Books like 'The Origin of Others'
Readers who enjoyed The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison & Ta-Nehisi Coates also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical psychological politics social-commentary poc-mc slavery spirituality classics black-mc
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The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA classic in the black literary tradition, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is both a comment on the civil rights problems in the United States in the late 1960s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black militancy.Dan Freeman, the spook who sat by the door, is enlisted in the CIA's elitist espionage program... -
![Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin]()
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAt the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable. For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage... -
![Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker]()
Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPossessing the Secret of Joy is the story of Tashi, a tribal African woman who lives much of her adult life in North America. As a young woman, a misguided loyalty to the customs of her people led her to voluntarily submit to the tsunga's knife and be genitally mutilated (pharoanoically circumcised)... -
![The Spider's House by Paul Bowles, Francine Prose]()
The Spider's House by Paul Bowles, Francine Prose
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSet in Fez, Morocco, during that country's 1954 nationalist uprising, The Spider's House is perhaps Paul Bowles's most beautifully subtle novel, richly descriptive of its setting, and uncompromising in its characterizations... -
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![Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris]()
Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation--in the breeze, in the cotton fields...and in the crack of the whip. It's an antebellum fever-dream, where fear and desire entwine in the looming shadow of the Master's House... -
![Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope, John Sutherland]()
Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope, John Sutherland
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe second of Trollope's "Palliser" novels introduces its title character, Phineas Finn, a talented but naive doctor's son from Ireland with Parliamentary aspirations. He must make numerous practical and ethical choices regarding his career, his political beliefs, and his romantic life, in hopes of emerging with his character, reputation, and prospects intact... -
![Corregidora by Gayl Jones]()
Corregidora by Gayl Jones
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOne of The New Yorker's "The Best Books We Read in 2020" picks"Jones's great achievement is to reckon with both history and interiority, and to collapse the boundary between them."--Anna Wiener, The New YorkerThe new edition of an American masterpiece, this is the harrowing story of Ursa Corregidora, a blues singer in the early 20th century forced to confront the inherited trauma of slavery... -
![Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o]()
Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe puzzling murder of three African directors of a foreign-owned brewery sets the scene for this fervent, hard-hitting novel about disillusionment in independent Kenya. A deceptively simple tale, Petals of Blood is on the surface a suspenseful investigation of a spectacular triple murder in upcountry Kenya... -
![The Atheist by Achdiat K. Mihardja]()
The Atheist by Achdiat K. Mihardja
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAtheis (The Atheist), first published in 1949, portrays the spiritual and intellectual crisis of Hasan, a young Muslim who was raised to be devout but comes to doubt his faith after becoming involved with a group of modern young people. Upon publication, the novel was praised by literary figures and the general public... -
![Blood on the Forge by William Attaway]()
Blood on the Forge by William Attaway
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis brutally gripping novel about the African-American Great Migration follows the three Moss brothers, who flee the rural South to work in industries up North. Delivered by day into the searing inferno of the steel mills, by night they encounter a world of surreal devastation, crowded with dogfighters, whores, cripples, strikers, and scabs... -
![The Darling by Russell Banks]()
The Darling by Russell Banks
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSet in Liberia and the United States from 1975 through 1991, The Darling is the story of Hannah Musgrave, a political radical and member of the Weather Underground.Hannah flees America for West Africa, where she and her Liberian husband become friends of the notorious warlord and ex-president, Charles Taylor... -
![1934: A Novel by Alberto Moravia]()
1934: A Novel by Alberto Moravia
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMoravia's political fable about an Italian anti-Fascist and the frightened, suicide-seeking German girl he encounters on a boat to Capri--the setting of Moravia's Il disprezzo from 1954--was welcomed as one of his finest novels...Categorized as:
classics politics fiction 20th-century historical historical-fiction psychological book -
![The Tenants by Bernard Malamud]()
The Tenants by Bernard Malamud
Rated: 3.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn The Tenants (1971), Bernard Malamud brought his unerring sense of modern urban life to bear on the conflict between blacks and Jews then inflaming his native Brooklyn. The sole tenant in a rundown tenement, Henry Lesser is struggling to finish a novel, but his solitary pursuit of the sublime grows complicated when Willie Spearmint, a black writer ambivalent toward Jews, moves into the building... -
![Warmth of Other Suns, The: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson, Robin Miles]()
Warmth of Other Suns, The: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson, Robin Miles
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America... -
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![Warmth of Other Suns, The: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson, Robin Miles]()
Warmth of Other Suns, The: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson, Robin Miles
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America...Categorized as:
black-mc classics poc-mc politics slavery social-commentary 20th-century 21st-century -
![Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr.]()
Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr.
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA collection of sermons by this martyred Black American leader which explains his convictions in terms of the conditions and problems of contemporary society...Categorized as:
classics poc-mc politics social-commentary spirituality christian historical justice -
![The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution by Carl R. Trueman, Rod Dreher]()
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution by Carl R. Trueman, Rod Dreher
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsModern culture is obsessed with identity.Since the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015, sexual identity has dominated both public discourse and cultural trends--and yet, no historical phenomenon is its own cause. From Augustine to Marx, various views and perspectives have contributed to the modern understanding of self...Categorized as:
politics social-commentary spirituality philosophy non-fiction christian psychological religion -
![James Baldwin : Collected Essays : Notes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other Essays by James Baldwin]()
James Baldwin : Collected Essays : Notes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other Essays by James Baldwin
Rated: 4.64 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Collected Essays" is the most comprehensive gathering of Baldwin's nonfiction ever published. The collection confirms his as a uniquely prophetic voice in American letters. Included are such famous essays as "The Harlem Ghetto", "Everybody's Protest Novel", Many Thousands Gone", and "Stranger in the Village"... -
![Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks]()
Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism is among America's most influential works. Prolific, outspoken, and fearless."-The Village Voice "This book is a classic. It . . . should be read by anyone who takes feminism seriously."-Sojourner "[Ain't I a Woman]should be widely read, thoughtfully considered, discussed, and finally acclaimed for the real enlightenment it offers for social change...Categorized as:
classics poc-mc politics slavery social-commentary 20th-century audiobook female-author -
![Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge]()
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsIn 2014, award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote about her frustration with the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren't affected by it. She posted a piece on her blog, entitled: 'Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race' that led to this book...Categorized as:
classics poc-mc politics social-commentary 21st-century audiobook colonization contemporary -
![And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts]()
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsBy the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century... -
![Happiness Diary by Nicolae Steinhardt]()
Happiness Diary by Nicolae Steinhardt
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Happiness DiaryThe first edition was confiscated by the Securitate in 1972, and restituted in 1975, after censorship intervention. Meanwhile, he had finished writing a second version of the book, which is in its turn confiscated in 1984...Categorized as:
classics spirituality christian fiction historical non-fiction philosophy psychological -
![Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith]()
Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the vantage point of the colonized, the term 'research' is inextricably linked with European colonialism; the ways in which scientific research has been implicated in the worst excesses of imperialism remains a powerful remembered history for many of the world's colonized peoples. Here, an indigenous researcher issues a clarion call for the decolonization of research methods...Categorized as:
politics social-commentary poc-mc non-fiction indigenous-mc colonization philosophy psychological -
![Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America by Saidiya Hartman]()
Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America by Saidiya Hartman
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this provocative and original exploration of racial subjugation during slavery and its aftermath, Saidiya Hartman illumines the forms of terror and resistance that shaped black identity... -
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![The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason]()
The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsBeloved by millions, this timeless classic holds the key to all you desire and everything you wish to accomplish. This is the book that reveals the secret to personal wealth. Countless readers have been helped by the famous "Babylonian parables," hailed as the greatest of all inspirational works on the subject of thrift, financial planning, and personal wealth...Categorized as:
classics politics spirituality adult anthologies audiobook historical historical-fiction -
![Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell]()
Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis book presents the kind of eye-opening insights into the history and culture of race for which Sowell has become famous. As late as the 1940s and 1950s, he argues, poor Southern rednecks were regarded by Northern employers and law enforcement officials as lazy, lawless, and sexually immoral. This pattern was repeated by blacks with whom they shared a subculture in the South... -
![How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius by Donald J. Robertson]()
How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius by Donald J. Robertson
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe life-changing principles of Stoicism taught through the story of its most famous proponent.Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was the final famous Stoic philosopher of the ancient world. The Meditations, his personal journal, survives to this day as one of the most loved self-help and spiritual classics of all time... -
![The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois]()
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThis landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) played a key role in developing the strategy and program that dominated early 20th-century black protest in America...Categorized as:
black-mc classics poc-mc politics slavery social-commentary spirituality 20th-century -
![Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy DeGruy]()
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy DeGruy
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhile African Americans managed to emerge from chattel slavery and the oppressive decades that followed with great strength and resiliency, they did not emerge unscathed. Slavery produced centuries of physical, psychological and spiritual injury...Categorized as:
social-commentary politics slavery poc-mc non-fiction psychological racism mental-illness -
![The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church by The Episcopal Church]()
The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church by The Episcopal Church
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis is the standard Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church together with The Psalter or Psalms of David according to use in the Episcopal Church in the United States as authorized in 1979...Categorized as:
spirituality classics religion christian non-fiction religious philosophy psychological
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