Like One of the Family by Alice Childress, 221 pages

This was a collection of short stories that originally dated from the late 1950s by a African-American writer. It's Mildred, who's a domestic in New York, talking to her friend, Marge, about a variety of subjects and topics. This was pretty shocking when it came out, and is still compelling. No matter how far the world has come in race relations, we still have a long way to go it seems.