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The Color of Water by James McBride

The Color of Water

by James McBride
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Readers' Rating (105):
  • First Published:
  • Jan 23, 1996, 228 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Feb 2006, 228 pages
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If you liked The Color of Water, try these:

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    Published Jul 2025

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    From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah's Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them.

  • The Vanishing Half jacket

    The Vanishing Half

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    Published Feb 2022

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    From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.

  • Let It Bang jacket

    Let It Bang

    by RJ Young

    Published Oct 2018

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    The quest, funny and searing, of a young black man learning to shoot—a fascinating odyssey into race, guns, and self-protection in America

  • Passing Strange jacket

    Passing Strange

    by Martha A. Sandweiss

    Published Jan 2010

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    The secret double life of the man who mapped the American West and the woman he loved

  • The Beautiful Struggle jacket

    The Beautiful Struggle

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    Published Jan 2009

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    An exceptional father-son story about the reality that tests us, the myths that sustain us, and the love that saves us.

  • Breaking Clean jacket

    Breaking Clean

    by Judy Blunt

    Published Jan 2003

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    Blunt has turned the memories of her childhood and young adulthood in rural Montana into a beautifully written memoir that is a meditation on how land and her life will always be intertwined. A must read.

  • What You Owe Me jacket

    What You Owe Me

    by Bebe Moore Campbell

    Published Sep 2002

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    A stunning account of the changes in white attitudes toward blacks during the second half of the 20th century and a sensitive look at what betrayal--of friendship and of love--does to us all. Ultimately, this is a moving book about healing.

  • All Over But The Shoutin' jacket

    All Over But The Shoutin'

    by Rick Bragg

    Published Aug 1998

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    The story of a violent, war-haunted, alcoholic father and a strong-willed, loving mother who struggled to protect her three sons from the effects of poverty and ignorance that had tainted her own life.

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