Selected Urban Fiction: Titles Beginning With B - G
Click on a title to see which STLCC libraries own the book. You may also want to search the library catalog by author's name, to find more books by the same author.
The book summaries were adapted from reviews or from the books themselves. Books are fiction unless described as a "true story" or "true account."
When plus-sized beauty Isis and her sister, Egypt, start a new chapter of the Big Girls Book Club in Richmond, Virginia, they discover that drama follows them everywhere as they deal with family issues, scandalous new members, and betrayal.
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.
When he hires charismatic choir director Anthony Mackie to rejuvenate the First Jamaica Ministries, Bishop T.K. Knight discovers that Anthony has secrets that could destroy the church, while his wife, Monique, tries to discover who has been robbing the church blind.
Sister Souljah herself appears in this novel, urging Winter and other young black women to stand up to the men in their lives, abstain from drugs, and practice safe sex.
Dupree's debut offers readers an unvarnished look at the troubled, violence-filled lives of inner-city youth in Washington, D.C., frequently through the eyes and experiences of Camille Logan.
Alternating poems compare and contrast the conflicted feelings of Ishmael, son of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, and Sam, a teenager in New York City, as they try to come to terms with being abandoned by their fathers and with the love they feel for their younger stepbrothers.
For Koran, it was more than eight years ago when the love of his life left without an explanation. Love for him now is riding around in expensive cars and wearing the best jewelry money can buy. Whitney left Koran, the love of her life, so long ago. The pain she felt, knowing she would never see him again, was so great that she was unable to express why she had to go. Returning with a new lease on life, she suddenly comes face-to-face with the man of her past. Unfortunately, Koran is living a different life with his crew, than the one they talked about as teenagers.
Langston Holiday is a premier high school basketball star who has decided to pass up college for the once-in-a-lifetime chance of playing in the league. But on his journey to leave the projects once and for all, he is forced to deal with major problems that could keep him from ever reaching a better life for him and his family
Elvis Oke, a teenager in the teeming city of Lagos, Nigeria, attempts to come of age in spite of an alcoholic father who beats him and a soul-crushing ghetto environment that threatens to engulf him. Despite the odds, Elvis’s story is ultimately one of redemption.