Welcome to Litsy!

Really overly excited about this massive #bookhaul from a used bookstore in Philly.

Yes, all of this fiction counts as rare as per my 2025 reading challenge. 😬😬😳😳🤪🤪

A very compelling story blending the genre of sentimental abolitionist novel with slave narrative to question the caste system of race in post civil war America. Iola was almost too good for me. I hated how her story was told through the men in the novel but loved the story, told with grace, although it addressed the darkest and most disgusting part of a deeply American institution, one were still reckoning with today.

📸 by Philip Evergood

This book should be better known! It‘s one of the first novels written by an African American woman, and it‘s a delight. Iola, the main character, is raised and educated as a white woman, but discovers that she has African blood when her white father dies and his cousin and heir has her mother‘s manumission declared illegal. Many of the main characters could pass for white but heroically choose not to. There are also strong Christian themes and…

finished book 2 for my african american literature class!