The American West has come to be known as a region with few African Americans and virtually no black history. "In Search of the Racial Frontier" challenges that view in a rich, complex chronicle of western African Americans that takes readers from the arrival in Texas in 1528 of Spanish explorer Esteban and hundreds of Spanish-speaking blacks to the thriving African-American popular that exists in the West today. 60 photos. 12 maps. 508 pp. 10,000 print

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Theresa is a career woman, a mother and a wife. When her mother calls to say there's trouble at her elderly neighbor's house and she's going over to investigate, Theresa has no choice but to get involved. Before the night is over, Theresa finds herself caught up in the harsh brutality of the streets, with a drive-by shooting, a mysterious kidnapping, and more.

From her beautiful but absent mother, young Mariah has inherited an unquenchable thirst for words, and the feelings of comfort and hope that define them. Left in the care of her elderly aunts, she grows up in a state of unfulfilled longing, waiting, for her mother's return. When the longing becomes too great, she spends a stint with her father Matisse, who loves his daughter dearly but is too tempted by lingering evidence of his former wife he sees in Mariah. Soul Kiss is both Mariah's realization of her burgeoning sexuality and her resignation to the sadness and abuse she must endure in search of a love that stays.

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.

Title:  Paradise

Brief Book Excerpt:

"They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time. No need to hurry out here. They are seventeen miles from a town which has ninety miles between it and any other. Hiding places will be plentiful in the Convent, but there is time and the day has just begun.

"They are nine, over twice the number of women they are obliged to stampede or kill and they have the paraphernalia for either requirement: rope, a palm leaf cross, handcuffs, Mace and sunglasses, along with clean, handsome guns."

A classic of modern African writing, this is the tale of what happens to tribal customs and old ways when white man comes.

A striking collection of works from authors both established and emerging, this is the first original anthology of African-American writing in over a decade. Featured contributors include: J. California Cooper, Marita Golden, Gloria Naylor, Darryl Pinckney, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Ishmael Reed, Terry McMillan, and many others.

An expanded edition of American Negro Short Stories, which has sold more than 250,000 copies. The new introduction offers a broad account of black fiction from the last years of the 19th century to the present. Seven new contributions to this expanded edition include stories by Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and James Alan McPherson.

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For African American boys and the people who teach and love them, here is a guide to books that will create pride and a desire to learn, by such writers and heroes of African-American life as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Malcom X, and many others. This is the key to unlocking a rich cultural heritage for African American males and helping them become lifelong readers. 136 pp.