Hannah Brunswick, co-owner of Blackbird Books & Coffee in Downtown Raleigh’s City Market, recommends poetry, thrillers and reads from Black, Indigenous and queer authors.
by Ayn-Monique Klahre

Brunswick opened Blackbird Books & Coffee with her sister-in-law, Bre, in 2023. Nestled in the City Market district, the shop has a curated collection of books focused on minority authors.

What kinds of books do you gravitate toward, generally?

I usually gravitate towards the horror genre, but I am open to any books that tackle a difficult or thought-provoking topic.

What book are you reading right now?

How to Defend Books and Why: Book Bans and How We Fight Them by Danny Caine. 

What is the best light read you’ve enjoyed recently?

While I don’t read many books generally considered to be a “beach read,” I did enjoy We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart. It’s a short novel about queerness, desire, love, and coming to know yourself. The lyrical writing to tell a simple story really moved me, and I found it to be a great metaphor for how some experiences in life are determined just by how we choose to perceive them. I read it in one sitting at the pool!

What’s the best heavier book you’ve read recently?

I always recommend Model Home by Rivers Solomon, one of my favorite authors. It’s a haunted-house story with a diverse range of characters you’ll deeply care for and sometimes hate. I love how this novel takes your typical horror tropes and bends them into an incredible exploration of racism, grief and trauma. I tell folks to practice self care while reading this one because it is heavy!

What is a classic/older book that you either always recommend, or have read many times?

I, like many others, have been revisiting the works of George Orwell lately, and I always think it’s a good idea to read the books that come to mind when the world starts to look like something you read about once before…

What is a book by a Raleigh or North Carolina author that you’d recommend?

If I can pivot to a different genre here, I’d love to recommend About Time by Neil Hilborn. This is a collection of poetry by an NC author who hosts The Raleigh Poetry Slam with us at Blackbird! Neil’s poems have a way of making you laugh and cry at the same time, which is something I think is hard to find in poetry and in life, and something I deeply appreciate in a book.

Visit Blackbird Books & Coffee at 323 Blake Street or online at blackbirdbooksandcoffee.com.

This article first appeared in the August 2026 issue of WALTER Magazine.