Boundless Press | The Nickel Boys: A Novel
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The Nickel Boys: A Novel
Colson Whitehead
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PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER
This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
“One of the most gifted novelists in America today.” —NPR
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.
Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers and “should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation's best” (Entertainment Weekly).
Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, coming soon!
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Posts about this title from Boundless Press
Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Apr 15 2025
POV: the books are less than $10 so you have to buy them all 😭 a book haul
I should not be allowed near a bookstore.
15 books
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Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Nov 24 2022
all the eBooks on my eReader | my DIGITAL TBR
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48 books
Posts about this book from across Bindery
She's Becoming Bookish\ \ Carlie Dayle\ \ • Jul 4
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Happy Birthday, America! Honoring 250 Years thru HistFic
You can’t tell America’s story without sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly.
So, in honor of America’s 250th Anniversary, I decided to zoom out beyond the American Revolution to tell the story of our country through social and political movements & events.
Books on this list vary from wildly popular recent releases to more obscure titles with some classic books and prize winning fiction.
What books would you add to this list?
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#historicalfictionbooks #historicalfiction #america250 #bookstoread #readingrecommendations
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Sydney in Books | Thrillers, Mysteries & More\ \ Sydney \ \ • May 4
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My first quarter, but make it extremely nerdy! Here is my Q1 Instagram Power Point!
How was the first few months of your year?
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(VIDEO) 6 Reviews for the Books I Read in February + March Book Club Winners!
6 books, 2200 pages, 3.92 average rating, let's review the six books I read in February from both nonfiction and fiction genres!
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(EARLY ACCESS VIDEO) January Reading Wrap-Up + February TBR!
Slow reading month in January for me but we still have 4 full book reviews to get into plus some other media recommendations AND what I have lined up to read in February!
Join our Bindery community of book-reading Sickos: https://kistreadsbooks.binderybooks.com/membership/ Get Audible (Affiliate - I earn commission): https://amzn.to/48ai7g2 Check out my wife's homemade bookmarks: https://kiststudio.etsy.com Follow my other efforts across various platforms: https://linktr.ee/michaelkist
0:00 Other Media Recs 4:27 Blood in the Water 6:31 Flower Moon 8:04 Razorblade Tears 10:25 Slow Days Fast Company 12:24 February TBR
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Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • Jan 21
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[Hey, hey you, the book club options for February are here! I was going to shoot a video for this but I figured I'd switch it up give you first peek and put up the votes in the Discord serverright away.\ \ As some of the folk in the Discord know, I've gone full dictator for the History Sickos Book Club for next month. I was reading Fear & Fury by Heather Ann Thompson, loving it, and stopped a little over halfway through so we could discuss it next month. I'm also setting up an interview with the author for sometime in February so you can submit questions. Mine was an advanced reader copy and the official release date is January 27. In return for being a dictator on this round I'll figure something out for another month where we do something community-based for selecting options like we've done in the past.\ \ For the Fiction Sickos Book Club, here are the options with quick blurbs on what they're about.\ \ THE BLUEST EYE by TONI MORRISON\ \
In Morrison’s acclaimed first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.\ \ THE NICKEL BOYS by COLSON WHITEHEAD\ \ When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.\ \ ALLEGEDLY by TIFFANY D. JACKSON\ \ Mary B. Addison killed a baby.\ \ Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it?\ \ There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary’s fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?\ \ CROOKED PLOW by ITAMAR VIEIRA JUNIOR\ \ Deep in Brazil's neglected Bahia hinterland, two sisters find an ancient knife beneath their grandmother's bed and, momentarily mystified by its power, decide to taste its metal. The shuddering violence that follows marks their lives and binds them together forever.\ \ I'm putting this vote up in the Discord right now! Also, if you're struggling to find access to these on Spotify/Libby or whatever you use, Audible has a deal going on right now for new/lapsed members (super full flag waving disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I do earn commissions).\ \ Also a reminder that our imprints first book release, A Complement of Scoundrels by S.V. Lockwood is available for pre-order! A lot of people have asked what if there's a Best Place to pre-order it from, and while it's available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and others, I know a good deal of people prefer pre-ordering it from Bookshop dot org because it supports independent bookstores. but ultimately you do you boo. And marking it as "Want to Read" (and maybe leaving a sneaky 5 star rating/review re: your excitement level if you so choose to do so) on Goodreads is a great signal for retailers.\ \ Upgrade for $5 or login](https://kistreadsbooks.binderybooks.com/item/DTYUu78paDaDippBORyA/)
February Book Club Options + Stuff!
6 books
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Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Apr 15 2025
POV: the books are less than $10 so you have to buy them all 😭 a book haul
I should not be allowed near a bookstore.
15 books
7
Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Nov 24 2022
all the eBooks on my eReader | my DIGITAL TBR
#CASETiFY #CASETiFYHaul #casetifypartner
Sant Reads' channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/SantReads
other places to find me 🤍 my website: https://www.jananiekvelu.com/ 🤍 my series # EpicBookRecs on the Epic Reads Channel: https://bit.ly/2XziOfz
💌 for business/sponsorship inquiries please contact eric@smallscreenmarketing.com 💌 for all other inquiries please contact me at thisstoryaintover@gmail.com
faqs 🤍 how do you pronounce your name? - my name is Jananie—pronounced JEN-nah-nee (like a knee!)
🤍 what's your background/ethnicity/etc? - both my parents are Sri Lankan Tamil, and I was born and raised in Canada!
🤍 what is your job? - aside from youtube I also work in product marketing!
48 books
WPD Books\ \ William\ \ • Nov 1 2022
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An Excellent Short Novel that deals directly and expertly with themes of abuse and injustice. Colson Whitehead is one of ghe greatest living writers. Period. I strongly recommend that you try this or any of his novels. #bookrecommendations #booktok #colsonwhitehead #thenickelboys #pulitzerprizewinner
1 book
WPD Books\ \ William\ \ • Oct 15 2022
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A shipment of childhood books is laying siege to my floor space one stack at a time. There are still more boxes to unpack. Send help
32 books
WPD Books\ \ William\ \ • Sep 5 2022
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3 Acclaimed novels under 250 pages #booktok #bookrecommendations #colsonwhitehead #thesunalsorises #thenickelboys #hemingway #asilaydying #faulkner
3 books