AALBC.com eNewsletter - November 30th 2010 - Issue #183
Celebrating Our Literary Legacy Since 1997
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AALBC.com Best Selling Books
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AALBC.com's 25 Best Selling Books September 1st through October 31st 2010
http://aalbc.com/books/bestsellers.htm

Fiction

#1 - For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
#2 - Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan
#3 - Prime Choice: Perry Skky Jr. Series #1 by Stephanie Perry Moore
#4 - Dirty Red: A Novel by Vickie M. Stringer
#5 - Every Thug Needs A Lady by Wahida Clark
#6 - Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou
#7 - Zane's Sex Chronicles by Zane

 

Non-fiction

#1 - Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Steffans
#2 - The Vixen Manual: How to Find, Seduce & Keep the Man You Want by Karrine Steffans
#3 - We Need to Talk by Robert G. Barnes
#4 - From Superman to Man by J. A. Rogers
#5 - Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny by Hill Harper
#6 - The Dead Emcee Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip-Hop By Saul Williams
#7 - The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson


Click to view all 25 top selling fiction and non-fiction titles
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Authors You Should Know
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Pat TuckerPat Tucker
http://authors.aalbc.com/pat_tucker.html

By day, Pat Tucker Wilson works as a radio news director in Houston, TX. By night, she is a talented writer with a knack for telling page-turning stories. A former television news reporter, she draws on her background to craft stories readers will love. With more than 15 years of media experience, the award-winning broadcast journalist has worked as a reporter for ABC, NBC and Fox affiliate TV stations and Radio stations in California and Texas.

Tucker's most recent novel Daddy by Default was published by Strebor Books on November 9, 2010.

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francis cress welsingDr. Frances Cress Welsing
http://aalbc.com/authors/frances.htm

Welsing suggested that African American families must operate more effectively if they are to produce "strong-minded" children who can "challenge" white supremacy. In an interview in Essence, she told Karen Halliburton, "No Black female should have children before the age of 30, and no Black man should become a father before the age of 35. Before child rearing, we should be going to school, going to the library, educating ourselves. We must create mature, mentally developed parents. Then we will be able to produce children with self-respect and a high-level functioning pattern."

Dr. Welsing is the author of the AALBC.com best selling book: The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors (Third World Press, December 1991)

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Thomas Sayers EllisThomas Sayers Ellis
http://aalbc.com/authors/thomas_sayers_ellis.html

Ellis is a poet and photographer. Ellis also co-founded The Dark Room Collective (in Cambridge, Massachusetts); and received his M.F.A. from Brown University. He is the author of The Maverick Room (2005), which won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award, and a recipient of a Mrs. Giles Whiting Writers’ Award. His poems and photographs have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Callaloo, Best American Poetry (1997, 2001 and 2010), Grand Street, The Baffler, Jubilat, Tin House, Poetry, and The Nation.

Skin, Inc. is the latest work by "one of the most audacious and provocative poets now writing." (Greywolf Press, August 31st 2010)

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ellis coseEllis Cose
http://aalbc.com/authors/ellis_cose.html

Ellis Cose, author, columnist and contributing editor (since 1993) for Newsweek magazine and former chairman of the editorial board and editorial page editor of the New York Daily News, began his journalism career as a weekly columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times—becoming, at the age of 19, the youngest editorial page columnist ever employed by a major Chicago daily. Cose, who is also an independent radio producer, is a popular campus lecturer and public speaker. Cose’s debut radio production effort, Against the Odds, aired in 2008 in more than 100 radio markets in the United States—including eight stations in the top 11 markets.

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Dinaw mengestuDinaw Mengestu
http://aalbc.com/authors/dinaw_mengestu.html

Dinaw Mengestu was born, in 1978, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1978. In 1980 he immigrated to the United States with his mother and sister, joining his father, who had fled the communist revolution in Ethiopia two years before. He is the recipient of a fellowship in fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Lannan Literary Award, and received a "5 under 35" Award from the National Book Foundation.

His first novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (Riverhead Hardcover, October 14, 2010), was named a New York Times Notable Book and awarded the Guardian First Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, among numerous other honors.

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Janks MortonJanks Morton

http://aalbc.com/authors/janks.html

Janks Morton is a groundbreaking international and award winning Documentarian. As founder of iYago Entertainment Group, LLC, he states "the company came into existence to reflect both the conscious and the unconscious soul of Black America.

Morton has been in the entertainment industry for more than 20 years and is a much sought-after teacher, lecturer, commentator and motivational speaker. He has convened workshops, seminars and served as panelist and keynote speaker at colleges, universities, prisons, conferences, churches and community centers around the world.
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AALBC.com Book Reviews (Non-Fiction)
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large imageThe Next Big Story by Soledad O’Brien
http://aalbc.com/reviews/next_big_story.html

In The Next Big Story, Soledad revisits her challenging formative years in order to illustrate how overcoming childhood adversity perhaps served to shape not only her personality but her compassionate approach to her career as a television journalist at CNN. Whether it was being asked “Are you black?” by a portrait photographer at the age of 11, being teased “If you’re a [N-word] why don’t you have big lips?” by an 8th grader in the hallway at school, or having to hear “Why do I have to sit next to the black girl?” coming from the sister of a friend, Soledad suffered a host of indignities on the path to the peak of her profession.

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large imageBlack Faces in White Places: 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness by Randal Pinkett and Jeffrey Robinson
http://aalbc.com/reviews/black_faces_in_white_places.html

As a journalist privileged to have access to many celebrities, a question I often like to ask in interviews with African-American captains of industry is how they managed to flourish in a predominantly white environment where so many other talented blacks have simultaneously failed to do so. Now, we finally have a satisfactory answer to that query thanks to Dr. Randal Pinkett, winner of Donald Trump’s reality show The Apprentice.

For in conjunction with his longtime business partner, Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, Randal has written a viable blueprint for blacks trying to make it in corporate America. The book opens with a discussion of what the authors call the four dimensions, by which they mean the critical workplace issues African-Americans are apt to find themselves grappling with, namely, matters having to do with identity, meritocracy, society and opportunity.

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large imageIs It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There? by Whoopi Goldberg
http://aalbc.com/reviews/is_it_just_me.html

All over the country nowadays, we’re witnessing a frightening decline in civility, whether it’s teens being bullied to the point of suicide, tourists being subjected to searches at airports that look more like foreplay than pat downs, or simply people talking loudly on cell phones in places where it’s rude or illegal to do so. In the political realm, we’ve heard mudslinging candidates refer to opponents as a “witch,” “whore” or “degenerate idiot,” a Republican can interrupt the President’s State of the Union speech to call him a liar, and even a fellow Democrat tell Obama to “shove it.”

Weighing-in on this disturbing trend is comedienne Whoopi Goldberg, herself no stranger to such controversy. You may remember how she and fellow co-host Joy Behar recently became so exasperated by what they considered to be anti-Muslim remarks by guest Bill O’Reilly that they stormed off the set of their own show, The View.

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large imageDecoded by Jay-Z
http://aalbc.com/reviews/decoded.html

Shawn Corey Carter, aka Jay-Z, wasn’t always a cultural icon married to Beyonce’ who had parlayed his success as a rap artist into a multi-millionaire empire with a host of diverse holdings ranging from a record label to a music publishing company to a clothing line to a nightclub chain to an NBA team. No, he spent his formative years in the Marcy Housing Projects in Bed-Stuy, before moving to Trenton where he dropped out of school to sell crack on the streets while pursuing a hip-hop career.

Relatively-sophisticated musings making sense of rants about a “Hard Knock Life” coming from an insightful 40 year-old ostensibly no longer full of the angst which had helped skyrocket him to the heights of super-stardom.
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AALBC.com Videos
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sample videosEnter AALBC.com's Best Book Trailer (Video) of 2010 Contest
http://aalbc.com/authors/bestbooktrailer2010.html

Videos may be submitted until December 15, 2010. Five to ten finalists will be determined by popular vote, which take place from December 16, 2010 until January 14, 2011, a panel of judges will select the 3 winning video videos from the finalists. The winning videos will be announced on January 17th 2011.

Grand Prize: The winning videos will be embedded on AALBC.com for up to 3 months (January 17 until April 17, 2011) and will benefit from additional AALBC.com promotion via this eNewsletter, social media and more.

The winning videos all also be presented during the National Black Book Festival in Houston, Texas (June 10-12, 2011)

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Ella Curry VideoElla Curry - CEO of EDC Creations
http://aalbc.it/ellacurry

Curry is CEO of EDC Creations which specializes in creating Internet Publicity and PR for authors, small business owners, and publishing houses. Her publicity team begins each publicity campaign with a strategic brainstorming session to discuss competitive titles, author positioning, campaign messaging, potential target markets, target media outlets, and tactical marketing and promotions timelines. With this input, the campaign manager formulates a comprehensive strategic plan and budget, that guides the course of the entire publicity campaign.
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AALBC.com Articles
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track your clicksShorten Links, Track Clicks, Using bit.ly Pro
http://aalbc.it/trackclicks

I highly recommend using bit.ly. It has helped me a great deal managing AALBC.com.

bit.ly is a URL shortener and provides me the ability to track clicks on links, to AALBC.com’s content, placed on various platforms including this Blog, Facebook, Twitter, discussion board, eNewsletters and more.

bit.ly allows me to determine which platforms bring us the most traffic, and even helps me understand the best time of day and days of the week to send messages.

By tracking links we can also learn which type of AALBC.com content generates the most interest. Click here to learn more about bit.ly and how I use it to support AALBC.com: http://aalbc.it/trackclicks

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get rid of cableThe Days of Being Gouged by Cable TV Companies Are Over…Almost
http://aalbc.com/blog/?p=212

Two services, reported by the Wall Street Journal, look very promising FilmOn.com and Ivi.TV. Both of these services address my biggest complaint about cable television — cost.

Both FilmOn.com and Ivi.TV will allow you to watch broadcast TV directly on your PC or mobile device. I just tried FilmOn.com on my iPhone and it worked quite nicely. No software was required, just browse to the website.

Ivi.TV appears to be more feature rich, but charges a paltry $4.99 per month with a 30 day free trial. Setting up this service was simple and fast. The screen shot (above) is from my local, New York City, broadcast of the Dr. Oz Show.

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party for soledadRussell Simmons Hosts Book Party for CNN’s Soledad O’Brien
http://aalbc.it/soledadparty

Over the weekend, hip-hop entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist Russell Simmons opened up his home to host a star-studded party for Soledad O’Brien in his lavish two-story penthouse located in lower Manhattan. The occasion marked the release of Soledad’s autobiography, “The Next Big Story,” which she co-wrote with Rose Marie Arce.

Besides the authors, celebrity guests in attendance included CBS news anchor Katie Couric, HLN host Jane Velez-Mitchell, actor Jamie Hector (“The Wire”), CNN reporters Alino Cho and Susan Candiotti, syndicated columnist Keli Goff, educator Dr. Steve Perry and PR maven Terrie Williams. Read the rest of the coverage at: http://aalbc.it/soledadparty

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Facebook Photo TrickFacebook Profile Photo Trick
http://aalbc.com/blog/?p=187

I’m often inspired by the things other people do. While checking out the Facebook profile of a recent contributor to my discussion board yesterday I noticed their company logo was directly underneath profile photo.

Initially I thought to myself, I did not know you could add an additional image underneath your Facebook profile photo. I quickly discovered that it was simply a single long vertical image which was being used. The image included a head shot, the person’s name and services in a nice prominent font, and the company logo.

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wordpress logoA Great Tip and Advice for Creating a Blog or Website
http://aalbc.com/blog/?p=142

One of the questions I’m most frequently asked when I speak to groups about the World Wide Web is, “I don’t have a big budget and I’m not super tech savvy, how do I create my own website?” Today my answer would be, “WordPress is a very good way to get started”.

I’m so satisfied and excited, that I wanted to share my experience with others hoping that they would take advantage of WordPress and establish a web presence of their own. Read the rest of the article Part 1 and Part II.
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AALBC.com Film Reviews
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench 27 x 40 Movie Poster - Style AGuy and Madeline on a Park Bench
http://aalbc.com/reviews/guy_and_madeline_on_a_park_bench.html

Guy is played by Jason Palmer, an accomplished jazz trumpeter recognized as an up-and-comer by Downbeat Magazine. Triple threat Desiree Garcia proves formidable in her own right as Madeline, handling her acting, singing and dancing duties with perfect aplomb.

The movie marks the remarkable writing and directorial debut of recent Harvard grad Damien Chazelle, a gifted wunderkind to be reckoned with. For, with an effortlessness that’s nothing short of amazing, he exhibits an encyclopedic knowledge of cinematic history here, interweaving a dizzying number of allusions to the work of his idols behind the camera, legends like John Cassavetes, Jean-Luc Godard and Busby Berkeley.

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we need to talkWe Need to Talk
http://aalbc.com/reviews/we_need_to_talk.html

Janks Morton is an award-winning documentary filmmaker known for poignant, tough-love documentaries about African-American males like What Black Men Think and Men to Boys. Now, as the father of an 11 year-old girl poised on the brink of blossoming into a beautiful, but possibly vulnerable young woman, he was inspired to make sisters the subject of his latest offering. So, this go-round, he traveled to the Southside of Chicago where he interviewed ten female survivors of the battle-of-the-sexes about their relationships with their dads during their formative years and also with their boyfriends when they first started dating.

Exhibiting an uncanny knack for both eliciting emotional responses and capturing African-American pulchritude on camera, Janks posed a series of probing questions in his trademark fashion. The telling, and frequently tearful responses of each, whether Kenisha Byrd, Stephanie Brewer, Anika Jackson, Trudy Martin, Carla O’Neil, Conchita Jamison, Jaime Gill, Soneika O’Neil, Rhonda Benson or Donna Watkins, generally revealed a wounded soul profoundly affected by a dysfunctional, early family life, often the product of an absentee father.

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For Colored Girls
http://aalbc.com/reviews/for_colored_girls.html

Eventually, all of the assorted melodramas serendipitously merge and resolve themselves satisfactorily right on cue for a typically-preachy, Perry denouement during which our heroines take turns expressing their resolve to rise above their overwhelming personal challenges. A fresh interpretation of For Colored Girls which puts to rest the question of whether that black feminist classic was too dated to be adapted to the screen.

AALBC.com has also interviewed several of the actors staring in For Colored Girls including; Kerry Washington, Janet Jackson, and Thandie Newton.

Also check out some of the conversations from our discussion boards.  Not everyone agreed with our reviewers assessment of For Colored Girls: http://aalbc.it/FCGimho
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AALBC.com Interviews
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Edwidge DanticatEdwidge Danticat
http://aalbc.com/authors/edwidge_danticat.html

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti in 1969 and moved to the United States when she was twelve. She is the author of two novels, two collections of stories, two books for young adults, and two nonfiction books, one of which, "Brother, I'm Dying", was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography. In 2009, she received a MacArthur Fellowship.

Danticat's latest work, Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work (Princeton University Press, September 19, 2010)

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the rzaRZA - founder, producer, and mastermind behind the Wu-Tang Clan
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/rza.html

RZA is a Grammy Award-winning music producer, with a distinguished body of work scoring movies for filmmakers such as Ridley Scott, Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino. His acting credits include Due Date, Repo Men, Ghost Dog, The Killers, Funny People, American Gangster, Life is Hot in Crack Town and Derailed.

Here, he talks about his latest outing playing Mouss in The Next Three Days, an action-thriller directed by Academy Award-winner Paul Haggis and co-starring a couple of other Oscar-winners in Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson.

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AALBC.com Recommends
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large imageThe Anthology of Rap
http://aalbc.it/rapant

Both a fan’s guide and a resource for the uninitiated, The Anthology of Rap showcases the inventiveness and vitality of rap’s lyrical art. The volume also features an overview of rap poetics and the forces that shaped each period in rap’s historical development, as well as a foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and afterwords by Chuck D and Common. Enter the Anthology to experience the full range of rap’s artistry and discover a rich poetic tradition hiding in plain sight.

This pioneering anthology brings together more than three hundred lyrics written over thirty years, from the “old school” to the “golden age” to the present day. Rather than aim for encyclopedic coverage, Bradley and DuBois render through examples the richness and diversity of rap’s poetic tradition. They feature both classic lyrics that helped define the genre, including Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message” and Eric B. & Rakim’s “Microphone Fiend,” as well as lesser-known gems like Blackalicious’s “Alphabet Aerobics” and Jean Grae’s “Hater’s Anthem.”

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large imagePeace from Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You're Going Through by Iyanla Vanzant
http://aalbc.it/iyanla

New York Times best-selling author Iyanla Vanzant recounts the last decade of her life and the spiritual lessons learned -- from the price of success during her meteoric rise as a TV celebrity on Oprah, the Iyanla TV show (produced by Barbara Walters), to the dissolution of her marriage and her daughter's 15 months of illness and death on Christmas day. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Iyanla shares why everything we need to learn is reflected in our relationships and the strength and wisdom she has gained by supporting others in their journeys to make sense out of the puzzle pieces of their lives.

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large imageIrresistible Forces by Brenda Jackson [Free Kindle eBook]
http://aalbc.it/freebrendabook

An offer he couldn't refuse... One week of mind-blowing sex on a beautiful Caribbean island. Of all the business proposals financial tycoon Dominic Saxon has heard, Taylor Steele's is definitely the most tempting. All Taylor wants in return is for Dominic to father her baby. No strings, no commitments…just a mutually satisfying arrangement. Make that very satisfying. For a man with no intention of marrying again, it sounds ideal.

Taylor wants a baby, not a relationship. And sexy, intelligent Dominic seems like a man with perfect genes. Turns out, Dominic has perfect everything. Their “procreation vacation” is a whirlwind of sensual ecstasy. But when it's over, will either of them be able to say goodbye?
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Book Events & Related Events
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book partyAuthor Cheryl Wills - Doug E’s Chicken & Waffles Restaurant - Harlem, NY - December. 6, 2010 6-9 P.M.

Hip Hop Pioneer and the Original Human Beat Box Doug E. Fresh is excited to host his first book signing event at his new Harlem restaurant Doug E’s Chicken & Waffles (The 132nd St & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.) for NY1 News Anchor and Author, Cheryl Wills. With more than 25 years in the music industry, Doug E. remains the darling of the rap world with the wild popularity of the hit song Teach Me How to Dougie by Cali Swag District which was inspired by Doug E.’s brilliant recording career. Harlem resident Doug E. Fresh is on a steady world-wide tour amazing audiences with his musical poetry and spellbinding beat-boxing.

Cheryl Wills’ new book Die Free: A Heroic Family History (Bascom Hill Publishing, January 3, 2011) is a fascinating thread of American history interlaced with the life of the author’s father, the first African-American to integrate Engine 1, the oldest firehouse in New York City.

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Renee Allen McCoy - Brandon Public Library - Brandon, MS - December 4, 2010 @ 10:30 AM

Location: Brandon Public Library, 1475 West Government Street, Brandon, MS 39042 (Phone: 601-825-2672)

Renee McCoy will be signing copies of her new book "Kiss of Judas." (GITUS/Tinsley Phelps, July 2010).  Kiss of Judas tells the story of
Justine Dasant who walks the earth in search of something that always seems to be just out of reach. After she's promised herself that she would leave her past in the past, history starts to repeat when her current boyfriend, Isaiah Johnson, shows interest in someone other than her. Justine makes it known that she'll stop at nothing to get what she wants...no matter who gets hurt along the way.

Isaiah Johnson, a young, successful CEO, has climbed himself to a life of wealth. He's worked hard to open his own business and just when success peaks, Isaiah's new found strength to step out on faith drives a wedge between him and the woman in his life. Not only does he regret meeting Justine, it's a challenge for him to escape her calculated stalking. At what cost will Isaiah say no to the world and yes to God?

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Editor's Note: http://aalbc.it/BookEvents

AALBC.com's events calendar is an ideal resource for authors who wish to post their entire tour schedules, or folks who only want to promote a single event.

Because of AALBC.com's popularity, all posted events are quickly indexed by Google and other search engines; making your event easy to find by web surfers and the 100's of thousands of AALBC.com visitors.

AALBC.com also selects events from our calendar to include in this which goes out to over 17 thousand subscribers about once a month.
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Book Industry News
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Visit Daily to Get the Latest News in the World of Books

http://aalbc.com/book_industry_news.php

large imageBook Review: When Everything Has Fallen by Nathalia Zongo
http://www.seattlepi.com/books/430827_149159-blogcritics.org.html

On October 15, 1987 a military coup d'état took place in Burkina Faso, and the president Thomas Sankara was assassinated. Sankara himself had gained power in 1983 when he had toppled the Ouédraogo regime in a coup d'état that was organized by Blaise Compaoré and supported by Libya. In an ironic twist of events, it was Blaise Compaoré who went on to lead the subsequent coup d'état in 1987.

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nanowirmoNaNoWriMo: Should you love it or hate it?
http://aalbc.it/NaNoWriMo_article

Plenty of people think they’ve got a book inside them. Is that where most of them should stay?

That’s the debate that broke out during this year’s National Novel Writing Month, a 12-year-old project that encourages participants to set aside November 1-30 to write a 50,000-word novel. “NaNoWriMo,” as it’s semi-pronounceably called, started with 21 friends in 1999. Last year, it attracted more than 165,000 would-be novelists, with more than 30,000 completing the goal, organizers said.
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AALBC.com eNewsletter Management

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Email: troy@aalbc.com

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