Horse: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks
I like authors that include a brief "story behind the story" at the end of their works. At the end of Horse, Brooks describes she read about the history of a "forgotten" super horse and its painting along with the story of black jockeys. Some areas of the story were rich in historical details, while others were an opportunity for fictionalization.
Horse contains a few connected story. The primary story is about the horse. It starts out in the antebellum south, with early life of the "black boy" and the horse. His story and that of the horse are continued past the Civil War. This connects the painter who paints the horse with those that take care of the horse. The other story is about a modern scientist who ends up unearthing and studying the bones of the old horse. In both early and modern threads there are multiple views of white on black racisms. Anciently, the treatment of blacks changed (mostly for the worse) after the Civil War. In the modern time, the girl initially thinks of a black man as a thief (because he had the same bike as her.) Later they become friends. He is eventually shot by a police officer as he was helping somebody that fell down. (The officer claims he thought the man was attacking a woman and had a weapon.)
Endling #2: The First. How is that for a confusing title? In this second book, Byx and her friends go on a quest to find other dairnes. They find the first "colony". But there are only two, and one dies after they meet him. They then go on to find a whole colony of them, only to realize they are under siege. Through friendships and subterfuge they are able to get help them out. There is plenty of action ot go around. The story, alas, is a typical fantasy quest.
Endling takes place in a world of sentient animals. There are a few major species that can talk and do magic. The book centers on the adventures of the dairne Byx. They are dog-like creatures that can identify when people are lying. She sneaks off from her family to see the ocean. She encounters a poacher and saves a small creature. When she returns she discovers that her entire family has been destroyed. From there, she goes off with the "quest" with a tracker, and many other animals. They get involved with various palatial intrigue as she hopes to find others of her species.