The 6 books our AJC interns think everyone should read to close out the summer
Books have a way of marking the seasons of our lives.
As August brings the final weeks of summer — and a season of cookouts, family reunions and fresh starts for many Black Americans — it also offers the perfect opportunity to discover a new story.
For generations, Black authors have captured the richness, complexity and resilience of the Black experience through novels, memoirs and poetry that continue to resonate across time and place.
To celebrate and mark the close of summer and the start of a new school year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s 2026 internship class recommends six books that inform, inspire and illuminate the many dimensions of Black life.
‘So Long a Letter’ by Mariama Ba
In 1979, Mariama Ba published this epistolary novel in which Ramatoulaye, a Senegalese widow, writes to her friend Aissatou, who lives abroad.
Ramatoulaye recounts everything that has happened since they last spoke, including her husband’s decision to marry a second wife after 30 years of marriage and her decision to remain with him.
Set in postindependence Senegal, Ba was among the first African women to gain international recognition for her writing. The novel explores themes of tradition, polygamy, modernity and the status of women in African societies.
Originally written in French, the novel has been translated into multiple languages and adapted into a film by Angèle Diabang.
Recommended by Yacine Ba, Howard University.
‘The Nickel Boys’ by Colson Whitehead
Imagine it’s the 1960s.
You’re in the South, and a friendly stranger offers you a ride. Everything goes smoothly until a police officer pulls you over, and you’re told the car is stolen.
As you have no prior convictions, the judge takes it easy on you and sends you to Nickel Academy — a reform school designed to turn troubled boys into model citizens.
This is the experience of a promising college student named Elwood Curtis, who soon finds out that people don’t always make it out of Nickel, where society’s “bad boys” are sent.
Whitehead masterfully examines institutional racism while showing how the power of friendship, hope and resilience can endure even in the most daunting circumstances.
Recommended by Tierra Stone, Morgan State University.
‘The Sittin’ Up’ by Shelia P. Moses
“The Sittin’ Up,” published in 2014, chronicles the summer of 1940 as 12-year-old Stanbury “Bean” Jones Jr. deals with the death of his cherished mentor, Mr. Bro. Wiley.
Bean gains valuable lessons about family, responsibility and resilience while attending his first traditional community wake and getting ready for the arrival of a new baby brother.
This book is impactful because Sheila P. Moses shows how Black customs and tight-knit communities help people overcome grief, preserve their heritage and find hope in the face of change.
Recommended by Kevin Pernell, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou
The story opens with young Maya Angelou (called “Marguerite” or “Ritie”) and her brother Bailey being sent to live with their grandmother, Momma Henderson, in the Jim Crow-era town of Stamps, Arkansas, after their parents’ marriage ends.
A pivotal and traumatic turn comes when Maya and Bailey are sent to St. Louis to live with their mother, where Maya is sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend, an ordeal that leaves her selectively mute for years after she returns to Stamps because she believes her voice caused the man’s death.
The memoir traces Angelou’s journey toward self-acceptance, dignity and, ultimately, finding her voice again, both literally and figuratively. That arc from silence to self-expression serves as a powerful metaphor for Black survival and self-determination in a racist society.
Recommended by Shimei Ricks-Cook, Fayetteville State University.
‘It Was Always a Choice: Picking Up the Baton of Athlete Activism’ by David Steele
This nonfiction book chronicles the history of activism in American sports.
Initially motivated by Colin Kaepernick’s protests and the Black Lives Matter movement, Steele discovered that Kaepernick was simply the latest chapter in a story of resistance that began in the early 20th century.
The book shows how, for some athletes, simply stepping onto the field or court was itself an act of activism before tracing those who carried the baton through the Civil Rights Movement. Steele also examines the role of white allies while criticizing athletes who chose not to use their platforms to advance social justice.
Recommended by Christopher T. Frazier, North Carolina Central University.
‘Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert’ by Bob the Drag Queen
In this novel, historical figures have unexplainably come back to the present day.
Harriet Tubman is one of them, along with four of the formerly enslaved people she led to freedom, and they have a story to tell.
She recruits Darnell, a chart-topping producer who has been blackballed from the industry after being outed on a BET talk show, to record an album and produce a legendary live show.
Throughout the novel, the group confronts the past while exploring what true freedom really means.
Recommended by Kaitlyn Harvey, University of Georgia.