100 books like Afros

By Michael July,

Here are 100 books that Afros fans have personally recommended if you like Afros. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture

St. Clair Detrick-Jules Author Of My Beautiful Black Hair: 101 Natural Hair Stories from the Sisterhood

From my list on celebrating Black hair.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an Afro-Caribbean-American filmmaker, photographer, author, and activist from Washington, DC. After graduating from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Francophone Studies, I began pursuing a completely different career path: social activism through art and storytelling. I capture personal stories and intimate moments centering on Black liberation, immigrant justice, and women’s rights. My work is grounded in radical love, joy, and the knowledge that a more just world is possible. My award-winning documentary DACAmented has been internationally recognized, and my book My Beautiful Black Hair has been featured in The Washington Post, Buzzfeed News, and NPR’s Strange Fruit, among others.

St.'s book list on celebrating Black hair

St. Clair Detrick-Jules Why did St. love this book?

Dabiri’s use of history and personal storytelling to deconstruct and illuminate the long story of Black hair is crucial in that it allows readers to understand that our Black hair has history. The movement against natural Black hair is rooted in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and our own structures of government have always backed the anti-blackness that criminalized, scapegoated, or invisibilized our hair; this book celebrates our natural hair but also serves as historical education, which is so important if we’re to see natural Black hair not as a stylish trend but as a necessary part of our liberation. Dabiri reminds us that, while our hair is so often used as a weapon against us, it also has the power to liberate us.

By Emma Dabiri,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Twisted as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Kirkus Best Book of the Year

Stamped from the Beginning meets You Can't Touch My Hair in this timely and resonant essay collection from Guardian contributor and prominent BBC race correspondent Emma Dabiri, exploring the ways in which black hair has been appropriated and stigmatized throughout history, with ruminations on body politics, race, pop culture, and Dabiri’s own journey to loving her hair.

Emma Dabiri can tell you the first time she chemically straightened her hair. She can describe the smell, the atmosphere of the salon, and her mix of emotions when she saw her normally kinky tresses fall…


Book cover of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America

St. Clair Detrick-Jules Author Of My Beautiful Black Hair: 101 Natural Hair Stories from the Sisterhood

From my list on celebrating Black hair.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an Afro-Caribbean-American filmmaker, photographer, author, and activist from Washington, DC. After graduating from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Francophone Studies, I began pursuing a completely different career path: social activism through art and storytelling. I capture personal stories and intimate moments centering on Black liberation, immigrant justice, and women’s rights. My work is grounded in radical love, joy, and the knowledge that a more just world is possible. My award-winning documentary DACAmented has been internationally recognized, and my book My Beautiful Black Hair has been featured in The Washington Post, Buzzfeed News, and NPR’s Strange Fruit, among others.

St.'s book list on celebrating Black hair

St. Clair Detrick-Jules Why did St. love this book?

This is, to me, the “OG” of Black hair books in the last half-century. I discovered this book by accident a few years ago early one evening and ended up reading late into the night: page by page, Byrd and Tharps provide a first-rate history about natural Black hair. Learning about the hair customs of my ancestors before the onslaught of the Transatlantic Slave Trade made me proud of my curls and strengthened my resolve to continue their brilliant, necessary work on the roots of Black hair.

By Ayana D. Byrd, Lori L. Tharps,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Hair Story as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Two world wars, the Civil Rights movement, and a Jheri curl later, the issues surrounding Black hair in America continue to linger as we enter the twenty-first century. Tying the personal to the political and the popular, Hair Story takes a chronological look at the culture behind the ever-changing state of Black hair - from fifteenth-century Africa to the present-day United States. Hair Story is the book that Black Americans can use as a benchmark for tracing a unique aspect of their history. It is celebrated as a reference guide for understanding Black hair.


Book cover of Queens: Portraits of Black Women and their Fabulous Hair

St. Clair Detrick-Jules Author Of My Beautiful Black Hair: 101 Natural Hair Stories from the Sisterhood

From my list on celebrating Black hair.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an Afro-Caribbean-American filmmaker, photographer, author, and activist from Washington, DC. After graduating from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Francophone Studies, I began pursuing a completely different career path: social activism through art and storytelling. I capture personal stories and intimate moments centering on Black liberation, immigrant justice, and women’s rights. My work is grounded in radical love, joy, and the knowledge that a more just world is possible. My award-winning documentary DACAmented has been internationally recognized, and my book My Beautiful Black Hair has been featured in The Washington Post, Buzzfeed News, and NPR’s Strange Fruit, among others.

St.'s book list on celebrating Black hair

St. Clair Detrick-Jules Why did St. love this book?

The narratives in this book from women in the United States, London, and Ghana--accompanied by gorgeous portraits--capture a slice of the Black hair diaspora and the place where it all started: West Africa. The title says it all and yet can’t begin to capture the gorgeous array of women, hairstyles, and lived experiences captured by Cunningham and Alexander.

By Michael Cunningham, George Alexander,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Queens as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Crowns photographer Michael Cunningham and author and journalist George Alexander have captured the marvelous trinity of black women, hair, and beauty salons in the glorious Queens: Portraits of Black Women and Their Fabulous Hair.

Angela Garner says that “The beauty salon is the one great thing we get to share as African American women. It’s therapeutic.” Tisch Sims says that wearing fantasy hair makes her feel “like a goddess, a queen.”

From the afro to the ponytail to dreadlocks to braids to relaxed hair to fantasy hair; from “good hair” to bad hair days, in this stunningly designed book black…


Book cover of Hair Love

Ty Chapman Author Of Sarah Rising

From my list on picture books with purpose.

Why am I passionate about this?

In my kidlit writing, I am someone who almost exclusively writes more difficult topics, grounded in reality. My debut deals with the police-sanctioned murder of Black people. My second book deals with mental illness and how to bounce back from sad days in a way that’s accessible to young people. I thoroughly enjoy reading and writing more thoughtful picture books with much to say about our greater world. 

Ty's book list on picture books with purpose

Ty Chapman Why did Ty love this book?

Hair Love is a heartwarming and gentle book about a little girl named Zuri and her father struggling to do her hair. It is filled with an abundance of humorous and joyful moments, but where the book really shines for me is in its unabashed celebration of Zuri’s hair. In a country where Black femmes are constantly being labeled as less-than, the importance of this book cannot be overstated.

By Matthew A. Cherry, Vashti Harrison,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Hair Love as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Based on the Oscar winning short film!

It's up to Daddy to give his daughter an extra-special hair style in this story of self-confidence and the love between fathers and daughters.

Zuri knows her hair is beautiful, but it has a mind of its own!

It kinks, coils, and curls every which way. Mum always does Zuri's hair just the way she likes it - so when Daddy steps in to style it for an extra special occasion, he has a lot to learn.

But he LOVES his Zuri, and he'll do anything to make her - and her hair…


Book cover of Back in the Day

Ruby Lang Author Of Open House

From my list on romance that deals with grief.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a romance novelist who writes about otherwise smart people who deal badly with their feelings. Love, sorrow, jealousy, anger, hopelessness, and grief make appearances in my books because I write in a genre that centers the emotional lives of its characters. When I’m not wreaking havoc on fictional people, I take long walks and eavesdrop on conversations. I’m a recent transplant to Toronto, Canada, after having lived in New York City for more than 20 years.

Ruby's book list on romance that deals with grief

Ruby Lang Why did Ruby love this book?

Jackson’s novel shuttles between present-day Oakland and the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival as music journalist Alonzo Reid remembers and recounts to his grown children how he met his now-deceased photographer wife, Ada. What I love about this book is the fact that although the family is grieving, so much joy infuses Ada’s memory. And while Back in the Day mourns a death and the end of one love story, it ends on a hopeful note and marks the beginning of a new chapter.

By Katrina Jackson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Back in the Day as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

2010

Helping pack up his childhood home was going much easier than Amir expected. The only sticking point is the record collection his father Alonzo refuses to put in storage. When Amir asked his father why he needs to keep all those records with him, Alonzo offers to tell him a story instead.
--
Monterey Pop Festival

In 1967, Alonzo was a baby music reporter at the Village Voice on his first big assignment. By his side is photographer Ada Carr who is all brown skin, big afro and sharp tongue. He should be worried about his story, but all…


Book cover of Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe

Drew Philp Author Of A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City

From my list on why Detroit is the most interesting city in the US.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve lived in Detroit for nearly 15 years, where I built my house with my own two hands out of the shell of one I purchased for $500. A longtime journalist, I grew up in a small town in the countryside of Michigan. When I moved to Detroit after college people told me I was throwing my life away, but I looked at it as a moral decision, as “staying home” when it seemed like most other people were leaving. I’m glad I did—it offered me a look into a world more strange and beautiful than I could have imagined, potentially even a vision into a brave new future. I hope this world comes across in A $500 House in Detroit, and I hope we can make it last. 

Drew's book list on why Detroit is the most interesting city in the US

Drew Philp Why did Drew love this book?

Do you want a sense of the flavor of Detroit? To know what it sounds like, what it smells like, what it tastes like in all of its deliciousness and funk? Would you like to rub Detroit all over yourself? This is a book that comes with a soundtrack, and it can give you all of those things and more.

A native Detroiter, a friend of mine, and a great friend to the writing community as a whole in the Motor City, Zig has been writing speculative fiction for decades, and this is his latest. While not explicitly about Detroit—the book takes place on a spaceship—I don’t think you can get any closer to the real soul of the place than this.

By Zig Zag Claybourne,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

No one has time for your BS...but Captain Desiree Quicho and crew of utter badasses surely don't. Got a universe to save. Again. Commandeer one piece of out-of-this-world tech and suddenly you have an evil billionaire and a corporate queenpin on your ass, factions scrabbling at the power grab to end all power grabs, and an ultimate AI bent on a rampage of healing.

 

All a captain wanted was a little chill time, a few tunes, and quality barbecue.

 

Woe to those blocking her groove.

 

Four women; One machine goddess; a Hellbilly, Saharan elves, the baddest Pacific Octopus this side…


Book cover of The Colonizer's Model of the World: Geographical Diffusionism and Eurocentric History

Eric Sheppard Author Of Limits to Globalization: Disruptive Geographies of Capitalist Development

From my list on understanding how Europe (and the USA) became prosperous.

Why am I passionate about this?

I became fascinated with geography as a teenager and spent my life studying it. I always wanted to understand how we transform our planet, for better or worse. Part of this is understanding what happens in particular localities, which I have been able to look at closely by visiting places across all continents (except Antarctica). Part of it is understanding how the complex relations between human society and everything else shape global futures. My long-standing passion, however, has been understanding how what happens in one locality is shaped by its evolving connections with the rest of the world. These books pushed me to see the world differently through these connections.

Eric's book list on understanding how Europe (and the USA) became prosperous

Eric Sheppard Why did Eric love this book?

I found this book eye-opening; it forced me to rethink what I knew about Europe’s success.

We think of Europe (and the US) as being successful because of its culture, religion, democratic capitalism, and/or climate. Blaut challenges such Eurocentrist presumptions by documenting Europe’s geographical good fortune. It was much easier to reach the Americas from Europe than from its 15th-century Asian competitors (China and India), enabling Europe to overtake these by exploiting the Americas.

I came to realize that Europe’s prosperity, and that of its former white colonies (the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand), was due to good luck, not simply European initiative.

By J. M. Blaut,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Colonizer's Model of the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This influential book challenges one of the most pervasive and powerful beliefs of our time--that Europe rose to modernity and world dominance due to unique qualities of race, environment, culture, mind, or spirit, and that progress for the rest of the world resulted from the diffusion of European civilization. J. M. Blaut persuasively argues that this doctrine is not grounded in the facts of history and geography, but in the ideology of colonialism. Blaut traces the colonizer's model of the world from its 16th-century origins to its present form in theories of economic development, modernization, and new world order.


Book cover of The Ethical Lives of Clients: Transcending Self-Interest in Psychotherapy

Peter Fraenkel Author Of Last Chance Couple Therapy: Bringing Relationships Back from the Brink

From my list on how to improve couple and family relationships.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Ph.D. clinical psychologist and tenured associate professor at The City College of New York, where I teach couple and family therapy, multicultural issues in psychotherapy, and research methods. I've conducted research on a couple's distress prevention program. I’ve been a licensed therapist for 30+ years working primarily with “last chance couples” – those on the brink of dissolving their relationship. I attended the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston University, where I received my B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy, and obtained my doctorate at Duke University. I have also been on the faculty of Bellevue Hospital/NYU Medical Center, and the Ackerman Institute for the Family. I lecture internationally.

Peter's book list on how to improve couple and family relationships

Peter Fraenkel Why did Peter love this book?

Dr. Doherty, a Professor in the Department of Family Social Science and Director of the Citizen Professional Center at the University of Minnesota has long been a voice for questioning the manner in which the psychotherapy field avoids the moral/ethical issues presented by our clients. 

Some of these ethical issues are presented directly by clients; others maybe be unacknowledged by them, such as the moral issues around whether to engage in a secret affair or to withhold important information from partners, friends, or business associates in order to attain personal gain. 

From Freud onward, psychotherapists have been trained to adopt a stance of ethical neutrality, with an emphasis on maximizing the client’s individual happiness, even if this means pursuing goals that may negatively affect the lives of those with whom they have important relationships. 

This emphasis on personal happiness above all else draws upon the larger Western Eurocentric emphasis on…

By William J. Doherty,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Ethical Lives of Clients as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This casebook provides therapists with the skills needed to be effective ethical consultants for clients seeking guidance for moral dilemmas. It describes the LEAP-C model for creating constructive dialogues while respecting client autonomy by listening, exploring, affirming, offering perspective, and even challenging clients. In-depth case examples demonstrate how to apply this model in various scenarios. This book also provides guidance for being a citizen therapist who lends their expertise to address societal issues, like political discord and police-community relations.


Book cover of Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference

Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm Author Of The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences

From my list on to shatter the myth of modernity.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an award-winning historian and philosopher of the human sciences. But I got here by means of an unusually varied path: working for a private investigator, practicing in a Buddhist monastery, being shot at, hiking a volcano off the coast of Africa, being jumped by a gang in Amsterdam, snowboarding in the Pyrenees, piloting a boat down the canals of Bourgogne, playing bass guitar in a punk band, and once I almost died from scarlet fever. Throughout my journey, I have lived and studied in five countries, acquired ten languages, and attended renowned universities (Oxford, Harvard, and Stanford), all while seeking ways to make the world a better place.

Jason's book list on to shatter the myth of modernity

Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm Why did Jason love this book?

Chakrabarty’s monograph is a classic work of postcolonial theory.

Basically, it shows that despite their pretensions to universality, a lot of the humanities and social sciences have been founded on unexamined Eurocentric perspectives on world history. While modernity is often held up as a universal standard, Chakrabarty unmasks the widely held assumptions about “sovereignty,” “disenchanted space,” and “secular time,” as European constructs.

Famously, he also shows how the transition to capitalism was an act of translation that changed the way people saw the world and their relationship to each other. This book can be hard going, but it is very much crucial reading as it really undercuts some of the most widely held myths of modernity. 

By Dipesh Chakrabarty,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Provincializing Europe as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published in 2000, Dipesh Chakrabarty's influential Provincializing Europe addresses the mythical figure of Europe that is often taken to be the original site of modernity in many histories of capitalist transition in non-Western countries. This imaginary Europe, Dipesh Chakrabarty argues, is built into the social sciences. The very idea of historicizing carries with it some peculiarly European assumptions about disenchanted space, secular time, and sovereignty. Measured against such mythical standards, capitalist transition in the third world has often seemed either incomplete or lacking. Provincializing Europe proposes that every case of transition to capitalism is a case of translation as…


Book cover of How Europe Made the Modern World: Creating the Great Divergence

Dag Detter Author Of The Public Wealth of Nations: How Management of Public Assets Can Boost or Bust Economic Growth

From my list on how we as societies can thrive in challenges ahead.

Why am I passionate about this?

I advise private and public sector clients on the unlocking of value from public assets. After a few years in investment banking in Asia and Europe, I was asked to lead the comprehensive restructuring of Sweden’s USD70bn national portfolio of commercial assets—the first attempt by a European government to systematically address the ownership and management of government enterprises and real estate. This experience has allowed me to work in over thirty countries and serve as a Non-Executive Director. Ultimately sharing the collective experience in two books written together with Stefan Fölster—The Public Wealth of Nations—which was awarded The Economist and Financial Time’s best book of the year, as well as The Public Wealth of Cities.

Dag's book list on how we as societies can thrive in challenges ahead

Dag Detter Why did Dag love this book?

A thousand years ago, a traveller to Baghdad, Constantinople, or China would find vast and flourishing cities of broad streets, spacious gardens, and sophisticated urban amenities; meanwhile, Paris, Rome, and London were cramped and unhygienic collections of villages. Europe was then a backwater. How, then, did it rise to world pre-eminence over the next several centuries? Having experienced China and its epic growth since being in Student in Shanghai in the early 1980s and then later as a banker, it seems there could be something to learn from history. Daly avoids the twin dangers of Eurocentrism and anti-Westernism, strongly emphasizing the contributions of other cultures of the world, as well as the vibrant and internal competition among cities and nations of Europe.

By Jonathan Daly,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How Europe Made the Modern World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One thousand years ago, a traveler to Baghdad or the Chinese capital Kaifeng would have discovered a vast and flourishing city of broad streets, spacious gardens, and sophisticated urban amenities; meanwhile, Paris, Rome, and London were cramped and unhygienic collections of villages, and Europe was a backwater. How, then, did it rise to world preeminence over the next several centuries? This is the central historical conundrum of modern times.

How Europe Made the Modern World draws upon the latest scholarship dealing with the various aspects of the West's divergence, including geography, demography, technology, culture, institutions, science and economics. It avoids…


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