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AALBC.com's Best-Selling Books for May 2001
To learn more about any of these books click the title, to learn more about the author click author's name.

#1

Gabriel's Story
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David Anthony Durham

Format: Hardcover, 291pp.
ISBN: 0385498144
Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Pub. Date: January 2001, First Edition

David Anthony Durham makes his literary debut with a haunting novel which, in the tradition of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, views the American West through a refreshingly original lens. 

Set in the 1870s, the novel tells the tale of Gabriel Lynch, an African American youth who settles with his family in the plains of Kansas. Dissatisfied with the drudgery of homesteading and growing increasingly disconnected from his family, Gabriel forsakes the farm for a life of higher adventure. Thus begins a forbidding trek into a terrain of austere beauty, a journey begun in hope, but soon laced with danger and propelled by a cast of brutal characters. 

Durham's accomplishment is not solely in telling one man's story. He also gives voice to a population seldom included in our Western lore and crafts a new poetry of the American landscape. Gabriel's Story is an important addition to the mosaic of our nation's mythology.

#2

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow Is Enuf: A Choreopoem
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Author: Ntozake Shange

Format: Paperback, 1st ed., 64pp.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Trade
Pub. Date: August 1997

From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange's words reveal what it is to be of color and female in the twentieth century. Here is the complete text, with stage directions, of a groundbreaking dramatic prose poem written in vivid and powerful language that resonates with unusual beauty in its fierce message to the world.

#3

Click to buy The Seventh OctaveTitle:  The Seventh Octave: The Early Writings of Saul Stacey Williams
(Click title to Purchase Online and Learn more about this Book and Poet)

Author:  Saul Stacey Williams, Jessica C. Moore (Editor)
(Click name to learn more about author and editor)

Publisher:  Moore Black Press
Date Published:  February 1998
Format:  Trade Paper

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. 

#4

click to buy book on-line nowTelling the Tale: The African-American Fiction Writer's Guide
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by Angela Benson 

Format: Paperback, 212pp.
ISBN: 0425170543
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Pub. Date: May 2000

Finally, a writing guide for the African-American writer that's as inspiring as it is instructive.

In this one-of-a-kind guide, Angela Benson offers step-by-step guidance for black writers--from getting started to revising complete drafts--for anyone who has a tale to tell. Featuring tools, techniques, and illustrative examples from the best black writers of our day, this book will help writers learn to:

find their own style
create characters readers will care about
capture voices from their community
write natural-sounding dialogue
mine personal experience for detail
weave a compelling story
Includes exercises, worksheets, examples, and step-by-step instructions, as well as inspiring advice
and more...

Telling the Tale also includes helpful exercises, worksheets, and tips to show African-American writers how to perfect their craft.

Angela Benson has written seven books and a novella, and has given numerous workshops and presentations on writing.

#5

Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State
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Cheikh Anta Diop, Harold J. Salemson (Translator), Contribution by Carlos Moore

Format: Paperback, 125pp.
ISBN: 1556520611
Publisher: Hill, Lawrence Books/Africa World Press, Incorporated
Pub. Date: September 1987
Revised Edition


This expanded edition continues Diop's campaign for the political and economic unification of the nations of black Africa. Concludes with a lengthy interview with Diop.

#6

Infants of SpringTitle:  Infants of the Spring

Author:  Wallace Thurman
Publisher:  Random House, Incorporated
Date Published:  January 1999
Format:  Trade Paper

Synopsis
A reprint of a novel on a group of black intellectuals during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. They live in an apartment owned by a black socialite and discuss the New Negro. It is a concept which elicits both enthusiasm and cynicism. By the author of The Blacker the Berry. Synopsis copyright Fiction Digest

This is the first volume in Modern Library's inaugural series, "The Harlem Renaissance." The 1932 novel is a thinly disguised memoir of Thurman's own unhappy experiences in the 1920s literary movement and features characters based on Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and other Harlem Renaissance authors. With an introduction by author E. Lynn Harris.

#7

The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: The Early Years, 1898-1939
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by Paul Robeson Jr.

Format: Hardcover, 400pp.
ISBN: 0471242659
Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
Pub. Date: April  2001

The long-awaited, untold, inside story of the rise of the legendary actor, singer, scholar, and activist. The first volume of this major biography breaks new ground.  The greatest scholar-athlete-performing artist in U.S. history, Paul Robeson was one of the most compelling figures of the twentieth century.

Now his son, Paul Robeson Jr., traces the dramatic arc of his rise to fame, painting a definitive picture of Paul Robeson’s formative years. His father was an escaped slave; his mother, a descendent of freedmen; and his wife, the brilliant and ambitious Eslanda Cardozo Goode. With a law degree from Columbia University; a professional football career; title roles in Eugene O�Neill’s plays and in Shakespeare’s Othello; and a concert career in America and Europe, Robeson dominated his era.

#8

Sister Power: How Phenomenal Black Women Are Rising to the Top
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by Patricia Reid-Merritt

One by one, phenomenal African American women are breaking through the glass ceiling of race and gender bias. Setting political agendas, heading major institutions, and shaping corporate strategies, they are the newest architects of America's future. Sister Power is packed with groundbreaking insight into their amazing life journeys. How have they come so far? What defines and sustains them? During in-depth interviews with more than forty-five black female CEOs, legislators, and senior executives, Patricia Reid-Merritt searched for answers. In this illuminating, provocative book, she reveals the essential characteristics she found. The voices of U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, Ms. magazine editor-in-chief Marcia Gillespie, former PUSH president the Reverend Willie Barrow, and many other courageous and innovative leaders resonate throughout, offering definitive lessons and eye-opening details about their careers and private lives. Sister Power explores the critical stages and issues of their lives: how they developed in childhood, their experiences once they left the nurturing black community, their professional rise, challenges to their positions, and their struggle for personal happiness.

#9

Got to Be Real: Four Original Love Stories
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written by E. Lynn Harris, Eric Jerome Dickey, Marcus Major & Colin Channer

Format: Mass Market Paperback, 400pp.
ISBN: 0451202236
Publisher: N A L
Pub. Date: December  2000

Got to Be Real is a thrilling collection of four original love stories, told by fellas who get pulses racing from Los Angeles to New York, Chicago to Detroit. New York Times bestseller E. Lynn Harris shares a heartwarming Valentine's Day tale in "Money Can't Buy Me Love." A man travels south of the border where he discovers that passion is a universal language in New York Times best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey's "Cafe Pile". The balmy beaches of Jamaica lend a romantic backdrop to the love triangle that makes up Colin Channer's "I'm Still Waiting". And in Marcus Major's "Kenya and Air," a playa recalls his relationship with the right woman and how he screwed it up.

#10

No More Sheets: The Truth about Sex
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by Juanita Bynum

Format: Hardcover, 223pp.
ISBN: 1562291483
Publisher: Pneuma Life Publishing
Pub. Date: March  1998

There has hever been a more needed message to reach people who have suffered with their ability to maintain virtuous relationships. Many sincere, well-meaning Christians secretly wrestle with their sexuality and lust. This personal issue has trapped many of us, but God longs to heal what we've been afraid to reveal. Juanita Bynum pulls the covers off this powerful struggle. This message is your breakthrough to wholeness and holiness. ~The Publisher