Toni Morrison recorded all of her books. It is incredible to hear her read her words in her own voice. Morrison is poetry. It is difficult to choose just one book to recommend; I highly recommend that you read and/or listen to all of Morrison's work. But a good place to start is Beloved. This is one of Oprah's book club selections, and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. It is the beginning of a loose, Dante-esque trilogy of African American history, taking place mainly just after the Civil War and followed by Jazz and Paradise. Beloved is centered around a powerful mother-daughter relationship, and from there branches out, touching slavery, love, manhood, girlhood, spirituality and so much more. Besides her brilliant language and cardinal subject matter, the real reason to read Morrison is that each of her characters lives and breathes. Reading about Sethe, Paul D, Denver, Baby Suggs, and Beloved is rich--I still think about them regularly. I was so moved by this book, that I made a painting inspired its places and events.Publisher description:
After Paul D. finds his old slave friend Sethe in Ohio and moves in with her and her daughter Denver, a strange girl comes along by the name of "Beloved." Sethe and Denver take her in and then strange things start to happen.