Adayfi, Monsoor. Don’t Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantánamo. August 2021. Hachette Books, an Imprint of Perseus Books, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc. $29.00. Hardback. 336 pages. 9780306923876. Adults.
Mansoor was only eighteen years old when he left Yemen, was kidnapped by warlords, then trapped in Guantánamo prison for fourteen years. In both beautiful and horrific detail we witness a child grow to manhood behind the decaying walls of one of the most secretive prisons in the world. Despite torture and a denial of the most basic human rights, this is a beautiful story of hope, perseverance and triumph.
This book encompasses Islamophobia, human rights violations, and prison reform.
Henry, Andre. All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep: Hope–and Hard Pills to Swallow–About Fighting for Black Lives. March 2022. Convergent Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House. $26.00. Hardback. 288 pages. 9780593239889. Adults.
From a the author’s lived experiences, this book explores the historical divides between Black and non-Black people, questioning why this gap cannot be solved with all that has been accomplished so far. Something tangible is missing that laws and practice is not accomplishing.
This book encompasses anti-racism, social conditions in America, and White privilege
Senghor, Shaka S. Letters to the Sons of Society. March 2022. Convergent Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House. $27.00. Hardback. 288 pages. 9780593238011. Adults.
Before becoming a tech investor, lecturer and criminal justice reform activist, Shaka Senghor spent nineteen years in prison, and rather than let it destroy him, he found his voice. In this collection of letters written to his sons he discusses societal expectations of Black men, masculinity, fatherhood and childhood. Through an intimate sharing of his experiences, he pleads for his readers to rethink their approach to raising Black young men, one that challenges expectations through love, honesty and freedom.
This book discusses Black fatherhood, masculinity, incarceration, and love.
Roberts, Dorothy. Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families–and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World. April 2022. Basic Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc. $32.00. Hardback. 384 pages. 9781541675445. Adults. It is no surprise that Black children and Black families are disproportionately overrepresented in the Child Welfare System (CWS), Dorothy Roberts has broken down in detail, how the system is designed to oppress Black families and how its abolition is needed to liberate Black communities. In a series of four parts readers begin to understand how the CWS was designed to terrorize families, how it participates in a larger web of systemic racism, and why we need to rethink how we as a society can protect Black children and families.
This book encompasses the American child welfare system, Black American families, racism in social and legal services, and social work with black American children.
Austin, Jeanie. Library Services and Incarceration. November 2021. Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., an imprint of the American Library Association. $54.99. Paperback. 208 pages. 9780838949450. Adults.
Jeanie Austin provides one of the most current professional text for librarians and professionals who work with incarcerated populations, leading the readers through a landscape of this nation’s incarceral library settings that are either under direct supervision of staff or by e-carceration. Strongly emphasizing a need for stronger access to information in a system that has saturated the everyday lives of our American society, specifically BIPOC, LGBTQ, and people in poverty and members of other marginalized populations, this text contains an overview of issues that will be reflected in the new set of prison standards which are currently in the planning phase, having not been amended since 1992.
This book encompasses library and information science for incarcerated settings, e-carceration services, and access issues in incarcerated library settings.
Adams, Jarrett. Redeeming Justice: From Defendant to Defender, My Fight for Equity on Both Sides of a Broken System. September 2021. Convergent Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House. $27.00. Hardback. 304 pages. 9780593137819. Adults.
The wrongful accusations that led to Adams’s ten years of incarceration are hard to believe, making his experience the catalyst that spurred him personally to obtain a law degree, pass the bar, and dedicate himself to exoneration of the innocent.
This book encompasses discrimination in the American prison systems, Black American lawyers, false imprisonment, racial discrimination.
Medwed, Daniel S. Barred: Why the Innocent Can’t Get Out of Prison. March 2022. Basic Books, an Imprint of Perseus Books, a subsidiary of Hachette Books, Inc. $30.00. Hardback. 336 pages. 9781541675919. Adults.
According to the Georgia Innocence Project, 1 in 20 of America’s incarcerated are totally innocent, due to wrongful convictions. Daniel Medwed speaks on how many in this confused state will die without experiencing freedom, due to this country’s dilapidated judicial system, where persuasive evidence becomes trapped in a labyrinth of legalities, making it difficult and heartbreaking for their innocence to be proven in court.
This book encompasses judicial error, false imprisonment, prisoner’s rights, and white privilege in the American prison and legal system.
Lindsey, Treva B. America, Goddam: Violence, Black Women, and the Struggle for Justice. April 2022. University of California. $24.95. Hardback. 342 pages. 9780520384491. New Adults and Up. Using personal accounts and hard-hitting social analysis, Treva Lindsey is unapologetic in her presentation of the historic and contemporary injustices of Black feminist struggles for women and girls, especially in our current world community where such accounts have been and are still rendered invisible.
This book encompassesthe history of Civil Rights Movement, violence against women, anti-racism, and issues of social justice.
Fleming, Brandon P. Miseducated: A Memoir. June 2021. Hachette Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.. $17.99. Hardback. 273 pages. 9780306925139. New Adults and Up.
In a country where young Black boys grow up having to be advised on how to navigate the world they live in due to the target society has placed on their backs, Brandon Fleming offers his restorative journey as a guidepost to help them reclaim their minds and souls and to let them know that their lives do matter and they can overcome the disproportional obstacles that get in their way.
This book encompasses issues of failure in the American educational system, the targeting of Black American males, and restorative justice
In the Margins Book Awards 