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African American Literature Book Club - The #1 Site for "Readers of Black Literature" |
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2004 begins our 7th full year selling books
on-line. Commissions generated through book sales help support the
AALBC.com and
Thumper's Corner web
sites. We sincerely appreciate you business! AALBC.com's 10 Best Selling Books for 2003 |
| #1
by Monroe, Mary Format: Paperback, 352pp. Mary Monroe, the acclaimed author of The Upper Room, has had her work praised as "warm, energetic, and charming" by the Houston Post and "magnificent" by the San Francisco Chronicle. Now, in her new novel, God Don't Like Ugly, she brings back to life the bond between two girls from opposite sides of the track and the shattering event that changes their lives forever. Set in Ohio during the 50's, 60's and 70's, this richly-drawn
coming-of-age tale is about a sexually abused young black woman and the
beautiful and diabolical best friend who comes to her rescue. Resonating
with clear-eyed wit and uncompromising honesty, it is a tale of endurance,
hope and triumph, full of laughter and pure enjoyment. |
| #2
ISBN:
0375411550 The Bluest Eye is the first novel by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. A work of profound insight into the nature of desire and the hunger we harbor to escape our own histories, this novel -- about a black girl from the author's home town of Loraine, Ohio, who wished her eyes would turn blue -- announced the arrival of a literary genius on the American scene. One would be hard pressed to say which of Morrison's books is her best, but undoubtedly The Bluest Eye is among them. The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove - a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others - who 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.
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| #3
by Zelda Lockhart ISBN: 0743412656 When Odessa Blackburn is three years old, she sees her grandmother for the last time, and so begins her story as the fifth born of eight children in a troubled family. Molested by her father, Odessa is also the sole witness to a murder he commits. Her mother guards both secrets and joins her husband in ostracizing their fifth born from the rest of her siblings. As Odessa grows, so do her troubles. She ultimately separates herself from her parents and siblings into a new reality that prompts memory and revelation. Her choices for survival provoke an outcome that will forever alter the carefully maintained lies of her childhood. Zelda Lockhart's Fifth Born is lyrically written, poignant and powerful
in its exploration of how secrets can tear families apart and unravel
people's lives. Set in rural Mississippi and St. Louis, Missouri, Fifth
Born is a story of loss and redemption, as Odessa walks away from
those who she believes to be her kin to discover the meaning of family.
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#4
Format: Paperback, 114pp. Williams is one of AALBC.com's top selling authors of all time Hailed as "a dreadlocked dervish of words...the Bob Marley of American poets" (Esquire), Saul Williams is a gifted young poet who is opening up this literary art form to a new generation of readers. Like his writing -- a fearless mix of connecting rhythms and vibrant images -- Saul Williams is unstoppable. He received raves for his performance as an imprisoned street poet in the Trimark Pictures release Slam, winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes and the Grand Jury prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. The consummate spoken-word performance artist, Williams has also been signed by producer Rick Rubin to record a CD of his poetry. She is a fascinating and unique collection of interconnected
poems by this multi-talented star -- and marks the beginning of an
incredible and totally original artistic career. |
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#5
Format:
Hardcover, 368pp. Douglass' Women reimagines
the lives of an American hero, Frederick Douglass, and two women - his
wife and his mistress - who loved him and lived in his shadow. Anna
Douglass, a free woman of color, was Douglass' wife of forty-four years,
who bore him five children. Ottilie Assing, a German-Jewish intellectual,
provided him the companionship of the mind that he needed. Hurt by
Douglass' infidelity, Anna rejected his notion that only literacy freed
the mind. For her, familial love rivaled intellectual pursuits. Ottilie
was raised by parents who embraced the ideal of free love, but found
herself entrapped in an unfulfilling love triangle with America's most
famous self-taught slave for nearly three decades. |
| #6
by Greg Tate (Editor) ISBN: 0767908082 White kids from the ’burbs are throwing up gang signs. The 2001 Grammy winner for best rap artist was as white as rice. And blond-haired sorority sisters are sporting FUBU gear. What is going on in American culture that’s giving our nation a racial-identity crisis? Following the trail blazed by Norman Mailer’s controversial essay “The White Negro,” Everything but the Burden brings together voices from music, popular culture, the literary world, and the media speaking about how from Brooklyn to the Badlands white people are co-opting black styles of music, dance, dress, and slang. In this collection, the essayists examine how whites seem to be taking on, as editor Greg Tate’s mother used to tell him, “everything but the burden”–from fetishizing black athletes to spinning the ghetto lifestyle into a glamorous commodity. Is this a way of shaking off the fear of the unknown? A flattering indicator of appreciation? Or is it a more complicated cultural exchange? The pieces in Everything but the Burden explore the line between hero-worship and paternalism. Among the book’s twelve essays are Vernon Reid’s “Steely Dan Understood
as the Apotheosis of ‘The White Negro,’” Carl Hancock Rux’s “The Beats:
America’s First ‘Wiggas,’” and Greg Tate’s own introductory essay “Nigs ’R
Us.” Other contributors include: Hilton Als, Beth Coleman, Tony Green,
Robin Kelley, Arthur Jafa, Gary Dauphin, Michaela Angela Davis, dream
hampton, and Manthia diAwara. |
| #7
by Carl Weber ISBN: 1575669080 Read the AALBC.com Book Review Older sister Jasmine, a postal worker in Richmond, Virginia, is working hard, saving money, and waiting for the right man to walk into her life. And in fine-dressing, smooth-talking attorney Derrick, she thinks she’s found him. Derrick is generous, gorgeous, and oh-so-sexy. But all it takes is some pointed questions from Jasmine’s shrewd granny Big Momma to expose her man as nothing more than a lying, drug-dealing hustler. Refusing to admit she’s been played, Jasmine chooses to remain faithful to Derrick while he’s doing time. That is, until she finds him in a clinch on visiting day with his baby’s momma, Wendy. Derrick’s big mistake with Wendy pushes Jasmine even further toward the arms of good friend—and good man—Dylan. But when yet another baby momma comes into the picture, Jasmine will have to decide whether the right love is worth the complications that come with it… Little sister Stephanie is looking for a good time, not a good man, although she finds both in sweet, loyal Travis. Before she knows it, a one-night fling has turned into a three-year relationship. But then, Malek, Stephanie’s sexy high school sweetheart and the father of her adorable son, swings back into town…and that wild part of her wants another taste of the one that got away. Right in the middle of wedding planning, Stephanie falls into a crazy affair with Malek—one that could destroy the best thing that ever happened to her. Big Momma tries to keep Stephanie’s little family together, but a woman has to take care of her own life…and for Stephanie, part of keeping things real will be learning how to lie in the bed she made for herself. Now that she’s the momma, maybe it’s time to start acting like a grownup… The crazier things get, the more Jasmine and Stephanie realize how much
they actually have in common—and how much they have to learn from one
another. Because when it comes to sorting out life and love, no sister is
perfect, but real sisters are forever… |
|
#8
by Salome Thomas-El, Cecil Murphey (Contributor) The challenges of working in an urban school are
not for every teacher. Some get burnt out fast. Some lose sight of why
they started teaching to begin with. Some find their calling in other
neighborhoods…with other kids. But not Salome Thomas-EL. A teacher at
Roberts Vaux Middle School in Philadelphia’s inner city, he chose to stay.
Gripping, poignant, and surprisingly honest, this is his blistering
real-life tale of mentoring and making a difference—and of how the
reformation of America’s educational system can start with just one
school. |
| #9
Format: Paperback, 124pp. A message from the publisher about What Next In What Next, Walter Mosley -- New York Times bestselling author -- has
crafted a deeply personal and political proposal, offering a commonsense
approach to the challenge of finding world peace in a post-9/11 world.
Mosley recalls his father’s story about not feeling like an American until
German soldiers shot at him during World War II. Now the younger Mosley
explores what the terrorist attacks meant to him, and challenges African
Americans to use their unique position to help create a new kind of peace
between the U.S. and the rest of the world. What Next examines this and
other questions in a powerful polemic and call to action for African
Americans and freedom-loving people everywhere. |
| #10
by Kevin Powell ISBN: 0609810448 In three mind-jolting essays by one of the most passionate and
eloquent voices of his generation, Who's Gonna Take the Weight? by Kevin
Powell leads us to the heart of the searing issues facing us today, from
manhood, violence, and gender oppression to celebrity culture and hip-hop.
Using compelling personal stories as the connecting thread, he examines
what this nation has become since the monumental upheavals of the 1960s
and where it might be headed if we're not careful. |
The Bluest Eye
Fifth
Born
She
Douglass'
Women 
Everything
but the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture
Baby
Momma Drama
I
Choose to Stay: A Black Teacher Refuses to Desert the Inner-City
What Next: A Memoir
Toward World Peace
Who's
Gonna Take the Weight?: Manhood, Race, and Power in America
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