2006 by Month

2007 marks the start of AALBC.com's 10th year of selling books on-line. We sold our first book on December 1997. We sell book's directly and through a number of affiliate programs. This the 2006 bestsellers list is based upon online sales, via the Amazon.com affiliate program and represents the sale of over 1,400 different titles (virtually all by African-American authors).

For more insight, on our best sellers list please read our Notes on the AALBC.com 2006 Best Sellers List

AALBC.com's Best Selling Books for 2006

Fiction	Nonfiction
#1 Getting Buck Wild: Sex Chronicles 2, Vol. 2 Order via Amazon Zane Zane is back with Gettin' Buck Wild: Sex Chronicles II, more stories for the legion of readers that made The Sex Chronicles a bestseller. 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. Her audience is growing by leaps and bounds, nurtured by her Internet site and her previous best-selling titles, including The Heat Seekers, her debut in hardcover. Zane knows exactly what her readers want, and in Gettin' Buck Wild she gives them some of her most provocative prose to date. Her characters and settings run the gamut from committed, monogamous couples looking to experiment, to the wild single sisters who belong to a very unconventional sorority. Zane tells the story of a high-paid multi-tasking career woman who gets her groove back in "When Opposites Attract," a couple who try something new in "The Subway -- A Quickie," and a new way of celebrating Christmas in "The Santa Claus." She spices up real-life scenarios with over-the-top sexual fantasy and ultimately gives her readers the best time they've ever had between the pages of a book. With all-new characters and settings, Gettin' Buck Wild is Zane's hottest collection of stories yet. Smart, witty and extremely sexy, this second volume of Sex Chronicles is tailored to women -- but perfect for lovers to share.	#1 Confessions of a Video Vixen Click to order via Amazon Karrine Steffans Read an AALBC.com Book Review Glass vases filled with marbles crashed all around us as he began tossing linens from the bed. As the marbles scattered, we laughed in unison ... I remember the exact moment that I first laid on my back for him ... My legs were wrapped around his waist and just before his body was to merge with mine, I noticed his upper right chest. On it was a tattoo with the words "Pain is Love." Confessions of a Video Vixen is the widely anticipated memoir of Karrine Steffans, the once sought-after sexy siren who appeared in the music videos of multiplatinum hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, R. Kelly, and LL Cool J. A top-paid video dancer, Karrine transitioned to film when acclaimed director F. Gary Gray picked her to costar in his film A Man Apart, starring Vin Diesel. But the movie and music video sets, swanky Miami and New York restaurants, and trysts with the celebrities featured in the pages of People and In Touch magazines only skims the surface of Karrine's life. This memoir -- part tell-all, part cautionary tale -- shows how Karrinne came to be the confidante of so many, why she kept their secrets, and how she found herself in Hollywood after a life marked by physical abuse, rape, and drugs -- all before she was twenty-six. By sharing her emotionally charged story, she hopes to shed light on an otherwise romanticized industry.
#2 The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni Click to order via Amazon Nikki Giovanni Read and AALBC.com Review The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni has been grafted to my hands for the last 3 weeks. This anthology is the chronological atlas of her published work from 1968 - 1998. But this goes beyond the simplicity of a gathered collection of publications. Each work is tagged with a biographical timeline; introductions; new after-words from Giovanni; along with title and first line indexes, and illuminating notes about the poems. The effort to put together a first rate book is evident from page one. The liner notes refer to this book as the testimony of Giovanni life's work. I concur with this assessment and commend the results. For those of you who are Nikki Giovanni fans, this book is more than just complementary. It provides depth through personal insights that tend to edify her work. Her books of poems: Black Feeling Black Talk (1968), Black Judgment (1968), Re: Creation (1970), My House (1972), The Women and the Men (1975), Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (1978), and Those Who Ride Night Winds (1983) are here in completion. She has also included a section called Occasional Poems which are primarily contemporary odes dedicated to significant persons/people whom have moved her to pay homage to them in words. This collection could be a chronological study of the transition of Giovanni's poetry. Her iconic debut was the self-published revolutionary scripture Black Feeling Black Talk. It is a contemporary collection that has established itself as an indisputable centerpiece of modern poetry. This book is a resounding voice for the 1960's Black empowerment and pain. It is an ardent torch for socio-political change. Giovanni's work did not just comment on society's ills, she verbally demonstrated against it.	#2 The Ditchdigger's Daughters: A Black Family's Astonishing Success Story Click to order via Amazon Yvonne S. Thornton, M. D. as told to Jo Coudert, Read an AALBC.com Book Review The remarkable power of family values as articulated by an uneducated black man and his wife is played out in this loving memoir. Thornton is one of five daughters born to a laborer in a New Jersey shore town who was almost obsessed with the importance of education for his children and the nurturance of their talents. He strictly monitored their musical training, scrimping and wheedling where necessary to pay for their lessons. Eventually the Thornton Sisters Band was formed A family enterprise whose financial success became the source of the daughters' college tuition. Although only two of the girls fulfilled their father's dream that they become doctors, all of them have successful careers. This picture by Thornton and Coudert (Advice from a Failure) of a black man's single-minded devotion to his family is a tribute to an extraordinary father who transcended racial prejudice to raise appreciative daughters to be independent women. �Publishers Weekly
#3 Addicted Click to order via Amazon Zane Description from the Publisher: Addicted is the story of Zoe, an African-American female arts dealer. It traces her life from the time she first meets her husband, Jason, in the fifth grade, falls in love with him over a game of Twister in the eighth grade, loses her virginity to him in high school and eventually marries him. Everything seems perfect in Zoe's life to her friends and family as she secretly deals with serious problems in her marriage. After failing to get Jason to open up to her sexually, Zoe becomes involved in not one, not two but three extramarital affairs. By the time she seeks the aid of a prominent female African-American therapist, the walls of her picture perfect life have already started to crumble. The book shifts into high gear as Zoe finds out that everyone from her lovers to her husband to her own mother are hiding secrets of their own. Her best friend, Brina, is physically abused by her alcoholic boyfriend, Dempsey. Zoe discovers under hypnosis that her fascination with sex stems from two incidents in her early childhood she had buried deeply into the crevices of her mind. She is stalked and attacked. The book comes to a head on a cold, dark mountain following a trail of murders and the true murderer is anyone's guess. Addicted does for women what Fatal Attraction did for men. It will make a woman think twice before risking it all.	#3 The Covenant with Black America Click to order via Amazon Tavis Smiley (Editor) Read A Review The Covenant with Black America Six years' worth of symposiums come together in this rich collection of essays that plot a course for African Americans, explaining how individuals and households can make changes that will immediately improve their circumstances in areas ranging from health and education to crime reduction and financial well-being. Each chapter outlines one key issue and provides a list of resources, suggestions for action, and a checklist for what concerned citizens can do to keep their communities progressing socially, politically, and economically. Though the African American community faces devastating social disparities�in which more than 8 million people live in poverty�this celebration of possibility, hope, and strength will help leaders and citizens keep Black America moving forward.
#4 The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth Click to order via Amazon Zane After more than two years of entertaining tens of thousands of loyal readers on the Internet with her vivid imagination, a large collection of Zane's erotica is finally available in a published format. Zane has captivated the minds of both sexes and all races. She has completely shattered 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 races. 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.	#4 Diary of a Lost Girl Click to order via Amazon Kola Boof Kola Boof's long awaited autobiography "Diary of a Lost Girl" is nothing less than magnificent. Many will be spellbound by more than 90 pages detailing her terrifying experience as Osama Bin Laden's former mistress, but the Sudanese-born Novelist/Poet writes even more profoundly about the hardships of being vaginally circumcised, about witnessing her birth parents killed in her presence as a small child, about slavery and Arabism in Sudan, about being adopted and raised in the U.S. by African Americans, about her quest for true love, and in one particularly daring chapter, about her hopes for the future of her sons. Add to that years of psychiatric treatment, a struggle with manic anger and quite a few daring romances other than Bin Laden and you've got the perfect ingredients for a feature film. Readers will find themselves fascinated as innocent young Naima Bint Harith tragically becomes the vitriolic complicated temptress Kola. A doomed movie starlet, feminist activist and "kept woman"...who ultimately emerges as the loving mother, outspoken novelist/poet and professional cook that we know today as Kola Boof. Throughout the book, Kola speaks in a voice so utterly naked, truthful and unpretentious that it's impossible not to fall in love with her. �Kurt Rampling (editor)
#5 Public Enemy #2: An All-New Boondocks Collection Click to order via Amazon Aaron McGruder Here's the next big collection of Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks, the most subversively funny, controversial, and politically engaged strip to be found in America's comics pages. Featuring Huey Freeman, a radical preteen conspiracy theorist, and his little brother Riley, a desperately cute thug-in-training, The Boondocks skewers targets from George W. Bush and Ralph Nader to Queen Latifah and Bill Cosby. With more than 500 previously uncollected strips�including strips banned from newspapers around the country�Public Enemy #2 is a must-have collection of the sharpest satire being crafted today.	#5 We Speak Your Names: A Celebration Click to order via Amazon Pearl Cleage For centuries, African American women have been remaking the world, giving testament to the power of hope, courage, and resilience. But it took the inspired generosity of Oprah Winfrey to honor fully the many gifts of sisterhood. For three amazing days�from May 13 to 15, 2005�a distinguished group of women was invited to celebrate the enduring achievements of twenty-five of their mentors and role models�and in the process pay tribute to the long, glorious tradition of African American accomplishment. The brilliant centerpiece of the weekend was the reading aloud of Pearl Cleage's poem �We Speak Your Names,� written especially for the occasion and appearing here for the first time in this beautiful keepsake book. As deeply moving in print as it was during that weekend of love and praise, the poem names each of the women honored: Dr. Maya Angelou, Coretta Scott King, Diahann Carroll, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, Rosa Parks, Katherine Dunham, and other legends of the brightest magnitude. With heartfelt eloquence, Pearl Cleage (herself a luminary of the younger generation) celebrates her distinguished elders� strength, their magic, their sensuality, their loving kindness, their faith in themselves, and the priceless example of their lives. In her introduction, the poet shares: ’my sisters, here, there, and everywhere, this poem is for you. Use it, adapt it, pass it on. . . .� Destined to become a classic, We Speak Your Names is a treasure to keep forever and a precious, inspiring gift for the ones you love.
#6 Breaking the Cycle Click to order via Amazon by Zane Breaking the Cycle is a stunning and moving anthology of stories, each of which focuses on an aspect of domestic abuse. This powerful collection is sure to serve as a wake-up call for people either dealing with a domestic abuse situation, or those watching someone else endure it. In the title story, Zane describes the turmoil that a young girl suffers at the hands of her stepfather. The girl and her mother plan their escape, but at the last minute the mother falters�causing her to break down and tell her daughter the long history of domestic abuse in her own family. In D.V. Bernard's �The Lonely Echoes of My Youth,� readers are introduced to a young boy who witnesses an alluring young girl who encourages the boys around her to physically fight one another until they become violent by nature. And Nane Quartay's provocative story �The Grindstone,� a tale based on the author's own experience, describes a boy who witnesses a brutal murder, in which a woman decapitates her abusive husband with a machete. The boy's mother is a victim of abuse herself, and as her son relates the story over and over, she starts speculating about the benefits of sharpening knives on a grindstone. These stories capture the dangerous realities of domestic abuse, while also pointing toward the steps that need to be taken to break the cycle that perpetuates it. It is sure to serve as a rallying cry for all those who desire victory over their own victimization, and a guide for understanding the complex undercurrents that make such patterns possible.	#6 Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys Click to order via Amazon Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu 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.
#7 Chocolate Flava: The Eroticanoir.com Anthology Click to order via Amazon Zane (Editor) ISBN: 0743482387 Format: Paperback, 352pp Pub. Date: January 2004 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group As a best-selling author and successful publisher of Strebor Books, Zane's name is synonymous with popular fiction -- especially erotica. Her website, Eroticanoir.com, gets over a million hits a year from around the world, and her fans look forward to every one of her publishing ventures with eager anticipation. Chocolate Flava is the first in a series of collections of great erotic fiction edited by Zane, the reigning queen of erotica. Based on the Featured Erotica section of her website, Chocolate Flava gathers twenty-five sizzling tales from some of the most talented -- and dedicated -- writers of erotica working today. This is a his-and-her collection. There are stories specifically written with female readers in mind, and others written expressly for men. Among the contributors are names already familiar to readers of erotica, such as Reginald Harris, Robert Edison Sandiford, Jonathan Luckett and, of course, Zane -- as well as emerging voices, such as Geneva Barnes and Robert Scott Adams. What they all have in common is that they are great at what they do, and have been handpicked by Zane -- an editor who knows a hot story when she sees it. 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.	#7 Never Satisfied : How & Why Men Cheat Click to order via Amazon Michael Baisden Format: Paperback, 3rd ed., 254pp. ISBN: 0964367580 Publisher: Legacy Publishing Pub. Date: January 1995 The book is a collection of interviews of men who have cheated. It examines how men are raised from childhood to be unfaithful and how parents play a large part in creating cheaters. It also takes a hard look at the role of the other woman as well as the tolerant wives and girlfriends. Never before has a book dealt with infidelity on such a realistic level. This is a book every woman and man should read
#8 Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns: Stories Click to order via Amazon J. California Cooper ISBN: 0385511337 Format: Hardcover, 224pp Pub. Date: April 4, 2006 Publisher: Doubleday Publishing In stories that are simple yet elegant, hard-hitting yet poignant, J. California Cooper writes about the search for fulfillment that propels people's dreams and desires. In �As Time Goes By� a young woman named Futila Ways grows up focusing her dream of a better future on material wealth, only to discover that having everything she ever wanted cannot compensate for the emptiness in her heart. �The Eye of the Beholder� recounts the story of an unattractive young girl, Lily Bea, whose search for love leads her to embrace her own brand of freedom. And in �Catch a Falling Heart� a woman mildly crippled in a fall endures loneliness and solitude until she finds a man and provides a resting place for his love. Each story beautifully conveys the profound human need to seek some sort of satisfaction, just as a wild star seeks a midnight sun. J. California Cooper's insights into the hearts and souls of ordinary people and her irresistible storytelling voice have endeared her to fans and critics. As Ms. magazine wrote, �Cooper's stories beckon. It is as if she is patting the seat next to us, enticing us to come sit and listen.�	#8 Kill Them Before They Grow: The Misdiagnosis of African American Boys in America's Classrooms Click to order via Amazon Michael Porter ISBN: 0913543543 Format: Paperback, 100pp Pub. Date: March 1998 Publisher: African American Images According to Michael Porter, some people believe that today's youth, especially African American males, are lost; many of them can be found inside Behavior Disorder classes in America's public school system. This book examines how African American males end up in dead end BD classes, what happens to them in these classes, and how people can help their community to get on a life enhancing path.
#9 Chasing Destiny Click to order via Amazon Eric Jerome Dickey ISBN: 052594950X Format: Hardcover, 432pp Pub. Date: April 2006 Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Eight-time New York Times best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey's new novel is filled with intrigue, speed, and sex appeal. And an unforgettable female narrator rides her sexy yellow motorcycle right through it all. Billie (aka "Ducati") is known as much for her extraordinary beauty as for the sexy yellow motorcycle she rides through the mean streets of Los Angeles. Tough, talented, and self-assured, Billie's used to doing things her way-but that was before love threw an oil slick in the road and spun her life into chaos. Billie's first problem is simple: she's pregnant. Her second problem is that her lover, Keith, is still married. Keith has some "things" to deal with, and the people in his life are dark and duplicitous enough to take matters into their own hands, determined to keep Billie from having her baby. Billie suddenly finds herself confronted, attacked, run off highways, threatened and shadowed. Keith still has ties to his manipulative wife, Carmen, and he adores his fifteen-year-old daughter Destiny. Will he do the right thing by his new family, or stand by his old one? Soon all eyes shift as everyone finds themselves desperately chasing Destiny, a troubled and deceptive girl dancing on the edge of womanhood. When the rubber meets the road, everyone's fighting dirty for what they want...and they're all willing to destroy their enemy or go down in flames to get it.	#9 Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust: Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism Click to order via Amazon John Henrik Clarke ISBN: 1886433186 Format: Paperback, 128pp Pub. Date: August 2002 Publisher: A & B Distributors
#10 Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel Click to order via Amazon Aaron McGruder, Reginald Hudlin, Kyle Baker (Illustrator) This scathingly hilarious political satire--produced from a collaboration of three of our funniest humorists--answers the burning question: Would anyone care if East St. Louis seceded from the Union? East St. Louis, Illinois ("the inner city without an outer city"), is an impoverished town, so poor that Fred Fredericks, its idealistic mayor, starts off Election Day by collecting the city's trash in his own minivan. But the mayor believes in the power of democracy and rallies his fellow citizens to the polls for the presidential election, only to find hundreds of them turned away for trumped-up reasons. Even sweet old Miss Jackson--not to mention the mayor himself--is denied the vote because her name turns up on a bogus list of felons. The national election hinges on Illinois's electoral votes and, as a result of the mass disenfranchisement of East St. Louis, a radical right-wing junta led by a dim-witted Texas governor seizes the Oval Office. Prodded by shady black billionaire and old friend John Roberts, Fredericks devises a radical plan of protest: East St. Louis will secede from the Union. Roberts opens an "offshore" bank (albeit in the heart of the U.S.) to finance the newly liberated country, and suddenly East St. Louis becomes the Switzerland of the American heartland, flush with money. It also begins to attract a motley circus of idealistic young militants, OPEC-funded hitmen, CIA operatives, tabloid reporters, and AWOL black servicemen eager to protect and serve the new nation. Problems set in almost immediately: Controversies rage over the name and national anthem of the new country (they decide on the Republic of Blackland with an anthem sung to the tune of the theme from Good Times), and local thug Roscoe becomes a warlord and turns his gang into a paramilitary force. When the U.S. military begins to move in, Fredericks is forced to decide whether his protest is worth taking all the way. Birth of a Nation starts with a scenario drawn from the botched election of 2000 and spins it into a brilliantly absurd work of sharply pointed satire. Along the way the authors lay into a host of hot social and cultural issues--skewering white supremacists, black nationalists, and everyone in between--drawing real blood and real laughs in equal measure in this riotous send-up of American politics.	#10 Keeping Black Boys out of Special Education Click to order via Amazon Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu This critical analysis looks at the disproportionate number of African American males in special education. Arguing that the problem is race and gender driven, questions covered include Why does Europe send more females to special education? Why does America lead the world in giving children Ritalin? Is there a relationship between sugar, Ritalin, and cocaine? and Is there a relationship between special education and prison? More than 100 strategies to help teachers and parents keep black boys in the regular classroom, such as revising teacher expectations, increasing parental involvement, changing teaching styles from a left-brain abstract approach to a right brain hands-on approach, redoing the curriculum, understanding the impact of mass media, and fostering healthy eating habits.

Notes on the AALBC.com 2006 Best Sellers list

AALBC.com generates book sales directly, and through a number of affiliate programs. Our bestsellers list reflects sales generated via Amazon.com on;y. This list ranks book sales from January 1st through December 31st 2006.

For permission to reproduce this bestseller list, please contact troy@aalbc.com

Related Links

Best & Worst Non-Fict. '06

AALBC.com's 500 Best Selling Books for 2006
http://books.aalbc.com/top_500_books_2006.htm

Complete List of 1,453 Titles Sold in 2006
http://books.aalbc.com/all_titles_sold_2006.htm

Top 500 Books sold in 2006

List of All 1,453 Titles Sold in 2006

AALBC.com Bestsellers Lists for each two month tracking period

Nov / Dec 2006

Sep / Oct 2006

Jul / Aug 2006

May / Jun 2006

Mar / Apr 2006

Jan / Feb 2006