NIRMV Recommended Reading Lists for Adults and Kids
Copies of the reading lists are distributed throughout the country via libraries, schools, churches, community centers and other public sites – including online connections on the NIRMM website and Facebook page. Special thanks to book clubs, community organizations and non-profits for providing assistance with both nomination and distribution efforts. In addition, a related dedicated display rack and showcases have been set up. Redford Township District Library has been a valued showcase partner.
Readers are encouraged to nominate books that inspired them for inclusion on the lists. Authors are not allowed to self nominate their books. Email nominations to nirmvdetroit@gmail.com.
2024 NIRMV Recommended Reading List Adults Edition (PDF)
Allende, Isabel - The Soul of a Woman
Alvarez, Julia - How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Benedict, Marie - The Only Woman in the Room
Benedict, Marie and Murray, Victoria Christopher - The First Ladies
Cano-Murillo, Kathy - Forever Frida: A Celebration of the Life, Art, Loves, Words, and
Style of Frida Kahlo
Chancellor, Renate - Breaking Glass Ceilings: Clara Stanton Jones and the Detroit Public Library
Cheyene, Yasmine - The Sugar Jar: Create Boundaries, Embrace Self-Healing, and Enjoy the Sweet Things in Life
Chiaverini, Jennifer - The Museum of Lost Quilts: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel
Chung, Connie - Connie: A Memoir
Crittendon, Denise - Where it Rains in Color
Gates, Henry Louis - The Black Box: Writing the Race
Haley, Alex - Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Haley, Alex and Stevens, David - Mama Flora’s Family: A Novel
Hannah, Kristin - The Nightingale
Haw, Penny - The Invincible Miss Cust: A Novel
Jackson, Ketanji Brown - Lovely One: A Memoir
Johnson, Shelia - Walk Through the Fire: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Triumph
Kennedy, Rozelle - Our Brave Foremothers: Celebrating 100 Black, Brown, Asian and Indigenous Women Who Changed the Course of History
Kidd, Sue Monk - The Invention of Wings
Lattimore, Ashton - All We Were Promised: A Novel
Lee, Debra - I Am Debra Lee: A Memoir
Li, Zhuqing - Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden
Morgan, Sharon Leslie - Finding Your Family Tree: A Beginner’s Guide to Researching Your Genealogy
Norrell, Robert J. - Alex Haley: And the Books That Changed a Nation
Pelosi, Nancy - The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House
Reid, Joy-Ann - Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America
Sebastian, Teresa Mosley - Lost Seeds: The Beginning
Shane, Scott - Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery’s Borderland
Skloot, Rebecca - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Smilios, Maria - The Black Angels: The Untold Story of Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis
Tan, Amy - The Joy Luck Club: A Novel
Tate, ReShonda - The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel
Tick, Judith - Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song
Valby, Karen - The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History
Whitmer, Gretchen - True Gretch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything In Between
Williams, Venus - Strive: 8 Steps to Find Your Awesome
2023 NIRMV Recommended Reading List Adults Edition (PDF)
Anappara, Deepa and Soomro Taymour, editors - Letters to a Writer of Color
Angelou, Maya -Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
Benjaminson, Peter - The Story of Motown
Brooks, Arthur C. and Winfrey, Oprah - Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting
Happier
Campbell, Olivia - Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine
Copeland, Misty - The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace and Other Gifts
from My Mentor Raven Wilkinson
Davis, Belva - Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism
Goldsmith, Donald and Bartusiak, Marcia, editors - E = Einstein: His Life, His Thought, and His Influence on Our Culture
Gray, Anissa - Life and Other Love Songs
Griffith, Elisabeth - Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality: 1920 - 2020
Hurston, Zora Neale - Dust Tracks on a Road: A Memoir
Jawando, Will - My Seven Black Fathers: A Young Activist’s Memoir of Race, Family and the Mentors Who Made Him Whole
King, Billie Jean - All In: An Autobiography
King, Jr., Martin Luther - Strength to Love
Marche, Stephen - How Shakespeare Changed Everything
Obama, Michelle - Becoming
Marenholtz-Bülow, Bertha von - How Kindergarten Came to America: Friedrich-Frobel’s Radical Vision of Early Childhood Education
Rimes, Shonda - Year of Yes: How to Dance it Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person
Rivera, Chita - Chita: A Memoir
Stearnes-Brown, Rosilyn - Fans Called Him “Turkey,” I Called Him Dad: A Daughter Remembers Baseball Hall of Famer Norman Thomas Stearnes
Tutu, Desmond - No Future Without Forgiveness
Wilkerson, Charmaine - Black Cake: A Novel
Williams, Pip - The Dictionary of Lost Words: A Novel
Winfrey, Oprah - What I Know for Sure
2023 NIRMV Recommended Reading List Kids Edition (PDF)
Some list books focus on NIRMV Ongoing Theme: “Celebrating Who Inspires You” and
NIRMV 2023 Theme: Gaining Inspiration from Legacies and Legends.” Make nominations
anytime via nirmvdetroit@gmail.com. Visit nirmv.org for more information about NIRMV, a
50l (c)(3) public charity. NIRMV does not necessarily endorse or support all views of authors,
editors or characters expressed in list selections. ©2023 by NIRMV
