Whether you are able to make it down to Ocean City or are going to relax in the backyard, these books are perfect for an enjoyable summer day. Go ahead grab your lemonade, and download one of these romance and fun rom-com books.
Learn More about Juneteenth with these eBooks
Juneteenth is happening this weekend! Here’s a look at a few e-materials to check out to help celebrate the holiday. Not sure what Juneteenth is? On June 19, 1865, the abolition of slavery was announced in Texas, marking the end of slavery in the United States. First known as Freedom Day, Juneteenth commemorates that critical date in history.
Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth provides a historian’s view of the country’s long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond.
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
Reconstruction chronicles the way in which Americans—black and white—responded to the unprecedented changes unleashed by the war and the end of slavery. It addresses the ways in which the emancipated slaves’ quest for economic autonomy and equal citizenship shaped the political agenda of Reconstruction.
Reconstruction by Eric Foner
What Truth Sounds Like exists at the tense intersection of the conflict between politics and prophecy – of whether we embrace political resolution or moral redemption to fix our fractured racial landscape. The future of race and democracy hang in the balance.
What Truth Sounds Like by Michael Eric Dyson
In the Spotlight: Lin-Manuel Miranda
In celebration of In the Heights arriving on the big screen this month, we’re highlighting some of the great work by the creative genius Lin-Manuel Miranda. From the Broadway stage to the movie screen, Miranda is behind award-winning projects including Hamilton, In the Heights, and more. Enjoy his work and check out these soundtracks and books with help from the Pratt Library!
YA Books to Spotlight for Pride Month
Happy Pride Month! This week on Pratt Chat, we are spotlighting some of our favorite YA books featuring characters or authors from the LGBTQIA+ community.
Spotlight on Caribbean Writers
June is a month of celebrations so we didn’t want to forget spotlighting some of our favorite authors for Caribbean Heritage Month. Add these authors to your reading list this month!
Author Spotlight on Marlon James
This notable author was born in Jamaica in 1970. James has won numerous awards including a Man Booker Prize, OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and NAACP Image Award. Currently Marlon James lives in Minnesota and New York.
Author Spotlight on Nicole Dennis-Benn
Dennis-Benn was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. Her writing has received critical acclaim including winning two Lambda Literary Awards. Dennis-Benn is the founder of the Stuyvesant Writing Workshop and lives with her wife in Brooklyn, New York.
Here are some more books you will enjoy this Caribbean Heritage Month.