
People of Means
A Novel
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

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $25.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nancy Johnson
-
Bahni Turpin
-
By:
-
Nancy Johnson
About this listen
One of People magazine's most anticipated books!
""A memorable story of mothers and daughters, family dynamics, the complicated meaning of success, the pull of love, and the fight for racial equality, People of Means is a timely look at who we are as a nation—and who we can become, if only we have the courage to follow our hearts."" —Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Daughter
From the acclaimed author of The Kindest Lie, a propulsive novel about a mother and daughter each seeking justice and following their dreams in 1960s Nashville and 1990s Chicago; perfect for fans of Brit Bennett and Tayari Jones.
Two women. Two pivotal moments. One dream for justice and equality.
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. Freda finds herself caught between two worlds, and two loves, and must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the advancement of her people.
In 1992 Chicago, Freda’s daughter Tulip is an ambitious PR professional on track for an exciting career, if workplace politics and racial microaggressions don’t get in her way. But with the ruling in the Rodney King trial weighing heavily on her, Tulip feels called to action. When she makes an irreversible professional misstep as she seeks to uplift her community, she must decide, just like her mother had three decades prior, what she’s willing to risk in the name of justice and equality.
Insightful, evocative, and richly imagined with stories of hidden history, People of Means is an emotional tour de force that offers a glimpse into the quest for racial equality, the pursuit of personal and communal success, and the power of love and family ties.
""People of Means left me breathless! A beautifully crafted story...profound and sharp.""—Sadeqa Johnson New York Times bestselling author of The House of Eve
©2025 Nancy Johnson (P)2025 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
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
-
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.
-
-
Wonderfully satisfying
- By Nia Gaines on 05-26-25
-
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.
-
-
catching up with a friend
- By Huron's Heroes on 05-19-25
-
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
-
Junie
- A Novel
- By: Erin Crosby Eckstine
- Narrated by: Angel Pean
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie. When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act.
-
-
Great read! Really enjoyed the storytelling!
- By Summer on 05-26-25
-
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
-
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
-
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.
-
-
Wonderfully satisfying
- By Nia Gaines on 05-26-25
-
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.
-
-
catching up with a friend
- By Huron's Heroes on 05-19-25
-
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
-
Junie
- A Novel
- By: Erin Crosby Eckstine
- Narrated by: Angel Pean
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie. When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act.
-
-
Great read! Really enjoyed the storytelling!
- By Summer on 05-26-25
-
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
-
This Motherless Land
- A Novel
- By: Nikki May
- Narrated by: Weruche Opia, Florence Howard
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.
-
-
Details
- By Susan S. on 05-19-25
By: Nikki May
-
The Bright Years
- By: Sarah Damoff
- Narrated by: Ferdelle Capistrano, Joy Osmanski, Lee Osorio
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Told from three intimate points of view, The Bright Years is a tender, true-to-life novel that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy but, over time, restored by the power of grace and love.
-
-
Give it a chance
- By casey Bolton on 05-24-25
By: Sarah Damoff
-
A Pair of Wings
- A Novel
- By: Carole Hopson
- Narrated by: Alaska Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A few years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, Bessie was working the Texas cotton fields with her family when an airplane flew over their heads. It buzzed so low she thought she could catch it in her hands. Bessie was fearless. She knew there was freedom in those wings. The daughter of a woman born into slavery, Bessie answers the call of the Great Migration. She moves to Chicago, where she wins the backing of two wealthy, powerful Black men—Robert Abbott, creator and publisher of the Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, the founder of Chicago’s first Black bank.
-
-
Wind beneath my wings
- By Patrice Hagans on 03-29-25
By: Carole Hopson
-
Down the River unto the Sea
- By: Walter Mosley
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators until he was framed for sexual assault by unknown enemies within the force. A decade has passed since his release from Rikers, and he now runs a private detective agency with the help of his teenage daughter. Physically and emotionally broken by the brutality he suffered while behind bars, King leads a solitary life, his work and his daughter the only lights. When he receives a letter from his accuser confessing that she was paid to frame him years ago, King decides to find out who wanted him gone and why.
-
-
So.Damn.Good.
- By Jabulile on 03-08-18
By: Walter Mosley
-
Anywhere You Run
- A Novel
- By: Wanda M. Morris
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards, Shayna Small, Adam Lazarre-White
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the summer of 1964 and three innocent men are brutally murdered for trying to help Black Mississippians secure the right to vote. Against this backdrop, twenty-one year old Violet Richards finds herself in more trouble than she’s ever been in her life. Suffering a brutal attack of her own, she kills the man responsible. But with the color of Violet’s skin, there is no way she can escape Jim Crow justice in Jackson, Mississippi. Before anyone can find the body or finger her as the killer, she decides to run. With the help of her white beau, Violet escapes.
-
-
The suspense
- By Anonymous User on 07-26-24
By: Wanda M. Morris
-
Three Days in June
- A Novel
- By: Anne Tyler
- Narrated by: J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.
-
-
Simple, Enjoyable, performed 5 stars
- By PM on 02-14-25
By: Anne Tyler
-
This Is a Love Story
- A Novel
- By: Jessica Soffer
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fifty years, Abe and Jane have been coming to Central Park, as starry-eyed young lovers, as frustrated and exhausted parents, as artists watching their careers take flight. They came alone when they needed to get away from each other, and together when they had something important to discuss. The Park has been their witness for half a century of love. Until now. Jane is dying, and Abe is recounting their life together as a way of keeping them going: the parts they knew.
-
-
A waste of time — not worth the credit
- By E. Zimmerman on 03-12-25
By: Jessica Soffer
-
Madwoman
- By: Chelsea Bieker
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clove has gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation. But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun.
-
-
Relevent
- By Medusa on 10-10-24
By: Chelsea Bieker
-
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
-
The Family Inside
- By: Katie Garner
- Narrated by: Emily Lawrence, Ashley Klanac
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since her husband’s unsolved murder three years ago, Iris Blodgett’s life has unraveled. Awash in grief and buried in debt, she can’t pay her mortgage—and now that she’s lost her job, she has no idea how she’ll provide for her unruly teenage daughter, Ellory. Facing eviction, Iris turns to her new beau, prominent architect Hugh Smoll, for a shoulder to cry on. But the seemingly perfect Hugh offers her something more: an invitation to move in to his mother’s centuries-old mansion while he renovates the property.
-
-
Compelling Story Diffused By Overacting Performers
- By Wilkes Writer on 04-28-25
By: Katie Garner
-
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
-
The Names
- A Novel
- By: Florence Knapp
- Narrated by: Dervla Kirwan
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates...
-
-
Beautiful picture of what’s in a name
- By Brandy Traylor on 05-24-25
By: Florence Knapp
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
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.
-
-
great story, great narrator
- By Melissa Madden on 05-18-25
-
The Kindest Lie
- A Novel
- By: Nancy Johnson
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 2008, and the inauguration of President Barack Obama ushers in a new kind of hope. In Chicago, Ruth Tuttle, an Ivy-League educated Black engineer, is married to a kind and successful man. He’s eager to start a family, but Ruth is uncertain. She has never gotten over the baby she gave birth to—and was forced to leave behind—when she was a teenager. She had promised her family she’d never look back, but Ruth knows that she must make peace with the past. Returning home, Ruth discovers the Indiana factory town of her youth is plagued by unemployment, racism, and despair.
-
-
a fantastic book club novel
- By Barbara S on 03-05-21
By: Nancy Johnson
-
We Rip the World Apart
- By: Charlene Carr
- Narrated by: Tebby Fisher
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 24-year-old Kareela discovers she's pregnant with a child she isn't sure she wants, her struggle to understand her place in the world as a person who is half-Black, half-white—yet feels neither—is amplified. Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child during the politically charged Jamaican exodus in the 1980s, only to realize they'd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion—a constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily. Years later, Evelyn's mother-in-law, Violet, moves in.
By: Charlene Carr
-
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.
-
-
Such a well written book. I could not stop listening to it.
- By BERNITA SYKES on 02-01-25
-
Wicked Darlings
- By: Jordyn Taylor
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Elena Rey
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aspiring journalist Noa has a secret she's been keeping. Ever since her sister's tragic death, she's felt almost...relieved. Noa and Leah had been locked in competition with one another since childhood, and things came to a head when her sister scored a glitzy internship at a New York society newspaper. Noa can't help but revel in her new found autonomy.
-
-
Enjoyable
- By Pink Amy on 02-13-25
By: Jordyn Taylor
-
Beauty in the Blood
- A Novel
- By: Charlotte Carter
- Narrated by: Marie-Francoise Theodore
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah Toomey is a successful young black lawyer, lovely but straitlaced–and afraid that she is losing her mind. Since the death of her mother, a force she can neither understand nor control is manipulating her memory and driving her to unexplained acts of violence and destruction. At the same time, Sarah is swept up in a highly charged relationship with a work colleague that portends a danger of its own. As she moves through her privileged life in New York, Sarah comes to learn how her past—her haunted history—is intertwined with America’s.
By: Charlotte Carter
-
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.
-
-
great story, great narrator
- By Melissa Madden on 05-18-25
-
The Kindest Lie
- A Novel
- By: Nancy Johnson
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 2008, and the inauguration of President Barack Obama ushers in a new kind of hope. In Chicago, Ruth Tuttle, an Ivy-League educated Black engineer, is married to a kind and successful man. He’s eager to start a family, but Ruth is uncertain. She has never gotten over the baby she gave birth to—and was forced to leave behind—when she was a teenager. She had promised her family she’d never look back, but Ruth knows that she must make peace with the past. Returning home, Ruth discovers the Indiana factory town of her youth is plagued by unemployment, racism, and despair.
-
-
a fantastic book club novel
- By Barbara S on 03-05-21
By: Nancy Johnson
-
We Rip the World Apart
- By: Charlene Carr
- Narrated by: Tebby Fisher
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 24-year-old Kareela discovers she's pregnant with a child she isn't sure she wants, her struggle to understand her place in the world as a person who is half-Black, half-white—yet feels neither—is amplified. Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child during the politically charged Jamaican exodus in the 1980s, only to realize they'd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion—a constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily. Years later, Evelyn's mother-in-law, Violet, moves in.
By: Charlene Carr
-
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.
-
-
Such a well written book. I could not stop listening to it.
- By BERNITA SYKES on 02-01-25
-
Wicked Darlings
- By: Jordyn Taylor
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Elena Rey
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aspiring journalist Noa has a secret she's been keeping. Ever since her sister's tragic death, she's felt almost...relieved. Noa and Leah had been locked in competition with one another since childhood, and things came to a head when her sister scored a glitzy internship at a New York society newspaper. Noa can't help but revel in her new found autonomy.
-
-
Enjoyable
- By Pink Amy on 02-13-25
By: Jordyn Taylor
-
Beauty in the Blood
- A Novel
- By: Charlotte Carter
- Narrated by: Marie-Francoise Theodore
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarah Toomey is a successful young black lawyer, lovely but straitlaced–and afraid that she is losing her mind. Since the death of her mother, a force she can neither understand nor control is manipulating her memory and driving her to unexplained acts of violence and destruction. At the same time, Sarah is swept up in a highly charged relationship with a work colleague that portends a danger of its own. As she moves through her privileged life in New York, Sarah comes to learn how her past—her haunted history—is intertwined with America’s.
By: Charlotte Carter
-
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
-
The Late Americans
- A Novel
- By: Brandon Taylor
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a loose circle of lovers and friends encounter, confront, and provoke one another in a volatile year of self-discovery. Among them are Seamus, a frustrated young poet; Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker who dabbles in amateur pornography; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicate her relationships with friends and a trusted mentor; and Noah, who “didn’t seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection.”
-
-
Characters Lacked Depth, No Plot
- By MLB on 07-06-23
By: Brandon Taylor
-
Blues Highway
- A Migration Journey from the South to Chicago
- By: Carla D. Williams
- Narrated by: Drama Simpson
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Blues Highway is one migration story of Blacks from the American South, aided initially by the Pullman porters broad reach into the world beyond. Moving on to the next generation, the porter Sidney sets up his daughter Janet to take hold of his barber shop. As she navigates her life, opportunities and social conditions shift. The power of Janet and Frank's relationship moves the saga forward, touching honestly and deeply on the forces of change.
-
-
Awesome Narration!
- By Sonja R😁 on 02-29-24
-
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
-
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.
-
-
Emotionally Riveting
- By Poetry on 05-25-25
By: Morgan Jerkins
-
Rootless
- A Novel
- By: Krystle Zara Appiah
- Narrated by: Clifford Samuel, Diana Yekinni
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a Spring afternoon in London, Sam hops the stairs of his flat two at a time. There’s £1,300 missing from his and his wife, Efe’s, shared bank account and his calls are going straight to voicemail. When he finally reaches someone, he learns Efe is nearly 5,000 miles away as their toddler looks around and asks, “Where’s Mummy?”
-
-
The ending was traumatic & unnecessary
- By Kayzee on 04-27-25
-
Junie
- A Novel
- By: Erin Crosby Eckstine
- Narrated by: Angel Pean
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie. When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act.
-
-
Great read! Really enjoyed the storytelling!
- By Summer on 05-26-25
-
The Only Black Girl in the Room
- A Novel
- By: Alex Travis
- Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Genevieve Francis, a 25-year-old Black reporter, assumed she’d go into her fourth year at her newspaper job with a bigger story than the latest seasonal ice cream flavor. Instead, she’s relegated to doing copy edits and sensitivity reads on the articles her white colleagues write. So when Gen finally gets the opportunity to cover a prominent CEO’s gala, she leaps at the chance—this will be her biggest assignment to date. The only problem: The CEO is her ex, Jude, whose marriage proposal she publicly rejected four years prior.
-
-
Amazing story of truth setting you free
- By C. Spyn on 01-21-25
By: Alex Travis
-
Tilda Is Visible
- A Novel
- By: Jane Tara
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tilda Finch is a successful businesswoman, a mother to two wonderful adult daughters, and besides an unexpected divorce, she’s living a relatively happy life. Until she wakes up one morning and her finger seems to have disappeared. She thinks back to the kombucha she drank the night before—perhaps it was spiked? Studying herself in the mirror, she discovers one of her ears has also disappeared! She rushes to the doctor, who after a multitude of tests says she’s sorry to inform her that she has invisibility, a disorder that affects millions of women worldwide, mostly after the age of forty.
-
-
This book is EVERYTHING!!
- By Amazon Customer on 05-23-25
By: Jane Tara
-
Small Worlds
- By: Caleb Azumah Nelson
- Narrated by: Caleb Azumah Nelson
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set over the course of three summers, this novel follows Stephen, a first-generation Londoner born to Ghanaian immigrant parents, brother to Ray, and best friend to Adeline. On the cusp of big life changes, Stephen feels pressured to follow a certain path—a university degree, a move out of home—but when he decides instead to follow his first love, music, his world and family fracture in ways he didn’t foresee. Now Stephen must find a path and peace for himself: a space he can feel beautiful, a space he can feel free.
-
-
I feel free when listening to him
- By Anonymous User on 11-14-23
-
The Filling Station
- A Novel
- By: Vanessa Miller
- Narrated by: Angel Pean
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sisters Margaret and Evelyn Justice have grown up in the prosperous Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma--also known as Black Wall Street. In Greenwood, the Justice sisters had it all--movie theaters and entertainment venues, beauty shops and clothing stores, high-profile businesses like law offices, medical clinics, and banks. While Evelyn aspires to head off to the East Coast to study fashion design, recent college grad Margaret plans to settle in Greenwood, teaching at the local high school and eventually raising a family.
-
-
Filling Station - Resilience and determination to rebuild what was destroyed
- By Anonymous User on 04-30-25
By: Vanessa Miller
-
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
Intriguing Story With Relatable Characters
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully Told
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.