6 Top poetry books like A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

Cover of A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

4.60

Format: 301 pages, Hardcover

A stirring meditation on Black performance in America from the New York Times bestselling author of…

"When someone loves loudly, with everything they have in them, the withholding of that loud love, even briefly, feels impossible to endure."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

"When someone loves loudly, with everything they have in them, the withholding of that loud love, even briefly, feels impossible to endure."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

"If I am going to be afraid, I might as well do it honest. Arm in arm with everyone I love, adorned in blood and bruises, singing jokes on our way to the grave."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

"If I am going to be afraid, I might as well do it honest. Arm in arm with everyone I love, adorned in blood and bruises, singing jokes on our way to the grave."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

If you liked the poetry plot in A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib , here is a list of 6 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

Cover of Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

2. Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma

By: Claire Dederer

3.79

Format: 257 pages, Hardcover

From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, … read more

Similar categories in Claire Dederer's Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • art
  • history
  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
"Biography used to be something you sought out, yearned for, actively pursued. Now it falls on your head all day long."

-Claire Dederer, Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma

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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • race
  • 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 Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

4. Grief Is for People

By: Sloane Crosley

3.91

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

Following the death of her closest friend, Sloane Crosley explores multiple kinds of loss in this d… read more

Similar categories in Sloane Crosley's Grief Is for People book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • nonfiction
  • memoir
  • essays
  • audiobook
"Grief is for people, not things."

-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People

"Suicide is a tax on human consciousness."

-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People

"How will he know you loved him," she asks, "unless you try to destroy yourself?"

-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People

"Pictures should be of what you see, not of what the world sees when it sees you."

-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People

Cover of James by Percival Everett

5. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • race
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

6. How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

By: Sabrina Imbler

4.12

Format: 263 pages, Hardcover

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journal… read more

Similar categories in Sabrina Imbler's How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • nonfiction
  • memoir
  • essays
  • audiobook
"But when I think about ponds infested with gallon-big goldfish, I feel a kind of triumph. I see something that no one expected to live not just alive but impossibly flourishing, and no longer alone. …"

-Sabrina Imbler, How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

Cover of Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba

7. Creep: Accusations and Confessions

By: Myriam Gurba

4.37

Format: 331 pages, Kindle Edition

A ruthless and razor-sharp essay collection that tackles the pervasive, creeping oppression and tox… read more

Similar categories in Myriam Gurba's Creep: Accusations and Confessions book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • nonfiction
  • memoir
  • essays
  • audiobook
"Embedded within these systems of family, friendship, and community, these creepy men may appear harmless, their evil obscured by a benign collective presence, a fog of sorts. This softness swaddles a…"

-Myriam Gurba, Creep: Accusations and Confessions

Cover of Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

8. Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World

By: Naomi Klein

4.22

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self―a double who was almost you a… read more

Similar categories in Naomi Klein's Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • memoir
  • audiobook
"Our role here on earth is not simply to maximize the advantage in our lives. It’s to maximize (protect, regenerate) all of life. We are here not just to make sure we as individuals survive, but to ma…"

-Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World

"A state of shock is what happens to us- individually or as a society- when we experience a sudden and unprecedented event for which we do not yet have adequate explanation. At its essence, a shock is…"

-Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World

Cover of Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

9. Beautyland

By: Marie-Helene Bertino

4.15

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel ab… read more

Similar categories in Marie-Helene Bertino's Beautyland book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • audiobook
Cover of North Woods by Daniel       Mason

10. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • audiobook
Cover of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

11. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • 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

12. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • 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 Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

13. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • poetry
  • art
  • audiobook
Cover of Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

14. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • 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 Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

15. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • 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 Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell

16. The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

By: Amanda Montell

3.54

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blen… read more

Similar categories in Amanda Montell's The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • nonfiction
  • memoir
  • essays
  • audiobook
"While magical thinking is an age-old quirk, overthinking feels distinct to the modern era—a product of our innate superstitions clashing with information overload, mass loneliness, and a capitalistic…"

-Amanda Montell, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

"Information transmission research suggests that folks with higher anxiety are quicker to engage with, and slower to disengage from, negative information; so "as a trait and state," anxiety itself per…"

-Amanda Montell, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

Cover of Stay True by Hua Hsu

17. Stay True

By: Hua Hsu

4.03

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

From the New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu, a gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for se… read more

Similar categories in Hua Hsu's Stay True book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • music
  • race
  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"My parents are great, I said. Unbelievably non-stereotypical."

-Hua Hsu, Stay True

"The first generation thinks about survival; the ones that follow tell the stories."

-Hua Hsu, Stay True

"You were describing people we had not yet met, maybe people we ourselves would become."

-Hua Hsu, Stay True

"It was a sign of personal growth, I thought to myself, that I could be friends with someone who liked Pearl Jam this much."

-Hua Hsu, Stay True

Cover of Blackouts by Justin Torres

18. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • audiobook
Cover of A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

19. A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

4.60

Format: 301 pages, Hardcover

A stirring meditation on Black performance in America from the New York Times bestselling author of… read more

Similar categories in Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • music
  • poetry
  • art
  • race
  • history
  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • african american
  • audiobook
"When someone loves loudly, with everything they have in them, the withholding of that loud love, even briefly, feels impossible to endure."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

"If I am going to be afraid, I might as well do it honest. Arm in arm with everyone I love, adorned in blood and bruises, singing jokes on our way to the grave."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

"I have wanted to die enough times in my life to understand the idea that wanting to die is not a foolish thing... I don't mean to prop up the idea of wanting an exit, but for me, not to imagine it as…"

-Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

"Of the many things America loves to pat itself on the back about, one of the things is an obsession with exploration, or the desire to seek places beyond the places you are from or the places you hav…"

-Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

Cover of Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games by J. Robert Lennon

20. Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games

By: J. Robert Lennon

3.90

Format: 224 pages, Paperback

A wide-ranging anthology of essays exploring one of the most vital art forms on the planet today … read more

Similar categories in J. Robert Lennon's Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • nonfiction
  • essays
Cover of Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

21. Headshot

By: Rita Bullwinkel

3.63

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

An electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writer” (Lorrie Moore) about the radical inti… read more

Similar categories in Rita Bullwinkel's Headshot book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • audiobook
"The desire to please people is the desire to not be singular."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

"Tanya Maw's sister is two years older, the perfect age gap for wisdom transmission."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

"It can be intoxicating to play a sport that requires one to look in their opponent's eyes."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

"It's a warmth that she'll feel again very few times in her life. It's almost like love, but it has a surer, less desperate edge to it."

-Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

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

22. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • race
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • 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 Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith

23. Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop

By: Danyel Smith

4.06

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

American pop music is arguably this country’s greatest cultural contribution to the world, and its … read more

Similar categories in Danyel Smith's Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • music
  • race
  • history
  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
Cover of Above Ground by Clint   Smith

24. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

25. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • poetry
  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
Cover of Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe

26. 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 Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • poetry
  • race
  • history
  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of You Get What You Pay For: Essays by Morgan  Parker

27. You Get What You Pay For: Essays

By: Morgan Parker

4.18

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

The award-winning author of Magical Negro traces the trauma and beauty of existing as a Black woman… read more

Similar categories in Morgan Parker's You Get What You Pay For: Essays book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • race
  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
Cover of Another Word for Love: A Memoir by Carvell Wallace

28. Another Word for Love: A Memoir

By: Carvell Wallace

4.35

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A transformative memoir that reimagines the conventions of love and posits a radical vision for hea… read more

Similar categories in Carvell Wallace's Another Word for Love: A Memoir book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • race
  • nonfiction
  • memoir
  • audiobook
Cover of Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

29. Housemates

By: Emma Copley Eisenberg

3.66

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Two young housemates embark on a road trip to discover themselves in a fractured America in this sp… read more

Similar categories in Emma Copley Eisenberg's Housemates book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • audiobook
"Teaching? When it’s good? A marvel. A fucking miracle. They live, and then they turn to you to tell you about it."

-Emma Copley Eisenberg, Housemates

Cover of Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi

30. Little Rot

By: Akwaeke Emezi

3.67

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

A thrilling new novel from the bestselling, award-winning Akwaeke Emezi, about five friends trying … read more

Similar categories in Akwaeke Emezi's Little Rot book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

Cover of Pretty: A Memoir by KB Brookins

31. Pretty: A Memoir

By: KB Brookins

4.38

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

By a prize-winning, young Black trans writer of outsized talent, a fierce and disciplined memoir ab… read more

Similar categories in KB Brookins's Pretty: A Memoir book and Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  • poetry
  • race
  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook

28 best-selling audiobook books like A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

Transform Your Habits

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma

Claire Dederer

3.79

Transform Your Habits

Let Us Descend

Jesmyn Ward

3.70

Transform Your Habits

Grief Is for People

Sloane Crosley

3.91

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

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21 best-selling fiction books like Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

Transform Your Habits

Perfume & Pain

Anna Dorn

4.06

Transform Your Habits

All Fours

Miranda July

3.81

Transform Your Habits

Exhibit

R.O. Kwon

3.24

Transform Your Habits

Margo's Got Money Troubles

Rufi Thorpe

3.97

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