I picked this one for the nostalgia. Late nineties, early two thousands, hip hop magazine world, what could be more fun? Instead, I got pulled into something a lot heavier than a summer read, and we're talking through all of it today.

"If I Ruled the World" follows Nikki Rose from a young staffer caught in an affair with a much older, married publisher, through years of microaggressions at a mainstream magazine, all the way to her own seat as Editor-in-Chief at Sugar. Along the way, she learns the hard way that getting promoted and getting protected are two very different things, and that naming what happened to you is sometimes the only way to finally move past it.

A quick note before you press play: this episode discusses s*xual as**ult in detail, since it's central to the book itself. Take care of yourself first.

I'm also breaking from our usual sound this episode, swapping my intro and outro for old school hip hop instrumentals to match the era we're talking about today.

Up next month: our first mystery thriller pick, "The Fervent Whites" by De'Shawn Charles Winslow.

Because the stories are Black, the voices are rich, and the plot always thickens. Like and Subscribe!

In this episode of The Ink is Black, host Tiffani Staten digs into Tolani Akinola's debut novel, Leave Your Mess at Home: a Nigerian-American family drama about four adult siblings, a decade of buried secrets, and one very consequential Thanksgiving. This episode contains full spoilers and discusses heavy themes including SA, emotional and physical abuse, and the sudden death of a loved one.

Tiffani explores each sibling's arc, the mother's obsession with appearances, and the quiet devastation of a father who stayed silent too long. At the center of it all is one word: compromise. And the question the book keeps asking is whether the peace we fight to keep is ever really worth the price.

Two girls. Same wound. Completely different fates. In Tayari Jones' Kin, it's not just motherlessness that shapes Niecy and Annie. It's what Honeysuckle, Louisiana decides each girl's loss is worth. This episode digs into respectability politics, the mothers who showed up flawed and anyway, and what it costs a community when it decides some girls don't deserve grace. Spoilers included. Trigger warning: unsafe abortion, pregnancy loss, childhood abandonment, and trauma. Next month: Leave Your Mess at Home by Tolani Akinola.

This month, we're celebrating Women's History Month with a read that hit differently. "With Love from Harlem" by ReShonda Tate is the story of Hazel Scott: jazz prodigy, film star, civil rights warrior, and one of the most famous Black women in America. A woman who made history as the first Black person to host her own national television show. A woman who was brilliant, bold, and completely on fire.

And then she met Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

In this episode, we're getting into all of it: the love, the sacrifice, the cost of building your life inside someone else's ambition, and what it really means to choose yourself when everything around you is asking you not to. We're also talking about McCarthyism, erasure, and the devastating truth that Hazel Scott didn't just lose her show. She was nearly scrubbed from history entirely.

This one got personal. And I think it might for you too.

⚠️ Spoiler alert: This episode discusses the full arc of the novel, including the ending. If you haven't finished the book yet, read it first and come back. I'll be here.

Next month's read: Kin by Tayari Jones.

She's a full-figured Dominican doctor in Victorian England. He's a newly titled Duke with something to prove. And together, they are absolutely not playing around.

This month on The Ink is Black, we're diving into Adriana Herrera's A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke, book four in the Las Leonas series, and honey, this one has layers. Yes, there's a love story. Yes, it's a good one. But underneath all that romance is a woman named Aurora who has been carrying things most people never knew she was holding.

We're talking about what it means to be Black in white spaces, to be a woman fighting for other women's bodies while the world tries to make decisions about your own, and what happens when the person who hurt you never stopped hurting people until someone finally stood in the way.

This episode includes a spoiler discussion and addresses themes of sexual grooming, abortion, and reproductive rights. Please listen with care and skip ahead if you need to.

And stay until the end, because March is coming, and we're heading to Harlem, Next up: With Love from Harlem: A Novel of Hazel Scott.

Season 2 kicks off with Edwina Findley Dickerson's The World Is Waiting for You: part memoir, part spiritual guide, all about stepping into the life you were called to live. Host Tiffani Staten unpacks Edwina's journey from poverty to purpose, the power of strategic faith moves, and why your calling is bigger than just you. It's about lineage, service, and legacy. If you're setting intentions for the new year or wondering what's next, this episode meets you exactly where you are. Plus, get a sneak peek at February's pick: A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera. Because the stories are Black, the voices are rich, and the plot always thickens.

Host Tiffani Staten digs into People Person by Candice Carty-Williams, a wild and heartfelt story about five half-siblings who are forced together after a violent incident and must decide what family truly means.

Through humor, chaos, and painful honesty, the siblings confront their absent father, grow into chosen roles, and learn that being a "people person" is about presence and acceptance, not charm. Like & Subscribe!

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Host Tiffani Staten reviews Cebo Campbell’s Sky Full of Elephants, a speculative novel that explores a post‑racial dystopia after an event causes white people to drown themselves. The episode addresses heavy themes, including suicide, generational trauma, identity, and the damage of internalized racism.

Staten reflects on characters’ journeys toward self‑actualization, the novel’s vision of a thriving Black community (the kingdom of Alabama), and the importance of collective healing, cooperative economics, and imagining liberation. The episode closes with a preview of December’s pick, People Person by Candace Carty-Williams.