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#2

Title:  Abide with Me
Author:  E. Lynn Harris
(1 of 3 titles on the AALBC Bestseller list this month!)

Publisher:  Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Date Published:  March 1999
Format:  Trade Cloth

The best-selling author of Invisible Life and Just As I Am returns with the popular protagonists from those two books, including Raymond Tyler, Jr., who experiences a setback in his successful legal career, and Nicole Springer, whose relocation to New York forces her to reevaluate her life and marriage. Through it all, Harris's masterful storytelling, wit, and sensitivity permeate this enormously satisfying novel.

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#3

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#4

Title:  Stolen Women: Reclaiming Our Sexuality, Taking Back Our Lives
Author:  Gail Elizabeth Wyatt
Publisher:  Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporate
Date Published:  September 1998
Format:  Trade Paper

Based on in-depth interviews with hundreds of women ages 18 to 80 and fascinating case histories from her life experience and clinical practice, Dr. Gail Elizabeth Wyatt arrives at a major new understanding of sex and the black woman. It begins in the distant past, even before we were stolen from our homelands...forced into slavery...robbed of our dignity and our ability to choose our mates. It lives deep within us in powerful myths that label us as selfless parodies of the mammies of old, wanton "she-devils" or "hot mamas," or workhorses, "mules of the world" with no needs of our own. Perhaps you or someone you know has fallen prey to these myths. Acting them out in our homes, on television and film, or in the workplace, we let them diminish our potential for making healthy, responsible sexual choices. Or fearing and avoiding them, we let them limit our possibilities for joy, self-confidence, and sexual fulfillment. It does not have to be that way, says Dr. Wyatt in this long-awaited, soul-shaking book. We do not have to remain captive to outdated ways of thinking about our lives. We can uncover the myths we absorbed from our favorite media, our families, schools, churches, and friends. We can discover how they shaped our behavior, and stop the cycle that endangers our health and well-being. At last, we can fully understand our essential sexuality and discover the life-long rewards of sexual knowledge. Drawing upon two decades of pioneering research on black female sexuality, plus the wisdom gained as an internationally recognized sex therapist, Dr. Wyatt brings a vital message of hope, healing, and responsibility that can literally save our relationships, our daughters, our granddaughters, our lives.

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#5

Title:  I Left My Back Door Open
Author:  April Sinclair
Publisher:  Hyperion
Date Published:  April 1999
Format:  Trade Cloth

From the best-selling author of Coffee Will Make You Black comes this sparkling new novel of self-knowledge starring Chicago D.J. Daphne Dupree. At first Daphne fears her romance with Skylar, a handsome mediator, might never get to the next step, but as their relationship progresses, she finds that her yearning for someone to love ends with a discovery of herself.

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#6

Title:  And This Too Shall Pass
Author:  E. Lynn Harris
Publisher:  Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Date Published:  March 1997
Format:  Trade Paper

In And This Too Shall Pass, Harris takes us into the locker rooms and newsrooms of Chicago, where four lives are about to intersect in romance and scandal. At the heart of the novel is the celibate Zurich, a rookie quarterback for the Chicago Cougars whose trajectory for superstardom is interrupted by a sexual assault charge by Mia, a sportscaster with her own sights on fame. With his career in jeopardy, Zurich hires Tamela, a high-powered attorney, to defend him, while Sean, a gay sportswriter, covers the story and uncovers his heart. All of these characters face the challenge of keeping the faith - in themselves and in God - while Harris's heartfelt storytelling reveals how the love of family can help one to face the terrible legacy of long-held secrets. Throughout these characters' search for self-knowledge, Harris weaves the stories of MamaCee, Zurich's grandmother, whose lessons of faith teach one and all that "this too shall pass."

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#7

Title:  In the Meantime: Finding Yourself and the Love You Want
Author:  Iyanla Vanzant
(Vanzant is the AALBC's all-time best selling author)
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Trade
Date Published:  January 1998
Format:  Trade Cloth

The best-selling author of Acts of Faith and The Value in the Valley -- whose books have empowered countless women -- now reaches out to anyone who yearns for love, in a book about relationships that can help them reach new levels of awareness, spiritual growth, and fulfillment.

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#8

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#9

Title:  They Came before Columbus
Author:  Ivan Van Sertima
Publisher:  Random House, Incorporated
Date Published:  August 1976
Format:  Trade Cloth

This book makes it possible for us to see clearly the unmistakable face and handprint of Black Africans in Pre-Columbian America, and their overwhelming impact on the civilization they found here.

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#10

Title:  Developing Positive Self-Images and Discipline in Black Children
Author:  Jauanza Kunjufu
Date Published:  July 1985
Format:  Trade Paper

This book discusses what's the relationship between self-esteem and student achievement? Find the answers to this and other questions in this book.

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