754 Books Published by Macmillan Publishers on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

The Leaving Room

by Amber McBride
Feiwel & Friends (Oct 07, 2025)
Read Detailed Book Description

For fans of You’ve Reached Sam and If I Stay, a hauntingly beautiful, ultimately hopeful novel-in-verse about a girl in between life and death, by National Book Award Finalist Amber McBride.

Gospel is the Keeper of the Leaving Room—a place all young people must phase through when they die. The young are never ready to leave; they need a moment to remember and a Keeper to help their wispy souls along.

When a random door opens and a Keeper named Melody arrives, their souls become entangled. Gospel’s seriousness melts and Melody’s fear of connection fades, but still—are Keepers allowed to fall in love? Now they must find a way out of the Leaving Room and be unafraid of their love. In a novel that takes place over four minutes, National Book Award finalist Amber McBride explores connection, memory, and hope in ways that are unforgettable and poignant.


The Space Cat

by Nnedi Okorafor
First Second (Aug 12, 2025)
Read Detailed Book Description

Invaders from outer space have descended on Nigeria. They have no idea whose home they’re messing with.

Ah, yes, the luxurious life of a well-loved cat. It’s the best. And Periwinkle has it the cushiest. But there’s more to this pampered pet than meets the eye. He’s not just a house cat. He’s a space cat. By day, he’s showered with scritches, cuddles, and delicious chicken fillets. By night, he races through the cosmos in his custom-built spaceship.

Between epic battles with squeaky toys and working on ways to improve his ship, Periwinkle is never bored. And when his humans decide to leave the United States and move to the small but bustling town of Kaleria, Nigeria, he’s excited to explore his new home—even after he learns that many Nigerians hate cats. After all, a born adventurer like Periwinkle doesn’t shy away from new experiences. But not everything in Kaleria is as it seems. Soon enough, Periwinkle finds himself on his most out-of-this-world adventure yet, right here on Earth.


Click for more detail about Rap It Up! by Carole Boston Weatherford Rap It Up!

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Henry Holt & Company (Mar 18, 2025)
Read Detailed Book Description

Aspiring young rappers will delight in this infectious, read-aloud introduction to the poetry and craft of rap.

From scribbling words on the page to spitting rhymes on the mic, a joyful narrator guides readers through the emotions, literary techniques, structures and motifs that help make rap so amazing. With vibrant illustrations that leap off the page, this book urges readers to believe in themselves and the power of their creativity.

Celebratory and informative, Rap it Up! invites us to see where our imaginations may lead. Get ready to drop some beats, express yourself, and let the world hear what you’ve got to say!


Click for more detail about One Blood by Denene Millner One Blood

by Denene Millner
Forge (Jan 28, 2025)
Read Detailed Book Description

The MacDowell Fellowship and New York Times bestselling author, Denene Millner, makes her solo fiction debut with this intimate yet sweeping novel that encompasses the poetic brilliance and power of Homegoing and The Mothers—a novel that chronicles the journey of three generations of women through motherhood, sisterhood, love, hope, dreams, and the secrets they dare to keep…even from themselves.

Grace: Raised by her beloved grandmother in tension-filled, post-segregation Virginia, Grace is barely a teenager when she loses her grandmother. Shellshocked, she is shipped up North to live with her formidably ambitious Aunt Hattie—a woman who firmly left behind her Southern roots in pursuit of upward mobility. Feeling like a fish out of water in the high society world filled with fancy teas and coveted debutante balls, Grace’s only place of comfort is with the smart, handsome son of one of the society’s grand dames.

Delores: Beautiful, intelligent, and fierce, Delores, a.k.a. Lolo, has never had it easy. Once she makes it north, she puts aside her dream of being a model to do what she has to do to survive as a woman with little money and no mooring: get married and have a family of her own. When secrets start to spill out and she and her family slowly begin to unravel, Lolo is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her dream intact and those she loves together.

Rae: When Lolo’s headstrong daughter, Rae, discovers that she is adopted, it’s just one secret among others that her family is keeping. When Rae finds out that she’s about to become a mother herself, she knows that there is an important reckoning that must be faced about herself and her two mothers.

Potent, poetic, and powerful, Denene Millner’s beautifully wrought novel explores the unshakeable bond of three women and what it truly means to be family.


Click for more detail about Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative by Keke Palmer Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative

by Keke Palmer
Flatiron Books (Nov 19, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

From the award-winning, multihyphenate global entertainer Keke Palmer comes the inspiring true story of her journey to understanding her genuine value.

A Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2024: Bookshop, Apple Books, and more!!

Keke Palmer thought she knew who she was—what it means to be a good person and what it takes to be a success. It all seemed so simple, until she realized the challenges she would have to face to prove to herself who she wanted to be. From feeling alienated to having to restart her career after ten years in, to becoming a single mother just months after her son was born—everything she worked for in life that she felt granted her what she wanted now also reminded her that “life is going to life” and throw curveballs regardless of what you deserve. She found herself asking, Where do I find my power? How do I master myself?

In her own raw and intimate words, Keke talks about everything from her struggles with boundaries to unconditional love, forgiveness, and worthiness. “Don’t block your blessings and potential opportunities by allowing the voices of other people to influence your actions,” she says. “How you’re choosing to set yourself up for success is between you and the person looking back at you in the mirror.”

Throughout the book, Keke also poses readers with the questions needed to get them through their own challenging times by sharing personal stories and lessons she’s learned along the way. She gets candid about the tools she’s developed to take the reins, harness her vulnerability, and recognize ownership in the narrative of her life—which allowed her to turn personal power into major power.

In this exhilarating, deeply poignant, and often laugh-out-loud book, Lauren Keyana Palmer gets real about life, work, love, and belief. These pages will encourage readers to empower themselves with the truth, leverage their currency, and find the keys to master themselves and the art of alchemy. Keke writes, “You are not on anyone else’s timeline, only your own.”

The result is a tour de force.

They said, “Jack of all Trades, Master of None.”
She said, “No, I am the Master. Of Me.”


Click for more detail about Claudette Colvin: I Want Freedom Now! by Claudette Colvin and Phillip Hoose Claudette Colvin: I Want Freedom Now!

by Claudette Colvin and Phillip Hoose
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Nov 12, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Civil rights icon Claudette Colvin teams up with Phillip Hoose—author of the Newbery Honor and National Book Award-winning blockbuster biography Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice—to tell her groundbreaking story in this unforgettable picture book illustrated by New York Times-bestselling artist Bea Jackson.

Montgomery, Alabama 1955. Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin is tired. Tired of white people thinking they’re better than her. Tired of going to separate schools and separate bathrooms. Most of all, she’s tired of having to give up her seat on the bus whenever a white person tells her to. She wants freedom NOW! But what can one teenager do?

On a bus ride home from school one day, young Claudette takes a stand for justice and refuses to get up from her seat—nine months before Rosa Parks will become famous for doing the same. What follows will not only transform Claudette’s life but the course of history itself.

In the words of Claudette Colvin herself, as told to acclaimed nonfiction writer Phillip Hoose, this empowering, heroic story illustrates how one simple act of courage can create real and lasting change.


Click for more detail about Curdle Creek by Yvonne Battle-Felton Curdle Creek

by Yvonne Battle-Felton
Henry Holt & Company (Oct 15, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

For fans of “The Lottery” and The Hunger Games, this novel set in a small town with a sinister tradition is chilling in the best possible way.

Welcome to Curdle Creek, a place just dying to make you feel at home. Osira, a 45-year-old widow, is an obedient follower of the strict conventions of Curdle Creek, an all-Black town in rural America stuck in the past and governed by a tradition of ominous rituals. Considered blessed, Osira’s luck changes when her children run off, she comes second-to-last in the running of the widows and her father flees when his name is called in the annual moving-on ceremony. Forced into a test of allegiance, Osira finds herself transported back in time then into another realm where she must answer for crimes committed by Curdle Creek. Exile forces her to jump realms again, landing Osira even farther away from home in rural England. Safe, as long as she sticks to the rules, she quickly learns there are consequences for every kindness. Will another jump lead Osira anywhere but back home?

Curdle Creek is a unique, inventive novel exploring themes of home, belonging, motherhood, and what we inherit from society. This American gothic offers a mash-up of the surreal and literary horror that will appeal to fans of Ring Shout, The Underground Railroad and Lovecraft Country. Battle-Felton’s fever-dream of a tale is strange, layered, and quite unlike anything else.


Click for more detail about Under the Heron’s Light by Randi Pink Under the Heron’s Light

by Randi Pink
Feiwel & Friends (Oct 15, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Inspired by stories about the real-world Great Dismal Swamp, this acclaimed fantasy explores alternate history, a family's supernatural connections to the swamp, and the strength that comes in knowing your roots.

“Four thousand six hundred forty-two steps in,” Grannylou interrupted. “You remember that now, Baby. Four thousand six hundred forty-two steps to paradise.”

On a damp night in 1722, Babylou Mac and her three siblings witness the murder of their mother at the hands of the local preacher's son—so Babylou kills him in retaliation. With plantation dogs now on their heels, the four siblings breach the treacherous confines of the Great Dismal Swamp. Deeper and deeper into Dismal they delve, amid the biting moccasins and pitch-black waters, toward a refuge where they can live freely within the swamp's natural—and supernatural—protection.

Three hundred years later, college student Atlas comes home to North Carolina for the annual Bornday cookout and hog roast: a celebration of the fact that she and her three cousins were all born on the same day nineteen years ago, sharing a birthday with their Grannylou. But this Bornday, Grannylou's usual riddles and folktales about a marvelous paradise deep in the Great Dismal Swamp start to take on a tangible quality. Change is coming.

When Dismal calls, sucking Grannylou in, it's up to Atlas and her cousins to uncover the history that the black waters hold. Centuries of family tension, with roots all over Virginia and North Carolina, are about to be dug up. Because Babylou and Grannylou are one and the same, and the power she helped cultivate hundreds of years ago—steeped in Black resistance, familial love, and the otherworldly mysteries of the Great Dismal Swamp—is bubbling back up. But so is a bitterness that runs deep as the swamp's waters. And some are ready to take what they feel they're owed.


Click for more detail about Tangleroot by Kalela Williams Tangleroot

by Kalela Williams
Feiwel & Friends (Oct 15, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

The Indies Introduce and Indie Next debut YA novel about blood and family that is both history and mystery.

Noni Reid has grown up in the shadow of her mother, Dr. Radiance Castine, renowned scholar of Black literature, who is alarmingly perfect at just about everything.

When Dr. Castine takes a job as the president of the prestigious Stonepost College in rural Virginia, Noni is forced to leave her New England home and, most importantly, a prime internship and her friends. She and her mother move into the “big house” on Tangleroot Plantation.

Tangleroot was built by one of Noni's ancestors, an enslaved man named Cuffee Fortune—who Dr. Castine believes was also the original founder of Stonepost College, and that the school was originally formed for Black students. Dr. Castine spends much of her time trying to piece together enough undeniable truth in order to change the name of the school in Cuffee's honor—and to force the university to reckon with its own racist past.

Meanwhile, Noni hates everything about her new home, but finds herself morbidly fascinated by the white, slaveholding family who once lived in it. Slowly, she begins to unpeel the layers of sinister history that envelop her Virginia town, her mother's workplace, her ancestry—and her life story as she knew it. Through it all, she must navigate the ancient prejudices of the citizens in her small town, and ultimately, she finds herself both affirming her mother's position and her own—but also discovering a secret that changes everything.


Click for more detail about Gone Wolf by Amber McBride Gone Wolf

by Amber McBride
Square Fish (Oct 01, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Award-winning author Amber McBride lays bare the fears of being young and Black in America, in this middle-grade novel that has been compared to the work of Jordan Peele and praised as “brilliantly inventive storytelling” by Publishers Weekly.

In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined—to be used as a biological match for the president’s son, should he fall ill. She is called a Blue—the color of sadness. She lives in a small-small room with her dog, who is going wolf more often—he’s pacing and imagining he’s free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too—she wants to know why she feels so Blue and what is beyond her small-small room.

In the present, Imogen lives outside of Washington, D.C. The pandemic has distanced her from everyone but her mother and her therapist. Imogen has intense phobias and nightmares of confinement. Her two older brothers used to help her, but now she’s on her own, until a college student helps her see the difference between being Blue and sad, and Black and empowered.

In this symphony of a novel, award-winning author Amber McBride lays bare the fears of being young and Black in America, and empowers readers to remember their voices and stories are important, especially when they feel the need to go wolf.


Click for more detail about Onyx & Beyond by Amber McBride Onyx & Beyond

by Amber McBride
Feiwel & Friends (Oct 01, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Award-winning author Amber McBride lays bare the fears of being young and Black in America, in this middle-grade novel that has been compared to the work of Jordan Peele and praised as “brilliantly inventive storytelling” by Publishers Weekly.

In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined—to be used as a biological match for the president’s son, should he fall ill. She is called a Blue—the color of sadness. She lives in a small-small room with her dog, who is going wolf more often—he’s pacing and imagining he’s free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too—she wants to know why she feels so Blue and what is beyond her small-small room.

In the present, Imogen lives outside of Washington, D.C. The pandemic has distanced her from everyone but her mother and her therapist. Imogen has intense phobias and nightmares of confinement. Her two older brothers used to help her, but now she’s on her own, until a college student helps her see the difference between being Blue and sad, and Black and empowered.

In this symphony of a novel, award-winning author Amber McBride lays bare the fears of being young and Black in America, and empowers readers to remember their voices and stories are important, especially when they feel the need to go wolf.


Click for more detail about The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America by Aaron Robertson The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America

by Aaron Robertson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Oct 01, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

One of Literary Hub’s most anticipated books of 2024

A lyrical meditation on how Black Americans have envisioned utopia—and sought to transform their lives.

How do the disillusioned, the forgotten, and the persecuted not merely hold on to life but expand its possibilities and preserve its beauty? What, in other words, does utopia look like in black?

These questions animate Aaron Robertson’s exploration of Black Americans’ efforts to remake the conditions of their lives. Writing in the tradition of Saidiya Hartman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robertson makes his way from his ancestral hometown of Promise Land, Tennessee, to Detroit—the city where he was born, and where one of the country’s most remarkable Black utopian experiments got its start. Founded by the brilliant preacher Albert Cleage Jr., the Shrine of the Black Madonna combined Afrocentric Christian practice with radical social projects to transform the self-conception of its members. Central to this endeavor was the Shrine’s chancel mural of a Black Virgin and child, the icon of a nationwide liberation movement that would come to be known as Black Christian Nationalism. The Shrine’s members opened bookstores and co-ops, created a self-defense force, and raised their children communally, eventually working to establish the country’s largest Black-owned farm, where attempts to create an earthly paradise for Black people continue today.

Alongside the Shrine’s story, Robertson reflects on a diverse array of Black utopian visions, from the Reconstruction era through the countercultural fervor of the 1960s and 1970s and into the present day. By doing so, Robertson showcases the enduring quest of collectives and individuals for a world beyond the constraints of systemic racism.

The Black Utopians offers a nuanced portrait of the struggle for spaces—both ideological and physical—where Black dignity, protection, and nourishment are paramount. This book is the story of a movement and of a world still in the making—one that points the way toward radical alternatives for the future.


Click for more detail about Salvage: Readings from the Wreck by Dionne Brand Salvage: Readings from the Wreck

by Dionne Brand
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Oct 01, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Dionne Brand explores English and American literature, and the colonial aesthetic that shaped her sense of self and the world, of what was possible and what was not.

Coloniality constructs outsides and insides—worlds to be chosen, disturbed, interpreted, and navigated—in order to live something like a real self.

In Salvage, the internationally acclaimed poet and novelist Dionne Brand offers a bracing account of reading, life, and what remains in the wreck of empire. Uniquely and powerfully blending criticism and autobiography as artifact, Brand explores her encounters with colonial, imperialist, and racist tropes in famous and familiar books, looking particularly at the extraordinary implications and modern-day reverberations of stories such as Robinson Crusoe and Mansfield Park; the ways that practices of reading and writing are shaped by those narrative structures; and the challenges of writing a narrative of Black life that attends to its own expression and consciousness.

Making and remaking the self in relation to these dominant cultural narratives, Brand learned to read the literature of two empires, the British and the American, in an anti-colonial light—in order to survive, in order to live.

The scene is the act of reading. The book, another kind of forensics. A forensics of the literary substance of which the author is made and must recover from, and if not recover, then piece together as artifact. Much more than autobiography or a work of literary criticism, Salvage is gripping, witty, revelatory, and essential reading by one of our most powerful and brilliant writers.


Click for more detail about Model Home by Rivers Solomon Model Home

by Rivers Solomon
MCD (Oct 01, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Welcome to Rivers Solomon’s dark and wondrous Model Home, a new kind of haunted-house novel.

The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.

As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents’ death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a “natural” death for their parents … but was it supernatural?

Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.


Click for more detail about Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known by George M. Johnson Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known

by George M. Johnson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Sep 24, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

From the New York Times-bestselling author of All Boys Aren’t Blue comes an empowering set of essays about Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance.

In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson celebrates writers, performers, and activists from 1920s Black America whose sexualities have been obscured throughout history. Through 14 essays, Johnson reveals how American culture has been shaped by icons who are both Black and Queer—and whose stories deserve to be celebrated in their entirety.

Interspersed with personal narrative, powerful poetry, and illustrations by award-winning illustrator Charly Palmer, Flamboyants looks to the past for understanding as to how Black and Queer culture has defined the present and will continue to impact the future. With candid prose and an unflinching lens towards truth and hope, George M. Johnson brings young adult readers an inspiring collection of biographies that will encourage teens today to be unabashed in their layered identities.


Click for more detail about Devils Kill Devils by Johnny Compton Devils Kill Devils

by Johnny Compton
Tor Nightfire (Sep 24, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Devils Kill Devils is perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Certain Dark Things and Southern gothic horror. Johnny Compton brings his trademark terror and dread that readers fell in love with in The Spite House to a new roster of monsters—angels, devils, vampires—and a heart-pounding race to save the world.

When all hell breaks loose, you need a devil on your side

Sarita has been watched over by a guardian angel her entire life. She calls him Angelo, and keeps him a secret. But secrets can’t stay buried forever…

When Angelo murders someone she loves, Sarita begins to see what’s really been lurking in the shadows surrounding her. And she will have to embrace the evil within if she hopes to make it out alive.

Johnny Compton, critically acclaimed author of The Spite House and master of dread, takes you on a terrifying race of one woman against the hordes of hell.


Click for more detail about Kwame Crashes the Underworld by Craig Kofi Farmer Kwame Crashes the Underworld

by Craig Kofi Farmer
Roaring Brook Press (Sep 10, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

A stunning middle grade fantasy about a boy hurled into the Ghanaian underworld to help his late grandmother save humanity, perfect for fans of Tristan Strong and The Book of Life.

Twelve-year-old Kwame Powell refuses to acknowledge any feelings about his grandmother's passing. And he certainly doesn't want to accompany his parents to her celebration of life ceremony in Ghana, where he knows he'll have to face his feelings about her death head-on.

But when an aboatia — a mischievous monkey from Akan mythology — steals Kwame's grandmother's dashiki, his last physical reminder of her, Kwame decides to take matters into his own hands. He chases the little thief across town, to the edge of the pier, and…into a magical whirlpool that leads straight to Asamando, the Ghanaian underworld.

With his best friend Autumn, and the crafty aboatia he names Woo, Kwame finds himself embroiled with angry nature gods intent on destroying humanity. And, matters only get more complicated when he runs into none other than his grandmother herself…except in the underworld, she's still a kid. And very much alive.

Adventurous and memorable, Craig Kofi Farmer's middle grade fantasy is an immersive and powerful debut that tackles themes of identity, intergenerational connectedness, and how to say goodbye with heart, humor, and an epic dose of magic.


Click for more detail about A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson A Pair of Wings

by Carole Hopson
Henry Holt & Company (Aug 20, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

A riveting, adventurous novel inspired by the life of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who learned to fly at the dawn of aviation and found freedom in the air.

A few years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, Bessie was working the Texas cotton fields with her family when an airplane flew over their heads. It buzzed so low she thought she could catch it in her hands. Bessie was fearless. She knew there was freedom in those wings.

The daughter of a woman born into slavery, Bessie answers the call of the Great Migration. She moves to Chicago, where she wins the backing of two wealthy, powerful Black men—Robert Abbott, creator and publisher of the Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, the founder of Chicago’s first Black bank. Abbott becomes her mentor, while Binga becomes her lover. Her true first love, though, remains flying.

But in 1920, no one in the United States will train a Black woman to fly. So, twenty-eight-year-old Bessie learns to speak French and sets off for Europe. Two years ahead of Amelia Earhart, Bessie earns her pilot’s license, and later she learns death-defying stunts from French and German dogfighting combat pilots.

While she finds no prejudice in the air, Bessie wrestles with other challenges on the ground. A plane crash nearly kills her, her brothers seem to be crumbling under the weight of Jim Crow, and, while grappling with tough truths about Binga, Bessie begins to wonder if the freedom she finds in the sky means she must otherwise fly solo.

With tenderness and mastery, Carole Hopson imagines the breathtaking moxie Bessie Coleman harnessed in order to lift herself out of poverty and become known as “Queen Bess.”


Click for more detail about Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde

by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Aug 20, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

A bold, innovative biography that offers a new understanding of the life, work, and enduring impact of Audre Lorde.

We remember Audre Lorde as an iconic writer, a quotable teacher whose words and face grace T-shirts, nonprofit annual reports, and campus diversity-center walls. But even those who are inspired by Lorde’s teachings on "the creative power of difference" may be missing something fundamental about her life and work, and what they can mean for us today.

Lorde’s understanding of survival was not simply about getting through to the other side of oppression or being resilient in the face of cancer. It was about the total stakes of what it means to be in relationship with a planet in transformation. Possibly the focus on Lorde’s quotable essays, to the neglect of her complex poems, has led us to ignore her deep engagement with the natural world, the planetary dynamics of geology, meteorology, and biology. For her, ecological images are not simply metaphors but rather literal guides to how to be of earth on earth, and how to survive—to live the ethics that a Black feminist lesbian warrior poetics demands.

In Survival Is a Promise, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the first researcher to explore the full depths of Lorde’s manuscript archives, illuminates the eternal life of Lorde. Her life and work become more than a sound bite; they become a cosmic force, teaching us the grand contingency of life together on earth.


Click for more detail about Scattered Snows, to the North: Poems by Carl Phillips Scattered Snows, to the North: Poems

by Carl Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Aug 06, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

An arresting study of memory, perception, and the human condition, from Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Phillips.

Carl Phillips’s Scattered Snows, to the North is a collection about distortion and revelation, about knowing and the unreliability of a knowing that’s based on human memory. If the poet’s last few books have concerned themselves with power, this one focuses on vulnerability: the usefulness of embracing it and of releasing ourselves from the need to understand our past. If we remember a thing, did it happen? If we believe it didn’t, does that make our belief true?

In Scattered Snows, to the North, Phillips looks through the window of the past in order to understand the essential sameness of the human condition—“Tears / were tears,” mistakes were made and regretted or not regretted, and it mattered until it didn’t, the way people live until they don’t. And there was also joy. And beauty. “Yet the world’s still / so beautiful … Sometimes // it is …” And it was enough. And it still can be.


Click for more detail about Passion for the Heist by K’wan Passion for the Heist

by K’wan
Forge (Jul 30, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

National bestselling author K’wan returns with Passion for the Heist, a gritty, unforgettable novel about love and crime on the streets of New York.

A crime would bring them together, grief would bind them and love would make them famous. Parish "Pain" Wells is a man freshly reintroduced to society, after serving a deuce in state prison, all alone except for his ailing mother. But when he, in desperation to provide for her, robs a train car one day, he cannot anticipate that he’ll meet the woman who is going to change the course of his life.

Since her parents died, Passion Adams has been moving like a ghost from one day to the next. She numbs her pain with drugs and alcohol, while seeking thrills in unsavory places. When Pain and his partner steal a locket from her dead mother, Passion fights back. Later, when he sees what it contains, he seeks her out to return the locket and the heat between them is undeniable.

So begins the wild ride of Passion and Pain, as they build each other up and tear each other down. Passion finds herself inescapably drawn into Pain’s orbit, but there is no escape from the dark forces in their lives. From wild heists, through incredible adventures and dangerous enemies, Passion and Pain will be the stuff of legend.


Click for more detail about Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi Children of Anguish and Anarchy

by Tomi Adeyemi
Henry Holt & Company (Jun 25, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Featuring gorgeous designed edges, dazzling metallic foil designs on the jacket and case, and an exclusive endpaper map that reveals new unexplored territories, Tomi Adeyemi’s #1 New York Times-bestselling Legacy of Orïsha series comes to an earth-shaking conclusion.

New allies rise.
The Blood Moon nears.
Zélie faces her final enemy.
The king who hunts her heart.

When Zélie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland.
Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness Zélie’s strength sends Zélie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands.
But as Baldyr closes in, catastrophe charges Orïsha’s shores. It will take everything Zélie has to face her final enemy and save her people before the Skulls annihilate them for good.


Click for more detail about Devil Is Fine by John Vercher Devil Is Fine

by John Vercher
Celadon Books (Jun 18, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

“FULL OF MYSTERY, MAGIC, DARK COMEDY, AND HEART.” —Deesha Philyaw

“AN INTIMATE NOVEL, BY TURNS BRACING AND HILARIOUS.” —Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Still reeling from a sudden tragedy, our biracial narrator receives a letter from an attorney: he has just inherited a plot of land from his estranged white grandfather. He travels to a beach town several hours south of his home with the intention of selling the land immediately and moving on. But upon inspection, what lies beneath the dirt is far more complicated than he ever imagined. In a shocking irony, he is now the Black owner of a former plantation passed down by the men on his white mother’s side of the family.

Vercher deftly blurs the lines between real and imagined, past and present, tragedy and humor, and fathers and sons in this story of discovering and reclaiming a painful past. With the wit and rawness of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, Devil Is Fine is a gripping, surreal, and brilliantly crafted dissection of the legacies we leave behind and those we inherit.


Click for more detail about 
Hip-Hop Is History by Questlove Hip-Hop Is History

by Questlove
AUWA Books (Jun 11, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

This is a book only Questlove could have written: a perceptive and personal reflection on the first half-century of hip-hop.

When hip-hop first emerged in the 1970s, it wasn’t expected to become the cultural force it is today. But for a young Black kid growing up in a musical family in Philadelphia, it was everything. He stayed up late to hear the newest songs on the radio. He saved his money to buy vinyl as soon as it landed. He even started to try to make his own songs. That kid was Questlove, and decades later, he is a six-time Grammy Award–winning musician, an Academy Award–winning filmmaker, a New York Times bestselling author, a producer, an entrepreneur, a cofounder of one of hip-hop’s defining acts (the Roots), and the genre’s unofficial in-house historian.

In this landmark book, Hip-Hop Is History, Questlove skillfully traces the creative and cultural forces that made and shaped hip-hop, highlighting both the forgotten but influential gems and the undeniable chart-topping hits—and weaves it all together with the stories no one else knows. It is at once an intimate, sharply observed story of a cultural revolution and a sweeping, grand theory of the evolution of the great artistic movement of our time. And Questlove, of course, approaches it with not only the encyclopedic fluency and passion of an obsessive fan but also the expertise and originality of an innovative participant.


Click for more detail about Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston Archangels of Funk

by Andrea Hairston
Tordotcom (May 07, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Archangels of Funk is a tour de force of Afrofunkilicious Black Girl Magic. Like all great speculative fiction, it’s about our world as well as this lush imaginary one. Don’t miss the majesty of Andrea Hairston in this new call for resistance.” —Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory

Run from your past. Hide from your future. Protect your present.

The Water Wars have scrambled the world. Flood refugees are on the run. Disrupters and the nostalgia militia roam the roads wreaking havoc. Invisible Darknet Lords troll the internet, solidifying their power, while Cinnamon, her three Circus-Bots, and two dogs work with a community of farmers, Motor Fairies, and Wheel-Wizards to provide housing, health care, and education for flood refugees.

As Cinnamon confronts threats from the Darknet Lords and the nostalgia militia, she must determine how best to honor her elders and her history while building a future for herself and her charges.

It’s not going to be easy.

A Great Review from Publishers Weekly

Hairston’s magnificent third novel in the sequence that began with Redwood and Wildfire is a multisensory plunge into a dystopian future of climate crisis and warfare over who controls the water. When told from protagonist Cinnamon Jones’s point of view, however, the plot skews cozy, focused on personal concerns about weaving meaning from history to create a coherent future. In Cinnamon’s case, this means revitalizing the Next World Festival, an annual celebration established by her elders in her youth. Almost 60 now, Cinnamon struggles to make the upcoming event worthy of this heritage. Her plotline is rendered three-dimensional by the interpolated narration of characters with fewer existential concerns but more holistic viewpoints, particularly the AIs and dogs who are her main interlocutors—and who manifestly connect, in ways Cinnamon can’t quite bring herself to trust, with the “haints” of her history. The most impressive feat here is the language; Hairston’s prose is a dynamic collage of real and invented cultures spiked with italics, inventive capitalization, and musical allusions (“Nobody rescued Cinnamon either. And Saving Your Own Self was a Hard Problem”). Ecocatastrophe and cyberthreats are familiar territory for sci-fi, but Hairston puts a beautiful twist on both in this exploration of “waiting for love to come on back in style.”


Click for more detail about Prom Babies by Kekla Magoon Prom Babies

by Kekla Magoon
Henry Holt & Company (Apr 30, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

A compelling, multi-generational novel from the Coretta Scott King and Printz Honor-winning author of How It Went Down, Light It Up, and The Minus-One Club, Prom Babies chronicles the stories of three teen girls who become pregnant on prom night. Eighteen years later, their three babies, now high school seniors, are headed to prom and facing their own set of complicated issues and questions.

Mina, Penny, and Sheryl have the typical expectations of prom night in 2005: dresses, dancing, and of course some coming of age moments. None of them plans to get pregnant, but when all three do, they band together as they face decisions that have the power to shape the rest of their lives.

In 2024, their three children—Blossom, Amber, and Cole—are high school seniors, gearing up to go to prom and facing some big decisions of their own. As they seek to understand who they are and who they want to be, they grapple with issues that range from consent to virginity, gendered dress codes, and the many patriarchal, heteronormative expectations that still come along with prom.

A generation later, will this prom night change lives too?


Click for more detail about Della’s House of Style: An Anthology by Rochelle Alers, Donna Hill, Felicia Mason, and Francis Ray Della’s House of Style: An Anthology

by Rochelle Alers, Donna Hill, Felicia Mason, and Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 19, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Rochelle Alers’ “Sweet Surrender”
Manicurist Maria Parker can’t help but notice when a hunky financial planner brings his niece into Della’s for a manicure. And when he starts to frequent the salon himself for manicures from Maria, she’s pretty sure he has more than cuticles on his mind…

Donna Hill’s “It Could Happen to You”
When Della turned Rosie’s Curl and Weave into Della’s House of Style, a few things managed to slip through the cracks—and now she’s under fire by the IRS. When a by-the-book IRS agent comes to investigate, Della is infuriated by his presence in the salon—and reluctant to admit that she’s growing more than a little used to it…

Felicia Mason’s “Truly, Honestly”
High-maintenance investment banker Sheila needs some serious pampering. On a whim, she decides to get a shoulder-length weave at Della’s House of Style, and afterwards visits the salon’s lounge, where a sexy D.J. has a song in mind for her…

Francis Ray’s “A Matter of Trust”
Single mother Hope Lassiter, once a critically acclaimed actress, is now a cosmetologist at Della’s House of Style. When a handsome director tries to woo her back to the stage, Hope has to wonder if his intentions are more than professional…


Click for more detail about Far from the Tree by Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant Far from the Tree

by Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 19, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

From the bestselling author duo Donna Grant and Virginia DeBerry comes Far from the Tree, a poignant story of two very different sisters who grapple with sisterhood, family secrets, and the ties that bind them.

Celeste English and Ronnie Frazier are sisters, but they couldn’t be more different. Celeste is a doctor’s wife, living a perfect and elegant life. But secretly, she is terrified: her marriage is falling apart and her need to control the people around her threatens to alienate her entire family. And Celeste allows no one to see how vulnerable she really is. Ronnie is an actress, living in New York. Her life, however, is a lie: she has no money, has no home, and her life is held together by "chewing gum, paper clips, and spit," though she wants everyone to think that her life is one of high glamour and budding fame. When their father dies, the sisters inherit a house in Prosper, North Carolina. Their mother, Della, is adamant that they forget about going there and dredging up the past.

Because Della has secrets she’d rather not see come to light—secrets and heartbreak she’s kept from everyone for years. Neither Ronnie, Celeste, nor Della realize just what their trip to Prosper will uncover and they must discover for themselves who they really are, who they really love, and what the future holds for them.

Far from the Tree is a novel that asks the questions: can the past ever truly remain hidden? Can mothers and daughters put aside their usual roles long enough to get to really know each other? Long enough to see they each have felt the love, loss, heartache, and joy that they share as women? And can two strangers realize that they are, and always will be, sisters?


Click for more detail about Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against “The Apocalypse” by Emily Raboteau Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against “The Apocalypse”

by Emily Raboteau
Henry Holt & Company (Mar 12, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

A Most Anticipated Book of the Year, ELLE Magazine
Named one of Heatmap's “17 Climate Books to Read in 2024”
Named one of Electric Literature's “75 Books by Women of Color to Read in 2024”

Award-winning author and critic Emily Raboteau crafts a powerfully moving meditation on race, climate, environmental justice—and what it takes to find shelter.

Lessons for Survival is a probing series of pilgrimages from the perspective of a mother struggling to raise her children to thrive without coming undone in an era of turbulent intersecting crises.

With camera in hand, Raboteau goes in search of birds, fluttering in the air or painted on buildings, and city parks where her children may safely play while avoiding pollution, pandemics, and the police. She ventures abroad to learn from Indigenous peoples, and in her own family and community, she discovers the most intimate examples of resilience. Raboteau bears witness to the inner life of Black womanhood, motherhood, the brutalities and possibilities of cities, while celebrating the beauty and fragility of nature. This innovative work of reportage and autobiography stitches together multiple stories of protection, offering a profound sense of hope.


Click for more detail about Silver: Poems by Rowan Ricardo Phillips Silver: Poems

by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 05, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Rowan Ricardo Phillips’s fourth collection is a book as lustrous as the metal of its title.

This beautiful, slender collection—small and weighted like a coin—is Rowan Ricardo Phillips at his very best. These luminous, unsparing, dreamlike poems are as lyrical as they are virtuosic. “Not the meaning,” Phillips writes, “but the meaningfulness of this mystery we call life” powers these poems as they conjure their prismatic array of characters, textures, and moods. As it reverberates through several styles (blank verse, elegy, terza rima, rhyme royal, translation, rap), Silver reimagines them with such extraordinary vision and alluring strangeness that they sound irrepressibly fresh and vibrant. From beginning to end, Silver is a collection that reflects Phillips’s guiding principle—“part physics, part faith, part void”—that all is reflected in poetry and poetry is reflected in all.

This is work that brings into acute focus the singular and glorious power of poetry in our complex world.


Click for more detail about Brooklyn by Tracy Brown Brooklyn

by Tracy Brown
St. Martin’s Griffin (Feb 27, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Tracy Brown crafts a tale about a master manipulator and serial survivor, who will scorch earth to get what she wants. The question isn’t who murdered her; the question is who wouldn’t?

Brooklyn Melody James has finally gotten the punishment she deserves after leaving a web of lies, heartache, and betrayal behind her. As her life slips away, Brooklyn remembers the events that shaped her into the cold, calculating creature she became.

Brooklyn learned the art of hustling from her parents who used the church to get money. Idolizing her father and despising her mother, Brooklyn is determined to be the type of woman who makes her own rules. When her back is up against the wall, she sacrifices her family, takes the burnt offering that remains, and runs away. In NYC, young Brooklyn charms her way into the inner circle of hustlers and stick-up kids, learning tricks along the way. She catches the eye of a major player in the drug game, Hassan, and they have a breathless love affair. Brooklyn becomes integrated into his operation, earning the trust of Hassan and his associates. But when she gets the keys to the kingdom, driven by unfettered ambition and a ruthless desire to survive, Brooklyn snatches the pot of gold, leaving bitter retribution promises behind her.

From DC to Maryland, Brooklyn burns bridges and breaks hearts. What she doesn’t realize is that someone is prepared to end her reign of terror. As she faces her killer and her fate, Brooklyn is stunned that justice comes from the least likely place.


Click for more detail about Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender Infinity Alchemist

by Kacen Callender
Tor Teen (Feb 06, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Infinity Alchemist is a spellbinding fantasy novel about a quest that leads three young alchemists toward dangerous truth, legendary love, and extraordinary power.

The hardcover edition features a beautiful jacket with gold foil and a foil case stamp, an in-world map, and special illustrated endpapers.

For Ash Woods, practicing alchemy is a crime. Only an elite few are legally permitted to study the science of magic—so when Ash is rejected by Lancaster College of Alchemic Science, he takes a job as the school’s groundskeeper instead, forced to learn alchemy in secret. When he’s discovered by the condescending and brilliant apprentice Ramsay Thorne, Ash is sure he’s about to be arrested—but instead of calling the reds, Ramsay surprises Ash by making him an offer: Ramsay will keep Ash’s secret if he helps her find the legendary Book of Source, a sacred text that gives its reader extraordinary power.

As Ash and Ramsay work together and their feelings for each other grow, Ash discovers their mission is more dangerous than he imagined, pitting them against influential and powerful alchemists—Ash’s estranged father included. Ash’s journey takes him through the cities and wilds across New Anglia, forcing him to discover his own definition of true power and how far he and other alchemists will go to seize it.

Featuring trans, queer, and polyamorous characters of color, Infinity Alchemist is the hugely anticipated young adult fantasy debut from the extraordinary author of Felix Ever After, King and the Dragonflies, Queen of the Conquered and more.


Click for more detail about Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You by A’ja Wilson Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You

by A’ja Wilson
Flatiron Books: A Moment of Lift Book (Feb 06, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

The Instant New York Times Bestseller

“Through honest stories and inspiring lessons from her life, A’ja Wilson reminds us to never doubt who we are or apologize for being true to ourselves. Dear Black Girls is a must-read for every Black girl out there.” —Gabrielle Union

This one is for all the girls with an apostrophe in their names.

This is for all the girls who are labeled “too loud” and “too emotional.”

This is for all the girls who are constantly asked, “Oh, what did you do with your hair? That’s new.”

This is for my Black girls.

Despite gold medals, WNBA championships, and a list of accolades, A’ja Wilson knows how it feels to be swept under the rug—to not be heard, to not feel seen, to not be taken seriously. As a fourth grader going to a primarily white school in South Carolina, A’ja was told she’d have to stay outside for a classmate’s birthday party. “Huh?” she asked. Because the birthday girl’s father didn’t like Black people.

Wilson tells stories like this, about how even when life tried to hold her down, it didn’t stop her. She shares her contribution to “The Talk,” and how to keep fighting, all while igniting strength, passion, and joy. Dear Black Girls is a necessary and meaningful exploration of what it means to be a Black woman in America today—and a rallying cry to lift up women and girls everywhere.

“?Dear Black Girls is filled with phenomenal stories and empowering insight on what it means to be a woman in today’s world. I didn’t want to put it down.” —Tunde Oyeneyin, New York Times bestselling author of Speak


Click for more detail about The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon by Adam Shatz The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon

by Adam Shatz
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jan 23, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon is One of The New York Times’ “Best Books of 2024 so Far

Named a best book of 2024 by The New Yorker and Vulture

Longlisted for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

“Nimble and engrossing… [An] exemplary work of public intellectualism.” —Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post
“Undoubtedly the best [biography of Fanon]… A remarkable achievement.” —Robert J. C. Young, Los Angeles Review of Books

A revelatory biography of the writer-activist who inspired today’s movements for social and racial justice.

In the era of Black Lives Matter, Frantz Fanon’s shadow looms larger than ever. He was the intellectual activist of the postcolonial era, and his writings about race, revolution, and the psychology of power continue to shape radical movements across the world. In this searching biography, Adam Shatz tells the story of Fanon’s stunning journey, which has all the twists of a Cold War-era thriller. Fanon left his modest home in Martinique to fight in the French Army during World War II; when the war was over, he fell under the influence of Existentialism while studying medicine in Lyon and trying to make sense of his experiences as a Black man in a white city. Fanon went on to practice a novel psychiatry of “dis-alienation” in rural France and Algeria, and then join the Algerian independence struggle, where he became a spokesman, diplomat, and clandestine strategist. He died in 1961, while under the care of the CIA in a Maryland hospital.

Today, Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth have become canonical texts of the Black and global radical imagination, comparable to James Baldwin’s essays in their influence. And yet they are little understood. In The Rebel’s Clinic, Shatz offers a dramatic reconstruction of Fanon’s extraordinary life—and a guide to the books that underlie today’s most vital efforts to challenge white supremacy and racial capitalism.

Includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs

Book Review

Click for more detail about Better Than I Know Myself (2023) by Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant Better Than I Know Myself (2023)

by Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jan 23, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant, the #1 Essence bestselling authors of Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made now deliver Better Than I Know Myself, a novel in which you’ll meet their most unforgettable characters yet.

Carmen, Jewel, and Regina could not be more different. When they meet as freshmen at Columbia University, they’re pretty confident that a friendship among them isn’t in the cards.

Jewel is Hollywood royalty: as the teenage star of the TV show "Daddy’s Girl," her face is instantly recognizable all across America. Now, though, she wants two things—to get a serious education, and to leave her controlling stage mother behind. Regina is the definitive upper-middle-class African-American girl. Her picture-perfect parents are what she calls "black Ward and June Cleavers" and their goals for her are like a stranglehold. No one can see, though, how far Regina’s rebellious side will take her (or how treacherous it will become). Carmen is just trying to get by. A child of the projects whose father is dead and whose mother has vanished, Carmen has been raised by her abusive brother. Columbia is the way for her to get a better life—if she can hold down two jobs and keep her GPA up.

When the three of them meet, their lives are at a crossroad. And as the years progress, from the 1980s to the present day, they are challenged by drug addiction, fame, secrets from the past, sickness, betrayal, and the darkest things women can face. One of them won’t survive. But what will be the lasting legacy of their friendship? Better Than I Know Myself is a novel of heartache, triumph, tears, and the unshakeable bonds among women.


Click for more detail about Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made (Special Value) by Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made (Special Value)

by Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jan 23, 2024)
Read Detailed Book Description

Best friends face down a tragedy in this beloved novel from #1 Essence bestselling authors Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant, Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made.

Gayle Saunders and Patricia Reid were total opposites who chose each other as best friends when they were children. Through the years they were raised together, as close as sisters. Gayle, the beauty pampered by her working-class parents, believes a man will make her world complete. Pat, the brainy one, is the hand-me-down child whose mystery parentage haunts her. She’s determined to finally make a home for herself: in the executive suite at the top of her career. And then there is Marcus Carter, linked to both women from the moment a childhood tragedy bonds them in secrecy.

Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made is more than a novel—It’s the reading experience that swept the country. You will be drawn into the lives of these honest and believable characters from the first page—and they won’t let you go until the last.


Click for more detail about If You Call My Name: The Collected Memoirs of Black Enslaved People by Frederick Douglass, Solomon Northup, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, Olaudah Equiano If You Call My Name: The Collected Memoirs of Black Enslaved People

by Frederick Douglass, Solomon Northup, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, Olaudah Equiano
St. Martin’s Press (Dec 25, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

If You Call My Name is a collection of the memoirs of enslaved Black people, including Frederick Douglass, Solomon Northup, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, and Olaudah Equiano, now in one volume…


Click for more detail about Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan by Darryl Pinckney Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan

by Darryl Pinckney
Picador (Oct 24, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

Critic and writer Darryl Pinckney recalls his friendship and apprenticeship with Elizabeth Hardwick and Barbara Epstein and the introduction they offered him to the New York literary world.

Darryl Pinckney arrived at Columbia University in New York City in the early 1970s and had the opportunity to enroll in Elizabeth Hardwick’s creative writing class at Barnard. It changed his life. When the semester was over, he continued to visit her, and he became close to both Hardwick and Barbara Epstein, Hardwick’s best friend and neighbor and a fellow founder of The New York Review of Books.

Pinckney was drawn into a New York literary world where he encountered some of the fascinating contributors to the Review, among them Susan Sontag, Robert Lowell, and Mary McCarthy. Yet the intellectual and artistic freedom that Pinckney observed on West Sixty-seventh Street could conflict with the demands of his politically minded family and their sense of the unavoidable lessons of Black history. In addition, through his peers and former classmates—such as Felice Rosser, Jim Jarmusch, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucy Sante, Howard Brookner, and Nan Goldin—Pinckney witnessed the coming together of the New Wave scene in the East Village. He experienced the avant-garde life at the same time as he was discovering the sexual freedom brought by gay liberation. It was his time for hope.

In Come Back in September, through his memories of the city and of Hardwick, we see the emergence and evolution of Pinckney himself as a writer.


Click for more detail about Ordinary Days: The Seeds, Sound, and City That Grew Prince Rogers Nelson by Angela Joy Ordinary Days: The Seeds, Sound, and City That Grew Prince Rogers Nelson

by Angela Joy
Roaring Brook Press (Oct 24, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

A rhythmic, striking picture book biography of legendary singer/songwriter/performer Prince.

Before he became a legend, he was just a boy…

On an ordinary day, you could see him. A young boy named Prince Rogers Nelson, who had parents who fought, nowhere to call home, and a collection of memories turned into sound: the shouts of anger, the purr of pigeons, the roar of cars down a busy Minneapolis street, and the whisper of cold wind on budding lilac bushes.

Other sounds joined in as he taught himself to play the guitar, piano, drums, and much more, leading to the day this ordinary boy began to make music—and became extraordinary.

Black Is a Rainbow Color and Choosing Brave author Angela Joy’s exquisite words harmonize with acclaimed illustrator Jacqueline Alcántara’s sweeping art to create a tender, profound look into music icon Prince’s early life and the moments that shaped him.

Ordinary Days also includes an extensive author’s note and playlist of recommended Prince songs suitable for young listeners.


Click for more detail about Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir by Sly Stone and Ben Greenman Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir

by Sly Stone and Ben Greenman
AUWA Books (Oct 17, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

One of the few indisputable geniuses of pop music, Sly Stone is a trailblazer and a legend. He created a new kind of music, mixing Black and white, male and female, funk and rock. As a songwriter, he penned some of the most iconic anthems of the 1960s and ’70s, from “Everyday People” to “Family Affair.” As a performer, he electrified audiences with a persona and stage presence that set a lasting standard for pop-culture performance.

Yet his life has also been a cautionary tale, known as much for how he dropped out of the spotlight as for what put him there in the first place. People know the music, but the man remains a mystery. In Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), his much-anticipated memoir, he’s finally ready to share his story—a story that many thought he’d never have the chance to tell.

Written with Ben Greenman, who has written memoirs with George Clinton and Brian Wilson, among others, and created in collaboration with Sly Stone’s manager, Arlene Hirschkowitz, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) includes a foreword by Questlove.


Click for more detail about A Dream So Dark by L.L. McKinney A Dream So Dark

by L.L. McKinney
Square Fish (Sep 19, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

“The fantasy series I’ve been waiting for my whole life.” —Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Hate U Give

In L.L. McKinney’s A Dream So Dark, the thrilling sequel to A Blade So Black, Alice goes deeper into a dark version of Wonderland.

Still reeling from her recent battle (and grounded until she graduates high school), Alice must cross the Veil to rescue her friends and stop the Black Knight once and for all. But the further she ventures into Wonderland, the more topsy-turvy everything becomes. It’s not until she’s at her wit’s end that she realizes—Wonderland is trying to save her.

There’s a new player on the board; someone capable of using Nightmare creatures to not only influence the living but raise the dead.

Dreams have never been so dark in Wonderland, and if there is any hope, Alice must confront the worst in herself—and in the people she loves—and face the very nature of fear.


Click for more detail about A Crown So Cursed by L.L. McKinney A Crown So Cursed

by L.L. McKinney
Imprint (Sep 19, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

In A Crown So Cursed, the third book in L.L. McKinney’s Nightmare-Verse series, Alice is called to save Wonderland from itself.

Alice is doing her best to recover from her last boss battle, but members of her crew start having these… dreams. And they’re all the same dream: visions of a dark past—and an even darker future. It seems the evil in Wonderland may not be as defeated as they’d hoped.

When word spreads of an encroaching army of Nightmares unlike any ever seen, Alice finds she may have to step between the coming darkness and the mortal world once more. But this time is different. This time, the monsters aren’t waiting for her on the other side of the Veil.

They’re in her own backyard.


Click for more detail about Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop Beyond the Door of No Return

by David Diop
Farrar, Straus and Cudahy (Sep 19, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

“Stunningly realized … Exquisite … A spellbinding novel about the high price of betrayal—of others, and oneself.” Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, shortlisted for the Booker Prize

One of the Los Angeles Times’s most anticipated books of the fall

The thrilling and deeply moving new novel by David Diop, winner of the International Booker Prize.

Paris, 1806. The renowned botanist Michel Adanson lies on his deathbed, the masterwork to which he dedicated his life still incomplete. As he expires, the last word to escape his lips is a woman’s name: Maram.

The key to this mysterious woman’s identity is Adanson’s unpublished memoir of the years he spent in Senegal, concealed in a secret compartment in a chest of drawers. Therein lies a story as fantastical as it is tragic: Maram, it turns out, is none other than the fabled revenant. A young woman of noble birth from the kingdom of Waalo, Maram was sold into slavery but managed to escape from the Island of Gorée—a major embarkation point of the transatlantic slave trade—to a small village hidden in the forest. While on a research expedition in West Africa as a young man, Adanson hears the story of the revenant and becomes obsessed with finding her. Accompanied by his guide, he ventures deep into the Senegalese bush on a journey that reveals not only the savagery of the French colonial occupation but also the unlikely transports of the human heart.

Written with sensitivity and narrative flair, David Diop’s Beyond the Door of No Return is a love story like few others. Drawing on the richness and lyricism of Senegal’s oral traditions, Diop has constructed a historical epic of the highest order.


Click for more detail about Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery’s Borderland by Scott Shane Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery’s Borderland

by Scott Shane
Celadon Books (Sep 19, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

A riveting account of the extraordinary abolitionist, liberator, and writer Thomas Smallwood, who bought his own freedom, led hundreds out of slavery, and named the underground railroad, from Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, Scott Shane. Flee North tells the story for the first time of an American hero all but lost to history.

Born into slavery, by the 1840s Thomas Smallwood was free, self-educated, and working as a shoemaker a short walk from the U.S. Capitol. He recruited a young white activist, Charles Torrey, and together they began to organize mass escapes from Washington, Baltimore, and surrounding counties to freedom in the north.

They were racing against an implacable enemy: men like Hope Slatter, the region’s leading slave trader, part of a lucrative industry that would tear one million enslaved people from their families and sell them to the brutal cotton and sugar plantations of the deep south.

Men, women, and children in imminent danger of being sold south turned to Smallwood, who risked his own freedom to battle what he called "the most inhuman system that ever blackened the pages of history." And he documented the escapes in satirical newspaper columns, mocking the slaveholders, the slave traders and the police who worked for them.

At a time when Americans are rediscovering a tragic and cruel history and struggling anew with the legacy of white supremacy, this Flee North — the first to tell the extraordinary story of Smallwood — offers complicated heroes, genuine villains, and a powerful narrative set in cities still plagued by shocking racial inequity today.


Click for more detail about Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal by Bettina L. Love Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal

by Bettina L. Love
St. Martin’s Press (Sep 12, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

"I am an eighties baby who grew to hate school. I never fully understood why. Until now. Until Bettina Love unapologetically and painstakingly chronicled the last forty years of education ‘reform’ in this landmark book. I hated school because it warred on me. I hated school because I loved to dream." —Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times bestselling author of How to be an Antiracist

In the tradition of Michelle Alexander, an unflinching reckoning with the impact of 40 years of racist public school policy on generations of Black lives.

In Punished for Dreaming Dr. Bettina Love argues forcefully that Reagan’s presidency ushered in a War on Black Children, pathologizing and penalizing them in concert with the War on Drugs. New policies punished schools with policing, closure, and loss of funding in the name of reform, as white savior, egalitarian efforts increasingly allowed private interests to infiltrate the system. These changes implicated children of color, and Black children in particular, as low performing, making it all too easy to turn a blind eye to their disproportionate conviction and incarceration. Today, there is little national conversation about a structural overhaul of American schools; cosmetic changes, rooted in anti-Blackness, are now passed off as justice.

It is time to put a price tag on the miseducation of Black children. In this prequel to The New Jim Crow, Dr. Love serves up a blistering account of four decades of educational reform through the lens of the people who lived it. Punished for Dreaming lays bare the devastating effect on 25 Black Americans caught in the intersection of economic gain and racist ideology. Then, with input from leading U.S. economists, Dr. Love offers a road map for repair, arguing for reparations with transformation for all children at its core.


Click for more detail about One Blood (Hardcover) by Denene Millner One Blood (Hardcover)

by Denene Millner
Forge (Sep 05, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

Homegoing meets The Mothers where three women are tied together by blood, love, and family secrets in this searing novel by New York Times bestseller Denene Millner.

Raised by her beloved grandmother in tension-filled, post-segregation Virginia, Grace is barely a teenager when she loses her Maw Maw. Shellshocked, she is shipped up North to live with her formidably ambitious Aunt Hattie—a woman who firmly left behind her “undesirable” Southern roots in pursuit of upward mobility. Thrust into the world of the Black and socially ambitious, Grace finds herself trapped in a society of stifling respectability, fancy teas, and coveted debutante balls. Feeling like a fish out of water, Grace’s only place of sweet comfort is with the smart, handsome son of one of the society’s grand dames. However, when Dale gets caught up in a racial police killing and Grace ends up pregnant, she is quickly hidden away and he is promptly shipped off to college. Then in the ultimate act of betrayal, Grace is deceived by Hattie, and her brand new baby girl is given up for adoption.

Beautiful, intelligent and fierce, Delores a.k.a. Lolo has never had it easy. Her life has been riddled with pain and loss. Once she makes it up north, she puts aside her dream of being a model to do what she has to do to survive as a woman with little money and no mooring: get married and have a family of her own. And she will tell lies and keep secrets to obtain it. Then Lolo does have it all: a doting husband, a beautiful son and daughter, and a lovely home. When secrets start to spill out and she and her family slowly begin to unravel, Lolo is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her dream intact and those she loves together.

When Lolo’s headstrong daughter, Rae discovers that she is adopted, it is just one secret among others that her family is keeping. Not out of a desire to deceive, but out of a determination to survive and protect. When Rae finds out that she is about to become a mother herself, she knows that there is an important reckoning that must be faced about herself and her two mothers.

Potent, poetic, powerful, told with deep love, and spanning from the Great Migration to the civil unrest of the 1960s to the quest for women’s equality in early 2000s, Denene Millner’s beautifully wrought novel explores three women’s intimate struggle with generational trauma and healing.


Click for more detail about More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom by Michael G. Long and Yohuru Williams More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

by Michael G. Long and Yohuru Williams
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Aug 29, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

Hailed as “an essential reeducation on one of the most consequential events in US history” by Ibram X. Kendi,, this gripping middle-grade account offers a fresh look at the groundbreaking 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom by spotlighting the protest’s radical roots and the underappreciated role of Black women—includes a wealth of contemporary black-and-white photos throughout.

Six decades ago, on August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom—a moment often revered as the culmination of this Black-led protest. But at its core, the March on Washington was not a beautiful dream of future integration; it was a mass outcry for jobs and freedom NOW—not at some undetermined point in the future. It was a revolutionary march with its own controversies and problems, the themes of which still resonate to this day.

Without diminishing the words of Dr. King, More Than a Dream looks at the march through a wider lens, using Black newspaper reports as a primary resource, recognizing the overlooked work of socialist organizers and Black women protesters, and repositioning this momentous day as radical in its roots, methods, demands, and results. From Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long, the acclaimed authors of Call Him Jack, comes a classic-in-the-making that will transform our modern understanding of this legendary event in the fight for racial justice and civil rights.


Click for more detail about The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle by T. L. Huchu The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle

by T. L. Huchu
Tor Books (Aug 29, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

In T. L. Huchu’s USA Today bestselling Edinburgh Nights series, the third book, The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle, takes readers on an exhilarating journey filled with duels, magic, and a host of ghostly encounters.

The story revolves around Ropa, a beloved fifteen-year-old ghostalker, who finds herself immersed in a puzzling mystery at the biennial conference of the worldwide Society of Skeptical Enquirers. The conference takes place within the confines of Dunvegan Castle, a haunted stronghold locked down with eerie secrets. The central enigma involves the theft of a valuable magical scroll, and Ropa, along with her companions Jomo and Priya, becomes entangled in the web of intrigue.

As Ropa navigates the complex dynamics between powerful figures like Qozmos, the high wizard of Ethiopian magic, Lord Sashvindu Samarasinghe, the larger-than-life presence, and notable magical authorities such as England’s Sorcerer Royal and Scotland’s Edmund MacLeod, she relies on her unique ability to communicate with the spirits lingering within the ancient castle.

The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle delves into the realms of secret politics, hidden alliances, and the thrilling adventures that unfold as Ropa strives to uncover the truth. Readers can expect an enthralling blend of supernatural elements, captivating characters, and the rich backdrop of Edinburgh’s enigmatic nights.

The Edinburgh Nights series comprises the following books:

  1. Library of the Dead
  2. Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments
  3. The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle


Click for more detail about The Peach Seed by Anita Gail Jones The Peach Seed

by Anita Gail Jones
Henry Holt & Company (Aug 01, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

Fletcher Dukes and Altovise Benson reunite after decades apart—and a mountain of secrets—in this debut exploring the repercussions of a single choice and how an enduring talisman challenges and holds a family together.

On a routine trip to the Piggly Wiggly in Albany, Georgia, widower Fletcher Dukes smells a familiar perfume, then sees a tall woman the color of papershell pecans with a strawberry birthmark on the nape of her neck. He knows immediately that she is his lost love, Altovise Benson. Their bond, built on county fairs, sit-ins, and marches, once seemed a sure and forever thing. But their marriage plans were disrupted when the police turned a peaceful protest violent.

Before Altovise fled the South, Fletcher gave her a peach seed monkey with diamond eyes. As we learn via harrowing flashbacks, an enslaved ancestor on the coast of South Carolina carved the first peach seed, a talisman that, ever since, each father has gifted his son on his thirteenth birthday.

Giving one to Altovise initiated a break in tradition, irrevocably shaping the lives of generations of Dukeses. Recently, Fletcher has made do on his seven acres with his daughter Florida’s check-ins, his drop biscuits, and his faithful dog. But as he begins to reckon with long-ago choices, he finds he isn’t the only one burdened with unspoken truths.

An indelible portrait of a family, The Peach Seed explores how kin pass down legacies of sorrow, joy, and strength. And it is a parable of how a glimmer of hope as small as a seed can ripple across generations.


Click for more detail about Witness: Stories by Jamel Brinkley Witness: Stories

by Jamel Brinkley
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Aug 01, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

From a National Book Award finalist, Witness is an elegant, insistent narrative of actions taken and not taken.

What does it mean to take action? To bear witness? What does it cost?

In these ten stories, each set in the changing landscapes of contemporary New York City, a range of characters—from children to grandmothers to ghosts—live through the responsibility of perceiving and the moral challenge of speaking up or taking action. Though they strive to connect, to remember, to stand up for, and to really see each other, they often fall short, and the structures they build around these ambitions and failures shape not only their own futures but the legacies and prospects of their families and their city.

In its portraits of families and friendships lost and found, the paradox of intimacy, the long shadow of grief, the meaning of home, Witness enacts its own testimony. Here is a world where fortunes can be made and stolen in just a few generations, where strangers might sometimes show kindness while those we trust—doctors, employers, siblings—too often turn away, where joy comes in snatches: flowers on a windowsill, dancing in the street, glimpsing your purpose, change on the horizon.

With prose as unendingly beautiful as it is artfully, seamlessly crafted, Jamel Brinkley offers nothing less than the full scope of life and death and change in the great, unending drama of the city.


Click for more detail about Sunday Week by Dinah Johnson Sunday Week

by Dinah Johnson
Square Fish (Jul 04, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

With charm and grace, this celebratory picture book takes young readers through the daily chores and activities of each weekday — from hanging out the wash to jumping Double Dutch — all in anticipation of Sunday. Once this special day finally arrives, it is filled with prayer, song and dance, savory food, storytelling, country drives, and most of all, family warmth and cheer.

Dinah Johnson’s vibrant, engaging language and Tyrone Geter’s handsome illustrations joyfully embrace the faith and spirituality within an African-American community and beyond.


Click for more detail about Cape by Kevin Johnson Cape

by Kevin Johnson
Roaring Brook Press (Jun 20, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

A young child learns that even superheroes hurt too in this heartrending story about loss and love, written by debut author Kevin Johnson and illustrated by #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Kitt Thomas.

When a child loses the person in his life that he loves more than anything, he uses his cape as protection from his grief. On the day of the funeral, he uses it to block out the pictures and stories people share, refusing to acknowledge the memories that keep bubbling up. He won’t think about them. He doesn’t want to.

He avoids the memories, until he no longer can.

He remembers then. Their laugh, their smile, the moment they gave him the cape. The cape transforms, becoming a source of comfort and strength as the child navigates the sadness and joy that these memories bring up.

In Cape, Kevin Johnson has crafted an achingly beautiful and honest story about processing and redefining grief after the loss of a loved one. With evocative illustrations by New York Times bestselling artist Kitt Thomas (Stacey’s Extraordinary Words), Cape is a powerful, unforgettable, and necessary story.


Click for more detail about Sixty-One: Life Lessons from Papa, on and Off the Court by Chris Paul and Michael Wilbon Sixty-One: Life Lessons from Papa, on and Off the Court

by Chris Paul and Michael Wilbon
St. Martin’s Press (Jun 20, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

By the NBA superstar: A powerful and unexpected memoir of family, faith, tragedy, and life’s most important lessons.

The day after future NBA superstar Chris Paul signed his letter of intent to play college basketball for Wake Forest, he received a world-shattering phone call. His grandfather, Nathaniel "Papa" Jones, a pillar of the Winston-Salem community where he owned and operated the first Black-owned service station in North Carolina, was mugged and ultimately died from a heart attack resulting from the assault. His funeral filled the largest church in the county, which held over one thousand people. He was sixty-one years old.

The day after burying his grandfather, Chris was coping the best way he knew how: by playing basketball for his high school team. After pouring in shot after shot, his last attempt was an airball purposely flung out of bounds from the foul line before Chris exited the game. The next day, local news headlines declared that he fell six points shy of the statewide single game high school scoring record. But he accomplished exactly what he set out to do: scoring sixty-one points, one for each year of life lived by his grandfather.

In Sixty-One, Chris opens up about life beyond basketball and the role his grandfather played in molding him into the man and father he is today. He’ll speak about the foundation of faith and family he built his life upon, what it means to be a positive light within your community and beyond, and the importance of setting the proper example for future generations. Most importantly, Chris will talk about his home, Winston-Salem, and the close-knit family and village that raised him to become one of the most respected leaders in all of sports.


Click for more detail about Everfair by Nisi Shawl Everfair

by Nisi Shawl
Tor Books (Jun 13, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

From noted short story writer Nisi Shawl comes Everfair, a brilliant alternate-history novel set in the Belgian Congo.What if the African natives developed steam power ahead of their colonial oppressors? What might have come of Belgium’s disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier?Fabian Socialists from Great Britain join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo’s "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.Shawl’s speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.


Click for more detail about The Talk by Darrin Bell The Talk

by Darrin Bell
Henry Holt & Company (Jun 06, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

“A moving portrait … funny and touching, intellectually and emotionally stimulating. There’s pride and prejudice, family drama, and a love story. I loved this book. You will too.” —Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn’t have a realistic water gun. She said she feared for his safety, that police tend to think of little Black boys as older and less innocent than they really are.

Through evocative illustrations and sharp humor, Bell examines how The Talk shaped intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood. While coming of age in Los Angeles—and finding a voice through cartooning—Bell becomes painfully aware of being regarded as dangerous by white teachers, neighbors, and police officers and thus of his mortality. Drawing attention to the brutal murders of African Americans and showcasing revealing insights and cartoons along the way, he brings us up to the moment of reckoning when people took to the streets protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. And now Bell must decide whether he and his own six-year-old son are ready to have The Talk.

“Darrin Bell’s first foray into graphic novels is a triumph. A cinematically comic, coming-of-age blend of race, culture, and gratuitous nerdity. Wonderful.” —Keith Knight, creator of The K Chronicles and Woke


Click for more detail about All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby All the Sinners Bleed

by S. A. Cosby
Flatiron Books (Jun 06, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

Instant New York Times Bestseller • USA Today Bestseller • Washington Post's The Twelve Best Thrillers of the Year • TIME’s 100 Must Read Books of the Year • Goodreads Choice Award Nominee • USA Today’s Best Reviewed Books of the Year • BookPage’s Best Mystery of the Year • Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of the Year • New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • Cover of the New York Times Book Review • Barack Obama’s Summer Reading List • The Financial Times’s Best Crime Books of the Year • ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Longlist • SIBA’s 2024 Southern Book Prize Finalist • Starred Publishers Weekly • Starred Library Journal • Starred BookPage • Starred Booklist

A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

The new novel from New York Times bestselling and Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning author S. A. Cosby, “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction.” —Washington Post.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. But after years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.
Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon.

With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.
Charon is Titus’s home and his heart. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning.


Click for more detail about The DOS and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar The DOS and Donuts of Love

by Adiba Jaigirdar
Feiwel & Friends (Jun 06, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

A pun-filled YA contemporary romance, The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar finds a teenage girl competing in a televised baking competition, with contestants including her ex-girlfriend and a potential new crush - perfect for fans of The Great British Bake Off and She Drives Me Crazy!

“Welcome to the first ever Junior Irish Baking Show!”

Shireen Malik is still reeling from the breakup with her ex-girlfriend, Chris, when she receives news that she’s been accepted as a contestant on a new televised baking competition show. This is Shireen’s dream come true! Because winning will not only mean prize money, but it will also bring some much-needed attention to You Drive Me Glazy, her parents’ beloved donut shop.

Things get complicated, though, because Chris is also a contestant on the show. Then there’s the very outgoing Niamh, a fellow contestant who is becoming fast friends with Shireen. Things are heating up between them, and not just in the kitchen.

As the competition intensifies , Shireen will have to ignore all these factors and more— including potential sabotage—if she wants a sweet victory!


Click for more detail about CROWNED: Magical Folk and Fairy Tales from the Diaspora by Kahran and Regis Bethencourt CROWNED: Magical Folk and Fairy Tales from the Diaspora

by Kahran and Regis Bethencourt
St. Martin’s Press (May 23, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling authors of GLORY, Kahran and Regis Bethencourt of CreativeSoul Photography, comes CROWNED, a collection that completely reimagines how we see our favorite and most beloved childhood fairy and folk tales. Filled with the stunning photography that defines CreativeSoul Photography, this collection features classic fairy tales, African and African American folklore, and exciting new classics–brand new stories created by Kahran and Regis.

CROWNED is a book designed to foster and encourage imagination, equipping young kings and queens with the creativity and ability to overcome any obstacles in their way.

Filled with stunning photography, these magical tales of the diaspora bring to life past, present, and future visions of Black culture to create a society where all kids are created equal and feel empowered to move in the world as their true authentic self.

Included in the collection:

  • The Poisoned Apple
  • Asha the Little Cinder Girl
  • The Little Mermaid
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • Hansel and Gretel
  • Little Red Riding Hood
  • Anasi and the Three Trials
  • Aku The Sun Maker
  • How the Zebra Got His Stripes
  • The Legend of Princess Yennenga
  • John Henry, the Steel Driving Man
  • The Cloud Princess
  • And more!

This collection is a must-have for children and parents everywhere and is a joyous celebration of Black beauty and imagination.


Click for more detail about Forever Is Now by Mariama J. Lockington Forever Is Now

by Mariama J. Lockington
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (May 23, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

A poignant and lyrical young adult novel-in-verse about a Black teen coming of age in an anxiety-inducing world, from the author of For Black Girls Like Me and In the Key of Us.

I’m safe here.
That’s how Sadie feels, on a perfect summer day, wrapped in her girlfriend’s arms. School is out, and even though she’s been struggling to manage her chronic anxiety, Sadie is hopeful better times are ahead. Or at least, she thought she was safe. When her girlfriend reveals some unexpected news and the two witness a violent incident of police brutality unfold before them, Sadie’s whole world is upended in an instant.

I’m not safe anywhere.
That’s how Sadie feels every day after—vulnerable, uprooted. She retreats inside as the weeks slip by and relies on her phone to stay connected to the outside world. When Sadie’s therapist gives her a diagnosis for her debilitating panic—agoraphobia—she starts on a path of acceptance and healing. Meanwhile, Sadie’s best friend, Evan, updates her on the protests taking place in their city. Sadie wants to be a part of it, to use her voice and affect change. But how do you show up for your community when you can’t even leave your house?

I can build a safe place inside myself.
That’s what Sadie learns over the course of one life-changing summer, with some help from her family, her best friend, an online platform for activists, and a magnetic crush she develops for the new boy next door.

From Stonewall Honor-winning author Mariama J. Lockington comes Forever is Now, a powerful young adult novel-in-verse about mental health, love, family, Black joy, and finding your voice and power in an unforgiving world.


Click for more detail about King: A Life by Jonathan Eig King: A Life

by Jonathan Eig
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (May 16, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Washington Post and National Indie Bestseller An Obama Summer Reading List Pick One of Publishers Weekly’s best nonfiction books of 2023

"No book could be more timely than Jonathan Eig’s sweeping and majestic new King … Eig has created 2023?s most vital tome." —Will Bunch, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Hailed by The New York Times as "the new definitive biography," King mixes revelatory new research with accessible storytelling to offer an MLK for our times.

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father—as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.

In this landmark biography, Eig gives us an MLK for our times: a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.

Includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs


Click for more detail about Did You Hear about Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul Did You Hear about Kitty Karr?

by Crystal Smith Paul
Henry Holt & Company (May 02, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

A multigenerational saga that traverses the glamour of old Hollywood and the seductive draw of modern-day showbiz

When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women, it prompts questions. Lots of questions.

A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could—and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty.

The truth behind Kitty’s ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed, and debatable crimes that could, with one pull, unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them.

As Elise digs deeper into Kitty’s past, she must also turn the lens upon herself, confronting the gifts and burdens of her own choices and the power that the secrets of the dead hold over the living. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? is a sprawling page-turner set against the backdrop of the Hollywood machine, an insightful and nuanced look at the inheritances of family, race, and gender—and the choices some women make to break free of them.


Click for more detail about Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe Ordinary Notes

by Christina Sharpe
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Apr 25, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

The critically acclaimed author of In the Wake, "Christina Sharpe is a brilliant thinker who attends unflinchingly to the brutality of our current arrangements … and yet always finds a way to beauty and possibility" (Saidiya Hartman).

A singular achievement, Ordinary Notes explores profound questions about loss and the shapes of Black life that emerge in the wake. In a series of 248 notes that gather meaning as we read them, Christina Sharpe skillfully weaves artifacts from the past—public ones alongside others that are poignantly personal—with present realities and possible futures, intricately constructing an immersive portrait of everyday Black existence. The themes and tones that echo through these pages, sometimes about language, beauty, memory; sometimes about history, art, photography, and literature—always attend, with exquisite care, to the ordinary-extraordinary dimensions of Black life.

At the heart of Ordinary Notes is the indelible presence of the author’s mother, Ida Wright Sharpe. “I learned to see in my mother’s house,” writes Sharpe. “I learned how not to see in my mother’s house … My mother gifted me a love of beauty, a love of words.” Using these gifts and other ways of seeing, Sharpe steadily summons a chorus of voices and experiences to the page. She practices an aesthetic of "beauty as a method,” collects entries from a community of thinkers toward a “Dictionary of Untranslatable Blackness,” and rigorously examines sites of memory and memorial. And in the process, she forges a brilliant new literary form, as multivalent as the ways of Black being it traces.


Click for more detail about Big Tune: Rise of the Dancehall Prince by Alliah L. Agostini Big Tune: Rise of the Dancehall Prince

by Alliah L. Agostini
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 28, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

An exuberant picture book written by Alliah L. Agostini and illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice is about a Black boy with big dancing dreams who learns the meaning of courage and community.

It’s the weekend, first in June; speaker’s blasting out big tune! Cousins, aunties, uncles, friends pack the house, and fun begins.

Shane is shy but loves to dance―and all year long, he’s picked up cans to earn some money toward his goal: high-tops with a pump-up sole.

But then the speaker blows―it’s done! Will this stop his family’s fun? Can Shane come through to save the day and bring back Big Tune Saturday?

Set within a vibrant Caribbean American neighborhood and told to a rhythmic beat, Big Tune is a story of Black boy joy that touches on determination, confidence to express who you are, selflessness, and community gratitude.


Click for more detail about Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett Destroyer of Light

by Jennifer Marie Brissett
Tor Books (Mar 07, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

The Matrix meets an Afro-futuristic retelling of Persephone set in a science fiction underworld of aliens, refugees, and genetic engineering in Jennifer Marie Brissett’s Destroyer of Light

Kirkus—Best Fiction Books of the Year 2021
Tor.com—Best of the Year 2021
New York Public Library—Nine New Sci-Fi & Fantasy Reads
Bookriot—20 Must Read Space Fantasy Books for 2021
Book Bub—The 24 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of Fall 2021
BiblioLifestyle—Most Anticipated Fall 2021 Sci-fi, Fantasy & Horror

Having destroyed Earth, the alien conquerors resettle the remains of humanity on the planet of Eleusis. In the four habitable areas of the planet—Day, Dusk, Dawn, and Night—the haves and have nots, criminals and dissidents, and former alien conquerors irrevocably bind three stories:

*A violent warlord abducts a young girl from the agrarian outskirts of Dusk leaving her mother searching and grieving.
*Genetically modified twin brothers desperately search for the lost son of a human/alien couple in a criminal underground trafficking children for unknown purposes.
*A young woman with inhuman powers rises through the insurgent ranks of soldiers in the borderlands of Night.

Their stories, often containing disturbing physical and sexual violence, skate across years, building to a single confrontation when the fate of all—human and alien—balances upon a knife’s-edge.


Click for more detail about Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020 by Carl Phillips Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020

by Carl Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Feb 14, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

A new collection of poems from one of America’s most essential, celebrated, and enduring poets, Carl Phillips’s Then the War

I’m a song, changing. I’m a light
rain falling through a vast
darkness toward a different
darkness.

Carl Phillips has aptly described his work as an "ongoing quest"; Then the War is the next step in that meaningful process of self-discovery for both the poet and his reader. The new poems, written in a time of rising racial conflict in the United States, with its attendant violence and uncertainty, find Phillips entering deeper into the landscape he has made his own: a forest of intimacy, queerness, and moral inquiry, where the farther we go, the more difficult it is to remember why or where we started.

Then the War includes a generous selection of Phillips’s work from the previous thirteen years, as well as his recent lyric prose memoir, "Among the Trees," and his chapbook, Star Map with Action Figures.

Ultimately, Phillips refuses pessimism, arguing for tenderness and human connection as profound forces for revolution and conjuring a spell against indifference and the easy escapes of nostalgia. Then the War is luminous testimony to the power of self-reckoning and to Carl Phillips as an ever-changing, necessary voice in contemporary poetry.


Click for more detail about The Spite House by Johnny Compton The Spite House

by Johnny Compton
Tor Nightfire (Feb 07, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

A Best Horror Book of the Year (Esquire)! - A Bram Stoker Award Nominee!

A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief and death and the depths of a father’s love, Johnny Compton’s The Spite House is a stunning debut by a horror master in the making—The Babadook meets A Head Full of Ghosts in Texas Hill Country.

Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. When he comes across an ad for a caretaker for the Masson House, Eric hopes they have finally caught a lucky break. The owner of the “most haunted place in Texas” is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there—provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them.

The job calls to Eric, not just because of the huge payout, but because he needs access to the secrets of the spite house. If it is indeed haunted, maybe it will help him understand the uncanny power that clings to his family, driving them from town to town, too afraid to stop running…


Click for more detail about Promise Boys by Nick Brooks Promise Boys

by Nick Brooks
Henry Holt & Company (Jan 31, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

Nick Brooks’s Promise Boys is a trailblazing, blockbuster YA mystery about three teen boys of color who must investigate their principal’s murder to clear their own names—for fans of Angie Thomas, Jason Reynolds, and Karen McManus.

The Urban Promise Prep School vows to turn boys into men. As students, J.B., Ramón, and Trey are forced to follow the prestigious “program’s” strict rules. Extreme discipline, they’ve been told, is what it takes to be college bound, to avoid the fates of many men in their neighborhoods. This, the Principal Moore Method, supposedly saves lives.

But when Moore ends up murdered and the cops come sniffing around, the trio emerges as the case’s prime suspects. With all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. But is the true culprit hiding among them?

This exquisitely taut thriller shines a glaring light on how the system too often condemns Black and Latinx teen boys to failure before they’ve even had a chance at success.


Click for more detail about Maame: A Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick by Jessica George Maame: A Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

by Jessica George
St. Martin’s Press (Jan 31, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! - A Today Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick - A February 2023 Indie Next Pick

“Lively, funny, poignant … Prepare to fall in love with Maddie. I did!” —Bonnie Garmus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman.

It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.

So when her mum returns from her latest trip, Maddie seizes the chance to move out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important "firsts" She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But when tragedy strikes, Maddie is forced to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils—and rewards—of putting her heart on the line.

Smart, funny, and affecting, Jessica George’s Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures?and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.


Click for more detail about The Minus-One Club by Kekla Magoon The Minus-One Club

by Kekla Magoon
Henry Holt & Company (Jan 24, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

From the Coretta Scott King and Printz Honor-winning author of How It Went Down, Light It Up, and Revolution In Our Time comes a moving contemporary YA novel about the bonds between a group of teens whose lives have been upended by tragedy.

Fifteen-year-old Kermit Sanders knows grief and its all-encompassing shadows. After losing his beloved older sister in a tragic car accident, nothing quite punctures through the feelings of loss. Everywhere Kermit goes, he is reminded of her.

But then Kermit finds a mysterious invitation in his locker, signed anonymously with "-1." He has no idea what he’s in for, but he shows up to find out. Dubbed the "Minus-One Club," a group of his schoolmates has banded together as a form of moral support. The members have just one thing in common—they have all suffered the tragic loss of someone they loved.

The usual dividing lines between high school classes and cliques don’t apply inside the Minus-One Club, and Kermit’s secret crush, the handsome and happy-go-lucky Matt (and only out gay student at school), is also a part of the group. Slowly, Matt’s positive headstrong approach to life helps relieve Kermit of his constant despair.

But as Kermit grows closer to Matt, the light of his new life begins to show the cracks beneath the surface. When Matt puts himself in danger by avoiding his feelings, Kermit must find the strength to not only lift himself back up but to help the rest of the group from falling apart.


Click for more detail about The Evidence of Things Not Seen by James Baldwin The Evidence of Things Not Seen

by James Baldwin
Holt McDougal (Jan 17, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

Over twenty-two months in 1979 and 1981 nearly two dozen children were unspeakably murdered in Atlanta despite national attention and outcry; they were all Black. James Baldwin investigated these murders, the Black administration in Atlanta, and Wayne Williams, the Black man tried for the crimes. Because there was only evidence to convict Williams for the murders of two men, the children’s cases were closed, offering no justice to the families or the country. Baldwin’s incisive analysis implicates the failures of integration as the guilt party, arguing, "There could be no more devastating proof of this assault than the slaughter of the children."

As Stacey Abrams writes in her foreword, “The humanity of black children, of black men and women, of black lives, has ever been a conundrum for America. Forty years on, Baldwin’s writing reminds us that we have never resolved the core query: Do black lives matter? Unequivocally, the moral answer is yes, but James Baldwin refuses such rhetorical comfort.” In this, his last book, by excavating American race relations Baldwin exposes the hard-to-face ingrained issues and demands that we all reckon with them.


Click for more detail about We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride We Are All So Good at Smiling

by Amber McBride
Feiwel & Friends (Jan 10, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

They Both Die at the End meets The Bell Jar in this haunting, beautiful young adult novel-in-verse from Amber McBride about clinical depression and healing from trauma.

Whimsy is back in the hospital for treatment of clinical depression. When she meets a boy named Faerry, she recognizes they both have magic in the marrow of their bones. And when Faerry and his family move to the same street, the two start to realize that their lifelines may have twined and untwined many times before.

They are both terrified of the forest at the end of Marsh Creek Lane.

The Forest whispers to Whimsy. The Forest might hold the answers to the part of Faerry he feels is missing. They discover the Forest holds monsters, fairy tales, and pain that they have both been running from for 11 years.


Click for more detail about History Comics: Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin: Civil Rights Heroes by Tracey Baptiste History Comics: Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin: Civil Rights Heroes

by Tracey Baptiste
First Second (Jan 03, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

Turn back the clock with History Comics! In this volume, learn about two brave women who stood up against segregation, setting in motion the Montgomery Bus Boycott!

A Black woman who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus sparked a bus boycott and became part of one of the most iconic moments in American history. Yet, few know that Rosa Parks had actively worked toward social justice her whole life. And even fewer know that the seeds of the statewide bus boycott were first planted by a teenager named Claudette Colvin, who was arrested on similar charges months earlier. Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin inspired a nation, showing how positive change can start with a single defiant act. Their actions have become the stuff of legend, but there is so much more to their lives, their stories, and the movement they began.


Click for more detail about Now Let Me Fly: A Portrait of Eugene Bullard by Brahm Revel Now Let Me Fly: A Portrait of Eugene Bullard

by Brahm Revel
First Second (Jan 03, 2023)
Read Detailed Book Description

From author Ronald Wimberly, creator of the viral comic Lighten Up, comes a soaring graphic biography that casts new light on the first African-American fighter pilot.

On the eve of World War I, Eugene Bullard was a refugee of the Jim Crow South who was determined to find a place where a Black man would be treated as a fellow human being. His search took him from rural Georgia to the streets of Paris, from the vaudeville stage to the boxing ring, and finally, from the muddy trenches to the open skies. In 1914, Bullard joined the fight to defend France—and made history as the world’s first African American fighter pilot.

In this candid but sensitive portrait of Bullard, author Ronald Wimberly balances the personal and the historical to interrogate concepts of cynicism, idealism, fear, glory, and the pervasiveness of anti-Black racism.


Click for more detail about My Darkest Prayer by S. A. Cosby My Darkest Prayer

by S. A. Cosby
Flatiron Books (Dec 06, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

Award-winning, African American Literature Book Club and New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby’s debut novel My Darkest Prayer is republished in a new edition, with a new introduction from the author.

“I handle the bodies.”

Whether it’s working at his cousin’s funeral home or tossing around the local riffraff at his favorite bar, Nathan Waymaker is a man who knows how to handle the bodies. A former marine and sheriff’s deputy, Nathan has built a reputation in his small Southern town as a man who can help when all other avenues have been exhausted. When a beloved local minister is found dead, his parishioners ask Nathan to make sure the death isn’t swept under the rug.

What starts out as an easy payday soon descends into a maze of mayhem filled with wannabe gangsters, vicious crime lords, porn stars, crooked police officers, and a particularly treacherous preacher and his mysterious wife. Nathan must use all his varied skills and some of his wit to navigate the murky waters of small town corruption even as dark secrets of his own threaten to come to the surface.


Click for more detail about We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds We Deserve Monuments

by Jas Hammonds
Roaring Brook Press (Nov 29, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

2023 Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent Winner
A Kirkus Best Books of 2022
A School and Library Journal Best Book of 2022
A B&N Best Book of 2022
A Parents Magazine Best Books of 2022
People magazine’s Best Children’s Books of 2022
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2022

Family secrets, a swoon-worthy romance, and a slow-burn mystery collide in We Deserve Monuments, a YA debut from Jas Hammonds that explores how racial violence can ripple down through generations.

What’s more important: Knowing the truth or keeping the peace?

Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she’s uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two.

While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family—whose mother’s murder remains unsolved.

As the three girls grow closer—Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance—the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty’s health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she’s built in Bardell—or if some things are better left buried.


Click for more detail about Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction by Sheree Renee Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction

by Sheree Renee Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight
Tordotcom (Nov 15, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

A 2023 NAACP Image Award Nominee!
A NPR Best of the Year pick!
A Book Riot Best SFF of the Year pick!

From award-winning editorial team Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight comes an anthology of thirty-two original stories showcasing the breadth of fantasy and science fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora.

A group of cabinet ministers query a supercomputer containing the minds of the country’s ancestors. A child robot on a dying planet uncovers signs of fragile new life. A descendent of a rain goddess inherits her grandmother’s ability to change her appearance—and perhaps the world.

Created in the legacy of the seminal, award-winning anthology series Dark Matter, Africa Risen celebrates the vibrancy, diversity, and reach of African and Afro-Diasporic SFF and reaffirms that Africa is not rising—it’s already here.


Click for more detail about A Song for the Unsung: Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the 1963 March on Washington by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders A Song for the Unsung: Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the 1963 March on Washington

by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders
Henry Holt & Company (Nov 08, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

A singular, richly illustrated picture book biography of Bayard Rustin, the gay Black man behind the March on Washington of 1963, by the acclaimed authors of Unspeakable: the Tulsa Race Massacre and Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag.

On August 28, 1963, a quarter of a million activists and demonstrators from every corner of the United States convened for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was there and then that they raised their voices in unison to call for racial and economic justice for all Black Americans, to call out inequities, and ultimately to advance the Civil Rights Movement.

Every movement has its unsung heroes: individuals who work in the background without praise or accolades, who toil and struggle without notice. One of those unsung heroes was at the center of some of the most important decisions and events of the Civil Rights Movement.

That hero was a quiet man, a gay African American man. He was Bayard Rustin.

Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders's A Song for the Unsung, featuring illustrations from artist Byron McCray, is an inspiring story that answers one of our nation’s greatest calls to action by honoring one of the men who made it happen.


Click for more detail about Hold You Down by Tracy Brown Hold You Down

by Tracy Brown
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 01, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

Hold You Down is an edgy novel from rising star Tracy Brown about the perils of love and the ties that bind.

New York City. Late 1980s to early 1990s.

Mercy and Lenox Howard have always only had each other. Growing up on the mean streets of Harlem with an absentee mother meant that they had to have each other’s backs. Now young, smart mothers, they are determined to survive in New York City while raising their two sons, who have bright futures ahead of them.

Mercy is the quiet, straight-laced hospital administrator, struggling to make ends meet. At night and on weekends, she pours her heart into her cooking and her dream of owning her own restaurant. Lenox is the diva, the wild child, looking for excitement and her big come up in life and love. Their boys, Deon and Judah, have been raised more like brothers than cousins, forging a bond that is unbreakable.

When Lenox heads down a path that she believes will bring success and power, it changes the entire course of her life and her family’s life forever. As a result of their mother’s choices, cousins Deon and Judah soon find themselves in uncharted territory.


Click for more detail about Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega Frizzy

by Claribel A. Ortega
First Second (Oct 18, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

Winner of the 2023 Pura Belpré Award for Children’s Text
October 2022 Indie Bestseller

New York Times-bestselling author Claribel A. Ortega and star debut artist Rose Bousamra’s Frizzy is about Marlene, a young Dominican girl whose greatest enemy is the hair salon! Through her struggles and triumphs, this heartwarming and gorgeous middle-grade graphic novel shows the radical power of accepting yourself as you are, frizzy curls and all.

Marlene loves three things: books, her cool Tía Ruby and hanging out with her best friend Camila. But according to her mother, Paola, the only thing she needs to focus on is school and "growing up." That means straightening her hair every weekend so she could have "presentable", "good hair".

But Marlene hates being in the salon and doesn’t understand why her curls are not considered pretty by those around her. With a few hiccups, a dash of embarrassment, and the much-needed help of Camila and Tia Ruby—she slowly starts a journey to learn to appreciate and proudly wear her curly hair.


Click for more detail about Off the Wall by Theodore Taylor III Off the Wall

by Theodore Taylor III
Roaring Brook Press (Oct 11, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

From New York Times bestselling illustrator Theodore Taylor III comes a vibrant ode to street art, a picture book about a child discovering all of the beauty—and art—her new neighborhood has to offer.

Shapes moving in every direction,
letters weaving in and out,
bright colors jumping off of the wall.

It was like a language from another
planet that only I could understand.
Graffiti.

In this bright, colorful, and movement-filled picture book Off the Wall, a young girl moves with her family from the big city to a small town. She feels odd and out of place until a stroll down the street hits her with echoes from home: vibrant graffiti splashed against the wall. But when it’s painted over that sense of belonging is lost, until an afternoon’s adventure shows her that street art can be found everywhere—as well as a sense of home.

In his exceptional author-illustrated debut, Theodore Taylor III has crafted an ode to street art, a stunning celebration of a much-maligned art form and all the beauty it brings to a neighborhood.


Click for more detail about Will Do Magic for Small Change by Andrea Hairston Will Do Magic for Small Change

by Andrea Hairston
Tordotcom (Oct 11, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

Andrea Hairston’s historical fantasy Will Do Magic for Small Change presents a tale of alien science and earthbound magic and the secrets families keep from each other.

Cinnamon Jones dreams of stepping on stage and acting her heart out like her famous grandparents, Redwood and Wildfire. But she’s always been theatrically challenged. That won’t necessarily stop her! But her family life is a tangle of mysteries and secrets, and nobody is telling her the whole truth.

Before her brother died, he gave Cinnamon The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer—a tale of a Dahomean warrior woman and an alien from another dimension who perform at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. They are a story of magic or alien science, but the connection to Cinnamon’s past is unmistakable.

When an act of violence wounds her family, Cinnamon and her theatre squad determine to solve the mysteries and bring her worlds crashing together.


Click for more detail about A House Through Time by David Olusoga A House Through Time

by David Olusoga
Picador (Oct 01, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

In recent years house histories have become the new frontier of popular, participatory history. People, many of whom have already embarked upon that great adventure of genealogical research, and who have encountered their ancestors in the archives and uncovered family secrets, are now turning to the secrets contained within the four walls of their homes and in doing so finding a direct link to earlier generations. And it is ordinary homes, not grand public buildings or the mansions of the rich that have all the best stories.

As with the television series, A House Through Time offers readers not only the tools to explore the histories of their own homes, but also a vividly readable history of the British city, the forces of industry, disease, mass transportation, crime and class. The rises and falls, the shifts in the fortunes of neighbourhoods and whole cities are here, tracing the often surprising journey one single house can take from elegant dwelling in a fashionable district to a tenement for society’s rejects.

Packed with remarkable human stories, David Olusoga and Melanie Backe-Hansen give us a phenomenal insight into living history, a history we can see every day on the streets where we live. And it reminds us that it is at home that we are truly ourselves. It is there that the honest face of life can be seen. At home, behind closed doors and drawn curtains, we live out our inner lives and family lives.


Click for more detail about Opening My Eyes Underwater: Essays on Hope, Humanity, and Our Hero Michelle Obama by Ashley Woodfolk Opening My Eyes Underwater: Essays on Hope, Humanity, and Our Hero Michelle Obama

by Ashley Woodfolk
Feiwel & Friends (Sep 27, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

Inspired by the life and quotations of former first lady Michelle Obama, Opening My Eyes Underwater is a collection of essays penned by bestselling author Ashley Woodfolk.

Essays of bullying, heartbreak, racism, and confidence, Ashley taps into her own past and shares those stories that made her who she is today as she seamlessly weaves in parallel experiences that both she and Mrs. Obama have faced in their separate childhoods as well as their adult lives.

Open, searing, and honest, these are stories readers will feel seen with. Readers who are growing and learning as they move forward through life’s triumphs and pitfalls will undoubtedly gravitate to and find comfort within its pages.


Click for more detail about The Adventures of Qai Qai by Serena Williams The Adventures of Qai Qai

by Serena Williams
Feiwel & Friends (Sep 27, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

From superstar athlete, record breaker, entrepreneur, philanthropist (and mama) Serena Williams, comes a magical picture book in which a little girl learns to believe in herself with the help of her doll and best friend, Qai Qai.

“Don’t be scared, Best Friend! I’m right here with you, always!”

“But what if I’m not good enough?”

“Girl!” Qai Qai answered. “You’re already good enough when you walk in the door! Come on, let me show you.”

Baby Girl has a dance recital coming up, and she can’t help but worry. She’s practiced and practiced, but what if something goes wrong? What if she forgets the steps or freezes up during her solo?

Luckily, her best friend Qai Qai the doll has her back! When Qai Qai comes to life, they go on a magical journey that shows Baby Girl that she’s ready for the stage.

The Adventures of Qai Qai, a heartwarming picture book from beloved athlete Serena Williams, shows readers the power of believing—in your best friend and in yourself.


Click for more detail about Wolf Hustle: A Black Woman on Wall Street  by Cin Fabré Wolf Hustle: A Black Woman on Wall Street

by Cin Fabré
Henry Holt & Company (Sep 20, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

From the South Bronx projects to the boardroom—at only nineteen years old, Cin Fabré ran with the wolves of Wall Street.

Growing up, Cin Fabré didn’t know anything about the stock market. But she learned how to hustle from her immigrant parents, saving money so that one day she could escape her abusive father and poverty in the Bronx.

Through a tip from a friend, Cin pushed her way into brokerage firm VTR Capital—an offshoot of Stratton Oakmont, the company where the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, had reigned. She was shocked to find an army of young workers, mostly Black and Brown, with no real prospects for promotion sitting at phones doing the drudge work of finding investment leads for white male brokers. But she felt the pull of profit and knew she would do whatever she had to do to be successful.

Pulling back the curtain on the inequities she and so many others faced, Wolf Hustle reveals how Cin worked grueling hours, ascending from cold caller to stockbroker, becoming the only Black woman to do so at her firm. She also discloses the excesses she took part in on 1990s Wall Street—the strip clubs, the Hamptons parties, the Gucci shopping sprees—while reveling in the thrill of making money.

From landing clients worth hundreds of millions to gaining, losing, then gaining back fortunes in seconds, Cin examines her years spent trading frantically and hustling successfully, grappling with what it takes to build a rich life, and, ultimately, beating Wall Street at its own game.

“What an amazing voice! What a clear-eyed and powerful story! Wow! She takes us back into her Haitian roots, through her life as a young person, and into the bowels of Wall Street to shine a deep and thoughtful light on everything from the Black immigrant experience in America to capitalism. Everyone needs to read this.”
Jacqueline Woodson, bestselling author of Red at the Bone

“Long before the culture of Silicon Valley came to power, the Wall Street ‘bros’ established a business culture that lives for money, prizes excess and debauchery, and excludes women and people of color. In Wolf Hustle, Cin Fabré offers an engrossing and unflinching portrait of surviving and succeeding in an arena dominated by men, adding a welcome and necessary voice to the story of the financial foundation of America.”
—Emily Chang, author of Brotopia

“Extraordinary, electrifying and wholly inspiring, Wolf Hustle is a study in untamed audacity. Cin Fabré’s rebellious journey from a working class neighborhood to the peaks of Wall Street is a blueprint on boldly beating odds and daring to defy.”
Zain E. Asher, anchor for CNN International and author of Where the Children Take Us


Click for more detail about Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization by Neil deGrasse Tyson Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization

by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Henry Holt & Company (Sep 20, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

New York Times Bestseller

Bringing his cosmic perspective to civilization on Earth, Neil deGrasse Tyson shines new light on the crucial fault lines of our time—war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, and race—in a way that stimulates a deeper sense of unity for us all.

In a time when our political and cultural views feel more polarized than ever, Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin chariots of enlightenment—a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science.

After thinking deeply about how science sees the world and about Earth as a planet, the human brain has the capacity to reset and recalibrates life’s priorities, shaping the actions we might take in response. No outlook on culture, society, or civilization remains untouched.

With crystalline prose, Starry Messenger walks us through the scientific palette that sees and paints the world differently. From insights on resolving global conflict to reminders of how precious it is to be alive, Tyson reveals, with warmth and eloquence, an array of brilliant and beautiful truths that apply to us all, informed and enlightened by knowledge of our place in the universe.


Click for more detail about The Last Dreamwalker by Rita Woods The Last Dreamwalker

by Rita Woods
Forge (Sep 20, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

From Hurston/Wright Legacy Award-winning author Rita Woods, The Last Dreamwalker tells the story of two women, separated by nearly two centuries yet inextricably linked by the Gullah Geechee Islands off the coast of South Carolina—and their connection to a mysterious and extraordinary gift passed from generation to generation.

In the wake of her mother’s passing, Layla Hurley unexpectedly reconnects with her mother’s sisters, women she hasn’t been allowed to speak to, or of, in years.

Her aunts reveal to Layla that a Gullah-Geechee island off the shore of South Carolina now belongs to her. As Layla digs deeper into her mother’s past and the mysterious island’s history, she discovers that the terrifying nightmares that have plagued her throughout her life and tainted her relationship with her mother and all of her family, is actually a power passed down through generations of her Gullah ancestors. She is a Dreamwalker, able to inhabit the dreams of others—and to manipulate them.

As Layla uncovers increasingly dark secrets about her family’s past, she finds herself thrust into the center of a potentially deadly, decades-old feud fought in the dark corridor of dreams.

The Last Dreamwalker is a gripping, contemporary read about power and agency; family and legacy; and the ways trauma, secrets, and magic take shape across generations.

I loved this fantastical tale of powerful, unapologetic women taking their agency and paving the path that they deserved.—Keisha Bush, author of No Heaven for Good Boys


Click for more detail about Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson, Black Freedom Fighter by Michael G. Long and Yohuru Williams Call Him Jack: The Story of Jackie Robinson, Black Freedom Fighter

by Michael G. Long and Yohuru Williams
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Sep 20, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

An enthralling, eye-opening portrayal of this barrier-breaking American hero as a lifelong, relentlessly proud fighter for Black justice and civil rights.

According to Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie Robinson was “a sit-inner before the sit-ins, a freedom rider before the Freedom Rides.” According to Hank Aaron, Robinson was a leader of the Black Power movement before there was a Black Power movement. According to his wife, Rachel Robinson, he was always Jack, not Jackie—the diminutive form of his name bestowed on him in college by white sports writers. And throughout his whole life, Jack Robinson was a fighter for justice, an advocate for equality, and an inspiration beyond just baseball.

From prominent Robinson scholars Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long comes Call Him Jack, an exciting biography that recovers the real person behind the legend, reanimating this famed figure’s legacy for new generations, widening our focus from the sportsman to the man as a whole, and deepening our appreciation for his achievements on the playing field in the process.


Click for more detail about Until Someone Listens: A Story about Borders, Family, and One Girl’s Mission by Lissette Norman Until Someone Listens: A Story about Borders, Family, and One Girl’s Mission

by Lissette Norman
Roaring Brook Press (Sep 13, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

When Estela Juarez’s mom is deported to Mexico, Estela knows she has to speak up for her family. Told in Estela’s own words, Until Someone Listens is a true story about a young girl finding her voice and using it to make change.

Estela’s family lives together in a happy home full of love. Or, at least, they used to… until their home was torn apart.

My mom had to go back,
to the other side of the river,
because she wasn’t born in this country.

For years her family fought and fought for permission for her to stay in the U.S. But no one listened. When Estela was eight, her mother was deported to Mexico.

Estela knew she had to do something. So she wrote letters: to local newspapers, Congress, the President, and anyone else who could help. She wrote and wrote and wrote until, finally… someone listened.

In this heart wrenching, autobiographical story, Estela Juarez’s letters take her from the local news all the way to the national stage, where she discovers the power in her words and pledges to keep using her voice until her family—and others like hers— are together again.

Also available in Spanish as Hasta que alguien me escuche!


Click for more detail about More Myself: A Journey by Alicia Keys with Michelle Burford More Myself: A Journey

by Alicia Keys with Michelle Burford
Flatiron Books (Sep 13, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

An intimate, revealing look at one artist’s journey from self-censorship to full expression

As one of the most celebrated musicians in the world, Alicia Keys has enraptured the globe with her heartfelt lyrics, extraordinary vocal range, and soul-stirring piano compositions. Yet away from the spotlight, Alicia has grappled with private heartache—over the challenging and complex relationship with her father, the people-pleasing nature that characterized her early career, the loss of privacy surrounding her romantic relationships, and the oppressive expectations of female perfection.

Since Alicia rose to fame, her public persona has belied a deep personal truth: she has spent years not fully recognizing or honoring her own worth. After withholding parts of herself for so long, she is at last exploring the questions that live at the heart of her story: Who am I, really? And once I discover that truth, how can I become brave enough to embrace it?

More Myself is part autobiography, part narrative documentary. Alicia’s journey is revealed not only through her own candid recounting, but also through vivid recollections from those who have walked alongside her. The result is a 360-degree perspective on Alicia’s path, from her girlhood in Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem to the process of growth and self-discovery that we all must navigate.

In More Myself, Alicia shares her quest for truth—about herself, her past, and her shift from sacrificing her spirit to celebrating her worth. With the raw honesty that epitomizes Alicia’s artistry, More Myself is at once a riveting account and a clarion call to readers: to define themselves in a world that rarely encourages a true and unique identity.


Click for more detail about Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement by Angela Joy Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement

by Angela Joy
Roaring Brook Press (Sep 06, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

A Caldecott-honor winning picture book biography of the mother of Emmett Till, and how she channeled grief over her son’s death into a call to action for the civil rights movement.

Mamie Till-Mobley is the mother of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy who was brutally murdered while visiting the South in 1955. His death became a rallying point for the civil rights movement, but few know that it was his mother who was the catalyst for bringing his name to the forefront of history.

In Choosing Brave, Angela Joy and Janelle Washington offer a testament to the power of love, the bond of motherhood, and one woman’s unwavering advocacy for justice. It is a poised, moving work about a woman who refocused her unimaginable grief into action for the greater good. Mamie fearlessly refused to allow America to turn away from what happened to her only child. She turned pain into change that ensured her son’s life mattered. Timely, powerful, and beautifully told, this thorough and moving story has been masterfully crafted to be both comprehensive and suitable for younger readers.


Click for more detail about If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery If I Survive You

by Jonathan Escoffery
MCD (Sep 06, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

"If I Survive You is a collection of connected short stories that reads like a novel, that reads like real life, that reads like fiction written at the highest level. This is a compelling hurricane of a book that sweeps the past, present and future together into one inextricable knot. This is where Jonathan Escoffery’s career begins. There are no limits to where he will go." —Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch HouseA major debut, blazing with style and heart, that follows a Jamaican family striving for more in Miami, and introduces a generational storyteller. In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on first through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed that the pet fish launches itself out of its own tank rather than stay. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment, by what their younger son, Trelawny, calls “the exquisite, racking compulsion to survive.”Masterfully constructed with heart and humor, the linked stories in Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You center on Trelawny as he struggles to carve out a place for himself amid financial disaster, racism, and flat-out bad luck. After a fight with Topper—himself reckoning with his failures as a parent and his longing for Jamaica—Trelawny claws his way out of homelessness through a series of odd, often hilarious jobs. Meanwhile, his brother, Delano, attempts a disastrous cash grab to get his kids back, and his cousin, Cukie, looks for a father who doesn’t want to be found. As each character searches for a foothold, they never forget the profound danger of climbing without a safety net.Pulsing with vibrant lyricism and inimitable style, sly commentary and contagious laughter, Escoffery’s debut unravels what it means to be in between homes and cultures in a world at the mercy of capitalism and white supremacy. With If I Survive You, Escoffery announces himself as a prodigious storyteller in a class of his own, a chronicler of American life at its most gruesome and hopeful.


Click for more detail about The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle The Ballad of Black Tom

by Victor Lavalle
Tordotcom (Sep 06, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

The Ballad of Black Tom—the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Award finalist and Shirley Jackson and British Fantasy Award-winning excavation of Lovecraftian mythos by Victor LaValle—is given new life in a brand-new hardcover edition.

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn’t there.

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father’s head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic and earns the attention of things best left sleeping.

A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?


Click for more detail about Dear Miss Metropolitan: A Novel by Carolyn Ferrell Dear Miss Metropolitan: A Novel

by Carolyn Ferrell
Holt Paperbacks (Jul 12, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

A finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
A finalist for the 2022 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

Introducing an extraordinary and original writer whose first novel explores the intersections of grief and rage, personal strength and healing—and what we owe one another.

Fern seeks refuge from her mother’s pill-popping and boyfriends via Soul Train; Gwin finds salvation in the music of Prince much to her congregation’s dismay and Jesenia, miles ahead of her classmates at her gifted and talented high school, is a brainy and precocious enigma. None of this matters to Boss Man, the monster who abducts them and holds them captive in a dilapidated house in Queens.

On the night they are finally rescued, throngs line the block gawking and claiming ignorance. Among them is lifetime resident Miss Metropolitan, advice columnist for the local weekly, but how could anyone who fancies herself a “newspaperwoman” have missed a horror story unfolding right across the street? And why is it that only two of the three girls—now women—were found? The mystery haunts the two remaining “victim girls” who are subjected to the further trauma of becoming symbols as they continuously adapt to their present and their unrelenting past.

Like Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, Ferrell’s Dear Miss Metropolitan gives voice to characters surviving unimaginable tragedy. The story is inventively revealed before, during, and after the ordeal in this singular and urgent novel.

“Such a beautifully rendered and provocative novel. Ferrell has given me a world I could never have imagined filled with so many people I feel like I’ve always known. A stunner.”
Jacqueline Woodson, bestselling author of Red at the Bone, Another Brooklyn and National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming

“Sometimes, to write about a horrifying trauma and its resounding effects, you have to write toward the heart of the matter in unexpected ways. Carolyn Ferrell does just that in her remarkable, challenging debut novel Dear Miss Metropolitan. This is the story of three girls stolen from their lives by a sadistic man, but it is also about a community that failed each of the girls and what it can be like to emerge from a very dark, damaged place on fragile footing. Dear Miss Metropolitan is a story told in brilliant, jagged fragments. It is a story that will make you uncomfortable and it will make you ache and make you rage. Ferrell’s novel is a monumental provocation and heralds great things to come from an immensely talented writer.”
Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women and Hunger

“Dear Miss Metropolitan is heart-wreck of a story of how pain and suffering fracture lives, but also a hopeful one that testifies of the human will to survive. While the nexus of the book is unimaginable trauma and its aftermath, Carolyn Ferrell has wrung from it, wondrous beauty. Believeyoume, it’s the kind of book that begs at least two reads: one for the drama propelling you page to page, and another for its inimitable style—the music of its language, the masterful handling of narration, the daring inventiveness. This novel is nothing short of an artistic feat.”
Mitchell S. Jackson, author of The Residue Years

“You think you’re ready for this novel, but you’re not ready. Carolyn Ferrell has shaped a story made of diamonds and broken glass; it’s going to cut you deep. Dear Miss Metropolitan is a triumph of storytelling in all its forms, a collage of styles and sympathies. A stunner.”
Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling


Click for more detail about They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency by Malcolm Nance They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency

by Malcolm Nance
St. Martin’s Press (Jul 12, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES, LOS ANGELES TIMES, USA TODAY AND GREAT LAKES INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLER ASSOCIATION BESTSELLER

New York Times bestselling author, Malcolm Nance, offers a chilling warning on a clear, present and existential threat to our democracy… our fellow Americans

To varying degrees, as many as 74 million Americans have expressed hostility towards American democracy. Their radicalization is increasingly visible in our day to day life: in neighbor’s or family member’s open discussion of bizarre conspiracy theories, reveling in the fantasy of mass murdering the liberals they believe are drinking the blood of children. These are the results of the deranged series of lies stoked by former President Donald Trump, made worse by the global pandemic.

The first steps of an American fracture were predicted by Malcolm Nance months before the January 6, 2021 insurrection, heralding the start of a generational terror threat greater than either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. Nance calls this growing unrest the Trump Insurgency in the United States or TITUS.

The post-2020 election urge to return to a place of "normalcy"—to forget—is the worst response we can have. American militiamen, terrorists, and radicalized political activists are already armed in mass numbers and regularly missed in the media; principally because Trump’s most loyal and violent foot soldiers benefit from the ultimate privilege—being white.

They Want to Kill Americans is the first detailed look into the heart of the active Trump-led insurgency, setting the stage for a second nation-wide rebellion on American soil. This is a chilling and deeply researched early warning to the nation from a counterterrorism intelligence professional: America is primed for a possible explosive wave of terrorist attacks and armed confrontations that aim to bring about a Donald Trump led dictatorship.


Click for more detail about The Sun Does Shine (Young Readers Edition): An Innocent Man, A Wrongful Conviction, and the Long Path to Justice by Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich The Sun Does Shine (Young Readers Edition): An Innocent Man, A Wrongful Conviction, and the Long Path to Justice

by Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Feiwel & Friends (Jun 14, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times, now adapted for younger readers, with a revised foreword by Just Mercy author Bryan Stevenson.

In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only 29 years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free.

But with a criminal justice system with the cards stacked against Black men, Hinton was sentenced to death . He spent his first three years on Death Row in despairing silence—angry and full of hatred for all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty-seven years he was a beacon—transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.

With themes both timely and timeless, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic 30-year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy.


Click for more detail about Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth: New and Selected Poems, 2001-2021 by Yusef Komunyakaa Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth: New and Selected Poems, 2001-2021

by Yusef Komunyakaa
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jun 14, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

New and selected poems from the great Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Yusef Komunyakaa

These songs run along dirt roads
& highways, crisscross lonely seas
& scale mountains, traverse skies
& underworlds of neon honkytonk,
Wherever blues dare to travel.

Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth brings together selected poems from the past twenty years of Yusef Komunyakaa’s work, as well as new poems from the Pulitzer Prize winner. His masterful, concise verse conjures arresting images of peace and war, the natural power of the earth and of love, his childhood in the American South and his service in Vietnam, the ugly violence of racism in America, and the meaning of power and morality.

The new poems in this collection add a new refrain to the jazz-inflected rhythms of one of our “most significant and individual voices” (David Wojahn, Poetry). Komunyakaa writes of a young man fashioning a slingshot, workers who “honor the Earth by opening shine / inside the soil,” and the sounds of a saxophone filling a dim lounge in New Jersey. As April Bernard wrote in The New York Times Book Review, “He refuses to be trivial; and he even dares beauty.”


Click for more detail about In the Key of Us by Mariama J. Lockington In the Key of Us

by Mariama J. Lockington
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Apr 26, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

Stonewall Book Awards—Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Honor Book

From the author of the critically acclaimed novel For Black Girls Like Me, Mariama J. Lockington, comes a coming-of-age story surrounding the losses that threaten to break us and the friendships that make us whole again.

Thirteen-year-old Andi feels stranded after the loss of her mother, the artist who swept color onto Andi’s blank canvas. When she is accepted to a music camp, Andi finds herself struggling to play her trumpet like she used to before her whole world changed. Meanwhile, Zora, a returning camper, is exhausted trying to please her parents, who are determined to make her a flute prodigy, even though she secretly has a dancer’s heart.

At Harmony Music Camp, Zora and Andi are the only two Black girls in a sea of mostly white faces. In kayaks and creaky cabins, the two begin to connect, unraveling their loss, insecurities, and hopes for the future. And as they struggle to figure out who they really are, they may just come to realize who they really need: each other.

In the Key of Us is a lyrical ode to music camp, the rush of first love, and the power of one life-changing summer.


Click for more detail about Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future

by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Apr 22, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

A timely and inspiring nonfiction guide for middle grade readers about the history of our fight against climate change, and how young people today are rising to action.

Inspired by Nathaniel Rich’s Losing Earth: A Recent History, the acclaimed book that grew out of an August 2018 issue of the New York Times Magazine solely dedicated to it, Saving Earth tells the human story of the climate change conversation from the recent past into the present day. It wrestles with the long shadow of our failures, what might be ahead for today’s generation, and crucial questions of how we understand the world we live in—and how we can work together to change the outlook for the better. Enlivened with illustrations from Tim Foley, and filled with the voices of climate activists from the past and present, this book is both a call to action and a riveting dramatic history.


Click for more detail about Moonwalking by Zetta Elliott and Lyn Miller-Lachmann Moonwalking

by Zetta Elliott and Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Apr 22, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

For fans of Jason Reynolds and Jacqueline Woodson, this middle-grade novel-in-verse follows two boys in 1980s Brooklyn as they become friends for a season.

Punk rock-loving JJ Pankowski can’t seem to fit in at his new school in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as one of the only white kids. Pie Velez, a math and history geek by day and graffiti artist by night is eager to follow in his idol, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s, footsteps. The boys stumble into an unlikely friendship, swapping notes on their love of music and art, which sees them through a difficult semester at school and at home. But a run-in with the cops threatens to unravel it all.

From authors Zetta Elliott and Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Moonwalking is a stunning exploration of class, cross-racial friendships, and two boys’ search for belonging in a city as tumultuous and beautiful as their hearts.


Click for more detail about Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T. L. Huchu Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments

by T. L. Huchu
Tor Books (Apr 05, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Alluring, shadowy Edinburgh with its hints of sophisticated academic magic will draw you in, but it’s Ropa - a hard knocks ghostalker on her paranormal grind to pay the rent - who grabs hold. The moment you meet her, you’ll follow wherever she goes." - Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six

T.L. Huchu returns with Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments, the gripping next installment in the Alex-Award-winning Edinburgh Nights series.

In this thrilling story, Ropa Moyo, a passionate explorer of Edinburgh’s secret societies, finds herself embarking on a new adventure. Instead of getting paid for her magical talents, she reluctantly accepts an unpaid internship. However, an opportunity arises when her friend Priya offers her a job at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a specialized hospital where a perplexing illness is defying conventional remedies. If Ropa can solve the case, she may not only earn valuable experience but also impress her mentor, Sir Callander.

As Ropa delves into her investigation, she uncovers a hidden fortune, encounters an avenging spirit, and unravels a long-buried secret from Scotland’s past. Lives hang in the balance, and time is running out. Will Ropa be able to connect the dots and save the day?

The Edinburgh Nights series consists of:

  1. Library of the Dead
  2. Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments


Click for more detail about Brown Baby Lullaby (board book) by Tameka Fryer Brown Brown Baby Lullaby (board book)

by Tameka Fryer Brown
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Mar 29, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

This lyrical bedtime board book is a must-have for every brown baby's bookshelf.

Come, my sweet brown baby…

From sunset to bedtime, two parents lovingly care for their beautiful baby: first, they play outside, then it is time for dinner and a bath, and finally a warm snuggle before bed. Precious and heartfelt, this story is a true celebration of the love shared between parent and child—and the actions that say "I love you."

With beautiful text by Tameka Fryer Brown and featuring warm art by New York Times-bestselling and NAACP-Award-winning illustrator AG Ford, Brown Baby Lullaby is the perfect new baby or baby shower gift.


Click for more detail about Black and British: An Illustrated History by David Olusoga Black and British: An Illustrated History

by David Olusoga
MacMillan Children’s Books (Feb 11, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

This beautiful hardback gift book is a stunning visual journey though Black British history for younger readers by award-winning historian and broadcaster David Olusoga and illustrated by Jake Alexander and Melleny Taylor.

The essential starting place for anyone who wants to learn about Black British History. David Olusoga’s thought provoking text charts the forgotten histories of Black people in Britain from Roman times right through to the present day. From Roman Africans guarding Hadrian’s Wall, to an African trumpeter in the court of Henry the Eighth, Black Georgians fighting for the abolition of slavery, Black soldiers fighting for Britain in the First World War, Windrush and right up today. These are the stories that brought us all together in this country.

When did Africans first come to Britain?

Who are the well-dressed black children in Georgian paintings?

Why did the American Civil War disrupt the Industrial Revolution?

These and many other questions are answered in this essential introduction to 1800 years of the Black British history.

This children’s edition of Black and British: A Forgotten History is beautifully illustrated in full-color with maps, portrait galleries, timelines, photos and portraits.


Click for more detail about The Black Agenda by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman The Black Agenda

by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman
St. Martin’s Press (Feb 01, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

"The Black Agenda mobilizes top Black experts from across the country to share transformative perspectives on how to deploy anti-racist ideas and policies into everything from climate policy to criminal justice to healthcare. This book will challenge what you think is possible by igniting long overdue conversations around how to enact lasting and meaningful change rooted in racial justice." —Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped From the BeginningFrom ongoing reports of police brutality to the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on Black Americans, 2020 brought a renewed awareness to the deep-rootedness of racism and white supremacy in every facet of American life. Edited by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, The Black Agenda is the first book of its kind—a bold and urgent move towards social justice through a profound collection of essays featuring Black scholars and experts across economics, education, health, climate, and technology. It speaks to the question "What’s next for America?" on the subjects of policy-making, mental health, artificial intelligence, climate movement, the future of work, the LGBTQ community, the criminal legal system, and much more. Essayists including Dr. Sandy Darity, Dr. Hedwig Lee, Mary Heglar, and Janelle Jones present groundbreaking ideas ranging from Black maternal and infant health to reparations to AI bias to inclusive economic policy, with the potential to uplift and heal not only Black America, but the entire country.


Click for more detail about Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi Goliath

by Tochi Onyebuchi
Tordotcom (Jan 25, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Onyebuchi sets fire to the boundary between fiction and reality, and brings a crumbling city and an all too plausible future to vibrant life. Riveting, disturbing, and rendered in masterful detail."—Leigh Bardugo

In his adult novel debut, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Award finalist and Alex and New England Book Award winner Tochi Onyebuchi brings us a sweeping sci-fi epic in the vein of Samuel R. Delany and Station Eleven

Goliath explores the city of New Haven as a primal biblical epic flung into the future. What happens to the people who get pushed out?

A David and Jonathan story that throws readers into the history and sins of the Connecticut metropolis, this ambitious, sprawling novel weaves together disparate narratives—a space-dweller looking at New Haven as a chance to reconnect with his spiraling lover; a group of civil servants attempting to renew the promises of Earth’s crumbling cities; a journalist attempting to capture the violence of the streets—into a richly urgent mosaic about race, class, gentrification, and who is allowed to be the hero of any history.


Click for more detail about How We Can Win: Race, History and Changing the Money Game That’s Rigged by Kimberly Jones How We Can Win: Race, History and Changing the Money Game That’s Rigged

by Kimberly Jones
Henry Holt & Company (Jan 18, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

A breakdown of the economic and social injustices facing Black people and other marginalized citizens inspired by political activist Kimberly Jones’ viral video, “How Can We Win.”

So if I played four hundred rounds of Monopoly with you and I had to play and give you every dime that I made, and then for fifty years, every time that I played, if you didn’t like what I did, you got to burn it like they did in Tulsa and like they did in Rosewood, how can you win? How can you win?”

When Kimberly Jones declared these words amid the protests spurred by the murder of George Floyd, she gave a history lesson that in just over six minutes captured the economic struggles of Black people in America. Within days the video had been viewed by millions of people around the world, riveted by Jones’ damning — and stunningly succinct — analysis of the enduring disparities Black Americans face.

In How We Can Win, Jones delves into the impacts of systemic racism and reveals how her formative years in Chicago gave birth to a lifelong devotion to justice. Here, in a vital expansion of her declaration, she calls for Reconstruction 2.0, a multilayered plan to reclaim economic and social restitutions — those restitutions promised with emancipation but blocked, again and again, for more than 150 years. And, most of all, Jones delivers strategies for how we can effect change as citizens and allies while nurturing ourselves — the most valuable asset we have — in the fight against a system that is still rigged.


Click for more detail about Bevelations: Lessons from a Mutha, Auntie, Bestie by Bevy Smith Bevelations: Lessons from a Mutha, Auntie, Bestie

by Bevy Smith
Holt McDougal (Jan 18, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

“Bevy knows what’s what, and she is the kind of woman you want in your corner. If you don’t believe me … buy the book.” —Whoopi Goldberg

“Funny, wise, well-experienced, empathetic, colorful—Bevy brings the spirit of humanity wherever she goes.” —Pharrell Williams

From the host of the fabulous and popular show Bevelations on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy channel, Bevy Smith’s irreverent and inspiring memoir about learning to live a big, authentic, and unapologetic life—and how you can, too

Bevy Smith was living what seemed like a glamorous dream as a fashion advertising executive, blazing a lucrative career for herself in the whitewashed magazine world. She jetsetted to Europe for fashion shows, dined and danced at every hot spot, and enjoyed a mighty roster of lovers.

So it came as quite a shock to Bevy when one day, after arriving at her luxury hotel in Milan, she collapsed on the Frette bedsheets and sobbed. Years of rolling with the in-crowd had taken its toll. Her satisfaction with work and life had hit rock bottom. But Bevy could not be defeated, and within minutes (okay, days) she grabbed a notepad and started realizing a truer path—one built on self-reflection and, ultimately, clarity. She figured out how to redirect her life toward meaningful creativity and freedom.

In her signature lively and infectious voice (there’s no one like Bevy!), Bevelations candidly shares how she reclaimed her life’s course and shows how we too can manifest our most bodacious dreams. From repossessing her bold childhood nature to becoming her own brand to envisioning her life’s next great destination (which will feature natural hair, important charitable giving, and a midcentury house overlooking the Pacific Ocean), Bevy invites readers along on the route of her personal transformation to reveal how each of us can live our best lives with honesty, joy, and, when we’re in the mood, a killer pair of shoes.


Click for more detail about Fear of Black Consciousness by Lewis R. Gordon Fear of Black Consciousness

by Lewis R. Gordon
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jan 11, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

Lewis R. Gordon’s Fear of Black Consciousness is a groundbreaking account of Black consciousness by a leading philosopher

In this original and penetrating work, Lewis R. Gordon, one of the leading scholars of Black existentialism and anti-Blackness, takes the reader on a journey through the historical development of racialized Blackness, the problems this kind of consciousness produces, and the many creative responses from Black and non-Black communities in contemporary struggles for dignity and freedom. Skillfully navigating a difficult and traumatic terrain, Gordon cuts through the mist of white narcissism and the versions of consciousness it perpetuates. He exposes the bad faith at the heart of many discussions about race and racism not only in America but across the globe, including those who think of themselves as “color blind.” As Gordon reveals, these lies offer many white people an inherited sense of being extraordinary, a license to do as they please. But for many if not most Blacks, to live an ordinary life in a white-dominated society is an extraordinary achievement.

Informed by Gordon’s life growing up in Jamaica and the Bronx, and taking as a touchstone the pandemic and the uprisings against police violence, Fear of Black Consciousness is a groundbreaking work that positions Black consciousness as a political commitment and creative practice, richly layered through art, love, and revolutionary action.

Praise For Fear Of Black Consciousness…
“Lewis Gordon’s expansive philosophical engagement with the current moment—its histories and globalities, its politics and protests, its visual and sonic cultures—reminds us that the ultimate aim of Black freedom quests is, indeed, universal liberation.”
Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at University of California, Santa Cruz

“Reading Fear of Black Consciousness had me nodding so often and so vigorously, I got a mild case of whiplash. With surgical precision, laser-sharp wit, and the eye of an artist, Lewis R. Gordon doesn’t just dissect race, racism, and racial thinking; he also offers a clarion call to embrace Black consciousness, to take political responsibility for decolonizing and transforming the world as it is.”
Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

“This striking text offers the first systematic examination that I’ve seen of the epistemic dimensions of the universal illness that encompasses neoconservatism and neoliberalism. We learn the differences between a first-level, naive black consciousness and a revised and refined ‘Black consciousness,’ which critically reflects on this world and is capable of radically transforming it. You will want this book among your primary intellectual road supplies for the future.”
Hortense J. Spillers, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English Emerita at Vanderbilt University


Click for more detail about The Legend of Gravity: A Tall Basketball Tale by Charly Palmer The Legend of Gravity: A Tall Basketball Tale

by Charly Palmer
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jan 04, 2022)
Read Detailed Book Description

Have you ever heard of Gravity? No, not gravity, the centrifugal force pulling us to the Earth. I’m talking about Gravity—the greatest ball player to ever lace up a pair of sneakers.

Gravity is the new kid on the Hillside Projects basketball team, the Eagles. He once jumped so high that his teammates went out for ice cream before he came back down. With Gravity on their side, the Eagles feel unstoppable. They’re ready to win "The Best of the Best," Milwaukee’s biggest and baddest pick-up basketball tournament. But when they face-off with the Flyers in the final round, the winningest team in the whole city, they realize that it may take a little more than Gravity to bring them to victory.

Here is a clever, energetic story about the unsung superstars walking among us, complete with vivid art and heartfelt themes of teamwork, loyalty, friendship, and fun.


Click for more detail about The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

by Anna Malaika Tubbs
Flatiron Books (Dec 28, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

From Gates Scholar and First Lady of Stockton, CA, Anna Malaika Tubbs, comes The Three Mothers, the first book to celebrate the three great women who raised and shaped America’s most pivotal heroes: MLK, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin.

Much has been written about the Berdis Baldwin’s son James, about Alberta King’s son Martin, and Louise Little’s son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them, who themselves were all born within six years of each other, all contending with the very specific prejudices faced by Black women during Jim Crow.

Berdis, Alberta, and Louise all possessed an unrelenting belief in education—from Louise asking her children to read to her from the dictionary, to Berdis’s faith and encouragement in her son’s preternaturally gifted writing, to Alberta’s unwavering dedication to Martin’s higher education. These women used their strength and motherhood to push their sons toward greatness, all with a conviction that all human beings deserve dignity and respect despite the rampant racism of the 20th century.

These three mothers taught resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of black Americans to their sons, even when these beliefs flew in the face of America’s racist practices and led to ramifications for all three families’ safety. The fight for equal justice and dignity came above all else for the three mothers.

These women, their similarities and differences, as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of black motherhood long overdue.


Click for more detail about Sing, Aretha, Sing!: Aretha Franklin, Respect, and the Civil Rights Movement by Hanif Abdurraqib Sing, Aretha, Sing!: Aretha Franklin, Respect, and the Civil Rights Movement

by Hanif Abdurraqib
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Dec 28, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A young Aretha Franklin captivates her community with the song “Respect” during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, in this striking picture book biography that will embolden today’s young readers to sing their own truth.

When Aretha Franklin sang, she didn’t just sing…she sparked a movement. As a performer and a civil rights activist, the Queen of Soul used her voice to uplift freedom fighters and the Black community during the height of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Her song “Respect” was an anthem of identity, survival, and joy. It gave hope to people trying to make change. And when Aretha sang, the world sang along.

With Hanif Abdurraqib’s poetic voice and Ashley Evans’s dynamic illustrations, Sing, Aretha, Sing! demonstrates how one brave voice can give new power to a nation, and how the legacy of Aretha Franklin lives on in a world still fighting for freedom.


Click for more detail about African Proverbs for All Ages by Johnnetta Betsch Cole African Proverbs for All Ages

by Johnnetta Betsch Cole
Roaring Brook Press (Nov 30, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

An Oprah Book about the power of proverbs, how they evolve over time, and the wisdom of various cultures in Africa.
It has been said that a proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

Whether you are young or old, proverbs can open your mind to a whole new way of seeing the world. We underestimate children when we assume they are incapable of understanding metaphor and deeper meaning. There are multiple ways that children learn, but for each method by which they learn, they need their imagination engaged and their visual sensibilities ignited. And as adults, we underestimate ourselves when we allow our lives to be about practical matters only. Proverbs can stir our soul and spark our imagination. —Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Ph.D. President Emerita of Spelman and Bennett Colleges

In African Proverbs for All Ages, noted anthropologist and educator Dr. Johnetta Betsch Cole and award-winning illustrator Nelda La Teef invite children and adults to explore and reflect on complex notions about relationships, identity, society, and the human condition.


Click for more detail about Rosie’s Curl and Weave by Rochelle Alers, Donna Hill, Felicia Mason, and Francis Ray Rosie’s Curl and Weave

by Rochelle Alers, Donna Hill, Felicia Mason, and Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 16, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A reissue of the popular anthology by four bestselling authors at one great price, Rosie’s Curl and Weave: Four Novellas.

STEP INSIDE FOR A DAY OF BEAUTY, LAUGHTER…AND LOVE.

Whether you want a cut, weave or braid; a facial, manicure, or massage; there’s always a helping hand-and a sympathetic ear-at Rosie’s Curl and Weave on 125th Street in Harlem. And sometimes, when you least expect it, love walks in the door. So sit back, relax, put your feet up, and enjoy, as four talented writers render four magical stories about the love of beauty and the beauty of love.

Rochelle Alers gets the sparks flying, as a high-maintenance banker finds herself falling, against her better judgement, for a handsome delivery man who walks into Rosie’s…

Donna Hill puts the assistant manager of Rosie’s in the path of a fine-looking contractor, whose hypnotic honey-brown eyes could be her undoing…

Felicia Mason helps the owner of Rosie’s discover that you don’t have to be young-just young at heart-to fall in love…

Francis Ray turns a timid, dowdy duckling into a confident, sexy swan-and sends her into the arms of a handsome artist-with the help of Rosie’s Curl and Weave…


Click for more detail about The Deeper the Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home by Michael Tubbs The Deeper the Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home

by Michael Tubbs
Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book (Nov 16, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

The making of a visionary political leader—and a blueprint for a more equitable country

"Don’t tell nobody our business," Michael Tubbs’s mother often told him growing up. For Michael, that meant a lot of things: don’t tell anyone about the day-to-day struggle of being Black and broke in Stockton, CA. Don’t tell anyone the pain of having a father incarcerated for 25 years to life. Don’t tell anyone about living two lives, the brainy bookworm and the kid with the newest Jordans. And also don’t tell anyone about the particular joys of growing up with three "moms"—a Nana who never let him miss church, an Auntie who’d take him to the library any time, and a mother, "She-Daddy", who schooled him in the wisdom of hip-hop and taught him never to take no for an answer.

So for a long time Michael didn’t tell anyone his story, but as he went on to a scholarship at Stanford and an internship in the Obama White House, he began to realize the power of his experience, the need for his perspective in the halls of power. By the time he returned to Stockton to become, in 2016 at age 26, its first Black mayor and the youngest-ever mayor of a major American city, he knew his story meant something.

The Deeper the Roots is a memoir astonishing in its candor, voice, and clarity of vision. Tubbs shares with us the city that raised him, his family of badass women, his life-changing encounters with Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama, the challenges of governing in the 21st century and everything in between—en route to unveiling his compelling vision for America rooted in his experiences in his hometown.


Click for more detail about Single Black Female by Tracy Brown Single Black Female

by Tracy Brown
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 02, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Tracy Brown’s Single Black Female is a taut, edgy, deftly spun novel about four friends grappling with the dramatic twists and turns of life, love, and what it means to "make it" in America.

Ivy Donovan is a successful stylist, entrepreneur, and single mom who has been loyal to her sons’ father, Michael, who’s serving a lengthy prison sentence. But life has gotten lonely over the years, and Ivy wants more for herself. Michael, however, isn’t about to lose his family.

Coco Norris is well-off, single, childless, and struggling with her allegiance to emotionally unavailable men. When she finds a man who seems like he can give her everything she has ever wanted, Coco soon discovers that she has taken on more than she can possibly handle.

Deja Maddox is a real estate agent who is married to Bobby, a police sergeant with the NYPD. They have assimilated, looking down on anything that doesn’t fit their buttoned-up, polished life. But Deja isn’t as satisfied as she would like everyone to believe. When Deja’s past returns with a vengeance, she’s forced to face herself as her "perfect" life begins to crumble.

Nikki Diamond is a savvy, self-made businesswoman and social media darling who lives large and with no regrets. She’s also Deja’s little sister and thinks her sister can have so much more than her ho-hum marriage. And Nikki is all too happy to lend a "helping" hand to make that happen.

Things come to a head when Ivy’s youngest son, Kingston, is caught up in a polarizing encounter with the NYPD. Everyone must figure out where they stand, including Bobby, who suddenly has to decide if his "blue life" matters more to him than his Black life and the Black lives of those he loves.

Single Black Female highlights the nuances of Black love, the often tested bonds of Black families, what it means to face the world as a Black man, and the joy and pain of being a Black woman.


Click for more detail about Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America by Michael Eric Dyson Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America

by Michael Eric Dyson
St. Martin’s Press (Nov 02, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop

Entertaining Race is a splendid way to spend quality time reading one of the most remarkable thinkers in America today. —Speaker Nancy Pelosi

To read Entertaining Race is to encounter the life-long vocation of a teacher who preaches, a preacher who teaches and an activist who cannot rest until all are set free.—Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock

For more than thirty years, Michael Eric Dyson has played a prominent role in the nation as a public intellectual, university professor, cultural critic, social activist and ordained Baptist minister. He has presented a rich and resourceful set of ideas about American history and culture. Now for the first time he brings together the various components of his multihued identity and eclectic pursuits.

Entertaining Race is a testament to Dyson’s consistent celebration of the outsized impact of African American culture and politics on this country. Black people were forced to entertain white people in slavery, have been forced to entertain the idea of race from the start, and must find entertaining ways to make race an object of national conversation. Dyson’s career embodies these and other ways of performing Blackness, and in these pages, ranging from 1991 to the present, he entertains race with his pen, voice and body, and occasionally, alongside luminaries like Cornel West, David Blight, Ibram X. Kendi, Master P, MC Lyte, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alicia Garza, John McWhorter, and Jordan Peterson.

Most of this work will be new to readers, a fresh light for many of his long-time fans and an inspiring introduction for newcomers. Entertaining Race offers a compelling vision from the mind and heart of one of America’s most important and enduring voices.


Click for more detail about Black Magic (2021) by Dinah Johnson Black Magic (2021)

by Dinah Johnson
Square Fish (Oct 19, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A moving celebration of Black identity that encourages self-love with a singular poetic spirit, perfect for fans of Black Is a Rainbow Color and Woke Baby.

Black is a look, a taste, a speed, an emotion. It’s the surprising stripes on a zebra, the taste of dark chocolate, the scary, exciting feeling of going inside a tunnel, and a mother’s voice as her daughter falls asleep.

In this celebration of the African American spirit, Dinah Johnson and R. Gregory Christie paint a picture of "black" that is vivid, varied, and proud.


Click for more detail about Why?: A Conversation about Race by Taye Diggs Why?: A Conversation about Race

by Taye Diggs
Feiwel & Friends (Oct 19, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A conversation about race.

Daddy?
Yes, my sweet boy.

Why are those people shouting?

Our people are shouting because we need to be heard. We need to be heard.


Why? is a question asked by children daily, and in this stirking and timely story, it begins a straightforwardand challenging conversation between children of color and the adults in their lives.

Why are the buildings burning? Why are people marching? Why are they crying? Taye Diggs has written a beautiful, powerful, and poignant story that peers through the eyes of a child as they struggle to understand why these events are happening.

Why? distills the conversations many children and adults are having about race, injustice, and anger in communities throughout our country, and gives them context that young readers can connect with. Heartfelt and deeply piercing illustrations from Shane W. Evans will leave a lasting impact on readers of any age. One that will hopefully lead to more conversations, change, and peace within our own communities and the world.


Click for more detail about The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon The Days of Afrekete

by Asali Solomon
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Oct 19, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Inspired by Mrs. Dalloway and Sula, The Days of Afrekete is a tender, surprising novel of two women at midlife who rediscover themselves—and perhaps each other.

Liselle Belmont is having a dinner party. It seems a strange occasion—her husband, Winn, has lost his bid for the state legislature and they’re having the key supporters over to thank them for their work. Liselle was never sure about Winn becoming a politician, never sure about the limelight, about the life of fundraising and stump speeches. Now that it’s over she is facing new questions: Who are they to each other, after all this? How much of herself has she lost on the way—and was it worth it? Just before the night begins, she hears from an FBI agent, who claims that Winn is corrupt. Is it possible? How will she make it through this dinner party?

Across town, Selena is making her way through the same day, the same way she always does—one foot in front of the other, keeping quiet and focused, trying not to see the terrors all around her. Homelessness, starving children, the very living horrors of history that made America possible: these and other thoughts have made it difficult for her to live a normal life. The only time she was ever really happy was with Liselle back in college. But they’ve lost touch, so much so that when they run into each other at a drugstore just after Obama is elected president, they barely speak. But as the day wears on, Selena’s memories of Liselle begin to shift her path.

Asali Solomon’s The Days of Afrekete is a deft, expertly layered, naturally funny, and deeply human examination of two women coming back to themselves at midlife. It is a celebration of our choices and where they take us, the people who change us, and how we can reimagine ourselves even when our lives seem set.


Click for more detail about Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Women in Popular Culture

by Zeba Blay
St. Martin’s Griffin (Oct 19, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

One of Kirkus Review’s Best Books About Being Black in America

An empowering and celebratory portrait of Black women—from Josephine Baker to Aunt Viv to Cardi B.

In 2013, film and culture critic Zeba Blay was one of the first people to coin the viral term #carefreeblackgirls on Twitter. As she says, it was “a way to carve out a space of celebration and freedom for Black women online.”

In this collection of essays, Carefree Black Girls, Blay expands on this initial idea by delving into the work and lasting achievements of influential Black women in American culture—writers, artists, actresses, dancers, hip-hop stars—whose contributions often come in the face of bigotry, misogyny, and stereotypes. Blay celebrates the strength and fortitude of these Black women, while also examining the many stereotypes and rigid identities that have clung to them. In writing that is both luminous and sharp, expansive and intimate, Blay seeks a path forward to a culture and society in which Black women and their art are appreciated and celebrated.


Click for more detail about Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn Flowers for the Sea

by Zin E. Rocklyn
Tordotcom (Oct 19, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A Library Journal Editor’s Pick!

Flowers for the Sea is a dark, dazzling debut novella that reads like Rosemary’s Baby by way of Octavia E. Butler

We are a people who do not forget.

Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle. Their fangs are sharp.

Among the refugees is Iraxi: ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince, she’s pregnant with a child that might be more than human. Her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine.

Zin E. Rocklyn’s extraordinary debut is a lush, gothic fantasy about the prices we pay and the vengeance we seek.


Click for more detail about You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Donna Hill and Francis Ray You Make It Feel Like Christmas

by Donna Hill and Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Oct 12, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description


You Make It Feel Like Christmas is a 2-in-1 bindup of two novellas filled with holiday magic by Francis Ray and Donna Hill…


Click for more detail about My Monticello: Fiction by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson My Monticello: Fiction

by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
Henry Holt & Company (Oct 05, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A young woman descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings driven from her neighborhood by a white militia. A university professor studying racism by conducting a secret social experiment on his own son. A single mother desperate to buy her first home even as the world hurtles toward catastrophe. Each fighting to survive in America.

Tough-minded, vulnerable, and brave, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s precisely imagined debut explores burdened inheritances and extraordinary pursuits of belonging. Set in the near future, the eponymous novella, “My Monticello,” tells of a diverse group of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing violent white supremacists. Led by Da’Naisha, a young Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, they seek refuge in Jefferson’s historic plantation home in a desperate attempt to outlive the long-foretold racial and environmental unravelling within the nation.

In “Control Negro,” hailed by Roxane Gay as “one hell of story,” a university professor devotes himself to the study of racism and the development of ACMs (average American Caucasian males) by clinically observing his own son from birth in order to “painstakingly mark the route of this Black child too, one whom I could prove was so strikingly decent and true that America could not find fault in him unless we as a nation had projected it there.” Johnson’s characters all seek out home as a place and an internal state, whether in the form of a Nigerian widower who immigrates to a meager existence in the city of Alexandria, finding himself adrift; a young mixed-race woman who adopts a new tongue and name to escape the landscapes of rural Virginia and her family; or a single mother who seeks salvation through “Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse.”

United by these characters’ relentless struggles against reality and fate, My Monticello is a formidable book that bears witness to this country’s legacies and announces the arrival of a wildly original new voice in American fiction.


Click for more detail about Nasty Girls: An Urban Novel by Erick S. Gray Nasty Girls: An Urban Novel

by Erick S. Gray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 14, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

From the author of Ghetto Heaven and Money Power Respect, comes Erick S. Gray’s Nasty Girls, now reissued at a great low price!

Camille, Jade, and Shy are best friends and have always had each other’s backs. Jade and Shy’s boyfriends, Roscoe and James, are partners in a lucrative drug business, but one night they get caught up in a shoot-out that goes horribly wrong. Shy’s man, Roscoe, ends up in prison while James walks away clean, and things begin to fall apart between the girls.

Jealousy, greed, revenge, and betrayal test the true bonds of friendship. Get ready, because these girls are about to take "nasty" to a whole new level.


Click for more detail about It’s Like Candy: An Urban Novel by Erick S. Gray It’s Like Candy: An Urban Novel

by Erick S. Gray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 14, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

From street lit author Erick S. Gray comes the reissue of It’s Like Candy now available at a great low price!

Beautiful River joins a stick-up crew, but she doesn’t know that Big Red and Twinkie have a secret that even she’s not in on. When she falls in love with Eric, one of her victims, all she wants is to find her baby sister, and settle down with her new love. But River soon becomes a prisoner of her dangerous world. And escaping it may cost her more than her life.

By the time she turns sixteen, Starr is working for a pimp and turning tricks daily. But when an assault by one of her dates lands her in the hospital, Starr meets a woman who wants to help her change her life. Starr’s heart is too hardened to believe in second chances, but soon she begins to long for more than selling her body just so she can survive. However the game does not give up its players so easily.

Enter Eric’s cousin, Yung Slim, fresh out of jail after seven years. He’s looking to reclaim the streets and take care of some old grudges. When Yung Slim goes to battle, Eric—torn between his love for River, his ties to his cousin, and the lure of the streets—gets in too deep. When the war breaks out on the battlefield of the streets, who will be left standing?


Click for more detail about Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement

by Tarana Burke
Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book (Sep 14, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Sometimes a single story can change the world. Unbound is one of those stories. Tarana’s words are a testimony to liberation and love.” —Brené Brown

From the founder and activist behind one of the largest movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the "me too" movement, Tarana Burke debuts a powerful memoir about her own journey to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words—me too—and how she brought empathy back to an entire generation in one of the largest cultural events in American history.

Tarana didn’t always have the courage to say "me too." As a child, she reeled from her sexual assault, believing she was responsible. Unable to confess what she thought of as her own sins for fear of shattering her family, her soul split in two. One side was the bright, intellectually curious third generation Bronxite steeped in Black literature and power, and the other was the bad, shame ridden girl who thought of herself as a vile rule breaker, not as a victim. She tucked one away, hidden behind a wall of pain and anger, which seemed to work…until it didn’t.

Tarana fought to reunite her fractured self, through organizing, pursuing justice, and finding community. In her debut memoir she shares her extensive work supporting and empowering Black and brown girls, and the devastating realization that to truly help these girls she needed to help that scared, ashamed child still in her soul. She needed to stop running and confront what had happened to her, for Heaven and Diamond and the countless other young Black women for whom she cared. They gave her the courage to embrace her power. A power which in turn she shared with the entire world. Through these young Black and brown women, Tarana found that we can only offer empathy to others if we first offer it to ourselves.

Unbound is the story of an inimitable woman’s inner strength and perseverance, all in pursuit of bringing healing to her community and the world around her, but it is also a story of possibility, of empathy, of power, and of the leader we all have inside ourselves. In sharing her path toward healing and saying "me too," Tarana reaches out a hand to help us all on our own journeys.

”Burke sings a Black girl’s song and Unbound stands alongside I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Color Purple, as a coming of age story that is at once searingly painful, brilliant, and beautiful. Tarana Burke is known around the world for her activism and leadership. Now she will be known as an extraordinary writer.“ —Imani Perry, author of Breathe


Click for more detail about Misfits: A Personal Manifesto by Michaela Coel Misfits: A Personal Manifesto

by Michaela Coel
Henry Holt & Company (Sep 07, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

From Emmy Award-winner Michaela Coel, creator and star of I May Destroy You and Chewing Gum, comes a passionate and inspired declaration against fitting in.

Building on her celebrated MacTaggart Lecture, Misfits immerses readers in Coel’s revelations on race, class, and gender through powerful allegory and deeply personal anecdotes—from her coming of age in London public housing to her discovery of theater and her love for storytelling. She tells of her reckoning with trauma and metamorphosis into a champion for herself, inclusivity, and radical honesty. Misfits is a triumphant call for honesty, empathy and inclusion. Championing “misfits” everywhere, this timely, necessary book is a rousing coming-to-power manifesto dedicated to anyone who has ever worried about fitting in.

Reviews:
“By turns wryly comic and devastating … [Misfits] codifies her efforts to achieve transparency in her work and in her life.”
—Dave Itzkoff, New York Times

“Coel covers everything … with her signature wit and wisdom, making it clear that her narrative power transcends the small screen. Coel’s is a voice that jumps off the page, and it’s one we’re lucky to have applied to whichever story she chooses to tell.”
—Vogue.com

“Written with the same perfect balance of sentiment, insight and wit that made viewers fall in love with her on the screen… . It’s an impassioned and rousing defense of staying true to yourself and supporting others to do the same.”
Time


Click for more detail about Now That I’ve Found You by Kristina Forest Now That I’ve Found You

by Kristina Forest
Square Fish (Aug 24, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

“Through this pitch-perfect rom-com, Kristina Forest explores the legacy of family and what it means to be young and full of artistic passion. I was utterly charmed from start to finish.” —Maurene Goo, author of Somewhere Only We Know

Now That I've Found You is a YA novel about searching for answers, love, and your eccentric grandma in all the wrong places.

Following in the footsteps of her überfamous grandma, eighteen-year-old Evie Jones is poised to be Hollywood's next big star. That is until a close friend's betrayal leads to her being blacklisted …

Fortunately, Evie knows just the thing to save her floundering career: a public appearance with America's most beloved actress—her grandma Gigi, aka the Evelyn Conaway. The only problem? Gigi is a recluse who's been out of the limelight for almost twenty years. Days before Evie plans to present her grandma with an honorary award in front of Hollywood's elite, Gigi does the unthinkable: she disappears.

With time running out and her comeback on the line, Evie reluctantly enlists the help of the last person to see Gigi before she vanished: Milo Williams, a cute musician Evie isn't sure she can trust. As Evie and Milo conduct a wild manhunt across New York City, romance and adventure abound while Evie makes some surprising discoveries about her grandma—and herself.


Click for more detail about At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop At Night All Blood Is Black

by David Diop
Picador (Aug 17, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

*WINNER OF THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE*

*ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021*

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction

Shortlisted for the 2022 DUBLIN Literary Award

Astonishingly good. —Lily Meyer, NPR

So incantatory and visceral I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. —Ali Smith, The Guardian Best Books of 2020

One of The Wall Street Journal’s 11 best books of the fall One of The A.V. Club’s fifteen best books of 2020 A Sunday Times best book of the year

Selected by students across France to win the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, David Diop’s English-language, historical fiction debut At Night All Blood is Black is a “powerful, hypnotic, and dark novel” (Livres Hebdo) of terror and transformation in the trenches of the First World War.

Alfa Ndiaye is a Senegalese man who, never before having left his village, finds himself fighting as a so-called “Chocolat” soldier with the French army during World War I. When his friend Mademba Diop, in the same regiment, is seriously injured in battle, Diop begs Alfa to kill him and spare him the pain of a long and agonizing death in No Man’s Land.

Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfa’s mind as he comes to see this refusal as a cruel moment of cowardice. Anxious to avenge the death of his friend and find forgiveness for himself, he begins a macabre ritual: every night he sneaks across enemy lines to find and murder a blue-eyed German soldier, and every night he returns to base, unharmed, with the German’s severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfa’s deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate that this super soldier isn’t a hero, but a sorcerer, a soul-eater. Plans are hatched to get Alfa away from the front, and to separate him from his growing collection of hands, but how does one reason with a demon, and how far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend?

Peppered with bullets and black magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of World War I. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a man’s descent into madness.


Click for more detail about Me (Moth) by Amber McBride Me (Moth)

by Amber McBride
Feiwel & Friends (Aug 17, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A debut YA novel-in-verse by Amber McBride, Me (Moth) is about a teen girl who is grieving the deaths of her family, and a teen boy who crosses her path.

Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted.

Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he’ll be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she too will discover the history she carries in her bones.

Moth and Sani take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors. The way each moves forward is surprising, powerful, and unforgettable.

Here is an exquisite and uplifting novel about identity, first love, and the ways that our memories and our roots steer us through the universe.

Me (Moth) holds you like a gentle haint, pulling you in and out of song, and dance, and dreams until you are not sure where reality ends and memory begins. Amber McBride in her young adult debut has written a marvelous novel in verse full of ancestor wisdom and love that traverses crossroads that we must navigate to live.”—Joanne V. Gabbin, Director, Furious Flower Poetry Center


Click for more detail about Requiem of Silence: Earthsinger Chronicles, Book 4 by L. Penelope Requiem of Silence: Earthsinger Chronicles, Book 4

by L. Penelope
St. Martin’s Griffin (Aug 17, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

In the vein of K. Arsenault Rivera and V.E. Schwab comes L. Penelope’s Requiem of Silence, the epic conclusion in the stunning Earthsinger Chronicles.

Civil unrest plagues the nation of Elsira as refugees from their old enemy, Lagrimar, seek new lives in their land.

Queen Jasminda is determined to push the unification forward, against growing opposition and economic strife. But the True Father is not finished with Elsira and he may not be acting alone. He has built a powerful army. An army that cannot be killed. An army that can only be stopped by Nethersong and the help of friends and foes of Elsira alike to stop it.

Former assassin Kyara will discover that she is not the only Nethersinger. She will need to join the others to harness a power that can save or end Elsira. But time is of the essence and they may not be ready by the time the True Father strikes.

Sisterhood novitiate Zeli will go to the reaches of the Living World to unlock a secret that could save the kingdoms. When armies meet in the battlefield, a new world will be forged—whether by the hands of gods or men, remains to be seen.


Click for more detail about Requiem of Silence: Earthsinger Chronicles Book 4 by L. Penelope Requiem of Silence: Earthsinger Chronicles Book 4

by L. Penelope
Griffin (Aug 17, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

In the vein of K. Arsenault Rivera and V.E. Schwab comes L. Penelope’s Requiem of Silence, the epic conclusion in the stunning Earthsinger Chronicles.

Civil unrest plagues the nation of Elsira as refugees from their old enemy, Lagrimar, seek new lives in their land.

Queen Jasminda is determined to push the unification forward, against growing opposition and economic strife. But the True Father is not finished with Elsira and he may not be acting alone. He has built a powerful army. An army that cannot be killed. An army that can only be stopped by Nethersong and the help of friends and foes of Elsira alike to stop it.

Former assassin Kyara will discover that she is not the only Nethersinger. She will need to join the others to harness a power that can save or end Elsira. But time is of the essence and they may not be ready by the time the True Father strikes.

Sisterhood novitiate Zeli will go to the reaches of the Living World to unlock a secret that could save the kingdoms. When armies meet in the battlefield, a new world will be forged—whether by the hands of gods or men, remains to be seen.


Click for more detail about The High Price of a Good Man: A Novel by Debra Phillips The High Price of a Good Man: A Novel

by Debra Phillips
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jul 13, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description


"First of all, just for the record, I love me some me. You heard right…I truly love Miss Queenisha Renae Sutton. The tall, well-endowed, fine honey-coated sistah that I be."

Queenisha Renae Sutton is always ready, willing and able to walk away from any man who either can’t or won’t appreciate her, because after all, she is all woman. Then she meets tall and handsome Zeke Washington at a charity fundraiser, and buys him lock, stock and barrel. For one night. Determined to get her money’s worth, she approaches their first date with one goal: to make Zeke her man, no matter what the cost. With the help of her best friend, Poetta, who puts a "voodoo hex" on Zeke to help lure him in, Queenisha gets more than she bargained for. And before long she finds herself changing to please a man. And if love wasn’t complicated enough, she discovers an even sweeter love where she least expects it.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby Razorblade Tears

by S. A. Cosby
Flatiron Books (Jul 06, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.

The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.

Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.

Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

Provocative and fast-paced, S. A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears is a story of bloody retribution, heartfelt change - and maybe even redemption.


Click for more detail about Blacktop Wasteland (paperback) by S. A. Cosby Blacktop Wasteland (paperback)

by S. A. Cosby
Flatiron Books (Jun 01, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A New York Times Notable Books of 2020

Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist, S. A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland is a searing, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race, and his own former life of crime.

"Sensationally good—new, fresh, real, authentic, twisty, with characters and dilemmas that will break your heart. More than recommended." —Lee Child

A husband, a father, a son, a business owner…And the best getaway driver east of the Mississippi.

Beauregard "Bug" Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast.

He thought he’d left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can’t-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver’s seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear.

Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland…or die trying.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé Ace of Spades

by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Feiwel & Friends (Jun 01, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully.

All you need to know is … I’m here to divide and conquer. Like all great tyrants do. —Aces

When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too.

Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures.

As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly?

With heart-pounding suspense and relevant social commentary comes a high-octane thriller from debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.


Click for more detail about The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu The Library of the Dead

by T. L. Huchu
Tor Books (Jun 01, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Now a USA TODAY bestseller!

Winner of the Ilube Nommo Award 2022 for Best Novel

"An absolute delight … kept me totally hooked." - Genevieve Cogman, bestselling author of The Invisible Library

The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu is a captivating contemporary fantasy that combines the elements of Sixth Sense and Stranger Things. Follow Ropa, a precocious and cynical teenager, as she delves into the mystical underbelly of modern Edinburgh.

As a ghostalker, Ropa dropped out of school to communicate with the dead and deliver messages to the living. It’s a means of making a living, until she discovers that someone is enchanting children, leaving them empty and devoid of joy. Determined to investigate, Ropa embarks on a dangerous journey, combining Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to uncover the truth. Along the way, she encounters an occult library, a magical mentor, and unlikely allies.

As the shadows grow darker, Ropa must face the dangers that lurk within Edinburgh’s secrets. Will she become the hunter or the hunted?

"A fast-moving and entertaining tale, beautifully written." - Ben Aaronovitch, bestselling author of Rivers of London

The Edinburgh Nights series includes:

  • Library of the Dead
  • Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments
  • The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle


Click for more detail about Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir by Ashley C. Ford Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir

by Ashley C. Ford
Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book (Jun 01, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"This is a book people will be talking about forever." Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed

"Ford’s wrenchingly brilliant memoir is truly a classic in the making. The writing is so richly observed and so suffused with love and yearning that I kept forgetting to breathe while reading it." —John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author

One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the looming absence of her incarcerated father.

Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley C. Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there. She doesn’t know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates. When the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley desperately searches for meaning in the chaos. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father’s incarceration … and Ashley’s entire world is turned upside down.

Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.


Click for more detail about The Burning (Young Readers Edition): Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 by Tim Madigan The Burning (Young Readers Edition): Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

by Tim Madigan
Henry Holt & Company (May 11, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

One of the worst acts of racial violence in American history took place in 1921, when a White mob numbering in the thousands decimated the thriving Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Burning recreates Greenwood at the height of its prosperity, explores the currents of hatred, racism, and mistrust between its Black residents and Tulsa’s White population, narrates events leading up to and including Greenwood’s devastation, and documents the subsequent silence that surrounded this tragedy. Delving into history that’s long been pushed aside, this is the true story of Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre, with updates that connect the historical significance of the massacre to the ongoing struggle for racial justice in America.


Click for more detail about A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark A Master of Djinn

by P. Djèlí Clark
Tordotcom (May 11, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner Clark goes full-length for the first time in his dazzling debut novel

Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.

So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world forty years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.

Alongside her Ministry colleagues and a familiar person from her past, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city—or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems…

Novellas by P. Dj�l� Clark
The Black God’s Drums
The Haunting of Tram Car 015
Ring Shout

The Dead Djinn Universe contains stories set primarily in Clark’s fantasy alternate Cairo, and can be enjoyed in any order.


Click for more detail about Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy

by Emmanuel Acho
Roaring Brook Press (May 04, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Adapted from Emmanuel Acho’s New York Times bestseller Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, comes an essential young readers edition aimed at opening a dialogue about systemic racism with our youngest generation.

Young people have the power to affect sweeping change, and the key to mending the racial divide in America lies in giving them the tools to ask honest questions and take in the difficult answers.

Approaching every awkward, taboo, and uncomfortable question with openness and patience, Emmanuel Acho connects his own experience with race and racism—from attending majority-white prep schools to his time in the NFL playing on majority-black football teams—to insightful lessons in black history and black culture.
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy is just one way young readers can begin to short circuit racism within their own lives and communities.


Click for more detail about Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon Sorrowland

by Rivers Solomon
MCD (May 04, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A triumphant, genre-bending breakout novel from one of the boldest new voices in contemporary fiction

Vern—seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the strict religious compound where she was raised—flees for the shelter of the woods. There, she gives birth to twins, and plans to raise them far from the influence of the outside world.

But even in the forest, Vern is a hunted woman. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of, her body wracked by inexplicable and uncanny changes.

To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past, and more troublingly, the future—outside the woods. Finding the truth will mean uncovering the secrets of the compound she fled but also the violent history in America that produced it.

Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland is a genre-bending work of Gothic fiction. Here, monsters aren’t just individuals, but entire nations. It is a searing, seminal book that marks the arrival of a bold, unignorable voice in American fiction.


Click for more detail about What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing

by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry
Flatiron Books (Apr 27, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

One Million Copies Sold

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand.

"Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives." —Oprah Winfrey

This book is going to change the way you see your life.

Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can’t I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What’s wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it’s easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It’s time we started asking a different question.

Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking "What’s wrong with you?" to "What happened to you?"

Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future—opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.


Click for more detail about Popisho by Leone Ross Popisho

by Leone Ross
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Apr 20, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Bold, iridescent… Dazzling and shocking… Ross’s lyrical, rhythmic writing is something to be savored… [Her] voice sings out loud and pure.
—Eowyn Ivey, The New York Times Book Review

An uproarious, sensual novel, Leone Ross’s Popisho conjures a world where magic is everywhere, food is fate, politics are broken, and love awaits.

Everyone in Popisho was born with a little something-something, boy, a little something extra. The local name was cors. Magic, but more than magic. A gift, nah? Yes. From the gods: a thing so inexpressibly your own.

Somewhere far away—or maybe right nearby—lies an archipelago called Popisho. A place of stunning beauty and incorrigible mischief, destiny and mystery, it is also a place in need of change.

Xavier Redchoose is the macaenus of his generation, anointed by the gods to make each resident one perfect meal when the time is right. Anise, his long-lost love, is on a march toward reckoning with her healing powers. The governor’s daughter, Sonteine, still hasn’t come into her cors, but her corrupt father is demanding the macaenus make a feast for her wedding. Meanwhile, graffiti messages from an unknown source are asking hard questions. A storm is brewing. Before it comes, before the end of the day, this wildly imaginative narrative will take us across the islands, through their history, and into the lives of unforgettable characters.

Leone Ross’s Popisho is a masterful delight: a playful love story, a portrait of community, a boldly sensual meditation on desire and addiction, and a critique of the legacies of corruption and colonialism. Inspired by the author’s Jamaican homeland, inflected with rhythms and textures of an amalgam of languages, it is a dazzling, major work of fiction.


Click for more detail about And Then There Was Me: A Novel by Sadeqa Johnson And Then There Was Me: A Novel

by Sadeqa Johnson
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 16, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Bea and Awilda have been best friends from the moment Awilda threw her fourteen year-old self across Bea’s twin-sized bed as if they had known each other forever. Bubbly, adventurous Awilda taught sheltered, shy Bea how to dress, wear her hair and what to do with boys. She even introduced Bea to her husband, Lonnie, in college, who pledged to take good care of her for the rest of their lives. But philanderer Lonnie breaks that promise over and over again, leaving Bea to wrestle with her self-esteem and long time secret addiction.

Recently Lonnie has plopped the family in a New Jersey upper class suburb, which lacks the diversity that Bea craves but has the school district and zip code envy that Lonnie wants. The demands of carrying a third child and fitting into this new environment while pretending that her husband is not cheating on her again, is more than she can handle. And just when she thinks things can’t get any worst, the ultimate deception snaps the little thread that was holding her life together and all comes tumbling down.

Sadeqa Johnson’s And Then There Was Me is the story of love and friendship, heartache and betrayal. It’s the journey of a woman stripped down to her lowest point and needing to find the will to press on.


Click for more detail about Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn Sharks in the Time of Saviors

by Kawai Strong Washburn
Picador (Mar 02, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

WINNER OF THE 2020 PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT NOVEL.

One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2020. A finalist for the 2020 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. Named one of the Best Books of 2020 by the New York Times (#30), the Guardian, the Boston Globe, Amazon, Oprah Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, BBC Culture, Good Housekeeping, LitHub, Spectrum Culture, Third Place Books, Powell’s Books, and Barnes and Noble.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a groundbreaking debut novel that folds the legends of Hawaiian gods into an engrossing family saga; a story of exile and the pursuit of salvation from Kawai Strong Washburn.

“Old myths clash with new realities, love is in a ride or die with grief, faith rubs hard against magic, and comic flips with tragic so much they meld into something new. All told with daredevil lyricism to burn. A ferocious debut.” —Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Named one of the most anticipated novels for 2020 by the Guardian and Paste Magazine. One of Book Riot’s Best Books to Give as Gifts in 2020.

In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends.

Nainoa’s family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods—a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities. But as time passes, this supposed divine favor begins to drive the family apart: Nainoa, working now as a paramedic on the streets of Portland, struggles to fathom the full measure of his expanding abilities; further north in Washington, his older brother Dean hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, obsessed with wealth and fame; while in California, risk-obsessed younger sister Kaui navigates an unforgiving academic workload in an attempt to forge her independence from the family’s legacy.
When supernatural events revisit the Flores family in Hawai’i—with tragic consequences—they are all forced to reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.


Click for more detail about Living Weapon: Poems by Rowan Ricardo Phillips Living Weapon: Poems

by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Feb 16, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Award-winning essayist and poet Rowan Ricardo Phillips presents a bracing renewal of civic poetry in Living Weapon.

…and we’d do this again
And again and again, without ever
Knowing we were the weapon ourselves,
Stronger than steel, story, and hydrogen.

— from “Even Homer Nods”

A revelation, a shoring up, a transposition: Rowan Ricardo Phillips’s Living Weapon is a love song to the imagination, a new blade of light honed in on our political moment. A winged man plummets from the troposphere; four NYPD officers enter a cellphone store; concrete sidewalks hang overhead. Here, in his third collection of poems, Phillips offers us ruminations on violins and violence, on hatred, on turning forty-three, even on the end of existence itself. Living Weapon reveals to us the limitations of our vocabulary, that our platitudes are not enough for the brutal times in which we find ourselves. But still, our lives go on, and these are poems of survival as much as they are an indictment. Couched in language both wry and ample, Living Weapon is a piercing addition from a “virtuoso poetic voice” (Granta).


Click for more detail about Vibrate Higher: A Rap Story by Talib Kweli Vibrate Higher: A Rap Story

by Talib Kweli
MCD (Feb 16, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

From one of the most lyrically gifted, socially conscious rappers of the past twenty years, Vibrate Higher is a firsthand account of hip-hop as a political force

Before Talib Kweli became a world-renowned hip hop artist, he was a Brooklyn kid who liked to cut class, spit rhymes, and wander the streets of Greenwich Village with a motley crew of artists, rappers, and DJs who found hip hop more inspiring than their textbooks (much to the chagrin of the educator parents who had given their son an Afrocentric name in hope of securing for him a more traditional sense of pride and purpose). Kweli’s was the first generation to grow up with hip hop as established culture—a genre of music that has expanded to include its own pantheon of heroes, rich history and politics, and distinct worldview.

Eventually, childhood friendships turned into collaborations and Kweli gained notoriety as a rapper in his own right. From collaborating with some of hip hop’s greatest—including Mos Def, Common, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, and Kendrick Lamar—to selling books out of the oldest African-American bookstore in Brooklyn, and ultimately leaving his record label and taking control of his own recording career, Kweli tells the winding, always compelling story of the people and events that shaped his own life as well as the culture of hip hop which informs American culture at large.

Vibrate Higher illuminates Talib Kweli’s upbringing and artistic success, but so too does it give life to hip hop as a political force—one that galvanized the Movement for Black Lives, and serves a continual channel for resistance against the rising tide of white nationalism.


Click for more detail about We Wait For The Sun by Katie McCabe We Wait For The Sun

by Katie McCabe
Roaring Brook Press (Feb 09, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A beautiful and uplifting non-fiction picture book from Katie McCabe and trailblazing civil rights lawyer and activist Dovey Johnson Roundtree, We Wait for the Sun.

In the hour before dawn, Dovey Mae and Grandma Rachel step into the cool, damp night on a secret mission: to find the sweetest, ripest blackberries that grow deep in the woods.

But the nighttime holds a thousand sounds—and a thousand shadows—and Dovey Mae is frightened of the dark. But with the fierce and fearless Grandma Rachel at her side, the woods turn magical, and berry picking becomes an enchanting adventure that ends with the beauty and power of the sunrise.

A cherished memory from Dovey Johnson Roundtree’s childhood, this magical experience speaks to the joy that pulsed through her life, even under the shadow of Jim Crow. With Grandma Rachel’s lessons as her guiding light, Dovey Mae would go on to become a trailblazer of the civil rights movement—fighting for justice and equality in the military, the courtroom, and the church. With warm, vibrant illustrations from Raissa Figueroa, We Wait for the Sun is a resonant, beautiful story told through one exquisite page turn after another.

A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book of 2021
Evanston Public Library 101 Great Books for Kids List of 2021


Click for more detail about The Three Mothers (Hardcover) by Anna Malaika Tubbs The Three Mothers (Hardcover)

by Anna Malaika Tubbs
Flatiron Books (Feb 02, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin’s son James, about Alberta King’s son Martin Luther, and Louise Little’s son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them.

In her groundbreaking and essential debut The Three Mothers, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America’s most pivotal heroes.

One of Fortune Magazine’s 21 Books to Look Foward to in 2021

Badass Women’s Bookclub pick for Badass Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2021!

Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King, and Louise Little were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. These three extraordinary women passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning—from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. These women used their strength and motherhood to push their children toward greatness, all with a conviction that every human being deserves dignity and respect despite the rampant discrimination they faced.

These three mothers taught resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of Black people to their sons, even when these beliefs flew in the face of America’s racist practices and led to ramifications for all three families’ safety. The fight for equal justice and dignity came above all else for the three mothers.

These women, their similarities and differences, as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue.


Click for more detail about Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor Remote Control

by Nnedi Okorafor
Tordotcom (Jan 19, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

An alien artifact turns a young girl into Death’s adopted daughter in Remote Control, a thrilling sci-fi tale of community and female empowerment from Nebula and Hugo Award-winner Nnedi Okorafor

"She’s the adopted daughter of the Angel of Death. Beware of her. Mind her. Death guards her like one of its own."

The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit. From hereon in she would be known as Sankofa—-a name that meant nothing to anyone but her, the only tie to her family and her past.

Her touch is death, and with a glance a town can fall. And she walks—alone, except for her fox companion—searching for the object that came from the sky and gave itself to her when the meteors fell and when she was yet unchanged; searching for answers.

But is there a greater purpose for Sankofa, now that Death is her constant companion?

Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award (audiobook version).


Click for more detail about Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink Angel of Greenwood

by Randi Pink
Feiwel & Friends (Jan 12, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

A piercing, unforgettable love story set in Greenwood, Oklahoma, also known as the "Black Wall Street," and against the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

Isaiah Wilson is, on the surface, a town troublemaker, but is hiding that he is an avid reader and secret poet, never leaving home without his journal. Angel Hill is a loner, mostly disregarded by her peers as a goody-goody. Her father is dying, and her family’s financial situation is in turmoil.

Though they’ve attended the same schools, Isaiah never noticed Angel as anything but a dorky, Bible toting church girl. Then their English teacher offers them a job on her mobile library, a three-wheel, two-seater bike. Angel can’t turn down the money and Isaiah is soon eager to be in such close quarters with Angel every afternoon.

But life changes on May 31, 1921 when a vicious white mob storms the Black community of Greenwood, leaving the town destroyed and thousands of residents displaced. Only then, Isaiah, Angel, and their peers realize who their real enemies are.


Click for more detail about My Friend! by Taye Diggs My Friend!

by Taye Diggs
Feiwel & Friends (Jan 05, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description


A picture book about what it means to be a friend from Taye Diggs and Shane W. Evans, the writer/artist team that brought us Chocolate Me! and Mixed Me.

Friends lend a hand when they can
They help blend and mend
it doesn’t depend on whether you’re doing wrong or right.
A friend can send or lend a shining light to a situation.
Add some bright to any frustration.
On pretty much any occasion.

Two best friends do almost everything together. They have each other’s backs. But when one friend sees the other treating someone unkindly, he steps in to show that everyone wants to be treated as they would treat others.

From the popular picture book team—longtime friends themselves—comes a real and rhythmic look at friendship that any child will relate to in My Friend!


Click for more detail about The Awakening of Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Tiffany D. Jackson The Awakening of Malcolm X

by Ilyasah Shabazz and Tiffany D. Jackson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Jan 05, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

The Awakening of Malcolm X is a powerful narrative account of the activist’s adolescent years in jail, written by his daughter Ilyasah Shabazz along with 2019 Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe award-winning author, Tiffany D. Jackson.

No one can be at peace until he has his freedom.

In Charlestown Prison, Malcolm Little struggles with the weight of his past. Plagued by nightmares, Malcolm drifts through days, unsure of his future. Slowly, he befriends other prisoners and writes to his family. He reads all the books in the prison library, joins the debate team and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm grapples with race, politics, religion, and justice in the 1940s. And as his time in jail comes to an end, he begins to awaken — emerging from prison more than just Malcolm Little: Now, he is Malcolm X.

Here is an intimate look at Malcolm X’s young adult years. While this book chronologically follows X: A Novel, it can be read as a stand-alone historical novel that invites larger discussions on black power, prison reform, and civil rights.


Click for more detail about Stella’s Stellar Hair by Yesenia Moises Stella’s Stellar Hair

by Yesenia Moises
Imprint (Jan 05, 2021)
Read Detailed Book Description

Black girl magic takes the solar system in Stella’s Stellar Hair, a celebration of hair, family, and self-love from debut author-illustrator Yesenia Moises!

It’s the day of the Big Star Little Gala, and Stella’s hair just isn’t acting right! What’s a girl to do?

Simple! Just hop on her hoverboard, visit each of her fabulous aunties across the solar system, and find the perfect hairdo along the way.

Stella’s Stellar Hair celebrates the joy of self-empowerment, shows off our solar system, and beautifully illustrates a variety of hairstyles from the African diaspora. Backmatter provides more information about each style and each planet.


Click for more detail about They Tell Me Of A Home: A Novel by Daniel Black They Tell Me Of A Home: A Novel

by Daniel Black
St. Martin’s Griffin (Dec 29, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

They Tell Me of a Home is a thrilling literary debut…Daniel Black wields a powerful pen, a sharp eye, and muscular prose in giving us a memorable, even haunting story of the ties that bind.—New York Times bestselling author Michael Eric Dyson

Twenty-eight-year-old protagonist Tommy Lee Tyson steps off the Greyhound bus in his hometown of Swamp Creek, Arkansas—a place he left when he was eighteen, vowing never to return. Yet fate and a Ph.D. in black studies force him back to his rural origins as he seeks to understand himself and the black community that produced him.

A cold, nonchalant father and an emotionally indifferent mother make his return, after a ten-year hiatus, practically unbearable, and the discovery of his baby sister’s death and her burial in the backyard almost consumes him. His mother watches his agony when he discovers his sister’s tombstone, but neither she nor other family members is willing to disclose the secret of her death. Only after being prodded incessantly does his older brother, Willie James, relent and provide Tommy Lee with enough knowledge to figure out exactly what happened and why.

Meanwhile, Tommy’s seventy-year-old teacher—lying on her deathbed—asks him to remain in Swamp Creek and assume her position as the headmaster of the one-room schoolhouse. He refuses vehemently and she dies having bequeathed him her five thousand-book collection in the hopes that he will change his mind. Over the course of a one-week visit, riddled with tension, heartache, and revelation, Tommy Lee Tyson discovers truths about his family, his community, and his undeniable connection to rural Southern black folk and their ways.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Mighty Justice: The Untold Story of Civil Rights Trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree by Katie McCabe and Jabari Asim Mighty Justice: The Untold Story of Civil Rights Trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree

by Katie McCabe and Jabari Asim
Roaring Brook Press (Dec 15, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

A young reader’s adaptation of Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights, the memoir of activist and trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree, by Katie McCabe.

Raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the heart of Jim Crow, Dovey Johnson Roundtree felt the sting of inequality at an early age and made a point to speak up for justice. She was one of the first Black women to break the racial and gender barriers in the US Army when women were barely allowed to serve; a fierce attorney in the segregated courtrooms of Washington, DC; and a minister in Black churches, where women had never before had the chance to speak. In 1955, Roundtree won a landmark bus desegregation case that eventually helped end "separate but equal" and destroy insidious Jim Crow laws across the South.

There are many key figures of the civil rights movement whose names don’t often appear in history books, those who fought hard for equality behind the scenes. Developed with the full support of the Dovey Johnson Roundtree Educational Trust and adapted by Jabari Asim from her memoir, this book brings her inspiring, important story and voice to life.

Dovey Johnson Roundtree was an attorney and minister who was of the first women to be commissioned an Army officer and who helped win a landmark case banning segregation in interstate bus travel. She died in 2018 at the age of 104.

Katie McCabe is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in the Washingtonian Magazine, Baltimore Magazine, and Reader’s Digest, among others. Her National Magazine Award-winning article on black medical legend Vivien Thomas was the basis for the HBO film Something the Lord Made, winner of three Emmys and a 2005 Peabody award.

Jabari Asim is the author of several adult and children’s books, including Preaching to the Chickens which was named one of the New York Times Best Illustrated Books of 2016 and Fifty Cents and a Dream-an NAACP Image Award Nominee, Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choice, School Library Journal Editor’s Choice, and Kirkus Best Book. He is an associate professor at Emerson College in Boston and executive editor of The Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP. He recently was honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts.


Click for more detail about Butterfly 3 by Ashley Antoinette Butterfly 3

by Ashley Antoinette
St. Martin’s Griffin (Dec 01, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Marvis Johnson is an entrepreneur, artist manager, director, and author. Formally trained in Film and Television Arts at Howard University’s School of Communications, Marvis earned his Bachelor’s Degree there before continuing his education at Showtime Networks under the tutelage of Jay Larkin and David Dinkins, Jr. Upon leaving Showtime Networks, Marvis made the leap into the competitive New York City film and music scene, where he gained the respect of some of the biggest talents in the respective industries, working with Grammy nominated musicians and award-winning filmmakers and A-list actors alike. He is based in Brooklyn, New York.


Click for more detail about Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America (signed) by Michael Eric Dyson Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America (signed)

by Michael Eric Dyson
St. Martin’s Press (Dec 01, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

A first edition hand signed book by Michael Eric Dyson is a special for book collectors. In a year that put a halt to in-person events book is a rare gem.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop, a passionate call to America to finally reckon with race and start the journey to redemption.

The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 43-year-old Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis when a white cop suffocated him. The video of that night’s events went viral, sparking the largest protests in the nation’s history and the sort of social unrest we have not seen since the sixties. While Floyd’s death was certainly the catalyst, (heightened by the fact that it occurred during a pandemic whose victims were disproportionately of color) it was in truth the fuse that lit an ever-filling powder keg.

Long Time Coming grapples with the cultural and social forces that have shaped our nation in the brutal crucible of race. In five beautifully argued chapters—each addressed to a black martyr from Breonna Taylor to Rev. Clementa Pinckney—Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from the slave ship to the street corner where Floyd lost his life—and where America gained its will to confront the ugly truth of systemic racism. Ending with a poignant plea for hope, Dyson’s exciting new book points the way to social redemption. Long Time Coming is a necessary guide to help America finally reckon with race.


Click for more detail about Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

by Emmanuel Acho
Flatiron Books (Nov 10, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

An urgent primer on race and racism, from the host of the viral hit video series
"Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man"

"You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have." So begins Emmanuel Acho in his essential guide to the truths Americans need to know to address the systemic racism that has recently electrified protests in all fifty states. "There is a fix," Acho says. "But in order to access it, we’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations."

In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask—yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and "reverse racism." In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader’s curiosity—but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight.


Click for more detail about Glory: Magical Visions of Black Beauty by Kahran and Regis Bethencourt Glory: Magical Visions of Black Beauty

by Kahran and Regis Bethencourt
St. Martin’s Press (Oct 20, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.

From Kahran and Regis Bethencourt, the dynamite husband and wife duo behind CreativeSoul Photography, comes GLORY, a photography book that shatters the conventional standards of beauty for Black children.

Featuring a foreword by Amanda Seales

With stunning images of natural hair and gorgeous, inventive visual storytelling, GLORY puts Black beauty front and center with more than 100 breathtaking photographs and a collection of powerful essays about the children. At its heart, it is a recognition and celebration of the versatility and innate beauty of black hair, and black beauty. The glorious coffee-table book pays homage to the story of our royal past, celebrates the glory of the here and now, and even dares to forecast the future.

It brings to life past, present, and future visions of black culture and showcases the power and beauty of recognizing and celebrating oneself. Beauty as an expression of who you are is power. When we define our own standards of beauty, we take back that power. GLORY encourages children around the world to feel that power and harness it.


Click for more detail about Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark Ring Shout

by P. Djèlí Clark
Tordotcom (Oct 13, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

ebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns with Ring Shout, a dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan’s reign of terror

“A fantastical, brutal and thrilling triumph of the imagination…Clark’s combination of historical and political reimagining is cathartic, exhilarating and fresh.” —The New York Times

  • A 2021 Hugo Award Finalist!
  • A 2021 Nebula Award Finalist!
  • A 2021 Locus Award Finalist!
  • A 2021 Ignyte Award Finalist!
  • A 2021 AAMBC Literary Award Finalist!
  • A New York Times Editor’s Choice Pick!
  • A Booklist Editor’s Choice Pick!
  • A 2020 SIBA Award Finalist!
  • Featured on the 2021 RUSA Reading List: Fantasy Shortlist!

Named a Best of 2020 Pick for NPR | Library Journal | Book Riot | LitReactor | Bustle | Polygon | Washington Post

IN AMERICA, DEMONS WEAR WHITE HOODS.

In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan’s ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die.

Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan’s demons straight to Hell. But something awful’s brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.

Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?


Click for more detail about Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz Let Love Rule

by Lenny Kravitz
Henry Holt & Company (Oct 06, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description


"Kravitz looks back at his life with candor, self-scrutiny, and humor. ’My life is all about opposites, ’ he writes. ’Black and white. Jewish and Christian. The Jackson 5 and Led Zeppelin. I accepted my Gemini soul. I owned it. I adored it. Yins and yangs mingled in various parts of my heart and mind, giving me balance and fueling my curiosity and comfort’"—Dust jacket flap.


Click for more detail about Black and British: A Short, Essential History by David Olusoga Black and British: A Short, Essential History

by David Olusoga
MacMillan Children’s Books (Oct 01, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2020

A short, essential introduction to Black British history for readers of 12+ by award-winning historian and broadcaster David Olusoga.

When did Africans first come to Britain?

Who are the well-dressed black children in Georgian paintings?

Why did the American Civil War disrupt the Industrial Revolution?

These and many other questions are answered in this essential introduction to 1800 years of the Black British history: from the Roman Africans who guarded Hadrian’s Wall right up to the present day.

This children’s version of the bestseller Black and British: A Forgotten History is illustrated with maps, photos and portraits.

Macmillan Children’s Books will donate 50p from every copy sold to The Black Curriculum.


Click for more detail about And Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall And Now She’s Gone

by Rachel Howzell Hall
Forge (Sep 22, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Isabel Lincoln is gone.

But is she missing?

It’s up to Grayson Sykes to find her. Although she is reluctant to track down a woman who may not want to be found, Gray’s search for Isabel Lincoln becomes more complicated and dangerous with every new revelation about the woman’s secrets and the truth she’s hidden from her friends and family.

Featuring two complicated women in a dangerous cat and mouse game, Rachel Howzell Hall’s And Now She’s Gone explores the nature of secrets — and how violence and fear can lead you to abandon everything in order to survive.

Praise for And Now She’s Gone:

"Smart, razor-sharp….Full of wry, dark humor, this nuanced tale of two extraordinary women is un-put-downable." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Smart, packed with dialogue that sings on the page, Hall’s novel turns the tables on our expectations at every turn, bringing us closer to truth than if it were forced on us in school." —Walter Mosley

"A fierce PI running from her own dark past chases a missing woman around buzzy LA. Breathlessly suspenseful, as glamorous as the city itself, And Now She’s Gone should be at the top of your must-read list."
—Michele Campbell, bestselling author of A Stranger on the Beach.

"One of crime fiction’s leading writers at her very best. The final twist that will make you want to immediately turn back to page one and read it all over again. And Now She’s Gone is a perfect blend of PI novel and psychological suspense that will have readers wanting more." —Kellye Garrett, Anthony, Agatha, and Lefty Award-winning author of Hollywood Homicide and Hollywood Ending

"Sharp, witty and perfectly paced, And Now She’s Gone is one hell of a read!" —Wendy Walker, bestselling author of The Night Before

"Hall once again proves to be an accomplished maestro who has composed a symphony of increasing tension and near unbearable suspense. Rachel brilliantly reveals the bone and soul of our shared humanity and the struggle to contain the nightmares of human faults and failings. I am a fan, pure and simple." —Stephen Mack Jones, award-winning author of the August Snow thrillers

"Heartfelt and gripping… I’m a perennial member of the Rachel Howzell Hall fan club, and her latest is a winning display of her wit and compassion and mastery of suspense." —Steph Cha, award-winning author of Your House Will Pay

"An entertainingly twisty plot, a rich and layered sense of place, and most of all a main character who pops off the page. Gray Sykes is hugely engaging and deeply complex, a descendant of Philip Marlowe and Easy Rawlings who is also definitely, absolutely her own woman." —Lou Berney, award-winning author of November Road

"A deeply human protagonist, an intricate and twisty plot, and sentences that make me swoon with jealousy…Rachel Howzell Hall will flip every expectation you have—this is a magic trick of a book." —Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse

"And Now She’s Gone has all the mystery of a classic whodunnit, with an undeniably fresh and clever voice. Hall exemplifies the best of the modern PI novel." —Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author

Praise for Rachel Howzell Hall:

"A fresh voice in crime fiction." —Lee Child

"Devilishly clever… Hall’s writing sizzles and pops." —Meg Gardiner

"Hall slips from funny to darkly frightening with elegant ease." —Publishers Weekly

Praise for They All Fall Down:

"A riotous and wild ride." —Attica Locke

"Dramatic, thrilling and even compulsive." —James Patterson

"An intense, feverish novel with riveting plot twists." —Sara Paretsky

"Hall is beyond able and ready to take her place among the ranks of contemporary crime fiction’s best and brightest." —Strand Magazine


Click for more detail about All That I Desire: A Grayson Friends Novel by Francis Ray All That I Desire: A Grayson Friends Novel

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 15, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Francis Ray (1944-2013) is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Grayson novels, the Falcon books, the Taggart Brothers, and Twice the Temptation, among many other books. Her novel Incognito was made into a movie aired on BET. A native Texan, she was a graduate of Texas Woman’s University and had a degree in nursing. Besides a writer, she was a school nurse practitioner with the Dallas Independent School District. She lived in Dallas. Francis Ray is, without a doubt, one of the Queens of Romance. —Romance Review


Click for more detail about Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil by Susan Neiman Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil

by Susan Neiman
Picador (Sep 08, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

As an increasingly polarized America fights over the legacy of racism, Susan Neiman, author of the contemporary philosophical classic Evil in Modern Thought, asks what we can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past

In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings. Neiman is a white woman who came of age in the civil rights–era South and a Jewish woman who has spent much of her adult life in Berlin. Working from this unique perspective, she combines philosophical reflection, personal stories, and interviews with both Americans and Germans who are grappling with the evils of their own national histories.

Through discussions with Germans, including Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who created the breakthrough Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibit, and Friedrich Schorlemmer, the East German dissident preacher, Neiman tells the story of the long and difficult path Germans faced in their effort to atone for the crimes of the Holocaust. In the United States, she interviews James Meredith about his battle for equality in Mississippi and Bryan Stevenson about his monument to the victims of lynching, as well as lesser-known social justice activists in the South, to provide a compelling picture of the work contemporary Americans are doing to confront our violent history. In clear and gripping prose, Neiman urges us to consider the nuanced forms that evil can assume, so that we can recognize and avoid them in the future.


Click for more detail about Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston Master of Poisons

by Andrea Hairston
Tordotcom (Sep 08, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

“This is a prayer hymn, a battle cry, a lovesong, a legendary call and response bonfire talisman tale. This is medicine for a broken world." —Daniel José Older

Award-winning author Andrea Hairston weaves together African folktales and postcolonial literature into unforgettable fantasy in Master of Poisons

The world is changing. Poison desert eats good farmland. Once-sweet water turns foul. The wind blows sand and sadness across the Empire. To get caught in a storm is death. To live and do nothing is death. There is magic in the world, but good conjure is hard to find.

Djola, righthand man and spymaster of the lord of the Arkhysian Empire, is desperately trying to save his adopted homeland, even in exile.

Awa, a young woman training to be a powerful griot, tests the limits of her knowledge and comes into her own in a world of sorcery, floating cities, kindly beasts, and uncertain men.

Awash in the rhythms of folklore and storytelling and rich with Hairston’s characteristic lush prose, Master of Poisons is epic fantasy that will bleed your mind with its turns of phrase and leave you aching for the world it burns into being.


Click for more detail about I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest I Wanna Be Where You Are

by Kristina Forest
Square Fish (Aug 25, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

A debut young adult rom-com about an African American ballerina who finds love on the road to an audition.

“In a world where it's easy to lose faith in love, I Wanna Be Where You Are is a brilliant burst of light. A dazzling debut.” ― Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out

When Chloe Pierce's mom forbids her to apply for a spot at the dance conservatory of her dreams, she devises a secret plan to drive two hundred miles to the nearest audition. But Chloe hits her first speed bump when her annoying neighbor Eli insists upon hitching a ride, threatening to tell Chloe's mom if she leaves him and his smelly dog, Geezer, behind. So now Chloe's chasing her ballet dreams down the east coast―two unwanted (but kinda cute) passengers in her car, butterflies in her stomach, and a really dope playlist on repeat.

Filled with roadside hijinks, heart-stirring romance, and a few broken rules, Kristina Forest's I Wanna Be Where You Are is a YA debut perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sandhya Menon.


Click for more detail about Money Devils 1: A Cartel Novel by Ashley Antoinette and JaQuavis Coleman Money Devils 1: A Cartel Novel

by Ashley Antoinette and JaQuavis Coleman
St. Martin’s Griffin (Aug 18, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Cartel series comes a new chapter in a world that only Ashley and JaQuavis know how to bring to life.

The LaCroixs are four beautiful Haitian American women bound by money and blood. On the surface, the LaCroix Group is a venture capitalist company, but underneath, it’s so much more. The four sisters run long cons, targeting wealthy, prominent business figures. They have a system: Find the perfect mark, create the problem, then present the solution. For a cost…

Sutton "Sutty" LaCroix, the eldest sister and an accomplished business maven, sits on the family throne as the CEO of the LaCroix Group and is the face of their operation. No one is as good as Sutton when it comes to finding new prey.

However, when Sutton meets West, a young, black oil tycoon—a man who represents a life she and her sisters vowed never to live—she breaks all the rules. The LaCroix sisters have a pact: to never settle down and leave roots in one place. But Sutton falls in love with West’s good looks, charm, and old money. This means that West is a problem. When he inducts her into a high society of opulence, power, and generational wealth, Sutton finds herself torn between the love of her life and the love of her family.


Click for more detail about The Unicorn Came to Dinner by Lauren DeStefano The Unicorn Came to Dinner

by Lauren DeStefano
Roaring Brook Press (Aug 11, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

A sweet and charming picture book about fear, anxiety, and unicorns.

The unicorn smells nice, but she is very rude. She never waits for an invitation to come over—she walks right in and tracks heart-shaped hoof-prints across the carpet. She sits in Elizabeth’s chair and makes a complete mess of the house. She even sleeps in Elizabeth’s bed.

But the unicorn is no ordinary unicorn …

In The Unicorn Came to Dinner, author Lauren DeStefano and illustrator Gaia Cornwall invite parents and their kids to talk about feelings—especially worries and anxiety—and ultimately about how to be yourself.


Click for more detail about Cry of Metal & Bone: Earthsinger Chronicles, Book 3 by L. Penelope Cry of Metal & Bone: Earthsinger Chronicles, Book 3

by L. Penelope
St. Martin’s Griffin (Aug 11, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

L. Penelope’s stunning epic fantasy Earthsinger Chronicles continues with Cry of Metal & Bone.

The Mantle dividing Elsira and Lagrimar has fallen. As the two kingdoms struggle to unify, one threat stands above them all.

As desperate Lagrimari flee their barren land for a chance at a better life in Elsira, a shadowy group with ties to the Elsiran government launches an attack on their own soil. With threats of more violence, an unlikely crew is assembled to investigate. Among them are Lizvette Nirall, a disgraced socialite seeking redemption for past mistakes, and Tai Summerhawk, a foreign smuggler determined to keep a promise he made to a dead man.

It’s a race against time in this world of deadly magic, secret agendas and court intrigue to discover those responsible before the next assault. And in another land a new enemy awakens—one that will strike terror into the hearts of gods and men.


Click for more detail about Luster by Raven Leilani Luster

by Raven Leilani
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Aug 04, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Sharp, comic, disruptive, tender, Raven Leilani’s debut novel, Luster, sees a young black woman fall into art and someone else’s open marriage

Edie is stumbling her way through her twentiessharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She’s also, secretly, haltingly figuring her way into life as an artist. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriagewith rules. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren’t hard enough, Edie finds herself unemployed and falling into Eric’s family life, his home. She becomes hesitant friend to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie is the only black woman young Akila may know.

Razor sharp, darkly comic, sexually charged, socially disruptive, Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make her sense of her life in a tumultuous era. It is also a haunting, aching description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way.


Click for more detail about A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart by Zetta Elliott A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart

by Zetta Elliott
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Jul 21, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

  • Today Show Best Book for the Holidays
  • NCTE Notable Poetry Book
  • Evanston Public Library’s Top 100 Great Book for Kids
  • Nerdy Award Winner for Single Poem Picture Book

In this powerful, affirming poem by award-winning author Zetta Elliott, a Black child explores his shifting emotions throughout the year.

There is a place inside of me
a space deep down inside of me
where all my feelings hide.

Summertime is filled with joy—skateboarding and playing basketball —until his community is deeply wounded by a police shooting. As fall turns to winter and then spring, fear grows into anger, then pride and peace.

In her stunning debut, illustrator Noa Denmon articulates the depth and nuances of a child’s experiences following a police shooting—through grief and protests, healing and community—with washes of color as vibrant as his words.

Here is a groundbreaking narrative that can help all readers—children and adults alike—talk about the feelings hiding deep inside each of us.


Click for more detail about Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson Trouble the Saints

by Alaya Dawn Johnson
Tor Books (Jul 21, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

“Juju assassins, alternate history, a gritty New York crime story…in a word: Awesome.” —N.K. Jemisin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fifth Season

The dangerous magic of The Night Circus meets the powerful historical exploration of The Underground Railroad in Alaya Dawn Johnson’s timely and unsettling novel, set against the darkly glamorous backdrop of New York City, where an assassin falls in love and tries to fight her fate at the dawn of World War II.

Amid the whir of city life, a young woman from Harlem is drawn into the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she’s hired to use her knives to strike fear among its most dangerous denizens.

Ten years later, Phyllis LeBlanc has given up everything—not just her own past, and Dev, the man she loved, but even her own dreams.

Still, the ghosts from her past are always by her side—and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she keeps in her heart. And so Phyllis will have to make a harrowing choice, before it’s too late—is there ever enough blood in the world to wash clean generations of injustice?

Trouble the Saints is a dazzling, daring novel—a magical love story, a compelling exposure of racial fault lines—and an altogether brilliant and deeply American saga.


Click for more detail about Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby Blacktop Wasteland

by S. A. Cosby
Flatiron Books (Jul 14, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

A husband, a father, a son, a business owner…And the best getaway driver east of the Mississippi.

“Sensationally good—new, fresh, real, authentic, twisty, with characters and dilemmas that will break your heart. More than recommended.” —Lee Child

Beauregard “BugRdquo; Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast.

He thought he’d left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can’t-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver’s seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear.

Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland…or die trying.

Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist, S. A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland is a searing, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race, and his own former life of crime.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Sunday Soul Singles Club by Michele Andrea Bowen The Sunday Soul Singles Club

by Michele Andrea Bowen
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jul 07, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description


Questions will be answered about the future of Charles and Veronica Washington, along with Charles’ employee, Bay Bowser (Pastor’s Aid Club).


Click for more detail about A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team by Arshay Cooper A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team

by Arshay Cooper
Flatiron Books (Jun 30, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Now a documentary narrated by Common, produced by Grant Hill, Dwyane Wade, and 9th Wonder, from filmmaker Mary Mazzio

The moving true story of a group of young men growing up on Chicago’s West side who form the first all-black high school rowing team in the nation, and in doing so not only transform a sport, but their lives.

Growing up on Chicago’s Westside in the 90’s, Arshay Cooper knows the harder side of life. The street corners are full of gangs, the hallways of his apartment complex are haunted by drug addicts he calls “zombies” with strung out arms, clutching at him as he passes by. His mother is a recovering addict, and his three siblings all sleep in a one room apartment, a small infantry against the war zone on the street below.

Arshay keeps to himself, preferring to write poetry about the girl he has a crush on, and spends his school days in the home-ec kitchen dreaming of becoming a chef. And then one day as he’s walking out of school he notices a boat in the school lunchroom, and a poster that reads "Join the Crew Team".

Having no idea what the sport of crew is, Arshay decides to take a chance. This decision to join is one that will forever change his life, and those of his fellow teammates. As Arshay and his teammates begin to come together to learn how to row—many never having been in water before—the sport takes them from the mean streets of Chicago, to the hallowed halls of the Ivy League. But Arshay and his teammates face adversity at every turn, from racism, gang violence, and a sport that has never seen anyone like them before.

A Most Beautiful Thing is the inspiring true story about the most unlikely band of brothers that form a family, and forever change a sport and their lives for the better.


Click for more detail about Butterfly 2 by Ashley Antoinette Butterfly 2

by Ashley Antoinette
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jun 16, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

“One of the biggest names in Urban-fiction, Ashley Antoinette, is back … An intense start to this new series with characters that are real and genuine. It’s a story about love, trying to put the past behind and moving on with your life” - Red Carpet Crash on Butterfly

Morgan Atkins is used to losing, but losing Messiah Williams was the most tragic of them all. Surely, after Messiah, no other man could compare. Settling with Sebastian Fredrick didn’t seem like such an impossible task. He treated her well enough, he accepted her children, and he offered her entrance into a well-connected world. There was only one problem: he wanted to change her into someone else. The rules that went along with his lifestyle suffocated her and when Morgan reconnected with Messiah’s crew, she no longer wanted to play by Bash’s rules. When she falls in love with Messiah’s best friend, Ahmeek Harris, she knows she’s headed for trouble. His presence heals her in a way that no man has ever been able to do before. Their love affair is electric. Morgan is uncertain about many thing but one thing she’s sure of is that she can’t let this feeling go. She goes out on a limb and risks it all just to be with Meek, but when Messiah reveals that he’s still alive, the battle for one girl’s heart just may lead to the demise of them all.

She can only be queen to one man. Which one has the true key to her heart? Can Messiah make up for his mistakes or is it too late to save what they once had? Is Ahmeek a rebound or does he offer her something more? Does Bash even stand a chance? This second installment of the Butterfly series will leave you breathless.


Click for more detail about Slow Burn by Brenda Jackson Slow Burn

by Brenda Jackson
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jun 16, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description


Madaris Family Novels (Volume 14)


Click for more detail about Taste of Passion by Brenda Jackson Taste of Passion

by Brenda Jackson
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jun 16, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description


Madaris Family Novels (Volume 15)


Click for more detail about Our Time Is Now by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery Our Time Is Now

by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery
Henry Holt & Company (Jun 09, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America

“This is a narrative that describes the urgency that compels me and millions more to push for a different American story than the one being told today. It’s a story that is one part danger, one part action, and all true. It’s a story about how and why we fight for our democracy and win. —Stacey Abrams

With each page, she inspires and empowers us to create systems that reflect a world in which all voices are heard and all people believe and feel that they matter. —Kerry Washington

Celebrated national leader and bestselling author Stacey Abrams offers a blueprint to end voter suppression, empower our citizens, and take back our country. A recognized expert on fair voting and civic engagement, Abrams chronicles a chilling account of how the right to vote and the principle of democracy have been and continue to be under attack. Abrams would have been the first African American woman governor, but experienced these effects firsthand, despite running the most innovative race in modern politics as the Democratic nominee in Georgia. Abrams didn’t win, but she has not conceded. The book compellingly argues for the importance of robust voter protections, an elevation of identity politics, engagement in the census, and a return to moral international leadership.

Our Time Is Now draws on extensive research from national organizations and renowned scholars, as well as anecdotes from her life and others’ who have fought throughout our country’s history for the power to be heard. The stakes could not be higher. Here are concrete solutions and inspiration to stand up for who we are—now.


Click for more detail about A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow A Song Below Water

by Bethany C. Morrow
Tor Teen (Jun 02, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Bethany C. Morrow’s A Song Below Water is the story for today’s readers — a captivating modern fantasy about black mermaids, friendship, and self-discovery set against the challenges of today’s racism and sexism.

In a society determined to keep her under lock and key, Tavia must hide her siren powers.

Meanwhile, Effie is fighting her own family struggles, pitted against literal demons from her past. Together, these best friends must navigate through the perils of high school’s junior year.

But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice at the worst possible moment.

Soon, nothing in Portland, Oregon, seems safe. To save themselves from drowning, it’s only Tavia and Effie’s unbreakable sisterhood that proves to be the strongest magic of all.

"An enthralling tale of black girl magic and searing social commentary ready to rattle the bones." — Dhonielle Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Belles


Click for more detail about Flying High: The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles by Michelle Meadows Flying High: The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles

by Michelle Meadows
Henry Holt & Company (May 26, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

A lyrical picture book biography of Simone Biles, gymnastics champion and Olympic superstar.

Before she was a record-breaking gymnast competing on the world stage, Simone Biles spent time in foster care as a young child. Nimble and boundlessly energetic, she cherished every playground and each new backyard.

When she was six years old, Simone’s family took shape in a different way. Her grandparents Ron and Nellie Biles adopted Simone and her sister Adria. Ron and Nellie became their parents. Simone was also introduced to gymnastics that same year, launching a lifelong passion fueled by remarkable talent, sacrifice, and the undying support of her family.

From her athletic early childhood to the height of her success as an Olympic champion, Flying High is the story of the world’s greatest gymnast from author Michelle Meadows and illustrator Ebony Glenn.


Click for more detail about Hood Rat: A Novel by K’wan Hood Rat: A Novel

by K’wan
St. Martin’s Griffin (May 12, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Hood Rat (n.): A woman of questionable repute, one who has been known to "get around" in the ’hood.

Yoshi is young, fine, and larcenous. She lives her life playing on men’s hearts as well as their pockets. She learns the hard way that all that glitters isn’t gold. Billy, a former high school basketball star, is at the end of her rope with the opposite sex. To her, all men are dogs, so she secretly seeks comfort in the arms of women, until she meets a man who makes her reevaluate her feelings.

Reese is an around-the-way chick, trying to keep up with the Joneses. There’s a revolving door in her bedroom as she tries to find the love she always felt was missing. Her promiscuity leaves her pregnant from a one-night stand and Reese is faced with the task of breaking an age-old cycle, passed down from mother to daughter in her family, and standing on her own.

Rhonda is twenty-something with three kids, by three men, and riding the system all the way to the bank. To her, work is a dirty word; between the multiple checks she gets from the government, and the games she plays with men, she’s living the life of a ghetto superstar. The game soon turns ugly when one of her "sponsors" snaps and decides to get some payback.

Harlem has never seen four friends as scandalous as these. The neighborhood will never be the same again.


Click for more detail about The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America’s 16th President—And Why It Failed by Brad Meltzer The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America’s 16th President—And Why It Failed

by Brad Meltzer
Flatiron Books (May 05, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch, the bestselling authors of The First Conspiracy, which covers the secret plot against George Washington, now turn their attention to a little-known, but true story about a failed assassination attempt on the sixteenth president in The Lincoln Conspiracy.

Everyone knows the story of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, but few are aware of the original conspiracy to kill him four years earlier in 1861, literally on his way to Washington, D.C., for his first inauguration.

The conspirators were part of a pro-Southern secret society that didn’t want an antislavery President in the White House. They planned an elaborate scheme to assassinate the brand new President in Baltimore as Lincoln’s inauguration train passed through en route to the Capitol. The plot was investigated by famed detective Allan Pinkerton, who infiltrated the group with undercover agents, including one of the first female private detectives in America.

Had the assassination succeeded, there would have been no Lincoln Presidency, and the course of the Civil War and American history would have forever been altered.


Click for more detail about All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto

by George M. Johnson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Apr 28, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.

Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren’t Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson’s emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults.


Click for more detail about The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

by Deirdre Mask
St. Martin’s Press (Apr 14, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction

"An entertaining quest to trace the origins and implications of the names of the roads on which we reside." —Sarah Vowell, The New York Times Book Review

When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class.

In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Deirdre Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., the wayfinding means of ancient Romans, and how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we also see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata and on the streets of London. Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the complex and sometimes hidden stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t—and why.

"An exuberant work of popular history: the story of how streets got their names and houses their numbers, and why something as seemingly mundane as an address can save lives or enforce power. When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. Addresses arose out of a grand Enlightenment project to name and number the streets, but they are also a way for people to be identified and tracked by those in power. As Deirdre Mask explains, the practice of numbering houses was popularized in eighteenth-century Vienna by Maria Theresa, leader of the Hapsburg Empire, to tax her subjects and draft them into her military. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class, causing them to be a shorthand for snobbery or discrimination. In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr., the wayfinding means of ancient Romans, how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany, and why numbered streets dominate in America but not in Europe. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata, on the streets of London, or in post-earthquake Haiti. Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the complex and sometimes hidden stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t-and why"

Table of Contents:
Introduction: West Virginia: Why Should We Care About Street Addresses?

DEVELOPMENT
1. Kolkata: Could Addresses Revolutionize the Slums?
2. Haiti: Could Street Addresses Stop a Plague?

ORIGINS
3. Rome: How Did The Ancient Romans Find Their Way Around?
4. London: Where Do Our Street Names Come From?
5. Vienna: Did House Numbering Change the World?
6. Philadelphia: Why Do Americans Love Numbered Streets?
7. Korea and Japan: Does Language Explain Japan’s Lack of Street Names?

POLITICS
8. Iran: Why Do Street Names Follow Revolutions?
9. Berlin: What Do Nazi Street Names Tell Us About Vergangenheitsbewältigung?

RACE
10. Hollywood, Florida: Are Confederate Names Really About History?
11. St. Louis: What Can Martin Luther King Streets Tell Us About Race in America Today?
12. South Africa: What Should Happen to Apartheid Streets?

CLASS AND STATUS
13. Manhattan: How Much Is a Street Name Worth?
14. Homelessness: How Do You Live Without an Address?
15. Chicago: Does Everyone Deserve an Address?
Conclusion: The Future: Are Street Addresses Doomed?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX


Click for more detail about Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Olivia Gatwood Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice

by Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Olivia Gatwood
Roaring Brook Press (Mar 10, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Mahogany L. Browne is a California-born, Brooklyn-based writer, organizer, mentor, and curator. She has published several books of poetry and facilitates performance poetry and writing workshops throughout the country. She is an Agnes Gund, Cave Canem, AIR Serenbe, Poets House, Rauschenberg fellow, and the current artistic director of Urban Word NYC. Her previous books for young readers include Woke Baby and Black Girl Magic.

Theodore Taylor III is an artist and designer. He is the winner of the John Steptoe New Talent Award for his work in When the Beat Was Born, and is the illustrator of Woke Baby. He lives in Richmond, Virginia, with his wife and their very own woke baby.

Elizabeth Acevedo is the New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award-winning novel, The Poet X. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. She resides in Washington, DC with her partner.

Olivia Gatwood has received national recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as a Title IX Compliant educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. She is a finalist at Brave New Voices, Women of the World and the National Poetry Slam. Olivia has been featured on HBO, Huffington Post, MTV, VH1, and BBC, and she has performed internationally at over two-hundred schools and universities. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, she now lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Olivia’s poetry books include Woke, Life of the Party, and New American Best Friend.


Click for more detail about Un-Nappily in Love by Trisha R. Thomas Un-Nappily in Love

by Trisha R. Thomas
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 10, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Venus is ecstatic about her husband’s new career as a movie star thanks to a role in a searing romantic drama with co-star Sirena Lassiter. Jake and Sirena’s relationship, Venus quickly learns, goes back further than Jake wants to admit. Venus isn’t happy when the new "it" team’s hectic promotion schedule takes them to exotic locations while Venus must stay behind with a business to run and a daughter to raise. However, it’s not long before Venus senses danger. When she receives advice from her one time arch enemy, Trevelle Doval the queen of late night evangelical TV, Venus, in her trademark style, decides to save her marriage by any means necessary. But when the paparazzi get involved, all hell breaks loose. Will Venus be able to keep her man or has she lost Jake forever?


Click for more detail about Nappily in Bloom by Trisha R. Thomas Nappily in Bloom

by Trisha R. Thomas
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 10, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

The final novel in the Nappily trilogy! Nappily Every After now a NETFLIX ORIGINAL movie starring Sanaa Lathan.

Airic and his famous televangelist wife, Trevelle Doval, make the evening news when Airic is accused of domestic battery and his life is suddenly turned upside down. But when Venus and Jake try to suspend Airic’s visitation rights with Mya, they discover that Airic isn’t willing to go down without a fight.

Meanwhile, Jake’s best friend, Legend, turns up on his doorstep with trouble not far behind. The past is back with a vengeance, including blackmail, murder and enemies who are looking for payback. But everything takes a dangerous new turn when Venus goes missing. For Jake it’s now a race against time to save the woman he loves.


Click for more detail about Pale Colors in a Tall Field: Poems by Carl Phillips Pale Colors in a Tall Field: Poems

by Carl Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 03, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

A powerful, inventive collection from one of America’s most critically acclaimed poets.

What is a self? What is a memory?

In Pale Colors in a Tall Field, Carl Phillips argues for trust, tenderness, and an attentiveness to the intimacies of thought and body as their own quiet but no less powerful forms of resistance to a world of increasing distraction, noise, and skepticism. Against a canvas of remembering and forgetting, Phillips here treats point of view kaleidoscopically—to embody the self’s multiplicity and to enact the self’s constant shifting as the contexts of a life, in turn, shift. This is perhaps Phillips’s most powerful, meditative, and startling sequence of poems yet.


Click for more detail about Meals, Music, and Muses: Recipes from My African American Kitchen by Alexander Smalls with Veronica Chambers Meals, Music, and Muses: Recipes from My African American Kitchen

by Alexander Smalls with Veronica Chambers
Flatiron Books (Feb 25, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Iconic chef and world-renowned opera singer Alexander Smalls marries two of his greatest passions—food and music—in Meals, Music, and Muses. More than just a cookbook, Smalls takes readers on a delicious journey through the South to examine the food that has shaped the region. Each chapter is named for a type of music to help readers understand the spirit that animates these recipes.

Filled with classic Southern recipes and twists on old favorites, this cookbook includes starters such as Hoppin’ John Cakes with Sweet Pepper Remoulade and Carolina Bourbon Barbecue Shrimp and Okra Skewers, and main dishes like Roast Quail in Bourbon Cream Sauce and Prime Rib Roast with Crawfish Onion Gravy.

Complete with anecdotes of Smalls’s childhood in the Low Country and examinations of Southern musical tradition, Meals, Music, and Muses is a heritage cookbook in the tradition of Edna Lewis’s A Taste of Country Cooking.

“Alexander Smalls has owned, conceptualized, and helmed some of New York’s most iconic African American restaurants. Now, he follows up the James Beard award-winning Between Harlem and Heaven with Meals, Music, and Muses, a look at his world glimpsed through the lenses of music, food, culture, and history. It is a must-read journey through a life well lived and in recipe and reminiscence details the musical forms learned, the friends and family who instructed, and the foods shared along the way.” —Jessica B. Harris

“If wine is bottled poetry, and jazz is brown sugar sprinkled in your ear, then Meals, Music, and Muses is a smorgasbord of fine words and sounds, a delicious symphony of haute cuisine that’ll make you wanna kiss your momma, then thank the ancestors for making a way out of no way—for Hoppin’ John Cakes and Grits and Sage Sausage Gravy and Frogmore Stew and all the recipes Alexander Smalls has reimagined so elegantly.” —Kwame Alexander

“I had the great honor of being a guest at one of Alexander’s famous Sunday brunches in his beautiful brownstone in Harlem. The food was unbelievably delicious! It was a magical afternoon that I will never forget.” —Tina Knowles-Lawson

“In Meals, Music, and Muses, Alexander creates a lyrical culinary anthology of our lives. A symphonic composition full of stories, contemporary southern recipes that celebrates the food and musical genres that influenced the history of America… He sets the table in a unique way from jazz to blues to divas on a plate…This is not your mother’s cookbook…” —Dee Dee Bridgewater


Click for more detail about Twisted by Tracy Brown Twisted

by Tracy Brown
St. Martin’s Griffin (Feb 11, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Tracy Brown is the Essence bestselling author of Aftermath, Snapped, Twisted, White Lines and Criminal Minded. Writing has always been her passion, and she finds it an honor to depict for her readers the things she’s seen and heard. She is a native New Yorker, born and raised in Staten Island.


Click for more detail about Remembrance by Rita Woods Remembrance

by Rita Woods
Forge (Jan 21, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Remembrance by Rita Woods is a breakout historical debut with modern resonance, perfect for the many fans of The Underground Railroad and Orphan Train.

Remembrance…It’s a rumor, a whisper passed in the fields and veiled behind sheets of laundry. A hidden stop on the underground road to freedom, a safe haven protected by more than secrecy…if you can make it there.

Ohio, present day. An elderly woman who is more than she seems warns against rising racism as a young woman grapples with her life.

Haiti, 1791, on the brink of revolution. When the slave Abigail is forced from her children to take her mistress to safety, she discovers New Orleans has its own powers.

1857 New Orleansa city of unrest: Following tragedy, house girl Margot is sold just before her 18th birthday and her promised freedom. Desperate, she escapes and chases a whisper… Remembrance.


Click for more detail about Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi Riot Baby

by Tochi Onyebuchi
Tor Books (Jan 21, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Riot Baby bursts at the seams of story with so much fire, passion and power that in the end it turns what we call a narrative into something different altogether."—Marlon James

Ella has a Thing. She sees a classmate grow up to become a caring nurse. A neighbor’s son murdered in a drive-by shooting. Things that haven’t happened yet. Kev, born while Los Angeles burned around them, wants to protect his sister from a power that could destroy her. But when Kev is incarcerated, Ella must decide what it means to watch her brother suffer while holding the ability to wreck cities in her hands.

Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative. It burns fearlessly toward revolution and has quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

Ella and Kev are both shockingly human and immeasurably powerful. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by racism. Their futures might alter the world.

"[Tochi] Onyebuchi has woven a story as uplifting as it is heartbreaking, an epic ode to the future and past, tiny acts of resistance, love, and the wild unstoppable sweep of revolution."—Daniel Jos� Older


Click for more detail about Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard by Echo Brown Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard

by Echo Brown
Henry Holt & Company (Jan 14, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Recipient of a 2021 William C. Morris Honor for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens

Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism—all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age story for fans of Renee Watson’s Piecing Me Together and Ibi Zoboi’s American Street.

Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic … everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor.

Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for.

Christy Ottaviano Books


Click for more detail about Black Is a Rainbow Color by Angela Joy Black Is a Rainbow Color

by Angela Joy
Roaring Brook Press (Jan 14, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

A child reflects on the meaning of being Black in this moving and powerful anthem about a people, a culture, a history, and a legacy that lives on.

Red is a rainbow color.
Green sits next to blue.
Yellow, orange, violet, indigo,
They are rainbow colors, too, but

My color is black …
And there’s no BLACK in rainbows.

From the wheels of a bicycle to the robe on Thurgood Marshall’s back, Black surrounds our lives. It is a color to simply describe some of our favorite things, but it also evokes a deeper sentiment about the incredible people who helped change the world and a community that continues to grow and thrive.

Stunningly illustrated by Caldecott Honoree and Coretta Scott King Award winner Ekua Holmes, Black Is a Rainbow Color is a sweeping celebration told through debut author Angela Joy’s rhythmically captivating and unforgettable words.


Click for more detail about Nobody But You: A Grayson Friends Novel by Francis Ray Nobody But You: A Grayson Friends Novel

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jan 14, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Nobody But You is the second book in the popular erotic romance Grayson Friends series by New York Times bestselling author Francis Ray.

NASCAR star Cameron Dunlap is poised to win this year’s Sprint Cup. But being a successful race-car driver comes with a price: His own life. Cameron knows that his profession puts him at high risk. Thankfully, his latest visit to the hospital left him intact. That is, until he bumps into Caitlin Lawrence…and is thrust back into his painful past.

The one-time love of his life who left him at the altar, Caitlin could never accept Cameron’s fast and furious existence. The threat of losing him on the racetrack was just too much for Caitlin—and the young son Cameron never knew he had. Now that this chance meeting has changed their lives forever, will Caitlin and Cameron find a way to recapture what might have been?


Click for more detail about The Way You Love Me: A Grayson Friends Novel by Francis Ray The Way You Love Me: A Grayson Friends Novel

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jan 14, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

A reissue of The Way You Love Me, the first book in the popular erotic romance Grayson Friends series by New York Times bestselling author Francis Ray.

Nothing gets to Shane Elliott. A former Army Ranger, now head of security for a wealthy real estate tycoon, Shane can handle whatever life throws at him—until he meets the beautiful, kindhearted Paige Albright. She’s about to inherit a fortune, and Paige’s mother has asked Shane to investigate her boyfriend. It should have been a simple, standard assignment for Shane…if only Paige’s seductive mix of strength and vulnerability didn’t leave him wanting her for himself.

All her life, Paige has put others’ needs before her own, even going so far as choosing a man to please her father. Now her mother’s mysterious houseguest is tempting her to go after what she truly wants…even if it’s the cool, assertive, irresistible Shane himself. But is he who he appears to be? And how can Paige know whether to trust her own judgment—and their red-hot attraction?


Click for more detail about Brown Baby Lullaby by Tameka Fryer Brown Brown Baby Lullaby

by Tameka Fryer Brown
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Jan 14, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

With Spanish words sprinkled throughout and featuring warm art by New York Times-bestselling and NAACP-Award-winning illustrator AG Ford, Tameka Fryer Brown’s Brown Baby Lullaby is the perfect new baby or baby shower gift.

From sunset to bedtime, two brown-skinned parents lovingly care for their beautiful brown baby: first, they play outside, then it is time for dinner and a bath, and finally a warm snuggle before bed.


Click for more detail about The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington (Young Reader’s) by Brad Meltzer The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington (Young Reader’s)

by Brad Meltzer
Roaring Brook Press (Jan 07, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

#1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer unravels the truth behind the secret assassination attempt on George Washington and how the plot helped create the CIA and the FBI in this young reader’s adaptation for younger audiences.

1776.
The early days of the Revolutionary War.

It supposedly began with Thomas Hickey, a private in the Continental Army, and New York governor William Tryon. In an astonishing power grab, they plotted to kill Hickey’s boss: a man by the name of George Washington.

In the end, Hickey was caught, brought to trial, and found guilty. It would seem he became the first person in the new nation to be executed for treason.

But to this day, nobody knows for sure if this story is true. In The First Conspiracy, Brad Meltzer sheds light on the close-kept secrets and compelling details surrounding this story and exposes the history of how the assassination plot catalyzed the creation of the CIA and FBI.

This page-turning investigation offers young readers an in-depth look at the facts and remaining questions that surround this contested historical event.


Click for more detail about Butterfly by Ashley Antoinette Butterfly

by Ashley Antoinette
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jan 07, 2020)
Read Detailed Book Description

Butterfly is the first novel in an all new series by New York Times bestselling author Ashley Antoinette and an instant USA Today bestseller!

“Run away from the boy that gives you butterflies, he's going to break your heart.”

Morgan Atkins had been told that phrase ever since she was a little girl and still she allowed herself to fall for the boy that made her heart flutter. After losing her first love, Morgan is terrified to love again. She's settled for a comfortable life with a respectable man. She has everything. She's living in the lap of luxury and although she’s comfortable, she's bored out of her mind.

When a ghost from her past blows into town, she finds herself entangled in an illicit affair. It's wrong, but she can't fight the butterflies he gives her and honestly, she doesn't want to. She can't hide the natural attraction she feels and soon, she's so deep involved that she can no longer tell where the boundary between right and wrong lies. Her heart is telling her one thing, but her head is saying another. Morgan Atkins has always been a spoiled girl and she tries to have it all, but when she's forced to choose between a good man and a bad boy, someone will end up hurt. Someone just may end up dead.

Morgan Atkins has been through more tragedy than one girl can bear. Will she weather this storm? Or will the ultimate heartbreak ruin her for good?


Click for more detail about The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey by Rowan Ricardo Phillips The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey

by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Picador (Dec 10, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

Winner of the 2019 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing

The Circuit is the best sports book I’ve read in years, maybe ever.” —Rich Cohen, author of The Chicago Cubs and Monsters

“As sports writing goes, The Circuit is unusual in the very best way. Rowan Ricardo Phillips writes with such fluidity, and packs the book with bursts of brilliance. This is a compulsively readable guide to one truly Homeric year of professional tennis.” —John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars

An energetic, lyrical, genre-defying account of the 2017 tennis season.

In The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey, the award-winning poet—and Paris Review sports columnist—Rowan Ricardo Phillips chronicles 2017 as seen through the unique prism of its pivotal, revelatory, and historic tennis season. The annual tennis schedule is a rarity in professional sports in that it encapsulates the calendar year. And like the year, it’s divided into four seasons, each marked by a final tournament: the Grand Slams.

Phillips charts the year from winter’s Australian Open, where Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal renewed their rivalry in a match for the ages, to fall’s U.S. Open. Along the way, Phillips paints a new, vibrant portrait of tennis, one that captures not only the emotions, nerves, and ruthless tactics of the point-by-point game but also the quicksilver movement of victory and defeat on the tour, placing that sense of upheaval within a broader cultural and social context. Tennis has long been thought of as an escapist spectacle: a bucolic, separate bauble of life.

The Circuit will convince you that you don’t leave the world behind as you watch tennis—you bring it with you.


Click for more detail about The Midnight Hour: A Madaris Novel by Brenda Jackson The Midnight Hour: A Madaris Novel

by Brenda Jackson
St. Martin’s Griffin (Dec 10, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

Sexy, dangerous, unforgettable…the Madaris family and their unlikely band of friends captured readers’ hearts and souls. Now, in The Midnight Hour, bestselling author Brenda Jackson brings us another breathtaking novel featuring the Madaris family and friends.

One, CIA agent Sir Drake Warren gave his heart to a woman—-a fellow Marine whose death in an explosion left him aching for justice. Drake vowed he would never love again. But his devotion to his former lover is tested when he meets his mysterious new partner, Agent Victoria Green. With golden-brown eyes and skin like melted chocolate, Victoria leaves Drake yearning for the love he lost—-and flirting closely with the white-hot passion he once knew, he’s sure he’ll get burned…

Few people know that Victoria was once a Marine named Sandy Carroll…and that she was embroiled in a fervent love affair with Drake until an explosion nearly killed her. Her life-saving surgery gave her a new face and identity—-that of CIA operative Victoria Green. Now, Victoria is bound by duty to keep her true identity a secret, especially from Drake.

Paired on a deadly mission, Victoria’s senses are awakened by Drake’s every move. But just as the passion she’s denied for so long threatens to boil over, Drake begins to put together the pieces of the puzzle. And when he does, will Victoria lose him forever?


Click for more detail about Unfinished Business: A Madaris Novel by Brenda Jackson Unfinished Business: A Madaris Novel

by Brenda Jackson
St. Martin’s Griffin (Dec 10, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Brenda Jackson lives in the city where she was born, Jacksonville, Florida. She is a graduate of William M. Raines High School, and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Jacksonville University.

Brenda is a retiree who worked thirty-seven years in management for a major insurance company. She is also a member of Romance Writers of America and Delta Sigma Theta, Incorporated, Sorority. Brenda married her childhood sweetheart, Gerald, forty-seven years ago and they have two sons. She has over 125 novels in print and many of her books have been adapted to movies. She is currently at work on her next novel.


Click for more detail about Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi Children of Virtue and Vengeance

by Tomi Adeyemi
Henry Holt & Company (Dec 03, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Meet Tomi Adeyemi—the new J.K. Rowling. (Yep, she’s that good)." —Entertainment Weekly

After battling the impossible, Z�lie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Or�sha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.

Now, Z�lie struggles to unite the maji in an Or�sha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Or�sha, Z�lie must fight to secure Amari’s right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy’s wrath.

With civil war looming on the horizon, Z�lie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Or�sha tears itself apart.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the stunning sequel to Tomi Adeyemi’s New York Times-bestselling debut Children of Blood and Bone, the first book in the Legacy of Or�sha trilogy.

Praise for Children of Blood and Bone

"Poses thought-provoking questions about race, class and authority that hold up a warning mirror to our sharply divided society." -The New York Times

"The next big thing in literature and film." Ebony

"A fast-paced, excellently crafted hero’s journey…populated with compelling and nuanced black characters." -NPR

"A debut novel that is nearly impossible to put down."-USA Today


Click for more detail about Jay-Z: Made in America by Michael Eric Dyson Jay-Z: Made in America

by Michael Eric Dyson
St. Martin’s Press (Nov 26, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

“My Brooklyn Homeboy JAY-Z is one of the most prolific and gifted rappers of all time. My man Michael Eric Dyson is uniquely qualified to interpret JAY-Z’s art and cultural meaning, and this dope book is all the proof we need.” —Spike Lee

JAY-Z is America at its scrappy, brash, irreverent, soulful, ingenious best: as transcendent a cultural icon as Frank Sinatra, as adventurous a self-made billionaire as Mark Zuckerberg, as gifted a poet as Walt Whitman. As he reaches the half-century mark, logs thirty years as a recording artist, becomes the genre’s first billionaire, reigns as an elder statesman in a field teeming with artists half his age, and continues to make relevant rap records that chart―and that chart an artistic and political response to revived racism and renewed hostility to blackness―it is an auspicious time to examine JAY-Z’s ideas, gifts and impact, to take measure of his stride as a cultural colossus. And there is no one better suited to the task than Michael Eric Dyson, who has investigated and championed hip hop, and the work of JAY-Z, as a critical American art form, for decades.


Click for more detail about Busted in New York and Other Essays by Darryl Pinckney Busted in New York and Other Essays

by Darryl Pinckney
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Nov 12, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description


Darryl Pinckney, a long time contributor to The New York Review of Books, is the author of novels, Black Deutschland and High Cotton, and the works of nonfiction, Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy and Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature.


Click for more detail about Nappily Married by Trisha R. Thomas Nappily Married

by Trisha R. Thomas
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 12, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

The sequel to Nappily Ever After, which is now a NETFLIX ORIGINAL movie starring Sanaa Lathan.
Venus Johnston debuted with brazen personality and spirited humor in Nappily Ever After as she searched for the holy grail of marriage. Blessed with a beautiful baby daughter and a husband who is a former rap star with his own multi-million-dollar clothing company, her long journey to find love has finally come to fruition. But life as a stay-at-home wife and mother is hardly the end of the rainbow. In fact she’s ready to do anything to jump start the career she’s put on the back burner for the last two years.

Against her good sense and her husband’s wishes, she applies for a high profile PR job to help save a struggling city hospital manned by none other than her former boyfriend, Dr. Clint Fairchild, the very one and same who dumped her and married long-silky haired bombshell, Kandi Treboe. Venus soon finds out the two women are vying for the same job. This time competition between she and her old nemesis turns into a battle Venus is determined to win by any means necessary.

With an unhappy hubby at home, a nanny who’s becoming mommy in her child’s eyes, while forming an uncomfortably close relationship with her husband, and a deviant at work sabotaging the hospital, Venus may have taken on much more than she can handle.


Click for more detail about Nappily Faithful by Trisha R. Thomas Nappily Faithful

by Trisha R. Thomas
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 12, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

Hoping to get away from emotional baggage in Los Angeles, Venus and Jake move to Atlanta. Yet the constant cloud of the past follows them: a difficult pregnancy and Jake being charged for the murder of his accountant. Though Jake never spent one night in jail, he fears the case will be reopened and he’ll once again have to fight for his freedom.

And the timing couldn’t be worse since Airic, the biological father of Venus’ daughter Mya, suddenly demands parental rights with the child he hasn’t seen since her birth. A nasty custody battle ensues. Airic’s new wife, Trevelle Doval, a famous TV evangelist—may be behind his sudden interest. Venus is in for the biggest fight of her life.


Click for more detail about I Am Perfectly Designed by Karamo Brown I Am Perfectly Designed

by Karamo Brown
Henry Holt & Company (Nov 05, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

I Am Perfectly Designed is an exuberant celebration of loving who you are, exactly as you are, from Karamo Brown, the Culture Expert of Netflix’s hit series Queer Eye, and Jason Brown—featuring illustrations by Anoosha Syed.

In this empowering ode to modern families, a boy and his father take a joyful walk through the city, discovering all the ways in which they are perfectly designed for each other.


Click for more detail about Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story

by Kevin Noble Maillard
Roaring Brook Press (Oct 22, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

★ 2020 Robert F. Sibert Medal Award
★ 2020 AIYLA Picture Book Honor
★ 2020 Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book
★ 2020 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award – Recommended Book

Told in lively and powerful verse by debut author Kevin Noble Maillard, Fry Bread is an evocative depiction of a modern Native American family, vibrantly illustrated by Caldecott Honor winner Juana Martinez-Neal.

Fry bread is food.
It is warm and delicious, piled high on a plate.

Fry bread is time.
It brings families together for meals and new memories.

Fry bread is nation.
It is shared by many, from coast to coast and beyond.

Fry bread is us.
It is a celebration of old and new, traditional and modern, similarity and difference.


Click for more detail about Light It Up by Kekla Magoon Light It Up

by Kekla Magoon
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (Oct 22, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description


Click for more detail about For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics by Donna L. Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, Minyon Moore, and Veronica Chambers For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics

by Donna L. Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, Minyon Moore, and Veronica Chambers
Picador (Oct 01, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description


The four most powerful African American women in politics share the story of their friendship and how it has changed politics in America.The lives of black women in American politics are remarkably absent from the shelves of bookstores and libraries. For Colored Girls Who Have Consider Politics is a sweeping view of American history from the vantage points of four women who have lived and worked behind the scenes in politics for over thirty years?Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore?a group of women who call themselves The Colored Girls. Like many people who have spent their careers in public service, they view their lives in four-year waves where presidential campaigns and elections have been common threads. For most of the Colored Girls, their story starts with Jesse Jackson’s first campaign for president. From there, they went on to work on the presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Over the years, they’ve filled many roles: in the corporate world, on campaigns, in unions, in churches, in their own businesses and in the White House. Through all of this, they’ve worked with those who have shaped our country’s history?US Presidents such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, well-known political figures such as Terry McAuliffe and Howard Dean, and legendary activists and historical figures such as Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, and Betty Shabazz. For Colored Girls Who Consider Politics is filled with personal stories that bring to life heroic figures we all know and introduce us to some of those who’ve worked behind the scenes but are still hidden. Whatever their perch, the Colored Girls are always focused on the larger goal of “hurrying history” so that every American ? regardless of race, gender or religious background ? can have a seat at the table. This is their story.


Click for more detail about Whispers of Shadow & Flame: Earthsinger Chronicles, Book Two by L. Penelope Whispers of Shadow & Flame: Earthsinger Chronicles, Book Two

by L. Penelope
St. Martin’s Griffin (Oct 01, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

The Mantle that separates the kingdoms of Elsira and Lagrimar is about to fall. And life will drastically change for both kingdoms.

Born with a deadly magic she cannot control, Kyara is forced to become an assassin. Known as the Poison Flame in the kingdom of Lagrimar, she is notorious and lethal, but secretly seeks freedom from both her untamed power and the blood spell that commands her. She is tasked with capturing the legendary rebel called the Shadowfox, but everything changes when she learns her target’s true identity.

Darvyn ol-Tahlyro may be the most powerful Earthsinger in generations, but guilt over those he couldn’t save tortures him daily. He isn’t sure he can trust the mysterious young woman who claims to need his help, but when he discovers Kyara can unlock the secrets of his past, he can’t stay away.

Kyara and Darvyn grapple with betrayal, old promises, and older prophecies—all while trying to stop a war. And when a new threat emerges, they must beat the odds to save both kingdoms.


Click for more detail about A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney A Blade So Black

by L.L. McKinney
Square Fish (Sep 24, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

Mixing elements of Alice in Wonderland and Buffy the Vampire Slayer… a delectable urban twist on beloved fantasy tales. —Entertainment Weekly

This really is Lewis Carroll by way of Buffy, and it makes for a fun, gritty urban fantasy. —NPR

With memorable characters and page-turning thrills, A Blade So Black is the fantasy book I’ve been waiting for my whole life. Alice is Black Girl Magic personified.
—Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Hate U Give

I loved the ’our world’ framing and the ’other world’ adventure so deeply. They were at such odds, but the overall effect was just chefkiss.gif perfect.
—E.K. Johnston, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Star Wars: Ahsoka and A Thousand Nights

Wholly original and absolutely thrilling—A Blade So Black kicks so much (looking gl)ass.
—Heidi Heilig, author of The Girl From Everywhere

A dark, thrilling fantasy-meets-contemporary story with a kickass heroine. —Bustle

Retold fairy tales have been a popular trend… but you’ve never read one quite like A Blade So Black. —Nerdist

A brash, refreshing, vitally diverse retelling of a classic… You need this book. —Tor.com

A Blade So Black is a novel that roars mightily in the face of all those Wonderland tales that have come before. L.L. McKinney is on her way to someplace special with this debut; get onboard now. —Locus magazine

This isn’t a retelling, this is Alice in Wonderland 2.0. —BlackSci-Fi.com

An epic about Black Girl Magic. —We Need Diverse Books blog

An explosive, kickass debut… The Alice in Wonderland retelling the world has always needed. —Booklist, starred review

Relentless action, spiraling stakes, and a fierce heroine… A heartbreaking cliffhanger will leave fans clamoring for a sequel. —Publishers Weekly

A thrilling, timely novel that ensures readers will be curious for a sequel. —Kirkus Reviews

With a modern flair, a rich backstory, and just enough emotional heft, this particular looking glass will have readers eagerly falling through it. —The Bulletin

Teens will root for Alice as a strong, multidimensional black girl usually unseen in YA fiction… A must-purchase. —School Library Journal

A Blade So Black is a modernized version of a well-known story that retains enough of the original to be lauded by both fans of the classic and readers wholly new to Wonderland. —Shelf Awareness


Click for more detail about We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast

by Jonathan Safran Foer
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Sep 17, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

Some people reject the fact, overwhelmingly supported by scientists, that our planet is warming due to human activities. But do those of us who accept the reality of human-caused climate change truly believe in it? If we did, surely we would be roused to act, to make sacrifices now to prevent calamity in the future. How are we, ordinary civilians, supposed to do anything about a crisis for which we can barely sustain concern, of which our understanding is so incomplete, and from which we cannot imagine an escape? Will future generations distinguish between those who didn’t believe in the science of climate change and those who said they accepted the science but didn’t act?

In We Are the Weather, Jonathan Safran Foer explores the central dilemma of our time in a surprising, creative, and urgent new way. We have, he reveals, turned our planet into a farm for growing meat, and the consequences are catastrophic. With the future of our home at stake, the time has come to consider how our descendants will judge our actions at this crucial moment. Collective action is needed. We might be able to pull it off—and it all starts with what we eat, and don’t eat, for breakfast and lunch.


Click for more detail about When the Plums Are Ripe by Patrice Nganang When the Plums Are Ripe

by Patrice Nganang
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Aug 13, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Nganang’s second novel (after 2016’s Mount Pleasant) in a trilogy about Cameroon takes place as the nation is forced into World War II and caught between Vichy and the Free French. The plot and action are matched by the author’s powerful take on the damage colonialism inflicts for generations." —Bethanne Patrick, The Washington Post

"What happens to a colony when its colonizer becomes colonized itself? That’s the questioned underlying [When the Plums Are Ripe] … [A] richly detailed novel … A brilliant, beguiling story." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Nganang is a political force whose experiences in Cameroon inform every page of this novel … For those who appreciate how fiction illuminates history, [When the Plums Are Ripe] will be an eye-opener." Library Journal

"Nganang continues his rich, complex saga of WWII-era Cameroon with this second volume in a trilogy … [When the Plums Are Ripe] confronts the horrible history of French colonialism: the French’s use of ’black soldiers for cannon fodder’ in fighting the Axis powers … With a narrative structure reminiscent of African oral traditions, an unknown narrator heralds … the young men who shed their blood for a Western country and the young women left behind … With lyrical, soaring prose, Nganang sings their song, challenging the Euro-written history of colonialism and replacing it with a much-needed African one." —Publishers Weekly


Click for more detail about For Black Girls Like Me by Mariama J. Lockington For Black Girls Like Me

by Mariama J. Lockington
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Jul 30, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

In this lyrical coming-of-age story about family, sisterhood, music, race, and identity, Mariama J. Lockington draws on some of the emotional truths from her own experiences growing up with an adoptive white family.

I am a girl but most days I feel like a question mark.

Makeda June Kirkland is eleven years old, adopted, and black. Her parents and big sister are white, and even though she loves her family very much, Makeda often feels left out. When Makeda’s family moves from Maryland to New Mexico, she leaves behind her best friend, Lena— the only other adopted black girl she knows— for a new life. In New Mexico, everything is different. At home, Makeda’s sister is too cool to hang out with her anymore and at school, she can’t seem to find one real friend.

Through it all, Makeda can’t help but wonder: What would it feel like to grow up with a family that looks like me?

Through singing, dreaming, and writing secret messages back and forth with Lena, Makeda might just carve a small place for herself in the world.

For Black Girls Like Me is for anyone who has ever asked themselves: How do you figure out where you are going if you don’t know where you came from?


Click for more detail about Secret Soldiers by Keely Hutton Secret Soldiers

by Keely Hutton
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Jun 11, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description


Over a quarter million underage British boys fought on the Allied front lines of the Great War, but not all of them fought on the battlefield?some fought beneath it.
This gripping middle grade military adventure follows the journey of Thomas, a thirteen-year-old coal miner, who lies about his age to join the Claykickers, a specialized crew of soldiers known as “tunnelers,” in hopes of finding his missing older brother. Thomas works in the tunnels of the Western Front alongside three other soldier boys whose constant bickering and inexperience in mining may prove more lethal than the enemy digging toward them. But as they burrow deeper beneath the battlefield, the boys discover the men they hope to become and forge a bond of brotherhood. Secret Soldiers is another stunning story of strength, perseverance, and love from Keely Hutton.


Click for more detail about Chocolate Me! by Taye Diggs Chocolate Me!

by Taye Diggs
Feiwel & Friends (May 07, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

A timely book about how it feels to be teased and taunted, and how each of us is sweet and lovely and delicious on the inside, no matter how we look.

The boy is teased for looking different than the other kids. His skin is darker, his hair curlier. He tells his mother he wishes he could be more like everyone else. And she helps him to see how beautiful he really, truly is.

For years before they both achieved acclaim in their respective professions, good friends Taye Diggs and Shane W. Evans wanted to collaborate on Chocolate Me!, a book based on experiences of feeling different and trying to fit in as kids. Now, both men are fathers and see more than ever the need for a picture book that encourages all people, especially kids, to love themselves.


Click for more detail about They All Fall Down: A Thriller by Rachel Howzell Hall They All Fall Down: A Thriller

by Rachel Howzell Hall
Forge (Apr 09, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

"A fresh voice in crime fiction. Fast, funny, heartbreaking and wise…Elouise Norton is the best new character you’ll meet this year."—Lee Child

"Hall deserves to be compared to Kathy Reichs or Patricia Cornwell, and it will not be long before she is recognized as every bit as big a crime writing star."—Daily Mail (UK)

Los Angeles Homicide Detective Elouise Norton encounters her toughest case yet in City of Saviors, the fourth installment in the critically acclaimed mystery series from author Rachel Howzell Hall.

After a long Labor Day weekend, seventy-three-year-old Eugene Washington is found dead in his Leimert Park home. At first blush, his death seems unremarkable—heatwave combined with food poisoning from a holiday barbecue. But something in the way Washington died doesn’t make sense. LAPD Homicide Detective Elouise "Lou" Norton is called to investigate the death and learns that the only family Washington had was the 6,000-member congregation of Blessed Mission Ministries, led by Bishop Solomon Tate.

But something wicked is lurking among the congregants of this church.

Lou’s partner, Detective Colin Taggert, thinks her focus on the congregation comes from her distrust of organized religion. But Lou is convinced that the murderer is sitting in one of those red velvet pews—and that Bishop Tate may be protecting the wolf in the flock. Lou must force the truth into the light and confront her own demons in order to save another soul before it’s too late.

"Hall has created a strong and likable African American detective who rivals Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch in grit, intelligence, and tenacity."—Library Journal (starred review)


Click for more detail about Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change

by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery
Picador (Mar 26, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description


Stacey Abrams is an author, serial entrepreneur, nonprofit CEO and political leader. After eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as Minority Leader, Abrams became the 2018 Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia, where she won more votes than any other Democrat in the state’s history. She has founded multiple organizations devoted to voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels; and she is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Abrams is the 2012 recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award and the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States.


Click for more detail about The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose by Oprah Winfrey The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose

by Oprah Winfrey
Flatiron Books (Mar 26, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description


Everyone has a purpose. And, according to Oprah Winfrey, “Your real job in life is to figure out as soon as possible what that is, who you are meant to be, and begin to honor your calling in the best way possible.” That journey starts right here.In her latest book, The Path Made Clear, Oprah shares what she sees as a guide for activating your deepest vision of yourself, offering the framework for creating not just a life of success, but one of significance. The book’s ten chapters are organized to help you recognize the important milestones along the road to self-discovery, laying out what you really need in order to achieve personal contentment, and what life’s detours are there to teach us. Oprah opens each chapter by sharing her own key lessons and the personal stories that helped set the course for her best life. She then brings together wisdom and insights from luminaries in a wide array of fields, inspiring readers to consider what they’re meant to do in the world and how to pursue it with passion and focus. Renowned figures such as Eckhart Tolle, Brene Brown, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Elizabeth Gilbert, Jay-Z, and Ellen DeGeneres share the greatest lessons from their own journeys toward a life filled with purpose.Paired with over 100 awe-inspiring photographs to help illuminate the wisdom of these messages, The Path Made Clear provides readers with a beautiful resource for achieving a life lived in service of your calling – whatever it may be.


Click for more detail about Tito the Bonecrusher by Melissa Thomson Tito the Bonecrusher

by Melissa Thomson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Mar 05, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description


In Melissa Thomson’s first standalone middle-grade novel, the beloved author of the Keena Ford chapter book series delivers a funny yet moving story about fathers, sons, and criminal justice. Oliver "Spaghetti-O" Jones’s dad is about to be jailed for a crime he didn’t commit, and Oliver believes the only way to save him is with the help of his favorite lucha-libre wrestler turned action star, Tito the Bonecrusher. Together with his best friend, Brianna (a.k.a. "Brain"), and their new ally Paul "Popcorn" Robards, Oliver devises a madcap plan to spring his dad from a Florida correctional facility. Heartwarming and hilarious, this book looks at what it takes to be a hero … and what happens when you realize that saving the day might not always be possible.


Click for more detail about My Mommy Medicine by Edwidge Danticat My Mommy Medicine

by Edwidge Danticat
Roaring Brook Press (Feb 26, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description


My Mommy Medicine is a picture book about the comfort and love a mama offers when her child isn’t feeling well, from renowned author Edwidge Danticat.Whenever I am sick,
Or just feel kind of gloomy or sad,
I can always count on my Mommy Medicine.When a child wakes up feeling sick, she is treated to a good dose of Mommy Medicine. Her remedy includes a yummy cup of hot chocolate; a cozy, bubble-filled bath time; and unlimited snuggles and cuddles. Mommy Medicine can heal all woes and make any day the BEST day!Award-winning memoirist Edwidge Danticat’s rich and lyrical text envelops the reader in the security of a mother’s love, and debut artist Shannon Wright’s vibrant art infuses the story with even more warmth.


Click for more detail about The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark The Haunting of Tram Car 015

by P. Djèlí Clark
Tordotcom (Feb 19, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

Clark returns to the historical fantasy universe of A Dead Djinn in Cairo, with the otherworldly adventure novella The Haunting of Tram Car 015.

Finalist for the 2020 Hugo Award
Finalist for the 2020 Nebula Award
Finalist for the 2020 Locus Award

Cairo, 1912: The case started as a simple one for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities — handling a possessed tram car.

Soon, however, Agent Hamed Nasr and his new partner Agent Onsi Youssef are exposed to a new side of Cairo stirring with suffragettes, secret societies, and sentient automatons in a race against time to protect the city from an encroaching danger that crosses the line between the magical and the mundane.


Click for more detail about Queen Bey: A Celebration of the Power and Creativity of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter by Veronica Chambers Queen Bey: A Celebration of the Power and Creativity of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter

by Veronica Chambers
St. Martin’s Press (Jan 15, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description



Click for more detail about Brave Ballerina: The Story of Janet Collins by Michelle Meadows Brave Ballerina: The Story of Janet Collins

by Michelle Meadows
Henry Holt & Company (Jan 08, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

A lyrical picture book biography of Janet Collins, the first African American principal dancer at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Janet Collins wanted to be a ballerina in the 1930s and 40s, a time when racial segregation was widespread in the United States. Janet pursued dance with a passion, despite being rejected from discriminatory dance schools. When she was accepted into the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as a teenager on the condition that she paint her skin white for performances, Janet refused. She continued to go after her dreams, never compromising her values along the way. From her early childhood lessons to the height of her success as the first African American prima ballerina in the Metropolitan Opera, Brave Ballerina is the story of a remarkable pioneer as told by Michelle Meadows, with fantastic illustrations from Ebony Glenn.


Click for more detail about The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington by Brad Meltzer The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington

by Brad Meltzer
Flatiron Books (Jan 08, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

Taking place during the most critical period of our nation’s birth, The First Conspiracy tells a remarkable and previously untold piece of American history that not only reveals George Washington’s character, but also illuminates the origins of America’s counterintelligence movement that led to the modern day CIA.

In 1776, an elite group of soldiers were handpicked to serve as George Washington’s bodyguards. Washington trusted them; relied on them. But unbeknownst to Washington, some of them were part of a treasonous plan. In the months leading up to the Revolutionary War, these traitorous soldiers, along with the Governor of New York, William Tryon, and Mayor David Mathews, launched a deadly plot against the most important member of the military: George Washington himself.

This is the story of the secret plot and how it was revealed. It is a story of leaders, liars, counterfeiters, and jailhouse confessors. It also shows just how hard the battle was for George Washington and how close America was to losing the Revolutionary War.

In this historical page-turner, New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer teams up with American history writer and documentary television producer, Josh Mensch to unravel the shocking true story behind what has previously been a footnote in the pages of history. Drawing on extensive research, Meltzer and Mensch capture in riveting detail how George Washington not only defeated the most powerful military force in the world, but also uncovered the secret plot against him in the tumultuous days leading up to July 4, 1776.


Praise for The First Conspiracy

"This is American history at its finest, a gripping story of spies, killers, counterfeiters, traitors?and a mysterious prostitute who may or may not have even existed. Anyone with an interest in American history will love this book." —Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling author of The Lost City of the Monkey God

"A wonderful book about leadership?and it shows why George Washington and his moral lessons are just as vital today. What a book. You’ll love it." —President George H.W. Bush

"This is an important book: a fascinating largely unknown chapter of our hazardous beginning, a reminder of why counterintelligence matters, and a great read." —President Bill Clinton


Click for more detail about Honeysmoke: A Story of Finding Your Color by Monique Fields Honeysmoke: A Story of Finding Your Color

by Monique Fields
Imprint (Jan 08, 2019)
Read Detailed Book Description

A young biracial girl looks around her world for her color. She finally chooses her own, and creates a new word for herself—honeysmoke.

Simone wants a color.

She asks Mama, “Am I black or white?”

“Boo,” Mama says, just like mamas do, “a color is just a word.”

She asks Daddy, “Am I black or white?”

“Well,” Daddy says, just like daddies do, “you’re a little bit of both.”

For multiracial children, and all children everywhere, this picture book offers a universal message that empowers young people to create their own self-identity.

Simone knows her color—she is honeysmoke.


Click for more detail about Woke Baby by Mahogany L. Browne Woke Baby

by Mahogany L. Browne
Roaring Brook Press (Dec 31, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

For all the littlest progressives, waking up to seize a new day of justice and activism. Woke babies are up early. Woke babies raise their fists in the air. Woke babies cry out for justice. Woke babies grow up to change the world. This lyrical and empowering book is both a celebration of what it means to be a baby and what it means to be woke. With bright playful art, Woke Baby is an anthem of hope in a world where the only limit to a skyscrapper is more blue.


Click for more detail about Woke Baby by Mahogany L. Browne Woke Baby

by Mahogany L. Browne
Roaring Brook Press (Dec 31, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


For all the littlest progressives, waking up to seize a new day of justice and activism.Woke babies are up early. Woke babies raise their fists in the air. Woke babies cry out for justice. Woke babies grow up to change the world. This lyrical and empowering book is both a celebration of what it means to be a baby and what it means to be woke. With bright playful art, Woke Baby is an anthem of hope in a world where the only limit to a skyscrapper is more blue.


Click for more detail about Michelle Obama’s Impact on African American Women and Girls (Softcover Reprint of the Original 1st 2018) by Michelle Duster Michelle Obama’s Impact on African American Women and Girls (Softcover Reprint of the Original 1st 2018)

by Michelle Duster
Palgrave Macmillan (Dec 22, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

This edited collection explores how First Lady Michelle Obama gradually expanded and broadened her role by engaging in social, political, and economic activities which directly and indirectly impacted the lives of the American people, especially young women, and girls.

The volume responds to the various representations of Michelle Obama and how the language and images used to depict her either affirmed, offended, represented or misrepresented her and its authors. It is an interdisciplinary evaluation by African American women and girls of the First Lady’s overall impact through several media, including original artwork and poetry. It also examines her political activities during and post-election 2016.


Click for more detail about Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team That Awakened a City by Phillip Hoose Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team That Awakened a City

by Phillip Hoose
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Oct 23, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Hoose does a brilliant job of portraying the surrounding historical context, exploring the migration of black families from the South to Indiana, showing how Jim Crow practices were just as present in the North as in the South, and describing the deep groundswell of support for basketball in Indiana….Attucks! doesn’t pretend that we’ve outlived the racism of the American past, all the while showing readers how being grounded in one’s self-worth and committed to the pursuit of excellence can have a lasting impact on a community. A powerful, awe-inspiring basketball-driven history." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Excessively readable, this should appeal to sports fans and those looking for a good book about the civil rights era. Exemplary notes and sources will push readers—adults included—to learn even more." —Booklist, starred review

"The evolving fast-break style of play, the local rivalries, and the sheer prowess of individual players guarantee a compelling read, but the story of how a mini dynasty of high school players turned the tables on segregationists extends interest beyond sports fans…When kids think they’ve reached the end of their civil rights era education, hand them this." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review

"Hoose balances this expos� of basketball’s racist history with thrilling game accounts, character insight, and great sympathy." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"With sharp insight and an engaging writing style, the author relates how high school basketball engulfed the way of life in different Indiana communities and was instrumental in dismantling parts of segregation. Numerous black-and-white photos and newspaper articles supplement this exceedingly engaging work…A great purchase for YA nonfiction collections." —School Library Journal

"Hoose demonstrates how young people can affect history…[A] thought-provoking volume." —The Horn Book

"A fresh, revelatory look at a familiar story that is central to understanding Indianapolis." —The Indianapolis Star

"I’d always been a fan of Oscar Robertson, arguably the best basketball player of the twentieth century, but until I read Attucks!—the thrilling, moving, enlightening story of his roots in deeply segregated Indianapolis—I had no idea of how important a life he had led." —Robert Lipsyte, author of SportsWorld: An American Dreamland


Click for more detail about The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant The Mamba Mentality: How I Play

by Kobe Bryant
MCD (Oct 23, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


The first book from the basketball superstar Kobe Bryant?a lavish, deep dive inside the mind of one of the most revered athletes of all timeIn the wake of his retirement from professional basketball, Kobe “The Black Mamba” Bryant has decided to share his vast knowledge and understanding of the game to take readers on an unprecedented journey to the core of the legendary “Mamba mentality.” Citing an obligation and an opportunity to teach young players, hardcore fans, and devoted students of the game how to play it “the right way,” The Mamba Mentality takes us inside the mind of one of the most intelligent, analytical, and creative basketball players ever.For the first time, and in his own words, Bryant reveals his famously detailed approach and the steps he took to prepare mentally and physically to not just succeed at the game, but to excel. Readers will learn how Bryant studied an opponent, how he channeled his passion for the game, how he played through injuries. They’ll also get fascinating granular detail as he breaks down specific plays and match-ups from throughout his career.Bryant’s detailed accounts are paired with stunning photographs by the Hall of Fame photographer Andrew D. Bernstein. Bernstein, long the Lakers and NBA official photographer, captured Bryant’s very first NBA photo in 1996 and his last in 2016?and hundreds of thousands in between, the record of a unique, twenty-year relationship between one athlete and one photographer.The combination of Bryant’s narrative and Bernstein’s photos make The Mamba Mentality an unprecedented look behind the curtain at the career of one of the world’s most celebrated and fascinating athletes.


Click for more detail about Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L. Carter Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster

by Stephen L. Carter
Henry Holt & Company (Oct 09, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

She was brilliant, ambitious, and unafraid to break barriers. As the only member of a squad of twenty high-powered lawyers who was not a white male, she devised the strategy that in the 1930s sent Mafia chieftain Lucky Luciano to prison. She achieved so much—but what could she have accomplished if not for barriers of race and gender?

Eunice Hunton Carter, Stephen Carter’s grandmother, was the daughter of a distinguished African American couple and the granddaughter of slaves. A graduate of Smith College and Fordham Law School, she became a key member of the legal team charged with breaking up organized crime in New York City. By the 1940s, she was one of the most famous black women in America. But at every turn, Eunice encountered prejudice, and her triumphs were shadowed by tragedy. Greatly complicating her rise was her difficult relationship with her younger brother, Alphaeus, an avowed Communist who—together with his friend Dashiell Hammett—went to prison during the McCarthy era. Yet she remained unbowed: constantly reinventing herself, she somehow found a way forward.

Moving, haunting, and written with dazzling power, Invisible tells the story of a woman who often found her path blocked by the social and political expectations of the age. But Eunice Carter never accepted defeat, and thanks to her grandson’s remarkable book she is once again visible.


Click for more detail about We Can’t Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival by Jabari Asim We Can’t Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival

by Jabari Asim
Picador (Oct 02, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

A Finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay

Insightful and searing essays that celebrate the vibrancy and strength of black history and culture in America by critically acclaimed writer Jabari Asim

“A fantastic essay collection…Blending personal reflection with historical analysis and cultural and literary criticism, these essays are a sharp, illuminating response to the nation’s continuing racial conflicts.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

In We Can’t Breathe, Jabari Asim disrupts what Toni Morrison has exposed as the “Master Narrative” and replaces it with a story of black survival and persistence through art and community in the face of centuries of racism. In eight wide-ranging and penetrating essays, he explores such topics as the twisted legacy of jokes and falsehoods in black life; the importance of black fathers and community; the significance of black writers and stories; and the beauty and pain of the black body. What emerges is a rich portrait of a community and culture that has resisted, survived, and flourished despite centuries of racism, violence, and trauma. These thought-provoking essays present a different side of American history, one that doesn’t depend on a narrative steeped in oppression but rather reveals black voices telling their own stories.


Click for more detail about So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom by Gary D. Schmidt So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom

by Gary D. Schmidt
Roaring Brook Press (Sep 25, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

From celebrated author Gary D. Schmidt comes a picture book biography of a giant in the struggle for civil rights, perfectly pitched for readers today.

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery but possessed a mind and a vision that knew no bounds. So Tall Within traces her life from her painful childhood through her remarkable emancipation to her incredible leadership in the movement for rights for both women and African Americans. Her story is told with lyricism and pathos by Gary D. Schmidt, one of the most celebrated writers for children in the twenty-first century, and brought to life by award winning and fine artist Daniel Minter. This combination of talent is just right for introducing this legendary figure to a new generation of children.


Click for more detail about Monk!: Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution by Youssef Daoudi Monk!: Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution

by Youssef Daoudi
First Second (Sep 25, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


"Read this invigorating graphic narrative, then?quickly, before the spell breaks!?play one of Monk’s records." ?Saul Williams She is Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter, a free-spirited baroness of the Rothschild family. He is Thelonious Sphere Monk, a musical genius fighting against the whims of his troubled mind. Their enduring friendship begins in 1954 and ends only with Monk’s death in 1982.Set against the backdrop of New York during the heyday of jazz, Monk! explores the rare alchemy between two brilliant beings separated by an ocean of social status, race, and culture, but united by an infinite love of music. This breathtaking graphic novel by Youssef Daoudi beautifully captures the life of the “the high priest of bop” in spontaneous, evocative pen and ink that seems to make visible jazz itself.


Click for more detail about I Love You More Than… by Taye Diggs I Love You More Than…

by Taye Diggs
Feiwel & Friends (Sep 18, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


My child. I am not always with you
as much as I’d like. But you are always in my mind
and my heart. Some families look different than others. A father who doesn’t live full-time with his son tells him all the ways he misses and loves him. Perfect for families who are separated, whatever the circumstances, this message of love underscores the bond between parent and child in ways that little ones will understand.


Click for more detail about The Woman Trapped in the Dark by J.D. Mason The Woman Trapped in the Dark

by J.D. Mason
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 18, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


Click for more detail about The Ancient Nine: A Novel by Ian K. Smith The Ancient Nine: A Novel

by Ian K. Smith
St. Martin’s Press (Sep 18, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


"Pulls you into the depths of a secret world from the first page. Ian Smith’s novel is unmissable." ?Harlan Coben, author of Missing You

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fall 1988

Spenser Collins
An unlikely Harvard prospect, smart and athletic, strapped for cash, determined to succeed. Calls his mother?who raised him on her own in Chicago?every week.

Dalton Winthrop
A white-shoe legacy at Harvard, he’s just the most recent in a string of moneyed, privileged Winthrop men in Cambridge. He’s got the ease?and the deep knowledge?that come from belonging.

These two find enough common ground to become friends, cementing their bond when Spenser is "punched" to join the Delphic Club, one of the most exclusive of Harvard’s famous all-male final clubs. Founded in the nineteenth century, the Delphic has had titans of industry, Hollywood legends, heads of state, and power brokers among its members.Dalton Winthrop knows firsthand that the Delphic doesn’t offer memberships to just anyone. His great-uncle is one of their oldest living members, and Dalton grew up on stories of the club’s rituals. But why is his uncle so cryptic about the Ancient Nine, a shadowy group of alums whose identities are unknown and whose power is absolute? They protect the Delphic’s darkest and oldest secrets?including what happened to a student who sneaked into the club’s stately brick mansion in 1927 and was never seen again.Dalton steers Spenser into deeper and deeper recesses of the club, and beyond, to try to make sense of what they think they may be seeing. But with each scrap of information they get from an octogenarian Crimson graduate, a crumbling newspaper in the library’s archives, or one of Harvard’s most famous and heavily guarded historical books, a fresh complication trips them up. The more the friends investigate, the more questions they unearth, tangling the story of the club, the disappearance, and the Ancient Nine, until they realize their own lives are in danger.


Click for more detail about Carlos Santana: Sound of the Heart, Song of the World by Gary Golio Carlos Santana: Sound of the Heart, Song of the World

by Gary Golio
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (Sep 04, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


Discover the childhood story of Carlos Santana in Gary Golio’s Sound of the Heart, Song of the World, featuring illustrations by Rudy Gutierrez, the internationally celebrated artist who created the iconic Carlos Santana Shaman CD cover.

Carlos Santana grew up surrounded by music. His father, a beloved mariachi performer, teaches his son how to play the violin when he is only six years old. But when Carlos discovers American blues, he is captivated by the raw honesty of the music. Unable to think of anything else, he loses all interest in the violin. When Carlos finally receives his first guitar, his whole life begins to change.From his early exposure to mariachi to his successful fusing of rock, blues, jazz, and Latin influences, here is the childhood story of a legendary musician. Christy Ottaviano Books


Click for more detail about Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen

by Sarah Bird
St. Martin’s Press (Sep 04, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

The compelling, hidden story of Cathy Williams, a former slave and the first woman to ever serve in the US Army “Here’s the first thing you need to know about Miss Cathy Williams: I am the daughter of a daughter of a queen and my Mama never let me forget it.” Missouri, 1864 Powerful, epic, and compelling, Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen shines light on a nearly forgotten figure in history. Cathy Williams was born and lived a slave until the Union army comes and destroys the only world she’s known. Separated from her family, she makes the impossible decision, to fight in the army disguised as a man with the Buffalo Soldiers. With courage and wit, Cathy must not only fight for her survival and freedom in the ultimate man’s world, but never give up on her mission to find her family, and the man she loves. Beautiful, strong, and impactful, Cathy’s story is one that illustrates the force of hidden history come to light, the strength of women, and the power of love


Click for more detail about Housegirl: A Novel by Michael Donkor Housegirl: A Novel

by Michael Donkor
Picador (Aug 28, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


Nominated for the Edinburgh First Book Award • One of The Observer’s "New Faces of Fiction" • One of The Millions’ "Most Anticipated Books of the Year" • One of The Guardian’s "Best Summer Books" (Selected by Kayo Chingonyi and Joe Dunthorne) • One of Library Journal’s "Most Anticipated Fall Debuts" • One of the New York Post’s "Best Books of the Week"

"Immensely readable…A refreshing story about coming of age in spite of conflicting ideas of what ’growing up’ means."?Buzzfeed (The Best Books of Fall)

A moving and unexpectedly funny exploration of friendship and family, shame and forgiveness, Michael Donkor’s debut novel follows three adolescent girls grappling with a shared experience: the joys and sorrows of growing up. Belinda knows how to follow the rules. As a housegirl, she has learned the right way to polish water glasses, to wash and fold a hundred handkerchiefs, and to keep a tight lid on memories of the village she left behind when she came to Kumasi.Mary is still learning the rules. Eleven-years-old and irrepressible, the young housegirl-in-training is the little sister Belinda never had.Amma has had enough of the rules. A straight-A student at her exclusive London school, she has always been the pride of her Ghanaian parents?until now. Watching their once-confident teenager grow sullen and wayward, they decide that sensible Belinda is the shining example Amma needs.So Belinda must leave Mary behind as she is summoned from Ghana to London, where she tries to impose order on her unsettling new world. As summer turns to autumn, Belinda and Amma are surprised to discover common ground. But when the cracks in their defenses open up, the secrets they have both been holding tightly threaten to seep out.


Click for more detail about Mirage by Somaiya Daud Mirage

by Somaiya Daud
Flatiron Books (Aug 28, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

"A refreshing and unique coming-of-age story…a beautiful and necessary meditation on finding strength in one’s culture." Entertainment Weekly, Top Pick of the Month

"A YA marvel that will shock breath into your lungs. If you loved The Wrath and the Dawn and Children of Blood and Bone, Mirage will captivate you."The Christian Science Monitor

"This debut fantasy has what it takes to be the next big thing in sci-fi/fantasy." SLJ, starred review

"Immersive, captivating." ALA Booklist, starred review

In a world dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation; she dreams of writing poetry like the old-world poems she adores; she dreams of receiving a sign from Dihya that one day, she, too, will have adventure, and travel beyond her isolated home.

But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects: she is kidnapped by the regime and taken in secret to the royal palace, where she discovers that she is nearly identical to the cruel half-Vathek Princess Maram. The princess is so hated by her conquered people that she requires a body double, someone to appear in public as Maram, ready to die in her place.

As Amani is forced into her new role, she can’t help but enjoy the palace’s beauty—and her time with the princess’ fianc?, Idris. But the glitter of the royal court belies a world of violence and fear. If Amani ever wishes to see her family again, she must play the princess to perfection…because one wrong move could lead to her death.


Click for more detail about The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark The Black God’s Drums

by P. Djèlí Clark
Tordotcom (Aug 21, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

Rising science fiction and fantasy star P. Djl Clark brings an alternate New Orleans of orisha, airships, and adventure to life in his immersive debut novella The Black God’s Drums.

Alex Award Winner!

In an alternate New Orleans caught in the tangle of the American Civil War, the wall-scaling girl named Creeper yearns to escape the streets for the air—in particular, by earning a spot on-board the airship Midnight Robber. Creeper plans to earn Captain Ann-Maries trust with information she discovers about a Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black Gods Drums.

But Creeper also has a secret herself: Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, speaks inside her head, and may have her own ulterior motivations.

Soon, Creeper, Oya, and the crew of the Midnight Robber are pulled into a perilous mission aimed to stop the Black Gods Drums from being unleashed and wiping out the entirety of New Orleans.


Click for more detail about Black Klansman: A Memoir by Ron Stallworth
Black Klansman: A Memoir

by Ron Stallworth
Flatiron Books (Jun 05, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


The New York Times Bestseller!

The extraordinary true story and basis for the major motion picture BlacKkKlansman, written and directed by Spike Lee, produced by Jordan Peele, and starring John David Washington and Adam Driver.

When detective Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, comes across a classified ad in the local paper asking for all those interested in joining the Ku Klux Klan to contact a P.O. box, Detective Stallworth does his job and responds with interest, using his real name while posing as a white man. He figures he’ll receive a few brochures in the mail, maybe even a magazine, and learn more about a growing terrorist threat in his community. A few weeks later the office phone rings, and the caller asks Ron a question he thought he’d never have to answer, “Would you like to join our cause?” This is 1978, and the KKK is on the rise in the United States. Its Grand Wizard, David Duke, has made a name for himself, appearing on talk shows, and major magazine interviews preaching a “kinder” Klan that wants nothing more than to preserve a heritage, and to restore a nation to its former glory.Ron answers the caller’s question that night with a yes, launching what is surely one of the most audacious, and incredible undercover investigations in history. Ron recruits his partner Chuck to play the "white" Ron Stallworth, while Stallworth himself conducts all subsequent phone conversations. During the months-long investigation, Stallworth sabotages cross burnings, exposes white supremacists in the military, and even befriends David Duke himself. Black Klansman is an amazing true story that reads like a crime thriller, and a searing portrait of a divided America and the extraordinary heroes who dare to fight back.


Click for more detail about What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America by Michael Eric Dyson What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America

by Michael Eric Dyson
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jun 05, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


A stunning follow up to New York Times bestseller Tears We Cannot Stop, a timely exploration of America’s tortured racial politicsPresident Barack Obama: "Everybody who speaks after Michael Eric Dyson pales in comparison.”In 2015 BLM activist Julius Jones confronted Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with an urgent query: “What in your heart has changed that’s going to change the direction of this country?” “I don’t believe you just change hearts,” she protested. “I believe you change laws.”The fraught conflict between conscience and politics – between morality and power – in addressing race hardly began with Clinton. An electrifying and traumatic encounter in the sixties crystallized these furious disputes.In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought out James Baldwin to explain the rage that threatened to engulf black America. Baldwin brought along some friends, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, psychologist Kenneth Clark, and a valiant activist, Jerome Smith. It was Smith’s relentless, unfiltered fury that set Kennedy on his heels, reducing him to sullen silence.Kennedy walked away from the nearly three-hour meeting angry – that the black folk assembled didn’t understand politics, and that they weren’t as easy to talk to as Martin Luther King. But especially that they were more interested in witness than policy. But Kennedy’s anger quickly gave way to empathy, especially for Smith. “I guess if I were in his shoes…I might feel differently about this country.” Kennedy set about changing policy – the meeting having transformed his thinking in fundamental ways.There was more: every big argument about race that persists to this day got a hearing in that room. Smith declaring that he’d never fight for his country given its racist tendencies, and Kennedy being appalled at such lack of patriotism, tracks the disdain for black dissent in our own time. His belief that black folk were ungrateful for the Kennedys’ efforts to make things better shows up in our day as the charge that black folk wallow in the politics of ingratitude and victimhood. The contributions of black queer folk to racial progress still cause a stir. BLM has been accused of harboring a covert queer agenda. The immigrant experience, like that of Kennedy – versus the racial experience of Baldwin – is a cudgel to excoriate black folk for lacking hustle and ingenuity. The questioning of whether folk who are interracially partnered can authentically communicate black interests persists. And we grapple still with the responsibility of black intellectuals and artists to bring about social change.What Truth Sounds Like exists at the tense intersection of the conflict between politics and prophecy – of whether we embrace political resolution or moral redemption to fix our fractured racial landscape. The future of race and democracy hang in the balance.


Click for more detail about Boss Bride: The Powerful Woman’s Playbook for Love and Success by Charreah K. Jackson Boss Bride: The Powerful Woman’s Playbook for Love and Success

by Charreah K. Jackson
St. Martin’s Press (Jun 05, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


In our society, women earn the majority of degrees and are increasingly bringing home the bacon - and frying it, with 40% of American households having female breadwinners. ESSENCE Senior Editor and author Charreah K. Jackson interviewed and researched more than 150 professional women including everyday powerhouses and famous faces for strategies to thrive in our personal and professional lives.  This juicy and honest read includes insight from more than 1,000 years of marriage and career success by accomplished women and shares the little-discussed realities at the intersection of work and love, and how women can avoid a collision. We are a generation of women with the most professional opportunities and accomplishments of any women before us - which can be just as overwhelming as it is exciting. This book is a bridge to create a love life and career that fulfills you: it’s time to Go Hard AND Go Home.



What This Book Breaks Down:
*           The Boss Bride Bill of Rights: You r8 Inalienable Rights
*           Why your husband is the biggest decision of your career
*           How to date like a pro - and meet men worthy of you
*           The 6 common love personalities
*           Why an engagement ring can rock your career
*           Fertility, pregnancy and birth control for busy women
*           How to Go Hard AND Go Home
*           6 steps to finance your romance(YES, you should have a prenup)
*           How powerful women merge work &family
*           The Female Breadwinners Survival Guide
*           What to consider before changing your last name
*           How to restart your life or relationships at any moment


Click for more detail about The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

by Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin
St. Martin’s Press (Jun 05, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

Oprah’s Book Club Summer 2018 Selection

The Instant New York Times Bestseller

A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit.

"An amazing and heartwarming story, it restores our faith in the inherent goodness of humanity."
—Archbishop Desmond Tutu

In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free.

But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence—full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty-seven years he was a beacon—transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty-four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.

With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic thirty-year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy.


Click for more detail about Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

by Jaron Lanier
Henry Holt & Company (May 29, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


A timely call-to-arms from a Silicon Valley pioneer.You might have trouble imagining life without your social media accounts, but virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier insists that we’re better off without them. In Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Lanier, who participates in no social media, offers powerful and personal reasons for all of us to leave these dangerous online platforms.Lanier’s reasons for freeing ourselves from social media’s poisonous grip include its tendency to bring out the worst in us, to make politics terrifying, to trick us with illusions of popularity and success, to twist our relationship with the truth, to disconnect us from other people even as we are more “connected” than ever, to rob us of our free will with relentless targeted ads. How can we remain autonomous in a world where we are under continual surveillance and are constantly being prodded by algorithms run by some of the richest corporations in history that have no way of making money other than being paid to manipulate our behavior? How could the benefits of social media possibly outweigh the catastrophic losses to our personal dignity, happiness, and freedom? Lanier remains a tech optimist, so while demonstrating the evil that rules social media business models today, he also envisions a humanistic setting for social networking that can direct us toward a richer and fuller way of living and connecting with our world.


Click for more detail about Song of Blood & Stone: Earthsinger Chronicles, Book One by L. Penelope Song of Blood & Stone: Earthsinger Chronicles, Book One

by L. Penelope
St. Martin’s Press (May 01, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


"Wonderful characters, unique setting, and an engaging romance set against the backdrop of ancient magic. I can’t wait to see what L. Penelope will do next."—Ilona Andrews, #1 New York Times bestselling author

A treacherous, thrilling, epic fantasy about an outcast drawn into a war between two powerful rulers.

Orphaned and alone, Jasminda lives in a land where cold whispers of invasion and war linger on the wind. Jasminda herself is an outcast in her homeland of Elsira, where her gift of Earthsong is feared. When ruthless soldiers seek refuge in her isolated cabin, they bring with them a captive—an injured spy who threatens to steal her heart.

Jack’s mission behind enemy lines to prove that the Mantle between Elsira and Lagrimar is about to fall nearly cost him his life, but he is saved by the healing Song of a mysterious young woman. Now he must do whatever it takes to save Elsira and its people from the True Father and he needs Jasminda’s Earthsong to do it. They escape their vicious captors and together embark on a perilous journey to save Elsira and to uncover the secrets of The Queen Who Sleeps.

Thrust into a hostile society, Jasminda and Jack must rely on one another even as secrets jeopardize their bond. As an ancient evil gains power, Jasminda races to unlock a mystery that promises salvation.

The fates of two nations hang in the balance as Jasminda and Jack must choose between love and duty to fulfill their destinies and end the war.

"Prepare to be hooked. SONG OF BLOOD AND STONE is brimming with captivating lore, unique magic, and plot-turns you never saw coming. L. Penelope has written your next fantasy obsession." —Elise Kova, USA Today bestselling author of The Loom Saga


Click for more detail about Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change

by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery
Henry Holt & Company (Apr 24, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


A personal and empowering blueprint?from one of America’s rising Democratic stars?for outsiders who seek to become the ones in chargeLeadership is hard. Convincing others?and often yourself?that you possess the answers and are capable of world-affecting change requires confidence, insight, and sheer bravado. Minority Leader is the handbook for outsiders, written with the awareness of the experiences and challenges that hinder anyone who exists beyond the structure of traditional white male power?women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and millennials ready to make a difference.In Minority Leader, Stacey Abrams argues that knowing your own passion is the key to success, regardless of the scale or target. From launching a company, to starting a day care center for homeless teen moms, to running a successful political campaign, finding what you want to fight for is as critical as knowing how to turn thought into action. Stacey uses her experience and hard-won insights to break down how ambition, fear, money, and failure function in leadership, while offering personal stories that illuminate practical strategies.Stacey includes exercises to help you hone your skills and realize your aspirations. She discusses candidly what she has learned over the course of her impressive career: that differences in race, gender, and class are surmountable. With direction and dedication, being in the minority actually provides unique and vital strength, which we can employ to rise to the top and make real change.


Click for more detail about The Clean 20: 20 Foods, 20 Days, Total Transformation by Ian K. Smith The Clean 20: 20 Foods, 20 Days, Total Transformation

by Ian K. Smith
St. Martin’s Press (Apr 10, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


New York Times bestseller

From the New York Times bestselling author of SHRED and Blast the Sugar Out, the ultimate guide to clean eating!What is clean eating? In his newest diet book, Dr. Ian K. Smith teaches readers the benefits of clean eating and how to implement it in their own lives. He tells readers how to easily reduce unhealthy processed foods in their diets, a key to weight loss, disease prevention, and overall health. The Clean 20 focuses on twenty clean foods—from avocado to whole wheat pasta and everything in between—that readers can easily find, prepare, and incorporate into their diets. The Clean 20 includes a complete clean eating program with a daily meal plan, 60 recipes and substitutions, as well as 20 minute easy-to-work-in workouts.Dr. Ian knows what works: it’s not eliminating food groups, but choosing foods within each group wisely to satisfy the palate and the body’s nutritional demands. The Clean 20 isn’t just vegetables. Grains are in. And so is fruit, fat, meat and fish. When palate and nutrition are in sync, weight loss not only follows, it sticks. The Clean 20 is a life and body changer.


Click for more detail about Pregnancy, Omg!: The First Ever Photographic Guide for Modern Mamas-To-Be by Nancy Redd Pregnancy, Omg!: The First Ever Photographic Guide for Modern Mamas-To-Be

by Nancy Redd
St. Martin’s Griffin (Apr 03, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

Pregnancy, OMG! by Nancy Redd is an unflinching look at pregnancy issues not often talked about, including depression, varicose veins — and even lactating third boobs. —People.com

"In her new book, Pregnancy, OMG!, best-selling author Nancy Redd provides a detailed and medically-researched account of all of the things that can happen when you’re creating life. It’s the ultimate baker’s how-to for anyone who’s got a bun in the oven." —OK Magazine

"Can I go back and be pregnant again just so I can have the information in this book to guide me? Maybe I can convince my husband to have #7…Pregnancy, OMG! is equal parts informative, beautiful, and everything every mother must know." —Jasinda Wilder, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Falling into You

"Pregnancy, OMG! is the new must-have book for expecting parents. With a photographic guide to pregnancy, Nancy Redd’s just-released book isn’t afraid to go there." —Grok Nation


More praise for Nancy Redd and Body Drama:

"Body Drama should be center stage in every young woman’s life. It will make you love every little thing about your body: your sags, your tags, your lumps, your bumps. It’s a book of liberation and it’s fun." —Eve Ensler

"Demystifies female bodies and shows them as they really look: curvy, sometimes pimply and never perfect." —Glamour

"For girls and women facing the mixed messages, double standards, and perfection pressures of our culture, there is no better corrective than Diet Drama, and no better person to write it than Nancy Redd. With humor, authenticity, and compassion, Nancy deftly manages to balance the messages of body acceptance and getting healthier, without the self-hatred and the unrealistic expectations. She’s been there, and her warmth, enthusiasm, and smarts jump off every page." —Irin Carmon of Jezebel

"Body Drama…should be on the shelf of every family, school, and doctor in America." —Nancy Brown, PhD, Professor of Adolescent Sexuality at Stanford University, senior research associate at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) Research Institute


Click for more detail about Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi Children of Blood and Bone

by Tomi Adeyemi
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (Mar 06, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

The first book in a trilogu, In Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha) Tomi Adeyemi conjures a stunning world of dark magic and danger in her West African-inspired fantasy debut, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir..

They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.
Now we rise.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good. 

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for an enemy.


Click for more detail about Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy

by Coretta Scott King
Picador (Feb 20, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


The True Story of Coretta Scott King Told Fully for the First TimeNamed a Washington Post Book to Read • A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A USA Today “New and Noteworthy” Pick • A Read It Forward Favorite Read • A Parade Magazine Pick • A Publishers Weekly "Notable African-American Titles"[Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy] "reveals never-before-told aspects of Mrs. King’s life….We learn of the brilliant mind and courageous spirit behind the enigmatic figure” (Essence).Born in 1927 to daringly enterprising parents in the Deep South, Coretta Scott had always felt called to a special purpose. While enrolled as one of the first black scholarship students recruited to Antioch College, she became politically and socially active and committed to the peace movement. As a graduate student at the New England Conservatory of Music, determined to pursue her own career as a concert singer, she met Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister insistent that his wife stay home with the children. But, in love and devoted to shared Christian beliefs as well as shared racial and economic justice goals, she married Dr. King, and events promptly thrust her into a maelstrom of history throughout which she was a strategic partner, a standard-bearer, and so much more. As a widow and single mother of four, she worked tirelessly to found and develop the King Center as a citadel for world peace; lobbied for fifteen years for a U.S. national holiday in honor of her husband; championed women’s, workers’, and gay rights; and was a powerful international voice for nonviolence, freedom, and human dignity."Distinctly…particularly absorbing" (Patricia J. Williams, The New York Times Book Review), Coretta’s is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an extraordinary black woman in twentieth-century America?a brave leader who, in the face of terrorism and violent hatred, stood committed, proud, forgiving, nonviolent, and hopeful every day of her life.


Click for more detail about Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower

by Brittney Cooper
St. Martin’s Press (Feb 20, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


With searing honesty, intimacy and humor too, America’s leading young black feminist celebrates the power of rage.Melissa Harris Perry says: “I was waiting for an author who wouldn’t forget, ignore, or erase us black girls as they told their own story…I was waiting and she has come?in Brittney Cooper.” Michael Eric Dyson says: “Cooper may be the boldest young feminist writing today. Her critique is sharp, her love of Black people and Black culture is deep, and she will make you laugh out loud.” Rebecca Traister says: "Brittney Cooper is a national treasure."Mychal Denzel Smith says: "Brittney Cooper is the Black Feminist Prophet we urgently need." So what if it’s true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting.Far too often, Black women’s anger has been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy. But Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that. Black women’s eloquent rage is what makes Serena Williams such a powerful tennis player. It’s what makes Beyoncé’s girl power anthems resonate so hard. It’s what makes Michelle Obama an icon. Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother’s eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. And it took another intervention, this time staged by one of her homegirls, to turn Brittney into the fierce feminist she is today. In Brittney Cooper’s world, neither mean girls nor fuckboys ever win. But homegirls emerge as heroes. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one’s own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again.


Click for more detail about Between Harlem and Heaven: Afro-Asian-American Cooking for Big Nights, Weeknights, and Every Day by Alexander Smalls and JJ Johnson, with Veronica Chambers Between Harlem and Heaven: Afro-Asian-American Cooking for Big Nights, Weeknights, and Every Day

by Alexander Smalls and JJ Johnson, with Veronica Chambers
Flatiron Books (Feb 06, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

WINNER OF THE JAMES BEARD AWARD: BEST AMERICAN COOKBOOK

"Between Harlem and Heaven presents a captivatingly original cuisine. Afro-Asian-American cooking is packed with unique and delicious layers of flavor. These stories and recipes lay praise to the immense influence the African Diaspora has had on global cuisine."
— Sean Brock

"This is more than just a cookbook. Alexander and JJ take us on a culinary journey through space and time that started more than 400 years ago, on the shores of West Africa. Through inspiring recipes that have survived the Middle Passage to seamlessly embrace Asian influences, this book is a testimony to the fact that food transcends borders. Alexander Smalls and JJ Johnson have elevated the cuisines of West Africa and its diaspora without losing any of its essence. Afro-Asian cuisine is a new concept and it works beautifully!"
— Chef Pierre Thiam

"Between Harlem and Heaven is a celebration of food, culture, and the historic legacy of proud people unsung. This is the story of resilience and reverence, of people farming and cooking from one continent to the other, making delicious flavors in every pot. Alexander’s culinary vision captures the essence, contribution, and influence of the African Diaspora, and is the result of his passionate, life-long adventure. There’s no better place than the cradle of African American culture itself, between heaven and Harlem. This book is one good time of great dishes and interesting stories." — Cicely Tyson


Click for more detail about Poised for Excellence: Fundamental Principles of Effective Leadership in the Boardroom and Beyond by Karima Mariama-Arthur Poised for Excellence: Fundamental Principles of Effective Leadership in the Boardroom and Beyond

by Karima Mariama-Arthur
Palgrave Macmillan (Jan 29, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

This book is an exceptional resource for leaders at every level across industries. An insightful guidebook comprised of 40 illuminating principles showcasing the fundamental competencies that impact performance in theboardroom and beyond, each chapter includes the following core components: 1) a robust, but succinct discussion introducing each principle; 2) key strategies providing straightforward guidance on how to master each principle; 3) a selection of thoughtful journal questions that allow for meaningful introspection, and finally, 4) a leadership challenge—a stretch goal—that brings each principle into immediate, scalable focus.

Whether a seasoned or emerging leader, each reader will discover useful perspectives contained within each chapter designed to firmly orient their thinking and behavior towards leadership excellence. An enduring resource for circumstances in which every leader will inevitably find him or herself confronting, it will also serve as the "go to" professional development resource for elevating leadership brands and facilitating the necessary trench work required to develop competent and confident leaders regardless of industry or expertise.

Different from traditional books that provide a one-dimensional view of what leadership is and do little more than categorize existing traits, Poised for Excellence breaks the mold. It creates the context for understanding leadership development as a holistic process: By focusing on the mastery of fundamental principles structured to develop the whole person through service to self and others, it ignites an evolutionary process that cultivates 360 degrees of effective leadership. It directs readers to stake a bold claim to their success and transform the way they show up in the boardroom and beyond.


Click for more detail about Wild Is the Wind: Poems by Carl Phillips Wild Is the Wind: Poems

by Carl Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jan 23, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

A powerful, inventive collection from one of America’s most critically admired poets.

“What has restlessness been for?” In Wild Is the Wind, Carl Phillips reflects on love as depicted in the jazz standard for which the book is named — love at once restless, reckless, and yet desired for its potential to bring stability. In the process, he pitches estrangement against communion, examines the past as history versus the past as memory, and reflects on the past’s capacity both to teach and to mislead us — also to make us hesitate in the face of love, given the loss and damage that are, often enough, love’s fallout. How “to say no to despair?” How to take perhaps that greatest risk, the risk of believing in what offers no guarantee? These poems that, in their wedding of the philosophical, meditative, and lyric modes, mark a new stage in Phillips’s remarkable work, stand as further proof that “if Carl Phillips had not come onto the scene, we would have needed to invent him. His idiosyncratic style, his innovative method, and his unique voice are essential steps in the evolution of the craft” —Judith Kitchen, The Georgia Review).


Click for more detail about The Meaning of Michelle: 16 Writers on the Iconic First Lady and How Her Journey Inspires Our Own by Veronica Chambers The Meaning of Michelle: 16 Writers on the Iconic First Lady and How Her Journey Inspires Our Own

by Veronica Chambers
Picador (Jan 16, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

“Whenever I think about Michelle Obama, I think, ‘When I grow up, I want to be just like her. I want to be that intelligent, confident, and comfortable in my own skin’.” —Roxane Gay

“Even after eight years of watching them daily in the press, the fact that the most powerful man in the world is a Black man is still breathtaking to me. The fact that he goes home to a tight-knit, loving family headed by a Black woman is soul-stirring. That woman is Michelle. Michelle. That name now carries a whole world of meaning.…” —From the Preface by Ava DuVernay

Michelle Obama is unlike any other First Lady in American History. From her first moments on the public stage, she has challenged traditional American notions about what it means to be beautiful, to be strong, to be fashion-conscious, to be healthy, to be First Mom, to be a caretaker and hostess, and to be partner to the most powerful man in the world. What is remarkable is that, at 52, she is just getting started.

While many books have looked at Michelle Obama from a fashion perspective, no book has fully explored what she means to our culture. The Meaning of Michelle does just that, while offering a parting gift to a landmark moment in American history. In addition to a tribute to Michelle Obama, this book is also a rollicking, lively dinner party conversation about race, class, marriage, creativity, womanhood and what it means to be American today.

Contributors include: Ava DuVernay, Veronica Chambers, Benilde Little, Damon Young, Alicia Hall Moran and Jason Moran, Brittney Cooper, Ylonda Gault Caviness, Chirlane McCray, Cathi Hanauer, Tiffany Dufu, Tanisha Ford, Marcus Samuelsson, Sarah Lewis, Karen Hill Anton, Rebecca Carroll, Phillipa Soo, and Roxane Gay

Book Review

Click for more detail about Binti (#3): The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor Binti (#3): The Night Masquerade

by Nnedi Okorafor
Forge (Jan 16, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

The concluding part of the highly-acclaimed science fiction trilogy that began with Nnedi Okorafor’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Binti. Binti has returned to her home planet, believing that the violence of the Meduse has been left behind. Unfortunately, although her people are peaceful on the whole, the same cannot be said for the Khoush, who fan the flames of their ancient rivalry with the Meduse. Far from her village when the conflicts start, Binti hurries home, but anger and resentment has already claimed the lives of many close to her.Once again it is up to Binti, and her intriguing new friend Mwinyi, to intervene — though the elders of her people do not entirely trust her motives — and try to prevent a war that could wipe out her people, once and for all. Don’t miss this essential concluding volume in the Binti trilogy.The Binti Series;


Click for more detail about Three-Fifths a Man: A Graphic History of the African American Experience by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón Three-Fifths a Man: A Graphic History of the African American Experience

by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón
Hill and Wang (Jan 16, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


The essential primer on African American history, from the Middle Passage to Black Lives MatterIn Three-Fifths a Man, the award-winning and bestselling team of Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón highlights the key events in African American history, taking us from the sixteenth-century Atlantic slave trade to the election of Barack Obama and the Black Lives Matter movement. Through richly drawn four-color illustrations and concise, accessible chapters, Jacobson and Colón convey a history of hardship and hope?a painful and necessary process, full of victories and setbacks, from the Amistad mutiny and the Three-Fifths Compromise to Brown v. Board of Education and the Scottsboro Boys. We see the first African slaves arriving in Jamestown in 1619, watch as the “peculiar institution” undermines our founding ideals, witness the triumph of the Union in the Civil War followed by the collapse of Reconstruction in the South, and observe the hard-won progress of the civil rights movement from the early twentieth century to its contemporary iterations. Jacobson and Colón also explore the pivotal moments in American history with attention to the major contributions of African Americans, reshaping our understanding of the American Revolution, the New Deal, and more. And a series of profiles of prominent African Americans provides key information about these leaders, who exposed injustice, championed freedom, and pushed for change. With vivid illustrations and lucid prose, Three-Fifths a Man brings history to life as only the graphic form can.


Click for more detail about When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele
St. Martin’s Press (Jan 16, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


The emotional and powerful story of one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter and how the movement was born.
"This remarkable book reveals what inspired Patrisse’s visionary and courageous activism and forces us to face the consequence of the choices our nation made when we criminalized a generation. This book is a must-read for all of us." - Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

From one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement comes a poetic memoir and reflection on humanity. Necessary and timely, Patrisse Cullors’ story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, a threat to America. But in truth, they are loving women whose life experiences have led them to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful. In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Patrisse Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Black Girl Magic: A Poem by Mahogany L. Browne Black Girl Magic: A Poem

by Mahogany L. Browne
Roaring Brook Press (Jan 02, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


Black Girl, they say you ain’t ’posed to be hereMuch of what twenty-first century culture tells black girls is not pretty: Don’t wear this; don’t smile at that. Don’t have an opinion; don’t dream big. And most of all, don’t love yourself. In response to such destructive ideas, internationally recognized poet Mahogany Browne challenges the conditioning of society by crafting an anthem of strength and magic undeniable in its bloom for all beautiful Black girls. She has travelled the world sharing her vision of Black Girl Magic, and now in collaboration with artist Jess X. Snow, presents her acclaimed tribute in a visual form. Black Girl Magic is a journey from girlhood to womanhood and an invitation to readers to find magic in themselves.


Click for more detail about Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz Betty Before X

by Ilyasah Shabazz
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Jan 02, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description


In Detroit, 1945, eleven-year-old Betty’s house doesn’t quite feel like home. She believes her mother loves her, but she can’t shake the feeling that her mother doesn’t want her. Church helps those worries fade, if only for a little while. The singing, the preaching, the speeches from guest activists like Paul Robeson and Thurgood Marshall stir African Americans in her community to stand up for their rights. Betty quickly finds confidence and purpose in volunteering for the Housewives League, an organization that supports black-owned businesses. Soon, the American civil rights icon we now know as Dr. Betty Shabazz is born.Inspired by Betty’s real life—but expanded upon and fictionalized through collaboration with novelist Renée Watson—Ilyasah Shabazz illuminates four poignant years in her mother’s childhood with this book, painting an inspiring portrait of a girl overcoming the challenges of self-acceptance and belonging that will resonate with young readers today.Backmatter included.


Click for more detail about Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga Black and British: A Forgotten History

by David Olusoga
Pan MacMillan (Jan 01, 2018)
Read Detailed Book Description

Drawing on new genetic and genealogical research, original records, expert testimony, and contemporary interviews, Black and British reaches back to Roman Britain, the medieval imagination, and Shakespeare’s Othello. It reveals that behind the South Sea Bubble was Britain’s global slave-trading empire and that much of the great industrial boom of the 19th century was built on American slavery. It shows that Black Britons fought at Trafalgar and in the trenches of World War I.

Black British history can be read in stately homes, street names, statues, and memorials across Britain and are woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation. Unflinching, confronting taboos, and revealing hitherto unknown scandals, this book describes how black and white Britons have been intimately entwined for centuries.


Click for more detail about Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality by Jaron Lanier Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality

by Jaron Lanier
Henry Holt & Company (Nov 21, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


Named one of the best books of 2017 by The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, & VoxThe father of virtual reality explains its dazzling possibilities by reflecting on his own lifelong relationship with technologyBridging the gap between tech mania and the experience of being inside the human body, Dawn of the New Everything is a look at what it means to be human at a moment of unprecedented technological possibility. Through a fascinating look back over his life in technology, Jaron Lanier, an interdisciplinary scientist and father of the term “virtual reality,” exposes VR’s ability to illuminate and amplify our understanding of our species, and gives readers a new perspective on how the brain and body connect to the world. An inventive blend of autobiography, science writing, philosophy and advice, this book tells the wild story of his personal and professional life as a scientist, from his childhood in the UFO territory of New Mexico, to the loss of his mother, the founding of the first start-up, and finally becoming a world-renowned technological guru.Understanding virtual reality as being both a scientific and cultural adventure, Lanier demonstrates it to be a humanistic setting for technology. While his previous books offered a more critical view of social media and other manifestations of technology, in this book he argues that virtual reality can actually make our lives richer and fuller.


Click for more detail about The Yearning by Mohale Mashigo The Yearning

by Mohale Mashigo
Pan Macmillan SA (Nov 19, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

“A bewitching addition to the current South African literary boom. Mohale Mashigo tells her story with charming lucidity, disarming characterisation, subversive wisdom and subtle humour.”Zakes Mda

How long does it take for scars to heal? How long does it take for a scarred memory to fester and rise to the surface? For Marubini, the question is whether scars ever heal when you forget they are there to begin with.

Marubini is a young woman who has an enviable life in Cape Town, working at a wine farm and spending idyllic days with her friends…until her past starts spilling into her present. Something dark has been lurking in the shadows of Marubini’s life from as far back as she can remember. It’s only a matter of time before it reaches out and grabs at her.

The Yearning is a memorable exploration of the ripple effects of the past, of personal strength and courage, and of the shadowy intersections of traditional and modern worlds.


Click for more detail about Snow Scene by Richard Jackson Snow Scene

by Richard Jackson
Roaring Brook Press (Nov 07, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

 


Click for more detail about Pelé: The King of Soccer by Eddy Simon Pelé: The King of Soccer

by Eddy Simon
First Second (Oct 24, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known to his schoolmates as Pelé, grew up in poverty in the Sao Paulo region of Brazil. He was too poor to afford a real soccer ball, so he played with a ball of newspaper tied together with string. Yet he dominated the youth leagues and signed his first professional soccer contract at the age of fifteen. Within two years he was celebrated internationally, when he led Brazil to victory at the world cup. Known by his fans as “O Rei” (The King), Pelé is widely regarded as the greatest soccer player of all time. But he’s more than just an athlete: he also traveled the world as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Pelé is the living symbol of a sport he dubbed “the beautiful game”—a game that brings people together regardless of race or nationality.

In the graphic novel Pelé: The King of Soccer, Eddy Simon and Vincent Brascaglia beautifully depict Pele’s rise from the slums of Brazil to the national stage.


Click for more detail about The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations by Oprah Winfrey The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations

by Oprah Winfrey
Flatiron Books (Oct 17, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


Oprah Winfrey says Super Soul Sunday is the television show she was born to do. “I see it as an offering,” she explains. “If you want to be more fully present and live your life with a wide-open heart, this is the place to come to.”Now, for the first time, the aha moments of inspiration and soul-expanding insight that have enlightened millions on the three-time Emmy Award-winning Super Soul Sunday are collected in The Wisdom of Sundays, a beautiful, cherishable, deeply-affecting book. Organized into ten chapters?each one representing a powerful step in Oprah’s own spiritual journey and introduced with an intimate, personal essay by Oprah herself?the Wisdom of Sundays features selections from the most meaningful conversations between Oprah and some of today’s most-admired thought-leaders. Visionaries like Tony Robbins, Arianna Huffington, and Shonda Rhimes share their lessons in finding purpose through mindfulness and intention. World renowned authors and teachers like Eckhart Tolle, Thich Nhat Hahn, Marianne Williamson and Wayne Dyer, explain our complex relationship with the ego and the healing powers of love and connection; and award-winning and bestselling writers like Cheryl Strayed, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Elizabeth Lesser explore the beauty of forgiveness and spirituality. Paired with beautiful photographs, including many from Oprah’s private property in California where each episode of Super Soul Sunday is filmed, The Wisdom of Sundays promises to be a timeless keepsake that will help readers awaken to life’s wondrous possibilities and discover a deeper connection to the natural world around them.


Click for more detail about Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song by Kathryn Erskine Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song

by Kathryn Erskine
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Oct 10, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


Miriam Makeba, a Grammy Award–winning South African singer, rose to fame in the hearts of her people at the pinnacle of apartheid?a brutal system of segregation similar to American Jim Crow laws. Mama Africa, as they called her, raised her voice to help combat these injustices at jazz clubs in Johannesburg; in exile, at a rally beside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and before the United Nations. Set defiantly in the present tense, this biography offers readers an intimate view of Makeba’s fight for equality. Kathryn Erskine’s call-and-response style text and Charly Palmer’s bold illustrations come together in a raw, riveting duet of protest song and praise poem. A testament to how a single voice helped to shake up the world?and can continue to do so.


Click for more detail about City of Saviors: A Detective Elouise Norton Novel by Rachel Howzell Hall City of Saviors: A Detective Elouise Norton Novel

by Rachel Howzell Hall
Forge (Aug 08, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Lou … is a formidable fighter—someone you want on your side."—New York Times Book Review

"Hall has created a strong and likable African American detective who rivals Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch in grit, intelligence, and tenacity."—Library Journal, starred review on Trail of Echoes

"A fresh voice in crime fiction."—Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author

"A much needed breath of fresh air … Quite simply, in this series, Hall is hitting all the right notes."—The Root


Click for more detail about Seducing Abby Rhodes by J.D. Mason Seducing Abby Rhodes

by J.D. Mason
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jul 18, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


When Abigail Rhodes bought that old house she fell in love with in Blink, Texas, she got more than she bargained for. After being told by the local psychic that it is filled with a passionate energy from the previous owners, who died years ago, Abby decides to fix up her beloved house and reluctantly moves in. But ever since then, strange things have been happening in her newly renovated home, and Abby has been plagued with dreams that wake her up and leave her breathless.After a tumultuous life these last few years, Jordan Gatewood is following what amounts to a trail of breadcrumbs in an effort to find a renewed sense of purpose. Searching for the truth about the man his adoptive-father really was, Jordan makes his way to the old house where his father was murdered, in Blink?and right to the petite, understated beauty that answers the door. It’s not long before Jordan realizes, quite unexpectedly, that Abby is the perfect woman for him. Jordan doesn’t believe in ghosts or fate, but he does know that the powerful connection he feels for this woman started the day he met her in that house and he is determined to make her his.Robin is a successful Corporate Attorney, and was proud to be the lover of the most sought after bachelor in the state of Texas—until he abruptly breaks off their relationship, leaving her confused, heartbroken and bitter. When she discovers that he’s left her for another woman, a woman she considers beneath her, Robin is determined to teach him a brutal lesson.
A man like Jordan has too many secrets, secrets that, if found out, could not only destroy his relationship with this other woman, but that could also cost him the biggest business deal of his life, and possibly, his freedom. Robin is the last person he wants to go up against, and she will stop at nothing to get him back or to make him pay for his betrayal, even if that means unleashing those secrets. The question is, will Jordan let her? Or will his all-consuming obsession with Abby win out, in Seducing Abby Rhodes by J.D. Mason.


Click for more detail about Twelve Days by Steven Barnes Twelve Days

by Steven Barnes
Tor Books (Jun 27, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


Click for more detail about The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues: A Novel by Edward Kelsey Moore The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues: A Novel

by Edward Kelsey Moore
Henry Holt & Company (Jun 20, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

From the author of the bestselling The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues, an exuberant and poignant new novel of passions, family, and forgiveness.

When a late life love affair blooms between Mr. Forrest Payne, the owner of the Pink Slipper Gentleman’s Club, and Miss Beatrice Jordan, famous for stationing herself at the edge of the club’s parking lot and yelling warnings of eternal damnation at the departing patrons, their wedding summons a legend to town. Mr. El Walker, the great guitar bluesman, comes home to give a command performance in Plainview, Indiana, a place he’d sworn — and for good reason — he’d never set foot in again.

But El is not the only Plainview native with a hurdle to overcome. A wildly philandering husband struggles at last to prove his faithfulness to the wife he’s always loved. And among those in this tightly knit community who show up every Sunday after church for lunch at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, are the lifelong friends, known locally as “The Supremes” Clarice, facing down her longing for, chance at and fear of a great career; Barbara Jean, grappling at last with the loss of a mother whose life humiliated both of them, and Odette, reaching toward her husband through an anger of his that she does not understand.

Edward Kelsey Moore’s lively cast of characters, each of whom have surmounted serious trouble and come into love, need not learn how to survive but how, fully, to live. And they do, every one of them, serenaded by the bittersweet and unforgettable blues song El Walker plays, born of his own great loss and love.


Click for more detail about Soldier Boy by Keely Hutton Soldier Boy

by Keely Hutton
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Younger Readers (Jun 13, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


An unforgettable novel based on the life of Ricky Richard Anywar, who at age fourteen was forced to fight as a soldier in the guerrilla army of notorious Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony

Soldier Boy begins with the story of Ricky Richard Anywar, abducted in 1989 to fight with Joseph Kony’s rebel army in the Ugandan civil war (one of Africa’s longest running conflicts). Ricky is trained, armed, and forced to fight government soldiers alongside his brutal kidnappers, but never stops dreaming of escape. The story continues twenty years later, with a fictionalized character named Samuel, a boy deathly afraid of trusting anyone ever again. Samuel is representative of the thousands of child soldiers Ricky eventually helped rehabilitate as founder of the internationally acclaimed charity Friends of Orphans. Working closely with Ricky himself, debut author Keely Hutton has written an eye-opening book about a boy’s unbreakable spirit and indomitable courage in the face of unimaginable horror.This title has Common Core connections.


Click for more detail about My Daddy Rules the World: Poems About Fathers by Hope Anita Smith My Daddy Rules the World: Poems About Fathers

by Hope Anita Smith
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (May 16, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

 


Click for more detail about For-Profit Universities: The Shifting Landscape of Marketized Higher Education (2017) by Tressie McMillan Cottom For-Profit Universities: The Shifting Landscape of Marketized Higher Education (2017)

by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Palgrave Macmillan (May 02, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


This edited volume proposes that the phenomenon of private sector, financialized higher education expansion in the United States benefits from a range of theoretical and methodological treatments. Social scientists, policy analysts, researchers, and for-profit sector leaders discuss how and to what ends for-profit colleges are a functional social good. The chapters include discussions of inequality, stratification, and legitimacy, differing greatly from other work on for-profit colleges in three ways: First, this volume moves beyond rational choice explanations of for-profit expansion to include critical theoretical work. Second, it deals with the nuances of race, class, and gender in ways absent from other research. Finally, the book’s interdisciplinary focus is uniquely equipped to deal with the complexity of high-cost, low-status, for-profit credentialism at a scale never before seen.


Click for more detail about Blast the Sugar Out!: Lower Blood Sugar, Lose Weight, Live Better by Ian K. Smith Blast the Sugar Out!: Lower Blood Sugar, Lose Weight, Live Better

by Ian K. Smith
St. Martin’s Press (Apr 25, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


Do you want to lose weight?
In BLAST the Sugar Out!, Ian K. Smith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Shred Power Cleanse, will guide you to eat well?and frequently?while controlling carbohydrates and dropping pounds to get to goal. You will lose weight on this diet?and start losing fast.Has your doctor suggested you get your blood sugar numbers down?This 5-week plan comprised of simple, affordable, accessible food as well as more than 50 sugar swaps will immediately lower your blood sugar levels painlessly and easily. Do you need a plan that will decrease your fat and increase your lean muscle?The BLAST the Sugar Out! five-week program is structured and clear about what you must eat at meals and for snacks every day to keep on track. There’s no meal skipping, plenty of food, and short bursts of exercise to super-charge your results.You won’t be hungry on BLAST the Sugar Out! You’ll eat, drink, and learn to really taste good food again.
Features more than 45 recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and smoothies to satisfy every craving.


Click for more detail about Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr. Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America

by James Forman Jr.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Apr 18, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


Long-listed for the National Book Award
One of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2017
Short-listed for the Inaugural Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice

In recent years, America’s criminal justice system has become the subject of an increasingly urgent debate. Critics have assailed the rise of mass incarceration, emphasizing its disproportionate impact on people of color. As James Forman, Jr., points out, however, the war on crime that began in the 1970s was supported by many African American leaders in the nation’s urban centers. In Locking Up Our Own, he seeks to understand why. Forman shows us that the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office amid a surge in crime and drug addiction. Many prominent black officials, including Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry and federal prosecutor Eric Holder, feared that the gains of the civil rights movement were being undermined by lawlessness?and thus embraced tough-on-crime measures, including longer sentences and aggressive police tactics. In the face of skyrocketing murder rates and the proliferation of open-air drug markets, they believed they had no choice. But the policies they adopted would have devastating consequences for residents of poor black neighborhoods.A former D.C. public defender, Forman tells riveting stories of politicians, community activists, police officers, defendants, and crime victims. He writes with compassion about individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas?from the men and women he represented in court to officials struggling to respond to a public safety emergency. Locking Up Our Own enriches our understanding of why our society became so punitive and offers important lessons to anyone concerned about the future of race and the criminal justice system in this country.


Click for more detail about Prada Plan 5 by Ashley Antoinette Prada Plan 5

by Ashley Antoinette
St. Martin’s Griffin (Apr 16, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

ASHLEY ANTOINETTE is one of the most successful female writers of her time. The feminine half of the popular married duo, Ashley and JaQuavis, she has co-written over 40 novels. Several of her titles have hit The New York Times bestsellers list, but she is most widely regarded for her racy saga The Prada Plan. Born in Flint, MI, she was bred with an innate street sense that she uses as motivation in her crime filled writings.


Click for more detail about Mount Pleasant by Patrice Nganang Mount Pleasant

by Patrice Nganang
Picador (Apr 11, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Patrice Nganang’s dazzling novel [stands] in a league of its own, so different from the great majority of novels by African writers in the past fifty or sixty years." —Charles R. Larson, Counterpunch

"Cameroonian writer Nganang delivers a modern epic, tinged with liberal doses of magical realism, of life in his country’s colonial era … An elegantly drawn and engaging world of a sort unknown to most readers—but one they’ll be glad to have visited." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)


Click for more detail about Boss by Tracy Brown Boss

by Tracy Brown
St. Martin’s Griffin (Apr 04, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

Empire meets Scandal meets Romeo and Juliet with an edgy twist in Boss, a new standalone novel from bestselling author Tracy Brown.

Crystal Scott has the world at her fingertips. At the height of her career at a wildly popular magazine and on the rise in an enviable social circle, she’s beginning to think that maybe she can have it all. But her entire life, body, and soul is threatened when Troy Mitchell steps on the scene. Crystal has never felt the insatiable passion she feels for Troy… and it was certainly not part of her plan.

Troy pursues her full throttle, making it impossible for her to resist. Crystal can’t help but fall for the handsome, powerful, enigmatic man. But the families of both lovers will not stand for their love, and a raging inferno of bitterness and revenge threatens to consume them both as tensions ignite. With deadly twists and turns, Crystal and Troy must choose each other and give in to love, or they will not escape the ties that bind them…


Click for more detail about Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less by Tiffany Dufu Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less

by Tiffany Dufu
Flatiron Books (Feb 14, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


A bold and inspiring memoir and manifesto from a renowned voice in the women’s leadership movement who shows women how to cultivate the single skill they really need in order to thrive: the ability to let go.Once the poster girl for doing it all, after she had her first child, Tiffany Dufu struggled to accomplish everything she thought she needed to in order to succeed. Like so many driven and talented women who have been brought up to believe that to have it all, they must do it all, Dufu began to feel that achieving her career and personal goals was an impossibility. Eventually, she discovered the solution: letting go. In Drop the Ball, Dufu recounts how she learned to reevaluate expectations, shrink her to-do list, and meaningfully engage the assistance of others?freeing the space she needed to flourish at work and to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships at home. Even though women are half the workforce, they still represent only eighteen per cent of the highest level leaders. The reasons are obvious: just as women reach middle management they are also starting families. Mounting responsibilities at work and home leave them with no bandwidth to do what will most lead to their success. Offering new perspective on why the women’s leadership movement has stalled, and packed with actionable advice, Tiffany Dufu’s Drop the Ball urges women to embrace imperfection, to expect less of themselves and more from others?only then can they focus on what they truly care about, devote the necessary energy to achieving their real goals, and create the type of rich, rewarding life we all desire.


Click for more detail about High Cotton: A Novel by Darryl Pinckney High Cotton: A Novel

by Darryl Pinckney
Picador (Feb 07, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

This novel evokes a world that has not often been examined - the world of upper-middle-class blacks, obsessed with light skin and good hair. The story follows the progress of one man from childhood in conservative Indianapolis to integration and adolescent Anglophilia, to a tour of Harlem.


Click for more detail about The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso The Woman Next Door

by Yewande Omotoso
Picador (Feb 07, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


Hortensia James and Marion Agostino are neighbours. One is black, one white. Both are successful women with impressive careers. Both have recently been widowed. And both are sworn enemies, sharing hedge and hostility which they prune with a zeal that belies the fact that they are both over eighty. But one day an unforeseen event forces the women together. And gradually the bickering and sniping softens into lively debate, and from there into memories shared. But could these sparks of connection ever transform into friendship? Or is it too late to expect these two to change?


Click for more detail about Binti (#2): Home by Nnedi Okorafor Binti (#2): Home

by Nnedi Okorafor
Forge (Jan 31, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

The thrilling sequel to the Hugo and Nebula-winning Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

It’s been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti was declared a hero for uniting two warring planets. A year since she found friendship in the unlikeliest of places.

And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders.

But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace.

After generations of conflict can human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?


Click for more detail about My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King My Life, My Love, My Legacy

by Coretta Scott King
Henry Holt & Company (Jan 17, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


The Washington Post’s Books to Read in 2017
The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
USA Today, “New and Noteworthy”
Read it Forward, Favorite Reads of January 2017
A Parade Magazine Pick"This book is distinctly Coretta’s story … particularly absorbing… generous, in a manner that is unfashionable in our culture."?New York Times Book Review“Eloquent … inspirational"?USA Today The life story of Coretta Scott King?wife of Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), and singular twentieth-century American civil and human rights activist?as told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds.Born in 1927 to daringly enterprising parents in the Deep South, Coretta Scott had always felt called to a special purpose. While enrolled as one of the first black scholarship students recruited to Antioch College, she became politically and socially active and committed to the peace movement. As a graduate student at the New England Conservatory of Music, determined to pursue her own career as a concert singer, she met Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister insistent that his wife stay home with the children. But in love and devoted to shared Christian beliefs as well as shared racial and economic justice goals, she married Dr. King, and events promptly thrust her into a maelstrom of history throughout which she was a strategic partner, a standard bearer, and so much more.As a widow and single mother of four, she worked tirelessly to found and develop The King Center as a citadel for world peace, lobbied for fifteen years for the US national holiday in honor of her husband, championed for women’s, workers’ and gay rights and was a powerful international voice for nonviolence, freedom and human dignity. Coretta’s is a love story, a family saga, and the memoir of an extraordinary black woman in twentieth-century America, a brave leader who, in the face of terrorism and violent hatred, stood committed, proud, forgiving, nonviolent, and hopeful every day of her life.


Click for more detail about Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

by Michael Eric Dyson
St. Martin’s Press (Jan 17, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description

“Elegantly written, Tears We Cannot Stop is powerful in several areas: moving personal recollections; profound cultural analysis; and guidance for moral redemption. A work to relish.”Toni Morrison
**One of The Washington Post’s "Books to Read in 2017"**
**One of Bustle’s 17 of the Best Nonfiction Books Coming in January 2017**
**One of Men’s Journal’s 7 Best Books of January**

“Here’s a sermon that’s as fierce as it is lucid. It shook me up, but in a good way. This is how it works if you’re black in America, this is what happens, and this is how it feels. If you’re black, you’ll feel a spark of recognition in every paragraph.

If you’re white, Dyson tells you what you need to know—what this white man needed to know, at least. This is a major achievement. I read it and said amen.”—Stephen King

As the country grapples with racist division at a level not seen since the 1960s, one man’s voice is heard above the rest. In his New York Times op-ed piece “Death in Black and White,” Michael Eric Dyson moved a nation. Isabel Wilkerson called it “an unfiltered Marlboro of black pain” and “crushingly powerful.”

Now he continues to speak out in Tears We Cannot Stop—a provocative and deeply personal call for change. Dyson argues that if we are to make real racial progress we must face difficult truths, including being honest about how black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted. Short, emotional, literary, powerful—this is the book that all Americans who care about the current and long-burning crisis in race relations will want to read.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Germs: Fact and Fiction, Friends and Foes by Lesa Cline-Ransome Germs: Fact and Fiction, Friends and Foes

by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (Jan 10, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


Come meet the good, the bad, and the ugly?yes, germs!
There’s so much to discover about germs. Did you know that germs make your stomach growl as they break down your food? Or that they can travel the world on anything from fleas and ticks to trains and buses?
Told from the perspective of Sam the Salmonella, this informative picture book introduces young readers to helpful and harmful germs, exploring their discovery; the breakout of historic diseases; the invention of pasteurization, vaccination, and penicillin; and other fascinating details about the world of microscopic organisms. A Christy Ottaviano Book


Click for more detail about Food, Health, and Happiness: 115 On-Point Recipes for Great Meals and a Better Life by Oprah Winfrey Food, Health, and Happiness: 115 On-Point Recipes for Great Meals and a Better Life

by Oprah Winfrey
An Oprah Book (Jan 03, 2017)
Read Detailed Book Description


Oprah Winfrey will be the first to tell you, she has had a complicated relationship with food. It’s been both a source of delight and comfort for her, but also the cause of an ongoing struggle with her weight. In Food, Health, and Happiness, Oprah shares the recipes that have allowed eating to finally be joyful for her. With dishes created and prepared alongside her favorite chefs, paired with personal essays and memories from Oprah herself, this cookbook offers a candid, behind-the-scenes look into the life (and kitchen!) of one of the most influential and respected celebrities in the world. Delicious, healthy, and easy to prepare, these are the recipes Oprah most loves to make at home and share with friends and family. From simple pleasures like Unfried Chicken and Turkey Chili, to such celebrations of freshness as Tuscan Kale and Apple Salad and Pasta Primavera, this is food as it should be: a taste of happiness, a ritual to be shared, a toast to life.


Click for more detail about The Mayor of Mogadishu: A Story of Chaos and Redemption in the Ruins of Somalia by Andrew Harding The Mayor of Mogadishu: A Story of Chaos and Redemption in the Ruins of Somalia

by Andrew Harding
St. Martin’s Press (Nov 29, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


In The Mayor of Mogadishu, one of the BBC’s most experienced foreign correspondents, Andrew Harding, reveals the tumultuous life of Mohamoud “Tarzan” Nur - an impoverished nomad who was abandoned in a state orphanage in newly independent Somalia, and became a street brawler and activist. When the country collapsed into civil war and anarchy, Tarzan and his young family became part of an exodus, eventually spending twenty years in north London.But in 2010 Tarzan returned, as Mayor, to the unrecognizable ruins of a city now almost entirely controlled by the Islamist militants of Al Shabab. For many in Mogadishu, and in the diaspora, Tarzan became a galvanizing symbol of courage and hope for Somalia. But for others, he was a divisive thug, who sank beneath the corruption and clan rivalries that continue, today, to threaten the country’s revival.The Mayor of Mogadishu is a rare an insider’s account of Somalia’s unraveling, and an intimate portrayal of one family’s extraordinary journey.


Click for more detail about Diamonds and Pearl by K’wan Diamonds and Pearl

by K’wan
St. Martin’s Griffin (Oct 11, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


They say that good girls like bad boys, and this was especially true for Pearl Stone. A child born of privilege to a drug baron and reputed killer known in the streets as Big Stone. Although the flashy, fast-paced nature of the streets calls to Pearl, she’s been brought up to look but not touch. But when a young hustler named Diamonds crawls up from the swamps of Louisiana and sets up shop in New York City, everything Pearl was taught flies out the window.Raised in the wild and schooled on the mean streets of New Orleans, Diamonds is no stranger to hard times and is willing to do whatever it takes to stay above the poverty line, including kill. When a robbery turned mass murder goes wrong, Diamonds is forced to flee New Orleans and lands in New York where he meets Pearl, and for the first time finds something he craves more than wealth and power…love.
As the stakes get higher, Diamonds has to push away his past if he’s to grab hold of his future?but by doing so, will he show Pearl that all that glitters isn’t gold?


Click for more detail about In Plain Sight: A Game by Richard Jackson In Plain Sight: A Game

by Richard Jackson
Roaring Brook Press (Sep 20, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


Sophie lives with Mama and Daddy and Grandpa, who spends his days by the window. Every day after school, it’s Grandpa whom Sophie runs to."Here I am, Grandpa!"
"Ah, Sophie, how was your day?"As Sophie and her grandpa talk, he asks her to find items he’s "lost" throughout the day, guiding Sophie on a tour through his daily life and connecting their generations in this sweet, playful picture book from Richard Jackson, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist and Laura Ingalls Wilder Award winner Jerry Pinkney.


Click for more detail about House of Lords and Commons: Poems by Ishion Hutchinson House of Lords and Commons: Poems

by Ishion Hutchinson
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Sep 20, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


A stunning collection that traverses the borders of culture and time, from the 2011 winner of the PEN/Joyce Osterweil AwardIn House of Lords and Commons, the revelatory and vital new collection of poems from the winner of the 2013 Whiting Writers’ Award in poetry, Ishion Hutchinson returns to the difficult beauty of the Jamaican landscape with remarkable lyric precision. Here, the poet holds his world in full focus but at an astonishing angle: from the violence of the seventeenth-century English Civil War as refracted through a mythic sea wanderer, right down to the dark interior of love.These poems arrange the contemporary continuum of home and abroad into a wonderment of cracked narrative sequences and tumultuous personae. With ears tuned to the vernacular, the collection vividly binds us to what is terrifying about happiness, loss, and the lure of the sea. House of Lords and Commons testifies to the particular courage it takes to wade unsettled, uncertain, and unfettered in the wake of our shared human experience.


Click for more detail about We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Chang We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation

by Jeff Chang
Picador (Sep 13, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


In these provocative, powerful essays acclaimed writer/journalist Jeff Chang (Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, Who We Be) takes an incisive and wide-ranging look at the recent tragedies and widespread protests that have shaken the country. Through deep reporting with key activists and thinkers, passionately personal writing, and distinguished cultural criticism, We Gon’ Be Alright links #BlackLivesMatter to #OscarsSoWhite, Ferguson to Washington D.C., the Great Migration to resurgent nativism. Chang explores the rise and fall of the idea of “diversity,” the roots of student protest, changing ideas about Asian Americanness, and the impact of a century of racial separation in housing. He argues that resegregation is the unexamined condition of our time, the undoing of which is key to moving the nation forward to racial justice and cultural equity.


Click for more detail about I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual by Luvvie Ajayi I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual

by Luvvie Ajayi
Holt Paperbacks (Sep 13, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

Comedian, activist, and hugely popular culture blogger at AwesomelyLuvvie.com, Luvvie Ajayi, serves up necessary advice for the masses in this hilarious book of essaysWith over 500,000 readers a month at her enormously popular blog, AwesomelyLuvvie.com, Luvvie Ajayi is a go-to source for smart takes on pop culture. I’m Judging You is her debut book of humorous essays that dissects our cultural obsessions and calls out bad behavior in our increasingly digital, connected lives―from the importance of the newest Shonda Rhimes television drama to serious discussions of race and media representation to what to do about your fool cousin sharing casket pictures from Grandma’s wake on Facebook.With a lighthearted, razor sharp wit and a unique perspective, I’m Judging You is the handbook the world needs, doling out the hard truths and a road map for bringing some ""act right"" into our lives, social media, and popular culture. It is the Do-Better Manual.


Click for more detail about Words on the Move: Why English Won’t - and Can’t - Sit Still (Like, Literally) by John McWhorter Words on the Move: Why English Won’t - and Can’t - Sit Still (Like, Literally)

by John McWhorter
Henry Holt & Company (Sep 06, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description



A bestselling linguist takes us on a lively tour of how the English language is evolving before our eyes — and why we should embrace this transformation and not fight itLanguage is always changing — but we tend not to like it. We understand that new words must be created for new things, but the way English is spoken today rubs many of us the wrong way. Whether it’s the use of literally to mean figuratively rather than by the letter, or the way young people use LOL and like, or business jargon like What’s the ask? — it often seems as if the language is deteriorating before our eyes. But the truth is different and a lot less scary, as John McWhorter shows in this delightful and eye-opening exploration of how English has always been in motion and continues to evolve today. Drawing examples from everyday life and employing a generous helping of humor, he shows that these shifts are a natural process common to all languages, and that we should embrace and appreciate these changes, not condemn them. Words on the Move opens our eyes to the surprising backstories to the words and expressions we use every day. Did you know that silly once meant blessed? Or that ought was the original past tense of owe? Or that the suffix -ly in adverbs is actually a remnant of the word like? And have you ever wondered why some people from New Orleans sound as if they come from Brooklyn? McWhorter encourages us to marvel at the dynamism and resilience of the English language, and his book offers a lively journey through which we discover that words are ever on the move and our lives are all the richer for it.


Click for more detail about Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine

by Damon Tweedy
Picador (Sep 06, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

“In this fascinating, heartbreaking memoir, Tweedy documents his experiences as an African American doctor in a medical system that can be ’just as sick as its patients.’” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“Tweedy reveals all you need to know about the Byzantine health care system, wide-ranging disparities that persist and, more important, how we can take control of our well-being…Black Man in a White Coat is certain to garner incredible attention during the literary awards season. It’s a book that deserves a very long shelf life.” —Essence

“In ways wholly individual but similarly intricate, Margo Jefferson, Dr. Damon Tweedy and TaNehisi Coates examine the impact of race on our expectations and experiences. And in doing so, they challenge us to as well.” —Time

"One doctor’s passionate and profound memoir of his experience grappling with race, bias, and the unique health problems of black Americans

When Damon Tweedy begins medical school,he envisions a bright future where his segregated, working-class background will become largely irrelevant. Instead, he finds that he has joined a new world where race is front and center. The recipient of a scholarship designed to increase black student enrollment, Tweedy soon meets a professor who bluntly questions whether he belongs in medical school, a moment that crystallizes the challenges he will face throughout his career. Making matters worse, in lecture after lecture the common refrain for numerous diseases resounds, "More common in blacks than whites."

Black Man in a White Coat examines the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine. As Tweedy transforms from student to practicing physician, he discovers how often race influences his encounters with patients. Through their stories, he illustrates the complex social, cultural, and economic factors at the root of most health problems in the black community. These issues take on greater meaning when Tweedy is himself diagnosed with a chronic disease far more common among black people. In this powerful, moving, and deeply empathic book, Tweedy explores the challenges confronting black doctors, and the disproportionate health burdens faced by black patients, ultimately seeking a way forward to better treatment and more compassionate care"


Click for more detail about Luxe 2: A LaLa Land Addiction by Ashley Antoinette Luxe 2: A LaLa Land Addiction

by Ashley Antoinette
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 06, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


Bleu is addicted…addicted to the luxe life and it has led her down a road of self-destruction. She knows what it feels like to be turned out by the game. With a crack cocaine addiction that she can’t seem to escape, she is desperate for a savior. Her problem is she has two great loves that want to come to her rescue. When her best friend, Noah comes searching for her she is faced with a dilemma. Will she let him save her? Or will she stick with the kingpin, Iman, who has loved her since their first encounter? Or will both men lose her to a love she can’t get rid of…one that abuses her…and one that will be the death of her…the love of the high.


Click for more detail about Born Bright: A Young Girl’s Journey from Nothing to Something in America by C. Nicole Mason Born Bright: A Young Girl’s Journey from Nothing to Something in America

by C. Nicole Mason
St. Martin’s Press (Aug 16, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

“Standing on the stage, I felt exposed and like an intruder. In these professional settings, my personal experiences with hunger, poverty, and episodic homelessness, often go undetected. I had worked hard to learn the rules and disguise my beginning in life”

So begins C. Nicole Mason’s compelling memoir, Born Bright, which takes us on a rare insider’s journey deep into the lives of the women, men and families that make up the American Poor. Born in the late 1970s in Los Angeles, California, Mason was raised by a scrappy 16-year old single mother who dropped out of high school. Mason spent her childhood wondering where her next meal would come and learning the deadlines for college entrance exams by eavesdropping on the few white kids in her predominantly Black and Latino high school. She describes in vivid detail the chaos, failing systems, isolation and violence that make the American Dream out of reach for so many.

While showing us her own path out of poverty, Mason exposes the uncomfortable presumption harbored by many—that the poor are not doing enough to help themselves. In truth, however, the convoluted, bureaucratic lattice of societal rules that govern everything from education to criminal justice is structurally impenetrable by the poor. With first-hand experience learning these rules for herself, Mason illuminates the sheer fortitude that it takes to navigate systems designed only for the success of the few.


Click for more detail about Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston Redwood and Wildfire

by Andrea Hairston
Tordotcom (Aug 16, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

Andrea Hairston’s alternate history adventure, Redwood and Wildfire, is the winner of the Otherwise Award and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award.

At the turn of the 20th century, minstrel shows transform into vaudeville, which slides into moving pictures. Hunkering together in dark theatres, diverse audiences marvel at flickering images.

Redwood, an African American woman, and Aidan, a Seminole Irish man, journey from Georgia to Chicago, from haunted swampland to a “city of the future.” They are gifted performers and hoodoo conjurors, struggling to call up the wondrous world they imagine, not just on stage and screen, but on city streets, in front parlors, in wounded hearts. The power of hoodoo is the power of the community that believes in its capacities to heal.

Living in a system stacked against them, Redwood and Aidan's power and talent are torment and joy. Their search for a place to be who they want to be is an exhilarating, painful, magical adventure.


Click for more detail about Finding Someplace by Denise Lewis Patrick Finding Someplace

by Denise Lewis Patrick
Square Fish (Aug 02, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

Reesie Boone just knows that thirteen is going to be her best year yet—this will be the year she makes her very first fashion design on her Ma Maw’s sewing machine. She’ll skip down the streets of New Orleans with her best friends, Ayanna and Orlando, and everyone will look at her in admiration.

But on Reesie’s birthday, everything changes. Hurricane Katrina hits her city. Stranded at home alone, Reesie takes refuge with her elderly neighbor, Miss Martine. The waters rise. They escape in a boat. And soon Reesie is reunited with her family. But her journey back home has only begun.

Finding Someplace by Denise Lewis Patrick is a story of a family putting itself back together, and a young girl learning to find herself.

A Christy Ottaviano Book


Click for more detail about Prince: Inside the Music and the Masks by Ronin Ro Prince: Inside the Music and the Masks

by Ronin Ro
St. Martin’s Griffin (Aug 02, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


With a brand-new introduction and chapter that cover the last five years of Prince’s life and work and his untimely death in April 2016.In his three decades of recording, Prince had nearly thirty albums hit the Billboard Top 100. He is the only artist since the Beatles to have a number-one song, movie, and single at the same time. Prince’s trajectory?from a teenage unknown in Minneapolis to an idol and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer?won him millions of adoring fans the world over. Prince is the first book to give full treatment to his thirty-five-year career. Acclaimed music journalist Ronin Ro traces Prince’s rise from anonymity in the late 70s, to his catapult to stardom in the 80s, to his reemergence in the twenty-first century as an artistic icon. Ro expertly chronicles his music and career, showing how Prince and his albums helped define and inspire a generation. Along the way, Prince confronted labels, fostered other young talents, and took ownership of his music, making a profound mark on the entertainment industry and pop culture.


Click for more detail about The Cartel 6: The Demise by Ashley Antoinette and JaQuavis Coleman The Cartel 6: The Demise

by Ashley Antoinette and JaQuavis Coleman
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jul 26, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

Read more about this AALBC.com bestselling novel.

The Cartel series is back…and more deadly than ever.Las Vegas. A city built on obscene wealth and corrupt deals, cunning entrepreneurs, and the ruthless mob. TheCartel’s plan to open a casino will rake in cash, but comes with great sacrifice. The stakes have never been this high, and rules of the game have never been this hard to manipulate. And when one dead girl, one scorned wife, and one hole in the desert launch a chain of catastrophic events, The Cartel is sent on a downward spiral as they battle the Arabian mob and fight traitors within their circle. Will the Cartel prevail…or fall victim to the city’s black cloud? And if there’s one rule in the town of Vegas, it’s that when the dust settles, there can only be one winner, in The Carte 6: The Demise, by New York Times bestselling authors Ashley & JaQuavis.


Click for more detail about Trail of Echoes by Rachel Howzell Hall Trail of Echoes

by Rachel Howzell Hall
Forge (May 31, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

Trail of Echoes: the latest Elouise Norton mystery novel from critically acclaimed writer Rachel Howzell Hall.

On a rainy spring day in Los Angeles, homicide detective Elouise "Lou" Norton is called away from a rare lunch date to Bonner Park, where the body of thirteen-year-old Chanita Lords has been discovered. When Lou and her partner, Colin Taggert, take on the sad task of informing Chanita’s mother, Lou is surprised to find herself in the apartment building she grew up in.

Chanita was interested in photography and, much like Lou, a black girl destined to leave the housing projects behind. Her death fits a chilling pattern of exceptional African-American girls—dancers, artists, honors scholars-gone recently missing in the same school district, the one Lou attended not so long ago.

Lou is valiantly trying to make a go of life after her divorce and doing everything she can to avoid her long estranged father. She races to catch a serial killer, but he remains frustratingly out of her reach, sending cryptic cyphers and taunting clues that arrive too late to prevent the next death. This one is personal, and it’s only a matter of time before he comes after Lou herself.

"Gives voice to a rare figure in crime fiction: a highly complex, fully imagined black female detective." - Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review


Click for more detail about The Real Mrs. Price by J.D. Mason The Real Mrs. Price

by J.D. Mason
St. Martin’s Griffin (May 24, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


Lucy Price is living the American dream. She has been married to her successful husband and businessman, Edward Price for a year and couldn’t be happier until she learns that Eddie is a dangerously ruthless man, heavily involved in illegal activities that threaten not only her marriage, but her life. Eddie abruptly disappears, but not before warning Lucy that if she wants to keep breathing she’d better keep her mouth shut. Six months later, word of her husband surfaces when she learns that he is presumed murdered in a small Texas town, apparently killed by his “wife”, Marlowe Price.Marlowe is no stranger to trouble. An outcast in her own community for being one of those "hoodoo women," who can curse you or cast you under her beguiling spell, Marlowe is shunned at every turn. Six months ago, a whirlwind romance in Mexico led Marlowe to marry the man she thought she’d spend the rest of her life with. For Marlowe and Eddie, there is no such thing as trouble in paradise. But late one night, when Marlowe witnesses her husband putting the body of a dead man in the trunk of his car, the illusion comes crashing down around her and she knows she has to move fast before the devil comes calling once again.Now, Lucy and Marlowe must come together to find out where and who Eddie really is, and help each other through the threat he poses. There’s nothing more dangerous than a woman scorned…except for two women scorned who are willing to put their pasts behind them and band together to take one bad man down…


Click for more detail about Solemn by Kalisha Buckhanon Solemn

by Kalisha Buckhanon
St. Martin’s Press (May 03, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


Solemn Redvine is a precocious Mississippi girl who senses a nearby baby may be her half-sibling: the outcome of her father’s mistakes with a married woman who lives in their trailer park. After Solemn witnesses a man throw the baby down a community well, she struggles to understand the event, leaving her forever changed.

As Solemn finds refuge in fantasies of stardom as well as friendships with her brother’s wife and a nearby girl, the ill-fated baby’s doomed mother disappears without a trace. Solemn remains trapped by connections to the missing other woman and an honest cop who suspects more to the story than others on the small local police force want to see. When her father’s next mistake - a robbery - lands Solemn in a group home for troubled girls, she meets a Chicago delinquent who wants to escape. There, Solemn must face the truth of who she really is and what she is really made of.


Click for more detail about Why Grow Up?: Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age by Susan Neiman Why Grow Up?: Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age

by Susan Neiman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Apr 26, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

Our culture is obsessed with youth—and why not? What’s the appeal of growing old, of gaining responsibilities and giving up on dreams, of steadily trading possibility for experience?

The philosopher Susan Neiman argues that the absence of appealing models of maturity is not an accident: by describing life as a downhill process, we prepare young people to expect—and demand—very little from it. In Why Grow Up?, she challenges our culture of permanent adolescence, turning to thinkers including Kant, Rousseau, and Arendt to find a model of maturity that is not a matter of resignation. In growing up, we move from the boundless trust of childhood to the peculiar mixture of disappointment and exhilaration that comes with adolescence. Maturity, however, means finding the courage to live in a world of painful uncertainty without giving in to dogma or despair. A grown-up, Neiman writes, helps to move the world closer to what it should be while never losing sight of what it is.

Why Grow Up? is a witty and concise argument for the value of maturity as a subversive ideal: a goal rarely achieved in its entirety, and all the more worth striving for.


Click for more detail about Skies of Ash: A Detective Elouise Norton Novel by Rachel Howzell Hall Skies of Ash: A Detective Elouise Norton Novel

by Rachel Howzell Hall
Forge (Apr 19, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Lou … is a formidable fighter—someone you want on your side." —New York Times Book Review

"A fresh voice in crime fiction." —Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author

"Hall..has a true gift."—Crimespree Magazine

"Another smart LA procedural…this determined African American protagonist makes a wonderful addition to the genre."—Booklist on Trail of Echoes

"Hall outdoes her stellar debut in an exploration of vile secrets that pays homage to that earlier master of complex California homicide, Raymond Chandler."—Kirkus Reviews on Skies of Ash

"Rachel Howzell has written another riveting thriller starring her favorite (and mine!) female sleuth, the fabulous when furious and even better when behaving Lou Norton…one of the summer’s best."—Huffington Post on Skies of Ash

"A racially explosive Los Angeles provides the backdrop for this exceptional crime novel…Dead-on dialogue and atmospheric details help propel a tale full of tormenting moral issues. Lou, a brave lady in a brave book, does the best she can." —Publishers Weekly, starred review on Land of Shadows


Click for more detail about The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation

by Natalie Y. Moore
St. Martin’s Press (Mar 22, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

While mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel have touted Chicago as a “world-class city,” it remains one of the most segregated cities in America. And while it would be easy to think of a city with a billion-dollar park, Michelin-rated restaurants, waterfront views, world-class shopping, and a thriving theater scene as a model for other metropolitan areas, underneath the shiny façade lurks the horrible reality of deeply-rooted and destructive racial segregation.

Throughout The South Side, Moore shows that race—not class—determines the policies that perpetuate the city’s injustices. Shining a bright light on Chicago’s housing policies, its segregated schools (and lack of political will to integrate Chicago Public Schools), institutionalized practices that leave predominantly black neighborhoods vulnerable to crime and bad banking policies, Moore takes readers inside a system that keeps a segment of the city’s population from having a chance at the American Dream.

In The South Side, Moore uses her skills as a conscientious reporter to showcase the lives of these those living in these underserved communities. Through intimate stories and investigative research, The South Side highlights the impact of Chicago’s historic segregation – and the ongoing policies that keep the system intact.

For any interest in receiving a copy for review or excerpt consideration, or if you’d like to set up an author Q&A, please let me know. We are also happy to provide copies to giveaway on social media, should that be of interest to you!


Click for more detail about The Sellout by Paul Beatty The Sellout

by Paul Beatty
Picador (Mar 01, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

The Sellout, won the Man Booker Prize on October 25, 2016. Paul Beatty is the first American to win the award.

The Sellout is also:

  • Winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction
  • Named one of the best books of 2015 by The New York Times Book Review and the Wall Street Journal

A biting satire about a young man’s isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty’s The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality—the black Chinese restaurant.

Born in the “agrarian ghetto” of Dickens—on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles—the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: “I’d die in the same bedroom I’d grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that’ve been there since ’68 quake.&rdquo Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father’s pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family’s financial woes. But when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that’s left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral.

Fuelled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town’s most famous resident—the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins—he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.


Click for more detail about Stormy Knight: A Blink, Texas, Story by J.D. Mason Stormy Knight: A Blink, Texas, Story

by J.D. Mason
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 01, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


J. D. Mason’s Hot Blink, Texas series reached the boiling point…Omar Reid is about to make the biggest leap in his career. As the City Planner for the town of Blink, Texas, he is spearheading the building of a megastore in place of an old strip mall will have the cash flowing like water downhill. There’s just one problem-Lola Knight won’t have it. A fiery woman with big dreams, she’s worked hard to own her own business and pursue her dreams, and without her piece of the property, the megastore goes nowhere. As their heated arguments lead to steamy encounters, Omar and Lola both know that, despite being opposites, their attraction is off the charts. But some key players aren’t willing to to see the deal fall apart, and will stop at nothing to keep the wheels in motion, leaving Omar and Lola to fight for what’s right and fight for each other.


Click for more detail about Listen to the Lambs: A Novel by Daniel Black Listen to the Lambs: A Novel

by Daniel Black
Bedford/St. Martin’s (Feb 16, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

In Listen to the Lambs by Daniel Black, nothing can convince Lazarus Love III to return to the lifestyle of affluence and social status he once knew. Longing for a freedom of the soul that the world of capitalism cannot provide, Lazarus leaves all that he knows—including his wife and children—to achieve the ultimate level of peace and silence living as a possession-less man. When his quest causes him to cross paths with four other
wanderers, all of whom later call themselves "the family," a shocking, brutal act leaves Lazarus in a dire position and his newfound family must struggle to save him. By doing so, both families—past and present—are redeemed and consequently learn the beauty of sacrificial love.


Click for more detail about The Ballad of Black Tom (paperback) by Victor Lavalle The Ballad of Black Tom (paperback)

by Victor Lavalle
Forge (Feb 16, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn’t there. Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father’s head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping. A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?

“LaValle’s novella of sorcery and skullduggery in Jazz Age New York is a magnificent example of what weird fiction can and should do.” —Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All

“[LaValle] reinvents outmoded literary conventions, particularly the ghettos of genre and ethnicity that long divided serious literature from popular fiction.” —Praise for The Devil in Silver from Elizabeth Hand, author of Radiant Days


Click for more detail about Second House from the Corner by Sadeqa Johnson Second House from the Corner

by Sadeqa Johnson
Thomas Dunne Books (Feb 09, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

Second House from the Corner centers on the story of Felicia Lyons, a stay-at-home mother of three drowning in the drudgeries of play dates, lost pacifiers and potty training who occasionally wonders what it would be like to escape the demands of motherhood. But when an unexpected phone call threatens to destroy her life, Felicia is forced to return to her childhood home where she must wrestle with an ex-lover and long buried secrets to save the family and home she loves despite the daily challenges.

Felicia Lyons is a character who mothers can identify with and laugh along with. You can’t help but cheer for her in Johnson’s engaging and well-written novel.


Click for more detail about Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles: Levana’s Story by Marissa Meyer Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles: Levana’s Story

by Marissa Meyer
Square Fish (Feb 02, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who is the Fairest of them all?

Pure evil has a name, hides behind a mask of deceit, and uses her "glamour" to gain power. But who is Queen Levana? Long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress in The Lunar Chronicles, Levana lived a very different story—a story that has never been told… until now.

New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer reveals the story behind her fascinating villain in Fairest, an unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes a special full-color image of Levana’s castle and an excerpt from Winter, the exciting conclusion to The Lunar Chronicles.


Click for more detail about Black Deutschland: A Novel by Darryl Pinckney Black Deutschland: A Novel

by Darryl Pinckney
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Feb 02, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


Jed—young, gay, black, out of rehab and out of prospects in his hometown of Chicago—flees to the city of his fantasies, a museum of modernism and decadence: Berlin. The paradise that tyranny created, the subsidized city isolated behind the Berlin Wall, is where he’s chosen to become the figure that he so admires, the black American expatriate. Newly sober and nostalgic for the Weimar days of Isherwood and Auden, Jed arrives to chase boys and to escape from what it means to be a black male in America.But history, both personal and political, can’t be avoided with time or distance. Whether it’s the judgment of the cousin he grew up with and her husband’s bourgeois German family, the lure of white wine in a down-and-out bar, a gang of racists looking for a brawl, or the ravaged visage of Rock Hudson flashing behind the face of every white boy he desperately longs for, the past never stays past even in faraway Berlin. In the age of Reagan and AIDS in a city on the verge of tearing down its walls, he clambers toward some semblance of adulthood amid the outcasts and expats, intellectuals and artists, queers and misfits. And, on occasion, the city keeps its Isherwood promises and the boy he kisses, incredibly, kisses him back.An intoxicating, provocative novel of appetite, identity, and self-construction, Darryl Pinckney’s Black Deutschland tells the story of an outsider, trapped between a painful past and a tenebrous future, in Europe’s brightest and darkest city.


Click for more detail about The Book of Memory: A Novel by Petina Gappah The Book of Memory: A Novel

by Petina Gappah
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Feb 02, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


The story that you have asked me to tell you does not begin with the pitiful ugliness of Lloyd’s death. It begins on a long-ago day in August when the sun seared my blistered face and I was nine years old and my father and mother sold me to a strange man.Memory, the narrator of Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, after being sentenced for murder. As part of her appeal, her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. The death penalty is a mandatory sentence for murder, and Memory is, both literally and metaphorically, writing for her life. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried and convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death? And did everything happen exactly as she remembers?Moving between the townships of the poor and the suburbs of the rich, and between past and present, the 2009 Guardian First Book Award–winning writer Petina Gappah weaves a compelling tale of love, obsession, the relentlessness of fate, and the treachery of memory.


Click for more detail about Stone Cole: A Blink, Texas Story by J.D. Mason Stone Cole: A Blink, Texas Story

by J.D. Mason
St. Martin’s Griffin (Feb 02, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


The hotter-than-Texas e-serial continues!Ellis Brewer is a free man and is, surprisingly, the darling in the international art world. After seven long years in prison, he found refuge in his paintings and in the old farm house his late grandfather left to him in his will. No longer the hot-headed trouble maker he’d once was, Ellis is a loner and prefers to keep it that way. But when an old friend calls in a favor and asks Ellis to agree to an interview with a beautiful freelance reporter, Ellis throws caution to the wind and finds a love he never felt he deserved.Christina Cole prides herself on her insightful and thorough reporting skills. When she gets an opportunity to interview the recluse and rising star Ellis Brewer-devastatingly good-looking and charming down to every last one of his ex-con fingertips-she soon realizes that she’s getting way more than she bargained for. Cristina came to Blink, Texas with every intention of uncovering all of his demons, but it’s not long before Ellis turns the tables, and begins to unravel her deepest, darkest secrets, exposing the most vulnerable part of her heart and proving to him that she needs him, body and soul.


Click for more detail about Clemente! by Willie Perdomo Clemente!

by Willie Perdomo
Square Fish (Jan 19, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


A little boy named Clemente learns about his namesake, the great baseball player Roberto Clemente, in this joyful picture book biography. Born in Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente was the first Latin American player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the only player for whom the five-year initiation period was waived. Known not only for his exceptional baseball skills but also for his extensive charity work in Latin America, Clemente was well-loved during his 18 years playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He died in a plane crash while bringing aid supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Willie Perdomo’s rhythmic text and Bryan Collier’s energetic art combine to tell the story of one of baseball’s greats.


Click for more detail about We March by Shane W. Evans We March

by Shane W. Evans
Square Fish (Jan 12, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description

On August 28, 1963, a remarkable event took place—more than 250,000 people gathered in our nation’s capital to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march began at the Washington Monument and ended with a rally at the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech, advocating racial harmony. Many words have been written about that day, but few so delicate and powerful as those presented here by award-winning author and illustrator Shane W. Evans. When combined with his simple yet compelling illustrations, the thrill of the day is brought to life for even the youngest reader to experience.

We March was one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Children’s Books of 2012, and is an important story about the African American civil rights movement.


Click for more detail about Hart Breaker: A Blink, Texas story by J.D. Mason Hart Breaker: A Blink, Texas story

by J.D. Mason
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jan 05, 2016)
Read Detailed Book Description


The only thing hotter than Texas is the romance in J. D. Mason’s brand-new e-series!Farrah Hart has made her escape. Running from a violent ex, she finds her way home to Blink, TX. With nothing but the clothes on her back, Farrah hopes to lay low at her abandoned childhood home until she can get back on her feet. But when an eviction notice comes in the most dangerously handsome of packages, Farrah might just need someone to lean on after all…Jackson Burris can’t believe Farrah is in his house. The last thing he ever expected to see was the gorgeous girl all the Texas boys-including him-crushed on years ago, standing in the doorway. But she needs a place to stay that isn’t a run-down house, and his place is much cozier, much hotter. But as the nights grow darker with passion, demons from both their pasts close in, and Farrah and Jackson have to give in to love, in order to not break apart.


Click for more detail about White Lines III: All Falls Down: A Novel by Tracy Brown White Lines III: All Falls Down: A Novel

by Tracy Brown
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 17, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

The ultimate love story forged on the gritty streets of New York began with White Lines, and now, in this stunning conclusion, Jada and Born come full circle, but not without paying a hefty price in White Lines III: All Falls Down by Tracy Brown.

On the surface, Jada’s life is back on track. She’s battled her demons, her son is a permanent part
of her life-and yet, it still feels like she’s on shaky ground. What she really needs to settle her soul is to have Born back in her life-and in her arms-again.

Reuniting with the man she loves is proving to be the hardest thing she’s ever fought for. And when a brutal and shocking event tests the foundation of Jada and Born’s resolve, it will take every drop of willpower they possess to stay on top.


Click for more detail about Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name - One White, One Black by Chris Tomlinson Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name - One White, One Black

by Chris Tomlinson
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 17, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


A New York Times Best Seller!Tomlinson Hill is the stunning story of two families?one white, one black?who trace their roots to a slave plantation that bears their name. Internationally recognized for his work as a fearless war correspondent, award-winning journalist Chris Tomlinson grew up hearing stories about his family’s abandoned cotton plantation in Falls County, Texas. Most of the tales lionized his white ancestors for pioneering along the Brazos River. His grandfather often said the family’s slaves loved them so much that they also took Tomlinson as their last name. LaDainian Tomlinson, football great and former running back for the San Diego Chargers, spent part of his childhood playing on the same land that his black ancestors had worked as slaves. As a child, LaDainian believed the Hill was named after his family. Not until he was old enough to read an historical plaque did he realize that the Hill was named for his ancestor’s slaveholders.A masterpiece of authentic American history, Tomlinson Hill traces the true and very revealing story of these two families. From the beginning in 1854? when the first Tomlinson, a white woman, arrived?to 2007, when the last Tomlinson, LaDainian’s father, left, the book unflinchingly explores the history of race and bigotry in Texas. Along the way it also manages to disclose a great many untruths that are latent in the unsettling and complex story of America.Tomlinson Hill is also the basis for a film and an interactive web project. The award-winning film, which airs on PBS, concentrates on present-day Marlin, Texas and how the community struggles with poverty and the legacy of race today, and is accompanied by an interactive web site called Voice of Marlin, which stores the oral histories collected along the way. Chris Tomlinson has used the reporting skills he honed as a highly respected reporter covering ethnic violence in Africa and the Middle East to fashion a perfect microcosm of America’s own ethnic strife. The economic inequality, political shenanigans, cruelty and racism?both subtle and overt?that informs the history of Tomlinson Hill also live on in many ways to this very day in our country as a whole. The author has used his impressive credentials and honest humanity to create a classic work of American history that will take its place alongside the timeless work of our finest historians


Click for more detail about 50 Billion Dollar Boss: African American Women Sharing Stories of Success in Entrepreneurship and Leadership by Kathey Porter and Andrea Hoffman 50 Billion Dollar Boss: African American Women Sharing Stories of Success in Entrepreneurship and Leadership

by Kathey Porter and Andrea Hoffman
Palgrave Macmillan (Nov 05, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

For too long there have been few ‘blueprints’ for young women entrepreneurs - particularly African-American women entrepreneurs—to follow. While women are starting businesses in unprecedented numbers, many African-Americans are first-generation entrepreneurs, and there have been few role models for them to emulate and learn from. The impact of African-American women in business is undeniable. According to the 2014 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report commissioned by American Express OPEN, while firms owned by women of color are smaller than non-minority women-owned businesses, their growth in numbers and economic clout is generally far outpacing that of other women-owned entities. Businesses owned by African-American women led that growth, up 296% from 1997 to 2014, generating nearly $50 billion in revenue. It is, in a sense, a second Black Renaissance, creating what we like to call the ‘50 Billion Dollar Boss.’

African-American women continue to excel and shape society across industries. This book highlights several African American women entrepreneurs and leaders, recognizes them for their business acumen,

examines how they creatively solved business challenges and identified opportunities to grow and sustain their businesses.


Click for more detail about Alex Haley: And The Books That Changed A Nation by Robert J. Norrell Alex Haley: And The Books That Changed A Nation

by Robert J. Norrell
St. Martin’s Press (Nov 01, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

It is difficult to think of two twentieth century books by one author that have had as much influence on American culture when they were published as Alex Haley’s monumental bestsellers, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), and Roots (1976). They changed the way white and black America viewed each other and the country’s history. This first biography of Haley follows him from his childhood in relative privilege in deeply segregated small town Tennessee to fame and fortune in high powered New York City. It was in the Navy, that Haley discovered himself as a writer, which eventually led his rise as a star journalist in the heyday of magazine personality profiles. At Playboy Magazine, Haley profiled everyone from Martin Luther King and Miles Davis to Johnny Carson and Malcolm X, leading to their collaboration on The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Roots was for Haley a deeper, more personal reach. The subsequent book and miniseries ignited an ongoing craze for family history, and made Haley one of the most famous writers in the country. Roots sold half a million copies in the first two months of publication, and the original television miniseries was viewed by 130 million people.

Haley died in 1992. This deeply researched and compelling book by Robert J. Norrell offers the perfect opportunity to revisit his authorship, his career as one of the first African American star journalists, as well as an especially dramatic time of change in American history.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Engaged Teaching in Theology and Religion (2015) by Renee K. Harrison Engaged Teaching in Theology and Religion (2015)

by Renee K. Harrison
Palgrave Macmillan (Oct 21, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

This book guides scholars and teachers of theology and religion through a process of self-reflection that leads to intentional, transformative teaching, dialogue, and reform in theological education and religious studies.


Click for more detail about Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire by Shane White Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire

by Shane White
St. Martin’s Press (Oct 13, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


In the middle decades of the nineteenth century Jeremiah G. Hamilton was a well-known figure on Wall Street. Cornelius Vanderbilt, America’s first tycoon, came to respect, grudgingly, his one-time opponent. The day after Vanderbilt’s death on January 4, 1877, an almost full-page obituary on the front of the National Republican acknowledged that, in the context of his Wall Street share transactions, "There was only one man who ever fought the Commodore to the end, and that was Jeremiah Hamilton." What Vanderbilt’s obituary failed to mention, perhaps as contemporaries already knew it well, was that Hamilton was African American. Hamilton, although his origins were lowly, possibly slave, was reportedly the richest colored man in the United States, possessing a fortune of $2 million, or in excess of two hundred and $50 million in today’s currency. In Prince of Darkness, a groundbreaking and vivid account, eminent historian Shane White reveals the larger than life story of a man who defied every convention of his time. He wheeled and dealed in the lily white business world, he married a white woman, he bought a mansion in rural New Jersey, he owned railroad stock on trains he was not legally allowed to ride, and generally set his white contemporaries teeth on edge when he wasn’t just plain outsmarting them. An important contribution to American history, Hamilton’s life offers a way into considering, from the unusual perspective of a black man, subjects that are usually seen as being quintessentially white, totally segregated from the African American past.


Click for more detail about The Coming by Daniel Black The Coming

by Daniel Black
Bedford/St. Martin’s (Oct 06, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

Daniel Black is at the top of his literary game with The Coming, a novel that National Book Award-winning author Charles Johnson (Middle Passage) calls “powerful and beautiful” and “a work to be proud of."" Lyrical, poetic, and hypnotizing, The Coming tells the story of a people’s capture and sojourn from their homeland across the Middle Passage—a traumatic trip that exposed the strength and resolve of the African spirit. Extreme conditions produce extraordinary insight, and only after being stripped of everything do they discover the unspeakable beauty they once took for granted. This powerful, haunting novel will shake readers to their very souls.”


Click for more detail about Chocolate Me! by Taye Diggs Chocolate Me!

by Taye Diggs
Square Fish (Oct 06, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

The boy is teased for looking different than the other kids. His skin is darker, his hair curlier. He tells his mother he wishes he could be more like everyone else. And she helps him to see how beautiful he really, truly is.

For years before they both achieved acclaim in their respective professions, good friends Taye Diggs and Shane W. Evans wanted to collaborate on Chocolate Me!, a book based on experiences of feeling different and trying to fit in as kids. Now, both men are fathers and see more than ever the need for a picture book that encourages all people, especially kids, to love themselves.


Click for more detail about Mixed Me! by Taye Diggs Mixed Me!

by Taye Diggs
Feiwel & Friends (Oct 06, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

Mom and Dad say I’m a blend of dark and light:
“We mixed you perfectly, and got you just right.”

Mike has awesome hair. He has LOTS of energy! His parents love him. And Mike is a PERFECT blend of the two of them.

Still, Mike has to answer LOTS of questions about being mixed. And he does, with LOTS of energy and joy in this charming story about a day in the life of a mixed-race child.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Emperor of Water Clocks: Poems by Yusef Komunyakaa The Emperor of Water Clocks: Poems

by Yusef Komunyakaa
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Oct 06, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


The wildly enchanting new collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa

"If I am not Ulysses, I am / his dear, ruthless half-brother." So announces Yusef Komunyakaa early in his lush new collection, The Emperor of Water Clocks. But Ulysses (or his half brother) is but one of the beguiling guises Komunyakaa dons over the course of this densely lyrical book. Here his speaker observes a doomed court jester; here he is with Napoleon, as the emperor "tells the doctor to cut out his heart / & send it to the empress, Marie-Louise"; here he is at the circus, observing as "The strong man presses six hundred pounds, / his muscles flexed for the woman / whose T-shirt says, these guns are loaded"; and here is just a man, placing "a few red anemones / & a sheaf of wheat" on Mahmoud Darwish’s grave, reflecting on why "I’d rather die a poet / than a warrior."
Through these mutations and migrations and permutations and peregrinations there are constants: Komunyakaa’s jazz-inflected rhythms; his effortlessly surreal images; his celebration of natural beauty and of love. There is also his insistent inquiry into the structures and struggles of power: not only of, say, king against jester but of man against his own desire and of the present against the pernicious influence of the past.
Another brilliant collection from the man David Wojahn has called one of our "most significant and individual voices," The Emperor of Water Clocks delights, challenges, and satisfies.


Click for more detail about What’s Done in Darkness: A Novel by Kayla Perrin What’s Done in Darkness: A Novel

by Kayla Perrin
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Oct 06, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


Jealousy is a strong motive. People kill for love every day…Jade Blackwin feels like she’s losing her mind. After burying both her parents-and being left by her boyfriend for her scheming best friend-she totally loses it. At college graduation, she confronts her man, slaps her BFF, then crashes her car. Now everyone thinks she’s crazy. Even her sister, who convinces Jade to take a job in beautiful, restful Key West. "Perrin weaves a compelling story…a great cliffhanger tale of suspense."
-New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham on We’ll Never TellAt first, Key West is everything Jade could hope for. The lime margaritas are heaven on earth. Her boss at the coffee shop, Katrina, is friendly as can be. And a gorgeous stranger named Brian is just the thing to help Jade forget her ex. But why is a crime writer asking so many questions? Why does Katrina explode into fits of rage? And why is a killer lurking in the shadows, ready to kill again? No one knows what’s done in darkness. But Jade knows she’s not crazy. She’s next…"One wild ride! Perrin is an author who belongs on your must read list."
-Romance Reader at Heart


Click for more detail about Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound by Andrea Davis Pinkney Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound

by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Roaring Brook Press (Sep 29, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

From award-winning author Andrea Davis Pinkney comes the story of the music that defined a generation and a movement that changed the world.Berry Gordy began Motown in 1959 with an $800 loan from his family. He converted the garage of a residential house into a studio and recruited teenagers from the neighborhood-like Smokey Robinson, Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Diana Ross-to sing for his new label. Meanwhile, the country was on the brink of a cultural revolution, and one of the most powerful agents of change in the following decade would be this group of young black performers from urban Detroit. From Berry Gordy and his remarkable vision to the Civil Rights movement, from the behind-the-scenes musicians, choreographers, and song writers to the most famous recording artists of the century, Andrea Davis Pinkney takes readers on a Rhythm Ride through the story of Motown.


Click for more detail about Binti (#1) by Nnedi Okorafor Binti (#1)

by Nnedi Okorafor
Forge (Sep 22, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself—but first she has to make it there, alive.

Binti is the first book in a trilogy


Click for more detail about Luxe: A Novel by Ashley Antoinette Luxe: A Novel

by Ashley Antoinette
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 08, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


From the New York Times bestseller Ashley Antoinette, author of the Prada Plan series comes a boldly fierce and strikingly dramatic novel, Luxe.Bleu Montclair knew as a young girl that she would one day escape the hard, unrelenting streets of Flint, Michigan, and when her desperate prayers are answered in the form of a scholarship to UCLA, Bleu knows she’s struck gold. But soon after arriving, all her beautiful, bright dreams begin to fall apart. Endless temptations abound in the form of cars, clothes, booze, drugs, and Bleu cannot keep up. When her roommate gives her the opportunity to make a lot of money fast, Bleu goes all in-and heads straight down a path of violence and addiction that only her newest protector, Iman, can save her from.


Click for more detail about Reconnaissance: Poems by Carl Phillips Reconnaissance: Poems

by Carl Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Sep 01, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

A powerful, inventive collection from one of America’s most respected poets There’s a trembling inside the both of us, there’s a trembling, inside us both. The territory of Reconnaissance is one where morals threaten to become merely ""what the light falls through,"" ""suffering [seems] in fact for nothing,"" and ""all we do is maybe all we can do."" In the face of this, Carl Phillips, reconsidering and unraveling what we think we know, maps out the contours of a world in revision, where truth lies captured at one moment and at the next goes free, transformed. These are poems of searing beauty, lit by hope and shadowed by it, from a poet whose work ""reinstates the possibility of finding meaning in a world that is forever ready to revoke the sources of meaning in our lives"" (Jonathan Farmer, Slate).


Click for more detail about We’ll Never Tell by Kayla Perrin We’ll Never Tell

by Kayla Perrin
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Sep 01, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


I was thinking of some kind of initiation. Tailored just for her. The kind that will teach her a lesson not to mess with me.
Shandra James is a man stealer. It’s a sport to her-a game that she always wins. As a pledge of the exclusive Alpha Sigma Pi sorority, she should know her place…and know not to throw herself at a sister’s boyfriend. But she’s marked a new target: Henry Reid.
"Characters that pop off the page and a solid, well-paced plot will gratify Perrin’s many fans."-Publishers Weekly
Henry’s fiancée, Phoebe, and her sorority sisters Miranda and Camille, decide it’s time to teach Shandra a lesson. A lesson that involves humiliation but nothing more. But the lesson takes an unexpected, deadly turn-and soon the three women find themselves facing three new rules: Never mention what happened that night, protect one another, and tell no one. Yet when a murderer comes calling, they each discover that some rules are meant to be broken…
"Tense psychological suspense."-Midwest Book Review on Delta Sisters


Click for more detail about The Lion Awakes: Adventures in Africa’s Economic Miracle by Ashish J. Thakkar The Lion Awakes: Adventures in Africa’s Economic Miracle

by Ashish J. Thakkar
St. Martin’s Press (Aug 25, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


Three little known facts: Africa is now the world’s fastest growing continent, with average GDP growth of 5.5% the past 10 years. Malaria deaths have declined by 30% and HIV infections by 74%. Nigeria produces more movies than America does.The Lion Awakes is the true story of today’s Africa, one often overshadowed by the dire headlines. Traveling from his ancestral home in Uganda, East Africa, to the booming economy and (if chaotic) new democracies of West Africa, and down to the "Silicon Savannahs" of Kenya and Rwanda, Ashish J. Thakkar shows us an Africa that few Westerners are aware exists. Far from being a place in need of our pity and aid, we see a continent undergoing a remarkable transformation and economic development. We meet a new generation of ambitious, tech savvy young Africans who are developing everything from bamboo bicycles to iPhone Apps; we meet artists, film makers and architects thriving with newfound freedom and opportunity, and we are introduced to hyper-educated members of the Diaspora who have returned to Africa after years abroad to open companies and take up positions in government. They all tell the same story: 21st Century Africa offers them more opportunity than the First World. Drawing from his business experience, and his own family’s history in Africa, which include his parents’ expulsion from Uganda by Idi Amin in the 70s and his own survival of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Ashish shows us how much difference a decade can make.


Click for more detail about The Orchard of Lost Souls: A Novel by Nadifa Mohamed The Orchard of Lost Souls: A Novel

by Nadifa Mohamed
Picador (Jun 16, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


From one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, a stunning novel illuminating Somalia’s tragic civil war

It is 1987 and Hargeisa waits. Whispers of revolution travel on the dry winds, but still the dictatorship remains secure.
Soon, through the eyes of three women, we will see Somalia fall.
Nine-year-old Deqo has left the vast refugee camp where she was born, lured to the city by the promise of her first pair of shoes.
Kawsar, a solitary widow, is trapped in her little house with its garden clawed from the desert, confined to her bed after a savage beating in the local police station.
Filsan, a young female soldier, has moved from Mogadishu to suppress the rebellion growing in the north.
As the country is unraveled by a civil war that will shock the world, the fates of these three women are twisted irrevocably together.
Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa and was exiled before the outbreak of war. In The Orchard of Lost Souls, she returns to Hargeisa in her imagination. Intimate, frank, brimming with beauty and fierce love, this novel is an unforgettable account of ordinary lives lived in extraordinary times.Chosen as one of the 15 Best Works of Fiction by Black Authors in 2014 by The Root


Click for more detail about How Jelly Roll Morton Invented Jazz by Jonah Winter How Jelly Roll Morton Invented Jazz

by Jonah Winter
Roaring Brook Press (Jun 16, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


"This informational picture book covers self-proclaimed "Inventor of Jazz" Jelly Roll Morton’s contribution to the musical scene." Winter describes the atmosphere of the early 1900s in general terms and often uses rhyming verses to advance the story ("I thought I heard Mister Jelly Roll too/Sayin’ ’I invented jazz in 1902./It was me who invented jazz-’cause it sure wasn’t you.’/I thought I heard him too…"). The text is confusing in places, and readers may have to refer to the back matter to clarify certain statements. For instance, the author explains that Morton didn’t truly invent jazz but created his own, inimitable style. It’s Mallett’s attractive, painterly, oil-on-canvas illustrations that are the real draw here, with many spreads featuring dark silhouettes positioned on vibrant backgrounds of orange and yellows among a swirl of musical notes. VERDICT While this book isn’t one of Winter’s strongest works, there is a dearth of material on this star jazz musician, making it suitable supplemental material on the Jazz Age or a possibility for biography collections." —School Library Journal


Click for more detail about Heaven: Poems by Rowan Ricardo Phillips Heaven: Poems

by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jun 16, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

Long-listed for the National Book Award in poetryA spectacularly vibrant and continually surprising collection from one of the poetry world’s rising young stars"Who the hell’s heaven is this?" Rowan Ricardo Phillips offers many answers, and none at all, in Heaven, the piercing and revelatory encore to his award-winning debut, The Ground. Swerving elegantly from humor to heartbreak, from Colorado to Florida, from Dante’s Paradise to Homer’s Iliad, from knowledge to ignorance to awe, Phillips turns his gaze upward and outward, probing and upending notions of the beyond.

"Feeling, real feeling / with all its faulty / Architecture, is / Beyond a god’s touch"?but it does not elude Phillips. Meditating on feverish boyhood, on two paintings by Chuck Close, on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, on a dead rooster by the side of the road in Ohio, on an elk grazing outside his window, his language remains eternally intoxicating, full of play, pathos, and surprise.

"The end," he writes, "like / All I’ve ever told you, is uncertain." Or, elsewhere: "The only way then to know a truth / Is to squint in its direction and poke." Phillips?who received a 2013 Whiting Writers’ Award as well as the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award?may not be certain, but as he squints and pokes in the direction of truth, his power of perception and elegance of expression create a place where beauty and truth come together and drift apart like a planet orbiting its star. The result is a book whose lush and wounding beauty will leave its mark on readers long after they’ve turned the last page.

In the video below Rowan reads the following poem “The Once and Future King of Ohio” from his collection Heaven

Dawn. Two roosters stud the side of the road.
One of them is dead. The other stands there
Stiff in the car’s sudden breeze, staring out
Across the hilly Ohio highway,
Skyward towards that something slight of bright
Reds and pinks, a pallid rooster-feathered
Hue, as silent as the rooster standing
And as distant as the rooster on its side.
We drove by, my guide and I, too quickly
To know if one rooster was waiting for
The other, or which had been waiting–,
Or, if they’d planned to cross the road together
When suddenly something went terribly wrong
Either at the end of having crossed it
Or simply, as happens, during the wait.

The whole Ohio highway seemed to know, though,
Like the gate of Heaven you see at death
(As a light or a shining shunning darkness)
Knows Heaven without actually being
Heaven, being rather just a border,
Still part of our plausible world
Of parts, living and dead, male and female,
Color and color, belief and belief …
There’s really no reason to believe or
Not to believe what you see when you see it.
But when at speed I saw those two roosters
Trying to figure out what’s next for them
As the distances we travelled on the
661 swallowed them whole with wheat,
I looked from my passenger’s seat into
The car’s rearview mirror, and saw nothing
That was neither Heaven nor Ohio
As the horses stirred, and the steeples slept,
And the state flattened out like a mirror.
And am I not a mirror for that mirror?


Click for more detail about Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York’s Bravest by Ginger Adams Otis Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York’s Bravest

by Ginger Adams Otis
St. Martin’s Press (May 26, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


In 1919, when Wesley Williams became a New York City firefighter, he stepped into a world that was 100% white and predominantly Irish. As far as this city knew, black men in the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) tended horses.Nearly a century later, many things in the FDNY had changed?but not the scarcity of blacks. New York had about 300 black firefighters?roughly 3 percent of the 11,000 New York firefighters in a city of two million African Americans. That made the FDNY a true aberration compared to all the other uniformed departments, like the NYPD. Decades earlier, women and blacks had sued over its hiring practices and won. But the FDNY never took permanent steps to eradicate the inequities, which led to a courtroom show-down between New York City’s billionaire Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, and a determined group of black activist firefighters. It was not until 2014 that the city settled the $98 million lawsuit.At the center of this book are stories of courage?about firefighters risking their lives in the line of duty but also risking their livelihood by battling an unjust system. Among them: FDNY Captain Paul Washington, a second generation black firefighter, who spent his multi-decade career fighting to get minorities on the job. He faced an insular culture made up of relatives who never saw their own inclusion as favoritism.Based on author Ginger Adams Otis’ years of on the ground reporting, Firefight is an exciting blend of the high-octane energy of firefighting and critical Civil Rights history.


Click for more detail about The Black Door: Part 3 by Velvet The Black Door: Part 3

by Velvet
St. Martin’s Press (May 19, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

Pulled into a world of sweet temptations and sexual fantasy, Ariel will hold tight to the one who has reawakened her body, and her heart, no matter what the cost in the final installment of Velvet’s smoking hot e-serial The Black Door.

Ariel, thrust into the heady, wild frenzy of The Black Door, refuses to give up her visits to the sensual playground—and vows to see the man who makes her burn with pleasure. As her dark life of sexual fantasy begins to blend into her real life, Ariel verges on losing control completely, in the shattering, sexy conclusion to The Black Door by Velvet.


Click for more detail about The Black Door: Part 2 by Velvet The Black Door: Part 2

by Velvet
St. Martin’s Press (May 12, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

When an underground world of dark fantasies and sexual pleasures lures Ariel in, her life is shattered as new hungers awaken in Part Two of Velvet’s explosive, exclusive e-serial The Black Door.

Desperate to sate the need that courses through her, Ariel believes she will find what she so deeply needs at The Black Door. But when one man’s touch opens her up completely, Ariel is ready to irrevocably surrender her body to pleasure…and her soul to desire…in Part Two of the seXXXy novel The Black Door.


Click for more detail about The Black Door: Part 1 by Velvet The Black Door: Part 1

by Velvet
St. Martin’s Press (May 05, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Welcome to the secretive, seductive world behind the Black Door. Once you go through it, you’ll never be the same…Dare to experience the first part of red-hot author Velvet’s The Black Door, now in an exclusive e-serial.

Ariel Vaughn aches for more. Dissatisfied with her hot and high-profile—but barely lukewarm in bed—boyfriend, she goes searching for the more enticing pleasures that life has to offer. When a hot young escort leads her to The Black Door, Ariel gives in to the desires that consume her…and the passions that dominate her…in Part 1 of the explosive novel THE BLACK DOOR."


Click for more detail about The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden The Wedding Gift

by Marlen Suyapa Bodden
St. Martin’s Press (Mar 31, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

In 1852, when prestigious Alabama plantation owner Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, she takes with her a gift: Sarah—her slave and her half-sister. Raised by an educated mother, Clarissa is not the proper Southern belle she appears to be, with ambitions of loving whom she chooses. Sarah equally hides behind the façade of being a docile house slave as she plots to escape. Both women bring these tumultuous secrets and desires with them to their new home, igniting events that spiral into a tale beyond what you ever imagined possible. Told through the alternating viewpoints of Sarah and Theodora Allen, Cornelius’ wife, Marlen Suyapa Bodden’s The Wedding Gift is an intimate portrait of slavery and the 19th Century South that will leave readers breathless.


Click for more detail about The Lost Child: A Novel by Caryl Phillips The Lost Child: A Novel

by Caryl Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 10, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


Caryl Phillips’s The Lost Child is a sweeping story of orphans and outcasts, haunted by the past and fighting to liberate themselves from it. At its center is Monica Johnson?cut off from her parents after falling in love with a foreigner?and her bitter struggle to raise her sons in the shadow of the wild moors of the north of England. Phillips intertwines her modern narrative with the childhood of one of literature’s most enigmatic lost boys, as he deftly conjures young Heathcliff, the anti-hero of Wuthering Heights, and his ragged existence before Mr. Earnshaw brought him home to his family. The Lost Child is a multifaceted, deeply original response to Emily Bronte’s masterpiece, Wuthering Heights. A critically acclaimed and sublimely talented storyteller, Caryl Phillips is "in a league with Toni Morrison and V. S. Naipaul" (Booklist) and "his novels have a way of growing on you, staying with you long after you’ve closed the book." (The New York Times Book Review) A true literary feat, The Lost Child recovers the mysteries of the past to illuminate the predicaments of the present, getting at the heart of alienation, exile, and family by transforming a classic into a profound story that is singularly its own.


Click for more detail about The Shred Diet Cookbook by Ian K. Smith The Shred Diet Cookbook

by Ian K. Smith
Palgrave Macmillan (Mar 03, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


Can I eat that on SHRED?
Hundreds of thousands have lost extraordinary amounts of weight on Dr. Ian K. Smith’s SHRED programs, using his proven killer combo of diet confusion, meal spacing, meal replacement and strategic snacking. Now, in Dr. Ian’s first-ever cookbook, he’s deliciously answering the question so many of those dieters have asked: "Can I eat that on SHRED?" In THE SHRED DIET COOKBOOK, you’ll enjoy:
-Midday recipes: from Heavenly Cheeseburgers to Green Bean and Artichoke Stir Fry
-Protein-rich dinners that are quick to make and satisfying to eat: from Cheese-packed Chicken Breasts to Seared Mustard Pork Chops and Cider-braised Onions
-Side-dishes: from Crispy Sweet Potato Wedges with Ginger-Soy Glaze to Creamy Polenta
-Snack preparations so simple and so good you’ll want to plan a party around them
-Carb recipes that make them count, including pancakes, potatoes, and pastas
-Southern specialties and recipes from Dr. Ian’s family: from Dr. Ian’s Sweet Barbecue Steaks to Uncle Johnny’s Black-eyed Pea Salad to Ma’s Eggplant Parmesan
-Complete nutritional information and portioning for each recipe -Over 35 all-new recipes for meal—replacing smoothies and soups


Click for more detail about Disgruntled by Asali Solomon Disgruntled

by Asali Solomon
Palgrave Macmillan (Feb 03, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description

An elegant, vibrant, startling coming-of-age novel, for anyone who’s ever felt the shame of being alive

Kenya Curtis is only eight years old, but she knows that she’s different, even if she can’t put her finger on how or why. It’s not because she’s black—most of the other students in the fourth-grade class at her West Philadelphia elementary school are too. Maybe it’s because she celebrates Kwanzaa, or because she’s forbidden from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Maybe it’s because she calls her father—a housepainter-slash-philosopher—"Baba" instead of "Daddy," or because her parents’ friends gather to pour out libations "from the Creator, for the Martyrs" and discuss "the community."

Kenya does know that it’s connected to what her Baba calls "the shame of being alive"—a shame that only grows deeper and more complex over the course of Asali Solomon’s long-awaited debut novel. Disgruntled, effortlessly funny and achingly poignant, follows Kenya from West Philadelphia to the suburbs, from public school to private, from childhood through adolescence, as she grows increasingly disgruntled by her inability to find any place or thing or person that feels like home.

A coming-of-age tale, a portrait of Philadelphia in the late eighties and early nineties, an examination of the impossible double-binds of race, Disgruntled is a novel about the desire to rise above the limitations of the narratives we’re given and the painful struggle to craft fresh ones we can call our own.


Click for more detail about Inside A Silver Box by Walter Mosley Inside A Silver Box

by Walter Mosley
Palgrave Macmillan (Jan 27, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


Walter Mosley’s talent knows no bounds. Inside a Silver Box continues to explore the cosmic questions entertainingly discussed in his Crosstown to Oblivion. From life’s meaning to the nature of good and evil, Mosley takes readers on a speculative journey beyond reality.In Inside a Silver Box, two people brought together by a horrific act are united in a common cause by the powers of the Silver Box. The two join to protect humanity from destruction by an alien race, the Laz, hell-bent on regaining control over the Silver Box, the most destructive and powerful tool in the universe. The Silver Box will stop at nothing to prevent its former master from returning to being, even if it means finishing the earth itself.


Click for more detail about Whale Trails, Before and Now by Lesa Cline-Ransome Whale Trails, Before and Now

by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (Jan 20, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


"My father and I live for the sea. He is the captain of the Cuffee Whale Boat and today I am his First Mate."Whale-watching is a hugely popular pastime: at least 13 million people take whale-watching trips each year. But in the past, whaling ships hunted these animals to use their blubber for fuel and their bones for fishing hooks. As the whale population thinned, fortunately hunting ceased. Now, whale lovers go out on boats just to get a glimpse of these giant endangered creatures. Narrated by a little girl out on the waves with her father, this is a story of marine history and the differences between then and now.


Click for more detail about 28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World by Charles R. Smith Jr. 28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World

by Charles R. Smith Jr.
Roaring Brook Press (Jan 13, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


Each day features a different influential figure in African-American history, from Crispus Attucks, the first man shot in the Boston Massacre, sparking the Revolutionary War, to Madame C. J. Walker, who after years of adversity became the wealthiest black woman in the country, as well as one of the wealthiest black Americans, to Barack Obama, the country’s first African-American president.With powerful illustrations by Shane Evans, this is a completely unique look at the importance and influence of African Americans on the history of this country.


Click for more detail about George Padmore and Decolonization from Below: Pan-Africanism, the Cold War, and the End of Empire by Leslie James George Padmore and Decolonization from Below: Pan-Africanism, the Cold War, and the End of Empire

by Leslie James
Palgrave Macmillan (Jan 01, 2015)
Read Detailed Book Description


This book argues that the rising tide of anti-colonialism after the 1930s should be considered a turning point not just in harnessing a new mood or feeling of unity, but primarily as one that viewed empire, racism, and economic degradation as part of a system that fundamentally required the application of strategy to their destruction.


Click for more detail about Super Shred: The Big Results Diet: 4 Weeks, 20 Pounds, Lose It Faster! by Ian K. Smith Super Shred: The Big Results Diet: 4 Weeks, 20 Pounds, Lose It Faster!

by Ian K. Smith
Palgrave Macmillan (Dec 30, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description

The diet that works faster and forever!

Using the same principles—meal spacing, snacking, meal replacement and diet confusion—that made his SHRED a major #1 bestseller—Dr. Ian Smith has developed what dieters told him they needed: a quick-acting plan that is safe and easy to follow at home, at work, or on the road.

It’s a program with four week-long cycles:

- Foundation, when you’ll eat four meals and three snacks a day, start shedding pounds and set yourself up for success

- Accelerate, when you’ll kick it up and speed up weight loss

- Shape, the toughest week in the program, and the one that will get your body back by keeping it guessing

- Tenacious, a final sprint that cements your improved eating habits and melts off those last stubborn pounds

The SHRED system never leaves you hungry. It’s a completely new way to lose weight, stay slender, and feel fantastic about your body, mind and spirit!

Includes more than 50 all-new recipes for meal replacing smoothies and soups!


Click for more detail about Who We Be: The Colorization of America by Jeff Chang Who We Be: The Colorization of America

by Jeff Chang
St. Martin’s Press (Oct 21, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description

Race. A four-letter word. The greatest social divide in American life, a half-century ago and today. During that time, the U.S. has seen the most dramatic demographic and cultural shifts in its history, what can be called the colorization of America. But the same nation that elected its first Black president on a wave of hope—another four-letter word—is still plunged into endless culture wars. How do Americans see race now? How has that changed—and not changed—over the half-century? After eras framed by words like "multicultural" and "post-racial," do we see each other any more clearly? Who We Be remixes comic strips and contemporary art, campus protests and corporate marketing campaigns, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Trayvon Martin into a powerful, unusual, and timely cultural history of the idea of racial progress. In this follow-up to the award-winning classic Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, Jeff Chang brings fresh energy, style, and sweep to the essential American story.

Book Review

Click for more detail about How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon How It Went Down

by Kekla Magoon
Henry Holt & Company (Oct 14, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description

When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq’s death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. Day by day, new twists further obscure the truth. Tariq’s friends, family, and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy, and to cope with the hole left behind when a life is cut short. In their own words, they grapple for a way to say with certainty: This is how it went down.


Click for more detail about Crazy, Sexy, Revenge: A Novel by J.D. Mason Crazy, Sexy, Revenge: A Novel

by J.D. Mason
St. Martin’s Griffin (Oct 14, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description


Jordan Gatewood’s life is falling apart. Murder, sex, betrayal, suicide?the women in his world are paying him back for all the terrible things he’s done, and they’re bringing on the drama in spades. And now with Desi Green bringing Jordan to the attention of the detective investigating his lover’s murder, his tenuous grip on control threatens to unravel completely.
Desi refuses to let anyone back her into a corner. For years, people have tried to set her back and destroy her, but now, she’s ready to take it to anyone who wants to put her down, including Jordan Gatewood. And when a message comes for her in the form of a brutal attack, Desi will have to fight with everything she has before she gets her revenge…in Crazy, Sexy, Revenge by J.D. Mason.


Click for more detail about What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey What I Know For Sure

by Oprah Winfrey
Palgrave Macmillan (Sep 02, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description

As a creative force, student of the human heart and soul, and champion of living the life you want, Oprah Winfrey stands alone. Over the years, she has made history with a legendary talk show - the highest-rated program of its kind, launched her own television network, become the nation’s only African-American billionaire, and been awarded both an honorary degree by Harvard University and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. From all her experiences, she has gleaned life lessons—which, for fourteen years, she’s shared in O, The Oprah Magazine’s widely popular “What I Know For Sure” column, a monthly source of inspiration and revelation.

Now, for the first time, these thoughtful gems have been revised, updated, and collected in What I Know For Sure, a beautiful cloth bound book with a ribbon marker, packed with insight and revelation from Oprah Winfrey. Organized by theme—joy, resilience, connection, gratitude, possibility, awe, clarity, and power—these essays offer a rare, powerful and intimate glimpse into the heart and mind of one of the world’s most extraordinary women—while providing readers a guide to becoming their best selves. Candid, moving, exhilarating, uplifting, and frequently humorous, the words Oprah shares in What I Know For Sure shimmer with the sort of truth that readers will turn to again and again.


Click for more detail about Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

by Phillip Hoose
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Aug 05, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description


”It’s my constitutional right!” screamed Claudette Colvin as she was dragged off a segregated city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after refusing to give up her seat to a white woman. It was March 2, 1955—nine months before Rosa Parks took a similar stand. But instead of being celebrated as Parks was, Colvin was shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that did for transportation what Brown v. The Board of Education did for education. Called “unforgettable” by The Wall Street Journal, this outstanding, ground-breaking account of an almost forgotten civil rights pioneer garnered praise and accolades, including a National Book Award, a Newbery Honor, and a Robert F. Sibert Book. As The New York Times said in a glowing review, Hoose “finally gives [Colvin] the credit she deserves.”


Click for more detail about Pastor Needs a Boo by Michele Andrea Bowen Pastor Needs a Boo

by Michele Andrea Bowen
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jul 08, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description


Michele Andrea Bowen made a name for herself years ago during the African-American inspirational fiction craze. Now, in Pastor Needs a Boo (Pastor’s Aid Club), she’s back with an amazing journey of faith, drama, and love.
It was a regular New Jerusalem Gospel United Church work day for Reverend Denzelle Flowers when Veronica Washington, Keisha Jackson, and Marsha Metcalf showed up after losing their jobs on the same day, same morning, and almost at the same time. Denzelle struggled to solve that first problem. The other problem?the lovely Marsha?would be much harder to solve. Denzelle didn’t even know how to fight wanting to turn in the playah’s card and getting "booed" up with the poster girl for "church girls."
Marsha Metcalf and her fellow unemployed church members aren’t Denzelle’s biggest problem, though. He is running for bishop, and his enemies?a more ruthless consortium of corrupted clergy?want power badly enough to go to rather extreme lengths for it because the stakes are just that high. Now, his ex-wife was back and sleeping with the enemy, digging for dirt. Reverend Denzelle can’t fight this battle alone. This pastor needs a ‘boo’ who will stand by his side. Before the dust settles, both Marsha and Denzelle’s faith and love will be put to the ultimate test.


Click for more detail about Land of Shadows by Rachel Howzell Hall Land of Shadows

by Rachel Howzell Hall
Forge (Jun 10, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description

"A fresh voice in crime fiction. Fast, funny, heartbreaking and wise…Elouise Norton is the best new character you’ll meet this year." —Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author

"Spellbinding. Gritty. Original, complex, profound, and riveting. This is a voice you have never heard—and will be unable to forget. Prepare to be blown away." —Hank Phillippi Ryan, Anthony, Agatha, and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author

"A hard-hitting tale of a modern, complex Los Angeles. Well-written and deftly paced…a story that stays with you after the last page is read." —Gary Phillips, author of Warlord of Willow Ridge

"Intense, gritty and absolutely riveting, Land of Shadows took my breath away. The power of Rachel Howzell Hall’s prose and the sophistication of her plotting grabbed me immediately. Even so, her most dazzling accomplishment is bringing to life LAPD detective Lou Norton, whose passionate voice is still reverberating in my head. A phenomenal book I’m recommending far and wide. This better be the start of a series!" —Hilary Davidson


Click for more detail about The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires  by Dennis Kimbro The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires

by Dennis Kimbro
Palgrave Macmillan (Jun 03, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description

It’s no secret that these hard times have been even harder for the Black community.

Approximately 35 percent of African Americans had no measurable assets in 2009, and 24 percent of these same households had only a motor vehicle. Dennis Kimbro, observing how the weight of the continuing housing and credit crises disproportionately impacts the African-American community, takes a sharp look at a carefully cultivated group of individuals who’ve scaled the heights of success and how others can emulate them. Based on a seven year study of 1,000 of the wealthiest African Americans, The Wealth Choice offers a trove of sound and surprising advice about climbing the economic ladder, even when the odds seem stacked against you. Readers will learn about how business leaders, entrepreneurs, and celebrities like Bob Johnson, Spike Lee, L. A. Reid, Herman Cain, T. D. Jakes and Tyrese Gibson found their paths to wealth; what they did or didn’t learn about money early on; what they had to sacrifice to get to the top; and the role of discipline in managing their success. Through these stories, which include men and women at every stage of life and in every industry, Dennis Kimbro shows readers how to; develop a wealth-generating mindset and habits, commit to lifelong learning, craft goals that match your passion, make short-term sacrifices for long-term gain, and take calculated risks when opportunity presents itself

Book Review

Click for more detail about Til The Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma Til The Well Runs Dry

by Lauren Francis-Sharma
Palgrave Macmillan (Apr 22, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description

A glorious and moving multi-generational, multicultural saga that begins in the 1940s and sweeps through the 1960’s in Trinidad and the United States

Lauren Francis-Sharma’s ’Til the Well Runs Dry opens in a seaside village in the north of Trinidad where young Marcia Garcia, a gifted and smart-mouthed 16-year-old seamstress, lives alone, raising two small boys and guarding a family secret. When she meets Farouk Karam, an ambitious young policeman (so taken with Marcia that he elicits the help of a tea-brewing obeah woman to guarantee her ardor), the risks and rewards in Marcia’s life amplify forever.

On an island rich with laughter, Calypso, Carnival, cricket, beaches and salty air, sweet fruits and spicy stews, the novel follows Marcia and Farouk from their amusing and passionate courtship through personal and historical events that threaten Marcia’s secret, entangle the couple and their children in a scandal, and endanger the future for all of them.

’Til the Well Runs Dry tells the twinned stories of a spirited woman’s love for one man and her bottomless devotion to her children. For readers who cherish the previously untold stories of women’s lives, here is a story of grit and imperfection and love that has not been told before.


Click for more detail about The Sun Is So Quiet by Nikki Giovanni The Sun Is So Quiet

by Nikki Giovanni
Square Fish (Mar 04, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description


Quiet …
like a quilt on a feather bed …
and frost on the window …
we write our names knowing …
the sun will melt them offBut the sun is so quiet …
that we don’t care
we smile
—from Connie by Nikki GiovanniThe quiet and noisy, wintery and sometimes sunny poems in The Sun Is So Quiet will always make you smile. Nikki Giovanni describes riding rainbows, tiptoeing through strawberry patches, licking chocolaty fingers, snuggling under covers, and many other wonderful childhood moments. Ashley Bryan’s warmest, most colorful illustrations make each page look like a bright, beaming smile.Together, they have created a collection that you can linger over like a peppermint candy cane or enjoy as quickly as a snowflake melts on your nose.


Click for more detail about The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights

by Steve Sheinkin
Roaring Brook Press (Jan 21, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description


An astonishing civil rights story from Newbery Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin. On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion rocked the segregated Navy base at Port Chicago, California, killing more than 300 sailors who were at the docks, critically injuring off-duty men in their bunks, and shattering windows up to a mile away. On August 9th, 244 men refused to go back to work until unsafe and unfair conditions at the docks were addressed. When the dust settled, fifty were charged with mutiny, facing decades in jail and even execution. This is a fascinating story of the prejudice that faced black men and women in America’s armed forces during World War II, and a nuanced look at those who gave their lives in service of a country where they lacked the most basic rights.This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum.


Click for more detail about Keeping the Night Watch by Hope Anita Smith Keeping the Night Watch

by Hope Anita Smith
Square Fish (Jan 21, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description


So many unanswered questions weigh down thirteen-year-old C.J. as he struggles to understand why his father walked out. His father is back now, though C.J. is not as quick to forgive as the other members of his family. He still feels the weight of responsibility that fell on his shoulders when Daddy was gone, and he’s not prepared to give that up. But C.J.’s anger is making him a stranger in his own home, and instead of life seeming better now that Daddy has returned, it feels worse.Through powerful poems, Hope Anita Smith chronicles the nuanced emotions of a family that is slowly learning to heal and put the pieces back together.Keeping the Night Watch is a 2009 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book and a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children’s Book of the Year.


Click for more detail about The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013 by Derek Walcott The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013

by Derek Walcott
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jan 21, 2014)
Read Detailed Book Description

A collection spanning the whole of Derek Walcott’s celebrated, inimitable, essential career "‘He gives us more than himself or a world’; he gives us a sense of infinity embodied in the language."" Alongside Joseph Brodsky’s words of praise one might mention the more concrete honors that the renowned poet Derek Walcott has received: a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship; the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry; the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948–2013 draws from every stage of the poet’s storied career. Here are examples of his very earliest work, like ""In My Eighteenth Year,"" published when the poet himself was still a teenager; his first widely celebrated verse, like ""A Far Cry from Africa,"" which speaks of violence, of loyalties divided in one’s very blood; his mature work, like ""The Schooner Flight"" from The Star-Apple Kingdom; and his late masterpieces, like the tender ""Sixty Years After,"" from the 2010 collection White Egrets. Across sixty-five years, Walcott grapples with the themes that have defined his work as they have defined his life: the unsolvable riddle of identity; the painful legacy of colonialism on his native Caribbean island of St. Lucia; the mysteries of faith and love and the natural world; the Western canon, celebrated and problematic; the trauma of growing old, of losing friends, family, one’s own memory. This collection, selected by Walcott’s friend the English poet Glyn Maxwell, will prove as enduring as the questions, the passions, that have driven Walcott to write for more than half a century.


Click for more detail about When The Beat Was Born: Dj Kool Herc And The Creation Of Hip Hop by Laban Carrick Hill When The Beat Was Born: Dj Kool Herc And The Creation Of Hip Hop

by Laban Carrick Hill
Palgrave Macmillan (Aug 27, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description

Before there was hip hop, there was DJ Kool Herc.

On a hot day at the end of summer in 1973 Cindy Campbell threw a back-to-school party at a park in the South Bronx. Her brother, Clive Campbell, spun the records. He had a new way of playing the music to make the breaks—the musical interludes between verses—longer for dancing. He called himself DJ Kool Herc and this is When the Beat Was Born. From his childhood in Jamaica to his youth in the Bronx, Laban Carrick Hill’s book tells how Kool Herc came to be a DJ, how kids in gangs stopped fighting in order to breakdance, and how the music he invented went on to define a culture and transform the world.


Click for more detail about Crazy Rich: Power, Scandal, And Tragedy Inside The Johnson & Johnson Dynasty by Jerry Oppenheimer Crazy Rich: Power, Scandal, And Tragedy Inside The Johnson & Johnson Dynasty

by Jerry Oppenheimer
Palgrave Macmillan (Aug 13, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description


From the founders of the international health-care behemoth Johnson & Johnson in the late 1800s to the contemporary Johnsons of today, such as billionaire New York Jets owner Robert Wood "Woody" Johnson IV, all is revealed in this scrupulously researched, unauthorized biography by New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer. Often compared to the Kennedy clan because of the tragedies and scandals that had befallen both wealthy and powerful families, Crazy Rich, based on scores of exclusive, candid, on-the-record interviews, reveals how the dynasty’s vast fortune was both intoxicating and toxic through the generations of a family that gave the world Band-Aids and Baby Oil. At the same time, they’ve been termed perhaps the most dysfunctional family in the fortune 500. Oppenheimer is the author of biographies of the Kennedys, the Clintons, the Hiltons and Martha Stewart, among other American icons.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Ground: Poems by Rowan Ricardo Phillips The Ground: Poems

by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jun 04, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description


A masterful debut from a powerfully original poetic voiceA poignant and terse vision of New York City unfolds in Rowan Ricardo Phillips’s debut book of poetry. A work of rare beauty and grace, The Ground is an entire world, drawn and revealed through contemplation of the post-9/11 landscape. With musicality and precision of thought, Phillips’s poems limn the troubadour’s journey in an increasingly surreal modern world ("I plugged my poem into a manhole cover / That flamed into the first guitar"). The origin of mankind, the origin of the self, the self’s development in the sensuous world, and––in both a literal and a figurative sense––the end of all things sing through Phillips’s supple and idiosyncratic poems. The poet’s subtle formal sophistication?somewhere between flair and restraint?and sense of lyric possibility bring together the hard glint of the contemporary world and the eroded permanence of the archaic one through remixes, underground sessions, Spenserian stanzas, myths, and revamped translations. These are poems of fiery intelligence, inescapable music, and metaphysical splendor that concern themselves with lived life and the life of the imagination––both equally vivid and true––as they lay the framework for Phillips’s meditations on our connection to and estrangement from the natural world.


Click for more detail about The Autobiography Of My Mother: A Novel by Jamaica Kincaid The Autobiography Of My Mother: A Novel

by Jamaica Kincaid
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (May 07, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description


From the recipient of the 2010 Clifton Fadiman Medal, an unforgettable novel of one woman’s courageous coming-of-agePowerful, disturbing, stirring, Jamaica Kincaid’s novel is the deeply charged story of a woman’s life on the island of Dominica. Xuela Claudette Richardson, the daughter of a Carib mother and a half-Scottish, half-African father, loses her mother to death the moment she is born and must find her way on her own.
Kincaid takes us from Xuela’s childhood in a home where she can hear the song of the sea to the tin-roofed room where she lives as a schoolgirl in the house of Jack LaBatte, who becomes her first lover. Xuela develops a passion for the stevedore Roland, who steals bolts of Irish linen for her from the ships he unloads, but she eventually marries an English doctor, Philip Bailey. Xuela’s is an intensely physical world, redolent of overripe fruit, gentian violet, sulfur, and rain on the road, and it seethes with her sorrow, her deep sympathy for those who share her history, her fear of her father, her desperate loneliness. But underlying all is "the black room of the world" that is Xuela’s barrenness and motherlessness.
The Autobiography of My Mother is a story of love, fear, loss, and the forging of character, an account of one woman’s inexorable evolution, evoked in startling and magical poetry.


Click for more detail about Stepping Stone and Love Machine: Two Short Novels from Crosstown to Oblivion by Walter Mosley Stepping Stone and Love Machine: Two Short Novels from Crosstown to Oblivion

by Walter Mosley
Forge (Apr 02, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description

Walter Mosley’s talent knows no bounds. Stepping Stone and Love Machine are but two of six fragments in the Crosstown to Oblivion short novels in which Mosley entertainingly explores life’s cosmic questions. From life’s meaning to the nature of good and evil, these tales take us on speculative journeys beyond the reality we have come to know. In each tale someone in our world today is given insight into these long pondered mysteries. But how would the world really receive the answers?

Stepping Stone:Truman Pope has spent his whole life watching the world go by—and waiting for something he can’t quite put into words. A gentle, unassuming soul, he has worked in the mailroom of a large corporation for decades without making waves, until the day he spots a mysterious woman in yellow. A woman nobody else can see.Soon Truman’s quiet life begins to turn upside-down. An old lover surfaces from his past even as he finds his job in jeopardy. Strange visions haunt his days and nights, until he begins to doubt his sanity. Is he losing his mind, or is he on the brink of a startling revelation that will change his life forever—and transform the nature of humanity?

Love Machine: The Datascriber was supposed to merely allow individuals to share sensory experiences via a neurological link, but its true potential is even more revolutionary. The brainchild of an eccentric, possibly deranged scientist, the "Love Machine" can merge individual psyches and memories into a collective Co-Mind that transcends race, gender, species … and even death itself. Tricked into joining the Co-Mind, as part of a master plan to take over the world, Lois Kim struggles to adapt to her new reality and abilities. Is there any way back to the life that was stolen from her, or is she destined to lead humanity into a strange new era, despite the opposition of forces both human and otherwise?


Click for more detail about What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits Of Markets by Michael J. Sandel What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits Of Markets

by Michael J. Sandel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Apr 02, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description


A renowned political philosopher rethinks the role that markets and money should play in our society
Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we put a price on human life to decide how much pollution to allow? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, outsourcing inmates to for-profit prisons, auctioning admission to elite universities, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay?
In his New York Times bestseller What Money Can’t Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes up one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Isn’t there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don’t belong? What are the moral limits of markets?
In recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society.
In Justice, an international bestseller, Sandel showed himself to be a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our everyday lives. Now, in What Money Can’t Buy, he provokes a debate that’s been missing in our market-driven age: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society, and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honor and money cannot buy?

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Truth About Men: The Secret Side Of The Opposite Sex by Ian K. Smith The Truth About Men: The Secret Side Of The Opposite Sex

by Ian K. Smith
St. Martin’s Griffin (Apr 02, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description


What do men really want? Wouldn’t you like to know?Anyone in a relationship with a man has spent time wondering what things "mean". Men can be confusing. What are they thinking about? Do they mean what they say? And what are they not saying? Is it good that he called instead of texting? What does it mean that he introduced me to his sister but not his mother or his best friend? Why hasn’t he said anything about my birthday yet when it’s two weeks from now?Finally, a man who understands has written a book to decode men for you. It lets you into a man’s brain and gives advice you can use today to make your relationship better tomorrow. Smith’s fascinating, sometimes surprising topics include:—The Subtle Art of Hooking Us (men really do want to be in committed relationships, even if they don’t always show it) —Beauty Matters (but beauty may not be exactly what you think it is)—Beware of Titles (why you shouldn’t label yourself his "girlfriend" until certain conditions are met) —Sex is More Powerful than an AK-47 (but it doesn’t always have to be a home run)—Mean What You Say (and why sex lies are always—always—a bad idea)Any man who picks up The Truth About Men will nod in agreement, and any woman who puts its insights into practice will have an instantly happier mate and a stronger, longer relationship.


Click for more detail about Project Chick Ii: What’s Done In The Dark by Nikki Turner Project Chick Ii: What’s Done In The Dark

by Nikki Turner
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 12, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description


Tressa always thought that the best moment in her life was the day she gave birth to her twin boys, Khalil and Hadji, but even better was when she got the news that their abusive father, Lucky, was dead. His death gave the streets freedom and safety and gave Tressa an opportunity to start over. Thrilled the bad days were gone, it didn’t take long for her to realize that even though Lucky was dead, she would never be free of him.When the twins discover that Indie, the man who raised them, had a hand in killing their father, nothing can stop them from plotting their revenge. In Project Chick II: What’s Done in the Dark by Nikki Turner, Tressa’s life thrown into chaos and she is about to find out that nothing is what it seems.


Click for more detail about All I Ever Wanted: A Grayson Friends Novel by Francis Ray All I Ever Wanted: A Grayson Friends Novel

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Feb 26, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Ray pens a wonderfully sensitive story of an evil subject — spousal abuse. Though her heroine’s confidence is turned on its head, she still has enough spirit to be an inspirational character full of hope and rebirth. Naomi’s rocky journey to real, true romance deservedly draws the reader’s full support."—USA Today


Click for more detail about When The Night Whispers by Savanna Welles When The Night Whispers

by Savanna Welles
Palgrave Macmillan (Feb 05, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description


A riveting, modern-day gothic tale about a woman who succumbs and then must save herself from a dark loverThat night was the first time I tasted champagne?French he told me, and as I loved all things French I was enchanted. I barely remember what we said?only that I did most of the talking: about leaving the South, my dreams of becoming a writer, my thoughts of Harlem … and of you. He said very little, only this: "The moment I saw you I knew you would be mine forever. And even death, even that, could not part us."
Jocelyn’s life feels empty, devoid of passion and purpose. After she finds a journal written by her "doomed" great-grandmother, Caprice, she is spellbound by her story: the escape from a loveless marriage, her seduction by a nameless lover who is both "demon and savior." Then, as if stepping out of a dream, Jocelyn meets Asa, her mysterious next door neighbor.Asa is charming, handsome, and daring and, as if by magic, she is drawn into his hedonistic lifestyle. Yet there is something unsettling about Asa. Luna is suspicious of this man, and although Jocelyn is dismissive of Luna and amused by her friend’s warnings, she can’t completely ignore them. She begins to wonder if things with Asa aren’t quite what they seem.


Click for more detail about See Now Then: A Novel by Jamaica Kincaid See Now Then: A Novel

by Jamaica Kincaid
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Feb 05, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description


In See Now Then, the brilliant and evocative new novel from Jamaica Kincaid-her first in ten years-a marriage is revealed in all its joys and agonies. This piercing examination of the manifold ways in which the passing of time operates on the human consciousness unfolds gracefully, and Kincaid inhabits each of her characters-a mother, a father, and their two children, living in a small village in New England-as they move, in their own minds, between the present, the past, and the future: for, as she writes, "the present will be now then and the past is now then and the future will be a now then." Her characters, constrained by the world, despair in their domestic situations. But their minds wander, trying to make linear sense of what is, in fact, nonlinear. See Now Then is Kincaid’s attempt to make clear what is unclear, and to make unclear what we assumed was clear: that is, the beginning, the middle, and the end.
Since the publication of her first short-story collection, At the Bottom of the River, which was nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, Kincaid has demonstrated a unique talent for seeing beyond and through the surface of things. In See Now Then, she envelops the reader in a world that is both familiar and startling-creating her most emotionally and thematically daring work yet.


Click for more detail about Sometimes There Is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider by Zakes Mda Sometimes There Is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider

by Zakes Mda
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jan 08, 2013)
Read Detailed Book Description


A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

"Moving, funny… Here is a man looking back on his life and country with joy and sorrow."?John Freeman, The Boston Globe

The most acclaimed South African writer of his generation, Zakes Mda eight novels venture far beyond the conventional narratives of a people’s struggle against apartheid. In this memoir, he tells of a life that intersects with the politics of his country?a story that is, at its heart, the classic adventure of an artist, lover, and bon vivant. Living in exile with his father in Basutoland (now Lesotho) during the first pangs of his country’s independence, a series of brutal and poignant initiations ushered him toward the life of a writer?and that of a perpetual outsider. Through the indignity of Boer racism, the turmoil of the Soweto uprisings, not to mention three marriages and his eventual immigration to America, Mda struggled to remain his own man. With Sometimes There Is a Void, he shows that independence opened the way for the stories of individual South Africans in all their variety.


Click for more detail about Shred: The Revolutionary Diet: 6 Weeks 4 Inches 2 Sizes by Ian K. Smith Shred: The Revolutionary Diet: 6 Weeks 4 Inches 2 Sizes

by Ian K. Smith
Palgrave Macmillan (Dec 24, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

Dr. Ian K. Smith’s Shred is the answer to every dieter’s biggest dilemmas: how to lose that last twenty pounds? How to push through that frustrating plateau? What to do when nothing else is working? Here, Smith has created a program that uses all he knows about strategic dieting in one plan—like putting all the best players on the field at once to create a can’t lose combination. Shred combines a low GI diet, meal spacing, and meal replacements. Those who follow Shred will constantly be eating (every three and a half hours!), four meals or meal replacements (soups, smoothies, shakes) and 3 snacks a day, over a six week program. Shred also introduces Dr. Ian’s concept of "Diet Confusion". Diet Confusion, like muscle confusion, tricks the body and revs up its performance. In the same way you need to vary your workout to see results, switch up your food intake to boost your metabolism.

No matter how often or how unsuccessfully you’ve dieted before, Shred: The Revolutionary Diet will change your life. Shred has taken the internet by storm, and thousands have already joined Dr. Ian’s Shredder Nation, losing an average of four inches, two sizes or twenty pounds in six weeks. Utilizing the detox from Fat Smash Diet, the intense cleanse of Extreme Fat Smash, and varying food of The 4 Day Diet, Shred is a six week plan to a new way of life!


Click for more detail about Race-Baiter: How The Media Wields Dangerous Words To Divide A Nation by Eric Deggans Race-Baiter: How The Media Wields Dangerous Words To Divide A Nation

by Eric Deggans
Bedford/St. Martin’s (Oct 30, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

Gone is the era of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, when news programs fought to gain the trust and respect of a wide spectrum of American viewers.

Today, the fastest-growing news programs and media platforms are fighting hard for increasingly narrow segments of the public and playing on old prejudices and deep-rooted fears, coloring the conversation in the blogosphere and the cable news chatter to distract from the true issues at stake. Using the same tactics once used to mobilize political parties and committed voters, they send their fans coded messages and demonize opposing groups, in the process securing valuable audience share and website traffic.

Race-baiter is a term born out of this tumultuous climate, coined by the conservative media to describe a person who uses racial tensions to arouse the passion and ire of a particular demographic. Even as the election of the first black president forces us all to reevaluate how we think about race, gender, culture, and class lines, some areas of modern media are working hard to push the same old buttons of conflict and division for new purposes. In Race-Baiter, veteran journalist and media critic Eric Deggans dissects the powerful ways modern media feeds fears, prejudices, and hate, while also tracing the history of the word and its consequences, intended or otherwise.

 

Related Links

What can be learned from media coverage of 2012 election

By Eric Deggans, Times TV/Media Critic
In Print: Monday, November 5, 2012

"It certainly brings about a feeling of exhaustion," said Dylan Byers, who covers media for POLITICO, noting the Internet-fueled 24/7 news cycle has increased the flow of stories and pushed journalists hard this election season. "Because of how fast the media moves now, there’s greater demand for news coverage than there are stories. People are going to look back, and perhaps wish they had spent more time on bigger pieces with greater impact."

Excerpts from the article: (Read the full article)

  1.  Social media smartens up and dumbs down the coverage.

    "Do I think ’binders full of women’ was the most substantive thing said during the debate? No, obviously not," Byers added. "Is it worthwhile to have a conversation about equality in the workplace? Absolutely."
  2. The political press has a tough time putting issues on the national news agenda if neither candidate wants to talk about them.

    Critics pointed out that the presidential campaigns and even the televised debates missed addressing a host of important issues, from the rise of poverty rates during the recession to questions on climate change, pollution and the environment.
  3. News consumers don’t just want fact-checking, they want truth-checking.

    Facts can be easier to verify. But judging what a collection of facts means often requires making a judgment call…

Join in on the discussion abut this artice with AALBC.com


Click for more detail about Merge and Disciple: Two Short Novels from Crosstown to Oblivion by Walter Mosley Merge and Disciple: Two Short Novels from Crosstown to Oblivion

by Walter Mosley
Forge (Oct 02, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

Walter Mosley’s talent knows no bounds. Merge and Disciple are but two of six fragments in the Crosstown to Oblivion short novels in which Mosley entertainingly explores life’s cosmic questions. From life’s meaning to the nature of good and evil, these tales take us on speculative journeys beyond the reality we have come to know. In each tale someone in our world today is given insight into these long pondered mysteries. But how would the world really receive the answers? Merge

Raleigh Redman loved Nicci Charbon until she left him heartbroken. Then he hit the lotto for twenty-four million dollars, quit his minimum wage job and set his sights on one goal: reading the entire collection of lectures in the Popular Educator Library, the only thing his father left behind after he died. As Raleigh is trudging through the eighth volume, he notices something in his apartment that at first seems ordinary but quickly reveals itself to be from a world very different from our own. This entity shows Raleigh joy beyond the comforts of twenty-four million dollars and merges our world with those that live beyond.Disciple

Hogarth “Trent” Tryman is a forty-two-year-old man working a dead-end data entry job. Though he lives alone and has no real friends besides his mother, he’s grown quite content in his quiet life, burning away time with television, the internet, and video games. That all changes the night he receives a bizarre instant message on his computer from a man who calls himself Bron. At first he thinks it’s a joke, but in just a matter of days Hogarth Tryman goes from a data-entry clerk to the head of a corporation. His fate is now in very powerful hands as he realizes he has become a pawn in a much larger game with unimaginable stakes a battle that threatens the prime life force on Earth.


Click for more detail about Black Bodies and the Black Church: A Blues Slant by Kelly Brown Douglas Black Bodies and the Black Church: A Blues Slant

by Kelly Brown Douglas
Palgrave Macmillan (Sep 14, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

Blues is absolutely vital to black theological reflection and to the black church’s existence. In Black Bodies and the Black Church, author Kelly Douglas Brown develops a blues crossroad theology, which allows the black church to remain true to itself and relevant in black lives.


Click for more detail about The Hiplife in Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip-Hop by Halifu Osumare The Hiplife in Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip-Hop

by Halifu Osumare
Palgrave Macmillan (Sep 06, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

The Hiplife in Ghana explores one international site - Ghana, West Africa - where hip-hop music and culture have morphed over two decades into the hiplife genre of world music. It investigates hiplife music not merely as an imitation and adaptation of hip-hop, but as a reinvention of Ghana’s century-old highlife popular music tradition.

Author Halifu Osumare traces the process by which local hiplife artists have evolved a five-phased indigenization process that has facilitated a youth-driven transformation of Ghanaian society. She also reveals how Ghana’s social shifts, facilitated by hiplife, have occurred within the country’s ’corporate recolonization,’ serving as another example of the neoliberal free market agenda as a new form of colonialism. Hiplife artists, we discover, are complicit with these global socio-economic forces even as they create counter-narratives that push aesthetic limits and challenge the neoliberal order.


Click for more detail about You Should Really Write A Book: How To Write, Sell, And Market Your Memoir by Regina Brooks and Brenda Lane Richardson You Should Really Write A Book: How To Write, Sell, And Market Your Memoir

by Regina Brooks and Brenda Lane Richardson
St. Martin’s Griffin (Aug 21, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

Even if you don’t happen to be a celebrity, this book will teach you methods for striking publishing gold—conceptualizing, selling, and marketing a memoir — while dealing with the complicated emotions that arise during the creation of your work.

If you’ve ever been told that “You should really write a book” and you’ve decided to give it a try, this book is for you. It hones in on the three key measures necessary for aspiring authors to conceptualize, sell, and market their memoirs. Written especially for those who don’t happen to be celebrities You Should Really Write a Book reveals why and how so many relatively unknown memoirists are making a name for themselves.

With references to more than four hundred books and six memoir categories, this is essential reading for anyone wanting to write a commercially viable memoir in today’s vastly changing publishing industry. The days are long gone when editors and agents were willing to take on a manuscript simply because it was based on a “good” idea or even because it was well written. With eyes focused on the bottom line, they now look for skilled and creative authors with an established audience, too.

Brooks and Richardson use the latest social networking, marketing, and promotional trends and explain how to conceptualize and strategize campaigns that cause buzz, dramatically fueling word-of-mouth and attracting attention in the publishing world and beyond. Full of current examples and in-depth analysis, this guide explains what sells and why, teaches writers to think like publishers, and offers guidance on dealing with complicated emotions — essential tools for maximizing memoir success.


Click for more detail about Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America by Cameron McWhirter
Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America

by Cameron McWhirter
Henry Holt & Company (Jul 03, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

A narrative history of America’s deadliest episode of race riots and lynchings

After World War I, black Americans fervently hoped for a new epoch of peace, prosperity, and equality. Black soldiers believed their participation in the fight to make the world safe for democracy finally earned them rights they had been promised since the close of the Civil War.

Instead, an unprecedented wave of anti-black riots and lynchings swept the country for eight months. From April to November of 1919, the racial unrest rolled across the South into the North and the Midwest, even to the nation’s capital. Millions of lives were disrupted, and hundreds of lives were lost. Blacks responded by fighting back with an intensity and determination never seen before.

"Red Summer" is the first narrative history written about this epic encounter. Focusing on the worst riots and lynchings — including those in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Charleston, Omaha and Knoxville — Cameron McWhirter chronicles the mayhem, while also exploring the first stirrings of a civil rights movement that would transform American society forty years later.

"Masterly examination of the widespread outbreak of racially motivated mob violence in the summer of 1919. In his debut, "Wall Street Journal" staff reporter McWhirter describes in gripping detail a wave of incidents of mob violence that erupted across America in the summer following the end of World War I. … Throughout the book, the author writes with professional detachment, permitting his subjects’ words and deeds to speak eloquently for themselves, amplified by liberal quotation from the vibrant black press of the period. An unsettling reminder of the cruelty and hatred that can lie beneath the surface of a nation formally committed to equal justice for all, but also a monument to the suffering and perseverance of a people at last determined to demand rights promised but too long denied." — "Kirkus Reviews"


Click for more detail about Moon-Child: A Play by Derek Walcott Moon-Child: A Play

by Derek Walcott
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jun 05, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description


In Moon-Child, the poet and playwright Derek Walcott returns to the island of St. Lucia for a lush and vivid tale of spirituality and the supernatural. In this lyrical new work, the crafty Planter (who may or may not be the Devil in disguise) schemes to take over the island for development. Between him and his goal lies the Bouton family, whose ailing matriarch strikes a bargain: if any of her three sons can get the Devil to feel anger and human weakness, the islanders will win the right to spend the rest of their days in wealth and peace.In a fable that reaches from St. Lucia’s verdant forests to an explosive ending amid its plantation homes, Walcott has crafted a masterwork rich in flowing language and colorful Creole patois. With roots in Caribbean folklore and an eye toward the island’s postcolonial legacy and complex racial identities, Moon-Child marks a remarkable new addition to the canon of one of the world’s most prolific Caribbean playwrights.


Click for more detail about When Morning Comes: A Family Affair Novel by Francis Ray When Morning Comes: A Family Affair Novel

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jun 05, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

In her unforgettable new novel When Morning Comes, Francis Ray delivers an emotionally powerful tale about the families we build, the choices we make, and how we find love and family along the way.

Dr. Cade Mathis learned early that he was not the son of the man who raised him. His adoptive father, a cruel, bitter man, had always been quick to tell him that he was a bastard and an embarrassment to the rich society family whose daughter got pregnant with him. So when Cade received a full scholarship to college, he was only too happy to leave the only home he had ever known behind and never looked back. Now a successful doctor and one of the best neurosurgeons in the state, the only thing he still wants are answers about where he came from. What he doesn’t expect to find is Sabrina Thomas, the new patient advocate at his hospital, or how this woman will lead him to the family he has been searching for and a love he never expected to find.


Click for more detail about The Ground: Poems by Rowan Ricardo Phillips The Ground: Poems

by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (May 22, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

A masterful debut from a powerfully

 original poetic voice A poignant and terse vision of New York City unfolds in Rowan Ricardo Phillips’s debut book of poetry. A work of rare beauty and lyric grace, The Ground is an entire world, drawn and revealed through contemplation of the post-9/11 landscape. With musicality and precision of thought, Phillips’s poems limn the troubadour’s journey in an increasingly surreal modern world (“I plugged my poem into a manhole cover/That flamed into the first guitar”).

 The origin of mankind, the origin of the self, the self’s development in the sensuous world, and

€“

€“in both a literal and figurative sense the end of all things sing through Phillips’s supple and idiosyncratic poems. The poet’s subtle formal sophistication somewhere between flair and restraint and sense of lyric possibility bring together the hard glint of the contemporary world and the eroded permanence of the archaic one through remixes, underground sessions, Spenserian stanzas, myths and revamped translations. These are poems of fiery intelligence, inescapable music and metaphysical splendor that concern themselves with lived life and the life of the imagination both equally vivid and true as they lay the framework for Phillips’s meditations on our connection to and estrangement from the natural world.


Click for more detail about The Gift of Fire and On the Head of a Pin: Two Short Novels from Crosstown to Oblivion by Walter Mosley The Gift of Fire and On the Head of a Pin: Two Short Novels from Crosstown to Oblivion

by Walter Mosley
Forge (May 08, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

New York Times bestselling author Walter Mosley delivers two speculative tales, in one volume, of everyday people exposed to life-altering truths. The Gift of Fire In ancient mythology, the Titan Prometheus was punished by the gods for bringing man the gift of fire an event that set humankind on its course of knowledge. As punishment for making man as powerful as gods, Prometheus was bound to a rock; every day his immortal body was devoured by a giant eagle. But in The Gift of Fire, those chains cease to be, and the great champion of man walks from that immortal prison into present-day South Central Los Angeles.

Joshua Winterland and Ana Fried are working at Jennings-Tremont Enterprises when they make the most important discovery in the history of this world or possibly the next. JTE is developing advanced animatronics editing techniques to create high-end movies indistinguishable from live-action. Long dead stars can now share the screen with today’s A-list. But one night Joshua and Ana discover something lingering in the rendered footage an entity that will lead them into a new age beyond the reality they have come to know.


Click for more detail about White Lines II: Sunny by Tracy Brown White Lines II: Sunny

by Tracy Brown
St. Martin’s Griffin (Apr 24, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

In her most stunning, riveting, unstoppable novel yet, bestselling and critically acclaimed author Tracy Brown delivers the not-to-be-missed sequel to WHITE LINES.

On the surface, it appears that Sunny has got it all - looks, money, a beautiful home, a healthy daughter, and friends who love her. But Sunny has a secret - something she hasn’t even told her best friend. The truth is, Sunny is unhappy. She still misses her beloved Dorian and worries that no other man will ever captivate her the way he did. She dated some very powerful and successful men since Dorian’s death. But will she ever find love again?

It’s not long before Sunny is chasing those white lines again. And when the truth finally explodes, will Sunny be able to put her life back together again?

"Readers who like delving into complex relationships and characters creeping behind one another’s back will be drawn in." — Library Journal


Click for more detail about No More Playas (Players Series) by Brenda Jackson No More Playas (Players Series)

by Brenda Jackson
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Mar 27, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description


No More Playas Brenda JacksonIn the steamy sequel to the unforgettable The Playa’s Handbook, the biggest playa of them all is back. And he’s breaking the rules and raising hell.

Lance Montgomery, renowned relationship expert, has perfected the art of being a playa. His acclaimed workshops and bestselling books prove it. His most popular title, The Playa’s Handbook, caused a major uproar among black women and men, and shot to the top of the bestseller list. Then he met Dr. Asia Fowler, a colleague whose views on love are vastly different from his own. Intrigued and unable to forget her, Lance wanted her in his bed. Instead, she found her way into his heart. Fighting his feelings for her, Lance drives her into the arms of another man. Soon after, he realizes Dr. Asia Fowler is the first woman he has ever loved.Now he’s determined to get her back. No matter what.


Click for more detail about The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972 by Ibram H. Rogers The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972

by Ibram H. Rogers
Palgrave Macmillan (Mar 13, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

Between 1965 and 1972, African American students at upwards of a thousand historically black and white American colleges and universities organized, demanded, and protested for Black Studies, progressive Black universities, new faces, new ideas—in short, a truly diverse system of higher education relevant to the Black community. Taking inspiration from the Black Power Movement, Black students drew support from many quarters—including White, Latino, Chicano, Asian American, and Native American students—and disrupted and challenged institutions in nearly every state. By the end, black students had thoroughly reshaped the face of the academy. The Black Campus Movement provides the first national study of this remarkable and inspiring struggle, illuminating the complex context for one of the most transformative educational movements in American history, and providing a groundbreaking prehistory of black student activism from abolition through the 1960s. The book synthesizes records from more than three hundred colleges and universities, including documents from 163 college archives, into one national story. This authoritative study is essential to understanding modern American higher education.

Introduction

  1. An "Island Within": Black Students and Black Higher Education Prior to 1965
  2. "God Speed the Breed": New Negro in the Long Black Student Movement
  3. "Strike While the Iron is Hot": Civil Rights in the Long Black Student Movement
  4. "March That Won’t Turn Around": Formation and Development of the Black Campus Movement
  5. "Shuddering in a Paroxysm of Black Power": A Narrative Overview of the Black Campus Movement
  6. "A Fly in Buttermilk": Black Campus Movement Organizations, Demands, Protests, and Support
  7. "Black Jim Crow Studies": Opposition and Repression
  8. "Black Students Refuse to Pass the Buck": The Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education

Epilogue: Backlash and Forward Lashes of the Black Campus Movement


Click for more detail about The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother’s Milk by Edward St. Aubyn The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother’s Milk

by Edward St. Aubyn
Picador (Jan 31, 2012)
Read Detailed Book Description

For more than twenty years, acclaimed author Edward St. Aubyn has chronicled the life of Patrick Melrose, painting an extraordinary portrait of the beleaguered and self-loathing world of privilege. This single volume collects the first four novels—Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother’s Milk, a Man Booker finalist—to coincide with the publication of At Last, the final installment of this unique novel cycle.

By turns harrowing and hilarious, these beautifully written novels dissect the English upper class as we follow Patrick Melrose’s story from child abuse to heroin addiction and recovery. Never Mind, the first novel, unfolds over a day and an evening at the family’s chateaux in the south of France, where the sadistic and terrifying figure of David Melrose dominates the lives of his five-year-old son, Patrick, and his rich and unhappy American mother, Eleanor. From abuse to addiction, the second novel, Bad News opens as the twenty-two-year-old Patrick sets off to collect his father’s ashes from New York, where he will spend a drug-crazed twenty-four hours. And back in England, the third novel, Some Hope, offers a sober and clean Patrick the possibility of recovery. The fourth novel, the Booker-shortlisted Mother’s Milk, returns to the family chateau, where Patrick, now married and a father himself, struggles with child rearing, adultery, his mother’s desire for assisted suicide, and the loss of the family home to a New Age foundation.

Edward St. Aubyn offers a window into a world of utter decadence, amorality, greed, snobbery, and cruelty—welcome to the declining British aristocracy.


Click for more detail about Joan Myers Brown & The Audacious Hope Of The Black Ballerina: A Biohistory Of American Performance by Brenda Dixon Gottschild Joan Myers Brown & The Audacious Hope Of The Black Ballerina: A Biohistory Of American Performance

by Brenda Dixon Gottschild
Palgrave Macmillan (Dec 15, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


Founder of the Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO) and the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts, Joan Myers Brown’s personal and professional histories reflect both the hardships and the accomplishments of African Americans in the artistic and social developments through the twentieth century and into the new millennium. Dixon Gottschild deftly uses Brown’s career as the fulcrum to leverage an exploration of the connection between performance, society, and race—beginning with Brown’s predecessors in the 1920s—and a concert dance tradition that has had no previous voice to tell its story from the inside out. Augmented by interviews with a score of dance professionals, including Billy Wilson, Gene Hill Sagan, Rennie Harris, Milton Myers, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and Ronald K. Brown, Joan Myers Brown’s background and richly contoured biography are object lessons in survival—a true American narrative.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Lost In Language & Sound: Or How I Found My Way To The Arts:Essays by Ntozake Shange Lost In Language & Sound: Or How I Found My Way To The Arts:Essays

by Ntozake Shange
Palgrave Macmillan (Dec 06, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


A vibrant and vital collection that celebrates the three most important muses in the life and work of Ntozake Shange—language, music, and dance.

In this deeply personal book, the celebrated writer reflects on what it means to be an artist, a woman, and a woman of color through a beautiful combination of memoir and essay. She describes where her love for creative forces began—in her childhood home, a place where imagination reigned and boredom wasn’t allowed. The essays tell stories ranging from the poignant origin of her celebrated play "for colored girls" to why Shange needed to deconstruct the English language to make that production work, from the intensity of the female experience and the black experience as separate entities to the difficulty of living both lives simultaneously; from the intense love of jazz bestowed on her by her father to a similar obsession with dance, which came from her mother. With deep sincerity, attention, and her legendary candor, Shange’s collection progresses from the public arena to the private, gathering along the way the passions and insights of an author who writes with “such exquisite care and beauty that anybody can relate to her message” (Clive Barnes, The New York Times).

Book Review

Click for more detail about Perfect Peace: A Novel by Daniel Black Perfect Peace: A Novel

by Daniel Black
Palgrave Macmillan (Dec 06, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


The heartbreaking portrait of a large, rural southern family’s attempt to grapple with their mother’s desperate decision to make her newborn son into the daughter she will never have When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother Emma Jean tells her bewildered daughter, “You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain’t what you was supposed to be. So, from now on, you gon’ be a boy. It’ll be a little strange at first, but you’ll get used to it, and this’ll be over after while.” From this point forward, his life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events. Meanwhile, the Peace family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and fulfillment.


Click for more detail about Twelve Gates To The City by Daniel Black Twelve Gates To The City

by Daniel Black
Palgrave Macmillan (Dec 06, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description

A novel of self-discovery, family bonds and the healing of one small southern town

Twelve Gates to the City is the much-anticipated sequel to Black’s acclaimed debut, They Tell Me of a Home. In this novel, Sister assumes the voice of the narrator, speaking from the spirit realm, telling her brother TL things he could have never known about their family. She constructs the story as a series of spiritual revelations, exposing to readers both who she was in the years of TL’s absence and how every event in his life was an orchestration for his return.

TL in the meantime is back in Swamp Creek, to stay this time, but he’s still haunted by his sister’s death. His decision to become the Schoolmaster is the only thing he’s sure about, and his impact upon the students becomes palpable. But he still doesn’t know what happened to Sister. As he searches for ultimate truth, he discovers the secrets and beauty of Swamp Creek.

Twelve Gates to the City is a novel about spiritual revelation, and communal healing, ushered in by one who finally realizes that his gifts were bestowed upon him, not for his own glory, but for the transformation of his people.


Click for more detail about Saga of the Sioux: An Adaptation from Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown Saga of the Sioux: An Adaptation from Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

by Dee Brown
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (Oct 25, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


This new adaptation of Dee Brown’s multi-million copy bestseller, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, is filled with photographs and maps to bring alive the tragic saga of Native Americans for middle grade readers. Focusing on the Sioux nation as representative of the entire Native American story, this meticulously researched account allows the great chiefs and warriors to speak for themselves about what happened to the Sioux from 1860 to the Massacre of Wounded Knee in 1891. This dramatic story is essential reading for every student of U.S. history.


Click for more detail about Some Sing, Some Cry: A Novel by Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza Some Sing, Some Cry: A Novel

by Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza
St. Martin’s Griffin (Oct 11, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


Award-winning writer Ntozake Shange and real-life sister, award-winning playwright Ifa Bayeza achieve nothing less than a modern classic in this epic story of the Mayfield family. Opening dramatically at Sweet Tamarind, a rice and cotton plantation on an island off South Carolina’s coast, we watch as recently emancipated Bette Mayfield says her goodbyes before fleeing for the mainland. With her granddaughter, Eudora, in tow, she heads to Charleston. There, they carve out lives for themselves as fortune-teller and seamstress. Dora will marry, the Mayfield line will grow, and we will follow them on an journey through the watershed events of America’s troubled, vibrant history?from Reconstruction to both World Wars, from the Harlem Renaissance to Vietnam and the modern day. Shange and Bayeza give us a monumental story of a family and of America, of songs and why we have to sing them, of home and of heartbreak, of the past and of the future, bright and blazing ahead.


Click for more detail about Liliane: A Novel by Ntozake Shange Liliane: A Novel

by Ntozake Shange
St. Martin’s Griffin (Oct 11, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


Through the polyphonic voices of Liliane Lincoln’s childhood friends, lovers, and conversations with her psychoanalyst, Ntozake Shange weaves the life of a remarkable young woman. Liliane Lincoln is an artist who exposes what she knows of herself to the world through her bold and colorful artwork. Gradually, however, Liliane realizes that in order to survive, she must come to terms with what she has kept hidden even from herself. Liliane is extraordinary vision of a woman learning to be who she really is.


Click for more detail about Chocolate Me! (Hardcover) by Taye Diggs Chocolate Me! (Hardcover)

by Taye Diggs
Feiwel & Friends (Sep 27, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description

The boy is teased for looking different than the other kids. His skin is darker, his hair curlier. He tells his mother he wishes he could be more like everyone else. And she helps him to see how beautiful he really, truly is.

For years before they both achieved acclaim in their respective professions, good friends Taye Diggs and Shane W. Evans wanted to collaborate on Chocolate Me!, a book based on experiences of feeling different and trying to fit in as kids. Now, both men are fathers and see more than ever the need for a picture book that encourages all people, especially kids, to love themselves.


Click for more detail about Eviction Notice: A Hood Rat Novel (Hood Rat Novels) by K’wan Eviction Notice: A Hood Rat Novel (Hood Rat Novels)

by K’wan
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 27, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


When three young friends, Porsha, Frankie and Sahara, decide to sublease an apartment from a mutual acquaintance, life becomes one big party for the girls. But the party comes to an abrupt end when they find out they’ve been fleeced for their money and an eviction notice is taped to their door. They have seventy-two hours to come up with the money or be tossed into the streets by the city marshals. Armed with various schemes, they set out to try and stop the eviction and find themselves caught in the crossfire of a bloody war between the Notorious Clark family and a new player in the game.Meanwhile the police are still searching for the killer known only as The Animal, while his former lover Gucci tries to put the pieces of her life back together. When all is said and done, all parties involved will discover something about Animal and his abduction that no one was prepared for. There goes the neighborhood, again!
One of Library Journal’s Best Street Lit Books of 2011


Click for more detail about In My Father’s House: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris In My Father’s House: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
St. Martin’s Griffin (Aug 02, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description



For his final new series, New York Times mega-bestselling author E. Lynn Harris introduces Bentley Dean, owner of the hottest modeling agency in Miami’s sexy South Beach.


Only the world’s most beautiful models make the roster of Picture Perfect Modeling agency and they only do shoots for the most elite photographers and magazines. They are fashionista royalty?and the owners, Bentley L. Dean and his beautiful partner Alexandra, know it. But even Picture Perfect isn’t immune from hard times, so when Sterling Sneed, a rich, celebrity party planner promises to pay a ludicrously high fee for some models, Bentley finds he can’t refuse. Even though the job is not exactly a photo shoot, Bentley agrees to supply fifteen gorgeous models as eye candy for an "A" list party?to look good, be charming and, well, entertain the guests. They don’t have to do anything they don’t want to, but… His models are pros and he figures they can handle the pressure, until one drops out and Bentley asks his protégé Jah, a beautiful kid who Bentley treats as if he were his own son, to substitute. Suddenly, the stakes are much higher, particularly when Jah falls in love with the hottest African American movie star in America. Seth Sinclair is very handsome, very famous, and very married?and his closeted gay life makes him very dangerous as well. Can Bentley’s fatherly guidance save Jah from making a fatal mistake?


Click for more detail about The Long Song by Andrea Levy The Long Song

by Andrea Levy
Picador (Apr 26, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description

Finalist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize
The New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

In her follow-up to Small Island, winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, Andrea Levy once again reinvents the historical novel.

Told in the irresistibly willful and intimate voice of Miss July, with some editorial assistance from her son, Thomas, The Long Song is at once defiant, funny, and shocking. The child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation in Jamaica, July lives with her mother until Mrs. Caroline Mortimer, a recently transplanted English widow, decides to move her into the great house and rename her "Marguerite." Together they live through the bloody Baptist War and the violent and chaotic end of slavery. An extraordinarily powerful story, "The Long Song leaves its reader with a newly burnished appreciation for life, love, and the pursuit of both" (The Boston Globe).


Click for more detail about Break Every Rule: A Falcon Novel by Francis Ray Break Every Rule: A Falcon Novel

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Mar 29, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


After falling for a charmer who was only after her money, socialite Dominique Falcon has made a vow to herself that her next lover will be higher up on the social ladder than she is herself. Then she meets rough-around-the-edges Trent Masters, a man from a life of hard knocks. Now, Dominique is about to be a woman burned by breaking the rules—unless the rules don’t count for two people in love.


Click for more detail about The Way a Door Closes by Hope Anita Smith The Way a Door Closes

by Hope Anita Smith
Square Fish (Mar 15, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


My best friend, Preacher, is being just that. His sermon today is on fathers and I am his congregation.
"Dads are light. They have no roots.
One strong wind, and they’re gone.
Out of here. History."With a click, a bang, a whisper—or no noise at all. There are so many ways that a door can close, but it’s not just the closing; it’s the knowing. And thirteen-year-old CJ knows too much—about losing his father, about his family’s pain, and especially about what it means to hold things together when times are the toughest. In this beautifully written and powerfully moving novel in poems, Hope Anita Smith tells the story of a young man’s struggle to accept a father who has walked out on his family. Here, in CJ’s words, is a portrait of hurt and healing, and finding the strength to open the door again.The Way a Door Closes is the winner of the 2004 Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe New Talent Award and the 2004 Bank Street - Claudia Lewis Award and is a 2004 Bank Street - Best Children’s Book of the Year.


Click for more detail about The Chameleon Couch: Poems by Yusef Komunyakaa The Chameleon Couch: Poems

by Yusef Komunyakaa
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 15, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


A Boston Globe Best Poetry Book of 2011

A new and intimate collection from one of America’s most important poetsThe latest collection from one of our preeminent poets, The Chameleon Couch is also one of Yusef Komunyakaa’s most personal to date. As in his breakthrough work, Copacetic, Komunyakaa writes again of music as muse—from a blues club in the East Village to the shakuhachi of Basho. Beginning with "Canticle," this varied new collection often returns to the idea of poem as hymn, ethereal and haunting, as Komunyakaa reveals glimpses of memory, myth, and violence. With contemplations that spring up along walks or memories conjured by the rhythms of New York, Komunyakaa pays tribute more than ever before to those who came before him. The book moves seamlessly across cultural and historical boundaries, evoking Komunyakaa’s capacity for cultural excavation, through artifact and place. The Chameleon Couch begins in and never fully leaves the present—an urban modernity framed, brilliantly, in pastoral-minded verse. The poems seek the cracks beneath the landscape, whether New York or Ghana or Poland, finding in each elements of wisdom or unexpected beauty. The collection is sensually, beautifully relaxed in rhetoric; in poems like "Cape Coast Castle," Komunyakaa reminds us of his gift for combining the personal with the universal, one moment addressing a lover, the next moving the focus outward, until both poet and reader are implicated in the book’s startling world.The Chameleon Couch is a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry.


Click for more detail about Double Shadow: Poems (Los Angeles Times Book Award: Poetry) by Carl Phillips Double Shadow: Poems (Los Angeles Times Book Award: Poetry)

by Carl Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 15, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


A stunning new collection of poems from the author of Speak LowComparing any human life to "a restless choir" of impulses variously in conflict and at peace with one another, Carl Phillips, in his eleventh book, examines the double shadow that a life casts forth: "now risk, and now / faintheartedness." In poems that both embody and inhabit this double shadow, risk and faintheartedness prove to have the power equally to rescue us from ourselves and to destroy us. Spare, haunted, and haunting, yet not without hope, Double Shadow argues for life as a wilderness through which there’s only the questing forward—with no regrets and no looking back.Double Shadow is a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry
Winner of the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for PoetryA Boston Globe Best Poetry Book of 2011


Click for more detail about White Egrets: Poems by Derek Walcott White Egrets: Poems

by Derek Walcott
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 15, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


A DAZZLING NEW COLLECTION FROM ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT POETS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

In White Egrets, Derek Walcott treats the characteristic subjects of his career—the Caribbean’s complex colonial legacy, his love of the Western literary tradition, the wisdom that comes through the passing of time, the always strange joys of new love, and the sometimes terrifying beauty of the natural world—with an intensity and drive that recall his greatest work. Through the mesmerizing repetition of theme and imagery, Walcott creates an almost surflike cadence, broadening the possibilities of rhyme and meter, poetic form and language. White Egrets is a moving new collection from one of the most important poets of the twentieth century—a celebration of the life and language of the West Indies. It is also a triumphant paean to beauty, love, art, and—perhaps most surprisingly—getting older.


Click for more detail about He Was My Man First by Nancey Flowers and Courtney Parker He Was My Man First

by Nancey Flowers and Courtney Parker
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 01, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


Valentine Daye is a product of the streets. Raised in the projects, she lost her father and her mother young. By fifteen, she was living the life with drug lord Colombo. But when Colombo and his crew are murdered, Richard Washington, one of Colombo’s many street runners, swoops in and wastes no time making Valentine his queen. Nine years later, Valentine and Rich are a happy couple who have weathered some "minor" problems. Valentine is well aware that Rich steps out on her. But doesn’t every man? He always finds his way home. Or at least he did before Vanessa Knight. Vanessa Knight is a woman who has everything … except Richard Washington. An heiress to a multimillion-dollar company, Vanessa is willing to forgive Rich’s flawed background. However, she wants him for herself, and tells him that he must decide what’s important to him—a flourishing career at clothier Jorge Jacobs, where she can make him a VP, or a life with his street past, Valentine?.When Daye meets Knight, each woman plots and schemes to steal Rich’s heart. Rich must make a decision. Does he gamble and start a new life with the beautiful and cunning Vanessa, or does he stay with his around-the-way girl Valentine, who has been with him through thick and thin?


Click for more detail about How The West Was Lost: Fifty Years Of Economic Folly--And The Stark Choices Ahead by Dambisa Moyo How The West Was Lost: Fifty Years Of Economic Folly--And The Stark Choices Ahead

by Dambisa Moyo
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Feb 15, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


In How the West Was Lost, the New York Times bestselling author Dambisa Moyo offers a bold account of the decline of the West’s economic supremacy. She examines how the West’s flawed financial decisions have resulted in an economic and geopolitical seesaw that is now poised to tip in favor of the emerging world, especially China. Amid the hype of China’s rise, however, the most important story of our generation is being pushed aside: America is not just in economic decline, but on course to become the biggest welfare state in the history of the West. The real danger is a thome, Moyo claims. While some countries – such as Germany and Sweden – have deliberately engineered and financed welfare states, the United States risks turning itself into a bloated welfare state not because of ideology or a larger vision of economic justice, but out of economic desperation and short-sighted policymaking. How the West Was Lost reveals not only the economic myopia of the West but also the radical solutions that it needs to adopt in order to assert itself as a global economic power once again.


Click for more detail about Somebody Pick Up My Pieces by J.D. Mason Somebody Pick Up My Pieces

by J.D. Mason
Palgrave Macmillan (Feb 01, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description


Six months ago her three daughters walked out and left Charlotte Rodgers to fend for herself. Charlotte is resentful and bitter towards her children, Clarice, Connie, and especially Camille, for leaving her to face the memories of her painful past. What Charlotte doesn’t know is that the past will soon catch up with her once again. Justin and Clarice Braxton are struggling to hold on to their marriage. Justin’s affair has taken its toll, and Clarice (Reesy) has to decide once and for all, if she can finally forgive him, and move forward, or if the lure of giving Justin a dose of his own medicine is too tempting to ignore. Camille Rodgers has lived her whole life under Charlotte’s critical eye, struggling to be the perfect daughter and giving in to Charlotte’s whims. When she steps out on her own for the first time, Camille quickly spirals out of control. Connie Rodgers has fallen in love with her new son and things are going strong with her son’s father, John King. Then John finds out that his father is on his death bed. Unwelcome blasts from the past resurface, putting their new family to the test.


Click for more detail about The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer The Dream of Perpetual Motion

by Dexter Palmer
Picador (Feb 01, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description

A debut so magical… so extraordinary… it has to be read to be believed….

Imprisoned for life aboard a zeppelin that floats high above a fantastic metropolis, the greeting-card writer Harold Winslow pens his memoirs. His only companions are the disembodied voice of Miranda Taligent, the only woman he has ever loved, and the cryogenically frozen body of her father Prospero, the genius and industrial magnate who drove her insane.

The tale of Harold’s life is also one of an alternate reality, a lucid waking dream in which the well-heeled have mechanical men for servants, where the realms of fairy tales can be built from scratch, where replicas of deserted islands exist within skyscrapers.. As Harold’s childhood infatuation with Miranda changes over twenty years to love and then to obsession, the visionary inventions of her father also change Harold’s entire world, transforming it from a place of music and miracles to one of machines and noise. And as Harold heads toward a last desperate confrontation with Prospero to save Miranda’s life, he finds himself an unwitting participant in the creation of the greatest invention of them all: the perpetual motion machine.

Beautifully written, stunningly imagined, and wickedly funny, The Dream of Perpetual Motion is a heartfelt meditation on the place of love in a world dominated by technology.


Click for more detail about Aftermath: A Snapped Novel by Tracy Brown Aftermath: A Snapped Novel

by Tracy Brown
St. Martin’s Press (Feb 01, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description

When Misa Atkinson confesses to the murder of Steven Bingham, her sister’s brother-in-law, for doing the unthinkable to her son, everything is turned upside down. Misa now faces jail time and the loss of her son forever, and his drug lord brother, Frankie Bingham, is out for revenge. Camille drops another bomb on Frankie, telling her estranged husband (and his mistress) that she is pregnant with his child. Their friends, Dominique and Toya, gather around Camille and Misa in their time of need, but the storm clouds have gathered over their own lives as well. Dominique’s daughter has gone missing, and a dark figure from Toya’s past has come back with a vengeance. Against the backdrop of a high-profile murder case, these four friends will band together like they never have before as they confront the demons of their pasts and an uncertain future together. And in the end, they are forever changed.


Click for more detail about Critical Race, Feminism, and Education: A Social Justice Model by Menah Adeola Eyaside Pratt Critical Race, Feminism, and Education: A Social Justice Model

by Menah Adeola Eyaside Pratt
Palgrave Macmillan (Jan 19, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description

Critical Race, Feminism, and Education provides a transformative next step in the evolution of critical race and Black feminist scholarship. Focusing on praxis, the relationship between the construction of race, class, and gender categories and social justice outcomes is analyzed. An applied transdisciplinary model – integrating law, sociology, history, and social movement theory – demonstrates how marginalized groups are oppressed by ideologies of power and privilege in the legal system, the education system, and the media. Pratt-Clarke documents the effects of racism, patriarchy, classism, and nationalism on Black females and males in the single-sex school debate.

“Menah Pratt-Clarke’s study represents one of the most thorough integrations of the law, feminism, sociology and African American studies; her approach is a roadmap for implementing more equitable educational and public policy. Let’s hope those who institute such policies are savvy enough to pick up this book, read it, and go about the urgent business of reshaping America’s future. – Denean Sharpely-Whiting, Distinguished Professor, Vanderbilt University, USA, and author of Pimps Up, Ho’s Down”

“Menah A.E. Pratt-Clarke says that one of her reasons for writing is her awareness that the stories of black girls’ lives are still waiting to be told. With her insightful new book, Critical Race, Feminism, and Education: A Social Justice Model, Pratt-Clarke shows herself to be a meticulous scholar, a tireless advocate, and a passionate storyteller who has opened a great big window on a world that has been invisible to those who do not personally inhabit it for far too long.” – Pearl Cleage, author of Mad at Miles: A Blackwoman’s Guide to Truth and What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day


Click for more detail about Underground: Finding The Light To Freedom by Shane W. Evans Underground: Finding The Light To Freedom

by Shane W. Evans
Palgrave Macmillan (Jan 18, 2011)
Read Detailed Book Description

A family silently crawls along the ground. They run barefoot through unlit woods, sleep beneath bushes, take shelter in a kind stranger’s home. Where are they heading? They are heading for Freedom by way of the Underground Railroad.


Click for more detail about Heart of the Falcon by Francis Ray Heart of the Falcon

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 30, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description

Madelyn Taggart has shattered her share of glass ceilings. As a young engineer at a Houston oil company, she’s managed to make it in a mostly older, all-male, all-white industry. But her success has come at a high cost to her love life. So far this classic beauty has made zero headway in finding the man of her dreams…until she sees a photograph of one of her brother’s friends, and is determined to meet him.

Daniel Falcon is a bit of a Lone Star legend. He’s off-the-charts handsome and very, very rich. All the ladies entertain fantasies about being "the one..".and soon find out he’s not the type to settle down. Then Daniel meets his friend Matt’s little sister. This Madelyn clearly has eyes for him but there’s something about her that makes Daniel take a closer look. She’s clever beyond compare, and ambitious, and sexy as the day is long. Is she soul-mate material? For the first time Daniel can remember, he’s going to take his time to find out—beginning with one slow, passionate embrace…


Click for more detail about Children Of Fire: A History Of African Americans by Thomas C. Holt Children Of Fire: A History Of African Americans

by Thomas C. Holt
Hill and Wang (Oct 12, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


Ordinary people don’t experience history as it is taught by historians. They live across the convenient chronological divides we impose on the past. The same people who lived through the Civil War and the eradication of slavery also dealt with the hardships of Reconstruction, so why do we almost always treat them separately? In Children of Fire, renowned historian Thomas C. Holt challenges this form to tell the story of generations of African Americans through the lived experience of the subjects themselves, with all of the nuances, ironies, contradictions, and complexities one might expect. Building on seminal books like John Hope Franklin’s From Slavery to Freedom and many others, Holt captures the entire African American experience from the moment the first twenty African slaves were sold  at Jamestown in 1619. Each chapter focuses on a generation of individuals who shaped the course of American history, hoping for a better life for their children but often confronting the ebb and flow of their civil rights and status within society. Many familiar faces grace these pages—Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, and Barack Obama—but also some overlooked ones. Figures like Anthony Johnson, a slave who bought his freedom in late seventeenth century Virginia and built a sizable plantation, only to have it stolen away from his children by an increasingly racist court system. Or Frank Moore, a WWI veteran and sharecropper who sued his landlord for unfair practices, but found himself charged with murder after fighting off an angry white posse. Taken together, their stories tell how African Americans fashioned a culture and identity amid the turmoil of four centuries of American history.


Click for more detail about Welfare Wifeys: A Hood Rat Novel by K’wan Welfare Wifeys: A Hood Rat Novel

by K’wan
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 28, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


After the deaths and arrests of his entire crew and an informant-fueled investigation into his past, the man known on the streets as Animal relocates to Texas and finds fame and stardom as the newest act signed to the notorious Big Dawg Entertainment. His girlfriend, Gucci, is thrilled when she gets the news that he’s coming back to New York on a promotional tour, but when she discovers the hidden agenda behind his homecoming nothing can prepare her for the life-altering consequences that will come of it.There goes the neighborhood … again.


Click for more detail about Betsey Brown: A Novel by Ntozake Shange Betsey Brown: A Novel

by Ntozake Shange
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 28, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


Praised as "exuberantly engaging" by the Los Angeles Times and a "beautiful, beautiful piece of writing" by the Houston Post, acclaimed artist Ntozake Shange brings to life the story of a young girl’s awakening amidst her country’s seismic growing pains. Set in St. Louis in 1957, the year of the Little Rock Nine, Shange’s story reveals the prismatic effect of racism on an American child and her family. Seamlessly woven into this masterful portrait of an extended family is the story of Betsey’s adolescence, the rush of first romance, and the sobering responsibilities of approaching adulthood.


Click for more detail about Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo: A Novel by Ntozake Shange Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo: A Novel

by Ntozake Shange
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 28, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


Ntozake Shange’s beloved Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo is the story of three sisters and their mother from Charleston, South Carolina. Sassafrass, the oldest, is a poet and a weaver like her mother before her. Having gone north to college, she is now living with other artists in Los Angeles and trying to weave a life out of her work, her man, her memories and dreams. Cypress, the dancer, leaves home to find new ways of moving in the world. Indigo, the youngest, is still a child of Charleston-"too much of the south in her"-who lives in poetry and has the supreme gift of seeing the obvious magic of the world. Shange’s rich and wondrous story of womanhood, art, and passionately-lived lives is written "with such exquisite care and beauty that anybody can relate to her message" (The New York Times).


Click for more detail about Art of Disappearing by Ivy Claire Pochoda Art of Disappearing

by Ivy Claire Pochoda
St. Martin’s Press (Sep 28, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description

Ivy Pochoda’s spellbinding and cinematic storytelling seamlessly fuses timeless magic to modern-day passion. Haunting and beautiful, The Art of Disappearing is an imaginative and captivating love story destined to enchant readers for years to come.

How do you know if love is real or just an illusion?

When Mel Snow meets Toby Warring in a dusty roadside bar, she is instantly drawn to the brilliant magician who can pull roses from thin air and conjure castles out of desert sands. They marry two days later, and begin a life together in the shadow of Las Vegas, where Toby hopes to make it big. Mel knows that magicians are a dime a dozen, but Toby is different—his magic is real.

But as Toby’s renown grows and Mel falls more and more in love with his wonderments, she starts to realize that Toby’s powers are as unstable as they are dazzling. She learns that he once made his assistant disappear completely, and couldn’t bring her back. And soon she begins to wonder if the love they share is genuine or merely a fantasy, conjured up by a lost magician looking to save himself from being alone.


Click for more detail about White House Diary by Jimmy Carter White House Diary

by Jimmy Carter
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Sep 20, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


The edited, annotated diary of President Jimmy Carter—filled with insights into his presidency, his relationships with friends and foes, and his lasting impact on issues that still preoccupy America and the world

Each day during his presidency, Jimmy Carter made several entries in a private diary, recording his thoughts, impressions, delights, and frustrations. He offered unvarnished assessments of cabinet members, congressmen, and foreign leaders; he narrated the progress of secret negotiations such as those that led to the Camp David Accords. When his four-year term came to an end in early 1981, the diary amounted to more than five thousand pages. But this extraordinary document has never been made public—until now. By carefully selecting the most illuminating and relevant entries, Carter has provided us with an astonishingly intimate view of his presidency. Day by day, we see his forceful advocacy for nuclear containment, sustainable energy, human rights, and peace in the Middle East. We witness his interactions with such complex personalities as Ted Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Joe Biden, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin. We get the inside story of his so-called "malaise speech," his bruising battle for the 1980 Democratic nomination, and the Iranian hostage crisis. Remarkably, we also get Carter’s retrospective comments on these topics and more: thirty years after the fact, he has annotated the diary with his candid reflections on the people and events that shaped his presidency, and on the many lessons learned. Carter is now widely seen as one of the truly wise men of our time. Offering an unprecedented look at both the man and his tenure, this fascinating book will stand as a unique contribution to the history of the American presidency.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Some Sing, Some Cry: A Novel by Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza Some Sing, Some Cry: A Novel

by Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza
Palgrave Macmillan (Sep 14, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


Award-winning writer Ntozake Shange and real-life sister, award-winning playwright Ifa Bayeza achieve nothing less than a modern classic in this epic story of the Mayfield family. Opening dramatically at Sweet Tamarind, a rice and cotton plantation on an island off South Carolina’s coast, we watch as recently emancipated Bette Mayfield says her goodbyes before fleeing for the mainland. With her granddaughter, Eudora, in tow, she heads to Charleston. There, they carve out lives for themselves as fortune-teller and seamstress. Dora will marry, the Mayfield line will grow, and we will follow them on an journey through the watershed events of America’s troubled, vibrant history—from Reconstruction to both World Wars, from the Harlem Renaissance to Vietnam and the modern day. Shange and Bayeza give us a monumental story of a family and of America, of songs and why we have to sing them, of home and of heartbreak, of the past and of the future, bright and blazing ahead.


Click for more detail about Only Hers: The Taggart Brothers by Francis Ray Only Hers: The Taggart Brothers

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Aug 03, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description

When St. Louis nurse Shannon Johnson inherits a cabin in Texas, she hopes it will be the perfect getaway from her high-pressure job—and her low-energy love life. Unfortunately, the place is a rundown shack with no electricity…except for the sizzling sparks that fly when she meets Matt Taggart, the big strapping rancher next door.

One of the Lone Star State’s most desirable bachelors, Matt Taggart has seen more than his share of gold-diggers—including his ex-wife—and he’s sworn off love forever. He’s convinced Shannon only wants a piece of his ranch. But when he challenges her to help him work the land, Matt begins to see Shannon for who she really is. And soon those sparks are igniting a fire they can’t put out…


Click for more detail about Feminista by Erica Kennedy Feminista

by Erica Kennedy
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jul 06, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description

Sydney Zamora is fiercely independent, aggressively opinionated and utterly self-made. Armed with feminist ideals and a fashionista’s sense of style, this self-proclaimed feminista has reshaped her body, staked out her own little piece of Man


Click for more detail about Bumrush by Relentless Aaron Bumrush

by Relentless Aaron
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Jun 29, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way for Miles. Once upon a time his future looked bright. He joined the Marine Corps looking to become a better man than the ones he knew growing up. That was before Miles and three of his buddies got jacked from the Marinesand had to find other ways to make something of themselves…Miles, Gus, Elvis, and Sonny have become the best bandits in the business. With more than their fair share of cash, cars, and girls, only the sky is the limit…until a jewelry heist goes from bad to worse. To worst. Now someone’s got to take the fallor else. Decisions will have to be madedeliberately, ruthlessly, and fast…before life as Miles knows it comes crashing down. For good.


Click for more detail about The Porn Star Guide To Great Sex by Mr. Marcus The Porn Star Guide To Great Sex

by Mr. Marcus
Palgrave Macmillan (Jun 22, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


A provocative bedside guide to some of the most captivating sexual advice from pro-lover porn star Mr. Marcus No one knows sex better than all time favorite, awardwinning porn star Mr. Marcus, so who else to turn to when you want to turn up the heat in your bedroom? Humorous, arousing and candid, Mr. Marcus offers a practical approach to achieving a great sex life, by showing you how to feel more confident about yourself, how to achieve greater intimacy with your partner, how to get creative in the bedroom, but also how to keep it creative—in and out of the bedroom. Each chapter contains insider anecdotes from Mr. Marcus’ own experiences (on and off screen) to further illuminate his lessons. Some of the chapters you’ll find inside are: • Someone for Everyone • What Men Want • What Women Want • The Joy of Oral Sex • The Freak Factor • Positions • Woodwork • and much more! Practical, playful and erotic, The Porn Star’s Guide to Great Sex is real advice for real people as Mr. Marcus shows you how to achieve greater sexual satisfaction and how to tap into your own potential for the great sex life that you deserve.

Book Review

Click for more detail about In My Father’s House: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris In My Father’s House: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
Palgrave Macmillan (Jun 22, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


For his final new series, New York Times mega-bestselling author E. Lynn Harris introduces Bentley L. Dean, owner of the hottest modeling agency in Miami’s sexy South Beach.Only the world’s most beautiful models make the roster of Picture Perfect Modeling agency and they only do shoots for the most elite photographers and magazines. They are fashionista royalty—and the owners, Bentley L. Dean and his beautiful partner Alexandra, know it. But even Picture Perfect isn’t immune from hard times, so when Sterling Sneed, a rich, celebrity party planner promises to pay a ludicrously high fee for some models, Bentley finds he can’t refuse. Even though the job is not exactly a photo shoot, Bentley agrees to supply fifteen gorgeous models as eye candy for an “A” list party—to look good, be charming and, well, entertain the guests. They don’t have to do anything they don’t want to, but… His models are pros and he figures they can handle the pressure, until one drops out and Bentley asks his protégé Jah, a beautiful kid who Bentley treats as if he were his own son, to substitute. Suddenly, the stakes are much higher, particularly when Jah falls in love with the hottest African American movie star in America. Seth Sinclair is very handsome, very famous, and very married—and his closeted gay life makes him very dangerous as well. Can Bentley’s fatherly guidance save Jah from making a fatal mistake?

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Presumption Of Guilt: The Arrest Of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. And Race, Class And Crime In America by Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. The Presumption Of Guilt: The Arrest Of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. And Race, Class And Crime In America

by Charles J. Ogletree, Jr.
Bedford/St. Martin’s (Jun 22, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


Shortly after noon on Tuesday, July 16, 2009, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., MacArthur Fellow and Harvard professor, was mistakenly arrested by Cambridge police sergeant James Crowley for attempting to break into his own home. The ensuing media firestorm ignited debate across the country. The Crowley-Gates incident was a clash of absolutes, underscoring the tension between black and white, police and civilians, and the privileged and less privileged in modern America. Charles Ogletree, one of the country’s foremost experts on civil rights, uses this incident as a lens through which to explore issues of race, class, and crime, with the goal of creating a more just legal system for all.
Working from years of research and based on his own classes and experiences with law enforcement, the author illuminates the steps needed to embark on the long journey toward racial and legal equality for all Americans.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Black Jack: The Ballad of Jack Johnson by Charles R. Smith Jr. Black Jack: The Ballad of Jack Johnson

by Charles R. Smith Jr.
Roaring Brook Press (Jun 22, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


A powerful telling of the first African-American heavyweight champion, this story portrays how a shy, fearful young man learned to fight back and become one of history’s more compelling personalities. Children will be awed and inspired by the boxer’s energy and drive which is duly reflected through the combination of rhythmic text and bold artwork.


Click for more detail about An Elegy for Easterly: Stories by Petina Gappah An Elegy for Easterly: Stories

by Petina Gappah
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jun 08, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description

A woman in a township in Zimbabwe is surrounded by throngs of dusty children but longs for a baby of her own; an old man finds that his new job making coffins at No Matter Funeral Parlor brings unexpected riches; a politician’s widow stands quietly by at her husband’s funeral, watching his colleagues bury an empty casket. Petina Gappah’s characters may have ordinary hopes and dreams, but they are living in a world where a loaf of bread costs half a million dollars, where wives can’t trust even their husbands for fear of AIDS, and where people know exactly what will be printed in the one and only daily newspaper because the news is always, always good.

In her spirited debut collection, the Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah brings us the resilience and inventiveness of the people who struggle to live under Robert Mugabe’s regime. She takes us across the city of Harare, from the townships beset by power cuts to the manicured lawns of privilege and corruption, where wealthy husbands keep their first wives in the "big houses" while their unofficial second wives wait in the "small houses," hoping for a promotion.

Despite their circumstances, the characters in An Elegy for Easterly are more than victims—they are all too human, with as much capacity to inflict pain as to endure it. They struggle with the larger issues common to all people everywhere: failed promises, unfulfilled dreams, and the yearning for something to anchor them to life.


Click for more detail about Dream Park by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes Dream Park

by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
Palgrave Macmillan (May 11, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


A group of pretend adventurers suit up for a campaign called "The South Seas Treasure Game." As in the early Role Playing Games, there are Dungeon Masters, warriors, magicians, and thieves. The difference? At Dream Park, a futuristic fantasy theme park full of holographic attractions and the latest in VR technology, they play in an artificial enclosure that has been enhanced with special effects, holograms, actors, and a clever storyline. The players get as close as possible to truly living their adventure.All’s fun and games until a Park security guard is murdered, a valuable research property is stolen, and all evidence points to someone inside the game. The park’s head of security, Alex Griffin, joins the game to find the killer, but finds new meaning in the games he helps keep alive.


Click for more detail about Happy: Simple Steps to Get the Most Out of Life by Ian K. Smith Happy: Simple Steps to Get the Most Out of Life

by Ian K. Smith
St. Martin’s Press (Apr 27, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


Happiness isn’t the too-brief rush that comes from getting something you’ve wanted—it’s the lasting great feeling that comes from becoming someone you want to be….. And someone others want to be with, too.  No matter where you start, Happy can help you improve your life and permanently alter your happiness set point. Dr. Ian has inspired millions to lose weight. In counseling dieters, Smith learned that while achieving hard-fought and worthy goals can help make a person happy, even these real accomplishments aren’t what make happiness stick.  In Happy, Ian Smith presents a program that motivates readers to understand the behaviors and mind-sets that work and last, including: —How to be optimistic—Why optimism and realism are not opposites—How to get outside yourself—The importance of family and community—Why involvement leads to contentment—Shedding the treadmill mentality of getting and spending—Tapping the power of simple pleasures—Mastering modern life to live in the moment—What we can learn from the Danish people—How to be, not just to do Happy is a life-changing book from one of America’s most trusted voices.


Click for more detail about Small Island by Andrea Levy Small Island

by Andrea Levy
Picador (Mar 30, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description

An international bestseller. Andrea Levy’s Small Island won the Orange Prize for Fiction, The Orange Prize for Fiction: Best of the Best, The Whitbread Novel Award, The Whitbread Book of the Year Award, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

Hortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer’s daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resolve.

Told in these four voices, Small Island is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers—in short, an encapsulation of that most American of experiences: the immigrant’s life.


Click for more detail about Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It by J.D. Mason Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It

by J.D. Mason
Palgrave Macmillan (Mar 16, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


Thirty years ago, three high school friends were closer than sisters, but a dark, emotional secret tore them apart.  Now, back together at their high school reunion, each of them are tormented and haunted that their greatest fear will come to light. Renetta Jones’ childhood had been anything but happy.  After her mother walked out on them, Renetta was left to live with an unsympathetic father and her own insecurities.  She fell for the first man to come along after high school, and spent years in an abusive marriage with a man named Vincent, who used her secret to control and punish her. That is, until he suffered an untimely stroke, under questionable circumstances.   Phyllis Neville sacrificed everything for her career, including her marriage to a man she’ll love forever, and a positive relationship with her adult daughter.  But when she is passed over for the promotion of a lifetime, it’s just the first thing to go wrong in her once perfect life as the past rears its ugly head. Freddie Palmer is bored by the routine that her life has become.  Married thirty years to her husband, Don, the two of them have become empty-nesters and Freddie is anxious to start the next phase of her life.  After meeting successful author, Bianca Hightower, at a local bookstore signing, Freddie decides to take her passion for reading to the next level and signs up for writing classes being taught by her new author friend.  But Bianca sees potential in Freddie that transcends simply writing, and introduces her to the kinds of experiences a woman like Freddie never even knew existed. But when the past catches up to her, it becomes one more dark secret she’s not sure she’ll be able to keep. Tasha Darden has lived her life in foster care, and has finally gathered up the courage to try to find her birth mother. One of the three women holds the answers she seeks and she will stop at nothing until she gets them.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working And How There Is A Better Way For Africa by Dambisa Moyo Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working And How There Is A Better Way For Africa

by Dambisa Moyo
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 02, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


A national bestseller, Dead Aid unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined—and millions continue to suffer. Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Dambisa Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing development of the world’s poorest countries. Much debated in the United States and the United Kingdom on publication, Dead Aid is an unsettling yet optimistic work, a powerful challenge to the assumptions and arguments that support a profoundly misguided development policy in Africa. And it is a clarion call to a new, more hopeful vision of how to address the desperate poverty that plagues millions.


Click for more detail about That Devil’s No Friend of Mine by J.D. Mason That Devil’s No Friend of Mine

by J.D. Mason
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 02, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


When Bishop Fontaine passed away he left behind more than a list of good deeds.  He was known as a caring friend and doting father…but he was also manipulative and controlling, especially to those he loved.  His death begins to unravel deep secrets and shocking desires among the people he cared about the most… His daughter, Kristine, feels that with her father’s death she is finally free.  His best friend and business partner, Lamar, feels that now can finally have what he has longed for all these years: Kristine.  His protégé, Cole, the boxing champion and rising star, married a woman Bishop never approved of and may have been right about.  Rayne, the blues singer and ex-junkie relied on Bishop to keep her clean and is now slipping down a dark path without him.  And Rhonda, Lamar’s wife, is determined to ignore what has been unfolding in front of her if it means that her predictable life will go unchanged.  And then a newcomer steps onto the scene and threatens to turn everything upside down. Five very different people whose lives are only connected by Bishop suddenly find themselves up close and personal as desires, dreams and passions collide.


Click for more detail about The Denzel Principle: Why Black Women Can’t Find Good Black Men by Jimi Izrael The Denzel Principle: Why Black Women Can’t Find Good Black Men

by Jimi Izrael
St. Martin’s Press (Feb 16, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description

"Sisters decry the shortage of good men and say there is no way she is settling for less than a good Black man. Not just a good one, but the BEST one: Denzel Washington. She, of course, has no idea what that means, what she wants or what a good Black man truly looks like." –from The Denzel Principle

The Denzel Principle is the belief that the perfect man—in the form of Denzel Washington—actually exists off screen and that all Black women can snag a Denzel of their very own.

So what does your very own Denzel look like? Well, he’s rich but earthy, handsome but not pretty, doting but not docile, tough but vulnerable, political but not radical, passionate but not hysterical, ambitious but not overbearing, well-read but not nerdy, manly but not macho, gentle but not feminine, Black but not militant, sexy but not solicitous, flirtatious but particular…and all that on cue and in proper measure.

Award winning reporter and cultural critic, jimi izrael offers to set the record straight – from a regular guy’s point of view. The Denzel Principle is straight talk on everything from "Ways Women Can Break the Hold of the Dizzle," "Ways to Attract Mr. Right," to "Ten Reasons to Love Ordinary Black Men" and so much more.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Standing Against the Wind by Traci L. Jones Standing Against the Wind

by Traci L. Jones
Square Fish (Jan 19, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


Patrice Williams was happy living in Georgia with her grandmother, then her mother lured her to Chicago and ended up in jail. Living in the projects, Patrice is an easy target for everyone. Not only won’t she stand up for herself, she cares about her grades—unlike her classmates. But that draws the attention of Monty Freeman, another eighth grader who asks Patrice to tutor his little brother. When Monty becomes her guardian angel, Patrice begins to think something stronger than friendship might be growing between them. Still, nothing will stop her from applying for a scholarship at prestigious Dogwood Academy—except her mother.Standing Against the Wind is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children’s Book of the Year and the winner of the 2007 Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe New Talent Award.


Click for more detail about Black Magic by Dinah Johnson Black Magic

by Dinah Johnson
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (Jan 19, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description


Black is a look, a taste, a speed, an emotion. It’s the surprising stripes on a zebra, the taste of dark chocolate, the scary, exciting feeling of going inside a tunnel, and a mother’s voice as her daughter falls asleep. In this celebration of the African American spirit, Dinah Johnson and R. Gregory Christie paint a picture of "black" that is vivid, varied, and proud.


Click for more detail about Snapped by Tracy Brown Snapped

by Tracy Brown
St. Martin’s Press (Jan 05, 2010)
Read Detailed Book Description

As the pampered wife of Frankie Bingham, Camille wants for nothing. After all, Frankie and their life together are her whole world. So Camille tries not to be bothered by his closeness with his coworker and dear friend Gillian. But it soon becomes clear that Camille’s suspicions are correct. When his indiscretions become a public matter for the world, Camille is pushed to a dangerous breaking point that spells disaster for them all.

Camille’s sister Misa is newly divorced and clueless about men. She smothers men with phone calls, emails, and pops up unannounced at their homes. She hacks into their voicemail and email and causes drama. So when she sets her sights on Baron, he has no idea what hit him. Will her quest to win his heart cost her everything?

Dominique Storms appears to have it all - a great career, a beautiful NYC condo, and a gifted teenage daughter. Her only problem is that the man she loves is incarcerated. While trying to juggle the demands of motherhood, work, and friendships, she manages to make her man Jamel a priority in her life. But is he doing the same? And is she too distracted to notice what is going on with her daughter?

Latoya Blake seems to be the one who has life all figured out, that is, until some skeletons are discovered in her closet. When her well-put-together façade crumbles, will she crumble as well?


Click for more detail about Jamaica: Caribbean Street Food by Kellie Magnus Jamaica: Caribbean Street Food

by Kellie Magnus
Macmillan Caribbean (Dec 30, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


There are no recipes in these books. Occasionally, in a fit of passion for a particular food, the author may foist upon the reader a version of how the thing might be prepared. This has not been encouraged in the writing of this series because, by consensus and common sense, street food is not - indeed, should not - be attempted at home.As with street food everywhere else, we move towards it because it’s usually fast, cheap and easy to eat on the go. Usually. In the Caribbean it’s not extraordinary to find a long, sluggish line or a seemingly impenetrable mob to get to your favourite vendor. But in so many ways, it’s worth it. Street food is some of the best food you can get in these islands. Most of the famous Caribbean foods are street foods. Even if you can get them at restaurants, the best ones are usually roadside. Doubles and roti in Trinidad; jerk and pepper shrimp in Jamaica; everything you could want of and from a fish in Barbados.Expect crowds, accept less than pristine surroundings, be intrepid and you’ll treat yourself to the best the Caribbean has to offer. The ambiance comes for free.


Click for more detail about Neighborhood Rebels: Black Power At The Local Level (Contemporary Black History) by Peniel E. Joseph Neighborhood Rebels: Black Power At The Local Level (Contemporary Black History)

by Peniel E. Joseph
Palgrave Macmillan (Dec 15, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


This book examines the evolution of Black Power activism at the local level. Comprised of essays that examine Black Power’s impact at the grassroots level in cities in the North, South, Mid-West and West, this anthology expands on the profusion of new scholarship that is taking a second look at Black Power, connecting grassroots activism to national struggles for black self-determination and international African independence movements, and actively rewriting postwar African American history.


Click for more detail about Burning Desire by Relentless Aaron Burning Desire

by Relentless Aaron
St. Martin’s Griffin (Dec 08, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Dante Garrett learned the handyman trade from watching his late grandfather and his father hard at work. Painting, carpentry, and plumbing were among his talents, to the point that he became one of the most wanted men in Park Chester?but not without ducking and dodging some of the horny housewives who were his clients. In fact, Dante goes to great lengths to keep from crossing the line that separates him from clients such as the wispy Ms. Thomas and the regal Mrs. Singletary. It’s when he falls head over heels for a client’s niece, Stacy, that Dante’s life begins to change.Stacy is single and recently relocated from Atlanta, Georgia, in search of opportunities that the big city has to offer. But there are skeletons in her closet that she dare not reveal. And while Dante stands by Stacy through thick and thin, he soon discovers that not all secrets can remain hidden.


Click for more detail about Flirt by Tracy Brown, K’wan and Angel Mitchell Flirt

by Tracy Brown, K’wan and Angel Mitchell
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 24, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


From the biggest names in urban fiction comes a collection of unforgettably hot short stories of urban love.Flirting with Disaster by Tracy BrownChloe Webster is an around-the-way girl pursuing her journalism degree at Hunter College. Then she meets Trey, a handsome and well dressed cat with hood swagger. When Trey tells Chloe that he is pursuing a degree in psychology, Chloe thinks she has finally met someone who has his head screwed on right. But as Chole’s flirtation with Trey intensifies, secrets are revealed and she finds that she’s playing with fire.Wild Cherry by K’wanGina is married to a man who more than takes good care of her, but her life of luxury comes with a price that she’s not sure she can pay anymore. Princess’ man doesn’t see her as any more than dollar signs?as long as she keeps using her body to bring in the stacks. When Gina and Princess meet and realize that they share a common problem, they sent into motion an unforgettable plot that will solve all their problems…Twice in a Lifetime by Angel MitchellBeautiful Marley Lucas, has had her heart broken before. Vowing to never experience that kind of pain again, until…love hits her when and where she least expects it. And this love turns out to be the most devastating of all.


Click for more detail about One Night With You (Grayson Friends) by Francis Ray One Night With You (Grayson Friends)

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Nov 03, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Cougars, brush fires, snow storms?rancher Duncan McBride tackles it all without a flinch. But the archeologist who’s come to authenticate cave drawings found on his property is the kind of trouble he’d sworn to avoid. Far from the aging academic he was expecting, Raven La Blanc is a stunning woman…and definitely not sticking around this small Montana town once her job is done.The primitive drawings at Duncan’s ranch are Raven’s ticket to the tenured position she’s worked so hard for back in Santa Fe. But there’s no denying the attraction between her and Duncan. Maybe, just this once, she can put her work aside and explore the depths of her own heart and soul? One night may be all it takes for Raven to really find what she’s looking for…


Click for more detail about Warhorses: Poems by Yusef Komunyakaa Warhorses: Poems

by Yusef Komunyakaa
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Oct 13, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


This powerful collection of Yusef Komunyakaa’s poetry delves, with his characteristic allusiveness, intelligence, and intensity, into an age of war and conflict, both global and internal, racial and sexual. "Sweetheart, was I talking war in my sleep / again?" he asks, and the question is hardly moot: "Sometimes I hold you like Achilles’ / shield," and indeed all relationships, in this telling, are sites of violence and battle. His line is longer and looser than in Taboo or Talking Dirty to the Gods, and in long poems like "Autobiography of My Alter Ego" he sounds almost breathless, an exhausted but desperate prophet. With the leaps and improvisational flourishes of a jazz soloist, Komunyakaa imagines "the old masters of Shock & Awe" daydreaming of "lovely Penelope / like a trophy." Warhorses is the stunning work of a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who never ceases to challenge and delight his readers.


Click for more detail about Step Out On Nothing: How Faith And Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges by Byron Pitts Step Out On Nothing: How Faith And Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges

by Byron Pitts
Palgrave Macmillan (Sep 29, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


It was August 25, 2006, my first on-camera studio open for the CBS News broadcast 60 Minutes. Executive Producer Jeff Fager poked his head in the dressing room. "Good luck, Brotha! You’ve come a long way to get here. You’ve earned it."
 … If only he knew. My mind flashed back to elementary school, when a therapist had informed my mother, "I’m sorry, Mrs. Pitts, your son cannot read." In Step Out on Nothing, Byron Pitts chronicles his astonishing story of overcoming a childhood filled with obstacles to achieve enormous success in life. Throughout Byron’s difficult youth—his parents separated when he was twelve and his mother worked two jobs to make ends meet—he suffered from a debilitating stutter. But Byron was keeping an even more embarrassing secret: He was also functionally illiterate. For a kid from inner-city Baltimore, it was a recipe for failure.

Pitts turned struggle into strength and overcame both of his impediments. Along the way, a few key people “stepped out on nothing” to make a difference for him—from his mother, who worked tirelessly to raise her kids right and delivered ample amounts of tough love, to his college roommate, who helped Byron practice his vocabulary and speech. Pitts even learns from those who didn’t believe in him, like the college professor who labeled him a failure and told him to drop out of college. Through it all, he persevered, following his steadfast passion. After fifteen years in local television, he landed a job as a correspondent for CBS News in 1998, and went on to become an Emmy Award–winning journalist and a contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes. Not bad for a kid who couldn’t read.

From a challenged youth to a reporting career that has covered 9/11 and Iraq, Pitts’s triumphant and uplifting story will resonate with anyone who has felt like giving up in the face of seemingly insurmountable hardships.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Section 8: A Hood Rat Novel by K’wan Section 8: A Hood Rat Novel

by K’wan
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 29, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Since she was a little girl, Tionna’s on and off addicted mother taught her to get hers by any means necessary. Tionna’s heart is as cold as a December chill, but she holds a warm place in it for Duhan, the father of her two sons, and her on-again-off-again boyfriend since they were teenagers. Duhan becomes her knight in shining armor until the government turns their dream into a nightmare. With Duhan behind bars and everything she loves seized she finds herself starting over in the same neighborhood she swore she’d never come back to. With two kids, a man in prison and no back up plan, Tionna is once again living by her wits in order to maintain the lifestyle she’d become so accustomed to. Back in the thick of things with her best friends Gucci, Boots and Tracy, she finds herself rediscovering her old life and suddenly begins to wonder if she’s really cut out to be a prisoner’s wife.


Click for more detail about Topless by Relentless Aaron Topless

by Relentless Aaron
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Sep 29, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Welcome to Fool’s Paradise where the women are devious, the men are ruthless, and the raw, undeniable climate of smut dominates. This is Douglass Gilmore’s kingdom, a family business that grew to become one of New York City’s premier adult clubs. But money, power, and seduction makes for an explosive combinationand something dangerous is about to go down…The most famous stripper at Fool’s Paradise has been gunned down in the parking lot. Was it a lovers’ quarrel? A rivalry between jealous dancers? Or a deliberate attempt to destroy the man behind the curtain? Douglass has won plenty of enemies in the business. Now, with the cops, the FBI, and the mob at his door, everything is on the line…and Douglass has only once chance to defend the family empireor lose it all.


Click for more detail about It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation by MK Asante It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post-Hip-Hop Generation

by MK Asante
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 01, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop takes a bold look at the rise of a generation that sees beyond the smoke and mirrors of corporate-manufactured rap and is building a movement that will change not only the face of pop culture, but the world.M. K. Asante, Jr., a passionate young poet, professor, filmmaker, and activist who represents this new movement, uses hip hop as a springboard for a larger discussion about the urgent social and political issues affecting the hip-hop and post-hip-hop generations.Through insightful anecdotes, scholarship, revolutionary rap lyrics, personal encounters, and conversations with youth across the globe as well as icons such as Chuck D and Maya Angelou, Asante illuminates a shift that can be felt in the crowded spoken-word joints in post-Katrina New Orleans, seen in the rise of youth-led organizations committed to social justice, and heard around the world chanting "It’s bigger than hip hop."


Click for more detail about Beowulf’s Children by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes Beowulf’s Children

by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes
Palgrave Macmillan (Aug 04, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


This powerhouse trio of science fiction greats united to further explore the island paradise of Camelot from their classic novel, Legacy of Herorot. A new generation is growing up on the island paradise of Camelot, ignorant of the Great Grendel Wars fought when their parents and grandparents first arrived on Earth. Setting out for the mainland, this group of young rebels feels ready to fight any grendels that get in their way. On Avalon, however, there are monsters which dwarf the ones their parents fought, and as the group will soon learn, monsters also dwell in the human heart.


Click for more detail about And Mistress Makes Three by Francis Ray And Mistress Makes Three

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jun 23, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Gina Rawlins is dealing with a cheating husband, a messy divorce, two unhappy children, and a floundering travel business when the very handsome new owner of the local B&B, Max Chaneau, enters her life. Not only does he make her heart pound, but it soon becomes clear that they need each other. Max needs to turn the B&B around and the first thing it needs is a woman’s touch. And not just any woman. He offers to redesign her website for a bit of interior design help. As they work closely together, Gina realizes that her ex-husband wasn’t her only chance at love, even if Max has some scars of his own. However, when her ex (and all his baggage) abruptly reenters the picture, Gina’s love life is turned upside down, while her daughter and son are ecstatic to have their father home again. However Gina is left wondering what she should do? Be with the man she loves or take back the father of her children for the sake of her family?


Click for more detail about Taste of Passion (Madaris Family Novels) by Brenda Jackson Taste of Passion (Madaris Family Novels)

by Brenda Jackson
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Jun 02, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description

SOME LONGINGS Attorney Mackenzie "Mac" Standfield swore off love when her heart was shattered into a million pieces. But there’s one man who has managed to tempt her beyond reason-rodeo star Luke Madaris. Although five years have passed, Mac discovers when she runs into Luke again that the sexual tension is just as charged as ever… BURN MOREWhen Luke gets injured in a rodeo, he knows the only place where he can recuperate-without being smothered by his worried family-is at Mac’s place. After all, like Mac, he has no interest in any romantic entanglements….until being in such close quarters with Mac forces Luke to confront a desire he can no longer fight…WITH TIMEWith each passing day, Mac and Luke come to realize that their smoldering attraction can be put out only if they surrender to it. But what Mac doesn’t realize is that once you give yourself to a Madaris man, there’s no turning back…"Romance that sizzles."-Lori Foster


Click for more detail about Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History by Danzy Senna Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History

by Danzy Senna
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (May 12, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


When Danzy Senna’s parents got married in 1968, they seemed poised to defy history. They were two brilliant young American writers from wildly divergent backgrounds—a white woman with a blue-blood Bostonian lineage and a black man, the son of a struggling single mother and an unknown father. They married in a year that seemed to separate the past from the present; together, these two would snub the histories that divided them and embrace a radical future. When their marriage disintegrated eight years later, it was, as one friend put it, “the ugliest divorce in Boston’s history”—a violent, traumatic war that felt all the more heartrending given the hopeful symbolism of their union.Decades later, Senna looks back not only at her parents’ divorce but beyond it, to the opposing American histories that her parents had tried so hard to overcome. On her mother’s side of the family she finds—in carefully preserved documents—the chronicle of a white America both illustrious and shameful. On her father’s she discovers, through fragments and shreds of evidence, a no less remarkable history. As she digs deeper into this unwritten half of the story, she reconstructs a longburied family mystery that illuminates her own childhood. In the process, she begins to understand her difficult father, the power and failure of her parents’ union, and, finally, the forces of history.Where Did You Sleep Last Night? is at once a potent statement of personal identity, a challenging look at the murky waters of American ancestry, and an exploration of narratives—the narratives we create and those we forget. Senna has given us an unforgettable testimony to the paradoxes—the pain and the pride—embedded in history, family, and race.


Click for more detail about Long Juju Man by Nnedi Okorafor Long Juju Man

by Nnedi Okorafor
Macmillan Education (May 05, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Click for more detail about Some Like It Hot by Brenda Jackson Some Like It Hot

by Brenda Jackson
St. Martin’s Griffin (Apr 28, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description

In this first ever short story collection, New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson takes us on five steamy, sexy adventures. From a freelance writer whose interview with a ruthless, ambitious, and very handsome millionaire turns into something so much more to an attorney’s explosive encounter with a sexy club owner. From an event planner’s very steamy night with an old flame to a businesswoman who wants to get back the man she let slip away while climbing the ladder of success. Experience just how much Brenda Jackson can turn up the heat!


Click for more detail about Speak Low: Poems by Carl Phillips Speak Low: Poems

by Carl Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 31, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Speak Low is the tenth book from one of America’s most distinctive—and one of poetry’s most essential—contemporary voices. Phillips has long been hailed for work provocative in its candor, uncompromising in its inquiry, and at once rigorous and innovative in its attention to craft. Over the course of nine critically acclaimed collections, he has generated a sustained meditation on the restless and ever-shifting myth of human identity. Desire and loss, mastery and subjugation, belief and doubt, sex, animal instinct, human reason: these are among the lenses through which Phillips examines what it means to be that most bewildering, irresolvable conundrum, a human being in the world. These new poems are of a piece with Phillips’s previous work in their characteristic clarity and originality of thought, in their unsparing approach to morality and psychology, and in both the strength and startling flexibility of their line. Speak Low is the record of a powerful vision that, in its illumination of the human condition, has established itself as a necessary step toward our understanding of who we are in the twenty-first century.Speak Low is a 2009 National Book Award Finalist for Poetry.


Click for more detail about What’s Race Got to Do with It?: Why It’s Time to Stop the Stupidest Argument in America by Larry Elder What’s Race Got to Do with It?: Why It’s Time to Stop the Stupidest Argument in America

by Larry Elder
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 31, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description

IS LIFE UNFAIR FOR BLACK AMERICANS?

In "What’s Race Got to Do with It?, "bestselling author Larry Elder takes on the touchiest topic in American life: Race. Some Americans think race is the biggest issue this country faces today. Elder says: "What? ?" What about the economy, what about war, what about the security of our borders and our citizens?

IS A HUGE GROUP OF CITIZENS BEING KEPT DOWN BY "THE MAN"?

Elder calls for an end to bitching, moaning and whining and the belief that somebody owes you a job, that self-esteem is given out for passing "go," that a black person in a position of authority is always a good thing, whether or not they have credentials and experience. He skewers the loudmouths—and the "mainscream" media—who point to racism as the root of all problems. Elder explains why Hillary Clinton doesn’t get it, but Barack Obama does—at least most of the time.

But "What’s Race Got to Do with It?" has a positive message, too: there are leaders and role models today who want to urge everyone to share in the hard work, smart thinking and optimism that make America great and strong.


Click for more detail about Undead On Arrival (Crimson Moon, Book 3) by Leslie Esdaile Banks Undead On Arrival (Crimson Moon, Book 3)

by Leslie Esdaile Banks
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Mar 31, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Just one month ago, secret government operative Sasha Trudeau thought she’d tasted victory. Orchestrating détente between the warring factions of the supernatural world had nearly cost her life—but it also opened the door to a future with Max Hunter, her mate and fellow Shadow Wolf.Until now. A poisonous virus is wreaking havoc on Hunter’s immune system. And the passionate man who Sasha loves has become unpredictable, dangerous—and possibly deadly. When Hunter disappears the night a human is found ravaged, Sasha is thrust into a race against the clock to find the cure for her mate…and the traitor who’s determined to see them both dead.


Click for more detail about That Devil’s No Friend Of Mine by J.D. Mason That Devil’s No Friend Of Mine

by J.D. Mason
Palgrave Macmillan (Mar 17, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


When Bishop Fontaine passed away he left behind more than a list of good deeds.  He was known as a caring friend and doting father…but he was also manipulative and controlling, especially to those he loved.  His death begins to unravel deep secrets and shocking desires among the people he cared about the most… His daughter, Kristine, feels that with her father’s death she is finally free.  His best friend and business partner, Lamar, feels that now can finally have what he has longed for all these years: Kristine.  His protégé, Cole, the boxing champion and rising star, married a woman Bishop never approved of and may have been right about.  Rayne, the blues singer and ex-junkie relied on Bishop to keep her clean and is now slipping down a dark path without him.  And Rhonda, Lamar’s wife, is determined to ignore what has been unfolding in front of her if it means that her predictable life will go unchanged.  And then a newcomer steps onto the scene and threatens to turn everything upside down. Five very different people whose lives are only connected by Bishop suddenly find themselves up close and personal as desires, dreams and passions collide.


Click for more detail about Beyond Tears: Living After Losing a Child (Revised Edition with a Chapter Written by Siblings) (Revised) by Ellen Mitchell Beyond Tears: Living After Losing a Child (Revised Edition with a Chapter Written by Siblings) (Revised)

by Ellen Mitchell
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 03, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description

Meant to comfort and give direction to bereaved parents, Beyond Tears is written by nine mothers who have each lost a child. This revised edition includes a new chapter written from the perspective of surviving siblings.

The death of a child is that unimaginable loss no parent ever expects to face. In Beyond Tears, nine mothers share their individual stories of how to survive in the darkest hour. They candidly share with other bereaved parents what to expect in the first year and long beyond:

*Harmonious relationships can become strained
*There is a new definition of what one considers "normal"
*The question "how many children do you have?" can be devastating
*Mothers and fathers mourn and cope differently
*Surviving siblings grieve and suffer as well
*There simply is no answer to the question "why?"

This sharing in itself is a catharsis and because each of these mothers lost her child at least seven years ago, she is in a unique position to provide perspective on what newly bereaved parents can expect to feel. The mothers of Beyond Tears offer reassurance that the clouds of grief do lessen with time and that grieving parents will find a way to live, and even laugh again.

Contributors include Ellen Mitchell, Carol Barkin, Audrey Cohen, Lorenza Colletti, Barbara Eisenberg, Barbara Goldstein, Madelaine Perri Kasden, Phyllis Levine, Ariella Long, and Rita Volpe.


Click for more detail about Nobody But You by Francis Ray Nobody But You

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Mar 03, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


NASCAR star Cameron Dunlap is poised to win this year’s Sprint Cup. But being a successful race-car driver comes with a price: His own life. Cameron knows that his profession puts him at high risk. Thankfully, his latest visit to the hospital left him intact. That is, until he bumps into Caitlin Lawrence…and is thrust back into his painful past. The one-time love of his life who left him at the altar, Caitlin could never accept Cameron’s fast and furious existence. The threat of losing him on the racetrack was just too much for Caitlin—and the young son Cameron never knew he had. Now that this chance meeting has changed their lives forever, will Caitlin and Cameron find a way to recapture what might have been?


Click for more detail about Letters From Black America by Pamela Newkirk Letters From Black America

by Pamela Newkirk
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Feb 03, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Letters from Black America fills a literary and historical void by presenting the pantheon of African American experience in the most intimate way possible—through the heartfelt correspondence of the men and women who lived through monumental changes and pivotal events, from the 1700s to the twenty-first century, from slavery to the war in Iraq. The first-ever narrative history of African Americans told through their own letters, this book includes the thoughts of politicians, writers, and entertainers, as well as those of slaves, servicemen, and domestic workers. From a slave who writes to his wife on the eve of being sold to famous documents like Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” these writings illuminate struggles and triumphs, hardships and glory, in the unforgettable words of the participants themselves. Letters from Black America is an indispensable addition to our country’s literary tradition, historical understanding, and self-knowledge.


Click for more detail about The Thin Black Line: True Stories by Black Law Enforcement Officers Policing America’s Meanest Streets by Hugh Holton The Thin Black Line: True Stories by Black Law Enforcement Officers Policing America’s Meanest Streets

by Hugh Holton
Forge (Jan 06, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Meet the black men and women policing our meanest streets . .  . LaVerne Dunlap - She infiltrates drug gangs and testifies against them in court … only to have the drug lords come gunning for her.  Dep. County Sheriff Winroe Reed - He goes into America’s "Homicide Capital" alone to apprehend a 6’9" homicidal crack dealer … a man so dangerous no other cops would accompany him.  Robbie Robinson - A movie actor/martial arts star/probation officer, he takes down LA’s toughest gangs.  These are just a few of the courageous black heroes in Hugh Holton’s The Thin Black Line.


Click for more detail about Revenge (Larry Cole) by Hugh Holton Revenge (Larry Cole)

by Hugh Holton
Forge (Jan 06, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


A brutally-wronged girl now a woman grown - cold, clever, calculating - mistakenly presumed dead.  A macabre magician with a secret past, stalked by an exotic and enigmatic assassin.  A woman with breathtaking beauty and an insidious scheme that is as vicious as she herself is vindictive.  An ex-pro-lineman turned savage gangster … a threat to everyone with his all-consuming greed.  A young, ambitious cop drawn to a wealthy but willful woman … a woman as wily as she is wild.  His father, legendary Chicago cop, Larry Cole, must stop them all, particularly the deviously deadly femme fatale. Beautiful as she is bloody, relentlessly obsessed, bent on vile, violent … revenge.


Click for more detail about The Festival Of San Joaquin (Macmillan Caribbean Writers) by Zee Edgell The Festival Of San Joaquin (Macmillan Caribbean Writers)

by Zee Edgell
Macmillan Caribbean (Jan 02, 2009)
Read Detailed Book Description


Marina, cleared of a murder charge for taking the life of her brutal husband, is released from prison on a three-year probation. Determined to rebuild her life and gain custody of her children, she is sustained by mother love and faith in God as she fights against the poverty, guilt, vanity and vengeance which threaten to overwhelm her.In this novel, set in the Mestizo community in Belize, Zee Edgell explores with sensitivity and understanding the contradictory and secret territory that is domestic violence.


Click for more detail about Wicked Ways by Donna Hill Wicked Ways

by Donna Hill
St. Martin’s Griffin (Dec 09, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


Tess McDonald has a score to settle. It was she who set into motion a series of events that caused the murders of two adversaries. Tess even turned complete strangers, Kim Sheppard and Nikki Perez, into partners of a deadly crime. With life good now that their nemeses are out of the way, they celebrate. But not for long. On the night that the three women reunite, Tess receives a phone call that has the potential to ruin everything that she has put in place. Vincent, the one man that Tess would have changed her life for, has found her and her cohorts and he knows everything. She agrees to meet him with the intention of silencing him for good. But Tess is shocked when Vincent asks her to leave with him and put her criminal past behind her. However, Kim and Nikki aren’t about to let her go so easily.


Click for more detail about What We All Long For: A Novel by Dionne Brand What We All Long For: A Novel

by Dionne Brand
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 25, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


Dionne Brand powerfully delves into uncharted aspects of urban life, the bittersweetness of youth, and secrets families try to hide. Tuyen is an aspiring artist and the daughter of Vietnamese parents who’ve never recovered from losing one of their children while in the rush to flee Vietnam in the 1970s. She rejects her immigrant family’s hard-won lifestyle, and instead lives in a rundown apartment with friends?each of whom is grappling with their own familial complexities and heartache. In turns thrilling and heartbreaking, Tuyen’s lost brother?who has since become a criminal in the Thai underworld?journeys to Toronto to find his long-lost family. As Quy’s arrival nears, tensions build, friendships are tested, and an unexpected encounter will forever alter the lives of Tuyen and her friends.Gripping at times, heartrending at others, What We All Long For is an ode to a generation of longing and identity, and to the rhythms and pulses of a city and its burgeoning, questioning youth.


Click for more detail about Until There Was You by Francis Ray Until There Was You

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Press (Nov 01, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

All he was looking for was some peace and quiet. Instead, what ex-FBI agent Luke Grayson finds in the secluded cabin in the woods is a gorgeous, smoky-eyed woman who just happens to be pointing a gun in his direction.

Dr. Catherine Stewart is relieved that the handsome stranger she encounters is not a dangerous intruder. But how is she supposed to relax in her woodsy hideaway with stubborn, intense, brooding Luke around? A woman could get into a lot of trouble with a man like that—and trouble is exactly what each of these two lost souls came here to avoid "


Click for more detail about Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship by Nikki Giovanni Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship

by Nikki Giovanni
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (Sep 30, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


Our 16th president is known for many things: He delivered the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address.He was tall and skinny and notoriously stern-looking. And he also had some very strong ideas about abolishing slavery, ideas which brought him into close contact with another very visible public figure: Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born a slave but escaped in 1838 and became one of the central figures in the American abolitionist movement. This book offers a glimpse into the unusual friendship between two great American leaders. At a time when racial tensions were high and racial equality was not yet established, Lincoln and Douglass formed a strong bond over shared ideals and worked alongside each other for a common goal. The acclaimed team behind Rosa, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award and a Caldecott Honor book, join forces once more to portray this historic friendship at a unique moment in time.


Click for more detail about Seems Like You’re Ready by Relentless Aaron Seems Like You’re Ready

by Relentless Aaron
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Sep 30, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


Sixteen-year-old Angel is a rising vocal star, blessed with a voice that can hold its own with the biggest names in the industry. With a surprise platinum single burning up the charts, Angel’s career is about to soar…even if her love life seems permanently grounded by her over-protective mother. A media mogul who built his entertainment empire from the ground up, Dougie never had a problem separating his work from play. But the minute he locks eyes with Angel, he knows he’s in trouble. But if there’s one thing Dougie’s learned from the music biz it’s this: If you see something good, you go for it…even if doing so could cost youand your careereverything.


Click for more detail about Gutter: A Novel by K’wan Gutter: A Novel

by K’wan
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 02, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


The explosive sequel to GANGSTA has finally arrived!Blood answers for blood on the streets of Harlem. It’s been months since Lou-loc was brutally murdered on his way to freedom and the pain is still fresh. Gutter, Lou-loc’s best friend, finds himself on a path to self destruction, vowing to eradicate the entire Blood faction in New York City in the name of his fallen comrade. Sharell urges him to abandon the suicide mission, but his oath won’t allow it. Not even for the child they are expecting. But as Gutter slips further into madness, a shocking revelation brings Satin out. In the middle of all this is a man named Major Blood. He has been flown in from Cali with two very simple instructions. Shut down Harlem Crip, and execute El Diablo’s murderer. Walk back into the mouth of madness in the not-to-missed sequel to GANGSTA.


Click for more detail about The Darker Mask by Gary Phillips and Christopher Chambers The Darker Mask

by Gary Phillips and Christopher Chambers
Palgrave Macmillan (Aug 19, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


Expanding on the concept behind Byron Preiss’s Weird Heroes from the 1970s, George R. R. Martin’s Wild Card series, and Michael Chabon’s McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, The Darker Mask is a collection of original prose stories recalling the derring-do of the beings we call Superheroes and the worlds they fight to save.  But unique to The Darker Mask stories is that these plots and characters color a literary universe outside of what has been predominantly white, idiosyncratic, and male in previous homages to pulp.  This is the stuff of urban legends, new mythos, and extraordinary folks who might live in a soon-to-be-gentrified ghetto, the dreary rust-belt of the city, or in another dimension.  The Darker Mask offers an eclectic mix of popular fiction writers exploring worlds gritty, visceral, and fantastic. Including stories by: Walter Mosley, L. A. Banks, Naomi Hirahara, Lorenzo Carcaterra, Tananarive Due and Stephen Barnes, Mike Gonzales, Gar Anthony Haywood, Ann Nocenti, Jerry Rodriguez, Reed Farrell Coleman, Doselle Young, Mat Johnson, Peter Spiegelman, Alexandra Sokoloff, Christopher Chambers, Gary Phillips, Victor LaValle, and Wayne Wilson.


Click for more detail about Leon’s Story by Leon Walter Tillage Leon’s Story

by Leon Walter Tillage
Square Fish (Aug 11, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


”Leon’s Story is a powerful, wonderful thing!” — Nikki Giovanni

I remember that as a young boy I used to look in the mirror and I would curse my color, my blackness. But in those days they didn’t call you “black.” They didnt say “minority.” They called us “colored” or “nigger.”

Leon Tillage grew up the son of a sharecropper in a small town in North Carolina. Told in vignettes, this is his story about walking four miles to the school for black children, and watching a school bus full of white children go past. It’s about his being forced to sit in the balcony at the movie theater, hiding all night when the Klansmen came riding, and worse. Much worse. But it is also the story of a strong family and the love that bound them together. And, finally, it’s about working to change an oppressive existence by joining the civil rights movement. Edited from recorded interviews conducted by Susan L. Roth, Leon’s story will stay with readers long after they have finished his powerful account.


Click for more detail about A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah A Long Way Gone

by Ishmael Beah
Palgrave Macmillan (Aug 05, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life.

"Why did you leave Sierra Leone?". "Because there is a war." "You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?" "Yes, all the time." "Cool."

I smile a little.

"You should tell us about it sometime."

"Yes, sometime."

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.

In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.

This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.


Click for more detail about Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever by Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever

by Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington
Thomas Dunne Books (Aug 05, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

When the renowned trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis chose the members of his quintet in 1955, he passed over well-known, respected saxophonists such as Sonny Rollins to pick out the young, still untested John Coltrane. What might have seemed like a minor decision at the time would instead set the course not just for each of their careers but for jazz itself.

Clawing at the Limits of Cool is the first book to focus on Davis and Coltrane’s musical interaction and its historical context, on the ways they influenced each other and the tremendous impact they’ve had on culture since then. It chronicles the drama of their collaboration, from their initial historic partnership to the interlude of their breakup, during which each man made tremendous progress toward his personal artistic goals. And it continues with the last leg of their journey together, a time when the Miles Davis group, featuring John Coltrane, forever changed the landscape of jazz.

Authors Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington examine the profound implications that the Davis/Coltrane collaboration would have for jazz and African American culture, drawing parallels to the changing standards of African American identity with their public personas and private difficulties. With vastly different personal and musical styles, the two men could not have been more different. One exemplified the tough, closemouthed cool of the fifties while the other made the transition during this time from unfocused junkie to a religious pilgrim who would inspire others to pursue spiritual enlightenment in the coming decade.

Their years together mark a watershed moment, and Clawing at the Limits of Cool draws on both cultural history and precise musical detail to illuminate the importance that their collaboration would have for jazz and American history as a whole.


Click for more detail about The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop: Power Moves by Halifu Osumare The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop: Power Moves

by Halifu Osumare
Palgrave Macmillan (Jul 14, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

Asserting that hip hop culture has become another locus of postmodernity, Osumare explores the intricacies of this phenomenon from the beginning of the Twenty-First century, tracing the aesthetic and socio-political path of the currency of hip hop across the globe.


Click for more detail about Sugar Daddy by Relentless Aaron Sugar Daddy

by Relentless Aaron
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Jun 03, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


Toy grew into her name long before she grew upa plaything for men in a world dominated by fast money and endless greed. As a bartender, she was used to being hit on by players…and then along came Colin. He was smart and sensitive. He had goals. And he treated Toy with respect. Colin seemed like Mr. Right…until things went really, really wrong.Turns out Colin, like so many of the men Toy has known, is caught up in the money game. He works for counterfeiting kingpin Vince Reed, a heartless puppet-master who rules with an iron fist. Lucky for Colin, business is booming, and he’s enjoying unprecedented personal and professional success. But at what cost? It’s only a matter of time before he and Toy become pawns in Reed’s cruelest game ever. Now the only thing they have to lose is their lives….


Click for more detail about Bad Girlz 4 Life by Shannon Holmes Bad Girlz 4 Life

by Shannon Holmes
St. Martin’s Griffin (May 27, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


#1 bestselling author Shannon Holmes returns with the explosive sequel to his national bestseller, Bad Girlz. Tonya Morris a.k.a. "Tender" is back and this time the ride is wilder than ever.
Coming of age in the Badlands of north Philadelphia—one of the toughest and poorest communities in the country—Tonya Morris has had to make some desperate and, at times, ruthless moves in her bid to survive. When Tonya stepped into the unforgiving business of stripping, she found herself caught up in a world of sex-filled nights, dirty money, backstabbing cohorts, and murder.She left that world behind to become a hairstylist. However, after she is blacklisted from salons across Philadelphia and is evicted by her shady landlord, Tonya finds herself back in the stripping business. Except this time, she promises herself, things are going to end differently.Tonya teams up with her best friend, Na’eema, to organize underground sex parties, and it’s not long before they have a team of beautiful girls and are rubbing elbows with athletes, rappers, and celebrities.Then Tonya’s ex-lover and now music industry superstar, Q, steps onto the scene, and everything takes a dramatic new twist. Because it’s not just Q who is back in her life. His murderous baby mama, Niecey, is fresh out of jail and ready to raise hell. And she’s got Tonya in her sights. In the meantime, Tonya’s past has risen like a beast, threatening to tear away all her newfound success. But Tonya isn’t going down without a fight.


Click for more detail about Low Road: The Life and Legacy of Donald Goines by Eddie B. Allen Low Road: The Life and Legacy of Donald Goines

by Eddie B. Allen
St. Martin’s Press (May 01, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

Donald Goines was a pimp, truck driver, heroin addict, factory worker, and career criminal. He was also one of the most popular Black contemporary writers having published sixteen novels, including Whoreson, Dopefiend, and Daddy Cool. Goines’s unique brand of "street narrative" and "ghetto realism" mark him as the original street writer. Now, in the first in-depth biography of Goines’s life, author Eddie B. Allen, Jr. explores exactly how one man made the transition from street hustler to bestselling author. With exclusive access to personal letters, treatments from unwritten books, photographs, and family members, Allen uncovers Goines’s experiences with drugs, prostitutes, prison, and urban violence. Fans of Goines’s novels will note a dramatic parallelism between his life and fictional tales.


Click for more detail about The Cow-Tail Switch and Other West African Stories by Harold Courlander The Cow-Tail Switch and Other West African Stories

by Harold Courlander
Square Fish (Apr 29, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

"The stories of West Africa are about men and animals, about kings, warriors, and hunters. They tell about clever people and stupid people, about good ones and bad ones, about how things and animals got to be how they are. Sometimes they are just tall tales. There are stories about Frog, Rabbit, Turtle, Guinea Fowl, and all the other animals that West Africans know. Some of the stories make you think. Some make you laugh.
Here are some of the stories of the people of the forests, the seacoast, the hills, and the plains.
The people of West Africa give them to you."


Click for more detail about Before John Was A Jazz Giant: A Song Of John Coltrane by Carole Boston Weatherford Before John Was A Jazz Giant: A Song Of John Coltrane

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Henry Holt & Company (Apr 01, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

Young John Coltrane was all ears. And there was a lot to hear growing up in the South in the 1930s: preachers praying, music on the radio, the bustling of the household. These vivid noises shaped John’s own sound as a musician. Carole Boston Weatherford and Sean Qualls have composed an amazingly rich hymn to the childhood of jazz legend John Coltrane.


Click for more detail about Moments, the Minutes, the Hours: The Poetry of Jill Scott by Jill Scott Moments, the Minutes, the Hours: The Poetry of Jill Scott

by Jill Scott
St. Martin’s Griffin (Apr 01, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

Jill Scott’s first-ever poetry collection delivers the same earthy, personal, and tell-it-like-it-is voice that fans have grown to know and love. Writing poems and keeping journals since 1991, she shares her personal poetry collection in "The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours." Praised for her honestly erotic, soulful and very real lyrics, Jill Scott uncovers the beauty in healing, the comfort of family, and the stunning vitality of life.


Click for more detail about Her Little Black Book by Brenda Jackson Her Little Black Book

by Brenda Jackson
St. Martin’s Griffin (Apr 01, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

It’s less than a week before Sonya Morrison’s wedding when she decides to pass her legendary little black book on to her cousin Courtney Andrews along with all of her best wishes. Courtney, who’s fast approaching thirty, thinks every woman she knows has somehow met a man who is husband material except for her. So Sonya’s little black book seems to be just what she needs. That’s until Courtney discovers she and her cousin have completely different tastes when it comes to men. But just when she is about to give up and toss the infamous little black book into the garbage, she meets Lake Masters. Nearly ten years her senior, he’s a lot older than the men she’s normally attracted to, but he’s handsome, intelligent, wealthy, and a man who is determined to sweep her off her feet. But the road to love is never easy and Courtney may find that her little black book is more a curse than a blessing.


Click for more detail about Never As Good As the First Time by Mari Walker Never As Good As the First Time

by Mari Walker
St. Martin’s Griffin (Apr 01, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


For years Samai Collins has been a faithful Christian, devoted wife and loving mother. But suddenly she finds herself in the middle of a nasty divorce from her minister husband and struggling to find a job, with almost no work skills, in order to support her three children. As Samai tries to get back on her feet, loneliness and the deep longing for a man’s touch cause her to stumble in her spiritual beliefs. Then an old high school crush reappears and Samai’s life takes a wild new turn. She is seduced completely by Zane Blackmon’s passion and zest for life and soon finds herself being led down a dark path that she never knew existed. An underworld of drugs threatens her life and the lives of her three children. But is love…and just a little bit of faith enough to save them all?

Book Review

Click for more detail about You Gotta Sin to Get Saved by J.D. Mason You Gotta Sin to Get Saved

by J.D. Mason
St. Martin’s Press (Apr 01, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

Charlotte Rodgers has always wanted too much. Too much love, too much attention, and had too many big dreams. It was how she ended up abandoning her two daughters, Connie and Reesy to chase after a man and the promise of a dream life. But Charlotte never anticipated how her world would be irrevocably changed. Now, twenty-seven years later, her whole world shifts yet again with a letter from one of her daughters. And the past is about to bust wide open.

Reesy has always been obsessed with something. Obsessed with finding her birth mother. Obsessed with her sister’s life. Obsessed with her own adopted daughter never finding out that Reesy is really her aunt. With a neglected husband, who is unknowingly drifting further and further away, a sister who is trying to escape her well-meaning clutches, and a daughter becoming more and more curious about her true parentage, finding the mother she always dreamed about seems to be an answered prayer to Reesy. That is until Reesy is brought crashing back to earth to find that her perfect life is in tattered pieces.

Connie has always expected too little. Too little from the man she’s been living with for years. Too little from her modest jewelry business. And too little from her relationships, or lack thereof, with her daughter, mother and sister. And too little from herself. Until she discovers she is pregnant again and decides that this time she is keeping her baby, sending her life and her relationship into a tailspin. And rediscovering the mother who left them behind is the last thing she wants.

Thrown back together again, in a maelstrom of shocking truths, Charlotte, Reesy and Connie will discover on their journey to forgiveness and redemption that you just might have to sin first in order to be saved.


Click for more detail about Keeping The Night Watch by Hope Anita Smith Keeping The Night Watch

by Hope Anita Smith
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (Mar 18, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


So many unanswered questions weigh down thirteen-year-old C.J. as he struggles to understand why his father walked out. His father is back now, though C.J. is not as quick to forgive as the other members of his family. He still feels the weight of responsibility that fell on his shoulders when Daddy was gone, and he’s not prepared to give that up. But C.J.’s anger is making him a stranger in his own home, and instead of life seeming better now that Daddy has returned, it feels worse.Through powerful poems, Hope Anita Smith chronicles the nuanced emotions of a family that is slowly learning to heal and put the pieces back together.Keeping the Night Watch is a 2009 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book and a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children’s Book of the Year.


Click for more detail about Conception: A Novel by Kalisha Buckhanon Conception: A Novel

by Kalisha Buckhanon
St. Martin’s Press (Feb 05, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


In the same vein of Kalisha Buckhanon’s critically-acclaimed debut novel Upstate, again she shares an emotionally beautiful story about today’s youth that magnifies the unforgettable power of hope and the human spirit. Buckhanon takes us to Chicago, 1992, and into the life of fifteen-year-old Shivana Montgomery, who believes all Black women wind up the same: single and raising children alone, like her mother.  Until the sudden visit of her beautiful and free-spirited Aunt Jewel, Shivana spends her days desperately struggling to understand life and the growing pains of her environment. When she accidentally becomes pregnant by an older man and must decide what to do, she begins a journey towards adulthood with only a mysterious voice inside to guide her. When she falls in love with Rasul, a teenager with problems of his own, together they fight to rise above their circumstances and move toward a more positive future.  Through the voice of the unborn child and a narrative sweeping from slavery onward, Buckhanon narrates Shivana’s connection to a past history of Black women who found themselves at the mercy of tragic circumstances.


Click for more detail about The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse by Richard Thompson Ford The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse

by Richard Thompson Ford
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jan 22, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


What do Katrina victims waiting for federal disaster relief, millionaire rappers buying vintage champagne, Ivy League professors waiting for taxis, and ghetto hustlers trying to find steady work have in common? All have claimed to be victims of racism. These days almost no one openly expresses racist beliefs or defends bigoted motives. So lots of people are victims of bigotry, but no one’s a bigot? What gives? Either a lot of people are lying about their true beliefs and motivations, or a lot of people are jumping to unwarranted conclusions—or just playing the race card.  As the label of "prejudice" is applied to more and more situations, it loses a clear and agreed-upon meaning. This makes it easy for self-serving individuals and political hacks to use accusations of racism, sexism, homophobia, and other types of "bias" to advance their own ends. Richard Thompson Ford, a Stanford Law School professor, brings sophisticated legal analysis, lively and eye-popping anecdotes, and plain old common sense to this heated topic. He offers ways to separate valid claims from bellyaching. Daring, entertaining, and incisive, The Race Card is a call for us to treat racism as a social problem that must be objectively understood and honestly evaluated.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route by Saidiya Hartman Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route

by Saidiya Hartman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jan 22, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

In Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman traces the history of the Atlantic slave trade by recounting a journey she took along a slave route in Ghana. Following the trail of captives from the hinterland to the Atlantic coast, she reckons with the blank slate of her own genealogy and vividly dramatizes the effects of slavery on three centuries of African and African American history.

The slave, Hartman observes, is a stranger—torn from family, home, and country. To lose your mother is to be severed from your kin, to forget your past, and to inhabit the world as an outsider. There are no known survivors of Hartman’s lineage, no relatives in Ghana whom she came hoping to find. She is a stranger in search of strangers, and this fact leads her into intimate engagements with the people she encounters along the way and with figures from the past whose lives were shattered and transformed by the slave trade. Written in prose that is fresh, insightful, and deeply affecting, Lose Your Mother is a landmark text (Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams).


Click for more detail about Get Down: Stories by Asali Solomon Get Down: Stories

by Asali Solomon
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jan 22, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


Asali Solomon’s characters are vivid misfits—a heathen at Jesus camp, a scheming prep-school student, a middle-aged mom pining for her salsa-dancing salad days, a scheming twentysomething virgin, a college stud in love with his weight-lifting partner, a lonely girl in love with a yellow dress. The kids in Get Down are trapped between their own good breeding and their burning desire to join the house party of sex, romance, and bad behavior that seems to be happening on some other block, down some other, more dangerous street. Get Down is, in the words of Edward P. Jones, "touching and sensitively observed … from the first word to the last."

Book Review

Click for more detail about Not Even If You Begged by Francis Ray Not Even If You Begged

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jan 22, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


Widow Traci Evans happily sits in on meetings with the lovely ladies of the Invincible Sisterhood solely because they reached out to her first. A loner, Traci feels for the first time she belongs. All of the official members are sweet older women who have lost the love of their lives, their husbands. Unknown to them, Traci is more angry than she is grief-stricken because her husband died in the midst of cheating on her with another woman. Her husband’s deception has hardened Traci’s heart so much that even close friend and next door neighbor Maureen can’t convince her to open it again. But when a playful kiss with Maureen’s gorgeous son Ryan turns passionate, Traci starts to rethink everything she knows about love.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Wrong On Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past by Bruce Bartlett Wrong On Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past

by Bruce Bartlett
Bedford/St. Martin’s (Jan 08, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


In Wrong on Race, Bruce Bartlett sets the record straight on a hidden past that many Democrats would rather see swept under the carpet. Ranging from the founding of the Republic through to today, it rectifies the unfair perceptions of America’s two national parties. While Nixon’s infamous "Southern Strategy" is constantly referenced in the media, less well remembered are Woodrow Wilson’s segregation of the entire Federal civil service; FDR’s appointment of a member of the KKK to the Supreme Court; John F. Kennedy’s apathy towards civil rights legislation; and the ascension of Robert Byrd, who is current President pro tempore of the Senate, third in line in the presidential line of succession, and a former member of the KKK.
For the last seventy years, African Americans have voted en masse for one party, with little in the end to show for it. Is it time for the pendulum to swing the other way? With the Republican Party furiously engaged in pre-2008 soul searching, this exhaustively researched, incisively written exposé will be an important and compelling component of that debate as we head towards November.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Tryin’ To Sleep In The Bed You Made by Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant Tryin’ To Sleep In The Bed You Made

by Virginia Deberry and Donna Grant
St. Martin’s Press (Jan 08, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description

Curl up in a chair and enter the lives of two unforgettable women whose joys and sorrows you will never forget. And when you’re finished, call your best friend. With heart and soul, passion and poignancy, Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made follows the lives of two best friends, Gayle Saunders and Patricia Reid, as they grow, learn, make choices, find love, and find heartache.

From the time they were young, Gayle and Patricia were raised like sisters, as close as two friends could be. But they each had dreams that would take them far away—and far away from each other.

Gayle was the beauty who believe that a man could make her world complete. Patricia was the intellectual who thought that rising to the top of her career would make her happy. And then there is Marcus Carter, who has been linked to both Pat and Gayle since the tragedy that occurred when they were all children. Can either one save him from himself? Can friends survive a love that comes between them? Each of them gets what she wants, but no one counts on the price they have to pay.

When they realize that dreams can be hollow and love has its cost, they learn the most important lesson of all: to never given up on the people who love you, and that it isn’t just blood that makes two people sisters.


Click for more detail about Dreams, Miracles and Jazz by Helon Habila and Kadija Sesay Dreams, Miracles and Jazz

by Helon Habila and Kadija Sesay
Picador Africa (Jan 01, 2008)
Read Detailed Book Description


Click for more detail about Francie by Karen English Francie

by Karen English
Square Fish (Dec 26, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Francie lives with her mother and younger brother, Prez, in rural Alabama, where all three work and wait. Francie’s father is trying to get settled in Chicago so he can move his family up North. Unfortunately, he’s made promises he hasn’t kept, and Francie painfully learns that her dreams of starting junior high school in an integrated urban classroom will go unfulfilled. Amid the day-to-day grind of working odd jobs for wealthy white folks on the other side of town, Francie becomes involved in helping a framed young black man to escape arrest—a brave gesture, but one that puts the entire black community in danger. In this vivid portrait of a girl in the pre-civil rights era South, Karen English completes Francie’s world using lively vernacular and a wide array of flesh-and-blood characters.Francie is a Coretta Scott King Honor book.


Click for more detail about Rosa by Nikki Giovanni Rosa

by Nikki Giovanni
Square Fish (Dec 26, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Fifty years after her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus, Mrs. Rosa Parks is still one of the most important figures in the American civil rights movement. This tribute to Mrs. Parks is a celebration of her courageous action and the events that followed.Award-winning poet, writer, and activist Nikki Giovanni’s evocative text combines with Bryan Collier’s striking cut-paper images to retell the story of this historic event from a wholly unique and original perspective.


Click for more detail about Lady First by Relentless Aaron Lady First

by Relentless Aaron
St. Martin’s Griffin (Nov 13, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Spencer knows he doesn’t have but so many chances left. He’s trying to stay off the streets, but bagging groceries in the local supermarket is just not bringing in the kind of cash he wants. And then in a very unlikely turn of events, an obviously well off woman walks into his supermarket, looking out of place and more beautiful than any other woman Spencer has seen. When he goes out of his way to assist her, she offers him a job. Tia Stern is looking for a new personal assistant and Spencer just might be the man for the job. The pay is more than he could dream of and the hustler within sees this as a chance to make it into something even more. And when it quickly becomes clear that Tia wants an assistant who is personal in more ways than one, Spencer is more than happy to oblige.


Click for more detail about Guilty Pleasures by Donna Hill Guilty Pleasures

by Donna Hill
St. Martin’s Griffin (Oct 02, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Eva and Jake Kelly live the high life in Manhattan, with a beautiful apartment and successful careers in fashion design and car sales, respectfully. But they get their thrills from the con. They learned a long time ago they can extort wads of cash from drunk men who are in town on business and away from their wives. But when one of their marks turns on them after they demand blackmail money, their fun days look to be over. Until Eva comes up with a plan. With the help of their friends, they rob a cruise ship en route to Miami, turn the tables on their mark and his wife, and head full on into life on the lam.


Click for more detail about Still Hood: A HoodRat Novel by K’wan Still Hood: A HoodRat Novel

by K’wan
St. Martin’s Griffin (Oct 02, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Only the strong survie on the streets of Brooklyn. And while Dena Jones definitely has what it takes not only to survive but to succeed, she wants out. And she’s determined to make it out of Crooklyn. She’s determined to make it out of Crooklyn by any means necessary and doesn’t have a problem manipulating men to get what she wants. Just ask her boyfriend Lance, or his girlfriend Michelle.
True has finally made it. His debut album has the streets going crazy and is threatening to spill over into the mainstream. After the murder of his group, his jump off and almost his dreams, True’s life is finally starting to look up, until karma catches up with him. Somebody wants him dead and he doesn’t know why, or does he?
Jah and Yoshi’s was supposed to be a romance straight out of a story but there are no such things as fairy tails in the ghetto. Her position as a stylist keeps her in the mix and in the company of some industry heavyweights. Jah tries to be understanding but he can’t help but to wonder just how much he can trust his girlfriend. He had promised to love her regardless of her past but in addition to wondering whether his girlfriend is creeping with her clients Jah has got a bigger problem. Someone is trying to kill True and its his job to make sure that doesn’t happen.


Click for more detail about To Live and Die in Harlem by Relentless Aaron To Live and Die in Harlem

by Relentless Aaron
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Oct 02, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Reginald "Push" Jackson has had a hard-knock life. His parents were murdered when he was young, and he’s spent much of his adulthood in prison. Now there’s only one thing left in the world worth fighting for: his home.
  
Harlem has been undermined by rascal slumlords, grimy politicians, and crooked cops.  The corruption shouldn’t be any of Push’s businessuntil he stumbles onto one of the biggest, most ruthless criminal enterprises he’s ever seen. Now it’s up to him to clear the streets of one of the most ruthless gangs in history. Because if Push can’t do it, no one else can…and this time, it’s personal.


Click for more detail about Hair Dance! by Dinah Johnson Hair Dance!

by Dinah Johnson
Henry Holt & Company (BYR) (Sep 04, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Hair comes in all colors, textures, and styles. Whether it is worn long or short, in braids or cornrows, or left natural in an Afro, hair plays a big part in who we are and how we feel about ourselves.In this inspiring book, Kelly Johnson’s stunning photographs of girls wearing a range of hairstyles and the lyrical words of Dinah Johnson’s poem celebrate African American hair in all its radiant variety.Hair Dance! is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children’s Book of the Year.


Click for more detail about Cion: A Novel by Zakes Mda Cion: A Novel

by Zakes Mda
Picador (Aug 21, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


A Picador Paperback OriginalThe hero of Zakes Mda’s beloved Ways of Dying, Toloki, sets down with a family in Middle America and uncovers the story of the runaway slaves who were their ancestors.Toloki, the professional mourner, has come to live in America. Lured to Athens, Ohio, by an academic at the local university, Toloki makes friends with an angry young man he meets at a Halloween parade and soon falls in love with the young man’s sister. Toloki endears himself to a local quilting group and his quilting provides a portal to the past, a story of two escaped slaves seeking freedom in Ohio.Making their way north from Virginia with nothing but their mother’s quilts for a map, the boys hope to find a promised land where blacks can live as free men. Their story alternates with Toloki’s, as the two narratives cast a new light on America in the twenty-first century and on an undiscovered legacy of the Underground Railroad.


Click for more detail about Every Man For Herself by Maryann Reid Every Man For Herself

by Maryann Reid
St. Martin’s Griffin (Aug 21, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Finally, Nina is fed up. Now that she knows for certain that her husband, a pastor of a small congregation that meets in their rural Texas home, has been "borrowing" from the church, Nina is ready to leave him for a new life, in a new town. And since Trent has never been an honest man, leaving him for New York City isn’t as hard as she thought. Her quest to reinvent herself leads her down a road full of new experiences…and new men who want to share them with her.


Click for more detail about Waiting ’Til The Midnight Hour: A Narrative History Of Black Power In America by Peniel E. Joseph Waiting ’Til The Midnight Hour: A Narrative History Of Black Power In America

by Peniel E. Joseph
Holt Paperbacks (Jul 10, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


"Once in a while a book comes along that projects the spirit of an era; this is one of them … Vibrant and expressive … A well-researched and well-written work." ?The Philadelphia InquirerWith the rallying cry of "Black Power!" in 1966, a group of black activists, including Stokely Carmichael and Huey P. Newton, turned their backs on Martin Luther King’s pacifism and, building on Malcolm X’s legacy, pioneered a radical new approach to the fight for equality. Drawing on original archival research and more than sixty original oral histories, Peniel E. Joseph vividly invokes the way in which Black Power redefined black identity and culture and in the process redrew the landscape of American race relations. In a series of character-driven chapters, we witness the rise of Black Power groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panthers, and with them, on both coasts of the country, a fundamental change in the way Americans understood the unfinished business of racial equality and integration. Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour traces the history of the Black Power movement, that storied group of men and women who would become American icons of the struggle for racial equality.


Click for more detail about C.R.E.A.M. by Solomon Jones C.R.E.A.M.

by Solomon Jones
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jun 12, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Karima “Cream” Thomas is an ex-convict from an upper-crust family whose only crime was falling for a drug dealer and refusing to testify against him. Sexy, intelligent, street-smart, and determined to change after serving time in the municipal prison system, Karima returns to find that her ex, Duane Faison, wants her back. And for one passion-filled night, she considers it. But with dawn comes common sense and the realization that she must make a clean break from her past. To do that, she’ll need something she’s never had to ask for—help. And she knows only one person with the power to give it.
      Marilyn Johnson has fought to make it in the rough-and-tumble world of Philadelphia politics. After ten years on the City Council, she’s finally made it to the president’s seat, but she’s had to forge some questionable alliances to make it there, including her long-running affair with the married mayor. When Karima asks for help in finding a job, Marilyn is caught off guard. Her niece’s criminal record is one of the many secrets she has hidden from the public, but seeing an opportunity, crafty Marilyn hatches a plan to get rid of Karima once and for all. The mayor is murdered in cold blood and Marilyn is sworn into office, bringing Karima’s criminal past to light. She is quickly the prime suspect in the murder investigation, and in order to save her own name and get to the bottom of the story, Karima must return to the streets.


Click for more detail about The Last Kingpin by Relentless Aaron The Last Kingpin

by Relentless Aaron
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (May 29, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Meet Brian "Freeze" Carter. He’s part pimp, part hustler. He drives a Bentley Continental T, which he can park anywhere he wants—because he owns the streets and demands respect. His bodyguards protect him at all costs…and live in fear of his wrath. Even the women who love him can’t melt his heart. If  only they could get deep into his soul, and pull him up from the underworld of the city’s thriving drug industry, maybe Freeze could finally find a way to clean up his act—before it’s too late… But time is already running out. A Colombian drug cartel has plans in store for Freeze and his crew—and it’s going to take a whole lot more than cold cash, hot girls, and a pump-action Maverick for Freeze to tame an unknown enemy that wants to do him in for good. …


Click for more detail about Quiver Of Arrows: Selected Poems, 1986-2006 by Carl Phillips Quiver Of Arrows: Selected Poems, 1986-2006

by Carl Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (May 01, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Quiver of Arrows is a generous gathering from Carl Phillips’s work that showcases the twenty-year evolution of one of America’s most distinctive—and one of poetry’s most essential—contemporary voices. Hailed from the beginning of his career for a poetry provocative in its candor, uncompromising in its inquiry, and at once rigorous and innovative in its attention to craft, Phillips has in the course of eight critically acclaimed collections generated a sustained meditation on the restless and ever-shifting myth of human identity. Desire and loss, mastery and subjugation, belief and doubt, sex, animal instinct, human reason: these are among the lenses through which Phillips examines what it means to be that most bewildering, irresolvable conundrum, a human being in the world.
Phillips’s sensibility as he questions morality, psychology, and our notions of responsibility is as startlingly original as the poems themselves, whose exacting standards for the line’s flexibility and whose argument for a versatile, more muscular syntax bring to American poetry "something not unlike a new musical scale" (The Miami Herald). Quiver of Arrows is the record of a powerful vision that, in its illumination of the human condition, has established itself as a necessary step toward our understanding of who we are in the twenty-first century.


Click for more detail about Dirty Game by Shannon Holmes Dirty Game

by Shannon Holmes
St. Martin’s Griffin (May 01, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Kenny "Ken-Ken" Greene left his days as a hustler behind him when his wife was killed during a scam gone bad, leaving him with a baby daughter. Now he’s a cab driver, doing what he can to put food on the table and give his daughter, Destiny, everything she needs. In spite of his past or because of it, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep Destiny off the streets. But when he is shot and paralyzed during a robbery while on the job, Destiny knows that she has to step up to the plate to take care of the father who has provided for her. Allowing herself to learn from one of the fiercest street hustlers, Destiny becomes his lover and soon her skills rival his. But the longer she stays in the game, the deeper into the game she falls.


Click for more detail about Hooker To Housewife by Joy Deja King Hooker To Housewife

by Joy Deja King
St. Martin’s Griffin (Apr 03, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Tyler Blake is off to Hollywood, the newest starlet of Tinsel Town, with a wonderful man by her side. Unfortunately that man is married, and she once again crosses paths with controlling T-Roc. When Tyler thinks her life can’t get any more complicated, she falls in love with Andre Jackson. He has it all—money, fame, movie star looks, and the bad boy reputation that Tyler vowed to avoid. But more than that Andre has Chantal Morgan, long term girlfriend and mother of his child, who is determined to go from hooker to housewife. Has Tyler finally met her match?


Click for more detail about The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County

by Janice N. Harrington
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Mar 20, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Meet one smart chicken chaser. She can catch any chicken on her grandmother’s farm except one – the elusive Miss Hen. In a hilarious battle of wits, the spirited narrator regales readers with her campaign to catch Miss Hen, but this chicken is "fast as a mosquito buzzing and quick as a fleabite." Our chicken chaser has her mind set on winning, until she discovers that sometimes it’s just as satisfying not to catch chickens as it is to catch them.A fresh voice full of sass and inventive, bold collage illustrations full of surprises create a childlike escapade brimming with funny high jinks that leads the reader on a merry, memorable chase.The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children’s Book of the Year.


Click for more detail about It’s Like Candy: An Urban Novel by Erick S. Gray It’s Like Candy: An Urban Novel

by Erick S. Gray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Mar 20, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Beautiful River joins a stick-up crew, but she doesn’t know that Big Red and Twinkie have a secret that even she’s not in on. When she falls in love with Eric, one of her victims, all she wants is to find her baby sister, and settle down with her new love. But River soon becomes a prisoner of her dangerous world. And escaping it may cost her more than her life.By the time she turns sixteen, Starr is working for a pimp and turning tricks daily. But when an assault by one of her "dates" lands her in the hospital, Starr meets a woman who wants to help her change her life. Starr’s heart is too hardened to believe in second chances, but soon she begins to long for more than selling her body just so she can survive. However the game does not give up its players so easily. Enter Eric’s cousin, Yung Slim, fresh out of jail after seven years. He’s looking to reclaim the streets and take care of some old grudges. When Yung Slim goes to battle, Eric—torn between his love for River, his ties to his cousin, and the lure of the streets—gets in too deep. When the war breaks out on the battlefield of the streets, who will be left standing?


Click for more detail about Irresistible You (The Graysons, Book 4) by Francis Ray Irresistible You (The Graysons, Book 4)

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Paperbacks (Mar 06, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


Pierce Grayson is a marked man: if his mother, Ruth, has her way, his carefree single days will soon be over. But Pierce isn’t going down without a fight. He’s ready to take action against his mama’s matchmaking…but what he’s completely unprepared for is the feeling that hits him when he meets Broadway actress Sabra Raineau. She’s in Santa Fe helping Ruth with a production at the University. With her luscious lips and long legs, Sabra is temptation personified?and Pierce isn’t in the habit of resisting temptation.
With Hollywood calling and another play in the works, Sabra has no time for romance. And, after one heartbreak too many, she’s happy to stay unattached. But Pierce has other ideas?the kind that can curl a girl’s toes. Sabra’s not above a little extracurricular activity, but she can’t afford to risk her heart on anything serious. Still, the closer she gets to Pierce, the harder it is to deny him?and to keep a secret that could tear them apart….


Click for more detail about The Sacred Place: A Novel by Daniel Black The Sacred Place: A Novel

by Daniel Black
Palgrave Macmillan (Feb 06, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description


In the summer of 1955, fourteen-year-old Clement enters a general store in Money, Mississippi to purchase a soda.  Unaware of the consequences of flouting the rules governing black-white relations in the South, this Chicago native defies tradition, by laying a dime on the counter and turns to depart.  Miss Cuthbert, the store attendant, demands that he place the money in her hand, but he refuses, declaring, "I ain’t no slave!" and exits with a sense of entitlement unknown to black people at the time.  His behavior results in his brutal murder.  This event sparks a war in Money, forcing the black community to galvanize its strength in pursuit of equality.


Click for more detail about In Another Man’s Bed by Francis Ray In Another Man’s Bed

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Press (Feb 06, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description

When Justine Crandall walks in on her husband of six years with another woman, she flees their home, declaring he’ll never see her again. And her wish almost comes true when his car careens off a cliff in his pursuit of her. Hours later she finds herself in a hospital, faced with a terrible choice. Will she disconnect his life support because he was a liar and a cheat or because it’s the humane thing to do? Or…should she keep faith that he’ll revive from his coma? In the meantime, an old love reappears making the decision even more difficult, pitting her heart against her conscience. Justine finds that soon she must choose: be with a man who truly loves her and puts her first, or honor her marriage vows.


Click for more detail about Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy Fruit of the Lemon

by Andrea Levy
St. Martin’s Press-3PL (Jan 23, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description

From Andrea Levy, author of Small Island and winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year and the Best of the Best Orange Prize, comes a story of one woman and two islands.

Faith Jackson knows little about her parents’ lives before they moved to England. Happy to be starting her first job in the costume department at BBC television, and to be sharing a house with friends, Faith is full of hope and expectation. But when her parents announce that they are moving "home" to Jamaica, Faith’s fragile sense of her identity is threatened. Angry and perplexed as to why her parents would move to a country they so rarely mention, Faith becomes increasingly aware of the covert and public racism of her daily life, at home and at work.

At her parents’ suggestion, in the hope it will help her to understand where she comes from, Faith goes to Jamaica for the first time. There she meets her Aunt Coral, whose storytelling provides Faith with ancestors, whose lives reach from Cuba and Panama to Harlem and Scotland. Branch by branch, story by story, Faith scales the family tree, and discovers her own vibrant heritage, which is far richer and wilder than she could have imagined.

Fruit of the Lemon spans countries and centuries, exploring questions of race and identity with humor and a freshness, and confirms Andrea Levy as one of our most exciting contemporary novelists.


Click for more detail about Selected Poems by Derek Walcott Selected Poems

by Derek Walcott
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Jan 09, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description

"No poet rivals Mr. Walcott in humor, emotional depth, lavish inventiveness in language or in the ability to express the thoughts of his characters and compel the reader to follow the swift mutations of ideas and images in their minds … [His poetry] makes us realize that history, all of it, belongs to us." ’The New York Times

This career-spannning retrospective, culled from nearly 50 years of work, will go a long way toward reminding readers of the breadth and depth of Nobel laureate Walcott’s achievement. Though he is perhaps best known for his modern epic, Omeros, which tells a Homeric tale set in St. Lucia, Walcott is a fine lyric poet as well, writing in traditional forms and meters as well as in powerful free verse. Alongside the epic tone that he brought into modern verse

I sing of Achille, Afolabe’s son,
who never ascended in an elevator

is lustful writing about a woman humming Bob Marley on a bus, a casual description of being mugged in Greenwich Village or a painter’s-eye view of a fish. The political Walcott is also here; observing a crowd listening to a politician, he writes,

Who will name this silence
respect? Those forced, hoarse hosannas
awe?"

The lyric Walcott is well represented, but the long poems which are necessarily excerpted’prove more problematic. At best, the editor can hope that readers, hooked by one of these narrative poems, will be compelled to seek out the complete version. Nonetheless, this book represents a milestone in the career of a major writer.
’Copyright ’ Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Click for more detail about White Lines by Tracy Brown White Lines

by Tracy Brown
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jan 09, 2007)
Read Detailed Book Description

Essence bestselling author Tracy Brown presents a scorching new urban tale about falling in love and one girl’s descent into the murky and unrelenting depths of drug addiction.

Jada left home at the age of sixteen, running from her own demons and the horrors of physical abuse inflicted by her mother’s boyfriend. She partied hard, and life seemed good when she was with Born, the neighborhood kingpin whose name was synonymous with money, power, and respect. But all his love couldn’t save her from a crack addiction. Jada goes from crack addict and prostitute to survivor and back again before she finds the strength to live for herself and come out on top. And her stormy romance with one of the fiercest hustlers on the streets makes White Lines one of the most unforgettable urban love stories of the year.


Click for more detail about Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography by Andrew Helfer Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography

by Andrew Helfer
Hill and Wang (Nov 16, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description

The age of multitasking needs better narrative history. It must be absolutely factual, immediately accessible, smart, and brilliantly fun. Enter Andrew Helfer, the award-winning graphic-novel editor behind Road to Perdition and The History of Violence, and welcome the launch of a unique line of graphic biographies.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, these graphic biographies qualify as tomes. But if you’re among the millions who haven’t time for another doorstop of a biography, these books are for you.

With the thoroughly researched and passionately drawn Malcolm X, Helfer and award-winning artist Randy DuBurke capture Malcolm Little’s extraordinary transformation from a black youth beaten down by Jim Crow America into Malcolm X, the charismatic, controversial, and doomed national spokesman for the Nation of Islam.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin by John Hope Franklin Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin

by John Hope Franklin
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Oct 31, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description


John Hope Franklin lived through America’s most defining twentieth-century transformation, the dismantling of legally protected racial segregation. A renowned scholar, he has explored that transformation in its myriad aspects, notably in his 3.5-million-copy bestseller, From Slavery to Freedom. Born in 1915, he, like every other African American, could not help but participate: he was evicted from whites-only train cars, confined to segregated schools, threatened?once with lynching?and consistently subjected to racism’s denigration of his humanity. Yet he managed to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard; become the first black historian to assume a full professorship at a white institution, Brooklyn College; and be appointed chair of the University of Chicago’s history department and, later, John B. Duke Professor at Duke University. He has reshaped the way African American history is understood and taught and become one of the world’s most celebrated historians, garnering over 130 honorary degrees. But Franklin’s participation was much more fundamental than that.From his effort in 1934 to hand President Franklin Roosevelt a petition calling for action in response to the Cordie Cheek lynching, to his 1997 appointment by President Clinton to head the President’s Initiative on Race, and continuing to the present, Franklin has influenced with determination and dignity the nation’s racial conscience. Whether aiding Thurgood Marshall’s preparation for arguing Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, marching to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, or testifying against Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987, Franklin has pushed the national conversation on race toward humanity and equality, a life long effort that earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 1995. Intimate, at times revelatory, Mirror to America chronicles Franklin’s life and this nation’s racial transformation in the twentieth century, and is a powerful reminder of the extent to which the problem of America remains the problem of color.


Click for more detail about The Whale Caller: A Novel by Zakes Mda The Whale Caller: A Novel

by Zakes Mda
Picador (Oct 17, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description


As Zakes Mda’s fifth novel opens, the seaside village of Hermanus is overrun with whale-watchers—foreign tourists determined to see whales in their natural habitat. But when the tourists have gone home, the whale caller lingers at the shoreline, wooing a whale he has named Sharisha with cries from a kelp horn. When Sharisha fails to appear for weeks on end, the whale caller frets like a jealous lover—oblivious to the fact that the town drunk, Saluni, a woman who wears a silk dress and red stiletto heels, is infatuated with him.The two misfits eventually fall in love. But each of them is ill equipped for romance, and their relationship suggests, in the words of The Washington Post, that "the deeper, darker concern here is not so much the fragility of love, but the fragility of life itself when one surrenders wholly to the foolish heart."


Click for more detail about The Take Down by Mark Anthony The Take Down

by Mark Anthony
St. Martin’s Griffin (Oct 17, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description


While investigating one of hip-hop’s most successful music labels, Gun Clap Records, undercover FBI agent Jessica Jackson is willing to do anything to keep her identity a secret. She helps the Feds hit a grand slam during their investigation when they learn that Angela Calvino, the daughter of New York mafia boss Paulie Calvino, plans to start a hip-hop label with money from the Calvino family crime rackets. LaCostra Nostra Records will rise under the tutelage of Gun Clap Records’s feared and powerful CEO, and the Feds soon have what they need to take down both record labels. The only question is, did Agent Jackson cross the line to get the evidence she needed?


Click for more detail about Transgressions by Ed McBain, Walter Mosley and Donald E. Westlake Transgressions

by Ed McBain, Walter Mosley and Donald E. Westlake
Forge (Oct 03, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description

New York Times bestsellers Ed McBain, Walter Mosley, and Donald Westlake each provided a brand-new, never-before-published tale for this unique collection of stories edited by bestselling author and mystery legend Ed McBain.

“Merely Hate” by Ed McBain: When a string of Muslim cabdrivers are killed, and the evidence points to another ethnic group, the detectives of the 87th Precinct must hunt down a killer before the city explodes in violence.

“Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large: Walking the Line” by Walter Mosley: Felix Orlean is a New York City journalism student who needs a job to cover his rent. An ad in the paper leads him to Archibald Lawless, and a descent into a shadow world where no one and nothing is as it first seems.

“Walking Around Money” by Donald E. Westlake: The master of the comic mystery is back with an all-new novella featuring hapless crook John Dortmunder, who gets involved in a crime that supposedly no one will ever know happened. Naturally, when something it too good to be true, it usually is, and Dortmunder is going to get to the bottom of this caper before he’s left holding the bag.


Click for more detail about Mrs. Big by Maryann Reid Mrs. Big

by Maryann Reid
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 19, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description


Loletta Hightower likes to live big: exotic vacations, designer clothing, trips to the spa. But it gets harder and harder to support her lavish lifestyle working the reception desk at a luxury car dealership. And though Loletta can con athletes, celebrities, and wealthy businessmen into taking care of her bills for a few months at a time, she wants the holy grail of every gold-digging businesswoman: the ring.
When she runs into Kavon "Big" Jackson, an NBA player and former college classmate of hers, she finds it really isn’t so hard to snag a high-profile husband. But it sure is hard to keep him satisfied. "Big" lives up to his name in every way, including his temper and his libido—-neither of which Loletta can control. As violence and infidelity escalate in their home, so does Loletta’s resolve. She’s got a few surprises up her own sleeve, and the drama is just beginning.…


Click for more detail about Extra Marital Affairs by Relentless Aaron Extra Marital Affairs

by Relentless Aaron
St. Martin’s Griffin (Sep 05, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description


When Mason and Adena Fickle find their new sex partner, Loween, dead in their bed just hours after the threesome’s hot and raunchy escapade, they discover the woman was neither who nor what she’d said she was. The ménage à trois should have been nothing special. After all, the Fickles have already tried it all. But Loween’s death brings an unexpected visitor and the streets to their doorstep, and soon things get out of hand.
Can Mason and Adena regain control of their lives? Is it too late to call on love and commitment in this time of desperate answers and urgent decisions?
In this spicy, sexy, and dangerous new tale, Relentless Aaron-one of the hottest forces in street fiction-will keep you guessing till the end.


Click for more detail about Dreaming of You by Francis Ray Dreaming of You

by Francis Ray
St. Martin’s Griffin (Aug 29, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description

Readers everywhere fell in love with the mesmerizing, unforgettable Grayson family and their loves. Now bestselling author Francis Ray spins another sexy, compelling romance featuring the Grayson clan…

LURING A MAN INTO LOVE Successful Santa Fe hotelier, Faith McBride has loved Brandon Grayson since she was a wallflower in high school and he was her big brother’s best friend. Now hard-bodied Brandon is running a trendy restaurant a stone’s throw from Casa de Serenidad, her posh five-star hotel. When Faith looks at Brandon, she dreams of being his wife. So although it’s risky and risqu�, she’s plotting a secret campaign to win his body, mind, and heart.

MAY LEAD TO PASSION…OR HEARTBREAK
With his mother determined to marry him off, Brandon Grayson is on the alert for single females being thrown his way. He’s even stopped dating, afraid of being trapped into a relationship. Surely nobody’s safer to be around than sweet, familiar Faith. But celibacy is driving him crazy. For the first time he’s noticing Faith’s enticing lips and incredible curves. Suddenly it occurs to Brandon that an affair with the one woman he can trust would certainly be a no-strings-attached affair…


Click for more detail about Fear of Stones and Other Stories (Macmillan Caribbean Writers) by Kei Miller Fear of Stones and Other Stories (Macmillan Caribbean Writers)

by Kei Miller
Macmillan Caribbean (Jul 31, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description


Gavin was unlike other boys. He did not fight, he threw like a girl, he could not swim, he had no happy memories. His mother had died giving birth, his father had dropped the baby at the graveside. Gavin was raised by an abusive grandmother who beat him every day in twisted revenge. This haunting collection of stories is peopled mainly by rejects of society, sad and lonely souls trying to come to terms with, to survive in, antagonistic circumstances. Some of the protagonists are gay in the hypocritically macho world of Caribbean men. Some are women scarred by childhood rape. There are the mentally ill, the mentally challenged. There is obeah, superstition and communion with the dead. But love blooms in the most unexpected places, and amongst the misfits there are fighters such as Naomi, a Rastafarian acolyte abandoned with six children. And for all the hardship there is laughter, as in Augustus Silvera’s triumphant last letter to the editor, and in the gospel according to Sue, who repaired her virginity every Sunday morning and so became immaculately pregnant.


Click for more detail about The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War by Neil Baldwin The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War

by Neil Baldwin
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jul 11, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description


In The American Revelation, Neil Baldwin, one of our most exciting and provocative intellectual historians, applies his formidable energies to the story of how the American Spirit developed over four centuries, through an inspiring?and unsparing?examination of selected ideals that have helped inform our culture through the vivid personalities who set the course. Figures both familiar and forgotten illuminate this timely narrative of popular history that enlivens the current debate about America’s proper role in a turbulent post-9/11 world. Though an ideal may have been forgotten, that does not mean it no longer has the power to move us and shape our future.Exuberant and lively, The American Revelation will inspire all readers, regardless of their politics, to revisit and revalue our country’s high-minded heritage.


Click for more detail about Choke by Darnella Ford Choke

by Darnella Ford
St. Martin’s Griffin (Jun 13, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description

For Vanessa, a low-income housing complex in the middle of the desert in El Mirage, Arizona, represents all that is wrong with her life. Her neighbors get it on all night long, she sees an abusive husband kill his wife, and then himself, and her own ex-husband keeps showing up and getting into her pants.

The one bright spot in Vanessa’s life is her daughter, Kennedy, and Kennedy’s love for the piano. She is practicing to audition for an esteemed music academy that Vanessa can in no way afford—-especially after losing her housekeeping job. But Vanessa isn’t one to give up, and she’ll do anything to help her daughter succeed, even if it means selling her body and soul.


Click for more detail about Getting Hers by Donna Hill Getting Hers

by Donna Hill
St. Martin’s Griffin (May 30, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description


Tess McDonald is a high-priced madam running a lucrative call girl service, and whatever she wants is less than a phone call away.
Life can’t get much better for Nikki Perez. She’s young, beautiful, has one of the finest and most notorious men in the neighborhood in her bed, gets to ride in fast cars (before she strips them down), and is making more money than she ever dreamed of.
Kim Sheppard is at the pinnacle of corporate success. She is the envy of men and women alike, with a handsome husband, a beautiful home, and a secret lover on the side.
Then Tess loses her business and everything she’s worked for, Nikki is convicted of a crime she didn’t commit, and Kim is accused of corporate theft, potentially at risk of losing her fortune and her reputation. Fate truly intercedes when they meet in, of all places, their doctor’s office. And from that day forward, they form a unique alliance. Not only will they bond together to reclaim what they’ve lost, but in each other, they’ll discover what they’d been searching for all along.


Click for more detail about Dirty Little Secrets by Joy Deja King Dirty Little Secrets

by Joy Deja King
St. Martin’s Griffin (May 30, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description


Nothing prepares Tyler Blake for the fast-paced living of New York City. A small-town girl from Georgia, she quickly gets caught up in the glamorous entertainment industry. While pursuing her dream of becoming an actress, Tyler continually gets sidetracked by men who promise to help her and finds herself going from one dysfunctional relationship to another. Just when Tyler finally believes she has found her ideal man, in hip-hop producer Brian McCall, everything begins to go horribly wrong. Trapped in a nightmarish relationship, Tyler is determined not to go down without a fight.


Click for more detail about Riding Westward: Poems by Carl Phillips Riding Westward: Poems

by Carl Phillips
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Apr 18, 2006)
Read Detailed Book Description


The singer turning thisand that way, as if watching the song itself
—the words to the song—leave him, as he
lets each go, the wind carrying most of it,
some of the words, falling, settling into
instead that larger darkness, where the smaller

darknesses that our lives were lie softly down."
—from "Riding Westward"

What happens when the world as we’ve known it becomes divided, when the mind becomes less able—or less willing—to distinguish reality from what is desired? In Riding Westward, Carl Phillips wields his celebrated gifts for syntax and imagery that are unmistakably his own—speculative, athletic, immediate—as he confronts moral crisis. What is the difference, he asks, between good and evil, cruelty and instruction, risk and trust? Against the backdrop of the natural world, Phillips pitches the restlessness of what it means to be human, as he at once deepens and extends a meditation on that space where the forces of will and imagination collide with sexual and moral conduct.