Recs if you like Queenie...

this is your reminder to read books by Black authors all month, all year, every year— not just during Black History Month. it’s crucially important to be able to diversify your reading and your bookshelves. expand your mind, your perspectives, your knowledge, and your taste. if you don’t know where to start, here are some recommendations!

Here's every book so far from BOTM's monthly shortlist since February 2015 for anyone who wants to read them all like I do!

A few lovely books written by Black women spanning every genre!

Books with titles that start with the most uncommon letters to begin words: X, Q, Z & J.

I wanted to join the fun in doing an alphabet challenge and am currently adding X and Z to complete my alphabet of books :) Here’s some recommendations if others want a similar challenge!

Literary and contemporary fiction with Black FMCs that will make your heart break into a million pieces and then knit itself back together (hopefully). Specifically wanted to curate books that all also come with tough topics and hefty doses of warnings for major possible triggers. Check the comments for specific warnings tagged to individual books (mostly major stuff, recommend doing some research before diving in if there are other things you don't want to read about no matter how minor).

Books to read on your sunny balcony in the shadows while wearing sunglasses because it's still too bright. There's a drink to your right, the condensation forming a little ring on your little balcony table. Maybe it's wine, maybe it's water, maybe only slow melting ice cubes. You don't know what time it is and everything smells like sunscreen.

kids are great. however as a person who doesn’t want kids, I have fatigue around how many novels position motherhood as the epicenter of women’s lives. i’m gathering books here about women in their late twenties and older that don’t focus on motherhood or children. I haven’t read all these fyi!! plz share recs; i’m mostly looking for lit fic.

With a big scoop of melancholy!

A list of books from A-Z. I tried to include various genres to appeal to a wide array of readers. I wanted this to be a good reference list for anyone doing an alphabet reading challenge or anyone just looking for a new book to read!

Books with orange covers!

"Weird girl literature" by BIPoC authors and/or featuring BIPoC experiences

💜 yarnandbooks

Complete! Every book longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction since it was founded in 1996, under its current title and previous sponsored titles of 'Orange' and 'Baileys' Prize for Fiction. I want to hear your percentage overlap in the comments!

Name generators my beloveds. Just a list made by someone whose D&D characters were mostly christened with the help of RNG. The one and only criterion: Title is a first/given name (or nickname too)! Some are verified by the book actually containing a character with that name.

Books with black people in it (mostly as the mains characters)

Both Fiction and Non fiction books.

books that are quintessentially about the millennial experience or are millennial coded

2019-2026

Books about 18 to 30-year-olds navigating the transition from adolescence to adulthood 🫶

Female-centric fiction & non-fiction about friendship, sisterhood, love and surviving

Books written about/in Brixton or by authors who lived there. Open to recs!