181 results for “by Ruth J. Simmons”

Not finding what you're looking for? Check out our shop on bookshop.org to order and still support us ♥

Availability

Price

$
–
$

More filters

  • The Shape of Dreams: A Novel cover image
    $29.00

    A trio of women bond in friendship as a neighborhood tries to seek justice from a system that has forgotten them.

    It’s the mid-eighties in East Harlem: a twelve-year-old black boy's murdered body is found by Mathilda "Twin" Johnson, an unlikely hero who is both the neighborhood’s troublemaker and its conscience. When she breaks a cardinal rule—“don’t call the cops”—her decision ensnares a community and brings unmanageable grief to a mother. Anita, a postal worker and army widow is determined to solve her son Tyrone's murder, and her quest for justice galvanizes the neighborhood, which is itself a complex character in this teeming novel, with its Mets fans and gossips, immigrant shop owners and latch-key kids who are desperate to help a friend. The local dreamers include a charismatic man of the cloth, a teenage girl with a Whitney Houston voice and no prospects, and Anita’s opinionated friend Wanda, whose truant son the police harass and arrest on a regular basis.

    Everyone is struggling.

    Anita, Wanda and Twin, the triad of this vibrant novel, are drawn into the neighborhood drug trap, while a singer, a preacher, and the church ladies who follow him believe their dreams can shape a city. Will the three be able to break away from crack's dangerous allure? Will the reverend’s pressure on the authorities to find Tyrone’s killer yield answers? Will justice come to East Harlem?

    In the end, during the New York Mets’ banner summer of 1986, this community will come together to mourn, fight for a better life, and shape their dreams as best they can.

  • Opposite of Always

    by Justin A. Reynolds

    $11.99

    Before I Fall meets Everything, Everything in this hilarious and heart-racing #ownvoices romance from debut author Justin A. Reynolds. Now in paperback!

    When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling—hard. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack.

    But this love story is . . . complicated. It is an almost happily ever after. Because Kate dies. And their story should end there. Yet Kate’s death sends Jack back to the beginning, the moment they first meet, and Kate’s there again. Beautiful, radiant Kate. Jack isn’t sure if he’s losing his mind. Still, if he has a chance to prevent Kate’s death, he’ll take it. Even if that means believing in time travel. However, Jack will learn that his actions are not without consequences. And when one choice turns deadly for someone else close to him, he has to figure out what he’s willing to do to save the people he loves.

  • Anywhere You Run: A Novel

    by Wanda M. Morris

    $17.99

    *ships in 7- 10 business days*

    From the acclaimed author of All Her Little Secrets comes yet another gripping, suspenseful novel where, after the murder of a white man in Jim Crow Mississippi, two Black sisters run away to different parts of the country . . . but can they escape the secrets they left behind?

    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-two-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. But desperation and fear leads her to hide out in the small rural town of Chillicothe, Georgia, unaware that danger may be closer than she thinks.

    Back in Jackson, Marigold, Violet’s older sister, has dreams of attending law school. Working for the Mississippi Summer Project, she has been trying to use her smarts to further the cause of the Black vote. But Marigold is in a different kind of trouble: she’s pregnant and unmarried. After news of Huxley’s murder brings the police to her door, Marigold sees no choice but to flee Jackson too. She heads North seeking the promise of a better life and no more segregation. But has she made a terrible choice that threatens her life and that of her unborn child? 

    Two sisters on the run—one from the law, the other from social shame. What they don’t realize is that there’s a man hot on their trail. This man has his own brand of dark secrets and a disturbing motive for finding the sisters that is unknown to everyone but him . . .

  • Soulful Echoes cover image
    $25.99

    In the small, bayou-whispered town of Opelousas Octavia, a vibrant young women, and Ms.Aladyse, a wise Creole elder, share a deep spiritual connection that transcend time. As they bond, it becomes clear that Octavia is not just a reflection of Ms. Aladyse's past, but perhaps a reincarnation of a soul long cherished. Together, they uncover a profound link that goes beyond coincidence, intertwining their destines in a journey of love, wisdom and spiritual reunions.

  • Southern Horrors: Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching

    by Crystal N. Feimster

    $26.00

    *ships or ready for pick up in 7 - 10 business days*

    Between 1880 and 1930, close to 200 women were murdered by lynch mobs in the American South. Many more were tarred and feathered, burned, whipped, or raped. In this brutal world of white supremacist politics and patriarchy, a world violently divided by race, gender, and class, black and white women defended themselves and challenged the male power brokers. Crystal Feimster breaks new ground in her story of the racial politics of the postbellum South by focusing on the volatile issue of sexual violence.

    Pairing the lives of two Southern women—Ida B. Wells, who fearlessly branded lynching a white tool of political terror against southern blacks, and Rebecca Latimer Felton, who urged white men to prove their manhood by lynching black men accused of raping white women—Feimster makes visible the ways in which black and white women sought protection and political power in the New South. While Wells was black and Felton was white, both were journalists, temperance women, suffragists, and anti-rape activists. By placing their concerns at the center of southern politics, Feimster illuminates a critical and novel aspect of southern racial and sexual dynamics. Despite being on opposite sides of the lynching question, both Wells and Felton sought protection from sexual violence and political empowerment for women.

    Southern Horrors provides a startling view into the Jim Crow South where the precarious and subordinate position of women linked black and white anti-rape activists together in fragile political alliances. It is a story that reveals how the complex drama of political power, race, and sex played out in the lives of Southern women.

  • Shift Your Life: Let Go of Survival Mode, Seize Your Moment, and Build the Future You Were Created For cover image
    $26.00

    An inspiring and practical catalyst to break out of survival mindset and walk in the fullness of God’s plan for your life—from the New York Times bestselling author of When God Speaks.

    With so much happening in the world, we are carrying more than we ever expected—pressure, responsibilities, unanswered questions, and the weight of discerning what matters most in uncertain times. But there is a revelation to be found right where you are.

    Pastor, prophet, and bestselling author Joshua Giles weaves together spiritual and behavioral insights to help you move out of survival mode and into the life God is calling you to live. Discover how to

    • identify and break free from survival mode’s gravitational pull
    • let go of the past and begin dreaming again about your future
    • understand the transitions between your night and day seasons—and receive the promises and blessings in both
    • recognize spiritual resistance at pivotal moments and respond with wisdom, authority, and faith
    • design your environment to better support your calling

    This message is a catalyst to awaken you to the gifts and opportunities around you and build the future God has planned.

    Your moment is here. It’s time to shift your life.

  • Resonant Solace (Resonance) cover image
    $23.99

    From the author of Rifts and Refrains comes a soulful and deeply romantic story about love after loss and finding your voice when the music stops.

    Still reeling from heartbreak, Sophie has walked away from the spotlight, her guitar gathering dust and her voice silent. But when an old friend invites her to help document the untold history of the blues in Memphis, she reluctantly agrees, never expecting the trip to change everything.

    Nathan is a journalist chasing legacy and meaning, but Sophie's presence stirs something deeper than his latest assignment. As they explore the city’s rhythms and reckon with ghosts of the past, sparks begin to build between them, unspoken and undeniable, pulling them closer with every shared moment.

    Resonant Solace is a sweeping romance about creative rebirth, emotional risk, and the power of connection. For anyone who has ever needed a second chance or dared to believe in one, this is a love story that lingers like a favorite song.

  • Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close cover image
    $17.00

    A close friendship is one of the most influential and important relationships a human life can contain. Anyone will tell you that! But for all the rosy sentiments surrounding friendship, most people don’t talk much about what it really takes to stay close for the long haul.

    Now two friends, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, tell the story of their equally messy and life-affirming Big Friendship in this honest and hilarious book that chronicles their first decade in one another’s lives. As the hosts of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend, they’ve become known for frank and intimate conversations. In this book, they bring that energy to their own friendship—its joys and its pitfalls.

    Aminatou and Ann define Big Friendship as a strong, significant bond that transcends life phases, geographical locations, and emotional shifts. And they should know: the two have had moments of charmed bliss and deep frustration, of profound connection and gut-wrenching alienation. They have weathered life-threatening health scares, getting fired from their dream jobs, and one unfortunate Thanksgiving dinner eaten in a car in a parking lot in Rancho Cucamonga. Through interviews with friends and experts, they have come to understand that their struggles are not unique. And that the most important part of a Big Friendship is making the decision to invest in one another again and again.

    An inspiring and entertaining testament to the power of society’s most underappreciated relationship, Big Friendship will invite you to think about how your own bonds are formed, challenged, and preserved. It is a call to value your friendships in all of their complexity. Actively choose them. And, sometimes, fight for them.

  • Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto

    by Clarkisha Kent

    $19.95

    Ships in 7-10 business days

    In this disarming and candid memoir, cultural critic Clarkisha Kent unpacks the kind of compounded problems you face when you’re a fat, Black, queer woman in a society obsessed with heteronormativity.

    There was no easy way for Kent to navigate personal discovery and self-love. As a dark-skinned, first-generation American facing a myriad of mental health issues and intergenerational trauma, at times Kent’s body felt like a cosmic punishment. In the face of body dysmorphia, homophobia, anti-Blackness, and respectability politics, the pursuit of “high self-esteem” seemed oxymoronic. 

    Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto is a humorous, at times tragic, memoir that follows Kent on her journey to realizing that her body is a gift to be grown into, that sometimes family doesn’t always mean home, and how even ill-fated bisexual romances could free her from gender essentialism. Perfect for readers of Keah Brown’s The Pretty One, Alida Nugent’s You Don’t Have to Like Me, and Stephanie Yeboah’s Fattily Ever After, Kent’s debut explores her own lived experiences to illuminate how fatphobia intertwines with other oppressions. It stresses the importance of addressing the violence scored upon our minds and our bodies, and how we might begin the difficult—but joyful—work of setting ourselves free.

  • The Color of Water

    by James McBride

    $16.00

    *Ships in 7-10 business days*

    In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned.

    At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college—and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University.

    Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.

    This book was recently reprinted with a new cover. You may receive one of the two covers shown.

  • Overground Railroad

    by Lesa Cline-Ransome

    from $8.99

    *ships in 7-10 business days

    A window into a child's experience of the Great Migration from the award-winning creators of Before She Was Harriet and Finding Langston.

    Climbing aboard the New York bound Silver Meteor train, Ruth Ellen embarks upon a journey toward a new life up North-- one she can't begin to imagine. Stop by stop, the perceptive young narrator tells her journey in poems, leaving behind the cotton fields and distant Blue Ridge mountains.

    Each leg of the trip brings new revelations as scenes out the window of folks working in fields give way to the Delaware River, the curtain that separates the colored car is removed, and glimpses of the freedom and opportunity the family hopes to find come into view. As they travel, Ruth Ellen reads from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, reflecting on how her journey mirrors her own-- until finally the train arrives at its last stop, New York's Penn Station, and the family heads out into a night filled with bright lights, glimmering stars, and new possiblity.

    James Ransome's mixed-media illustrations are full of bold color and texture, bringing Ruth Ellen's journey to life, from sprawling cotton fields to cramped train cars, the wary glances of other passengers and the dark forest through which Frederick Douglass traveled towards freedom. Overground Railroad is, as Lesa notes, a story "of people who were running from and running to at the same time," and it's a story that will stay with readers long after the final pages.

  • Disappearing Acts

    by Terry McMillan

    $17.00

    *Ships in 7-10 Business Days*

    From #1 New York Times bestselling author Terry McMillan comes an honest look at a modern romance, from love at first sight to painful reality to working toward a happy ending....

    Franklin Swift was a sometimes-employed construction worker and a not-quite-divorced dad of two. Zora Banks was a teacher, singer, and songwriter. They met in a Brooklyn brownstone, and there could be no walking away....

    In this funny, gritty love story, Franklin and Zora join the ranks of fiction’s most compelling couples as they move from Scrabble to sex, from layoffs to the limits of faith and trust. Disappearing Acts is about the mystery of desire and the burdens of the past. It’s about respect—what it can and can’t survive. And it’s about the safe and secret places that only love can find.

Stay Informed. We're building a community committed to celebrating Black authors + artisans. Subscribe to keep up with all things Kindred Stories.