial boy growing up in Washington, DC, abandoned by his birth parents, and lovingly raised by a woman with deep emotional scars from her upbringing in the segregated South. Learn More
by Nyasha Junior & Jeremy Schipper; read by David Sadzin
Before Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King was identified with Moses, African Americans identified those who challenged racial oppression in America with Samson. In Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon, Nyasha Junior and Jeremy Schipper tell the story of how this biblical character became an icon of African American literature. Learn More
A black teenager from Philadelphia describes her experiences in an exclusive New England prep school, first as a student coming to terms with a new and different way of life, and then as a teacher at her alma mater. Learn More
Volume one of Black Heart Fades Blue, a three-part memoir by the founder and frontman for one of punk rock's most notorious acts, Poison Idea. Learn More
Volume two of Black Heart Fades Blue, a three-part memoir by the founder and frontman for one of punk rock's most notorious acts, Poison Idea. Learn More
Volume three of Black Heart Fades Blue, a three-part memoir by the founder and frontman for one of punk rock's most notorious acts, Poison Idea. Learn More
In Black and Female, Tsitsi Dangarembga examines the legacy of imperialism on her own life and on every aspect of black embodied African life. This paradigm-shifting essay collection weaves the personal and political in an illuminating exploration of race and gender. Learn More
Aviculturist Raffin introduced us to Sweetie, a special breed of quail with an outsized personality; Oscar the inspiring disabled Lady Gouldian finch; Victoria, Wing, and Coffee, sibling crowned pigeons ecstatic in reunion; and other rescued feathered friends that have been her life's work. Along the way she teaches us how conservationism is as much about saving ourselves as these rare birds. Learn More
by Rodney Stotts with Kate Pipkin; read by James Fouhey
To escape the tough streets of Southeast Washington DC in the late 1980s, young Rodney Stotts would ride the metro to the Smithsonian National Zoo. There, the bald eagles and other birds of prey captured his imagination for the first time. In Bird Brother, Rodney shares his unlikely journey to becoming a conservationist and one of America's few Black master falconers. Learn More
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the National Book Award in Poetry—a collection that examines the myth and history of the prizefighter Jack Johnson. Learn More
As a seventeen-year-old volunteer firefighter, Brian Walsh suffered third-degree burns to his face. But he chose not to let that tragedy destroy him, and instead used it to create a magnificent life—both personally and professionally. Learn More
by Dr. Michael Soon Lee; read by Dr. Michael Soon Lee
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Shedding light on the diverse Asian American experience mostly absent from history books and the media . . . or distorted by stereotypes such as the myth of the "model minority," this book illuminates the many facets of Asian Americans lives and strives to educate to help reduce violence and anti-Asian sentiment. Learn More
Better Days Will Come Again, based on groundbreaking research and including unprecedented access to Arthur Briggs's oral memoir, is a crucial document of jazz history, a fast-paced epic, and an entirely original tale of survival. Learn More
Renowned as a printer, scientist, and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin also published more works on religious topics than any other eighteenth-century American layperson. Based on rigorous research into Franklin's voluminous correspondence, essays, and almanacs, this fresh assessment of a well-known figure unpacks the contradictions and conundrums faith presented in Franklin’s life. Learn More
Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant follows Franklin's remarkable career through the lens of the trends and innovations that the Protestant Reformation started (both directly and indirectly) almost two centuries earlier. Learn More
by Brian Rashad Fuller; read by Brian Rashad Fuller
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For readers of The Knowledge Gap, Race to the Bottom, and The Inequality Machine, education and equity strategist Brian Rashad Fuller sheds a stark light on America's public schools, the miseducation of students of color, and the action required to make tangible changes and reforms to a failing and racialized educational system. Learn More
A compelling insider's account by the trusted adviser and confidante to America's presidential giants and political legends as he draws the curtains back on his most private moments with Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon during revolutionary changes in our economy, politics, communications, foreign policy, and culture. Learn More