AALBC.com's Best Selling Books for May and June 2005
| Fiction | Nonfiction |
| #1
by Zane Format:
Paperback, 2nd ed., 304pp. 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. |
#1
by Kevin Powell ISBN: 0609810448 In three mind-jolting essays by one of the most passionate and eloquent voices of his generation, Who's Gonna Take the Weight? by Kevin Powell leads us to the heart of the searing issues facing us today, from manhood, violence, and gender oppression to celebrity culture and hip-hop. Using compelling personal stories as the connecting thread, he examines what this nation has become since the monumental upheavals of the 1960s and where it might be headed if we're not careful. |
| #2
by Zane Format: Paperback, 336pp. 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. |
#2
by Patricia Wilson,
ISBN: 0835809692
Quiet Spaces guides busy contemporary women into short prayer
interludes--despite the busyness of the day's schedule. As a businesswoman,
wife, and mother, author Patricia Wilson understands the hectic nature of
contemporary life and the sometimes conflicting tugs of career, family, and
home.
Wilson's prayer interludes can take as little as five minutes, but offer the renewal many women seek. |
| #3
Zane (Editor) ISBN: 0743457013 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. |
#3
ISBN: 0465017193 The acclaimed "hip-hop intellectual" exposes the raw nerve of class and generational warfare in black America with this provocative defense of impoverished African Americans Nothing exposed the class and generational divide in black America more starkly than Bill Cosby's now-infamous assault on the black poor when he received an NAACP award in the spring of 2004. The comedian-cum-social critic lamented the lack of parenting, poor academic performance, sexual promiscuity, and criminal behavior among what he called the "knuckleheads" of the African-American community. Even more surprising than his comments, however, was the fact that his audience laughed and applauded. Best-selling writer, preacher, and scholar Michael Eric Dyson uses the Cosby brouhaha as a window on a growing cultural divide within the African-American community. According to Dyson, the "Afristocracy" -lawyers, physicians, intellectuals, bankers, civil rights leaders, entertainers, and other professionals-looks with disdain upon the black poor who make up the "Ghettocracy" -single mothers on welfare, the married, single, and working poor, the incarcerated, and a battalion of impoverished children. Dyson explains why the black middle class has joined mainstream America to blame the poor for their troubles, rather than tackling the systemic injustices that shape their lives. He exposes the flawed logic of Cosby's diatribe and offers a principled defense of the wrongly maligned black citizens at the bottom of the social totem pole. Displaying the critical prowess that has made him the nation's preeminent spokesman for the hip-hop generation, Dyson challenges us all-black and white-to confront the social problems that the civil rights movement failed to solve. |
| #4
by Zane ISBN: 0743470974 In the latest romantic romp from New York Times best-selling author Zane, two hapless lovers get lost in a dating game gone awry. When Washington, D.C., chiropractor Yardley Brown goes to his local bank, it isn't only to make deposits into his account. He has long since accrued some interest in Rayne Waters, a bank employee who's too beautiful to be true -- and too beautiful to be single. At least that's what Yardley believes, which is why he has never approached her. Little does he know that Rayne is anything but taken. Not for want of trying, of course. But after barely surviving a dating disaster with her hairdresser's brother and then falling for a member of her church band who, it turns out, is celibate, she's on the verge of giving up. That is, until Yardley -- discouraged by his own slew of dead-end romances -- finally works up the courage to give her a try. The true craziness, however, is just beginning, thanks to a cast of characters who seem bent on botching the young couple's relationship. There's Rayne's erratic mother, who constantly boasts about being a "good whore"; Yardley's playboy buddies, always trolling for sex; and, worst of all, past lovers who make a habit of popping up and ruining things as only old flames (or previous mistakes) can. Weaving the carnal and the comical in true Zane fashion, Rayne and Yardley's struggle to find love in a world gone mad is a timeless talk about everything that can go wrong in the dating game -- and a few things that can go right. |
#4
ISBN: 1400062896 Throughout Maya Angelou’s life, from her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, to her world travels as a best-selling writer, good food has played a central role. Preparing and enjoying homemade meals provides a sense of purpose and calm, accomplishment and connection. Now in Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, Angelou shares memories pithy and poignant�and the recipes that helped to make them both indelible and irreplaceable. Angelou tells us about the time she was expelled from school for being afraid to speak�and her mother baked a delicious maple cake to brighten her spirits. She gives us her recipe for short ribs along with a story about a job she had as a cook at a Creole restaurant (never mind that she didn�t know how to cook and had no idea what Creole food might entail). There was the time in London when she attended a wretched dinner party full of wretched people; but all wasn�t lost’she did experience her initial taste of a savory onion tart. She recounts her very first night in her new home in Sonoma, California, when she invited M. F. K. Fisher over for cassoulet, and the evening Deca Mitford roasted a chicken when she was beyond tipsy�and created Chicken Drunkard Style. And then there was the hearty brunch Angelou made for a homesick Southerner, a meal that earned her both a job offer and a prophetic compliment: �If you can write half as good as you can cook, you are going to be famous.� |
| #5
ISBN: 0385501625 "This romp of a read combines lush settings, humorous dialogue and outrageous behavior..." Ebony magazine wrote of P.G. County, Connie Briscoe's first excursion into the world of the overprivileged and undersatisfied inhabitants of an elite suburb of Washington, D.C. Readers will be delighted to learn that their mischievous machinations and meddlesome ways reach new heights�and sink to new depths�in Can't Get Enough, the much-anticipated follow-up to P.G. County. Barbara Bentley, the grand dame of P.G. County, is tentatively embarking on a fresh approach to life, abandoning the alcohol that served to soften the edges of her marriage to her bimbo-loving millionaire husband, Bradford. She's been sober for a year, her part-time work as a real estate agent has boosted her self-confidence, and the unexpected attentions of a handsome young colleague have done wonders for her ego. For Jolene, Bradford's ambitious, conniving ex-mistress, the status she covets remains tantalizingly out of reach. Her decent, hard-working husband, Patrick, has left her for Pearl, a woman proud of her success as a beauty shop owner and eager to create a loving home for Patrick and his two mixed-up teenage daughters. Candice is trying to adjust to the recent discovery of her African American roots, an obsession that has alienated her husband and thrown her into the arms of a manipulative, unreliable lover. As the characters slip in and out of their Pratesi sheets and stride into mayhem and misdeeds in their Jimmy Choo shoes, Can't Get Enough will hold readers spellbound. A delectable and scrumptious page-turner, it ushers in spring with the fabulous force of aGucci-clad lion. |
#5
by Donna Brazile ISBN: 0743253981 Cooking with Grease is a powerful, behind-the-scenes memoir of the life and times of a tenacious political organizer and the first African-American woman to head a major presidential campaign. Donna Brazile fought her first political fight at age nine -- campaigning (successfully) for a city council candidate who promised a playground in her neighborhood. The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, she committed her heart and her future to political and social activism. By the 2000 presidential election, Brazile had become a major player in American political history -- and she remains one of the most outspoken and forceful political activists of our day. Donna grew up one of nine children in a working-poor family in New Orleans, a place where talking politics comes as naturally as stirring a pot of seafood gumbo -- and where the two often go hand in hand. Growing up, Donna learned how to cook from watching her mother, Jean, stir the pots in their family kitchen. She inherited her love of reading and politics from her grandmother Frances. Her brothers Teddy Man and Chet worked as foot soldiers in her early business schemes and voter registration efforts. Cooking with Grease follows Donna's rise to greater and greater political and personal accomplishments: lobbying for student financial aide, organizing demonstrations to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday and working on the Jesse Jackson, Dick Gephardt, Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton presidential campaigns. But each new career success came with its own kind of heartache, especially in her greatest challenge: leading Al Gore's 2000 campaign, making her the first African American to lead a major presidential campaign. Cooking with Grease is an intimate account of Donna's thirty years in politics. Her stories of the leaders and activists who have helped shape America's future are both inspiring and memorable. Donna's witty style and innovative political strategies have garnered her the respect and admiration of colleagues and adversaries alike -- she is as comfortable trading quips with J. C. Watts as she is with her Democratic colleagues. Her story is as warm and nourishing as a bowl of Brazile family gumbo. |
| #6
Zane (Editor) ISBN: 0743482387 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. |
#6
by Charles Barkley, Edited by Michael Wilbon ISBN:
1594200424 Throughout his career, Charles Barkley has always been willing--quite willing--to call it as he sees it, making him one of the most quotable athletes of his era and, many have suggested, a future political candidate. He's as happy talking issues as talking hoops, and for his new book, Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man? he sat down for conversations across the country about the troublesome topic of race in America. We had our own conversation on the subject with Sir Charles: Read it to find why he wrote the book, what he tells his own biracial daughter about race, and why he thinks sports can be a model for race relations. |
| #7
by Tu-Shonda Whitaker
ISBN: 0974789542
Book Description |
#7
Haki R. Madhubuti minces no words in Run Toward Fear, a powerful new collection of poetry. Run Toward Fear offers readers a mixture of poems that challenge and cause both reflection and question on many of the headline issues that have launched this century. Madhubuti includes poignant moving tributes to Jacob Carruthers, Gwendolyn Brooks and Amiri Baraka, as well as, heartfelt words that provide comfort and guidance to the families of the twenty-one who lost their lives in Chicago’s E-2 night club tragedy. Madhubuti, motivated by constant requests from younger poets and teachers of poetry to share his insights on writing and the art of producing poetry, offers an added extra in Run Toward Fear. The final section of the book, �A Poet’s Handbook, provides personal and sometimes anecdotal insights on the craft of writing poetry. The �Handbook� serves as a practical answer to the book’s final poem �For the Consideration of Poets.� |
| #8
ISBN:
0970247257 Sweet innocent Yarni, from a well-to do family, by chance, meets Richmond's notorious drug kingpin, Des. Immediately they develop an astronomical love, which separates her from her family and friends. But when Des, is sentenced to life in prison, she will learn, being a hustler's wife isn't as easy, with her sole provider behind bars. Travel with Yarni, as she survives when the script if flipped. At times she plays the game, and at other times...the game plays her. Her journey is filled with laughter, tears, failures, triumphs and perseverance. Nikki's debut novel is a smorgasbord of manipulation, street-life, greed, betrayal, envy, money, power and revenge. |
#8
Release Date:
30 April, 2005 Black identity has become a hot item in the movies, on television, and in the schools and colleges. But few people are aware of how much of what passes as black identity today, including "black English," has its roots in the history of those whites who were called "rednecks" and "crackers" centuries ago in Britain, before they ever crossed the Atlantic and settled in the South. Saying "acrost" for "across" or "ax" for "ask" are today considered to be part of black English. But this way of talking was common centuries ago in those regions of Britain from which white Southerners came. They brought with them more than their own dialect. They brought a whole way of life that made antebellum white Southerners very different from white Northerners. Violence was far more common in the South -- and in those parts of Britain from which Southerners came. So was illegitimacy, lively music and dance, and a style of religious oratory marked by strident rhetoric, unbridled emotions, and flamboyant imagery. All of this would become part of the cultural legacy of blacks, who lived for centuries in the midst of the redneck culture of the South. That culture was as notable for what it did not have as for what it had. It did not emphasize education, for example, or intellectual interests in general. Illiteracy was far more common among whites in the antebellum South than among whites in the North, and of course the blacks held in bondage in the South were virtually all illiterate. On into the early 20th century, Southern whites scored lower on mental tests than whites in other parts of the country, as blacks continued to do. Many aspects of Southern life that some observers have attributed to race or racism, or to slavery, were common to Southern blacks and whites alike -- and were common in those parts of Britain from which Southern whites came, where there were no slaves and where most people had never seen anyone black. Most Southern blacks and whites moved away from that redneck culture over the generations, as its consequences proved to be counterproductive or even disastrous. But it survives today among the poorest and least educated ghetto blacks. |
| #9
by Angel Hunter, LA Jill Hunt, Dwayne S. Joseph ISBN: 0974363693 There's a saying in Brooklyn that if you come from my part of town that you're from around the way. Well Sydni, Angel and Cream are all from around the way. They all live in Crown Heights, one of the most notorious sections of Brooklyn, but to them it's just a place they call home. Around the Way girls is a fast paced look at the life of three street smart woman who think they know it all but are about to get the lessons of their lives. Angel Santiago has got it going on. She's young, fine and can get what she wants, whenever she wants it, the way she wants it. That's because she knows the key to the game. Control-that's what it's all about and nobody controls the situation like Angel does. At least not until she meets Frido. He's everything all the other guys aren't and while Angel may know the game, Frido's the one who invented it. Cream White is the mother of one, caretaker of another and one of the hardest working strippers in Brooklyn. Tired of the game, the ghetto and the hustle, she takes part in a scam that will hopefully provide her with a way out of the hood. Surprisingly, the one who introduced her to the game is the only one who holds the key to getting her out of it. All Sydni Johnson wants to do is get the hell outta New York. The worst thing her mother could have done was uproot her and the family and move her from Atlanta to Brooklyn five years ago. Now, her brother is dead, her sister is out of control, and to make matters worse, her mother's about to be marry a man Sydni can't stand. What's a sister to do? Make some loot, of course, so she can get the hell out of Brooklyn and go back down south in style. Only, when it's all said and done she might just be too smart for her own good. |
#9
by Charles Barkley, Michael Wilbon (Editor)
ISBN: 037550883X Charles Barkley has never been shy about ex-pressing his opinions. Michael Jordan once said that we all want to say the things that Barkley says, but we don�t dare. But even die-hard followers of the all-time NBA great, the star of TNT’s Inside the NBA and CNN’s TalkBack Live, will be astonished by just how candid and provocative he is in this book�and just how big his ambitions are. Though he addresses weighty issues with a light touch and prefers to stir people to think by making them laugh, there’s nothing Charles Barkley shies away from here�not race, not class, not big money, not scandal, not politics, not personalities, nothing. �Early on,� says Washington Post columnist and ESPN talk show host Michael Wilbon in his Introduction, �Barkley made his peace with mixing it up, and decided the consequences were very much worth it to him. And that makes him as radically different in these modern celebrity times as a 6-foot-4-inch power forward.� If there’s one thing Charles Barkley knows, it’s the crying need for honest, open discussion in this country�the more uncomfortable the subject, the more necessary the dialogue. And if the discussion leader can be as wise, irreverent, (occasionally) profane and (consistently) funny as Charles Barkley, so much the better. Many people are going to be shocked and scandalized by I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It, but many more will stand up and cheer. Like Molly Ivins or Bill O�Reilly, Charles Barkley is utterly his own thinker, and everything he says comes from deep reflection. One way or another, if more blood hasn�t reached your brain by the time you�ve finished this book, maybe you�ve been embalmed. |
| #10
ISBN: 0525948783 Eric Jerome Dickey, the six-time New York Times best-selling author of Drive Me Crazy, returns with a sizzling new novel of romance and betrayal. Just how well do we ever really know the person sleeping next to us? Sometimes we know everything. In Genevieve, Eric Jerome Dickey has crafted a masterfully twisted tale
of intrigue, hidden identities, and self-discovery. It’s the tale of a man
torn between the love of his beautiful wife and the sudden arrival of his
wife’s sister�a mysterious and provocative woman who offers him the passion
he craves, but at a steep price. In a story packed with revelations at every turn, Eric Jerome Dickey takes us on a journey filled with deception, careening down a highway bound for destiny . . . and disaster. |
#10
ISBN: 1932450750 Would you like to be free from financial worries, rest at night knowing your bills are paid, and have peace of mind when it comes to money matters? Then you need Zero Debt - a 30-day action plan to fix your finances. In Zero Debt, you'll discover:
If you want to be debt-free and achieve financial freedom, you need an action plan to guide you. This book is your step-by-step plan. It’s simple. It’s easy to understand. And it works. 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! |
The
Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth
Who's
Gonna Take the Weight?: Manhood, Race, and Power in America
Addicted
Quiet Spaces: Prayer Interludes for Women
Getting
Buck Wild: Sex Chronicles 2, Vol. 2
Is
Bill Cosby Right?: 
Afterburn
Hallelujah!
The Welcome Table
Can't
Get Enough
Cooking
With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics
Chocolate
Flava: The Eroticanoir.com Anthology
Who's
Afraid of a Large Black Man?
Flipside of The Game
Run
Toward Fear: New Poems and a Poet’s Handbook
A
Black
Rednecks And White Liberals: And Other Cultural And Ethnic Issues
Around
the Way Girls
I
May Be Wrong but I Doubt It: Some Things I've Learned So Far
Genevieve
Zero
Debt: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Freedom
For permission to reproduce this bestseller list, please contact earl@aalbc.com
