The month brought us blizzards—a blizzard of books that were the reads of the season. One of the biggest is Worse Than a Lie, the debut thriller novel from civil rights attorney Ben Crump. In its pages, attorney Beau Lee Cooper takes on a case to prove a Black man shot by police has been framed.
“My personal hero, Thurgood Marshall, once said, ‘Most people will never get to see what goes on in a courtroom,’ and wrote his legal briefs to be very engaging and instructive. I began writing this novel to engage readers by telling a different kind of story, a civil rights legal thriller,” Crump revealed to EBONY.
“Like Beau Lee Cooper, my team at Ben Crump Law is made up of some of the most dedicated attorneys and advocates who believe wholeheartedly in the work that we do. We fight some of the most difficult civil rights cases in a legal system that is often unfair. Inevitably, my real-life experiences influence my writing, but I’ll leave readers to draw their own conclusions.”
More reads this month have taken us on a historical journey, such as Sadeqa Johnson’s Keeper of Lost Children. The novel, set in post-Germany, explores the world of abandoned mixed-race children of German women and Black American GIs. Kin, by Tayari Jones, explores two divergent paths taken by motherless women through the 1950s and 1960s. We’ve got relationship advice from Da Brat & Judy in their new relationship book, and life guidance making its way from the stars.
Rounding out the month are deep-dive biographies of some of the biggest luminaries of the generation, and sage words of advice from a woman who’s seen it all in her nearly seven decades in Hollywood.
Here are seven books, out this February, that deserve a spot on your nightstand.
Price: $30
