Some People, Some Other Place
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by J. California Cooper

Some People, Some Other Place is Cooper's biggest, most far-reaching novel to date. A multigenerational tale, it is set in a town called "Place," on a street named "Dream Street." In the words of the novel's narrator, "the block surely had about it a feeling of long accumulation of history, of life, of many lives intertwined." As she chronicles the interlocking lives of the residents of Dream Street, Cooper places the stories of the individuals and their families within the wider context of America's social and economic history. We meet the narrator's great grandparents, who left the poverty of the Deep South in 1895 and made their way to a farm in Oklahoma; her grandparents, who continued the northward journey with their eyes on the promised jobs of the industrial Midwest but were forced to settle without reaching their goal; and her mother, who finishes the journey and discovers that life at 903 Dream Street carries new burdens as well as rewards. The neighbors on the block are people of all colors, all striving to overcome personal troubles and disappointments, and all holding fast to their dreams of a better life.

The author, Lynnette Khalfani, has personally conquered more than $100,000 in credit card debt. And she did it WITHOUT filing for bankruptcy protection, enrolling in a debt management program or getting credit counseling. If Lynnette could tackle her bills and achieve ZERO DEBT status, so can you!

Zane wanted stories "that took risks, that explored unique situations, that were creative beyond compare." She wanted to show that men and women can equally express themselves through the medium of erotic fiction. She wanted stories that would turn her on. This collection of selected sexy short stories will turn you on, too.

'Twas the Night B'fore Christmas: An African-American Version
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Retold by Melodye Rosales, Clement C. Moore

ISBN: 0590739441
Format: Hardcover, 32pp
Pub. Date: August 1996
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Age Range: 4 to 8

'Twas the night b'fore Christmas, when all 'round the house, not a critter was stirrin', not even a mouse." So begins this charming adaptation of Clement C. Moore's timeless poem, richly illustrated in full color, with images of a black family at the turn of the century.

Getting Buck Wild: Sex Chronicles 2, Vol. 2
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Zane's erotic short stories have captivated the minds of both sexes and all races. The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth did exactly what its title implies -- exploded the myth that men are more sexual in nature than women, and that African-American women in particular are inhibited compared to their female counterparts of other cultures.

Black Students, Middle Class Teachers
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by Jawanza Kunjufu

ISBN: 0913543810
Format: Paperback, 200pp
Pub. Date: September 2002
Publisher: African American Images

This compelling look at the relationship between the majority of African American students and their teachers provides answers and solutions to the hard-hitting questions facing education in today's black and mixed-race communities. Are teachers prepared by their college education departments to teach African American children? Are schools designed for middle-class children and, if so, what are the implications for the 50 percent of African Americans who live below the poverty line? Is the major issue between teachers and students class or racial difference? Why do some of the lowest test scores come from classrooms where black educators are teaching black students? How can parents negotiate with schools to prevent having their children placed in special education programs? Also included are teaching techniques and a list of exemplary schools that are successfully educating African Americans.

The erotica collection is divided into three sections: Wild, Wilder and Off Da Damn Hook. Her characters run the gamut from the sensual housewife that wants her husband to experiment more to the secret underground sorority of women that let it all hang out literally.

Holy Bible: Woman, Thou Art Loosed! Edition
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T. D. Jakes (Editor)

ISBN: 0718003926
Format: Paperback, 1520pp
Pub. Date: April 2003
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Edition Description: New King James Version

Years ago, the Lord began teaching me about some of the unique giftings and callings of women, and also about some of the unique burdens and hurts of women. Throughout the Scriptures, we see women highly exalted and deeply injured. We see women who are honored and women who are ignored. We see them as trudging through everyday existence and triumphing over seemingly unbeatable odds. We see them worshipping and we see them weeping. They are strong and broken, powerful and passionate�and always mightily loved by the Lord.

It is God's heart for women that I am delighted to share in this Woman Thou Art Loosed edition of the Bible. I know of no more powerful agent of healing and restoration than the Word of God. The Scriptures are indeed "living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword," able to touch and transform the deepest parts of you.

Along with the awesome words of the Bible, I have included some of the teaching I have used to minister to women over the years. As you read the words of this book and allow them to penetrate your spirit, I pray that God will move within your heart with healing, with power, and with mercy. Be blessed, you daughter of the living God. Be healed and whole in Jesus' name. �T.D. Jakes

, Said the Shotgun to the Head
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by Saul Williams

-simultaneously invoking thwarted ambition, sexual exposure, the Middle Passage, and attempts to "lie" (dissimulate as well as collapse) through it all.
�excerpted from Reed Business Information.

Expressing a deeply felt faith in democracy, the power of loving change, and a self-deprecating humor, A Call to Conscience is Dr. King speaking today. It is a unique, unforgettable record of the words that rallied millions, forever changed the face of America, and even today shape our deepest personal hopes and dreams for the future.

Jonquinette Pierce has always been nervous when it comes to men. She took a job dealing with mostly women so she could avoid men. She goes to work and comes straight home during the week, but on the weekends her other self, Jude, takes over and goes on intense sexual escapades.

Jonquinette recognizes that her alter ego is a problem and seeks to resolve it with the help of Dr. Marcella Spencer, the psychiatrist Zane originated in her best-selling novel Addicted. Jude's response is to get angry and go on a sexual rampage. In the meantime, Jonquinette becomes interested in her new neighbor, Mason, after having a conversation with him at a mutual friend's wedding. Jude has no intention of letting Jonquinette fall in love and find happiness at her expense. Jude is having way too much fun using the body she shares with Jonquinette. This "two faces of Eve" scenario is a fun fantasy for women who have imagined their own alter ego behaving badly in a sexual way. But for the leading lady of Nervous, this is a nightmare. Based on a short story of the same title from her best-selling collection, The Sex Chronicles, Nervous is classic Zane with an edge. So, relax, sit back. You're in for a nerve-tingling read.

Advice for parents, educators, community, and church members is provided in this guide for ensuring that African American boys grow up to be strong, committed, and responsible African American men. This book answers such questions as Why are there more black boys in remedial and special education classes than girls? Why are more girls on the honor roll? When do African American boys see a positive black male role model? Is the future of black boys in the hands of their mothers and white female teachers? and When does a boy become a man? The significance of rite of passage activities, including mentoring, male bonding, and spirituality, are all described.

Imagine This
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by Vickie M. Stringer

ISBN: 0743493478
Format: Paperback, 246pp
Pub. Date: August 2004
Publisher: Atria Books

Imagine This is the sequel to Vickie Stringer's best-selling Let That Be the Reason, her stunning debut novel based on life as she knew it in the shocking underworld of the sex and drug trade.

Vickie Stringer has gained a legion of fans for her portrayal of Pamela, a.k.a. Carmen, a woman who had it all but lost out when the love of her life left her penniless and alone to raise their son. Pamela refuses to remain powerless, though. She pulls herself up, becomes a major hustler in the street game, gains independence, and makes big money -- but the consequences are more dreadful than she ever imagined.

Imagine This continues the saga of Pamela as she does jail time and has to decide who she really is: Pamela, a woman who, more than anything, loves her son and wants to be there to raise him; or Carmen, the ruthless baller, who does the crime, serves the time, and honors, at any expense, the code of the street.

Using interviews with black, white, and brown dance practitioners as well as performance analysis and personal recollections of her own life in the world of dance, Brenda Dixon Gottschild charts the endeavors, ordeals, and triumphs of "black" dance and dancers by exposing perceptions, images, and assumptions, past and present. In her journey to discover the contours and importance of the black dancing body, the author has spoken to some of the greatest dancers and choreographers of our time - Fernando Bujones, Trisha Brown, Garth Fagan, Bill T. Jones, Ralph Lemon, Meredith Monk, Merian Soto, Doug Elkins, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and a cadre of their esteemed colleagues. The "embattled territories" of the black dancing body are probed chapter by chapter: feet, buttocks, hair, skin color. The whole of the black dancing body is "re-membered" in the final chapters on soul and spirit. The Black Dancing Body is a key to the ineffable rhythms and movement of dance in America.

Tressa is a fly girl accustomed to the lavish lifestyle that her possessive, deranged, baby’s daddy, Lucky, has provider her with. In order to keep her high post standards of living, she has excused so many of his unforgivable actions. It is not until he pulls off the ultimate stunt that she realizes that no mink coat, car, house or any amount of money is worth her peace of mind.

Never blinking or thinking twice, Tressa leaves everything behind, with the exception of her street savvy, and sets out to make a life of her own, one that would be filled with hard times and even harder luck. Tressa soon finds herself making the transition from public figure to public assistance. Every day of her life seems like one drama-filled chapter after another. From the baby daddy drama, to the backstabbing friends, to the various unforgettable men she sorts through and disposes of.

There will be times she has to struggle and scramble just to make ends meet, and other times when she will stand tall and hold her own.

In this captivating tale, Tressa’s voyage will expose readers to a side of a struggling single mother that has yet to be revealed to them

Nikki Turner, the best selling author of A Hustler’s Wife, once again will take readers on a safari through the jungle of the fierce and stormy streets, leaving readers on the edge of their seats begging for an encore.

Somebody's Gotta Be on Top
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by Mary B. Morrison

ISBN: 0758207247
Format: Hardcover, 320pp
Pub. Date: August 2004
Publisher: Dafina Books

In Mary B. Morrison’s national bestsellers Never Again Once More and He’s Just a Friend, readers met playboy heir Darius Jones and reckless-in-love Fancy Taylor. Now, in this achingly poignant, deliciously sensual erotic novel, she takes Darius’s relationships further and explores the ways men and women surrender themselves in order to gain the love they�re desperately seeking�

�The only time a woman should be on top is during sex��

So says Darius Jones. At just twenty-two, the baby boy has grown�bigger, taller, sexier, hotter�but he hasn�t necessarily grown up. Maybe he isn�t messing with the women on his mama’s staff anymore, but he’s still messing with people’s lives and messing up his own. For Darius, �If it doesn�t make money, it doesn�t make sense.� And that goes for women, too. Women are there to give him what he wants, the way he wants it. Not that he doesn�t know how to pleasure a sister; he just doesn�t want them telling him the way it’s going to be. On anything. Ever. Including his mother. If his mother was a liar, then every other woman was, too. That’s why he relocates from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, near his mama’s business, where he sets up his own company, Somebody’s Gotta Be on Top Enterprises. And it’s no secret who that somebody’s got to be. Now that Darius is all about the control�getting it, keeping it, and taking it away, if need be�he’s sure he can apply that principle to finding �the one.� But trying to be on top all the time only gets him into trouble with the women in his life, women like�

Ciara Monroe, president of a rival company. She’s earned power and respect the hard way, but Darius isn�t about to be outsmarted by her�not in bed and not in business. He’s going after Ciara on a personal level, digging up the dirt on her past. It’s a move that will cost him, and Ciara’s not leaving before she confronts him about his feelings for Ashlee�

Ashlee Anderson is the stepsister who’s more than just his friend. She’s also the woman he loves and desires. When Darius convinces Ashlee to live with him and manage his finance department, he never expects her to fall for his half-brother, Kevin Williams. Darius will do anything to split them apart, even if it means risking his business. But there’s one woman who’s got Darius’s number�

Fancy Taylor. With skin like brown sugar, and the bearing of a fine queen, Fancy definitely intrigues Darius. If he didn�t have his heart set on conquering Ashlee no matter what, he�d enjoy sampling what the lady has to offer, but that’s all. Fancy’s a woman with a past that precludes her from being serious relationship material. But fate has a way of stepping in and putting the wrong people on the right path, if they�re not too foolish to see it�

Still harboring the wounds of his mother’s deception and a childhood without his biological father, caught between an all-consuming pride and the call of his own untrusting heart, Darius has a lot to learn: about life, women, and what it takes to find and nurture real love. And if he’s not careful, he might just end up on the bottom of everything.
 

Donald Goines was all of these things. He started as a kid, the product of a middle-class family. After high school he joined the Navy, and discovered the heroin that would rule the remainder of his life. On the streets, he turned to writing when he was straight enough to keep at it. He used the language of the streets and wrote of the streets and its people. His success was immediate and exciting, But eventually the streets claimed him. He was murdered as he sat writing a new book. Here for the first time is the completed story.

Dickey's millions of readers will be happy to see the reappearance of a femme fatale from Thieves' Paradise, who adds spice and surprises every time she turns up. This is Dickey writing at his best-a fast-paced novel of raw emotions, softened as always with his incomparable humor and characters you will always remember. impressive �outside of the box' novel while still in keeping with Dickey's passionate, sensual, rhythmic, comical, mellifluous prose that is sure to give him an even greater base.

In What Next, Walter Mosley -- New York Times best-selling 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.