13 Top race books like Above Ground by Clint Smith

Cover of Above Ground by Clint   Smith

Above Ground

By: Clint Smith

4.56

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

A remarkable poetry collection with "inextinguishable generosity and abundant wisdom" (Monica Youn)…

If you liked the race plot in Above Ground by Clint Smith , here is a list of 13 books like this:

Cover of The Talk by Darrin Bell

1. The Talk

By: Darrin Bell

4.65

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn’t have a realistic water gun. She … read more

Similar categories in Darrin Bell's The Talk book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • race
  • nonfiction
  • adult
Cover of James by Percival Everett

2. James

By: Percival Everett

4.54

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • race
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of A Living Remedy: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

3. A Living Remedy: A Memoir

By: Nicole Chung

4.01

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

A searing memoir of family, class and grief—a daughter’s search to understand the lives her adoptiv… read more

Similar categories in Nicole Chung's A Living Remedy: A Memoir book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • race
  • nonfiction
  • family
  • adult
  • audiobook
"How do you learn to cherish yourself, your life, when grief has made it unrecognizable? I am starting to feel that we do so not by trying to fill a void that can never be filled but by living as best…"

-Nicole Chung, A Living Remedy: A Memoir

Cover of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

4. Wandering Stars

By: Tommy Orange

3.89

Format: 315 pages, Hardcover

The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize-finalist Tommy Orange’s breakout best seller There … read more

Similar categories in Tommy Orange's Wandering Stars book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • audiobook
  • adult
  • contemporary
"And in the year 1924 Indian citizenship will have been granted, even though they will mean to dissolve tribes by giving citizenship, dissolve being another word for disappearance, a kind of chemical …"

-Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars

Cover of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

5. Martyr!

By: Kaveh Akbar

4.24

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves… read more

Similar categories in Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • audiobook
  • poetry
  • contemporary
Cover of Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

6. Poverty, by America

By: Matthew Desmond

4.27

Format: 284 pages, Hardcover

Reimagining the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in Ameri… read more

Similar categories in Matthew Desmond's Poverty, by America book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"To live and strive in modern America is to participate in a series of morally fraught systems. If a family’s entire financial livelihood depends on the value of its home, it’s not hard to understand …"

-Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

"The rest of us, on the ·other hand-we members of the protected classes-have grown increasingly· dependent on our welfare programs. In 2020 the federal government spent more than $193 billion on homeo…"

-Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

"In her book The Government-Citizen Disconnect, the political scientist Suzanne Mettler reports that 96 percent of American adults have relied on a major government program at some point in their live…"

-Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

Cover of The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi

7. The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

By: Franny Choi

3.99

Format: 144 pages, Hardcover

From acclaimed poet Franny Choi comes a poetry collection for the ends of worlds--past, present, an… read more

Similar categories in Franny Choi's The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • race
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I have last year's ashes in my throat, stories stuffed so full of morals they bleed sugar."

-Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

"How can I explain the things and things and things I did wrong? I was never any good at telling the difference between what wanted me and what wanted me gone"

-Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

Cover of The Hurting Kind: Poems by Ada Limon

8. The Hurting Kind: Poems

By: Ada Limon

4.34

Format: 120 pages, Hardcover

An astonishing collection about interconnectedness—between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ou… read more

Similar categories in Ada Limon's The Hurting Kind: Poems book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"There is a solitude in this world I cannot pierce. I would die for it."

-Ada Limon, The Hurting Kind: Poems

"Before, the only thing I was interested in was love, how it grips you, how it terrifies you, how it annihilates and resuscitates you. I didn’t know then that it wasn’t even love that I was interested…"

-Ada Limon, The Hurting Kind: Poems

Cover of Girls That Never Die: Poems by Safia Elhillo

9. Girls That Never Die: Poems

By: Safia Elhillo

4.30

Format: 144 pages, Paperback

Intimate poems that explore feminine shame and violence and imagine what liberation from these thre… read more

Similar categories in Safia Elhillo's Girls That Never Die: Poems book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • audiobook
  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
"I will begin by writing a sentence about cutting. I will begin by writing a sentence about silence. I will continue by writing a sentence about cutting. I will proceed to ask the question about cutti…"

-Safia Elhillo, Girls That Never Die: Poems

Cover of I Do Everything I'm Told by Megan Fernandes

10. I Do Everything I'm Told

By: Megan Fernandes

4.17

Format: 104 pages, Paperback

Restless, contradictory, and witty, Megan Fernandes’ I Do Everything I’m Told explores disobedience… read more

Similar categories in Megan Fernandes's I Do Everything I'm Told book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • contemporary
Cover of Alive At The End Of The World by Saeed Jones

11. Alive At The End Of The World

By: Saeed Jones

4.35

Format: 104 pages, Paperback

Pierced by grief and charged with history, this new poetry collection from the award-winning author… read more

Similar categories in Saeed Jones's Alive At The End Of The World book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • race
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
"The end of the world was mistaken for just another midday massacre in America."

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

"I wish I knew a woman who was both the light and every shadow the light pierces."

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

"I'm most dangerous when I'm hungry. I'm most hungry when I'm hurting. Seems like I'm always hurting."

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

"A few months and many deaths ago, I asked someone "how are you doing" and felt, in the way her eye fell, how I had failed her before I had even reached the end of my question. I've hurt many people b…"

-Saeed Jones, Alive At The End Of The World

Cover of Golden Ax (Penguin Poets) by Rio Cortez

12. Golden Ax (Penguin Poets)

By: Rio Cortez

4.02

Format: 80 pages, Paperback

From a visionary writer praised for her captivating work on Black history and experience, comes a p… read more

Similar categories in Rio Cortez's Golden Ax (Penguin Poets) book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay

13. Inciting Joy: Essays

By: Ross Gay

4.16

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

An intimate and electrifying collection of essays from the New York Times bestselling author of The… read more

Similar categories in Ross Gay's Inciting Joy: Essays book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"And when we catch the grave light shimmering from the tethers between us when it happens, our dying again and again in each other's presence, this falling together, it is called, this holding each ot…"

-Ross Gay, Inciting Joy: Essays

"But when we allow and expect each other to change and, even more to the point, when we witness the learning, the changing, the grieving, with curiosity and patience and care and love; when we make ro…"

-Ross Gay, Inciting Joy: Essays

Cover of Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

14. Family Lore

By: Elizabeth Acevedo

3.53

Format: 371 pages, Hardcover

From bestselling, National Book Award-winning author Elizabeth Acevedo comes her first novel for ad… read more

Similar categories in Elizabeth Acevedo's Family Lore book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • audiobook
  • adult
  • family
  • contemporary
Cover of You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie  Smith

15. You Could Make This Place Beautiful

By: Maggie Smith

4.08

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of… read more

Similar categories in Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"At our wedding, our college creative writing professor read a poem—John Ciardi’s “Most Like an Arch This Marriage."

-Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

"How I picture it: We are all nesting dolls, carrying the earlier iterations of ourselves inside. We carry the past inside us. We take ourselves–all of our selves–wherever we go. Inside forty-somethin…"

-Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Cover of Above Ground by Clint   Smith

16. Above Ground

By: Clint Smith

4.56

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

A remarkable poetry collection with "inextinguishable generosity and abundant wisdom" (Monica Youn)… read more

Similar categories in Clint Smith's Above Ground book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • race
  • parenting
  • politics
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • family
  • contemporary
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

17. There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

4.40

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

A poignant, personal reflection on basketball, talent and allegiance, and of course, LeBron James—f… read more

Similar categories in Hanif Abdurraqib's There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"Heartbreak itself is a primary color. Stagnant without a series of secondary colors to activate it. Longing is an activator."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

"With enough repetition, anything can become a religion. It doesn’t matter if it works or not, it simply matters if a person returns."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

"It is a strange miracle to be able to trace your own aging, your own mortality through someone who's living alongside you, someone who has survived eras at the same time as you have in some of the sa…"

-Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

Cover of And Yet: Poems by Kate Baer

18. And Yet: Poems

By: Kate Baer

3.97

Format: 112 pages, Paperback

The second full length poetry collection from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Kind… read more

Similar categories in Kate Baer's And Yet: Poems book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • parenting
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Let your life rest on what is already good."

-Kate Baer, And Yet: Poems

"It's just another day in the good-bad, bad-good earth machine."

-Kate Baer, And Yet: Poems

"We expect so much of children, hovering above them like giant, invincible gods. What a racket to discover as an adult, how little we have to pass down."

-Kate Baer, And Yet: Poems

Cover of This Is the Honey by Kwame Alexander

19. This Is the Honey

By: Kwame Alexander

4.47

Format: 448 pages, Hardcover

A breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising… read more

Similar categories in Kwame Alexander's This Is the Honey book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • family
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Trace Evidence: Poems by Charif Shanahan

20. Trace Evidence: Poems

By: Charif Shanahan

3.95

Format: 112 pages, Paperback

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST FOR THE KINGSLEY TUFTS POETRY AWARD… read more

Similar categories in Charif Shanahan's Trace Evidence: Poems book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Congratulations, the Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas

21. Congratulations, the Best is Over!

By: R. Eric Thomas

4.07

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

The beloved bestselling author of Here for It presents a collection of heartening, thoughtful, and … read more

Similar categories in R. Eric Thomas's Congratulations, the Best is Over! book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"If I'm not heading toward a place where I can feel joy, then hope in the present has nothing to hold on to."

-R. Eric Thomas, Congratulations, the Best is Over!

Cover of You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World by Ada Limon

22. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World

By: Ada Limon

4.11

Format: 176 pages, Hardcover

Published association  with the Library of Congress and edited by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate o… read more

Similar categories in Ada Limon's You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • adult
  • nonfiction
Cover of Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

23. Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees

By: Aimee Nezhukumatathil

4.12

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

From the New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders, a lyrical book of short essays abou… read more

Similar categories in Aimee Nezhukumatathil's Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe

24. Ordinary Notes

By: Christina Sharpe

4.55

Format: 392 pages, Hardcover

A singular achievement, Ordinary Notes explores profound questions about loss and the shapes of Bla… read more

Similar categories in Christina Sharpe's Ordinary Notes book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • race
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances by Kwame Alexander

25. Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances

By: Kwame Alexander

4.04

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

This powerful memoir from a #1 New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medalist features poet… read more

Similar categories in Kwame Alexander's Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • family
  • african american
  • audiobook
"I want them to know that banning a book is like banning a hug and THAT is a dismal storm no should be left behind in"

-Kwame Alexander, Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances

Cover of A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib

26. A Fortune for Your Disaster

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

4.47

Format: None pages, None

In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and mu… read more

Similar categories in Hanif Abdurraqib's A Fortune for Your Disaster book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • race
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Promises of Gold by José Olivarez

27. Promises of Gold

By: José Olivarez

4.39

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

A groundbreaking collection of poems addressing how every kind of love—self, brotherly, romantic, f… read more

Similar categories in José Olivarez's Promises of Gold book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of God Themselves by Jae Nichelle

28. God Themselves

By: Jae Nichelle

4.09

Format: None pages, None

Let this book be a celebration of queerness, Blackness, and love. Let these words be a modern churc… read more

Similar categories in Jae Nichelle's God Themselves book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Unshuttered: Poems by Patricia Smith

29. Unshuttered: Poems

By: Patricia Smith

4.35

Format: 120 pages, Hardcover

An award-winning author presents a portrait of Black America in the nineteenth century Over the co… read more

Similar categories in Patricia Smith's Unshuttered: Poems book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
Cover of Chrome Valley: Poems by Mahogany L. Browne

30. Chrome Valley: Poems

By: Mahogany L. Browne

4.16

Format: 160 pages, Hardcover

Boldly lyrical and fiercely honest, Mahogany L. Browne’s Chrome Valley offers an intricate portrait… read more

Similar categories in Mahogany L. Browne's Chrome Valley: Poems book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
"you ain’t had freedom / ’til you climb on bus 62 / & head to the closest mall / for a good seat at the girl fight."

-Mahogany L. Browne, Chrome Valley: Poems

"give me my mother’s bone structure / & her gap tooth slaughter / give me her spine—Redbone got a spine for the world."

-Mahogany L. Browne, Chrome Valley: Poems

Cover of Please Grow: Lessons on Thriving for Plants (and People) by Alex Testere

31. Please Grow: Lessons on Thriving for Plants (and People)

By: Alex Testere

4.32

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

Discover the life lessons plants can teach you—from the importance of putting down roots to leaning… read more

Similar categories in Alex Testere's Please Grow: Lessons on Thriving for Plants (and People) book and Clint Smith's Above Ground

  • nonfiction

11 must-read contemporary books like Above Ground by Clint Smith

Transform Your Habits

Wandering Stars

Tommy Orange

3.89

Transform Your Habits

Martyr!

Kaveh Akbar

4.24

Transform Your Habits

The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

Franny Choi

3.99

Transform Your Habits

Girls That Never Die: Poems

Safia Elhillo

4.30

View all the books

10 Top adult books like The Talk by Darrin Bell

Transform Your Habits

Shubeik Lubeik

Deena Mohamed

4.50

Transform Your Habits

The Talk

Darrin Bell

4.65

Transform Your Habits

Roaming

Jillian Tamaki

3.77

Transform Your Habits

A Guest in the House

Emily Carroll

4.06

View all the books

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