Arun Venugopal

In her new book, All That She Carried, historian Tiya Miles tells the story of an enslaved woman who, upon hearing her child was to be sold off, hastily packed her a bag with a few personal items.

Mbue's novel was inspired in part by her own experiences growing up in Cameroon. Set in a fictional African village in the 1980s, it follows a group of villagers who take on an American oil company.

What do Soul Train and Whitney Houston tell us about race in America? In his book, A Little Devil in America, the culture critic traces the history of Black performance through moments in pop culture.