LibGuides: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources: Books for Adults

About This Page: Books and Ebooks for Adults

Books and Ebooks for Adults

To find a book, search the CVSD Destiny library catalog, the Cumberland County Library System, or purchase at bookshop.org or your favorite bookstore. (Note that with a few exceptions, most of the books are not available through CVSD libraries, as our focus is on collecting materials for our students.) If you have trouble locating any resource, or would like help finding or using information, do not hesitate to contact any CVSD librarian.

Nonfiction Books for Adults

Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
Publication Date: 2017-08-15
The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society.
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Publication Date: 2019-08-13
Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism--and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other.
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
ISBN: 9781620975459
Publication Date: 2020-01-07
Since it was first published in 2010, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander's unforgettable argument that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publication Date: 2015-07-14
Hailed by Toni Morrison as "required reading," a bold and personal literary exploration of America's racial history by "the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race" (Rolling Stone).
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad; Robin DiAngelo (Foreword by)
Publication Date: 2020-01-28
This eye-opening book challenges you to do the essential work of unpacking your biases, and helps white people take action and dismantle the privilege within themselves so that you can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo; Michael Eric Dyson (Foreword by)
Publication Date: 2018-06-26
The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.
Waking up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Irving's personal and moving tale takes us on an adventure to a world utterly new to her as she wakes up to the reality of how, without her knowledge or active pursuit, she lives in a society which is set up to reward her at the expense of people of color. --Gene Robinson
Breathe by Imani Perry
Publication Date: 2019-09-17
Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world.
White Rage by Carol Anderson
Publication Date: 2017-09-05
From the Civil War to our combustible present, White Rage reframes our continuing conversation about race, chronicling the powerful forces opposed to black progress in America. Compelling and dramatic.
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Publication Date: 2015-08-18
A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice--from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Publication Date: 2017-05-02
This powerful and disturbing history exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide.
The Racial Healing Handbook by Anneliese A. Singh
Publication Date: 2019-08-01
The Racial Healing Handbook offers practical tools to help you navigate racism, challenge privilege, manage stress and trauma, and begin to heal.
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen
Publication Date: 2018-07-17
In Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen brings history alive in all its complexity and ambiguity. Beginning with pre-Columbian history and ranging over characters and events as diverse as Reconstruction, Helen Keller, the first Thanksgiving, the My Lai massacre, 9/11, and the Iraq War, Loewen offers an eye-opening critique of existing textbooks, and a wonderful retelling of American history as it should—and could—be taught to American students.

Additional Resources and Recommendations

Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List for Adults
A list of fiction and nonfiction curated by the Schomburg Center, a research library of the New York Public Library and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide.
Bookshop.org Antiracist Reading Recs
Fiction, nonfiction, and memoir recommendations from the online indie bookstore collaborative, Bookshop.org.
Oprah's Best Books by Black Authors
Excellent fiction and nonfiction by Black authors recommended by Oprah.

Photo credit: @bookishandblack

"Bookstagram" Accounts to Follow: What's a "Bookstagram?" It's an instagram account that focuses on book content! The following bookstagrammers focus mostly or entirely on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) content.