“The Price of Exclusion: The Pursuit of Healthcare in a Segregated Nation” by Nicole Carr, c.2026, Dey Street, $30.00, 304 pages

“A Terrible Strength: The Hidden Crisis of the Black Womb & Your Survival Guide to Healing” by Kemi Doll, MD, MSCR, c.2026, Harmony Books, $28.99, 320 pages

Seven thousand steps.

That’s what researchers say you need each day for optimal health, about three miles of walking, stair-climbing or running. It’s a lot, but you do what you can to stay healthy, right? Well, maybe it’s time to check out our picks for books aimed at African American readers to help you on your health and wellness journey.

At some point in the near future, you should make your annual appointment with your primary care physician, who will have the requisite training and credentials to provide routine healthcare and advice for disease prevention, and diagnose and treat common conditions. But you may also need to consider what your doctor looks like before choosing one to care for you.

In “The Price of Exclusion: The Pursuit of Healthcare in a Segregated Nation,” author Nicole Carr examines the impact of race on healthcare and patient outcomes, and how the shortage of Black doctors in the U.S. could affect your health – in unhealthy ways.

Systemic racism has led to significant health inequalities for Black people in the past 170 years in U.S. medical schools and hospitals, posits Carr. Black researchers, who advocated for better care for Black patients, were ignored or their work was seized and subsumed by others, leaving Black patients’ health outcomes vulnerable to the vagaries of subpar care. For their part, Black doctors have fought back for themselves and for their patients. And historically Black medical schools have trained more Black doctors than predominantly White institutions for more than a century. But change has been slow.

Told through the lens of her great-grandfather’s early 20th century experiences as a physician, “The Price of Exclusion: The Pursuit of Healthcare in a Segregated Nation” is a lively and interesting must-read for anyone hoping to overcome barriers to quality healthcare and pursue a long, healthy life.

Still, for Black women, the struggle for effective medical care is different. And more urgent. 

In “A Terrible Strength: The Hidden Crisis of the Black Womb & Your Survival Guide to Healing,” Kemi Doll, a surgeon who specializes in reproductive cancers, describes the rampant racism directed at Black women that she has witnessed throughout her career, from implicit bias in charting – documents created by doctors to track a patient’s medical history and care – to less-effective pain management and lower-quality treatment protocols. When a Black woman gets pregnant, she puts herself at risk of developing serious health complications or even dying, because of unequal access to quality healthcare.

“A Terrible Strength: The Hidden Crisis of the Black Womb & Your Survival Guide to Healing” offers a series of cautionary tales augmented by persuasive data analyses and helpful advice to empower Black women to advocate for themselves. 

Carr’s and Doll’s books are heart-rending, but enlightening and instructive, and worth keeping as companions for visits to the doctor.