
Firstborn Girls
A Memoir
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Robin Miles
-
Bernice L. McFadden
About this listen
From award-winning author and creative writing professor at Tulane University comes an intimate and powerful memoir exploring inherited trauma, family secrets, and the enduring bonds of love between mothers and daughters.
On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. Firstborn Girls traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar.
Growing up in 1980s Brooklyn, Bernice finds solace in books, summer trips to Barbados, and boarding school to escape her alcoholic father. Discovering the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she finally sees herself and her loved ones reflected in their stories of “messy, beautiful, joyful Black people.”
Interwoven with Bernice's personal journey is her family's history, beginning with her four-times enslaved great-grandmother Louisa Vicey Wilson in 1822 Hancock County, Georgia. Her descendants survived Reconstruction and Jim Crow, joined the Great Migration, and mourned Dr. King’s assassination during the Civil Rights Movement. These women's wisdom, secrets, and fierce love are passed down like Louisa's handmade quilt.
A memoir of many threads, Firstborn Girls is an extraordinarily moving portrait of a life shaped by family, history, and the drive to be something more.
©2025 Bernice L. McFadden (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Happy Land
- By: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Ashley J. Hobbs
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nikki hasn’t seen her grandmother in years. So when the elder calls out of the blue with an urgent request for Nikki to visit her in the hills of western North Carolina, Nikki hesitates only for a moment. After years of silence in her family, due to a mysterious estrangement between her mother and grandmother, she’s determined to learn the truth while she still can. But instead of answers about the recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki an incredible story of a kingdom on this very mountain, and of her great-great-great grandmother, Luella, who would become its queen.
-
-
Relatable
- By kathy w. on 05-24-25
-
Harlem Rhapsody
- By: Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all. W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart.
-
-
Horrible Representation
- By Kwana Nicholas on 04-05-25
-
Mrs. Wiggins
- By: Mary Monroe
- Narrated by: Shari Peele
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The daughter of a prostitute mother and an alcoholic father, Maggie Franklin knew her only way out was to marry someone upstanding and church-going. Someone like Hubert Wiggins, the most eligible man in Lexington, Alabama - and the son of its most revered preacher. Proper and prosperous, Hubert is glad to finally have a wife, even one with Maggie's background. For Hubert has a secret he desperately needs to stay hidden. And Maggie's unexpected charm, elegance, and religious devotion makes her the perfect partner in lies....
-
-
Really enjoyed
- By avidreader on 04-07-21
By: Mary Monroe
-
Glorious
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Alfre Woodard
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Glorious is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era. Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden's rich imagination, this is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.
-
-
Gruesome violence
- By Marilyn on 11-22-11
-
Praise Song for the Butterflies
- A Novel
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Abeo Kata lives a comfortable, happy life in West Africa as the privileged nine-year-old daughter of a government employee and stay-at-home mother. But when the Katas' idyllic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeo's father, following his mother's advice, places the girl in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the 15 years she is held in the shrine. When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past.
-
-
Searing!
- By Susie Bright on 09-05-18
-
Deluge
- Good Intentions Collection
- By: Charmaine Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Kristyl Dawn Tift
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One year after her mother’s death, a woman prepares to celebrate her fortieth birthday. Digging through a trunk in the attic, looking for keepsakes for the occasion, she discovers photographs that call into question everything she believed about her life. The truth is a different story—one of a little girl in danger, a lie, and a mother’s love so fierce it led her to do the unimaginable.
-
-
Interesting Story
- By Bailey Rose on 05-21-23
-
Happy Land
- By: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Ashley J. Hobbs
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nikki hasn’t seen her grandmother in years. So when the elder calls out of the blue with an urgent request for Nikki to visit her in the hills of western North Carolina, Nikki hesitates only for a moment. After years of silence in her family, due to a mysterious estrangement between her mother and grandmother, she’s determined to learn the truth while she still can. But instead of answers about the recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki an incredible story of a kingdom on this very mountain, and of her great-great-great grandmother, Luella, who would become its queen.
-
-
Relatable
- By kathy w. on 05-24-25
-
Harlem Rhapsody
- By: Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all. W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart.
-
-
Horrible Representation
- By Kwana Nicholas on 04-05-25
-
Mrs. Wiggins
- By: Mary Monroe
- Narrated by: Shari Peele
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The daughter of a prostitute mother and an alcoholic father, Maggie Franklin knew her only way out was to marry someone upstanding and church-going. Someone like Hubert Wiggins, the most eligible man in Lexington, Alabama - and the son of its most revered preacher. Proper and prosperous, Hubert is glad to finally have a wife, even one with Maggie's background. For Hubert has a secret he desperately needs to stay hidden. And Maggie's unexpected charm, elegance, and religious devotion makes her the perfect partner in lies....
-
-
Really enjoyed
- By avidreader on 04-07-21
By: Mary Monroe
-
Glorious
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Alfre Woodard
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Glorious is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era. Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden's rich imagination, this is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.
-
-
Gruesome violence
- By Marilyn on 11-22-11
-
Praise Song for the Butterflies
- A Novel
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Abeo Kata lives a comfortable, happy life in West Africa as the privileged nine-year-old daughter of a government employee and stay-at-home mother. But when the Katas' idyllic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeo's father, following his mother's advice, places the girl in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the 15 years she is held in the shrine. When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past.
-
-
Searing!
- By Susie Bright on 09-05-18
-
Deluge
- Good Intentions Collection
- By: Charmaine Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Kristyl Dawn Tift
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One year after her mother’s death, a woman prepares to celebrate her fortieth birthday. Digging through a trunk in the attic, looking for keepsakes for the occasion, she discovers photographs that call into question everything she believed about her life. The truth is a different story—one of a little girl in danger, a lie, and a mother’s love so fierce it led her to do the unimaginable.
-
-
Interesting Story
- By Bailey Rose on 05-21-23
-
Sky Full of Elephants
- By: Cebo Campbell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon, Erin Ruth Walker, Janina Edwards
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charlie Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old left behind by her white mother and step-family.
-
-
Ever wish that some folks would just disappear?
- By Alioop on 12-11-24
By: Cebo Campbell
-
Fallen Grace
- Blaze Collection
- By: Sadeqa Johnson
- Narrated by: Channie Waites
- Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a newborn in tow, Bubbles Jones escapes a brutal sanctuary for “wayward girls” to confront the hypocritical shame of her pastor father and the betrayal of a lover. But Bubbles is accompanied by a woman who offers her shelter and a dream. Forging an unpredictable path ahead, Bubbles will not yield and will not hide in her unwavering commitment to make a big life real in a world determined to keep her small.
-
-
Give me MORE!!!
- By JoGriff on 06-01-24
By: Sadeqa Johnson
-
Audre & Bash Are Just Friends
- By: Tia Williams
- Narrated by: Jordan Cobb, Torian Brackett
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
MEET AUDRE. Junior class president. Debate team captain. Unofficial student therapist. Desperately in need of a good time. MEET BASH. Mysterious new senior. Everybody’s crush. Tall, floppy, great taste in jewelry. King of having a good time. It’s the last day of school at Cheshire Prep, Brooklyn’s elite academy—and Audre Mercy-Moore’s life is a mess. Her dad cancelled her annual summer visit to his Malibu beach house. Now? She’s stuck in a claustrophobic apartment with her mom, stepdad, and one-year-old sister (aka the Goblin Baby).
-
-
Young Adult
- By GorgeousDreamer on 07-05-25
By: Tia Williams
-
Perfect Peace
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Black
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother, Emma Jean, tells her bewildered daughter, "You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain't what you was supposed to be. So from now on, you gon' be a boy. It'll be a little strange at first, but you'll get used to it, and this'll be over after while." From this point forward, his life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events. Meanwhile, the Peace family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and fulfillment.
-
-
What a great book!
- By JoJo on 09-03-16
By: Daniel Black
-
Loving Donovan
- By: Bernice L. McFadden, Terry McMillan - introduction
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist Bernice L. McFadden has also been twice honored by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. One of Library Journal's 25 Key Indie Fiction Titles, this heartbreaking tale follows two damaged but hopeful souls as they struggle to find love despite the ravages of their pasts.
-
-
Beautiful emotional novel
- By Candace Reynolds on 09-09-16
By: Bernice L. McFadden, and others
-
Good Dirt
- A Novel
- By: Charmaine Wilkerson
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well. The crime was never solved—and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England—the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. The last thing the Freemans want is another media frenzy splashing their family across the papers, but when Ebby's high profile romance falls apart, that's exactly what they get.
-
-
Moments of brilliance
- By MyLastRomanceNovel on 03-01-25
-
Glory Daze
- A Glory Broussard Mystery, Book 2
- By: Danielle Arceneaux
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After her life was turned upside down by solving the murder of her best friend, Sister Amity Gay, all Glory Brousard wanted was a little peace and quiet. That included getting back to her Sunday morning routine as a bookie in a coffee shop, and planning the annual Mardi Gras gala for her church. But there’s no rest for Glory once the woman who broke up her marriage walks in to CC's Coffee House and asks for help finding her missing husband. It doesn’t take long before Glory finds him . . . with a knife impaled in his chest.
-
-
Fun
- By Dyan D. on 07-06-25
-
Isaac's Song
- A Novel
- By: Daniel Black
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Isaac is at a crossroads in his young life. Growing up in Missouri, the son of a caustic, hard-driving father, he was conditioned to suppress his artistic pursuits and physical desires, notions that didn’t align with a traditional view of masculinity. But now, in late ’80s Chicago, Isaac has finally carved out a life of his own. He is sensitive and tenderhearted and has built up the courage to seek out a community. Yet just as he begins to embrace who he is, two social catalysts—the AIDS crisis and Rodney King’s attack—collectively extinguish his hard-earned joy.
-
-
The story was touching about what gay men endure.
- By Amazon Customer on 04-08-25
By: Daniel Black
-
Before I Let Go
- By: Kennedy Ryan
- Narrated by: Wesleigh Siobhan, Jakobi Diem
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Their love was supposed to last forever. But when life delivered blow after devastating blow, Yasmen and Josiah Wade found that love alone couldn’t solve or save everything. It couldn’t save their marriage. Yasmen wasn’t prepared for how her life fell apart, but she’s finally starting to find joy again. She and Josiah have found a new rhythm, co-parenting their two kids and running a thriving business together. Yet like magnets, they’re always drawn back to each other, and now they’re beginning to wonder if they’re truly ready to let go of everything they once had.
-
-
Didn't Give What Everyone Said It Gave!!!
- By Annette Williams on 11-23-22
By: Kennedy Ryan
-
Wild Women and the Blues
- By: Denny S. Bryce
- Narrated by: Tracey Conyer Lee, Ronald Peet
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz-Age Chicago comes to vibrant life in Denny S. Bryce's evocative novel that links the stories of an ambitious chorus girl and a modern-day film student, both coming to grips with loss, forgiveness, and the limitations - and surprises - of love.
-
-
The writers’ personal history is just as interesting
- By all our stories on 04-29-21
By: Denny S. Bryce
-
Zeal
- A Novel
- By: Morgan Jerkins
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Shayna Small
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning over a hundred and fifty years, Morgan Jerkins’s extraordinary novel intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzah's family moves across the country during the Great Migration, they challenge authority with devastating consequences, while of the legacy of heartbreak and loss continues on in the lives of Harrison's progeny.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Courtney Pipkin on 06-21-25
By: Morgan Jerkins
-
Soundtrack
- A Listening Library Audiobook Original
- By: Jason Reynolds
- Narrated by: Nile Bullock, Mekhi Hewling, Jade Williams, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stuy wanted to play the drums just like his mom, a founding member of the punk band The Bed-Stuy Magic Dusters. With his mother as his teacher, Stuy starts busking in the subway with his friends Dunks, Alexis, Keith, and Frankie under the name Soundtrack. To everyone’s surprise, including their own, they become an underground sensation, and their success changes the course of their lives.
-
-
Wow
- By Mya Edwards on 06-23-25
By: Jason Reynolds
Critic reviews
“A distinguished novelist explores the history that shaped her and the women in her family. . . . A powerful, richly tapestried book about race, history, love, and the healing power of the written word.”—Kirkus
“Novelist McFadden delivers the captivating, multigenerational stories of her family in a poignant memoir.”—Booklist
“In her remarkable memoir, Bernice McFadden revisits the chaos of girlhood and her journeys as a mother, daughter, and writer, all beneath the specter of white supremacy, patriarchy, and domestic violence. Hailing from generations of hard-loving, bold, flawed Black women, McFadden’s recounting of their lives and intimacies is masterful and mesmerizing. Fueled by compassion and anger, resilience and curiosity, McFadden reveals family secrets, strivings, and struggles, against the backdrop of our country’s long legacy of racial injustice. Revelatory and enthralling, Firstborn Girls is an absolute treasure.”—Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Sugar
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sugar arrives in the small town of Bigelow, Arkansas, like an ominous storm. She saunters down the street in a blonde wig and spiked heels, cigarette dangling between red-painted lips. Without even speaking to her, the women in town hate her. But when she moves in next door to Pearl, a woman who tragically lost her daughter 15 years earlier, the two women bond over tragic pasts.
-
-
Wow wow wow
- By brenda transon on 08-27-19
-
The Book of Harlan
- By: Bernice McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Book of Harlan opens with the courtship of Harlan's parents and his 1917 birth in Macon, Georgia. After his prominent minister grandfather dies, Harlan and his parents move to Harlem, where he eventually becomes a professional musician. When Harlan and his best friend, trumpeter Lizard Robbins, are invited to perform at a popular cabaret in the Parisian enclave of Montmartre - affectionately referred to as "the Harlem of Paris" by black American musicians - Harlan jumps at the opportunity, convincing Lizard to join him.
-
-
An insightful account of an eventful period
- By Ezinwanyi on 07-26-16
By: Bernice McFadden
-
Nowhere Is a Place
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sherry has struggled all her life to understand who she is, where she comes from, and, most importantly, why her mother slapped her cheek one summer afternoon. The incident has haunted Sherry, and it causes her to dig into her family's past. Like many family histories, it is fractured and reluctant to reveal its secrets; but Sherry remains determined. In just a few days' time, her extended family will gather for a reunion, and Sherry sets off across the country with her mother, Dumpling, to join them.
-
-
Wow!!!
- By TINA on 12-29-20
-
The Warmest December
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Warmest December is the incredibly moving story of one Brooklyn family and the alcoholism that determined years of their lives. Narrated by Kenzie Lowe, a young woman reminiscent of Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John, as she visits her dying father and finds that choices she once thought beyond her control are very much hers to make.
-
-
Bernice McFadden
- By Constance Knight on 07-01-20
-
Mainline Mama
- A Memoir
- By: Keeonna Harris
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Keeonna and Jason met as young teens. Only fourteen, Keeonna had never had a boyfriend before, dreamed of attending Spelman to become an obstetrician, and thought she was “grown.” Within a year she was pregnant and Jason was in prison, convicted of a carjacking and sentenced to twenty-two years. Overnight Keeonna had become a “mainline mama,” a parent facing the task of raising a child—while still growing up herself—with an incarcerated partner.
By: Keeonna Harris
-
Glorious
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Alfre Woodard
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Glorious is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era. Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden's rich imagination, this is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.
-
-
Gruesome violence
- By Marilyn on 11-22-11
-
Sugar
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sugar arrives in the small town of Bigelow, Arkansas, like an ominous storm. She saunters down the street in a blonde wig and spiked heels, cigarette dangling between red-painted lips. Without even speaking to her, the women in town hate her. But when she moves in next door to Pearl, a woman who tragically lost her daughter 15 years earlier, the two women bond over tragic pasts.
-
-
Wow wow wow
- By brenda transon on 08-27-19
-
The Book of Harlan
- By: Bernice McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Book of Harlan opens with the courtship of Harlan's parents and his 1917 birth in Macon, Georgia. After his prominent minister grandfather dies, Harlan and his parents move to Harlem, where he eventually becomes a professional musician. When Harlan and his best friend, trumpeter Lizard Robbins, are invited to perform at a popular cabaret in the Parisian enclave of Montmartre - affectionately referred to as "the Harlem of Paris" by black American musicians - Harlan jumps at the opportunity, convincing Lizard to join him.
-
-
An insightful account of an eventful period
- By Ezinwanyi on 07-26-16
By: Bernice McFadden
-
Nowhere Is a Place
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sherry has struggled all her life to understand who she is, where she comes from, and, most importantly, why her mother slapped her cheek one summer afternoon. The incident has haunted Sherry, and it causes her to dig into her family's past. Like many family histories, it is fractured and reluctant to reveal its secrets; but Sherry remains determined. In just a few days' time, her extended family will gather for a reunion, and Sherry sets off across the country with her mother, Dumpling, to join them.
-
-
Wow!!!
- By TINA on 12-29-20
-
The Warmest December
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Warmest December is the incredibly moving story of one Brooklyn family and the alcoholism that determined years of their lives. Narrated by Kenzie Lowe, a young woman reminiscent of Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John, as she visits her dying father and finds that choices she once thought beyond her control are very much hers to make.
-
-
Bernice McFadden
- By Constance Knight on 07-01-20
-
Mainline Mama
- A Memoir
- By: Keeonna Harris
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Keeonna and Jason met as young teens. Only fourteen, Keeonna had never had a boyfriend before, dreamed of attending Spelman to become an obstetrician, and thought she was “grown.” Within a year she was pregnant and Jason was in prison, convicted of a carjacking and sentenced to twenty-two years. Overnight Keeonna had become a “mainline mama,” a parent facing the task of raising a child—while still growing up herself—with an incarcerated partner.
By: Keeonna Harris
-
Glorious
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Alfre Woodard
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Glorious is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era. Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden's rich imagination, this is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.
-
-
Gruesome violence
- By Marilyn on 11-22-11
-
Harlem Rhapsody
- By: Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all. W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart.
-
-
Horrible Representation
- By Kwana Nicholas on 04-05-25
-
Gathering of Waters
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gathering of Waters is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi - a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families. Tass Hilson and Emmett Till were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit
-
-
Loved it!!
- By Dr. Allen on 07-26-16
-
Praise Song for the Butterflies
- A Novel
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Abeo Kata lives a comfortable, happy life in West Africa as the privileged nine-year-old daughter of a government employee and stay-at-home mother. But when the Katas' idyllic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeo's father, following his mother's advice, places the girl in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the 15 years she is held in the shrine. When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past.
-
-
Searing!
- By Susie Bright on 09-05-18
-
Deluge
- Good Intentions Collection
- By: Charmaine Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Kristyl Dawn Tift
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One year after her mother’s death, a woman prepares to celebrate her fortieth birthday. Digging through a trunk in the attic, looking for keepsakes for the occasion, she discovers photographs that call into question everything she believed about her life. The truth is a different story—one of a little girl in danger, a lie, and a mother’s love so fierce it led her to do the unimaginable.
-
-
Interesting Story
- By Bailey Rose on 05-21-23
-
Fever
- A Novel
- By: Bernice L. McFadden, Geneva Holliday
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three years have passed since four friends—Geneva, Chevy, Crystal, and Noah—had a steamy summer of secrets and sleeping around. As another summer is fast approaching, they’ve sworn off any extracurricular activities, but as the temperature rises in the city, the friends find themselves in hot water again.
By: Bernice L. McFadden, and others
-
Gather Me
- A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me
- By: Glory Edim
- Narrated by: Glory Edim
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Glory Edim, that “friend of my mind” is books. Edim, who grew up in Virginia to Nigerian immigrant parents, started the popular Well-Read Black Girl book club at age thirty, eventually reaching a community of half a million readers. But her own love of books stretches far back. Edim’s father moved back to Nigeria while she was still a child, marking the beginning of a series of traumatic changes and losses for her family. What became an escape, a safe space, and a second home for her and her brother was their local library.
-
-
Theme of books and quality of life
- By DBussey on 06-25-25
By: Glory Edim
-
Camilla’s Roses
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Patricia Floyd
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of two Black Writers Alliance Gold Pen Awards and an Honor Award from the American Library Association, Bernice L. McFadden has authored several national best-sellers, including Suger and This Bitter Earth. Camilla spent years disassociating herself from her dysfunctional family, creating a new life and new self-image. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, however, she must reconnect with her painful past.
-
-
Narrator threw me off
- By Erica on 10-29-20
-
The Unexpected Diva
- A Novel
- By: Tiffany L. Warren
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born into slavery on a Mississippi plantation, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield has been raised in the safety of Philadelphia’s Quaker community by a wealthy adoptive mother. Sheltered and educated, Eliza’s happy childhood always included music lessons to nurture her unique gift: a glorious three octave singing voice that leaves listeners in awe. But on the eve of her twenty-fourth birthday, young Eliza’s world is thrown into a tailspin when her mother dies.
-
-
Wow!
- By Nicole Wilson on 05-27-25
-
People of Means
- A Novel
- By: Nancy Johnson
- Narrated by: Nancy Johnson, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1959, Freda Gilroy arrives on the campus of Fisk University full of hope, carrying a suitcase and the voice of her father telling her she’s part of a family legacy of greatness. Soon, the ugliness of the Jim Crow South intrudes, and she’s thrust into a movement for social change. Freda is reluctant to get involved, torn between a soon-to-be doctor her parents approve of and an audacious young man willing to risk it all in the name of justice.
-
-
Beautifully Told
- By Dr. Judy A. Alston on 02-19-25
By: Nancy Johnson
-
Red Clay
- By: Charles B. Fancher
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1943, when a frail old white woman shows up in Red Clay, Alabama, at the home of a Black former slave—on the morning following his funeral—his family hardly knows what to expect after she utters the words “… a lifetime ago, my family owned yours.” Adelaide Parker has a story to tell—one of ambition, betrayal, violence, and redemption—that shaped both the fate of her family and that of the late Felix H. Parker. But there are gaps in her knowledge, and she’s come to Red Clay seeking answers from a family with whom she shares a name and a history that neither knows in full.
-
-
Relatable & Heartfelt
- By Me on 07-04-25
-
Pretty
- A Memoir
- By: KB Brookins
- Narrated by: KB Brookins
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By a prize-winning young Black trans writer of outsized talent, a fierce and disciplined memoir about queerness, masculinity, and race, Pretty is as much a powerful and tender love letter as it is a call for change.
-
-
Love
- By Brie on 02-11-25
By: KB Brookins
-
Firstborn
- A Memoir
- By: Lauren Christensen
- Narrated by: Lauren Christensen
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lauren Christensen is a thirtysomething editor in New York City when she meets her future husband, Gabe, a writer with whom she falls in love right away. Her beloved grandfather is dying, but the young couple is bringing new life into the family: Lauren and Gabe joyfully discover she is pregnant with their daughter, Simone. As Lauren faces the prospect of becoming a parent, she learns to let go of the fear of abandonment and need for control, but just weeks after their wedding, they learn that their worst nightmare has come true: Simone is dying in the womb.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Ashley M. on 03-28-25
Best Memoir Ever! Seriously
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
First Born Girls
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Oh What A Read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great Read!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wow! Felt like a movie.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Outstanding
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The tapestry that the author weaved as we journeyed though her life story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Life and living
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved every minute of this book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.