9 best-selling race books like My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Cover of My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

My Monticello

By: Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

3.91

Format: None pages, Kindle Edition

A young woman descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings driven from her neighborhood by a w…

"To me guns meant indiscriminate power, the risk of fatally misjudging someone else's worth."

-Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, My Monticello

If you liked the race plot in My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson , here is a list of 9 books like this:

1. Erasure

By: Percival Everett

3.62

Format: 280 pages, Paperback

"Thelonious (Monk) Ellison has never allowed race to define his identity. But as both a writer and … read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's Erasure book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

Cover of The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

2. The Swimmers

By: Julie Otsuka

3.67

Format: 176 pages, Hardcover

From the award winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine, a tour de… read more

Similar categories in Julie Otsuka's The Swimmers book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Above ground, many of us are ungainly and awkward, slowing down with the years.... Down below, at the pool, we are restored to old youthful selves. Grey hairs vanish beneath dark blue swim caps. Brow…"

-Julie Otsuka, The Swimmers

"The pool is their sanctuary, their refuge, the one place on earth they can go to escape from their pain, for it is only down below in the waters that their symptoms begin to abate. "The moment I see …"

-Julie Otsuka, The Swimmers

Cover of Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

3. Let Us Descend

By: Jesmyn Ward

3.70

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congres… read more

Similar categories in Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • adult
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
"You must leap. You must do as your people did. You must sink in order to rise."

-Jesmyn Ward, Let Us Descend

Cover of James by Percival Everett

4. 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 Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

5. If I Survive You

By: Jonathan Escoffery

3.69

Format: 260 pages, Hardcover

In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. … read more

Similar categories in Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"What does Whiteness feel like?... I imagine it's like walking barefoot…"

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

"Why don't stars make any sounds in the winter? What sounds? Ethan said."

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

"Every boy deserves to believe him father is good, but if each father were good, we’d be living in a different kind of world."

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

"I imagined I could have begged an old girlfriend from college to send money; enough of them had expressed ambivalence about their trust funds that this seemed a plausible path down which I might drag…"

-Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You

Cover of North Woods by Daniel       Mason

6. North Woods

By: Daniel Mason

4.15

Format: 372 pages, Hardcover

A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those … read more

Similar categories in Daniel Mason's North Woods book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

7. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

By: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

4.52

Format: 816 pages, Hardcover

A magisterial epic—an intimate yet sweeping novel with all the luminescence and force of Homegoing;… read more

Similar categories in Honorée Fanonne Jeffers's The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • adult
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
"These are the incongruities of memory. It is hard to hold on to the entirety of something, but pieces may be held up to light."

-Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James   McBride

8. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By: James McBride

4.00

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more

Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • adult
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

9. 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 Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"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 Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

10. Chain-Gang All-Stars

By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

4.14

Format: 367 pages, Hardcover

Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far… read more

Similar categories in Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's Chain-Gang All-Stars book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • dystopia
  • fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"They were all humans, and yet they had completely different ideas about what humanity meant."

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

"My brother-in-law is an alien. I have a bunch of alien friends. I can't be racist," Randy Mac continued."

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

"An absurd thing for the murderous state to plead for, but, as always, the massive violence of the state was “justice,"

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

"...despite how hard it was, she wasn't afraid with love. She knew how to wield it, how to grow it, and how to receive it."

-Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

Cover of Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

11. Come and Get It

By: Kiley Reid

3.38

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

A fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a profe… read more

Similar categories in Kiley Reid's Come and Get It book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"Kennedy hadn't considered it before, that to write something beautiful you just do it regular, and then you pull out a red pen."

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

"Washing her sheets was another thing she'd failed to do. She washed her clothes—every weekend—but when it came to the bedsheets, she'd get stressed out or she'd forget. And then there was too much ti…"

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

"Okay, sometimes—just being honest— Millie can be . . . a little ghetto." On the word little, Tyler held two fingers an inch apart. "Nooo. Don't say that. Ah love Millie." "But I'm not saying it like …"

-Kiley Reid, Come and Get It

Cover of Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl González

12. Olga Dies Dreaming

By: Xóchitl González

3.98

Format: 369 pages, Hardcover

It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro "Prieto" Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown… read more

Similar categories in Xóchitl González's Olga Dies Dreaming book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • adult
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"It's a myth about motherhood, Olga felt, that the time in utero imbues mothers with a lifelong understanding of their children. Yes, they know their essences, this she didn't doubt, but mothers are s…"

-Xóchitl González, Olga Dies Dreaming

Cover of The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

13. The Vaster Wilds

By: Lauren Groff

3.77

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited g… read more

Similar categories in Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"For what is a girl but a vessel made to hold the desires of men."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"O put the memory away, girl, she told herself sternly. For the sorrow could eat you entire."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"And humans were not made to be always alone; humans survive only in the company of other humans."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"Against the resistance of other minds, one's thoughts are pulled out of their comfortable shapes, and true thinking begins."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

Cover of Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

14. Afterparties

By: Anthony Veasna So

3.95

Format: 272 pages, ebook

Seamlessly transitioning between the absurd and the tenderhearted, balancing acerbic humor with sha… read more

Similar categories in Anthony Veasna So's Afterparties book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Fuck everyone else, I want to say, for burdening the two of us with all their baggage. Let's go back to minding our own business, anything but this. Who cares about our family? What have they ever do…"

-Anthony Veasna So, Afterparties

"Seeing a sloppy wet penis enter a sloppy wet vagina, from above, going in and out with the practiced tempo of professionals, strikes me as yet another drama for the ages I am meant only to witness, r…"

-Anthony Veasna So, Afterparties

"The dream unfolds: Somaly and I are sitting at a dinner table. She wears a white sampot covered in jewels perfectly matching her necklace. She’s almost akin to an apsara in a painting—aggressively el…"

-Anthony Veasna So, Afterparties

"We drove through a few more neighborhoods after that, searching for the lost truck, listening to a CD of old Khmer songs, the same CD that had been stuck in the stereo since the Honda had belonged to…"

-Anthony Veasna So, Afterparties

Cover of Blackouts by Justin Torres

15. Blackouts

By: Justin Torres

3.77

Format: 306 pages, Hardcover

From the bestselling author of We the Animals, Blackouts mines lost histories--personal and collect… read more

Similar categories in Justin Torres's Blackouts book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • historical
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

16. Hell of a Book

By: Jason Mott

4.04

Format: 323 pages, Hardcover

In Hell of a Book, an African-American author sets out on a cross-country book tour to promote his … read more

Similar categories in Jason Mott's Hell of a Book book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • african american
  • fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Because God needs the little people more than he needs anyone"

-Jason Mott, Hell of a Book

"The modern author is only as important as their search results."

-Jason Mott, Hell of a Book

"From his perspective, Daddy Henry was a nice enough collection of wrinkles."

-Jason Mott, Hell of a Book

"I know all the smells: humidity, pine trees, thinly veiled racism. It’s what home feels like for me."

-Jason Mott, Hell of a Book

Cover of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint   Smith

17. How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith

4.71

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Poet and contributor to The Atlantic Clint Smith’s revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a… read more

Similar categories in Clint Smith's How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • historical
  • race
  • african american
  • audiobook
"How do you tell a story that has been told the wrong way for so long?"

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

"Just as he did during the Slavery at Monticello tour, David did not mince words. "There’s a chapter in Notes on the State of Virginia ,"

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

"Jefferson believed himself to be a benevolent slave owner, but his moral ideals came second to, and were always entangled with, his own economic interests and the interests of his family."

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

"But not enough people spoke about the reasons so many black children grow up communities saturated with poverty and violence. Not enough people spoke about how these realities were the result of deci…"

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Cover of The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

18. The Sentence

By: Louise Erdrich

3.95

Format: 387 pages, Hardcover

The Sentence asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small in… read more

Similar categories in Louise Erdrich's The Sentence book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • audiobook
"I'd taken a pink eraser to my childhood and blurred the pain."

-Louise Erdrich, The Sentence

"A newborn baby has a powerful effect on character. But so does a toddler. A child. A preteen. A teenager. A mother changes with every stage. Some stages are within a mother's skill set. Some stages a…"

-Louise Erdrich, The Sentence

Cover of How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz

19. How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

By: Angie Cruz

3.90

Format: 195 pages, Hardcover

Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But whe… read more

Similar categories in Angie Cruz's How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"She knew I had to cry until I undrown from the inside."

-Angie Cruz, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

"If you're lucky, you find a man that you don't fall in the hole with."

-Angie Cruz, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

"Lulú talks and talks because she dique knows everything. But when I say something, people listen. This I learned from my father. The less you say, the more the people listen."

-Angie Cruz, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

"Talking reminds me that no matter how difficult my life is, I have always found a solution my problems. When I think about this, I am not afraid. We can do this. I can do this."

-Angie Cruz, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

Cover of Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow

20. Memphis

By: Tara M. Stringfellow

4.10

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s … read more

Similar categories in Tara M. Stringfellow's Memphis book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • adult
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

21. My Monticello

By: Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

3.91

Format: None pages, Kindle Edition

A young woman descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings driven from her neighborhood by a w… read more

Similar categories in Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello book and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's My Monticello

  • literary fiction
  • race
  • historical
  • adult
  • dystopia
  • short stories
  • fiction
  • historical fiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
"To me guns meant indiscriminate power, the risk of fatally misjudging someone else's worth."

-Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, My Monticello

19 Top fiction books like My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Transform Your Habits

The Swimmers

Julie Otsuka

3.67

Transform Your Habits

Let Us Descend

Jesmyn Ward

3.70

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

If I Survive You

Jonathan Escoffery

3.69

View all the books

21 best-selling fiction books like Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

North Woods

Daniel Mason

4.15

Transform Your Habits

Wandering Stars

Tommy Orange

3.89

Transform Your Habits

Real Americans

Rachel Khong

4.04

View all the books

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