Looking to get lost in a good book by and about African-American men just in time for Father’s Day? Check out these reads. Please note this post contains affiliate links.
The Hearts of Men
Travis Hunter
Tall, dark, and handsome, Prodigy Banks was once a playboy. Now he’s a man any mother would be proud to call her son, and when he meets Nina, the mother of the young boy he mentors, it seems that life is going to get even better. But when his past threatens his newfound respectability, Prodigy has to act fast to protect his new relationship.
Bernard Charles is haunted by childhood memories of abandonment and poverty. His workaholic ways frustrate his wife, Diane, and leave her vulnerable to another man’s advances. After her betrayal, will Bernard move on or move out?
Winston “Poppa Doc” Fuller has a fix for what’s ailing the younger generation. Married for more than 40 years to his beloved Ethel, Poppa Doc brings healing to everyone he touches. Yet despite his best efforts, he hasn’t been able to reach his own 33-year-old son—a situation that soon requires urgent resolution, because as Poppa Doc tells his son: “I love you, but I’m not proud of you. Make me proud of you before I leave this earth.”
In his marvelous debut novel, Travis Hunter has crafted a tale that is funny, sexy, and touching—revealing what it truly means to have the heart of a man.
Curse of the Whiskey House
Marc Lacy
The Hawthorne County Whiskey Stop, the city’s most profitable tourist attraction, gets thousands of customers per year from in and out of town. But the Hawthorne County Whiskey House, its counterpart, is anything but good and sacred. Just ask the beloved mayor of Lazarus, Samuel Justice, who has enough skeletons in the closet to fill the local cemetery. The level of treachery and mayhem spawned within the whiskey house is uncharted despite the fact that Reverend Jackson Jones, the pastor of the Central Baptist Church, owns it. Many believe that a lot of spirits are uneasy and that a curse lingers around Lazarus and Hawthorne County because of the crass circumstances that surround the whiskey house.
Brandon Massey
Gabriel Reid has led a life of good luck. From a loving family, well educated, and now quite wealthy, he holds an important office in a prominent Atlanta construction company. But good fortune doesn’t always last. Isaiah Battle arrives from the slums of Chicago, where he grew up in poverty, surviving by his wits and a hidden inner power. Isaiah is Gabriel’s half-brother, and now he wants to claim the life he believes is rightfully his. The stage is set for an epic battle between brothers: a battle that will leave only one man standing.
Gold Pen winner Brandon Massey wrote the frightening novel Dark Corner and edited the collection of horror and suspense by black authors Dark Dreams. With The Other Brother, he presents a thriller of terrifying proportions.
Caught Up
Earl Sewell
In the 80s, acceptance and popularity meant everything…
Theron’s world gets turned upside down when his family moves from the inner city to the suburbs. What is supposed to be a change for the better becomes his worst nightmare. His new neighborhood is populated by spoiled rich kids who don’t like outsiders.
Then Theron meets Millhouse, a social reject who befriends him, but their camaraderie does not come without sacrifice.
Just when Theron thinks he’ll never be cool with the popular kids, he discovers that he’s a gifted athlete with star power, and is willing to do whatever it takes, to bring a champion ship trophy to his school. But acceptance and popularity may cost him more than he bargained for.