This list gathers the books that have helped me reflect on friendship, labor, ancestry, and the quiet complexities of being a mother in the South. From Toni Morrison’s spiritual guidance to modern Black and white Southern authors navigating race, class, and kinship, these stories offer comfort, confrontation, and clarity. Whether you’re tracing your genealogy, reckoning with inherited silence, or simply seeking layered portrayals of womanhood, these books are here to hold you.