In 2015, during a wave of student activism aimed at making Yale more inclusive, Bass Library partnered with student groups to create the Reading Resilience Project. The project aims to highlight voices of commonly underrepresented peoples in library collections. All the books you find on this site were recommended by Yale students, staff, and faculty. Recommended books not already available at Yale Library are considered for purchase.
No NetID? We encourage you to browse the Complete Booklist. Then, try searching WorldCat to find books at your local library. See our FAQs for more information.
Recommend books by and about people of color at bit.ly/rrpyale.
Recommended because: "[it is an] excellent book about structural inequality and infectious disease." - Kate N.
Recommended because: "The short stories involve Afrofuturist elements. Several protagonists of color and of sexual minorities." - Lauren P., Yale VISP
Recommended because: "This book is a comprehensive and unique look at US history." - Amanda J., Yale affiliate
Recommended because: "U.S. Supreme Court case which broke the color barrier to the commercial aviation cockpit in 1963." - Paula G., Yale Development
Recommended because: "A beautifully written coming-of-age memoir about love, loss, and one's perspective of Asian American identity." - Dawn N., Yale School of Medicine
Recommended because: "It was an incredibly insightful and intimate read. Made me think about my life and the world in new ways!" - Lexi K., YC '25
Recommended because: "Clifton was prolific award winner, discovered and published by Langston Hughes. This book won the National Book Award in 2000." - Deborah C.
Recommended because: "It's a beautifully poetic and moving play that tells the life stories of several women of color." - Levi G.
Recommended because: "A lesser-known but absolutely essential history of Black workers' revolutionary organizing in late 1960s Detroit" -Thelo C., Yale '22
Recommended because: "New edited volume on Black land relations and caretaking that I think Yale community folks should know about." - Emily M., Yale GSAS '23
Recommended because: "Beautifully written and totally perspective changing - highly recommend for science majors and thinkers!" - Julia W., Yale '24
Recommended because: "This book is critical for understanding how Black girls and women navigate hostile territory and make a self." - Chase R., Yale '18
Recommended because: "beautifully written, a compelling narrative of the experiences of a young, black boy sentenced to a reform school during Jim Crow." - Matthew M.
Recommended because: "A funny epistolary novel by prolific artist-activist Alice Childress told from the point of view of a black domestic in the 1950s." - Jalylah B.,Yale Phd '17
Recommended because: "The Vanishing Half is a beautiful novel that describes a multi-generational story of black twins and how their paths diverge." - Anna Z.
Recommended because: "This book changed the way I live my life at Yale. The book explores friendship and love in such profound depth." - Isabella Z., Yale '23
Recommended because: "This play shows the power of art and theater for self-expression and political resistance in apartheid South Africa." - Katie K., Yale affiliate
Recommended because: "This novel probes a key question for people from increasingly diverse backgrounds: who am I? and how do I construct my identity?" - Ivy F., Yale '21
Recommended because: "A gorgeously wrought examination of black interior girlhood written by one of our greatest poets - her only novel." - Daphne B., Yale affiliate
Recommended because: "beautifully written Vietnamese American poetry contemplating on more than just the Vietnam War." - Cathy D.
Recommended because: "This book opened my eyes to the whole issue of discrimination and maltreatment 50 years ago." - Michele L.
Recommended because: "[bell hooks] advocates the process of teaching students to think critically and raises concerns central to field of critical pedagogy." - Abdul-Razak Z., Yale '17
Recommended because: "A definitive writing on race, criminality and urban immigrants becoming white in the early 1900’s." - Richard T.
Recommended because: "A powerful story of mass incarceration in America and the Equal Justice Initiative's pursuit of justice." - William M.
Recommended because: "Leonard Peltier is a Native political prisoner and activist that remains in prison today little known by non-Natives." - Haylee K.
Recommended because: "Great for understanding the isolating effects of poverty on urban communities." - Chase R.
We welcome your comments and suggestions about the Reading Resilience Project. Please contact Kelly Blanchat (kelly.blanchat@yale.edu).
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