Recommended Reading for Resilience in the Everyday

Fiction

Allen, Jayne. Black Girls Must Die Exhausted. New York: Harper Perennial, 2021.
A contemporary novel about a young Black woman facing career pressures, fertility struggles, and societal expectations. It reframes resilience as navigating modern womanhood while carving out joy and self-worth.

Bayron, Kalynn. This Poison Heart. New York: Bloomsbury YA, 2021.
A YA fantasy novel about a Black teen with a magical connection to plants, navigating family secrets and self-discovery. Through its mix of danger and beauty, it highlights resilience as both inheritance and empowerment.

Green, Myunique C. Anywhere But Here. Self-published, 2020.
This psychological thriller follows characters wrestling with survival amid emotional and social turmoil. The narrative affirms resilience as persistence in the most chaotic and uncertain circumstances.

Hammonds, Jas. We Deserve Monuments. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2022.
This YA contemporary novel weaves family secrets, queer love, and the weight of inherited trauma. It portrays resilience in confronting racism and silence, while affirming love, truth, and memory as forms of survival.

James, Marsela. Between Shadows and Tides. Atlanta: Self-published, 2024.
Blending folklore and coming-of-age, this YA novel explores identity and endurance against both mythic and real-world challenges. It casts resilience as finding strength through storytelling and cultural memory.

Miller, Vanessa. The Filling Station. New York: Thomas Nelson, 2022.
A historical Christian novel in which a Black family transforms their service station into a place of sanctuary and care during Jim Crow. Resilience is depicted as faith, hospitality, and steadfast hope in the face of systemic injustice.

History

Cherlise, Renata. Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2022.
A stunning visual history drawn from the popular Black Archives platform, this collection of photographs celebrates everyday Black life across generations. It frames resilience as beauty in ordinary joy, community, and continuity.

Gill, Tiffany. Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women's Activism in the Beauty Industry. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2010.
Gill examines the importance of beauty shops in the promotion of resilience, entrepreneurship, and activism in the African American community during the Jim Crow era and beyond.

Whitaker, Mark. Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Whitaker chronicles Pittsburgh’s overlooked Black Renaissance, showcasing musicians, journalists, and athletes whose artistry and perseverance shaped American culture. It reveals resilience as creative flourishing even amid segregation and hardship.

Self-Help & Mental Health

Berry, Abena. Bold. Black. & Becoming: A Psychology Guide to Heal & Thrive. Self-published, 2022.
Dr. Berry presents a psychological roadmap for Black women to heal from racialized trauma and embrace thriving identities. It reframes resilience not as survival alone, but as bold becoming.

Evergreen, Joy. For Black Women Only: The Power of Letting Go. Self-published, 2020.
Evergreen’s work encourages release from toxic relationships and burdens that erode mental health. She connects letting go to resilience, showing it as a pathway toward peace and renewal.

Giscombé, Cheryl L. Woods. The Black Woman’s Guide to Coping with Stress: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Skills to Create a Life of Joy and Well-Being. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2023.
Written by a nurse and researcher, this guide blends clinical strategies with culturally attuned practices for stress management. It emphasizes how self-compassion and mindfulness nurture resilience in daily life.

Laughter, Krystle. Love Yourself First: How to Heal from Toxic People, Create Healthy Relationships & Become a Confident Woman. Atlanta: Confident Woman Publishing, 2020.
Part of the “Love Yourself First” series, this book situates resilience in boundary-setting, relationship health, and confidence. It highlights everyday acts of self-preservation as foundations of joy.

Leiba, Elizabeth. I’m Not Yelling: A Black Woman’s Guide to Navigating the Workplace. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2022.
Leiba offers practical strategies, affirmations, and cultural insight for Black women facing microaggressions and systemic bias at work. She reframes resilience as clarity, confidence, and the power of owning one’s voice.

Lewis-Giggetts, Tracey Michae’l. Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration. New York: Gallery Books, 2021.
A moving collection of essays celebrating joy as an act of resistance, this work reclaims happiness as central to resilience. The stories highlight how Black communities cultivate restoration in ordinary and extraordinary ways.

Magoro, Alicia. Emotional Self-Care for Black Women: Discover How to Raise Your Self-Esteem, Eliminate Negative Thinking and Heal from Past Traumas Even if Your Life is Chaotic Right Now. Self-published, 2021.
This practical manual offers affirmations and step-by-step tools for emotional healing. It positions self-care as a daily act of resilience amid life’s chaos.

Marie, Jasmine. Black Girls Breathing: Heal from Trauma, Combat Chronic Stress, and Find Your Freedom. New York: Penguin Life, 2024.
Grounded in breathwork and mindfulness, Marie’s book provides tools for healing intergenerational trauma and chronic stress in Black women’s lives. It frames everyday resilience as rooted in intentional care, rest, and reclaiming bodily freedom.

Winters, Mary-Frances. Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2020.
Winters exposes the cumulative toll of systemic racism on health and wellness, coining “Black fatigue” to describe its intergenerational impact. Yet by naming the harm, the book provides pathways toward healing and collective resilience.

Social Justice & Collective Care

Beauboeuf-Lafontant, Tamara. Behind the Mask of the Strong Black Woman: Voice and the Embodiment of a Costly Performance. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009.
A groundbreaking feminist analysis of the “Strong Black Woman” trope, showing how societal expectations of strength create harm. It reframes resilience as allowing vulnerability, voice, and truth.

Gordon, Tamela J. Hood Wellness: Tales of Communal Care from People Who Drowned on Dry Land. Baltimore: Black Odyssey Media, 2022.
Through essays and personal reflection, Gordon amplifies stories of resilience in under-resourced communities. She centers communal care as wellness, showing how everyday acts of support sustain life and hope.

Hersey, Tricia. Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2022.
Founder of The Nap Ministry, Hersey calls rest a form of resistance against grind culture and systemic oppression. The book reframes sleep, leisure, and refusal as radical practices of everyday resilience.

Hersey, Tricia. We Will Rest!: The Art of Escape. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2024.
A poetic continuation of her manifesto, Hersey blends art, spirituality, and activism to declare rest a communal right. She casts resilience as not only individual restoration but collective liberation from exhaustion.

Hersey, Tricia. Rest Is Resistance: Free Yourself from Grind Culture and Reclaim Your Life. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2023.
This companion edition expands on Hersey’s earlier work, offering practical reflections on embracing leisure, joy, and unproductivity. It highlights resilience as a daily rejection of exploitation.

McCullough, Alishia. Reclaiming the Black Body: Nourishing the Home Within. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2022.
McCullough, a therapist and body-justice advocate, weaves narrative and guidance on healing from racialized trauma through body care and nourishment. The book situates resilience in reclaiming the body as sacred home.

Page, Cara, and Erica Woodland. Healing Justice Lineages: Dreaming at the Crossroads of Liberation, Collective Care, and Safety. New York: North Atlantic Books, 2023.
This collection traces the origins and practices of healing justice, highlighting how Black, Indigenous, queer, and disabled communities create safety and care beyond traditional systems. It reframes resilience as communal and collective, rooted in liberation work.

Poetry & Creative Expression

Hill, Jsei, and Milk and Melts. Moments of Her: A Collection of Everyday Life of Black Women in 40 Beautiful Coloring Pages Capturing the Soft Life. Self-published, 2023.
This adult coloring book transforms everyday scenes of leisure into a meditative practice of resilience. By depicting Black women resting, creating, and enjoying joy, it affirms the radical power of softness in the everyday.

Mara J. “Worn but Whole”: Poems of Healing, Black Womanhood, and the Journey to Wholeness. Self-published, 2021.
This poetry collection explores survival and recovery, centering Black womanhood as both scarred and unbreakable. Each piece affirms resilience as beauty in healing and strength in softness.