All 14 branches of Whitman County Library are closed January 15 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Access to the library’s catalog, downloadable audio and eBooks, and other online resources including Rural Heritage are available by visiting our website at www.whitco.lib.wa.us
Celebrate our differences!
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Whitman County Library shares with you this collection of powerful novels by African American authors!
The Color Purple is a classic. It is hailed as one of the all-time 'greats' of literature, inspiring generations of readers. Set in the deep American South between the wars, it is the tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Abused by the man she calls 'father', she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister, Nettie, and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker - a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually, Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves. 
A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana; the other follows Esi and her children into the American South and Civil War.
As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for pre-Civil War Blacks, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all the slaves but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood - where even greater pain awaits. In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor - engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven - but masks an insidious scheme. Even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is on the hunt.
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.
*book descriptions provided by goodreads.com
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