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.

�Young men today have been bombarded with images of wealth and success that tell them that buying the hottest car or the most bling-blingin� jewelry is what they should be motivated by. There is an overwhelming sales pitch targeted at these young men that subliminally suggests that material goods are what makes them real men. I want young men to have knowledge of the things that bring them true empowerment: education, a strong sense of purpose, compassion, confidence, and humility, to name a few.

It is no accident that I graduated from Brown University magna cum laude and received graduate degrees with honors from Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government. My family taught me that doing my best, educating myself, and being in service to others were not optional and that having values and being truthful were not negotiable.

I am living proof that these principles work. Through the letters in this book, I wish to pass on to other young men my grandfathers� legacies of education, hard work, determination, and success.�
�Excerpted from the Introduction

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.

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
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Format: Hardcover, 2144pp.
ISBN: 0465000711
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books
Pub. Date: October  1999
Edition Desc: BOXED
 

In 1909, W.E.B. Du Bois dreamed of editing an "Encyclopedia Africana" filled with all that scholars knew of the history, literature and art of the great continent and diaspora. Such a tome, Du Bois hoped, would, like Diderot's Encyclop�ide, serve as a springboard for future scholarship and a bulwark against racist misconceptions. At the century's close, editors Appiah and Gates - an African and African-American respectively - have fulfilled Du Bois's vision with aplomb. For this accessible, fascinating volume, the two Harvard professors have commissioned and condensed more than 3000 articles by more than 400 scholars. Though the bulk of the entries are devoted to the African continent and its descendant cultures in Latin America, the Caribbean and North America, the encyclopedia also addresses the African presence in Europe, Asia and the rest of the world (each article is color coded for easy reference). Entries range from a paragraph on Abaku’s, "all male secret societies created by African slaves living in Cuba during the mid-19th century, "to Evelyn Brooks Higginborham's six-page essay on "Women and the Block Baptist Church." The selections, which run the gamut from the Middle Passage, Rastafarians, the Montgomery bus boycott, rap and every African country, are notable for their clear presentation of facts and their cogent, fair-minded analysis. Some entries such as John Burdick's "Myth of Racial Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Interpretation." are really treatises on significant social issues. And the many minibiographies of accomplished artists - such as actor Paul Robeson, singer Diana Ross and saxophonist Charlie Parker - highlight the tremendous impact African-Americans have had on North American culture. Bursting with information and enhanced by contributions from its illustrious advisory board, which includes Jamaica Kincaid, Nell Irving Painter, Cornel West and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, this book belongs on every family's reference shelf. Du Bois himself could not have done better. 1000 photographs, maps and illustrations. �Publishers Weekly

Set in 1982, this marvelously entertaining sequel to Johnson's well-received first novel, Standing at the Scratch Line, continues the mythic saga of King Tremain, a knife- and gun-wielding Prohibition-era Robin Hood. Leaving a bloody trail of corpses from the bayous of Louisiana to New York and San Francisco, King's fight for survival against overwhelming odds offers a deeply affecting metaphor for black America's struggle for dignity and rights in the 20th century. The sequel picks up with San Francisco civil servant Jackson Tremain being summoned to the deathbed of his estranged grandfather, former mob-enforcer King, who has spent the past 28 years exiled deep in Mexico after being framed for the murder of white cops in San Francisco. Jackson flies to Mexico just in time to learn that he is the heir to a $50 million fortune. Returning to the Bay Area, Jackson learns that contracts are already out on his life from enemies determined to claim the fortune, and soon both he and his girlfriend are imperiled by King's old nemesis, bayou crime patriarch Pug DuMont, who's in cahoots with Bay Area mafiosi. Secret treasure, gang wars, voodoo, illegitimate heirs, damsels in distress in the hands of a lesser writer, this would be cheap pulp fiction, but the gifted Johnson gives sweep and emotional resonance to the action-packed hijinks.  �Publishers Weekly

Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer
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Maya Angelou

ISBN: 1400066107
Pub. Date: October 2006
Format: Hardcover, 128pp
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

Celebrations on Random House which includes memorial tributes to the late Barry White and Luther Vandross, "On the Pulse of Morning" written for Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration and a birthday wishes to Oprah was released

Book Description
Grace, dignity, and eloquence have long been hallmarks of Maya Angelou's poetry. Her measured verses have stirred our souls, energized our minds, and healed our hearts. Whether offering hope in the darkest of nights or expressing sincere joy at the extraordinariness of the everyday, Maya Angelou has served as our common voice.

Celebrations is a collection of timely and timeless poems that are an integral part of the global fabric. Several works have become nearly as iconic as Angelou herself: the inspiring �On the Pulse of Morning,� read at President William Jefferson Clinton's 1993 inauguration; the heartening �Amazing Peace,� presented at the 2005 lighting of the National Christmas Tree at the White House; �A Brave and Startling Truth,� which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations; and ’mother,� which beautifully honors the first woman in our lives. Angelou writes of celebrations public and private, a bar mitzvah wish to her nephew, a birthday greeting to Oprah Winfrey, and a memorial tribute to the late Luther Vandross and Barry White.

More than a writer, Angelou is a chronicler of history, an advocate for peace, and a champion for the planet, as well as a patriot, a mentor, and a friend. To be shared and cherished, the wisdom and poetry of Maya Angelou proves there is always cause for celebration.

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.

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.

Title: Standing at the Scratch Line
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Guy Johnson

Publisher: Random House, Incorporated
Date Published: November 1998
Format: Trade Cloth

Standing at the Scratch Line was selected as AALBC.com on-line book club's reading selection for October 1999.

Synopsis
In this hard hitting and action-filled novel, newcomer Guy Johnson (the son of Maya Angelou) introduces LeRoi Boudreaux Tremain, one of the most complex and engaging African-American characters in fiction. From the forests of France in WWI to the streets of New York City to a black township in Oklahoma, "King" Tremain is the angel of vengeance wherever he sees injustice inflicted on his people, friends or family.

Reviews and Commentary
After murdering two white lawmen, LeRoi Tremain is on the run -- straight into the army and the Great War, where he proves himself an able killer. The result is "a brief history of 20th-century black America in the guise of a testosterone-fueled adventure yarn in this fast-paced, intelligent, and extremely violent first novel." The author comes by his talents naturally; he's the son of Maya Angelou.

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.

2nd Time Around
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Yes, Raheim "Pooquie" Rivers and Mitchell "Little Bit" Crawford are back - they've got a serious love thang goin' on, and IT'S ALL JOOD. But for Raheim, it's a trip that promises to be both phat and frightening. As he struggles with being in love with another man for the first time, he must also come to terms with the murder of his homeboy, Derrick "D.C." Carter, and confront his father, who returns after abandoning him and his mother over sixteen years ago. Add his ever-curious five-year-old son, Junior, to the mix, and it's no wonder Raheim doesn't go mad crazy. Rut he manages to survive it all - thanks to the passion and patience of the man he loves.

Publisher: African American Images
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.

The Princess of Hip Hop Fiction, Nikki Turner, took readers through the life of, A Hustler's Wife, then on to a safari with A Project Chick. Now she blesses them with the journey of, Girls From The Hood.

"Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity
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Beverly Daniel Tatum

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Basic Books; 5th Anniv., Revised edition (January 7, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465083617

Anyone who's been to a high school or college has noted how students of the same race seem to stick together. Beverly Daniel Tatum has noticed it too, and she doesn't think it's so bad. As she explains in this provocative, though not-altogether-convincing book, these students are in the process of establishing and affirming their racial identity. As Tatum sees it, blacks must secure a racial identity free of negative stereotypes. The challenge to whites, on which she expounds, is to give up the privilege that their skin color affords and to work actively to combat injustice in society.
 

The high priestess of the hood, Nikki Turner, is back with the novel fans have been feenin� for: the sequel to her #1 best-selling novel, A Hustler's Wife.

Des, Virginia's slickest gangsta, is about to become a dad when he is charged with the murder of his own attorney. But with Yarni, his gorgeous wife (and a brilliant lawyer), now calling the shots, Des isn�t going back to the slammer without a fierce fight. Even with the heat on, Des manages to take his game to the next level and finds a new hustle, one that will allow him to possess the three things all major players desire: money, power, and respect. He becomes a preacher. Reluctantly, Yarni stands by her man as he trades in his triple beam scale for a Bible and a Bentley and makes his Church of the Good Life Ministry a welcoming place for all sinners to step up to the altar.

But when Des's nephew is killed in the high-stakes heroin trade and Des learns that someone close to him okayed the hit, the dyed-in-the-wool gangsta sets aside the Bible for the gospel of the streets�even if it means risking the one person who's always had his back.

100 Amazing Facts about the Negro with Complete Proof
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PROOF:
In Sept. 1664, Maryland passed a law that any white woman who married a 'Negro' should serve the master of such slave "for life." Slave-holders took advantage of this law to induce the white women, some of whom were recent arrivals, to marry the "Negroes." MacCormac says, "Instead of preventing such marriages this law enabled avaricious and unprincipled masters to convert many of their (white) servants into slaves." In 1681, the Legislature was forced to issue the following law: "Divers freeborn English or white women sometimes by the instigation, procurement, and connivance of their master.... and always to the satisfaction of their lascivious and lustful desires....do intermarry with 'Negroes' and other slaves, be it enacted that if any master....having any freeborn English or white woman servant in their possession or property, shall by any instigation, procurement, knowledge, permission or contrivance," cause her to marry a slave she should be free at once and the master should pay a fine of "10,000 lbs. of tobacco." (Archives of Maryland, Vol. I, pp. 433-34; and Vol. III, pp. 203-04, also Johns Hopkins University Studies in Hist. & Pol. Science, No. 3 & 4.) What is true of Maryland was true of other states.

"This testimony from a black sister marks the beginning of a new era in the minds and hearts of all black men and women... I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity. I have no words for this achievement, but I know that not since the days of my childhood, when the people in books were more real than the people one saw every day, have I found myself so moved... Her portrait is a biblical study in life in the midst of death." �James Baldwin

A Celebration of Literature and Response: Children, Books, and Teachers in K-8 Classrooms, Second Edition
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Marjorie R. Hancock

Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2 edition (July 22, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0131109022

Reinforced by teachers' experiences in actual classrooms, this book provides a wealth of ideas for projects, readings, and response-based activities that will engage all learners in the joy of reading and responding to literature. It blends an appreciation of children's books across all genres with an emphasis on meaningful instructional strategies for literacy programs. Coverage of multicultural/international literature helps illustrate the universality of themes in children's literature�providing a basis for establishing a library of literature that expresses the totality of children's experiences and speaks to children from all cultures and backgrounds. Coverage is based on Louise Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reader response, and organized around five main �celebrations� that the author uses as a framework for uniting the findings of reader-response theory with quality children's literature and exemplary reflective, literature-based practice. Includes expanded coverage on multicultural/international literature�including numerous examples of children's literature written and published in other countries. Includes extensive coverage of reader responses to literature�oral and written responses, as well as those made through the visual arts. For teachers of Children's Literature.

A Chance at Love
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Beverly Jenkins

Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Avon; Reissue edition (September 1, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060502290

an AALBC Best-Selling Book May/Jun 2007

Strong, sensible Jake was hoping for a wife to help him raise his girls, but Loreli may be more than he can handle. He can't stop wondering what it would be like to hold the fiery enchantress close and kiss her deeply. Surely he could never compete with the sophisticated gents she has known, yet he intends to try. But will his honest passion be enough to take a chance on a long-shot called love?

About the Author
Yosef-ben-Jochannan (affectionately known as Dr. Ben) is a master teacher with a forceful command of ancient and contemporary history. He uses wit, humor, and common sense to accent history and expose historical distortions. Dr. Ben has taught on the faculty of colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. His most recent assignment was as Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Languages, Al Azhar University (Arab Republic of Egypt). Prior to that, he served as Adjunct Professor of History and Egyptology at Cornell University's Africana Studies Research Center.