Books like 'The Rose That Grew from Concrete'
Readers who enjoyed The Rose That Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsRenowned hip-hop artist, writer, and activist Sister Souljah brings the streets of New York to life in a powerful and utterly unforgettable first novel.I came busting into the world during one of New York's worst snowstorms, so my mother named me Winter.Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family...Categorized as:
black-mc classics poc-mc social-commentary 20th-century book coming-of-age contemporary -
![Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories by Raymond Carver]()
Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories by Raymond Carver
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsBy the time of his early death in 1988, Raymond Carver had established himself as one of the greatest practitioners of the American short story, a writer who had not only found his own voice but imprinted it in the imaginations of thousands of readers... -
![100 Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda]()
100 Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAgainst the backdrop of Isla Negra - the sea and wind, the white sand with its scattering of delicate wild flowers, the hot sun and salty smells of the Pacific - the poet sets the poems in celebration of his love. The subject of that love is Matilde Urrutia de Neruda, the poet's 'beloved wife'... -
![For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange]()
For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsIn celebration of its highly anticipated Broadway revival, Ntozake Shange’s classic, award-winning play centering the wide-ranging experiences of Black women, now with introductions by two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward and Broadway director Camille A. Brown... -
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![Another Country by James Baldwin]()
Another Country by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadSet in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions--sexual, racial, political, artistic--that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and... -
![The Book of Embraces by Eduardo Galeano]()
The Book of Embraces by Eduardo Galeano
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsParable, paradox, anecdote, dream, and autobiography blend into an exuberant world view and affirmation of human possibility... -
![Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin]()
Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"There's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it." The men and women in these eight short fictions grasp this truth on an elemental level, and their stories, as told by James Baldwin, detail the ingenious and often desperate ways in which they try to keep their head above water...Categorized as:
black-mc classics poc-mc politics social-commentary 20th-century anthologies audiobook -
![The Short Novels of John Steinbeck by John Steinbeck]()
The Short Novels of John Steinbeck by John Steinbeck
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsCollected here for the first time in a deluxe paperback volume are six of John Steinbeck's most widely read and beloved novels...Categorized as:
classics politics 20th-century anthologies contemporary drama fiction historical-fiction -
![The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector]()
The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe recent publication by New Directions of five Lispector novels revealed to legions of new readers her darkness and dazzle... -
![The Flaw by Antonis Samarakis]()
The Flaw by Antonis Samarakis
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA man is seized from his afternoon drink at the Café Sport by two agents of the Regime - though what exactly he is suspected of we do not know, and neither, apparently, does he.What follows is a journey by car toward Special Branch headquarters, and the interrogation that undoubtedly awaits him there... -
![The Collected Poems, 1957-1987 by Octavio Paz]()
The Collected Poems, 1957-1987 by Octavio Paz
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNobel Laureate Octavio Paz is incontestably Latin America's foremost poet. The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz is a landmark bilingual gathering of all the poetry he has published in book form since 1952, the year of his premier long poem, Sunstone (Piedra de Sol)―here translated anew by Eliot Weinberger―made its appearance...Categorized as:
classics poc-mc fiction anthologies 20th-century contemporary literary-fiction literary -
![Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin]()
Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPart of the Penguin 60s series, issued to celebrate 60 years of Penguin books. This collects "Sonny's Blues", "The Rockpile" and "Previous Condition", all taken from Going to Meet the Man (Penguin, 1991)...Categorized as:
classics poc-mc politics social-commentary 20th-century book coming-of-age contemporary -
![Selected Poems by E.E. Cummings]()
Selected Poems by E.E. Cummings
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe one hundred and fifty-six poems here, arranged in twelve sections and introduced by E. E. Cummings's biographer, include his most popular poems, spanning his earliest creations, his vivacious linguistic acrobatics, up to his last valedictory sonnets. Also featured are thirteen drawings, oils, and watercolors by Cummings, most of them never before published... -
![The Collected Poems, Vol. 2: 1939-1962 by William Carlos Williams]()
The Collected Poems, Vol. 2: 1939-1962 by William Carlos Williams
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings'And when the second and final colume of Williams' 'Collected Poems' is published, it should become even more apparent that he is this century's major American poet... -
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![Diving Into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich]()
Diving Into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratings"I came to explore the wreck. / The words are purposes. / The words are maps. / I came to see the damage that was done / and the treasures that prevail." These provocative poems move with the power of Rich's distinctive voice...Categorized as:
classics politics social-commentary 20th-century adult book contemporary female-author -
![Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan]()
Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSet in North Carolina, these are stories about blacks and whites, young and old, rural and sophisticated, the real and fantastical. Named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, nominated for the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award, and given the Lambda Award... -
![On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleža]()
On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleža
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDuring his long and distinguished career, the Croatian writer Miroslav Krleza (1893-1981) battled against many forms of tyranny. In On the Edge of Reason, his protagonist is a middle-aged lawyer whose life and career have been eminently respectable and respected. One evening, at a party attended by the local elite, he inadvertently blurts out an honest thought... -
![Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks]()
Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSelected Poems is the classic volume by the distinguished and celebrated poet Gwendolyn Brooks, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. This compelling collection showcases Brooks's technical mastery, her warm humanity, and her compassionate and illuminating response to a complex world... -
![The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa]()
The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsRicardo Somocurcio is in love with a bad girl. He loves her as a teenager known as 'Lily' in Llama in 1950, when she arrives one summer out of the blue, claiming to be from Chile but vanishing the moment her claim is exposed as fiction... -
![Blues for Mister Charlie by James Baldwin]()
Blues for Mister Charlie by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn a small Southern town, a white man murders a black man, then throws his body in the weeds. With this act of violence--which is loosely based on the notorious 1955 killing of Emmett Till--James Baldwin launches an unsparing and at times agonizing probe of the wounds of race. For where once a white storekeeper could have shot a boy like Richard Henry with impunity, times have changed...Categorized as:
classics poc-mc social-commentary black-mc fiction drama 20th-century historical-fiction -
![The World Doesn't End by Charles Simic]()
The World Doesn't End by Charles Simic
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWinner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry “One of the truly imaginative writers of our time.” — Los Angles Times Book Review You never know what Charles Simic is up to until you reach the end of the line or the bottom of the paragraph. Waiting for you might be a kiss. Or a bludgeon. A smile at the absurdities of society, or a wistful, grim memory of World War II. He puns, pulls pranks... -
![The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty]()
The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhite Boy Shuffle is Man Booker-winner Paul Beatty’s electrifying debut novel about teenage-surf-bum Gunnar Kaufman who is forced to wise up when his mother moves from suburban Santa Monica to urban West Los Angeles. There, he begins to undergo a startling transformation from neighbourhood outcast to basketball superstar, and eventually to reluctant messiah of a ‘divided, downtrodden people’... -
![The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry by Rita Dove]()
The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry by Rita Dove
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPenguin’s landmark poetry anthology, perfect for learning poems by heart in the age of ephemeral media Recipient of the Academy of American Poets' Wallace Stevens Award (Dove)Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of the United States, introduces readers to the most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years in The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century... -
![Bailey's Café by Gloria Naylor]()
Bailey's Café by Gloria Naylor
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSet in a diner where the food isn't very good and the ambience veers between heaven and hell, this bestselling novel from the author of Mama Day and The Women of Brewster Place is a feast for the senses and the spirit... -
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![Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor]()
Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA world away from Brewster Place, yet intimately connected to it, lies Linden Hills. With its showcase homes, elegant lawns, and other trappings of wealth, Linden Hills is not unlike other affluent black communities. But residence in this community is indisputable evidence of "making it... -
![You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories by Alice Walker]()
You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories by Alice Walker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn Alice Walker’s second story collection, women stand their ground in the midst of crisisThis collection builds on Alice Walker’s earlier work, the much-praised In Love & Trouble. But unlike her first collection of stories, the women in these tenderly wrought tales face their problems head on, proving powerful and self-possessed even when degraded by others—sometimes by those closest to them... -
![A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow]()
A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAll about love, lust, and loneliness, the book introduces Vic Brown, a young working-class Yorkshireman. Vic is attracted to the beautiful but demanding Ingrid, and as their relationship grows and changes, he comes to terms the hard way with adult life and what it really means to love...Categorized as:
classics politics 20th-century book contemporary fiction historical-fiction literary -
![Selected Poems of Rita Dove by Rita Dove]()
Selected Poems of Rita Dove by Rita Dove
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHere in one volume is a selection of the extraordinary poems of Rita Dove, who, as the nation's Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995, brought poetry into the lives of millions of people...Categorized as:
classics black-mc fiction female-author poc-author contemporary feminism 20th-century -
![Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross]()
Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe key literary figure in the pubs of post-war Fitzrovia, Maclaren-Ross pulled together his dispersed energies to write two great books: the posthumously published Memoirs of the Forties and this spectacular novel of the Depression, Of Love and Hunger - harsh, vivid, louche, and slangy, it deserves a permanent place alongside 'Coming Up for Air' and 'Hangover Square'... -
![Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G. Coney]()
Hello Summer, Goodbye by Michael G. Coney
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt was an alien planet - yet not too alien from Earth. It had its differences; its ice goblins, its curious furry lorrin, its thickening water, and its unearthly tides, but for a young man like Alika-Drove thinking of a vacation by the sea these oddities were the norm.But this vacation was different...Categorized as:
classics politics 20th-century action-adventure bildungsroman book coming-of-age contemporary -
![The Fortunes of Wangrin by Amadou Hampâté Bâ]()
The Fortunes of Wangrin by Amadou Hampâté Bâ
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Fortunes of WangrinAmadou Hampâté BâTranslated by Aina Pavolini Taylor with an Introduction by F. Abiola IreleWinner of the Grand Prix Litteraire de l'Afrique Noire"I think this is perhaps the best African novel on colonialism and it draws very richly on various modes of oral literature...Categorized as:
black-mc classics poc-mc fiction historical-fiction 20th-century journey contemporary -
![Philip Larkin Poems: Selected by Martin Amis by Philip Larkin]()
Philip Larkin Poems: Selected by Martin Amis by Philip Larkin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor the first time, Faber publish a selection from the poetry of Philip Larkin. Drawing on Larkin's four collections and on his uncollected poems. Chosen by Martin Amis... -
![Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha]()
Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDictée is the best-known work of the versatile and important Korean American artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. A classic work of autobiography that transcends the self, Dictée is the story of several women: the Korean revolutionary Yu Guan Soon, Joan of Arc, Demeter and Persephone, Cha's mother Hyung Soon Huo (a Korean born in Manchuria to first-generation Korean exiles), and Cha herself... -
![Efuru by Flora Nwapa]()
Efuru by Flora Nwapa
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFlora Nwapa's first novel plants her story firmly in the world of women, where Efuru, beautiful and respected, is loved and deserted by two ordinary, undistinguished husbands... -
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![Beijing Comrades by Beijing Tongzhi, Bei Tong]()
Beijing Comrades by Beijing Tongzhi, Bei Tong
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen Handong, a ruthless and wealthy businessman, is introduced to Lan Yu, a naïve, working-class architectural student—the attraction is all consuming.Arrogant and privileged, Handong is unsettled by this desire, while Lan Yu quietly submits. Despite divergent lives, the two men spend their nights together, establishing a deep connection... -
![The Flight of Icarus by Raymond Queneau]()
The Flight of Icarus by Raymond Queneau
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn late 19th-century Paris, the writer Hubert is shocked to discover that Icarus, the protagonist of the new novel he's working on, has vanished. Looking for him among the manuscripts of his rivals does not solve the mystery, so a detective is hired to find the runaway character... -
![Vida by Marge Piercy]()
Vida by Marge Piercy
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOriginally published in 1979, this piece of revolutionary fiction is a bestselling author’s classic paean to the 1960s. At the center of the novel stands Vida Asch, who has lived underground for almost a decade... -
![Tar Baby by Toni Morrison]()
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsRavishingly beautiful and emotionally incendiary, Tar Baby is Toni Morrison’s reinvention of the love story. Jadine Childs is a black fashion model with a white patron, a white boyfriend, and a coat made out of ninety perfect sealskins. Son is a black fugitive who embodies everything she loathes and desires... -
![The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye]()
The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAt the beginning of this masterpiece of African literature, Clarence, a white man, has been shipwrecked on the coast of Africa. Flush with self-importance, he demands to see the king, but the king has just left for the south of his realm... -
![Project for a Revolution in New York by Alain Robbe-Grillet]()
Project for a Revolution in New York by Alain Robbe-Grillet
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPart prophecy and part erotic fantasy, this classic tale of otherworldly depravity features New York itself or a foreigner's nightmare of New York as its true protagonist... -
![Die Schule der Diktatoren by Erich Kästner]()
Die Schule der Diktatoren by Erich Kästner
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsهذه مسرحيه، وإذا أردتم دقه الوصف فهى مأساه هزليه؛ انقلاب فاضل يزيح ديكتاتوريه فاسده من الطريق، ثم يقتلون المتمرد، وترسخ الديكتاتوريه الجديده أقدامها... -
![La coscienza di Zeno. Senilità. Una vita by Italo Svevo]()
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![Palm-of-the-Hand Stories by Yasunari Kawabata]()
Palm-of-the-Hand Stories by Yasunari Kawabata
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsRecipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the novelist Yasunari Kawabata felt the essence of his art was to be found not in his longer works but in a series of short stories--which he called "Palm-of-the-Hand Stories"--written over the span of his career. In them we find loneliness, love, and the passage of time, demonstrating the range and complexity of a true master of short fiction... -
![Everyday Use by Alice Walker]()
Everyday Use by Alice Walker
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAlice Walker's early story, "Everyday Use," has remained a cornerstone of her work. Her use of quilting as a metaphor for the creative legacy that African Americans inherited from their maternal ancestors changed the way we define art, women's culture, and African American lives... -
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![Black Box by Amos Oz]()
Black Box by Amos Oz
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA powerful and tragicomic blend of politics and personal destiny, Black Box records in a series of letters the wrecked marriage of Ilana and Alex. Seven years of silence following their bitter divorce is broken when Ilana writes to Alex for help over their wayward and illiterate son, Boaz, and old emotional scars are reopened... -
![Long Island Butcher: BWWM Dark Mafia Romance by Jamila Jasper]()
Long Island Butcher: BWWM Dark Mafia Romance by Jamila Jasper
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAlexis stumbles home after a frat party and witnesses a murder.Before she can run for help, John Vicari, a bearded, muscular killer, intervenes.The curvy, nerdy college student falls into the lap of the most dangerous crime family in Long Island.To earn her freedom, Alexis has no choice but to give John complete ownership of her body and mind... -
![Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma]()
Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the author of Book of the Little Axe, nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a riveting literary novel with the sharp edges of a thriller about the abuses of history and the costs of revenge, set between Washington, DC, and Johannesburg, South AfricaPrudence Wright seems to have it all: a loving husband, Davis; a spacious home in Washington, DC; and the past glories of a successful...Categorized as:
poc-mc black-mc fiction historical-fiction literary-fiction mystery contemporary racism -
![Potiki by Patricia Grace]()
Potiki by Patricia Grace
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWinner of the 1987 New Zealand Fiction AwardIn a small coastal community threatened by developers who would ravage their lands it is a time of fear and confusion – and growing anger. The prophet child Tokowaru-i-te-Marama shares his people's struggles against bulldozers and fast money talk... -
![The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara]()
The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsVelma Henry has always been a fighter, but she has fallen on hard times. Exhausted by her political struggles, she is undergoing healing in the Southwest Community Infirmary. Confronting her there is Minnie Ransom, spinster and fabled vehicle of the spirit world... -
![The Oil Prince by Karl May]()
The Oil Prince by Karl May
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsKarl May's works have shaped a uniquely European version of the post-Civil war American West. Rarely out of print since the late 1890s. his beloved novels are a true phenomenon in Europe and have been adapted for the stage, movies, and comic books...Categorized as:
classics poc-mc 20th-century action-adventure anthologies audiobook children-books contemporary
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