Cowboy Carter Read Alike: A Reader’s Guide

If you are listening to Beyoncé’s new album Cowboy Carter on loop, you might enjoy these books!

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Follow the Vignes twins from a small, southern, Black community who run away from home at sixteen, but one sister returns home many years later. The other sister has decided to pass as white and leave her roots behind. Named a 2020 book of the year by The New York Times and listed as a favorite book from President Barack Obama, Brit Bennett uses exquisite writing and compelling characters to look at the legacy of family and the secrets all families keep. 

James by Percival Everett

A retelling of Mark Twain’s American classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Percival Everett gives the enslaved Jim his day in this humorous and captivating adventure novel that uses all the same plot points of Twain’s novel with a new perspective with Jim as the narrator. See if this Pulitzer Prize finalist for 2024 lives up to the legacy of The Great American Novel.

High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa America by Jessica B. Harris

James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award winner Jessica B. Harris explores the culinary inspiration of the African Diaspora and, in this book, offers the results of her life’s work by looking at the food legacy of African Americans. Harris takes signature American dishes, like fried chicken or chitlins, and tells the story of that dish through its historic origins and identity. 

Bill Pickett, Bulldogger by Bailey C. Haynes

While Black Americans played an important role in the American West of the post-Civil War period, their contributions are many times overlooked or forgotten. Bill Pickett, Bulldogger tells the story of a Black American cowboy who became a rodeo show superstar. 

Topaz by Beverly Jenkins

Check out this historical fiction romance by award-winning author Beverly Jenkins. Topaz follows newspaper reporter Kate Love who is on the trail to expose a railroad stock swindler. Along the way she meets Dix Wildhorse, a Black Seminole marshal from Oklahoma Indian territory. Sparks fly and hijinks ensue!

The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘N’ Roll by Preston Lauterbach

Preston Lauterbach brings Black music history to center stage with journalistic intrigue and historical research about the Chitlin’ Circuit, a map of clubs, dance halls, and bars across Jim Crow America, where Black musicians like Chuck Berry and James Brown got their start. 

In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas by Larry McMurtry

Join Pulitzer-prize winning author Larry McMurtry as he looks back at his home and upbringing in the Lone Star State of Texas. This collection of essays, first published in 1968, looks at life in Texas, past and present, with humor and truth. 

There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker

This collection of poetry about the Black feminist experience, which is deeply personal and universal, is for anyone who struggles with societal issues and with the everyday emotions of growing up in America. 

Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones by Dolly Parton: 

With full color photographs and exclusives of her private archives, country music legend Dolly Parton offers a look into the making and cultivation of her fashion and signature style. The book features behind-the-scenes stories, humor, and detailed insights into how Parton uses her fashion to shape her image.

Willie Nelson: An Epic Life by Joe Nick Potoski

A biography of the Redheaded Stranger and original country outlaw, Willie Nelson. Potoski uses hundreds of hours of interviews from Nelson, his family, friends, and colleagues to showcase the life and career of one of America’s favorite musicians. 

My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music’s Black Past, Present, and Future by Alice Randall

Singer-songwriter Alice Randall celebrates the American genre of country music and the influence that Black artists played in creating it. Randall celebrates new Black artists to the genre and remembers those from the past that weren’t always allowed in the conversation. 

Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions by Francesca T. Royster

The first book about Black Country Music by a Black writer explores the roots of Black country with a critical lens, how it became whitewashed, and its resurgence as a genre for everyone. 

Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur

Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) recounts her life and experiences of being a Black American during her time as a Black Panther in the 1960s and 1970s. Placed alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Shakur’s work looks back upon a life of activism, social justice, and its achievements and failures. 

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith 

An immersive historical narrative where Clint Smith takes the reader on a journey throughout America, visits historical landmarks, and learns how these memorials address the history of slavery. Smith’s work is highly readable and approachable for such a daunting subject.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad envisions the secret travel system for escaping enslaved people in the antebellum south as an actual railroad with tracks, cars, and conductors. Follow Cora, an enslaved person and outcast even among her own community, as she tries to flee the life of Georgian plantation and make her way to freedom. The novel bends time and genre in a fantastical adventure and commentary on American history.