Books by Alice Walker
“I actually came to this book because I saw the movie when I was 14 years old, when it first came out in the theatres. In the Black community, it was such an event to go see this film, because it was the first time in recent history that a story about Black women was being told this way on the big screen. I went with my cousin. She and I watched it and we cried like babies at the heartbreaking moments of the film. I didn’t even know who Alice Walker was, or that it was based on a book. When I found that out, I thought, ‘I have to read that book!’ I read it and fell in love all over again with those characters, because I got to know them so much better in the book.” Read more...
Best Books by Black Queer Writers
Robert Jones Jr., Novelist
Interviews where books by Alice Walker were recommended
Epistolary Novels
Epistolary novels are told through the form of written correspondence between characters, or sometimes by way of diary entries or fictional documents. Though there were earlier examples, the epistolary novel took off as a form in the 18th century and remains very popular for its immediacy and sense of realism. We’ve put together a selection of epistolary novels—notable for their literary significance or their evergreen popularity—many of which have previously been recommended by our expert interviewees.
Books Made into Movies in 2023, recommended by Five Books Interviews
As filmmakers continue to turn to books to inspire new movies, we’ve put together a list of books that have been recommended on Five Books that have appeared on the screen this year or are currently in production. Notable are the number of nonfiction books being turned into movies, an indication of how many books are currently being published that tell compelling stories that happen, also, to be true.
Best Books by Black Queer Writers, recommended by Robert Jones Jr.
The novels of James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Wallace Thurman and James Early Hardy bring the America of the last two centuries vividly to life. Marlon James brings us a fantasy trilogy set in ancient Africa. Robert Jones Jr., author of The Prophets—a love story set on a plantation in the American South—talks us through his choices of the best books by Black queer writers.
