Book picks similar to
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before by Brandon Getz


historical
important
mental-health
rust-belt-literature

Set This House On Fire


William Styron - 1960
    The hours leading up to his death were a nightmare for Peter - both in their violence and in their maddening unreality.The blaze of events which followed was, Peter soon realised, ignited by a conflict between two men: Mason Flagg himself and Cass Kinsolving, a tortured, self-destructive painter, a natural enemy and prey to the monstrous evil of Mason Flagg. Three events - murder, rape and suicide - explode in the is relentless and passionate novel, almost overwhelming in its conception of the varieties of good and evil.

Sweet and Low: Stories


Nick White - 2018
    But they are not what they seem. In these stories, Nick White deconstructs the core qualities of Southern fiction, exposing deeply flawed and fascinating characters—promiscuous academics, aging podcasters, woodpecker assassins, and lawnmower enthusiasts, among others—all on wildly compelling quests. From finding an elusive bear to locating a prized timepiece to making love on the grave of an iconic writer, each story is a thrilling adventure with unexpected turns. White's honest and provocative prose will jolt readers awake with its urgency.

Mississippi Sissy


Kevin Sessums - 2007
    As he grew up in Forest, Mississippi, befriended by the family maid, Mattie May, he became a young man who turned the word "sissy" on its head, just as his mother taught him. In Jackson, he is befriended by Eudora Welty and journalist Frank Hains, but when Hains is brutally murdered in his antebellum mansion, Kevin's long road north towards celebrity begins. In a memoir that echoes bestsellers like The Liar's Club, Kevin Sessums brings to life the pungent American south of the 1960s and the world of the strange little boy who grew there.

Nelson Mandela


Rowena Akinyemi - 2002
    But the young boy's early years were happy ones, and he grew up to be a good student and an enthusiastic sportsman. Who could imagine then what was waiting for Nelson Mandela - the tireless struggle for human rights, the long years in prison, the happiness and sadness of family life, and one day the title of President of South Africa?

Read This to Get Smarter: About Race, Class, Gender, Disability, and More


Blair Imani - 2021
    What's the best way to ask someone what their pronouns are? How do you talk about racism with someone who doesn't get it? What is intersectionality anyway, and why do you need to understand it? While it can seem intimidating or overwhelming to learn and talk about such issues, it's never been easier thanks to educator and historian Blair Imani, creator of the viral sensation “Smarter in Seconds” and “Learn O'Clock” series of videos.Accessible to learners of all levels—from those just getting started on the journey to those deeply entrenched in social justice—Read This to Get Smarter covers a range of issues including race, gender, class, disability, privilege, oppression, relationships, family, and beyond. This essential guide is a radical but warm and non-judgmental call-to-arms, structured in such a way that you can read it cover-to-cover or start with any topic you want to learn more about.With Blair Imani as your teacher, you'll “get smarter” in no time, and be equipped to intelligently and empathetically process, discuss, and educate others on the crucial issues we must tackle to achieve a liberated, equitable world.

Safe: 20 Ways to be a Black Man in Britain Today


Derek Owusu - 2019
    SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space is that platform. Including essays from top poets, writers, musicians, actors and journalists, this timely and accessible book brings together a selection of powerful reflections exploring the Black British male experience and what it really means to reclaim and hold space in the landscape of our society. Where do Black men belong in school, in the media, in their own families, in the conversation about mental health, in the LGBT community, in grime music - and how can these voices inspire, educate and add to the dialogue of diversity already taking place? Following on from discussions raised by The Good Immigrant and Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, this collection takes readers on a rich and varied path to confront and question the position of Black men in Britain today, and shines a light on the way forward.Contributors include poet Suli Breaks, award-winning author Alex Wheatle, Channel 4 news reporter Symeon Brown, Guardian journalist Joseph Harker and many more.

Secrets' (Bonanza Brides Find Prairie Love #1)


Kat Carson - 2016
    Out of desperation, Ruby responds to an ad, hoping this could be the answer to her prayers. Running out of plan, she took the risks and traveled out West with her daughter to meet her anonymous husband and courageously face their unknown future. Why is a blackberry patch so important to them? Will she get through the challenges that will test her strong faith? Where had Matthew been the past couple of days that had him terribly injured? Feel at home and get comfy in their small humble cabin where you can collect chickens eggs and berries at the barn to make a perfect pancake for breakfast, milk the cows and make some cheese and butter for lunch, and get cozy in the fireplace at night. Y'all get to know Mr. Matthew Allen's, a strong, well-built man with a long beard covering his lips. Pete, his dark and mysterious friend who's always giving Ruby the chills and that sweet Eliza, her beloved daughter who's always eager to help them with the chores. ....“a story of hope, fear, romance, suspense and true love.”.... While this book is part of a romance series, it can definitely be read as a standalone book.Kat Carson: #1 Best Seller in Historical #1 Best Seller in Religious #1 Best Seller in Religion & Spirituality ALWAYS FREE on Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime Kat Carson’s Clean and Wholesome novelette American mail order bride historical Western book romance series are enjoyment for all ages from Teen & Young Adult to a more mature audience.

All the Acorns on the Forest Floor


Kim Hooper - 2020
    A woman coming to terms with the truth behind her adoption. A husband trying to save his marriage from the despair of infertility. These are just a few of the stories in All the Acorns on the Forest Floor, a book about the lengths we go to for the love of our children, our spouses, our mothers, our daughters.All the Acorns on the Forest Floor is a book of connections between people, connections lost and found, across time and space. There are stories of women who never became mothers (by choice or by fate), women who became mothers in unexpected or nontraditional ways, and women who gave up or lost babies. There are emotional aftershocks with each character's personal earthquake, aftershocks that shake their lives and force them to consider who they are, what they want, and how they love.

The Whipping Man


Matthew López - 2009
    The Civil War is over and throughout the south, slaves are being freed, soldiers are returning home and in Jewish homes, the annual celebration of Passover is being celebrated. Into the chaos of war-torn Richmond comes Caleb DeLeon, a young Confederate officer who has been severely wounded. He finds his family's home in ruins and abandoned, save for two former slaves, Simon and John, who wait in the empty house for the family's return. As the three

A Wake For The Dreamland


Laurel Deedrick-Mayne - 2015
    It is a Canadian summer in 1939 and Robert and Annie’s love has blossomed, even as the inevitability of the boys joining up means separation and the first of many losses. Fearing he might not return, Robert makes William promise to take care of Annie. Every arena of their lives is infiltrated by the war, from the home front to the underground of queer London to the bloody battlefields of Italy. Even in the aftermath, in the shadow of The Dreamland, these friends fight their own inner battles: to have faith in their right to love and be loved, to honour their promises and ultimately find their way “home.”

Christmas Candles


Mary Jo Putney - 2015
    Anthony Vaughn, the dashing distant cousin she has known since childhood, needs a fortune to pay his father's debts and preserve the family estate. Together they strike a bargain--even though Emma knows she risks not only her fortune but her heart… Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know An American Western English-born gambler Andrew Kane was ready to settle down when a wrongful conviction condemns him to be hanged. On his journey to the gallows, he meets despairing young widow Eliza Holden. Together, they find comfort and a stunning sense of connection. Can Eliza create a Christmas miracle for them both?

Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy


Marie Vieux-Chauvet - 1968
    In a brilliant translation by Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokur, Love, Anger, Madness is a scathing response to the struggles of race, class, and sex that have ruled Haiti. Suppressed upon its initial publication in 1968, this major work became an underground classic and was finally released in an authorized edition in France in 2005.In Love, Anger, Madness, Marie Vieux-Chauvet offers three slices of life under an oppressive regime. Gradually building in emotional intensity, the novellas paint a shocking portrait of families and artists struggling to survive under Haiti’s terrifying government restrictions that have turned its society upside down, transforming neighbors into victims, spies, and enemies.In “Love,” Claire is the eldest of three sisters who occupy a single house. Her dark skin and unmarried status make her a virtual servant to the rest of the family. Consumed by an intense passion for her brother-in-law, she finds redemption in a criminal act of rebellion.In “Anger,” a middle-class family is ripped apart when twenty-year-old Rose is forced to sleep with a repulsive soldier in order to prevent a government takeover of her father’s land.And in “Madness,” René, a young poet, finds himself trapped in a house for days without food, obsessed with the souls of the dead, dreading the invasion of local military thugs, and steeling himself for one final stand against authority. Sympathetic, savage and truly compelling with an insightful introduction by Edwidge Danticat, Love, Anger, Madness is an extraordinary, brave and graphic evocation of a country in turmoil.

Soulcatcher and Other Stories


Charles R. Johnson - 2001
    For blacks and whites alike, the experience has left us with a conflicted and contradictory history. Now, famed novelist Charles Johnson, whose Middle Passage won the National Book Award, presents a dozen tales of the effects and experience of slavery, each based on historical fact, and each about those Africans who arrived on our shores in shackles. From Martha Washington's management of her slaves, bequeathed to her at the death of the first president, to a boy chained in the bowels of a ship plying the infamous passage from Africa to the South laden with human cargo, from a lynching in Indiana to a hunter of escaped slaves searching the Boston market for his quarry, from an early Quaker meeting exploring resettlement in Africa to the day after Emancipation-the voices, terrors, and savagery of slavery come vividly and unforgettably to life. These stories, told by a master storyteller, transcend history even as they present it, and retell the mythic proportions of a historical period with astounding realism and beauty, power, and emotion.

The Good Son


Paul McVeigh - 2015
    Despite having a dog called Killer and being in love with the girl next door, everyone calls him 'gay'. It doesn't help that his best friend is his little sister, Wee Maggie, and that everyone knows he loves his Ma more than anything in the world. He doesn't think much of his older brother Paddy and really doesn't like his Da. He dreams of going to America, taking Wee Maggie and Ma with him, to get them away from Belfast and Da. Mickey realises it's all down to him. He has to protect Ma from herself. And sometimes, you have to be a bad boy to be a good son.

No Honour


Awais Khan - 2021
    A stunning, immense beautiful novel about courage, family and the meaning of love, when everything seems lost… In sixteen-year-old Abida’s small Pakistani village, there are age-old rules to live by, and her family’s honour to protect. And, yet, her spirit is defiant and she yearns to make a home with the man she loves. When the unthinkable happens, Abida faces the same fate as other young girls who have chosen unacceptable alliances – certain, public death. Fired by a fierce determination to resist everything she knows to be wrong about the society into which she was born, and aided by her devoted father, Jamil, who puts his own life on the line to help her, she escapes to Lahore and then disappears. Jamal goes to Lahore in search of Abida – a city where the prejudices that dominate their village take on a new and horrifying form – and father and daughter are caught in a world from which they may never escape. Moving from the depths of rural Pakistan, riddled with poverty and religious fervour, to the dangerous streets of over-populated Lahore, No Honour is a story of family, of the indomitable spirit of love in its many forms … a story of courage and resilience, when all seems lost, and the inextinguishable fire that lights one young woman’s battle for change.