Books by Toni Morrison and Complete Book Reviews

Toni Morrison. Holt, $5.95 (164p) ISBN 978-0-03-085074-5
It’s difficult enough to be poor and black, but to be poor, black, defenseless, and ugly, even in the eyes of other black people, is almost unbearable. Such is the fate of Pecola Breedlove, an 11-year-old girl growing up in Ohio in 1941. Unloved by...
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Toni Morrison, Author Random House Audio $25.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-375-40179-4
So intense and evocative in its particulars, so wide-ranging in its arch, this is another, if imperfect, triumph for the Nobel Prize-winning author (Song of Solomon; Beloved; etc.). In 1950, a core group of nine old families leaves the increasingly...
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Toni Morrison, Author Vintage Books USA $13 (112p) ISBN 978-0-679-74542-6
Novelist Morrison takes a turn as a literary critic, examining the American literary imagination and finding it obsessed with the white/black polarity. (Aug.)
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Toni Morrison, Author Plume Books $8.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-452-26136-5
``Mixed with the lyric beauty of the writing, the fury in Morrison's . . . book is almost palpable,'' asserted PW of this Pulitzer Prize-winning ``haunting chronicle of slavery and its aftermath'' set in rural Ohio in the wake of the Civil War. The `
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Toni Morrison, Author Knopf Publishing Group $29.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-394-53597-5
Mixed with the lyric beauty of the writing, the fury in Morrison's (Song of Solomon) latest book is almost palpable. Set in rural Ohio several years after the Civil War, this haunting chronicle of slavery and its aftermath traces the life of a young
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Toni Morrison, Author Signet Book $5.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-451-16139-0
Set in post-Civil War Ohio, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel concerns a runaway slave and her daughter, whose lives are disrupted by a former slave, a spirit and a woman named Beloved. According to PW, this ``brilliantly conceived story . . ....
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Toni Morrison, Author Alfred A Knopf Inc $25 (318p) ISBN 978-0-679-43374-3
So intense and evocative in its particulars, so wide-ranging in its arch, this is another, if imperfect, triumph for the Nobel Prize-winning author (Song of Solomon; Beloved; etc.). In 1950, a core group of nine old families leaves the increasingly...
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Toni Morrison, Author Plume Books $12.95 (229p) ISBN 978-0-452-26965-1
Morrison's authoritative novel--a BOMC main selection and a 17-week PW bestseller in cloth--tells the story of three intersecting tragic lives, and adroitly uses the motif of jazz to make palpable the feel and excitement of Harlem in the 1920s. (Apr.
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Toni Morrison. Knopf, $24 (160p) ISBN 978-0-307-59416-7
In Pulitzer and Nobel Prize–winner Morrison’s immaculate new novel (after A Mercy), Frank Money returns from the horrors of the Korean War to an America that’s just as poor and just as racist as the country he fled. Frank’s only remaining connection
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Toni Morrison, Author , read by the author. Random House Audio $29.95 (
, unabridged, five CDs, 6.5 hrs., $29.95 ISBN ) ISBN 978-0-7393-3254-2
Some authors make mediocre readers, but Nobel Prize–winning Toni Morrison is certainly not among them. Her husky voice, lyrical rhythms and precise timing—especially of pauses within sentences or even phrases—give clarity and...
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Toni Morrison, Author . Knopf $23.95 (176p) ISBN 978-0-307-26423-7
Nobel laureate Morrison returns more explicitly to the net of pain cast by slavery, a theme she detailed so memorably in Beloved . Set at the close of the 17th century, the book details America’s untoward foundation: dominion over Native...
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Toni Morrison, Author . Houghton $18 (78p) ISBN 978-0-618-39740-2
Assembling more than 50 photographs depicting segregation, school scenes and events prior to and following the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education , Morrison (Who's Got Game? ) writes that "because remembering is the...
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Toni Morrison, Author . Knopf $23.95 (208p) ISBN 978-0-375-40944-8
At the center of this haunting, slender eighth novel by Nobel winner Morrison is the late Bill Cosey—entrepreneur, patriarch, revered owner of the glorious Cosey Hotel and Resort (once "the best and best-known vacation spot for colored...
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Toni Morrison, read by the author. Random House Audio, unabridged. Four CDs, 4.5 hrs., $30 ISBN 978-0-307-74899-7
Set in the 1950s American South, Morrison's latest follows Frank Money, a troubled, African-American veteran as he tries to rebuild his life after the Korean War, overcome rampant racism, and care for his ailing sister in the hometown he tried to...
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Toni Morrison, Author, Toni Morrison, Read by , read by the author. Random House Audio $34.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7393-0698-7
More a tapestry than a novel, Morrison's newest weaves the past into the present using perspectives as threads and voices as color. The author's soft voice forces listeners to pay close attention; even so, the novel's complex...
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Toni Morrison, Author, Slade Morrison, Joint Author, Pascal Lemaitre, Illustrator Hyperion Books $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-7868-0540-2
""This is a book about mean people,"" opens the mother-son team's second collaboration (after The Big Box). The narrative begins as a series of statements about cruelty, but Lema tre (Emily the Giraffe) cleverly fashions the declaratives as...
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Toni Morrison, Author, Slade Morrison, Joint Author, Pascal Lemaitre, Illustrator Hyperion Books $4.99 (64p) ISBN 978-0-7868-0895-3
With any luck, best friends won't end up as entries in My Book of Mean People Journal by Toni and Slade Morrison, illus. by Pascal Lema tre. The compact, spiral-bound offering serves as a companion to The Book of Mean People (Children's Forecasts,
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Toni Morrison, Author, Slade Morrison, Author, Toni Morrison, Read by , read by Toni Morrison. Simon & Schuster Audio $9.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7435-6419-9
Renowned novelist Morrison delivers her hip-hop–inspired interpretations of three of Aesop's fables (previously published as picture books, co-created with her son) in a gentle, melodious style. In "Who's Got Game?: The Grasshopper
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Toni Morrison, Author, Slade Morrison, Author, Pascal Lemaitre, Illustrator , illus. by Pascal Lemaître. S&S/Scribner $16.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7432-2247-1
Aesop's freewheeling Grasshopper and industrious Ant become "Foxy G and his ace Kid A" in this witty, hip-hop–inspired update by the Morrisons and Lemaître (who previously teamed up in The Book of Mean People). In comic-book
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Toni Morrison, Author, Slade Morrison, Author, Pascal Lemaitre, Illustrator Scribner Book Company $17.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7432-2249-5
A smattering of picture books contribute to existing series. Mother and son collaborators Toni and Slade Morrison bring forth another modern take on an Aesop fable in Who's Got Game? Poppy or the Snake, illus. by Pascal Lemaetre. Poppy tells his
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Toni Morrison, Author, Slade Morrison, Author, Pascal Lemaitre, Illustrator Scribner Book Company $16.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7432-2248-8
A boastful king of beasts gets a thorn in his paw and lets a timid mouse pull it. Afterward, the two reverse roles; the lion learns humility, but the mouse becomes a power-mad bully. Once again the audience must decide ""who's got game,"" or who'
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Toni Morrison and Slade Morrison, illus. by Joe Cepeda, S&S/Wiseman, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-8334-7
In the Morrisons' updated version of this Aesop's fable, Jimi Hare and Jamey Tortoise try to spin their story with the media before the race. "But what story pleases your readers the most," Jamey asks a reporter, "the winner who loses or the loser...
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Toni Morrison, Author, Slade Morrison, Author, Joe Cepeda, Illustrator , illus. by Joe Cepeda. S&S/Wiseman $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-8332-3
“12:00 Lunch, 1:15 Nap, 2:25 Playground...” read Mama's instructions, posted to the fridge. But when three children spend the afternoon with Nana, the schedule is forgotten. No TV for them: it's stories (“Fairies, dragons
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Toni Morrison, Author, Slade Morrison, Author, Sean Qualls, Illustrator , illus. by Sean Qualls. S&S/Wiseman $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-8523-5
The Morrisons (Peeny Butter Fudge ) examine the problem of being part of a group while maintaining one's identity. Quietly rebellious Little Cloud will not join the other clouds, who want to “terrify the earth with storm and thunder.”
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Toni Morrison, Author, Carolyn C. Denard, Editor . Univ. Press of Mississippi $30 (215p) ISBN 978-1-60473-017-3
Although Morrison’s powerful novels on race and identity have secured her literary reputation, the commanding voice of her essays, speeches and reviews offers compelling insights into family, history, other writers and politics. The pieces...
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Toni Morrison, Author, Nellie Y. McKay, With, Michael Thelwell, With Pantheon Books $15 (512p) ISBN 978-0-679-74145-9
As Morrison (Jazz) writes in her pointed opening essay, the Thomas controversy last year both raised and buried issues of profound national significance. This collection of 19 essays, mostly by academics, powerfully advances the debate, though...
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Toni Morrison, Author, Giselle Potter, Illustrator, Slade Morrison, With Hyperion Books $19.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-7868-0416-0
Nobel laureate Morrison's debut book for children unfortunately shows little of the childlike perspective that so masterfully informs The Bluest Eye. This enigmatic tale, written in verse, is inspired by a story made up by Morrison's then nine-year-o
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Toni Morrison, Author, Slade Morrison, With, Giselle Potter, Illustrator with Slade Morrison, illus. by Giselle Potter. Hyperion/Jump at the Sun $6.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-7868-1291-2
In what PW called "a social commentary on childhood," two girls and a boy live in a "big brown box" with a door that has "three big locks"; they have been sent there by adults who think they "can't handle their...
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Toni Morrison. Knopf, $24.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-307-59417-4
In Morrison's short, emotionally-wrenching novel, her first since 2012's Home, a mother learns about the damage adults do to children and the choices children make as they grow to suppress, express, or overcome their shame. The story begins with the
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Toni Morrison. Knopf, $27.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-525-52103-7
Some superb pieces headline this rich, if perhaps overstocked, collection of primarily spoken addresses and tributes by Nobel laureate Morrison. Many are prescient and highly relevant to the present political moment. For example, Morrison alludes in
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Toni Morrison, read by the author. Random House Audio, , unabridged, 5 CDs, 6 hrs., $30 ISBN 978-0-307-74908-6
Morrison’s latest novel finds adults struggling to overcome the emotional scars of childhood. The story begins with the birth of Lula Ann Bridewell, a deep blue-black-skinned baby whose light-skinned mother cannot stand to touch her. Grown-up Lula...
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Toni Morrison. Harvard Univ., $22.95 (133p) ISBN 978-0-674-97645-0
Based on the 2016 Charles Norton Lecture series at Harvard University, the latest work of nonfiction by Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize–winning novelist Morrison analyzes the language of race and racism and the classification of people into dehumanizing...
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Toni Morrison, edited by Davíd Carrasco, Stephanie Paulsell, and Mara Willard. Univ. of Virginia, $27.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-8139-4362-6
This eloquent, wide-ranging collection comprises Morrison’s 2012 Ingersoll lecture at Harvard Divinity School, “Goodness: Altruism and the Literary Imagination”; scholarly essays on her fiction; and a spirited interview with the late novelist. In...
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Toni Morrison. Knopf, $16 (96p) ISBN 978-0-593-31503-3
Originally published in 1983, this stunning work from Nobel laureate Morrison (God Help the Child) follows two women who share a tenuous bond after meeting at an orphanage at eight in the 1950s. As Zadie Smith notes in an illuminating introduction,...
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Toni Morrison and Slade Morrison, illus. by Shadra Strickland. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-8338-5
The Morrisons (The Tortoise or the Hare) don’t just champion the act of reading: they explain what it does. Reading is valuable, they explain, because it banishes fear. “Scary thoughts are your creation/ when you have no information.” Louise, an...
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ARTICLES
  • Toni Morrison: 'Part of the business of editing is telling people to shut up'
  • Penguin Random House’s All Ways Black Collective Battles Book Bans
  • Toni and Slade Morrison Picture Book Celebrates 20 Years
  • Toni Morrison: 'Part of the business of editing is telling people to shut up'
  • Penguin Random House’s All Ways Black Collective Battles Book Bans
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