2167 Books Published by Penguin Random House on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Pursuing Justice

by Eric Holder
One World (Sep 02, 2025)
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Sankofa West African Recipes and Stories

by Eric Adjepong
Clarkson Potter (Feb 04, 2025)
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A transportive, highly personal cookbook of 100 West African-influenced recipes and stories from Top Chef finalist Eric Adjepong

Sankofa is a Ghanaian Twi word that roughly translates to the idea that we must look back to move forward. In his moving debut cookbook, chef Eric Adjepong practices sankofa by showcasing the beauty and depth of West African food and its indelible impact on the foodways of the African diaspora through the lens of his own deeply personal story.

Born in New York as the son of two Ghanaian immigrants, and traveling to and from Ghana since childhood, Eric’s experience of balancing the two parts of his Ghanaian-American identity is both powerful and universal. Through 100 soul-satisfying recipes plus narrative essays, we follow Eric’s culinary journey, beginning with traditional home-cooked meals from his mother, like a deeply flavorful jollof rice and a smoky, savory shrimp kontombre stew thick with leafy greens. Creative dishes like a sweet summer curried corn soup and lamb ribs with a peanutty mafe glaze influenced by his culinary education reflect the lasting connections among the cultures of the African diaspora.

Full of stunning photography shot in Ghana and remembrances rooted in family, tradition, and love, Sankofa shows readers how the unsung story of a continent’s cuisine can shine a powerful light on one person’s exploration of who he is as a chef and a man.


Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore

by Char Adams
Tiny Reparations Books (Jan 01, 2025)
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Forthcoming Unavailable for Sale

Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore is the first full-length book on the history of Black-owned bookstores, and is an expansion of her important article, “Black-Owned Bookstores Have Always Been at the Center of the Resistance:”

When he wasn’t helping some 600 slaves escape through the Underground Railroad, David Ruggles was running a bookstore. In 1828, Ruggles opened a grocery store in New York City and later, as he became involved in the burgeoning abolitionist movement, opened a reading room and a bookstore for Black Americans. It was the nation’s first Black-owned bookstore.


Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined

by David F. Walker
Ten Speed Graphic (Oct 15, 2024)
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A thrilling graphic novel reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that follows Jim, an enslaved man on a journey towards freedom, and his sidekick, Huck, in the antebellum South—from the team behind the Eisner Award-winning The Black Panther Party.

Commonly regarded as one of the great American novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has captured the hearts and imaginations of readers since 1885. But since its publication, critics have rightfully condemned Mark Twain’s troubling portrayal of Black Americans as stereotypes and caricatures, with contemporary fans searching for a modern update to this iconic tale.

Big Jim and the White Boy is a radical retelling of this American classic, centering the experiences of Jim, an enslaved Black man in search of his kidnapped wife and children, along with his cheeky sidekick, Huckleberry Finn. Jim and Huck’s high-stakes adventures take them on an epic voyage across the antebellum South and Midwest, through Confederate war camps and runaway safe houses, into Old West standoffs, and on the road as covert Underground Railroad agents. Intertwined into the story of Jim and Huck are the stories of Jim’s descendants in the 1930s, 1980s, and 2010s, making this a multigenerational family epic as well as an adventure story. Big Jim and the White Boy takes readers on a journey through Jim and Huck’s past, present, and future, delving into their incredible friendship and years of adventures—a bond that transcends the gruesome racism of the Civil War era.

With compelling artwork and riveting storytelling, David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson push the boundaries of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in this incredible graphic novel, exploring the triumphs and tribulations of Jim and his family, and finally giving his due as a hero of American literature.


Click for more detail about Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengestu Someone Like Us

by Dinaw Mengestu
Knopf (Jul 30, 2024)
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The son of Ethiopian immigrants seeks to understand a hidden family history and uncovers a past coloured by unexpected loss, addiction, and the enduring emotional pull toward home.

After abandoning his once promising career as a journalist in search of a new life in Paris, Mamush meets Helen—a photographer whose way of seeing the world shows him the possibility of finding not only love, but family. Now, five years later, with his marriage to Helen on the verge of collapse, he returns to the close-knit immigrant Ethiopian community of Washington DC that defined his childhood. At its center is Mamush’s stoic, implacable mother, and Samuel, the larger-than-life father-figure whose ceaseless charm and humor have always served as cover for a harder, more troubling truth. But on the same day that Mamush arrives home in Washington, Samuel is found dead in his garage.

With Helen and their two-year old son back in Paris, Mamush sets out on an unexpected journey across America in search of answers to questions he’d been told never to ask. As he does so, he begins to understand that perhaps the only chance


Click for more detail about A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune by Noliwe Rooks A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune

by Noliwe Rooks
Penguin Press (Jul 23, 2024)
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An intimate and searching account of the life and legacy of one of America’s towering educators, a woman who dared to center the progress of Black women and girls in the larger struggle for political and social liberation.

When Mary McLeod Bethune died, tributes in newspapers around the country said the same thing: she should be on the Mount Rushmore of Black American achievement. Indeed, Bethune is the only Black American whose statue stands in the rotunda of the US Capitol, and yet for most, she remains a marble figure from the dim past. Now, seventy years later, Noliwe Rooks turns Bethune from stone to flesh, showing her to have been a visionary leader with lessons to still teach us as we continue on our journey toward a freer and more just nation.

Any serious effort to understand how the Black civil rights generation found role models, vision, and inspiration during their midcentury struggle for political power must place Bethune at its heart. Her success was unlikely: the fifteenth of seventeen children and the first born into freedom, Bethune survived brutal poverty and caste subordination to become the first in her family to learn how to read and to attend college. She gave that same gift to others when in 1904, at age twenty-nine, Bethune welcomed her first class of five girls to the Daytona, Florida, school she had founded and which would become the university that bears her name to this day. Bethune saw education as an essential dimension of the larger struggle for freedom, vitally connected to the vote and to economic self-sufficiency, and she enlisted Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and many other powerful leaders in her cause.

Rooks grew up in Florida, in Bethune’s shadow: her grandparents trained to be teachers at Bethune-Cookman University, and her family vacationed at the all-Black beach that Bethune helped found in one of her many community empowerment projects. The story of how—in a state with some of the highest lynching rates in the country—Bethune succeeded is, in Rooks’s hands, a moving and astonishing example of the power of a mind and a vision that had few equals. Now, when the stakes of the long struggle for full Black equality in this country are particularly evident—and centered on the state of Florida—it is a gift to have this brilliant and lyrical reckoning with Bethune’s journey from one of our own great educators and scholars of that same struggle.


Click for more detail about The Day Madear Voted by Wade Hudson The Day Madear Voted

by Wade Hudson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Jul 16, 2024)
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Inspired by the author’s mother voting for the first time as a Black American in 1969.

A moving look at a Black family’s journey to exercise their right to vote and imagine a better future.

Charlie and Ralph’s mom has waited a long time to vote because countless obstacles have been put in Black people’s way to stop them from having a say in elections—obstacles that it took a lot of hard work to tear down. But now, in 1969, Madear is going to vote for the very first time, and the boys are coming along on this exciting day. A day that puts a new bounce in their mom’s step and enables them all to begin to dream of a better future.

Wade Hudson and Don Tate give young readers a warm family story as well as a powerful glimpse into the struggle that had to be waged to achieve a fundamental right of citizenship.


Click for more detail about Storm: Dawn of a Goddess: Marvel by Tiffany D. Jackson Storm: Dawn of a Goddess: Marvel

by Tiffany D. Jackson
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jun 04, 2024)
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Before she was the super hero Storm of Marvel’s X-Men, she was Ororo of Cairo—a teenaged thief on the streets of Egypt, until her growing powers catch the eye of a villain who steals people’s souls. An epic origin story that will blow you away, from the New York Times bestselling author of Monday’s Not Coming.

Few can weather the storm.

As a thief on the streets of Cairo, Ororo Munroe is an expert at blending in—keeping her blue eyes low and her white hair beneath a scarf. Stealth is her specialty … especially since strange things happen when she loses control.

Lately, Ororo has been losing control more often, setting off sudden rainstorms and mysterious winds … and attracting dangerous attention. When she is forced to run from the Shadow King, a villain who steals people’s souls, she has nowhere to turn to but herself. There is something inside her, calling her across Africa, and the hidden truth of her heritage is close enough to taste.

But as Ororo nears the secrets of her past, her powers grow stronger and the Shadow King veers closer and closer. Can she outrun the shadows that chase her? Or can she step into the spotlight and embrace the coming storm?

In her first speculative novel, New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson casts a breathtaking spell with one of Marvel’s most beloved characters, and brings the superhero Storm to life as you’ve never seen her before.


Click for more detail about Getting Ready for Kindergarten by Vera Ahiyya Getting Ready for Kindergarten

by Vera Ahiyya
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jun 04, 2024)
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Get Ready for Kindergarten in this exciting new series for kids embarking on new adventures! Vera Ahiyya, the Tutu Teacher, knows everything your family needs to get ready… and to celebrate every precious moment!

Includes an “I'm ready for kindergarten!” sign for photo opportunities!

It's almost the first day of school and everyone is busy getting ready. A young girl and her parent pack a healthy lunch, fill her backpack with supplies, pick out a colorful outfit, and take a special photo … but is that everything she will need for her big first day?

Get your little one ready with this joyful story about what to expect on their very first day of Kindergarten!

This edition includes an adorable punch-out sign for first day photo opps!


Click for more detail about Getting Ready for Preschool by Vera Ahiyya Getting Ready for Preschool

by Vera Ahiyya
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jun 04, 2024)
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Get Ready for Preschool in this exciting new series for kids embarking on new adventures! Vera Ahiyya, the Tutu Teacher, knows everything your family needs to get ready… and to celebrate every precious moment!

Includes an “I'm ready for preschool!” sign for photo opportunities!

It's almost the first day of preschool and everyone is busy getting ready. A young boy and his family meet the teacher, post a family photo on the classroom wall, send a special lovey for naptime, pack a healthy lunch, and take a special photo … but is that everything he will need for his big first day? Maybe just one more hug first!

Get your little one ready with this joyful story about what to expect on their very first day of preschool!

This edition includes an adorable punch-out sign for first day photo opps!


Click for more detail about The Davenports More Than This by Krystal Marquis The Davenports More Than This

by Krystal Marquis
Dial Books (Jun 04, 2024)
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The anticipated sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller featuring escapist romance and a wealthy Black family in 1910s Chicago.

Like the blazing Chicago Sun, the drama is heating up for the Davenports and their social set. Before the summer of 1910 drops its last petal, the lives—and loves—of these four young women will change in ways they never could have imagined:

Newly engaged Ruby Tremaine is eagerly planning her wedding to the love of her life when a nasty rumor threatens her reputation and her marriage. Olivia Davenport has committed to the social justice cause and secretly hopes she’ll be reunited with dashing lawyer Washington DeWight—until her parents decide she’s to marry someone else. Amy-Rose Shepherd is making her lifelong wish of owning a salon come true, but when an incident forces her to return to Freeport Manor, she’s back in the path of John Davenport, who still holds her heart. Helen Davenport is determined to get over her own heartbreak and bring the Davenport Carriage Company into the new century, even if it means teaming up with a thrill-seeking racecar driver who just loves to get under her skin.

Inspired by the real-life story of the Patterson family, More Than This is the second book in critically adored Davenports series, following four empowered and passionate young Black women as they navigate a rapidly changing society and discover the courage to steer their own paths in life—and love.


Click for more detail about House Party by justin a. reynolds House Party

by justin a. reynolds
Joy Revolution (Jun 04, 2024)
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Ten bestselling, critically acclaimed authors deliver a fresh novel of interconnected stories that follow a group of young adults over the course of a few wild, transformative hours at an epic house party!

The biggest event of the year is happening, and you’re invited! Join us for Florence Hills High School seniors’ last hurrah before graduation.

  • THE LOCATION: A megamansion in one of Chicago’s wealthiest suburban enclaves
  • THE HOST: DeAndre Dixon, aka FHHS’s golden boy
  • THE GUESTS: The populars, the jocks, the artists, and heck, even that one kid
  • THE HOPE: All the drama ensues. Kisses are swapped between old friends, new friends, and could’ve-sworn-they-were-enemies kind of friends. Relationships get tested. Animals roam free. Secrets are spilled. Add dope music that’s thumping, and there’s a good chance the whole neighborhood will be disrupted.

Featuring: Angeline Boulley - Jerry Craft - Natasha Díaz - Lamar Giles - Christina Hammonds Reed - Ryan La Sala - Yamile Saied Méndez - justin a. reynolds - Randy Ribay - Jasmine Warga

House Party offers a delightful snapshot of diverse classmates getting ready to say goodbye to high school and hello to life’s next chapter—but not before they make their final night together one they’ll never forget!


Click for more detail about Hands: How Will You Use Them by Torrey Maldonado Hands: How Will You Use Them

by Torrey Maldonado
Nancy Paulsen Books (May 14, 2024)
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“Gorgeous and gripping, Hands is a poetic page-turner. You might just finish it in one sitting. Torrey Maldonado understands the kids he writes for at the deepest level.”
—Adam Gidwitz, Newbery Honor-winning author of The Inquisitor’s Tale

The author of What Lane? and Tight delivers a fast-paced read that packs a punch about a boy figuring out how to best use his hands—to build or to knock down.

Trev would do anything to protect his mom and sisters, especially from his stepdad. But his stepdad’s return stresses Trev—because when he left, he threatened Trev’s mom. Rather than live scared, Trev takes matters into his own hands, literally. He starts learning to box to handle his stepdad. But not everyone is a fan of his plan, because Trev’s a talented artist, and his hands could actually help him build a better future. And they’re letting him know—but their advice for some distant future feels useless in his reality right now. Ultimately, Trev knows his future is in his hands, and his hands are his own, and he has to choose how to use them.


Click for more detail about Corduroy Takes a Bow by Viola Davis Corduroy Takes a Bow

by Viola Davis
Viking Books for Young Readers (May 14, 2024)
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Celebrate 50 years of America’s favorite teddy bear—Lisa is back too!


Celebrate 50 years of America’s favorite teddy bear with a brand-new, classically illustrated picture book by Academy Award winner Viola Davis.

When Lisa takes Corduroy to the theater for the very first time, it’s so magnificent and exciting that he just can’t help heading out on his own to explore. From the orchestra pit to the prop table to the dressing rooms, Corduroy sees it all. Could there be a place for Corduroy on stage, too?

Fifty years after this lovable, inquisitive teddy bear was first introduced to readers, he’s now the star of the show. Author Viola Davis uses her own experience as an Emmy, Tony, and Oscar Award-winning actress to imbue Corduroy’s adventure with all the magic of the stage. A beautifully illustrated tale with a classic feel, Corduroy Takes a Bow is sure to spark an interest in theater in children of any age.


Click for more detail about Ruby René Had So Much to Say by Ashley Iman Ruby René Had So Much to Say

by Ashley Iman
Kokila (May 14, 2024)
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A debut picture book about a curious student who finds herself in trouble for talking in class—even though she just wants to share all that she’s learned.

“Did you know that flamingos don’t have teeth?” Questions, facts, and dreams—Ruby René could talk for hours. Once she got going, it was hard for her to stop. It didn’t matter if it was history, science, or the lunch menu—Ruby René had so much to say! But when her teacher called home because she found her sharing distracting, Ruby vowed to keep quiet. Until … she finds the perfect outlet for her gift of gab.

With charming text by debut author/educator Ashley Iman and colorful illustrations by Gladys Jose, Ruby René Had So Much to Say is a celebration of owning your voice, honing your skills, and turning challenges into opportunities.


Click for more detail about There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

by Hanif Abdurraqib
Random House (Mar 26, 2024)
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A poignant, personal reflection on basketball, life, and home—from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America

“Mesmerizing … not only the most original sports book I’ve ever read but one of the most moving books I’ve ever read, period.”—Steve James, director of Hoop Dreams

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren’t. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling. “Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father’s jump shot,” Abdurraqib writes. “The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.”

There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it’s basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.


Click for more detail about The Black Box: Writing the Race by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Black Box: Writing the Race

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Penguin Press (Mar 19, 2024)
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“Henry Louis Gates is a national treasure. Here, he returns with an intellectual and at times deeply personal meditation on the hard-fought evolution and the very meaning of African-American identity, calling upon our country to transcend its manufactured divisions.” — Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste

A magnificent, foundational reckoning with how Black Americans have used the written word to define and redefine themselves, in resistance to the lies of racism and often in heated disagreement with each other, over the course of the country’s history.

Distilled over many years from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s legendary Harvard introductory course in African American Studies, The Black Box: Writing the Race, is the story of Black self-definition in America through the prism of the writers who have led the way. From Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, to Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison—these writers used words to create a livable world—a “home” —for Black people destined to live out their lives in a bitterly racist society.

It is a book grounded in the beautiful irony that a community formed legally and conceptually by its oppressors to justify brutal sub-human bondage, transformed itself through the word into a community whose foundational definition was based on overcoming one of history’s most pernicious lies. This collective act of resistance and transcendence is at the heart of its self-definition as a “community.” Out of that contested ground has flowered a resilient, creative, powerful, diverse culture formed by people who have often disagreed markedly about what it means to be “Black,” and about how best to shape a usable past out of the materials at hand to call into being a more just and equitable future.

This is the epic story of how, through essays and speeches, novels, plays, and poems, a long line of creative thinkers has unveiled the contours of—and resisted confinement in—the “black box” inside which this “nation within a nation” has been assigned, willy nilly, from the nation’s founding through to today. This is a book that records the compelling saga of the creation of a people.


Click for more detail about James by Percival Everett James

by Percival Everett
Doubleday Books (Mar 19, 2024)
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A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view. - From the "cult literary icon" (Oprah Daily), Pulitzer Prize Finalist, and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a "cult literary icon" (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.


Click for more detail about You Get What You Pay for: Essays by Morgan Parker You Get What You Pay for: Essays

by Morgan Parker
One World (Mar 12, 2024)
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The award-winning author of Magical Negro traces the difficulty and beauty of existing as a Black woman through American history, from the foundational trauma of the slave trade all the way up to Serena Williams and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“An engrossing journey through Parker’s expansive and gifted mind.”—Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed

Dubbed a voice of her generation, poet and writer Morgan Parker has spent much of her adulthood in therapy, trying to square the resonance of her writing with the alienation she feels in nearly every aspect of life, from her lifelong singleness to a battle with depression. She traces this loneliness to an inability to feel truly safe with others and a historic hyperawareness stemming from the effects of slavery.

In a collection of essays as intimate as being in the room with Parker and her therapist, Parker examines America’s cultural history and relationship to Black Americans through the ages. She touches on such topics as the ubiquity of beauty standards that exclude Black women, the implications of Bill Cosby’s fall from grace in a culture predicated on acceptance through respectability, and the pitfalls of visibility as seen through the mischaracterizations of Serena Williams as alternately iconic and too ambitious.

With piercing wit and incisive observations, You Get What You Pay For is ultimately a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness and its effects on mental well-being in America today. Weaving unflinching criticism with intimate anecdotes, this devastating memoir-in-essays paints a portrait of one Black woman’s psyche—and of the writer’s search to both tell the truth and deconstruct it.


Click for more detail about Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham Great Expectations

by Vinson Cunningham
Hogarth Press (Mar 12, 2024)
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A historic presidential campaign changes the trajectory of a young Black man’s life in the highly anticipated debut novel from one of The New Yorker’s rising stars.

I’d seen the Senator speak a few times before my life got caught up, however distantly, with his, but the first time I can remember paying real attention was when he delivered the speech announcing his run for the Presidency.

When David first hears the Senator from Illinois speak, he feels deep ambivalence. Intrigued by the Senator’s idealistic rhetoric, David also wonders how he’ll balance the fervent belief and inevitable compromises it will take to become the United States’s first Black president.

Great Expectations is about David’s eighteen months working for the Senator’s presidential campaign. Along the way David meets a myriad of people who raise a set of questions—questions of history, art, race, religion, and fatherhood, all of which force David to look at his own life anew and come to terms with his identity as a young Black man and father in America.

Meditating on politics and politicians, religion and preachers, fathers and family, Great Expectations is both an emotionally resonant coming-of-age story and a rich novel of ideas, and marks the arrival of a major new writer.


Click for more detail about Look How Much I’ve Grown in Kindergarten by Vera Ahiyya Look How Much I’ve Grown in Kindergarten

by Vera Ahiyya
Random House Studio (Mar 05, 2024)
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Written by the kindergarten teacher and Instagram influencer affectionately known as the Tutu Teacher, comes a KINDergarten story about celebrating all the amazing ways children grow— inside and out— throughout the year.

Spring has sprung in KINDergarten! Flowers grow just outside the classroom. The trees are budding, and even baby birds begin to chirp, but Mason isn't feeling very cheerful. Mason sees her friends getting better at everything, but she doesn't think she can do anything right.

But Mason's favorite teacher Ms. Perry has an idea… a growth chart! It's not like other growth charts that measure how tall children grow, it's a place for students to put how they each want to change and grow over the next few months. Sure, some students want to get taller, but others have different goals. Reynaldo wants to learn the sound of every letter in the alphabet, Irene wants to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels, and Mason, well Mason wants to grow in every way!

This reassuring story told by Vera Ahiyya and brought to life by Joey Chou's exuberant illustrations will help every young reader feel more comfortable in kindergarten by reminding them that we all shine in different ways. And as kind Ms. Perry says, "It is always ok to ask for help. Seeds don't grow all on their own. They need the help of the sun, good soil and water to grow—- just like you!"


Click for more detail about Jam, Too? by JaNay Brown-Wood Jam, Too?

by JaNay Brown-Wood
Nancy Paulsen Books (Feb 27, 2024)
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Lustrous illustrations and a rhythmic text featuring a cumulative list of sounds bring to life the thrill of an impromptu jam session and the joy of making music together.

A drum circle is forming on the beach, and one fascinated child would love to join in. Soon there’s everything from a conga’s pat-a-pat-a, pat pat to some bongos’ taka taka, ta ta—and it looks like so much fun! But what do you do when you don’t have a drum? Well, when you let the music move you, you just might find other ways to jam, too!


Click for more detail about The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin The American Daughters

by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
One World (Feb 27, 2024)
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A gripping historical novel about a spirited girl who joins a sisterhood working to undermine the Confederates—from the award-winning author of We Cast a Shadow

“I knew from page one that this wasn’t going to be a typical journey through a familiar history… . A splendid work.”—Robert Jones, Jr., author of The Prophets

Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are inseparable. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days dreaming of a loving future and reminiscing about their family’s rebellious and storied history. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and directionless until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters. With the courage instilled in her by Sanite—and with help from these strong women—Ady learns how to put herself first. So begins her journey toward liberation and imagining a new future.

The American Daughters is a novel of hope and triumph that reminds us what is possible when a community bands together to fight for their freedom.


Click for more detail about Sex, Lies and Sensibility by Nikki Payne Sex, Lies and Sensibility

by Nikki Payne
Berkley Books (Feb 13, 2024)
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“Nikki Payne skillfully spins the tale of a well-known Jane Austen classic and makes it entirely her own. Thoughtful, hilarious, and smolderingly steamy.”—Kristina Forest, author of The Partner Plot

Two sisters roll up their sleeves to run a dilapidated inn but must learn to work with the locals in this deliciously spicy novel inspired by Sense and Sensibility.

There’s never a good time to learn you are your father’s secret child—especially not at the reading of his will. With their father’s affairs laid bare and Nora’s sensible reputation in tatters due to a viral video scandal, she and her free-spirited sister have nothing left but a rustic inn in the middle of nowhere and each other. What’s more, they need to revamp the inn before Labor Day or they lose it all. Nora hasn’t even knocked the traveling dust off last season’s designer boots when she’s confronted with three problems:

  1. She really should have watched more HGTV.
  2. She hasn’t seen another Black person for miles.
  3. A tall, dark stranger has already staked a claim on their property.

Native Abenaki eco-tour guide Ennis “Bear” Freeman has seen hapless tourists come and go. When he spots two pampered city girls at his unofficial headquarters, he expects them to catch a flight out of the inhospitable coastal Maine backwoods within a week’s time. But Nora, turns out, is made of sterner stuff. And as she rolls up her sleeves to breathe new life into the inn, she unwittingly reignites a flood of emotions inside of Bear that he had very intentionally suppressed.

Their connection is electric, their desire palpable. But Bear’s silence about his mysterious past might turn out to be the one thing that sends Nora packing.


Click for more detail about Thick with Trouble by Amber McBride Thick with Trouble

by Amber McBride
Penguin Books (Feb 13, 2024)
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From National Book Award finalist Amber McBride, a mystical, transcendent poetry collection about Black womanhood in the American South.

In Thick with Trouble, award-winning poet Amber McBride interrogates if being “trouble”—difficult, unruly, fearsome, defiant—is ultimately a weakness or an incomparable source of strength. Steeped in the Hoodoo spiritual tradition and organized via reimagined tarot cards, this collection becomes a chorus of unapologetic women who laugh, cry, mesmerize, and bring outsiders to their knees. Summoning the supernatural to examine death, rebirth, and life outside the male gaze, Amber McBride has crafted a haunting, spellbinding, and strikingly original collection of poems that reckon with the force and complexity of Black womanhood.


Click for more detail about Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson Black Girl You Are Atlas

by Renée Watson
Kokila (Feb 13, 2024)
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A thoughtful celebration of Black girlhood by award-winning author and poet Renée Watson.

Scalp poem and image from Black Girl You Are Atlas

In this semi-autobiographical collection of poems, Renée Watson writes about her experience growing up as a young Black girl at the intersections of race, class, and gender.

Using a variety of poetic forms, from haiku to free verse, Watson shares recollections of her childhood in Portland, tender odes to the Black women in her life, and urgent calls for Black girls to step into their power.

Black Girl You Are Atlas encourages young readers to embrace their future with a strong sense of sisterhood and celebration. With full-color art by celebrated fine artist Ekua Holmes throughout, this collection offers guidance and is a gift for anyone who reads it.

Undebelly poem and image from Black Girl You Are Atlas


Click for more detail about Redwood Court by DéLana R. A. Dameron Redwood Court

by DéLana R. A. Dameron
Dial (Feb 06, 2024)
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A breathtaking debut about one unforgettable Southern Black family, seen through the eyes of its youngest daughter as she comes of age in the 1990s.

“A triumph … Redwood Court is storytelling at its best: tender, vivid, and richly complicated.”—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone

“Mika, you sit at our feet all these hours and days, hearing us tell our tales. You have all these stories inside you: all the stories everyone in our family knows and all the stories everyone in our family tells. You write ’em in your books and show everyone who we are.”

So begins award-winning poet DéLana R. A. Dameron’s debut novel, Redwood Court. The baby of the family, Mika Tabor spends much of her time in the care of loved ones, listening to their stories and witnessing their struggles. On Redwood Court, the cul-de-sac in the all-Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, where her grandparents live, Mika learns important lessons from the people who raise her: her exhausted parents, who work long hours at multiple jobs while still making sure their kids experience the adventure of family vacations; her older sister, who in a house filled with Motown would rather listen to Alanis Morrisette; her retired grandparents, children of Jim Crow, who realized their own vision of success when they bought their house on the Court in the 1960s, imagining it filled with future generations; and the many neighbors who hold tight to the community they’ve built, committed to fostering joy and love in an America so insistent on seeing Black people stumble and fall.

With visceral clarity and powerful prose, Dameron reveals the devastation of being made to feel invisible and the transformative power of being seen. Redwood Court is a celebration of extraordinary, ordinary people striving to achieve their own American dreams.


Click for more detail about Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller by Breanna J. McDaniel Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller

by Breanna J. McDaniel
Dial Books (Feb 06, 2024)
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From an award-winning author and illustrator comes this picture book biography about beloved librarian and storyteller Augusta Braxton Baker, the first Black coordinator of children’s services at all branches of the New York Public Library.

Before Augusta Braxton Baker became a storyteller, she was an excellent story listener. Her grandmother brought stories like Br’er Rabbit and Arthur and Excalibur to life, teaching young Augusta that when there’s a will, there’s always a way. When she grew up, Mrs. Baker began telling her own fantastical stories to children at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library in Harlem. But she noticed that there were hardly any books at the library featuring Black people in respectful, uplifting ways. Thus began her journey of championing books, writers, librarians, and teachers centering Black stories, educating and inspiring future acclaimed authors like Audre Lorde and James Baldwin along the way.

As Mrs. Baker herself put it: “Children of all ages want to hear stories. Select well, prepare well and then go forth and just tell.”


Click for more detail about How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir by Shayla Lawson How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir

by Shayla Lawson
Tiny Reparations Books (Feb 06, 2024)
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“Phenomenal… A memoir that opens into the world, with brilliance, courage, and elegant prose… This is a book to read, read again, and remember.” —Imani Perry, New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award winner South to America

Poet and journalist Shayla Lawson follows their National Book Critics Circle finalist This Is Major with these daring and exquisitely crafted essays, where Lawson journeys across the globe, finds beauty in tumultuous times, and powerfully disrupts the constraints of race, gender, and disability.

In their new book, Shayla Lawson reveals how traveling can itself be a political act, when it can be a dangerous world to be Black, femme, nonbinary, and disabled. With their signature prose, at turns bold, muscular, and luminous, Shayla Lawson travels the world to explore deeper meanings held within love, time, and the self.

Through encounters with a gorgeous gondolier in Venice, an ex-husband in the Netherlands, and a lost love on New Year’s Eve in Mexico City, Lawson’s travels bring unexpected wisdom about life in and out of love. They learn the strength of friendships and the dangers of beauty during a narrow escape in Egypt. They examine Blackness in post-dictatorship Zimbabwe, then take us on a secretive tour of Black freedom movements in Portugal.

Through a deeply insightful journey, Lawson leads readers from a castle in France to a hula hoop competition in Jamaica to a traditional theater in Tokyo to a Prince concert in Minnesota and, finally, to finding liberation on a beach in Bermuda, exploring each location—and their deepest emotions—to the fullest. In the end, they discover how the trials of marriage, grief, and missed connections can lead to self-transformation and unimagined new freedoms.


Click for more detail about Spectral Evidence: Poems by Gregory Pardlo Spectral Evidence: Poems

by Gregory Pardlo
Alfred A. Knopf (Jan 30, 2024)
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An unapologetically bold, stimulating, and inspired collection of photographs and profiles celebrating the style of African Americans age 50+

Long inspired by mature adults daring to express their creativity and individuality through their style choices, New York Times bestselling novelist Connie Briscoe shines a light on these often overlooked and underappreciated sharply attired individuals. Accompanied by the marvelously talented Milton Washington’s dazzling photographs, Briscoe’s vision comes alive in these pages. From intrepid to chic, and sophisticated to free-spirited—Stepping Out captures the very essences of a vibrant cross section of Black elders, showcasing their stories, their styles, and how their love of fashion was born and bred. This book contextualizes the cultural, spiritual, and historical influences on decades of Black style and testifies to this dynamic legacy for generations to come.

A powerful meditation on Blackness, beauty, faith, and the force of law, from the beloved award-winning author of Digest and Air Traffic

Elegant, profound, and intoxicating—Spectral Evidence, Gregory Pardlo’s first major collection of poetry after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Digest, moves fluidly among considerations of the pro-wrestler Owen Hart; Tituba, the only Black woman to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials; MOVE, the movement and militant separatist group famous for its violent stand-offs with the Philadelphia Police Department (“flames rose like orchids … / blocks lay open like egg cartons”); and more.

At times cerebral and at other times warm, inviting and deeply personal, Spectral Evidence compels us to consider how we think about devotion, beauty and art; about the criminalization and death of Black bodies; about justice—and about how these have been inscribed into our present, our history, and the Western canon: “If I could be / the forensic dreamer / … / … my art would be a mortician’s / paints.”


Click for more detail about The Last Stand by Antwan Eady The Last Stand

by Antwan Eady
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Jan 30, 2024)
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The author of Nigel and the Moon, delivers a tender intergenerational story inspired by his childhood in the rural south. Here’s a farm stand that represents the importance of family, community, and hope.

Every stand has a story.
This one is mine.

Saturday is for harvesting. And one little boy is excited to work alongside his Papa as they collect eggs, plums, peppers and pumpkins to sell at their stand in the farmer’s market. Of course, it’s more than a farmer’s market. Papa knows each customer’s order, from Ms. Rosa’s pumpkins to Mr. Johnny’s peppers. And when Papa can’t make it to the stand, his community gathers around him, with dishes made of his own produce.

Heartwarming illustrations complement the lyrical text in this poignant picture book that reveals a family’s pride in their work, and reminds us to harvest love and hope from those around us.


Click for more detail about Black Women Taught Us: An Intimate History of Black Feminism by Jenn M. Jackson Black Women Taught Us: An Intimate History of Black Feminism

by Jenn M. Jackson
Random House (Jan 23, 2024)
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A reclamation of essential history and a hopeful gesture toward a better political future, this is what listening to Black women looks like—from a professor of political science and columnist for Teen Vogue.

“Jenn M. Jackson is a beautiful writer and excellent scholar. In this book, they pay tribute to generations of Black women organizers and set forward a bold and courageous blueprint for our collective liberation.”—Imani Perry, author of South to America

This is my offering. My love letter to them, and to us.

Jenn M. Jackson, PhD, has been known to bring historical acuity to some of the most controversial topics in America today. Now, in their first book, Jackson applies their critical analysis to the questions that have long energized their work: Why has Black women’s freedom fighting been so overlooked throughout history, and what has our society lost because of our refusal to engage with our forestrugglers’ lessons?

A love letter to those who have been minimized and forgotten, this collection repositions Black women’s intellectual and political work at the center of today’s liberation movements.

Across eleven original essays that explore the legacy of Black women writers and leaders—from Harriet Jacobs and Ida B. Wells to the Combahee River Collective and Audre Lorde—Jackson sets the record straight about Black women’s longtime movement organizing, theorizing, and coalition building in the name of racial, gender, and sexual justice in the United States and abroad. These essays show, in both critical and deeply personal terms, how Black women have been at the center of modern liberation movements despite the erasure and misrecognition of their efforts. Jackson illustrates how Black women have frequently done the work of liberation at great risk to their lives and livelihoods.

For a new generation of movement organizers and co-strugglers, Black Women Taught Us serves as a reminder that Black women were the first ones to teach us how to fight racism, how to name that fight, and how to imagine a more just world for everyone.


Click for more detail about Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks

by Crystal Wilkinson
Clarkson Potter (Jan 23, 2024)
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A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians, through powerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes, from the former poet laureate of Kentucky.

“With Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, Crystal Wilkinson cements herself as one of the most dynamic book makers in our generation and a literary giant. Utter genius tastes like this.”—Kiese Laymon, author of the Carnegie Medal-winning Heavy People are always surprised that Black people reside in the hills of Appalachia. Those not surprised that we were there, are surprised that we stayed.

Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmother’s presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen; there were her ancestors, too, stirring, measuring, and braising alongside her. These are her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and made a life, a legacy, and a cuisine.

An expert cook, Wilkinson shares nearly forty family recipes rooted deep in the past, full of flavor—delicious favorites including Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, Granny Christine’s Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits, brought to vivid life through stunning photography. Together, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts honors the mothers who came before, the land that provided for generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia.

As the keeper of her family’s stories and treasured dishes, Wilkinson shares her inheritance in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. She found their stories in her apron pockets, floating inside the steam of hot mustard greens and tucked into the sweet scent of clove and cinnamon in her kitchen. Part memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts weaves those stories together with recipes, family photos, and a lyrical imagination to present a culinary portrait of a family that has lived and worked the earth of the mountains for over a century.

A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians, through powerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes, from the former poet laureate of Kentucky.

“With Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, Crystal Wilkinson cements herself as one of the most dynamic book makers in our generation and a literary giant. Utter genius tastes like this.”—Kiese Laymon, author of the Carnegie Medal-winning Heavy People are always surprised that Black people reside in the hills of Appalachia. Those not surprised that we were there, are surprised that we stayed.

Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmother’s presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen; there were her ancestors, too, stirring, measuring, and braising alongside her. These are her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and made a life, a legacy, and a cuisine.

An expert cook, Wilkinson shares nearly forty family recipes rooted deep in the past, full of flavor—delicious favorites including Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, Granny Christine’s Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits, brought to vivid life through stunning photography. Together, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts honors the mothers who came before, the land that provided for generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia.

As the keeper of her family’s stories and treasured dishes, Wilkinson shares her inheritance in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. She found their stories in her apron pockets, floating inside the steam of hot mustard greens and tucked into the sweet scent of clove and cinnamon in her kitchen. Part memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts weaves those stories together with recipes, family photos, and a lyrical imagination to present a culinary portrait of a family that has lived and worked the earth of the mountains for over a century.


Click for more detail about Elijah’s Easter Suit by Brentom Jackson Elijah’s Easter Suit

by Brentom Jackson
Doubleday Books for Young Readers (Jan 23, 2024)
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In a story full of style, sass, and significance, a young boy goes on a quest for the perfect Easter church outfit, inspired by elders from his community. Along the way, he learns about the importance of Easter traditions to his family, his ancestors, and the Black church.

Elijah is on a mission to find the perfect church outfit for Easter. Failed attempts at his town’s stores leave Elijah crushed, but an important conversation with Deacon Brown and Mother Green about tradition, culture, and clothing gives him the courage to create his own Easter masterpiece: a patchwork of perfection that tells his story with style.

Families at Easter will appreciate seeing the themes of church and Black culture throughout Elijah’s quest, in this sweet yet important story about a young boy’s journey toward an understanding of those who came before him.

An afterword from the author delves into the traditions and culture of Black communities at Easter and the historical importance and significance of Easter clothing and style.


Click for more detail about Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Uché Blackstock Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine

by Uché Blackstock
Viking (Jan 23, 2024)
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“Legacy is both a compelling memoir and an edifying analysis of the inequities in the way we deliver healthcare in America. Uché Blackstock is a force of nature.” —Abraham Verghese, MD, New York Times-bestselling author of The Covenant of Water and Cutting for Stone

The rousing, captivating story of a Black physician, her career in medicine, and the deep inequities that still exist in the U.S. healthcare system

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives.

What Dr. Uché Blackstock did not understand as a child—or learn about at Harvard Medical School, where she and her sister had followed in their mother's footsteps, making them the first Black mother-daughter legacies from the school—were the profound and long-standing systemic inequities that mean just 2 percent of all U.S. physicians today are Black women; the racist practices and policies that ensure Black Americans have far worse health outcomes than any other group in the country; and the flawed system that endangers the well-being of communities like theirs. As an ER physician, and later as a professor in academic medicine, Dr. Blackstock became profoundly aware of the systemic barriers that Black patients and physicians continue to face.

Legacy is a journey through the critical intersection of racism and healthcare. At once a searing indictment of our healthcare system, a generational family memoir, and a call to action, Legacy is Dr. Blackstock's odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician—to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.


Click for more detail about Beasts of War by Ayana Gray Beasts of War

by Ayana Gray
Nancy Paulsen Books (Jan 16, 2024)
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In this epic conclusion to her New York Times bestselling series, Ayana Gray delivers a heart-pounding fantasy adventure filled with mythos, monsters, and mortal heroes who are astoundingly human.

Once a prisoner to Fedu, the vengeful god of death, Koffi has regained her freedom, but she is far from safe. Fedu will stop at nothing to hunt her down and use her power to decimate the mortal world. Koffi knows when Fedu will strike: during the next Bonding, a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event. To survive, Koffi will have to find powerful new allies quickly, and convince them to help her in the terrible battle to come.

Once a warrior-turned-runaway, Ekon has carved out a new life for himself outside Lkossa, but the shadows of his past still haunt him. Now, alongside unexpected friends, Ekon tries to focus on getting Koffi to the Kusonga Plains before the next Bonding. If he fails, Koffi will be consumed, either by her own dangerous power, or the terrible fate Ekon is doing everything he can to prevent. Ekon devotes himself to protecting Koffi, but the lingering threats from his own past are more urgent than he knows.

As Koffi and Ekon race to the Kusonga Plains—and try to garner the help of Esh?za’s ancient gods along the way—they must face a slew of dangerous beasts old and new. In the end, destiny may unite Koffi and Ekon for the last time—or tear them apart for good.


Click for more detail about Ready? Set. Puppies! (Raymond and Roxy) by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson Ready? Set. Puppies! (Raymond and Roxy)

by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jan 16, 2024)
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The puppies are coming! This Step 2 is perfect for readers age 4 to 6 and captures the anticipation of waiting for your best friend’s dog to have puppies. Will Raymond get to keep one?

Raymond and Roxy love playing together—and so do their pets! One day, Raymond learns that Roxy’s dog, Flo, is going to have puppies! Raymond does everything fast so he can hardly wait. How long will it take those puppies to be born? And will his parents say yes to a puppy of his very own?

Twenty years after Ready? Set. Raymond! was published, Vaunda Nelson and Derek Anderson continue the adventures of Raymond and Roxy!

Look for all of the Raymond and Roxy stories:

  • Ready? Set. Raymond!
  • Ready? Set. Birthday!
  • Ready? Set. Rides!
  • Ready? Set. Puppies!

Step 2 Readers use basic vocabulary and short sentences to tell simple stories. They are perfect for children who recognize familiar words and can sound out new words with help.


Click for more detail about American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky by Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky

by Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jan 16, 2024)
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From the acclaimed author of Flygirl and the bestselling author of Code Name Verity comes the thrilling and inspiring true story of the desegregation of the skies.

In the years between World War I and World War II, aviation fever was everywhere, including among Black Americans. But what hope did a Black person have of learning to fly in a country constricted by prejudice and Jim Crow laws, where some previous Black aviators like Bessie Coleman had to move to France to earn their wings?

American Wings follows a group of determined Black Americans: Cornelius Coffey and Johnny Robinson, skilled auto mechanics; Janet Harmon Bragg, a nurse; and Willa Brown, a teacher and social worker. Together, they created a flying club and built their own airfield on Chicago’s South Side. As the U.S. hurtled toward World War II, they established a school to train new pilots, teaching both Black and white students together and proving, in a time when the U.S. military was still segregated, that successful integration was possible.

Complete with black-and-white photographs throughout, American Wings brings to light a hidden history of pioneering Black men and women who, with grit and resilience, battled powerful odds for an equal share of the sky.

Photo of the Flying members of the Chicago Girls' Flight Blub and Harlem Airport in 1938


Click for more detail about Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human

by Cole Arthur Riley
Convergent Books (Jan 16, 2024)
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New York Times Bestseller - A collection of prayer, poetry, and spiritual practice centering the Black interior world, from the author of This Here Flesh and creator of Black Liturgies

“A true spiritual balm for our troubled times.”—Michael Eric Dyson, author of What Truth Sounds Like

For years, Cole Arthur Riley was desperate for a spirituality she could trust. Amid ongoing national racial violence, the isolation of the pandemic, and a surge of anti-Black rhetoric in many Christian spaces, she began dreaming of a more human, more liberating expression of faith. She went on to create Black Liturgies, a digital project that connects spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black memory, and the Black body.

In this book, she brings together hundreds of new prayers, along with letters, poems, meditation questions, breath practices, scriptures, and the writings of Black literary ancestors to offer forty-three liturgies that can be practiced individually or as a community. Inviting readers to reflect on their shared experiences of wonder, rest, rage, and repair, and creating rituals for holidays like Lent and Juneteenth, Arthur Riley writes with a poet’s touch and a sensitivity that has made her one of the most important spiritual voices at work today.

For anyone healing from communities that were more violent than loving; for anyone who has escaped the trauma of white Christian nationalism, religious homophobia, or transphobia; for anyone asking what it means to be human in a world of both beauty and terror, Black Liturgies is a work of healing and empowerment, and a vision for what might be.


Click for more detail about Come and Get It by Kiley Reid Come and Get It

by Kiley Reid
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Jan 09, 2024)
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From the celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age comes a fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a professor and three unruly students.

It’s 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor, and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie’s starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardized by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks, and illicit intrigue.

A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption, and reckless abandon, Come and Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior—and the highly anticipated new novel by acclaimed and award-winning author Kiley Reid.


Click for more detail about The Spark in You by Andrea Pippins The Spark in You

by Andrea Pippins
Random House Studio (Jan 09, 2024)
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This jubilant picture book filled with powerful affirmations celebrates the beautiful magic that makes each of us special. This is the perfect heartfelt gift for a birthday, graduation or other new beginnings.

There is a spark in you!

The spark in you shines when you smile. It sparkles when you dance. It glimmers and shimmers, zings, and pops! Your spark is festive and joyous and burns brightest when you are authentically being you.

Set against the vibrant backdrop of Carnival, a little girl uses all her creative energy to get ready for the big parade. Through the eyes of this vibrant character, the story celebrates individual expression and creativity as well as the explosion of light, color, and flavor of the festival.

Leaning into her Brazilian heritage, creator Andrea Pippins shares a window into the world of a young girl as she joins in the excitement of the parade. The spare text leaves room for the striking artwork to shine in a powerful display of community, individuality, and spirit.


Click for more detail about The Reckoning by Wade Hudson The Reckoning

by Wade Hudson
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 02, 2024)
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A powerful contemporary novel about an aspiring 12 year-old filmmaker whose world is turned upside down when his grandfather is slain in a senseless and racist act of violence. From the author of the award-winning memoir, Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South and co-editor of Recognize! An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life.

Lamar can’t wait to start his filmmaking career like his idol Spike Lee. And leave behind his small town of Morton, Louisiana. But for now, Lamar has to learn how to be a filmmaker while getting to know his grandfather.

When Gramps talks about his activism and Black history, Lamar doesn’t think much about it. Times have changed since the old Civil Rights days! Right? He has a white friend named Jeff who wants to be a filmmaker, too, even though Jeff’s parents never let him go to Lamar’s Black neighborhood. But there’s been progress in town. Right?

Then Gramps is killed in a traffic altercation with a white man claiming self-defense. But the Black community knows better: Gramps is another victim of racial violence. Protesters demand justice. So does Lamar. But he is also determined to keep his grandfather’s legacy alive in the only way he knows how: recording a documentary about the fight against injustice.

From the critically acclaimed author and the publisher of Just Us Books, Wade Hudson comes a riveting, timely, and deeply moving story about a young Black filmmaker whose eyes are opened to racial injustice and becomes inspired to follow in his grandfather’s activist footsteps.


Click for more detail about My Block Looks Like by Janelle Harper My Block Looks Like

by Janelle Harper
Viking Books for Young Readers (Jan 02, 2024)
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A love letter to the hustle, the bustle, the joy, and the grit of city life by debut author and Bronx native, Janelle Harper, and two-time Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner, Frank Morrison.

“My block looks like
a collision of cultures
a melting pot of cool
a burst of life
my favorite groove

…No matter what happens
I’ve seen it for myself
my block looks like
the coolest place
I’ve ever been.”

A lyrical and proud picture book that recognizes the beauty of the bodegas, subways, and playgrounds that characterize everyday life in the Bronx and pays homage to the ways that its residents have shaped pop culture through music, visual art, and dance. Perfect for fans of I Am Every Good Thing and Last Stop on Market Street, My Block Looks Like offers kids a reaffirming message to celebrate and uplift their communities in an energetic text that begs to be read aloud.


Click for more detail about Stepping Out: The Unapologetic Style of African Americans Over Fifty by Connie Briscoe Stepping Out: The Unapologetic Style of African Americans Over Fifty

by Connie Briscoe
Clarkson Potter (Dec 05, 2023)
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An unapologetically bold, stimulating, and inspired collection of photographs and profiles celebrating the style of African Americans age 50+

Long inspired by mature adults daring to express their creativity and individuality through their style choices, New York Times bestselling novelist Connie Briscoe shines a light on these often overlooked and underappreciated sharply attired individuals. Accompanied by the marvelously talented Milton Washington's dazzling photographs, Briscoe's vision comes alive in these pages. From intrepid to chic, and sophisticated to free-spirited—Stepping Out captures the very essences of a vibrant cross section of Black elders, showcasing their stories, their styles, and how their love of fashion was born and bred. This book contextualizes the cultural, spiritual, and historical influences on decades of Black style and testifies to this dynamic legacy for generations to come.


Click for more detail about Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice: A Cocktail Recipe Book: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice: A Cocktail Recipe Book: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks

by Toni Tipton-Martin
Clarkson Potter (Nov 14, 2023)
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Discover the fascinating history of Black mixology and its enduring influence on American cocktail culture through 70 rediscovered, modernized, or celebrated recipes, by the James Beard Award-winning author of Jubilee.

Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice spotlights the creativity, hospitality, and excellence of Black drinking culture, with classic and modern recipes inspired by formulas found in two centuries’ worth of Black cookbooks. From traditional tipples, such as the Absinthe Frappe or the Clover Leaf Cocktail, to new favorites, like the Jerk-Spiced Bloody Mary and the Gin and Juice 3.0, Toni Tipton-Martin shares a variety of recipes that shine a light on her influences, including underheralded early-twentieth-century icons, like Tom Bullock, Julian Anderson, and Atholene Peyton, and modern superstars, such as Snoop Dogg and T-Pain.

Drawing on her expertise, research in historic cookbooks, and personal collection of texts and letters, Toni Tipton-Martin shows how these drinks have evolved over time and shares the stories of how Black mixology came to be—a culmination of generations of practice, skill, intelligence, and taste.


Click for more detail about The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are by Tariq Trotter The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are

by Tariq Trotter
One World (Nov 14, 2023)
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New York Times Bestseller - “One of hip-hop’s greatest MCs, unpacking his harrowing, remarkable journey in his own words, with enough insights for two lifetimes.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning songwriter, producer, director, and creator of In the Heights and Hamilton

From one of our generation’s most powerful artists and incisive storytellers comes a brilliantly crafted work about the art—and war—of becoming who we are.

A Rolling Stone Best Book of the Year

upcycle verb
up‑cy‑cle ˈəpˌsaɪkəl
to recycle (something) in such a way that the resulting product is of a higher value than the original item
to create an object of greater value from (a discarded object of lesser value)

Today Tariq Trotter—better known as Black Thought—is the platinum-selling, Grammy-winning co-founder of The Roots and one of the most exhilaratingly skillful and profound rappers our culture has ever produced. But his story begins with a tragedy: as a child, Trotter burned down his family’s home. The years that follow are the story of a life snatched from the flames, forged in fire.

In The Upcycled Self, Trotter doesn’t only narrate a riveting and moving portrait of the artist as a young man, he gives readers a courageous model of what it means to live an examined life. In vivid vignettes, he tells the dramatic stories of the four powerful relationships that shaped him—with community, friends, art, and family—each a complex weave of love, discovery, trauma, and loss.

And beyond offering the compellingly poetic account of one artist’s creative and emotional origins, Trotter explores the vital questions we all have to confront about our formative years: How can we see the story of our own young lives clearly? How do we use that story to understand who we’ve become? How do we forgive the people who loved and hurt us? How do we rediscover and honor our first dreams? And, finally, what do we take forward, what do we pass on, what do we leave behind? This is the beautifully bluesy story of a boy genius’s coming-of-age that illuminates the redemptive power of the upcycle.


Click for more detail about To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul by Tracy K. Smith To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul

by Tracy K. Smith
Knopf Publishing Group (Nov 07, 2023)
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A stunning personal manifesto on memory, family, and history that explores how we in America might—together—come to a new view of our shared past

“A vulnerable, honest look at a life lived in a country still struggling with its evils…Hopeful…Beautiful and haunting.” —Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of Begin Again

In 2020, heartsick from constant assaults on Black life, Tracy K. Smith found herself soul-searching and digging into the historical archive for help navigating the "din of human division and strife." With lyricism and urgency, Smith draws on several avenues of thinking—personal, documentary, and spiritual—to understand who we are as a nation and what we might hope to mean to one another.

In Smith’s own words, "To write a book about Black strength, Black continuance, and the powerful forms of belief and community that have long bolstered the soul of my people, I used the generations of my own patrilineal family to lean backward toward history, to gather a fuller sense of the lives my own ancestors led, the challenges they endured, and the sources of hope and bolstering they counted on. What this process has led me to believe is that all of us, in the here and now, can choose to work alongside the generations that precede us in tending to America’s oldest wounds and meeting the urgencies of our present."

To Free the Captives touches down in Sunflower, Alabama, the red-dirt town where Smith’s father’s family comes from, and where her grandfather returned after World War I with a hero’s record but difficult prospects as a Black man. Smith considers his life and the life of her father through the lens of history. Hoping to connect with their strength and continuance, she assembles a new terminology of American life.

Bearing courageous witness to the terms of Freedom afforded her as a Black woman, a mother, and an educator in the twenty-first century, Smith etches a portrait of where we find ourselves four hundred years into the American experiment. Weaving in an account of her growing spiritual practice, she argues that the soul is not merely a private site of respite or transcendence, but a tool for fulfilling our duties to each other, and a sounding board for our most pressing collective questions: Where are we going as a nation? Where have we been?


Click for more detail about Planet of the Apes: Fall of Man by David F. Walker Planet of the Apes: Fall of Man

by David F. Walker
Licensed Publishing (Nov 07, 2023)
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One of the most beloved franchises in sci-fi history returns to Marvel Comics! It’s been years since the "simian flu" first spread. The ALZ-113 virus has rampaged across Earth - and while apes are flourishing, humanity is crumbling. As researchers hunt for a cure, a fanatical group of humans has their own solution: kill all apes! Peacekeeper Juliana Tobon is one of the few willing to stand against them, but the crisis is escalating - and soon apes will witness the true depths of human cruelty. But with groups of apes in Europe, Africa and Asia continuing to grow in intelligence and power, the threat of simian domination of Earth becomes increasingly possible. Can apes and humans ever coexist? Or will all hope of peace lead to a dead end strewn with blood and death? Collecting PLANET OF THE APES (2023) #1-5.


Click for more detail about Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines by Joy Buolamwini Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines

by Joy Buolamwini
Random House (Oct 31, 2023)
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“The conscience of the AI revolution” (Fortune) explains how we’ve arrived at an era of AI harms and oppression, and what we can do to avoid its pitfalls.

“Dr. Joy Buolamwini has been an essential figure in bringing irresponsible, profit-hungry tech giants to their knees. If you’re going to read only one book about AI, this should be it.”—Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation

To most of us, it seems like recent developments in artificial intelligence emerged out of nowhere to pose unprecedented threats to humankind. But to Dr. Joy Buolamwini, who has been at the forefront of AI research, this moment has been a long time in the making.

After tinkering with robotics as a high school student in Memphis and then developing mobile apps in Zambia as a Fulbright fellow, Buolamwini followed her lifelong passion for computer science, engineering, and art to MIT in 2015. As a graduate student at the “Future Factory,” she did groundbreaking research that exposed widespread racial and gender bias in AI services from tech giants across the world.

Unmasking AI goes beyond the headlines about existential risks produced by Big Tech. It is the remarkable story of how Buolamwini uncovered what she calls “the coded gaze”—the evidence of encoded discrimination and exclusion in tech products—and how she galvanized the movement to prevent AI harms by founding the Algorithmic Justice League. Applying an intersectional lens to both the tech industry and the research sector, she shows how racism, sexism, colorism, and ableism can overlap and render broad swaths of humanity “excoded” and therefore vulnerable in a world rapidly adopting AI tools. Computers, she reminds us, are reflections of both the aspirations and the limitations of the people who create them.

Encouraging experts and non-experts alike to join this fight, Buolamwini writes, “The rising frontier for civil rights will require algorithmic justice. AI should be for the people and by the people, not just the privileged few.”


Click for more detail about The Book of Radical Answers: Real Questions from Real Kids Just Like You by Sonya Renee Taylor The Book of Radical Answers: Real Questions from Real Kids Just Like You

by Sonya Renee Taylor
Dial Books (Oct 24, 2023)
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The go-to guide to growing up, rooted in radical self-love and body empowerment, by the NYT bestselling author of The Body Is Not an Apology.

The Book of Radical Answers is a groundbreaking work of non-fiction by author and activist Sonya Renee Taylor that gives honest, empowering and age appropriate answers to real questions from young readers about health, sex, gender, race and justice. Steeped in joy and possibility, Taylor’s writing assures kids that, as they mature, life will be fun, complicated, strange and wonderful, and most importantly, that they are amazing and have the ability to thrive with the inherent knowledge of their self-worth.


Click for more detail about Tremor by Teju Cole Tremor

by Teju Cole
Random House (Oct 17, 2023)
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A powerful, intimate novel that masterfully explores what constitutes a meaningful life in a violent world—from the award-winning author of Open City

"A remarkable performance from one of the most brilliant and singular minds at work today." —Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies

Life is hopeless but it is not serious. We have to have danced while we could and, later, to have danced again in the telling.

A weekend spent antiquing is shadowed by the colonial atrocities that occurred on that land. A walk at dusk is interrupted by casual racism. A loving marriage is riven by mysterious tensions. And a remarkable cascade of voices speaks out from a pulsing metropolis.

We’re invited to experience these events and others through the eyes and ears of Tunde, a West African man working as a teacher of photography on a renowned New England campus. He is a reader, a listener, a traveler, drawn to many different kinds of stories: stories from history and epic; stories of friends, family, and strangers; stories found in books and films. Together these stories make up his days. In aggregate these days comprise a life.

Tremor is a startling work of realism and invention that engages brilliantly with literature, music, race, and history as it examines the passage of time and how we mark it. It is a reckoning with human survival amidst "history’s own brutality, which refuses symmetries and seldom consoles," but it is also a testament to the possibility of joy. As he did in his magnificent debut Open City, Teju Cole once again offers narration with all its senses alert, a surprising and deeply essential work from a beacon of contemporary literature.


Click for more detail about She Persisted: Simone Biles by Kekla Magoon She Persisted: Simone Biles

by Kekla Magoon
Philomel Books (Oct 17, 2023)
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Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger, a chapter book series about women who spoke up and rose up against the odds—including Simone Biles!

Simone Biles was raised by her grandparents and had to overcome many hardships as a child. After trying gymnastics for the first time on a field trip from elementary school, Simone continued with the sport, working hard and reaching professional levels. She persisted in the field and went on to become the most decorated US gymnast of all time. Through it all, she inspired kids everywhere to follow their dreams.

In this chapter book biography by NAACP Image Award-winning author and Coretta Scott King Honor recipient Kekla Magoon, readers learn about the amazing life of Simone Biles—and how she persisted.

Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton, black-and-white illustrations throughout, and a list of ways that readers can follow in Simone Biles’s footsteps and make a difference! A perfect choice for kids who love learning and teachers who want to bring inspiring women into their curriculum.

And don’t miss out on the rest of the books in the She Persisted series, featuring so many more women who persisted, including Florence Griffith Joyner, Ruby Bridges, Diana Taurasi, and more!


Click for more detail about The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination by Stuart A. Reid The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination

by Stuart A. Reid
Knopf Publishing Group (Oct 17, 2023)
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A spellbinding work of history that reads like a Cold War spy thriller—about the U.S.-sanctioned plot to assassinate the democratically elected leader of the newly independent Congo

"This is one of the best books I have read in years … gripping, full of colorful characters, and strange plot twists." —Fareed Zakaria, CNN host

It was supposed to be a moment of great optimism, a cause for jubilation. The Congo was at last being set free from Belgium—one of seventeen countries to gain independence in 1960 from ruling European powers. At the helm as prime minister was charismatic nationalist Patrice Lumumba. Just days after the handover, however, the Congo’s new army mutinied, Belgian forces intervened, and Lumumba turned to the United Nations for help in saving his newborn nation from what the press was already calling "the Congo crisis." Dag Hammarskjöld, the tidy Swede serving as UN secretary-general, quickly arranged the organization’s biggest peacekeeping mission in history. But chaos was still spreading.

Frustrated with the fecklessness of the UN and spurned by the United States, Lumumba then approached the Soviets for help—an appeal that set off alarm bells at the CIA. To forestall the spread of Communism in Africa, the CIA sent word to its station chief in the Congo, Larry Devlin: Lumumba had to go.

Within a year, everything would unravel. The CIA plot to murder Lumumba would ?zzle out, but he would be deposed in a CIA-backed coup, transferred to enemy territory in a CIA-approved operation, and shot dead by Congolese assassins. Hammarskjöld, too, would die, in a mysterious plane crash en route to negotiate a cease-?re with the Congo’s rebellious southeast. And a young, ambitious military officer named Joseph Mobutu, who had once sworn fealty to Lumumba, would seize power with U.S. help and misrule the country for more than three decades.

For the Congolese people, the events of 1960-61 represented the opening chapter of a long horror story. For the U.S. government, however, they provided a playbook for future interventions.


Click for more detail about The Day of Dreams by Jevon Bolden The Day of Dreams

by Jevon Bolden
Penguin Young Readers Licenses (Oct 17, 2023)
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Enter the world of Super Sema in this fun, holiday-themed, STEAM-filled 8x8 with stickers!

Dunia is preparing for the Day of Dreams, the one day a year when whatever you dream can come true. Sema is wishing for a snow-filled Day of Dreams, but her family and friends think she should pick something else - Dunia hasn’t seen snow in 300 years! Still, Sema is determined to see her vision come to life. With a little hope and a lot of technovating, can Super Sema make her wish of a snowy Day of Dreams a reality?


Click for more detail about Remember Us by Jacqueline Woodson Remember Us

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Oct 10, 2023)
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National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson brings readers a powerful story that delves deeply into life’s burning questions about time and memory and what we take with us into the future.

It seems like Sage’s whole world is on fire the summer before she starts seventh grade. As house after house burns down, her Bushwick neighborhood gets referred to as “The Matchbox” in the local newspaper. And while Sage prefers to spend her time shooting hoops with the guys, she’s also still trying to figure out her place inside the circle of girls she’s known since childhood. A group that each day, feels further and further away from her. But it’s also the summer of Freddy, a new kid who truly gets Sage. Together, they reckon with the pain of missing the things that get left behind as time moves on, savor what’s good in the present, and buoy each other up in the face of destruction. And when the future comes, it is Sage’s memories of the past that show her the way forward. Remember Us speaks to the power of both letting go … and holding on.


Click for more detail about Santa’s Gotta Go! by Derrick Barnes Santa’s Gotta Go!

by Derrick Barnes
Nancy Paulsen Books (Oct 10, 2023)
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The book opens with siblings Monte and Mabel penning their Christmas lists, with a peculiar top wish - a day spent with Santa Claus. The mere idea fills their minds with candy canes, reindeer games, and stories told by the fire. But they never thought they’d actually get to spend time with Santa, let alone host him in their home!

As the clock strikes midnight on Christmas Eve, they’re awakened by a jingling sound and a crash in the yard. To their astonishment, there’s Santa, his sleigh broken, while Rudolph and the other reindeer are munching on their mom’s favorite flower bed. With a hearty laugh, Santa explains that he’ll need to stay with them while he waits for spare sleigh parts to be delivered.

Santa quickly makes himself at home, not quite understanding typical houseguest etiquette. His elf-like manners and endless energy become exhausting. He stays up late playing air guitar to blaring Christmas carols, swigs mom’s homemade spaghetti sauce straight from the jar, and leaves a trail of wrapping paper wherever he goes. Monte and Mabel start to question their wish for a visit from Santa.

The final straw comes when Santa messes with dad’s prized motorcycle and accidentally deletes Mabel’s high scores from her favorite computer game. It’s clear to the whole family - Santa has to go. But how do you evict the jolliest man on Earth?

This uproarious holiday adventure, penned by New York Times bestselling author Derrick Barnes, will have children and adults alike laughing out loud. "Santa’s Sleepover: A Christmas Caper" reminds readers to be careful what they wish for, and teaches the importance of tolerance, patience, and sharing during the holiday season. A hilarious and heartwarming story that captures the essence of Christmas in a most unexpected way.


Click for more detail about Nesting Dolls by Vanessa Brantley-Newton Nesting Dolls

by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Crown Books for Young Readers (Oct 10, 2023)
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A heartwarming picture book about how one little girl’s unique beauty has been growing for generations in her family tree.

Anyiaka is in awe of her gorgeous Gullah Geechee family—she wants to be beautiful like her older sister, Sorie, a great listener like her mom, and a talented artist like her grandma. But on today’s visit to her grandparents’ house, Anyiaka sticks out from the rest of the family like a sore thumb. She can’t seem to do anything right, and a trip to Grandma’s art studio confirms just how different she is from the rest of the family.

But Grandma’s artwork—a special set of nesting dolls—also shows that what’s on the outside doesn’t always tell the whole story. While they may be distinct, together, her family’s beauty and inner strength have deep roots that have been growing within each of them for generations.


Click for more detail about First, Best: Lessons in Leadership and Legacy from Today’s Civil Rights Movement by Steven L. Reed First, Best: Lessons in Leadership and Legacy from Today’s Civil Rights Movement

by Steven L. Reed
Avery (Oct 10, 2023)
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In First, Best, Steven L. Reed, the first Black mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, shares an inspirational and transformative narrative. Rooted deeply in his own experiences as the son of a civil rights leader, Reed’s memoir serves as an important contribution to the ongoing dialogue about racial justice, identity, and leadership in America.

Reed provides an intimate look at his upbringing, painting vivid scenes of the rich heritage that shaped him. His father, who was a close associate of iconic figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend Ralph Abernathy, imparted to him essential lessons about responsibility, integrity, and the commitment needed to make meaningful change. Reed’s story is one of self-discovery, resilience, and a fervent desire to uphold the values passed down to him.

One of the most compelling aspects of First, Best is its focus on the power of alternative narratives. Reed actively challenges the harmful stereotypes and systemic dehumanization of Black men in American society. By sharing the story of forging his own path, Reed offers an alternative narrative to Black men coming of age, catalyzing their hope and sense of possibility.

The book delves into Reed’s circuitous path to the mayor’s office—a journey that began with his formative years at Morehouse College, led him through periods of entrepreneurship and worldly exploration, and culminated in his role as a probate judge. Each step was influenced by the values he inherited from his father’s generation.

First, Best is not just a memoir about assuming the mantle of manhood or leadership; it’s also about the heavy responsibilities and ethical imperatives that come with it. “My job is to prepare you to be a cross-bearer and not just a crown-wearer. Bigotry has no place in our household. It will only hold you down and make you small,” his father told him in response to a death threat they received. The book is fundamentally about responsibility and preparation, about serving others, and about the willingness to bear the costs of leadership. First, Best serves as an affirmation for the next generation of Black men and women, showing through story and example their potential power in a world that isn’t always designed to uplift them.


Click for more detail about Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror by Jordan Peele Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror

by Jordan Peele
Random House (Oct 03, 2023)
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The visionary writer and director of Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation.

A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele’s anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and—like his spine-chilling films—its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world … and redefine what it means to be afraid.

Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull.


Click for more detail about Sankofa: A Culinary Story of Resilience and Belonging by Eric Adjepong Sankofa: A Culinary Story of Resilience and Belonging

by Eric Adjepong
Penguin Workshop (Oct 03, 2023)
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Inspired by acclaimed chef Eric Adjepong’s own childhood, Sankofa is the powerful story of a young boy’s culinary journey 400 years into the past to reconnect with his African roots and find his own place in America. "Adjepong has crafted a delectable story that blends food history and Ghanaian culture. A celebration of food and culture that reminds youngsters to look back as they move forward." —Kirkus Reviews What if home was a place you’ve never been? For Kofi, a first-generation Ghanaian American boy, home is a country called Ghana. But it’s a place he’s never been. When tasked to bring a dish that best represents his family’s culture to school for a potluck lunch, Kofi is torn. With the help of his Nanabarima (grandfather), Kofi learns the hardship and resilience his family has endured—and how food has always been an integral part their story and culture. Sankofa is a reminder that food can transport you to a place called home—even if you’ve never been.


Click for more detail about Salt the Water by Candice Iloh Salt the Water

by Candice Iloh
Dutton Books for Young Readers (Oct 03, 2023)
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From Printz honoree and National Book Award finalist Candice Iloh, a verse novel about Cerulean Gene, a nonbinary Black teenager searching for a new way to do more than survive in post-pandemic America.

Cerulean and their friends went into senior year—the first year of normal school after the pandemic—with a plan: keep their heads down in class, save money, and get the hell out of the Bronx once they graduate. If teachers are going to force them to read Huckleberry Finn, then they can’t blame kids for "lighting out for the territory." Cerulean is convinced that there must be somewhere better than the Bronx and is focused on learning how to grow and make food so they can all be self-sufficient when they finally make their break.

Burned-out teachers and their father’s badly timed workplace accident send Cerulean reeling off course, but Bronx babies are resiliant and resourceful, and Salt the Water is ultimately a radically hopeful vision of life beyond mere survival.


Click for more detail about Zora, the Story Keeper by Ebony Joy Wilkins Zora, the Story Keeper

by Ebony Joy Wilkins
Kokila (Oct 03, 2023)
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A young Black girl and her aunt celebrate the wonder and magic of their family’s legacy through storytelling.

When Zora grows up, she wants to be just like Aunt Bea. Aunt Bea is the best storyteller she knows! Every day after school, Zora heads to her aunt’s house, where they take out their family book and turn Aunt Bea’s kitchen into their stage. They raid Aunt Bea’s costume chest, filled with colorful garments from her acting days, and even do special voices to tell the stories of swimming coaches, Sunday preachers, World War II pilots, and more—all real members of their family. Zora can’t wait to find out what her story will be. As the days pass, Zora notices something’s happening to Aunt Bea. She gets tired more quickly, and sometimes she needs Zora to tell the stories instead. Zora never imagined that Aunt Bea’s tales would ever stop, but in addition to creating lots of joy and a lifetime of memories, Aunt Bea had been working on her greatest gift of all: preparing Zora to become the story keeper.

Lyrically told by Dr. Ebony Joy Wilkins and exquisitely rendered with mixed-media illustrations by Dare Coulter, Zora, the Story Keeper captures the richness and scope of Black American life through the lens of one family across generations.


Click for more detail about See You on the Other Side by Rachel Montez Minor See You on the Other Side

by Rachel Montez Minor
Crown Books for Young Readers (Sep 26, 2023)
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This lyrical picture book from actress, dancer, and singer Rachel Montez Minor is a beautiful ode to those we’ve lost and a reassurance that we will carry their love with us forever.

This is not goodbye, sweet child.
I’ll see you on the other side… .

Simple, rhyming text and evocative illustrations offer comfort to children who may be grieving or coming to terms with the idea of loss. The universal message tells us that no one leaves us forever, and just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there, for their love will always stay with us.


Click for more detail about Something, Someday by Amanda Gorman Something, Someday

by Amanda Gorman
Viking Books for Young Readers (Sep 26, 2023)
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The stunning new picture book by presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator Christian Robinson

You’re told that
This won’t work,
But how will you know
If you never try?

Presidential inaugural poet and #1 New York Times bestselling author Amanda Gorman and Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor winner Christian Robinson have created a timeless message of hope.

Sometimes the world feels broken. And problems seem too big to fix. But somehow, we all have the power to make a difference. With a little faith, and maybe the help of a friend, together we can find beauty and create change.

With intimate and inspiring text and powerfully stunning illustrations, Something, Someday reveals how even the smallest gesture can have a lasting impact.


Click for more detail about The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis The Unsettled

by Ayana Mathis
Knopf Publishing Group (Sep 26, 2023)
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From the best-selling author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, a searing multi-generational novel—set in the 1980s in racially and politically turbulent Philadelphia and in the tiny town of Bonaparte, Alabama—about a mother fighting for her sanity and survival

"[A] powerful book." —Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gilead

From the moment Ava Carson and her ten-year-old son, Toussaint, arrive at the Glenn Avenue family shelter in Philadelphia 1985, Ava is already plotting a way out. She is repulsed by the shelter’s squalid conditions: their cockroach-infested room, the barely edible food, and the shifty night security guard. She is determined to rescue her son from the perils and indignities of that place, and to save herself from the complicated past that led them there.

Ava has been estranged from her own mother, Dutchess, since she left her Alabama home as a young woman barely out of her teens. Despite their estrangement and the thousand miles between them, mother and daughter are deeply entwined, but Ava can’t forgive her sharp-tounged, larger than life mother whose intractability and bouts of debilitating despair brought young Ava to the outer reaches of neglect and hunger.

Ava wants to love her son differently, better. But when Toussaint’s father, Cass, reappears, she is swept off course by his charisma, and the intoxicating power of his radical vision to destroy systems of racial injustice and bring about a bold new way of communal living.

Meanwhile, in Alabama, Dutchess struggles to keep Bonaparte, once a beacon of Black freedom and self-determination, in the hands of its last five Black residents—families whose lives have been rooted in this stretch of land for generations—and away from rapidly encroaching white developers. She fights against the erasure of Bonaparte’s venerable history and the loss of the land itself, which she has so arduously preserved as Ava’s inheritance.

As Ava becomes more enmeshed with Cass, Toussaint senses the danger simmering all around him—his well-intentioned but erratic mother; the intense, volatile figure of his father who drives his fledgling Philadelphia community toward ever increasing violence and instability. He begins to dream of Dutchess and Bonaparte, his home and birthright, if only he can find his way there.

Brilliant, explosive, vitally important new work from one of America’s most fiercely talented storytellers.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Harlem at Four by Michael Datcher Harlem at Four

by Michael Datcher
Random House Studio (Sep 19, 2023)
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A stunning picture book comprised of two incredible stories— the first part of the book chronicles the adventures of a four-year-old Black girl named Harlem, while the second part describes the history of Harlem the neighborhood. From a New York Times Bestselling author and a critically acclaimed illustrator.

In this beautiful picture book in two parts, meet Harlem: the girl and the neighborhood. Part one follows the adventures of a little girl named Harlem and her single father as they go on a museum “playdate” with painters Romare Bearden and Jean-Michel Basquiat, listen to John Coltrane records, and conduct science experiments in their apartment ("The volcano erupts /Red lava on Valentine’s Day!").

Part two takes us back to the fourth year of the twentieth century in Harlem the neighborhood. Here, we are introduced to Philip A. Payton Jr., aka “Papa Payton,” whose Afro-American Realty Company gave birth to the Black housing explosion, helping to start America’s Great Black Migration. Because of Papa Peyton, Black families—like Harlem and her father a century later—could move to Harlem and thrive and flourish.

This is a completely unique, absolutely gorgeous picture book by a New York Times Bestselling author, and a Coretta Scott King-winning illustrator, that weaves together the lives of a modern Black family and a historically Black neighborhood in New York City.


Click for more detail about Slavery and the African American Story by Patricia Williams Dockery Slavery and the African American Story

by Patricia Williams Dockery
Crown Books for Young Readers (Sep 12, 2023)
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Until now, you’ve only heard one side of the story: how slavery began, and how America split itself in two to end it. Here’s the true story of America from the African American perspective.

From the moment Africans were first brought to the shores of the United States, they had a hand in shaping the country. Their labor created a strong economy, built our halls of government, and defined American society in profound ways. And though the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t signed until 300 years after the first Africans arrived, the fight for freedom started the moment they set foot on American soil.

This book contains the true narrative of the first 300 years of Africans in America: the struggles, the heroes, and the untold stories that are left out of textbooks. If you want to learn the truth about African American history in this country, start here.


Click for more detail about Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier by Oprah Winfrey and Arthur C. Brooks Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier

by Oprah Winfrey and Arthur C. Brooks
Portfolio (Sep 12, 2023)
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You can get happier. And getting there will be the adventure of your lifetime.

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

In Build the Life You Want, Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey invite you to begin a journey toward greater happiness no matter how challenging your circumstances. Drawing on cutting-edge science and their years of helping people translate ideas into action, they show you how to improve your life right now instead of waiting for the outside world to change.

With insight, compassion, and hope, Brooks and Winfrey reveal how the tools of emotional self-management can change your life—immediately. They recommend practical, research-based practices to build the four pillars of happiness: Family, Friendship, Work, and Faith. And along the way, they share hard-earned wisdom from their own lives and careers as well as the witness of regular people whose lives are joyful despite setbacks and hardship.

Equipped with the tools of emotional self-management and ready to build your four pillars, you can take control of your present and future rather than hoping and waiting for your circumstances to improve. Build the Life You Want is your blueprint for a better life.


Click for more detail about The Fraud by Zadie Smith The Fraud

by Zadie Smith
Penguin Press (Sep 05, 2023)
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From acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who deserves to tell their story—and who deserves to be believed

It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper—and cousin by marriage—of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.

Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.

Andrew Bogle, meanwhile, grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.

The “Tichborne Trial”—wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title—captivates Mrs. Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs. Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr. Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task… .

Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity and the mystery of “other people.”


Click for more detail about The Art of Desire by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery The Art of Desire

by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery
Berkley Books (Sep 05, 2023)
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Trouble comes in threes…
One doomed love affair after another has made lovely Alex Walton swear off men. Now, she’s determined to try something that maybe she can succeed at: a writing career. Little does she know that a chance meeting with a strikingly handsome stranger, a mysterious obelisk, and a lost kingdom will change her life forever. As Alex is about to discover, truth can be stranger—and far more dangerous—than fiction.

…but true love comes only once.
After three years inside a terrorist organization, Phillip Turman is trying to rebuild his life. His first assignment is to pick up Alex Walton, the maid of honor for his best friend’s wedding, at the airport. His second is to deal with his instant attraction to her. But his third may be the toughest: to keep Alex out of danger as his past—and her need to know about it—threaten to destroy their future.


Click for more detail about The Artivist by Nikkolas Smith The Artivist

by Nikkolas Smith
Kokila (Sep 05, 2023)
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An inspiring picture book about how children can combine art and activism in their daily lives.

“They say I’m an artist. They say I’m an activist.”

When a young boy realizes the scope of inequities in the wider world, he’s seized with the urge to do more. He decides to bring together the different parts of himself—the artist and the activist—to become… an Artivist. After his mural goes viral, he sets out to change the world one painting at a time.

With inspiring text and stunning illustrations by Nikkolas Smith, The Artivist is a call to action for young readers to point out injustice in their lives and try to heal the broken bones of the world through their art.


Click for more detail about Hair Love ABCs by Matthew A. Cherry Hair Love ABCs

by Matthew A. Cherry
Penguin Young Readers Group (Aug 29, 2023)
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An alphabet board book inspired by the bestselling Hair Love with new spot illustrations and text from the original award-winning author and illustrator duo—and perfect for baby gift baskets.

A is for Afro, N is for Natural, and W is for Waves. Letter by letter, follow Zuri and her father in their joy-filled journey through the kinks and curls of Black hair.

This 7x7 board book is perfect as a baby gift, for existing fans of Hair Love, young readers embracing their natural hair, and toddlers learning their ABCs!


Click for more detail about Track Star #4 by Kelly Starling Lyons Track Star #4

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Penguin Workshop (Aug 29, 2023)
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From the award-winning author of the Jada Jones chapter books comes an illustrated spinoff series perfect for STEM fans!

The annual Fun Run is coming up at Brookside Elementary! The students will all run laps around the carpool lane, and Miles Lewis wants to be one of the top five runners. Even though he zooms through sprints, he runs out of gas for long distance, so he creates a nutrition and exercise regimen to boost his endurance. But on the big day, he witnesses one kid struggling to keep going. Should Miles keep pressing for his personal best, or should he lend support to help a friend? In the end, Miles must decide what winning really means to him.


Click for more detail about All You Have to Do by Autumn Allen All You Have to Do

by Autumn Allen
Kokila (Aug 29, 2023)
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Powerful, thought-provoking, and heartfelt, this debut YA novel by author Autumn Allen is a gripping look at what it takes (and takes and takes) for two Black students to succeed in prestigious academic institutions in America.

In All You Have to Do, two Black young men attend prestigious schools nearly thirty years apart, and yet both navigate similar forms of insidious racism.

In April 1968, in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, Kevin joins a protest that shuts down his Ivy League campus…

In September 1995, amidst controversy over the Million Man March, Gibran challenges the "See No Color" hypocrisy of his prestigious New England prep school…

As the two students, whose lives overlap in powerful ways, risk losing the opportunities their parents worked hard to provide, they move closer to discovering who they want to be instead of accepting as fact who society and family tell them they are.


Click for more detail about Holler, Child: Stories by LaToya Watkins Holler, Child: Stories

by LaToya Watkins
Penguin Publishing Group (Aug 29, 2023)
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An extraordinary and unforgettable short story collection about community, home, betrayal, and forgiveness—from a writer whose “spellbinding, buoyant”* storytelling will break your heart as it tends to the wounds. *Texas Monthly

In Holler, Child’s eleven brilliant stories, LaToya Watkins presses at the bruises of guilt, love, and circumstance. Each story introduces us to a character irrevocably shaped by place and reaching toward something—hope, reconciliation, freedom.

In “Cutting Horse,” the appearance of a horse in a man’s suburban backyard places a former horse breeder in trouble with the police. In “Holler, Child,” a mother is forced into an impossible position when her son gets in a kind of trouble she knows too well from the other side. And “Time After” shows us the unshakable bonds of family as a sister journeys to find her estranged brother—the one who saved her many times over.

Throughout Holler, Child, we see love lost and gained, and grief turned to hope. Much like LaToya Watkins’s acclaimed debut novel, Perish, this collection peers deeply into lives of women and men experiencing intimate and magnificent reckonings—exploring how race, power, and inequality map on the individual, and demonstrating the mythic proportions of everyday life.


Click for more detail about Forgive Me Not by Jennifer Baker Forgive Me Not

by Jennifer Baker
Nancy Paulsen Books (Aug 15, 2023)
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In this near-future searing indictment of the juvenile justice system, one incarcerated teen weighs what she is willing to endure for forgiveness.

All it took was one night and one bad decision for fifteen-year-old Violetta Chen-Samuels’ life to go off the rails. After driving drunk and causing the accident that kills her little sister, Violetta is incarcerated. Under the juvenile justice system, her fate lies in the hands of those she’s wronged—her family. With their forgiveness, she could go home. But without it? Well …

Denied their forgiveness, Violetta is now left with two options, neither good—remain in juvenile detention for an uncertain sentence or participate in the Trials. The Trials are no easy feat, but if she succeeds, she could regain both her freedom and what she wants most of all: her family’s love. In her quest to prove her remorse, Violetta is forced to confront not only her family’s grief, but her own—and the question of whether their forgiveness is more important than forgiving herself.


Click for more detail about The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

by James McBride
Riverhead Books (Aug 08, 2023)
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“McBride’s pages burst with life… This endlessly rich saga highlights the different ways in which people look out for one another.&rdquo —Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)

“The interlocking destinies of [McBride’s] characters make for tense, absorbing drama and, at times, warm, humane comedy. … If it’s possible for America to have a poet laureate, why can’t James McBride be its storyteller-in-chief?” —Kirkus Reviews (STARRED REVIEW)

“Funny, tender, knockabout, gritty, and suspenseful, McBride’s microcosmic, socially critiquing, and empathic novel dynamically celebrates difference, kindness, ingenuity, and the force that compels us to move heaven and earth to help each other.” —Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)

From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.


Click for more detail about Las Madres by Esmeralda Santiago Las Madres

by Esmeralda Santiago
Knopf Publishing Group (Aug 01, 2023)
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From the award-winning, best-selling author of When I Was Puerto Rican, a powerful novel of family, race, faith, sex, and disaster that moves between Puerto Rico and the Bronx, revealing the lives and loves of five women and the secret that binds them together.

They refer to themselves as "las Madres," a close-knit group of women who, with their daughters, have created a family based on friendship and blood ties. Their story begins in Puerto Rico in 1975 when fifteen-year-old Luz, the tallest girl in her dance academy and the only Black one in a sea of petite, light-skinned, delicate swans, is seriously injured in a car accident. Tragically, her brilliant, multilingual scientist parents are both killed in the crash. Now orphaned, Luz navigates the pressures of adolescence and copes with the aftershock of a brain injury when two new friends enter her life, Ada and Shirley. Luz’s days are consumed with aches and pains, and her memory of the accident is wiped clean, but she suffers spells that send her mind to times and places she can’t share with others.

In 2017, in the Bronx, Luz’s adult daughter, Marysol, wishes she better understood her. But how can she when her mother barely remembers her own life? To help, Ada and Shirley’s daughter, Graciela, suggests a vacation in Puerto Rico for the extended group, as an opportunity for Luz to unearth long-buried memories and for Marysol to learn more about her mother’s early life. But despite all their careful planning, two hurricanes, back-to-back, disrupt their homecoming, and a secret is revealed that blows their lives wide open. In a voice that sings with warmth, humor, friendship, and pride, celebrated author Esmeralda Santiago unspools a story of women’s sexuality, shame, disability, and love within a community rocked by disaster.


Click for more detail about So to Speak by Terrance Hayes So to Speak

by Terrance Hayes
Penguin Books (Jul 25, 2023)
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A powerful, timely, dazzling new collection of poems from the National Book Award–winning author of Lighthead

Since the publication of his first collection, Muscular Music, in 1999, Terrance Hayes has been one of America’s most exciting and innovative poets, winning acclaim for sly, twisting, jazzy poems that put “invincibly restless wordplay at the service of strong emotions” (The New York Times Book Review).

A tree frog sings to overcome its fear of birds, talking cats tell jokes in the Jim Crow South, and a father addresses his daughter in the lyric fables, folk sonnets, quarantine quatrains, and ekphrastic do-it-yourself sestinas of So to Speak, Hayes’s seventh collection. Bob Ross paints your portrait, green beans bling in the mouth of Lil Wayne, and elegies for the late David Berman and George Floyd unfold amid the pandemic. These wondrous poems are lyric germinations of the often-incomprehensible predicaments of the present, as Hayes shapes language into figures of music and music into figures of language.


Click for more detail about Watch Your Language: Visual and Literary Reflections on a Century of American Poetry by Terrance Hayes Watch Your Language: Visual and Literary Reflections on a Century of American Poetry

by Terrance Hayes
Penguin Books (Jul 25, 2023)
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From the National Book Award–winning author of Lighthead, a fascinating collection of graphic reviews, illustrated prose, and visualized poetics addressing the last century of American poetry

Over the last twenty-five years, Terrance Hayes has become one of our most exciting and innovative poets. He has also emerged as a perceptive and groundbreaking chronicler of contemporary poetry, with critical work appearing in publications ranging from Boston Review to The Baffler. His 2018 book on the poet Etheridge Knight, To Float in the Space Between, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.

This collection of illustrated critical pieces maps Hayes’s personal, lyrical imagining of poetry, deconstructs the traditional book review, and argues that drawing can and should be as multidimensional and hybrid-minded as poetry making. It includes pieces about basketball and poetry; an essay that relates Gwendolyn Brooks to Toi Derricotte; an introduction to the work of Wanda Coleman; a book review and epistolary prose-poem hybrid titled “Letter to Yusef”; illustrated “card deck prose poem” pieces, including an homage to the poet Tim Seibles; selections from an illustrated biographical dictionary of poets of the past hundred years; and a suite of graphic sonnets. It closes with “Questions for Reflection on a Century of American Poetry,” Hayes’s Academy of American Poets Blaney Lecture on contemporary poetry and poetics.

These astonishing essays, illustrated by Hayes himself, establish the roots of his own poetic influences and reconstruct modes of poetic engagement, demonstrating what makes a poem both move and be moving and illustrating how drawing itself can be a kind of critical, poetic discourse.


Click for more detail about Still We Rise: A Love Letter to the Southern Biscuit with Over 70 Sweet and Savory Recipes by Erika Council Still We Rise: A Love Letter to the Southern Biscuit with Over 70 Sweet and Savory Recipes

by Erika Council
Clarkson Potter (Jul 25, 2023)
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A love letter to the Southern biscuit, honoring its place in Black culinary culture and beyond with over 70 delicious recipes.

images from Still We Rise: A Love Letter to the Southern Biscuit with Over 70 Sweet and Savory Recipes by Erika Council

Still We Rise is a tribute to the glories of flour, butter, and buttermilk baked tall, tender, and flaky. Erika Council is the founder and head baker of the renowned Bomb Biscuit Company in Atlanta, Georgia. The granddaughter of legendary soul food chef Mildred (Mama Dip) Council and a teacher and activist who cooked and baked to support the civil rights movement, Erika knows all about the power of the persistent biscuit.

Here, Erika has perfected traditional biscuit types alongside inventive new creations. Her recipes connect readers to stories of the family, friends, and Southern culinary icons who instilled in her a love of baking.

Through over 70 unique recipes for biscuits, spreads, sandwiches, and a convenient home biscuit mix that will have you whipping up fluffy biscuits and bis-cakes in minutes, Erika takes us on a journey through Black excellence, resilience, and heritage in the American South. Step into her world and enjoy her classic Bomb Buttermilk Biscuit, the lightest Angel Biscuits, and new favorites like Corn Milk Biscuits, Everything "Bagel" Biscuits, Hominy Honey Butter, and the Glori-Fried Chicken Biscuit Sandwich, (plus a mind-blowing Cinnamon Sugar and Pecan Biscuit).


Click for more detail about Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead Crook Manifesto

by Colson Whitehead
Doubleday Books (Jul 18, 2023)
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Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning Colson Whitehead continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.

It’s 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It’s strictly the straight-and-narrow for him — until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated – and deadly.

1973. The counter-culture has created a new generation, the old ways are being overthrown, but there is one constant, Pepper, Carney’s endearingly violent partner in crime. It’s getting harder to put together a reliable crew for hijackings, heists, and assorted felonies, so Pepper takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem. He finds himself in a freaky world of Hollywood stars, up-and-coming comedians, and celebrity drug dealers, in addition to the usual cast of hustlers, mobsters, and hitmen. These adversaries underestimate the seasoned crook – to their regret.

1976. Harlem is burning, block by block, while the whole country is gearing up for Bicentennial celebrations. Carney is trying to come up with a July 4th ad he can live with. ("Two Hundred Years of Getting Away with It!"), while his wife Elizabeth is campaigning for her childhood friend, the former assistant D.A and rising politician Alexander Oakes. When a fire severely injures one of Carney’s tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it. Our crooked duo have to battle their way through a crumbling metropolis run by the shady, the violent, and the utterly corrupted.

Crook Manifesto is a darkly funny tale of a city under siege, but also a sneakily searching portrait of the meaning of family. Colson Whitehead’s kaleidoscopic portrait of Harlem is sure to stand as one of the all-time great evocations of a place and a time.


Click for more detail about Promise by Rachel Eliza Griffiths Promise

by Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Random House (Jul 11, 2023)
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Two Black sisters growing up in small-town New England fight to protect their home, their bodies, and their dreams as the Civil Rights Movement sweeps the nation in this “magical, magnificent novel that amounts to a secret history of an America we think we know but never really knew” (Marlon James).

The people of Salt Point could indeed be fearful about the world beyond themselves; most of them would be born and die without ever having gone more than twenty or thirty miles from houses that were crammed with generations of their families… . But something was shifting at the end of summer 1957.

The Kindred sisters—Ezra and Cinthy—have grown up with an abundance of love. Love from their parents, who let them believe that the stories they tell on stars can come true. Love from their neighbors, the Junketts, the only other Black family in town, whose home is filled with spice-rubbed ribs and ground-shaking hugs. And love for their adopted hometown of Salt Point, a beautiful Maine village perched high up on coastal bluffs.

But as the girls hit adolescence, their white neighbors, including Ezra’s best friend, Ruby, start to see their maturing bodies and minds in a different way. And as the news from distant parts of the country fills with calls for freedom, equality, and justice for Black Americans, the white villagers of Salt Point begin to view the Kindreds and the Junketts as threats to their way of life. Amid escalating violence, prejudice, and fear, bold Ezra and watchful Cinthy must reach deep inside the wells of love they’ve built to commit great acts of heroism and grace on the path to survival.

In luminous, richly descriptive writing, Promise celebrates one family’s story of resistance. It’s a book that will break your heart—and then rebuild it with courage, hope, and love.


Click for more detail about Once in a Blue Moon by Sharon G. Flake Once in a Blue Moon

by Sharon G. Flake
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Jul 11, 2023)
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From the three-time Coretta Scott King Honor winner of The Skin I’m In comes the poignant story in verse about a young boy’s journey from guilt to acceptance to healing.

James Henry hasn’t been the same since that fateful night at the lighthouse when his momma went into the sea. Now months later, he is barely able to leave the house without having a panic attack, and talking to people, well, that’s just too hard. His feisty twin sister Hattie intervenes on his behalf again and again—protecting him from neighborhood bullies and an uncle who just wants him to snap out of it.

But it’s 1939, and without a local doctor to help, there’s only so much rallying Hattie can do. Finding a way back into his own life will mean confronting the truth about what happened at the lighthouse—a step James Henry isn’t sure he can take. Until a blue moon is forecast, and as Gran has said, everything is possible under a rare blue moon…

Told in verse, this is a beautiful and ultimately uplifting story of family, healing, and redemption.


Click for more detail about When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era by Donovan X. Ramsey When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era

by Donovan X. Ramsey
One World (Jul 11, 2023)
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“A poignant and compelling re-examination of a tragic era in America history … insightful … and deeply moving.”Bryan Stevenson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Just Mercy

The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan’s war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey’s exacting analysis traces the path from the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement to the devastating realities we live with today: a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality.

When Crack Was King follows four individuals to give us a startling portrait of crack’s destruction and devastating legacy: Elgin Swift, an archetype of American industry and ambition and the son of a crack-addicted father who turned their home into a "crack house"; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and sex worker; Kurt Schmoke, the longtime mayor of Baltimore and an early advocate of decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, community activist, basketball prodigy, and a founding member of the Zoo Crew, Newark’s most legendary group of drug traffickers.

Weaving together riveting research with the voices of survivors, When Crack Was King is a crucial reevaluation of the era and a powerful argument for providing historically violated communities with the resources they deserve.


Click for more detail about Like Lava in My Veins by Derrick Barnes Like Lava in My Veins

by Derrick Barnes
Nancy Paulsen Books (Jul 04, 2023)
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A super-cool graphic picture book about a boy learning how to control his temper, by bestselling author Derrick Barnes.

Bobby Beacon’s got fire flowing through his veins. And now he’s psyched to attend a new school that’ll help him get a better grip on his powers. But right off the bat, his new teacher is not too welcoming. That causes Bobby’s hot temper to land him in the principal’s office. It ain’t easy to stay calm when people don’t seem to understand you and are always pushing you to the edge. Good thing Bobby gets moved to a class with an understanding teacher who clues him in on ways to calm himself and shows him that caring for others is its own kind of superpower. With her help—and some cool new friends—he just might be on his way to becoming the best version of himself possible.


Click for more detail about Invisible Son by Kim Johnson Invisible Son

by Kim Johnson
Random House (Jun 27, 2023)
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From the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of This Is My America comes another thriller about a wrongly accused teen desperate to reclaim both his innocence and his first love.

Life can change in an instant.

  • When you’re wrongfully accused of a crime.
  • When a virus shuts everything down.
  • When the girl you love moves on.

Andre Jackson is determined to reclaim his identity. But returning from juvie doesn’t feel like coming home. His Portland, Oregon, neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying, and COVID-19 shuts down school before he can return. And Andre’s suspicions about his arrest for a crime he didn’t commit even taint his friendships. It’s as if his whole life has been erased.

The one thing Andre is counting on is his relationship with the Whitaker kids—especially his longtime crush, Sierra. But Sierra’s brother Eric is missing, and the facts don’t add up as their adoptive parents fight to keep up the act that their racially diverse family is picture-perfect. If Andre can find Eric, he just might uncover the truth about his own arrest. But in a world where power is held by a few and Andre is nearly invisible, searching for the truth is a dangerous game.

Critically acclaimed author Kim Johnson delivers another social justice thriller that shines a light on being young and Black in America—perfect for fans of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and Dear Justyce by Nic Stone.


Click for more detail about The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray The First Ladies

by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Berkley Books (Jun 27, 2023)
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A novel about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune—a forbidden friendship that changed the world, from the New York Times bestselling authors of The Personal Librarian.

The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. She marches on as an activist and an educator, and as her reputation grows she becomes a celebrity, revered by titans of business and recognized by U.S. Presidents. Eleanor Roosevelt herself is awestruck and eager to make her acquaintance. Initially drawn together because of their shared belief in women’s rights and the power of education, Mary and Eleanor become fast friends confiding their secrets, hopes and dreams—and holding each other’s hands through personal and professional strife.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president, the two women begin to collaborate more closely, particularly as Eleanor moves toward her own agenda separate from FDR, a consequence of the devastating discovery of her husband’s secret love affair. Eleanor becomes a controversial First Lady for her outspokenness, particularly on civil rights. And when she receives threats because of her strong ties to Mary, it only fuels the women’s desire to fight together for justice and equality.

This is the story of two different, yet equally formidable, passionate, and committed women, and the way in which their singular friendship helped form the foundation for the modern civil rights movement.


Click for more detail about Sam with Ants in His Pants by April Reynolds Sam with Ants in His Pants

by April Reynolds
Anne Schwartz Books (Jun 20, 2023)
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This ferociously fun read-aloud—perfect for bedtime or anytime—begins with a can’t-settle-down boy who spends his naptime with wild animals that have leapt off the pages of his favorite book, and ends with a sleepy boy all played out!

Sam is not ready for naptime. Momma says he has ants in his pants and that he must calm down, but Sam says "NOOOOOO!" and flies off to his bedroom. He flips open his favorite book—African Wildlife—and out jumps a herd of gazelles…followed by a pride of lions…and then a zeal of zebras. And that’s just the beginning! How can Sam ever be expected to take a nap?!

Amidst all the jumping and stalking and striding and prowling comes a sound louder than any other— GRROOWWL! It’s Sam’s tummy, and it scares those ants right out of his pants. It must be time for a snack. But after such a wild day, how can Sam ever be expected to stay awake?!


Click for more detail about The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts by Tiya Miles The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts

by Tiya Miles
Random House (Jun 13, 2023)
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Three women uncover the secrets of a Georgia plantation that embodies the intertwined histories of Indigenous and enslaved Black communities—the fascinating debut novel, inspired by a true story, of the National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of All That She Carried, now featuring a new introduction.

“Poignant and essential storytelling.”—Jason Mott, National Book Award–winning author of Hell of a Book

LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST

When one of her regular readers takes issue with her weekly history column, Jinx Micco, a free-spirited Muscogee (Creek) tribal historian, can’t get the criticism out of her head. Soon she finds herself on the road from Oklahoma to the Hold House, a nineteenth-century plantation home in Georgia originally owned by the Cherokee Chief James Hold, to track down the long-forgotten mystery of what happened to a tribal member who stayed behind after the United States instituted a policy of Indian Removal.

There, she meets Ruth, visiting the plantation on a magazine assignment, and Cheyenne, a Southern Black debutante seeking to connect with her family’s history by purchasing the whole estate. Hovering above them all is the spirit of the long-gone Mary Ann Battis, a young woman suspected of burning a mission to the ground and then disappearing from tribal records. As Jinx and Ruth are drawn closer together, they challenge Cheyenne to look more deeply at the home she has purchased, and when they discover a diary left on the property by a Moravian missionary that reveals the house’s dark history, the three women’s personal connections and resonances with the place grow deeper. Cheyenne is forced to reconsider whether she is the only rightful owner of the property, Jinx reexamines her assumptions about her tribe’s racial history after learning Mary Ann’s story, and the pain of the past leads Ruth to confront her own family’s traumas and then surprise herself by falling into a new romance.

Imbued with a deeply nuanced understanding of the intertwined histories of Indigenous and African Americans and an underappreciated aspect of Southern history, The Cherokee Rose brings the past beautifully to life as Jinx, Ruth, and Cheyenne discover truths and unravel mysteries with powerful consequences for them all.


Click for more detail about Ready? Set. Rides! (Raymond and Roxy) by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson Ready? Set. Rides! (Raymond and Roxy)

by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jun 13, 2023)
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It’s the last day of school! Raymond and his friend Roxy are excited to spend their first day of summer vacation at an amusement park! This Step 2 reader captures all the excitement and anticipation!

Raymond and Roxy are going to Wild World Park! They try all sorts of rides. But Raymond loves speed and pony rides aren’t fast enough. He tries the Wild Cat Racer but it’s still not fast enough. Will Raymond be able to find the perfect ride before the day is over?

Twenty years after Ready? Set. Raymond! was published, Vaunda Nelson and Derek Anderson continue the adventures of Raymond and Roxy.

Step 2 Readers use basic vocabulary and short sentences to tell simple stories. They are perfect for children who recognize familiar words and can sound out new words with help.


Click for more detail about We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power by Caleb Gayle We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power

by Caleb Gayle
Riverhead Books (Jun 06, 2023)
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"An important part of American history told with a clear-eyed and forceful brilliance." —National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson

"We Refuse to Forget reminds readers, on damn near every page, that we are collectively experiencing a brilliance we’ve seldom seen or imagined…We Refuse to Forget is a new standard in book-making." —Kiese Laymon, author of the bestselling Heavy: An American Memoir

A landmark work of untold American history that reshapes our understanding of identity, race, and belonging

In We Refuse to Forget, award-winning journalist Caleb Gayle tells the extraordinary story of the Creek Nation, a Native tribe that two centuries ago both owned slaves and accepted Black people as full citizens. Thanks to the efforts of Creek leaders like Cow Tom, a Black Creek citizen who rose to become chief, the U.S. government recognized Creek citizenship in 1866 for its Black members. Yet this equality was shredded in the 1970s when tribal leaders revoked the citizenship of Black Creeks, even those who could trace their history back generations—even to Cow Tom himself.

Why did this happen? How was the U.S. government involved? And what are Cow Tom’s descendants and other Black Creeks doing to regain their citizenship? These are some of the questions that Gayle explores in this provocative examination of racial and ethnic identity. By delving into the history and interviewing Black Creeks who are fighting to have their citizenship reinstated, he lays bare the racism and greed at the heart of this story. We Refuse to Forget is an eye-opening account that challenges our preconceptions of identity as it shines new light on the long shadows of white supremacy and marginalization that continue to hamper progress for Black Americans.


Click for more detail about This Train Is Bound for Glory by Alice Faye Duncan This Train Is Bound for Glory

by Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook Press (Jun 06, 2023)
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All aboard! Rooted in the tradition of an African American spiritual, this mesmerizing picture book takes readers on a cosmic journey to heaven, celebrating the diversity of life at every stop along the way.

The vivid illustrations and snappy text in This Train Is Bound for Glory bring the Glory Train to life as it welcomes singing passengers. The excitement is palpable as the train clicks and clacks through scenic deserts, over lush mountains, and across sparkling bridges. Under the guidance of the watchful Conductor, the heaven-bound train bops and bounces from Earth to the stars until it reaches the pearly gates, where passengers dance with thrilling joy.

This train is bound for Glory—this train!
This train is bound for Glory—this train!
This train is bound for Glory.
Everybody here is a-rocking and a-rolling.
This train is bound for Glory—this train!

The history of “This Train is Bound for Glory” dates back to 1922 as a popular recording. The lyrics have evolved across the ages. At the end of the book, readers are invited to write their own version of the song in a spirit of hope, joy, and love for a new generation. The world needs more light. Sing on!


Click for more detail about Slow AF Run Club: The Ultimate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Run by Martinus Evans Slow AF Run Club: The Ultimate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Run

by Martinus Evans
Avery (Jun 06, 2023)
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A practical guide and a celebration of running for runners of all sizes and athletic ability, from the founder of the Slow AF Run Club.

Ten years ago, Martinus Evans got some stern advice from his doctor: “Lose weight or die.” First defensive, but then defiant, Evans vowed that day to run a marathon, though his doctor thought he was crazy. Since then, Evans has run eight marathons and hundreds of other distances in his 300-something body, created his own devoted running community, and has been featured on the cover of Runner’s World.

This book is a blueprint for those who may not fit the image of a “traditional” runner—that is, someone who is larger in size, less athletic, out of shape, or dealing with any kind of health issue that slows them down—to feel empowered to lace up their shoes and embrace the body they have right now.

As Evans says, the incredible benefits of running—better sleep, strong muscles and bones, better cardiovascular and mental health, and a sense of community—can and should be available to all of us. This practical handbook contains specialized advice to make getting started less intimidating, covering everything from gear and nutrition to training schedules, recovery tips, races (it’s okay to come in DFL! [i.e., dead f*cking last]), and finding a running group. Full of essential advice and humor from a former newbie who fell off a treadmill on his first run (literally), The Slow AF Run Club is for anyone who wants to pick up running for the sheer joy of it.


Click for more detail about Salat in Secret by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow Salat in Secret

by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
Random House Studio (Jun 06, 2023)
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From the critically acclaimed author of Your Name Is a Song and the bestselling illustrator of The Proudest Blue comes a story about a Muslim boy who receives a salat (prayer) rug on his seventh birthday and becomes empowered about his faith.

In this beautiful story of community, family, and acceptance, a boy named Muhammad receives a special salat rug on his seventh birthday. Seven is the age when Muslim children are encouraged to pray, and Muhammad is determined to do all five daily prayers on time. But one salat occurs during the school day—and he’s worried about being seen praying at school. His father parks his truck to worship in public places, and people stare at and mock him. Will the same thing happen to Muhammad?

In the end, with help from his teacher, he finds the perfect place to pray. Salat in Secret, by two highly acclaimed Muslim creators, is a poignant and empowering look at an important facet of Islam that many observant children cherish but might be scared to share.


Click for more detail about How to Write about Africa: Collected Works by Binyavanga Wainaina How to Write about Africa: Collected Works

by Binyavanga Wainaina
One World (Jun 06, 2023)
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From one of Africa’s most influential and eloquent essayists, a posthumous collection that highlights his biting satire and subversive wisdom on topics from travel to cultural identity to sexuality

“Africa is the only continent you can love—take advantage of this… . Africa is to be pitied, worshipped, or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed.”

Binyavanga Wainaina was a pioneering voice in African literature, an award-winning memoirist and essayist, and a gatherer of literary communities. Before his tragic death in 2019 at the age of forty-seven, he won the Caine Prize for African Writing and was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. His wildly popular essay “How to Write About Africa,” an incisive and unapologetic piece exposing the harmful and racist ways Western media depicts Africa with implicit bias and subjective clichés, changed the game for African writers and helped set the stage for a new generation of authors, from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Yaa Gyasi. When Wainaina published a “lost chapter” of his 2011 memoir as an essay called “I Am a Homosexual, Mum,” which imagines coming out to his mother, he became a voice for the queer African community as well, adding a new layer to how African sexuality is perceived.

How to Write About Africa collects these powerful pieces in a lively and imaginative set of essays about sexuality, art, history, and contemporary Africa. Wainaina’s writing is playful, robust, generous, and full-bodied. He describes the modern world with sensual, emotional, and psychological detail, giving us a full-color view of a country and continent. These works present a portrait of a giant in African literature who left a tremendous legacy.


Click for more detail about Stamped from the Beginning: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi Stamped from the Beginning: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America

by Ibram X. Kendi
Ten Speed Graphic (Jun 06, 2023)
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A striking graphic novel edition of the National Book Award-winning history of how racist ideas have shaped American life—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist.

Racism has persisted throughout history—but so have antiracist efforts to dismantle it. Through deep research and a gripping narrative that illuminates the lives of five key American figures, preeminent historian Ibram X. Kendi reveals how understanding and improving the world cannot happen without identifying and facing the racist forces that shape it.

In collaboration with award-winning historian and comic artist Joel Christian Gill, this stunningly illustrated graphic-novel adaptation of Dr. Kendi’s groundbreaking Stamped from the Beginning explores, with vivid clarity and dimensionality, the living history of America, and how we can learn from the past to work toward a more equitable, antiracist future.


Click for more detail about Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street by Victor Luckerson Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street

by Victor Luckerson
Random House (May 23, 2023)
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A multigenerational saga of a family and a community in Tulsa’s Greenwood district, known as “Black Wall Street,” that in one century survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, urban renewal, and gentrification.

“The scope, the elegance, and the power of Victor Luckerson’s tale is simply breathtaking and empowering.”—Carol Anderson, author of White Rage

When Ed Goodwin moved with his parents to Greenwood, Tulsa, in 1914, his family joined a growing community on the cusp of becoming a national center of black life. But, just seven years later, on May 31, 1921, the teenaged Ed hid in a bathtub as a white mob descended on his neighborhood, laying waste to thirty-five blocks and murdering as many as three hundred people. The Tulsa Race Massacre was one of the most brutal acts of racist violence in U.S. history, a ruthless attempt to smother a spark of black independence.

But that was never the whole story of Greenwood. The Goodwins and their neighbors soon rebuilt it into “a Mecca,” in Ed’s words, where nightlife thrived, small businesses flourished, and an underworld economy lived comfortably alongside public storefronts. Prosperity and poverty intermixed, and icons from W.E.B. Du Bois to Muhammad Ali ambled down Greenwood Avenue, alongside maids, doctors, and every occupation in between. Ed grew into a prominent businessman and bought a newspaper called the Oklahoma Eagle to chronicle Greenwood’s resurgence and battles against white bigotry. He and his wife, Jeanne, raised an ambitious family, and their son Jim, an attorney, embodied their hopes for the Civil Rights Movement in his work. But by the 1970s, urban renewal policies had nearly emptied the neighborhood, even as Jim and his neighbors tried to hold on to it. Today, while new high-rises and encroaching gentrification risk wiping out Greenwood’s legacy for good, the family newspaper remains, and Ed’s granddaughter Regina represents the neighborhood in the Oklahoma state legislature, working alongside a new generation of local activists.

In Built from the Fire, journalist Victor Luckerson moves beyond the mythology of Black Wall Street to tell the story of an aspirant black neighborhood that, like so many others, has long been buffeted by racist government policies. Through the eyes of dozens of race massacre survivors and their descendants, Luckerson delivers an honest, moving portrait of this potent national symbol of success and solidarity—and weaves an epic tale about a neighborhood that refused, more than once, to be erased.


Click for more detail about The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor The Late Americans

by Brandon Taylor
Riverhead Books (May 23, 2023)
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The author of the Booker Prize finalist Real Life and the bestselling Filthy Animals returns with a deeply involving new novel of young men and women at a crossroads

In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a loose circle of lovers and friends encounter, confront, and provoke one another in a volatile year of self-discovery. At the group’s center are Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker who dabbles in amateur pornography; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicates her relationships with friends and a trusted mentor; and Noah, who “didn’t seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection.” These three are buffeted by a cast of poets, artists, landlords, meat-packing workers, and mathematicians who populate the cafes, classrooms, and food-service kitchens of Iowa City, sometimes to violent and electrifying consequence. Finally, as each prepares for an uncertain future, the group heads to a cabin to bid goodbye to their former lives—a moment of reckoning that leaves each of them irrevocably altered.

A novel of intimacy and precarity, friendship and chosen family, The Late Americans is Brandon Taylor’s richest and most involving work of fiction to date, confirming his position as one of our most perceptive chroniclers of contemporary life.


Click for more detail about The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi The Battle Drum

by Saara El-Arifi
Del Ray (May 23, 2023)
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Book Two of The Ending Fire Trilogy

Murder. Secrets. Sacrifice: Three women seek the truth of the empire’s past. And the truth they find will have the power to ignite a war, in the sequel to The Final Strife, the continuation of a visionary fantasy trilogy inspired by the myths of Africa and Arabia.

Anoor is the first blue-blooded ruler of the Wardens’ Empire. But when she is accused of a murder she didn’t commit, her reign is thrown into turmoil. She must solve the mystery and clear her name without the support of her beloved, Sylah.

Sylah braves new lands to find a solution for the hurricane that threatens to destroy her home. But in finding answers, she must make a decision: Should she sacrifice her old life in order to raise up her sword once more?

Hassa’s web of secrets grows ever thicker as she finds herself on the trail of crimes in the city. Her search uncovers the extent of the atrocities of the empire’s past and present. Now she must guard both her heart and her land.

The three women find their answers, but not the answers they wanted. The drumbeat of change thrums throughout the world.

And it sings a song of war.

Ready we will be, when the Ending Fire comes,
When the Child of Fire brings the Battle Drum,
The Battle Drum,
The Battle Drum.
Ready we will be, for war will come.


Click for more detail about Rogue Justice: A Thriller by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery Rogue Justice: A Thriller

by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery
Doubleday Books (May 23, 2023)
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New York Times Bestsellers - The #1 bestselling author of While Justice Sleeps returns with another riveting and intricately plotted thriller, in which a blackmailed federal judge, a secret court and a brazen murder may lead to an unprecedented national crisis. “Abrams delivers another smart, zippy thriller.” —Washington Post

“A thoroughly compelling take on the machinations of Washington and those covetous of power.” —New York Magazine

Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene is back, trying to get her feet on solid ground after unraveling an international conspiracy in While Justice Sleeps. But as the sparks of Congressional hearings and political skirmishes swirl around her, Avery is approached at a legal conference by Preston Davies, an unassuming young man and fellow law clerk to a federal judge in Idaho. Davies believes his boss, Judge Francesca Whitner, was being blackmailed in the days before she died. Desperate to understand what happened, he gives Avery a file, a burner phone, and a fearful warning that there are highly dangerous people involved.

Another shocking murder leads Avery to a list of names - all federal judges - and, alarmingly, all judges on the FISA Court (the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court), also known as America’s “secret court.” It is this body which grants permission to the government to wiretap Americans or spy on corporations suspected of terrorism. As Avery digs deeper, she begins to see a frightening pattern - and she worries that something far more sinister may be unfolding inside the nation’s third branch of government. With lives at stake, Avery must race the clock and an unexpected enemy to find the answer. Drawn from today’s headlines and woven with her unique insider perspective, Stacey Abrams combines twisting plotlines, wry wit, and clever puzzles to create another immensely entertaining suspense novel.


Click for more detail about I Know Who I Am: A Joyful Affirmation of Your God-Given Identity by Dorena Williamson I Know Who I Am: A Joyful Affirmation of Your God-Given Identity

by Dorena Williamson
WaterBrook Press (May 16, 2023)
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An uplifting picture book that reminds children all over the world of God’s love for them—affirming their standing in His kingdom and reinforcing their God-given identity.

I am beautifully made and crowned with glory and strength!
I am filled with God’s power!
I am building my life on Jesus, the solid rock!
I am not afraid, for the Lord is always with me!

Join children from Haiti, India, Korea, Rwanda, Spain, New Zealand, and many more countries as they each declare God’s truth about their identities. Each page is a joyful exploration of how God has uniquely made every child to reveal His glory, but also serves as a beautiful reminder for kids about who they are—and, most important, whom they belong to.

Featuring simple, biblically based affirmative statements and bold and vibrant illustrations, this inspirational celebration of a young believer’s identity in Christ is a must-have for every church and Christian family.


Click for more detail about The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams The Three of Us

by Ore Agbaje-Williams
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (May 16, 2023)
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Long-standing tensions between a husband, his wife, and her best friend finally come to a breaking point in this sharp domestic comedy of manners, told brilliantly over the course of one day.

What if your two favorite people hated each other with a passion?

The wife has it all. A big house in a nice neighborhood, a ride-or-die snarky best friend, Temi, with whom to laugh about facile men, and a devoted husband who loves her above all else—even his distaste for Temi.

On a seemingly normal day, Temi comes over to spend a lazy afternoon with the wife: drinking wine, eating snacks, and laughing caustically about the husband’s shortcomings. But when the husband comes home and a series of confessions are made, the wife’s two confidantes are suddenly forced to jockey for their positions, throwing everyone’s integrity into question—and their long-drawn-out territorial dance, carefully constructed over years, into utter chaos.

Told in three taut, mesmerizing parts—the wife, the husband, the best friend—over the course of one day, The Three of Us is a subversively comical, wildly astute, and painfully compulsive triptych of domestic life that explores cultural truths, what it means to defy them, and the fine line between compromise and betrayal when it comes to ourselves and the people we’re meant to love.


Click for more detail about Quietly Hostile: Essays by samantha irby Quietly Hostile: Essays

by samantha irby
Vintage (May 16, 2023)
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A much-anticipated, hilarious new essay collection from #1 New York Times bestselling unabashed fan-favorite Samantha Irby invites us to share in the gory particulars of her real life, all that festers behind the glitter and glam.

“America’s most talented comic writer.” —The New Republic

Beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby has returned to the printed page with a much-anticipated new collection of side-splitting essays, and not a moment too soon. Irby’s career has taken her to new heights. She dodges calls from Hollywood and flop sweats on the red carpet at premieres (well, one premiere). But nothing is ever as it seems online, where she can crop out all the ugly parts.

Irby got a lot of weird emails about Carrie Bradshaw, and not only is there diarrhea to avoid, but now—anaphylactic shock. She is turned away from restaurants for being inappropriately dressed and looks for the best ways to cope, i.e., reveling in the offerings of QVC and adopting a deranged pandemic dog. Filled with such unabashed gems as advice for the bathroom etiquette you were dying to know but always too afraid to ask about and an exposé on how to speak with an actual teenager, Quietly Hostile makes light as Irby takes us on another outrageously funny tour of all the gory details that make up the true portrait of a life behind the screenshotted depression memes. Relatable, poignant, and uproarious, once again, Irby is the tonic we all need to get by.


Click for more detail about Jackie Ormes Draws the Future: The Remarkable Life of a Pioneering Cartoonist by Liz Montague Jackie Ormes Draws the Future: The Remarkable Life of a Pioneering Cartoonist

by Liz Montague
Random House Studio (May 16, 2023)
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A stirring picture-book biography about Jackie Ormes, the first Black female cartoonist in America, whose remarkable life and work inspire countless artists today.

Zelda Jackson—or Jackie—was born in Pittsburgh on August 1, 1911, and discovered early on that she could draw any adventure. A field she could run through as far as her hand could draw. An ocean she could color as blue as she liked. As she grew, Jackie put her artistic talents to use, doodling and chronicling daily life for her high school yearbook. But she was already dreaming of bigger things.

Jackie would go on to create bold and witty cartoon characters—Torchy Brown, Candy, Patty-Jo ’n’ Ginger—who entertained readers of African American newspapers like the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender. She tackled racism, pollution, and social justice—and made the world listen. Jackie was the first Black female American cartoonist, but she would not be the last.

Author Liz Montague, one of the first Black cartoonists at the New Yorker, carries Jackie’s indelible legacy forward in vibrant text and evocative cartoons.


Click for more detail about Hope Wins: A Collection of Inspiring Stories for Young Readers by Rose Brock Hope Wins: A Collection of Inspiring Stories for Young Readers

by Rose Brock
Philomel Books (May 09, 2023)
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From Matt de la Peña and Veera Hiranandani to Max Brallier and R.L. Stine, write about how hope always wins, even in the darkest of times.

Where does hope live?

In your family?
In your community?
In your school?
In your heart?

From a family restaurant to a hot-dog shaped car, from an empty road on a moonlight night to a classroom holiday celebration, this anthology of personal stories from award-winning and bestselling authors shows that hope can live everywhere, even—or especially—during the darkest of times.

No matter what happens: Hope wins.

Contributors include: Tom Angleberger, James Bird, Max Brallier, Julie Buxbaum, Pablo Cartaya, J.C. Cervantes, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Stuart Gibbs, Adam Gidwitz, Karina Yan Glaser, Veera Hiranandani, Hena Khan, Gordon Korman, Janae Marks, Sarah Mlynowski, Rex Ogle, James Ponti, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Ronald L.Smith, Christina Soontornvat, and R.L. Stine.


Click for more detail about A Family Prayer by Shay Youngblood A Family Prayer

by Shay Youngblood
Convergent Books (May 09, 2023)
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A beautifully illustrated children’s book that celebrates all the family—biological and chosen alike—who keep us safe and teach us to dream

In A Family Prayer, acclaimed novelist Shay Youngblood brings to life the prayer of a little brown girl who finds joy in asking God to keep her family safe. Young readers will celebrate every aunty, cousin, and grandmother in their life. But more than just her biological relatives, each family member is a maternal or paternal archetype, someone in her community who represents the title of mother, father, aunty, and the like.

My sister is a blessing
She keeps my secrets
Braids my hair
And helps me find my way
Sisters are a blessing
Keep them safe from harm

My Aunty is a blessing
She sings sweet songs
Rocks me to sleep
and whispers stories in the dark
Aunties are a blessing
Keep them safe from harm

A Family Prayer champions the age-old wisdom that raising a family takes a village—and that the love of a community runs soul deep.


Click for more detail about Repeat After Me: Big Things to Say Every Day by Jazmyn Simon and Dulé Hill Repeat After Me: Big Things to Say Every Day

by Jazmyn Simon and Dulé Hill
Random House Books for Young Readers (May 02, 2023)
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From parents and actors Jazmyn Simon and Dulé Hill comes a picture book filled with beautiful, inspiring affirmations reminding kiddos of their infinite wonder. Perfect for children of any age!

I am worthy. I am loved. I am enough.

Every child, no matter their age, needs to know how loved they are and, more importantly, should love themselves. In this gorgeously illustrated book of affirmations, young readers are told how cherished, deserving, and gifted they are.

In their tender picture book, actors Jazmyn Simon and Dulé Hill tell children about the magic of self-love and standing firm, regardless of outside voices and doubt. Children will feel their confidence grow as they repeat the encouraging words on the page, take in the warm illustrations, and learn to believe in themselves!


Click for more detail about The Night Before Freedom: A Juneteenth Story by Glenda Armand The Night Before Freedom: A Juneteenth Story

by Glenda Armand
Crown Books for Young Readers (May 02, 2023)
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This moving picture book tells the story of Juneteenth with all the care and reverence such a holiday deserves. The rhyming text and stunning illustrations will teach children about this historic day in history.

’Twas the night before freedom, and all through the South, long-whispered rumors had, spread word of mouth. “It’s coming! It’s coming!” I heard people say. “Emancipation is coming our way.”

Eight-year-old David and his family gather at Grandma’s house in Galveston, Texas, for a cherished family tradition: Grandma’s annual retelling of the story of Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln meant that all enslaved persons within the rebellious states would be free as of January 1, 1863. However, people in Texas did not receive the news of their emancipation until two and a half years later—on June 19, 1865.

Grandma tells the story of anticipation, emancipation, and jubilation just as it was told to her many years before by her own grandmother, Mom Bess. As a six-year-old, Bess had experienced the very first Juneteenth. Before that day, she could only imagine what liberty would look like. But once freedom arrived, would it live up to a little girl’s dreams?

The story is written in the same meter as Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas, making it a perfect book for parents and kids to read together.


Click for more detail about Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Operation Sisterhood

by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Yearling (May 02, 2023)
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Fans of the Netflix reboot of The Babysitters Club will delight as four new sisters band together in the heart of New York City. Discover this jubilant novel about the difficulties of change, the loyalty of sisters, and the love of family from a prolific award-winning author.

“[A] jubilant middle grade novel.” —The New York Times

Bo and her mom always had their own rhythm. But ever since they moved to Harlem, Bo’s world has fallen out of sync. She and Mum are now living with Mum’s boyfriend Bill, his daughter Sunday, the twins, Lili and Lee, the twins’ parents…along with a dog, two cats, a bearded dragon, a turtle, and chickens. All in one brownstone! With so many people squished together, Bo isn’t so sure there is room for her.

Set against the bursting energy of a New York City summer, award-winning author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich delivers a joyful novel about a new family that hits all the right notes!

“This ode to Black girlhood and the communities that serve them offers humor, tenderness, and charm.” —Renée Watson, New York Times bestselling author

“A beautiful, rich, and deeply comforting story about family and the powerful choice to live with joy, Operation Sisterhood is a book to savor.” —Rebecca Stead, New York Times bestselling author

Operation Sisterhood bubbles over with humor, heart, and big-blended-family enthusiasm — a joyful love letter to Black girls, New York City, and the transformative power of sisterhood.” —Kate Messner, author of Chirp and Breakout


Click for more detail about Homebodies by Tembe Denton-Hurst Homebodies

by Tembe Denton-Hurst
Crown (May 02, 2023)
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A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, them, and The Millions

Urgent, propulsive, and strikingly insightful, Homebodies is a thrilling debut novel about a young Black writer whose world is turned upside down when she loses her coveted job in media and her searing manifesto about racism in the industry goes viral.

Mickey Hayward dreams of writing stories that matter. She has a flashy media job that makes her feel successful and a devoted girlfriend who takes care of her when she comes home exhausted and demoralized. It’s not all A-list parties and steamy romance, but Mickey’s on her way, and it’s far from the messy life she left behind in Maryland. Despite being overlooked and mistreated at work, it seems like she might finally get the chance to prove herself—until she finds out she’s being replaced.

Distraught and enraged, Mickey fires back with a detailed letter outlining the racism and sexism she’s endured as a Black woman in media, certain it will change the world for the better. But when her letter is met with overwhelming silence, Mickey is sent into a tailspin of self-doubt. Forced to reckon with just how fragile her life is—including the uncertainty of her relationship—she flees to the last place she ever dreamed she would run to, her hometown, desperate for a break from her troubles.

Back home, Mickey is seduced by the simplicity of her old life—and the flirtation of a former flame—but her life in New York refuses to be forgotten. When a media scandal catapults Mickey’s forgotten letter into the public zeitgeist, suddenly everyone wants to hear what Mickey has to say. It’s what she’s always wanted—isn’t it?

Intimate, witty, and deeply sexy, Homebodies is a testament to those trying to be heard and loved in a world that refuses to make space, and introduces a standout new writer.


Click for more detail about Little Troublemaker Makes a Mess by Luvvie Ajayi Little Troublemaker Makes a Mess

by Luvvie Ajayi
Philomel Books (May 02, 2023)
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A story about a little troublemaker with a big heart from the New York Times bestselling author and noted speaker Luvvie Ajayi Jones

Whoops!

Little Luvvie loves her mom. She loves her sister. And she loves doing nice things for other people.

But what happens when doing something nice means breaking some rules? Little Luvvie is about to find out.

Written by the New York Times bestselling author Luvvie Ajayi Jones with bright, bold art by Joey Spiotto, this funny, sweet story about a bighearted girl with the best of intentions is sure to become a family favorite.
Philomel Books, 978059352


Click for more detail about I’m an American by Darshana Khiani I’m an American

by Darshana Khiani
Viking Books for Young Readers (May 02, 2023)
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A breathtaking, eye-opening look at the patchwork of cultures that make up our nation and the many ways we define what it means to be an American.

What does it mean to be American?

A classroom of children across many races, cultures, and origins explores the concept of Americanness as they each share bits of their family history and how their past has shaped their own personal American experience. Whether as new immigrants, those whose families came to this country generations ago, or other scenarios, these children’s stories show some of the broad range of cultures and values that form the history and identity of our nation.

A beautifully depicted, thought-provoking look at the vast expanse of cultures that exist in America, the values that bring us together as one people despite our differences, and the many ways we define what it means to be an American.


Click for more detail about The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln by Julian Sher The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln

by Julian Sher
Knopf Canada (Apr 25, 2023)
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FINALIST FOR THE 2023 MAVIS GALLANT PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

A riveting account of the years, months and days leading up to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and the unexpected ways Canadians were involved in every aspect of the American Civil War.

Canadians take pride in being on the "good side" of the American Civil War, serving as a haven for 30,000 escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. But dwelling in history’s shadow is the much darker role Canada played in supporting the slave South and in fomenting the many plots against Lincoln.

The North Star weaves together the different strands of several Canadians and a handful of Confederate agents in Canada as they all made their separate, fateful journeys into history.

The book shines a spotlight on the stories of such intrepid figures as Anderson Abbott, Canada’s first Black doctor, who joined the Union Army; Emma Edmonds, the New Brunswick woman who disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union nurse; and Edward P. Doherty, the Quebec man who led the hunt to track down Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

At the same time, the Canadian political and business elite were aiding the slave states. Toronto aristocrat George Taylor Denison III bankrolled Confederate operations and opened his mansion to their agents. The Catholic Church helped one of Booth’s accused accomplices hide out for months in the Quebec countryside. A leading financier in Montreal let Confederates launder money through his bank.

Sher creates vivid portraits of places we thought we knew. Montreal was a sort of nineteenth-century Casablanca of the North: a hub for assassins, money-men, mercenaries and soldiers on the run. Toronto was a headquarters for Confederate plotters and gun-runners. The two largest hotels in the country became nests of Confederate spies.

Meticulously researched and richly illustrated, The North Star is a sweeping tale that makes long-ago events leap off the page with a relevance to the present day.


Click for more detail about What Was the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921? by Caleb Gayle What Was the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921?

by Caleb Gayle
Penguin Workshop (Apr 25, 2023)
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Learn how envy and racism led to the tragic destruction of the thriving Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in this thought-provoking addition to the New York Times bestselling What Was? series!

Before May 31, 1921, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a flourishing neighborhood of 10,000 Black residents. There, Black families found success and community. They ran their own businesses, including barbershops, clothing stores, jewelers, restaurants, movie theaters, and more. There also were Black doctors, dentists, and lawyers to serve the neighborhood. Then, in one weekend, all of this was lost. A racist mob tore through the streets, burning everything to the ground and killing scores of innocent residents. Learn about what led to one of the worst moments of racial violence in America’s history in this nonfiction book for young readers.


Click for more detail about Rosewater by LIV Little Rosewater

by LIV Little
Get Lifted Books (Apr 25, 2023)
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A TODAY and LGBTQ Reads Most Anticipated Book of 2023 - A Goodreads Buzziest Debut Novel of the New Year - An Electric Lit Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of Spring 2023

For fans of Queenie and Such a Fun Age comes a deliciously gritty and strikingly bold debut novel about discovering love where it has always been.

Elsie is a sexy, funny, and fiercely independent woman in south London. But, at just 28, she is also tired. Though she spends her days writing tender poetry in her journal, her nights are spent working long hours for minimum wage at a neighborhood dive bar. Not even sleeping with her alluring coworker, Bea, can quell her existential dread. The difficulty of being estranged from her family, struggle of being continually rejected from jobs, and fear of never making money doing what she loves is too great. But Elsie is determined to keep the faith, for a little longer at least. Things will surely turn around. They have to.

But when Elsie is suddenly evicted from her social housing, her fragile foundations threaten to collapse entirely. With nowhere left to go, Elsie turns to her childhood friend, Juliet, for help.

Among Juliet’s mismatched cushions and shelves lined with trinkets, Elsie is able to breathe for the first time in years. But between their reruns of Drag Race and nights smoking on the balcony, something else soon begins to glimmer in Elsie’s heart … Sometimes what you’ve been searching for has been there all along. Can Elsie see it in time?

Featuring the incredible poetry of Kai-Isaiah Jamal, Rosewater is a story of intergenerational love, healing, and one woman’s journey home. A remarkable debut by an exciting new talent, readers are sure to be enchanted by LIV Little’s distinctive and captivating contemporary voice.


Click for more detail about Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb Symphony of Secrets

by Brendan Slocumb
Anchor Books (Apr 18, 2023)
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From the celebrated author of book club favorite The Violin Conspiracy: A gripping page-turner about a professor who uncovers a shocking secret about the most famous American composer of all time—that his music was stolen from a young Black composer named Josephine Reed. Determined to uncover the truth and right history’s wrongs, Bern Hendricks will stop at nothing to finally give Josephine the recognition she deserves.

Bern Hendricks has just received the call of a lifetime. As one of the world’s preeminent experts on the famed twentieth-century composer Frederick Delaney, Bern knows everything there is to know about the man behind the music. When Mallory Roberts, a board member of the distinguished Delaney Foundation and direct descendant of the man himself, asks for Bern’s help authenticating a newly discovered piece, which may be his famous lost opera, RED, he jumps at the chance. With the help of his tech-savvy acquaintance Eboni, Bern soon discovers that the truth is far more complicated than history would have them believe.

In 1920s Manhattan, Josephine Reed is living on the streets and frequenting jazz clubs when she meets the struggling musician Fred Delaney. But where young Delaney struggles, Josephine soars. She’s a natural prodigy who hears beautiful music in the sounds of the world around her. With Josephine as his silent partner, Delaney’s career takes off—but who is the real genius here?

In the present day, Bern and Eboni begin to uncover more clues that indicate Delaney may have had help in composing his most successful work. Armed with more questions than answers and caught in the crosshairs of a powerful organization who will stop at nothing to keep their secret hidden, Bern and Eboni will move heaven and earth in their dogged quest to right history’s wrongs.


Click for more detail about The Rhythm of Time by Questlove and S. A. Cosby The Rhythm of Time

by Questlove and S. A. Cosby
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Apr 18, 2023)
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From the Academy Award-winning, Grammy-winning, and New York Times bestselling author Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and the New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby comes this thrill-a-minute novel—the first in a rollicking time-travel adventure series that’s perfect for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers and Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky.

Seventh grader Rahim Reynolds loves testing out the gadgets invented by his brilliant friend Kasia Collins. First there were the X-ray glasses and all the trouble they caused. Now there’s the new cell phone she built for his birthday, even though his parents won’t let him have one. But Rahim is excited to use the phone to search for videos of his favorite old-school rap group. What he doesn’t know is the phone has a special battery that interfaces with a secret government satellite, which spells trouble when the phone transports him back to 1997. Almost immediately, he learns what every time traveler before him has: Actions in the past jeopardize the future. With Kasia as his only lifeline to the present, Rahim works with her to get home unscathed, all the while dodging bullies (on his end) and suspicious government agents (on hers).

Philadelphia in the late nineties is a new world for Rahim and Kasia, but it is a familiar place for Questlove, who, alongside S. A. Cosby, delivers a high-velocity tale where two best friends discover that sometimes the best beat is the one that brings you back home.


Click for more detail about Cornrows (2023) by Camille Yarbrough Cornrows (2023)

by Camille Yarbrough
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Apr 18, 2023)
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A Coretta Scott King Award Winner for Illustration
A Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies

Every design has a name and means something in the powerful past and present richness of the Black tradition. Mama’s and Great-Grammaw’s gentle fingers weave the design, and their lulling voices weave the tale, as they braid their children’s hair into the striking cornrow patterns of Africa.

"Camille Yarbrough captures the warmth of family affection and the pride of our rich heritage in a story that’s superbly illustrated by Carole Byard." —Essence

"Camille Yarbrough is a poet, griot and storyteller who has crafted a special, rhythmic and moving story for you and yours… . The illustrations by Carole Byard dignify and give all due respect to the story." —Council on Interracial Books for Children


Click for more detail about In Our Shoes: On Being a Young Black Woman in Not-So Post-Racial America by Brianna Holt In Our Shoes: On Being a Young Black Woman in Not-So Post-Racial America

by Brianna Holt
Plume (Apr 11, 2023)
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In Our Shoes: On Being a Young Black Woman in Not-So “Post-Racial” America is a memoir in essays about young Black women and the stereotypes and preconceived notions they are expected to live up to, examined through the lens of Brianna Holt’s lived experience and pop culture to help readers unlearn their biases and expand their worldviews.

Part memoir, part cultural critique, In Our Shoes will walk readers through the common stereotypes and issues young Black women have to overcome in modern America, in order to dismantle myths about Black womanhood and explore the roles Black millennial women take on simply to survive.

In nine thoughtful chapters laced with searing commentary, reportage, personal anecdotes from Brianna’s own life, as well as interviews conducted with “everyday” Black women, In Our Shoes hopes to illuminate readers on the complexities of existence for Black women and create a digestible, thought-provoking book that will help readers to learn, empathize, reflect, and act.

A personal history, a work of criticism, a piece of reporting, and a call to action, In Our Shoes is a timely exploration of race and womanhood that aims to entertain and inform.


Click for more detail about Honest June: Secrets and Spies by Tina Wells Honest June: Secrets and Spies

by Tina Wells
Random House Books for Young Readers (Apr 04, 2023)
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In the third book in this magical series for tweens, June must juggle friendship, first love, and the fallout from a newly discovered family secret involving the entire town—all while under a truth-telling spell. After the school musical, June has to deal with the fallout of her secret blog being exposed. June’s brutally honest thoughts about her friends and family are revealed, and her community turns on her once it’s known that she’s hidden her true feelings for months. How can June repair her relationships after such a betrayal? And when she discovers a family secret about the history of Featherstone Creek, how will she keep from blurting out the truth?


Click for more detail about She Persisted: Ella Fitzgerald by Andrea Davis Pinkney She Persisted: Ella Fitzgerald

by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Penguin Young Readers Group (Apr 04, 2023)
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Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger comes a chapter book series about women who spoke up and rose up against the odds—including Ella Fitzgerald!

Having lost her mother at a young age, Ella Fitzgerald struggled as a child, especially during the Great Depression. But after winning over the audience with her singing at an Amateur Night at the Apollo, Ella’s career began, and she eventually went on to become a world-renowned singer known as the First Lady of Song.

In this chapter book biography by award-winning and bestselling author Andrea Davis Pinkney, readers learn about the amazing life of Ella Fitzgerald—and how she persisted.

Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton, black-and-white illustrations throughout, and a list of ways that readers can follow in Ella Fitzgerald’s footsteps and make a difference! A perfect choice for kids who love learning and teachers who want to bring inspiring women into their curriculum.

And don’t miss out on the rest of the books in the She Persisted series, featuring so many more women who persisted!


Click for more detail about Narrative of Sojourner Truth by Sojourner Truth Narrative of Sojourner Truth

by Sojourner Truth
Modern Library (Apr 04, 2023)
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The autobiography of a Black woman who defied nineteenth-century conventions to become a preacher, popular speaker, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist.

Sojourner Truth was an incredible, remarkable, epoch-defying woman who escaped from slavery and successfully sued for her son’s freedom, in addition to her career as a wildly successful orator and activist—a woman alive to the hypocrisies of her age, and unafraid to talk about them.

Her autobiography, which she dictated, is an outstanding historical document. Truth’s tale sheds a light on realities of slavery that are still rarely discussed: that she was a slave in upstate New York, not on a Southern plantation; that Dutch was her first language; that the circumstances of her slavery isolated her from a broader Black community; that her experience of religion was a racially integrated one, and became the means of her independence. Ultimately, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth is the story of a great American that reveals aspects of slavery and free Black life that are too often overlooked.


Click for more detail about Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Chain Gang All Stars

by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Pantheon Books (Apr 04, 2023)
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The explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black, about two top women gladiators fighting for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own.

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a “new and necessary American voice” (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).


Click for more detail about Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers? by Junauda Petrus Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?

by Junauda Petrus
Dutton Books for Young Readers (Apr 04, 2023)
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Based on the viral poem by Coretta Scott King honoree Junauda Petrus, this picture book debut imagines a radicially positive future where police aren’t in charge of public safety and community well-being.

Petrus first published and performed this poem after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. With every subsequent police shooting, it has taken on new urgency, culminating in the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, blocks from Junauda’s home.

In its picture book incarnation, Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers? is a joyously radical vision of community-based safety and mutual aid. It is optimisitic, provocative, and ultimately centered in fierce love. Debut picture book artist Kristen Uroda has turned Junauda’s vision for a city without precincts into a vibrant and flourishing urban landscape filled with wise and loving grandmothers of all sorts.


Click for more detail about Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond Poverty, by America

by Matthew Desmond
Crown Publishing Group (Mar 21, 2023)
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The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a “provocative and compelling” (NPR) argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

“Urgent and accessible … Its moral force is a gut punch.”—The New Yorker


ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2023: The Washington Post, Time, Esquire, Newsweek, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Elle, Salon, Lit Hub, Kirkus Reviews

The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?

In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.


Click for more detail about Sensual Faith: The Art of Coming Home to Your Body by Lyvonne Briggs Sensual Faith: The Art of Coming Home to Your Body

by Lyvonne Briggs
Crown Publishing Group (Mar 21, 2023)
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An invitation for women to discover a healthier approach to spirituality and sexuality that centers pleasure rather than shame, from body- and sex-positive preacher and author Lyvonne Briggs

“Home is not an address. Home is where you feel safe. And your body is aching to be your home.”

How you view your body and your sexuality is informed and strengthened by spiritual practices, but how many of us can say that religion has drawn us closer to our bodies? That’s because worship spaces that are intended to be spiritual safe houses have not historically been welcoming to our bodies, forcing us to leave our flesh at the door. This ideological amputation is at best a disservice and at worst a sin. The remedy? Radical self-hospitality.

In Sensual Faith, Lyvonne Briggs charts a path for us to practice spiritual wellness that aligns and harmonizes our bodies with pleasure and sexuality. By centering the rich traditions of ancient West African spirituality, Sensual Faith offers a radically inclusive model of companioning one’s self. Filled with wellness rituals, journal prompts, affirmations, and practices, Sensual Faith shows us how to celebrate our bodies as our very homes.

“Pleasure is your birthright,” writes Briggs, so whether it’s accepting your flesh, nurturing your intuition, learning the language of consent, or sumptuous self-care, let radical self-hospitality guide you to healthy sexuality.


Click for more detail about Little Daymond Learns to Earn by Daymond John Little Daymond Learns to Earn

by Daymond John
Random House Books for Young Readers (Mar 21, 2023)
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Entrepreneur, FUBU founder, and Shark Tank fan fave Daymond John introduces kids to basic ideas about money and starting their own business in this accessible picture book!


Click for more detail about Lone Women by Victor Lavalle Lone Women

by Victor Lavalle
One World (Mar 21, 2023)
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“If the literary gods mixed together Karuki Murakami and Ralph Ellison, the result would be Victor Lavaelle.” —Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See

Blue skies, empty land—and enough room to hide away a horrifying secret. Or is there? Discover a haunting new vision of the American West from the award-winning author of The Changeling.

Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk is opened, people around her start to disappear…

The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, and forced her to flee her hometown of Redondo, California, in a hellfire rush, ready to make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will be one of the "lone women" taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can cultivate it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing keeping her alive.

Told in Victor LaValle’s signature style, blending historical fiction, shimmering prose, and inventive horror, Lone Women is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—and a portrait of early twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen.


Click for more detail about Not an Easy Win by Chrystal D. Giles Not an Easy Win

by Chrystal D. Giles
Random House Books for Young Readers (Feb 28, 2023)
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Can Lawrence figure out how to get on the board, even though the odds are stacked against him?

Introducing a powerful novel about family, forgiveness, and figuring out who you are when you don’t make the rules—just right for middle-grade fans of Nic Stone and Jason Reynolds.

Lawrence is ready for a win… .

Nothing’s gone right for Lawrence since he had to move from Charlotte to Larenville, North Carolina, to live with his granny. When Lawrence ends up in one too many fights at his new school, he gets expelled. The fight wasn’t his fault, but since his pop’s been gone, it feels like no one listens to what Lawrence has to say.

Instead of going to school, Lawrence starts spending his days at the rec center, helping out a neighbor who runs a chess program. Some of the kids in the program will be picked to compete in the Charlotte Classic chess tournament. Could this be Lawrence’s chance to go home?

Lawrence doesn’t know anything about chess, but something about the center—and the kids there—feels right. Lawrence thought the game was over … but does he have more moves left than he thought?


Click for more detail about Chaos Theory by Nic Stone Chaos Theory

by Nic Stone
Crown Books for Young Readers (Feb 28, 2023)
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The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin delivers a gripping romance about two teens: a certified genius living with a diagnosed mental disorder and a politician’s son who is running from his own addiction and grief. Don’t miss this gut punch of a novel about mental health, loss, and discovering you are worthy of love.

Scars exist to remind us of what we’ve survived.

DETACHED
Since Shelbi enrolled at Windward Academy as a senior and won’t be there very long, she hasn’t bothered making friends. What her classmates don’t know about her can’t be used to hurt her—you know, like it did at her last school.

WASTED
Andy Criddle is not okay. At all.
He’s had far too much to drink.
Again. Which is bad.
And things are about to get worse.

When Shelbi sees Andy at his lowest, she can relate. So she doesn’t resist reaching out. And there’s no doubt their connection has them both seeing stars … but the closer they get, the more the past threatens to pull their universes apart.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone delivers a tour de force about living with grief, prioritizing mental health, and finding love amid the chaos.


Click for more detail about All Rise: The Story of Ketanji Brown Jackson by Carole Boston Weatherford All Rise: The Story of Ketanji Brown Jackson

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Crown (Feb 28, 2023)
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Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, is an inspiration and role model to children of all ages. Award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford tells her story of perseverance, dignity, and honor in this uplifting picture book biography filled with colorful and dynamic illustrations from Ashley Evans. Whatever she did, wherever she was, Ketanji Brown Jackson rose to the top.

From the time their daughter was born, Ketanji Brown’s parents taught her that if she worked hard and believed in herself, she could do anything. As a child, Ketanji focused on her studies and excelled, eventually graduating from Harvard Law School.

Years later, in 2016, when she was a federal judge, a seat opened on the United States Supreme Court. In a letter to then-President Barack Obama, Leila Jackson made a case for her mother—Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Although the timing didn’t work out then, it did in 2022, when President Joe Biden nominated her. At her confirmation, Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black female Supreme Court justice in the United States. Lyrical text by renowned author Carole Boston Weatherford and evocative illustrations by Ashley Evans combine to make this an inspirational and timely read.


Click for more detail about Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar: The Musical Story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Woman Who Invented Rock and Roll by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar: The Musical Story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Woman Who Invented Rock and Roll

by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow
Doubleday Books for Young Readers (Feb 28, 2023)
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A picture-book biography of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the woman who invented rock and roll—a warm, inspiring tale of a childhood filled with music, community, and a drive to succeed.

“Music is the heart of our story,” says Momma to young Rosetta, surprising her with her first guitar. Rosetta’s strums sound like ker-plunks. But with practice and determination, she makes music, fingers hopping "like corn in a kettle," notes pouring over the church crowd "like summer rain washing the dust off a new day."

In this stunning picture book, author and illustrator Charnelle Pinkney Barlow imagines the childhood of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, whose rural roots inspired the music we still hear today.

Young readers will see a child’s dream become reality through hard work and perseverance. And they’ll learn the overlooked story of a pioneering Black artist, whose contribution to music history is only now being discovered.

“Pinkney Barlow smartly uses lively onomatopoeia and crisp, textured collage art to layer the origins of the subject’s sound onto every page.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review


Click for more detail about Quiet: Poems by Victoria Adukwei Bulley Quiet: Poems

by Victoria Adukwei Bulley
Knopf Publishing Group (Feb 28, 2023)
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A black British poet makes her thrilling American debut with Quiet, exploring the significance of "quiet" in fostering community, resistance, and love. Acclaimed by Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, the poems in Quiet are praised for their melodious versatility, intellect, and dexterity, embodying the political through the personal.

The collection poses profound questions: How does one find meaning amid various kinds of noise? What is quiet when it is not silence? Where does quiet exist, and what liberative potential does it hold? These poems delve into themes of black interiority, intimacy, and selfhood, celebrating and mourning with equal fervor. With a metaphysical edge and formal restlessness, Quiet navigates the tension between the desire to protect one’s inner life and the understanding, as articulated by Audre Lorde, that "your silence will not protect you."


Click for more detail about Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life by Renata Cherlise Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life

by Renata Cherlise
Ten Speed Press (Feb 14, 2023)
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A photographic celebration and exploration of Black identity and experience through the twentieth century from the founder and curator of the hit multimedia platform Black Archives.

“Browsing the book ultimately feels like looking through one immense family photo album. And that’s intentional.” — Essence

Renata Cherlise’s family loved capturing their lives in photographs and home movies, sparking her love of archival photography. Following in her family’s footsteps, Cherlise established Black Archives, which presents a nuanced representation of Black people across time living vibrant, ordinary lives. Through the platform, many have discovered and shared images of themselves and their loved ones experiencing daily life, forming multidimensional portraits of people, places, and the Black community. These photographs not only tell captivating stories, they hold space for collective memory and kinship.

Black Archives is a stunning collection of timeless images that tell powerful, joyful stories of everyday life and shed light on Black culture’s dynamic, enduring influence through the generations. The images showcase reunions, nights out on the town, parents and children, church and school functions, holidays, big life events, family vacations, moments at home, and many more occasions of leisure, excitement, reflection, and pride.

Featuring more than three hundred images that spotlight the iconic and the candid, Black Archives offers a nuanced compendium of Black memory and imagination.


Click for more detail about Gone Like Yesterday by Janelle M. Williams Gone Like Yesterday

by Janelle M. Williams
Tiny Reparations Books (Feb 14, 2023)
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A Good Morning America Buzz Pick

A lyrical debut novel that asks what we owe to our families, what we owe to our ancestors, and what we owe to ourselves. Janelle M. Williams’s Gone Like Yesterday employs magical realism to explore the majestic and haunting experience of being a Black woman in today’s America.

Gone Like Yesterday follows two Black women—Zahra, a listless college prep coach, and Sammie, a teenage girl and budding activist soon off to college—who are drawn to each other through the songs of gypsy moths. Gypsy moths have been singing the songs of Zahra’s ancestors to her for years, so when Zahra realizes that Sammie might be a moth person too, their paths become intertwined.

Then, the unthinkable happens: Zahra’s brother, Derrick, goes missing. Derrick has always been different—sensitive and connected to the spiritual world, he has been drifting from Zahra and her family for some time. But this time feels different. Zahra is panicked that he may really be gone for good, lost to her forever.

Zahra can’t let that happen. So, she, along with Sammie, embarks on a road trip from New York to Atlanta, Zahra’s hometown, in search of Zahra’s brother, but also to uncover just what the moths and their ancestors want with them, and what to do about their individual and collective futures.

Sharp and wholly original, Gone Like Yesterday is a novel about family and legacy but also a literary exploration of racial identity, self, and what it means to be found.


Click for more detail about She Persisted: Dorothy Height by Kelly Starling Lyons She Persisted: Dorothy Height

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Philomel Books (Feb 07, 2023)
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Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger, a chapter book series about women who spoke up and rose up against the odds—including Dorothy Height!

Growing up as a Black girl in the 1920s and 1930s, Dorothy Height was denied access to a local swimming pool as well as admission to Barnard College because of her race. But she persisted in pushing for change, and became a seminal figure in both the civil rights and women’s rights movements. She went on to be awarded the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In this chapter book biography by award-winning author Kelly Starling Lyons, readers learn about the amazing life of Dorothy Height—and how she persisted.

Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton, black-and-white illustrations throughout, and a list of ways that readers can follow in Dorothy Height’s footsteps and make a difference! A perfect choice for kids who love learning and teachers who want to bring inspiring women into their curriculum.

And don’t miss out on the rest of the books in the She Persisted series, featuring so many more women who persisted, including Harriet Tubman, Marian Anderson, Oprah Winfrey, Ruby Bridges, and more!


Click for more detail about Who Is Lebron James? by Crystal Hubbard Who Is Lebron James?

by Crystal Hubbard
Penguin Workshop (Feb 07, 2023)
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How did a young boy from Ohio go on to become one of the greatest basketball players of all time? Read about the incredible life and career of LeBron James in this addition to the #1 New York Times best-selling Who Was? series.

Today, LeBron James is an international superstar who has won four NBA Championships, earned two Olympic gold medals, written books, and starred in blockbuster movies. He has played for the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and has gained fans across the country as he led each of those three teams to victory. Many basketball lovers consider LeBron James to be one of the greatest players of all time. But how did LeBron come to be "King James?" Find out all about LeBron’s childhood, how he started playing basketball at the age of nine, and went on to rule the court in this new book for young readers!

Look for more Who HQ titles:

  • Who Is Michael Jordan?
  • Who Was Kobe Bryant?
  • Who Is Shaquille O’Neal?
  • What Are the Summer Olympics?


Click for more detail about A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo A Spell of Good Things

by Ayobami Adebayo
Knopf Publishing Group (Feb 07, 2023)
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A dazzling story of modern Nigeria and two families caught in the riptides of wealth, power, romantic obsession, and political corruption from the celebrated author of Stay with Me, “in the lineage of great works by Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie” (The New York Times).

Eniola is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. Because his father has lost his job, Eniola spends his days running errands for the local tailor, collecting newspapers, begging when he must, dreaming of a big future.

Wuraola is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family. Now an exhausted young doctor in her first year of practice, she is beloved by Kunle, the volatile son of an ascendant politician.

When a local politician takes an interest in Eniola and sudden violence shatters a family party, Wuraola’s and Eniola’s lives become intertwined. In her breathtaking second novel, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ shines her light on Nigeria, on the gaping divide between the haves and the have-nots, and the shared humanity that lives in between.


Click for more detail about Right by My Side by David Haynes Right by My Side

by David Haynes
Penguin Group USA (Jan 31, 2023)
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Move over, Holden Caulfield, and meet Marshall Field Finney, in the 30th-anniversary edition of Right by My Side, by a celebrated chronicler of Black middle-class life in the American Midwest

A Penguin Classic

With wit and realism, David Haynes presents a different kind of Holden Caulfield in fifteen-year-old Marshall Field Finney, an ordinary, sullen teenager who discovers storytelling as a way to ease his adolescent anger and family tensions. Living with his parents in “Washington Park,” a housing development outside St. Louis, Missouri in the 1980s, his high-strung mother walks out on him and his father, a flawed yet strong man who manages the local landfill. Marshall’s two best friends, one Black and one white, are his only allies, as they navigate school and family life together. Through these relationships, Haynes poses Marshall’s universal questions about his place in his community and what’s next in his life. Ultimately, Marshall’s story proves that people take care of each other, families take care of others, and a boy finds his own resilience to become a young man.

“[Haynes] belongs to the old realist tradition that believes that everyday life, if truly rendered, is more than exciting enough.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Haynes offers engaging characters who tackle fundamental issues such as love, family and benevolence,” Publishers Weekly


Click for more detail about This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us

by Cole Arthur Riley
Crown Publishing Group (Jan 31, 2023)
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New York Times Bestseller - In her stunning debut, the creator of Black Liturgies weaves stories from three generations of her family alongside contemplative reflections to discover the “necessary rituals” that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberation.

“This is the kind of book that makes you different when you’re done.”—Ashley C. Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Somebody’s Daughter

“Reaches deep beneath the surface of words unspoken, wounds unhealed, and secrets untempered to break them open in order for fresh light to break through.”—Morgan Jerkins, New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing and Caul Baby

One of the Best Books of the Year: The Root, Library Journal

“From the womb, we must repeat with regularity that to love ourselves is to survive. I believe that is what my father wanted for me and knew I would so desperately need: a tool for survival, the truth of my dignity named like a mercy new each morning.”

So writes Cole Arthur Riley in her unforgettable book of stories and reflections on discovering the sacred in her skin. In these deeply transporting pages, Arthur Riley reflects on the stories of her grandmother and father, and how they revealed to her an embodied, dignity-affirming spirituality, not only in what they believed but in the act of living itself. Writing memorably of her own childhood and coming to self, Arthur Riley boldly explores some of the most urgent questions of life and faith: How can spirituality not silence the body, but instead allow it to come alive? How do we honor, lament, and heal from the stories we inherit? How can we find peace in a world overtaken with dislocation, noise, and unrest? In this indelible work of contemplative storytelling, Arthur Riley invites us to descend into our own stories, examine our capacity to rest, wonder, joy, rage, and repair, and find that our humanity is not an enemy to faith but evidence of it.

At once a compelling spiritual meditation, a powerful intergenerational account, and a tender coming-of-age narrative, This Here Flesh speaks potently to anyone who suspects that our stories might have something to say to us.


Click for more detail about River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer River Sing Me Home

by Eleanor Shearer
Berkley Books (Jan 31, 2023)
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Rare. Moving. Powerful. This beautiful, page-turning and redemptive story of a mother’s gripping journey across the Caribbean to find her stolen children in the aftermath of slavery is a remarkable debut.

Her search begins with an ending.…


The master of the Providence plantation in Barbados gathers his slaves and announces the king has decreed an end to slavery. As of the following day, the Emancipation Act of 1834 will come into effect. The cries of joy fall silent when he announces that they are no longer his slaves; they are now his apprentices. No one can leave. They must work for him for another six years. Freedom is just another name for the life they have always lived. So Rachel runs.

Away from Providence, she begins a desperate search to find her children—the five who survived birth and were sold. Are any of them still alive? Rachel has to know. The grueling, dangerous journey takes her from Barbados then, by river, deep into the forest of British Guiana and finally across the sea to Trinidad. She is driven on by the certainty that a mother cannot be truly free without knowing what has become of her children, even if the answer is more than she can bear. These are the stories of Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. But above all this is the story of Rachel and the extraordinary lengths to which a mother will go to find her children…and her freedom.


Click for more detail about The (Young) Antiracist’s Workbook: Questions for Changemakers by Ibram X. Kendi and Nic Stone The (Young) Antiracist’s Workbook: Questions for Changemakers

by Ibram X. Kendi and Nic Stone
One World (Jan 31, 2023)
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Kids 12 and up can discover ways to work toward a better future in this illustrated workbook guiding them to reflect on their understanding of race—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist.

Antiracism is not a destination but a journey—one that takes deliberate, consistent work. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s concept of antiracism has changed the way we talk about race, equality, and justice in America, pointing us toward new ways of thinking about ourselves and our society. Young people must be included in conversations on race, which is why Dr. Kendi has created this workbook with bestselling YA author Nic Stone for readers age twelve and up.

Reflection questions include:

  • Have you ever tried to change something about yourself to fit in? Did it work? Why or why not?
  • How does the word racist feel when you hear or say it? Is it a weapon or a descriptor? Why?
  • Why is empathy an important tool for any antiracist’s toolbox?


Whether or not you’ve read How to Be a (Young) Antiracist, this workbook offers the opportunity to reflect on your personal commitment to antiracism and is a log of your journey toward a better future.


Click for more detail about You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce!: The Storied Life of Folk Artist Elijah Pierce by Carmella Van Vleet and Chiquita Mullins Lee You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce!: The Storied Life of Folk Artist Elijah Pierce

by Carmella Van Vleet and Chiquita Mullins Lee
Kokila (Jan 31, 2023)
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A picture book biography about the barber shop of woodcarver Elijah Pierce, recipient of the highest folk art honor in the United States.

“Creeeeak!” goes the screen door to self-taught artist Elijah Pierce’s barbershop art studio. A young boy walks in for an ordinary haircut and walks out having discovered a lifetime of art.

Mr. Pierce’s wood carvings are in every corner of the small studio. There are animals, scenes from his life, and those detailing the socio-political world around him. It’s this collection of work that will eventually win Elijah the National Heritage Fellowship in 1982 just two years before his death. But the young boy visiting the shop in the 1970s doesn’t know that yet. All he knows is: “You gotta meet Mr. Pierce!”

Based on the true story of Elijah Pierce and his community barber shop in Columbus, Ohio, this picture book includes cleverly collaged museum-sourced photos of his art and informative backmatter about his life. With engaging text by Pierce to the Soul! playwright Chiquita Mullins-Lee and Christopher Award-winning author Carmella Van Vleet, it’s illustrated with striking Japanese woodblock by Jennifer Mack-Watkins. A new addition to vital Black art history!


Click for more detail about How to Be a (Young) Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi and Nic Stone How to Be a (Young) Antiracist

by Ibram X. Kendi and Nic Stone
Kokila (Jan 31, 2023)
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he #1 New York Times bestseller that sparked international dialogue is now a book for young adults! Based on the adult bestseller by Ibram X. Kendi, and co-authored by bestselling author Nic Stone, How to be a (Young) Antiracist will serve as a guide for teens seeking a way forward in acknowledging, identifying, and dismantling racism and injustice.

The New York Times bestseller How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi is shaping the way a generation thinks about race and racism. How to be a (Young) Antiracist is a dynamic reframing of the concepts shared in the adult book, with young adulthood front and center. Aimed at readers 12 and up, and co-authored by award-winning children’s book author Nic Stone, How to be a (Young) Antiracist empowers teen readers to help create a more just society. Antiracism is a journey—and now young adults will have a map to carve their own path. Kendi and Stone have revised this work to provide anecdotes and data that speaks directly to the experiences and concerns of younger readers, encouraging them to think critically and build a more equitable world in doing so.


Click for more detail about The Davenports by Krystal Marquis The Davenports

by Krystal Marquis
Dial Books (Jan 31, 2023)
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Instant New York Times Bestseller

The Davenports delivers a totally escapist, swoon-worthy romance while offering a glimpse into a period of African American history often overlooked.

“A fresh, utterly enchanting read.” —Ayana Gray, New York Times bestselling author of the Beasts of Prey trilogy

The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Now it’s 1910, and the Davenports live surrounded by servants, crystal chandeliers, and endless parties, finding their way and finding love—even where they’re not supposed to.

There is Olivia, the beautiful elder Davenport daughter, ready to do her duty by getting married … until she meets the charismatic civil rights leader Washington DeWight and sparks fly. The younger daughter, Helen, is more interested in fixing cars than falling in love—unless it’s with her sister’s suitor. Amy-Rose, the childhood friend turned maid to the Davenport sisters, dreams of opening her own business—and marrying the one man she could never be with, Olivia and Helen’s brother, John. But Olivia’s best friend, Ruby, also has her sights set on John Davenport, though she can’t seem to keep his interest … until family pressure has her scheming to win his heart, just as someone else wins hers.

Inspired by the real-life story of the Patterson family, The Davenports is the tale of four determined and passionate young Black women discovering the courage to steer their own path in life—and love.


Click for more detail about Sun Keep Rising by Kristen R. Lee Sun Keep Rising

by Kristen R. Lee
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 24, 2023)
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When rent increases put a teen mom at risk of losing her home, she resorts to a dangerous game to keep her family afloat. But all games have consequences, and this isn’t one she can afford to lose. A gripping story about race, income instability, and the strength it takes to survive from a critically acclaimed author.

“Kristen R. Lee is a miraculous story weaver”-Mahogany L. Browne, author of Vinyl Moon

B’onca always knew how to get by. And then her daughter is born. She wouldn’t trade Mia for anything, but there is never enough cash to go around. When their gentrifying Memphis neighborhood results in higher prices and then an eviction notice, B’onca’s already fragile world spirals. Desperate to make things right, B’onca forges a risky plan to help pay the bills. But one wrong move could cost B’onca—and her family—everything.

From the celebrated author of Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman comes a compelling story about a teen mom navigating income disparity and racial inequality, and defying challenges to protect those she loves.


Click for more detail about A is for Aretha by Leslie Kwan A is for Aretha

by Leslie Kwan
Kokila (Jan 24, 2023)
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An exciting ABC board book featuring Black women musicians whose artistry and activism globally changed the way we hear and interact with music, one song at a time.

Spotlighting 26 Black women in music, A is for Aretha is a celebration of the contributions they made not only within their industry but also of the social causes that often underpinned their music. Within these pages are women whose music encouraged joy and self-love, advocated for racial justice, buoyed civil rights protests, and trailblazed paths for Black creatives that are still felt to this day.

This board book is a perfect gift for a baby shower or the youngest music fan.


Click for more detail about Ice Cream Man: How Augustus Jackson Made a Sweet Treat Better by Glenda Armand Ice Cream Man: How Augustus Jackson Made a Sweet Treat Better

by Glenda Armand
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 17, 2023)
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Discover the inspiring story of Augustus Jackson, an African American entrepreneur who is known as “the father of ice cream,” in this beautifully illustrated picture-book biography.

Augustus Jackson was born in 1808 in Philadelphia. While most African Americans were enslaved at that time, in Pennsylvania, slavery was against the law. But while Augustus and his family were free, they were poor, and they depended on their garden and their chickens for food. Augustus enjoyed helping his mom prepare meals for their family. He dreamed of becoming a professional cook, and when his mom suggested he may be able to make meals for the president one day, Augustus didn’t waste any time in making that dream a reality. In 1820, when he was only twelve years old, he set off for Washington, DC. He applied to work in the White House, where the head cook offered him a job as a kitchen helper. After five years of working hard, Augustus, or Gus, was promoted to cook. He went on to serve presidents James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson.

During his time at the White House, Augustus became an expert at making a popular egg-based dessert. He soon made an eggless version—known to us today as ice cream—and left the White House determined to make and sell the frozen treat to everyone, not just the wealthy. Gus headed back home to Philadelphia, and in 1830, he opened his very own ice cream parlor. He devised a way to keep the ice cream frozen so that it could be shipped and sold to other businesses. Gus also began adding rock salt to the ice that he used to make his ice cream, which made the mixture freeze more quickly. This allowed him to speed up his production process. He created more ice cream with new flavors, and soon he was shipping product via train to places like New York City, which was 100 miles away. Gus’s dream had come true, and better yet, he had brought smiles to many faces.

Shining a light on a little-known visionary, this inspiring picture-book biography includes an afterword, a list of sources, and an easy-to-follow recipe so readers can make their own delicious ice cream!


Click for more detail about My Red, White, and Blue by Alana Tyson My Red, White, and Blue

by Alana Tyson
Philomel Books (Jan 17, 2023)
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A powerful story about the mixture of pride and pain that one Black family finds in the American flag, and an invitation for each of us to choose how we relate to America, its history, and the flag that means so many things to so many people.

What does the American flag mean to you?

For some, it’s a vision of hope and opportunity. For others, it represents pain and loss. And for many, it’s more complicated than that—a symbol of a nation where the basic ideas of freedom and equality are still up for debate.

From slavery and segregation through Rosa Parks and Barack Obama, the history of Black people in America is a mixture of pride and pain. And while the flag might mean different things to different people, with some choosing to kneel and others to salute, ultimately, it is up to each of us to decide: the American flag is ours to see and relate to as we choose.

In this powerfully validating story that showcases many facets of Black American history through the eyes of a young Black boy in conversation with his grandfather, we are all invited to choose how to relate to America, and to the flag that means so many things to so many people.


Click for more detail about Justice Rising: 12 Amazing Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Katheryn Russell-Brown Justice Rising: 12 Amazing Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement

by Katheryn Russell-Brown
Viking Books for Young Readers (Jan 10, 2023)
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A celebration of twelve Black women who were pivotal to the civil rights movement and the fight for justice and equal rights in America.

You’ve heard the names Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, but what about the many other women who were crucial to the civil rights movement?

  • Ella Baker
  • Ruby Bridges
  • Claudette Colvin
  • Dorothy Cotton
  • Fannie Lou Hammer
  • Coretta Scott King
  • Diane Nash
  • Rosa Parks
  • Bernice Johnson
  • Gloria Richardson
  • Joanne Robinson
  • Cheyenne Webb

Told through twelve short biographies, this book celebrates just some of the many Black women—each of whom has been largely underrepresented until now—who were instrumental to the nation’s fight for civil rights and the contributions they made in driving the Movement forward.

An empowering, eye-opening look at how one person can impact greater change, this book is both a conversation starter and much-needed history lesson for our modern world.


Click for more detail about Put Your Shoes On & Get Ready! by Raphael G. Warnock Put Your Shoes On & Get Ready!

by Raphael G. Warnock
Philomel Books (Jan 10, 2023)
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From Georgia’s first Black Senator Raphael Warnock comes an inspiring picture book about finding your dreams and making your mark in the world.

Before Raphael Warnock became a pastor and the first Black senator from Georgia, he was a little boy whose father told him to get up, get dressed, put on his shoes, and get ready! So that’s what he did, along every step of his journey. From his work boots to his marching band shoes to his shiny lace-ups, Senator Reverend Warnock found the right shoes to fit his feet and to carry him toward his dreams.

This inspirational story, with bold, brilliant art by TeMika Grooms, follows Raphael Warnock’s journey from Savannah, Georgia, to the United States Senate and shows young readers that they, too, can find the power to be themselves and make a difference when they have the shoes that fit their feet.


Click for more detail about The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music by Roberta Flack and Tonya Bolden The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music

by Roberta Flack and Tonya Bolden
Anne Schwartz Books (Jan 10, 2023)
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This autobiographical picture book by the multiple Grammy Award-winning singer Roberta Flack recounts her childhood in a home surrounded by music and love: it all started with a beat-up piano that her father found in a junkyard, repaired, and painted green.

Growing up in a Blue Ridge mountain town, little Roberta didn’t have fancy clothes or expensive toys…but she did have music. And she dreamed of having her own piano.

When her daddy spies an old, beat-up upright piano in a junkyard, he knows he can make his daughter’s dream come true. He brings it home, cleans and tunes it, and paints it a grassy green. And soon the little girl has an instrument to practice on, and a new dream to reach for—one that will make her become a legend in the music industry.

Here is a lyrical picture book—perfect for aspiring piano players and singers—that shares an intimate look at Roberta Flack’s family and her special connection to music.


Click for more detail about Friday I’m in Love by Camryn Garrett Friday I’m in Love

by Camryn Garrett
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Jan 10, 2023)
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It’s too late for a Sweet Sixteen, but what if Mahalia had a coming-out party? A love letter to romantic comedies, sweet sixteen blowouts, Black joy, and queer pride.

Mahalia Harris wants.

She wants a big Sweet Sixteen like her best friend, Naomi.
She wants the super-cute new girl Siobhan to like her back.
She wants a break from worrying—about money, snide remarks from white classmates, pitying looks from church ladies … all of it.

Then inspiration strikes: It’s too late for a Sweet Sixteen, but what if she had a coming-out party? A singing, dancing, rainbow-cake-eating celebration of queerness on her own terms.

The idea lights a fire beneath her, and soon Mahalia is scrimping and saving, taking on extra hours at her afterschool job, trying on dresses, and awkwardly flirting with Siobhan, all in preparation for the coming out of her dreams. But it’s not long before she’s buried in a mountain of bills, unfinished schoolwork, and enough drama to make her English lit teacher blush. With all the responsibility on her shoulders, will Mahalia’s party be over before it’s even begun?

A novel about finding yourself, falling in love, and celebrating what makes you you.


Click for more detail about What Does Brown Mean To You? by Ron Grady What Does Brown Mean To You?

by Ron Grady
Nancy Paulsen Books (Jan 04, 2023)
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This joyously affirming picture book follows a young boy throughout his day as he plays, paints, and bakes, making positive associations with the color of his skin.

This joyously affirming picture book follows a young boy throughout his day as he plays, paints, and bakes, making positive associations with the color of his skin.

To Benny, brown is more than just a color. Brown is his Gram’s coffee and his Gramp’s morning kiss. Brown is the wooden spoon he uses for mixing and baking. It’s the ground that grows the tomatoes he loves and it’s the log he plays on. Brown is the fuzzy blanket he takes to his room at the end of the day. Brown is him and brown is love.

In tender, lyrical text and warmly exuberant illustrations, What Does Brown Mean to You? celebrates all the brilliant and beautiful shades of brown, encouraging children to explore and see the beauty of their skin reflected in their families, communities, and the world around them.


Click for more detail about A Boy and His Mirror by Marchánt Davis A Boy and His Mirror

by Marchánt Davis
Nancy Paulsen Books (Jan 03, 2023)
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Debut author and actor Marchánt Davis joins forces with the bestselling illustrator Keturah A. Bobo to bring to life the story of a boy whose mirror gives him a whole new way of seeing himself.

Marchánt Davis’s uplifting picture book debut encourages us all to look beyond appearances—reminding us that while styles come and go, celebrating one another for who we are, never goes out of fashion. New York Times bestselling illustrator Keturah A. Bobo’s stunning art makes A Boy and His Mirror a standout among books that celebrate hair by showing the changing nature of what’s in style. As our main character Chris says, dang, it’s only hair. So let it fly! And claim your style.

Chris loves wearing his hair long, so why do his classmates tease him about it? When he looks for answers in his mirror, something wonderfully unusual happens: A lady appears with wise words that make him feel like a king! But when he starts acting like a king at school, it’s time for another visit to the mirror. This time, the woman gives Chris some good advice that he happily shares, about being less judgmental and offering respect to all. The message goes over well, and Chris couldn’t be happier—demonstrating the power of empathy. His willingness to put himself out there leads to some kids approaching him, and plenty of playground fun. Chris feels good knowing he was able to clear the air, say how he feels, and stay true to himself.


Click for more detail about Beyonce: A Little Golden Book Biography by Lavaille Lavette Beyonce: A Little Golden Book Biography

by Lavaille Lavette
Golden Books (Jan 03, 2023)
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This captivating Little Golden Book biography celebrates Beyoncé’s rise from a shy little girl to a world-famous superstar.

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Beyoncé performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of Destiny’s Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Beyoncé continues to inspire and demonstrate that dreams—no matter how big—can be achieved through hard work and determination. Michelle Obama has called her a "role model for us all."

Look for more Little Golden Book biographies:

  • Willie Nelson
  • Dolly Parton
  • Taylor Swift
  • Tony Bennett


Click for more detail about Matchmaker #3 by Kelly Starling Lyons Matchmaker #3

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Penguin Workshop (Dec 27, 2022)
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From the award-winning author of the Jada Jones chapter books comes an illustrated spinoff series perfect for STEM fans!

Valentine’s Day is approaching, and Miles Lewis doesn’t really like all the mush that comes with it. He is excited about the candy experiments they’re doing in science class, though. And when his teacher asks for adult volunteers to help out, Miles and his friend Jada share that they’re both planning on inviting their grandparents. That’s when they realize that Miles’s Nana and Jada’s Pop Pop have a lot in common—could they be a perfect match?


Click for more detail about Smart Sisters by Mechal Renee Roe Smart Sisters

by Mechal Renee Roe
Doubleday Books for Young Readers (Dec 27, 2022)
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Confident, empowered sisters and best friends are celebrated in this read-together picture book celebrating sisterly love and joy. From the author of the Happy Hair series, which promotes self-love, positivity, and acceptance.

Perfect together! Always and forever! My sister and me!

Beautiful Black and Brown girls with gorgeous natural hairstyles are the stars of this vibrant, rhythmic picture book. With encouraging words of unity and support on each page, it’s a great read-aloud to promote confidence and self-esteem among girls of all ages.

Look for all the books in the Happy Hair series:

  • Happy Hair
  • Cool Cuts
  • I’m Growing Great
  • I Love Being Me! (Step Into Reading)
  • I Am Born to Be Awesome! (Step Into Reading)


Click for more detail about What Was Reconstruction? by Sherri L. Smith What Was Reconstruction?

by Sherri L. Smith
Penguin Workshop (Dec 27, 2022)
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In the same style as the New York Times Best-Selling Who Was? series, What Was? focuses on compelling historical events, great battles, protests, and discoveries.

Learn about a pivotal time in American history and its momentous effects on civil rights in America in this enlightening title about Reconstruction.

Reconstruction — the period after the Civil War — was meant to give newly freed Black people the same rights as white people. And indeed there were monumental changes once slavery ended — thriving new Black communities, the first Black members in Congress, and a new sense of dignity for many Black Americans. But this time of hope didn’t last long and instead, a deeply segregated United States continued on for another hundred years. Find out what went wrong in this fascinating overview of a troubled time.


Click for more detail about In It to Win It by Sharon C. Cooper In It to Win It

by Sharon C. Cooper
Berkley Books (Dec 13, 2022)
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Two entrepreneurs compete for a property but secure the biggest win of all—each other—in this second chance romantic comedy by USA Today bestselling author Sharon C. Cooper.

Spoiled, fickle, and prissy are only a few of the adjectives that have been used to describe Morgan Redford. Though she’s never had to worry about money, she’s determined to make a name for herself on her own terms. Her new venture won’t be an epic fail like her former professional cuddling service or the short-lived pet hotel. This time, through the nonprofit she cofounded, Morgan is doing something meaningful—helping teens who are aging out of foster care—and she’s got her eye on a property that could house these kids. But the competition is steep, and one of the bidders is someone she never expected… .

When real estate developer Drake Faulkner learns that his ex—the one who ghosted him years ago—is a potential buyer for the property his eccentric mentor is selling, his competitive streak amps up. No way is he letting her win the property he wants. Bitter? Yes. Petty? Probably. But his mentor has a stipulation: potential buyers must participate in an Ironman competition of sorts for the property. Drake refuses to play along with this ridiculous demand, until he discovers Morgan has signed up. If Little Miss Can’t Run a Block Without Gasping for Air is doing it, he will too. But as the gauntlet of games heats up and forces them to face the past, they are met with a pull that feels all too familiar.

Now, if only they could keep their eyes on the prize instead of on each other—but who’s to say they can’t do both?


Click for more detail about To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness by Robin Coste Lewis To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness

by Robin Coste Lewis
Knopf Publishing Group (Dec 06, 2022)
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A genre-bending exploration of poetry, photography, and human migration—another revelatory visual expedition from the National Book Award–winning poet who changed the way we see art, the museum, and the Black female figure.

“Lewis pushes the limits of language and image, composing lines alongside a cache of hundreds of photographs found under her late grandmother’s bed only days before the house was slated to be razed.” —Kevin Young, The New Yorker

Twenty-five years ago, after her maternal grandmother’s death, Robin Coste Lewis discovered a stunning collection of photographs in an old suitcase under her bed, filled with everything from sepia tintypes to Technicolor Polaroids. Lewis’s family had survived one of the largest migrations in human history, when six million Americans fled the South, attempting to escape from white supremacy and white terrorism. But these photographs of daily twentieth-century Black life revealed a concealed, interior history. The poetry Lewis joins to these vivid images stands forth as an inspiring alternative to the usual ways we frame the old stories of “race” and “migration,” placing them within a much vaster span of time and history.

In what she calls “a film for the hands” and “an origin myth for the future,” Lewis reverses our expectations of both poetry and photography: “Black pages, black space, black time––the Big Black Bang.” From glamorous outings to graduations, birth announcements, baseball leagues, and back-porch delight, Lewis creates a lyrical documentary about Black intimacy. Instead of colonial nostalgia, she offers us “an exalted Black privacy.” What emerges is a dynamic reframing of what it means to be human and alive, with Blackness at its center. “I am trying / to make the gods / happy,” she writes amid these portraits of her ancestors. “I am trying to make the dead / clap and shout.”


Click for more detail about Harriet Tubman: A Little Golden Book Biography by JaNay Brown-Wood Harriet Tubman: A Little Golden Book Biography

by JaNay Brown-Wood
Golden Books (Dec 06, 2022)
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Inspire and educate your little one with a Little Golden Book biography about Harriet Tubman! It’s the perfect introduction to nonfiction for young readers—as well as fans of all ages!

This Little Golden Book about Harriet Tubman—a true hero who helped to free enslaved Black people as a conductor on the Underground Railroad—is an inspiring read-aloud for young children.

Look for more Little Golden Book biographies:

  • Barack Obama
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • Joe Biden
  • Kamala Harris
  • Sonia Sotomayor
  • Dr. Fauci


Click for more detail about Who Is Ketanji Brown Jackson? by Shelia P. Moses Who Is Ketanji Brown Jackson?

by Shelia P. Moses
Penguin Workshop (Nov 29, 2022)
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Discover how a young girl who was the star of her school’s debate team became a federal jurist and the first Black woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court.

Presenting Who HQ Now: an exciting addition to the #1 New York Times Best-Selling Who Was? series!

Born in Washington, DC, in 1970, and raised in Miami, Florida, Ketanji Brown Jackson developed an interest in law and politics at an early age. As a preschooler, she sat with her father and watched him complete his law school assignments. And even though some people, including a school guidance counselor, discouraged Ketanji from aiming high, she proved them wrong and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. She went on to serve on the U.S. District Court in 2013 and the United States Court of Appeals in 2021 before making history and becoming the first Black woman to be confirmed to the United States Supreme Court in 2022.

Learn more about Ketanji Brown Jackson’s story in this addition to the New York Times bestselling series.


Click for more detail about The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

by Michelle Obama
Crown Publishing Group (Nov 15, 2022)
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I’ve learned it’s okay to recognize that self-worth comes wrapped in vulnerability, and that what we share as humans on this earth is the impulse to strive for better, always and no matter what. We become bolder in brightness. If you know your light, you know yourself. You know your own story in an honest way. In my experience, this type of self-knowledge builds confidence, which in turn breeds calmness and an ability to maintain perspective, which leads, finally, to being able to connect meaningfully with others—and this to me is the bedrock of all things. One light feeds another. One strong family lends strength to more. One engaged community can ignite those around it. This is the power of the light we carry.”

In an inspiring follow-up to her critically acclaimed, #1 bestselling memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world.

There may be no tidy solutions or pithy answers to life’s big challenges, but Michelle Obama believes that we can all locate and lean on a set of tools to help us better navigate change and remain steady within flux. In The Light We Carry, she opens a frank and honest dialogue with readers, considering the questions many of us wrestle with: How do we build enduring and honest relationships? How can we discover strength and community inside our differences? What tools do we use to address feelings of self-doubt or helplessness? What do we do when it all starts to feel like too much?

Michelle Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress. Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady, she shares the habits and principles she has developed to successfully adapt to change and overcome various obstacles—the earned wisdom that helps her continue to “become.” She details her most valuable practices, like “starting kind,” “going high,” and assembling a “kitchen table” of trusted friends and mentors. With trademark humor, candor, and compassion, she also explores issues connected to race, gender, and visibility, encouraging readers to work through fear, find strength in community, and live with boldness.

“When we are able to recognize our own light, we become empowered to use it,” writes Michelle Obama. A rewarding blend of powerful stories and profound advice that will ignite conversation, The Light We Carry inspires readers to examine their own lives, identify their sources of gladness, and connect meaningfully in a turbulent world.


Click for more detail about Little Black Girl: Oh, the Things You Can Do! by Kirby Howell-Baptiste Little Black Girl: Oh, the Things You Can Do!

by Kirby Howell-Baptiste
Nancy Paulsen Books (Nov 15, 2022)
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An empowering and joyous picture book by actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Sandman) that instills confidence and encourages little Black girls to reach for their wildest dreams.

Illustrated by the talented Paul Davey, this inspiring picture book celebrates all little Black girls, the power of community, and the joy and hope of being a child.

In beautiful, lyrical text actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste tells the story of one Black girl and her limitless potential as she pursues her dream of robotics. Determined to have her robot ready for the school fair, getting everything done in time won’t be easy, but this little Black girl knows she is destined to shine and is not going to let anything hold her back from achieving her dream. With bright, bold plans in mind she begins to sketch and build her robot. The joy she has pursuing her passion is infectious and she has a community of strong women around her, encouraging and supporting her as she lives out her dream.

You have sparks in your brain and fire in your heart.
You can decide where to stop and where to start.
You were born unique. None of us are the same.
Your only job: Make them remember your name.


Click for more detail about Little Black Boy: Oh, the Things You Will Do! by Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Larry C. Fields III Little Black Boy: Oh, the Things You Will Do!

by Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Larry C. Fields III
Nancy Paulsen Books (Nov 15, 2022)
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A little Black boy finds the courage to go after his dreams in this empowering and inspirational picture book by actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Sandman) with actor Larry Fields.

With vivid, dimensional illustrations by Paul Davey, this encouraging and hopeful picture book celebrates the joy of being a little Black boy and their bright futures.

Fascinated by marine wildlife, a little Black boy dreams of one day swimming in the ocean alongside all the creatures that make it their home. It will take courage to move from the safety of the swimming pool to the vastness of the ocean, but as he begins his journey of discovery, he soon finds there’s nothing he can’t do. He realizes if he cares about the animals in the ocean, he must also care about their home and sets out to preserve the beaches he loves by picking up trash. This little boy is determined not only to reach his dream of becoming a marine biologist, but to make a difference in the world and to share his passion of environmental conservation with everyone.

Little Black Boy, Oh the things you will do.
Has anyone mentioned the world’s open to you?


Click for more detail about Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne Pride and Protest

by Nikki Payne
Berkley Books (Nov 15, 2022)
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A Phenomenal Book Club pick for November 2022!

A woman goes head-to-head with the CEO of a corporation threatening to destroy her neighborhood in this fresh and modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice by debut author Nikki Payne.

Liza B.—the only DJ who gives a jam—wants to take her neighborhood back from the soulless property developer dropping unaffordable condos on every street corner in DC. But her planned protest at a corporate event takes a turn after she mistakes the smoldering-hot CEO for the waitstaff. When they go toe-to-toe, the sparks fly—but her impossible-to-ignore family thwarts her every move. Liza wants Dorsey Fitzgerald out of her hood, but she’ll settle for getting him out of her head.

At first, Dorsey writes off Liza Bennett as more interested in performing outrage than acting on it. As the adopted Filipino son of a wealthy white family, he’s always felt a bit out of place and knows a fraud when he sees one. But when Liza’s protest results in a viral meme, their lives are turned upside down, and Dorsey comes to realize this irresistible revolutionary is the most real woman he’s ever met.


Click for more detail about The Book of Jose: A Memoir by Fat Joe and Shaheem Reid The Book of Jose: A Memoir

by Fat Joe and Shaheem Reid
Roc Lit 101 (Nov 15, 2022)
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Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum–selling artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Fat Joe pulls back the curtain on his larger-than-life persona in this gritty, intimate memoir about growing up in the South Bronx and finding his voice through music.

Fat Joe is a hip-hop legend, but this is not a tale of celebrity; it is the story of Joseph Cartagena, a kid who came of age in the South Bronx during its darkest years of drugs, violence, and abandonment, and how he navigated that traumatizing landscape until he found—through art, friendship, luck, and will—a rocky path to a different life.

Joe is born into a sprawling Puerto Rican and Cuban family in the projects of the South Bronx. From infancy his life is threatened by violence, and by the time he starts middle school, he is faced with the grim choice that defined a generation: to become predator or prey. Soon Joe and his crew dominate the streets, but he finds his true love among the park jams where the Bronx’s wild energy takes musical form. His identity splits in two: a hustler roaming record stores, looking for beats; and a budding rapper whose violent rep rings in the streets. As Joe’s day-to-day life becomes more fraught with betrayal, addiction, and death, until he himself is shot and almost killed, he gravitates toward the music that gives him both a voice to tell the stories of his young life and the tools he needs to create a new one. The challenges never stop—but neither does Joe.

This memoir, written in Joe’s own intensely compelling voice, moves with the momentum of pulp fiction, but underneath the tragicomedy and riveting tales of the streets and the industry is a thought-provoking story about a generation of survivors raised in warlike conditions—the life-and-death choices they had to make, the friends they lost and mourned, and the glittering lives they created from the ruins.


Click for more detail about My Fade Is Fresh by Shauntay Grant My Fade Is Fresh

by Shauntay Grant
Penguin Workshop (Nov 01, 2022)
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A little girl makes sure she walks out of the barbershop rocking the fabulous hair style she chooses.

Learn the importance of speaking up for what you want through this fun and empowering picture book.

When a little girl walks into her local barbershop, she knows she wants the flyest, freshest fade on the block! But there are so many beautiful hairstyles to choose from, and the clients and her mother suggest them all: parts, perms, frizzy fros, dye jobs, locs, and even cornrows!

But this little girl stays true to herself and makes sure she leaves the shop feeling on top with the look she picks!

Author Shauntay Grant’s sweet, rhyming story encourages young girls to be self-confident and celebrates the many shapes and forms Black hair can take. Through their stunning illustrations, Kitt Thomas is able to bring life and movement to the versatile styles featured in this book.


Click for more detail about Twelve Dinging Doorbells by Tameka Fryer Brown Twelve Dinging Doorbells

by Tameka Fryer Brown
Kokila (Oct 18, 2022)
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A cumulative all-holiday carol packed to the brim with family, food, love, and Black joy, especially perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, graduations, and all family celebrations.

Every holiday, aunties, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and neighbors come over to eat, sing, and celebrate life. But all our main character can think about is the sweet potato pie Granny makes just for her. As tables fill with baked macaroni and cheese, chitlins, and other sides a-steaming, she and Granny move the pie to keep it intact. The task becomes tricker as the room grows with dancing and card games and pie cravings. Just when all seems lost and there’s no more pie, Granny pulls out a sweet surprise.

Written to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” Twelve Dinging Doorbells is exuberant. Author Tameka Fryer Brown’s cumulative rhyme is impossible to resist, and the humorous details in Ebony Glenn’s cut-paper collage will welcome readers to this party again and again.


Click for more detail about Maybe an Artist, a Graphic Memoir by Liz Montague Maybe an Artist, a Graphic Memoir

by Liz Montague
Random House Studio (Oct 18, 2022)
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A heartfelt and funny graphic novel memoir from one of the first Black female cartoonists to be published in the New Yorker, when she was just 22 years old.

When Liz Montague was a senior in college, she wrote to the New Yorker, asking them why they didn’t publish more inclusive comics. The New Yorker wrote back asking if she could recommend any. She responded: yes, me.

Those initial cartoons in the New Yorker led to this memoir of Liz’s youth, from the age of five through college—how she navigated life in her predominantly white New Jersey town, overcame severe dyslexia through art, and found the confidence to pursue her passion. Funny and poignant, Liz captures the age-old adolescent questions of “who am I?” and “what do I want to be?” with pitch-perfect clarity and insight.

This brilliant, laugh-out-loud graphic memoir offers a fresh perspective on life and social issues and proves that you don’t need to be a dead white man to find success in art.


Click for more detail about Me and Muhammad Ali by Jabari Asim Me and Muhammad Ali

by Jabari Asim
Nancy Paulsen Books (Oct 11, 2022)
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A little boy’s joyous encounter with his hero, boxing champion and poet Muhammad Ali, is everything he’s dreamed of—and more!

Like most of the kids he knows, Langston is a huge fan of boxing champ Muhammed Ali. After all, Ali is the greatest for so many reasons—his speed, his strength, his confidence—and his poetry. Langston loves that Ali can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, and Ali’s words give him confidence to spin his own poems. When Langston hears the champ is coming to the local high school, he’s ecstatic—this will be a day that will go down in history for him. When the big day arrives, Langston gets a special haircut, and floats like a butterfly to meet his hero—so imagine his disappointment when a guard tries to stop him at the door, saying the event is just for students. Fortunately, Langston has learned a thing or two about fearlessness from the champ and is quick about not taking “no” for an answer. And just like that, a dream comes true for Langston that leaves him feeling wrapped in a warm glow and chanting I’m quick and I’m strong. I’m Black and I’m free. I’m brave and I’m bold, like Muhammad Ali!


Click for more detail about 
Me and the Boss: A Story about Mending and Love by Michelle Edwards Me and the Boss: A Story about Mending and Love

by Michelle Edwards
Anne Schwartz Books (Oct 11, 2022)
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All the highs and lows of having a bossy, protective, and loving older sibling are depicted in this heartwarming picture book by a critically acclaimed author and award-winning illustrator. Meet Lee, a little boy who won’t give up until he learns how to sew, and Zora, the sister who watches him try—and ultimately succeed!

I know big sisters. Zora, the boss, she’s mine, explains Lee as he and Zora head to the library, where Mrs. C is teaching the children how to sew. Though Zora sews a beautiful flower on her cloth square, little Lee makes a mess out of the half-moon he is trying to stitch. That night, when he can’t sleep, he gives sewing another try…and succeeds, even mending the hole in his pants pocket! The next morning, he sneaks into Zora’s room and sews the ear back on Bess, her stuffed bear. When Zora discovers Bess, she wraps Lee in her special big sister hug—for just a moment—and then is back to being the boss once again. An acclaimed author and a Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning illustrator create a funny, oh-so-true portrait of a brother and sister’s relationship in this winning picture book.


Click for more detail about Recognize! (paperback): An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson Recognize! (paperback): An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life

by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson
Yearling (Oct 04, 2022)
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BLACK LIVES HAVE ALWAYS MATTERED.

In the stunning follow-up to The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth, award-winning Black authors and artists come together to create a moving anthology collection celebrating Black love, Black creativity, Black resistance, and Black life.

A multifaceted, sometimes disheartening, yet consistently enriching primer on the unyielding necessity of those three words: Black Lives Matter. -Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

Prominent Black creators lend their voice, their insight, and their talent to an inspiring anthology that celebrates Black culture and Black life. Essays, poems, short stories, and historical excerpts blend with a full-color eight-page insert of spellbinding art to capture the pride, prestige, and jubilation that is being Black in America. In these pages, find the stories of the past, the journeys of the present, and the light guiding the future.


Click for more detail about Jackal by Erin E. Adams Jackal

by Erin E. Adams
Bantam (Oct 04, 2022)
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It’s watching.

Liz Rocher is coming home … reluctantly. As a Black woman, Liz doesn’t exactly have fond memories of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a predominantly white town. But her best friend is getting married, so she braces herself for a weekend of awkward, passive-aggressive reunions. Liz has grown, though; she can handle whatever awaits her. But on the day of the wedding, somewhere between dancing and dessert, the couple’s daughter, Caroline, disappears—and the only thing left behind is a piece of white fabric covered in blood.

It’s taking.

As a frantic search begins, with the police combing the trees for Caroline, Liz is the only one who notices a pattern: A summer night. A missing girl. A party in the woods. She’s seen this before. Keisha Woodson, the only other Black girl in Liz’s high school, walked into the woods with a mysterious man and was later found with her chest cavity ripped open and her heart removed. Liz shudders at the thought that it could have been her, and now, with Caroline missing, it can’t be a coincidence. As Liz starts to dig through the town’s history, she uncovers a horrifying secret about the place she once called home. Children have been going missing in these woods for years. All of them Black. All of them girls.

It’s your turn.

With the evil in the forest creeping closer, Liz knows what she must do: find Caroline, or be entirely consumed by the darkness.


Click for more detail about Talking about a Revolution by Yassmin Abdel-Magied Talking about a Revolution

by Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Random House Australia (Oct 01, 2022)
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With her trademark optimism, sass, boldness and search for answers, across a collection of new and revisited essays, Yassmin Abdel-Magied explores resistance, transformation, and revolution.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied started out a dynamic, optimistic, naïve, youthful grass-roots organizer and oil rig worker before she found herself taking on the heft of the Australian political and media establishment, unintentionally.

From her new home in Europe she brings her characteristic warmth, clarity and inquisitive nature to the concepts of ’the private and public self’ and ’systems and society’ that structure this collection.

In “The Private and Public Self,” Yassmin shares her passions for cars and cryptocurrency as well as the personal challenges around her activism and leaving Australia. She provides a hearty defence of hobbies and expands on the value and process of carving out a private life and self in an incredibly public-facing world. The concept of identity when one is a “forever migrant” - by ancestry, and by choice - is interrogated, as is what it means to organise for social justice when you aren’t sure where you belong.

In “Systems and Society,” through essays on cultural appropriation, the meaning of citizenship, and unconscious bias, Yassmin charts how her thinking on activism, transformative change and justice has evolved. She brings an abolitionist lens to social justice work and, recalling her days as a young revolutionary, encourages younger generations of activists to decide if it is empowerment they are working towards, or power.

In all these essays, written with the passion, lived-experience and intelligence of someone who wants to improve our world, the concept of revolution, however big or small, is ever-present.


Click for more detail about Soul of the Deep by Natasha Bowen Soul of the Deep

by Natasha Bowen
Random House Books for Young Readers (Sep 27, 2022)
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The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestseller Skin of the Sea, in which the world must pay the price for one mermaid’s choice, and a dark force reverberates across realms. Perfect for fans of Children of Blood and Bone and those eagerly anticipating the live-action film adaptation of The Little Mermaid.

One life.
One choice.
One sacrifice.

To save those closest to her, Simi traded away everything: her freedom, her family, and the boy she loves. Now she is sworn to serve a new god, watching over the Land of the Dead at the bottom of the ocean.

But when signs of demons begin to appear, it’s clear there are deeper consequences of Simi’s trade. These demons spell the world’s ruin … and because of Simi, they now have a way into the human realm.

With the fate of the world at stake, Simi must break her promise and team up with a scheming trickster of a god. And if they succeed, perhaps Simi can also unbreak her heart along the way, and find herself again.

“Epic and original … Simi’s story will stay with me for a long time.” —Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Instructions for Dancing


Click for more detail about Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm

by Laura Warrell
Pantheon Books (Sep 27, 2022)
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“A modern masterpiece.” —Jason Reynolds, best-selling author of Look Both Ways

It’s 2013, and Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school ladies’ man, lives for his music and refuses to be tied down. Before a gig in Miami, he learns that the woman who is secretly closest to his heart, the free-spirited drummer Maggie, is pregnant by him. Instead of facing the necessary conversation, Circus flees, setting off a chain of interlocking revelations from the various women in his life. Most notable among them is his teenage daughter, Koko, who idolizes him and is awakening to her own sexuality even as her mentally fragile mother struggles to overcome her long-failed marriage and rejection by Circus. Delivering a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Warrell spins a provocative, soulful, and gripping story of passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women, and, finally, hope and reconciliation, in answer to the age-old question: how do we find belonging when love is unrequited?


Click for more detail about The Furrows by Namwali Serpell The Furrows

by Namwali Serpell
Hogarth Press (Sep 27, 2022)
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How do you grieve an absence? A brilliantly inventive novel about loss and belonging, from the award-winning author of The Old Drift.

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Vulture, Lit Hub, Electric Lit, BookPage

I don’t want to tell you what happened. I want to tell you how it felt.

Cassandra Williams is twelve; her little brother, Wayne, is seven. One day, when they’re alone together, there is an accident and Wayne is lost forever. His body is never recovered. The missing boy cleaves the family with doubt. Their father leaves, starts another family elsewhere. But their mother can’t give up hope and launches an organization dedicated to missing children.

As C grows older, she sees her brother everywhere: in bistros, airplane aisles, subway cars. Here is her brother’s face, the light in his eyes, the way he seems to recognize her, too. But it can’t be, of course. Or can it? Then one day, in another accident, C meets a man both mysterious and familiar, a man who is also searching for someone and for his own place in the world. His name is Wayne.

Namwali Serpell’s remarkable new novel captures the uncanny experience of grief, the way the past breaks over the present like waves in the sea. The Furrows is a bold exploration of memory and mourning that twists unexpectedly into a story of mistaken identity, double consciousness, and the wishful—and sometimes willful—longing for reunion with those we’ve lost.


Click for more detail about The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin by Hafizah Augustus Geter The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin

by Hafizah Augustus Geter
Random House (Sep 20, 2022)
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An acclaimed poet reclaims her origin story as the queer daughter of a Muslim Nigerian immigrant and a Black American visual artist in this groundbreaking memoir, combining lyrical prose, biting criticism, and haunting visuals.

“Hafizah Augustus Geter is a genuine artist, not bound by genre or form. Her only loyalty is the harrowing beauty of the truth.”—Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

“I say, ‘the Black Period,’ and mean ‘home’ in all its shapeshifting ways.” In The Black Period, Hafizah creates a space for the beauty of Blackness, Islam, disability, and queerness to flourish, celebrating the many layers of her existence that America has time and again sought to erase.

At nineteen, she lost her mother to a sudden stroke. Weeks later, her father became so heartsick that he needed a triple bypass. By her thirties, she was constantly in pain, pinballing between physical therapy appointments, her grief, and the grind that is the American Dream. Hafizah realized she’d spent years internalizing the narratives that white supremacy had fed her about herself. Suddenly, she says, I was standing at the cliff of my own life, remembering.

Recalling her parents’ lessons on the art of Black revision, and mixing history, political analysis, and cultural criticism, alongside stunning original artwork created by her father, renowned artist Tyrone Geter, Hafizah maps out her own narrative, weaving between a childhood populated with Southern and Nigerian relatives; her days in a small Catholic school; a loving but tragically short relationship with her mother; and the feelings of joy and community that the Black Lives Matter protests engendered in her as an adult. All throughout, she forms a new personal and collective history, addressing the systems of inequity that make life difficult for non-able-bodied persons, queer people, and communities of color while capturing a world brimming with potential, art, music, hope, and love.

A unique combination of gripping memoir and Afrofuturist thought, in The Black Period, Hafizah manages to sidestep shame, confront disability, embrace forgiveness, and emerge from the erasures America imposes to exist proudly and unabashedly as herself.


Click for more detail about Brown Baby Jesus: A Picture Book by Dorena Williamson Brown Baby Jesus: A Picture Book

by Dorena Williamson
WaterBrook Press (Sep 20, 2022)
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Celebrate Christmas with this unique retelling of the Nativity story featuring Jesus as a melanated baby in a story that’s rich with Scripture, historical accuracy, and a multicultural weaving of love—from the author of Crowned with Glory.

Like Moses, brown baby Jesus would be a deliverer. Like Rahab, brown baby Jesus would save His people from destruction. Like David, brown baby Jesus would rule as a great king. Like the colorful threads that make up a beautiful cloth, Brown Baby Jesus brings together the characters and stories leading to Jesus—showing how God included many races and nations in the story we celebrate each year.

With an unconventional Christmas setting of Egypt and written in sweet, lyrical prose, Brown Baby Jesus is sure to become a holiday classic embraced by families of all races and backgrounds.


Click for more detail about Ready? Set. Birthday! by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson Ready? Set. Birthday!

by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Random House Books for Young Readers (Sep 20, 2022)
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This Step 2 early reader captures all the excitement and anticipation that every child experiences in the lead-up to their special day—their birthday!

Raymond likes to do everything fast! It’s almost his birthday and he can’t wait! He tries goes outside to play. He helps Papa wash the car. He even goes to bed early in hopes time will fly, but his birthday can’t come fast enough! Maybe his friend Roxy can help him enjoy the wait …and his special day, too! This sequel to Ready? Set. Raymond (which marks its 20th Anniversary in 2022!) will delight fans and new readers alike.

Step 2 Readers use basic vocabulary and short sentences to tell simple stories. They are perfect for children who recognize familiar words and can sound out new words with help.


Click for more detail about Standing in the Need of Prayer (paperback): A Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual by Carole Boston Weatherford Standing in the Need of Prayer (paperback): A Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Crown Books for Young Readers (Sep 20, 2022)
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From an award-winning author and critically acclaimed artist comes a stunning and deeply moving picture book based on the popular spiritual "Standing in the Need of Prayer." The classic lyrics have been reworked to chronicle the milestones, struggles, tragedies, and triumphs of African American history. A perfect gift or timeless keepsake!

This inspirational book encapsulates African American history and invites conversations at all levels. Carole Boston Weatherford’s riveting text and Frank Morrison’s evocative and detailed paintings are informative reminders of yesterday, hopeful images for today, and aspirational dreams of tomorrow.

Starting from 1619 and stretching more than four hundred years, this book features such pivotal moments in history as the arrival of enslaved people in Jamestown, Virginia; Nat Turner’s rebellion; the integration of the US military; the Selma to Montgomery marches; and peaceful present-day protests. It also celebrates the feats of African American musicians and athletes, such as Duke Ellington and Florence Griffith Joyner.

At the end of the book, readers will find descriptions of the people, places, and events that are featured, along with a note from Carole Boston Weatherford.

Visually stunning and incredibly timely, this book reckons with a painful history while serving as a testament to the human spirit’s ability to persevere in even the most hopeless of circumstances. Its universal message of faith, strength, and resilience will resonate with readers of all ages.


Click for more detail about Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory Drunk on Love

by Jasmine Guillory
Berkley Books (Sep 20, 2022)
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An intoxicating and sparkling new romance by New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory.

Margot Noble needs some relief from the stress of running the family winery with her brother. Enter Luke: sexy, charming, and best of all in the too-small world of Napa, a stranger. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and Margot is delighted that she lucked into the perfect one-night stand she’ll never have to see again. That is, until the winery’s newest hire, Luke, walks in the next morning. Margot is determined to keep things purely professional, but when their every interaction reminds her of the attraction still bubbling between them, it proves to be much more challenging than she expects.

Luke Williams had it all, but when he quits his high-salary tech job in Silicon Valley in a blaze of burnout and moves back to Napa to help a friend, he realizes he doesn’t want to tell the world—or his mom—why he’s now working at a winery. His mom loves bragging about her successful son—how can he admit that the job she’s so proud of broke him? Luke has no idea what is next for him, but one thing is certain: he wants more from the incredibly smart and sexy woman he hooked up with—even after he learns she’s his new boss. But even if they can find a way to be together that wouldn’t be an ethical nightmare, would such a successful woman really want a tech-world dropout?

Set against a lush backdrop of Napa Valley wine country, nothing goes to your head as fast as a taste of love—even if it means changing all your plans.


Click for more detail about Eternally Yours by Patrice Caldwell Eternally Yours

by Patrice Caldwell
Viking Books for Young Readers (Sep 20, 2022)
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Give in to this irresistible paranormal romance anthology filled with tales of the mortal and the monstrous. In Eternally Yours, fifteen of today’s bestselling writers explore love in its many forms …

Contributors include.

Kalynn Bayron,
Kendare Blake,
Kat Cho,
Melissa de la Cruz,
Hafsah Faizal,
Sarah Gailey,
Chloe Gong,
Alexis Henderson,
Adib Khorram,
Anna-Marie McLemore,
Casey McQuiston,
Sandhya Menon,
kshaya Raman,
Marie Rutkoski, and
Julian Winters.

Vampires and merpeople, angels and demons—the stories in this anthology imagine worlds where the only thing more powerful than the supernatural, is love.

A girl in a graveyard goes on an unexpected date, a shipwrecked sailor makes a connection on a forbidden island, a piano melody summons a soul mate. Creatures of folktales and legend, of land and sea, of centuries past and life after life, all wrapped into one spellbinding compendium. Once you sink into its pages, it’ll never let you go.


Click for more detail about You’ve Been Chosen: Thriving Through the Unexpected by Cynt Marshall You’ve Been Chosen: Thriving Through the Unexpected

by Cynt Marshall
Ballantine Books (Sep 13, 2022)
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A relentlessly optimistic memoir by one of the most influential Black business leaders in America today, offering hope and practical guidance for navigating life’s most difficult challenges

“Do you want to be lifted up? You have come to the right place.”—Hoda Kotb

Cynt Marshall has spent her entire life beating personal and professional odds while also helping everyone she meets see how they are uniquely equipped to thrive. Through it all, this self-described “people person” never stopped reaching out and built a reputation as an inspiring motivator and mentor in business and beyond.

Marshall grew up in a northern California housing project with a violent father who once broke her nose, but also with a strong, devoted mother who kept her family fed and focused, reminding them, “It’s not where you live, but how you live.” Heeding her mother’s advice, Marshall excelled first at school and then in her professional life, overcoming overt and subtle racism to become, at forty, one of the first Black woman officers at AT&T, while also navigating both grief and joy as she started a family of her own.

All that life experience prepared Marshall for the day when, at fifty-one, she was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer, just one lymph node from stage 4. Overnight, her life changed, but her commitment to serve others did not.

You’ve Been Chosen offers what Marshall calls “the good, the great, the bad, and the ugly parts” of her journey through both cancer and everything that led up to it. Along the way, she tackles the tough questions we all face: What will I do with what I have been given? How will I respond to challenges with both grace and grit? Where will this new path take me if I keep moving? And how can I offer something good back to the world as a result?

Cynt Marshall’s deep faith and positivity will inspire and motivate you, and her story will help you see how all your experiences, even the hardest moments, can work together for something good, bringing you to positive places you’d have never experienced otherwise. She shows you how to find your own “voice of power” and encourages you to remember—and believe—that you, too, have been equipped to walk your unique path with purpose. That you, too, have been chosen.


Click for more detail about Who Is Stacey Abrams? by Shelia P. Moses Who Is Stacey Abrams?

by Shelia P. Moses
Penguin Workshop (Sep 13, 2022)
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Discover how a young girl who loved to read and write became a voting rights activist, a candidate for governor of Georgia, and an author.

Presenting Who HQ Now: an exciting addition to the #1 New York Times Best-Selling Who Was? series!

Stacey Abrams began her career in politics at the age of seventeen when she was hired as a typist for a congressional campaign. From there, she worked hard to get into Yale law school and, eventually, was elected into the House of Representatives. In 2018, she became the first Black woman in the United States to be a major party’s nominee for governor when she was selected as the Democratic candidate. Although she didn’t win that race, she decided to run again in 2022, proving that she never backs down from a challenge. Stacey made it her mission to help ensure that all people who are eligible have the right and ability to vote. Her Fair Fight Action organization helps prevent voter suppression across the country.

When she was growing up, Stacey was taught three important principles by her parents: go to school, go to church, and take care of each other. And these are the same beliefs she holds today.


Click for more detail about Marriage Be Hard: 12 Conversations to Keep You Laughing, Loving, and Learning with Your Partner by Kevin Fredericks and Melissa Fredericks Marriage Be Hard: 12 Conversations to Keep You Laughing, Loving, and Learning with Your Partner

by Kevin Fredericks and Melissa Fredericks
Convergent Books (Sep 13, 2022)
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New York Times bestseller • Discover the keys to upholding your vows while staying sane in this hilariously candid guide to relationships, from the husband-and-wife team of comedian Kevin Fredericks and influencer Melissa Fredericks

Growing up, Kevin and Melissa Fredericks were taught endless rules around dating, sex, and marriage, but not a lot about what actually makes a relationship work. When they first got married, they felt alone—like every other couple had perfect chemistry while the two of them struggled. There were conversations that they didn’t know they needed to have, fears that affected how they related to each other, and seasons of change that put their marriage to the test.

Part of their story reads like a Christian fairytale: high school sweethearts, married in college, never sowed any wild oats, with two sons and a thriving marriage. But there’s another side of their story: the night Melissa kicked Kevin out of her car after years of communication problems, the time early in their marriage when Kevin bordered on an emotional affair, the way they’ve used social media and podcasts to conduct a no-holds-barred conversation about forbidden topics like jealousy, divorce, and how to be Christian and sex positive. (Because, as Kevin writes, “Your hormones don’t care about your religious beliefs. Your hormones want you to subscribe to OnlyFans.”)

In Marriage Be Hard, the authors provide a hilarious and fresh master class on what it takes to build and maintain a lasting relationship. Drawing on interviews with experts and nearly two decades of marriage, they argue that

  • Compatibility is overrated.
  • Communication is about way more than simply talking.
  • Seeing divorce as an option can actually help your marriage.
  • There’s such a thing as healthy jealousy.

Real marriage is not automatic. It ain’t no Tesla on the open road. Sometimes it’s a stick shift on a hill in the rain with no windshield wipers. But if you get comfortable visiting—and revisiting—the topics that matter, it can transform your bond with your partner and the life you’re building together.

Written for those tired of unrealistic relationship books—and for anyone wondering if they’re the only ones breaking all the rules—Marriage Be Hard is a breath of fresh air and the manual you wish existed after you said “I do.”


Click for more detail about We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963 by Shelia P. Moses We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963

by Shelia P. Moses
Nancy Paulsen Books (Sep 06, 2022)
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The powerful story of an eleven-year-old Black boy determined to stand up for his rights, who’s pulled into the action of the 1963 civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama.

Rufus Jackson Jones is from Birmingham, the place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the most segregated place in the country. A place that in 1963 is full of civil rights activists including Dr. King. The adults are trying to get more attention to their cause—to show that separate is not equal. Rufus’s dad works at the local steel factory, and his mom is a cook at the mill. If they participate in marches, their bosses will fire them. So that’s where the kids decide they will come in. Nobody can fire them.

So on a bright May morning in 1963, Rufus and his buddies join thousands of other students to peacefully protest in a local park. There they are met with policemen and firemen who turn their powerful hoses on them, and that’s where Rufus realizes that they are the fire. And they will not be put out.

Shelia Moses gives readers a deeply personal account of one boy’s heroism during what came to be know as the Children’s Crusade in this important novel that highlights a key turning point in the civil rights movement.


Click for more detail about Black-Eyed Peas and Hoghead Cheese: A Story of Food, Family, and Freedom by Glenda Armand Black-Eyed Peas and Hoghead Cheese: A Story of Food, Family, and Freedom

by Glenda Armand
Crown Books for Young Readers (Sep 06, 2022)
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A little girl helping her grandmother prepare a holiday meal learns about the origins of soul food in this powerful picture book that celebrates African American cuisine and identity from an award-winning author.

Know what I like most about Grandma’s kitchen?
More than jambalaya? More than sweet potato pie? Even more than pralines?
Grandma’s stories! Every meal Grandma cooks comes with a story.
What will today’s story be?

While visiting her grandma in Louisiana, nine-year-old Frances is excited to help prepare the New Year’s Day meal. She listens as Grandma tells stories—dating back to the Atlantic Slave Trade—about the food for their feast. Through these stories, Frances learns not only about the ingredients and the dishes they are making but about her ancestors and their history as well.

A celebration of the stories that connect us, this picture book urges us to think about the foods we eat and why we eat them. This book was inspired by the author’s own childhood and includes her family’s very own recipe for pralines in the back!


Click for more detail about Rules of Engagement by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery Rules of Engagement

by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery
Berkley Books (Sep 06, 2022)
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Love is a game of chance in this romantic suspense novel by New York Times bestselling author and American politician and activist Stacey Abrams, writing under her pen name, Selena Montgomery.

Dr. Raleigh Foster, an operative for a top-secret intelligence organization, knows that her undercover work has its risks. So she doesn’t hesitate when asked to infiltrate Scimitar, the terrorist group that has stolen lethal environmental technology. But when she’s assigned a partner—brooding, sexy Adam Grayson—to pose as her lover, Raleigh discovers that the most dangerous risk of all…is falling in love.

Adam blames himself for the botched mission that got his best friend killed by Scimitar, and he believes that Raleigh may have contributed to the man’s death. But the closer he works with his alluring partner, the more his suspicions turn to trust—and intense desire. Now, as he and Raleigh untangle a twisted web of secrets and lies, the tension mounts between them…until their masquerade as a couple proves too tempting to resist.


Click for more detail about Patchwork by Matt De La Peña Patchwork

by Matt De La Peña
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Aug 30, 2022)
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From a Newbery Medal-winning author and a New York Times bestselling illustrator comes a deeply moving ode to the complexity and uniqueness of every child.

In profound, uplifting verse and sumptuous artwork, beloved creators Matt de la Peña and Corinna Luyken explore the endless possibilities each child contains: A young dancer may grow into a computer coder; a basketball player might become a poet; a class clown may one day serve as an inspiring teacher; and today’s quiet empath might be tomorrow’s great leader. Here’s a profound and uplifting new classic with an empowering message for readers of all ages: Your story is still being written.


Click for more detail about Golden Ax by Rio Cortez Golden Ax

by Rio Cortez
Penguin Books (Aug 30, 2022)
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Longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry
Longlisted for the 2023 PEN Open Book Award
Finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award

“Outstanding … the poetry in these pages is intelligent, lyrical, as invested in the past as the present and future with witty nods to pop culture.” —Roxane Gay, author of Hunger

“I’ve never read anything like it. Truly a sublime experience.” —Jason Reynolds, author of Ain’t Burned All the Bright

A groundbreaking collection about Afropioneerism past and present from Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and New York Times bestselling author Rio Cortez

From a visionary writer praised for her captivating work on Black history and experience comes a poetry collection exploring personal, political, and artistic frontiers, journeying from her family’s history as “Afropioneers” in the American West to shimmering glimpses of transcendent, liberated futures.

In poems that range from wry, tongue-in-cheek observations about contemporary life to more nuanced meditations on her ancestors—some of the earliest Black pioneers to settle in the western United States after Reconstruction—Golden Ax invites readers to re-imagine the West, Black womanhood, and the legacies that shape and sustain the pursuit of freedom.


Click for more detail about Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah Afterlives

by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Riverhead Books (Aug 23, 2022)
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From the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, a sweeping, multi-generational saga of displacement, loss, and love, set against the brutal colonization of east Africa.

When he was just a boy, Ilyas was stolen from his parents on the coast of east Africa by German colonial troops. After years away, fighting against his own people, he returns home to find his parents gone and his sister, Afiya, abandoned into de facto slavery. Hamza, too, returns home from the war, scarred in body and soul and with nothing but the clothes on his back–until he meets the beautiful, undaunted Afiya. As these young people live and work and fall in love, their fates knotted ever more tightly together, the shadow of a new war on another continent falls over them, threatening once again to carry them away.


Click for more detail about Scenes from My Life: A Memoir by Michael K. Williams Scenes from My Life: A Memoir

by Michael K. Williams
Crown Publishing Group (Aug 23, 2022)
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ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR

When Michael K. Williams died on September 6, 2021, he left behind a career as one of the most electrifying actors of his generation. From his star turn as Omar Little in The Wire to Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire to Emmy-nominated roles in HBO’s The Night Of and Lovecraft Country, Williams inhabited a slew of indelible roles that he portrayed with a rawness and vulnerability that leapt off the screen. Beyond the nominations and acclaim, Williams played characters who connected, whose humanity couldn’t be denied, whose stories were too often left out of the main narrative.

At the time of his death, Williams had nearly finished a memoir that tells the story of his past while looking to the future, a book that merges his life and his life’s work. Mike, as his friends knew him, was so much more than an actor. In Scenes from My Life, he traces his life in whole, from his childhood in East Flatbush and his early years as a dancer to his battles with addiction and the bar fight that left his face with his distinguishing scar. He was a committed Brooklyn resident and activist who dedicated his life to working with social justice organizations and his community, especially in helping at-risk youth find their voice and carve out their future. Williams worked to keep the spotlight on those he fought for and with, whom he believed in with his whole heart.

Imbued with poignance and raw honesty, Scenes from My Life is the story of a performer who gave his all to everything he did—in his own voice, in his own words, as only he could.


Click for more detail about Sam’s Super Seats by Keah Brown Sam’s Super Seats

by Keah Brown
Kokila (Aug 23, 2022)
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A joyful picture book about a disabled girl with cerebral palsy who goes back-to-school shopping with her best friends, from #DisabledandCute creator and The Pretty One author Keah Brown.

Sam loves herself, learning, and making her family and friends laugh. She also loves comfortable seats, including a graceful couch named after Misty Copeland and Laney, the sassy backseat of Mom’s car.

After a busy morning of rest, Sam and her friends try on cute outfits at the mall and imagine what the new school year might bring. It’s not until Sam feels tired, and the new seat she meets isn’t so super, that she discovers what might be her best idea all day.

With hilarious, charming text by Keah Brown and exuberant illustrations by Sharee Miller, Sam’s Super Seats celebrates the beauty of self-love, the power of rest, and the necessity of accessible seating in public spaces. Includes narrative description of art for those with low/limited vision.


Click for more detail about Perish by LaToya Watkins Perish

by LaToya Watkins
Tiny Reparations Books (Aug 23, 2022)
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From a stunning new voice, comes a powerful debut novel, Perish, about a Black Texan family, exploring the effects of inherited trauma and intergenerational violence as the family comes together to say goodbye to their matriarch on her deathbed.

Bear it or perish. Those are the words Helen Jean hears that fateful night in her cousin’s outhouse that change the trajectory of her life.

Spanning decades, Perish tracks the choices Helen Jean—the matriarch of the Turner family—makes and the ways those choices have rippled across generations, from her children to hergrandchildren and beyond.

Told in alternating chapters that follow four members of the Turner family: Julie B., a woman who regrets her wasted youth and the time spent under Helen Jean’s thumb; Alex, a police officer grappling with a dark and twisted past; Jan, a mother of two, who yearns to go to school and leave Jerusalem, Texas, and all of its trauma behind for good; and Lydia, a woman whose marriage is falling apart because her body can’t seem to stay pregnant, as they’re called home to say goodbye to their mother and grandmother.

This family’s “reunion” unearths long-kept secrets and forces each member to ask themselves important questions about who is deserving of forgiveness and who bears the cross of blame.

Tackling themes like family, trauma, legacy, home, class, race, and more, this beautiful yet heart-wrenching novel, will appeal to anyone who is interested in the intricacies of family and the ways bonds can be made, maintained, or irrevocably broken.


Click for more detail about If You Read This by Kereen Getten If You Read This

by Kereen Getten
Delacorte Press (Aug 16, 2022)
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From the author of the critically acclaimed novel When Life Gives You Mangos comes a captivating journey of love, loss, and letters.

When Brie was younger, her mama used to surprise her with treasure hunts around their island town. After she died three years ago, these became Brie’s favorite memories.

Now, on her twelfth birthday, her mama has another surprise: a series of letters leading Brie on one last treasure hunt.

The first letter guides Brie to a special place.

The next urges her to unlock a secret.

And the last letter will change life as she knows it.

In this poignant coming-of-age story of new memories, surprises, and moments of healing, Kereen Getten beautifully captures the edge of adolescence, when everything is thrilling, amazing, and terrifying in a way it will never be again.


Click for more detail about Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead Harlem Shuffle

by Colson Whitehead
Anchor Books (Aug 09, 2022)
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New York Times Bestseller

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny … about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel” (San Francisco Chronicle).

"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked…" To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver’s Row don’t approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it’s still home.

Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.

Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn’t ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn’t ask questions, either.

Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the "Waldorf of Harlem"—and volunteers Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.

Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?

Harlem Shuffle’s ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It’s a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.

But mostly, it’s a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.


Click for more detail about Mademoiselle Revolution by Zoe Sivak Mademoiselle Revolution

by Zoe Sivak
Berkley Books (Aug 02, 2022)
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A bisexual, biracial protagonist from the late 1700s. A violent slave uprising in Haiti and it’s rippling effects into 18th century Paris. The drama of high-society French revolutionaries, with infamous agitator Robespierre and his mistress at the center.

When you think of the French Revolution, you probably don’t think of Haiti. Yet when the slaves of then Saint-Domingue lit their flame of revolution in 1791, it sparked and landed across the Atlantic. A new book takes us through both upheavals, as seen through the eyes a woman—the daughter of a white planter and an enslaved woman—caught between them.

Author Zoe Sivak, not yet 30 years old [as of July 2022], identifies as both Black and queer, like her protagonist.

A powerful, engrossing story of a biracial heiress who escapes to Paris when the Haitian Revolution burns across her island home. But as she works her way into the inner circle of Robespierre and his mistress, she learns that not even oceans can stop the flames of revolution.

Sylvie de Rosiers, as the daughter of a rich planter and an enslaved woman, enjoys the comforts of a lady in 1791 Saint-Domingue society. But while she was born to privilege, she was never fully accepted by island elites. After a violent rebellion begins the Haitian Revolution, Sylvie and her brother leave their family and old lives behind to flee unwittingly into another uprising—in austere and radical Paris. Sylvie quickly becomes enamored with the aims of the Revolution, as well as with the revolutionaries themselves—most notably Maximilien Robespierre and his mistress, Cornélie Duplay. As a rising leader and abolitionist, Robespierre sees an opportunity to exploit Sylvie’s race and abandonment of her aristocratic roots as an example of his ideals, while the strong-willed Cornélie offers Sylvie safe harbor and guidance in free thought. Sylvie battles with her past complicity in a slave society and her future within this new world order as she finds herself increasingly torn between Robespierre’s ideology and Cornélie’s love. When the Reign of Terror descends, Sylvie must decide whether to become an accomplice while a new empire rises on the bones of innocents…or risk losing her head.


Click for more detail about Barack Obama: A Little Golden Book Biography by Frank Berrios Barack Obama: A Little Golden Book Biography

by Frank Berrios
Golden Books (Aug 02, 2022)
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Help your little one dream big with a Little Golden Book biography about President Barack Obama! The perfect introduction to nonfiction for young readers—as well as fans of all ages!

This Little Golden Book about Barack Obama—the 44th President of the United States and the country’s first Black president—is an inspiring read-aloud for young girls and boys.

Look for more Little Golden Book biographies:

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • Joe Biden
  • Kamala Harris
  • Sonia Sotomayor
  • Dr. Fauci


Click for more detail about Beasts of Ruin by Ayana Gray Beasts of Ruin

by Ayana Gray
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jul 26, 2022)
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In this much anticipated follow up to New York Times bestselling Beasts of Prey, Koffi’s powers grow stronger and Ekon’s secrets turn darker as they face the god of death.

Koffi has saved her city and the boy she loves, but at a terrible price. Now a servant to the cunning god of death, she must use her newfound power to further his continental conquest, or risk the safety of her home and loved ones. As she reluctantly learns to survive amidst unexpected friends and foes, she will also have to choose between the life—and love—she once had, or the one she could have, if she truly embraces her dangerous gifts.

Cast out from the only home he’s ever known, Ekon is forced to strike new and unconventional alliances to find and rescue Koffi before it’s too late. But as he gets closer to the realm of death each day, so too does he draw nearer to a terrible truth—one that could cost everything.

Koffi and Ekon—separated by land, sea, and gods—will have to risk everything to reunite again. But the longer they’re kept apart, the more each of their loyalties are tested. Soon, both may have to reckon with changing hearts—and maybe, changing destinies.


Click for more detail about The Accidental Pinup by Danielle Jackson The Accidental Pinup

by Danielle Jackson
Berkley Books (Jul 19, 2022)
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Rival photographers are forced to collaborate on a body-positive lingerie campaign, but they might have to readjust their focus when sparks fly.

Photographer Cassie Harris loves her job—her company Buxom Boudoir makes people look beautiful and feel empowered with her modern twist on classic pinup photography. Cassie’s best friend, Dana, is about to launch her own dangerously dreamy lingerie line and wants Cassie to shoot and direct the career-changing national campaign. But company politics and Dana’s complicated pregnancy interfere, and Cassie finds herself—a proud plus size Black woman—not behind the camera but in front of it.

Though she’s never modeled herself, Cassie’s pretty sure she can handle the sheer underwear and caution tape bralettes. She’s not sure she can work so intimately with the chosen photographer, her long-time competitor in the Chicago photography scene, Reid Montgomery. Their chemistry is undeniable on set, however, and feelings can develop faster than film…


Click for more detail about Take Back the Block by Chrystal D. Giles Take Back the Block

by Chrystal D. Giles
Yearling (Jul 05, 2022)
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Brand-new kicks, ripped denim shorts, Supreme tee—

Wes Henderson has the best style in sixth grade. That—and hanging out with his crew (his best friends since little-kid days) and playing video games—is what he wants to be thinking about at the start of the school year, not the protests his parents are always dragging him to.

But when a real estate developer makes an offer to buy Kensington Oaks, the neighborhood Wes has lived his whole life, everything changes. The grownups are supposed to have all the answers, but all they’re doing is arguing. Even Wes’s best friends are fighting. And some of them may be moving. Wes isn’t about to give up the only home he’s ever known. Wes has always been good at puzzles, and he knows there has to be a missing piece that will solve this puzzle and save the Oaks. But can he find it … before it’s too late?

Exploring community, gentrification, justice, and friendship, Take Back the Block introduces an irresistible 6th grader and asks what it means to belong—to a place and a movement—and to fight for what you believe in.


Click for more detail about Dele Weds Destiny by Tomi Obaro Dele Weds Destiny

by Tomi Obaro
Knopf (Jun 28, 2022)
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The story of three once-inseparable college friends in Nigeria who reunite for the first time in thirty years at a lavish wedding in Lagos for one of their daughters—a sparkling debut novel about mothers and daughters, culture and class, sex and love, and the extraordinary resilience of female friendship.

“Fast-paced, glamorous, and bursting with emotion…. The bonds between women—as friends, and across the generations—are the jewels that make this story shine.” —Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab first meet at university in Nigeria and become friends for life despite their differences.

Funmi is beautiful, brash, and determined; Enitan is homely and eager, seeking escape from her single mother’s smothering and needy love; Zainab is elegant and reserved, raised by her father’s first two wives after her mother’s death in childbirth. Their friendship is complicated but enduring, and over the course of the novel, the reader learns about their loves and losses. How Funmi stole Zainab’s boyfriend and became pregnant, only to have an abortion and lose the boyfriend to police violence. How Enitan was seduced by an American Peace Corps volunteer, the only one who ever really saw her, but is culturally so different from him—a Connecticut WASP—that raising their daughter together put them at odds. How Zainab fell in love with her teacher, a friend of her father’s, and ruptured her relationship with her father to have him.

Now, some thirty years later, the three women are reunited for the first time, in Lagos. The occasion: Funmi’s daughter, Destiny, is getting married. Enitan brings her American daughter, Remi. Zainab travels by bus, nervously leaving her ailing husband in the care of their son. Funmi, hosting the weekend of elaborate festivities with her wealthy husband, wants everything to go perfectly. But as the big day approaches, it becomes clear that something is not right. As the novel builds powerfully toward the big event, the complexities of the mothers’ friendship—and the private wisdom each has earned—come to bear on a riveting, heartrending moment of decision. Dele Weds Destiny is a sensational debut from a dazzling new voice in contemporary fiction. 


Click for more detail about Hell of a Book: A Novel by Jason Mott Hell of a Book: A Novel

by Jason Mott
Dutton (Jun 28, 2022)
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Winner of the 2021 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize Finalist, 2022 Chautauqua Prize Finalist, Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing Shortlist, 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Shortlist, 2022 Maya Angelou Book Award Shortlist, 2022 Carnegie Medal Longlist

A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!
An Ebony Magazine Publishing Book Club Pick!
One of Washington Post’s 50 Notable Works of Fiction
One of Philadelphia Inquirer’s Best Books of 2021
One of Shelf Awareness’s Top Ten Fiction Titles of the Year
One of TIME Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books
One of NPR.org’s "Books We Love"
EW’s "Guide to the Biggest and Buzziest Books of 2021"
One of the New York Public Library’s Best Books for Adults
San Diego Union Tribune—My Favorite Things from 2021
Writer’s Bone’s Best Books of 2021
Atlanta Journal Constitution—Top 10 Southern Books of the Year
One of the Guardian’s (UK) Best Ten 21st Century Comic Novels
One of Entertainment Weekly’s 15 Books You Need to Read This June
On Entertainment Weekly’s "Must List"
One of the New York Post’s Best Summer Reading books
One of GMA’s 27 Books for June
One of USA Today’s 5 Books Not to Miss
One of Fortune’s 21 Most Anticipated Books Coming Out in the Second Half of 2021
One of The Root’s PageTurners: It’s Getting Hot in Here
One of Real Simple’s Best New Books to Read in 2021

An astounding work of fiction from New York Times bestselling author Jason Mott, always deeply honest, at times electrically funny, that goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans and America as a whole.

In Jason Mott’s Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something much larger and more urgent: Mott’s novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour.

As these characters’ stories build and converge, they astonish. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it’s also about the nation’s reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America.

Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably told, with characters who burn into your mind and an electrifying plot ideal for book club discussion, Hell of a Book is the novel Mott has been writing in his head for the last ten years. And in its final twists, it truly becomes its title.


Click for more detail about The Scent of Burnt Flowers  by Blitz Bazawule The Scent of Burnt Flowers

by Blitz Bazawule
Ballantine Books (Jun 28, 2022)
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Fleeing persecution in 1960s America, a Black couple seeks asylum in Ghana, but fresh dangers and old secrets threaten their newfound freedom in this hypnotic debut novel.

“A colorful, delicious ride through the senses and beyond; a tale of danger, love, and all the small, true things that will not be named.”—Yrsa Daley-Ward, PEN Ackerley Prize–winning author of The Terrible

When the windshield of his Chevy Impala shatters in a dark diner parking lot in Alabama, Melvin moves without thinking. A split-second reaction marrows in his bones from the days of war, but this time it is the safety of his fiancé, Bernadette, at stake. Impulse keeps them alive, and yet they flee with blood on their hands. What is life like now that they are fugitives? Pack passports. Empty bank accounts. Set their old life on fire. The couple disguise themselves as a pastor and a reluctant pastor’s wife who’s hiding a secret from her fiancé. With a persistent FBI agent on their trail, they travel to Ghana to seek the help of Melvin’s old college friend who happens to be the country’s embattled president, Kwame Nkrumah.The couple’s chance encounter with Ghana’s most beloved highlife musician, Kwesi Kwayson, who’s on his way to perform for the president, sparks a journey full of suspense, lust, magic, and danger as Nkrumah’s regime crumbles around them. What was meant to be a fresh start quickly spirals into chaos, threatening both their relationship and their lives. Kwesi and Bernadette’s undeniable attraction and otherworldly bond cascades during their three-day trek, and so does Melvin’s intense jealousy. All three must confront one another and their secrets, setting off a series of cataclysmic events.

Steeped in the history and mythology of postcolonial West Africa at the intersection of the civil rights movement in America, this gripping and ambitious debut merges political intrigue, magical encounters, and forbidden romance in an epic collision of morality and power.


Click for more detail about Invisible Things: A Novel by Mat Johnson Invisible Things: A Novel

by Mat Johnson
One World (Jun 28, 2022)
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ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—The Millions

A sharp allegorical novel about a hidden human civilization, a crucial election, and a mysterious invisible force that must not be named, by one of our most imaginative comic novelists

When sociologist Nalini Jackson joins the SS Delany for the first manned mission to Jupiter, all she wants is a career opportunity: the chance to conduct the first field study of group dynamics on long-haul cryoships. But what she discovers instead is an entire city encased in a bubble on Europa, Jupiter’s largest moon.

Even more unexpected, Nalini and the rest of the crew soon find themselves abducted and joining its captive population, forced to start new lives in a place called New Roanoke.

New Roanoke is a city riven by wealth inequality and governed by a feckless, predatory elite, its economy run on heedless consumption and income inequality. But in other ways it’s different from the cities we already know: it’s covered by an enormous dome, it’s populated by alien abductees, and it happens to be terrorized by an invisible entity so disturbing that no one even dares acknowledge its existence.

Albuquerque chauffer Chase Eubanks is pretty darn sure aliens stole his wife. People mock him for saying that, but he doesn’t care who knows it. So when his philanthropist boss funds a top-secret rescue mission to save New Roanoke’s abductees, Chase jumps at the chance to find her. The plan: Get the astronauts out and provide the population with the tech they need to escape this alien world. The reality: Nothing is ever simple when dealing with the complex, contradictory, and contrarian impulses of everyday earthlings.

This is a madcap, surreal adventure into a Jovian mirror world, one grappling with the same polarized politics, existential crises, and mass denialism that obsess and divide our own. Will New Roanoke survive? Will we?


Click for more detail about The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi The Final Strife

by Saara El-Arifi
Del Ray (Jun 21, 2022)
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Book One of The Ending Fire Trilogy

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, Autostraddle

Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control.
Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance.
Clear is the blood of the slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible.

Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.

Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom—and their hearts.

Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution. And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm.

As the empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.


Click for more detail about Kindergarten: Where Kindness Matters Every Day by Vera Ahiyya Kindergarten: Where Kindness Matters Every Day

by Vera Ahiyya
Random House Studio (Jun 21, 2022)
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Written by kindergarten teacher and Instagram influencer affectionately known as the Tutu Teacher, comes a picture book about a class that creates a kindness pledge to ensure that their class is the kindest it can possibly be.

It's the first day of Kindergarten and Leo isn't at all ready. Leo is a quiet kid and would prefer to stay home. Over the summer, his new teacher, Ms. Perry sent a letter asking her students to think about how to show kindness in school. She explained that they would be making a kindness pledge, and each student should bring one way to show kindness on the first day.

As it turns out, Leo's classmates have lots of ideas about kindness: like raising your hand, never leaving anyone out, and apologizing if you hurt someone's feelings. At the end of the first day, Ms. Perry asks if anyone witnessed something they'd like her to add to the kindness pledge? Lots of hands shoot up in the air. Several classmates say they noticed Leo returning crayons to the box, holding the door for everyone, and helping a friend who fell. Leo smiles as he realizes he really does know a lot about kindness after all.

A story reassuringly told by Vera Ahiyya and brought to exuberant life by illustrator Joey Chou, this story about a classroom coming together to make a kindergarten into a KINDergarten is sure to calm the nerves—and offer inspiration—to new kindergartners and the adults in their lives.


Click for more detail about Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation by Linda Villarosa Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation

by Linda Villarosa
Doubleday (Jun 14, 2022)
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From an award-winning writer at the New York Times Magazine and a contributor to the 1619 Project comes a landmark book that tells the full story of racial health disparities in America, revealing the toll racism takes on individuals and the health of our nation.

In 2018, Linda Villarosa’s New York Times Magazine article on maternal and infant mortality among black mothers and babies in America caused an awakening. Hundreds of studies had previously established a link between racial discrimination and the health of Black Americans, with little progress toward solutions. But Villarosa’s article exposing that a Black woman with a college education is as likely to die or nearly die in childbirth as a white woman with an eighth-grade education made racial disparities in health care impossible to ignore. Now, in Under the Skin, Linda Villarosa lays bare the forces in the American health-care system and in American society that cause Black people to “live sicker and die quicker” compared to their white counterparts.

Today’s medical texts and instruments still carry fallacious slavery-era assumptions that Black bodies are fundamentally different from white bodies. Study after study of medical settings show worse treatment and outcomes for Black patients. Black people live in dirtier, more polluted communities due to environmental racism and neglect from all levels of government. And, most powerfully, Villarosa describes the new understanding that coping with the daily scourge of racism ages Black people prematurely. Anchored by unforgettable human stories and offering incontrovertible proof, Under the Skin is dramatic, tragic, and necessary reading.

Book Review

Click for more detail about A Way Out of No Way: A Memoir of Truth, Transformation, and the New American Story by Raphael G. Warnock A Way Out of No Way: A Memoir of Truth, Transformation, and the New American Story

by Raphael G. Warnock
Penguin Press (Jun 14, 2022)
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“A compelling, insightful memoir that details an extraordinary journey.” —Bryan Stevenson

On the heels of his historic election to the United States Senate, Raphael G. Warnock shares his remarkable spiritual and personal journey.

Senator Reverend Raphael G. Warnock occupies a singular place in American life. As senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and now as a senator from Georgia, he is the rare voice who can call out the uncomfortable truths that shape contemporary American life and, at a time of division, summon us all to a higher moral ground.

Senator Warnock grew up in the Kayton Homes housing projects in Savannah, the eleventh of twelve children. His dad was a World War II veteran, and as a teenager his mom picked tobacco and cotton in rural Georgia. Both were Pentecostal preachers. After graduating from Morehouse College, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s alma mater, Senator Warnock studied for a decade at Union Theological Seminary while serving at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. At thirty-five, he became the senior pastor at Ebenezer, where Dr. King had preached and served.

In January 2021, Senator Warnock won a runoff election that flipped control of the Senate at one of the most pivotal moments in recent American history. He is the first Black senator from Georgia, only the eleventh Black senator in American history, and just the second Black senator from the South since Reconstruction. As he said in his maiden speech from the well of the senate, Senator Warnock’s improbable journey reflects the ongoing toggle between the pain and promise of the American story.

A powerful preacher and a leading voice for voting rights and democracy, Senator Warnock has a once-in-a-generation gift to inspire and lead us forward. A Way Out of No Way tells his remarkable story for the first time.


Click for more detail about How to Raise an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi How to Raise an Antiracist

by Ibram X. Kendi
One World (Jun 14, 2022)
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The book that every parent, caregiver, and teacher needs to raise the next generation of antiracist thinkers, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant.

The tragedies and reckonings around racism that are rocking the country have created a specific crisis for parents, educators, and other caregivers: How do we talk to our children about racism? How do we teach children to be antiracist? How are kids at different ages experiencing race? How are racist structures impacting children? How can we inspire our children to avoid our mistakes, to be better, to make the world better?

These are the questions Ibram X. Kendi found himself avoiding as he anticipated the birth of his first child. Like most parents or parents-to-be, he felt the reflex to not talk to his child about racism, which he feared would stain her innocence and steal away her joy. But research and experience changed his mind, and he realized that raising his child to be antiracist would actually protect his child, and preserve her innocence and joy. He realized that teaching students about the reality of racism and the myth of race provides a protective education in our diverse and unequal world. He realized that building antiracist societies safeguards all children from the harms of racism.

Following the accessible genre of his internationally bestselling How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi combines a century of scientific research with a vulnerable and compelling personal narrative of his own journey as a parent and as a child in school. The chapters follow the stages of child development from pregnancy to toddler to schoolkid to teenager. It is never too early or late to start raising young people to be antiracist.


Click for more detail about Goodnight Racism by Ibram X. Kendi Goodnight Racism

by Ibram X. Kendi
Kokila (Jun 14, 2022)
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National Book Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi (How to Be an Antiracist, Antiracist Baby) returns with a new picture book that serves as a modern bedtime classic.

As children all over the world get ready for bed, the moon watches over them. The moon knows that when we sleep, we dream. And when we dream, we imagine what is possible and what the world can be.

With dynamic, imaginative art and poetic prose, Goodnight Racism delivers important messages about antiracism, justice, and equality in an easy-to-read format that empowers readers both big and small. Goodnight Racism gives children the language to dream of a better world and is the perfect book to add to their social justice toolkit.

image from Goodnight Racism


Click for more detail about Game: An Autobiography by Grant Hill Game: An Autobiography

by Grant Hill
Penguin Press (Jun 07, 2022)
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The full, frank story of a remarkable life’s journey—to the pinnacle of success as a basketball player, icon, and entrepreneur, to the depths of personal trauma and back, to a place of flourishing and peace—made possible above all by a family’s love

Grant Hill always had game. His choice of college was a subject of national interest, and his arrival at Duke University cemented the program’s arrival at the top. In his freshman year, he led the team to its first NCAA championship, and three championship appearances in four years. His Duke career produced some of the most iconic moments in college basketball history, and Coach K proved to be a lifelong mentor. Later, as one of the NBA’s best players and a new face of the Detroit Pistons franchise, Hill was the first person with the potential to give Michael Jordan a run for his money, not just as a player but as a brand. His $45 million rookie contract was almost the least of it. He turned down Nike for Fila, and soon Method Man and Tupac Shakur were wearing his shoes.

Hill writes candidly about all of it, including the transactional impermanence of life in the league and the isolation caused by his growing fame. His parents and friends helped ground him, and eventually he met a gifted musician named Tamia. The love he found with her and the arrival of their two beautiful daughters would be his rock as a brutal and mysterious injury sidelined him, coinciding with his wife’s own serious health struggles.

With openness and insight, Hill relates his entire path, including post-career highlights like his Hall of Fame induction, co-ownership of the Atlanta Hawks, the directorship of the USA Basketball Men’s National Team, and even a yearly gig calling the Final Four. Hill’s father, Calvin, used to tell him that there were always a lot of reasons but never any excuses, and Game is a distillation of a lifetime’s effort to understand the reasons—the good and the bad. At his hardest moments, Hill sought out wisdom from others, stories of inspiration and overcoming obstacles. Now, with Game, he has returned the favor.

Praise For Game: An Autobiography
“I have long said that if it wasn’t for an injury while playing in the NBA, Grant Hill would have gone down as one of the best all-around NBA players the game has ever seen. Before his injury, he was doing things that we’ve only seen from Michael, Kobe and LeBron. He has added to his legacy by writing a remarkably honest and reflective book about the journey—a book about the struggles, and about the grind, but also about the love that made it all worthwhile. I was moved and inspired.” —Earvin “Magic” Johnson, American former professional basketball player and former president of basketball operations of the Los Angeles Lakers


Click for more detail about She Persisted: Marian Anderson by Katheryn Russell-Brown She Persisted: Marian Anderson

by Katheryn Russell-Brown
Philomel Books (Jun 07, 2022)
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Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger, a chapter book series about women who spoke up and rose up against the odds—including Marian Anderson!

When renowned classical singer Marian Anderson wasn’t allowed to sing at a theater in Washington, DC, because she was Black, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt invited her to sing at the Lincoln Memorial, at a concert attended by thousands of people. Marian went on to sing around the world on behalf of the UN and the US State Department, and as a part of the Civil Rights Movement, she also performed at the March on Washington. She went on to win many awards, including the first ever Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award—and she inspired countless people along the way.

In this chapter book biography by award-winning author Katheryn Russell-Brown, readers learn about the amazing life of Marian Anderson—and how she persisted.

Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton, black-and-white illustrations throughout, and a list of ways that readers can follow in Marian Anderson’s footsteps and make a difference!

And don’t miss out on the rest of the books in the She Persisted series, featuring so many more women who persisted, including Coretta Scott King, Harriet Tubman, Ruby Bridges, and more!


Click for more detail about Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley Nightcrawling

by Leila Mottley
Knopf Publishing Group (Jun 07, 2022)
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Oprah announced Nightcrawling as the selection, on June 7, 2022, on CBS Mornings

Mottley joined the hosts in the studio to discuss the latest Oprah’s Book Club selection and the surprising way she found out her novel was being chosen (see video below). “It brings me great joy to introduce readers to new authors, and this young poet Leila Mottley wrote a soul-searching portrait of survival and hope,” said Oprah Winfrey. “I was absolutely floored when Ms. Winfrey popped up in what I thought was going to be a regular meeting,” said Leila Mottley. “It was the surprise of a lifetime! I am beyond grateful to be able to share my debut novel with the passionate readers of Oprah’s Book Club.”

Nightcrawling tells the story of Kiara and her brother, Marcus, who are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent—which has more than doubled—and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.

More About Nightcrawling

Nightcrawling is a scorching, incredibly readable book that takes seriously the task of readerly provocation on every page. Get ready. Or don’t. It doesn’t matter. Leila Mottley is here.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

“Leila Mottley’s commanding debut, inspired by the life events of one woman’s struggle for body and soul against crushing exploitation, is fierce and devastating, rendered with electrifying urgency by this colossal young talent.” —Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison.

But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent--which has more than doubled--and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.

Rich with raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.


Click for more detail about Mae Makes a Way: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat & History Maker by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Mae Makes a Way: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat & History Maker

by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Crown Books for Young Readers (May 24, 2022)
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Mae had a dream to make one-of-a-kind hats. But the path for a Black female designer was unclear, so Mae made a way, leaving her home in the segregated South to study at the Chicago School of Millinery.

Spread from the book Mae Makes a Way

Mae had the skills but craved the independence to create her own styles. So, Mae found a way. In Philadelphia, she became the first Black woman to own a business on South Street. Whether you were Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Marian Anderson, or a lady from the neighborhood, Mae wanted you to look good and feel special in one of her original hats.

Perfect for fans of Hidden Figures, Fancy Party Gowns: The Story of Fashion Designer Ann Cole Lowe, and Mae Among the Stars, this inspirational and informative picture book biography paints a picture of the mother, businesswoman, and community advocate who led the way for Black women in fashion. The book also includes interviews with Mae Reeve’s daughter.

Published in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, acclaimed author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (Two Naomis) and award-winning illustrator Andrea Pippins (I Love My Hair) bring the life of fashion entrepreneur and civic organizer Mae Reeves to the page. And when you are done reading, explore Mae’s store and styles in person at her permanent exhibit at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.


Click for more detail about Migrations: A History of Where We All Came from by David Olusoga Migrations: A History of Where We All Came from

by David Olusoga
DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) (May 24, 2022)
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Discover how the migration of peoples has shaped the modern world.

This beautifully illustrated book details the movement of people and cultures around the world – from the early migrations of Homo erectus out of Africa 50,000 years ago to modern refugee movements and migrations.

Through vibrant photographs, illustrations, and maps, Migrations explores famous (and infamous) movements in history, from the Middle Passage and Trail of Tears to the California Gold Rush, the Italian diaspora, and the Windrush generation.

While many traditional world histories focus on (mainly European) “exploration” and “discovery,” Migrations explores the story of each continent and focuses on cultures rather than conquest. Migrations highlights the human story and the positives: what has survived, not just what was destroyed.

Migrations is a history book with a fresh perspective, focusing on a topic ever more relevant in the modern world: Where did we come from? And what brought us here?


Click for more detail about Break This House by Candice Iloh Break This House

by Candice Iloh
Dutton Books for Young Readers (May 24, 2022)
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From Printz honoree and National Book Award Finalist Candice Iloh, a prose novel about a teenager reckoning with her family’s—and her hometown’s—secrets.

Yaminah Okar left Obsidian and the wreckage of her family years ago. She and her father have made lives for themselves in Brooklyn. She thinks she’s moved on to bigger and better things. She thinks she’s finally left behind that city she would rather forget. But when a Facebook message about her estranged mother pierces Yaminah’s new bubble, memories of everything that happened before her parents’ divorce come roaring back. Now, Yaminah must finally reckon with the truth about her mother and the growing collapse of a place she once called home.


Click for more detail about The Queen Of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes The Queen Of Kindergarten

by Derrick Barnes
Nancy Paulsen Books (May 23, 2022)
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A confident little Black girl has a fantastic first day of school in this companion to the New York Times bestseller The King of Kindergarten.

MJ is more than ready for her first day of kindergarten! With her hair freshly braided and her mom’s special tiara on her head, she knows she’s going to rock kindergarten. But the tiara isn’t just for show—it also reminds her of all the good things she brings to the classroom, stuff like her kindness, friendliness, and impressive soccer skills, too! Like The King of Kindergarten, this is the perfect book to reinforce back-to-school excitement and build confidence in the newest students.


Click for more detail about History Smashers: The Underground Railroad by Kate Messner History Smashers: The Underground Railroad

by Kate Messner
Random House Books for Young Readers (May 17, 2022)
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Myths! Lies! Secrets! Uncover the hidden truth about the Underground Railroad and Black Americans' struggle for freedom. Perfect for fans of I Survived! and Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales.

Before the Civil War, there was a crack team of abolitionists who used quilts and signal lanterns to guide enslaved people to freedom. RIGHT? WRONG! The truth is, the Underground Railroad wasn't very organized, and most freedom seekers were on their own.

With a mix of sidebars, illustrations, photos, and graphic panels, acclaimed author Kate Messner and coauthor and Brown Bookshelf contributor Gwendolyn Hooks deliver the whole truth about the Underground Railroad.

Discover the nonfiction series that smashes everything you thought you knew about history!


Click for more detail about Rising Troublemaker by Luvvie Ajayi Rising Troublemaker

by Luvvie Ajayi
Philomel Books (May 17, 2022)
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In this young readers edition of her New York Times bestseller Professional Troublemaker, Luvvie Ajayi Jones uses her honesty and humor to inspire teens to be their bravest, boldest, truest selves, in order to create a world they would be proud to live in.The world can feel like a dumpster fire, with endless things to be afraid of. It can make you feel powerless to ask for what you need, use your voice, and show up truly as your whole self. Add the fact that often, people might make you feel like your way of showing up is TOO MUCH. BE TOO MUCH, and use it for good. That is what it means to be a troublemaker. In this book, Luvvie Ajayi Jones - bestseller of books, sorceress of side-eyes and critic of culture - gives you the permission you might need to be the troublemaker you are, or wish to be. This is the book she needed when she was the kid who got in trouble for her mouth when she spoke up about what she felt was not fair. This is the book she needed when kids made fun of her Nigerian accent. This is the book that she needed when it was time to call herself a writer, but she was too scared. As a Rising Troublemaker, you need to know that the beautiful, audacious life you want is on the other side of doing the things that will scare you. This book will help you face and fight your fear and start living that life ASAP.                                     


Click for more detail about His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice

by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa
Viking (May 17, 2022)
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“Since we know George Floyd’s death with tragic clarity, we must know Floyd’s America—and life—with tragic clarity. Essential for our times.” —Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist

“A much-needed portrait of the life, times, and martyrdom of George Floyd, a chronicle of the racial awakening sparked by his brutal and untimely death, and an essential work of history I hope everyone will read.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song

A landmark biography by two prizewinning Washington Post reporters that reveals how systemic racism shaped George Floyd’s life and legacy—from his family’s roots in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to ongoing inequality in housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and policing—telling the story of how one man’s tragic experience brought about a global movement for change.

The events of that day are now tragically familiar: on May 25, 2020, George Floyd became the latest Black person to die at the hands of the police, murdered outside of a Minneapolis convenience store by white officer Derek Chauvin. The video recording of his death set off the largest protest movement in the history of the United States, awakening millions to the pervasiveness of racial injustice. But long before his face was painted onto countless murals and his name became synonymous with civil rights, Floyd was a father, partner, athlete, and friend who constantly strove for a better life.

His Name Is George Floyd tells the story of a beloved figure from Houston’s housing projects as he faced the stifling systemic pressures that come with being a Black man in America. Placing his narrative within the context of the country’s enduring legacy of institutional racism, this deeply reported account examines Floyd’s family roots in slavery and sharecropping, the segregation of his schools, the overpolicing of his community amid a wave of mass incarceration, and the callous disregard toward his struggle with addiction—putting today’s inequality into uniquely human terms. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews with Floyd’s closest friends and family, his elementary school teachers and varsity coaches, civil rights icons, and those in the highest seats of political power, Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa offer a poignant and moving exploration of George Floyd’s America, revealing how a man who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The World Belonged To Us by Jacqueline Woodson The World Belonged To Us

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (May 10, 2022)
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The World Belonged To Us is a celebration of playing – the collaborative, imaginative, joyful playing of my childhood in Brooklyn. I wrote these books for myself at first because I needed to remember all the places in our lives where happiness prevails. I’m beyond excited to share that joy with young people and anyone else who needs it.”

Leo Espinosa remarks, “I first felt connected to the story of The World Belonged To Us because I am a child of the 70’s and it brought up vivid memories of the priceless moments I shared with my friends in the street, always running, pedaling, laughing; just us, making up our own rules. Though my childhood happened in another country, many miles away from Brooklyn, the feeling was exactly the same.”


Click for more detail about Our Unfinished March: The Violent Past and Imperiled Future of the Vote-A History, a Crisis, a Plan by Eric Holder Our Unfinished March: The Violent Past and Imperiled Future of the Vote-A History, a Crisis, a Plan

by Eric Holder
One World (May 10, 2022)
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A brutal, bloody, and at times hopeful history of the vote; a primer on the opponents fighting to take it away; and a playbook for how we can save our democracy before it’s too late—from the former U.S. Attorney General on the front lines of this fight

Voting is our most important right as Americans—“the right that protects all the others,” as Lyndon Johnson famously said when he signed the Voting Rights Act—but it’s also the one most violently contested throughout U.S. history. Since the gutting of the act in the landmark Shelby County v. Holder case in 2013, many states have passed laws restricting the vote. After the 2020 election, President Trump’s effort to overturn the vote has evolved into a slow-motion coup, with many Republicans launching an all-out assault on our democracy. The vote seems to be in unprecedented peril.

But the peril is not at all unprecedented. America is a fragile democracy, Eric Holder argues, whose citizens have only had unfettered access to the ballot since the 1960s. He takes readers through three dramatic stories of how the vote was won: first by white men, through violence and insurrection; then by white women, through protests and mass imprisonments; and finally by African Americans, in the face of lynchings and terrorism. Next, he dives into how the vote has been stripped away since Shelby—a case in which Holder was one of the parties. He ends with visionary chapters on how we can reverse this tide of voter suppression and become a true democracy where every voice is heard and every vote is counted.

Full of surprising history, intensive analysis, and actionable plans for the future, this is a powerful primer on our most urgent political struggle from one of the country’s leading advocates.


Click for more detail about Most Perfect You by Jazmyn Simon Most Perfect You

by Jazmyn Simon
Random House Books for Young Readers (May 03, 2022)
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Jazmyn Simon’s debut is a moving love letter to children struggling to accept themselves inside and out—exactly as they are. This gorgeous picture book was inspired by a conversation between the author and her daughter.

I was shown all the smiles in the entire world. I looked at all of the many bright smiles until I found my favorite: your smile.

After comparing herself to other little girls, Irie confides in her mama that she feels something is wrong with her, that she’s not perfect as she is. And so Irie’s mama tells the magical story of how Irie was intentionally and wonderfully made. In fact, Irie is made up of all her mother’s favorite things: sparkling eyes, a bright smile, and a kind heart.

Actor and activist Jazmyn Simon’s tender picture book emphasizes the unique beauty and strength of all children, encouraging them to love their most perfect selves.


Click for more detail about Black No More by George S. Schuyler Black No More

by George S. Schuyler
Penguin Group USA (May 01, 2022)
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A biting 1931 science fiction satire of American racism, and one of the first works of Afrofuturism.

It’s New Years Day in 1933 in New York City and Max Disher, a young black man, has just heard the news: a mysterious doctor has discovered a strange process that can turn black skin white—a new way to "solve the American race problem." Max, who is tired of being rejected and abused because of his dark skin, leaps at the opportunity. After receiving the "Black-No-More" procedure, he becomes Matthew Fisher, a white man who is able to attain everything he has ever wanted: money, power, and a beautiful wife. But it soon becomes apparent that America, whiter than ever, is becoming more and more dangerous …

An extraordinary, cutting satire, Black No More is an utterly unique work of science fiction, and one of the first works of Black speculative fiction.


Click for more detail about Always with You, Always with Me by Kelly Rowland and Jessica McKay Always with You, Always with Me

by Kelly Rowland and Jessica McKay
Viking Books for Young Readers (Apr 26, 2022)
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An instant New York Times bestseller!
A loving ode to modern motherhood by Kelly Rowland and Jessica McKay.

Grammy Award-winning artist Kelly Rowland and educator Jessica McKay have crafted a lyrical celebration of working moms everywhere and a soothing story for their children. As a mother gets ready to go to work, first she works on building the world for her child. Because it can sometimes be hard to be separated during the day, Mom collects some simple words that she and her child can repeat whenever they are missing each other or feeling overwhelmed:

Always with you,
always with me,
mommy and child,
together we’ll be.

For any child who needs a little reassurance or just to share a sweet gesture of affection, Always with You, Always with Me is a loving tribute to families that honors the work a mother does both inside and outside of the home.


Click for more detail about Truth’s Table: Black Women’s Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation by Ekemini Uwan, Christina Edmondson, Michelle Higgins Truth’s Table: Black Women’s Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation

by Ekemini Uwan, Christina Edmondson, Michelle Higgins
Convergent Books (Apr 26, 2022)
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A collection of essays and stories documenting the lived theology and spirituality we need to hear in order to lean into a more freeing, loving, and liberating faith—from the hosts of the beloved Truth’s Table podcast

“The liberating work of Truth’s Table creates breathing room to finally have those conversations we’ve been needing to have.”—Morgan Harper Nichols, artist and poet

Once upon a time, an activist, a theologian, and a psychologist walked into a group chat. Everything was laid out on the table: Dating. Politics. The Black church. Pop culture. Soon, other Black women began pulling up chairs to gather round. And so, the Truth’s Table podcast was born.

In their literary debut, co-hosts Christina Edmondson, Michelle Higgins, and Ekemini Uwan offer stories by Black women and for Black women examining theology, politics, race, culture, and gender matters through a Christian lens. For anyone seeking to explore the spiritual dimensions of hot-button issues within the church, or anyone thirsty to deepen their faith, Truth’s Table provides exactly the survival guide we need, including:

• Michelle Higgins’s unforgettable treatise revealing the way “racial reconciliation” is a spiritually bankrupt, empty promise that can often drain us of the ability to do real justice work
• Ekemini Uwan’s exploration of Blackness as the image of God in the past, present, and future
• Christina Edmondson’s reimagination of what a more just and liberating form of church discipline might look like—one that acknowledges and speaks to the trauma in the room

These essays deliver a compelling theological re-education and pair the spiritual formation and political education necessary for Black women of faith.


Click for more detail about Shine Bright: A Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith Shine Bright: A Personal History of Black Women in Pop

by Danyel Smith
Roc Lit 101 (Apr 19, 2022)
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American pop music is arguably this country’s greatest cultural contribution to the world, and its singular voice and virtuosity were created by a shining thread of Black women geniuses stretching back to the country’s founding. This is their surprising, heartbreaking, soaring story—written by one of the preeminent cultural critics of her generation.

A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the family stereo.

Smith’s detailed narrative begins with Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who sang her poems, and continues through the stories of Mahalia Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and Mariah Carey, as well as the under-considered careers of Marilyn McCoo, Deniece Williams, and Jody Watley.

Shine Bright is an overdue paean to musical masters whose true stories and genius have been hidden in plain sight—and the book Danyel Smith was born to write.


Click for more detail about Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez Take My Hand

by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Berkley Books (Apr 12, 2022)
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A searing and compassionate new novel about a young Black nurse’s shocking discovery and the burning quest for justice in post-segregation Alabama, from the AALBC and New York Times bestselling author of Wench.

Montgomery, Alabama, 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend intends to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she hopes to help women shape their destinies, to make their own choices for their lives and bodies.

But when her first week on the job takes her along a dusty country road to a worn-down one-room cabin, Civil is shocked to learn that her new patients, Erica and India, are children—just eleven and thirteen years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black, and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits, that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica, and their family into her heart. Until one day she arrives at their door to learn the unthinkable has happened, and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.

Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace, and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten. That must not be forgotten.

Because history repeats what we don’t remember.

Inspired by true events and brimming with hope, Take My Hand is a stirring exploration of accountability and redemption.

Praise For Take My Hand…

“Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a brilliant writer in a class all by herself. I love her voice and how she makes the past feel immediate and relevant, because it is.”
Terry McMillan, #1 AALBC and New York Times bestselling author

“Dolen Perkins Valdez takes a moment in our history that has been hidden inside the folds of time and she brings those heinous acts back into the light. This is a riveting story of one woman’s fight against a system that believes it has the right to determine who should give birth in this country and who should not. Civil Townsend’s plight as she seeks justice is heartbreaking, but also inspiring, reminding us that one woman can stand and make a difference. Beautifully written in typical Dolen Perkins Valdez’s style, I didn’t put this book down until I closed the last page and even then, I wanted more.”
Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling author of The Personal Librarian

“Delicate and poetic, Dolen manages to fuse beauty and tragedy in her work, which makes her a masterful storyteller and gifted writer. In this story, Dolen speaks eloquently for those who, in being denied the right of having a choice and agency over their bodies, have lost their voice. This haunting tale, captured through the lens of an unforgettable narrator and a cast of memorable characters, will stay with you for a very, very long time.”
Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of bestselling novels Patsy and Here Comes the Sun


Click for more detail about Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson Constructing a Nervous System: A Memoir

by Margo Jefferson
Pantheon Books (Apr 12, 2022)
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A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, TIME Magazine, Oprah Daily, The New Yorker, Washington Post, Vulture, Buzzfeed, Publishers Weekly

**ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE FINALIST**

The Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and memoirist Margo Jefferson has lived in the thrall of a cast of others—her parents and maternal grandmother, jazz luminaries, writers, artists, athletes, and stars. These are the figures who thrill and trouble her, and who have made up her sense of self as a person and as a writer. In her much-anticipated follow-up to Negroland, Jefferson brings these figures to life in a memoir of stunning originality, a performance of the elements that comprise and occupy the mind of one of our foremost critics.

In Constructing a Nervous System, Jefferson shatters her self into pieces and recombines them into a new and vital apparatus on the page, fusing the criticism that she is known for, fragments of the family members she grieves for, and signal moments from her life, as well as the words of those who have peopled her past and accompanied her in her solitude, dramatized here like never before. Bing Crosby and Ike Turner are among the author’s alter egos. The sounds of a jazz LP emerge as the intimate and instructive sounds of a parent’s voice. W. E. B. Du Bois and George Eliot meet illicitly. The muscles and movements of a ballerina are spliced with those of an Olympic runner, becoming a template for what a black female body can be.

The result is a wildly innovative work of depth and stirring beauty. It is defined by fractures and dissonance, longing and ecstasy, and a persistent searching. Jefferson interrogates her own self as well as the act of writing memoir, and probes the fissures at the center of American cultural life.


Click for more detail about Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi Peaces

by Helen Oyeyemi
Riverhead Books (Apr 05, 2022)
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"Enchanting … the most surprising, confounding, and oddly insightful couple’s trip in recent literary history."Entertainment Weekly

The prize-winning, bestselling author of Gingerbread; Boy, Snow, Bird; and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours returns with a vivid and inventive new novel about a couple forever changed by an unusual train voyage.

When Otto and Xavier Shin declare their love, an aunt gifts them a trip on a sleeper train to mark their new commitment—and to get them out of her house. Setting off with their pet mongoose, Otto and Xavier arrive at their sleepy local train station, but quickly deduce that The Lucky Day is no ordinary locomotive. Their trip on this former tea-smuggling train has been curated beyond their wildest imaginations, complete with mysterious and welcoming touches, like ingredients for their favorite breakfast. They seem to be the only people on board, until Otto discovers a secretive woman who issues a surprising message. As further clues and questions pile up, and the trip upends everything they thought they knew, Otto and Xavier begin to see connections to their own pasts, connections that now bind them together.

A spellbinding tale from a star author, Peaces is about what it means to be seen by another person—whether it’s your lover or a stranger on a train—and what happens when things you thought were firmly in the past turn out to be right beside you.


Click for more detail about Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow Memphis

by Tara M. Stringfellow
The Dial Press (Apr 05, 2022)
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A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s discovery that she has the power to change her family’s legacy.ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Oprah Daily, Essence, Glamour, Business Insider, Marie Claire, The Millions, She Reads, Book Riot, Bad FormSummer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger—that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush.Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love.


Click for more detail about Business Not As Usual by Sharon C. Cooper Business Not As Usual

by Sharon C. Cooper
Berkley Books (Apr 05, 2022)
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A woman learns the hard way about mixing business with pleasure in this hilarious new romantic comedy by USA Today bestselling author Sharon C. Cooper.I am beautiful. I am confident. I am lovable. I am a lottery winner.This is the mantra that will get Dreamy Daniels through each day until she makes it big. So what if she lives in a seedy part of Los Angeles in a house that’s one earthquake away from crumbling, or works an unfulfilling secretarial job while struggling to finish her bachelor’s degree? All Dreamy needs to do is win the lottery, which she’s been entering in as a weekly tradition with her grandfather. When she catches the attention of her boss’s potential investor, Dreamy has to remind herself to focus on her career goals so she can be her own boss. Who cares if he has the social grace of the Duke of Sussex and the suaveness of Idris Elba? No distractions allowed.Growing up with a father who is an A-list actor and a socialite mother, venture capitalist Karter Redford lives in the world of the rich and famous. Instead of attending movie premieres, however, he prefers spending his time helping the less fortunate, backing start-up companies and investing in cutting edge ideas. Karter is used to his life revolving around work, but when he decides he wants someone to share it with, he falls for someone his mother would never approve of: hilarious, quirky Dreamy, who has goals of her own…but also isn’t a wealthy, upper-crust socialite. Though it’s clear they’re from different worlds, their relationship might just be his greatest investment yet.


Click for more detail about Show the World! by Angela Dalton Show the World!

by Angela Dalton
Viking Books for Young Readers (Apr 05, 2022)
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A celebration of self-expression and the power of using your voice, centering Black children, and exploring the many things they can do, create, and say to make their mark.

Look around! Can you see?
The many spaces, places, and ways to
show the world all that you can be?

From painting, music, and slam poetry, to engineering, protesting, and photography, a young narrator journeys through her neighborhood, encouraging readers to explore all the many ways they can express themselves. A gorgeously illustrated and powerful celebration of self-expression shows children that there are so many spaces and opportunities to use their voices—and show the world exactly who they are.

What will you show the world?


Click for more detail about What Is Juneteenth? by Kirsti Jewel What Is Juneteenth?

by Kirsti Jewel
Penguin Workshop (Apr 05, 2022)
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Discover more about Juneteenth, the important holiday that celebrates the end of chattel slavery in the United States.

On June 19, 1865, a group of enslaved men, women, and children in Texas gathered around a Union solder and listened as he read the most remarkable words they would ever hear. They were no longer enslaved: they were free. The inhumane practice of forced labor with no pay was now illegal in all of the United States. This news was cause for celebration, so the group of people jumped in excitement, danced, and wept tears of joy. They did not know it at the time, but their joyous celebration of freedom would become a holiday—Juneteenth—that is observed each year by more and more Americans.

Author Kirsti Jewel shares stories from Juneteenth celebrations, both past and present, and chronicles the history that led to the creation of this joyous day.

With 80 black-and-white illustrations and an engaging 16-page photo insert, readers will be excited to read this latest addition to Who HQ!


Click for more detail about The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia C. Mckissack The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural

by Patricia C. Mckissack
Yearling (Mar 29, 2022)
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In that special half-hour of twilight—the dark-thirty—there are stories to be told. Mesmerizing, suspenseful, and breathtakingly original, these tales make up a heart-stopping collection of lasting value, a book not quickly forgotten.

Originally published in 1992.


Click for more detail about Nature Lover #6 by Kelly Starling Lyons Nature Lover #6

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Penguin Workshop (Mar 29, 2022)
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Jada Jones is back for the sixth book of this popular, celebrated series perfect for STEM fans!

Readers who love Ivy and Bean or Katie Woo will want to meet Jada Jones. —School Library Journal

Jada is thrilled when she gets to go on an outdoor class field trip with her Pop Pop, a nature lover, as a chaperone. She can’t wait to show him off to her friends—and show him what she knows. But the trip has some twists along the way, including a soaring zip line she’s not sure she wants to try. What happens when Jada’s shining moment starts to lose its luster?

Praise for Jada Jones: Rock Star
Fast-paced, with supersimple vocabulary and a smattering of earth science to spark interest in young rock collectors everywhere. —Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire by Caroline Elkins Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire

by Caroline Elkins
Knopf Publishing Group (Mar 29, 2022)
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From a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian: a searing study of the British Empire that probes the country’s pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century and traces how these practices were exported, modified, and institutionalized in colonies around the globe

Sprawling across a quarter of the world’s land mass and claiming nearly seven hundred million people, Britain’s twentieth-century empire was the largest empire in human history. For many Britons, it epitomized their nation’s cultural superiority. But what legacy did the island nation deliver to the world? Covering more than two hundred years of history, Caroline Elkins reveals an evolutionary and racialized doctrine that espoused an unrelenting deployment of violence to secure and preserve the nation’s imperial interests. She outlines how ideological foundations of violence were rooted in the Victorian era calls for punishing recalcitrant "natives," and how over time, its forms became increasingly systematized. And she makes clear that when Britain could no longer maintain control over the violence it provoked and enacted, it retreated from empire, destroying and hiding incriminating evidence of its policies and practices.

Drawing on more than a decade of research on four continents, Legacy of Violence implicates all sides of Britain’s political divide in the creation, execution, and cover-up of imperial violence. By demonstrating how and why violence was the most salient factor underwriting Britain’s empire and the nation’s imperial identity at home, Elkins upends long-held myths and sheds new light on empire’s role in shaping the world today.


Click for more detail about Just Try One Bite by Adam Mansbach Just Try One Bite

by Adam Mansbach
Dial Books (Mar 22, 2022)
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From the bestselling author of Go the **** to Sleep and healthy eating advocate Camila Alves McConaughey comes a whimsical role reversal in which picky eater parents are confronted by their three kids, with hilarious results

These three kids are determined to get their parents to put down the ice cream, cake, and chicken fried steak to just try one bite of healthy whole foods. But it’s harder than it looks when these over-the-top gagging, picky parents refuse to give things like broccoli and kale a chance. Kids will love the jaunty rhyme that’s begging to be read aloud and the opportunity to be way smarter—and healthier—than their parents.


Click for more detail about Homecoming: Overcome Fear and Trauma to Reclaim Your Whole, Authentic Self by Thema Bryant Homecoming: Overcome Fear and Trauma to Reclaim Your Whole, Authentic Self

by Thema Bryant
TarcherPerigee (Mar 15, 2022)
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A road map for dismantling the fear and shame that keep you from living a free and authentic life.

In the aftermath of stress, disappointment, and trauma, people often fall into survival mode, even while a part of them longs for more. Juggling multiple demands and responsibilities keeps them busy, but not healed. As a survivor of sexual assault, racism, and evacuation from a civil war in Liberia, Dr. Thema Bryant knows intimately the work involved in healing. Having made the journey herself, in addition to guiding others as a clinical psychologist and ordained minister, Dr. Thema shows you how to reconnect with your authentic self and reclaim your time, your voice, your life.

Signs of disconnection from self can take many forms, including people-pleasing, depression, anxiety, and resentment. Healing starts with recognizing and expressing emotions in an honest way and reconnecting with the neglected parts of yourself, but it can’t be done in a vacuum. Dr. Thema gives you the tools to meaningfully connect with your larger community, even if you face racism and sexism, heartbreak, grief, and trauma. Rather than shrinking in the face of life’s difficulties, you will discover in Homecoming the therapeutic approaches and spiritual practices to live a more expansive life characterized by empowerment, healthier relationships, gratitude, and a deeper sense of purpose.


Click for more detail about Emile and the Field by Kevin Young Emile and the Field

by Kevin Young
Make Me a World (Mar 15, 2022)
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In this lyrical picture book from an award-winning poet, a young boy cherishes a neighborhood field throughout the changing seasons. With stunning illustrations and a charming text, this beautiful story celebrates a child’s relationship with nature.

There was a boy
named Emile
who fell
in love with a field.

It was wide
and blue—
and if you could have
seen it
so would’ve you.

Emile loves the field close to his home—in spring, summer, and fall, when it gives him bees and flowers, blossoms and leaves. But not as much in winter, when he has to share his beautiful, changeable field with other children…and their sleds. This relatable and lyrical ode to one boy’s love for his neighborhood field celebrates how spending time in nature allows children to dream, to imagine…and even to share.


Click for more detail about When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo When We Were Birds

by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
Doubleday Books (Mar 15, 2022)
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One of NPR.org’s Best Books of the Year

A mythic love story set in Trinidad, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s radiant debut is a masterwork of lush imagination and exuberant storytelling—a spellbinding and hopeful novel about inheritance, loss, and love’s seismic power to heal.

In the old house on a hill, where the city meets the rainforest, Yejide’s mother is dying. She is leaving behind a legacy that now passes to Yejide: one St Bernard woman in every generation has the power to shepherd the city’s souls into the afterlife. But after years of suffering her mother’s neglect and bitterness, Yejide is looking for a way out.

Raised in the countryside by a devout Rastafarian mother, Darwin has always abided by the religious commandment not to interact with death. He has never been to a funeral, much less seen a dead body. But when the only job he can find is grave digging, he must betray the life his mother built for him in order to provide for them both. Newly shorn of his dreadlocks and his past, and determined to prove himself, Darwin finds himself adrift in a city electric with possibility and danger.

Yejide and Darwin will meet inside the gates of Fidelis, an ancient and sprawling cemetery, where the dead lie uneasy in their graves and a reckoning with fate beckons them both.


Click for more detail about Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo Glory

by NoViolet Bulawayo
Viking (Mar 08, 2022)
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2022 BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST

“Manifoldly clever…brilliant… Glory is its own vivid world, drawn from its own folklore. This is a satire with sharper teeth, angrier, and also very, very funny.” —Violet Kupersmith, The New York Times Book Review

“Genius.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds

From the award-winning author of the Booker-prize finalist We Need New Names, an exhilarating novel about the fall of an oppressive regime, and the chaos and opportunity that rise in its wake.

NoViolet Bulawayo’s bold new novel follows the fall of the Old Horse, the long-serving leader of a fictional country, and the drama that follows for a rumbustious nation of animals on the path to true liberation. Inspired by the unexpected fall by coup in November 2017 of Robert G. Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president of nearly four decades, Glory shows a country’s imploding, narrated by a chorus of animal voices that unveil the ruthlessness required to uphold the illusion of absolute power and the imagination and bulletproof optimism to overthrow it completely. By immersing readers in the daily lives of a population in upheaval, Bulawayo reveals the dazzling life force and irresistible wit that lie barely concealed beneath the surface of seemingly bleak circumstances.

And at the center of this tumult is Destiny, a young goat who returns to Jidada to bear witness to revolution—and to recount the unofficial history and the potential legacy of the females who have quietly pulled the strings here. The animal kingdom—its connection to our primal responses and its resonance in the mythology, folktales, and fairy tales that define cultures the world over—unmasks the surreality of contemporary global politics to help us understand our world more clearly, even as Bulawayo plucks us right out of it.

Although Zimbabwe is the immediate inspiration for this thrilling story, Glory was written in a time of global clamor, with resistance movements across the world challenging different forms of oppression. Thus it often feels like Bulawayo captures several places in one blockbuster allegory, crystallizing a turning point in history with the texture and nuance that only the greatest fiction can.


Click for more detail about Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head: Poems by Warsan Shire Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head: Poems

by Warsan Shire
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Mar 01, 2022)
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Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma, and resilience from the celebrated collaborator on Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Black Is King, award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire

"The beautifully crafted poems in this collection are fiercely tender gifts."—Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist

"Shire is the real thing—fresh, cutting, indisputably alive."—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

Longlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize - One of the Best Books of the Year: Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly

Mama, I made it / out of your home / alive, raised by / the voices / in my head.

With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. In Shire’s hands, lives spring into fullness. This is noisy life, full of music and weeping and surahs and sirens and birds. This is fragrant life, full of blood and perfume and shisha smoke and jasmine and incense. This is polychrome life, full of henna and moonlight and lipstick and turmeric and kohl. The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets, this book is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of resilience and survival. Each reader will come away changed.


Click for more detail about Why Not You? by Ciara and Russell Wilson Why Not You?

by Ciara and Russell Wilson
Random House Books for Young Readers (Mar 01, 2022)
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From Grammy-winning pop star Ciara and Super Bowl champion quarterback Russell Wilson comes a picture book to inspire young readers to see the value in themselves, be brave, and go after their biggest dreams!

Why not you? Amazing you! You’re a winner! You’re so strong! You are perfect and important—you and all your gifts belong!

We all have big dreams! Sometimes it’s hard to imagine our big dreams coming true. But what if someone saw all the amazing and spectacular parts of us—our winning smiles, our fancy feet, our warm hearts—and asked, “Why not you?”

Whether it’s becoming a football player or a pop star or the president or a scientist: Why not you?

In this picture book debut, superstars Ciara and Russell Wilson encourage readers to see themselves achieving their dreams, no matter how outrageous they may seem. It’s a lyrical celebration of self-esteem, perseverance, and daring to shoot for the stars.


Click for more detail about I’m So (Not) Over You by Kosoko Jackson I’m So (Not) Over You

by Kosoko Jackson
Berkley Books (Feb 22, 2022)
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One of… Essence’s New Books We Can’t Wait To Read In 2022 Oprah Daily’s Most Anticipated Romance Novels of 2022 Buzzfeed’s Highly Anticipated LGBTQ Romance Novels in 2022 Popsugar’s New Romance Novels That Will Make You Fall in Love With 2022 BookRiot’s Most Anticipated New Adult Romance Reads For Spring 2022 E! News and LifeSavvy’s February Books to Fall in Love With Bustle’s Most Anticipated Books of February Betches’ Books You Need to Read in 2022A chance to rewrite their ending is worth the risk in this swoony romantic comedy from Kosoko Jackson. It’s been months since aspiring journalist Kian Andrews has heard from his ex-boyfriend, Hudson Rivers, but an urgent text has them meeting at a café. Maybe Hudson wants to profusely apologize for the breakup. Or confess his undying love… But no, Hudson has a favor to ask—he wants Kian to pretend to be his boyfriend while his parents are in town, and Kian reluctantly agrees. The dinner doesn’t go exactly as planned, and suddenly Kian is Hudson’s plus one to Georgia’s wedding of the season. Hudson comes from a wealthy family where reputation is everything, and he really can’t afford another mistake. If Kian goes, he’ll help Hudson preserve appearances and get the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in media. This could be the big career break Kian needs. But their fake relationship is starting to feel like it might be more than a means to an end, and it’s time for both men to fact-check their feelings.


Click for more detail about Level Up by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery Level Up

by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery
Portfolio (Feb 22, 2022)
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An inspiring and revelatory guide to starting and scaling a small business, from powerhouse duo Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodgson Like many business owners, renowned politician and activist Stacey Abrams didn’t start a business because she dreamed of calling herself an entrepreneur. Her part-time post (and its $17,310 annual salary) as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives necessitated striking out on her own as a consultant—her first small business. Then, Stacey and her friend Lara Hodgson launched an infrastructure advisory firm—named Insomnia Consulting because they did their best thinking at 3:00 a.m.—and then another business, and then another. Fifteen years into their entrepreneurial journey together, they have tackled the obstacles that many business owners face: how to grow sustainably, hire thoughtfully, and keep up with the Goliaths in your industry. Now, for the first time, Stacey and Lara share their inspiring and relatable personal story and lessons learned the hard way to show how every business owner can confront the forces that conspire to keep small businesses small. Lauded for her “resilient, visionary leadership” (Barack Obama) and celebrated as a “passionate advocate of democracy” (Madeleine Albright), Stacey now brings her fierce sense of justice to the challenges that America’s business owners face. Level Up arms readers with the confidence, know-how, and savvy to overcome the obstacles that hold their businesses back.


Click for more detail about Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James Moon Witch, Spider King

by Marlon James
Riverhead Books (Feb 15, 2022)
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From Marlon James, author of the bestselling National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the second book in the Dark Star trilogy, his African Game of Thrones.

In Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Sogolon the Moon Witch proved a worthy adversary to Tracker as they clashed across a mythical African landscape in search of a mysterious boy who disappeared. In Moon Witch, Spider King, Sogolon takes center stage and gives her own account of what happened to the boy, and how she plotted and fought, triumphed and failed as she looked for him. It’s also the story of a century-long feud—seen through the eyes of a 177-year-old witch—that Sogolon had with the Aesi, chancellor to the king. It is said that Aesi works so closely with the king that together they are like the eight limbs of one spider. Aesi’s power is considerable—and deadly. It takes brains and courage to challenge him, which Sogolon does for reasons of her own.

Both a brilliant narrative device—seeing the story told in Black Leopard, Red Wolf from the perspective of an adversary and a woman—as well as a fascinating battle between different versions of empire, Moon Witch, Spider King delves into Sogolon’s world as she fights to tell her own story. Part adventure tale, part chronicle of an indomitable woman who bows to no man, it is a fascinating novel that explores power, personality, and the places where they overlap.


Click for more detail about Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi Bitter

by Akwaeke Emezi
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Feb 15, 2022)
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From National Book Award finalist Akwaeke Emezi comes a companion novel to the critically acclaimed PET that explores both the importance and cost of social revolution—and how youth lead the way.After a childhood in foster care, Bitter is thrilled to have been chosen to attend Eucalyptus, a special school where she can focus on her painting surrounded by other creative teens. But outside this haven, the streets are filled with protests against the deep injustices that grip the city of Lucille. Bitter’s instinct is to stay safe within the walls of Eucalyptus … but  her  friends  aren’t  willing  to  settle  for  a  world  that’s  so  far  away from what they deserve. Pulled between old friendships, her artistic passion, and a new romance, Bitter isn’t sure where she  belongs—in  the  studio  or  in  the  streets.  And  if  she  does  find a way to help the revolution while being true to who she is, she must also ask: at what cost?  This  timely  and  riveting  novel—a  companion  to  the  National  Book Award finalist Pet—explores the power of youth, protest, and art. 


Click for more detail about Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky

by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Feb 15, 2022)
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Discover a world of creativity and tradition in this fascinating picture book that explores the history and cultural significance of the color blue. From a critically acclaimed author and an award-winning illustrator comes a vivid, gorgeous book for readers of all ages.

For centuries, blue powders and dyes were some of the most sought-after materials in the world. Ancient Afghan painters ground mass quantities of sapphire rocks to use for their paints, while snails were harvested in Eurasia for the tiny amounts of blue that their bodies would release.

And then there was indigo, which was so valuable that American plantations grew it as a cash crop on the backs of African slaves. It wasn’t until 1905, when Adolf von Baeyer created a chemical blue dye, that blue could be used for anything and everything—most notably that uniform of workers everywhere, blue jeans.

With stunning illustrations by Caldecott Honor Artist Daniel Minter, this vibrant and fascinating picture book follows one color’s journey through time and across the world, as it becomes the blue we know today.


Click for more detail about It’s about Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated Into Your Greatest Advantage by Arlan Hamilton It’s about Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated Into Your Greatest Advantage

by Arlan Hamilton
Currency (Feb 15, 2022)
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“A hero’s tale of what’s possible when we unlock our potential, continue the search for knowledge, and draw on our lived experiences to guide us through the darkest moments.”—Stacey Abrams

From a Black, gay woman who broke into the boys’ club of Silicon Valley comes an empowering guide to finding your voice, working your way into any room you want to be in, and achieving your own dreams.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY FORTUNE

In 2015, Arlan Hamilton was on food stamps and sleeping on the floor of the San Francisco airport, with nothing but an old laptop and a dream of breaking into the venture capital business. She couldn’t understand why people starting companies all looked the same (White and male), and she wanted the chance to invest in the ideas and people who didn’t conform to this image of how a founder is supposed to look. Hamilton had no contacts or network in Silicon Valley, no background in finance—not even a college degree. What she did have was fierce determination and the will to succeed.

As much as we wish it weren’t so, we still live in a world where being underrepresented often means being underestimated. But as someone who makes her living investing in high-potential founders who also happen to be female, LGBTQ, or people of color, Hamilton understands that being undervalued simply means that a big upside exists. Because even if you have to work twice as hard to get to the starting line, she says, once you are on a level playing field, you will sprint ahead.

Despite what society would have you believe, Hamilton argues, a privileged background, an influential network, and a fancy college degree are not prerequisites for success. Here she shares the hard-won wisdom she’s picked up on her remarkable journey from food-stamp recipient to venture capitalist, with lessons like “The Best Music Comes from the Worst Breakups,” “Let Someone Shorter Stand in Front of You,” “The Dangers of Hustle Porn,” and “Don’t Let Anyone Drink Your Diet Coke.” Along the way, she inspires us all to defy other people’s expectations and to become the role models we’ve been looking for.

Praise for It’s About Damn Time

"Reading Arlan Hamilton’s It’s About Damn Time is like having a conversation with that frank, bawdy friend who somehow always manages to make you laugh, get a little emo, and, ultimately, think about ­­the world in a different way… . The book is warm, witty, and unflinching in its critique of the fake meritocracy that permeates Silicon Valley."—Shondaland


Click for more detail about Dirty Bird Blues by Clarence Major Dirty Bird Blues

by Clarence Major
Penguin Group USA (Feb 08, 2022)
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A quietly influential force in African American literature and art, Clarence Major makes his Penguin Classics debut with the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of Dirty Bird Blues

Set in post-World War II Chicago and Omaha, the novel features Manfred Banks, a young, harmonica-blowing blues singer who is always writing music in his head. Torn between his friendships with fellow musicians and nightclub life and his responsibilities to his wife and child, along with the pressures of dealing with a racist America that assaults him at every turn, Manfred seeks easy answers in "Dirty Bird" (Old Crow whiskey) and in moving on. He moves to Omaha with hopes of better opportunities as a blue-collar worker, but the blues in his soul and the dreams in his mind keep bringing him back to face himself. After a nightmarish descent into his own depths, Manfred emerges with fresh awareness and possibility. Through Manfred, we witness and experience the process by which modern American English has been vitalized and strengthened by the poetry and the poignancy of the African-American experience. As Manfred struggles with the oppressive constraints of society and his private turmoil, his rich inner voice resonates with the blues.


Click for more detail about Crowned with Glory by Dorena Williamson Crowned with Glory

by Dorena Williamson
WaterBrook Press (Feb 08, 2022)
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An ode to Black hair and Black girl joy, this joy-filled rhyming picture book invites young readers into the world of a young Black girl as she rocks her God-given beauty.

Hello, world! I’m a gift from above.
I already know that I am loved.
Gazing around with a great big grin—there’s a whole wide world for me to take in.

From the hair on her head to the tips of her toes, Azira knows that she is awesome! And whether it’s styled in twists, curls, braids, Bantu knots, a textured bun, or left totally natural, her hair is just one of the countless things that helps Azira celebrate who God made her to be. She’s able to live out a beautiful story because God has crowned her with glory—and Azira wants you to do the same!

Young readers will be inspired by this empowering, uplifting reminder to always be and love who God created them to be.


Click for more detail about The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. The Prophets

by Robert Jones, Jr.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Feb 08, 2022)
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Best Book of the Year NPR - The Washington Post - Boston Globe - TIME - USA Today - Entertainment Weekly - Real Simple - Parade - Buzzfeed - Electric Literature - LitHub - BookRiot - PopSugar - Goop - Library Journal - BookBub - KCRW

  • - Finalist for the National Book Award
  • - One of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year
  • - One of the New York Times Best Historical Fiction of the Year
  • - Instant New York Times Bestseller

A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence.

Isaiah was Samuel’s and Samuel was Isaiah’s. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master’s gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel’s love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation’s harmony.

With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr., fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating slave master to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets fearlessly reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.


Click for more detail about Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word - With a New Introduction by the Author by Randall Kennedy Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word - With a New Introduction by the Author

by Randall Kennedy
Pantheon Books (Feb 08, 2022)
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The twentieth anniversary edition of one of the most controversial books ever published on race and language is now more relevant than ever in this season of racial reckoning.

In addition to a brave and bracing inquiry into the origins, uses and impact of the infamous word, this edition features an extensive new introduction accounting for major developments in its evolution during the last two decades of its vexed history.


In the new introduction to his classic work, Kennedy questions the claim that "nigger" is the most tabooed term in the American language, faced with the implacable prevalence of its old-fashioned anti-Black sense. "Nigger" continues to be part of the loud soundtrack of the worst instances of racial aggression in American life—racially motivated assaults and murders, arson, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and workplace harassment.

Consider this: twenty years ago, Kennedy wrote that any major politician credibly accused of using "nigger" would be immediately abandoned and ostracized. He was wrong. Donald Trump, POTUS himself, was credibly charged, and the allegation caused little more than a yawn. No one doubted the accuracy of the claim but amidst all his other racist acts his "nigger-baiting" no longer seemed shocking. "Nigger" is still very much alive and all too widely accepted.

On the other hand, Kennedy is concerned to address the many episodes in which people have been punished for quoting, enunciating, or saying "nigger" in circumstances that should have made it clear that the speakers were doing nothing wrong—or at least nothing sufficiently wrong to merit the extent of the denunciation they suffered.
He discusses, for example, the inquisition of Bill Maher (and his pathetic apology) and the (white) teachers who have been disciplined for reading out loud texts that contain "nigger." He argues that in assessing these controversies, we ought to be more careful about the use/mention distinction: menacingly calling someone a "nigger" is wholly different than quoting a sentence from a text by James Baldwin or Toni Morrison or Flannery O’Connor or Mark Twain.

Too, Kennedy argues against the proposition that different rules should apply depending upon the race of the speaker of "nigger," offering stunningly commonsensical reasons for abjuring the erection of such boundaries.

He concludes by venturing a forecast about the likely status of "nigger" in American culture during the next twenty years when we will see the clear ascendance of a so-called "minority majority" body politic—which term itself is redolent of white supremacy.


Click for more detail about Recitatif  by Toni Morrison Recitatif

by Toni Morrison
Knopf (Feb 01, 2022)
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NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER

• A beautiful, arresting story about race and the relationships that shape us through life by the legendary Nobel Prize winner—for the first time in a beautifully produced stand-alone edition, with an introduction by Zadie Smith

“A puzzle of a story, then—a game…. When [Morrison] called Recitatif an ‘experiment’ she meant it. The subject of the experiment is the reader.” —Zadie Smith, award-winning, best-selling author of White Teeth

In this 1983 short story—the only short story Morrison ever wrote—we meet Twyla and Roberta, who have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other again at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and at each other’s throats each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.

Another work of genius by this masterly writer, Recitatif keeps Twyla’s and Roberta’s races ambiguous throughout the story. Morrison herself described Recitatif, a story which will keep readers thinking and discussing for years to come, as “an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial.” We know that one is white and one is Black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage? A remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and how perceptions are made tangible by reality, Recitatif is a gift to readers in these changing times.


Click for more detail about Hey You!: An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black by Dapo Adeola Hey You!: An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black

by Dapo Adeola
Nancy Paulsen Books (Feb 01, 2022)
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This remarkable picture book is a lyrical, inspirational exploration of growing up Black, written by award-winning illustrator Dapo Adeola, and brought to life by some of the most exciting Black artists of today.

Remember to dream your own dreams
Love your beautiful skin
You always have a choice

This book addresses—honestly, yet hopefully—the experiences Black children face growing up with systemic racism, as well as providing hope for the future and delivering a message of empowerment to a new generation of dreamers. It’s a message that is both urgent and timeless—and offers a rich and rewarding reading experience for every child. To mirror the rich variety of the Black diaspora, this book showcases artwork from Dapo Adeola and eighteen more incredible Black illustrators in one remarkable and cohesive reading experience.

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Click for more detail about Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson Black Cake

by Charmaine Wilkerson
Ballantine Books (Feb 01, 2022)
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“Exquisite and expansive, Black Cake took ahold of me from the first page and didn’t let go. This is a novel about the formation and reformation of a family, and the many people, places, and events that can shape our inheritances without our knowing. A gripping, poignant debut from an important, new voice.”—Naima Coster, New York Times bestselling author of What’s Mine and Yours

Black Cake has all the ingredients of the tastiest stories: secrets, romance, danger, and a cast of characters so real you want to scream at them one moment and hug them the next.”—Dawnie Walton, author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

In development as a Hulu original series produced by Marissa Jo Cerar, Oprah Winfrey (Harpo Films), and Kapital Entertainment We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.


Click for more detail about When Life Gives You Mangos by Kereen Getten When Life Gives You Mangos

by Kereen Getten
Yearling (Feb 01, 2022)
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Named to Oprah Magazine’s Best Caribbean Books for Your 2021 reading list, imagination and adventure run wild in the most talked about middle grade debut of the year!

A small village on a Jamaican island.
A girl who doesn’t remember the previous summer.
A best friend who is no longer acting like one; a new girl who fills that hole in her heart.
A summer of finding fallen mangos, creating made-up games and dancing in the rain.
Secrets she keeps from others…and herself.
The courage to face the truth even in the toughest of storms.

Inspired by the author’s childhood experiences, When Life Give You Mangos is a celebration of island life as well as a rich, lyrical mystery.

Read it…and don’t spoil the unforgettable ending!

A recommended read for classroom discussions and educators looking for diverse offerings.


Click for more detail about Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman by Kristen R. Lee Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman

by Kristen R. Lee
Crown Books for Young Readers (Feb 01, 2022)
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A striking debut novel about racism on elite college campuses. Fans of Dear White People will embrace this activist-centered contemporary novel about a college freshman grappling with the challenges of attending an elite university with a disturbing racist history, which may not be as distant as it seems.

Savannah Howard sacrificed her high school social life to make sure she got into a top college. Her sights were set on an HBCU, but when she is accepted to the ivy-covered walls of Wooddale University on a full ride, how can she say no?

Wooddale is far from the perfectly manicured community it sells on its brochures, though. Savannah has barely unpacked before she comes face to face with microagressions stemming from racism and elitism. Then Clive Wilmington’s statue is vandalized with blackface. The prime suspect? Lucas Cunningham, Wooddale’s most popular student and son of a local prominent family. Soon Savannah is unearthing secrets of Wooddale’s racist history. But what’s the price for standing up for what is right? And will telling the truth about Wooddale’s past cost Savannah her own future?

A stunning, challenging, and timely debut about racism and privilege on college campuses.


Click for more detail about The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb The Violin Conspiracy

by Brendan Slocumb
Anchor (Feb 01, 2022)
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GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK! • In this riveting page-turner, Ray McMillian is a Black classical musician on the rise—until a shocking theft sends him on a desperate quest to recover his lost family heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world. This “galvanizing blend of thriller, coming-of-age drama, and probing portrait of racism … will do for classical music what The Queen’s Gambit did for chess” (Booklist). "This novel, which will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very last page, is sure to be a favorite.” —The Washington PostGrowing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. If he’s lucky, he’ll get a job at the hospital cafeteria. If he’s extra lucky, he’ll earn more than minimum wage. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.  When he discovers that his great-great-grandfather’s beat-up old fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach. Together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Ray will have to piece together the clues to recover his treasured Strad … before it’s too late. With the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray’s great-great-grandfather asserting that the instrument is rightfully theirs, and with his family staking their own claim, Ray doesn’t know who he can trust—or whether he will ever see his beloved violin again.


Click for more detail about And We Rise by Erica Martin And We Rise

by Erica Martin
Viking Books for Young Readers (Feb 01, 2022)
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A powerful, impactful, eye-opening journey that explores through the Civil Rights Movement in 1950s-1960s America in spare and evocative verse, with historical photos interspersed throughout.

In stunning verse and vivid use of white space, Erica Martin’s debut poetry collection walks readers through the Civil Rights Movement—from the well-documented events that shaped the nation’s treatment of Black people, beginning with the “Separate but Equal” ruling — and introduces lesser-known figures and moments that were just as crucial to the Movement and our nation’s centuries-long fight for justice and equality.

A poignant, powerful, all-too-timely collection that is both a vital history lesson and much-needed conversation starter in our modern world. Complete with historical photographs, author’s note, chronology of events, research, and sources.


Click for more detail about Because Claudette by Tracey Baptiste Because Claudette

by Tracey Baptiste
Dial Books (Feb 01, 2022)
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From NYT bestselling author Tracey Baptiste comes a singular picture book that is both a biography about Claudette Colvin, the teen whose activism launched the Montgomery bus boycott, and a celebration of collective action.

When fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin boarded a segregated bus on March 2, 1955, she had no idea she was about to make history. At school she was learning about abolitionists like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, which helped inspire her decision to refuse to give up her seat to a white woman, which led to her arrest, which began a crucial chain of events: Rosa Park’s sit-in nine months later, the organization of the Montgomery bus boycott by activists like Professor Jo Ann Robinson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Supreme Court decision that Alabama’s bus segregation was unconstitutional — a major triumph for the civil rights movement.

Because of Claudette’s brave stand against injustice, history was transformed. Now it’s time for young readers to learn about this living legend, her pivotal role in the civil rights movement, and the power of one person reaching out to another in the fight for change.


Click for more detail about What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris What the Fireflies Knew

by Kai Harris
Tiny Reparations Books (Feb 01, 2022)
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In the vein of Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones and Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, a coming-of-age novel told by almost-eleven-year-old Kenyatta Bernice (KB), as she and her sister try to make sense of their new life with their estranged grandfather in the wake of their father’s death and their mother’s disappearance

An ode to Black girlhood and adolescence as seen through KB’s eyes, What the Fireflies Knew follows KB after her father dies of an overdose and the debts incurred from his addiction cause the loss of the family home in Detroit. Soon thereafter, KB and her teenage sister, Nia, are sent by their overwhelmed mother to live with their estranged grandfather in Lansing, Michigan. Over the course of a single sweltering summer, KB attempts to navigate a world that has turned upside down.

Her father has been labeled a fiend. Her mother’s smile no longer reaches her eyes. Her sister, once her best friend, now feels like a stranger. Her grandfather is grumpy and silent. The white kids who live across the street are friendly, but only sometimes. And they’re all keeping secrets. As KB vacillates between resentment, abandonment, and loneliness, she is forced to carve out a different identity for herself and find her own voice.

A dazzling and moving novel about family, identity, and race, What the Fireflies Knew poignantly reveals that heartbreaking but necessary component of growing up—the realization that loved ones can be flawed and that the perfect family we all dream of looks different up close.


Click for more detail about Civil Rights Queen by Tomiko Brown-Nagin Civil Rights Queen

by Tomiko Brown-Nagin
Pantheon Books (Jan 25, 2022)
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With the US Supreme Court nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, “it makes sense to revisit the life and work of another Black woman who profoundly shaped the law: Constance Baker Motley” (CNN). The first major biography of one of our most influential judges—an activist lawyer who became the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary—that provides an eye-opening account of the twin struggles for gender equality and civil rights in the 20th Century. “A must-read for anyone who dares to believe that equal justice under the law is possible and is in search of a model for how to make it a reality.” —Anita HillBorn to an aspirational blue-collar family during the Great Depression, Constance Baker Motley was expected to find herself a good career as a hair dresser. Instead, she became the first black woman to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court, the first of ten she would eventually argue. The only black woman member in the legal team at the NAACP’s Inc. Fund at the time, she defended Martin Luther King in Birmingham, helped to argue in Brown vs. The Board of Education, and played a critical role in vanquishing Jim Crow laws throughout the South. She was the first black woman elected to the state Senate in New York, the first woman elected Manhattan Borough President, and the first black woman appointed to the federal judiciary.     Civil Rights Queen captures the story of a remarkable American life, a figure who remade law and inspired the imaginations of African Americans across the country. Burnished with an extraordinary wealth of research, award-winning, esteemed Civil Rights and legal historian and dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Tomiko Brown-Nagin brings Motley to life in these pages. Brown-Nagin compels us to ponder some of our most timeless and urgent questions—how do the historically marginalized access the corridors of power? What is the price of the ticket? How does access to power shape individuals committed to social justice? In Civil Rights Queen, she dramatically fills out the picture of some of the most profound judicial and societal change made in twentieth-century America.


Click for more detail about Brave. Black. First. Puzzle: A Jigsaw Puzzle and Poster Celebrating African American Women Who Changed the World by Cheryl Willis Hudson Brave. Black. First. Puzzle: A Jigsaw Puzzle and Poster Celebrating African American Women Who Changed the World

by Cheryl Willis Hudson
Clarkson Potter (Jan 25, 2022)
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A one-of-a-kind puzzle featuring groundbreaking African American women, published in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Based on the children’s book Brave. Black. First., this puzzle celebrates the artists, athletes, activists, politicians, and writers who championed civil rights in their communities. From Sojourner Truth and Ruby Bridges to Angela Y. Davis and Michelle Obama, the collaged image captures the iconic moments of African American women whose heroism and bravery rewrote the American story for the better.

The included poster offers additional biographical information, serving as both a handy reference tool and a beautiful way to honor these heroes on a wall or in a school locker.


Click for more detail about Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler by Ibi Zoboi Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler

by Ibi Zoboi
Dutton Books for Young Readers (Jan 25, 2022)
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From the New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist, a biography in verse and prose of science fiction visionary Octavia Butler.

Acclaimed novelist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights Movement, Butler experienced an American childhood that shaped her into the groundbreaking science-fiction storyteller whose novels continue to challenge and delight readers fifteen years after her death.

For ages 10 and up.


Click for more detail about Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?

by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
Pamela Dorman Books (Jan 18, 2022)
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NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2022 BY MARIE CLAIRE, PARADE, ESSENCE, MS. MAGAZINE, POPSUGAR, BUSTLE, BOOKRIOT, DEBUTIFUL AND MORE! “Feel good, funny, and clever, it’s got smash-hit written all over it!” –Josie Silver, New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December “Yinka is a lovable and relatable disaster—which is to say, she isn’t actually a disaster at all…I adore her.”—Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of People We Meet on Vacation Meet Yinka: a thirty-something, Oxford-educated, British Nigerian woman with a well-paid job, good friends, and a mother whose constant refrain is “Yinka, where is your huzband?”        Yinka’s Nigerian aunties frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, her work friends think she’s too traditional (she’s saving herself for marriage!), her girlfriends think she needs to get over her ex already, and the men in her life…well, that’s a whole other story.  But Yinka herself has always believed that true love will find her when the time is right.      Still, when her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences Operation Find-A-Date for Rachel’s Wedding. Aided by a spreadsheet and her best friend, Yinka is determined to succeed. Will Yinka find herself a huzband? And what if the thing she really needs to find is herself?     Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? is a fresh, uplifting story of an unconventional heroine who bravely asks the questions we all have about love. Wry, moving, irresistible, this is a love story that makes you smile but also makes you think—and explores what it means to find your way between two cultures, both of which are yours.


Click for more detail about The Witch’s Apprentice (Dragons in a Bag #3) by Zetta Elliott The Witch’s Apprentice (Dragons in a Bag #3)

by Zetta Elliott
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jan 18, 2022)
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Zetta Elliott wants Black children today to see themselves in stories. Stories of all types and especially ones that she never saw herself in while growing up. In her urban fantasy series Dragons in a Bag, Elliott has crafted a young, middle grade fantasy series that opens a new genre for children of color to see themselves in and enjoy.

With the publication of The Witch’s Apprentice, the third installment in the acclaimed series, readers will now be able to binge read all three books at once, or savor their reading experience by exploring each book individually. Join Jaxon and his friends through a reimagined New York City and Chicago as they embark on their latest adventure to unlock the mystery behind a strange sleep sickness engulfing the city.

I try to tell stories that give voice to the diverse realities of children. I write as much for parents as I do for their children because sometimes adults need the simple instruction a picture book can provide. I write books my parents never had the chance to read to me. I write the books I wish I had had as a child.”

With magic, adventure, dragons and a thrilling journey that Jax must take to save his city, The Witch’s Apprentice ushers in a fast paced and thrilling story sure to capture the imagination of young readers.

The dragons may be out of the bag, but Jaxon is ready to hatch some magic of his own in this third book in the critically acclaimed series.

Ever since the baby dragons were returned to the magical realm, things have been off. The New York summer has been unusually cold. A strange sleeping sickness is spreading across the city. And Jaxon’s friends Kenny and Kavita have begun to change, becoming more like the fairy and dragon they once cared for.

On top of all that, Jax is hiding a secret—Vik entrusted him with a phoenix egg! Jax wants to help his friends and learn how to hatch the phoenix, but so far his lessons as a witch’s apprentice haven’t seemed very useful. Where can he find the strength—and the magic—he needs?


Click for more detail about Akata Woman by Nnedi Okorafor Akata Woman

by Nnedi Okorafor
Viking Books for Young Readers (Jan 18, 2022)
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From award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor, the electrifying third book in the series that started with Akata Witch, named one of Time magazine’s “100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time” and “100 Best YA Books of All Time”!

“In this series, Okorafor creates a stunningly original world of African magic that draws on Nigerian folk beliefs and rituals instead of relying on the predictable tropes of Western fantasy novels.”
—Time magazine

From the moment Sunny Nwazue discovered she had mystical energy flowing in her blood, she sought to understand and control her powers. Throughout her adventures in Akata Witch and Akata Warrior, she had to navigate the balance between nearly everything in her life—America and Nigeria, the “normal” world and the one infused with juju, human and spirit, good daughter and powerful Leopard Person.

Now, those hard lessons and abilities are put to the test in a quest so dangerous and fantastical, it would be madness to go…but may destroy the world if she does not. With the help of her friends, Sunny embarks on a mission to find a precious object hidden deep in an otherworldly realm. Defeating the guardians of the prize will take more from Sunny than she has to give, and triumph will mean she will be forever changed.


Click for more detail about I’m Growing Great by Mechal Renee Roe I’m Growing Great

by Mechal Renee Roe
Doubleday Books for Young Readers (Jan 18, 2022)
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Confident, empowered girls are celebrated in this follow-up to Happy Hair, a flower-filled, nature-loving, read-together picture book that encourages growth and positivity,

Lovely and wise, shine at sunrise! I am growing each day!

Beautiful Black and Brown girls with gorgeous natural hairstyles full of flowers, butterflies, and other garden treasures are the stars of this vibrant, rhythmic picture book from the author/illustrator of Happy Hair and Cool Cuts. Set in a backdrop of nature’s glorious color and bounty, it’s the perfect springtime read-aloud to promote confidence and self-esteem for girls of all ages.

Look for all the books in the Happy Hair series:

  • Happy Hair
  • Cool Cuts
  • Smart Sisters
  • I Love Being Me! (Step Into Reading)
  • I Am Born to Be Awesome! (Step Into Reading)


Click for more detail about Letters to the Sons of Society by Shaka Senghor Letters to the Sons of Society

by Shaka Senghor
Convergent Books (Jan 18, 2022)
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The New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs invites men everywhere on a journey of honesty and healing through this book of moving letters to his sons—one whom he is raising and the other whose childhood took place during Senghor’s nineteen-year incarceration.   “A visceral and visual journey for the ages … the perfect road map for us to remove the barriers and obstacles against our true feelings.”—Kenya Barris, creator of black-ishONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—EssenceShaka Senghor has lived the life of two fathers. With his first son, Jay, born shortly after Senghor was incarcerated for second-degree murder, he experienced the regret of his own mistakes and the disconnection caused by a society that sees Black lives as disposable. With his second, Sekou, born after Senghor’s release, he has experienced healing, transformation, intimacy, and the possibilities of a world where men and boys can openly show one another affection, support, and love.In this collection of beautifully written letters to Jay and Sekou, Senghor traces his journey as a Black man in America and unpacks the toxic and misguided messages about masculinity, mental health, love, and success that boys learn from an early age. He issues a passionate call to all fathers and sons—fathers who don’t know how to show their sons love, sons who are navigating a fatherless world, boys who have been forced to grow up before their time—to cultivate positive relationships with other men, seek healing, tend to mental health, grow from pain, and rewrite the story that has been told about them.Letters to the Sons of Society is a soulful examination of the bond between father and sons, and a touchstone for anyone seeking a kinder, more just world.


Click for more detail about Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn’t Enough by Candice Marie Benbow Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn’t Enough

by Candice Marie Benbow
Convergent Books (Jan 18, 2022)
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“Candice Marie Benbow is a once-in-a-generation theologian, the kind who, having ground dogma into dust with the fine point of a stiletto, leads us into the wide-open spaces of faith.”—Brittney Cooper, author of Eloquent Rage and co-editor of The Crunk Feminist Collection

“This lush, funny, deeply personal memoir is a beautiful gift to church girls everywhere and an instant classic on faith and getting free.”—Deesha Philyaw, author of the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

A moving essay collection promoting freedom, self-love, and divine wholeness for Black women and opening new levels of understanding and ideological transformation for non-Black women and allies Blurring the boundaries of righteous and irreverent, Red Lip Theology invites us to discover freedom in a progressive Christian faith that incorporates activism, feminism, and radical authenticity. Essayist and theologian Candice Marie Benbow’s essays explore universal themes like heartache, loss, forgiveness, and sexuality, and she unflinchingly empowers women who struggle with feeling loved and nurtured by church culture. Benbow writes powerfully about experiences at the heart of her Black womanhood. In honoring her single mother’s love and triumphs—and mourning her unexpected passing—she finds herself forced to shed restrictions she’d been taught to place on her faith practice. And by embracing alternative spirituality and womanist theology, and confronting staid attitudes on body positivity and LGBTQ+ rights, Benbow challenges religious institutions, faith leaders, and communities to reimagine how faith can be a tool of liberation and transformation for women and girls.


Click for more detail about My Little Golden Book about Misty Copeland by Sherri L. Smith My Little Golden Book about Misty Copeland

by Sherri L. Smith
Golden Books (Jan 18, 2022)
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Help your little one dream big with a Little Golden Book biography all about Misty Copeland, the American Ballet Theatre’s first Black principal dancer! The perfect introduction to nonfiction for preschoolers!

This LLittle Golden Book introduces ballet prodigy Misty Copeland to the youngest readers. The first Black principal dancer in the history of the American Ballet Theatre—who didn’t start dancing until she was almost thirteen—continues to impress the world and pave the way for young Black girls to chase their dreams.


Click for more detail about When Winter Robeson Came by Brenda Woods When Winter Robeson Came

by Brenda Woods
Nancy Paulsen Books (Jan 11, 2022)
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The whole world seems to transform during the summer of 1965, when Eden’s cousin from Mississippi comes to visit her in L.A. just as the Watts Riots erupt, in this stirring new novel by Coretta Scott King Honor winner Brenda Woods.

When Eden’s cousin Winter comes for a visit, it turns out he’s not just there to sightsee. He wants to figure out what happened to his dad, who disappeared ten years earlier from the Watts area of L.A. So the cousins set out to investigate together, and what they discover brings them joy—and heartache. It also opens up a whole new understanding of their world, just as the area they’ve got their sights on explodes in a clash between the police and the Black residents. For six days Watts is like a war zone, and Eden and Winter become heroes in their own part of the drama. Eden hopes to be a composer someday, and the only way she can describe that summer is a song with an unexpected ending, full of changes in tempo and mood—totally unforgettable.


Click for more detail about Vinyl Moon by Mahogany L. Browne Vinyl Moon

by Mahogany L. Browne
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 11, 2022)
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“A true embodiment of the term Black Girl Magic.” –Booklist

A teen girl hiding the scars of a past relationship finds home and healing in the words of strong Black writers. A beautiful sophomore novel from a critically acclaimed author and poet that explores how words have the power to shape and uplift our world even in the midst of pain.

When Darius told Angel he loved her, she believed him. But five weeks after the incident, Angel finds herself in Brooklyn, far from her family, from him, and from the California life she has known. Angel feels out of sync with her new neighborhood. At school, she can’t shake the feeling everyone knows what happened—and that it was her fault. The only place that makes sense is Ms. G’s class. There, Angel’s classmates share their own stories of pain, joy, and fortitude. And as Angel becomes immersed in her revolutionary literature course, the words from Black writers like Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Zora NEale Hurston speak to her and begin to heal the wounds of her past.

This stunning novel weaves together prose, poems, and vignettes to tell the story of Angel, a young woman whose past was shaped by domestic violence but whose love of language and music and the gift of community grant her the chance to find herself again.


Click for more detail about The Faith of Elijah Cummings: The North Star of Equal Justice by Carole Boston Weatherford The Faith of Elijah Cummings: The North Star of Equal Justice

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Random House Studio (Jan 11, 2022)
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Congressman and civil rights advocate Elijah Cummings dedicated his life to public service. This comprehensive and visually stunning biography details his humble beginnings and unwavering faith as he waged an endless battle for truth, justice, and equality.

We can do better.

When Elijah Cummings was a little boy, he struggled in school. His teachers thought he talked too much and asked too many questions. They said he’d never be able to read or write well.

Despite his difficulties, Elijah never gave up. He persevered, having faith that with hard work, he’d be able to achieve his goals.
Best known as a voice for people of color and an advocate for equal opportunity, Elijah Cummings was a man of faith and dignity, a beacon of justice, and an unrelenting warrior for equality and change.

Carole Boston Weatherford and Laura Freeman marry words and images beautifully in this picture book biography of politician and civil rights champion Elijah Cummings, detailing his inspiring journey—from his humble beginnings as the son of former sharecroppers to his unwavering faith as he became a lawyer, state legislator, and leading congressman. Best known as a voice for people of color and an advocate for equal opportunity, Elijah Cummings was a man of faith and dignity, a beacon of justice, and an unrelenting warrior for equality and change.


Click for more detail about Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Mara Rockliff Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

by Mara Rockliff
Random House Studio (Jan 11, 2022)
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An inspiring picture-book biography about the woman whose cooking helped feed and fund the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956, from an award-winning illustrator.

Georgia Gilmore was cooking when she heard the news Mrs. Rosa Parks had been arrested—pulled off a city bus and thrown in jail all because she wouldn’t let a white man take her seat. To protest, the radio urged everyone to stay off city buses for one day: December 5, 1955. Throughout the boycott—at Holt Street Baptist Church meetings led by a young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr.—and throughout the struggle for justice, Georgia served up her mouth-watering fried chicken, her spicy collard greens, and her sweet potato pie, eventually selling them to raise money to help the cause.

Here is the vibrant true story of a hidden figure of the civil rights movement, told in flavorful language by a picture-book master, and stunningly illustrated by a Caldecott Honor recipient and seven-time Coretta Scott King award-winning artist.


Click for more detail about The Year We Learned to Fly by Jacqueline Woodson The Year We Learned to Fly

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Jan 04, 2022)
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Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López’s highly anticipated companion to their #1 New York Times bestseller The Day You Begin illuminates the power in each of us to face challenges with confidence.

On a dreary, stuck-inside kind of day, a brother and sister heed their grandmother’s advice: “Use those beautiful and brilliant minds of yours. Lift your arms, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and believe in a thing. Somebody somewhere at some point was just as bored you are now.” And before they know it, their imaginations lift them up and out of their boredom. Then, on a day full of quarrels, it’s time for a trip outside their minds again, and they are able to leave their anger behind. This precious skill, their grandmother tells them, harkens back to the days long before they were born, when their ancestors showed the world the strength and resilience of their beautiful and brilliant minds. Jacqueline Woodson’s lyrical text and Rafael Lopez’s dazzling art celebrate the extraordinary ability to lift ourselves up and imagine a better world.


Click for more detail about Daddy Speaks Love by Leah Henderson Daddy Speaks Love

by Leah Henderson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Jan 04, 2022)
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A moving tribute to the joy and grounding that fathers bring to their children’s lives.

What does a daddy do? From day one, this daddy speaks love to his little one. And along with that love, his words and actions speak many other things, too: like truth, joy, comfort, and pride. Like many dads, he answers a million questions and tries to make sure that days are full of fun adventures, giggles, and hugs. Dads are good at scaring away imaginary monsters, and honest about how to confront the real ones too. They set an example for the future, speaking out for equality and justice, while sharing lessons from the past. But most of all, daddies encourage their young ones to fight for a better world, with the comfort of knowing their dads are right beside them. Daddy Speaks Love speaks to that everlasting bond between children and their fathers and is a perfect gift for special occasions including Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, baby showers, and more!


Click for more detail about Marley and the Family Band by Cedella Marley with Tracey Baptiste Marley and the Family Band

by Cedella Marley with Tracey Baptiste
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jan 04, 2022)
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Daughter of Bob Marley and New York Times bestselling author Cedella Marley debuts her first-ever original picture book character, inspired by Cedella’s own childhood growing up with her famous family.

Tonight was Marley’s big night. Concert night.

When Marley and her family make the move from warm, vibrant Jamaica to Delaware, she’s prepared for life to change. She’s confident that she and her siblings—Sharon, Ziggy, and little Steve—can make new friends, as long as her musical debut goes off without a hitch.

On the morning of the concert, Marley wakes up to a day too rainy for her performance…or so everyone thinks. Ever determined, Marley concocts a plan to make her debut happen and ends up learning more about her new neighbors than she ever expected.

In this vibrant picture book inspired by her childhood and iconic father, Bob, Cedella Marley assures children that nothing can stop the music as long as they have community.


Click for more detail about Operation Sisterhood (Hardcover) by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Operation Sisterhood (Hardcover)

by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 04, 2022)
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Fans of the Netflix reboot of The Babysitters Club will delight as four new sisters band together in the heart of New York City. Discover this jubilant novel about the difficulties of change, the loyalty of sisters, and the love of family from a prolific award-winning author.

Bo and her mom always had their own rhythm. But ever since they moved to Harlem, Bo’s world has fallen out of sync. She and Mum are now living with Mum’s boyfriend Bill, his daughter Sunday, the twins, Lili and Lee, the twins’ parents…along with a dog, two cats, a bearded dragon, a turtle, and chickens. All in one brownstone! With so many people squished together, Bo isn’t so sure there is room for her.

Set against the bursting energy of a New York City summer, award-winning author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich delivers a joyful novel about a new family that hits all the right notes!

“This ode to Black girlhood and the communities that serve them offers humor, tenderness, and charm.” –Renée Watson, New York Times bestselling author


Click for more detail about African Town by Irene Latham and Charles Waters African Town

by Irene Latham and Charles Waters
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jan 04, 2022)
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Chronicling the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860, African Town is a powerful and stunning novel-in-verse.

In 1860, long after the United States outlawed the importation of enslaved laborers, 110 men, women and children from Benin and Nigeria were captured and brought to Mobile, Alabama aboard a ship called Clotilda. Their journey includes the savage Middle Passage and being hidden in the swamplands along the Alabama River before being secretly parceled out to various plantations, where they made desperate attempts to maintain both their culture and also fit into the place of captivity to which they’d been delivered. At the end of the Civil War, the survivors created a community for themselves they called African Town, which still exists to this day. Told in 14 distinct voices, including that of the ship that brought them to the American shores and the founder of African Town, this powerfully affecting historical novel-in-verse recreates a pivotal moment in US and world history, the impacts of which we still feel today.

Also read the book Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston where she interviews the eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis, who was the last person alive who survived horrific journey described in African Town.


Click for more detail about She Persisted: Coretta Scott King by Kelly Starling Lyons She Persisted: Coretta Scott King

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Philomel Books (Jan 04, 2022)
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Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger comes a chapter book series about women who spoke up and rose up against the odds—including Coretta Scott King!

In this chapter book biography by award-winning author Kelly Starling Lyons, readers learn about the amazing life of Coretta Scott King—and how she persisted.

Coretta Scott King is known for being the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but she was a civil rights activist and leader in her own right! She was a singer and an author too, and her work made a difference for Black Americans and for all women for decades to come.

Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton, black-and-white illustrations throughout, and a list of ways that readers can follow in Coretta Scott King’s footsteps and make a difference!


Click for more detail about What Was the Harlem Renaissance? by Sherri L. Smith What Was the Harlem Renaissance?

by Sherri L. Smith
Penguin Workshop (Dec 28, 2021)
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In this book from the #1 New York Times bestselling series, learn how this vibrant Black neighborhood in upper Manhattan became home to the leading Black writers, artists, and musicians of the 1920s and 1930s.

Travel back in time to the 1920s and 1930s to the sounds of jazz in nightclubs and the 24-hours-a-day bustle of the famous Black neighborhood of Harlem in uptown Manhattan. It was a dazzling time when there was an outpouring of the arts of African Americans—the poetry of Langston Hughes; the novels of Zora Neale Hurston; the sculptures of Augusta Savage and that brand-new music called jazz as only Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong could play it. Author Sherri Smith traces Harlem’s history all the way to its seventeenth-century roots, and explains how the early-twentieth-century Great Migration brought African Americans from the deep South to New York City and gave birth to the golden years of the Harlem Renaissance.

With 80 fun black-and-white illustrations and an engaging 16-page photo insert, readers will be excited to read this latest addition to Who HQ!


Click for more detail about Renegades (Special): Born in the USA (Deluxe Signed Edition) by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen Renegades (Special): Born in the USA (Deluxe Signed Edition)

by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen
Crown Publishing Group (Dec 14, 2021)
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DELUXE CLOTHBOUND EDITION IN SLIPCASE, SIGNED BY BOTH AUTHORS

New York Times bestseller • Two longtime friends share an intimate and urgent conversation about life, music, and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions, in this stunningly produced expansion of their groundbreaking Higher Ground podcast, featuring more than 350 photographs, exclusive bonus content, and never-before-seen archival material.

Renegades: Born in the USA is a candid, revealing, and entertaining dialogue between President Barack Obama and legendary musician Bruce Springsteen that explores everything from their origin stories and career-defining moments to our country’s polarized politics and the growing distance between the American Dream and the American reality. Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders—one Black and one white—looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity, and community with the American story itself. It includes:

• Original introductions by President Obama and Bruce Springsteen
• Exclusive new material from the Renegades podcast recording sessions
• Obama’s never-before-seen annotated speeches, including his “Remarks at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches”
• Springsteen’s handwritten lyrics for songs spanning his 50-year-long career
• Rare and exclusive photographs from the authors’ personal archives
• Historical photographs and documents that provide rich visual context for their conversation

In a recording studio stocked with dozens of guitars, and on at least one Corvette ride, Obama and Springsteen discuss marriage and fatherhood, race and masculinity, the lure of the open road and the call back to home. They also compare notes on their favorite protest songs, the most inspiring American heroes of all time, and more. Along the way, they reveal their passion for—and the occasional toll of—telling a bigger, truer story about America throughout their careers, and explore how our fractured country might begin to find its way back toward unity and global leadership.


Click for more detail about Call Us What We Carry: Poems by Amanda Gorman Call Us What We Carry: Poems

by Amanda Gorman
Viking Books (Dec 07, 2021)
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The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman

Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, Amanda Gorman’s remarkable new collection reveals an energizing and unforgettable voice in American poetry. Call Us What We Carry is Gorman at her finest. Including “The Hill We Climb,” the stirring poem read at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden, and bursting with musical language and exploring themes of identity, grief, and memory, this lyric of hope and healing captures an important moment in our country’s consciousness while being utterly timeless.


Click for more detail about The Met Faith Ringgold: Narrating the World in Pattern and Color by Sharna Jackson The Met Faith Ringgold: Narrating the World in Pattern and Color

by Sharna Jackson
DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) (Nov 30, 2021)
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See the world through Faith Ringgold’s eyes and be inspired to produce your own masterpieces.

Have you ever wondered exactly what your favorite artists were looking at to make them draw, sculpt, or paint the way they did? In this charming illustrated series of books to keep and collect, created in full collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you can see what they saw and be inspired to create your own artworks too.

In What the Artist Saw: Faith Ringgold, meet inspiring American activist Faith Ringgold. Step into her life and learn what led her to mix different media and craft powerful stories into quilts. Travel with her from Harlem, New York, to Europe, Ghana, and Nigeria. Pick a cause that you care about and try combining it with fabric or sculpture to make your own artworks!

In this series, follow the artists’ stories and find intriguing facts about their environments and key masterpieces. Then see what you can see and make your own art. Take a closer look at landscapes with Georgia O’Keeffe or even yourself with Vincent van Gogh. Try carving a woodblock print at home with Hokusai. Every book in this series is one to treasure and keep: perfect for budding young artists to explore exhibitions with and then continue their own artistic journeys.


Click for more detail about The Black History Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by David Olusoga The Black History Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

by David Olusoga
DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) (Nov 23, 2021)
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Learn about the most important milestones in Black history in The Black History Book.

Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Black History in this overview guide to the subject, great for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Black History Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in.

This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Black History, with:

- Covers the most important milestones in Black and African history
- Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts
- A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout
- Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding

The Black History Book is a captivating introduction to the key milestones in Black History,
culture, and society across the globe – from the ancient world to the present, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Explore the rich history of the peoples of Africa and the African diaspora, and the struggles and triumphs of Black communities around the world, all through engaging text and bold graphics.

Your Black History Questions, Simply Explained

Which were the most powerful African empires? Who were the pioneers of jazz? What sparked the Black Lives Matter movement? If you thought it was difficult to learn about the legacy of African-American history, The Black History Book presents crucial information in an easy to follow layout. Learn about the earliest human migrations to modern Black communities, stories of the early kingdoms of Ancient Egypt and Nubia; the powerful medieval and early modern empires; and the struggle against colonization. This book also explores Black history beyond the African continent, like the Atlantic slave trade and slave resistance settlements; the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz Age; the Windrush migration; civil rights and Black feminist movements.

The Big Ideas Series

With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Black History Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.


Click for more detail about Ancient Egypt: The Definitive Visual History by DK Ancient Egypt: The Definitive Visual History

by DK
DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) (Nov 16, 2021)
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Written by a team of respected Egyptologists, this book includes the following exciting things:

  • Themed spreads explore developments in areas like religion, writing, painting, ceramics and medicine.
  • Biography spreads feature the lives of the most influential pharaohs and queens.
  • Detailed maps set the main sites in context, and show the growth of the civilization and its trade network.
  • An optional 80-page reference section provides a directory of the pharaohs and gods and goddesses.

Unlock every aspect of Ancient Egypt, from pharaohs and pyramids to ordinary people’s everyday lives and beliefs. With 31 Egyptian dynasties and 3,000 years of history, from the time of Narmer to that of Cleopatra and so much more, this is the perfect comprehensive guide to Egypt’s ancient civilization.

There’s so much to learn and experience with this up-to-date biography on Ancient Egypt. With more than 850 photos, illustrations and maps, this is the perfect book for thinkers, borrowers, life-long learners or anyone with an interest in ancient civilizations and Egyptology.


Click for more detail about The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

by Nikole Hannah-Jones
One World (Nov 16, 2021)
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Donate a Copy The 1619 Project to the Literary Freedom Project


A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present.

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the English colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story builds on one of the most consequential journalistic events of recent years: The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning "1619 Project," which reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on the original 1619 Project, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This legacy can be seen in the way we tell stories, the way we teach our children, and the way we remember. Together, the elements of the book reveal a new origin story for the United States, one that helps explain not only the persistence of anti-Black racism and inequality in American life today, but also the roots of what makes the country unique.

The book also features a significant elaboration of the original project’s Pulitzer Prize-winning lead essay, by Nikole Hannah-Jones, on how the struggles of Black Americans have expanded democracy for all Americans, as well as two original pieces from Hannah-Jones, one of which makes a profound case for reparative solutions to this legacy of injustice.

This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction—and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life.

The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative. It is led by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, along with New York Times editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein and New York Times Magazine editors Ilena Silverman and Caitlin Roper.


Click for more detail about J.D. and the Hair Show Showdown by J. Dillard J.D. and the Hair Show Showdown

by J. Dillard
Kokila (Nov 16, 2021)
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Eight-year-old kid barber J.D. takes his talent to an Atlanta hair show in this illustrated chapter book and follow-up to J.D. and the Great Barber Battle.

At only eight years old, J.D. the Kid Barber has already won a barber battle and appeared on local TV. Now he’s the youngest barber to be invited to the Beauty Brothers Hair Expo in Atlanta! J.D. gets the VIP treatment—he takes his first flight, rides in a limo for the first time, and gets gifts from the show’s sponsors. At the show, there are hair classes to take, product samples to try, and some of J.D.’s favorite hair influencers to meet. And, of course, there’s his own demo alongside kid hairstylist, Isabel Is Incredible. But what J.D. is most excited about is snapping a pic with eleven-year-old rap sensation Li’l Eazy Breezy, which is harder than it sounds! The world of hair and beauty is so much bigger than J.D. could’ve imagined, and he’s ready to step up his game.

Check out the other chapter books in the J.D. the Kid Barber series:

  • J.D. and the Great Barber Battle
  • J.D. and the Family Business


Click for more detail about Born on the Water: The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson Born on the Water: The 1619 Project

by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson
Kokila (Nov 16, 2021)
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The 1619 Project’s lyrical picture book in verse chronicles the consequences of slavery and the history of Black resistance in the United States, thoughtfully rendered by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and Newbery honor-winning author Renée Watson.

Images from The 1619 Project: Born on the Water book

A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders.

But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.

And the people planted dreams and hope,
willed themselves to keep
living, living.

And the people learned new words
for love
for friend
for family

for joy
for grow
for home.

With powerful verse and striking illustrations by Nikkolas Smith, Born on the Water provides a pathway for readers of all ages to reflect on the origins of American identity.

Praise for The 1619 Project: Born on the Water:

  • A Barnes & Noble “Book of the Year” finalist
  • A Barnes & Noble “Best Picture Book of 2021”
  • A Publishers Weekly “Best Book of 2021”
  • An Amazon “Best of November, Ages 6-8”

Images from The 1619 Project: Born on the Water book


Click for more detail about The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories by Danielle Evans The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories

by Danielle Evans
Riverhead Books (Nov 09, 2021)
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Winner of the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Prize

The award-winning author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self brings her signature voice and insight to the subjects of race, grief, apology, and American history.

Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and X-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters’ lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history. She introduces us to Black and multiracial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief—all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history—about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight.

In “Boys Go to Jupiter,” a white college student tries to reinvent herself after a photo of her in a Confederate-flag bikini goes viral. In “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain,” a photojournalist is forced to confront her own losses while attending an old friend’s unexpectedly dramatic wedding. And in the eye-opening title novella, a black scholar from Washington, DC, is drawn into a complex historical mystery that spans generations and puts her job, her love life, and her oldest friendship at risk.


Click for more detail about The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars by Rachel Montez Minor The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars

by Rachel Montez Minor
Crown Books for Young Readers (Nov 09, 2021)
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Celebrate the connections between parents, children, and the universe in this lyrical debut picture book from actress, dancer, and singer Rachel Montez Minor, with enchanting illustrations by Annie Won.

In simple rhyme with a universal message, this book celebrates diverse children, their power to inspire those around them, and the invisible bonds of family and humanity that can never be broken.

Readers are encouraged to shine their light and positivity on those around them and to always lift each other up. We are all one, living together on our planet, connected under the sun, the moon, and the stars.


Click for more detail about Calvin by JR Ford and Vanessa Ford Calvin

by JR Ford and Vanessa Ford
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Nov 09, 2021)
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In this joyful and impactful picture book, a transgender boy prepares for the first day of school and introduces himself to his family and friends for the first time.

Calvin has always been a boy, even if the world sees him as a girl. He knows who he is in his heart and in his mind but he hasn’t yet told his family. Finally, he can wait no longer: "I’m not a girl," he tells his family. "I’m a boy—a boy in my heart and in my brain." Quick to support him, his loving family takes Calvin shopping for the swim trunks he’s always wanted and back-to-school clothes and a new haircut that helps him look and feel like the boy he’s always known himself to be. As the first day of school approaches, he’s nervous and the "what-ifs" gather up inside him. But as his friends and teachers rally around him and he tells them his name, all his "what-ifs" begin to melt away.

Inspired by the authors’ own transgender child and accompanied by warm and triumphant illustrations, this authentic and personal text promotes kindness and empathy, offering a poignant and inclusive back-to-school message: all should feel safe, respected, and welcomed.


Click for more detail about Passing (Movie Tie-In) by Nella Larsen Passing (Movie Tie-In)

by Nella Larsen
Penguin Books (Nov 09, 2021)
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Now a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, Nella Larsen’s powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today.

Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to "pass" as a white woman. Clare’s childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clare’s risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clare’s interest in Irene turns into a homoerotic longing for Irene’s black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling. First published in 1929, Passing feels just as timely as ever today.

“[Larsen’s novels] open up a whole world of experience and struggle that seemed to me, when I first read them years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable.” —Alice Walker


Click for more detail about New Kid: We Fit Together: A 450-Piece Puzzle Featuring Original Art by Jerry Craft by Jerry Craft New Kid: We Fit Together: A 450-Piece Puzzle Featuring Original Art by Jerry Craft

by Jerry Craft
Clarkson Potter (Nov 09, 2021)
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This colorful 450-piece puzzle in a keepsake box features original art by Jerry Craft—a must-have for fans of his bestselling graphic novels New Kid and Class Act.

Jerry Craft’s breakout graphic novel New Kid was devoured by hundreds of thousands of middle-schoolers who related to the ups and downs of his characters’ lives. This 450-piece jigsaw puzzle featuring original art of Jordan and his friends lets readers bring New Kid home in a new way. Once the puzzle is assembled, the box becomes a place for kids to safely store souvenirs, notes, and treasures.


Click for more detail about Sky Watcher #5 by Kelly Starling Lyons Sky Watcher #5

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Penguin Workshop (Nov 09, 2021)
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Jada Jones is back for the fifth book of this popular, celebrated series perfect for STEM fans!

Readers who love Ivy and Bean or Katie Woo will want to meet Jada Jones. —School Library Journal

Jada is excited to do a school project about her hero Dr. Mae Jemison, a former NASA astronaut and the first Black woman to travel to outer space. She even gets to pretend to be her for the presentation in front of her teacher, parents, and friends! But when Jada’s research reminds her how accomplished her hero truly is, she suddenly feels like she’s made a mistake. How can she portray someone who seems to have everything together when she feels like she’s falling apart?

Praise for Jada Jones: Rock Star
Fast-paced, with supersimple vocabulary and a smattering of earth science to spark interest in young rock collectors everywhere. —Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about Prayers for the People: Things We Didn’t Know We Could Say to God by Terry J. Stokes Prayers for the People: Things We Didn’t Know We Could Say to God

by Terry J. Stokes
Convergent Books (Nov 09, 2021)
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A collection of timely, stirring, and witty prayers that give language to the full breadth of our everyday experiences—from joy to sorrow, and everything in between

“This is the prayer book I need right now, full of humor and beauty, candor and holy longing.”—Jeff Chu, co-curator of Evolving Faith and author of Does Jesus Really Love Me?

In his debut collection of short-form prayers (aka collects), Terry Stokes names many things we didn’t realize we could pray for, such as student loan debt cancellation, strength when we’re about to make small talk, and restraint when we have the opportunity to be petty. The collection features an impressive range of humor and inspiration, and spans lament and solidarity, including prayers for:

  • when one dreads the thought of returning to work on Monday
  • when one has been left on read by a friend
  • before shooting one’s shot
  • after shooting one’s shot
  • before walking into Target
  • when one fears getting canceled
  • those working in retail
  • when one’s team is struggling

These tender, moving, and entertaining prayers invite us to access the wonder and joy of God’s presence in every situation we encounter. By putting words to the emotions and needs that lie beneath our petitions, our celebrations, and our protests. Stokes’s prayers make for an engaging and heartfelt read that will delight and encourage any person of faith in the modern age.


Click for more detail about Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen Skin of the Sea

by Natasha Bowen
Random House Books for Young Readers (Nov 02, 2021)
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A way to survive.
A way to serve.
A way to save.

Simi prayed to the gods, once. Now she serves them as Mami Wata—a mermaid—collecting the souls of those who die at sea and blessing their journeys back home.

But when a living boy is thrown overboard, Simi goes against an ancient decree and does the unthinkable—she saves his life. And punishment awaits those who dare to defy the gods.

To protect the other Mami Wata, Simi must journey to the Supreme Creator to make amends. But all is not as it seems. There’s the boy she rescued, who knows more than he should. And something is shadowing Simi, something that would rather see her fail… .

Danger lurks at every turn, and as Simi draws closer, she must brave vengeful gods, treacherous lands, and legendary creatures. Because if she fails, she risks not only the fate of all Mami Wata, but also the world as she knows it.

“The most engrossing, thought-provoking, beautiful novel I’ve read in ages. Skin of the Sea knocks your socks off and leaves you wanting more.” —Namina Forna, New York Times bestselling author of The Gilded Ones


Click for more detail about The Fastest Way to Fall by Denise Williams The Fastest Way to Fall

by Denise Williams
Berkley Books (Nov 02, 2021)
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Britta didn’t plan on falling for her personal training, and Wes didn’t plan on Britta. Plans change and it’s unclear if love, career, or both will meet them at the finish line.

Britta Colby works for a lifestyle website, and when tasked to write about her experience with a hot new body-positive fitness app that includes personal coaching, she knows it’s a major opportunity to prove she should write for the site full-time. As CEO of the FitMe app, Wes Lawson finally has the financial security he grew up without, but despite his success, his floundering love life and complicated family situation leaves him feeling isolated and unfulfilled. He decides to get back to what he loves —coaching. Britta’s his first new client and they click immediately.

As weeks pass, she’s surprised at how much she enjoys experimenting with her exercise routine. He’s surprised at how much he looks forward to talking to her every day. They convince themselves their attraction is harmless, but when they start working out in person, Wes and Britta find it increasingly challenging to deny their chemistry and maintain a professional distance.

Wes isn’t supposed to be training clients, much less meeting with them, and Britta’s credibility will be sunk if the lifestyle site finds out she’s practically dating the fitness coach she’s reviewing. Walking away from each other is the smartest thing to do, but running side by side feels like the start of something big.


Click for more detail about Santa in the City by Tiffany D. Jackson Santa in the City

by Tiffany D. Jackson
Dial Books (Nov 02, 2021)
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A little girl’s belief in Santa is restored in this ode to the magic of Christmas. This is a holiday gift readers will treasure for years to come!

It’s two weeks before Christmas, and Deja is worried that Santa might not be able to visit her—after all, as a city kid, she doesn’t have a chimney for him to come down and none of the parking spots on her block could fit a sleigh, let alone eight reindeer! But with a little help from her family, community, and Santa himself, Deja discovers that the Christmas spirit is alive and well in her city.

With bold, colorful illustrations that capture the joy of the holidays, this picture book from award-winning author Tiffany D. Jackson and illustrator Reggie Brown is not to be missed.


Click for more detail about Rebel Girls of Black History by Rebel Girls Rebel Girls of Black History

by Rebel Girls
Dial Books (Nov 02, 2021)
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Color with stickers to create gorgeous keepsakes of exceptional Black women. These twelve heroes will encourage any Rebel Girl to pursue her dreams without limits.  It’s the perfect gift for young dreamers!With this terrific hands-on book, perfect for summer travel and beyond, kids as young as age 5 can create twelve beautiful posters of the heroes featured in the New York Times bestselling Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls books. Numbered stickers make it easy and fun to bring these inspirational women to life. The heavy paper stock and perforated pages mean that each portrait can be removed from the book to decorate your future hero’s bedroom. The trailblazing Black girls and women in this sticker book include Ruby Bridges, Oprah Winfrey, Serena and Venus Williams, Harriet Tubman, Misty Copeland, Kamala Harris, and more.


Click for more detail about Listen, Layla by Yassmin Abdel-Magied Listen, Layla

by Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Penguin (Au Yr) (Nov 01, 2021)
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What’s a queen to do when her summer plans go horribly wrong? A powerful, funny and timely novel for young readers by writer, broadcaster and award-winning social advocate, Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

Exploring the diaspora experience, race, politics and identity, Listen, Layla by Yassmin Abdel-Magied is an own voices novel for young readers, which bursts with passion, humour and truth.

Layla has ended the school year on a high and can’t wait to spend the holidays hanging out with her friends and designing a prize-winning Grand Designs Tourismo invention. But Layla’s plans are interrupted when her grandmother in Sudan falls ill and the family rush to be with her.

The last time Layla went to Sudan she was only a young child. Now she feels torn between her Sudanese and Australian identities. As political tensions in Sudan erupt, so too do tensions between Layla and her family. Layla is determined not to lose her place in the invention team, but will she go against her parents’ wishes? What would a Kandaka do?


Click for more detail about Memorial by Bryan Washington Memorial

by Bryan Washington
Riverhead Books (Oct 26, 2021)
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“A masterpiece.” —NPR

“Brilliantly details the smallest moments that mean the absolute most, the heartbreakingly human limitations of how we love one another, and with all its many roommates and zip codes and implications, Memorial beautifully rests in how difficult it is to ever truly go home.” —Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age

A funny and profound story about family in all its strange forms, joyful and hard-won vulnerability, becoming who you’re supposed to be, and the limits of love. Benson and Mike are two young guys who live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson’s a Black day care teacher, and they’ve been together for a few years—good years—but now they’re not sure why they’re still a couple. There’s the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other.

But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Without Mike’s immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it.

Both men will change in ways that will either make them stronger together, or fracture everything they’ve ever known. And just maybe they’ll all be okay in the end.


Click for more detail about Renegades: Born in the USA by Barack Obama Renegades: Born in the USA

by Barack Obama
Crown Publishing Group (Oct 26, 2021)
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New York Times bestseller • Two longtime friends share an intimate and urgent conversation about life, music, and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions, in this stunningly produced expansion of their groundbreaking Higher Ground podcast, featuring more than 350 photographs, exclusive bonus content, and never-before-seen archival material.

Renegades: Born in the USA is a candid, revealing, and entertaining dialogue between President Barack Obama and legendary musician Bruce Springsteen that explores everything from their origin stories and career-defining moments to our country’s polarized politics and the growing distance between the American Dream and the American reality. Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders—one Black and one white—looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity, and community with the American story itself. It includes:

• Original introductions by President Obama and Bruce Springsteen
• Exclusive new material from the Renegades podcast recording sessions
• Obama’s never-before-seen annotated speeches, including his “Remarks at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches”
• Springsteen’s handwritten lyrics for songs spanning his 50-year-long career
• Rare and exclusive photographs from the authors’ personal archives
• Historical photographs and documents that provide rich visual context for their conversation

In a recording studio stocked with dozens of guitars, and on at least one Corvette ride, Obama and Springsteen discuss marriage and fatherhood, race and masculinity, the lure of the open road and the call back to home. They also compare notes on their favorite protest songs, the most inspiring American heroes of all time, and more. Along the way, they reveal their passion for—and the occasional toll of—telling a bigger, truer story about America throughout their careers, and explore how our fractured country might begin to find its way back toward unity and global leadership.


Click for more detail about African Goddess Rising Oracle: A 44-Card Deck and Guidebook by Abiola Abrams African Goddess Rising Oracle: A 44-Card Deck and Guidebook

by Abiola Abrams
Hay House (Oct 26, 2021)
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A breathtakingly beautiful oracle deck of 44 African goddesses, spirits, queens, and ancestors from many powerful peoples and pantheons—reaching from the continent of Africa and throughout the diaspora by intuitive spiritual teacher Abiola Abrams.

“From the moment that I received the sacred assignment to birth this deck, these magical folks would not leave me alone. I come from generations of intuitives and healers, so divine channeling is not new to me. But these oracle keepers were persistent! They “dreamed me,” pursued me, and guided me through this co-creation.

Although African spirituality is vast, most practices share foundational beliefs including: ancestral veneration, reverence for elders and community, respecting natural phenomenon, and the power to transmute obstacles. This deck is faithful to our sacred truths and secrets passed down through oral tradition.

This deck will support you as a tool for divination, healing, awakening, and personal development.

Rise up. It is your time.

Asè!” (the power to make things happen or so let it be)
– from the guidebook


Click for more detail about Black Futures (paperback) by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham Black Futures (paperback)

by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham
One World (Oct 26, 2021)
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“A literary experience unlike any I’ve had in recent memory … a blueprint for this moment and the next, for where Black folks have been and where they might be going.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

What does it mean to be Black and alive right now?

Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham have brought together this collection of work—images, photos, essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and more—to tell the story of the radical, imaginative, provocative, and gorgeous world that Black creators are bringing forth today. The book presents a succession of startling and beautiful pieces that generate an entrancing rhythm: Readers will go from conversations with activists and academics to memes and Instagram posts, from powerful essays to dazzling paintings and insightful infographics.

In answering the question of what it means to be Black and alive, Black Futures opens a prismatic vision of possibility for every reader.


Click for more detail about Woke Racism by John McWhorter Woke Racism

by John McWhorter
Portfolio (Oct 26, 2021)
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Acclaimed linguist and award-winning writer John McWhorter argues that an illiberal neoracism, disguised as antiracism, is hurting Black communities and weakening the American social fabric.

Americans of good will on both the left and the right are secretly asking themselves the same question: how has the conversation on race in America gone so crazy? We’re told read books and listen to music by people of color but that wearing certain clothes is “appropriation.” We hear that being white automatically gives you privilege and that being Black makes you a victim. We want to speak up but fear we’ll be seen as unwoke, or worse, labeled a racist. According to John McWhorter, the problem is that a well-meaning but pernicious form of antiracism has become, not a progressive ideology, but a religion—and one that’s illogical, unreachable, and unintentionally neoracist.

In Woke Racism, McWhorter reveals the workings of this new religion, from the original sin of “white privilege” and the weaponization of cancel culture to ban heretics, to the evangelical fervor of the “woke mob.” He shows how this religion that claims to “dismantle racist structures” is actually harming his fellow Black Americans by infantilizing Black people, setting Black students up for failure, and passing policies that disproportionately damage Black communities. The new religion might be called “antiracism,” but it features a racial essentialism that’s barely distinguishable from racist arguments of the past.

Fortunately for Black America, and for all of us, it’s not too late to push back against woke racism. McWhorter shares scripts and encouragement with those trying to deprogram friends and family. And most importantly, he offers a roadmap to justice that actually will help, not hurt, Black America.


Click for more detail about Monster in the Middle by Tiphanie Yanique Monster in the Middle

by Tiphanie Yanique
Riverhead Books (Oct 19, 2021)
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Monster in the Middle takes the reader on a generational love journey that spans some of America’s most perilous moments. From the Vietnam War to the Challenger explosion to Covid-19, she follows two families over a 50-year stretch of American history in a collection of stories that together form a larger tale of how our time, place and position in the world impacts how we experience love and intimacy. Monster in the Middle is the quintessential novel for 2021.

Yanique calls on themes from some of the best American, Caribbean and international fiction, using her signature lyrical writing style. This historical fiction travels throughout America, from California and Tennessee to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It explores intimacy through a generational, historical and societal lens. It provides a rare look into post-colonialism in America, as well as the divergent experience of being black in America over the last 50 years.

Monster in the Middle challenges everything we know about relationships and how they are shaped by our cultures, our families, our communities, our race, and our time and location within history. Each generation in each location faces their own unique challenges and circumstances. This novel touches on some of the most poignant historical moments, bringing us to this apex moment in the present, where we’re all masked, still searching for love and struggling to reconcile political and cultural differences. This book asks us to rethink what it means to be American during turbulent times, particularly an American in love.


Click for more detail about A Journal for Jordan (Movie Tie-In): A Story of Love and Honor by Dana Canedy A Journal for Jordan (Movie Tie-In): A Story of Love and Honor

by Dana Canedy
Crown Publishing Group (Oct 19, 2021)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A hauntingly beautiful account of a family fractured by war … filled with vivid and heartbreaking details.”—The New York Times Book Review

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • “Full of wonderful treasures offered by a unique and spirited father … written with serene grace: part memoir, part love story, all heart.”—James McBride, author of The Color of Water

In 2005, Dana Canedy’s fiancé, First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, began to write what would become a two-hundred-page journal for his son in case he did not make it home from the war in Iraq. He was killed by a roadside bomb on October 14, 2006. His son, Jordan, was seven months old.

Inspired by his example, Dana was determined to preserve his memory for their son. A Journal for Jordan is a mother’s fiercely honest letter to her child about the parent he lost before he could even speak. It is also a father’s advice and prayers for the son he will never know.

A father figure to the soldiers under his command, Charles moved naturally into writing to his son. In neat block letters, he counseled him on everything from how to withstand disappointment and deal with adversaries to how to behave on a date. And he also wrote of recovering a young soldier’s body, piece by piece, from a tank—and the importance of honoring that young man’s life. He finished the journal two months before his death while home on a two-week leave, so intoxicated with love for his infant son that he barely slept.

This is also the story of Dana and Charles together—two seemingly mismatched souls who loved each other deeply and lost each other too soon. A Journal for Jordan is a tender introduction, a loving good-bye, a reporter’s inquiry into her soldier’s life, and a heartrending reminder of the human cost of war.


Click for more detail about Rebel Sisters by Tochi Onyebuchi Rebel Sisters

by Tochi Onyebuchi
Razorbill (Oct 19, 2021)
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In the epic, action-packed sequel to the brilliant (Booklist, starred review) novel War Girls, the battles are over, but the fight for justice has just begun.

It’s been five years since the Biafran War ended. Ify is now nineteen and living where she’s always dreamed—the Space Colonies. She is a respected, high-ranking medical officer and has dedicated her life to helping refugees like herself rebuild in the Colonies.

Back in the still devastated Nigeria, Uzo, a young synth, is helping an aid worker, Xifeng, recover images and details of the war held in the technology of destroyed androids. Uzo, Xifeng, and the rest of their team are working to preserve memories of the many lives lost, despite the government’s best efforts to eradicate any signs that the war ever happened.

Though they are working toward common goals of helping those who suffered, Ify and Uzo are worlds apart. But when a mysterious virus breaks out among the children in the Space Colonies, their paths collide. Ify makes it her mission to figure out what’s causing the deadly disease. And doing so means going back to the homeland she thought she’d left behind forever.


Click for more detail about Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora by Bryant Terry Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora

by Bryant Terry
4 Color Books (Oct 19, 2021)
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A beautiful, rich, and groundbreaking book exploring Black foodways within America and around the world, curated by food activist and author of Vegetable Kingdom Bryant Terry.

ONE OF THE TEN BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe • ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Time Out, NPR, Los Angeles Times, Food52, Glamour, New York Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Vice, Epicurious, Shelf Awareness, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal

“Mouthwatering, visually stunning, and intoxicating, Black Food tells a global story of creativity, endurance, and imagination that was sustained in the face of dispersal, displacement, and oppression.”—Imani Perry, Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University

In this stunning and deeply heartfelt tribute to Black culinary ingenuity, Bryant Terry captures the broad and divergent voices of the African Diaspora through the prism of food. With contributions from more than 100 Black cultural luminaires from around the globe, the book moves through chapters exploring parts of the Black experience, from Homeland to Migration, Spirituality to Black Future, offering delicious recipes, moving essays, and arresting artwork.

As much a joyful celebration of Black culture as a cookbook, Black Food explores the interweaving of food, experience, and community through original poetry and essays, including “Jollofing with Toni Morrison” by < a href="https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Sarah+Ladipo+Manyika">Sarah Ladipo Manyika, “Queer Intelligence” by Zoe Adjonyoh, “The Spiritual Ecology of Black Food” by Leah Penniman, and “Foodsteps in Motion” by Michael W. Twitty. The recipes are similarly expansive and generous, including sentimental favorites and fresh takes such as Crispy Cassava Skillet Cakes from Yewande Komolafe, Okra & Shrimp Purloo from BJ Dennis, Jerk Chicken Ramen from Suzanne Barr, Avocado and Mango Salad with Spicy Pickled Carrot and Rof Dressing from Pierre Thiam, and Sweet Potato Pie from Jenné Claiborne. Visually stunning artwork from such notables as Black Panther Party creative director Emory Douglas and artist Sarina Mantle are woven throughout, and the book includes a signature musical playlist curated by Bryant.

With arresting artwork and innovative design, Black Food is a visual and spiritual feast that will satisfy any soul.

Image reciepe Green Plantain Crisps

Book Review

Click for more detail about Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South by Wade Hudson Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South

by Wade Hudson
Crown Books for Young Readers (Oct 12, 2021)
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As the fight for equal rights continues ,Defiant takes a critical look at the strides and struggles of the past in this revelatory and moving memoir about a young Black man growing up in the South during the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. For fans of Trevor Noah: Born a Crime, Stamped from the Beginning, and Brown Girl Dreaming.

Born in 1946 in Mansfield, Louisiana, Wade Hudson came of age against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. From their home on Mary Street, his close-knit family watched as the country grappled with desegregation, as the Klan targeted the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and as systemic racism struck across the nation and in their hometown.

Amidst it all, Wade was growing up. Getting into scuffles in the schoolyard, playing baseball on a team he put together, immersing himself in his church community, and starting to write. Most important, Wade learned how to find his voice and use it. From his family, his community, and his college classmates, Wade learned the importance of fighting for change by confronting the laws and customs that marginalized and demeaned people.

This powerful memoir reveals the struggles, joys, love, and ongoing resilience that it took to grow up Black in segregated America, and the lessons that carry over to our fight for a better future.


Click for more detail about Recognize!: An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson Recognize!: An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life

by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson
Crown Books for Young Readers (Oct 12, 2021)
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In the stunning follow-up to The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth, more than 30 award-winning Black authors and artists come together to create a moving anthology collection celebrating Black love, Black creativity, Black resistance, and Black life.

BLACK LIVES HAVE ALWAYS MATTERED.
Prominent Black creators lend their voice, their insight, and their talent to an inspiring anthology that celebrates Black culture and Black life. Essays, poems, short stories, and historical excerpts blend with a full-color eight-page insert of spellbinding art to capture the pride, prestige, and jubilation that is being Black in America. In these pages, find the stories of the past, the journeys of the present, and the light guiding the future.

Featuring stories and original art by Vanessa Brantley-Newton; Mahogany L. Browne; Paula Chase; Dhonielle Clayton; Lesa Cline-Ransome; Floyd Cooper; Pat Cummings; Sharon Draper; Lamar Giles; Nikki Grimes; Ekua Holmes; Cheryl Willis Hudson; Curtis Hudson; Wade Hudson; Tiffany Jewell; Keith Knight; London Ladd; Kelly Starling Lyons; Kwame Mbalia; DeRay Mckesson; Robert H. Miller; Denene Milner; Jerdine Nolen; Adedayo Perkovich; James Ransome; Ronald L. Smith; Nic Stone; Don Tate; Eric Velasquez; Carole B. Weatherford; Alicia D. Williams; Shannon Wright; Ibi Zoboi


Click for more detail about Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle by Danté Stewart Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle

by Danté Stewart
Convergent Books (Oct 12, 2021)
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In Shoutin’ in the Fire, Danté Stewart gives breathtaking language to his reckoning with the legacy of white supremacy—both the kind that hangs over our country and the kind that is internalized on a molecular level. Stewart uses his personal experiences as a vehicle to reclaim and reimagine spiritual virtues like rage, resilience, and remembrance—and explores how these virtues might function as a work of love against an unjust, unloving world.

In 2016, Stewart was a rising leader at the predominantly white evangelical church he and his family were attending in Augusta, Georgia. Like many young church leaders, Stewart was thrilled at the prospect of growing his voice and influence within the community, and he was excited to break barriers as the church’s first Black preacher. But when Donald Trump began his campaign, so began the unearthing. Stewart started overhearing talk in the pews—comments ranging from microaggressions to outright hostility toward Black Americans. As this violence began to reveal itself en masse, Stewart quickly found himself isolated amid a people unraveled; this community of faith became the place where he and his family now found themselves most alone. This set Stewart on a journey—first out of the white church and then into a liberating pursuit of faith—by looking to the wisdom of the saints that have come before, including James H. Cone, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison, and by heeding the paradoxical humility of Jesus himself.

This sharply observed journey is an intimate meditation on coming of age in a time of terror. Stewart reveals the profound faith he discovered even after experiencing the violence of the American church: a faith that loves Blackness; speaks truth to pain and trauma; and pursues a truer, realer kind of love than the kind we’re taught, a love that sets us free.

“Some of us joke about Jesus needing better PR than what today’s evangelical church provides. Enter Danté Stewart. With unparalleled candor, vulnerability, and love, Stewart takes us along his personal journey to understanding what it is to be Black, Christian, and American. The church is long overdue for a reckoning with white supremacy, and Stewart has written a brilliant blueprint.”—Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

“Standing in a centuries old tradition of spiritual autobiography, Shoutin’ in the Fire is at once a coming of age story and a conversion narrative. From Pentecostal origins, he travels through institutions that hold onto an idea of ‘white Jesus,’ and finally to a spiritual reckoning in which he recognizes Black life to be not only valuable but holy…I highly recommend this book.”—Imani Perry, Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of Breathe: A Letter to My Sons


Click for more detail about Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City

by Andrea Elliott
Random House (Oct 05, 2021)
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“Destined to become one of the classics of the genre” (Newsweek), the riveting, unforgettable story of a girl whose indomitable spirit is tested by homelessness, poverty, and racism in an unequal America—from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliott of The New York Times

Invisible Child follows eight dramatic years in the life of a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. Dasani was named after the bottled water that signaled Brooklyn’s gentrification and the shared aspirations of a divided city. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her family, tracing the passage of their ancestors from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, the homeless crisis in New York City has exploded amid the deepening chasm between rich and poor.

Dasani must guide her siblings through a city riddled by hunger, violence, drug addiction, homelessness, and the monitoring of child protection services. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter to protect the ones she loves. When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself?

By turns heartbreaking and inspiring, Invisible Child tells an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality. Based on nearly a decade of reporting, Invisible Child illuminates some of the most critical issues in contemporary America through the life of one remarkable girl.


Click for more detail about Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge by Gary Golio Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge

by Gary Golio
Nancy Paulsen Books (Oct 05, 2021)
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James Ransome’s glorious art celebrates jazz icon Sonny Rollins and how he found an inspired spot to practice his saxophone when his neighbors complained.

Sonny Rollins loved his saxophone. As a teenager, he was already playing with jazz stars and making a name for himself. But in 1959, at age twenty-nine, he took a break from performing—to work on being a better, not just famous, musician. Practicing in a city apartment didn’t please the neighbors, so Sonny found a surprising alternative—the Williamsburg Bridge. There, with his head in the clouds and foghorns for company, Sonny could play to his heart’s content and perfect his craft. It was a bold choice, for a bold young man and musician.

Sonny’s passion for music comes alive in jazzy text and vivid, evocative paintings of New York City. His story celebrates striving to be your very best self, an inspiration to music lovers young and old.


Click for more detail about Dreams from My Father (young adult version): A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama Dreams from My Father (young adult version): A Story of Race and Inheritance

by Barack Obama
Delacorte Press (Oct 05, 2021)
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Now adapted for young adults—the AALBC and #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, which Toni Morrison called “quite extraordinary,” offers an intimate look at Barack Obama’s early days. This is a compelling journey tracing the future 44th president’s odyssey through family, race, and identity.

A revealing portrait of a young Black man asking questions about self-discovery and belonging—long before he became one of the most important voices in America. This unique edition includes a new introduction from the author, full-color photo insert, and family tree.

The son of a white American mother and a Black Kenyan father, Obama was born in Hawaii, where he lived until he was six years old, when he moved with his mother and stepfather to Indonesia. At twelve, he returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. Obama brings readers along as he faces the challenges of high school and college, living in New York, becoming a community organizer in Chicago, and traveling to Kenya. Through these experiences, he forms an enduring commitment to leadership and justice. Told through the lens of his relationships with his family—the mother and grandparents who raised him, the father he knows more as a myth than as a man, and the extended family in Kenya he meets for the first time—Obama confronts the complicated truth of his father’s life and legacy and comes to embrace his divided heritage.

On his journey to adulthood from a humble background, he forges his own path through trial and error while staying connected to his roots. Barack Obama is determined to lead a life of purpose, service, and authenticity. This powerful memoir will inspire readers to examine both where they come from and where they are capable of going.


Click for more detail about Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray Beasts of Prey

by Ayana Gray
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Sep 28, 2021)
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An Instant New York Times and Indie Bestseller

There’s no such thing as magic in the broken city of Lkossa, especially for sixteen-year-old Koffi, who indentured to the notorious Night Zoo, knows the fearsome creatures in her care and paying off her family’s debts to secure their eventual freedom can be her only focus. But the night those she loves are gravely threatened by the Zoo’s cruel master, Koffi unleashes a power she doesn’t fully understand, upending her life completely. As the second son of a decorated hero, Ekon is all but destined to become a Son of the Six—an elite warrior—and uphold a family legacy. But on the night of his final rite of passage, Ekon encounters not only the Shetani—a vicious monster that has plagued the city for nearly a century and stalks his nightmares—but Koffi who seems to have the power to ward off the beast. Koffi’s power ultimately saves Ekon, but his choice to let her flee dooms his hopes of becoming a warrior.

Desperate to redeem himself, Ekon vows to hunt the Shetani and end its reign of terror, but he can’t do it alone. Koffi and Ekon form a tentative alliance and together enter the Greater Jungle, a world steeped in wild, frightening magic and untold dangers. The hunt begins. But it quickly becomes unclear whether they are the hunters or the hunted.


Click for more detail about Nina: A Story of Nina Simone by Traci N. Todd Nina: A Story of Nina Simone

by Traci N. Todd
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Sep 28, 2021)
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This illuminating and defining picture book biography illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Christian Robinson, tells the story of little Eunice who grew up to become the acclaimed singer Nina Simone and her bold, defiant, and exultant legacy.

Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in small town North Carolina, Nina Simone was a musical child. She sang before she talked and learned to play piano at a very young age. With the support of her family and community, she received music lessons that introduced her to classical composers like Bach who remained with her and influenced her music throughout her life. She loved the way his music began softly and then tumbled to thunder, like her mother’s preaching, and in much the same way as her career. During her first performances under the name of Nina Simone her voice was rich and sweet but as the Civil Rights Movement gained steam, Nina’s voice soon became a thunderous roar as she raised her voice in powerful protest in the fight against racial inequality and discrimination.

2022 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award Winner
A 2022 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Finalist
A 2021 Publishers Weekly Best Book
A 2021 Kirkus Best Book
A 2021 Horn Book Fanfare List Pick


Click for more detail about Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth

by Wole Soyinka
Pantheon Books (Sep 28, 2021)
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The first Black person ever to win the Nobel Prize in Literature gives us a tour de force, his first novel in nearly half a century: a savagely satiric, gleefully irreverent, rollicking fictional meditation on how power and greed can corrupt the soul of a nation ("You don’t see things the same way when you encounter a voice like that" —Toni Morrison).

In an imaginary Nigeria, a cunning entrepreneur is selling body parts stolen from Dr. Menka’s hospital for use in ritualistic practices. Dr. Menka shares the grisly news with his oldest college friend, bon viveur, star engineer, and Yoruba royal, Duyole Pitan-Paynethe life of every partywho is about to assume a prestigious post at the United Nations in New York. It now seems that someone is determined that he not make it there. Neither Dr. Menka nor Duyole knows why, or how close the enemy is, how powerful.
Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth is at once a literary hoot, a crafty whodunit, and a scathing indictment of Nigeria’s political elite. It is a stirring call to arms against the abuse of power from one of that country’s fiercest political activists, who just happens to be a global literary giant.

"Soyinka is one of the best there is today —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.


Click for more detail about Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence by Anita Hill Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence

by Anita Hill
Viking Books (Sep 28, 2021)
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“An elegant, impassioned demand that America see gender-based violence as a cultural and structural problem that hurts everyone, not just victims and survivors… It’s at times downright virtuosic in the threads it weaves together.”—NPR

From the woman who gave the landmark testimony against Clarence Thomas as a sexual menace, a new manifesto about the origins and course of gender violence in our society; a combination of memoir, personal accounts, law, and social analysis, and a powerful call to arms from one of our most prominent and poised survivors.

In 1991, Anita Hill began something that’s still unfinished work. The issues of gender violence, touching on sex, race, age, and power, are as urgent today as they were when she first testified. Believing is a story of America’s three decades long reckoning with gender violence, one that offers insights into its roots, and paths to creating dialogue and substantive change. It is a call to action that offers guidance based on what this brave, committed fighter has learned from a lifetime of advocacy and her search for solutions to a problem that is still tearing America apart.

We once thought gender-based violence—from casual harassment to rape and murder—was an individual problem that affected a few; we now know it’s cultural and endemic, and happens to our acquaintances, colleagues, friends and family members, and it can be physical, emotional and verbal. Women of color experience sexual harassment at higher rates than White women. Street harassment is ubiquitous and can escalate to violence. Transgender and nonbinary people are particularly vulnerable.

Anita Hill draws on her years as a teacher, legal scholar, and advocate, and on the experiences of the thousands of individuals who have told her their stories, to trace the pipeline of behavior that follows individuals from place to place: from home to school to work and back home. In measured, clear, blunt terms, she demonstrates the impact it has on every aspect of our lives, including our physical and mental wellbeing, housing stability, political participation, economy and community safety, and how our descriptive language undermines progress toward solutions. And she is uncompromising in her demands that our laws and our leaders must address the issue concretely and immediately.


Click for more detail about Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend by Jackie Kay Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend

by Jackie Kay
Vintage (Sep 28, 2021)
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A beautiful genre-bending tribute to the larger-than-life blues singer Bessie Smith. Scotland’s National Poet blends poetry, prose, fiction, and nonfiction to create an entirely unique biography of the Empress of the Blues.

There has never been anyone else like Bessie Smith. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1894 and orphaned by the age of nine, Bessie Smith sang on street corners before becoming a big name in traveling shows. In 1923, she made her first recording for the newly founded Columbia Records. It sold 780,000 copies and catapulted her to fame. Known for her unmatched vocal talent, her timeless and personal blues narratives, her tough persona, and her ability to enrapture audiences with her raw voice, the Empress of the Blues remains a force and an enigma.

In this remarkable book, Kay combines history and personal narrative, poetry and prose to create an enthralling account of an extraordinary life, and to capture the soul of the woman she first identified with as a young Black girl growing up in Glasgow. Powerful and moving, Bessie Smith is at once a vivid biography of a central figure in American music history and a personal story about one woman’s search for recognition.

A VINTAGE ORIGINAL.


Click for more detail about Drumsticks: Nanette Hayes Mystery Series Book 3 by Charlotte Carter Drumsticks: Nanette Hayes Mystery Series Book 3

by Charlotte Carter
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Sep 28, 2021)
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In the third book in the Nanette Hayes Mystery series, Nan finds a voodoo doll is bringing her some much needed luck…until the doll’s maker is murdered and Nan is dragged into the investigation.

Nanette is on the rocks. Heartbroken and alone, she finds what comfort she can in the bottom of a bottle. But her life seems to turn around when she’s given a voodoo doll, so much so that Nan seeks out the doll’s creator, Ida, to thank her. Unfortunately, the meeting doesn’t go so well, and Ida ends up with a bullet in her head. Guilt-ridden, Nan resolves to get justice for her new friend, only to find that Ida was hiding some dark skeletons in her closet. Now plunged into a dangerous world she doesn’t understand, Nan will have to team up with some unlikely allies, like her estranged father, a high school principal, and Leland Sweet, an NYPD officer with whom Nan has some major history. But will Nan solve Ida’s murder or fall victim to the same forces that brought her down?

Praise for the Nanette Hayes Mystery Series

“A terrific novel, from those witty, subversive opening sentences, to the edgy, melancholy and very satisfying ending.”—Margo Jefferson, the author of Negroland (on Rhode Island Red)


Click for more detail about Black Cowboy, Wild Horses by Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney Black Cowboy, Wild Horses

by Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney
Dial Books (Sep 28, 2021)
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Bob Lemmons is famous for his ability to track wild horses. He rides his horse, Warrior, picks up the trail of mustangs, then runs with them day and night until they accept his presence. Bob and Warrior must then challenge the stallion for leadership of the wild herd. A victorious Bob leads the mustangs across the wide plains and for one last spectacular run before guiding them into the corral. Bob’s job is done, but he dreams of galloping with Warrior forever to where the sky and land meet.

This splendid collaboration by an award-winning team captures the beauty and harshness of the frontier, a boundless arena for the struggle between freedom and survival. Based on accounts of Bob Lemmons, a former slave, Black Cowboy, Wild Horses has been rewritten as a picture book by Julius Lester from his story The Man Who Was a Horse in Long Journey Home, first published by Dial in 1972.


Click for more detail about Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes: Essays by Phoebe Robinson Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes: Essays

by Phoebe Robinson
Tiny Reparations Books (Sep 28, 2021)
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With sharp, timely insight, pitch-perfect pop culture references, and her always unforgettable voice, New York Times bestselling author, comedian, actress, and producer Phoebe Robinson is back with her most must-read book yet.

In her brand-new collection, Phoebe shares stories that will make you laugh, but also plenty that will hit you in the heart, inspire a little bit of rage, and maybe a lot of action. That means sharing her perspective on performative allyship, white guilt, and what happens when white people take up space in cultural movements; exploring what it’s like to be a woman who doesn’t want kids living in a society where motherhood is the crowning achievement of a straight, cis woman’s life; and how the dire state of mental health in America means that taking care of one’s mental health—aka “self-care”—usually requires disposable money.

She also shares stories about her mom slow-poking before a visit with Mrs. Obama, the stupidly fake reassurances of zip-line attendants, her favorite things about dating a white person from the UK, and how the lack of Black women in leadership positions fueled her to become the Black lady boss of her dreams. By turns perceptive, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartfelt, Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes is not only a brilliant look at our current cultural moment, it’s also a collection that will stay with readers for years to come.


Click for more detail about Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem by Amanda Gorman Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem

by Amanda Gorman
Viking Books for Young Readers (Sep 21, 2021)
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A lyrical picture book debut from inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman and #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long

I can hear change humming
In its loudest, proudest song.
I don’t fear change coming,
And so I sing along.

In this stirring, much-anticipated picture book by inaugural Youth Poet Laureate and activist Amanda Gorman, anything is possible when our voices join together. As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes—big or small—in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves.

With lyrical text and rhythmic illustrations that build to a dazzling crescendo by #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Loren Long, Change Sings is a triumphant call to action for everyone to use their abilities to make a difference.


Click for more detail about The Best Short Stories 2021: The O. Henry Prize Winners by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Best Short Stories 2021: The O. Henry Prize Winners

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Anchor Books (Sep 14, 2021)
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Twenty prizewinning stories selected from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year—continuing the O. Henry Prize’s century-long tradition of literary excellence.

Now entering its second century, the prestigious annual story anthology has a new title, a new look, and a new guest editor. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has brought her own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and young emerging voices. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Adichie, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction.

Featured in this collection:

  • Daphne Palasi Andreades
  • David Means
  • Sindya Bhanoo
  • Crystal Wilkinson
  • Alice Jolly
  • David Rabe
  • Karina Sainz Borgo (translator, Elizabeth Bryer)
  • Jamel Brinkley
  • Tessa Hadley
  • Adachioma Ezeano
  • Anthony Doerr
  • Tiphanie Yanique
  • Joan Silber
  • Jowhor Ile
  • Emma Cline
  • Asali Solomon
  • Ben Hinshaw
  • Caroline Albertine Minor (translator, Caroline Waight)
  • Jianan Qian
  • Sally Rooney


Click for more detail about Corduroy Writes a Letter by Allan Eitzen Corduroy Writes a Letter

by Allan Eitzen
Random House Books for Young Readers (Sep 14, 2021)
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Corduroy was first introduced to readers in 1968 and soon became a classic character. Everybody’s favorite department store bear is having further adventures in a story about using your voice. Now available in Step into Reading, the premier reader line!

When Lisa wants to contact a movie theater owner about a problem, she thinks he’s too important and won’t respond. Can Corduroy help his friend with her good deed? He shows her how powerful a letter can be, and that speaking up about a problem can make a change!

Step 2 Readers use basic vocabulary and short sentences to tell simple stories, for children who recognize familiar words and can sound out new words with help. Rhyme and rhythmic text paired with picture clues help children decode the story.


Click for more detail about Corduroy Makes a Cake by Allan Eitzen Corduroy Makes a Cake

by Allan Eitzen
Random House Books for Young Readers (Sep 14, 2021)
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Corduroy was first introduced to readers in 1968 and soon became a classic character. Everybody’s favorite department store bear is having further adventures in this birthday story. Now available in Step into Reading, the premier reader line!

When Corduroy finds out that Lisa is having a birthday party, he decides to make her a very special cake. Instead of making a cake, Corduroy makes a great big mess! He doesn’t know what to do. Will he find another way to give Lisa a birthday surprise?

Step 2 Readers use basic vocabulary and short sentences to tell simple stories, for children who recognize familiar words and can sound out new words with help. Rhyme and rhythmic text paired with picture clues help children decode the story.


Click for more detail about Amistad: The Story of a Slave Ship by Patricia C. Mckissack Amistad: The Story of a Slave Ship

by Patricia C. Mckissack
Random House Books for Young Readers (Sep 14, 2021)
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An amazing chapter in American history is now available in Step into Reading, the premier leveled reader line.

In 1838, a slave ship named the Amistad took hundreds of kidnapped Africans on a long journey across the Atlantic. But the brave captives would not give up their freedom, taking over the ship so they could sail back to their homeland. This History Reader is not to be missed.

Step 4 Readers use challenging vocabulary and short paragraphs to tell exciting stories. For newly independent readers who read simple sentences with confidence.


Click for more detail about Redeeming Justice: From Defendant to Defender, My Fight for Equity on Both Sides of a Broken System by Jarrett Adams Redeeming Justice: From Defendant to Defender, My Fight for Equity on Both Sides of a Broken System

by Jarrett Adams
Convergent Books (Sep 14, 2021)
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"A moving and beautifully crafted memoir."—SCOTT TUROW
"A daring act of justified defiance."—SHAKA SENGHOR
"Nothing less than heroic."—JOHN GRISHAM

He was seventeen when an all-white jury sentenced him to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Now a pioneering lawyer, he recalls the journey that led to his exoneration—and inspired him to devote his life to fighting the many injustices in our legal system.

Seventeen years old and facing nearly thirty years behind bars, Jarrett Adams sought to figure out the why behind his fate. Sustained by his mother and aunts who brought him back from the edge of despair through letters of prayer and encouragement, Adams became obsessed with our legal system in all its damaged glory. After studying how his constitutional rights to effective counsel had been violated, he solicited the help of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, an organization that exonerates the wrongfully convicted, and won his release after nearly ten years in prison.

But the journey was far from over. Adams took the lessons he learned through his incarceration and worked his way through law school with the goal of helping those who, like himself, had faced our legal system at its worst. After earning his law degree, he worked with the New York Innocence Project, becoming the first exoneree ever hired by the nonprofit as a lawyer. In his first case with the Innocence Project, he argued before the same court that had convicted him a decade earlier—and won.

In this illuminating story of hope and full-circle redemption, Adams draws on his life and the cases of his clients to show the racist tactics used to convict young men of color, the unique challenges facing exonerees once released, and how the lack of equal representation in our courts is a failure not only of empathy but of our collective ability to uncover the truth. Redeeming Justice is an unforgettable firsthand account of the limits—and possibilities—of our country’s system of law.


Click for more detail about Say It Loud!: On Race, Law, History, and Culture by Randall Kennedy Say It Loud!: On Race, Law, History, and Culture

by Randall Kennedy
Pantheon Books (Sep 07, 2021)
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A collection of provocative essays exploring the key social justice issues of our time—from George Floyd to antiracism to inequality and the Supreme Court. Kennedy is among the most incisive American commentators on race (The New York Times).

Informed by sharpness of observation and often courting controversy, deep fellow feeling, decency, and wit, Say It Loud! includes:

The George Floyd Moment: Promise and Peril - Isabel Wilkerson, the Election of 2020, and Racial Caste - The Princeton Ultimatum: Antiracism Gone Awry - The Constitutional Roots of "Birtherism" - Inequality and the Supreme Court - "Nigger" The Strange Career Continues - Frederick Douglass: Everyone’s Hero - Remembering Thurgood Marshall - Why Clarence Thomas Ought to Be Ostracized - The Politics of Black Respectability - Policing Racial Solidarity

In each essay, Kennedy is mindful of complexity, ambivalence, and paradox, and he is always stirring and enlightening. Say It Loud! is a wide-ranging summa of Randall Kennedy’s thought on the realities and imaginaries of race in America.


Click for more detail about The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart by Alicia Garza The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart

by Alicia Garza
One World (Sep 07, 2021)
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An essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time, from one of the country’s leading organizers and a co-creator of Black Lives Matter “Excellent and provocative … a gateway [to] urgent debates.”—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Time • Marie Claire • Kirkus Reviews

In 2013, Alicia Garza wrote what she called “a love letter to Black people” on Facebook, in the aftermath of the acquittal of the man who murdered seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin. Garza wrote:

Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.

With the speed and networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter became the hashtag heard ’round the world. But Garza knew even then that hashtags don’t start movements—people do.

Long before #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for this generation, Garza had spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning some hard lessons about organizing. The lessons she offers are different from the “rules for radicals” that animated earlier generations of activists and diverge from the charismatic, patriarchal model of the American civil rights movement. She reflects instead on how making room amongst the woke for those who are still awakening can inspire and activate more people to fight for the world we all deserve.

This is the story of one woman’s lessons through years of bringing people together to create change. Most of all, it is a new paradigm for change for a new generation of changemakers, from the mind and heart behind one of the most important movements of our time.


Click for more detail about Dream Street by Tricia Elam Walker Dream Street

by Tricia Elam Walker
Anne Schwartz Books (Sep 07, 2021)
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NAMED ONE OF THE BEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES • FIVE STARRED REVIEWS

Visit a truly special street bursting with joy, hope, and dreams. Inspired by the neighborhood where they grew up as cousins, this gorgeous picture book from an award-winning illustrator and critically acclaimed author is the perfect gift or keepsake for every generation.

Welcome to Dream Street–the best street in the world! Jump rope with Azaria–can you Double Dutch one leg at a time? Dream big with Ede and Tari, who wish to create a picture book together one day. Say hello with Mr. Sidney, a retired mail carrier who greets everyone with the words, “Don’t wait to have a great day. Create one!” On Dream Street, love between generations rules, everyone is special, and the warmth of the neighborhood shines.

A magical story from the critically acclaimed author of Nana Akua Goes to School and a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award winning illustrator. Illuminating this vivid cast of characters are vibrant, joyful illustrations that make this neighborhood–based on the Roxbury neighborhood in Boston where the author and illustrator grew up together as cousins–truly sing. This book is a perfect way for parents to share with their children the importance of community.


Click for more detail about Coq Au Vin: Nanette Hayes Mystery Series Book 2 by Charlotte Carter Coq Au Vin: Nanette Hayes Mystery Series Book 2

by Charlotte Carter
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Aug 31, 2021)
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Read a review of Coq Au Vin: A Nanette Hayes Mystery in Mosaic Literary Magazine (spring 1999, page 48)

In the second installment of the Nanette Hayes Mystery series, Nan is on her way to Paris in search of a missing relative… but will she lose more than just her heart in the city of love?

Nanette’s life is finally getting back to normal when her mother calls her with some upsetting news: Nan’s beloved bohemian Aunt Vivian has gone missing. Normally this is par for the course with Viv, but this time the circumstances surrounding Vivian’s disappearance are rather troubling. Would Nan be up to brushing up on her French language skills and flying to Paris to track her down?

Would she ever. Now swanning about her favorite city, Nan has a hard time keeping her attention on the task at hand… especially after she meets handsome violinist Andre, a fellow street musician from Detroit. But trouble has a way of finding Nan, and her search for Vivian lands her in the underbelly of historic Paris and in the crosshairs of some of its most dangerous denizens.

Praise for the Nanette Hayes Mystery Series

“A terrific novel, from those witty, subversive opening sentences, to the edgy, melancholy and very satisfying ending.”—Margo Jefferson, the author of Negroland (on Rhode Island Red)


Click for more detail about She Persisted: Ruby Bridges by Kekla Magoon She Persisted: Ruby Bridges

by Kekla Magoon
Philomel Books (Aug 24, 2021)
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Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger, a chapter book series about women who stood up, spoke up and rose up against the odds!

In this chapter book biography by NAACP Image Award-winning author and Coretta Scott King Honor recipient Kekla Magoon, readers learn about the amazing life of Ruby Bridges—and how she persisted.

As a first grader, Ruby Bridges was the first Black student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana. This was no easy task, especially for a six-year-old. Ruby’s bravery and perseverance inspired children and adults alike to fight for equality and social justice. Perfect for back-to-school reading!

Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton, black-and-white illustrations throughout, and a list of ways that readers can follow in Ruby Bridges’s footsteps and make a difference! A perfect choice for kids who love learning and teachers who want to bring inspiring women into their curriculum.

And don’t miss out on the rest of the books in the She Persisted series, featuring so many more women who persisted, including Oprah Winfrey, Harriet Tubman, Claudette Colvin, Coretta Scott King, and more!


Click for more detail about The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You: Stories by Maurice Carlos Ruffin The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You: Stories

by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
One World (Aug 17, 2021)
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A collection of raucous stories that offer a panoramic view of New Orleans from the author of the "stunning and audacious" (NPR) debut novel We Cast a Shadow

Maurice Carlos Ruffin has an uncanny ability to reveal the hidden corners of a place we thought we knew. These perspectival, character-driven stories center on the margins and are deeply rooted in New Orleanian culture.

In "Beg Borrow Steal," a boy relishes time spent helping his father find work after coming home from prison; in "Ghetto University," a couple struggling financially turns to crime after hitting rock bottom; in "Before I Let Go," a woman who’s been in NOLA for generations fights to keep her home; in "Fast Hands, Fast Feet," an army vet and a runaway teen find companionship while sleeping under a bridge; in "Mercury Forges," a flash fiction piece among several in the collection, a group of men hurriedly make their way to an elderly gentleman’s home, trying to reach him before the water from Hurricane Katrina does; and in the title story, a young man works the street corners of the French Quarter, trying to achieve a freedom not meant for him.

These stories are intimate invitations to hear, witness, and imagine lives at once regional but largely universal, and undeniably New Orleanian, written by a lifelong resident of New Orleans and one of our finest new writers.


Click for more detail about Hell of a Book by Jason Mott Hell of a Book

by Jason Mott
Dutton (Aug 10, 2021)
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An astounding work of fiction from a New York Times bestselling author, always deeply honest, at times electrically funny, that goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans, and America as a whole

In Hell of a Book, an African-American author sets out on a cross-country book tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Jason Mott’s novel and is the scaffolding of something much larger and more urgent: since his novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour.

Throughout, these characters’ stories build and build and as they converge, they astonish. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art, and money, there always is the tragic story of a police shooting playing over and over on the news.

Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably powerful, an electrifying high-wire act, ideal for book clubs, and the book Mott says he has been writing in his head for ten years, Hell of a Book in its final twists truly becomes its title.


Click for more detail about Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood by Kwame Mbalia Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood

by Kwame Mbalia
Delacorte Press (Aug 03, 2021)
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Celebrate the joys of Black boyhood with stories from seventeen bestselling, critically acclaimed Black authors—including Jason Reynolds (the Track series), Jerry Craft (New Kid), and Kwame Mbalia (the Tristan Strong series)!

Black boy joy is…

Picking out a fresh first-day-of-school outfit.
Saving the universe in an epic intergalactic race.
Finding your voice—and your rhymes—during tough times.
Flying on your skateboard like nobody’s watching.

And more! From seventeen acclaimed Black male and non-binary authors comes a vibrant collection of stories, comics, and poems about the power of joy and the wonders of Black boyhood.

Contributors include

  1. B. B. Alston,
  2. Dean Atta,
  3. P. Djèlí Clark,
  4. Jay Coles,
  5. Jerry Craft,
  6. Lamar Giles,
  7. Don P. Hooper,
  8. George M. Johnson,
  9. Varian Johnson,
  10. Kwame Mbalia,
  11. Suyi Davies Okungbowa,
  12. Tochi Onyebuchi,
  13. Julian Randall,
  14. Jason Reynolds,
  15. Justin Reynolds,
  16. DaVaun Sanders, and
  17. Julian Winters


Click for more detail about Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn Sugar Town Queens

by Malla Nunn
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Aug 03, 2021)
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From Los Angeles Times Book Prize Award winner and Edgar Award nominee Malla Nunn comes a stunning portrait of a family divided and a powerful story of how friendship saves and heals.

When Amandla wakes up on her fifteenth birthday, she knows it’s going to be one of her mother’s difficult days. Her mother has had another vision. This one involves Amandla wearing a bedsheet loosely stitched as a dress. An outfit, her mother says, is certain to bring Amandla’s father back home, as if he were the prince and this was the fairytale ending their family was destined for. But in truth, Amandla’s father has long been gone—since before Amandla was born—and even her mother’s memory of him is hazy. In fact, many of her mother’s memories from before Amandla was born are hazy. It’s just one of the many reasons people in Sugar Town give them strange looks—that and the fact her mother is white and Amandla is Black.

When Amandla finds a mysterious address in the bottom of her mother’s handbag along with a large amount of cash, she decides it’s finally time to get answers about her mother’s life. What she discovers will change the shape and size of her family forever. But with her best friends at her side, Amandla is ready to take on family secrets and the devil himself. These Sugar Town queens are ready to take over the world to expose the hard truths of their lives.


Click for more detail about New Kid Sketchbook: A Place for Your Cartoons, Doodles, and Stories by Jerry Craft New Kid Sketchbook: A Place for Your Cartoons, Doodles, and Stories

by Jerry Craft
Clarkson Potter (Aug 03, 2021)
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Turn your life into the stuff of cartoons with this drawing sketchbook inspired by the protagonist of the bestselling, award-winning graphic novel New Kid, Jordan Banks.

Jordan Banks, the New Kid, loves to draw. That’s why he always has his sketchbook with him—in case he sees something cool or has a good idea he wants to remember.

So author Jerry Craft created this sketchbook for kids like Jordan who want to draw. There’s lots of room for practicing all kinds of drawing styles, manga, cartoons, comic strips, sketching, and doodling, plus some tips on how to get better at it.

Because drawing panels and speech bubbles by hand can get wobbly, there’s a ruler you can tear off in the front to make straight lines, and some speech bubble stencils on a panel in the back that you can tear off and trace onto your cartoons.

One thing Jordan knows is: the more you draw, the better you’ll get. So pick up your pencil, start drawing, and remember to have fun.


Click for more detail about Rhode Island Red: Nanette Hayes Mystery Series Book 1 by Charlotte Carter Rhode Island Red: Nanette Hayes Mystery Series Book 1

by Charlotte Carter
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Jul 27, 2021)
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The first book in the Nanette Hayes Mystery series introduces us to jazz-loving, street busker Nanette, whose love life leads her into some very hot water.

Nan’s day is not off to a good start. Her on-again, off-again relationship with Walter is off…again, and when she offers a fellow busker a place to stay for the night he ends up murdered on her kitchen floor. To make matters worse, the busker turns out to have been an undercover cop. And his former partner has taken an immediate and extreme dislike to Nan. When she finds that the dead man stashed a wad of cash in her apartment, cash that could go to help his blind girlfriend, Nan’s desire to do the right thing lands her in trouble.

Soon she’s on the hunt for a legendary saxophone worth its weight in gold. But there are plenty of people who would kill for the priceless instrument, and Nan’s new beau just might be one of them.

Praise for the Nanette Hayes Mystery Series

“A terrific novel, from those witty, subversive opening sentences, to the edgy, melancholy and very satisfying ending.”—Margo Jefferson, the author of Negroland (on Rhode Island Red)


Click for more detail about African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy by Abiola Abrams African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy

by Abiola Abrams
Hay House (Jul 20, 2021)
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A sacred feminine initiation of self-love and soul care rituals, tools, and exercises.

Spiritual teacher, intuitive coach, and award-winning author, Abiola Abrams invites you to activate African goddess magic to transmute your fears and limiting beliefs, so that you can create more happiness, abundance, and self-acceptance.

Africa is a continent of 54+ countries, and her children are global. There is no one African spiritual tradition. Our ancestors who were trafficked in The New World hid the secrets of our orishas, abosom, lwas, �l�s�, and god/desses behind saints, angels, and legendary characters. From South Africa to Egypt, Brazil to Haiti, Guyana to Louisiana, goddess wisdom still empowers us.

Writes Abiola, Spirit told me, We choose who shows up. And if you are holding this book, then this sacred medicine is meant for you. In this book, you will meet ancient goddesses and divine feminine energy ancestors, legendary queens, and mystical spirits. As you complete their powerful rituals, and ascend through their temples, you will:

. Awaken generational healing in the Temple of Ancestors;
. Manifest your miracles in the Temple of Conjurers;
. Release the struggle in the Temple of Warriors;
. Embrace your dark goddess self in the Temple of Shadows;
. Heal your primal wounds in the Temple of Lovers;
. Liberate your voice in the Temple of Griots;
. Open your third eye intuition in the Temple of Queens; and
. Surrender, meditate, and rise in the Temple of High Priestesses.

Welcome to your goddess circle!


Click for more detail about While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory While We Were Dating

by Jasmine Guillory
Berkley Books (Jul 13, 2021)
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An instant New York Times bestseller!

One of TIME Magazine’s 100 Must-Reads of 2021!

Two people realize that it’s no longer an act when they veer off-script in this sizzling romantic comedy by New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory.

Ben Stephens has never bothered with serious relationships. He has plenty of casual dates to keep him busy, family drama he’s trying to ignore and his advertising job to focus on. When Ben lands a huge ad campaign featuring movie star, Anna Gardiner, however, it’s hard to keep it purely professional. Anna is not just gorgeous and sexy, she’s also down to earth and considerate, and he can’t help flirting a little…

Anna Gardiner is on a mission: to make herself a household name, and this ad campaign will be a great distraction while she waits to hear if she’s booked her next movie. However, she didn’t expect Ben Stephens to be her biggest distraction. She knows mixing business with pleasure never works out, but why not indulge in a harmless flirtation?

But their light-hearted banter takes a turn for the serious when Ben helps Anna in a family emergency, and they reveal truths about themselves to each other, truths they’ve barely shared with those closest to them.

When the opportunity comes to turn their real-life fling into something more for the Hollywood spotlight, will Ben be content to play the background role in Anna’s life and leave when the cameras stop rolling? Or could he be the leading man she needs to craft their own Hollywood ending?


Click for more detail about Up, Up, Up, Down! by Kimberly Gee Up, Up, Up, Down!

by Kimberly Gee
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jul 13, 2021)
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This action-packed toddler’s day with Dad is full of opposites—and now in board! From his first demand to be picked up and then immediately put down, opposites pop up all day long for this energetic boy. Breakfast is no, no, no, yes! At the sandbox, it’s make, make, make, break! And jumping into the pool goes from can’t, can’t, can’t, to can! Kimberly Gee’s expressive illustrations emphasize the loving connection between a boy and his father in this clever concept book about everyday highs and lows is now in sturdy board, ready to become a staple in toddlers’ hands and bookshelves.


Click for more detail about Maya and the Robot by Eve L. Ewing Maya and the Robot

by Eve L. Ewing
Kokila (Jul 13, 2021)
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From award-winning author Eve L. Ewing comes an illustrated middle grade novel about a forgotten homemade robot who comes to life just when aspiring fifth-grade scientist Maya needs a friend — and a science fair project.

Maya’s nervous about fifth grade. She tries to keep calm by reminding herself she knows what to expect. But then she learns that this year won’t be anything like the last. For the first time since kindergarten, her best friends Jada and MJ are placed in a different class without her, and introverted Maya has trouble making new friends.

She tries to put on a brave face since they are in fifth grade now, but Maya is nervous! Just when too much seems to be changing, she finds a robot named Ralph in the back of Mr. Mac’s convenience store closet. Once she uses her science skills to get him up and running, a whole new world of connection opens up as Ralph becomes a member of her family and Maya begins to step into her power. In this touching novel, Eve L. Ewing melds together a story about community, adapting to change, and the magic of ingenuity that reminds young readers that they can always turn to their own curiosity when feeling lost.


Click for more detail about My Voice Is a Trumpet by Jimmie Allen My Voice Is a Trumpet

by Jimmie Allen
Flamingo Books (Jul 13, 2021)
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Jimmie Allen, multi-platinum selling recording artist and the first Black musician to win The Academy of Country Music Awards New Male Artist of the Year Award will publish his debut picture book, My Voice Is a Trumpet (July 13 pub) with veteran illustrator Cathy Ann Johnson. The book is a powerful story about speaking up for what you believe in, at any age.

In My Voice Is a Trumpet all voices are as diverse as the characters and heard loud and clear. From voices that roar like a lion, to voices small as a bee, all it takes is confidence and a belief in the goodness of others to change the world.

“It’s very important to me that kids learn at a young age that they have a voice, and that it is powerful. It is up to us as adults to teach them to use their voice to encourage and show love,” says Allen. “Being a father of two kids, I try to encourage them to be themselves and love everyone around them. I’m hoping this book inspires at least one child and they always remember their voice is a trumpet.”

Coming at a time when issues of social justice are at the forefront of our society, My Voice Is a Trumpet is a pertinent and poignant book that gives children confidence in the power of their voice from a young age and the knowledge that all voices are valuable.

Sample image from My Voice Is a Trumpet




Click for more detail about The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir

by Michele Harper
Riverhead Books (Jun 29, 2021)
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A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A New York Times Notable Book
"Riveting, heartbreaking, sometimes difficult, always inspiring." —The New York Times Book Review
"An incredibly moving memoir about what it means to be a doctor." —Ellen Pompeo

As seen/heard on Fresh Air, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, Weekend Edition, and more

An emergency room physician explores how a life of service to others taught her how to heal herself.

Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn’t move with her. Her marriage at an end, Harper began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman.

In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she came to understand that each of us is broken—physically, emotionally, psychically. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process.

The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant true story of Harper’s journey toward self-healing. Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery. How to let go of fear even when the future is murky: How to tell the truth when it’s simpler to overlook it. How to understand that compassion isn’t the same as justice. As she shines a light on the systemic disenfranchisement of the patients she treats as they struggle to maintain their health and dignity, Harper comes to understand the importance of allowing ourselves to make peace with the past as we draw support from the present. In this hopeful, moving, and beautiful book, she passes along the precious, necessary lessons that she has learned as a daughter, a woman, and a physician.


Click for more detail about The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray The Personal Librarian

by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Berkley Books (Jun 29, 2021)
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A Good Morning America Book Club Pick

Photo of Belle da Costa GreeneThe remarkable story of J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict, and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths she must go to—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.




Click for more detail about She Persisted: Florence Griffith Joyner by Rita Williams-Garcia She Persisted: Florence Griffith Joyner

by Rita Williams-Garcia
Philomel Books (Jun 29, 2021)
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Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger comes a chapter book series about women who stood up, spoke up and rose up against the odds!

In this chapter book biography by Rita Williams-Garcia, the award-winning author of One Crazy Summer, readers learn about the amazing life of three-time Olympic gold medalist Florence Griffith Joyner—and how she persisted.

Considered the fastest woman of all time, Florence Griffith Joyner, also known as Flo Jo, set two world records in 1988 that still stand today. But getting there wasn’t easy, and Flo Jo had to overcome many challenges along the way.

Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton, black-and-white illustrations throughout, and a list of ways that readers can follow in Florence Griffith Joyner’s footsteps and make a difference!


Click for more detail about Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor Filthy Animals

by Brandon Taylor
Riverhead Books (Jun 22, 2021)
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Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Time, Elle, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, O: The Oprah Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, BuzzFeed, Vulture, Thrillist, The Week, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, The Millions, and Paperback Paris

In the series of linked stories at the heart of Filthy Animals, set among young creatives in the American Midwest, a young man treads delicate emotional waters as he navigates a series of sexually fraught encounters with two dancers in an open relationship, forcing him to weigh his vulnerabilities against his loneliness. In other stories, a young woman battles with the cancers draining her body and her family; menacing undercurrents among a group of teenagers explode in violence on a winter night; a little girl tears through a house like a tornado, driving her babysitter to the brink; and couples feel out the jagged edges of connection, comfort, and cruelty.

One of the breakout literary stars of 2020, Brandon Taylor has been hailed by Roxane Gay as “a writer who wields his craft in absolutely unforgettable ways.” With Filthy Animals he renews and expands on the promise made in,Booker Prize finalist, Real Life, training his precise and unsentimental gaze on the tensions among friends and family, lovers and others. Psychologically taut and quietly devastating, Filthy Animals is a tender portrait of the fierce longing for intimacy, the lingering presence of pain, and the desire for love in a world that seems, more often than not, to withhold it.


Click for more detail about In the Heights: Finding Home by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Quiara Alegría Hudes, and Jeremy McCarter In the Heights: Finding Home

by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Quiara Alegría Hudes, and Jeremy McCarter
Random House (Jun 15, 2021)
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The eagerly awaited follow-up to the #1 New York Times bestseller Hamilton: The Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new book gives readers an extraordinary inside look at In the Heights, his breakout Broadway debut, written with Quiara Alegr�a Hudes, soon to be a Hollywood blockbuster.

In 2008, In the Heights, a new musical from up-and-coming young artists, electrified Broadway. The show’s vibrant mix of Latin music and hip-hop captured life in Washington Heights, the Latino neighborhood in upper Manhattan. It won four Tony Awards and became an international hit, delighting audiences around the world. For the film version, director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) brought the story home, filming its spectacular dance numbers on location in Washington Heights. That’s where Usnavi, Nina, and their neighbors chase their dreams and ask a universal question: Where do I belong?

In the Heights: Finding Home reunites Miranda with Jeremy McCarter, co-author of Hamilton: The Revolution, and Quiara Alegr�a Hudes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist of the Broadway musical and screenwriter of the film. They do more than trace the making of an unlikely Broadway smash and a major motion picture: They give readers an intimate look at the decades-long creative life of In the Heights.

Like Hamilton: The Revolution, the book offers untold stories, perceptive essays, and the lyrics to Miranda’s songs—complete with his funny, heartfelt annotations. It also features newly commissioned portraits and never-before-seen photos from backstage, the movie set, and productions around the world.

This is the story of characters who search for a home—and the artists who created one.


Click for more detail about Becoming Vanessa by Vanessa Brantley-Newton Becoming Vanessa

by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Jun 15, 2021)
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Get ready to go back to school with this inclusive, empathetic story that will help kids new to the classroom transform from timid caterpillars into beautiful butterflies who love exactly who they are!

On Vanessa’s first day of school, her parents tell her it will be easy to make friends. Vanessa isn’t so sure. She wears her fanciest outfit so her new classmates will notice her right away. They notice, but the attention isn’t what she’d hoped for. As the day goes on, she feels more self-conscious. Her clothes are too bright, her feather boa has way too many feathers, and even her name is too hard to write.

The next day, she picks out a plain outfit, and tells her mom that her name is too long. She just wants to blend in, with a simple name like the other girls—why couldn’t her parents have named her Megan or Bella? But when her mother tells her the meaning behind her name, it gives her the confidence she needs to introduce her classmates to the real Vanessa. Perfect for readers of Alma and How She Got Her Name and The King of Kindergarten.


Click for more detail about All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

by Tiya Miles
Random House (Jun 08, 2021)
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A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives.

In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley’s survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold.

Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language— including Rose’s wish that “It be filled with my Love always.” Ruth’s sewn words, the reason we remember Ashley’s sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving new book inspired by Rose’s gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these women’s faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives—and the lives of so many women like them—to write a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States.

The search to uncover this history is part of the story itself. For where the historical record falls short of capturing Rose’s, Ashley’s, and Ruth’s full lives, Miles turns to objects and to art as equally important sources, assembling a chorus of women’s and families’ stories and critiquing the scant archives that for decades have overlooked so many. The contents of Ashley’s sack— a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, “my Love always”—are eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashley’s journey, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained.

All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today.


Click for more detail about Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir

by Akwaeke Emezi
Riverhead Books (Jun 08, 2021)
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"[One] of our greatest living writers." —Shondaland

Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Harper’s Bazaar, BuzzFeed, The Advocate, Lit Hub, Book Page, and Paperback Paris

A full-throated and provocative memoir in letters from the New York Times-bestselling author, "a dazzling literary talent whose works cut to the quick of the spiritual self." —Esquire

In three critically acclaimed novels, Akwaeke Emezi has introduced readers to a landscape marked by familial tensions, Igbo belief systems, and a boundless search for what it means to be free. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, the bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji reveals the harrowing yet resolute truths of their own life. Through candid, intimate correspondence with friends, lovers, and family, Emezi traces the unfolding of a self and the unforgettable journey of a creative spirit stepping into power in the human world. Their story weaves through transformative decisions about their gender and body, their precipitous path to success as a writer, and the turmoil of relationships on an emotional, romantic, and spiritual plane, culminating in a book that is as tender as it is brutal.

Electrifying and inspiring, animated by the same voracious intelligence that distinguishes their fiction, Dear Senthuran is a revelatory account of storytelling, self, and survival.


Click for more detail about Ain’t I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth Ain’t I a Woman?

by Sojourner Truth
Penguin Books (Jun 08, 2021)
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A collection of Sojourner Truth’s iconic words, including her famous speech at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio

A former slave and one of the most powerful orators of her time, Sojourner Truth fought for the equal rights of black women throughout her life. This selection of her impassioned speeches is accompanied by the words of other inspiring African-American female campaigners from the nineteenth century.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives—and upended them. Now Penguin brings you a new set of the acclaimed Great Ideas, a curated library of selections from the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.


Click for more detail about The Ugly Cry: A Memoir by Danielle Henderson The Ugly Cry: A Memoir

by Danielle Henderson
Viking Books (Jun 08, 2021)
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“If you fight that motherf**ker and you don’t win, you’re going to come home and fight me.” Not the advice you’d normally expect from your grandmother—but Danielle Henderson would be the first to tell you her childhood was anything but conventional.

Abandoned at ten years old by a mother who chose her drug-addicted, abusive boyfriend, Danielle was raised by grandparents who thought their child-rearing days had ended in the 1960s. She grew up Black, weird, and overwhelmingly uncool in a mostly white neighborhood in upstate New York, which created its own identity crises. Under the eye-rolling, foul-mouthed, loving tutelage of her uncompromising grandmother—and the horror movies she obsessively watched—Danielle grew into a tall, awkward, Sassy-loving teenager who wore black eyeliner as lipstick and was struggling with the aftermath of her mother’s choices. But she also learned that she had the strength and smarts to save herself, her grandmother gifting her a faith in her own capabilities that the world would not have most Black girls possess.

With humor, wit, and deep insight, Danielle shares how she grew up and grew wise—and the lessons she’s carried from those days to these. In the process, she upends our conventional understanding of family and redefines its boundaries to include the millions of people who share her story.


Click for more detail about The Talk (paperback): Conversations about Race, Love & Truth by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson The Talk (paperback): Conversations about Race, Love & Truth

by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson
Yearling (Jun 01, 2021)
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Thirty diverse, award-winning authors and illustrators invite you into their homes to witness the conversations they have with their children about race in America today in this powerful call-to-action that invites all families to be anti-racists and advocates for change.

As long as racist ideas persist, families will continue to have the difficult and necessary conversations with their young ones on the subject. In this inspiring collection, literary all-stars such as Renée Watson (Piecing Me Together), Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon), Meg Medina (Merci Suárez Changes Gears), Adam Gidwitz (The Inquisitor’s Tale), and many more engage young people in frank conversations about race, identity, and self-esteem. Featuring text and images filled with love, acceptance, truth, peace, and an assurance that there can be hope for a better tomorrow, The Talk is a stirring anthology and must-have resource published in partnership with Just Us Books, a Black-owned children’s publishing company that’s been in operation for over thirty years. Just Us Books continues its mission grounded in the same belief that helped launch the company: Good books make a difference. So, let’s talk.

Featured contributors: Selina Alko, Tracey Baptiste, Derrick Barnes, Natacha Bustos, Cozbi A. Cabrera, Raul Colón, Adam Gidwitz, Nikki Grimes, Rudy Gutierrez, April Harrison, Wade Hudson, Gordon C. James, Minh Lê, E. B. Lewis, Grace Lin, Torrey Maldonado, Meg Medina, Christopher Myers, Daniel Nayeri, Zeke Peña, Peter H. Reynolds, Erin K. Robinson, Traci Sorell, Shadra Strickland, Don Tate, MaryBeth Timothy, Duncan Tonatiuh, Renée Watson, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Sharon Dennis Wyeth


Click for more detail about Corduroy’s Garden by Allan Eitzen Corduroy’s Garden

by Allan Eitzen
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jun 01, 2021)
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Corduroy was first introduced to readers in 1968 and soon became a classic character. Everybody’s favorite department store bear is having further adventures, now in Step into Reading, the premier reader line!

Lisa leaves Corduroy to keep watch over her newly planted seeds. But when a puppy digs up the garden, it’s up to Corduroy to save the day! Based on the popular characters created by Don Freeman, the Corduroy easy-to-read series is ideal for independent readers.

Step 3 Readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots about popular topics; for children who are ready to read on their own.


Click for more detail about Corduroy’s Hike by Allan Eitzen Corduroy’s Hike

by Allan Eitzen
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jun 01, 2021)
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Corduroy was first introduced to readers in 1968 and soon became a classic character. Everybody’s favorite department store bear is having further adventures, now in Step into Reading, the premier reader line!

When Lisa goes on a hiking trip, Corduroy sneaks into her backpack. Lisa is surprised to find him there, but she thinks he’ll be safe as long as he stays tucked inside. Corduroy just has to take a peek outside, and when he does, he falls out! Will Lisa find him again? Based on the popular characters created by Don Freeman, the Corduroy easy-to-read series is ideal for independent readers.

Step 3 Readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots about popular topics; for children who are ready to read on their own.


Click for more detail about Marcus Makes a Movie by Kevin Hart Marcus Makes a Movie

by Kevin Hart
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jun 01, 2021)
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Stand-up comedian and Hollywood box-office hit Kevin Hart keeps the laughs coming in an illustrated middle-grade novel about a boy who has big dreams of making a blockbuster superhero film. Perfect for readers of James Patterson’s Middle School series and Lincoln Peirce’s Big Nate series.

Marcus is NOT happy to be stuck in after-school film class … until he realizes he can turn the story of the cartoon superhero he’s been drawing for years into an actual MOVIE! There’s just one problem: he has no idea what he’s doing. So he’ll need help, from his friends, his teachers, Sierra, the strong-willed classmate with creative dreams of her own, even Tyrell, the local bully who’d be a perfect movie villain if he weren’t too terrifying to talk to.

Making this movie won’t be easy. But as Marcus discovers, nothing great ever is—and if you want your dream to come true, you’ve got to put in the hustle to make it happen.

Comedy superstar Kevin Hart teams up with award-winning author Geoff Rodkey and lauded illustrator David Cooper for a hilarious, illustrated, and inspiring story about bringing your creative goals to life and never giving up, even when nothing’s going your way.


Click for more detail about Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon Instructions for Dancing

by Nicola Yoon
Delacorte Press (Jun 01, 2021)
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In this romantic page-turner from the author of Everything, Everything and The Sun is Also a Star, Evie has the power to see other people’s romantic fates—what will happen when she finally sees her own?

Evie Thomas doesn’t believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began … and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.

As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance Studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything—including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he’s only just met.

Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it’s that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk?


Click for more detail about Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia Dead Dead Girls

by Nekesa Afia
Berkley Books (Jun 01, 2021)
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“In this terrific series opener, Afia evokes the women’s lives in all their wayward and beautiful glory, especially the abruptness with which their dreams, hopes and fears cease to exist.”- - The New York Times

The start of an exciting new historical mystery series set during the Harlem Renaissance from debut author Nekesa Afia.

Harlem, 1926. Young Black women like Louise Lloyd are ending up dead.

Following a harrowing kidnapping ordeal when she was in her teens, Louise is doing everything she can to maintain a normal life. She’s succeeding, too. She spends her days working at Maggie’s Café and her nights at the Zodiac, Harlem’s hottest speakeasy. Louise’s friends, especially her girlfriend, Rosa Maria Moreno, might say she’s running from her past and the notoriety that still stalks her, but don’t tell her that.

When a girl turns up dead in front of the café, Louise is forced to confront something she’s been trying to ignore—two other local Black girls have been murdered in the past few weeks. After an altercation with a police officer gets her arrested, Louise is given an ultimatum: She can either help solve the case or wind up in a jail cell. Louise has no choice but to investigate and soon finds herself toe-to-toe with a murderous mastermind hell-bent on taking more lives, maybe even her own….


Click for more detail about Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress by Alicia D. Williams Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress

by Alicia D. Williams
Anne Schwartz Books (Jun 01, 2021)
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Discover the inspiring story of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and to run for president in this picture book biography from a Newbery Honor-winning author and a Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning illustrator.

Image from Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress

Meet Shirley, a little girl who asks way too many questions! After spending her early years on her grandparents’ farm in Barbados, she returns home to Brooklyn and immediately makes herself known. Shirley kicks butt in school; she breaks her mother’s curfew; she plays jazz piano instead of classical. And as a young adult, she fights against the injustice she sees around her, against women and black people. Soon she is running for state assembly…and winning in a landslide. Three years later, she is on the campaign trail again, as the first black woman to run for Congress. Her slogan? "Fighting Shirley Chisholm—Unbought and Unbossed!" Does she win? You bet she does.

Image from Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress


Click for more detail about While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery While Justice Sleeps

by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery
Doubleday Books (May 25, 2021)
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From celebrated national leader and bestselling author Stacey Abrams, While Justice Sleeps is a gripping, complexly plotted thriller set within the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk for the legendary Justice Howard Wynn, is doing her best to hold her life together—excelling in an arduous job with the court while also dealing with a troubled family. When the shocking news breaks that Justice Wynn—the cantankerous swing vote on many current high-profile cases—has slipped into a coma, Avery’s life turns upside down. She is immediately notified that Justice Wynn has left instructions for her to serve as his legal guardian and power of attorney. Plunged into an explosive role she never anticipated, Avery finds that Justice Wynn had been secretly researching one of the most controversial cases before the court—a proposed merger between an American biotech company and an Indian genetics firm, which promises to unleash breathtaking results in the medical field. She also discovers that Wynn suspected a dangerously related conspiracy that infiltrates the highest power corridors of Washington.

As political wrangling ensues in Washington to potentially replace the ailing judge whose life and survival Avery controls, she begins to unravel a carefully constructed, chess-like sequence of clues left behind by Wynn. She comes to see that Wynn had a much more personal stake in the controversial case and realizes his complex puzzle will lead her directly into harm’s way in order to find the truth. While Justice Sleeps is a cunningly crafted, sophisticated novel, layered with myriad twists and a vibrant cast of characters. Drawing on her astute inside knowledge of the court and political landscape, Stacey Abrams shows herself to be not only a force for good in politics and voter fairness but also a major new talent in suspense fiction.


Click for more detail about The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice by Scott Ellsworth The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice

by Scott Ellsworth
Dutton (May 18, 2021)
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And then they were gone.

More than one-thousand homes and businesses. Restaurants and movie theaters, churches and doctors’ offices, a hospital, a public library, a post office. Looted, burned, and bombed from the air.

Over the course of less than twenty-four hours in the spring of 1921, Tulsa’s infamous "Black Wall Street" was wiped off the map—and erased from the history books. Official records disappeared, researchers were threatened, and the worst single incident of racial violence in American history lay buried for more than fifty years. But there were some secrets that would not die.

A riveting and essential new book, The Ground Breaking not only tells the long-suppressed story of the notorious Tulsa Race Massacre. It also unearths the lost history of how the massacre was covered up, and of the courageous individuals who fought to keep the story alive. Most importantly, it recounts the ongoing archaeological and true crime saga of the search for the unmarked graves of the victims of the massacre, and of the fight to win restitution for the survivors and their families.

Both a forgotten chronicle from the nation’s past, and a story ripped from today’s headlines, The Ground Breaking is a page-turning reflection on how we, as Americans, must wrestle with the parts of our history that have been buried for far too long.


Click for more detail about The Women of Brewster Place: A Novel in Seven Stories by Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place: A Novel in Seven Stories

by Gloria Naylor
Penguin Group USA (May 11, 2021)
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The National Book Award-winning novel—and contemporary classic—that launched the brilliant career of Gloria Naylor

"[A] shrewd and lyrical portrayal of many of the realities of black life … Miss Naylor bravely risks sentimentality and melodrama to write her compassion and outrage large, and she pulls it off triumphantly." —The New York Times Book Review

In her heralded first novel, Gloria Naylor weaves together the stories of seven women living in Brewster Place, a bleak-inner city sanctuary, creating a powerful, moving portrait of the strengths, struggles, and hopes of black women in America. Vulnerable and resilient, openhanded and openhearted, these women forge their lives in a place that in turn threatens and protects—a common prison and a shared home. Naylor renders both loving and painful human experiences with simple eloquence and uncommon intuition. Adapted into a 1989 ABC miniseries starring Oprah Winfrey, The Women of Brewster Place is a touching and unforgettable read.


Click for more detail about There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis by Tracy K. Smith and John Freeman There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis

by Tracy K. Smith and John Freeman
Vintage (May 11, 2021)
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This kaleidoscopic portrait of an unprecedented time brings together some of our most treasured writers today—Edwidge Danticat, Layli Long Soldier, Monica Youn, Julia Alvarez, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor—to give voice to the unthinkable grief and hopeful possibilities born in an era of revolution and change.

Now is an extraordinary time. Across the country, people are losing their loved ones, their livelihoods, their homes, and even their own lives to COVID-19. Despite the pandemic, countless protests erupted this summer over the recurring loss of Black lives. Reverberations of shock and outrage remain with us all. There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love captures and articulates all of these roiling sentiments unleashed by a profound national reckoning.

Drawing its title from a powerful letter to her son by Kirsten West Savali, the book fans out from there, offering a rich and intimate view of the change we underwent. Composed of searing letters, essays, poems, reflections, and screeds, There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love highlights the work of some of our most powerful and insightful writers who hail from across a range of backgrounds and from almost all fifty states. Among them, these writers have brought home four Pulitzers, two National Book Awards, a fistful of Whitings, and numerous citations in best American poetry, short story, and essay compilations. They are noisy with beauty, and their pieces ring louder and clearer than ever before.

Galvanizing and lyrical, this is a deeply profound anthology of writing filled with pain and beauty, warmth and intimacy. A remarkable feat of empathy, There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love offers solace in a time of swirling protest, change, and violence—reminding us of the human scale of the upheaval, and providing hope for a kinder future.


Click for more detail about Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Notes on Grief

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Knopf Publishing Group (May 11, 2021)
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Notes on Grief is an exquisite work of meditation, remembrance, and hope, written in the wake of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s beloved father’s death in the summer of 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged around the world, and kept Adichie and her family members separated from one another, her father succumbed unexpectedly to complications of kidney failure.

Expanding on her original New Yorker piece, Adichie shares how this loss shook her to her core. She writes about being one of the millions of people grieving this year; about the familial and cultural dimensions of grief and also about the loneliness and anger that are unavoidable in it. With signature precision of language, and glittering, devastating detail on the page—and never without touches of rich, honest humor—Adichie weaves together her own experience of her father’s death with threads of his life story, from his remarkable survival during the Biafran war, through a long career as a statistics professor, into the days of the pandemic in which he’d stay connected with his children and grandchildren over video chat from the family home in Abba, Nigeria. In the compact format of We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, Adichie delivers a gem of a book—a book that fundamentally connects us to one another as it probes one of the most universal human experiences. Notes on Grief is a book for this moment—a work readers will treasure and share now more than ever—and yet will prove durable and timeless, an indispensable addition to Adichie’s canon.

"This intimate work implores, jerks us out of callousness, moves grief closer … Notes on Grief lays a path by which we might mourn our individual traumas among the aggregate suffering of this harrowing time. Our guide, Adichie, is uncloaked, full of ’wretched, roaring rage, ’ teaching us how to gather our disparate selves and navigate the still-raging pandemic. In the texture of many of these sentences you can almost feel where the writer has resisted bearing down with her refining tools—language and memory—so as to allow her emotional reality to remain splintered and sharp. Adichie is a consummate world-builder … Over the course of these 30 fragments, we witness a shift in perspective, an assurance that whatever comes next will never have been created before."
—Sarah Broom, The New York Times Book Review [front-page review]

"Notes on Grief makes visceral the experience of death and grieving. In poetic bursts of imagistic prose that mirror the fracturing of self after the death of a beloved parent, Adichie constructs a narrative of mourning — of haunting and of love. Notes on Grief becomes a work larger than its slim size, universal in the experience of the loss of a parent, and the struggle to mourn that loss."
—Hope Wabuke, NPR.org

"Elegantly spare … brutally frank . . With raw eloquence, Notes on Grief is both achingly personal and stunningly familiar to anyone who has felt the ’permanent scattering’ [of grief]. Written and published less than a year after her father’s death, Adichie’s pain on these pages is so palpable that one can almost taste its bitterness. She captures the bewildering messiness of loss in a society that requires serenity, when you’d rather just scream. Grief is impolite … Adichie’s words put welcome, authentic voice to this most universal of emotions, which is also one of the most universally avoided."
—Leslie Gray Streeter, The Washington Post

"Adichie unflinchingly gazes into the black hole of grief as through a telescope, exposing intimate moments and public convulsions while tapping her roots to channel a spectrum of emotions … Candid, elegant … The writer meets the moment."
Oprah Daily, "20 Best Books of May"

"Fierce, tender and raw … In Notes on Grief, Adichie reveals a more private self. This is a cathartic work for Adichie, a way to keep alive the spirit of her father by telling his stories. And in her writing, her father shines as a man of deep kindness and integrity, a dry wit and successful academic who was unstinting in his support of his daughter’s ambitions."
—Anderson Tepper, Los Angeles Times

"A story of loss achingly of its time … Adichie struggles not only with the shock of her unexpected loss but also with the impossibility of distance and by extension, access. She also realizes that each step toward the official recognition of [her father’s] passing will force her to accept that it has happened. I really appreciated Adichie’s discomfort with the language of grief. Books often come to you just when you need them … A book on grief is not the kind of book you want to have to give to anyone. But here we are."
—Allison Arieff, San Francisco Chronicle

"A poignant reflection… Adichie recounts her efforts to cope with her loss, to accept condolences, to carry out the inevitable rituals of death. Her Dad emerges as a wise, kind, thoughtful and understanding presence throughout Notes on Grief …The loveliest writing, however, is not about James Nwoye Adichie, but about the anguish and longing his death produces in those who suffer his absence most acutely. In death, those we love become more than we understood, more than we can ever remember alone. Adichie appreciates this power."
Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post

"Adichie’s exquisitely forthright chronicle of grief generously articulates the harrowing amplification of sorrow, helplessness, and loss during the COVID-19 pandemic … An intimate and essential illumination of a tragic time."
Booklist

"Adichie pays homage to her father’s remarkable life while observing her own surprising emotions as she moves through the messy process of bereavement … What is most memorable in this tribute is Adichie’s father’s love for his family and their enduring love for him. Adichie simply calls him "the loveliest man." The hole her father left behind began to fill with guilt, denial, loneliness, panic and eventually bottomless rage. A raw, moving account of mourning and loss, Adichie’s memoir reminds us there is no right or wrong way to grieve and that celebrating life every day is the best way to honor our loved ones."
—Sarojini Seupersad, BookPage

"Elegant, moving … An affecting paean to the author’s father, James Nwoye Adichie. The first professor of statistics in his country, James lived an eventful and sometimes fraught life. Funny and principled, he died during the pandemic—not of the virus but kidney disease. Adichie moves through some of the classic stages of grief, including no small amount of anger… Eventually, she reflects on a newfound awareness of mortality and finds a ’new urgency’ to live her life and do her work." —Kirkus [starred review]


Click for more detail about Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala Arsenic and Adobo

by Mia P. Manansala
Berkley Books (May 04, 2021)
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One of BuzzFeed’s Highly Anticipated Mystery Novels of 2021!

The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes—one that might just be killer….

When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.

With the cops treating her like she’s the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila’s left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block…


Click for more detail about Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever by John McWhorter Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever

by John McWhorter
Avery (May 04, 2021)
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Nine Nasty Words is a deeply intelligent celebration of language that teaches us how to see English in high definition and love it as it really is, right now and in its myriad incarnations to come.—The New York Times

Rollicking, salty, learned, and intensely informative, John McWhorter’s Nine Nasty Words is a grand tour through the history of the profanities we (sometimes) abhor and (sometimes) revel in (and sometimes both), peppered with cameos by everyone from Geoffrey Chaucer and Cole Porter to Tallulah Bankhead and the too-little-known singer-songwriter Lucille Bogan, still making people blush seventy-odd years after her death, God bless her. I laughed frequently and learned plenty.—Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times bestselling author of Dreyer’s English

Shakespeare’s Caliban spoke for the human race when he said ’You taught me language, and my profit on’t is, I know how to curse.’ Taboo language combines our touchiest social emotions with the poetic and metaphorical powers of language, and no one can explain these more clearly and compellingly than John McWhorter.—Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; author of The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature

Erudite and entertaining, McWhorter shows us foul language in its wonderful, fertile variety. We see how speech taboos that once applied to religion and the body now apply to groups of people—and why there should be such power (and pleasure) in transgressing them.—Aaron James, New York Times bestselling author of Assholes: A Theory

A bawdy, bodacious, and brilliant excursion through the wonderful world of profanity, filled with delicious tidbits (who knew that Edna St. Vincent Millay practiced slinging the sh*t while darning?) and linguistic amuse bouches. In other words, it’s a f***ing great read.—Ross and Kathryn Petras, New York Times bestselling authors of You’re Saying It Wrong

A lively and informative study, not to mention wonderful cocktail party material.—Kirkus Reviews

Effing delightful. A treat for every adult who used to look up swears in the dictionary (or still does).—June Casagrande, bestselling author of It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences and Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies

Dispensing his vast linguistic expertise with the lightest and deftest of touches, John McWhorter shows brilliantly how the ’nastiest’ words can teach us about the dynamic and unruly nature of all language. Anyone interested in words (and not just the nasty ones) should read this book.—Joe Moran, author of First You Write a Sentence.

"Nine Nasty Words takes the reader round the back of the English language, only to show—with irrepressible humor and a dash of forbearance—how what we find there is central to who we are."—Rebecca Gowers, author of Horrible Words A Guide to the Misuse of English

If you want to get down and dirty in the gutter of English (and, be honest, who doesn’t?) you’d better go with a guide who knows his sh*t. McWhorter gives a jovial, expert tour of the ’bedrock swears’ from the offensive and profane to the merely ’salty, ’ not just where they came from, but how they have shifted and morphed in force, meaning, grammar and in the effect they produce.—Arika Okrent, author of In the Land of Invented Languages

Call me old-fashioned, but goshdarnit this book has an in-freaking-credible shipload of fizzy information. McWhorter’s delicate linguistic ear is put to indelicate and delectable use in this deep dive into the linguistic muck.—M.Lynne Murphy, Professor of Linguistics, University of Sussex, and author of The Prodigal Tongue

Only a kick-ass writer could wrest such erudite historical fun from language’s sh*thouse. Damn, this is one hell of a book, and this p***y will never curse the same again.—Ann Patty, author of Living with a Dead Language


Click for more detail about Many Shapes of Clay: a Story of Healing by Kenesha Sneed Many Shapes of Clay: a Story of Healing

by Kenesha Sneed
Prestel Junior (May 04, 2021)
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In this modern-day fable about grief, diversity, and family connections, a young girl discovers the joys–and pain–of the creative process.

Winner of the Bookstagang Best of 2021: Best Conversation Starter Picture Books of 2021. Longlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize. Ezra Jack Keats Award Honoree.

Eisha lives with her mother, a ceramic artist, who helps her make a special shape out of a piece of clay. The shape reminds Eisha of her father, of the ocean, of a lemon. As Eisha goes through her neighborhood doing errands with her mother, the piece of clay hardens and then shatters into pieces when Eisha taps it.

In poignant and powerful words and pictures, Kenesha Sneed shows how Eisha learns to live with the sense of loss and of the joyful power of making something new out of what is left behind. Illustrated with Sneed’s bold colors, graphic lines, and gestural textures, the book celebrates diversity and shares a gentle message that we all have the ability to heal and create.


Click for more detail about You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience

by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown
Random House (Apr 27, 2021)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.

Contributions by Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Laverne Cox, Jason Reynolds, Austin Channing Brown, and more

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY MARIE CLAIRE AND BOOKRIOT

It started as a text between two friends.

Tarana Burke, founder of the ‘me too.’ Movement, texted researcher and writer Brené Brown to see if she was free to jump on a call. Brené assumed that Tarana wanted to talk about wallpaper. They had been trading home decorating inspiration boards in their last text conversation so Brené started scrolling to find her latest Pinterest pictures when the phone rang.

But it was immediately clear to Brené that the conversation wasn’t going to be about wallpaper. Tarana’s hello was serious and she hesitated for a bit before saying, “Brené, you know your work affected me so deeply, but as a Black woman, I’ve sometimes had to feel like I have to contort myself to fit into some of your words. The core of it rings so true for me, but the application has been harder.”

Brené replied, “I’m so glad we’re talking about this. It makes sense to me. Especially in terms of vulnerability. How do you take the armor off in a country where you’re not physically or emotionally safe?”

Long pause.

“That’s why I’m calling,” said Tarana. “What do you think about working together on a book about the Black experience with vulnerability and shame resilience?”

There was no hesitation.

Burke and Brown are the perfect pair to usher in this stark, potent collection of essays on Black shame and healing. Along with the anthology contributors, they create a space to recognize and process the trauma of white supremacy, a space to be vulnerable and affirm the fullness of Black love and Black life.


Click for more detail about The Son of Mr. Suleman by Eric Jerome Dickey The Son of Mr. Suleman

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Apr 20, 2021)
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From the AALBC.com and New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey—named one of USA Today’s 100 Black Novelists and Fiction Authors You Should Read—comes his final work: an unflinchingly timely novel about history, hearts, and family.

It’s the summer of 2019, and Professor Pi Suleman is a Black man from Memphis with a lot to endure—not only as a Black man in Trump’s America but in his hard-earned career as an adjunct professor. Pi is constantly forced to bite his tongue in the face of one of his tenured colleague’s prejudices and microaggressions. At the same time, he’s being blackmailed by a powerful professor who threatens to claim he has assaulted her, when in fact the truth is just the opposite, trapping him in a he-said-she-said with a white woman that, in this society, Pi knows he will never win.

When he meets Gemma Buckingham, a sophisticated entrepreneur who has just moved to Memphis from London to escape a deep heartbreak, things begin to look up. Though Gemma and Pi hail from separate cultures, their differences fuel a fiery and passionate connection that just may consume them both.

But Pi’s whirlwind romance is interrupted when his absentee father, a celebrated writer, passes away and Pi is called to Los Angeles to both collect his inheritance and learn about the man who never acknowledged him. With the complicated legacy of his famous father to make sense of, Gemma’s visa expiration date looming, and the threats of his colleague becoming increasingly intense, Pi must figure out who he is and what kind of man he will become in his father’s shadow.

In The Son of Mr. Suleman, Eric Jerome Dickey takes readers on a powerful journey exploring racism, colorism, life as a mixed-race person, sexual assault, microaggressions, truth and lies, cultural differences, politics, family legacies, perceptions, the impact of enslavement and Jim Crow, code-switching, the power of death, and the weight of love. It is an extraordinary story, page-turning and intense, and a book only Dickey could write.


Click for more detail about Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope by Jodie Patterson Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope

by Jodie Patterson
Crown Books for Young Readers (Apr 20, 2021)
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Jodie Patterson, activist and Chair of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation Board, shares her transgender son’s experience in this important picture book about identity and acceptance.

Penelope knows that he’s a boy. (And a ninja.) The problem is getting everyone else to realize it.

In this exuberant companion to Jodie Patterson’s adult memoir, The Bold World, Patterson shares her son Penelope’s frustrations and triumphs on his journey to share himself with the world. Penelope’s experiences show children that it always makes you stronger when you are true to yourself and who you really are.


Click for more detail about Saving American Beach: The Biography of African American Environmentalist Mavynee Betsch by Heidi Tyline King Saving American Beach: The Biography of African American Environmentalist Mavynee Betsch

by Heidi Tyline King
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Apr 13, 2021)
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This heartfelt picture book biography, beautifully illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Ekua Holmes, tells the inspiring story of MaVynee Betsch. MaVynee was an African American opera singer who later became an environmentalist, dedicating herself to preserving a cherished legacy.

During the era of Jim Crow, MaVynee faced segregation and exclusion from most beaches in Jacksonville. In response, her grandfather purchased a beach where African American families could enjoy themselves without the reminders of their second-class citizenship. This beach became known as American Beach and attracted artists like Zora Neale Hurston and Ray Charles. It was at American Beach that MaVynee first discovered her passion for singing, launching her career as an acclaimed opera singer on an international stage. Yet, her deep love for American Beach remained unchanged.

After the Civil Rights Act desegregated public places, American Beach lost its significance and gradually fell into disrepair. However, MaVynee understood its historical importance to her family and countless others. With unwavering determination, she embarked on her second act as an activist and conservationist, devoting herself to preserving this vital piece of American history. Her efforts ultimately saved the place that had always felt like home to her.


Click for more detail about I Had a Brother Once: A Poem, a Memoir by Adam Mansbach I Had a Brother Once: A Poem, a Memoir

by Adam Mansbach
One World (Apr 13, 2021)
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A brilliant, genre-defying work—both memoir and epic poem—about the struggle for wisdom, grace, and ritual in the face of unspeakable loss

“A bruised and brave love letter from a brother right here to a brother now gone … a soaring, unblinking gaze into the meaning of life itself.”—Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

my father said
david has taken his own life

Adam is in the middle of his own busy life, and approaching a career high in the form of a #1 New York Times bestselling book—when these words from his father open a chasm beneath his feet. I Had a Brother Once is the story of everything that comes after. In the shadow of David’s inexplicable death, Adam is forced to re-remember a brother he thought he knew and to reckon with a ghost, confronting his unsettled family history, his distant relationship with tradition and faith, and his desperate need to understand an event that always slides just out of his grasp. This is an expansive and deeply thoughtful poetic meditation on loss and a raw, darkly funny, human story of trying to create a ritual—of remembrance, mourning, forgiveness, and acceptance—where once there was a life.


Click for more detail about Everything Grows by Raffi Cavoukian Everything Grows

by Raffi Cavoukian
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Apr 06, 2021)
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Raffi’s beloved song celebrating the earth is available for the first time in a board book edition that readers will treasure as they grow. From children to animals, from leaves on a tree to fish in the sea, everything grows. Raffi’s popular and catchy song encourages kids to take in the world around them and appreciate the way everything is growing together. Lush illustrations by Nina Mata show families interacting with a community garden and marveling at the interconnectedness of the earth in this timely and timeless song and story. "The addition of Raffi’s voice to the American political landscape is actually invaluable — the singer-songwriter is the premier emissary for children and his positions carry with them an incredible weight."—New York Magazine


Click for more detail about A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

by Hanif Abdurraqib
Random House (Mar 30, 2021)
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A stirring meditation on Black performance in America from the New York Times bestselling author of Go Ahead in the Rain

“Whether heralding unsung entertainers or reexamining legends, Hanif Abdurraqib weaves together gorgeous essays that reveal the resilience, heartbreak, and joy within Black performance. I read this book breathlessly.”—Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half

At the March on Washington in 1963, Josephine Baker was fifty-seven years old, well beyond her most prolific days. But in her speech she was in a mood to consider her life, her legacy, her departure from the country she was now triumphantly returning to. “I was a devil in other countries, and I was a little devil in America, too,” she told the crowd. Inspired by these few words, Hanif Abdurraqib has written a profound and lasting reflection on how Black performance is inextricably woven into the fabric of American culture. Each moment in every performance he examines—whether it’s the twenty-seven seconds in “Gimme Shelter” in which Merry Clayton wails the words “rape, murder,” a schoolyard fistfight, a dance marathon, or the instant in a game of spades right after the cards are dealt—has layers of resonance in Black and white cultures, the politics of American empire, and Abdurraqib’s own personal history of love, grief, and performance.

Abdurraqib writes prose brimming with jubilation and pain, infused with the lyricism and rhythm of the musicians he loves. With care and generosity, he explains the poignancy of performances big and small, each one feeling intensely familiar and vital, both timeless and desperately urgent. Filled with sharp insight, humor, and heart, A Little Devil in America exalts the Black performance that unfolds in specific moments in time and space—from midcentury Paris to the moon, and back down again to a cramped living room in Columbus, Ohio.


Click for more detail about The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country

by Amanda Gorman
Viking Books for Young Readers (Mar 30, 2021)
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A special edition of the poem The Hill We Climb, read at the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden, on January 20, 2021

On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman became the sixth and youngest poet, at age twenty-two, to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration. Her inaugural poem, The Hill We Climb, is now available to cherish in this special edition.

Amanda Gorman’s powerful and historic poem “The Hill We Climb,” read at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, is now available as a collectible gift edition.

“Stunning.” —CNN
“Dynamic.” —NPR
“Deeply rousing and uplifting.” —Vogue

Taking the stage after the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden, Gorman captivated the nation and brought hope to viewers around the globe. Her poem “The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country” can now be cherished in this special gift edition. Including an enduring foreword by Oprah Winfrey, this keepsake celebrates the promise of America and affirms the power of poetry.


Click for more detail about Who Was Jackie Robinson?: A Who Was? Board Book by Lisbeth Kaiser Who Was Jackie Robinson?: A Who Was? Board Book

by Lisbeth Kaiser
Rise X Penguin Workshop (Mar 30, 2021)
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The latest addition to the Who HQ program: board book biographies of relevant and important figures, created specifically for the preschool audience The #1 New York Times Bestselling Who Was? series expands into the board book space, bringing age-appropriate biographies of influential figures to readers ages 2-4. The chronology and themes of Jackie Robinson’s meaningful life are presented in a masterfully succinct text, with just a few sentences per page. The fresh, stylized illustrations are sure to captivate young readers and adults alike. With a read-aloud biographical summary in the back, this age-appropriate introduction honors and shares the life and work of one of the most influential professional baseball players of our time. WHO WAS? BOARD BOOKS bring inspiring biographies to the youngest readers in an accessible and memorable way.


Click for more detail about How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue How Beautiful We Were

by Imbolo Mbue
Random House (Mar 09, 2021)
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From the celebrated author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers comes a sweeping, wrenching story about the collision of a small African village and an American oil company.

"A novel with the richness and power of a great contemporary fable, and a heroine for our time."—Sigrid Nunez, author of The Friend, winner of the National Book Award

We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made—and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price.

Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community’s determination to hold on to its ancestral land and a young woman’s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom.


Click for more detail about Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans Black Girl, Call Home

by Jasmine Mans
Berkley Books (Mar 09, 2021)
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From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity.

With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself—and us—home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America—and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman.

Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.

“Each poem is a meditation on a moment, a memory, and a history that guides the reader through the experience of Black womanhood in a way I’ve not experienced before. These poems both explode and glimmer on the page. They demand to be read, to be shared, to be revisited time and time again.”
Clint Smith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed

“You are carrying in your hands a Black woman’s heart.”
Jericho Brown, author of Pulitzer Prize winner The Tradition


Click for more detail about Becoming Adapted for Young Readers by Michelle Obama Becoming Adapted for Young Readers

by Michelle Obama
Delacorte Press (Mar 02, 2021)
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Michelle Obama’s worldwide bestselling memoir, Becoming, is now adapted for young readers.

Michelle Robinson was born on the South Side of Chicago. From her modest beginnings, she would become Michelle Obama, the inspiring and powerful First Lady of the United States, when her husband, Barack Obama, was elected the forty-fourth president. They would be the first Black First Family in the White House and serve the country for two terms.

Growing up, Michelle and her older brother, Craig, shared a bedroom in their family’s upstairs apartment in her great-aunt’s house. Her parents, Fraser and Marian, poured their love and energy into their children. Michelle’s beloved dad taught his kids to work hard, keep their word, and remember to laugh. Her mom showed them how to think for themselves, use their voice, and be unafraid.

But life soon took her far from home. With determination, carefully made plans, and the desire to achieve, Michelle was eager to expand the sphere of her life from her schooling in Chicago. She went to Princeton University, where she learned what it felt like to be the only Black woman in the room. She then went to Harvard Law School, and after graduating returned to Chicago and became a high-powered lawyer. Her plans changed, however, when she met and fell in love with Barack Obama.

From her early years of marriage, and the struggle to balance being a working woman, a wife, and the mom of two daughters, Michelle Obama details the shift she made to political life and what her family endured as a result of her husband’s fast-moving political career and campaign for the presidency. She shares the glamour of ball gowns and world travel, and the difficulties of comforting families after tragedies. She managed to be there for her daughters’ swim competitions and attend plays at their schools without catching the spotlight, while defining and championing numerous initiatives, especially those geared toward kids, during her time as First Lady.

Most important, this volume for young people is an honest and fascinating account of Michelle Obama’s life led by example. She shares her views on how all young people can help themselves as well as help others, no matter their status in life. She asks readers to realize that no one is perfect, and that the process of becoming is what matters, as finding yourself is ever evolving. In telling her story with boldness, she asks young readers: Who are you, and what do you want to become?


Click for more detail about Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo Home Is Not a Country

by Safia Elhillo
Make Me a World (Mar 02, 2021)
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“Nothing short of magic.” —Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X

From the acclaimed poet featured on Forbes Africa’s “30 Under 30” list, this powerful novel-in-verse captures one girl, caught between cultures, on an unexpected journey to face the ephemeral girl she might have been. Woven through with moments of lyrical beauty, this is a tender meditation on family, belonging, and home.

my mother meant to name me for her favorite flower
its sweetness garlands made for pretty girls
i imagine her yasmeen bright & alive
& i ache to have been born her instead

Nima wishes she were someone else. She doesn’t feel understood by her mother, who grew up in a different land. She doesn’t feel accepted in her suburban town; yet somehow, she isn’t different enough to belong elsewhere. Her best friend, Haitham, is the only person with whom she can truly be herself. Until she can’t, and suddenly her only refuge is gone.

As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen—the name her parents meant to give her at birth—Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might be more real than Nima knows. And the life Nima wishes were someone else’s… is one she will need to fight for with a fierceness she never knew she possessed.


Click for more detail about Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual by Luvvie Ajayi Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual

by Luvvie Ajayi
Penguin Life (Mar 02, 2021)
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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From the New York Times bestselling author of I’m Judging You, a hilarious and transformational book about how to tackle fear—that everlasting hater—and audaciously step into lives, careers, and legacies that go beyond even our wildest dreams

Luvvie Ajayi Jones is known for her trademark wit, warmth, and perpetual truth-telling. But even she’s been challenged by the enemy of progress known as fear. She was once afraid to call herself a writer, and nearly skipped out on doing a TED talk that changed her life because of imposter syndrome. As she shares in Professional Troublemaker, she’s not alone.

We’re all afraid. We’re afraid of asking for what we want because we’re afraid of hearing no. We’re afraid of being different, of being too much or not enough. We’re afraid of leaving behind the known for the unknown. But in order to do the things that will truly, meaningfully change our lives, we have to become professional troublemakers: people who are committed to not letting fear talk them out of the things they need to do or say to live free.

With humor and honesty, and guided by the influence of her professional troublemaking Nigerian grandmother, Funmilayo Faloyin, Luvvie walks us through what we must get right within ourselves before we can do the things that scare us; how to use our voice for a greater good; and how to put movement to the voice we’ve been silencing—because truth-telling is a muscle.

The point is not to be fearless, but to know we are afraid and charge forward regardless. It is to recognize that the things we must do are more significant than our fears. This book is about how to live boldly in spite of all the reasons we have to cower. Let’s go!


Click for more detail about The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré The Girl with the Louding Voice

by Abi Daré
Dutton (Feb 23, 2021)
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AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK!

"A courageous story."—The New York Times

"A celebration of girls who dare to dream."—Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers (Oprah’s Book Club pick)

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by The New York Times, Marie Claire, Vogue, Essence, PopSugar, Daily Mail, Electric Literature, Red Magazine, Stylist, Daily Kos, Library Journal, The Every Girl, and Read It Forward!

A powerful, emotional debut novel told in the unforgettable voice of a young Nigerian woman who is trapped in a life of servitude but determined to fight for her dreams and choose her own future.

Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a "louding voice"—the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni’s father sells her to be the third wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir.

When Adunni runs away to the city, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless slave, Adunni is told, by words and deeds, that she is nothing.

But while misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. And when she realizes that she must stand up not only for herself, but for other girls, for the ones who came before her and were lost, and for the next girls, who will inevitably follow; she finds the resolve to speak, however she can—in a whisper, in song, in broken English—until she is heard.


Click for more detail about J.D. and the Great Barber Battle by J. Dillard J.D. and the Great Barber Battle

by J. Dillard
Kokila (Feb 23, 2021)
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Eight-year-old J.D. turns a tragic home haircut into a thriving barber business in this hilarious new illustrated chapter book series

J.D. has a big problem—it’s the night before the start of third grade and his mom has just given him his first and worst home haircut. When the steady stream of insults from the entire student body of Douglass Elementary becomes too much for J.D., he takes matters into his own hands and discovers that, unlike his mom, he’s a genius with the clippers. His work makes him the talk of the town and brings him enough hair business to open a barbershop from his bedroom. But when Henry Jr., the owner of the only official local barbershop, realizes he’s losing clients to J.D., he tries to shut him down for good. How do you find out who’s the best barber in all of Meridian, Mississippi? With a GREAT BARBER BATTLE!

From the hilarious and creative mind of J. Dillard, an entrepreneur, public speaker, and personal barber, comes a new chapter book series with characters that are easy to fall for and nearly impossible to forget. Akeem S. Roberts’ lively illustrations make this series a must-buy for reluctant readers.

2021 New York Public Library Best Books
2021 Chicago Public Library Best Books
2021 School Library Journal Best Books
2022-2023 Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List
2022 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Honor


Click for more detail about Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition by Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition

by Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Penguin Group USA (Feb 16, 2021)
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An new historical anthology from transatlantic slavery to the Reconstruction curated by the Schomburg Center, that makes the case for focusing on the histories of Black people as agents and architects of their own lives and ultimate liberation, with a foreword by Kevin Young

This is the first Penguin Classics anthology published in partnership with the Schomburg Center, a world-renowned cultural institution documenting black life in America and worldwide. A historic branch of NYPL located in Harlem, the Schomburg holds one of the world’s premiere collections of slavery material within the Lapidus Center for Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery. Unsung will place well-known documents by abolitionists alongside lesser-known life stories and overlooked or previously uncelebrated accounts of the everyday lives and activism that were central in the slavery era, but that are mostly excised from today’s master accounts. Unsung will also highlight related titles from founder Arturo Schomburg’s initial collection: rare histories and first-person narratives about slavery that assisted his generation in understanding the roots of their contemporary social struggles. Unsung will draw from the Schomburg’s rich holdings in order to lead a dynamic discussion of slavery, rebellion, resistance, and anti-slavery protest in the United States.


Click for more detail about The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Penguin Press (Feb 16, 2021)
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The instant New York Times bestseller and companion book to the PBS series.

"Absolutely brilliant … A necessary and moving work." —Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again

"Engaging… . In Gates’s telling, the Black church shines bright even as the nation itself moves uncertainly through the gloaming, seeking justice on earth—as it is in heaven." —Jon Meacham, New York Times Book Review

From the New York Times bestselling author of Stony the Road and one of our most important voices on the African American experience comes a powerful new history of the Black church as a foundation of Black life and a driving force in the larger freedom struggle in America.

For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, residentially segregated West Virginia town, the church was a center of gravity—an intimate place where voices rose up in song and neighbors gathered to celebrate life’s blessings and offer comfort amid its trials and tribulations. In this tender and expansive reckoning with the meaning of the Black Church in America, Gates takes us on a journey spanning more than five centuries, from the intersection of Christianity and the transatlantic slave trade to today’s political landscape. At road’s end, and after Gates’s distinctive meditation on the churches of his childhood, we emerge with a new understanding of the importance of African American religion to the larger national narrative—as a center of resistance to slavery and white supremacy, as a magnet for political mobilization, as an incubator of musical and oratorical talent that would transform the culture, and as a crucible for working through the Black community’s most critical personal and social issues.

In a country that has historically afforded its citizens from the African diaspora tragically few safe spaces, the Black Church has always been more than a sanctuary. This fact was never lost on white supremacists: from the earliest days of slavery, when enslaved people were allowed to worship at all, their meetinghouses were subject to surveillance and destruction. Long after slavery’s formal eradication, church burnings and bombings by anti-Black racists continued, a hallmark of the violent effort to suppress the African American struggle for equality. The past often isn’t even past—Dylann Roof committed his slaughter in the Mother Emanuel AME Church 193 years after it was first burned down by white citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, following a thwarted slave rebellion.

But as Gates brilliantly shows, the Black church has never been only one thing. Its story lies at the heart of the Black political struggle, and it has produced many of the Black community’s most notable leaders. At the same time, some churches and denominations have eschewed political engagement and exemplified practices of exclusion and intolerance that have caused polarization and pain. Those tensions remain today, as a rising generation demands freedom and dignity for all within and beyond their communities, regardless of race, sex, or gender. Still, as a source of faith and refuge, spiritual sustenance and struggle against society’s darkest forces, the Black Church has been central, as this enthralling history makes vividly clear.


Click for more detail about The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

by Heather McGhee
One World (Feb 16, 2021)
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Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy—and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for white people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?

McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm—the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets white people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country—from parks and pools to functioning schools—have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world’s advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare.

But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: gains that come when people come together across race, to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own.

The Sum of Us is a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here: divided and self-destructing, materially rich but spiritually starved and vastly unequal. McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to paint an irrefutable story of racism’s costs, but at the heart of the book are the humble stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including white supremacy’s collateral victims: white people themselves. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.


Click for more detail about Milo Imagines the World by Matt De La Peña Milo Imagines the World

by Matt De La Peña
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Feb 02, 2021)
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The team behind the Newbery Medal winner and Caldecott Honor book Last Stop on Market Street and the award-winning New York Times bestseller Carmela Full of Wishes once again delivers a poignant and timely picture book that’s sure to become an instant classic.

Milo is on a long subway ride with his older sister. To pass the time, he studies the faces around him and makes pictures of their lives. There’s the whiskered man with the crossword puzzle; Milo imagines him playing solitaire in a cluttered apartment full of pets. There’s the wedding-dressed woman with a little dog peeking out of her handbag; Milo imagines her in a grand cathedral ceremony. And then there’s the boy in the suit with the bright white sneakers; Milo imagines him arriving home to a castle with a drawbridge and a butler. But when the boy in the suit gets off on the same stop as Milo—walking the same path, going to the exact same place—Milo realizes that you can’t really know anyone just by looking at them.


Click for more detail about The Spirit of Music: The Lesson Continues by Victor L. Wooten The Spirit of Music: The Lesson Continues

by Victor L. Wooten
Vintage (Feb 02, 2021)
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Grammy Award winner Victor Wooten’s inspiring parable of the importance of music and the threats that it faces in today’s world.

We may not realize it as we listen to the soundtrack of our lives through tiny earbuds, but music and all that it encompasses is disappearing all around us. In this fable-like story three musicians from around the world are mysteriously summoned to Nashville, the Music City, to join together with Victor to do battle against the “Phasers,” whose blinking “music-cancelling” headphones silence and destroy all musical sound. Only by coming together, connecting, and making the joyful sounds of immediate, “live” music can the world be restored to the power and spirit of music.


Click for more detail about Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
One World (Feb 02, 2021)
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A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present—edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.

The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower—when the White Lion disgorges “some 20-and-odd Negroes” onto the shores of Virginia, inaugurating the African presence in what would become the United States. It takes us to the present, when African Americans, descendants of those on the White Lion and a thousand other routes to this country, continue a journey defined by inhuman oppression, visionary struggles, stunning achievements, and millions of ordinary lives passing through extraordinary history.

Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemics. They approach history from various perspectives: through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people; through places, laws, and objects. While themes of resistance and struggle, of hope and reinvention, course through the book, this collection of diverse pieces from ninety different minds, reflecting ninety different perspectives, fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a monolith—instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness.

This is a history that illuminates our past and gives us new ways of thinking about our future, written by the most vital and essential voices of our present.


Click for more detail about No Heaven for Good Boys by Keisha Bush No Heaven for Good Boys

by Keisha Bush
Random House (Jan 26, 2021)
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“An extraordinary literary debut, as mesmerizing as it is heartbreaking … Bush is an amazing storyteller, by turns harrowing and tender, and no matter how difficult the journey, she never lets us lose sight of the two young cousins who are the beating hopeful loving heart of this triumphant must-read novel.”—Junot Díaz

Six-year-old Ibrahimah loves snatching pastries from his mother’s kitchen, harvesting string beans with his father, and searching for sea glass with his sisters. But when he is approached in his rural village one day by Marabout Ahmed, a seemingly kind stranger and highly regarded teacher, the tides of his life turn forever. Ibrahimah is sent to the capital city of Dakar to join his cousin Étienne in studying the Koran under Marabout Ahmed for a year, but instead of the days of learning that Ibrahimah’s parents imagine, the young boys, called Talibé, are forced to beg in the streets in order to line their teacher’s pockets.

To make it back home, Étienne and Ibrahimah must help each other survive both the dangers posed by their Marabout, and the darker sides of Dakar: threats of black-market organ traders, rival packs of Talibé, and mounting student protest on the streets. Drawn from real incidents and transporting readers between rural and urban Senegal, No Heaven for Good Boys is a tale of hope, resilience, and the affirming power of love.


Click for more detail about The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History by David F. Walker The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History

by David F. Walker
Ten Speed Press (Jan 19, 2021)
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A bold and fascinating graphic novel history of the revolutionary Black Panther Party.

Founded in Oakland, California, in 1966, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was a radical political organization that stood in defiant contrast to the mainstream civil rights movement. This gripping illustrated history explores the impact and significance of the Panthers, from their social, educational, and healthcare programs that were designed to uplift the Black community to their battle against police brutality through citizen patrols and frequent clashes with the FBI, which targeted the Party from its outset.

Using dramatic comic-book-style retellings and illustrated profiles of key figures, The Black Panther Party captures the major events, people, and actions of the party, as well as their cultural and political influence and enduring legacy.


Click for more detail about Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne Chlorine Sky

by Mahogany L. Browne
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 12, 2021)
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A novel-in-verse about a young girl coming-of-age and stepping out of the shadow of her former best friend. Perfect for readers of Elizabeth Acevedo and Nikki Grimes.

Mahogany L. Browne’s debut YA ia an absolute masterpiece. It will leave you breathless. —Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X

She looks me hard in my eyes
& my knees lock into tree trunks
My eyes don’t dance like my heartbeat racing
They stare straight back hot daggers.
I remember things will never be the same.
I remember things.

With gritty and heartbreaking honesty, Mahogany L. Browne delivers a novel-in-verse about broken promises, fast rumors, and when growing up means growing apart from your best friend.


Click for more detail about The Beautiful Struggle (Adapted for Young Adults) by Ta-Nehisi Coates The Beautiful Struggle (Adapted for Young Adults)

by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Delacorte Press (Jan 12, 2021)
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Adapted from the adult memoir by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Water Dancer and Between the World and Me, this father-son story explores how boys become men, and quite specifically, how Ta-Nehisi Coates became Ta-Nehisi Coates.

As a child, Ta-Nehisi Coates was seen by his father, Paul, as too sensitive and lacking focus. Paul Coates was a Vietnam vet who’d been part of the Black Panthers and was dedicated to reading and publishing the history of African civilization. When it came to his sons, he was committed to raising proud Black men equipped to deal with a racist society, during a turbulent period in the collapsing city of Baltimore where they lived.

Coates details with candor the challenges of dealing with his tough-love father, the influence of his mother, and the dynamics of his extended family, including his brother “Big Bill,” who was on a very different path than Ta-Nehisi. Coates also tells of his struggles at school and with girls, making this a timely story to which many readers will relate.


Click for more detail about Cool Cuts by Mechal Renee Roe Cool Cuts

by Mechal Renee Roe
Doubleday Books for Young Readers (Jan 05, 2021)
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An illustrated, joyful celebration of African-American boys’ hairstyles


Click for more detail about The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. The Prophets

by Robert Jones, Jr.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Jan 05, 2021)
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  • #1 Indie Next Pick
  • The New York Times Book Review’s Books to Watch for in January
  • The Washington Post’s 10 Books to Read in January
  • TIME’s 10 New Books You Should Read in January
  • O, the Oprah Magazine’s 32 LGBTQ Books That Will Change the Literary Landscape in 2021
  • Good Morning America’s Best Books to Read this January
  • CNN’s Best Books of January
  • Harper’s Bazaar’s Winter’s Best New Releases
  • BuzzFeed’s Most Anticipated Historical Fiction of 2021
  • PopSugar’s Best Books of January
  • Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2021
  • Electric Literature’s Most Anticipated Debuts of 2021
  • The Millions’ Most Anticipated Books of 2021
  • Debutiful’s Best Debuts of January
  • Lambda Literary’s Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books of January
  • LGBTQ Read’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIAP Fiction of 2021 Picks
  • Kirkus Reviews’ Most Anticipated Books of the Fall

Instant New York Times Bestseller
May this book cast its spell on all of us, restore to us some memory of our most warrior and softest selves. —The New York Times Book Review
“A new kind of epic…A grand achievement…While The Prophets’ dreamy realism recalls the work of Toni Morrison…its penetrating focus on social dynamics stands out more singularly.” —Entertainment Weekly

A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence.

Isaiah was Samuel’s and Samuel was Isaiah’s. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master’s gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel’s love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation’s harmony.

With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr., fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating slave master to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets masterfully reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.


Click for more detail about C Is for Country by Lil Nas X C Is for Country

by Lil Nas X
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jan 05, 2021)
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New York Times Bestseller — It’s time to saddle up! Lil Nas X, the chart-topping music icon and internet sensation behind the hit single "Old Town Road," has crafted an empowering alphabet adventure that shows off his signature “S is for Swagger” and “X is for Extra” energy in a kid-friendly picture book that is one of a kind—just like him!

A is for Adventure. Every day is a brand-new start!
B is for Boots—whether they’re big or small, short or tall.
And C is for Country.

Join superstar Lil Nas X and Panini the pony on a fabulous journey through the alphabet from sunup to sundown. Featuring bold, bright art from Theodore Taylor III, kids will experience wide-open pastures, farm animals, guitar music, cowboy hats, and all things country in this debut picture book that’s perfect for music lovers learning their ABCs and for anyone who loves Nas’s unique genre-blending style and his iconic red-carpet looks. (After all, “F is for feathers. And fringe. And fake fur.”)


Click for more detail about Sprouting Wings: The True Story of James Herman Banning, the First African American Pilot to Fly Across the United States by Louisa Jaggar and Shari Becker Sprouting Wings: The True Story of James Herman Banning, the First African American Pilot to Fly Across the United States

by Louisa Jaggar and Shari Becker
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 05, 2021)
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The inspirational and true story of James Herman Banning, the first African American pilot to fly across the country, comes to life in this picture book biography perfect for fans of Hidden Figures and Little Leaders. Includes art from a Coretta Scott King award-winning illustrator.

James Herman Banning always dreamed of touching the sky. But how could a farm boy from Oklahoma find a plane? And how would he learn to fly it? None of the other pilots looked like him.

In a journey that would span 3,300 miles, take twenty-one days, and inspire a nation, James Herman Banning proved that you can’t put barriers on dreams. Louisa Jaggar incorporates over seven years of research, including Banning’s own writings and an interview with the aviator’s great-nephew. She teams up with cowriter Share Becker and award-winning illustrator Floyd Cooper to capture Banning’s historic flight across the United States.


Click for more detail about She Persisted: Harriet Tubman by Andrea Davis Pinkney She Persisted: Harriet Tubman

by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Philomel Books (Jan 05, 2021)
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Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger comes a chapter book series about women who stood up, spoke up and rose up against the odds!

Born enslaved, Harriet Tubman rose up to become one of the most successful, determined and well-known conductors of the Underground Railroad. With her family’s love planted firmly in her heart, Harriet looked to the North Star for guidance—and its light helped guide her way out of slavery. Her courage made it possible for her to help others reach freedom too.

In this chapter book biography by bestselling and award-winning author Andrea Davis Pinkney, readers learn about the amazing life of Harriet Tubman—and how she persisted. Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton!

Praise for She Persisted: Harriet Tubman

* This chapter-book biography humanizes [Tubman] and brings her to life … Pinkney and Flint have created a standout series opener. —Kirkus Reviews, *STARRED REVIEW*

The story-like text moves along at a brisk pace, relating anecdotes that will appeal to young readers … and the simple line drawings that appear every few pages add nuance. —Booklist

This engaging biography is a quick but informative read and well-matched for the intended audience. —School Library Journal


Click for more detail about What Is the Civil Rights Movement? by Sherri L. Smith What Is the Civil Rights Movement?

by Sherri L. Smith
Penguin Workshop (Dec 29, 2020)
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Relive the moments when African Americans fought for equal rights, and made history.

Even though slavery had ended in the 1860s, African Americans were still suffering under the weight of segregation a hundred years later. They couldn’t go to the same schools, eat at the same restaurants, or even use the same bathrooms as white people. But by the 1950s, black people refused to remain second-class citizens and were willing to risk their lives to make a change.

Author Sherri L. Smith brings to life momentous events through the words and stories of people who were on the frontlines of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

This book also features the fun black-and-white illustrations and engaging 16-page photo insert that readers have come love about the What Was? series!


Click for more detail about Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Movie Tie-In): A Play by August Wilson Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Movie Tie-In): A Play

by August Wilson
Plume (Dec 22, 2020)
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NOW A NETFLIX FILM STARRING VIOLA DAVIS AND CHADWICK BOSEMAN

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and The Piano Lesson comes the extraordinary Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—winner of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play.

The time is 1927. The place is a run-down recording studio in Chicago. Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer, is due to arrive with her entourage to cut new sides of old favorites. Waiting for her are her Black musician sidemen, the white owner of the record company, and her white manager. What goes down in the session to come is more than music. It is a riveting portrayal of black rage, of racism, of the self-hate that racism breeds, and of racial exploitation.


Click for more detail about Hands Up! by Breanna J. McDaniel Hands Up!

by Breanna J. McDaniel
Puffin Books (Dec 15, 2020)
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This triumphant picture book celebrates Black joy by reclaiming a charged phrase and showing readers how resistance can be part of their everyday lives.

A young Black girl lifts her baby hands up to greet the sun, reaches her hands up for a book on a high shelf, and raises her hands up in praise at a church service. She stretches her hands up high like a plane’s wings and whizzes down a hill so fast on her bike with her hands way up. As she grows, she lives through everyday moments of joy, love, and sadness. And when she gets a little older, she joins together with her family and her community in a protest march, where they lift their hands up together in resistance and strength.


Click for more detail about Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.?: A Who Was? Board Book by Lisbeth Kaiser Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.?: A Who Was? Board Book

by Lisbeth Kaiser
Rise X Penguin Workshop (Dec 08, 2020)
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Designed specifically for preschool comprehension, a board book introduction to the influential civil rights activist and speaker chronicles his early years, religious leadership and history-shaping work to promote equality for all peopl


Click for more detail about A Promised Land (Deluxe Signed Edition) by Barack Obama A Promised Land (Deluxe Signed Edition)

by Barack Obama
Crown Publishing Group (Dec 01, 2020)
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Originally retailing for $350, this signed, clothbound book in slipcase is a prized addition to any home’s library. Your purchase will also help support AALBC’s efforts to promote Black literature.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times • NPR • The Guardian • Marie Claire In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,” and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.

This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.


Click for more detail about How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams How to Fail at Flirting

by Denise Williams
Berkley Books (Dec 01, 2020)
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One daring to-do list and a crash course in flirtation turn a Type A overachiever’s world upside down.

When her flailing department lands on the university’s chopping block, Professor Naya Turner’s friends convince her to shed her frumpy cardigan for an evening on the town. For one night her focus will stray from her demanding job and she’ll tackle a new kind of to-do list. When she meets a charming stranger… (more)

“A warm romance that bursts with realism and celebrates the symbiotic power of love and healing.”―Entertainment Weekly

“In this steamy romance, Naya Turner is an overachieving math professor blowing off work stress with a night on the town, which leads to a night with a dapper stranger. And then another, and another. She’s smitten by the time she realizes there’s a professional complication, and the relationship could put her job at risk. Williams blends rom-com fun with more weighty topics in her winsome debut.”—The Washington Post

“Denise Williams’s How to Fail at Flirting is absolutely SPECTACULAR!! Ripe with serious, real-life drama, teeming with playful banter, rich with toe-curling passion, full of heart-melting romance….Her debut grabbed me on page one and held me enthralled until the end, when I promptly started re-reading to enjoy the deliciousness again.”—Priscilla Oliveras, USA Today bestselling author


Click for more detail about Black Futures by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham Black Futures

by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham
One World (Dec 01, 2020)
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New York Times Editors’ Choice

What does it mean to be Black and alive right now?

Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham have brought together this collection of work—images, photos, essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and more—to tell the story of the radical, imaginative, provocative, and gorgeous world that Black creators are bringing forth today. The book presents a succession of startling and beautiful pieces that generate an entrancing rhythm: Readers will go from conversations with activists and academics to memes and Instagram posts, from powerful essays to dazzling paintings and insightful infographics.

In answering the question of what it means to be Black and alive, Black Futures opens a prismatic vision of possibility for every reader.


Click for more detail about A Promised Land by Barack Obama A Promised Land

by Barack Obama
Crown Publishing Group (Nov 17, 2020)
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Enter our raffle to win a deluxe, autographed copy of A Promised Land


A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making—from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy

In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of "hope and change," and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.

This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.


Click for more detail about The Emperor’s Babe by Bernardine Evaristo The Emperor’s Babe

by Bernardine Evaristo
Penguin UK (Nov 17, 2020)
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FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER

’Wildly entertaining, deeply affecting’ Ali Smith

Londinium, AD 211. Zuleika is a modern girl living in an ancient world. She’s a back-alley firecracker, a scruffy Nubian babe with tangled hair and bare feet - and she’s just been married off a fat old Roman. Life as a teenage bride is no joke but Zeeks is a born survivor. She knows this city like the back of her hand: its slave girls and drag queens, its shining villas and rotting slums. She knows how to get by. Until one day she catches the eye of the most powerful man on earth, the Roman Emperor, and her trouble really starts…

Silver-tongued and merry-eyed, this is a story in song and verse, a joyful mash-up of today and yesterday. Kaleidoscoping distant past and vivid present, The Emperor’s Babe asks what it means to be a woman and to survive in this thrilling, brutal, breathless world.


Click for more detail about This Is Your Time by Ruby Bridges This Is Your Time

by Ruby Bridges
Delacorte Press (Nov 10, 2020)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges—who, at the age of six, was the first black child to integrate into an all-white elementary school in New Orleans—inspires readers and calls for action in this moving letter. Her elegant, memorable gift book is especially uplifting in the wake of Kamala Harris making US history as the first female, first Black, and first South Asian vice president-elect.

Written as a letter from civil rights activist and icon Ruby Bridges to the reader, This Is Your Time is both a recounting of Ruby’s experience as a child who had to be escorted to class by federal marshals when she was chosen to be one of the first black students to integrate into New Orleans’ all-white public school system and an appeal to generations to come to effect change.

This beautifully designed volume features photographs from the 1960s and from today, as well as stunning jacket art from The Problem We All Live With, the 1964 painting by Norman Rockwell depicting Ruby’s walk to school.

Ruby’s honest and impassioned words, imbued with love and grace, serve as a moving reminder that "what can inspire tomorrow often lies in our past." This Is Your Time will electrify people of all ages as the struggle for liberty and justice for all continues and the powerful legacy of Ruby Bridges endures.


Click for more detail about The Archer by Paulo Coelho The Archer

by Paulo Coelho
Knopf Publishing Group (Nov 10, 2020)
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From the #1 best-selling author of The Alchemist comes an inspiring story about a young man seeking wisdom from an elder, and the practical lessons imparted along the way. Includes stunning illustrations by Christoph Niemann.

"A novelist who writes in a universal language." —The New York Times

In The Archer we meet Tetsuya, a man once famous for his prodigious gift with a bow and arrow but who has since retired from public life, and the boy who comes searching for him. The boy has many questions, and in answering them Tetsuya illustrates the way of the bow and the tenets of a meaningful life. Paulo Coelho’s story suggests that living without a connection between action and soul cannot fulfill, that a life constricted by fear of rejection or failure is not a life worth living. Instead one must take risks, build courage, and embrace the unexpected journey fate has to offer.

With the wisdom, generosity, simplicity, and grace that have made him an international best seller, Paulo Coelho provides the framework for a rewarding life: hard work, passion, purpose, thoughtfulness, the willingness to fail, and the urge to make a difference.


Click for more detail about Happy Hair by Mechal Renee Roe Happy Hair

by Mechal Renee Roe
Doubleday Books for Young Readers (Oct 13, 2020)
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A visual and rhyming celebration of African-American girls’ hair


Click for more detail about Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory Royal Holiday

by Jasmine Guillory
Berkley Books (Oct 13, 2020)
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From the New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal and a “rising star in the romance genre” (Entertainment Weekly) comes a dazzling novel about a spontaneous holiday vacation that turns into an unforgettable romance.

Vivian Forest has been out of the country a grand total of one time, so when she gets the chance to tag along on her daughter Maddie’s work trip to England to style a royal family member, she can’t refuse. She’s excited to spend the holidays taking in the magnificent British sights, but what she doesn’t expect is to become instantly attracted to a certain private secretary, his charming accent, and unyielding formality.

Malcolm Hudson has worked for the Queen for years and has never given a personal, private tour—until now. He is intrigued by Vivian the moment he meets her and finds himself making excuses just to spend time with her. When flirtatious banter turns into a kiss under the mistletoe, things snowball into a full-on fling.

Despite a ticking timer on their holiday romance, they are completely fine with ending their short, steamy affair come New Year’s Day…or are they?


Click for more detail about I Am Benjamin Franklin by Brad Meltzer I Am Benjamin Franklin

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Oct 13, 2020)
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The 21st book in the New York Times bestselling series of biographies about heroes tells the story of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. who helped draft the Declaration of Independence while making important scientific contributions.

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of an icon in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero’s childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This volume features Founding Father and scientist Benjamin Franklin.


Click for more detail about I Am Anne Frank by Brad Meltzer I Am Anne Frank

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Oct 13, 2020)
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The 22nd book in the New York Times bestselling series of biographies about heroes tells the story of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who documented her life while hiding from the Nazis during World War II.

This engaging biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of an icon in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This volume features Anne Frank, whose courage and hope during a time of terror are still an inspiration for people around the world today.


Click for more detail about Be Antiracist: A Journal for Awareness, Reflection, and Action by Ibram X. Kendi Be Antiracist: A Journal for Awareness, Reflection, and Action

by Ibram X. Kendi
One World (Oct 06, 2020)
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Reflect on your understanding of race and discover ways to work toward an antiracist future with this guided journal from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning.

Antiracism is not a destination but a journey—one that takes deliberate, consistent work. Ibram X. Kendi’s concept of antiracism has reenergized and reshaped the conversation about racial justice in America and pointed us toward new ways of thinking about ourselves and our society. Whether or not you’ve read How to Be an Antiracist, this stunning paperback journal offers the opportunity to reflect on your personal commitment to antiracism. Be Antiracist is both a confessional and a log of your journey toward a more equitable and just society.

Be Antiracist helps you reflect on topics such as body, power, class, gender, and policy, as well as specific questions like, Who or what scares you the most when you think about race? and How can we go about disconnecting Blackness from criminality? and What constitutes an American to you? Kendi’s multipronged approach to self-reflection will challenge you to make change in yourself and your community, and contribute to an antiracist future.


Click for more detail about Lubaya’s Quiet Roar by Marilyn Nelson Lubaya’s Quiet Roar

by Marilyn Nelson
Dial Books (Oct 06, 2020)
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In this stirring picture book about social justice activism and the power of introverts, a quiet girl’s artwork makes a big impression at a protest rally.

Newbery Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Marilyn Nelson and fine artist Philemona Williamson have come together to create this lyrical, impactful story of how every child, even the quietest, can make a difference in their community and world. Young Lubaya is happiest when she’s drawing, often behind the sofa while her family watches TV. There, she creates pictures on the backs of her parents’ old protest posters. But when upsetting news shouts into their living room, her parents need the posters again. The next day her family takes part in a march, and there, on one side of the posters being held high, are Lubaya’s drawings of kids holding hands and of the sun shining over the globe–rousing visual statements of how the world could be. “Lubaya’s roar may not be loud, but a quiet roar can make history.”

Sample pages from Lubaya’s Quiet Roar by Marilyn Nelson, Illustrated by Philemona Williamson


Click for more detail about The Talk: Conversations about Race, Love & Truth by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson The Talk: Conversations about Race, Love & Truth

by Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson
Crown Books for Young Readers (Sep 29, 2020)
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Perfect for readers of Flying Lessons & Other Stories, this collection gives an honest and raw depiction of the unique conversations parents of diverse kids have to keep them safe and anti-racist. Published in partnership with Just Us Books

In the powerful follow-up to the AALBC Bestseller, We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, thirty diverse and award-winning authors and illustrators capture frank discussions about racism, identity, and self-esteem. Here is an invitation to all families to be advocates and allies for change.

Featured Contributors, Many of Whom are Profiled on AALBC, Include:

  • Selina Alko,
  • Tracey Baptiste,
  • Derrick Barnes,
  • Natacha Bustos,
  • Cozbi A. Cabrera,
  • Raúl Colón,
  • Adam Gidwitz,
  • Nikki Grimes,
  • Rudy Gutierrez,
  • April Harrison,
  • Wade Hudson,
  • Gordon C. James,
  • Minh Lê,
  • E. B. Lewis,
  • Grace Lin,
  • Torrey Maldonado,
  • Meg Medina,
  • Christopher Myers,
  • Daniel Nayeri,
  • Zeke Peña,
  • Peter H. Reynolds,
  • Erin K. Robinson,
  • Traci Sorell,
  • Shadra Strickland,
  • Don Tate,
  • MaryBeth Timothy,
  • Duncan Tonatiuh,
  • Renée Watson,
  • Valerie Wilson Wesley,
  • Sharon Dennis Wyeth


Click for more detail about Dear Justyce by Nic Stone Dear Justyce

by Nic Stone
Crown Books for Young Readers (Sep 29, 2020)
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The stunning sequel to the #1 New York Times bestseller Dear Martin. Incarcerated teen Quan writes letters to Justyce about his experiences in the American juvenile justice system. Perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Angie Thomas.

In the highly anticipated sequel to her New York Times bestseller, Nic Stone delivers an unflinching look into the flawed practices and silenced voices in the American juvenile justice system.

Vernell LaQuan Banks and Justyce McAllister grew up a block apart in the Southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Wynwood Heights. Years later, though, Justyce walks the illustrious halls of Yale University … and Quan sits behind bars at the Fulton Regional Youth Detention Center.

Through a series of flashbacks, vignettes, and letters to Justyce—the protagonist of Dear Martin—Quan’s story takes form. Troubles at home and misunderstandings at school give rise to police encounters and tough decisions. But then there’s a dead cop and a weapon with Quan’s prints on it. What leads a bright kid down a road to a murder charge? Not even Quan is sure.

A powerful, raw, must-read told through the lens of a Black boy ensnared by our broken criminal justice system. -Kirkus, Starred Review


Click for more detail about Bunheads by Misty Copeland Bunheads

by Misty Copeland
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Sep 29, 2020)
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The first in a series of picture books inspired by premier ballerina and author Misty Copeland’s own early experiences in ballet.

From prima ballerina and New York Times bestselling author Misty Copeland comes the story of a young Misty, who discovers her love of dance through the ballet Copp�lia—a story about a toymaker who devises a villainous plan to bring a doll to life.

Misty is so captivated by the tale and its heroine, Swanilda, she decides to audition for the role. But she’s never danced ballet before; in fact, this is the very first day of her very first dance class!

Though Misty is excited, she’s also nervous. But as she learns from her fellow bunheads, she makes wonderful friends who encourage her to do her very best. Misty’s nerves quickly fall away, and with a little teamwork, the bunheads put on a show to remember.

Featuring the stunning artwork of newcomer Setor Fiadzigbey, Bunheads is an inspiring tale for anyone looking for the courage to try something new.


Click for more detail about When God Made You (Board Book) by Matthew Paul Turner When God Made You (Board Book)

by Matthew Paul Turner
Convergent Books (Sep 29, 2020)
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The best-selling favorite, now available as a board book! Whimsical rhyme and imaginative illustrations affirm that every child is God’s unique creation and beloved by Him.

YOU, you… God thinks about you.
God was thinking of you long before your debut.

From early on, children are looking to discover their place in the world and longing to understand how their personalities, traits, and talents fit in. The assurance that they are deeply loved and a unique creation in our big universe is certain to help them spread their wings and fly.

Through playful, charming rhyme and vivid, fantastical illustrations, When God Made Youinspires young readers to learn about their own special gifts and how they fit into God’s divine plan as they grow, explore, and begin to create for themselves.

‘Cause when God made YOU, somehow God knew
That the world needed someone exactly like you!


Click for more detail about Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America by Laila Lalami Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America

by Laila Lalami
Pantheon Books (Sep 22, 2020)
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What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize—finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth—such as national origin, race, and gender—that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still their shadows today.

Lalami poignantly illustrates how white supremacy survives through adaptation and legislation, with the result that a caste system is maintained that keeps the modern equivalent of white male landowners at the top of the social hierarchy. Conditional citizens, she argues, are all the people with whom America embraces with one arm and pushes away with the other.

Brilliantly argued and deeply personal, Conditional Citizens weaves together Lalami’s own experiences with explorations of the place of nonwhites in the broader American culture.


Click for more detail about Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh Every Body Looking

by Candice Iloh
Dutton Books for Young Readers (Sep 22, 2020)
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"Candice Iloh’s beautifully crafted narrative about family, belonging, sexuality, and telling our deepest truths in order to be whole is at once immensely readable and ultimately healing."—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times Bestselling Author of Brown Girl Dreaming

"An essential—and emotionally gripping and masterfully written and compulsively readable—addition to the coming-of-age canon."—Nic Stone, New York Times Bestselling Author of Dear Martin

"This is a story about the sometimes toxic and heavy expectations set onthe backs of first-generation children, the pressures woven into the familydynamic, culturally and socially. About childhood secrets with sharp teeth. And ultimately, about a liberation that taunts every young person." —Jason Reynolds, New York Times Bestselling Author of Long Way Down

Candice Iloh weaves the key moments of Ada’s young life—her mother’s descent into addiction, her father’s attempts to create a home for his American daughter more like the one he knew in Nigeria, her first year at a historically black college—into a luminous and inspiring verse novel.


Click for more detail about Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi Transcendent Kingdom

by Yaa Gyasi
Knopf Publishing Group (Sep 15, 2020)
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Yaa Gyasi’s stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief—a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi’s phenomenal debut.


Click for more detail about You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love by Yona Harvey You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love

by Yona Harvey
Berkley Books (Sep 08, 2020)
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The poems of award-winning poet Yona Harvey’s much anticipated You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love follow an unnamed protagonist on her multidimensional, Afro-futuristic journey. Her story stretches the boundaries normally constraining a black, female body like hers. Half-superhero, half-secret-identity, she encounters side-slipping, speculative realities testing her in poems that appear like the panels of a comic book.

Music directs readers through large and small emotional arcs, constantly retroubled by lyric experimentation. Harvey layers her poems with a chorus of women’s voices. Her artful use of refrain emphasizes the protagonist’s meaning making and doubling back: “Who am I to say? The eye is often mistaken. Or is it the mind? Always eager to interpret.” Our hero is captured, escapes, scuba dives, goes interstellar, and she emerges on the other end of her journey renewed, invoking the gods: “taunt the sharks. & when the glaciers get to melting, / all God’s River’s we shall haunt.”


Click for more detail about Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson Before the Ever After

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Sep 01, 2020)
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National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson’s stirring novel explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed.

For as long as ZJ can remember, his dad has been everyone’s hero. As a charming, talented pro football star, he’s as beloved to the neighborhood kids he plays with as he is to his millions of adoring sports fans. But lately life at ZJ’s house is anything but charming. His dad is having trouble remembering things and seems to be angry all the time. ZJ’s mom explains it’s because of all the head injuries his dad sustained during his career. ZJ can understand that—but it doesn’t make the sting any less real when his own father forgets his name. As ZJ contemplates his new reality, he has to figure out how to hold on tight to family traditions and recollections of the glory days, all the while wondering what their past amounts to if his father can’t remember it. And most importantly, can those happy feelings ever be reclaimed when they are all so busy aching for the past?


Click for more detail about I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes I Am Every Good Thing

by Derrick Barnes
Nancy Paulsen Books (Sep 01, 2020)
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An upbeat, empowering, important picture book from the team that created the award-winning Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut

I am
a nonstop ball of energy.
Powerful and full of light.
I am a go-getter. A difference maker. A leader.

The confident Black narrator of this book is proud of everything that makes him who he is. He’s got big plans, and no doubt he’ll see them through—as he’s creative, adventurous, smart, funny, and a good friend. Sometimes he falls, but he always gets back up. And other times he’s afraid, because he’s so often misunderstood and called what he is not. So slow down and really look and listen, when somebody tells you—and shows you—who they are. There are superheroes in our midst!


Click for more detail about Rocket Says Clean Up! by Nathan Bryon Rocket Says Clean Up!

by Nathan Bryon
Random House Books for Young Readers (Sep 01, 2020)
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Plucky science-lover Rocket returns in another inspiring picture book about getting a community to notice the world around them, and, in this book, to CLEAN UP! their shoreline.

Rocket, is off to the islands to visit her grandparents. Her family loves nothing better than to beach comb and surf together…but the beach is clogged with trash! When she finds a turtle tangled in a net, Rocket decides that something must be done! Like a mini Greta Thunberg, our young activist’s enthusiasm brings everyone together…to clean up the beach and prevent plastics from spoiling nature. Perfect for fans of Rocket Says Look Up! and Ada Twist, Scientist, this book is for any youngster concerned about our environment. Rocket Says Clean Up! will inspire readers of all ages to dream big and tackle problems head-on.


Click for more detail about Owed by Joshua Bennett Owed

by Joshua Bennett
Penguin Books (Sep 01, 2020)
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From one of the most impressive voices in poetry today (Dissent magazine), a new collection that shines a light on forgotten or obscured parts of the past in order to reconstruct a deeper, truer vision of the present

Gregory Pardlo described Joshua Bennett’s first collection of poetry, The Sobbing School, as an arresting debut that was abounding in tenderness and rich with character, with a virtuosic kind of code switching. Bennett’s new collection, Owed, is a book with celebration at its center. Its primary concern is how we might mend the relationship between ourselves and the people, spaces, and objects we have been taught to think of as insignificant, as fundamentally unworthy of study, reflection, attention, or care. Spanning the spectrum of genre and form—from elegy and ode to origin myth—these poems elaborate an aesthetics of repair. What’s more, they ask that we turn to the songs and sites of the historically denigrated so that we might uncover a new way of being in the world together, one wherein we can truthfully reckon with the brutality of the past and thus imagine the possibilities of our shared, unpredictable present, anew.


Click for more detail about Who Was Kobe Bryant? by Ellen Labrecque Who Was Kobe Bryant?

by Ellen Labrecque
Penguin Workshop (Sep 01, 2020)
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Told in a new Who HQ Now format for trending topics, this Who Was? biography details NBA superstar Kobe Bryant’s legendary career and the impact of his legacy on the sports world and beyond.

Kobe Bryant was just an eighteen-year-old high-school basketball player when he decided to enter the National Basketball Association’s draft. Though he was the thirteenth overall pick by the Charlotte Hornets, he would never play a single game for them. Instead, Kobe was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he would spend his entire twenty-season career, winning five championships and numerous awards. Author Ellen Labreque takes readers through each exciting moment, from his iconic dunks to his 81-point game—all the milestones that span Kobe Bryant’s legendary career and legacy.


Click for more detail about His Truth Is Marching on: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham His Truth Is Marching on: John Lewis and the Power of Hope

by Jon Meacham
Random House (Aug 25, 2020)
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An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of America

John Lewis, who at age twenty-five marched in Selma, Alabama, and was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, was a visionary and a man of faith. Drawing on decades of wide-ranging interviews with Lewis, Jon Meacham writes of how this great-grandson of a slave and son of an Alabama tenant farmer was inspired by the Bible and his teachers in nonviolence, Reverend James Lawson and Martin Luther King, Jr., to put his life on the line in the service of what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”

From an early age, Lewis learned that nonviolence was not only a tactic but a philosophy, a biblical imperative, and a transforming reality. At the age of four, Lewis, ambitious to become a minister, practiced by preaching to his family’s chickens. When his mother cooked one of the chickens, the boy refused to eat it—his first act, he wryly recalled, of nonviolent protest. Integral to Lewis’s commitment to bettering the nation was his faith in humanity and in God—and an unshakable belief in the power of hope.

Meacham calls Lewis “as important to the founding of a modern and multiethnic twentieth- and twenty-first-century America as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and Samuel Adams were to the initial creation of the Republic itself in the eighteenth century.” A believer in the injunction that one should love one’s neighbor as oneself, Lewis was arguably a saint in our time, risking limb and life to bear witness for the powerless in the face of the powerful. In many ways he brought a still-evolving nation closer to realizing its ideals, and his story offers inspiration and illumination for Americans today who are working for social and political change.


Click for more detail about Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson’s Journey to the Stars by Gary Golio Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson’s Journey to the Stars

by Gary Golio
Nancy Paulsen Books (Aug 25, 2020)
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The poignant story of Blind Willie Johnson—the legendary Texas musician whose song "Dark Was the Night" was included on the Voyager I space probe’s Golden Record

Willie Johnson was born in 1897, and from the beginning he loved to sing—and play his cigar box guitar. But his childhood was interrupted when he lost his mother and his sight. How does a blind boy make his way in the world? Fortunately for Willie, the music saved him and brought him back into the light. His powerful voice, combined with the wailing of his slide guitar, moved people. Willie made a name for himself performing on street corners all over Texas. And one day he hit it big when he got a record deal and his songs were played on the radio. Then in 1977, his song—"Dark Was the Night"—was chosen to light up the darkness when it was launched into space on the Voyager I space probe’s famous Golden Record. His immortal song was selected for the way it expresses the loneliness humans all feel, while reminding us we’re not alone.


Click for more detail about Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor Ikenga

by Nnedi Okorafor
Viking Books for Young Readers (Aug 18, 2020)
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Nnedi Okorafor’s first novel for middle grade readers introduces a boy who can access super powers with the help of the magical Ikenga.

Nnamdi’s father was a good chief of police, perhaps the best Kalaria had ever had. He was determined to root out the criminals that had invaded the town. But then he was murdered, and most people believed the Chief of Chiefs, most powerful of the criminals, was responsible. Nnamdi has vowed to avenge his father, but he wonders what a twelve-year-old boy can do. Until a mysterious nighttime meeting, the gift of a magical object that enables super powers, and a charge to use those powers for good changes his life forever. How can he fulfill his mission? How will he learn to control his newfound powers?
Award-winning Nnedi Okorafor, acclaimed for her Akata novels, introduces a new and engaging hero in her first novel for middle grade readers set against a richly textured background of contemporary Nigeria.


Click for more detail about Finna: Poems by Nate Marshall Finna: Poems

by Nate Marshall
One World (Aug 11, 2020)
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Sharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular—its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacy

Definition of finna, created by the author: fin-na /ˈfinə/ contraction: (1) going to; intending to [rooted in African American Vernacular English] (2) eye dialect spelling of "fixing to" (3) Black possibility; Black futurity; Blackness as tomorrow

These poems consider the brevity and disposability of Black lives and other oppressed people in our current era of emboldened white supremacy, and the use of the Black vernacular in America’s vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets. Finna explores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative; asks how gendered language can provoke violence; and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope:

nothing about our people is romantic
& it shouldn’t be. our people deserve
poetry without meter. we deserve our
own jagged rhythm & our own uneven
walk towards sun. you make happening happen.
we happen to love. this is our greatest
action.


Click for more detail about Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

by Isabel Wilkerson
Random House (Aug 04, 2020)
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

"[Caste] should be at the top of every American’s reading list."—Chicago Tribune

"As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not."

In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.

Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.


Click for more detail about The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi The Death of Vivek Oji

by Akwaeke Emezi
Riverhead Books (Aug 04, 2020)
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What does it mean for a family to lose a child they never really knew?

One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women married to Nigerian men. But Vivek’s closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens—and Osita struggles to understand Vivek’s escalating crisis—the mystery gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom.

Propulsively readable, teeming with unforgettable characters, The Death of Vivek Oji is a novel of family and friendship that challenges expectations—a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every reader.


Click for more detail about The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

by Kamala Harris
Penguin Books (Aug 04, 2020)
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A New York Times bestseller

From one of America’s most inspiring political leaders, a book about the core truths that unite us, and the long struggle to discern what those truths are and how best to act upon them, in her own life and across the life of our country.

Senator Kamala Harris’s commitment to speaking truth is informed by her upbringing. The daughter of immigrants, she was raised in an Oakland, California community that cared deeply about social justice; her parents—an esteemed economist from Jamaica and an admired cancer researcher from India—met as activists in the civil rights movement when they were graduate students at Berkeley. Growing up, Harris herself never hid her passion for justice, and when she became a prosecutor out of law school, a deputy district attorney, she quickly established herself as one of the most innovative change agents in American law enforcement. She progressed rapidly to become the elected District Attorney for San Francisco, and then the chief law enforcement officer of the state of California as a whole. Known for bringing a voice to the voiceless, she took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis, winning a historic settlement for California’s working families. Her hallmarks were applying a holistic, data-driven approach to many of California’s thorniest issues, always eschewing stale "tough on crime" rhetoric as presenting a series of false choices. Neither "tough" nor "soft" but smart on crime became her mantra. Being smart means learning the truths that can make us better as a community, and supporting those truths with all our might. That has been the pole star that guided Harris to a transformational career as the top law enforcement official in California, and it is guiding her now as a transformational United States Senator, grappling with an array of complex issues that affect her state, our country, and the world, from health care and the new economy to immigration, national security, the opioid crisis, and accelerating inequality.

By reckoning with the big challenges we face together, drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, Kamala Harris offers in THE TRUTHS WE HOLD a master class in problem solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times. Through the arc of her own life, on into the great work of our day, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values. In a book rich in many home truths, not least is that a relatively small number of people work very hard to convince a great many of us that we have less in common than we actually do, but it falls to us to look past them and get on with the good work of living our common truth. When we do, our shared effort will continue to sustain us and this great nation, now and in the years to come.


Click for more detail about This Is My America by Kim Johnson This Is My America

by Kim Johnson
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jul 28, 2020)
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Incredible and searing. Nic Stone, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin

The Hate U Give meets Just Mercy in this unflinching yet uplifting first novel that explores the racist injustices in the American justice system.

Every week, seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time—her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy’s older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a thug on the run, accused of killing a white girl. Determined to save her brother, Tracy investigates what really happened between Jamal and Angela down at the Pike. But will Tracy and her family survive the uncovering of the skeletons of their Texas town’s racist history that still haunt the present?

Fans of Nic Stone, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Jason Reynolds won’t want to miss this provocative and gripping debut.


Click for more detail about Intimations: Six Essays by Zadie Smith Intimations: Six Essays

by Zadie Smith
Penguin Books (Jul 28, 2020)
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Intimations captures the uneasiness of our modern moment as Smith reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic and relates it to issues of privilege and inequity. Her urgent voice tackles everything from what becomes important during isolation to the global response to George Floyd’s killing. The author asks questions, both timely and timeless, about how we respond to crisis and suffering.” —TIME, Best New Books of July

Deeply personal and powerfully moving, a short and timely series of reflective essays by one of the most clear-sighted and essential writers of our time

Written during the early months of lockdown, Intimations explores ideas and questions prompted by an unprecedented situation. What does it mean to submit to a new reality—or to resist it? How do we compare relative sufferings? What is the relationship between time and work? In our isolation, what do other people mean to us? How do we think about them? What is the ratio of contempt to compassion in a crisis? When an unfamiliar world arrives, what does it reveal about the world that came before it?

Suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness in response to these extraordinary times, Intimations is a slim, suggestive volume with a wide scope, in which Zadie Smith clears a generous space for thought, open enough for each reader to reflect on what has happened—and what should come next.

The author will donate her royalties from the sale of Intimations to charity.


Click for more detail about Shirley Chisholm Is a Verb by Veronica Chambers Shirley Chisholm Is a Verb

by Veronica Chambers
Dial Books (Jul 28, 2020)
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Veronica Chambers is the award-winning author of many books for children and adults, including Mama’s Girl and Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa. Born in Panama, she grew up in Brooklyn, where she remembers walking to school and seeing Shirley Chisholm for Congress posters all around her neighborhood. She has been a senior editor at the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and Glamour, and is currently the editor of Past Tense, the New York Times archival storytelling initiative devoted to publishing articles based on photographs recently rediscovered from its archives.

Rachelle Baker is a multi-disciplinary artist from Detroit, Michigan, with a background in relief printing, illustration, comic art, video art, and music. Her work can be seen in The New York Times and will appear in the book Making our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream by Blair Imani, to be published by Ten Speed Press in January. This is her first fully illustrated picture book.


Click for more detail about Brave. Black. First. 100 Postcards by Cheryl Willis Hudson Brave. Black. First. 100 Postcards

by Cheryl Willis Hudson
Clarkson Potter (Jul 21, 2020)
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100 Postcards Celebrating More Than 50 African American Women Who Changed the World

These 100 stunning postcards celebrate 50 groundbreaking African American women, from Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks to Angela Davis and Beyoncé — published in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Based on the children’s book Brave. Black. First., these empowering postcards celebrate artists, athletes, activists, politicians, and writers who championed civil rights in their communities. Each card features the portrait on the front and, on the back, an inspiring quote, short biographical information, and space for writing a message. With two postcards for every portrait, you’ll have one to send and one to save. Taken together, the collection captures the iconic moments of fifty African American women whose heroism and bravery rewrote the American story for the better.

“These post cards make great flash cards: Would you be able to identify all the women?” —AALBC Founder, Troy Johnson


Click for more detail about In the Hands of the People: Thomas Jefferson on Equality, Faith, Freedom, Compromise, and the Art of Citizenship by Jon Meacham In the Hands of the People: Thomas Jefferson on Equality, Faith, Freedom, Compromise, and the Art of Citizenship

by Jon Meacham
Random House (Jun 30, 2020)
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Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham offers a collection of inspiring words about how to be a good citizen, from Thomas Jefferson and others, and reminds us why our country’s founding principles are still so important today.

Thomas Jefferson believed in the covenant between a government and its citizens, in both the government’s responsibilities to its people and also the people’s responsibility to the republic. In this illuminating book, a project of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham presents selections from Jefferson’s writing on the subject, with an afterword by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed and comments on Jefferson’s ideas from others, including Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Frederick Douglass, Carl Sagan, and American presidents.

This curated collection revitalizes how to see an individual’s role in the world, as it explores such Jeffersonian concepts as religious freedom, the importance of a free press, public education, participation in government, and others.

Meacham writes, "In an hour of twenty-first-century division and partisanship, of declining trust in institutions and of widespread skepticism about the long-term viability of the American experiment, it is instructive to return to first principles. Not, to be sure, as an exercise in nostalgia or as a flight from the reality of our own time, but as an honest effort to see, as Jefferson wrote, what history may be able to tell us about the present and the future."


Click for more detail about Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own

by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
Crown Publishing Group (Jun 30, 2020)
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James Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the Civil Rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race. In the era of Trump, what can we learn from his struggle?

“Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again.” —James Baldwin

We live, according to Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., in the “after times,” when the promise of Black Lives Matter and the attempt to achieve a new America were challenged by the election of Donald Trump, a racist president whose victory represents yet another failure of America to face the lies it tells itself about race.

We have been here before: For James Baldwin, the after times came in the wake of the Civil Rights movement, when a similar attempt to compel a national confrontation with the truth was answered with the murders of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. In these years, spanning from the publication of The Fire Next Time in 1963 to that of No Name in the Street in 1972, Baldwin was transformed into a more overtly political writer, a change that came at great professional and personal cost. But from that journey, Baldwin emerged with a sense of renewed purpose about the necessity of pushing forward in the face of disillusionment and despair.

In the story of Baldwin’s crucible, Glaude suggests, we can find hope and guidance through our own after times, this Trumpian era of shattered promises and white retrenchment. Mixing biography—drawn partially from newly uncovered interviews—with history, memoir, and trenchant analysis of our current moment, “Begin Again” is Glaude’s attempt, following Baldwin, to bear witness to the difficult truth of race in America today. It is at once a searing exploration that lays bare the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we all must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a new America.


Click for more detail about Queens of the Resistance: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman Queens of the Resistance: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

by Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman
Plume (Jun 30, 2020)
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Part of the four-book Queens of the Resistance series, saluting some of the most beloved boss ladies in Congress: a celebration of AOC, the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress and its newest superstar

Not long ago, no one could even imagine a twenty-eight-year-old Latina upstart running for Congress representing Queens and the Bronx: It required facing the city’s nearly all-white, all-male political machine. But since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez graced the scene in all her bartending, tweet-talking, mold-breaking glory, the face of politics in the twenty-first century has changed. Today, Ocasio-Cortez is a foremost advocate for progress, whipping up support among her colleagues and gaining the secret admiration of her foes. She’s jousting with an outrageous president and a conservative media sphere that place her under relentless attack. Why? Because they fear her gift for speaking truth to power.

With illustrations, deep research, and writing as endlessly quotable as she is, Queens of the Resistance pays tribute to this phenomenal woman.

About the series: Each book of the Queens of the Resistance series is a celebration of the rebellion against the oppression of women and an embracement of the new in the United States government. The series is adorned with sass, discernment, and the badassery of the present and future leadership. The Doomsday Clock is at a minute to midnight, and the patriarchal power grid that lights "the shining city on a Hill" is about to black out. It’s time to yield to the alternative—the power of women.


Click for more detail about Queens of the Resistance: Elizabeth Warren by Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman Queens of the Resistance: Elizabeth Warren

by Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman
Plume (Jun 30, 2020)
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Part of the four-book Queens of the Resistance series, saluting some of the most beloved boss ladies in Congress: a celebration of Elizabeth Warren, the star senator from Massachusetts and 2020 presidential candidate

All hail Queen Elizabeth! She’s a "queen" but not a monarch who’s spent her life fighting to create a more equal society. Now one of the most recognizable women in politics, Warren took a winding road to become the badass senator from Massachusetts—the first woman senator ever elected from the state. Day-to-day struggle to make ends meet? Check. Single motherhood? Check. Law degree? Check. Tenured Harvard Law professor? You bet! And oh, she created a whole new government agency to protect consumers from predatory businesses. This the story of Liz’s hard-earned rise to the top of the game.

With illustrations, deep research, and writing as endlessly quotable as she is, Queens of the Resistance pays tribute to this phenomenal woman.

About the series: Each book of the Queens of the Resistance series is a celebration of the rebellion against the oppression of women and an embracement of the new in the United States government. The series is adorned with sass, discernment, and the badassery of the present and future leadership. The Doomsday Clock is at a minute to midnight, and the patriarchal power grid that lights "the shining city on a Hill" is about to black out. It’s time to yield to the alternative—the power of women.


Click for more detail about Queens of the Resistance: Nancy Pelosi by Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman Queens of the Resistance: Nancy Pelosi

by Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman
Plume (Jun 30, 2020)
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Part of the four-book Queens of the Resistance series, saluting some of the most beloved boss ladies in Congress: a celebration of the first woman Speaker of the House and a trailblazer for generations to come, Nancy Pelosi

Behold one of the toughest dealers in the political arena, a singularly shrewd operator who cut her teeth from deep within the ranks of the Democratic Party and climbed all the way to the top. Rising higher than any woman ever who came before, Madame Speaker created a blueprint that those after her could follow. And now, back to her rightful place as Madame Speaker, she’s prepared to take back power for the people … and at the end of it all, in characteristic class and style, she will pass on the gavel to the next generation of badass leaders.

With illustrations, deep research, and writing as endlessly quotable as she is, Queens of the Resistance pays tribute to this phenomenal woman.

About the series: Each book of the Queens of the Resistance series is a celebration of the rebellion against the oppression of women and an embracement of the new in the United States government. The series is adorned with sass, discernment, and the badassery of the present and future leadership. The Doomsday Clock is at a minute to midnight, and the patriarchal power grid that lights "the shining city on a Hill" is about to black out. It’s time to yield to the alternative—the power of women.


Click for more detail about Queens of the Resistance: Maxine Waters by Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman Queens of the Resistance: Maxine Waters

by Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman
Plume (Jun 30, 2020)
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Part of the four-book Queens of the Resistance series, saluting some of the most beloved boss ladies in Congress: a celebration of Representative Maxine Waters, who reclaimed her time and led the first calls for impeachment

Maxine Waters is an icon for a generation of women powerbrokers in politics. She is an "unbought and unbossed" acolyte of all the legendary firebrands, like Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Tupac, and Malcolm X. The daughter of a single mom from St. Louis, she’s smart, sassy, and an outright firecracker. She is the first woman of color, and the first person of color, to regulate the boyz at the big banks as the powerful chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Auntie Maxine called out the crimes and corruption of this Oval Office with precision before anyone else dared to take a stand. Make no mistake, she is coming for the "king," and whenever she aims, Maxine Waters doesn’t miss.

With illustrations, deep research, and writing as endlessly quotable as she is, Queens of the Resistance pays tribute to this phenomenal woman.

About the series: Each book of the Queens of the Resistance series will be a celebration of the rebellion against the oppression of women and an embracement of the new in the United States government. The series is adorned with sass, discernment, and the badassery of the present and future leadership. The Doomsday Clock is at a minute to midnight, and the patriarchal power grid that lights "the shining city on a Hill" is about to black out. It’s time to yield to the alternative—the power of women.


Click for more detail about Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory Party of Two

by Jasmine Guillory
Berkley Books (Jun 23, 2020)
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A chance meeting with a handsome stranger turns into a whirlwind affair that gets everyone talking in this New York Times bestseller.

Dating is the last thing on Olivia Monroe’s mind when she moves to LA to start her own law firm. But when she meets a gorgeous man at a hotel bar and they spend the entire night flirting, she discovers too late that he is none other than hotshot junior senator Max Powell. Olivia has zero interest in dating a politician, but when a cake arrives at her office with the cutest message, she can’t resist—it is chocolate cake, after all.

Olivia is surprised to find that Max is sweet, funny, and noble—not just some privileged white politician, as she assumed him to be. Because of Max’s high-profile job, they start seeing each other secretly, which leads to clandestine dates and silly disguises. But when they finally go public, the intense media scrutiny means people are now digging up her rocky past and criticizing her job, even her suitability as a trophy girlfriend. Olivia knows what she has with Max is something special, but is it strong enough to survive the heat of the spotlight?


Click for more detail about Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City by Wes Moore Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City

by Wes Moore
One World (Jun 23, 2020)
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"An illuminating portrait of Baltimore in the aftermath of the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray … Readers will be enthralled by this propulsive account."—Publishers Weekly

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Other Wes Moore, a kaleidoscopic account of five days in the life of a city on the edge, told through eight characters on the front lines of the uprising that overtook Baltimore and riveted the world

When Freddie Gray was arrested for possessing an "illegal knife" in April 2015, he was, by eyewitness accounts that video evidence later confirmed, treated "roughly" as police loaded him into a vehicle. By the end of his trip in the police van, Gray was in a coma from which he would never recover.

In the wake of a long history of police abuse in Baltimore, this killing felt like the final straw—it led to a week of protests, then five days described alternately as a riot or an uprising that set the entire city on edge and caught the nation’s attention.

Wes Moore is a Rhodes Scholar, bestselling author, decorated combat veteran, former White House fellow, and CEO of Robin Hood, one of the largest anti-poverty nonprofits in the nation. While attending Gray’s funeral, he saw every stratum of the city come together: grieving mothers, members of the city’s wealthy elite, activists, and the long-suffering citizens of Baltimore—all looking to comfort one another, but also looking for answers. He knew that when they left the church, these factions would spread out to their own corners, but that the answers they were all looking for could be found only in the city as a whole.

Moore—along with journalist Erica Green—tells the story of the Baltimore uprising both through his own observations and through the eyes of other Baltimoreans: Partee, a conflicted black captain of the Baltimore Police Department; Jenny, a young white public defender who’s drawn into the violent center of the uprising herself; Tawanda, a young black woman who’d spent a lonely year protesting the killing of her own brother by police; and John Angelos, scion of the city’s most powerful family and executive vice president of the Baltimore Orioles, who had to make choices of conscience he’d never before confronted.

Each shifting point of view contributes to an engrossing, cacophonous account of one of the most consequential moments in our recent history, which is also an essential cri de coeur about the deeper causes of the violence and the small seeds of hope planted in its aftermath.

"When Freddie Gray was arrested for possessing an ’illegal knife’ in April 2015, he was, by eyewitness accounts that video evidence later confirmed, treated ’roughly’ as police loaded him into a vehicle. By the end of his trip in the police van, Gray was in a coma he would never recover from. In the wake of a long history of police abuse in Baltimore, this killing felt like a final straw—it led to a week of protests and then five days described alternately as a riot or an uprising that set the entire city on edge, and caught the nation’s attention. Wes Moore is one of Baltimore’s most famous sons—a Rhodes Scholar, bestselling author, decorated combat veteran, White House fellow, and current President of the Robin Hood Foundation. While attending Gray’s funeral, he saw every strata of the city come together: grieving mothers; members of the city’s wealthy elite; activists; and the long-suffering citizens of Baltimore—all looking to comfort each other, but also looking for answers. Knowing that when they left the church, these factions would spread out to their own corners, but that the answers they were all looking for could only be found in the city as a whole, Moore—along with Pulitzer-winning coauthor Erica Green—tells the story of the Baltimore uprising. Through both his own observations, and through the eyes of other Baltimoreans: Partee, a conflicted black captain of the Baltimore Police Department; Jenny, a young white public defender who’s drawn into the violent center of the uprising herself; Tawanda, a young black woman who’d spent a lonely year protesting the killing of her own brother by police; and John DeAngelo, scion of the city’s most powerful family and owner of the Baltimore Orioles, who has to make choices of conscience he’d never before confronted. Each shifting point of view contributes to an engrossing, cacophonous account of one of the most consequential moments in our recent history—but also an essential cri de coeur about the deeper causes of the violence and the small seeds of hope planted in its aftermath"


Click for more detail about Jake the Fake Keeps His Cool by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach Jake the Fake Keeps His Cool

by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jun 16, 2020)
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For fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Big Nate comes the third book in this laugh-out-loud series about a class clown faking his way through middle school from comedian and film star Craig Robinson, #1 New York Times bestselling author Adam Mansbach, and NAACP History Maker recipient and cartoonist Keith Knight.

Life couldn’t be better for Jake. He’s a student at Music and Arts Academy and a budding comedian, and he finally put an end to his fake-ster ways … or so he thought. There’s a new girl at school, and Jake would do anything to impress her, even pretending to be a master chef. And a world-renowned barber?

But at home, Jake is less impressed with his mom’s news: she’s pregnant. Now Jake has to fake being happy about becoming the Middle Child. The King of Cool is about to drop his chill.

Luckily, he has good friends and laughs on his side, along with more than two hundred illustrations—all about him!


Click for more detail about Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi Antiracist Baby

by Ibram X. Kendi
Kokila (Jun 16, 2020)
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From the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist comes a fresh new board book that empowers parents and children to uproot racism in our society and in ourselves.

Take your first steps with Antiracist Baby! Or rather, follow Antiracist Baby’s nine easy steps for building a more equitable world.

With bold art and thoughtful yet playful text, Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.


Click for more detail about The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett The Vanishing Half

by Brit Bennett
Riverhead Books (Jun 02, 2020)
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From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.


Click for more detail about This Is What I Know about Art by Kimberly Drew This Is What I Know about Art

by Kimberly Drew
Penguin Workshop (Jun 02, 2020)
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Pocket Change Collective was born out of a need for space. Space to think. Space to connect. Space to be yourself. And this is your invitation to join us.

“Drew’s experience teaches us to embrace what we are afraid of and be true to ourselves. She uses her passion to change the art world and invites us to join her.”—Janelle Monáe, award-winning singer, actress, and producer

In this powerful and hopeful account, arts writer, curator, and activist Kimberly Drew reminds us that the art world has space not just for the elite, but for everyone.

Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today’s leading activists and artists. In this installment, arts writer and co-editor of Black Futures Kimberly Drew shows us that art and protest are inextricably linked. Drawing on her personal experience through art toward activism, Drew challenges us to create space for the change that we want to see in the world. Because there really is so much more space than we think.


Click for more detail about I Am Strong: A Little Book about Rosa Parks by Brad Meltzer I Am Strong: A Little Book about Rosa Parks

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Jun 02, 2020)
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Uses Rosa Parks’s life to teach young readers to always stand up for what is right.


Click for more detail about The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna The Gilded Ones

by Namina Forna
Delacorte Press (May 26, 2020)
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“Namina Forna could be the Toni Morrison Of YA Fantasy.” —Refinery 29

The start of a bold and immersive West African-inspired, feminist fantasy series for fans of Children of Blood and Bone and Black Panther. In this world, girls are outcasts by blood and warriors by choice.

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.

But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity-and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki-near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be-not even Deka herself.

The beautiful cover art is by Johnny Tarajosu


Click for more detail about The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir by André Leon Talley The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir

by André Leon Talley
Ballantine Books (May 19, 2020)
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“Discover what truly happens behind the scenes in the world of high fashion in this detailed, storied memoir from style icon, bestselling author, and former Vogue creative director André Leon Talley. During André Leon Talley’s first magazine job assisting Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decade’s long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, Talley moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild’s Women’s Wear Daily, befriending fashion’s most important designers. But as Talley made friends, he also made enemies. A racially tinged encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella. There, he developed an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour, and as she rose to the top of Vogue’s masthead, Talley became the most influential man in fashion. The Chiffon Trenches is a candid look at the who’s who of the last fifty years of fashion, and proof that fact is always fascinatingly more devilish than fiction. André Leon Talley’s engaging memoir tells the story of how he not only survived but thrived—despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry—to become one of the most legendary voices and faces in fashion”

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the pages of Vogue to the runways of Paris, this deeply revealing memoir by a legendary style icon captures the fashion world from the inside out, in its most glamorous and most cutthroat moments.

"The Chiffon Trenches honestly and candidly captures fifty sublime years of fashion."—Manolo Blahnik

During André Leon Talley’s first magazine job, alongside Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, Andrémoved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild’s Women’s Wear Daily, befriending fashion’s most important designers (Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta). But as André made friends, he also made enemies. A racially tinged encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella.

There, he eventually became creative director, developing an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour. As she rose to the top of Vogue’s masthead, André also ascended, and soon became the most influential man in fashion.

The Chiffon Trenches offers a candid look at the who’s who of the last fifty years of fashion. At once ruthless and empathetic, this engaging memoir tells with raw honesty the story of how Andr� not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived—despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry—to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion.

Woven throughout the book are also André’s own personal struggles that have impacted him over the decades, along with intimate stories of those he has turned to for inspiration (Diana Vreeland, Diane von Furstenberg, Lee Radziwill, to name a few), and of course his Southern roots and ongoing faith, which have guided him since childhood.

The result is a highly compelling read that captures the essence of a world few of us will ever have real access to, but one that we all want to know oh so much more about.


Click for more detail about Real Men Knit by K.M. Jackson Real Men Knit

by K.M. Jackson
Berkley Books (May 19, 2020)
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If you’re looking for an easy charmer, this is the novel for you.—Shondaland

When their foster-turned-adoptive mother suddenly dies, four brothers struggle to keep open the doors of her beloved Harlem knitting shop.

Jesse Strong is known for two things: his devotion to his adoptive mom, Mama Joy, and his reputation for breaking hearts. When Mama Joy unexpectedly passes away, he and his brothers have different plans for what to do with Strong Knits, their neighborhood knitting store. Jesse wants to keep the store open. His brothers want to tie off loose ends and close shop….

Part-time shop employee Kerry Fuller has kept her crush on Jesse a secret. When she overhears his impassioned plea to his brothers to keep the knitting shop open, she volunteers to help. Unlike Jesse, Kerry knows the "knitty-gritty" of the business, and together they make plans to reinvent Strong Knits for a new generation.

But the more time they spend together, the stronger the chemistry builds between them. Kerry, knowing Jesse’s history, doesn’t believe their relationship can last longer than she can knit one, purl two. But Jesse is determined to prove to her that he can be the man for her forever and always. After all, real men knit.


Click for more detail about My Mother’s House by Francesca Momplaisir My Mother’s House

by Francesca Momplaisir
Knopf Publishing Group (May 12, 2020)
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“A shockingly original exploration of class, race, and systemic violence … This house, tainted by the human evil it contains, is reminiscent of the opening line of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. And, like Morrison, Momplaisir uses the tropes of fantasy to try to assert truths that ordinary language and realistic imagery cannot communicate … Momplaisir’s debut introduces her as an author to watch.” —Kirkus

For fans of Edwidge Danticat, Mehsin Hamid, Kate Atkinson, and Jesmyn Ward: a literary thriller about the complex underbelly of the immigrant American dream and the dangerous ripple effect one person’s damages can have on the lives of others—told unexpectedly by a house that has held unspeakable horrors

When Lucien flees Haiti with his wife, Marie-Ange, and their three children to New York City’s South Ozone Park, he does so hoping for reinvention, wealth, and comfort. He buys a rundown house in a community that is quickly changing from an Italian enclave of mobsters to a haven for Haitian immigrants, and begins life anew. Lucien and Marie-Ange call their home La Kay—"my mother’s house"—and it becomes a place where their fellow immigrants can find peace, a good meal, and legal help. But as a severely emotionally damaged man emigrating from a country whose evils he knows to one whose evils he doesn’t, Lucien soon falls into his worst habits and impulses, with La Kay as the backdrop for his lasciviousness. What he can’t even begin to fathom is that the house is watching, passing judgment, and deciding to put an end to all the sins it has been made to hold. But only after it has set itself aflame will frightened whispers reveal Lucien’s ultimate evil.
At once an uncompromising look at the immigrant experience and an electrifying page-turner, My Mother’s House is a singular, unforgettable achievement.


Click for more detail about The Old Drift: A Novel by Namwali Serpell The Old Drift: A Novel

by Namwali Serpell
Hogarth Press (May 05, 2020)
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An electrifying debut from the winner of the 2015 Caine Prize for African writing, The Old Drift is the Great Zambian Novel you didn’t know you were waiting for
 
On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there was once a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. Here begins the epic story of a small African nation, told by a mysterious swarm-like chorus that calls itself man’s greatest nemesis. The tale? A playful panorama of history, fairytale, romance and science fiction. The moral? To err is human.

In 1904, in a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. This sets off a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families (black, white, brown) as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond. As the generations pass, their lives – their triumphs, errors, losses and hopes – form a symphony about what it means to be human. 

From a woman covered with hair and another plagued with endless tears, to forbidden love affairs and fiery political ones, to homegrown technological marvels like Afronauts, microdrones and viral vaccines – this gripping, unforgettable novel sweeps over the years and the globe, subverting expectations along the way. Exploding with color and energy, The Old Drift is a testament to our yearning to create and cross borders, and a meditation on the slow, grand passage of time.


Click for more detail about Little Family by Ishmael Beah Little Family

by Ishmael Beah
Riverhead Books (Apr 28, 2020)
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From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of A Long Way Gone.

A powerful novel about young people living at the margins of society, struggling to replace the homes they have lost with the one they have created together.

Hidden away from a harsh outside world, five young people have improvised a home in an abandoned airplane, a relic of their country’s tumultuous past. Elimane, the bookworm, is as street-smart as he is wise. Clever Khoudiemata maneuvers to keep the younger kids—athletic, pragmatic Ndevui, thoughtful Kpindi, and especially their newest member, Namsa—safe and fed. When Elimane makes himself of service to the shadowy William Handkerchief, it seems as if the little family may be able to keep the world at bay and their household intact. But when Khoudi comes under the spell of the "beautiful people"—the fortunate sons and daughters of the elite—the desire to resume an interrupted coming of age and follow her own destiny proves impossible to resist.

A profound and tender portrayal of the connections we forge to survive the fate we’re dealt, Little Family marks the further blossoming of a unique global voice.


Click for more detail about The Business of Lovers by Eric Jerome Dickey The Business of Lovers

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Apr 21, 2020)
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All is fair in love and lust in New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey’s tale of two brothers, four women, and the business of desire.

Unlike their younger brother, André, whose star as a comedian is rising, neither Dwayne nor Brick Duquesne is having luck with his career—and they’re unluckier still in love. Former child star Dwayne has just been fired from his latest acting role and barely has enough money to get by after paying child support to his spiteful former lover, while Brick struggles to return to his uninspiring white-collar job after suffering the dual blows of a health emergency and a nasty breakup with the woman he still loves.

Neither brother is looking to get entangled with a woman anytime soon, but love—and lust—has a way of twisting the best-laid plans. When Dwayne tries to reconnect with his teenage son, he finds himself fighting to separate his animosity from his attraction for his son’s mother, Frenchie. And Brick’s latest source of income—chauffeur and bodyguard to three smart, independent women temporarily working as escorts in order to get back on their feet—opens a world of possibility in both love and money. Penny, Christiana, and Mocha Latte know plenty of female johns who would pay top dollar for a few hours with a man like Brick… if he can let go of his past, embrace his unconventional new family, and allow strangers to become lovers.

Eric Jerome Dickey paints a powerful portrait of the family we have, the families we create, and every sexy moment in between.


Click for more detail about Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box

by Evette Dionne
Viking Books for Young Readers (Apr 21, 2020)
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For African American women, the fight for the right to vote was only one battle.

An eye-opening book that tells the important, overlooked story of black women as a force in the suffrage movement—when fellow suffragists did not accept them as equal partners in the struggle.

Susan B. Anthony. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Alice Paul. The Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls. The 1913 Women’s March in D.C. When the epic story of the suffrage movement in the United States is told, the most familiar leaders, speakers at meetings, and participants in marches written about or pictured are generally white.

That’s not the real story.

Women of color, especially African American women, were fighting for their right to vote and to be treated as full, equal citizens of the United States. Their battlefront wasn’t just about gender. African American women had to deal with white abolitionist-suffragists who drew the line at sharing power with their black sisters. They had to overcome deep, exclusionary racial prejudices that were rife in the American suffrage movement. And they had to maintain their dignity—and safety—in a society that tried to keep them in its bottom ranks.

Lifting as We Climb is the empowering story of African American women who refused to accept all this. Women in black church groups, black female sororities, black women’s improvement societies and social clubs. Women who formed their own black suffrage associations when white-dominated national suffrage groups rejected them. Women like Mary Church Terrell, a founder of the National Association of Colored Women and of the NAACP; or educator-activist Anna Julia Cooper who championed women getting the vote and a college education; or the crusading journalist Ida B. Wells, a leader in both the suffrage and anti-lynching movements.

Author Evette Dionne, a feminist culture writer and the editor-in-chief of Bitch Media, has uncovered an extraordinary and underrepresented history of black women. In her powerful book, she draws an important historical line from abolition to suffrage to civil rights to contemporary young activists—filling in the blanks of the American suffrage story.

★"Dionne provides a detailed and comprehensive look at the overlooked roles African American women played in the efforts to end slavery and then to secure the right to vote for women." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review


Click for more detail about What Lane? by Torrey Maldonado What Lane?

by Torrey Maldonado
Nancy Paulsen Books (Apr 14, 2020)
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"STAY IN YOUR LANE." Stephen doesn’t want to hear that—he wants to have no lane.

Anything his friends can do, Stephen should be able to do too, right? So when they dare each other to sneak into an abandoned building, he doesn’t think it’s his lane, but he goes. Here’s the thing, though: Can he do everything his friends can? Lately, he’s not so sure. As a mixed kid, he feels like he’s living in two worlds with different rules—and he’s been noticing that strangers treat him differently than his white friends …

So what’ll he do? Hold on tight as Stephen swerves in and out of lanes to find out which are his—and who should be with him.

Torrey Maldonado, author of the highly acclaimed Tight, does a masterful job showing a young boy coming of age in a racially split world, trying to blaze a way to be his best self.


Click for more detail about When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed When Stars Are Scattered

by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
Dial Books (Apr 14, 2020)
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Heartbreak and hope exist together in this remarkable graphic novel about growing up in a refugee camp, as told by a Somali refugee to the Newbery Honor-winning creator of Roller Girl.

Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care Omar knows his nonverbal brother needs. So when Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future … but it would also mean leaving his brother, the only family member he has left, every day.

Heartbreak, hope, and gentle humor exist together in this graphic novel about a childhood spent waiting, and a young man who is able to create a sense of family and home in the most difficult of settings. It’s an intimate, important, unforgettable look at the day-to-day life of a refugee, as told to New York Times Bestselling author/artist Victoria Jamieson by Omar Mohamed, the Somali man who lived the story.


Click for more detail about I Am Leonardo Da Vinci by Brad Meltzer I Am Leonardo Da Vinci

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Apr 14, 2020)
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The famous Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci is the twentieth hero in the New York Times bestselling picture book biography series.

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of an icon in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero’s childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This book features Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance artist and inventor.


Click for more detail about Before We Were Wicked by Eric Jerome Dickey Before We Were Wicked

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Apr 07, 2020)
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From New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey, "one of the most successful Black authors of the last quarter-century"* comes a novel about the how one chance meeting can change everything in this thrilling, sexy tale of star-crossed lust.

They say the love of money is the root of all evil, but for Ken Swift, it’s the love of a woman.

Ken is twenty-one, hurting people for cash to try to pay his way through college, when he lays eyes on Jimi Lee, the woman who will change the course of his entire life. What’s meant to be a one-night stand with the Harvard-bound beauty turns into an explosion of sexual chemistry that neither can quit. And when Jimi Lee becomes pregnant, their two very different worlds collide in ways they never could have anticipated.

Passion, infidelity, and raw emotion combine in Eric Jerome Dickey’s poignant, erotic portrait of a relationship: the rise, the fall, and the scars⁠—and desire⁠—that never fade.


*The New York Times


Click for more detail about Bedtime Bonnet by Nancy Redd Bedtime Bonnet

by Nancy Redd
Random House Books for Young Readers (Apr 07, 2020)
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This joyous and loving celebration of family is the first-ever picture book to highlight Black nighttime hair traditions—and is perfect for every little girl who knows what it’s like to lose her bonnet just before bedtime.

In my family, when the sun goes down, our hair goes up!
My brother slips a durag over his locs.
Sis swirls her hair in a wrap around her head.
Daddy covers his black waves with a cap.
Mama gathers her corkscrew curls in a scarf.
I always wear a bonnet over my braids, but tonight I can’t find it anywhere!

Bedtime Bonnet gives readers a heartwarming peek into quintessential Black nighttime hair traditions and celebrates the love between all the members of this close-knit, multi-generational family.

Perfect for readers of Hair Love and Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut!


Click for more detail about It’s Not All Downhill from Here by Terry McMillan It’s Not All Downhill from Here

by Terry McMillan
Ballantine Books (Mar 31, 2020)
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After a sudden change of plans, a remarkable woman and her loyal group of friends try to figure out what she’s going to do with the rest of her life—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting to Exhale

Loretha Curry’s life is full. A little crowded sometimes, but full indeed. On the eve of her sixty-eighth birthday, she has a booming beauty-supply empire, a gaggle of lifelong friends, and a husband whose moves still surprise. True, she’s carrying a few more pounds than she should be, but Loretha is not one of those women who think her best days are behind her—and she’s determined to prove wrong her mother, her twin sister, and everyone else with that outdated view of aging wrong. It’s not all downhill from here.

But when an unexpected loss turns her world upside down, Loretha will have to summon all her strength, resourcefulness, and determination to keep on thriving, pursue joy, heal old wounds, and chart new paths. With a little help from her friends, of course.


Click for more detail about wow, no thank you.: essays by samantha irby wow, no thank you.: essays

by samantha irby
Vintage (Mar 31, 2020)
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A Vintage Paperback Original.
A new rip-roaring essay collection from the smart, edgy, hilarious, unabashedly raunchy, and bestselling Samantha Irby.

Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and has been friendzoned by Hollywood, left Chicago, and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know-how with her wife in a Blue town in the middle of a Red state where she now hosts book clubs and makes mason jar salads. This is the bourgeois life of a Hallmark Channel dream. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with "tv executives slash amateur astrologers" while being a "cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person," "with neck pain and no cartilage in [her] knees," who still hides past due bills under her pillow.
The essays in this collection draw on the raw, hilarious particulars of Irby’s new life. Wow, No Thank You is Irby at her most unflinching, riotous, and relatable.


Click for more detail about American Spy: A Novel by Lauren Wilkinson American Spy: A Novel

by Lauren Wilkinson
Random House (Mar 17, 2020)
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“[This] unflinching, incendiary debut combines the espionage novels of John le Carré with the racial complexity of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

What if your sense of duty required you to betray the man you love? 
 
It’s 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She’s brilliant, but she’s also a young black woman working in an old boys’ club. Her career has stalled out, she’s overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she’s given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes. Yes, even though she secretly admires the work Sankara is doing for his country. Yes, even though she is still grieving the mysterious death of her sister, whose example led Marie to this career path in the first place. Yes, even though a furious part of her suspects she’s being offered the job because of her appearance and not her talent.

In the year that follows, Marie will observe Sankara, seduce him, and ultimately have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister, and a good American.

Inspired by true events—Thomas Sankara is known as “Africa’s Che Guevara”—American Spy knits together a gripping spy thriller, a heartbreaking family drama, and a passionate romance. This is a face of the Cold War you’ve never seen before, and it introduces a powerful new literary voice.

Advance praise for American Spy

“Echoing the stoic cynicism of Hurston and Ellison, and the verve of Conan Doyle, American Spy lays our complicities—political, racial, and sexual—bare. Packed with unforgettable characters, it’s a stunning book, timely as it is timeless.”—Paul Beatty, Man Booker Prizewinning author of The Sellout

“American Spy is by turns suspenseful, tender, and funny, always smart and searingly honest. Lauren Wilkinson renders the world of spies with vivacity and depth, and shines a penetrating light on what it’s like to be a black woman in America. But like all great novels, this one teaches us most about ourselves and our values. ”—Sara Novi?, author of Girl at War


Click for more detail about A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope by Patrice Caldwell A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope

by Patrice Caldwell
Viking Books for Young Readers (Mar 10, 2020)
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Sixteen tales by bestselling and award-winning authors that explore the Black experience through fantasy, science fiction, and magic.

Evoking Beyoncé’s Lemonade for a teen audience, these authors who are truly Octavia Butler’s heirs, have woven worlds to create a stunning narrative that centers Black women and gender nonconforming individuals. A Phoenix First Must Burn will take you on a journey from folktales retold to futuristic societies and everything in between. Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of complex and true-to-life characters in which you cannot help but see yourself reflected. Witches and scientists, sisters and lovers, priestesses and rebels: the heroines of A Phoenix First Must Burn shine brightly. You will never forget them.


Click for more detail about Deacon King Kong by James McBride Deacon King Kong

by James McBride
Riverhead Books (Mar 03, 2020)
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From James McBride, author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, comes a wise and witty novel about what happens to the witnesses of a shooting.

In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range.

The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself.

As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters—caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York—overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion.

Bringing to these pages both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James McBride has written a novel every bit as involving as The Good Lord Bird and as emotionally honest as The Color of Water. Told with insight and wit, Deacon King Kong demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us.


Click for more detail about Do I Have to Wear a Coat? by Rachel Isadora Do I Have to Wear a Coat?

by Rachel Isadora
Nancy Paulsen Books (Mar 03, 2020)
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Caldecott Honor winner Rachel Isadora celebrates each of the four seasons with a diverse cast of endearing kids

All four seasons are full of wonderful things that make them fun and special, and the children in this delightful book share some of the highlights (and some pretty nifty clothes)! Spring brings berries, baby animals, cool showers—and raincoats. Summer brings warm breezes, the best beach weather—and no more coats! In the fall, we play in the leaves and pumpkin patches—and wrap up in cozy sweaters. And winter brings ice skating and all kinds of snowy outdoor fun—but we need to bundle up in our heaviest coats! In a style reminiscent of her popular My Dog Laughs and I Hear a Pickle, Rachel Isadora’s charming vignettes are packed with details that young children will want to pour over.


Click for more detail about Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot

by Mikki Kendall
Viking Books (Feb 25, 2020)
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A potent and electrifying critique of today’s feminist movement announcing a fresh new voice in black feminism

Today’s feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. That feminists refuse to prioritize these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of both internecine discord and women who rebuff at carrying the title. Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?

In her searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed.


Click for more detail about Real Life by Brandon Taylor Real Life

by Brandon Taylor
Riverhead Books (Feb 18, 2020)
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Named one of the most anticipated books of the year by Entertainment Weekly and Electric Literature.

A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, from an electric new voice.

A novel of rare emotional power that excavates the social intricacies of a late-summer weekend—and a lifetime of buried pain. Almost everything about Wallace, an introverted African-American transplant from Alabama, is at odds with the lakeside Midwestern university town where he is working toward a biochem degree. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with a young straight man, conspire to fracture his defenses, while revealing hidden currents of resentment and desire that threaten the equilibrium of their community.

Real Life is a gut punch of a novel, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds and buried histories—and at what cost.


Click for more detail about The Blossom and the Firefly by Sherri L. Smith The Blossom and the Firefly

by Sherri L. Smith
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Feb 18, 2020)
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From the award-winning author of Flygirl comes this powerful WWII romance between two Japanese teens caught in the cogs of an unwinnable war, perfect for fans of Salt to the Sea, Lovely War, and Code Name Verity.

Japan 1945. Taro is a talented violinist and a kamikaze pilot in the days before his first and only mission. He believes he is ready to die for his country … until he meets Hana. Hana hasn’t been the same since the day she was buried alive in a collapsed trench during a bomb raid. She wonders if it would have been better to have died that day … until she meets Taro.

A song will bring them together. The war will tear them apart. Is it possible to live an entire lifetime in eight short days?

Sherri L. Smith has been called "an author with astonishing range" and "a stellar storyteller" by E. Lockhart, the New York Times-bestselling author of We Were Liars, and "a truly talented writer" by Jacqueline Woodson, the National Book Award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming. Here, with achingly beautiful prose, Smith weaves a tale of love in the face of death, of hope in the face of tragedy, set against a backdrop of the waning days of the Pacific War.


Click for more detail about The Wizard of Oz by Carly Gledhill The Wizard of Oz

by Carly Gledhill
Viking Books for Young Readers (Feb 18, 2020)
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Bedtime Classics: charmingly illustrated board book editions of perennial favorites, simplified for the youngest readers!

Bedtime Classics introduce classic works of fiction to little literary scholars through character-driven narratives and colorful illustration. Designed to be the perfect one minute bedtime story (or five minutes—if you’re begged to read it over and over), so parents can feel good about exposing their children to some of the most iconic pieces of literature, while building their child’s bookshelf with these trendy editions!

When a tornado hits her small Kansas town, Dorothy is swept away to Oz To find her way back home, she follows the yellow brick road to The Emerald City and picks up a scarecrow, a tinman, and a cowardly lion, on their way to seek help from the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.


Click for more detail about The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross by Jon Meacham The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross

by Jon Meacham
Convergent Books (Feb 18, 2020)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham explores the seven last sayings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, combining rich historical and theological insights to reflect on the true heart of the Christian story.

For Jon Meacham, as for believers worldwide, the events of Good Friday and Easter reveal essential truths about Christianity. A former vestryman of Trinity Church Wall Street and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Meacham delves into that intersection of faith and history in this meditation on the seven phrases Jesus spoke from the cross.

Beginning with "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" and ending with "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," Meacham captures for the reader how these words epitomize Jesus’s message of love, not hate; grace, not rage; and, rather than vengeance, extraordinary mercy. For each saying, Meacham composes an essay on the origins of Christianity and how Jesus’s final words created a foundation for oral and written traditions that upended the very order of the world.

Writing in a tone more intimate than any of his previous works, Jon Meacham returns us to the moment that transformed Jesus from a historical figure into the proclaimed Son of God, worshiped by billions.


Click for more detail about Vegetable Kingdom by Bryant Terry Vegetable Kingdom

by Bryant Terry
Ten Speed Press (Feb 11, 2020)
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NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER • “Phenomenal … transforms the kitchen into a site for creating global culinary encounters, this time inviting us to savor Afro-Asian vegan creations.”—Angela Y. Davis, distinguished professor emerita at the University of California Santa CruzIACP AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • The Washington Post • Vogue • San Francisco Chronicle • Forbes • Food & Wine • Salon • Garden & Gun • Delish • EpicuriousMore than 100 beautifully simple recipes that teach you the basics of a great vegan meal centered on real food, not powders or meat substitutes—from the James Beard Award-winning chef and author of Afro-Vegan Food justice activist and author Bryant Terry breaks down the fundamentals of plant-based cooking in Vegetable Kingdom, showing you how to make delicious meals from popular vegetables, grains, and legumes. Recipes like Dirty Cauliflower, Barbecued Carrots with Slow-Cooked White Beans, Millet Roux Mushroom Gumbo, and Citrus & Garlic-Herb-Braised Fennel are enticing enough without meat substitutes, instead relying on fresh ingredients, vibrant spices, and clever techniques to build flavor and texture. The book is organized by ingredient, making it easy to create simple dishes or showstopping meals based on what’s fresh at the market. Bryant also covers the basics of vegan cooking, explaining the fundamentals of assembling flavorful salads, cooking filling soups and stews, and making tasty grains and legumes. With beautiful imagery and classic design, Vegetable Kingdom is an invaluable tool for plant-based cooking today.Praise for Vegetable Kingdom“In the great Black American tradition of the remix and doing what you can with what you got, my friend Bryant Terry goes hard at vegetables with a hip-hop eye and a Southern grandmama’s nature. To paraphrase Maya Angelou, Bryant wants us to know that once we know vegetables better, we will cook vegetables better. He ain’t lyin’.”—W. Kamau Bell, comedian, author, and host of the Emmy Award–winning series United Shades of America“[Terry’s] perspective is casual and family-oriented, and the book feels personal and speaks to a wide swath of cooks … each dish comes with a recommended soundtrack, completing his mission to provide an immersive, joyful experience.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)


Click for more detail about The Bold World: A Memoir of Family and Transformation by Jodie Patterson The Bold World: A Memoir of Family and Transformation

by Jodie Patterson
Ballantine Books (Feb 11, 2020)
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Inspired by her transgender son, activist Jodie Patterson explores identity, gender, race, and authenticity to tell the real-life story of a family’s history and transformation.

“A courageous and poetic testimony on family and the self, and the learning and unlearning we must do for those we love.”—Janet Mock

In 2009, Jodie Patterson, mother of five and beauty entrepreneur, has her world turned upside down when her determined toddler, Penelope, reveals, “Mama, I’m not a girl. I am a boy.” The Pattersons are a tribe of unapologetic Black matriarchs, scholars, financiers, Southern activists, artists, musicians, and disruptors, but with Penelope’s revelation, Jodie realizes her existing definition of family isn’t wide enough for her child’s needs.

In The Bold World, we witness Patterson reshaping her own attitudes, beliefs, and biases, learning from her children, and a whole new community, how to meet the needs of her transgender son. In doing so, she opens the minds of those who raised and fortified her, all the while challenging cultural norms and gender expectations. Patterson finds that the fight for racial equality in which her ancestors were so prominent helped pave the way for the current gender revolution.

From Georgia to South Carolina, Ghana to Brooklyn, Patterson learns to remove the division between me and you, us and them, straight and queer—and she reminds us to celebrate her uncle Gil Scott Heron’s prophecy that the revolution will not be televised. It will happen deeply, unequivocally, inside each and every one of us. Transition, we learn, doesn’t just belong to the transgender person. Transition, for the sake of knowing more and becoming more, is the responsibility of and gift to all.

The Bold World is the result, an intimate and exquisite story of authenticity, courage, and love.


Click for more detail about Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay Romance in Marseille

by Claude McKay
Penguin Books (Feb 11, 2020)
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The pioneering novel of physical disability, transatlantic travel, and black international politics. A vital document of black modernism and one of the earliest overtly queer fictions in the African American tradition. Published for the first time.

A Penguin Classic

Buried in the archive for almost ninety years, Claude McKay’s Romance in Marseille traces the adventures of a rowdy troupe of dockworkers, prostitutes, and political organizers—collectively straight and queer, disabled and able-bodied, African, European, Caribbean, and American. Set largely in the culture-blending Vieux Port of Marseille at the height of the Jazz Age, the novel takes flight along with Lafala, an acutely disabled but abruptly wealthy West African sailor. While stowing away on a transatlantic freighter, Lafala is discovered and locked in a frigid closet. Badly frostbitten by the time the boat docks, the once-nimble dancer loses both of his lower legs, emerging from life-saving surgery as what he terms "an amputated man." Thanks to an improbably successful lawsuit against the shipping line, however, Lafala scores big in the litigious United States. Feeling flush after his legal payout, Lafala doubles back to Marseille and resumes his trans-African affair with Aslima, a Moroccan courtesan. With its scenes of black bodies fighting for pleasure and liberty even when stolen, shipped, and sold for parts, McKay’s novel explores the heritage of slavery amid an unforgiving modern economy. This first-ever edition of Romance in Marseille includes an introduction by McKay scholars Gary Edward Holcomb and William J. Maxwell that places the novel within both the "stowaway era" of black cultural politics and McKay’s challenging career as a star and skeptic of the Harlem Renaissance.


Click for more detail about Cool Cuts by Mechal Renee Roe Cool Cuts

by Mechal Renee Roe
Doubleday Books for Young Readers (Feb 11, 2020)
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African-American boys and their cool hair are celebrated in this bright, joyful read-together picture book that will have boys everywhere repeating the book’s chorus: "I am born to be awesome!"

When the stars shine, the world is mine! I am born to be awesome! My hair is free, just like me! I am born to be awesome!

African-American boys will love seeing strong, happy reflections of themselves in this vibrant, rhythmic picture book celebrating a diversity of hip black hairstyles. From a ’fro-hawk to mini-twists and crisp cornrows, adorable illustrations of boys with cool curls, waves, and afros grace each page, accompanied by a positive call-and-response affirmation that will make boys cheer. It’s a great read-aloud to promote positive self-esteem to boys of all ages, building and growing the foundation of self-love (and hair love!) and letting every boy know that "You are born to be awesome!"

And look for the companion book for girls, Happy Hair, coming in fall 2019!


Click for more detail about Ralph Ellison: A Life in Letters by Ralph Ellison Ralph Ellison: A Life in Letters

by Ralph Ellison
Random House (Feb 04, 2020)
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An autobiography through the previously unpublished letters of the renowned author of Invisible Man, with insights into the riddle of American identity, the writer’s craft, and his own life and work.

Over six decades (1933 to 1993), Ralph Ellison’s extensive and revealing correspondence remarkably details his aspirations and anxieties, confidence and uncertainties throughout his personal and professional life. From early notes to his mother, as an impoverished college student; to debates with the most distinguished American writers and thinkers of his time, including Romare Bearden, Saul Bellow, Robert Penn Warren, Richard Wright, and Alfred Kazin, among others; to exchanges with friends and family from his hometown of Oklahoma City, whose influence would always be paramount, these letters communicate the immense importance of Ellison’s life and work. They show his metamorphosis from an impressionable youth into a cultured man of the world, from an aspiring composer into a distinguished novelist, and ultimately into a man who confronted America’s many complexities through his words.


Click for more detail about Warrior Rising: How Four Men Helped a Boy on His Journey to Manhood by MaryAnne Howland Warrior Rising: How Four Men Helped a Boy on His Journey to Manhood

by MaryAnne Howland
TarcherPerigee (Jan 28, 2020)
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An eye-opening look at one mother’s determination to provide positive male role models for her son, and the power of great mentoring to change lives.

When MaryAnne Howland’s son was turning thirteen she organized a "Black Mitzvah" rite of passage celebration for him. Max is one of the one-in-three children in America being raised without a father in the home. Among African-Americans, that number is reported to be as high as 72 percent. To help fill the father-shaped hole in Max’s life as he transitioned from boyhood to manhood, MaryAnne invited four men from different corners of her life —an engineer, a philanthropist, a publisher, and a financial planner—to become Max’s mentors.

Max has faced many challenges. As a boy without a consistent father figure in his life, as an African-American male in a time when race relations in this country continue to be fraught, and also because Max was born premature and as a result has cerebral palsy, he has had to be a true warrior. On the brink of manhood, his mother wanted to give him the benefit of men who could answer some of the questions she felt that she, as a woman, might not be able to answer. Through his adolescence, Max’s mentors have shared valuable insights with him about what it means to be a good man in the face of life’s challenges. These lessons, recounted in this book, will serve as a powerful roadmap for anyone wishing to support boys as they approach manhood.


Click for more detail about The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

by Toni Morrison
Knopf (Jan 14, 2020)
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The most celebrated and revered writer of our time now gives us a new nonfiction collection—a rich gathering of her essays, speeches, and meditations on society, culture, and art, spanning four decades.

The Source of Self-Regard is brimming with all the elegance of mind and style, the literary prowess and moral compass that are Toni Morrison’s inimitable hallmark. It is divided into three parts: the first is introduced by a powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11; the second by a searching meditation on Martin Luther King, Jr., and the last by a heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. In the writings and speeches included here, Morrison takes on contested social issues: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, "black matter(s)," and human rights. She looks at enduring matters of culture: the role of the artist in society, goodness in the literary imagination, the Afro-American presence in American literature, and in her Nobel lecture, the power of language itself. And here too is piercing commentary on her own work (including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, and Paradise) and that of others, among them, painter and collagist Romare Bearden, author Toni Cade Bambara, and theatre director Peter Sellars. In all, The Source of Self-Regard is a luminous and essential addition to Toni Morrison’s oeuvre.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream by Blair Imani Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream

by Blair Imani
Spiegel & Grau (Jan 14, 2020)
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A powerful illustrated history of the Great Migration and its sweeping impact on Black and American culture, from Reconstruction to the rise of hip hop.

Over the course of six decades, an unprecedented wave of Black Americans left the South and spread across the nation in search of a better life—a migration that sparked stunning demographic and cultural changes in twentieth-century America. Through gripping and accessible historical narrative paired with illustrations, author and activist Blair Imani examines the largely overlooked impact of The Great Migration and how it affected—and continues to affect—Black identity and America as a whole.

Making Our Way Home explores issues like voting rights, domestic terrorism, discrimination, and segregation alongside the flourishing of arts and culture, activism, and civil rights. Imani shows how these influences shaped America’s workforce and wealth distribution by featuring the stories of notable people and events, relevant data, and family histories. The experiences of prominent figures such as James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X), Ella Baker, and others are woven into the larger historical and cultural narratives of the Great Migration to create a truly singular record of this powerful journey.


Click for more detail about Trailblazers: Beyoncé: Queen of the Spotlight by Ebony Joy Wilkins Trailblazers: Beyoncé: Queen of the Spotlight

by Ebony Joy Wilkins
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jan 14, 2020)
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Bring history home and meet some of the world’s greatest game changers! Get inspired by the true story of one of the world’s most famous singers. This biography series is for kids who loved Who Was? and are ready for the next level.

Beyoncé Knowles became famous as the lead singer of the popular group Destiny’s Child. But on her own, she’s had even bigger hits. From movies to Grammy Awards to performing at the Super Bowl halftime show, Beyoncé is one of the world’s most amazing superstars. Find out how the girl who entered local singing competitions became one of history’s greatest trailblazers!

Trailblazers is a biography series that celebrates the lives of amazing pioneers, past and present, from all over the world. Get inspired by more Trailblazers: Neil Armstrong, Jackie Robinson, Jane Goodall, Harriet Tubman, Albert Einstein, Beyoncé, and Simone Biles. What kind of trail will you blaze?


Click for more detail about 145th Street: Short Stories by Walter Dean Myers 145th Street: Short Stories

by Walter Dean Myers
Delacorte Press (Jan 14, 2020)
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From the award-winning author of Monster, this collection of powerful and poignant stories about 145th Streetan unforgettable block in the heart of Harlem—celebrates African-American life in all of its glory.

"Myers is a master." —The New York Times Book Review

On Harlem’s 145th Street, things happen that don’t happen anywhere else in the world.

Get to know Big Joe, who’s throwing his own funeral while he’s here to enjoy it, and everyone’s invited. Meet Kitty and Mack, teens with a love story more real than anything they’ve ever known. Follow Monkeyman, the quietest kid on the block and the last person you’d expect the Tigros gang to target. And don’t miss the block party of the year—the whole neighborhood will be there.

From danger and despair to hilarity and joy, literary legend Walter Dean Myers captures every mood and every beat of life in this vibrant Harlem.

This twentieth-anniversary edition of Myers’s work features brand-new content, including historical information about Harlem’s rich past, an immersive map of the neighborhood’s iconic landmarks, and touching tributes from authors, artists, and literary legends. Celebrating two decades in print, this edition honors Myers’s enormous legacy and brings his work to a new generation of readers.


Click for more detail about Just Like Me by Vanessa Brantley-Newton Just Like Me

by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Jan 14, 2020)
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An ode to the girl with scrapes on her knees and flowers in her hair, and every girl in between, this exquisite treasury will appeal to readers of Dear Girl and I Am Enough and have kids poring over it to find a poem that’s just for them.

I am a canvas
Being painted on
By the words of my family
Friends
And community

From Vanessa Brantley-Newton, the author of Grandma’s Purse, comes a collection of poetry filled with engaging mini-stories about girls of all kinds: girls who feel happy, sad, scared, powerful; girls who love their bodies and girls who don’t; country girls, city girls; girls who love their mother and girls who wish they had a father. With bright portraits in Vanessa’s signature style of vibrant colors and unique patterns and fabrics, this book invites readers to find themselves and each other within its pages.


Click for more detail about Brave. Black. First.: 50+ African American Women Who Changed the World by Cheryl Willis Hudson Brave. Black. First.: 50+ African American Women Who Changed the World

by Cheryl Willis Hudson
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 07, 2020)
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Published in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, discover over fifty remarkable African American women whose unique skills and contributions paved the way for the next generation of young people. Perfect for fans of Rad Women Worldwide, Women in Science, and Girls Think of Everything.

Harriet Tubman guided the way.
Rosa Parks sat for equality.
Aretha Franklin sang from the soul.
Serena Williams bested the competition.
Michelle Obama transformed the White House.
Black women everywhere have changed the world!

Published in partnership with curators from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, this illustrated biography compilation captures the iconic moments of fifty African American women whose heroism and bravery rewrote the American story for the better.

They were fearless. They were bold. They were game changers.

Also check out the Brave. Black. First. Postcards.
100 postcards


Click for more detail about Clean Getaway by Nic Stone Clean Getaway

by Nic Stone
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 07, 2020)
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Praise for Dear Martin:
"Powerful, wrenching." -John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down
"Absolutely incredible, honest, gut-wrenching. A must read!" -Angie Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give
"Painfully timely and deeply moving." -Jodi Picoult"Raw and gripping." -Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling coauthor of All American Boys

Praise for Odd One Out:
"A radiant masterpiece!" -Adam Silvera, New York Times bestselling author of They Both Die at the End
"Fans of Nic and new readers will find themselves engrossed." -Teen Vogue
"Declaring yourself—how you would like to be represented and whom you want to love and connect with—is treated with real tenderness." -The New York Times
"For fans of authors who dig complex relationships, like Shannon M. Parker, Ashley Woodfolk and Misa Sugiura." -Paste Magazine


Click for more detail about All the Days Past, All the Days to Come by Mildred D. Taylor All the Days Past, All the Days to Come

by Mildred D. Taylor
Viking Books for Young Readers (Jan 07, 2020)
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The saga of the Logan family—made famous in the Newbery Medal-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry—concludes in a long-awaited and deeply fulfilling story.

In her tenth book, Mildred Taylor completes her sweeping saga about the Logan family of Mississippi, which is also the story of the civil rights movement in America of the 20th century. Cassie Logan, first met in Song of the Trees and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is a young woman now, searching for her place in the world, a journey that takes her from Toledo to California, to law school in Boston, and, ultimately, in the 60s, home to Mississippi for voter registration. She is witness to the now-historic events of the century: the Great Migration north, the rise of the movement, preceded and precipitated by the racist society of America, and the often violent confrontations that brought about change. Rich, compelling storytelling is Ms. Taylor’s hallmark, and she fulfills expectations as she brings to a close the stirring family story that has absorbed her for over forty years. It is a story she was born to tell.


Click for more detail about Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid Such a Fun Age

by Kiley Reid
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Dec 31, 2019)
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A REESE’S BOOK CLUB x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK PICK

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store’s security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone "family," and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.


Click for more detail about Frederick Douglass: Voice for Justice, Voice for Freedom by Frank Murphy Frederick Douglass: Voice for Justice, Voice for Freedom

by Frank Murphy
Random House Books for Young Readers (Dec 31, 2019)
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Learn about the abolitionist Frederick Douglass and his fight for freedom in this Step 3 Biography Reader!

Frederick Douglass was a keystone figure in the abolitionist movement, and his story has impacted generations of people fighting for civil rights in America. He was born to an enslaved mother and grew up with the horrors of slavery. In the course of his childhood, he was able to learn to read, and soon realized that reading and language were a source of power, and could be the keys to his freedom. Frederick Douglass spoke and wrote about injustice and equality, and his words profoundly affected the conversation about slavery in America. His activism will resonate with kids today who are observing and participating in our activist culture.

Step 3 Readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots about popular topics—for children who are ready to read on their own.


Click for more detail about What Were the Negro Leagues? by Varian Johnson What Were the Negro Leagues?

by Varian Johnson
Penguin Workshop (Dec 24, 2019)
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This baseball league that was made up of African American players and run by African American owners ushered in the biggest change in the history of baseball.

In America during the early twentieth century, no part was safe from segregation, not even the country’s national pastime, baseball. Despite their exodus from the Major Leagues because of the color of their skin, African American men still found a way to participate in the sport they loved. Author Varian Johnson shines a spotlight on the players, coaches, owners, and teams that dominated the Negro Leagues during the 1930s and 40s. Readers will learn about how phenomenal players like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and of course, Jackie Robinson greatly changed the sport of baseball.


Click for more detail about The Black Book (Anniversary) by Middleton A. Harris, Ernest Smith, Morris Levitt, and Roger Furman The Black Book (Anniversary)

by Middleton A. Harris, Ernest Smith, Morris Levitt, and Roger Furman
Random House (Dec 03, 2019)
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A new edition of the classic New York Times bestseller edited by Toni Morrison, offering an encyclopedic look at the black experience in America from 1619 through the 1940s with the original cover restored.

I am so pleased the book is alive again. I still think there is no other work that tells and visualizes a story of such misery with seriousness, humor, grace and triumph.” —Toni Morrison

Seventeenth-century sketches of Africans as they appeared to marauding European traders. Nineteenth-century slave auction notices. Twentieth-century sheet music for work songs and freedom chants. Photographs of war heroes, regal in uniform. Antebellum reward posters for capturing runaway slaves. An 1856 article titled “A Visit to the Slave Mother Who Killed Her Child.”

In 1974, Middleton A. Harris and Toni Morrison led a team of gifted, passionate collectors in compiling these images and nearly five hundred others into one sensational narrative of the black experience in America—The Black Book. Now in a newly restored hardcover edition, The Black Book remains a breathtaking testament to the legendary wisdom, strength, and perseverance of black men and women intent on freedom. Prominent collectors Morris Levitt, Roger Furman, and Ernest Smith joined Harris and Morrison (then a Random House editor, ultimately a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Nobel Laureate) to spend months studying, laughing at, and crying over these materials—transcripts from fugitive slaves’ trials and proclamations by Frederick Douglass and celebrated abolitionists, as well as chilling images of cross burnings and lynchings, patents registered by black inventors throughout the early twentieth century, and vibrant posters from "Black Hollywood" films of the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, it was an article she found while researching this project that provided the inspiration for Morrison’s masterpiece, Beloved.

A labor of love and a vital link to the richness and diversity of African American history and culture, The Black Book honors the past, reminding us where our nation has been, and gives flight to our hopes for what is yet to come. Beautifully and faithfully presented and featuring a foreword and original poem by Toni Morrison, The Black Book remains a timeless landmark work


Click for more detail about The Measure of Our Lives: A Gathering of Wisdom by Toni Morrison The Measure of Our Lives: A Gathering of Wisdom

by Toni Morrison
Knopf Publishing Group (Dec 03, 2019)
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At once the ideal introduction to Toni Morrison and a lovely and moving keepsake for her devoted readers: a treasury of quotations from her work. With a foreword by Zadie Smith.

"She was our conscience. Our seer. Our truthteller." —Oprah Winfrey

Through bricolage—a construction or creation from a diverse range of available things—this brief book aims to evoke the totality of Toni Morrison’s literary vision and achievement. It dramatizes the life of her powerful mind by juxtaposing quotations, one to a page, drawn from her entire body of work, both fiction and nonfiction—from The Bluest Eye to God Help the Child, from Playing in the Dark to The Source of Self-Regard.

Its compelling sequence of flashes of revelation—stunning for their linguistic originality, keenness of psychological observation, and philosophical profundity—addresses issues of abiding interest in Morrison’s work: the reach of language for the ineffable; transcendence through imagination; the self and its discontents; the vicissitudes of love; the whirligig of memory; the singular power of women; the original American sin of slavery; the bankruptcy of racial oppression; the complex humanity and art of black people. The Measure of Our Lives brims with elegance of style and authority.


Click for more detail about Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for Their Rights by Mikki Kendall and A. D’Amico Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women’s Fight for Their Rights

by Mikki Kendall and A. D’Amico
Ten Speed Press (Nov 05, 2019)
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A bold and gripping graphic history of the fight for women’s rights

The ongoing struggle for women’s rights has spanned human history, touched nearly every culture on Earth, and encompassed a wide range of issues, such as the right to vote, work, get an education, own property, exercise bodily autonomy, and beyond. Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists is a fun and fascinating graphic novel-style primer that covers the key figures and events that have advanced women’s rights from antiquity to the modern era. In addition, this compelling book illuminates the stories of notable women throughout history—from queens and freedom fighters to warriors and spies—and the progressive movements led by women that have shaped history, including abolition, suffrage, labor, civil rights, LGBTQ liberation, reproductive rights, and more. Examining where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going, Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists is an indispensable resource for people of all genders interested in the fight for a more liberated future.


Click for more detail about I Look Up To… Serena Williams by Anna Membrino I Look Up To… Serena Williams

by Anna Membrino
Random House Books for Young Readers (Nov 05, 2019)
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If you can see it, you can be it! Introduce your child to powerful feminist role models with this series of inspirational board books.

It’s never too early to introduce your child to the people you admire! This board book distills tennis superstar Serena Williams’s excellent qualities into an eminently shareable read-aloud text with graphic, eye-catching illustrations.

Each spread highlights an important trait, and is enhanced by a quote from Serena herself. Kids will grow up hearing the words of this powerful, determined woman and will learn what YOU value in a person!

The I LOOK UP TO… series aims to shed a spotlight on women making a difference in the world today, and to encourage young kids to follow in their footsteps! Look for other books in the series about Michelle Obama, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Malala Yousafzai!


Click for more detail about I Look Up To…Misty Copeland by Anna Membrino I Look Up To…Misty Copeland

by Anna Membrino
Random House Books for Young Readers (Nov 05, 2019)
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If you can see it, you can be it! Introduce your child to powerful feminist role models with this series of inspirational board books.

It’s never too early to introduce your child to the people you admire! This board book distills American ballet dancer Misty Copeland’s excellent qualities into an eminently shareable read-aloud text with graphic, eye-catching illustrations.

Each spread highlights an important trait, and is enhanced by a quote from Misty herself. Kids will grow up hearing the words of this powerful, determined woman and will learn what YOU value in a person!

The I LOOK UP TO… series aims to shed a spotlight on women making a difference in the world today, and to encourage young kids to follow in their footsteps! Look for other books in the series about Michelle Obama, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Serena Williams, Malala Yousafzai, and Oprah Winfrey!


Click for more detail about Get Over It!: Thought Therapy for Healing the Hard Stuff by Iyanla Vanzant Get Over It!: Thought Therapy for Healing the Hard Stuff

by Iyanla Vanzant
Hay House (Nov 05, 2019)
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Tradepaper edition of the latest book from AALBC and #1 New York Times best-selling author and legendary spiritual life coach Iyanla Vanzant. This book of practical prayers, affirmations, and meditations is tailored to our modern problems and day-to-day difficulties.

Today—as repeated attempts to fix ourselves and our lives fail—many of us face unprecedented fears about the future, struggle with unspeakable life tragedies, and sink under the belief that certain lives do not matter in our society. Others confront our epidemic of anxiety with fierce resistance, or the fight to be right, criticizing anyone and everyone just to end up stuck.

In the face of such pervasive human suffering, New York Times best-selling author and legendary life coach Iyanla Vanzant challenges us: What if it’s not them—what if it’s you? What if you need to get over it—and get over yourself? Because no matter how much we would like to blame people and circumstances beyond our control, the truth is staggeringly simple: anything and everything we experience is a function of what and how we think. In Get Over It! Iyanla offers a unique spiritual technology called thought therapy, a process that harnesses proven spiritual tools with the science of neuroplasticity. The 42 prayers and affirmations, and complementary energy-clearing tools at the heart of the thought therapy process are designed to neutralize and eliminate the unconscious, unproductive, soul-destroying dominant negative thought patterns (DNTPs) and discordant emotional energies, allowing you to get to the root cause of your personal suffering, and make life-affirming choices.

If you’re ready to break free of your ego’s resistance and willing to face yourself, willing to change, and willing to heal and grow—then now’s the time to Get Over It!


Click for more detail about Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking

by Toni Tipton-Martin
Clarkson Potter (Nov 05, 2019)
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Adapted from historical texts and rare African-American cookbooks, the 125 recipes of Jubilee paint a rich, varied picture of the true history of African-American cooking: a cuisine far beyond soul food.

Toni Tipton-Martin, the first African-American food editor of a daily American newspaper, is the author of the James Beard Award-winning The Jemima Code, a history of African-American cooking found in—and between—the lines of three centuries’ worth of African-American cookbooks. Tipton-Martin builds on that research in Jubilee, adapting recipes from those historic texts for the modern kitchen. What we find is a world of African-American cuisine—made by enslaved master chefs, free caterers, and black entrepreneurs and culinary stars—that goes far beyond soul food. It’s a cuisine that was developed in the homes of the elite and middle class; that takes inspiration from around the globe; that is a diverse, varied style of cooking that has created much of what we know of as American cuisine.


Click for more detail about The Beautiful Ones by Prince Rogers Nelson The Beautiful Ones

by Prince Rogers Nelson
Spiegel & Grau (Oct 29, 2019)
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The brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of one of the greatest artists of all time, in his own words—featuring never-before-seen photos, original scrapbooks and lyric sheets, and the exquisite memoir he began writing before his tragic death

Prince was a musical genius, one of the most beloved, accomplished, and acclaimed musicians of our time. He was a startlingly original visionary with an imagination deep enough to whip up whole worlds, from the sexy, gritty funk paradise of "Uptown" to the mythical landscape of Purple Rain to the psychedelia of "Paisley Park." But his most ambitious creative act was turning Prince Rogers Nelson, born in Minnesota, into Prince, one of the greatest pop stars of any era.

The Beautiful Ones is the story of how Prince became Prince—a first-person account of a kid absorbing the world around him and then creating a persona, an artistic vision, and a life, before the hits and fame that would come to define him. The book is told in four parts. The first is the memoir Prince was writing before his tragic death, pages that bring us into his childhood world through his own lyrical prose. The second part takes us through Prince’s early years as a musician, before his first album was released, via an evocative scrapbook of writing and photos. The third section shows us Prince’s evolution through candid images that go up to the cusp of his greatest achievement, which we see in the book’s fourth section: his original handwritten treatment for Purple Rain—the final stage in Prince’s self-creation, where he retells the autobiography of the first three parts as a heroic journey.

The book is framed by editor Dan Piepenbring’s riveting and moving introduction about his profound collaboration with Prince in his final months—a time when Prince was thinking deeply about how to reveal more of himself and his ideas to the world, while retaining the mystery and mystique he’d so carefully cultivated—and annotations that provide context to the book’s images.

This work is not just a tribute to an icon, but an original and energizing literary work in its own right, full of Prince’s ideas and vision, his voice and image—his undying gift to the world.


Click for more detail about Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett Full Disclosure

by Camryn Garrett
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Oct 29, 2019)
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“An unflinchingly honest, eye-opening, heartful story that’s sure to keep readers talking.” —Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give and On the Come Up

The uplifting story of an HIV-positive teen, falling in love and learning to live her truth.

Simone Garcia-Hampton is starting over at a new school, and this time things will be different. She’s making real friends, making a name for herself as student director of Rent, and making a play for Miles, the guy who makes her melt every time he walks into a room. The last thing she wants is for word to get out that she’s HIV-positive, because last time … well, last time things got ugly.

Keeping her viral load under control is easy, but keeping her diagnosis under wraps is not so simple. As Simone and Miles start going out for real—shy kisses escalating into much more—she feels an uneasiness that goes beyond butterflies. She knows she has to tell him that she’s positive, especially if sex is a possibility, but she’s terrified of how he’ll react! And then she finds an anonymous note in her locker: I know you have HIV. You have until Thanksgiving to stop hanging out with Miles. Or everyone else will know too.

Simone’s first instinct is to protect her secret at all costs, but as she gains a deeper understanding of the prejudice and fear in her community, she begins to wonder if the only way to rise above is to face the haters head-on… .


Click for more detail about The Dragon Thief (Dragons in a Bag #2) by Zetta Elliott The Dragon Thief (Dragons in a Bag #2)

by Zetta Elliott
Random House Books for Young Readers (Oct 22, 2019)
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Stealing a baby dragon was easy! Hiding it is a little more complicated, in this sequel to reviewer favorite Dragons in a Bag.

Jaxon had just one job—to return three baby dragons to the realm of magic. But when he got there, only two dragons were left in the bag. His best friend’s sister, Kavita, is a dragon thief!

Kavita only wanted what was best for the baby dragon. But now every time she feeds it, the dragon grows and grows! How can she possibly keep it secret? Even worse, stealing it has upset the balance between the worlds. The gates to the other realm have shut tight! Jaxon needs all the help he can get to find Kavita, outsmart a trickster named Blue, and return the baby dragon to its true home.

PRAISE FOR DRAGONS IN A BAG:
"Good, solid fantasy fun." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"A promising start to a new series." —School Library Journal, starred review


Click for more detail about Double Bass Blues by Andrea J. Loney Double Bass Blues

by Andrea J. Loney
Alfred A. Knopf (Oct 22, 2019)
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Andrea J. Loney grew up in New Jersey with a love for music—in her school band she played the xylophone. After receiving an MFA from New York University, she joined a circus, then moved to Hollywood to write for film and television. Her previous picture books include the New Voices Award-winning biography Take a Picture of Me, James Van Der Zee! and Bunnybear. Currently a computer science instructor at a community college, Andrea lives with her family and their pets in a Los Angeles home filled with music … and picture books. Learn more at andreajloney.com or on Twitter at @AndreaJLoney.

Rudy Gutierrez is an award-winning illustrator whose works have earned him a Pura Belpre Honor, an Americas Award, a Children’s Africana Book Award, and a New York Book Award. A Bronx native, he now lives in New Jersey and teaches illustration at the Pratt Institute. In 2002, he was commissioned to create the cover for Santana’s multi-platinum album Shaman, and his art hangs in the private collections of musical icons Carlos Santana, Clive Davis, and Wayne Shorter, among others. Learn more at rudygutierrez.net or on Twitter at @Rudy_Gutierrez_art.


Click for more detail about Toni Morrison Box Set: The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved by Toni Morrison Toni Morrison Box Set: The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved

by Toni Morrison
Vintage (Oct 22, 2019)
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A box set of Toni Morrison’s principal works, featuring The Bluest Eye (her first novel), Beloved (Pulitzer Prize winner), and Song of Solomon (National Book Critics Award winner).

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, Beloved transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. This spellbinding novel tells the story of Sethe, a former slave who escapes to Ohio, but eighteen years later is still not free.

In The New York Times bestselling novel, The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty and yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes, that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife.

With Song of Solomon, Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as she follows Milkman Dead from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, introducing an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized black world.

This beautifully designed slipcase will make the perfect holiday and perennial gift.


Click for more detail about Yes We Did: Photos and Behind-The-Scenes Stories Celebrating Our First African American President by Lawrence P. Jackson Yes We Did: Photos and Behind-The-Scenes Stories Celebrating Our First African American President

by Lawrence P. Jackson
TarcherPerigee (Oct 22, 2019)
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"Eight years in the White House went by so fast. That’s why I’m so grateful that Lawrence was there to capture them. I hope you enjoy his work as much as I do."
—From the foreword by Barack Obama

When Lawrence Jackson took the job as White House photographer in early 2009, he knew he’d have a front row seat to history. What he didn’t expect was the deep personal connection he would feel, as a fellow African American, with the President of the United States.

Yes We Did is filled with Lawrence’s intimate photographs and reflections, as well as first-person recollections from President Obama, everyday citizens, and notable personalities including Bono, Stephen Curry, Valerie Jarrett, Admiral Mike Mullen, and others. The book is a celebration of the most inclusive and representative White House in history - where in between momentous and pivotal decisions, the President and First Lady opened the doors of the People’s House to schoolkids, athletes, senior citizens, hip-hop artists, and more.

For anyone who misses the humanity, grace, and undefinable "cool factor" of the Obama White House, this warm and inspiring book provides an affirming, proud, and focused lens on our history.


Click for more detail about Jackpot by Nic Stone Jackpot

by Nic Stone
Crown Books for Young Readers (Oct 15, 2019)
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From the author of the New York Times bestseller Dear Martin—which Angie Thomas, the bestselling author of The Hate U Give, called "a must read"—comes a pitch-perfect romance that examines class, privilege, and how a stroke of good luck can change an entire life.

Meet Rico: high school senior and afternoon-shift cashier at the Gas ’n’ Go, who after school and work races home to take care of her younger brother. Every. Single. Day. When Rico sells a jackpot-winning lotto ticket, she thinks maybe her luck will finally change, but only if she—with some assistance from her popular and wildly rich classmate Zan—can find the ticket holder who hasn’t claimed the prize. But what happens when have and have-nots collide? Will this investigative duo unite…or divide?

Nic Stone, the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out, creates two unforgettable characters in one hard-hitting story about class, money—both too little and too much—and how you make your own luck in the world.


Click for more detail about Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay

by Phoebe Robinson
Plume (Oct 15, 2019)
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New York Times bestselling author and star of 2 Dope Queens Phoebe Robinson is back with a new, hilarious, and timely essay collection on gender, race, dating, and the dumpster fire that is our world.

Wouldn’t it be great if life came with instructions? Of course, but like access to Michael B. Jordan’s house, none of us are getting any. Thankfully, Phoebe Robinson is ready to share everything she has experienced to prove that if you can laugh at her topsy-turvy life, you can laugh at your own.

Written in her trademark unfiltered and witty style, Robinson’s latest collection is a call to arms. Outfitted with on-point pop culture references, these essays tackle a wide range of topics: giving feminism a tough-love talk on intersectionality, telling society’s beauty standards to kick rocks, and calling foul on our culture’s obsession with work. Robinson also gets personal, exploring money problems she’s hidden from her parents, how dating is mainly a warmed-over bowl of hot mess, and definitely most important, meeting Bono not once, but twice. She’s struggled with being a woman with a political mind and a woman with an ever-changing jeans size. She knows about trash because she sees it every day—and because she’s seen roughly one hundred thousand hours of reality TV and zero hours of Schindler’s List.

With the intimate voice of a new best friend, Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay is a candid perspective for a generation that has had the rug pulled out from under it too many times to count.


Click for more detail about War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi War Girls

by Tochi Onyebuchi
Razorbill (Oct 15, 2019)
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Two sisters are torn apart by war and must fight their way back to each other in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria.

The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky.

In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Across the nation, as the years-long civil war wages on, survival becomes the only way of life.

Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more. Their lives have been marked by violence and political unrest. Still, they dream of peace, of hope, of a future together.

And they’re willing to fight an entire war to get there.

Acclaimed author, Tochi Onyebuchi, has written an immersive, action-packed, deeply personal novel perfect for fans of Nnedi Okorafor, Marie Lu, and Paolo Bacigalupi.


Click for more detail about Over the Fence by Mechal Renee Roe Over the Fence

by Mechal Renee Roe
Doubleday Books for Young Readers (Oct 15, 2019)
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African American girls and their beautiful hair are celebrated in this bright, joyful read-together picture book that will have girls everywhere repeating the book’s chorus: "I love being me!"

Full ’fro, cute bow! I love being me! Smart girl, cool curls! I love being me!

African American girls will love seeing strong, happy reflections of themselves in this vibrant, rhythmic picture book celebrating the diversity of beautiful black hair. From a cute crop to pom-pom puffs, adorable illustrations of girls with gorgeous braids, blowouts, and bantus grace each page, side by side with a call-and-response affirmation that will make girls cheer. It’s a great read-aloud to promote self-esteem for girls of all ages, building and growing the foundation of self-love (and hair love!) and letting every girl know "You are made beautiful!"

And look for Cool Cuts—a hip hair book for boys!—coming in February 2020!


Click for more detail about Grand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith Grand Union: Stories

by Zadie Smith
Penguin Press (Oct 08, 2019)
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A dazzling collection of short fiction.

Zadie Smith has established herself as one of the most iconic, critically respected, and popular writers of her generation. In her first short story collection, she combines her power of observation and her inimitable voice to mine the fraught and complex experience of life in the modern world.

Interleaving eleven completely new and unpublished stories with some of her best-loved pieces from The New Yorker and elsewhere, Smith presents a dizzyingly rich and varied collection of fiction. Moving exhilaratingly across genres and perspectives, from the historic to the vividly current to the slyly dystopian, Grand Union is a sharply alert and prescient collection about time and place, identity and rebirth, the persistent legacies that haunt our present selves and the uncanny futures that rush up to meet us.

Nothing is off limits, and everything — when captured by Smith’s brilliant gaze — feels fresh and relevant. Perfectly paced and utterly original, Grand Union highlights the wonders Zadie Smith can do.


Click for more detail about Who Put This Song On? by Morgan Parker Who Put This Song On?

by Morgan Parker
Delacorte Press (Sep 24, 2019)
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Unflinchingly irreverent, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartbreakingly honest. —Elizabeth Acevedo, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X

In the vein of powerful reads like The Hate U Give and The Poet X, comes poet Morgan Parker’s pitch-perfect novel about a black teenage girl searching for her identity when the world around her views her depression as a lack of faith and blackness as something to be politely ignored.

Trapped in sunny, stifling, small-town suburbia, seventeen-year-old Morgan knows why she’s in therapy. She can’t count the number of times she’s been the only non-white person at the sleepover, been teased for her weird outfits, and been told she’s not really black. Also, she’s spent most of her summer crying in bed. So there’s that, too.

Lately, it feels like the whole world is listening to the same terrible track on repeat—and it’s telling them how to feel, who to vote for, what to believe. Morgan wonders, when can she turn this song off and begin living for herself?

Loosely based on her own teenage life and diaries, this incredible debut by award-winning poet Morgan Parker will make readers stand up and cheer for a girl brave enough to live life on her own terms—and for themselves.

Morgan Parker put THIS song on—and I hope it never turns off. —Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out

"A triumphant first impression in the YA space." —Entertainment Weekly

"An incredibly heartfelt, deep story about a girl’s coming of age." Refinery29


Click for more detail about The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates The Water Dancer

by Ta-Nehisi Coates
One World (Sep 24, 2019)
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In his boldly imagined first novel, Ta-Nehisi Coates, the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, brings home the most intimate evil of enslavement: the cleaving and separation of families.

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.

So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the deep South to dangerously utopic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.

This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children—the violent and capricious separation of families—and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today’s most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus The Stars and the Blackness Between Them

by Junauda Petrus
Dutton Books for Young Readers (Sep 17, 2019)
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Told in two voices, sixteen-year-old Audre and Mabel, both young women of color from different backgrounds, fall in love and figure out how to care for each other as one of them faces a fatal illness.


Click for more detail about Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson Red at the Bone

by Jacqueline Woodson
Riverhead Books (Sep 17, 2019)
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Publishers Weekly selected Red at the Bone as one of the Top 10 Literary Fiction titles for the fall of 2019.

An extraordinary new novel about the influence of history on a contemporary family, from the New York Times-bestselling and National Book Award-winning author of Another Brooklyn and Brown Girl Dreaming.

Two families from different social classes are joined together by an unexpected pregnancy and the child that it produces. Moving forward and backward in time, with the power of poetry and the emotional richness of a narrative ten times its length, Jacqueline Woodson’s extraordinary new novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these families, and in the life of this child.

As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody’s coming of age ceremony in her grandparents’ Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the soundtrack of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody’s mother, for her own ceremony — a celebration that ultimately never took place.

Unfurling the history of Melody’s parents and grandparents to show how they all arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes but also the costs, the tolls they’ve paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pull of history. As it explores sexual desire and identity, ambition, gentrification, education, class and status, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, Red at the Bone most strikingly looks at the ways in which young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their lives — even before they have begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera Juliet Takes a Breath

by Gabby Rivera
Dial (Sep 17, 2019)
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A People magazine Best Book of Fall 2019
An Amazon Best Young Adult Book of 2019
"F***ing outstanding."—Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author

Juliet Milagros Palante is a self-proclaimed closeted Puerto Rican baby dyke from the Bronx. Only, she’s not so closeted anymore. Not after coming out to her family the night before flying to Portland, Oregon, to intern with her favorite feminist writer—what’s sure to be a life-changing experience. And when Juliet’s coming out crashes and burns, she’s not sure her mom will ever speak to her again.

But Juliet has a plan—sort of. Her internship with legendary author Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff, is sure to help her figure out this whole "Puerto Rican lesbian" thing. Except Harlowe’s white. And not from the Bronx. And she definitely doesn’t have all the answers …

In a summer bursting with queer brown dance parties, a sexy fling with a motorcycling librarian, and intense explorations of race and identity, Juliet learns what it means to come out—to the world, to her family, to herself.


Click for more detail about Pet by Akwaeke Emezi Pet

by Akwaeke Emezi
Make Me a World (Sep 10, 2019)
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The highly-anticipated, genre-defying new novel by award-winning author Akwaeke Emezi that explores themes of identity and justice. Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look?

There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings and a drop of Jam’s blood, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question—How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?

Acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi makes their riveting and timely young adult debut with a book that asks difficult questions about what choices you can make when the society around you is in denial.


Click for more detail about I Am Walt Disney by Brad Meltzer I Am Walt Disney

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Sep 10, 2019)
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The 18th picture book in the New York Times bestselling series of biographies about heroes tells the story of Walt Disney, who made dreams come true.

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero’s childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This volume features Walt Disney, who makes dreams come true for himself and countless kids around the world.


Click for more detail about I Am Brave: A Little Book about Martin Luther King, Jr. by Brad Meltzer I Am Brave: A Little Book about Martin Luther King, Jr.

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Sep 10, 2019)
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Uses Martin Luther King’s life to teach young readers to be brave in the face of adversity.


Click for more detail about My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich by Ibi Zoboi My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich

by Ibi Zoboi
Dutton Books for Young Readers (Aug 27, 2019)
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National Book Award-finalist Ibi Zoboi makes her middle-grade debut with a moving story of a girl finding her place in a world that’s changing at warp speed.

Twelve-year-old Ebony-Grace Norfleet has lived with her beloved grandfather Jeremiah in Huntsville, Alabama ever since she was little. As one of the first black engineers to integrate NASA, Jeremiah has nurtured Ebony-Grace’s love for all things outer space and science fiction—especially Star Wars and Star Trek. But in the summer of 1984, when trouble arises with Jeremiah, it’s decided she’ll spend a few weeks with her father in Harlem.

Harlem is an exciting and terrifying place for a sheltered girl from Hunstville, and Ebony-Grace’s first instinct is to retreat into her imagination. But soon 126th Street begins to reveal that it has more in common with her beloved sci-fi adventures than she ever thought possible, and by summer’s end, Ebony-Grace discovers that Harlem has a place for a girl whose eyes are always on the stars.

A New York Times Bestseller


Click for more detail about Everything Inside: Stories by Edwidge Danticat Everything Inside: Stories

by Edwidge Danticat
Knopf Publishing Group (Aug 27, 2019)
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Named a Highly Anticipated Book of Summer 2019 by Lit Hub, Esquire, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, BuzzFeed, TIME, Good Housekeeping, Bustle, and BookRiot

From the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of Brother, I’m Dying, a collection of vividly imagined stories about community, family, and love.

Rich with hard-won wisdom and humanity, set in locales from Miami and Port-au-Prince to a small unnamed country in the Caribbean and beyond, Everything Inside is at once wide in scope and intimate, as it explores the forces that pull us together, or drive us apart, sometimes in the same searing instant.

In these eight powerful, emotionally absorbing stories, a romance unexpectedly sparks between two wounded friends; a marriage ends for what seem like noble reasons, but with irreparable consequences; a young woman holds on to an impossible dream even as she fights for her survival; two lovers reunite after unimaginable tragedy, both for their country and in their lives; a baby’s christening brings three generations of a family to a precarious dance between old and new; a man falls to his death in slow motion, reliving the defining moments of the life he is about to lose.

This is the indelible work of a keen observer of the human heart—a master at her best.


Click for more detail about Color Me in by Natasha Diaz Color Me in

by Natasha Diaz
Delacorte Press (Aug 20, 2019)
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A powerful coming-of-age novel pulled from personal experience about the meaning of friendship, the joyful beginnings of romance, and the racism and religious intolerance that can both strain a family to the breaking point and strengthen its bonds.

Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, sixteen-year-old Nevaeh Levitz never thought much about her biracial roots. When her Black mom and Jewish dad split up, she relocates to her mom’s family home in Harlem and is forced to confront her identity for the first time.

Nevaeh wants to get to know her extended family, but because she inadvertently passes as white, her cousin thinks she’s too privileged, pampered, and selfish to relate to the injustices African Americans face on a daily basis. In the meantime, Nevaeh’s dad decides that she should have a belated bat mitzvah instead of a sweet sixteen, which guarantees social humiliation at her posh private school. But rather than take a stand, Nevaeh does what she’s always done when life gets complicated: she stays silent.

Only when Nevaeh stumbles upon a secret from her mom’s past, finds herself falling in love, and sees firsthand the prejudice her family faces that she begins to realize she has her own voice. And choices. Will she continue to let circumstances dictate her path? Or will she decide once for all who and where she is meant to be?

"Absolutely outstanding!" —Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin


Click for more detail about How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi How to Be an Antiracist

by Ibram X. Kendi
One World (Aug 13, 2019)
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The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it—and then dismantle it.”

Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At it’s core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilites—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.

Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Sing a Song: How Lift Every Voice and Sing Inspired Generations by Kelly Starling Lyons Sing a Song: How Lift Every Voice and Sing Inspired Generations

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Nancy Paulsen Books (Aug 06, 2019)
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Just in time for the 120th anniversary of the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing"—this stirring book celebrates the Black National Anthem and how it inspired five generations of a family.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us.
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.

In 1900, in Jacksonville, Florida, two brothers, one of them the principal of a segregated, all-black school, wrote the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing" so his students could sing it for a tribute to Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. From that moment on, the song has provided inspiration and solace for generations of Black families. Mothers and fathers passed it on to their children who sang it to their children and grandchildren. It has been sung during major moments of the Civil Rights Movement and at family gatherings and college graduations.
Inspired by this song’s enduring significance, Kelly Starling Lyons and Keith Mallett tell a story about the generations of families who gained hope and strength from the song’s inspiring words.


Click for more detail about The Nickel Boys: A Novel by Colson Whitehead The Nickel Boys: A Novel

by Colson Whitehead
Doubleday (Jul 30, 2019)
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In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South in the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called The Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men."

In reality, The Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors, where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back." Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr. King’s ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you." His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked and the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.

The tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys’ fates will be determined by what they endured at The Nickel Academy.

Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.


Click for more detail about The Hero Next Door by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich The Hero Next Door

by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jul 30, 2019)
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From We Need Diverse Books, the organization behind Flying Lessons & Other Stories, comes another middle-grade short story collection—this one focused on exploring acts of bravery—featuring some of the best own-voices children’s authors, including R. J. Palacio (Wonder), Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer), Linda Sue Park (A Long Walk to Water), and many more.

Not all heroes wear capes. Some heroes teach martial arts. Others talk to ghosts. A few are inventors or soccer players. They’re also sisters, neighbors, and friends. Because heroes come in many shapes and sizes. But they all have one thing in common: they make the world a better place.

Published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, this vibrant anthology features thirteen acclaimed authors whose powerful and diverse voices show how small acts of kindness can save the day. So pay attention, because a hero could be right beside you. Or maybe the hero is you.

AUTHORS INCLUDE: William Alexander, Joseph Bruchac, Lamar Giles, Mike Jung, Hena Khan, Juana Medina, Ellen Oh, R. J. Palacio, Linda Sue Park and Anna Dobbin, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Ronald L. Smith, Rita Williams-Garcia, and short-story contest winner Suma Subramaniam

"As with the two previous anthologies from We Need Diverse Books, this collection admirably succeeds in making available to all readers a wider and more representative range of American voices and protagonists." -The Washington Post


Click for more detail about Hippie by Paulo Coelho Hippie

by Paulo Coelho
Vintage (Jul 30, 2019)
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From South America to Holland to Nepal—a new journey in the company of Paulo Coelho, bestselling author of The Alchemist.

Drawing on the rich experience of his own life, bestselling author Paulo Coelho takes us back in time to relive the dreams of a generation that longed for peace. In Hippie, he tells the story of Paulo, a young, skinny Brazilian man with a goatee and long, flowing hair, who dreams of becoming a writer, and Karla, a Dutch woman in her twenties who has been waiting to find a companion to accompany her on the fabled hippie trail to Nepal.

After meeting each other in Amsterdam, she convinces Paulo to join her on a trip aboard the Magic Bus that travels from Amsterdam to Istanbul and across Central Asia to Kathmandu. As they embark on this journey together, Paulo and Karla explore a love affair that awakens them on every level and leads to choices and decisions that will set the course for their lives thereafter.


Click for more detail about Surge by Jay Bernard Surge

by Jay Bernard
Chatto & Windus (Jul 23, 2019)
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*Shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award 2019*
*Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2019*
*Shortlisted for Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2019*
*Winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry*

Jay Bernard’s extraordinary debut is a fearlessly original exploration of the black British archive: an inquiry into the New Cross Fire of 1981, a house fire at a birthday party in south London in which thirteen young black people were killed.

Dubbed the ‘New Cross Massacre’, the fire was initially believed to be a racist attack, and the indifference with which the tragedy was met by the state triggered a new era of race relations in Britain.

Tracing a line from New Cross to the ‘towers of blood’ of the Grenfell fire, this urgent collection speaks with, in and of the voices of the past, brought back by the incantation of dancehall rhythms and the music of Jamaican patois, to form a living presence in the absence of justice.

A ground-breaking work of excavation, memory and activism – both political and personal, witness and documentary – Surge shines a much-needed light on an unacknowledged chapter in British history, one that powerfully resonates in our present moment.


Click for more detail about The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory The Wedding Party

by Jasmine Guillory
Berkley Books (Jul 16, 2019)
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As seen on The Today Show!

The new exhilarating New York Times bestselling romance from the author of The Proposal, a Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick!

Maddie and Theo have two things in common:

1. Alexa is their best friend
2. They hate each other

After an “oops, we made a mistake” night together, neither one can stop thinking about the other. With Alexa’s wedding rapidly approaching, Maddie and Theo both share bridal party responsibilities that require more interaction with each other than they’re comfortable with. Underneath the sharp barbs they toss at each other is a simmering attraction that won’t fade. It builds until they find themselves sneaking off together to release some tension when Alexa isn’t looking, agreeing they would end it once the wedding is over. When it’s suddenly pushed up and they only have a few months left of secret rendezvouses, they find themselves regretting that the end is near. Two people this different can’t possibly have a connection other than the purely physical, right?

But as with any engagement with a nemesis, there are unspoken rules that must be abided by. First and foremost, don’t fall in love.


Click for more detail about Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem: A Memoir by Daniel R. Day Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem: A Memoir

by Daniel R. Day
Random House (Jul 09, 2019)
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New York Times Bestseller • “Dapper Dan is a legend, an icon, a beacon of inspiration to many in the Black community. His story isn’t just about fashion. It’s about tenacity, curiosity, artistry, hustle, love, and a singular determination to live our dreams out loud.”—Ava DuVernay, director of Selma, 13th, and A Wrinkle in Time

Named on of the best books of the year by Vanity Fair • Dapper Dan names of the Tine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World

With his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the 1980s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs. But before he reinvented haute couture, he was a hungry boy with holes in his shoes, a teen who daringly gambled drug dealers out of their money, and a young man in a prison cell who found nourishment in books. In this remarkable memoir, he tells his full story for the first time.

Decade after decade, Dapper Dan discovered creative ways to flourish in a country designed to privilege certain Americans over others. He witnessed, profited from, and despised the rise of two drug epidemics. He invented stunningly bold credit card frauds that took him around the world. He paid neighborhood kids to jog with him in an effort to keep them out of the drug game. And when he turned his attention to fashion, he did so with the energy and curiosity with which he approaches all things: learning how to treat fur himself when no one would sell finished fur coats to a Black man; finding the best dressed hustler in the neighborhood and converting him into a customer; staying open twenty-four hours a day for nine years straight to meet demand; and, finally, emerging as a world-famous designer whose looks went on to define an era, dressing cultural icons including Eric B. and Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, Mike Tyson, Alpo Martinez, LL Cool J, Jam Master Jay, Diddy, Naomi Campbell, and Jay-Z.

By turns playful, poignant, thrilling, and inspiring, Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem is a high-stakes coming-of-age story spanning more than seventy years and set against the backdrop of an America where, as in the life of its narrator, the only constant is change.

Praise for Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem

“What James Baldwin is to American literature, Dapper Dan is to American fashion. He is the ultimate success saga, an iconic fashion hero to multiple generations, fusing street with high sartorial elegance. He is pure American style.”—André Leon Talley, Vogue contributing editor and author

“Dapper Dan is a true one of a kind, self-made, self-liberated, and the sharpest man you will ever see. He is couture himself.”—Marcus Samuelsson, New York Times bestselling author of Yes, Chef


Click for more detail about The King of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes The King of Kindergarten

by Derrick Barnes
Nancy Paulsen Books (Jul 02, 2019)
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A confident little boy takes pride in his first day of kindergarten, by the Newbery Honor-winning author of Crown.

The morning sun blares through your window like a million brass trumpets.It sits and shines behind your head—like a crown. Mommy says that today, you are going to be the King of Kindergarten!

Starting kindergarten is a big milestone—and the hero of this story is ready to make his mark! He’s dressed himself, eaten a pile of pancakes, and can’t wait to be part of a whole new kingdom of kids. The day will be jam-packed, but he’s up to the challenge, taking new experiences in stride with his infectious enthusiasm! And afterward, he can’t wait to tell his proud parents all about his achievements—and then wake up to start another day.
     Newbery Honor-winning author Derrick Barnes’s empowering story will give new kindergarteners a reassuring confidence boost, and Vanessa Brantley-Newton’s illustrations exude joy.


Click for more detail about The Sixth Man: A Memoir by Andre Iguodala The Sixth Man: A Memoir

by Andre Iguodala
Blue Rider Press (Jun 25, 2019)
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The standout memoir from NBA powerhouse Andre Iguodala, the indomitable sixth man of the Golden State Warriors.

Andre Iguodala is one of the most admired players in the NBA. And fresh off the Warriors’ fifth Finals appearance in five years, his game has never been stronger.

Off the court, Iguodala has earned respect, too—for his successful tech investments, his philanthropy, and increasingly for his contributions to the conversation about race in America. It is no surprise, then, that in his first book, Andre, with his cowriter Carvell Wallace, has pushed himself to go further than he ever has before about his life, not only as an athlete but about what makes him who he is at his core.

The Sixth Man traces Andre’s journey from childhood in his Illinois hometown to his Bay Area home court today. Basketball has always been there. But this is the story, too, of his experience of the conflict and racial tension always at hand in a professional league made up largely of African American men; of whether and why the athlete owes the total sacrifice of his body; of the relationship between competition and brotherhood among the players of one of history’s most glorious championship teams. And of what motivates an athlete to keep striving for more once they’ve already achieved the highest level of play they could have dreamed.

On drive, on leadership, on pain, on accomplishment, on the shame of being given a role, and the glory of taking a role on: This is a powerful memoir of life and basketball that reveals new depths to the superstar athlete, and offers tremendous insight into most urgent stories being told in American society today.


Click for more detail about Rocket Says Look Up! by Nathan Bryon Rocket Says Look Up!

by Nathan Bryon
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jun 25, 2019)
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Meet Rocket—a plucky aspiring astronaut intent on getting her community to LOOK UP! from what they’re doing and reach for the stars in this auspicious debut picture book. Honored as a Chicago Public Library 2019 Best of the Best Book!

A comet will be visible tonight, and Rocket wants everyone to see it with her—even her big brother, Jamal, whose attention is usually trained on his phone or video games. Rocket’s enthusiasm brings neighbors and family together to witness a once-in-a-lifetime sighting. Perfect for fans of Ada Twist, Scientist and Cece Loves Science—Rocket Says Look Up! will inspire readers of all ages to dream big as it models Rocket’s passion for science and infectious curiosity.

Author Nathan Bryon, an actor and screenwriter, and Dapo Adeola, a community-minded freelance illustrator, bring their fresh talents, passion, and enthusiasm to the picture book medium.


Click for more detail about Dancing Queen #4 by Kelly Starling Lyons Dancing Queen #4

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Penguin Workshop (Jun 25, 2019)
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Jada Jones is back for the fourth book of this popular, celebrated series perfect for STEM fans!

"Readers who love Ivy and Bean or Katie Woo will want to meet Jada Jones." —School Library Journal

When the student council decides to host a dance as their next fundraiser, Jada feels nervous and queasy. She can’t dance! Still, she’s determined to contribute to the cause. She practices her moves, gets help from friends, and even does research at the library to prepare—but will it be enough?

Praise for Jada Jones: Rock Star
"Fast-paced, with supersimple vocabulary and a smattering of earth science to spark interest in young rock collectors everywhere." —Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about Nigger: An Autobiography by Dick Gregory Nigger: An Autobiography

by Dick Gregory
Plume (Jun 11, 2019)
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Comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory’s million-copy-plus bestselling memoir—now in trade paperback for the first time.

“Powerful and ugly and beautiful…a moving story of a man who deeply wants a world without malice and hate and is doing something about it.”—The New York Times

Fifty-five years ago, in 1964, an incredibly honest and revealing memoir by one of the America’s best-loved comedians and activists, Dick Gregory, was published. With a shocking title and breathtaking writing, Dick Gregory defined a genre and changed the way race was discussed in America.

Telling stories that range from his hardscrabble childhood in St. Louis to his pioneering early days as a comedian to his indefatigable activism alongside Medgar Evers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Gregory’s memoir riveted readers in the sixties. In the years and decades to come, the stories and lessons became more relevant than ever, and the book attained the status of a classic. The book has sold over a million copies and become core text about race relations and civil rights, continuing to inspire readers everywhere with Dick Gregory’s incredible story about triumphing over racism and poverty to become an American legend.


Click for more detail about More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say) by Elaine Welteroth More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say)

by Elaine Welteroth
Viking Books (Jun 11, 2019)
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"In this part-manifesto, part-memoir, the revolutionary editor who infused social consciousness into the pages of Teen Vogue explores what it means to come into your own—on your own terms Throughout her life, Elaine Welteroth has climbed the ranks of media and fashion, shattering ceilings along the way. In this riveting and timely memoir, the groundbreaking journalist unpacks lessons on race, identity, and success through her own journey, from navigating her way as the unstoppable child of a unlikely interracial marriage in small-town California to finding herself on the frontlines of a modern movement for the next generation of change makers. Welteroth moves beyond the headlines and highlight reels to share the profound lessons and struggles of being a barrier-breaker across so many intersections. As a young boss and the only black woman in the room, she’s had enough of the world telling her—and all women—they’re not enough. As she learns to rely on herself by looking both inward and upward, we’re ultimately reminded that we’re more than enough"—


Click for more detail about When the Ground Is Hard by Malla Nunn When the Ground Is Hard

by Malla Nunn
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jun 04, 2019)
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Edgar Award nominee stuns in this heartrending tale set in a Swaziland boarding school where two girls of different castes bond over a shared copy of Jane Eyre.

Adele Joubert loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. She knows the upcoming semester at school is going to be great with her best friend Delia at her side. Then Delia dumps her for a new girl with more money, and Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, who doesn’t pray and defies teachers’ orders.

But as they share a copy of Jane Eyre, Lottie’s gruff exterior and honesty grow on Adele, and Lottie learns to be a little sweeter. Together, they take on bullies and protect each other from the vindictive and prejudiced teachers. Then a boy goes missing on campus and Adele and Lottie must rely on each other to solve the mystery and maybe learn the true meaning of friendship.


Click for more detail about Notes from the Field by Anna Deavere Smith Notes from the Field

by Anna Deavere Smith
Anchor (May 21, 2019)
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From the Tony- and Pulitzer-nominated playwright, actress, and activist: shining a light on the school-to-prison pipeline, this urgent new work of drama brings together seventeen voices from the African American community—students and teachers, counselors and congressmen, preachers and prisoners. Now a full-length HBO feature. An Anchor Original.

Notes from the Field—originally performed as a one-person play—portrays a host of real-life figures who have witnessed, experienced, and fought the system that pushes students of color out of the classroom and into prisons. (As Smith put it in a recent interview: "Stuff that for middle-class kids or rich kids, it’d be considered mischief; for poor kids, it’s really that road to prison.") We are introduced to these figures one by one: Sherrilyn Iffil, president of the NAACP; Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant, who spoke at the funeral of Freddie Gray; Niya Kenny, a high school student who was arrested for defending a classmate against a teacher’s overzealous discipline; Bree Newsome, the activist who made headlines when she removed the Confederate flag from the state house grounds of South Carolina; and many others. Taken together, these voices bear powerful witness to a great injustice of our time—and inspire us with their accounts of perseverance, resistance, and progress.


Click for more detail about Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry Hair Love

by Matthew A. Cherry
Kokila (May 14, 2019)
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"I love that Hair Love is highlighting the relationship between a Black father and daughter. Matthew leads the ranks of new creatives who are telling unique stories of the Black experience. We need this."
- Jordan Peele, Actor & Filmmaker

It’s up to Daddy to give his daughter an extra-special hair style in this ode to self-confidence and the love between fathers and daughters, from former NFL wide receiver Matthew A. Cherry and New York Times bestselling illustrator Vashti Harrison.

Zuri’s hair has a mind of its own. It kinks, coils, and curls every which way. Zuri knows it’s beautiful. When Daddy steps in to style it for an extra special occasion, he has a lot to learn. But he LOVES his Zuri, and he’ll do anything to make her — and her hair — happy.

Tender and empowering, Hair Love is an ode to loving your natural hair — and a celebration of daddies and daughters everywhere.

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Click for more detail about The Farm by Joanne Ramos The Farm

by Joanne Ramos
Random House (May 07, 2019)
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"Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, personal fitness trainers, daily massages—and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here—more than you’ve ever dreamed of. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds, your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. For someone else. Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines, is in desperate search of a better future when she commits to being a "Host" at Golden Oaks—or the Farm, as residents call it. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her family, Jane is determined to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the life-changing fee she’ll receive on the delivery of her child"—


Click for more detail about Food and the City by Ina Yalof Food and the City

by Ina Yalof
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (May 07, 2019)
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"[A] compelling volume by a writer whose beat is not food. What she offers are first-person accounts from more than 50 individuals behind city institutions like Zabar’s and Peter Luger … with plenty of opinions to savor."Florence Fabricant, The New York Times

An Amazon Best Book of June 2016 and Best Books of 2016 So Far (June, 2016)

"An appetizing oral history"The New York Times

"Ina Yalof’s Food and the City presents a uniquely wide view of the food landscape in New York by sharing the engaging voices and compelling stories of the vibrant people living and working in this world every day. By honing these tales, Yalof gives lucky readers an insider’s perspective on the diverse food world in New York City". Eric Ripert, executive chef, Le Bernardin

"Each story in this book inspires me with the turn of the page. These are stories of passion, motivation, hardship and resilience. Ina Yalof has captured the ingredients for success in the NYC restaurant scene while weaving tales that showcase the unwavering spirit of our fellow New Yorkers."
—Marcus Samuelsson, James Beard-award winning chef and New York Times-bestselling author of Marcus off Duty and Yes, Chef!

"Ina Yalof’s book captures well once unknown tales of New York City’s hard working chefs. I am proud that she featured our pastry Chef at restaurant DANIEL, Chef Ghaya, and her unique story. She’s been through a moving journey in her personal and professional life and her overall loyalty and dedication will inspire all." —Daniel Boulud, chef/owner, The Dinex Group

"New Yorkers are so obsessed with eating, they often forget who’s getting the food to them. Here are their stories and their struggles, with appearances by hurricanes, ghettos, poverty, 9/11, Rikers Island, real wars and hot dog wars. You’ll be charmed and you’ll be moved."
—Alan Richman, sixteen-time winner of the James Beard Foundation Journalism Award

"A wonderful book in which amazing cooks, chefs, and artisans tell their unique stories. I was particularly taken with the words of the immigrants, who are rarely celebrated. Their lives are not without struggles, crazy long hours and daily frustrations, yet the spirit of New York cuisine is in all of them."

"Personality and humor shine brightly throughout these essays…From the oldest Chinese restaurant in New York to a Rikers Island food service overseer, each of these vignettes shares a common theme about devotion and dedication within the vast gastronomical spectrum…Collectively, Yalof’s assortment of cuisines and memories paints a multiculturally diverse food tapestry, and each individually embodies a passion of food artistry that crosses generations, cultures, nationalities, and all manner of palates. A wide-ranging, toothsome smorgasbord of Gotham’s good eats and the tireless men and women behind each plate."—Kirkus Reviews

"A noteworthy collection of intriguing stories that illustrate the perseverance, hard work, and passion for food that one must have to succeed. Fans of food memoirs and essays are sure to enjoy."—Library Journal

"The skill with which Yalof gets her subjects to talk about all the blood, sweat, and tears (and salt and butter, naturally) that goes into a kitchen career in this town is exceptional. Simply put: This is one of the best books on restaurant culture you’ll read."—Brooklyn Magazine

"Yalof specializes in oral history, weaving together stories from top chefs, hardscrabble food-cart owners, and mongers (cheese, fish, fruit) past and present. Nibble or nosh at your own pace; this compilation is absolutely delicious (and calorie-free!)."—Washington Review of Books

"Delightful." - Wall Street Journal

"Dip into any one of these well-chosen personal narratives and you will discover not only a deeper understanding of food and life in New York, but also life lessons and the many shades of the American dream… Whether you are interested in food, Americana or just good storytelling, Yalof’s collection of well-told personal stories will draw you in and reflect a vision that is both unexpected and familiar." —Atlanta Jewish Times

"An absolute must-read between restaurant reservations." -AM New York (Best Books of 2016)


Click for more detail about The Truths We Hold: An American Journey (Young Readers Edition) by Kamala Harris The Truths We Hold: An American Journey (Young Readers Edition)

by Kamala Harris
Philomel Books (May 07, 2019)
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Now adapted for young readers, Senator Kamala Harris’s empowering memoir about the values and inspirations that guided her life.

As the first woman, African American, and South Asian American to become attorney general of California, and the second black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate, Kamala Harris has blazed trails on her path to the national stage. But how did she achieve her goals? What values and influences guided and inspired her along the way?

In this young readers edition of Senator Harris’s memoir, we learn about the impact that Kamala’s family and community had on her life, and see what led Senator Harris to discover her own sense of self and purpose. The Truths We Hold is a biographical ode to the values she holds most dear—those of community, equality, and justice—all of which helped shape her choices on her path to the Senate. An inspiring and empowering read, this book challenges readers to use their own values to guide their decisions and become leaders in their own lives.


Click for more detail about Before We Were Wicked by Eric Jerome Dickey Before We Were Wicked

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Apr 16, 2019)
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Read an excerpt of Before We Were Wicked in Dickey’s $0.99 ebook Harlem

AALBC and New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey reveals how one chance meeting can change everything in this engrossing, sexy tale of star-crossed lust.

They say the love of money is the root of all evil, but for Ken Swift, it’s the love of a woman.

Ken is twenty-one, hurting people for cash to try to pay his way through college, when he lays eyes on Jimi Lee, the woman who will change the course of his entire life. What’s meant to be a one-night stand with the Harvard-bound beauty turns into an explosion of sexual chemistry that neither can quit. When Jimi Lee becomes pregnant, their two very different worlds collide in ways they never could have anticipated.

Passion, infidelity, and raw emotion combine in Eric Jerome Dickey’s poignant, erotic portrait of a relationship: the rise, the fall, and the scars — and desire — that never fade.


Click for more detail about Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir

by Kwame Onwuachi
Knopf Publishing Group (Apr 09, 2019)
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"Kwame Onwuachi’s story shines a light on food and culture not just in American restaurants or African American communities but around the world." —Questlove

By the time he was twenty-seven years old, Kwame Onwuachi (winner of the 2019 James Beard Foundation Award for Rising Star Chef of the Year) had opened—and closed—one of the most talked about restaurants in America. He had launched his own catering company with twenty thousand dollars that he made from selling candy on the subway, yet he’d been told he would never make it on television because his cooking wasn’t "Southern" enough. In this inspiring memoir about the intersection of race, fame, and food, he shares the remarkable story of his culinary coming-of-age.

Growing up in the Bronx, as a boy Onwuachi was sent to rural Nigeria by his mother to "learn respect." However, the hard-won knowledge gained in Africa was not enough to keep him from the temptation and easy money of the streets when he returned home. But through food, he broke out of a dangerous downward spiral, embarking on a new beginning at the bottom of the culinary food chain as a chef on board a Deepwater Horizon cleanup ship, before going on to train in the kitchens of some of the most acclaimed restaurants in the country and appearing as a contestant on Top Chef.

Onwuachi’s love of food and cooking remained a constant throughout, even when he found the road to success riddled with potholes. As a young chef, he was forced to grapple with just how unwelcoming the world of fine dining can be for people of color, and his first restaurant, the culmination of years of planning, shuttered just months after opening. A powerful, heartfelt, and shockingly honest story of chasing your dreams—even when they don’t turn out as you expected—Notes from a Young Black Chef is one man’s pursuit of his passions, despite the odds.

"This is an astonishing and open-hearted story from one of the next generation’s stars of the culinary world. I am so excited to see what the future holds for Chef Kwame—he is a phoenix, rising into better and better things and showing us all what it means to be humble, hungry, and daring." —Jos� Andr�s


Click for more detail about Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Penguin Press (Apr 02, 2019)
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A profound new rendering of the struggle by African-Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counter-revolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind.

The abolition of slavery in the aftermath of the Civil War is a familiar story, as is the civil rights revolution that transformed the nation after World War II. But the century in between remains a mystery: if emancipation sparked "a new birth of freedom" in Lincoln’s America, why was it necessary to march in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s America? In this new book, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of our leading chroniclers of the African-American experience, seeks to answer that question in a history that moves from the Reconstruction Era to the "nadir" of the African-American experience under Jim Crow, through to World War I and the Harlem Renaissance.

Through his close reading of the visual culture of this tragic era, Gates reveals the many faces of Jim Crow and how, together, they reinforced a stark color line between white and black Americans. Bringing a lifetime of wisdom to bear as a scholar, filmmaker, and public intellectual, Gates uncovers the roots of structural racism in our own time, while showing how African Americans after slavery combatted it by articulating a vision of a "New Negro" to force the nation to recognize their humanity and unique contributions to America as it hurtled toward the modern age.

The story Gates tells begins with great hope, with the Emancipation Proclamation, Union victory, and the liberation of nearly 4 million enslaved African-Americans. Until 1877, the federal government, goaded by the activism of Frederick Douglass and many others, tried at various turns to sustain their new rights. But the terror unleashed by white paramilitary groups in the former Confederacy, combined with deteriorating economic conditions and a loss of Northern will, restored "home rule" to the South. The retreat from Reconstruction was followed by one of the most violent periods in our history, with thousands of black people murdered or lynched and many more afflicted by the degrading impositions of Jim Crow segregation.

An essential tour through one of America’s fundamental historical tragedies, Stony the Road is also a story of heroic resistance, as figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells fought to create a counter-narrative, and culture, inside the lion’s mouth. As sobering as this tale is, it also has within it the inspiration that comes with encountering the hopes our ancestors advanced against the longest odds.


Click for more detail about Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward by Valerie Jarrett Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward

by Valerie Jarrett
Viking Books (Apr 02, 2019)
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A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Finalist for the NAACP Image Award for "Outstanding Literary Work"

"Valerie has been one of Barack and my closest confidantes for decades… the world would feel a lot better if there were more people like Valerie blazing the trail for the rest of us."—Michelle Obama

"The ultimate Obama insider" (The New York Times) and longest-serving senior advisor in the Obama White House shares her journey as a daughter, mother, lawyer, business leader, public servant, and leader in government at a historic moment in American history.

When Valerie Jarrett interviewed a promising young lawyer named Michelle Robinson in July 1991 for a job in Chicago city government, neither knew that it was the first step on a path that would end in the White House. Jarrett soon became Michelle and Barack Obama’s trusted personal adviser and family confidante; in the White House, she was known as the one who "got" him and helped him engage his public life. Jarrett joined the White House team on January 20, 2009 and departed with the First Family on January 20, 2017, and she was in the room—in the Oval Office, on Air Force One, and everywhere else—when it all happened. No one has as intimate a view of the Obama Years, nor one that reaches back as many decades, as Jarrett shares in Finding My Voice.

Born in Iran (where her father, a doctor, sought a better job than he could find in segregated America), Jarrett grew up in Chicago in the 60s as racial and gender barriers were being challenged. A single mother stagnating in corporate law, she found her voice in Harold Washington’s historic administration, where she began a remarkable journey, ultimately becoming one of the most visible and influential African-American women of the twenty-first century.

From her work ensuring equality for women and girls, advancing civil rights, reforming our criminal justice system, and improving the lives of working families, to the real stories behind some of the most stirring moments of the Obama presidency, Jarrett shares her forthright, optimistic perspective on the importance of leadership and the responsibilities of citizenship in the twenty-first century, inspiring readers to lift their own voices.


Click for more detail about Grandma’s Purse by Vanessa Brantley-Newton Grandma’s Purse

by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Apr 02, 2019)
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The littlest fashionistas will love this adorable purse-shaped board book that’s as fun to carry as it is to read! When Grandma Mimi comes to visit, she always brings warm hugs, sweet treats…and her purse. You never know what she’ll have in there—fancy jewelry, tokens from around the world, or something special just for her granddaughter. It might look like a normal bag from the outside, but Mimi and her granddaughter know that it’s pure magic! In this adorable, energetic ode to visits from Grandma, beloved picture-book creator Vanessa Brantley-Newton shows how an ordinary day can become extraordinary. An Indie Next List Selection

“Brims with adorable small stuff to look at. No illustrator does clothes, décor, and style better than Brantley-Newton.”—The New York Times


Click for more detail about Bad Men and Wicked Women by Eric Jerome Dickey Bad Men and Wicked Women

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Mar 26, 2019)
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Affairs of the heart can be lethal in New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey’s latest sensual, thrilling novel.

As a low-level enforcer in Los Angeles, Ken Swift knows danger, but nowhere does he feel it more than in his tangled romances. Divorced from one woman, in love with another, and wrestling with a strong desire to get to know a third, his life is far from perfect, and it becomes all the more complicated when his troubled daughter resurfaces on the same day as a major job. Margaux is pregnant, bitter, and desperate: she needs $50,000 immediately, and she isn’t above blackmailing Ken to get it. Yet even as the tension-filled father/daughter reunion escalates into a clashing of wills and desires that spread far beyond their family, Ken’s latest contract spirals quickly out of control, and he finds it is not only his daughter looking to seek revenge.

With the strong characters, heart-pounding action, and intense passion he is known for, New York Times bestseller Eric Jerome Dickey lays bare a tale of lust and angst that will leave readers breathless.


Click for more detail about Jake the Fake Goes for Laughs by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach Jake the Fake Goes for Laughs

by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach
Crown Books for Young Readers (Mar 26, 2019)
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For fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Big Nate comes the second book in the side-splitting series about a class clown faking his way to comedy stardom from comedian and film star Craig Robinson, #1 New York Times bestselling author Adam Mansbach, and NAACP History Maker recipient and cartoonist Keith Knight.

No one is more surprised than Jake when he impresses at the Music & Art Academy talent show with a few off-the-cuff wisecracks. This class clown finally found his callingand he isn’t ready to step away from the lime light, yet.

But Jake’s new ego is no laughing matter. When he starts blowing off his friends to pursue "his art," his big head becomes a big bummer.

Plus, it turns out being the funny man actually is hard work. Luckily, Jake has mentor Maury Kovalski, the Mr. Miyagi of comedybut more unhinged, to show him the ropes. But this old-timer will need to teach Jake a thing or two about humorand humilitybefore Jake loses all his biggest fans and best friends!

Featuring more than 200 illustrations, Jake the Fake stuns again with greater gags and guffaws than before!

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Other Americans by Laila Lalami The Other Americans

by Laila Lalami
Pantheon Books (Mar 26, 2019)
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From the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Moor’s Account, here is a timely and powerful novel about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant—at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story, informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture.

Late one spring night, Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant living in California, is walking across a darkened intersection when he is killed by a speeding car. The repercussions of his death bring together a diverse cast of characters: Guerraoui’s daughter Nora, a jazz composer who returns to the small town in the Mojave she thought she’d left for good; his widow, Maryam, who still pines after her life in the old country; Efraín, an undocumented witness whose fear of deportation prevents him from coming forward; Jeremy, an old friend of Nora’s and an Iraq War veteran; Coleman, a detective who is slowly discovering her son’s secrets; Anderson, a neighbor trying to reconnect with his family; and the murdered man himself.

As the characters—deeply divided by race, religion, and class—tell their stories, connections among them emerge, even as Driss’s family confronts its secrets, a town faces its hypocrisies, and love, messy and unpredictable, is born.


Click for more detail about Lot: Stories by Bryan Washington Lot: Stories

by Bryan Washington
Riverhead Books (Mar 19, 2019)
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"Lot is a phenomenal debut, the kind of stories I am always longing to read." —Justin Torres, author of We the Animals
"Brilliant… This is the literature that I’ve been waiting for." —Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun

NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2019 BY Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, Nylon, Huffington Post, AV Club, The Millions

In the city of Houston - a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America - the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He’s working at his family’s restaurant, weathering his brother’s blows, resenting his older sister’s absence. And discovering he likes boys.

Around him, others live and thrive and die in Houston’s myriad neighborhoods: a young woman whose affair detonates across an apartment complex, a ragtag baseball team, a group of young hustlers, hurricane survivors, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, a reluctant chupacabra.

Bryan Washington’s brilliant, viscerally drawn world vibrates with energy, wit, and the infinite longing of people searching for home. With soulful insight into what makes a community, a family, and a life, Lot explores trust and love in all its unsparing and unsteady forms.


Click for more detail about Gingerbread: A Novel by Helen Oyeyemi Gingerbread: A Novel

by Helen Oyeyemi
Riverhead Books (Mar 05, 2019)
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The prize-winning, bestselling author of Boy, Snow, Bird and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours returns with a bewitching and inventive novel.

Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children’s stories—equal parts wholesome and uncanny, from the tantalizing witch’s house in "Hansel and Gretel" to the man-shaped confection who one day decides to run as fast as he can—beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites readers into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe.

Perdita Lee may appear to be your average British schoolgirl; Harriet Lee may seem just a working mother trying to penetrate the school social hierarchy; but there are signs that they might not be as normal as they think they are. For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there’s the gingerbread they make. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it’s very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (or, according to many sources, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee’s early youth. The world’s truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread, however, is Harriet’s charismatic childhood friend Gretel Kercheval —a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met.

Decades later, when teenaged Perdita sets out to find her mother’s long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet’s story. As the book follows the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work, wealth, and real estate, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that reliably holds a constant value. Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi’s inimitable style and imagination, it is a true feast for the reader.


Click for more detail about You Must Be Layla by Yassmin Abdel-Magied You Must Be Layla

by Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Penguin (Au Yr) (Mar 05, 2019)
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With her long skirt and headscarf Layla certainly stands out at her new high school. Everyone thinks they know her, just from a glance. But do they? And does Layla really know herself?

Layla’s mind goes a million miles a minute, so does her mouth – unfortunately her better judgement can take a while to catch up! Although she believes she was justified for doing what she did, a suspension certainly isn’t the way she would have wished to begin her time at her fancy new high school. Despite the setback, Layla’s determined to show everyone that she does deserve her scholarship and sets her sights on winning a big invention competition. But where to begin?

Looking outside and in, Layla will need to come to terms with who she is and who she wants to be if she has any chance of succeeding.

Jam-packed with heart and humour You Must Be Layla by Yassmin Abdel-Magied reveals a powerful new voice in children’s writing. Touching on the migrant experience and exploring thought-provoking themes relevant to all teens, this book shows the strength required to be a Queen with a capital ‘Q’.


Click for more detail about The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

by Anissa Gray
Berkley Books (Feb 19, 2019)
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"If you enjoyed An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, read The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls…an absorbing commentary on love, family and forgiveness."—The Washington Post

"A fast-paced, intriguing story…the novel’s real achievement is its uncommon perceptiveness on the origins and variations of addiction."—The New York Times Book Review

One of the most anticipated reads of 2019 from Vogue, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Essence, Bustle, HelloGiggles and Cosmo!

"The Mothers meets An American Marriage" (HelloGiggles) in this dazzling debut novel about mothers and daughters, identity and family, and how the relationships that sustain you can also be the ones that consume you.

The Butler family has had their share of trials—as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest—but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives.

Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband, Proctor, are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened.

As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters. What unfolds is a stunning portrait of the heart and core of an American family in a story that is as page-turning as it is important.


Click for more detail about Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James Black Leopard, Red Wolf

by Marlon James
Riverhead Books (Feb 05, 2019)
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"A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made." —Neil Gaiman

The epic novel, an African Game of Thrones, from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

In the stunning first novel in Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child.

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

As Tracker follows the boy’s scent—from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers—he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that’s come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that’s also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both.


Click for more detail about A People’s Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers by Charlie Jane Anders, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Charles Yu, Victor LaValle, and John Joseph Adams A People’s Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers

by Charlie Jane Anders, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Charles Yu, Victor LaValle, and John Joseph Adams
One World (Feb 05, 2019)
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A glittering landscape of twenty-five speculative stories that challenge oppression and envision new futures for America—from N. K. Jemisin, Charles Yu, Jamie Ford, G. Willow Wilson, Charlie Jane Anders, Hugh Howey, and more.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

In these tumultuous times, in our deeply divided country, many people are angry, frightened, and hurting. Knowing that imagining a brighter tomorrow has always been an act of resistance, editors Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams invited an extraordinarily talented group of writers to share stories that explore new forms of freedom, love, and justice. They asked for narratives that would challenge oppressive American myths, release us from the chokehold of our history, and give us new futures to believe in.

They also asked that the stories be badass.

The result is this spectacular collection of twenty-five tales that blend the dark and the light, the dystopian and the utopian. These tales are vivid with struggle and hardship—whether it’s the othered and the terrorized, or dragonriders and covert commandos—but these characters don’t flee, they fight.

Thrilling, inspiring, and a sheer joy to read, A People’s Future of the United States is a gift for anyone who believes in our power to dream a just world.

Featuring stories by Violet Allen - Charlie Jane Anders - Lesley Nneka Arimah - Ashok K. Banker - Tobias S. Buckell - Tananarive Due - Omar El Akkad - Jamie Ford - Maria Dahvana Headley - Hugh Howey - Lizz Huerta - Justina Ireland - N. K. Jemisin - Alice Sola Kim - Seanan McGuire - Sam J. Miller - Daniel José Older - Malka Older - Gabby Rivera - A. Merc Rustad - Kai Cheng Thom - Catherynne M. Valente - Daniel H. Wilson - G. Willow Wilson - Charles Yu


Click for more detail about Who Is Michael Jordan? by Kirsten Anderson Who Is Michael Jordan?

by Kirsten Anderson
Penguin Workshop (Feb 05, 2019)
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Grab your Js and hit the court with this Who Was? biography about NBA superstar Michael Jordan. Meet the man who changed the game forever. Michael Jordan has always been competitive—even as a young boy, he fought for attention. His need to be the best made him a star player on his college basketball team and helped him become an NBA legend, both for his skills and his endorsements. His Nike contract for Air Jordan basketball shoes set an unmatched precedent for professional athletes. Author Kirsten Anderson takes readers through each exciting moment, detailing the iconic reverse lay-ups and jump shots of Michael Jordan’s storied career.

Look for more Who HQ titles:

  • Who Is LeBron James?
  • Who Was Kobe Bryant?
  • Who Is Shaquille O’Neal?
  • Who Is the Man in the Air?: Michael Jordan


Click for more detail about I Am Billie Jean King by Brad Meltzer I Am Billie Jean King

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Feb 05, 2019)
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Billie Jean King is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Read about this amazing woman athlete in the seventeenth picture book in the New York Times bestselling series of biographies about heroes.

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero’s childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This volume features Billie Jean King, the world champion tennis player who fought successfully for women’s rights.


Click for more detail about We Cast a Shadow: A Novel by Maurice Carlos Ruffin We Cast a Shadow: A Novel

by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
One World (Jan 29, 2019)
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“An incisive and necessary” (Roxane Gay) debut for fans of Get Out and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, about a father’s obsessive quest to protect his son—even if it means turning him white

“Stunning and audacious … at once a pitch-black comedy, a chilling horror story and an endlessly perceptive novel about the possible future of race in America.”—NPR

“You can be beautiful, even more beautiful than before.” This is the seductive promise of Dr. Nzinga’s clinic, where anyone can get their lips thinned, their skin bleached, and their nose narrowed. A complete demelanization will liberate you from the confines of being born in a black body—if you can afford it.

In this near-future Southern city plagued by fenced-in ghettos and police violence, more and more residents are turning to this experimental medical procedure. Like any father, our narrator just wants the best for his son, Nigel, a biracial boy whose black birthmark is getting bigger by the day. The darker Nigel becomes, the more frightened his father feels. But how far will he go to protect his son? And will he destroy his family in the process?

This electrifying, hallucinatory novel is at once a keen satire of surviving racism in America and a profoundly moving family story. At its center is a father who just wants his son to thrive in a broken world. Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s work evokes the clear vision of Ralph Ellison, the dizzying menace of Franz Kafka, and the crackling prose of Vladimir Nabokov. We Cast a Shadow fearlessly shines a light on the violence we inherit, and on the desperate things we do for the ones we love.

Praise for We Cast a Shadow

“A full-throated novelistic debut of ferocious power and grace … a story that refracts the insanity of the world into a shape so unique you wonder how this book wasn’t there all along.”—Lit Hub, Most Anticipated Books of 2019

“Propulsive … We Cast a Shadow proves that the eeriest works of speculative fiction are those that hit closest to home.”—Vulture, 37 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2019

“Inventive and shocking … One of the most anticipated debut novels of 2019.”—Los Angeles Times

“A biting satire of anti-blackness in the US.”—Buzzfeed, 66 Books Coming in 2019 That You’ll Want to Keep on Your Radar

“Written with ruthless intelligence.”—Renée Graham, The Boston Globe

Book Review

Click for more detail about Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine

by Emily Bernard
Knopf Publishing Group (Jan 29, 2019)
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An extraordinary, exquisitely written memoir (of sorts) that looks at race—in a fearless, penetrating, honest, true way—in twelve telltale, connected, deeply personal essays that explore, up-close, the complexities and paradoxes, the haunting memories and ambushing realities of growing up black in the South with a family name inherited from a white man, of getting a PhD from Yale, of marrying a white man from the North, of adopting two babies from Ethiopia, of teaching at a white college and living in America’s New England today. From the acclaimed editor of Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten ("A major contribution," Henry Louis Gates; "Magnificent," Washington Post).

"I am black—and brown, too," writes Emily Bernard. "Brown is the body I was born into. Black is the body of the stories I tell."
And the storytelling, and the mystery of Bernard’s storytelling, of getting to the truth, begins with a stabbing in a New England college town. Bernard writes how, when she was a graduate student at Yale, she walked into a coffee shop and, along with six other people, was randomly attacked by a stranger with a knife ("I remember making the decision not to let the oddness of this stranger bother me"). "I was not stabbed because I was black," she writes (the attacker was white), "but I have always viewed the violence I survived as a metaphor for the violent encounter that has generally characterized American race relations. There was no connection between us, yet we were suddenly and irreparably bound by a knife, an attachment that cost us both: him, his freedom; me, my wholeness."
Bernard explores how that bizarre act of violence set her free and unleashed the storyteller in her ("The equation of writing and regeneration is fundamental to black American experience").
She writes in Black Is the Body how each of the essays goes beyond a narrative of black innocence and white guilt, how each is anchored in a mystery, and how each sets out to discover a new way of telling the truth as the author has lived it. "Blackness is an art, not a science. It is a paradox: intangible and visceral; a situation and a story. It is the thread that connects these essays, but its significance as an experience emerges randomly, unpredictably … Race is the story of my life, and therefore black is the body of this book."
And what most interests Bernard is looking at "blackness at its borders, where it meets whiteness in fear and hope, in anguish and love."


Click for more detail about The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of a Slave’s Journey from Bondage to Freedom by David F. Walker The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of a Slave’s Journey from Bondage to Freedom

by David F. Walker
Ten Speed Press (Jan 08, 2019)
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A graphic novel biography of the escaped slave, abolitionist, public speaker, and most photographed man of the nineteenth century, based on his autobiographical writings and speeches, spotlighting the key events and people that shaped the life of this great American.

Recently returned to the cultural spotlight, Frederick Douglass’s impact on American history is felt even in today’s current events. Comic book writer and filmmaker David F. Walker joins with the art team of Damon Smyth and Marissa Louise to bring the long, exciting, and influential life of Douglass to life in comic book form. Taking you from Douglass’s life as a young slave through his forbidden education to his escape and growing prominence as a speaker, abolitionist, and influential cultural figure during the Civil War and beyond, The Life of Frederick Douglass presents a complete illustrated portrait of the man who stood up and spoke out for freedom and equality. Along the way, special features provide additional background on the history of slavery in the United States, the development of photography (which would play a key role in the spread of Douglass’s image and influence), and the Civil War. Told from Douglass’s point of view and based on his own writings, The Life of Frederick Douglass provides an up-close-and-personal look at a history-making American who was larger than life.


Click for more detail about The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

by Kamala Harris
Penguin Press (Jan 08, 2019)
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From one of America’s most inspiring political leaders, a book about the core truths that unite us, and the long struggle to discern what those truths are and how best to act upon them, in her own life and across the life of our country.

Senator Kamala Harris’s commitment to speaking truth is informed by her upbringing. The daughter of immigrants, she was raised in an Oakland, California community that cared deeply about social justice; her parents—an esteemed economist from Jamaica and an admired cancer researcher from India—met as activists in the civil rights movement when they were graduate students at Berkeley. Growing up, Harris herself never hid her passion for justice, and when she became a prosecutor out of law school, a deputy district attorney, she quickly established herself as one of the most innovative change agents in American law enforcement. She progressed rapidly to become the elected District Attorney for San Francisco, and then the chief law enforcement officer of the state of California as a whole. Known for bringing a voice to the voiceless, she took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis, winning a historic settlement for California’s working families. Her hallmarks were applying a holistic, data-driven approach to many of California’s thorniest issues, always eschewing stale "tough on crime" rhetoric as presenting a series of false choices. Neither "tough" nor "soft" but smart on crime became her mantra. Being smart means learning the truths that can make us better as a community, and supporting those truths with all our might. That has been the pole star that guided Harris to a transformational career as the top law enforcement official in California, and it is guiding her now as a transformational United States Senator, grappling with an array of complex issues that affect her state, our country, and the world, from health care and the new economy to immigration, national security, the opioid crisis, and accelerating inequality.

By reckoning with the big challenges we face together, drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, Kamala Harris offers in THE TRUTHS WE HOLD a master class in problem solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times. Through the arc of her own life, on into the great work of our day, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values. In a book rich in many home truths, not least is that a relatively small number of people work very hard to convince a great many of us that we have less in common than we actually do, but it falls to us to look past them and get on with the good work of living our common truth. When we do, our shared effort will continue to sustain us and this great nation, now and in the years to come.


Click for more detail about Superheroes Are Everywhere by Kamala Harris Superheroes Are Everywhere

by Kamala Harris
Philomel Books (Jan 08, 2019)
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From Senator Kamala Harris comes a picture book with an empowering message: Superheroes are all around us—and if we try, we can all be heroes too.

Before Kamala Harris became a district attorney and a United States senator, she was a little girl who loved superheroes. And when she looked around, she was amazed to find them everywhere! In her family, among her friends, even down the street—there were superheroes wherever she looked. And those superheroes showed her that all you need to do to be a superhero is to be the best that you can be.

In this empowering and joyful picture book that speaks directly to kids, Kamala Harris takes readers through her life and shows them that the power to make the world a better place is inside all of us. And with fun and engaging art by Mechal Renee Roe, as well as a guide to being a superhero at the end, this book is sure to have kids taking up the superhero mantle (cape and mask optional).


Click for more detail about DK Life Stories: Katherine Johnson by Ebony Joy Wilkins DK Life Stories: Katherine Johnson

by Ebony Joy Wilkins
DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) (Jan 08, 2019)
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In this kids’ biography, discover the inspiring story of Katherine Johnson, famed NASA mathematician and one of the subjects of the best-selling book and movie Hidden Figures.

It was an incredible accomplishment when the United States first put a person on the moon—but without the incredible behind-the-scenes work of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, such a feat could not have been possible. In this biography for kids ages 8-12, follow Katherine’s remarkable journey from growing up in West Virginia, to becoming a teacher, to breaking barriers at NASA and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

DK Life Stories go beyond the basic facts to tell the true life stories of history’s most interesting people. Full-color photographs and hand-drawn illustrations complement thoughtfully written, age-appropriate text to create an engaging book children will enjoy reading. Definition boxes, information sidebars, fun facts, maps, inspiring quotes, and other nonfiction text features add depth, and a handy reference section at the back makes this series perfect for school reports and projects. Each book also includes an author’s introduction letter, a glossary, and an index.


Click for more detail about Sleepover Scientist #3 by Kelly Starling Lyons Sleepover Scientist #3

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Penguin Workshop (Jan 08, 2019)
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Jada Jones is back for the third book of this popular, celebrated series perfect for STEM fans!

Jada is hosting her first sleepover, and she has lots of cool scientific activities planned: kitchen chemistry, creating invisible ink, and even making slime! But when her friends get tired of the lessons and just want to hang out, can Jada figure out the formula for fun and save the sleepover?

Praise for Jada Jones: Rock Star
"Fast-paced, with supersimple vocabulary and a smattering of earth science to spark interest in young rock collectors everywhere."—Kirkus Reviews

"Readers who love "Ivy and Bean" or "Katie Woo" will want to meet Jada Jones."—School Library Journal


Click for more detail about Tapping the Power Within: A Path to Self-Empowerment for Women: 20th Anniversary Edition by Iyanla Vanzant Tapping the Power Within: A Path to Self-Empowerment for Women: 20th Anniversary Edition

by Iyanla Vanzant
SmileyBooks (Nov 27, 2018)
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The revised and expanded 20th-anniversary edition of Iyanla Vanzant’s first published work offers a powerful path to self-empowerment through the revitalization of one’s spiritual and ancestral roots.

Written with Iyanla’s signature healing stories, this classic guide to uniting the will with the spirit teaches that only you have the power to make a change for the better.

With chapters on basic breathing and meditation techniques, setting up a home altar, connecting with ancestors and guardian spirits, and the extraordinary power of forgiveness, this book is a perfect companion on the way toward the real you.

Known for teaching by principle and example, this exclusive edition also contains Iyanla’s special “What I Know Now” commentaries and an original CD. These tools will challenge you to stop struggling and start recognizing that it is possible to reconcile your humanity with your divinity.

Whether you are a beginner on the path or a veteran in need of refreshment, Iyanla’s prescriptions can support your growth from the comfort of spiritual adolescence to the wisdom of spiritual maturity.

You no longer need to settle for the way things are … you can open up to the way things can be—if you dare to tap the power within!


Click for more detail about My Sister, the Serial Killer: A Novel by Oyinkan Braithwaite My Sister, the Serial Killer: A Novel

by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Doubleday (Nov 20, 2018)
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"Pulpy, peppery and sinister, served up in a comic deadpan…This scorpion-tailed little thriller leaves a response, and a sting, you will remember."—NEW YORK TIMES

"The wittiest and most fun murder party you’ve ever been invited to."—MARIE CLAIRE

A short, darkly funny, hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends

"Femi makes three, you know. Three and they label you a serial killer."

Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead.

Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.

Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she’s exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.

Sharp as nails and full of deadpan wit, Oyinkan Braithwaite’s deliciously deadly debut is as fun as it is frightening.


Click for more detail about Harlem by Eric Jerome Dickey Harlem

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Nov 15, 2018)
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Available for the first time as an eBook, New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey’s thrilling short story Harlem

“People called me Harlem. I dubbed myself after that dangerous neighborhood that I’d never seen. I read life is rough in Harlem, and a black man isn’t expected to live to see twenty-five. I was twenty-three. The clock was ticking.”

When Harlem gets off on a murder charge due to insanity, the asylum he’s sent to feels worse than death, with one exception: the beautiful nurse Daphane. As their relationship grows, so do the stakes: she has the ability to help him escape, and he has the ability to set her free from her abusive relationship. Yet Harlem has one big secret: he was perfectly sane when he committed his crime. But in the end, Daphane’s own secret may be the deadliest of all…

Includes an excerpt from Eric’s upcoming novel, Before We Were Wicked, coming April 2019. Harlem was previously published in the 2006 anthology Voices from the Other Side.


Click for more detail about Becoming by Michelle Obama Becoming

by Michelle Obama
Crown (Nov 13, 2018)
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Download the 23-Page Reader’s Guide


An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States



In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African-American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

Book Review

Click for more detail about I Am Sonia Sotomayor by Brad Meltzer I Am Sonia Sotomayor

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Nov 13, 2018)
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Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, is the subject of the sixteenth picture book in the New York Times bestselling series of biographies about heroes.

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero’s childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This volume features Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina Supreme Court Justice.


Click for more detail about Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves by Glory Edim Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves

by Glory Edim
Ballantine Books (Oct 30, 2018)
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An inspiring collection of essays by black women writers, curated by the founder of the popular book club Well-Read Black Girl, on the importance of recognizing ourselves in literature.

Remember that moment when you first encountered a character who seemed to be written just for you? That feeling of belonging remains with readers the rest of their lives—but it doesn’t happen as frequently for all of us. In this timely anthology, "well-read black girl" Glory Edim brings together original essays by some of our best black female writers and creative voices to shine a light on how important it is that everyone—regardless of gender, race, religion, or abilities—can find herself in literature.

Contributors include Jesmyn Ward (Sing Unburied Sing), Lynn Nottage (Sweat), Jacqueline Woodson (Another Brooklyn), Gabourey Sidibe (This Is Just My Face), Morgan Jerkins (This Will Be My Undoing), Tayari Jones (An American Marriage), Rebecca Walker (Black, White and Jewish), Barbara Smith (Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology), and others.

Whether it’s learning about the complexities of femalehood from Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison, finding a new type of love in The Color Purple, or using mythology to craft an alternative black future, each essay reminds us why we turn to books in times of both struggle and relaxation. As she has done with her book-club-turned-online-community Well-Read Black Girl, Edim has created a space where black women’s writing and knowledge and life experiences are lifted up, to be shared with all readers who value the power of a story to help us understand the world, and ourselves.


Click for more detail about The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory The Proposal

by Jasmine Guillory
Berkley Books (Oct 30, 2018)
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The New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Date serves up a novel about what happens when a public proposal doesn’t turn into a happy ending, thanks to a woman who knows exactly how to make one on her own…

When someone asks you to spend your life with him, it shouldn’t come as a surprise—or happen in front of 45,000 people.

When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn’t the hard part—they’ve only been dating for five months, and he can’t even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans…

At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik’s rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. He’s even there for her when the video goes viral and Nik’s social media blows up—in a bad way. Nik knows that in the wilds of LA, a handsome doctor like Carlos can’t be looking for anything serious, so she embarks on an epic rebound with him, filled with food, fun, and fantastic sex. But when their glorified hookups start breaking the rules, one of them has to be smart enough to put on the brakes…


Click for more detail about Dragons in a Bag (Dragons in a Bag #1) by Zetta Elliott Dragons in a Bag (Dragons in a Bag #1)

by Zetta Elliott
Random House Books for Young Readers (Oct 23, 2018)
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The dragon’s out of the bag in this diverse, young urban fantasy from an award-winning author!

When Jaxon is sent to spend the day with a mean old lady his mother calls Ma, he finds out she’s not his grandmother—but she is a witch! She needs his help delivering baby dragons to a magical world where they’ll be safe. There are two rules when it comes to the dragons: don’t let them out of the bag, and don’t feed them anything sweet. Before he knows it, Jax and his friends Vikram and Kavita have broken both rules! Will Jax get the baby dragons delivered safe and sound? Or will they be lost in Brooklyn forever?


Click for more detail about Tigerland: The Miracle on East Broad Street by Wil Haygood Tigerland: The Miracle on East Broad Street

by Wil Haygood
Knopf (Oct 16, 2018)
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From the author of the best-selling The Butler—an emotional, inspiring story of two teams from a poor, black, segregated high school in Ohio, who, in the midst of the racial turbulence of 1968/1969, win the Ohio state baseball and basketball championships in the same year.

1968 and 1969: Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy are assassinated. Race relations are frayed like never before. Cities are aflame as demonstrations and riots proliferate. But in Columbus, Ohio, the Tigers of segregated East High School win the baseball and basketball championships, defeating bigger, richer, whiter teams across the state. Now, Wil Haygood gives us a spirited and stirring account of this improbable triumph and takes us deep into the personal lives of these local heroes: Robert Wright, power forward, whose father was a murderer; Kenny Mizelle, the Tigers’ second baseman, who grew up under the false impression that his father had died; Eddie "Rat" Ratleff, the star of both teams, who would play for the 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team. We meet Jack Gibbs, the first black principal at East High; Bob Hart, the white basketball coach, determined to fight against the injustices he saw inflicting his team; the hometown fans who followed the Tigers to stadiums across the state. And, just as important, Haygood puts the Tigers’ story in the context of the racially charged late 1960s. The result is both an inspiring sports story and a singularly illuminating social history.


Click for more detail about No Small Potatoes: Junius G. Groves and His Kingdom in Kansas by Tonya Bolden No Small Potatoes: Junius G. Groves and His Kingdom in Kansas

by Tonya Bolden
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Oct 16, 2018)
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Discover the incredible true story of how one of history’s most successful potato farmers began life as a slave and worked until he was named the "Potato King of the World"!

Junius G. Groves came from humble beginnings in the Bluegrass State. Born in Kentucky into slavery, freedom came when he was still a young man and he intended to make a name for himself. Along with thousands of other African Americans who migrated from the South, Junius walked west and stopped in Kansas. Working for a pittance on a small potato farm was no reason to feel sorry for himself, especially when he’s made foreman. But Junius did dream of owning his own farm, so he did the next best thing. He rented the land and worked hard! As he built his empire, he also built a family, and he built them both on tons and tons and tons of potatoes. He never quit working hard, even as the naysayers doubted him, and soon he was declared Potato King of the World and had five hundred acres and a castle to call his own.

From award winning author Tonya Bolden and talented illustrator Don Tate comes a tale of perseverance that reminds us no matter where you begin, as long as you work hard, your creation can never be called small potatoes.


Click for more detail about Crown of Thunder by Tochi Onyebuchi Crown of Thunder

by Tochi Onyebuchi
Razorbill (Oct 16, 2018)
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In the sequel to the acclaimed Beasts Made of Night, Taj has escaped Kos, but Queen Karima will go to any means necessary—including using the most deadly magic—to track him down.

Taj is headed west, but the consequences of leaving Kos behind confront him at every turn. Innocent civilians flee to refugee camps as Karima’s dark magic continues to descend on the city. Taj must return, but first he needs a plan.

With Arzu’s help, Taj and Aliya make it to the village of her ancestors, home of the tastahlik—sin-eaters with Taj’s same ability to both battle and call forth sins. As Taj comes to terms with his new magic, he realizes there are two very different groups of tastahlik—one using their powers for good, the other for more selfish ends.

Aliya is struggling with her own unique capabilities. She’s immersed in her work to uncover the secret to Karima’s magic, but her health begins to mysteriously deteriorate. With the help of a local western mage, Aliya uncovers her true destiny—a future she’s not sure she wants.

As Taj and Aliya explore their feelings for each other and Arzu connects with her homeland, the local westerners begin to question Taj’s true identity. Karima is on his heels, sending dark warnings to the little village where he’s hiding. Taj will have to go back and face her before she sends her most deadly weapon—Taj’s former best friend, Bo.


Click for more detail about Impeachment: An American History by Jon Meacham Impeachment: An American History

by Jon Meacham
Random House Large Print (Oct 16, 2018)
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Four experts on the American presidency examine the three times impeachment has been invoked—against Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton—and explain what it means today.

Impeachment is a double-edged sword. Though it was designed to check tyrants, Thomas Jefferson also called impeachment "the most formidable weapon for the purpose of a dominant faction that was ever contrived." On the one hand, it nullifies the will of voters, the basic foundation of all representative democracies. On the other, its absence from the Constitution would leave the country vulnerable to despotic leadership. It is rarely used, and with good reason.

Only three times has a president’s conduct led to such political disarray as to warrant his potential removal from office, transforming a political crisis into a constitutional one. None has yet succeeded. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 for failing to kowtow to congressional leaders—and, in a large sense, for failing to be Abraham Lincoln—yet survived his Senate trial. Richard Nixon resigned in August 1974 after the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against him for lying, obstructing justice, and employing his executive power for personal and political gain. Bill Clinton had an affair with a White House intern, but in 1999 he faced trial in the Senate less for that prurient act than for lying under oath about it.

In the first book to consider these three presidents alone—and the one thing they have in common—Jeffrey A. Engel, Jon Meacham, Timothy Naftali, and Peter Baker explain that the basis and process of impeachment is more political than legal. The Constitution states that the president "shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors," leaving room for historical precedent and the temperament of the time to weigh heavily on each case. This book reveals the complicated motives behind each impeachment—never entirely limited to the question of a president’s guilt—and the risks to all sides. Each case depended on factors beyond the president’s behavior: his relationship with Congress, the polarization of the moment, and the power and resilience of the office itself. This is a realist view of impeachment that looks to history for clues about its potential use in the future.


Click for more detail about Dare to Lead by Brené Brown Dare to Lead

by Brené Brown
Random House (Oct 09, 2018)
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Brené Brown has taught us what it means to dare greatly, rise strong, and brave the wilderness. Now, based on new research conducted with leaders, change makers, and culture shifters, she’s showing us how to put those ideas into practice so we can step up and lead.Look for Brené Brown’s new podcast, Dare to Lead, as well as her ongoing podcast Unlocking Us!NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG Leadership is not about titles, status, and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential. When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it with others. We don’t avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into vulnerability when it’s necessary to do good work. But daring leadership in a culture defined by scarcity, fear, and uncertainty requires skill-building around traits that are deeply and uniquely human. The irony is that we’re choosing not to invest in developing the hearts and minds of leaders at the exact same time as we’re scrambling to figure out what we have to offer that machines and AI can’t do better and faster. What can we do better? Empathy, connection, and courage, to start. Four-time #1 New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown has spent the past two decades studying the emotions and experiences that give meaning to our lives, and the past seven years working with transformative leaders and teams spanning the globe. She found that leaders in organizations ranging from small entrepreneurial startups and family-owned businesses to nonprofits, civic organizations, and Fortune 50 companies all ask the same question: How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture? In this new book, Brown uses research, stories, and examples to answer these questions in the no-BS style that millions of readers have come to expect and love. Brown writes, “One of the most important findings of my career is that daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100 percent teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning and unlearning that requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with your whole heart. Easy? No. Because choosing courage over comfort is not always our default. Worth it? Always. We want to be brave with our lives and our work. It’s why we’re here.”Whether you’ve read Daring Greatly and Rising Strong or you’re new to Brené Brown’s work, this book is for anyone who wants to step up and into brave leadership.


Click for more detail about Odd One Out by Nic Stone Odd One Out

by Nic Stone
Crown Books for Young Readers (Oct 09, 2018)
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin comes this illuminating exploration of old friendships, new crushes, and the path to self-discovery. Told in three voices, Nic Stone’s new book is sure to please fans of Becky Albertalli, Nicola Yoon, and Jason Reynolds.

Courtney "Coop" Cooper
Dumped. Again. And normally I wouldn’t mind. But right now, my best friend and source of solace, Jupiter Sanchez, is ignoring me to text some girl.

Rae Evelyn Chin
I assumed "new girl" would be synonymous with "pariah," but Jupiter and Courtney make me feel like I’m right where I belong. I also want to kiss him. And her. Which is … perplexing.

Jupiter Charity-Sanchez
The only thing worse than losing the girl you love to a boy is losing her to your boy. That means losing him, too. I have to make a move… .

One story.
Three sides.
No easy answers.


Click for more detail about Carmela Full of Wishes by Matt De La Peña Carmela Full of Wishes

by Matt De La Peña
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Oct 09, 2018)
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An Instant New York Times Bestseller!

In their first collaboration since the Newbery Medal- and Caldecott Honor-winning Last Stop on Market Street, Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson deliver a poignant and timely new picture book that’s sure to be an instant classic.

When Carmela wakes up on her birthday, her wish has already come true—she’s finally old enough to join her big brother as he does the family errands. Together, they travel through their neighborhood, past the crowded bus stop, the fenced-off repair shop, and the panadería, until they arrive at the Laundromat, where Carmela finds a lone dandelion growing in the pavement. But before she can blow its white fluff away, her brother tells her she has to make a wish. If only she can think of just the right wish to make …

With lyrical, stirring text and stunning, evocative artwork, Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson have crafted a moving ode to family, to dreamers, and to finding hope in the most unexpected places.


Click for more detail about I Look Up To… Michelle Obama by Anna Membrino I Look Up To… Michelle Obama

by Anna Membrino
Random House Books for Young Readers (Oct 02, 2018)
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If you can see it, you can be it! Introduce your child to your role models with this series of inspirational board books.

It’s never too early to introduce your child to the people you admire! This board book distills Michelle Obama’s excellent qualities into deliciously illustrated little baby-sized bites, with text designed to share and read aloud.

Each spread highlights an important trait, and is enhanced by a quote from Michelle herself. Kids will grow up hearing the words of this influential woman and will learn what YOU value in a person!

The I LOOK UP TO … series aims to shine a spotlight on women making a difference in the world today, and to encourage young kids to follow in their footsteps!


Click for more detail about Take Your Octopus to School Day by Audrey Vernick Take Your Octopus to School Day

by Audrey Vernick
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Sep 25, 2018)
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A hilarious classroom story about an octopus and his boy, from the author of Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?

When it comes to show-and-tell, Sam is in it to win it. But no matter how hard he tries, one of his classmates is always showing him up with a slightly better costume or a slightly cooler object to share. His teacher says it’s not a competition, but just once Sam would like to be the best—which is why he’s so excited when Take Your Octopus to School Day is announced. Sam is pretty sure he’s the only kid with a real live pet octopus to bring, and Thurgood, his eight-tentacled best friend, is excited too. Together, they prepare Thurgood’s travel tank and get ready for a school day like no other… . What could possibly go wrong?
     Sprinkled with sly humor and scientific facts about the class Cephalopoda, readers who loved Flora and the Flamingo or Sparky! will want to get their tentacles on Take Your Octopus to School Day.


Click for more detail about Can We All Be Feminists? by June Eric-Udorie (Editor), Soofiya Andry, Gabrielle Bellot, Caitlin Cruz, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Brit Bennett, Evette Dionne, and others Can We All Be Feminists?

by June Eric-Udorie (Editor), Soofiya Andry, Gabrielle Bellot, Caitlin Cruz, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Brit Bennett, Evette Dionne, and others
Penguin Books (Sep 25, 2018)
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Can We All Be Feminists? New Writing from Brit Bennett, Nicole Dennis-Benn, and 15 Others on Intersectionality, Identity, and the Way Forward for Feminism

“As timely as it is well-written, this clear-eyed collection is just what I need right now.” —Jacqueline Woodson, author of Brown Girl Dreaming

“The intersectional feminist anthology we all need to read” (Bustle), edited by a feminist activist and writer who “calls to mind a young Audre Lorde” (Kirkus)

Why do some women struggle to identify as feminists, despite their commitment to gender equality? How do other aspects of our identities – such as race, religion, sexuality, gender identity, and more – impact how we relate to feminism? Why is intersectionality so important?

In challenging, incisive, and fearless essays – all of which appear here for the first time – seventeen writers from diverse backgrounds wrestle with these questions, and more. A groundbreaking book that elevates underrepresented voices, Can We All Be Feminists? offers the tools and perspective we need to create a 21st century feminism that is truly for all.

Including essays by: Soofiya Andry, Gabrielle Bellot, Caitlin Cruz, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Brit Bennett, Evette Dionne, Aisha Gani, Afua Hirsch, Juliet Jacques, Wei Ming Kam, Mariya Karimjee, Eishar Kaur, Emer O’Toole, Frances Ryan, Zoé Samudzi, Charlotte Shane, and Selina Thompson


Click for more detail about Road Map for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism, and Advocacy for All by Elisa Camahort Page, Carolyn Gerin, and Jamia Wilson Road Map for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism, and Advocacy for All

by Elisa Camahort Page, Carolyn Gerin, and Jamia Wilson
Ten Speed Press (Sep 18, 2018)
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A handbook for effective activism, advocacy, and social justice for people of all ages and backgrounds.

Are you ready to take action and make your voice heard, but don’t know how to go about it? This hands-on, hit-the-ground-running guide delivers lessons on practical tactics for navigating and protecting one’s personal democracy in a gridlocked, heavily surveilled, and politically volatile country. If you want to start making a difference but don’t know what to do next, Road Map for Revolutionaries provides the resources needed to help you feel safer, more empowered, invested in, and intrinsic to the American experiment. The book addresses timely topics such as staying safe at protests, supporting marginalized communities, online privacy, and how to keep up the fight for the long term, breaking down key issues and outlining action steps for local, state, and federal levels of government.


Click for more detail about Theory by Dionne Brand Theory

by Dionne Brand
Knopf Canada (Sep 18, 2018)
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 OCM BOCAS PRIZE FOR CARIBBEAN LITERATURE (all genres)

WINNER IN THE FICTION CATEGORY: 2019 OCM BOCAS PRIZE FOR CARIBBEAN LITERATURE

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 TORONTO BOOK AWARDS

"After reading this book I realized that a novel can trace and map the inner markings inside one’s mind. A beautiful book that forever changed the way I approach writing, reading, and teaching." —Chelene Knight, author of Dear Current Occupant, CBC Books

"Dionne Brand’s ingenious meditation on academic angst is a heady, pleasure-filled ride." —Susan G. Cole, NOW

"Full of wry humour and biting critique, Theory is a masterful work from a writer who still knows how to have fun." —The Globe and Mail

"What Brand does so adeptly in this book is reveal how the many layers of power and personality destroy romantic partnerships, stress familial bonds and muzzle intellectual potential… . Theory is a book for those who are intrigued by how a brilliant thinker approaches lost love, unmet potential and unreliable narration. But if none of that appeals to you, Brand’s gorgeous prose and sly humour will definitely win you over." —Toronto Star

"Theory is a novel for the ages, a pirouetting inquiry into how we struggle, weep, deny, and love our way towards each other and into the arms of knowledge. Full of wit and unsettling acuity, driven by intellectual and physical passions, Dionne Brand’s new novel is a masterpiece." —Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing, winner of the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize

"Theory marks Dionne Brand’s latest accomplishment in exquisitely attuning both thought and language to the sublime of everyday life. ’There’s no reference for what I want to do, ’ the narrator states; and herein begins a bold new story … By turns wry, passionate, and sensuously intellectual, Theory is a book of singular power from one of our greatest living writers." —David Chariandy, author of Brother and I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You


Click for more detail about Washington Black by Esi Edugyan Washington Black

by Esi Edugyan
Knopf Publishing Group (Sep 18, 2018)
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TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, Entertainment Weekly, Slate
- ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Boston Globe, NPR, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Economist, Bustle
WINNER OF THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
- FINALIST FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE, THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE, THE ROGERS WRITERS’ TRUST PRIZE

"Enthralling" —Boston Globe "Extraordinary" —Seattle Times "A rip-roaring tale" —Washington Post

A dazzling adventure story about a boy who rises from the ashes of slavery to become a free man of the world.

George Washington Black, or "Wash," an eleven-year-old field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is terrified to be chosen by his master’s brother as his manservant. To his surprise, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning—and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash’s head, Christopher and Wash must abandon everything. What follows is their flight along the eastern coast of America, and, finally, to a remote outpost in the Arctic. What brings Christopher and Wash together will tear them apart, propelling Wash even further across the globe in search of his true self. From the blistering cane fields of the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, from the earliest aquariums of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black tells a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, of a world destroyed and made whole again, and asks the question, What is true freedom?


Click for more detail about Warriors of Wakanda by Frank Berrios
Warriors of Wakanda

by Frank Berrios
Little Golden Book (Sep 11, 2018)
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Marvel’s Black Panther and his allies race into action in a new Little Golden Book!

Meet Marvel’s Black Panther and his amazing allies! Boys and girls ages 2 to 5 will love this action-packed Little Golden Book featuring the Black Panther; his scientist sister, Shuri; the fierce fighter Okoye; and the other warriors who keep the African country of Wakanda safe.


Click for more detail about Strong Girls Gift Set by Brad Meltzer Strong Girls Gift Set

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Sep 11, 2018)
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Brad Meltzer is the author of the New York Times bestselling Ordinary People Change the World series for children, as well as six New York Times bestselling thrillers for adults: The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, The Millionaires, The Zero Game, and The Book of Fate. He is also the #1 bestselling author of the critically acclaimed comic books Identity Crisis and Justice League of America, and is the cocreator of the TV series Jack & Bobby. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School, he lives in Florida. To learn more, visit bradmeltzer.com.

Christopher Eliopoulos began his illustration career as a letterer for Marvel and has worked on thousands of comics, including Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius, Pet Avengers, and Cow Boy, all of which he wrote and illustrated. He is the illustrator of the New York Times-bestselling Ordinary People Change the World series of picture book biographies. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and their identical twin sons.


Click for more detail about I Am Neil Armstrong by Brad Meltzer I Am Neil Armstrong

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Sep 11, 2018)
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Neil Armstrong’s journey to the moon is the focus of the fifteenth picture book in the New York Times bestselling series of biographies about heroes.

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero’s childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This volume tells the story of Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon.


Click for more detail about Tight by Torrey Maldonado Tight

by Torrey Maldonado
Nancy Paulsen Books (Sep 04, 2018)
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Tight: Lately, Bryan’s been feeling it in all kinds of ways …

Bryan knows what’s tight for him—reading comics, drawing superheroes, and hanging out with no drama. But drama is every day where he’s from, and that gets him tight, wound up.

And now Bryan’s friend Mike pressures him with ideas of fun that are crazy risky. At first, it’s a rush following Mike, hopping turnstiles, subway surfing, and getting into all kinds of trouble. But Bryan never really feels right acting so wrong, and drama really isn’t him. So which way will he go, especially when his dad tells him it’s better to be hard and feared than liked?

But if there’s one thing Bryan’s gotten from his comic heroes, it’s that he has power—to stand up for what he feels …

Torrey Maldonado delivers a fast-paced, insightful, dynamic story capturing urban community life. Readers will connect with Bryan’s journey as he navigates a tough world with a heartfelt desire for a different life.


Click for more detail about The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson The Day You Begin

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Aug 28, 2018)
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Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson and two-time Pura Belpré Illustrator Award winner Rafael López have teamed up to create a poignant, yet heartening book about finding courage to connect, even when you feel scared and alone.

There will be times when you walk into a room
and no one there is quite like you.

There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it’s how you look or talk, or where you’re from; maybe it’s what you eat, or something just as random. It’s not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.

Jacqueline Woodson’s lyrical text and Rafael López’s dazzling art reminds us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes-and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway.

(This book is also available in Spanish, as El Día En Que Descubres Quién Eres!)

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Dream of America by Jacqueline Woodson The Dream of America

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Aug 28, 2018)
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Jacqueline Woodson’s first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a disparate group of students are forced to open up with one another.

When six middle school classmates are gathered together for a weekly chat, they fear this new unfamiliar and wonder what their teacher thinks they are supposed to get out of the experience. After all, they don’t imagine they have much in common. But recently one of their fathers has disappeared and this has cast a pall over the class. Their teacher knows that there is something special about this tiny group—and is determined to help them see it by doing what any thoughtful adult would do—taking herself out of the narrative. In an abandoned art room with no adults, the six get to know one another and realize that in this room, which they soon dub "A Room To Talk," it’s safe to discuss the things that are bothering them—all that they feel is unfair in the world, the trouble with adults and so much more. And so they do. From racial profiling to deportation to a deep longing for family history and a long ago homeland, when the six of them are together, they find they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.


Click for more detail about Fresh Ink: An Anthology by Lamar Giles Fresh Ink: An Anthology

by Lamar Giles
Crown Books for Young Readers (Aug 14, 2018)
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In partnership with We Need Diverse Books, thirteen of the most recognizable, diverse authors come together in this remarkable YA anthology featuring ten short stories, a graphic short story, and a one-act play from Walter Dean Myers never before in-print.

Careful—you are holding fresh ink. And not hot-off-the-press, still-drying-in-your-hands ink. Instead, you are holding twelve stories with endings that are still being written—whose next chapters are up to you.

Because these stories are meant to be read. And shared.

Thirteen of the most accomplished YA authors deliver a label-defying anthology that includes ten short stories, a graphic novel, and a one-act play. This collection will inspire you to break conventions, bend the rules, and color outside the lines. All you need is fresh ink.


Click for more detail about Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen? by Sherri L. Smith Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen?

by Sherri L. Smith
Penguin Workshop (Aug 07, 2018)
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It’s up, up, and away with the Tuskegee Airmen, a heroic group of African American military pilots who helped the United States win World War II.

During World War II, black Americans were fighting for their country and for freedom in Europe, yet they had to endure a totally segregated military in the United States, where they weren’t considered smart enough to become military pilots. After acquiring government funding for aviation training, civil rights activists were able to kickstart the first African American military flight program in the US at Tuskegee University in Alabama. While this book details thrilling flight missions and the grueling training sessions the Tuskegee Airmen underwent, it also shines a light on the lives of these brave men who helped pave the way for the integration of the US armed forces.

Part of the What Was? series!


Click for more detail about How to Love a Jamaican: Stories by Alexia Arthurs How to Love a Jamaican: Stories

by Alexia Arthurs
Ballantine Books (Jul 24, 2018)
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“In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its diaspora we hear many voices at once: some cultivated, some simple, some wickedly funny, some deeply melancholic. All of them shine.”—Zadie Smith

Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret—Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life.

In “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In “Mash Up Love,” a twin’s chance sighting of his estranged brother—the prodigal son of the family—stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In “Bad Behavior,” a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In “Mermaid River,” a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In “The Ghost of Jia Yi,” a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in “Shirley from a Small Place,” a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother’s big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital.

Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction’s most dynamic and essential young authors.

Advance praise for How to Love a Jamaican

“I am utterly taken with these gorgeous, tender, heartbreaking stories. Alexia Arthurs is a witty, perceptive, and generous writer, and this is a book that will last.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties

“Alexia Arthurs is a voice so many of us have been waiting for—funny, achingly specific, and wonderfully universal. She explores what it means to belong, what it means to recognize yourself in the most unexpected places, and what humans do with the pain of longing.”—Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman

“What a thrill to recognize myself and the women I love in Alexia Arthurs’s stunning debut story collection. This fantastic young writer conjures the fierce wit of Jamaica Kincaid and the deft storytelling of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.”—Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill


Click for more detail about Stay with Me: A novel by Ayobami Adebayo Stay with Me: A novel

by Ayobami Adebayo
Knopf (Jul 18, 2018)
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"A stunning debut novel." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

This celebrated, unforgettable first novel (“A bright, big-hearted demonstration of female spirit.” –The Guardian), shortlisted for the prestigious Bailey’s Prize and set in Nigeria, gives voice to both husband and wife as they tell the story of their marriageand the forces that threaten to tear it apart. 

Yejide and Akin have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriageafter consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely curesYejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has timeuntil her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin’s second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant. Which, finally, she doesbut at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine. An electrifying novel of enormous emotional power, Stay With Me asks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.


Click for more detail about Minecraft: The Crash: An Official Minecraft Novel by Tracey Baptiste Minecraft: The Crash: An Official Minecraft Novel

by Tracey Baptiste
Del Ray (Jul 10, 2018)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The brand-new official Minecraft novel is an action-packed thriller! When a new virtual-reality version of the game brings her dreams—and doubts—to life, one player must face her fears.

Bianca has never been good at following the plan. She’s more of an act-now, deal-with-the-consequences-later kind of person. But consequences can’t be put off forever, as Bianca learns when she and her best friend, Lonnie, are in a terrible car crash.

Waking up in the hospital, almost paralyzed by her injuries, Bianca is faced with questions she’s not equipped to answer. She chooses instead to try a new virtual-reality version of Minecraft that responds to her every wish, giving her control over a world at the very moment she thought she’d lost it. As she explores this new realm, she encounters a mute, glitching avatar she believes to be Lonnie. Bianca teams up with Esme and Anton, two kids who are also playing on the hospital server, to save her friend.

But the road to recovery isn’t without its own dangers. The kids are swarmed by mobs seemingly generated by their fears and insecurities, and now Bianca must deal with the uncertainties that have been plaguing her: Is Lonnie really in the game? And can Bianca help him return to reality?

Collect all of the official Minecraft books:
Minecraft: The Island
Minecraft: The Crash
Minecraft: The Survivors’ Book of Secrets
Minecraft: Exploded Builds: Medieval Fortress
Minecraft: Guide to Exploration
Minecraft: Guide to Creative
Minecraft: Guide to the Nether & the End
Minecraft: Guide to Redstone
Minecraft: Mobestiary
Minecraft: Guide to Enchantments & Potions
Minecraft: Guide to PVP Minigames


Click for more detail about American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

by Terrance Hayes
Penguin Books (Jun 19, 2018)
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A powerful, timely, dazzling collection of sonnets from one of America’s most acclaimed poets, Terrance Hayes, the National Book Award winning author of Lighthead

In seventy poems bearing the same title, Terrance Hayes explores the meanings of American, of assassin, and of love in the sonnet form. Written during the first two hundred days of the Trump presidency, these poems are haunted by the country’s past and future eras and errors, its dreams and nightmares. Inventive, compassionate, hilarious, melancholy, and bewildered—the wonders of this new collection are irreducible and stunning.


Click for more detail about Small Country by GaëL Faye Small Country

by GaëL Faye
Hogarth Press (Jun 05, 2018)
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Gael Faye was born in 1982 in Burundi to a French father and Rwandan mother. In 1995, after the outbreak of the civil war and the Rwandan genocide, the family moved to France. An author, songwriter and hip-hop artist, he released his first solo album, Pili Pili sur un croissant au beurre, in 2013. Small Country is his first novel. A bestseller in France, it has been awarded numerous literary prizes, among them the Prix Goncourt des Lyc�ens, and is being published in thirty countries worldwide. He lives in Paris.


Click for more detail about Sisters and Champions: The True Story of Venus and Serena Williams by Howard Bryant Sisters and Champions: The True Story of Venus and Serena Williams

by Howard Bryant
Philomel Books (May 29, 2018)
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Sample Image from Sisters and Champions: The True Story of Venus and Serena Williams Illustrated by Floyd Cooper From Sisters and Champions: The True Story of Venus and Serena Williams by Howard Bryant, Illustrated by Floyd Cooper (2018, Philomel Books)

An inspiring picture book sports biography about two of the greatest female tennis players of all-time, outsiders who just happen to be sisters.

Everyone knows the names Venus & Serena Williams. They’ve become synonymous with championships, hard work, and with shaking up the tennis world. This picture book, by an award-winning sports journalist, details the sisters’ journey from a barely-there tennis court in Compton, CA, to becoming the #1 ranked women in the sport of tennis.


Click for more detail about Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment by Angela J. Davis, Bryan Stevenson, Marc Mauer, Bruce Western, and Jeremy Travis Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment

by Angela J. Davis, Bryan Stevenson, Marc Mauer, Bruce Western, and Jeremy Travis
Vintage (May 15, 2018)
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A comprehensive, readable analysis of the key issues of the Black Lives Matter movement, this thought-provoking and compelling anthology features essays by some of the nation’s most influential and respected criminal justice experts and legal scholars.

“Somewhere among the anger, mourning and malice that Policing the Black Man documents lies the pursuit of justice. This powerful book demands our fierce attention.” —Toni Morrison

Policing the Black Man explores and critiques the many ways the criminal justice system impacts the lives of African American boys and men at every stage of the criminal process, from arrest through sentencing. Essays range from an explication of the historical roots of racism in the criminal justice system to an examination of modern-day police killings of unarmed black men. The contributors discuss and explain racial profiling, the power and discretion of police and prosecutors, the role of implicit bias, the racial impact of police and prosecutorial decisions, the disproportionate imprisonment of black men, the collateral consequences of mass incarceration, and the Supreme Court’s failure to provide meaningful remedies for the injustices in the criminal justice system. Policing the Black Man is an enlightening must-read for anyone interested in the critical issues of race and justice in America.

“Somewhere among the anger, mourning and malice that Policing the Black Man documents lies the pursuit of justice. This powerful book demands our fierce attention.” —Toni Morrison

“Like Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness or Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, Policing the Black Man insightfully shows us why the encounter between black men and even black boys with the criminal justice system is, and long has been historically, fraught, reflecting larger social and economic relations between white and black Americans. The essays collected here by Angela Davis effectively demonstrate how the painful history of racial injustice in America informs a black male’s experience of virtually every aspect of our system of justice, from arrest, through prosecution and sentencing, to incarceration. This book is essential reading for all of us who love the concept of justice in America, and seek for its practical applications to live up to its theoretical ideals.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

“Policing the Black Man is a social-political mitzvah. With statistics in one hand and true beating heart in the other these writers deconstruct the monolith of racism and the conscious and unconscious deadly intent of the powers that be.” —Walter Mosley


Click for more detail about The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels

by Jon Meacham
Random House (May 08, 2018)
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"Appalled by the ascendancy of Donald J. Trump, and shaken by the deadly white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville in 2017, Meacham returns to other moments in our history when fear and division seemed rampant. He wants to remind us that the current political turmoil is not unprecedented, that as a nation we have survived times worse than this… . Meacham tries to summon the better angels by looking back at when America truly has been great. He is effective as ever at writing history for a broad readership… . [Meacham] is an adroit and appealing storyteller."The New York Times Book Review

"Gripping and inspiring, The Soul of America is Jon Meacham’s declaration of his faith in America… . Meacham, by chronicling the nation’s struggles from revolutionary times to current day, makes the resonant argument that America has faced division before—and not only survived it but thrived… . Meacham believes the nation will move beyond Trump because, in the end, as they have shown on vital issues before, Americans embrace their better angels. This book stands as a testament to that choice—a reminder that the country has a history of returning to its core values of freedom and equality after enduring periods of distraction and turmoil."Newsday

"Meacham tells us we’ve been here before and can find our way out, urging readers to enter the arena, avoid tribalism, respect facts and listen to history."The Washington Post

"This engrossing, edifying, many-voiced chronicle, subtly propelled by concern over the troubled Trump administration, calls on readers to defend democracy, decency, and the common good. Best-selling Meacham’s topic couldn’t be more urgent."Booklist (starred review)

"Meacham has become one of America’s most earnest and thoughtful biographers and historians… . He employs all of those skills in The Soul of America, a thoroughly researched and smoothly written roundup of some of the worst parts of American history and how they were gradually overcome… . Meacham gives readers a long-term perspective on American history and a reason to believe the soul of America is ultimately one of kindness and caring, not rancor and paranoia. Finally, Meacham provides advice to find our better angels—enter the arena, resist tribalism, respect facts and deploy reason, find a critical balance and keep history in mind. He’s provided a great way to do it."USA Today

"This is a brilliant, fascinating, timely, and above all profoundly important book. Jon Meacham explores the extremism and racism that have infected our politics, and he draws enlightening lessons from the knowledge that we’ve faced such trials before. We have come through times of fear. We have triumphed over our dark impulses. With compelling narratives of past eras of strife and disenchantment, Meacham offers wisdom for our own time and helps us appreciate the American soul: the heart, the core, and the essence of what it means to have faith in our nation."—Walter Isaacson


Click for more detail about I Am Gandhi: A Graphic Biography of a Hero by Brad Meltzer I Am Gandhi: A Graphic Biography of a Hero

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (May 08, 2018)
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Twenty-five exceptional comic book creators join forces to share the heroic story of Gandhi in this inspiring graphic novel biography.

As a young man in India, Gandhi saw firsthand how people were treated unfairly. Refusing to accept injustice, he came up with a brilliant way to fight back through quiet, peaceful protest. He used his methods in South Africa and India, where he led a nonviolent revolution that freed his country from British rule. Through his calm, steady heroism, Gandhi changed the lives of millions and inspired civil rights movements all over the world, proving that the smallest of us can be the most powerful.

Galvanized by Gandhi’s example of gentle, peaceful activism, New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer asked his friends in the comic book world to help him make a difference by creating this philanthropic graphic novel. Twenty-four illustrators—including many of the most acclaimed artists in comics today—enthusiastically joined the project, agreeing to donate their work so that their royalties can go to Seeds of Peace, a non-profit organization that inspires and cultivates new generations of global leaders. This extraordinary biography is a glorious team effort that truly exemplifies Gandhi’s selflessness and love for humanity.

The illustrators included are: Art Adams, John Cassaday, Jim Cheung, Amanda Connor, Carlos D’Anda, Michael Gaydos, Gene Ha, Stephanie Hans, Bryan Hitch, Phil Jimenez, Siddharth Kotian, David LaFuente, David Mack, Alex Maleev, Francis Manapul, David Marquez, Steve McNiven, Rags Morales, Saumin Patel, Nate Powell, Stephane Roux, Marco Rudy, Kamome Shirahama, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Abhishek Singh.


Click for more detail about Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin

by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin
Random House (May 01, 2018)
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Trayvon Martin’s parents take readers beyond the news cycle with an account only they could give: the intimate story of a tragically foreshortened life and the rise of a movement.

On a February evening in 2012, in a small town in central Florida, seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was walking home with candy and a can of juice in hand and talking on the phone with a friend when a fatal encounter with a gun-wielding neighborhood watchman ended his young life. The watchman was briefly detained by the police and released. Trayvon’s father—a truck driver named Tracy—tried to get answers from the police but was shut down and ignored. Trayvon’s mother, a civil servant for the city of Miami, was paralyzed by the news of her son’s death and lost in mourning, unable to leave her room for days. But in a matter of weeks, their son’s name would be spoken by President Obama, honored by professional athletes, and passionately discussed all over traditional and social media. And at the head of a growing nationwide campaign for justice were Trayvon’s parents, who—driven by their intense love for their lost son—discovered their voices, gathered allies, and launched a movement that would change the country.

Five years after his tragic death, Travyon Martin’s name is still evoked every day. He has become a symbol of social justice activism, as has his hauntingly familiar image: the photo of a child still in the process of becoming a young man, wearing a hoodie and gazing silently at the camera. But who was Trayvon Martin, before he became, in death, an icon? And how did one black child’s death on a dark, rainy street in a small Florida town become the match that lit a civil rights crusade?

Rest in Power, told through the compelling alternating narratives of Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, answers, for the first time, those questions from the most intimate of sources. It’s the story of the beautiful and complex child they lost, the cruel unresponsiveness of the police and the hostility of the legal system, and the inspiring journey they took from grief and pain to power, and from tragedy and senselessness to meaning.

Advance praise for Rest in Power

“Not since Emmitt Till has a parent’s love for a murdered child moved the nation to search its soul about racial injustice and inequality. Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin’s extraordinary witness, indomitable spirit and unwavering demand for change have altered the dynamics of racial justice discourse in this country.  This powerful book illuminates the witness, the grief, and the commitment to reform that Trayvon Martin’s death has mobilized; it is a story fueled by a demand for justice but rooted in love.”—Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy

“As the fifth anniversary of this tragic crime nears, Fulton and Martin share a remarkably candid and deeply affecting in-the-moment chronicle of the explosive aftermath of the murder. Writing in alternate chapters, they share every detail of their shock, grief, and grueling quest for justice… . Given the unconscionable shooting deaths of young black men, many by police, that followed Trayvon’s, this galvanizing testimony from parents who channeled their sorrow into action offers a deeply humanizing perspective on the crisis propelling a national movement.”—Booklist (starred review)


Click for more detail about Brown: Poems by Kevin Young Brown: Poems

by Kevin Young
Knopf (Apr 17, 2018)
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James Brown. John Brown’s raid. Brown v. the Topeka Board of Ed. The prize-winning author of Blue Laws meditates on all things "brown" in this powerful new collection.

Divided into "Home Recordings" and "Field Recordings," Brown speaks to the way personal experience is shaped by culture, while culture is forever affected by the personal, recalling a black Kansas boyhood to comment on our times. From "History"—a song of Kansas high-school fixture Mr. W., who gave his students "the Sixties / minus Malcolm X, or Watts, / barely a march on Washington"—to "Money Road," a sobering pilgrimage to the site of Emmett Till’s lynching, the poems engage place and the past and their intertwined power. These thirty-two taut poems and poetic sequences, including an oratorio based on Mississippi "barkeep, activist, waiter" Booker Wright that was performed at Carnegie Hall and the vibrant sonnet cycle "De La Soul Is Dead," about the days when hip-hop was growing up ("we were black then, not yet / African American"), remind us that blackness and brownness tell an ongoing story. A testament to Young’s own—and our collective—experience, Brown offers beautiful, sustained harmonies from a poet whose wisdom deepens with time.


Click for more detail about Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America by Gregory Pardlo Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America

by Gregory Pardlo
Knopf (Apr 10, 2018)
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From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning poet: an extraordinary memoir and blistering meditation on fatherhood, race, addiction, and ambition.

Gregory Pardlo’s father was a brilliant and charismatic man—a leading labor organizer who presided over a happy suburban family of four. But when he loses his job following the famous air traffic controllers’ strike of 1981, he succumbs to addiction and exhausts the family’s money on more and more ostentatious whims. In the face of this troubling model and disillusioned presence in the household, young Gregory rebels. Struggling to distinguish himself on his own terms, he hustles off to Marine Corps boot camp. He moves across the world, returning to the United States only to take a job as a manager-cum-barfly at his family’s jazz club.

Air Traffic follows Gregory as he builds a life that honors his history without allowing it to define his future. Slowly, he embraces the challenges of being a poet, a son, and a father as he enters recovery for alcoholism and tends to his family. In this memoir, written in lyrical and sparkling prose, Gregory tries to free himself from the overwhelming expectations of race and class, and from the tempting yet ruinous legacy of American masculinity.

Air Traffic is a richly realized, deeply felt ode to one man’s remarkable father, to fatherhood, and to the frustrating yet redemptive ties of family. It is also a scrupulous, searing examination of how manhood can be fashioned in our cultural landscape.


Click for more detail about Meaty: Essays by samantha irby Meaty: Essays

by samantha irby
Vintage (Apr 03, 2018)
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Smart, edgy, hilarious, and unabashedly raunchy New York Times bestselling author Samantha Irby explodes onto the printed page in her uproarious first collection of essays.

Irby laughs her way through tragicomic mishaps, neuroses, and taboos as she struggles through adulthood: chin hairs, depression, bad sex, failed relationships, masturbation, taco feasts, inflammatory bowel disease and more. Updated with her favorite Instagramable, couch-friendly recipes, this much-beloved romp is treat for anyone in dire need of Irby’s infamous, scathing wit and poignant candor.


Click for more detail about Islandborn by Junot Diaz Islandborn

by Junot Diaz
Dial Books for Young Readers (Mar 13, 2018)
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From AALBC.com bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz comes a debut picture book about the magic of memory and the infinite power of the imagination.

Every kid in Lola’s school was from somewhere else.
Hers was a school of faraway places.

An illustration from Islandborn by Leo Espinosa written by Junot Diaz

So when Lola’s teacher asks the students to draw a picture of where their families immigrated from, all the kids are excited. Except Lola. She can’t remember The Island—she left when she was just a baby. But with the help of her family and friends, and their memories—joyous, fantastical, heartbreaking, and frightening—Lola’s imagination takes her on an extraordinary journey back to The Island. As she draws closer to the heart of her family’s story, Lola comes to understand the truth of her abuela’s words: “Just because you don’t remember a place doesn’t mean it’s not in you.”

Gloriously illustrated and lyrically written, Islandborn is a celebration of creativity, diversity, and our imagination’s boundless ability to connect us—to our families, to our past and to ourselves.


Click for more detail about If You Come Softly: Twentieth Anniversary Edition by Jacqueline Woodson If You Come Softly: Twentieth Anniversary Edition

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Mar 06, 2018)
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A lyrical story of star-crossed love perfect for readers of The Hate U Give, by National Ambassador for Children’s Literature Jacqueline Woodson—now celebrating its twentieth anniversary, and including a new preface by the author

Jeremiah feels good inside his own skin. That is, when he’s in his own Brooklyn neighborhood. But now he’s going to be attending a fancy prep school in Manhattan, and black teenage boys don’t exactly fit in there. So it’s a surprise when he meets Ellie the first week of school. In one frozen moment their eyes lock, and after that they know they fit together—even though she’s Jewish and he’s black. Their worlds are so different, but to them that’s not what matters. Too bad the rest of the world has to get in their way.
 
Jacqueline Woodson’s work has been called “moving and resonant” (Wall Street Journal) and “gorgeous” (Vanity Fair). If You Come Softly is a powerful story of interracial love that leaves readers wondering "why" and "if only …"


Click for more detail about The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk The Beauty That Remains

by Ashley Woodfolk
Delacorte Press (Mar 06, 2018)
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Told from three diverse points of view, this story of life and love after loss is one Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give, calls a "stunning, heart-wrenching look at grief that will stay with you long after you put it down."

We’ve lost everything…and found ourselves.

Music brought Autumn, Shay, and Logan together. Death might pull them apart.

Autumn always knew exactly who she was: a talented artist and a loyal friend. Shay was defined by two things: her bond with her twin sister, Sasha, and her love of music. And Logan has always turned to writing love songs when his real love life was a little less than perfect.

But when tragedy strikes each of them, somehow music is no longer enough. Now Logan is a guy who can’t stop watching vlogs of his dead ex-boyfriend. Shay is a music blogger who’s struggling to keep it together. And Autumn sends messages that she knows can never be answered.

Despite the odds, one band’s music will reunite them and prove that after grief, beauty thrives in the people left behind.

Praise for The Beauty That Remains:

A Junior Library Guild Selection

"The self- and life-defining nature of grief and loss captured so well by authors such as John Green is explored here with humor, intelligence, and grace." —SLJ, starred review

"An ambitious debut from a writer to watch."—Kirkus

"[The] protagonists are fully realized, empathetic individuals…and the resolutions of their emotional crises are lucid and deeply satisfying, as, ultimately, is this fine first novel."—Booklist

"This books hurts so good. With three distinct narrators and lyrical prose, Ashley Woodfolk stakes her claim as a fresh new voice to follow in the world of young adult literature."—Julie Murphy, author of Ramona Blue and Dumplin’

"Woodfolk’s debut cuts deeply and then wipes your tears away. Wrenching, heartfelt, and vividly human."—Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

"Haunting, heart-wrenching, and powerful…a tearjerker must-read for teens!"—Dhonielle Clayton, author of the Belles series and coauthor of the Tiny Pretty Things series

"Burns warm and bright with the fires of loss, love, and longing and hums with poetry and song. This is the sort of book that pieces a broken heart back together, stronger than before."—Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King


Click for more detail about Dark Days by James Baldwin Dark Days

by James Baldwin
Penguin Modern (Feb 26, 2018)
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“So the club rose, the blood came down, and his bitterness and his anguish and his guilt were compounded.”

Drawing on his own experiences of prejudice in an America violently divided by race, James Baldwin’s searing essays blend the intensely personal with the political to envisage a better world.

Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Audre Lorde; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York’s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.


Click for more detail about The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House by Audre Lorde The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House

by Audre Lorde
Penguin Modern (Feb 26, 2018)
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From the self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,&rdquo these soaring, urgent essays on the power of women, poetry and anger are filled with darkness and light.

Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York’s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.


Click for more detail about Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power by Howard W. French Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power

by Howard W. French
Vintage (Feb 20, 2018)
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For many years after its reform and opening in 1978, China maintained an attitude of false modesty about its ambitions. That façade, reports former New York Times Asia correspondent Howard French, has now been cast off. China is increasingly asserting its place among the global powers, signaling its plans for pan-Asian dominance by building its navy, increasing territorial claims to areas like the South China Sea, and diplomatically bullying smaller players. Underlying this attitude is the millennia-old concept of tian xia, which held that everything “under the heavens” fell within the influence of the Chinese empire.

If we understand how this historical identity continues to color current actions, in ways ideological, philosophical, and even legal, we can learn to forecast just what kind of global power China stands to become—as the world order is poised to shift. Steeped in deeply researched history and on-the-ground reporting, this is French at his revelatory best.


Click for more detail about Between the Lines by Nikki Grimes Between the Lines

by Nikki Grimes
Nancy Paulsen Books (Feb 13, 2018)
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This thought-provoking companion to Nikki Grimes’ Coretta Scott King Award-winning Bronx Masquerade shows the capacity poetry has to express ideas and feelings, and connect us with ourselves and others.
 
Darrian dreams of writing for the New York Times. To hone his skills and learn more about the power of words, he enrolls in Mr. Ward’s class, known for its open-mic poetry readings and boys vs. girls poetry slam. Everyone in class has something important to say, and in sharing their poetry, they learn that they all face challenges and have a story to tell—whether it’s about health problems, aging out of foster care, being bullied for religious beliefs, or having to take on too much responsibility because of an addicted parent. As Darrian and his classmates get to know one another through poetry, they bond over the shared experiences and truth that emerge from their writing, despite their private struggles and outward differences.


Click for more detail about When God Made Light by Matthew Paul Turner When God Made Light

by Matthew Paul Turner
Convergent Books (Feb 13, 2018)
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From the author and illustrator of the best-selling When God Made You comes a new illuminating message about God’s design affirming young readers.

“Let there be light!” that’s what God said. And light began shining and then started to spread. Wild and creative illustrations from top children’s illustrator David Catrow pair with Matthew Paul Turner’s lyrical verse in this message of a God-made light that cuts through darkness to bring vision and hope to all young readers. This light radiates, chasing away the shadows, providing the wonder and fun of stargazing or firefly chasing. Most important, this light appears in each child—an inner God-given spark that grows and will be used to change the world.


Click for more detail about Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith Feel Free: Essays

by Zadie Smith
Penguin Press (Feb 06, 2018)
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From Zadie Smith, one of the most beloved authors of her generation, a new collection of essays

Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world’s preeminent fiction writers, but also a brilliant and singular essayist. She contributes regularly to The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books on a range of subjects, and each piece of hers is a literary event in its own right.

Arranged into five sections—In the World, In the Audience, In the Gallery, On the Bookshelf, and Feel Free—this new collection poses questions we immediately recognize. What is The Social Network—and Facebook itself—really about? "It’s a cruel portrait of us: 500 million sentient people entrapped in the recent careless thoughts of a Harvard sophomore." Why do we love libraries? "Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay." What will we tell our granddaughters about our collective failure to address global warming? "So I might say to her, look: the thing you have to appreciate is that we’d just been through a century of relativism and deconstruction, in which we were informed that most of our fondest-held principles were either uncertain or simple wishful thinking, and in many areas of our lives we had already been asked to accept that nothing is essential and everything changes—and this had taken the fight out of us somewhat."

Gathering in one place for the first time previously unpublished work, as well as already classic essays, such as, "Joy," and, "Find Your Beach," Feel Free offers a survey of important recent events in culture and politics, as well as Smith’s own life. Equally at home in the world of good books and bad politics, Brooklyn-born rappers and the work of Swiss novelists, she is by turns wry, heartfelt, indignant, and incisive—and never any less than perfect company. This is literary journalism at its zenith.


Click for more detail about Amiable with Big Teeth by Claude McKay Amiable with Big Teeth

by Claude McKay
Penguin Classics (Feb 06, 2018)
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A monumental literary event: the newly discovered final novel by seminal Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay, a rich and multilayered portrayal of life in 1930s Harlem and a historical protest for black freedom
 
The unexpected discovery in 2009 of a completed manuscript of Claude McKay’s final novel was celebrated as one of the most significant literary events in recent years. Building on the already extraordinary legacy of McKay’s life and work, this colorful, dramatic novel centers on the efforts by Harlem intelligentsia to organize support for the liberation of fascist-controlled Ethiopia, a crucial but largely forgotten event in American history. At once a penetrating satire of political machinations in Depression-era Harlem and a far-reaching story of global intrigue and romance, Amiable with Big Teeth plunges into the concerns, anxieties, hopes, and dreams of African-Americans at a moment of crisis for the soul of Harlem—and America.
 
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory The Wedding Date

by Jasmine Guillory
Berkley Books (Jan 30, 2018)
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One of…
• Entertainment Weekly’s “12 Romances for V-Day”
• Cosmopolitan’s “2018 Anticipated Reads”
• Elle’s “2018 Must Reads”
• Harpers Bazaar’s “New January Must Reads”
• The Fug Girls’ “Best Books of the Year”
• Elle UK’s “Books to Get You Through 2018”
• Nylon’s “January Must Reads”
• Hello Giggles’ “New Release Recs”
• Electric Lit’s “Books by WoC to Read in 2018”
• Bitch Media’s “2018 Must Reads”
• BookBub’s “2018 Romance Must Reads”
• Bookriot’s “Must Read 2018 January Releases”
• RetailMeNot’s “2018 Must Reads”

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend…

After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she’s the mayor’s chief of staff. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about the other…

They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long-distance dating disaster of the century—or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want…


Click for more detail about I Am Harriet Tubman by Brad Meltzer I Am Harriet Tubman

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Jan 16, 2018)
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Harriet Tubman’s heroic and pivotal role in the fight against slavery is the subject of the fourteenth picture book in this New York Times bestselling biography series

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero’s childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This volume focuses on Harriet Tubman’s brave heroism as part of the movement to abolish slavery. As one of the key players in the Underground Railroad, she helped enslaved African Americans escape and find freedom.


Click for more detail about Grandma’s Purse by Vanessa Brantley-Newton Grandma’s Purse

by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Jan 09, 2018)
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Spend the day with Mimi and her granddaughter in this charming picture book about the magic found in Mimi’s favorite accessory, perfect for readers who love How to Babysit a Grandma!

When Grandma Mimi comes to visit, she always brings warm hugs, sweet treats…and her purse. You never know what she’ll have in there—fancy jewelry, tokens from around the world, or something special just for her granddaughter. It might look like a normal bag from the outside, but Mimi and her granddaughter know that it’s pure magic!

In this adorable, energetic ode to visits from grandma, beloved picture book creator Vanessa Brantley Newton shows how an ordinary day can become extraordinary.

"Brantley-Newton creates a whimsical interplay of patterns, rich color, and her trademark lively expressions—a beautiful visual mélange. The magic of grandparents is undeniable, and this book is an excellent treat for grandkids to share with their own grandmas and grandpas, or the other way around."—Kirkus


Click for more detail about Love by Matt De La Peña Love

by Matt De La Peña
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jan 09, 2018)
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"[A] poetic reckoning of the importance of love in a child’s life … eloquent and moving."—People

"Everything that can be called love — from shared joy to comfort in the darkness — is gathered in the pages of this reassuring, refreshingly honest picture book."—The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice / Staff Picks From the Book Review

“Lyrical and sensitive, ‘Love’ is the sort of book likely to leave readers of all ages a little tremulous, and brimming with feeling.”—The Wall Street Journal

From Newbery Medal-winning author Matt de la Peña and bestselling illustrator Loren Long comes a story about the strongest bond there is and the diverse and powerful ways it connects us all.

"In the beginning there is light
and two wide-eyed figures standing near the foot of your bed
and the sound of their voices is love.

A cab driver plays love softly on his radio
while you bounce in back with the bumps of the city
and everything smells new, and it smells like life."

In this heartfelt celebration of love, Newbery Medal-winning author Matt de la Peña and bestselling illustrator Loren Long depict the many ways we experience this universal bond, which carries us from the day we are born throughout the years of our childhood and beyond. With a lyrical text that’s soothing and inspiring, this tender tale is a needed comfort and a new classic that will resonate with readers of every age.


Click for more detail about The Middle Passage: White Ships/ Black Cargo by Tom Feelings The Middle Passage: White Ships/ Black Cargo

by Tom Feelings
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 02, 2018)
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Alex Haley’s Roots awakened many Americans to the cruelty of slavery. The Middle Passage focuses attention on the torturous journey which brought slaves from Africa to the Americas, allowing readers to bear witness to the sufferings of an entire people.


Click for more detail about Marvel Black Panther: The Ultimate Guide by DK and Don Mcgregor Marvel Black Panther: The Ultimate Guide

by DK and Don Mcgregor
DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) (Jan 02, 2018)
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Explore the powers, weapons, technology, and suits of the warrior, monarch, scientist, and Super Hero Black Panther, king of Wakanda—from his debut in 1966 to the present.This comprehensive book showcases stunning Black Panther comic artwork and profiles iconic characters, such as T’Challa, and his friends and allies, including Luke Cage, The Falcon, and Storm. Meet the foes, too, like Ulysses Klaw, Erik Killmonger, Doctor Doom, and Sub-Mariner.Packed full of information about Black Panther, the book includes an in-depth look at the characters, key issues, and iconic storylines, spotlighting pivotal moments and story arcs in the history of Black Panther, including "Panther’s Rage," "Doomwar," and "Secret Invasion," and "A Nation Under Our Feet."© 2017 MARVEL


Click for more detail about Legends: The Best Players, Games, and Teams in Basketball by Howard Bryant Legends: The Best Players, Games, and Teams in Basketball

by Howard Bryant
Puffin Books (Dec 26, 2017)
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From Magic Johnson to Michael Jordan to LeBron James to Steph Curry, ESPN’s Howard Bryant presents the best from the hardwood—a collection of NBA champions and superstars for young sports fans! 

Fast-paced, adrenaline-filled, and brimming with out-of-this-world athleticism, basketball has won the hearts of fans all across America—yet it is particularly popular among kids and teens. Giants of the game like Steph Curry, LeBron, and Michael Jordan have transcended the sport to become cultural icons and role models to young fans. From the cornfields of Indiana and the hills of North Carolina, to the urban sprawl of New York City, Chicago and L.A., love of the game stretches from coast to coast.

Featuring Top Ten Lists to chew on and debate, and a Top 40-style Timeline of Key Moments in Basektball History, this comprehensive collection includes the greatest dynasties, from the Bill Russell-era Celtics, to the Magic Jonson-led Lakers, to the Jordan-led Bulls, right up to the Tim Duncan-led Spurs. All the greats take flight toward the hoop in this perfect book for young fans who dream about stepping on an NBA court.

"A trove of awesome athletic feats, game-changing stars of the past and present, and rich fodder for heated arguments."—Booklist

"Hoops fans will find a goldmine of information guaranteed to deepen their basketball knowledge and their understanding of the game."—VOYA 

"An easy hook for serious sports fans."—School Library Journal


Click for more detail about Race Matters by Cornel West Race Matters

by Cornel West
Vintage (Dec 05, 2017)
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The twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of the groundbreaking classic, with a new introduction

Click for a larger image of Race Matters First published in 1993, on the one-year anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, Race Matters became a national best seller that has gone on to sell more than half a million copies. This classic treatise on race contains Dr. West’s most incisive essays on the issues relevant to black Americans, including the crisis in leadership in the Black community, Black conservatism, Black-Jewish relations, myths about Black sexuality, and the legacy of Malcolm X. The insights Dr. West brings to these complex problems remain relevant, provocative, creative, and compassionate.

In a new introduction for the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition, Dr. West argues that we are in the midst of a spiritual blackout characterized by imperial decline, racial animosity, and unchecked brutality and terror as seen in Baltimore, Ferguson, and Charlottesville. Calling for a moral and spiritual awakening, Dr. West finds hope in the collective and visionary resistance exemplified by the Movement for Black Lives, Standing Rock, and the Black freedom tradition.

Now more than ever, Race Matters is an essential book for all Americans, helping us to build a genuine multiracial democracy in the new millennium.

Original Description: “…the groundbreaking classic Race Matters affirms its position as the bestselling, most influential, and most original articulation of the urgent issues in America?s ongoing racial debate.

Cornel West is at the forefront of thinking about race. In Race Matters he addresses a range of issues, from the crisis in black leadership and the myths surrounding black sexuality to affirmative action, the new black conservatism, and the strained relations between Jews and African Americans. He never hesitates to confront the prejudices of all his readers?or wavers in his insistence that they share a common destiny. Bold in its thought and written with a redemptive passion grounded in the tradition of the African-American church, Race Matters is a book that is at once challenging and deeply healing.”

Book Review

Click for more detail about Higher Is Waiting by Tyler Perry Higher Is Waiting

by Tyler Perry
Spiegel & Grau (Nov 14, 2017)
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An intimate book of inspiration by one of the great cultural icons of our time
 
Higher Is Waiting is a spiritual guidebook, a collection of teachings culled from the experiences of a lifetime, meant to inspire readers to climb higher in their own lives and pull themselves up to a better, more fulfilling place. In this intimate book, Tyler Perry writes of how his faith has sustained him in hard times, centered him in good times, and enriched his life.
 
Beginning with his earliest memories of growing up a shy boy in New Orleans, Perry recalls the moments of grace and beauty in a childhood marked by brutality, deprivation, and fear. With tenderness he sketches portraits of the people who sustained him and taught him indelible lessons about integrity, trust in God, and the power of forgiveness: his aunt Mae, who cared for her grandfather, who was born a slave, and sewed quilts that told a story of generations; Mr. Butler, a blind man of remarkable dignity and elegance, who sold penny candies on a street corner; and his beloved mother, Maxine, who endured abuse, financial hardship, and the daily injustices of growing up in the Jim Crow South yet whose fierce love for her son burned bright and never dimmed. Perry writes of how he nurtured his dreams and discovered solace in nature, and of his resolute determination to reach ever higher.
 
Perry vividly and movingly describes his growing awareness of God’s presence in his life, how he learned to tune in to His voice, to persevere through hard times, and to choose faith over fear. Here he is: the devoted son, the loving father, the steadfast friend, the naturalist, the philanthropist, the creative spirit—a man whose life lessons and insights into scripture are a gift offered with generosity, humility, and love.


Click for more detail about Ordinary People Change the World Sticker Activity Book by Brad Meltzer Ordinary People Change the World Sticker Activity Book

by Brad Meltzer
Grosset & Dunlap (Nov 07, 2017)
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Fans of the New York Times best-selling series can find out what makes a hero with puzzles, mazes, quizzes, and brain-busting challenges.

Based on Brad Meltzer’s series about historical figures from Martin Luther King Jr. to Sacagawea, this activity book features favorites from the Ordinary People Change the World series. Learn new facts, test your knowledge, and go head-to-head with history’s greatest minds—all with the beautiful and fun art of Christopher Eliopoulos alongside the interactive and challenging activities.


Click for more detail about Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi Beasts Made of Night

by Tochi Onyebuchi
Razorbill (Oct 31, 2017)
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"…The beginning of a great saga…" —NPR.org

"This compelling Nigerian-influenced fantasy has a wonderfully unique premise and lush, brilliant worldbuilding that will consume you until the last page."—Buzzfeed

"…Unforgettable in its darkness, inequality, and magic." —VOYA, Starred Review

"…A paean to an emerging black legend."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

Black Panther meets Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch in Beasts Made of Night, the first book in an epic fantasy duology.

In the walled city of Kos, corrupt mages can magically call forth sin from a sinner in the form of sin-beasts—lethal creatures spawned from feelings of guilt. Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj’s livelihood comes at a terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are driven mad by the process, but Taj is cocky and desperate to provide for his family.

When Taj is called to eat a sin of a member of the royal family, he’s suddenly thrust into the center of a dark conspiracy to destroy Kos. Now Taj must fight to save the princess that he loves—and his own life.

Debut author Tochi Onyebuchi delivers an unforgettable series opener that powerfully explores the true meaning of justice and guilt. Packed with dark magic and thrilling action, Beasts Made of Night is a gritty Nigerian-influenced fantasy perfect for fans of Paolo Bacigalupi and Nnedi Okorafor.

iBooks Most Anticipated YA Books of the Fall
io9’s All the Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Keep On Your Radar This Fall
BuzzFeed’s 22 YA Novels You’ll Want To Read From Cover To Cover This Fall
A 2017 BookExpo Buzz Book
A Junior Library Guild Selection


Click for more detail about 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Pantheon Books (Oct 24, 2017)
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The first edition of Joel Augustus Rogers’s now legendary 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof, published in 1957, was billed as “A Negro ‘Believe It or Not.’” Rogers’s little book was priceless because he was delivering enlightenment and pride, steeped in historical research, to a people too long starved on the lie that they were worth nothing. For African Americans of the Jim Crow era, Rogers’s was their first black history teacher. But Rogers was not always shy about embellishing the “facts” and minimizing ambiguity; neither was he above shock journalism now and then.
 
With élan and erudition—and with winning enthusiasm—Henry Louis Gates, Jr. gives us a corrective yet loving homage to Roger’s work. Relying on the latest scholarship, Gates leads us on a romp through African, diasporic, and African-American history in question-and-answer format. Among the one hundred questions: Who were Africa’s first ambassadors to Europe? Who was the first black president in North America? Did Lincoln really free the slaves? Who was history’s wealthiest person? What percentage of white Americans have recent African ancestry? Why did free black people living in the South before the end of the Civil War stay there? Who was the first black head of state in modern Western history? Where was the first Underground Railroad? Who was the first black American woman to be a self-made millionaire? Which black man made many of our favorite household products better?
 
Here is a surprising, inspiring, sometimes boldly mischievous—all the while highly instructive and entertaining—compendium of historical curiosities intended to illuminate the sheer complexity and diversity of being “Negro” in the world.

(With full-color illustrations throughout.)


Click for more detail about Dear Martin by Nic Stone Dear Martin

by Nic Stone
Crown Books for Young Readers (Oct 17, 2017)
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"Raw and gripping." —Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling coauthor of All American Boys

A must-read!” —Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give

Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers as she boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning debut.

Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can’t escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates.

Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.

Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it’s Justyce who is under attack.


Click for more detail about The Mothers: A Novel by Brit Bennett The Mothers: A Novel

by Brit Bennett
Riverhead Books (Oct 10, 2017)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Fantastic… a book that feels alive on the page.” —The Washington Post

A dazzling debut novel from an exciting new voice, The Mothers is a surprising story about young love, a big secret in a small community—and the things that ultimately haunt us most.

Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, Brit Bennett’s mesmerizing first novel is an emotionally perceptive story about community, love, and ambition. It begins with a secret.

"All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we’d taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season."

It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother’s recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor’s son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting tables at a diner. They are young; it’s not serious. But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance—and the subsequent cover-up—will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth. As Nadia hides her secret from everyone, including Aubrey, her God-fearing best friend, the years move quickly. Soon, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey are full-fledged adults and still living in debt to the choices they made that one seaside summer, caught in a love triangle they must carefully maneuver, and dogged by the constant, nagging question: What if they had chosen differently? The possibilities of the road not taken are a relentless haunt.

In entrancing, lyrical prose, The Mothers asks whether a "what if" can be more powerful than an experience itself. If, as time passes, we must always live in servitude to the decisions of our younger selves, to the communities that have parented us, and to the decisions we make that shape our lives forever.


Click for more detail about Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together by Van Jones Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together

by Van Jones
Ballantine Books (Oct 10, 2017)
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A passionate manifesto that exposes hypocrisy on both sides of the political divide and points a way out of the tribalism that is tearing America apart—by the CNN political contributor and host hailed as “a star of the 2016 campaign” (The New York Times) who coined the term “whitelash”

Van Jones burst into the American consciousness during the 2016 presidential campaign with an unscripted, truth-telling style and an already established history of bridge-building across party lines. His election night commentary became a viral sensation. A longtime progressive activist with deep roots in the conservative South, Jones has made it his mission to challenge voters and viewers to stand in one another’s shoes and disagree constructively.

Now, in Beyond the Messy Truth, Jones offers a blueprint for transforming our collective anxiety into meaningful change. Tough on Donald Trump but showing respect and empathy for his supporters, Jones takes aim at the failures of both parties before and after Trump’s victory. He urges both sides to abandon the politics of accusation and focus on real solutions. Calling us to a deeper patriotism, he shows us how to get down to the vital business of solving, together, some of our toughest problems.

“The entire national conversation today can be reduced to a simple statement—‘I’m right, and you’re wrong,’” Jones has said. But the truth is messier; both sides have flaws. Both parties have strayed from their highest principles and let down their core constituencies. Rejecting today’s political tribalism, Jones issues a stirring call for a new “bipartisanship from below.” Recognizing that tough challenges require the best wisdom from both liberals and conservatives, he points us toward practical answers to problems that affect us all regardless of region or ideology: rural and inner-city poverty, unemployment, addiction, unfair incarceration, and the devastating effects of the pollution-based economy on both coal country and our urban centers. 

In explaining how he arrived at his views, Jones shares behind-the-scenes memories from his decades spent marching and protesting on behalf of working people, inspiring stories of ordinary citizens who became champions of their communities, and little-known examples of cooperation that have risen from the fog of partisan conflict. In his quest for positive solutions, Van Jones encourages us to set fire to our old ways of thinking about politics and come together where the pain is greatest.

Advance praise for Beyond the Messy Truth

“Part manifesto, part manual for activism, [Beyond the Messy Truth] is enlivened by case histories and personal anecdotes that serve as support for the author’s assertions… . The author proposes common projects that may bring opposing sides together … [and] offers concrete suggestions to revive democracy, heal culture wars, and prevent a Trump victory in 2020.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Van Jones is a light in the darkness when we need it most. Beyond the Messy Truth breaks with the tribalism of today’s politics and offers us a way forward. In the tradition of the great bridge builders of our past, Van’s love for this country and all its people shines through.”—Cory Booker, U.S. senator, New Jersey

Includes an invaluable resource of contacts, books, media, and organizations for bipartisan bridge-building and problem solving.


Click for more detail about Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor Akata Warrior

by Nnedi Okorafor
Viking Books for Young Readers (Oct 03, 2017)
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The long-awaited sequel to the genre-breaking Akata Witch by multiple award-winner Nnedi Okorafor!

“The most imaginative, gripping, enchanting fantasy novels I have ever read!” —Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of Speak

A year ago, Sunny Nwazue, an American-born girl Nigerian girl, was inducted into the secret Leopard Society. As she began to develop her magical powers, Sunny learned that she had been chosen to lead a dangerous mission to avert an apocalypse, brought about by the terrifying masquerade, Ekwensu. Now, stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny is studying with her mentor Sugar Cream and struggling to unlock the secrets in her strange Nsibidi book.

Eventually, Sunny knows she must confront her destiny. With the support of her Leopard Society friends, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha, and of her spirit face, Anyanwu, she will travel through worlds both visible and invisible to the mysteries town of Osisi, where she will fight a climactic battle to save humanity.

Much-honored Nnedi Okorafor, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, merges today’s Nigeria with a unique world she creates. Akata Warrior blends mythology, fantasy, history and magic into a compelling tale that will keep readers spellbound.


Click for more detail about We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy

by Ta-Nehisi Coates
One World (Oct 03, 2017)
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A sweeping collection of new and selected essays on the Obama era by the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me

Huit ans au pouvoir by Ta-Nehisi Coates Coates chose to publish the French edition of We Were Eight Years in Power with the the oldest independent Black owned publisher in the world, Présence Africaine Editions.
We were eight years in power was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. Now Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.”

But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. This book also examines the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period—and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history. Coates powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from his intimate and revealing perspective—the point of view of a young writer who begins the journey in an unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office, interviewing a president.

We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic essays first published in The Atlantic, including “Fear of a Black President,” “The Case for Reparations,” and “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates’s own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, capped by a bracingly original assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America, from one of the definitive voices of this historic moment.


Click for more detail about I Am Sacagawea by Brad Meltzer I Am Sacagawea

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Oct 03, 2017)
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Sacagawea, the only Native American included in Lewis and Clark’s historic expedition, joins the inspiring list of heroes whose stories are told in this New York Times Bestselling biography series.

Sacagawea was the only girl, and the only Native American, to join Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery, which explored the United States from the Mississippi River all the way to the Pacific Ocean in the early 1800s. As a translator, she helped the team communicate with members of the Shoshone tribe across the continent, carrying her child on her back the whole way. By the time the expedition arrived at the west coast, Sacagawea had proved that she truly was a trailblazer.

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero’s childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos.


Click for more detail about Five-Carat Soul by James McBride Five-Carat Soul

by James McBride
Knopf (Sep 26, 2017)
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Humorous, “feel good” new fiction from James McBride, the first since The Good Lord Bird, one of the bestselling, most critically acclaimed books on AALBC.com.

The previously unpublished stories in Five-Carat Soul spring from the place where identity, humanity, and history converge. They’re funny and poignant, insightful and unpredictable, imaginative and authentic—all told with McBride’s unrivaled storytelling skill and meticulous eye for character and detail. McBride explores the ways we learn from the world and the people around us. An antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War General Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens. Five strangers find themselves thrown together and face unexpected judgment. An American president draws inspiration from a conversation he overhears in a stable. And members of The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band recount stories from their own messy and hilarious lives.

As McBride did in his National Book award-winning The Good Lord Bird and his bestselling The Color of Water, he writes with humor and insight about how we struggle to understand who we are in a world we don’t fully comprehend. The result is a surprising, perceptive, and evocative collection of stories that is also a moving exploration of our human condition.


Click for more detail about The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore The Stars Beneath Our Feet

by David Barclay Moore
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Sep 19, 2017)
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A boy tries to steer a safe path through the projects in Harlem in the wake of his brother’s death in this outstanding debut novel that’s been described as a “fast and furious read in which we meet some amazing people, people that stay with us” by Newbery Honor and National Book Award–winning author Jacqueline Woodson.

It’s Christmas Eve in Harlem, but twelve-year-old Lolly Rachpaul and his mom aren’t celebrating. They’re still reeling from his older brother’s death in a gang-related shooting just a few months earlier. Then Lolly’s mother’s girlfriend brings him a gift that will change everything: two enormous bags filled with Legos. Lolly’s always loved Legos, and he prides himself on following the kit instructions exactly. Now, faced with a pile of building blocks and no instructions, Lolly must find his own way forward.
 
His path isn’t clear—and the pressure to join a “crew,” as his brother did, is always there. When Lolly and his friend are beaten up and robbed, joining a crew almost seems like the safe choice. But building a fantastical Lego city at the community center provides Lolly with an escape—and an unexpected bridge back to the world. 
 
David Barclay Moore paints a powerful portrait of a boy teetering on the edge—of adolescence, of grief, of violence—and shows how Lolly’s inventive spirit helps him build a life with firm foundations and open doors.
 
Advance praise:
“The Stars Beneath Our Feet is the book I’ve been waiting for. Rarely do you see this side of New York rendered so authentically and generously. So much heart here. And so much talent.” —Matt de la Peña, Newbery Award–winning author of Last Stop on Market Street
 
“The Stars Beneath Our Feet is a fast and furious read in which we meet some amazing people, people that stay with us. David Barclay Moore is an exciting new voice. We definitely haven’t heard the last of his brilliance.” —Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor and National Book Award–winning of Brown Girl Dreaming

“The Stars Beneath Our Feet is about the weight of the world on the back of a child, and the creative tools necessary to alleviate that pressure. I found myself rooting for Lolly, and you will too.” —Jason Reynolds, Coretta Scott King Honor Winner for As Brave As You


Click for more detail about Rock Star #1 by Kelly Starling Lyons Rock Star #1

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Penguin Workshop (Sep 19, 2017)
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Fans of Princess Posey and Ivy and Bean will enjoy engaging with science-loving Jada Jones in this easy-to-read chapter book. When Jada Jones’s best friend moves away, school feels like the last place she wants to be. She’d much rather wander outside looking for cool rocks to add to her collection, since finding rocks is much easier than finding friends. So when Jada’s teacher announces a class project on rocks and minerals, Jada finally feels like she’s in her element. The only problem: one of her teammates doesn’t seem to like any of Jada’s ideas. She doesn’t seem to like Jada all that much, either. Can Jada figure out a way to make a winning science project and a new friend? The early chapter book bridges between leveled readers and chapter books for fluent readers adjusting to the chapter book format. At about 5,000 words, with short chapters and two-color art on almost every page, it will appeal to this unique reader. The two-color art throughout will help readers transition from the familiar four-color art of leveled readers and ease them into black-and-white chapter books.


Click for more detail about Class ACT #2 by Kelly Starling Lyons Class ACT #2

by Kelly Starling Lyons
Penguin Workshop (Sep 19, 2017)
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Fans of Princess Posey and Ivy and Bean will enjoy rooting for Jada Jones as she runs for student council in this easy-to-read chapter book. As a candidate for class representative, Jada is ready to give the campaign her all. But when rumors start to fly about her secret fear of public speaking, she isn’t sure who she can trust. And the pressure to make promises she can’t keep only adds to her growing list of problems. Is winning even worth it when friendships are on the line? This easy-to-read story—with plenty of pictures and a charming, relatable cast of characters—is a sure winner. The early chapter book bridges between leveled readers and chapter books for fluent readers adjusting to the chapter book format. At about 5,000 words, with short chapters and two-color art on almost every page, it will appeal to this unique reader. The two-color art throughout will help readers transition from the familiar four-color art of leveled readers and ease them into black-and-white chapter books.


Click for more detail about The Tragedy of Brady Sims by Ernest Gaines The Tragedy of Brady Sims

by Ernest Gaines
Vintage (Aug 29, 2017)
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Ernest J. Gaines’s new novella revolves around a courthouse shooting that leads a young reporter to uncover the long story of race and power in his small town and the relationship between the white sheriff and the black man who "whipped children" to keep order.
After Brady Sims pulls out a gun in a courtroom and shoots his own son, who has just been convicted of robbery and murder, he asks only to be allowed two hours before he’ll give himself up to the sheriff. When the editor of the local newspaper asks his cub reporter to dig up a "human interest" story about Brady, he heads for the town’s barbershop. It is the barbers and the regulars who hang out there who narrate with empathy, sadness, humor, and a profound understanding the life story of Brady Sims—an honorable, just, and unsparing man who with his tough love had been handed the task of keeping the black children of Bayonne, Louisiana in line to protect them from the unjust world in which they lived. And when his own son makes a fateful mistake, it is up to Brady to carry out the necessary reckoning. In the telling, we learn the story of a small southern town, divided by race, and the black community struggling to survive even as many of its inhabitants head off northwards during the Great Migration.


Click for more detail about Who Are Venus and Serena Williams? by James Buckley Jr. Who Are Venus and Serena Williams?

by James Buckley Jr.
Grosset & Dunlap (Aug 08, 2017)
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The dynamic story of the Williams sisters, both top-ranked professional tennis players.

Venus and Serena Williams are two of the most successful professional American tennis players of all time. Coached at an early age by their parents, the sisters have both gone on to become Grand Slam title winners.  They have both achieved the World Number One ranking in both singles and doubles! Although completely professional and fiercely competitive, the sisters remain close. Who Are Venus and Serena Williams? follows the pair from their early days of training up through the ranks and to the Summer Olympic Games, where they have each won four gold medals—more than any other tennis players.

This title in the New York Times best-selling series has eighty illustrations that help bring the exciting story of tennis champs Venus and Serena Williams to life.


Click for more detail about New People by Danzy Senna New People

by Danzy Senna
Riverhead Books (Aug 01, 2017)
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Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND TIME MAGAZINE

Named A 2017 BEST SUMMER READ BY

Vogue • Elle • Harper’s Bazaar • Glamour • Buzzfeed • In Style • Men’s Journal • Bustle • Ms. Magazine • Pop Sugar • Newsday • The Millions • Time Out • Bitch • CNN’s The Lead • The Fader

"[A] cutting take on race and class…part dark comedy, part surreal morality tale. Disturbing and delicious." -People

"You’ll gulp Senna’s novel in a single sitting—but then mull over it for days.” –Entertainment Weekly

"Everyone should read it." –Vogue

From the bestselling author of Caucasia, a subversive and engrossing novel of race, class and manners in contemporary America.

As the twentieth century draws to a close, Maria is at the start of a life she never thought possible. She and Khalil, her college sweetheart, are planning their wedding. They are the perfect couple, "King and Queen of the Racially Nebulous Prom." Their skin is the same shade of beige. They live together in a black bohemian enclave in Brooklyn, where Khalil is riding the wave of the first dot-com boom and Maria is plugging away at her dissertation, on the Jonestown massacre. They’ve even landed a starring role in a documentary about "new people" like them, who are blurring the old boundaries as a brave new era dawns. Everything Maria knows she should want lies before her—yet she can’t stop daydreaming about another man, a poet she barely knows. As fantasy escalates to fixation, it dredges up secrets from the past and threatens to unravel not only Maria’s perfect new life but her very persona.

Heartbreaking and darkly comic, New People is a bold and unfettered page-turner that challenges our every assumption about how we define one another, and ourselves.


Click for more detail about What We Lose: A Novel by Zinzi Clemmons What We Lose: A Novel

by Zinzi Clemmons
Viking Books (Jul 11, 2017)
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A National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree

“The debut novel of the year.” —Vogue

“A richly volatile study of grief, wonderment and love.” —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

“A startling, poignant debut.” —The Atlantic

“Raw and ravishing, this novel pulses with vulnerability and shimmering anger.” —Nicole Dennis-Benn, O, the Oprah Magazine

“Stunning… . Powerfully moving and beautifully wrought, What We Lose reflects on family, love, loss, race, womanhood, and the places we feel home.” —Buzzfeed

“Remember this name: Zinzi Clemmons. Long may she thrill us with exquisite works like What We Lose… . The book is a remarkable journey.” —Essence

From an author of rare, haunting power, a stunning novel about a young African-American woman coming of age—a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, family, and country

Raised in Pennsylvania, Thandi views the world of her mother’s childhood in Johannesburg as both impossibly distant and ever present. She is an outsider wherever she goes, caught between being black and white, American and not. She tries to connect these dislocated pieces of her life, and as her mother succumbs to cancer, Thandi searches for an anchor—someone, or something, to love.

In arresting and unsettling prose, we watch Thandi’s life unfold, from losing her mother and learning to live without the person who has most profoundly shaped her existence, to her own encounters with romance and unexpected motherhood. Through exquisite and emotional vignettes, Clemmons creates a stunning portrayal of what it means to choose to live, after loss. An elegiac distillation, at once intellectual and visceral, of a young woman’s understanding of absence and identity that spans continents and decades, What We Lose heralds the arrival of a virtuosic new voice in fiction.

One of the New York Times, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Redbook, Marie Claire, Essence, Houston Chronicle, LA Daily News, Nylon, and Elle’s Books to Read This Summer


Click for more detail about Blind Spot by Teju Cole Blind Spot

by Teju Cole
Random House (Jun 13, 2017)
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“To look is to see only a fraction of what one is looking at. Even in the most vigilant eye, there is a blind spot. What is missing?”

When it comes to Teju Cole, the unexpected is not unfamiliar: He’s an acclaimed novelist, an influential essayist, and an internationally exhibited photographer. In Blind Spot, readers follow Cole’s inimitable artistic vision into the visual realm as he continues to refine the voice, eye, and intellectual obsessions that earned him such acclaim for Open City.

Here, journey through more than 150 of Cole’s full-color, original photos, each accompanied by his lyrical and evocative prose, forming a multimedia diary of years of near-constant travel: from a park in Berlin to a mountain range in Switzerland, a church exterior in Lagos to a parking lot in Brooklyn; landscapes, beautiful or quotidian, that inspire Cole’s memories, fantasies, and introspections. Ships in Capri remind him of the work of writers from Homer to Edna O’Brien; a hotel room in Wannsee brings back a disturbing dream about a friend’s death; a home in Tivoli evokes a transformative period of semi-blindness, after which "the photography changed… The looking changed." As exquisitely wrought as the work of Anne Carson or Chris Marker, Blind Spot is a testament to the art of seeing by one of the most powerful and original voices in contemporary literature.

Praise for Blind Spot

“[Teju] Cole’s fiction and essays are incredible, unexpected, and beautiful; he’s also a spectacular photographer. His first collection of photographs, each image accompanied by his stunning prose, promises to show us the world through his eyes, which always seem to see things in a brilliant new light.”—Lisa Lucas, National Book Foundation

“Once you get a taste of [Cole’s] writing, you can quickly (and hungrily) burn through what’s available. Thankfully, Blind Spot will indulge the senses by combining both of Cole’s loves in this … full-color collection of Cole’s photos, accompanied by his prose.”—The Week

“Many artists have felt the lure of juxtaposing photographs and text, but few have succeeded as well as Teju Cole. He approaches this problem with an understanding of the limitations and glories of each medium.”—Stephen Shore, author of Uncommon Places

Praise for Teju Cole

“The places [Teju Cole] can go, you feel, are just about limitless.”—The New York Times

“[Cole is] one of the most vibrant voices in contemporary writing.”—LA Times

“There’s almost no subject Cole can’t come at from a startling angle… . His [is a] prickly, eclectic, roaming mind.”—The Boston Globe

“To read, see, and travel with him is to be changed by the questions that challenge him.”—Publishers Weekly

“In following [Cole’s] wanderings, I have often a sense of beholding something more delicate … but also more ordinary and more heartbreaking than the eye can typically bear. [His] photographs … insist on intimacy, transparency, confrontation.”—Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go


Click for more detail about The Changeling: A Novel by Victor Lavalle The Changeling: A Novel

by Victor Lavalle
Spiegel & Grau (Jun 13, 2017)
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“If the literary gods mixed together Haruki Murakami and Ralph Ellison, the result would be Victor LaValle.”—Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See

“A dark fairy tale of New York, full of magic and loss, myth and mystery, love and madness. The Changeling is a mesmerizing, monumental work.”—Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

One of Time’s Top 10 Novels of the Year

When Apollo Kagwa’s father disappeared, all he left his son were strange recurring dreams and a box of books stamped with the word IMPROBABILIA. Now Apollo is a father himself—and as he and his wife, Emma, are settling into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo’s old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd. Irritable and disconnected from their new baby boy, at first Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression, but it quickly becomes clear that her troubles go even deeper. Before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act—beyond any parent’s comprehension—and vanishes, seemingly into thin air.

Thus begins Apollo’s odyssey through a world he only thought he understood, to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His quest, which begins when he meets a mysterious stranger who claims to have information about Emma’s whereabouts, takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.

This captivating retelling of a classic fairy tale imaginatively explores parental obsession, spousal love, and the secrets that make strangers out of the people we love the most. It’s a thrilling and emotionally devastating journey through the gruesome legacies that threaten to devour us and the homely, messy magic that saves us, if we’re lucky.

“LaValle’s haunting tale weaves a mesmerizing web around fatherhood, racism, horrific anxieties and even To Kill a Mockingbird.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Like a woke Brothers Grimm, his clever new spin on the ages-old changeling myth is a modern fairy tale for the Trump era.”—USA Today (four out of four stars)

“Victor LaValle’s fabulist ode to fatherhood and fairy tales offers a new take on themes as old as time.”—O: The Oprah Magazine


Click for more detail about Muhammad Ali: The Greatest Coloring Book of All Time by Darius James Muhammad Ali: The Greatest Coloring Book of All Time

by Darius James
Ace Books (Jun 06, 2017)
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Noted author Darius James introduces and edits the Spring 2017 editions of the Feral House Coloring Book for Adults Series. As author of the classics That’s Blaxploitation and Negrophobia: An Urban Parable, James is the perfect person to co-curate the volume created in honor of Ali.

As Darius says of Ali: “Just as he was for many Americans, Muhammad Ali’s appearance on the cultural landscape was a turning point in my life. The moment he proclaimed ’I am the greatest,’ he demonstrated it was possible to speak truth to power. This is a quality Ali reflected throughout his life.”


Click for more detail about We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.: Essays by samantha irby We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.: Essays

by samantha irby
Vintage (May 30, 2017)
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A New York Times Critics Top Book of 2017

"The second book of essays from this frank and madly funny blogger…. A sidesplitting polemicist for the most awful situations."—Janet Maslin, The New York Times, Summer Reading Pick

"A memoir of the life of a sardonic, at times awkward, at times depressed black woman with Crohn’s (an inflammatory-bowel disease) and degenerative arthritis…. Her acerbic, raw honesty on the page — often punctuated with all-caps comic parenthetical asides — unflinchingly recounts experiences such as the humiliating intrusion of explosive diarrhea on romantic and borderline-romantic interludes." —Kera Bolonik, New York Magazine

"Irby is one of our country’s most fierce and foulmouthed authors, whose literary takes on sex, family, and the body are unique in their comedic resonance and full gut-punch power. The best thing about this book, and all of her writing, is that the reader is made to feel like they are taking a master class from their best friend, and you feel right at home with Irby’s stories and points of view while also being completely in awe of her craft and wit." —Amber Tamblyn, Vulture

"Irby…is so authentic, entertaining, and fearless, funny seems too concise a word to describe stepping inside her thoughts for a couple hundred pages. Her writing is both confident and self-deprecating and will strike readers in that perfectly relatable space between glorious confidence and average self-doubt. Essays about how much she despises her cat and an ill-timed gastronomical adventure are mind-blowingly hilarious, as are her musings on the great outdoors, her hypothetical Bachelor application, and Zumba. Other pieces, especially those involving her mostly-absent alcoholic father and her mother’s battle with multiple sclerosis are so vulnerable and fearless that they’ll stop you in your tracks. Irby doesn’t shy away from anything, and her brand of honesty is the kind that can inspire new writers and attract legions of loyal readers dying to meet her in real life." —Molly Labell, BUST

"Essayist Samantha Irby is my very favorite sort of writer: stunningly direct, wildly hilarious, breathtakingly honest and, best of all, imminently relatable."—Heidi Stevens, Chicago Tribune

"From the blogger behind Bitches Gotta Eat comes a seriocomic essay collection that will have you crying from laughter and then just crying. A boisterous medley of awkward sex, pop culture obsession and coming-of-age."—Oprah.com

"A nearly perfect collection of essays: Irby is hilarious and poignant and human, and she knows how to tell a damn good story."—A.V. Club

"Turn off the TV, let the dishes pile up, pull on your most comfy pair of sweats and settle into your reading chair. You’re going to be there awhile."—Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

"I love Samantha Irby’s writing…. Read the whole thing."—The Billfold

"Besides having one of the season’s best covers…Irby’s new collection of essays is an often riotously funny, unflinching, and never not provocative look into her life. Irby tackles difficult topics, like her estrangement from her father and how growing up in poverty has lifelong repercussions, including making it impossible to understand how to do things like ’save for a rainy day.’…. Irby writes about the ways in which our society is so focused on aspirational living, that it neglects the people who are just trying to survive. But the book is never preachy, rather it is skillful in its ability to reveal the essential realities of how so many of us live and dream and hope and fail, in ways that are inimitably our own."—NYLON

"Samantha Irby is my favorite living writer. Actually, I’ll throw in the dead ones too. Screw you, Herman Melville." —Lindy West, author of Shrill

"Reading Samantha Irby’s We Are Never Meeting In Real Life cracked my heart all the way open. The essays in this outstanding collection are full of her signature humor, wit, and charming self-deprecation but there is so much more to her writing. For every laugh, there is a bittersweet moment that could make you cry. From black women and mental health to the legacies created by poverty to dating while living in an all too human body, Irby lays bare the beautiful, uncompromising truths of her life. I cannot remember the last time I was so moved by a book. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life is as close to perfect as an essay collection can get." —Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Difficult Women and Bad Feminist

"This book didn’t make me laugh out loud. It made me laugh silently, wheezing and crying, until my sides ached." —Rainbow Rowell, New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park

"Sometimes Samantha Irby’s writing will make you want to hug her. Sometimes it will make you want to be hugged by her. Sometimes it will make you want to lock her in your closet so you might take credit for this hysterical, honest and authentic book. The last one might just be me." -Jenny Lawson, "The Bloggess" and bestselling author of Furiously Happy

"Get ready to do that thing where you go from laughing hysterically to sobbing uncontrollably, because those two emotional states have never been closer. Irby’s writing—about sex, death, disability, garlic scapes—is so relentlessly funny, the gravity and deeply generous vulnerability of it can sneak up on you."—Kate Harding, author of Asking for It

"There is simply no one like Samantha Irby. Reading her is emotional whiplash; you are crying laughing and then crying and then so deeply moved that you don’t know what you are. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life is life as written by blood and viscera and fluids and heart, a near to bursting bright red, beating throbbing fighting heart. If the world is a dumpster fire, then this book is the cache of fireworks that shoots out of the flames and lights up the night. You’re shocked and kind of worried for your well-being, but you’re also laughing too hard to do anything about it." —Lindsay Hunter, author of Ugly Girls


Click for more detail about Augustown: A Novel by Kei Miller Augustown: A Novel

by Kei Miller
Pantheon Books (May 23, 2017)
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11 April 1982: a smell is coming down John Golding Road right alongside the boy-child, something attached to him, like a spirit but not quite. Ma Taffy is growing worried. She knows that something is going to happen. Something terrible is going to pour out into the world. But if she can hold it off for just a little bit longer, she will. So she asks a question that surprises herself even as she asks it, "Kaia, I ever tell you bout the flying preacherman?"

Set in the backlands of Jamaica, Augustown is a magical and haunting novel of one woman’s struggle to rise above the brutal vicissitudes of history, race, class, collective memory, violence, and myth.


Click for more detail about Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell

by W. Kamau Bell
Dutton (May 02, 2017)
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“I am excited to announce my first book, The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6’ 4", African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian, is going to be released on May 2nd!”

“The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell of W. Kamau Bell’ is my humorous take on the world today. In the book, I tackle a wide range of issues, such as race relations; fatherhood; the state of law enforcement today; comedians and superheroes; right-wing politics; failure; my interracial marriage; my upbringing by very strong-willed, race-conscious, yet ideologically opposite parents; my early days struggling to find my comedic voice, then my later days struggling to find my comedic voice; why I never seemed to fit in with the Black comedy scene…or the white comedy scene; how I was a Black nerd way before that became a thing; how it took my wife and an East Bay lesbian to teach me that racism and sexism often walk hand in hand; and much, much more.”


Click for more detail about Yassmin’s Story by Yassmin Abdel-Magied Yassmin’s Story

by Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Vintage Australia (May 01, 2017)
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Frank, fearless, funny, articulate, and inspiring, Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a young Muslim dynamo offering a bracing breath of fresh air—and hope.

At 21, Yassmin found herself working on a remote Australian oil and gas rig; she was the only woman and certainly the only Sudanese-Egyptian-Australian background Muslim woman. With her hijab quickly christened a "tea cosy," there could not be a more unlikely place on earth for a young Muslim woman to want to be.

This is the story of how she got there, where she is going, and how she wants the world to change. Born in the Sudan, Yassmin and her parents moved to Brisbane when she was two, and she has been tackling barriers ever since. At 16 she founded Youth Without Borders, an organization focused on helping young people to work for positive change in their communities. In 2007 she was named Young Australian Muslim of the Year and in 2010 Young Queenslander of the Year.

In 2011 Yassmin graduated with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (First Class Honours) and in 2012 she was named Young Leader of the Year in the Australian Financial Review and Westpac’s inaugural 100 Women of Influence Awards, as well as an InStyle cultural leader and a Marie Claire woman of the future. Yassmin has now been awarded Youth of the Year in the Australian Muslim Achievement Awards. Penguin Random House is contributing royalties to Youth Without Borders.


Click for more detail about Finding Gideon (Gideon Series) by Eric Jerome Dickey Finding Gideon (Gideon Series)

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Apr 18, 2017)
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A professional job turns personal for jet-setting contract killer Gideon in this sexy, thrilling page-turner by New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey. 

As a hit man from the time he was very young, money, women, and danger have always ruled Gideon’s life; but for the first time, the job is taking its toll. Neither Gideon nor the city of Buenos Aires has recovered from the mayhem caused during Gideon’s last job. But before the dust has settled and the bodies have been buried, Gideon calls in backup—including the lovely Hawks, with whom Gideon has heated memories—to launch his biggest act of revenge yet…one he believes will destroy his adversary, Midnight, once and for all.

Yet Midnight and his second-in-command, the beautiful and ruthless Señorita Raven, are launching their own revenge, assembling a team of mercenaries the likes of which the world has never seen… and Gideon isn’t their only target. Gideon will need all of his skills if he is to save not only his team, but his family as well.

Dickey’s new novel stirs up a whirlwind of sex and violence that spans the globe…and leaves no moral boundary uncrossed.


Click for more detail about The Blackbirds by Eric Jerome Dickey The Blackbirds

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Apr 18, 2017)
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b>New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey, whose characters The Atlantic calls "bold, smart women oozing sexuality and vulnerability" introduces an unbreakable quartet of friends looking for love in this delectable romance.

They call themselves the Blackbirds. Kwanzaa Browne, Indigo Abdulrahaman, Destiny Jones, and Ericka Stockwell are four best friends who are closer than sisters and will go to the ends of the earth for one another. Yet even their deep bond can’t heal all wounds from their individual pasts, as the collegiate and post-collegiate women struggle with their own demons, drama, and desires.

Trying to forget her cheating ex-fianc�, Kwanzaa becomes entangled with a wicked one-night stand—a man who turns out to be one in five million. Indigo is in an endless on-again, off-again relationship with her footballer boyfriend, and in her time between dysfunctional relationships she pursues other naughty desires. Destiny, readjusting to normal life, struggles to control her own anger after avenging a deep wrong landed her in juvi, while at the same time trying to have her first real relationship—one she has initiated using an alias to hide her past from her lover. Divorced Ericka is in remission from cancer and trying to deal with two decades of animosity with her radical mother while keeping secret the desperate crush she has always had on Destiny’s father…a passion with an older man that just may be reciprocated.

As the women try to overcome—or give in to—their impulses, they find not only themselves tested but also the one thing they always considered unbreakable: their friendship.


Click for more detail about I Almost Forgot about You by Terry McMillan I Almost Forgot about You

by Terry McMillan
Crown Publishing Group (Apr 11, 2017)
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Original Hardcover Published June 7, 2016

#1 AALBC.com bestselling author, Terry McMillan is back with an inspiring story of a woman who shakes things up in her life to find greater meaning.

In I Almost Forgot About You, Dr. Georgia Young’s wonderful life—great friends, family, and successful career—aren’t enough to keep her from feeling stuck and restless. When she decides to make some major changes in her life, quitting her job as an optometrist, and moving house, she finds herself on a wild journey that may or may not include a second chance at love. Like Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, I Almost Forgot About You will show legions of readers what can happen when you face your fears, take a chance, and open yourself up to life, love, and the possibility of a new direction.

“The warmth and wisdom we have come to expect from Terry McMillan are on full display and you won’t be able to walk away from Georgia and her exuberant life. This is that thrilling kind of novel that reminds us how sometimes, fairy tales happen when we least expect them, if only we open ourselves to possibility.” —Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist and An Untamed State


Click for more detail about Devil on the Cross by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Devil on the Cross

by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Penguin Classics (Apr 11, 2017)
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The great Kenyan writer and Nobel Prize nominee Ng?g? wa Thiong’o’s powerful fictional critique of capitalism

One of the cornerstones of Ng?g? wa Thiong’o’s fame, Devil on the Cross was written in secret, on toilet paper, while Ng?g? was in prison. It tells the tragic story of Wariinga, a young woman who moves from a rural Kenyan town to the capital, Nairobi, only to be exploited by her boss and later by a corrupt businessman. As she struggles to survive, Wariinga begins to realize that her problems are only symptoms of a larger societal malaise and that much of the misfortune stems from the Western, capitalist influences on her country. An impassioned cry for a Kenya free of dictatorship and for African writers to work in their own local dialects, Devil on the Cross has had a profound influence on Africa and on post-colonial African literature.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories by Lesley Nneka Arimah What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories

by Lesley Nneka Arimah
Riverhead Books (Apr 04, 2017)
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A NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION "5 UNDER 35" HONOREE

FINALIST FOR THE 2017 KIRKUS PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BROOKLYN PUBLC LIBRARY LITERARY PRIZE

Named one of the most anticipated books of 2017 by Buzzfeed, Time Magazine, Elle, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Millions, Nylon, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Electric Literature

A dazzlingly accomplished debut collection explores the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends to one another and to the places they call home. 

In “Who Will Greet You at Home,” a National Magazine Award finalist for The New Yorker, A woman desperate for a child weaves one out of hair, with unsettling results. In “Wild,” a disastrous night out shifts a teenager and her Nigerian cousin onto uneasy common ground. In "The Future Looks Good," three generations of women are haunted by the ghosts of war, while in "Light," a father struggles to protect and empower the daughter he loves. And in the title story, in a world ravaged by flood and riven by class, experts have discovered how to "fix the equation of a person" - with rippling, unforeseen repercussions. 

Evocative, playful, subversive, and incredibly human, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky heralds the arrival of a prodigious talent with a remarkable career ahead of her.


Click for more detail about Rich: A Dyamonde Daniel Book by Nikki Grimes Rich: A Dyamonde Daniel Book

by Nikki Grimes
Puffin Books (Apr 04, 2017)
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The second book in the Dyamonde Daniels series, by bestselling author Nikki Grimes, is great for fans of the Keena Ford, Judy Moody, and Magnificent Mya Tibbs series and includes illustrations by Coretta Scott King honor winner R. Gregory Christie.

     Dyamonde Daniel is excited about the local library’s poetry contest, and so is her friend Free. The prize is one hundred dollars, and just think what they could buy with that much money! But when they find out that Damaris, one of their classmates, has been living in a homeless shelter, their ideas about what it means to be rich or poor start to change.


Click for more detail about Almost Zero: A Dyamonde Daniel Book by Nikki Grimes Almost Zero: A Dyamonde Daniel Book

by Nikki Grimes
Puffin Books (Apr 04, 2017)
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The third book in the Dyamonde Daniels series, by bestselling author Nikki Grimes, is perfect for fans of the Keena Ford, Judy Moody, and Magnificent Mya Tibbs series and includes illustrations by Coretta Scott King honor winner R. Gregory Christie. 

Dyamonde really wants red high-top sneakers. Too bad they’re so expensive! A classmate tells her it’s her mom’s job to give her what she needs, but when Dyamonde tries that argument, her mom teaches her a lesson by literally only giving her what she needs. Now Dyamonde is down to almost zero outfits! But then she finds out one of her friends has it much worse, and she’s determined to do what she can to help.


Click for more detail about The Ring Bearer by Floyd Cooper The Ring Bearer

by Floyd Cooper
Philomel Books (Apr 04, 2017)
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Mama’s getting married, and Jackson has an important job to do! A story about love, weddings, and the special joy that is a blended family.

Jackson’s mama is getting married, and he gets to be the ring bearer. But Jackson is worried . . . What if he trips? Or walks too slowly? Or drops the rings? And what about his new stepsister, Sophie? She’s supposed to be the flower girl, but Jackson’s not sure she’s taking her job as seriously as she should.
 
In a celebration of blended families, this heartwarming story, stunningly illustrated by the award-winning Floyd Cooper, is a perfect gift for any child who’s nervous to walk down the aisle at a wedding, and shows kids that they can handle life’s big changes.


Click for more detail about Jake the Fake Keeps it Real by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach Jake the Fake Keeps it Real

by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach
Crown Books for Young Readers (Mar 28, 2017)
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For fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Big Nate comes a new side-splitting series from comedian and film star Craig Robinson, #1 New York Times bestselling author Adam Mansbach, and NAACP History Maker recipient and cartoonist Keith Knight.
 
Jake can barely play an instrument, not even a kazoo. And his art? It’s better suited for Pictionary than Picasso. Which is a real problem because Jake just faked his way into the Music and Art Academy for the gifted and talented (and Jake is pretty sure he is neither). More jokester than composer, Jake will have to think of something quick before the last laugh is on him.
 
Featuring more than 160 illustrations, Jake the Fake is sure to bring the laughs with his hilarious high jinks!


Click for more detail about Map to the Stars by Adrian Matejka Map to the Stars

by Adrian Matejka
Penguin Books (Mar 28, 2017)
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A resonant new collection of poetry from Adrian Matejka, author of The Big Smoke, a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award 

Map to the Stars, the fourth poetry collection from National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Adrian Matejka, navigates the tensions between race, geography, and poverty in America during the Reagan Era. In the time of space shuttles and the Strategic Defense Initiative, outer space is the only place equality seems possible, even as the stars serve to both guide and obscure the earthly complexities of masculinity and migration. In Matejka’s poems, hope is the link between the convoluted realities of being poor and the inspiring possibilities of transcendence and escape whether it comes from Star Trek, the dream of being one of the first black astronauts, or Sun Ra’s cosmic jazz.


Click for more detail about I Just Want to Say Good Night by Rachel Isadora I Just Want to Say Good Night

by Rachel Isadora
Nancy Paulsen Books (Mar 14, 2017)
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Caldecott Honor-winner Rachel Isadora’s stunning oil paintings illustrate this delightful bedtime tale, set on the African plains.

The sun has set and the moon is rising, and that means it’s bedtime. But not if Lala has a say—because she’s not ready to go to sleep! First she needs to say good night to the cat. And the goat. And the chickens. And, and, and … Lala’s adorable stalling strategy will ring true for all parents whose little ones aren’t ready to say goodbye to the day—and all will appreciate the wonderful culmination to the bedtime ritual.


Click for more detail about Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Knopf (Mar 07, 2017)
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From the best-selling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists comes a powerful new statement about feminism today—written as a letter to a friend.

A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie’s letter of response.
     Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions—compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive—for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can "allow" women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.


Click for more detail about Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

by Matthew Desmond
Crown Publishing Group (Feb 28, 2017)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • One of the most acclaimed books of our time, this modern classic “has set a new standard for reporting on poverty” (Barbara Ehrenreich, The New York Times Book Review).

In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur “Genius” Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Hailed as “wrenching and revelatory” (The Nation), “vivid and unsettling” (New York Review of Books), Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY President Barack Obama • The New York Times Book Review • The Boston Globe • The Washington Post • NPR • Entertainment Weekly • The New Yorker • Bloomberg • Esquire • BuzzFeed • Fortune • San Francisco Chronicle • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Politico • The Week • Chicago Public Library • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly • Booklist • Shelf Awareness

WINNER OF: The National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction • The PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • The Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction • The Hillman Prize for Book Journalism • The PEN/New England Award • The Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize

FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE AND THE KIRKUS PRIZE


Click for more detail about When God Made You by Matthew Paul Turner When God Made You

by Matthew Paul Turner
Convergent Books (Feb 28, 2017)
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YOU, you… God thinks about you.
God was thinking of you long before your debut.

From early on, children are looking to discover their place in the world and longing to understand how their personalities, traits, and talents fit in. The assurance that they are deeply loved and a unique creation in our big universe is certain to help them spread their wings and fly.

Through playful, charming rhyme and vivid, fantastical illustrations, When God Made You inspires young readers to learn about their own special gifts and how they fit into God’s divine plan as they grow, explore, and begin to create for themselves.

‘Cause when God made YOU, somehow God knew
That the world needed someone exactly like you!


Click for more detail about Exponential Living: Stop Spending 100% of Your Time on 10% of Who You Are by Sheri Riley Exponential Living: Stop Spending 100% of Your Time on 10% of Who You Are

by Sheri Riley
Berkley Books (Feb 07, 2017)
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Peace is possible. Peace is our power. Peace is the New Success®.

EXPONENTIAL LIVING  has won:
The 2017 Best Book Awards "Self-Help: General” Book of the Year
The 2017 African American Literary Award in the area of Self-Help
Has been nominated as 1 of 5 books for The NAACP Image Award which is decided in January 2018 in the area of  OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK - Instructional
 
Constantly striving to achieve one goal after another and investing more in our careers than in our actual lives have left many of us feeling overwhelmed, overworked, and disconnected from who we are—anything but happy.
 
Take Sheri Riley. She rose to the top of her field and was miserable. Sure she was successful, but she couldn’t buy peace, and material possessions didn’t bring her clarity.
 
Now an empowerment speaker and life strategist, Sheri Riley shares the secret that helped her regain her sense of self and purpose. In Exponential Living, she offers nine principles to help the busiest goal-oriented people integrate their professional success with whole-life success:
 
•        Live in Your P.O.W.E.R. (Perspective, Ownership, Wisdom, Engagement, Reward)
•        Healthy Living Is More Than Just a Diet
•        Pursue Peace and a Positive Mind
•        Have a Servant’s Heart and a Giving Spirit
•        Stop Working, Start Maximizing
•        Happy Is a Choice, Joy Is a Lifestyle
•        Build Lasting Confidence
•        The Courage to Be Faithful
•        Exponential Living                          
 
Sheri’s plan will help you to stop spending 100% of your time on 10% of who you are.


Features interviews with Actor/Rapper Chris “Ludacris” Bridges * TV/Film Producer Will Packer * Radio Personality Bert Weiss * Actor Boris Kodjoe * Actor Nicole Ari Parker * CEO Mark Cole * Former NBA Player Darrell Griffith * Former NFL Player Peerless Price * Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell


Click for more detail about Amiable with Big Teeth by Claude McKay Amiable with Big Teeth

by Claude McKay
Penguin Classics (Feb 07, 2017)
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A monumental literary event: the newly discovered final novel by seminal Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay, a rich and multilayered portrayal of life in 1930s Harlem and a historical protest for black freedom
 
The unexpected discovery in 2009 of a completed manuscript of Claude McKay’s final novel was celebrated as one of the most significant literary events in recent years. Building on the already extraordinary legacy of McKay’s life and work, this colorful, dramatic novel centers on the efforts by Harlem intelligentsia to organize support for the liberation of fascist-controlled Ethiopia, a crucial but largely forgotten event in American history. At once a penetrating satire of political machinations in Depression-era Harlem and a far-reaching story of global intrigue and romance, Amiable with Big Teeth plunges into the concerns, anxieties, hopes, and dreams of African-Americans at a moment of crisis for the soul of Harlemand America.
 
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about I Am Not Your Negro: A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film by James Baldwin and Raoul Peck I Am Not Your Negro: A Companion Edition to the Documentary Film

by James Baldwin and Raoul Peck
Vintage International Series (Feb 07, 2017)
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Learn about the Oscar-Nominated documentary film I Am Not Your Negro on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript entitled Remember This House.


To compose his stunning documentary film I Am Not Your Negro, acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck mined James Baldwin’s published and unpublished oeuvre, selecting passages from his books, essays, letters, notes, and interviews that are every bit as incisive and pertinent now as they have ever been. Weaving these texts together, Peck brilliantly imagines the book that Baldwin never wrote. In his final years, Baldwin had envisioned a book about his three assassinated friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King. His deeply personal notes for the project have never been published before. Peck’s film uses them to jump through time, juxtaposing Baldwin’s private words with his public statements, in a blazing examination of the tragic history of race in America.
 
This edition contains more than 40 black-and-white images from the film.

James Baldwin with Medgar Evers

I watched two men, coming from unimaginably different backgrounds, whose positions, originally, were poles apart, driven closer and closer together.

By the time each died, their positions had become virtually the same position. It can be said, indeed, that Martin picked up Malcolm’s burden, articulated the vision which Malcolm had begun to see, and for which he paid with his life. And that Malcolm was one of the people Martin saw on the mountaintop.

Medgar was too young to have seen this happen, though he hoped for it, and would not have been surprised; but Medgar was murdered first. I was older than Medgar, Malcolm, and Martin. I was raised to believe that the eldest was supposed to be a model for the younger, and was, of course, expected to die first.

Not one of these three lived to be forty.

Excerpted from I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin and Raoul Peck. Copyright © 2017 by The James Baldwin Estate. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.


Click for more detail about Writing My Wrongs by Shaka Senghor Writing My Wrongs

by Shaka Senghor
Convergent Books (Jan 31, 2017)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An “extraordinary, unforgettable” (Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow) memoir of redemption and second chances amidst America’s mass incarceration epidemic, from a member of Oprah’s SuperSoul 100Shaka Senghor was raised in a middle-class neighborhood on Detroit’s east side during the height of the 1980s crack epidemic. An honor roll student and a natural leader, he dreamed of becoming a doctor—but at age eleven, his parents’ marriage began to unravel, and beatings from his mother worsened, which sent him on a downward spiral. He ran away from home, turned to drug dealing to survive, and ended up in prison for murder at the age of nineteen, full of anger and despair.Writing My Wrongs is the story of what came next. During his nineteen-year incarceration, seven of which were spent in solitary confinement, Senghor discovered literature, meditation, self-examination, and the kindness of others—tools he used to confront the demons of his past, forgive the people who hurt him, and begin atoning for the wrongs he had committed. Upon his release at age thirty-eight, Senghor became an activist and mentor to young men and women facing circumstances like his. His work in the community and the courage to share his story led him to fellowships at the MIT Media Lab and the Kellogg Foundation and invitations to speak at events like TED and the Aspen Ideas Festival.In equal turns, Writing My Wrongs is a page-turning portrait of life in the shadow of poverty, violence, and fear; an unforgettable story of redemption; and a compelling witness to our country’s need for rethinking its approach to crime, prison, and the men and women sent there.


Click for more detail about Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul

by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
Crown (Jan 10, 2017)
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A powerful polemic on the state of black America that savages the idea of a post-racial society
 
America’s great promise of equality has always rung hollow in the ears of African Americans. But today the situation has grown even more dire. From the murders of black youth by the police, to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, to the disaster visited upon poor and middle-class black families by the Great Recession, it is clear that black America faces an emergency—at the very moment the election of the first black president has prompted many to believe we’ve solved America’s race problem.
 
Democracy in Black is Eddie S. Glaude Jr.’s impassioned response. Part manifesto, part history, part memoir, it argues that we live in a country founded on a “value gap”—with white lives valued more than others—that still distorts our politics today. Whether discussing why all Americans have racial habits that reinforce inequality, why black politics based on the civil-rights era have reached a dead end, or why only remaking democracy from the ground up can bring real change, Glaude crystallizes the untenable position of black America—and offers thoughts on a better way forward. Forceful in ideas and unsettling in its candor, Democracy In Black is a landmark book on race in America, one that promises to spark wide discussion as we move toward the end of our first black presidency.


Click for more detail about Version Control by Dexter Palmer Version Control

by Dexter Palmer
Vintage (Jan 10, 2017)
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Although Rebecca Wright has pieced her life back together after a major tragedy, she can’t shake a sense that the world around her feels off-kilter. Meanwhile, her husband’s dedication to his invention, “the causality violation device” (which he would greatly prefer you not call a time machine) has effectively stalled his career—but he may be closer to success than either of them can possibly imagine. Emotionally powerful and wickedly intelligent, Version Control is a stunningly prescient novel about the effects of science and technology on our lives, our friendships, and our sense of self that will alter the way you see the future—and the present.


Click for more detail about I Am Jim Henson by Brad Meltzer I Am Jim Henson

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Jan 10, 2017)
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We can all be heroes. That’s the inspiring message of this New York Times bestselling picture book biography series from historian and author Brad Meltzer. This volume focuses on Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets and Sesame Street.

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Jim Henson, for example, was always dreaming up something new, and always expressing his belief in the goodness of people. Henson was a born performer with a terrific sense of humor, and he used those talents to help create two of the most beloved programs in television history: The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. Through his Muppets, Jim showed the world that there’s nothing more beautiful than imagination, especially when it’s accompanied by laughter and kindness.

Each book in this series tells the story of one inspiring individual through lively text and art that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos.


Click for more detail about Flying Lessons & Other Stories by Ellen Oh Flying Lessons & Other Stories

by Ellen Oh
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 03, 2017)
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Whether it is basketball dreams, family fiascos, first crushes, or new neighborhoods, this bold anthology—written by the best children’s authors—celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us.
 
In a partnership with We Need Diverse Books, industry giants Kwame Alexander, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Tingle, and Jacqueline Woodson join newcomer Kelly J. Baptist in a story collection that is as humorous as it is heartfelt. This impressive group of authors has earned among them every major award in children’s publishing and popularity as New York Times bestsellers. From these distinguished authors come ten distinct and vibrant stories.

“There’s plenty of magic in this collection to go around.” —Booklist, Starred

“A natural for middle school classrooms and libraries.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred

“Inclusive, authentic, and eminently readable.” —School Library Journal, Starred

“Thought provoking and wide-ranging … should not be missed.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred

“Read more books by these authors.” —The Bulletin, Starred


Click for more detail about Fences by August Wilson Fences

by August Wilson
Plume (Dec 06, 2016)
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From legendary playwright August Wilson comes the powerful, stunning dramatic bestseller that won him critical acclaim, including the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize.

Troy Maxson is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less. This is a modern classic, a book that deals with the impossibly difficult themes of race in America, set during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.

Now an Academy Award-winning film directed by and starring Denzel Washington, along with Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Viola Davis.


Click for more detail about The Spy: A novel by Paulo Coelho The Spy: A novel

by Paulo Coelho
Knopf (Nov 22, 2016)
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In his new novel, Paulo Coelho, bestselling author of The Alchemist and Adultery, brings to life one of history’s most enigmatic women: Mata Hari. 

HER ONLY CRIME WAS TO BE AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN
 
When Mata Hari arrived in Paris she was penniless.  Within months she was the most celebrated woman in the city.
 
As a dancer, she shocked and delighted audiences; as a courtesan, she bewitched the era’s richest and most powerful men.
 
But as paranoia consumed a country at war, Mata Hari’s lifestyle brought her under suspicion. In 1917, she was arrested in her hotel room on the Champs Elysees, and accused of espionage.
 
Told in Mata Hari’s voice through her final letter, The Spy is the unforgettable story of a woman who dared to defy convention and who paid the ultimate price.


Click for more detail about Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

by Trevor Noah
Spiegel & Grau (Nov 15, 2016)
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Michiko Kakutani, New York Times • Newsday • Esquire • NPR • Booklist

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.

Praise for Born a Crime

 “[A] compelling new memoir … By turns alarming, sad and funny, [Trevor Noah’s] book provides a harrowing look, through the prism of Mr. Noah’s family, at life in South Africa under apartheid… . Born a Crime is not just an unnerving account of growing up in South Africa under apartheid, but a love letter to the author’s remarkable mother.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“[An] unforgettable memoir.”—Parade

 “What makes Born a Crime such a soul-nourishing pleasure, even with all its darker edges and perilous turns, is reading Noah recount in brisk, warmly conversational prose how he learned to negotiate his way through the bullying and ostracism… . What also helped was having a mother like Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah… . Consider Born a Crime another such gift to her—and an enormous gift to the rest of us.”—USA Today

“[Noah] thrives with the help of his astonishingly fearless mother… . Their fierce bond makes this story soar.”—People

“[Noah’s] electrifying memoir sparkles with funny stories … and his candid and compassionate essays deepen our perception of the complexities of race, gender, and class.”—Booklist (starred review)

“A gritty memoir … studded with insight and provocative social criticism … with flashes of brilliant storytelling and acute observations.”—Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about Swing Time by Zadie Smith Swing Time

by Zadie Smith
Penguin Press (Nov 15, 2016)
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An ambitious, exuberant new novel moving from North West London to West Africa, from the multi-award-winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty

Two brown girls dream of being dancers—but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It’s a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten, either.

Tracey makes it to the chorus line but struggles with adult life, while her friend leaves the old neighborhood behind, traveling the world as an assistant to a famous singer, Aimee, observing close up how the one percent live.

But when Aimee develops grand philanthropic ambitions, the story moves from London to West Africa, where diaspora tourists travel back in time to find their roots, young men risk their lives to escape into a different future, the women dance just like Tracey—the same twists, the same shakes—and the origins of a profound inequality are not a matter of distant history, but a present dance to the music of time.


Click for more detail about Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul by James McBride Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul

by James McBride
Spiegel & Grau (Nov 01, 2016)
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National Book Award winner James McBride goes in search of the “real” James Brown after receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth. His surprising journey illuminates not only our understanding of this immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated soul genius but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown’s legacy.

Kill ’Em and Leave is more than a book about James Brown. Brown’s rough-and-tumble life, through McBride’s lens, is an unsettling metaphor for American life: the tension between North and South, black and white, rich and poor. McBride’s travels take him to forgotten corners of Brown’s never-before-revealed history: the country town where Brown’s family and thousands of others were displaced by America’s largest nuclear power bomb-making facility; a South Carolina field where a long-forgotten cousin recounts, in the dead of night, a fuller history of Brown’s sharecropping childhood, which until now has been a mystery. McBride seeks out the American expatriate in England who co-created the James Brown sound, visits the trusted right-hand manager who worked with Brown for forty-one years, and interviews Brown’s most influential nonmusical creation, his “adopted son,” the Reverend Al Sharpton. He describes the stirring visit of Michael Jackson to the Augusta, Georgia, funeral home where the King of Pop sat up all night with the body of his musical godfather, spends hours talking with Brown’s first wife, and lays bare the Dickensian legal contest over James Brown’s estate, a fight that has consumed careers; prevented any money from reaching the poor schoolchildren in Georgia and South Carolina, as instructed in his will; cost Brown’s estate millions in legal fees; and left James Brown’s body to lie for more than eight years in a gilded coffin in his daughter’s yard in South Carolina.

James McBride is one of the most distinctive and electric literary voices in America today, and part of the pleasure of his narrative is being in his presence, coming to understand Brown through McBride’s own insights as a black musician with Southern roots. em>Kill ’Em and Leave is a song unearthing and celebrating James Brown’s great legacy: the cultural landscape of America today.

Review

Here are some further examples of Brown’s isolation, as McBride describes them: Late in life James Brown directed his children (the ones he acknowledged) to make appointments when they ­wanted to see him. When he was finished with a gig, he would routinely have his hair done for two or three hours, before seeing anyone backstage, and then he would often leave, rather than undertake the glad-handing typically associated with the entertainment profession. He left Zaire, after performing on the occasion of the Ali-­Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” prizefight, rather than receive a bag of diamonds offered by the despot in charge of that nation. And so on. This book’s title itself refers to Brown’s avowed philosophy in regard to interacting with fans.

It is McBride’s heavy burden to know this about Brown — his evasiveness, his secrecy — and to fashion a credible story that leads us from Page 1 to Page 232 according to what they call, in writing workshops, a “narrative arc.” The narrative arc is not a thing wanting in McBride’s best-known works. “The Good Lord Bird,” for example, has not only John Brown the abolitionist to drive it along, but a surprising case of gender imposture at its heart as well. And where “The Color of Water” deals with isolation in many of the ways that “Kill ’Em and Leave” does, it is essentially a bildungsroman, a tale of the derivation of its narrator. This is an especially effective idea of “narrative arc.”

—Rick Moody, The New York Times Book Review


Click for more detail about The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon The Sun Is Also a Star

by Nicola Yoon
Delacorte Press (Nov 01, 2016)
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Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true? 


Click for more detail about A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of The Snowy Day by Andrea Davis Pinkney A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of The Snowy Day

by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Viking Books for Young Readers (Nov 01, 2016)
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A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keat and the Creation of The Snowy Day


A celebration of the extraordinary life of Ezra Jack Keats, creator of The Snowy Day.

The story of The Snowy Day begins more than one hundred years ago, when Ezra Jack Keats was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. The family were struggling Polish immigrants, and despite Keats’s obvious talent, his father worried that Ezra’s dream of being an artist was an unrealistic one. But Ezra was determined. By high school he was winning prizes and scholarships. Later, jobs followed with the WPA and Marvel comics. But it was many years before Keats’s greatest dream was realized and he had the opportunity to write and illustrate his own book.
 
For more than two decades, Ezra had kept pinned to his wall a series of photographs of an adorable African American child. In Keats’s hands, the boy morphed into Peter, a boy in a red snowsuit, out enjoying the pristine snow; the book became The Snowy Day, winner of the Caldecott Medal, the first mainstream book to feature an African American child. It was also the first of many books featuring Peter and the children of his — and Keats’s — neighborhood.
 
Andrea Davis Pinkney’s lyrical narrative tells the inspiring story of a boy who pursued a dream, and who, in turn, inspired generations of other dreamers.


Click for more detail about Preaching to the Chickens by Jabari Asim Preaching to the Chickens

by Jabari Asim
Nancy Paulsen Books (Oct 11, 2016)
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Critically acclaimed author Jabari Asim and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator E. B. Lewis give readers a fascinating glimpse into the boyhood of Civil Rights leader John Lewis.

John wants to be a preacher when he grows up a leader whose words stir hearts to change, minds to think, and bodies to take action. But why wait? When John is put in charge of the family farm’s flock of chickens, he discovers that they make a wonderful congregation! So he preaches to his flock, and they listen, content under his watchful care, riveted by the rhythm of his voice.

Celebrating ingenuity and dreaming big, this inspirational story, featuring Jabari Asim’s stirring prose and E. B. Lewis’s stunning, light-filled impressionistic watercolor paintings, includes an author’s note about John Lewis, who grew up to be a member of the Freedom Riders, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and demonstrator on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. John Lewis is now a Georgia congressman, who is still an activist today, recently holding a sit-in on the House floor of the U.S. Capitol to try to force a vote on gun violence.


Click for more detail about You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain

by Phoebe Robinson
Plume (Oct 04, 2016)
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A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - "A must-read…Phoebe Robinson discusses race and feminism in such a funny, real, and specific way, it penetrates your brain and stays with you."—Ilana Glazer, co-creator and co-star of Broad City

A hilarious and timely essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from comedy superstar and 2 Dope Queens podcaster Phoebe Robinson

Being a black woman in America means contending with old prejudices and fresh absurdities every day. Comedian Phoebe Robinson has experienced her fair share over the years: she’s been unceremoniously relegated to the role of "the black friend," as if she is somehow the authority on all things racial; she’s been questioned about her love of U2 and Billy Joel ("isn’t that…white people music?"); she’s been called "uppity" for having an opinion in the workplace; she’s been followed around stores by security guards; and yes, people do ask her whether they can touch her hair all. the. time. Now, she’s ready to take these topics to the page—and she’s going to make you laugh as she’s doing it.

Using her trademark wit alongside pop-culture references galore, Robinson explores everything from why Lisa Bonet is "Queen. Bae. Jesus," to breaking down the terrible nature of casting calls, to giving her less-than-traditional advice to the future female president, and demanding that the NFL clean up its act, all told in the same conversational voice that launched her podcast, 2 Dope Queens, to the top spot on iTunes. As personal as it is political, You Can’t Touch My Hair examines our cultural climate and skewers our biases with humor and heart, announcing Robinson as a writer on the rise.

One of Glamour’s "Top 10 Books of 2016"


Click for more detail about The Sobbing School by Joshua Bennett The Sobbing School

by Joshua Bennett
Penguin Books (Sep 27, 2016)
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A "sharp" and "scintillating" (Publishers Weekly) debut collection of poetry, selected by Eugene Gloria as a winner of the National Poetry Series

The Sobbing School, Joshua Bennett’s mesmerizing debut collection of poetry, presents songs for the living and the dead that destabilize and de-familiarize representations of black history and contemporary black experience. What animates these poems is a desire to assert life, and interiority, where there is said to be none. Figures as widely divergent as Bobby Brown, Martin Heidegger, and the 19th-century performance artist Henry Box Brown, as well as Bennett’s own family and childhood best friends, appear and are placed in conversation in order to show that there is always a world beyond what we are socialized to see value in, always alternative ways of thinking about relation that explode easy binaries.


Click for more detail about Thomas Jefferson: President and Philosopher by Jon Meacham Thomas Jefferson: President and Philosopher

by Jon Meacham
Yearling (Sep 20, 2016)
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Click for more detail about The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Desmond Tutu and Dalai Lama The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

by Desmond Tutu and Dalai Lama
Avery (Sep 20, 2016)
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An instant New York Times bestseller

Two spiritual giants. Five days. One timeless question.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet.

In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu traveled to the Dalai Lama’s home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness’s eightieth birthday and to create what they hoped would be a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: How do we find joy in the face of life’s inevitable suffering?

They traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. By the end of a week filled with laughter and punctuated with tears, these two global heroes had stared into the abyss and despair of our time and revealed how to live a life brimming with joy.

This book offers us a rare opportunity to experience their astonishing and unprecendented week together, from the first embrace to the final good-bye.

We get to listen as they explore the Nature of True Joy and confront each of the Obstacles of Joy—from fear, stress, and anger to grief, illness, and death. They then offer us the Eight Pillars of Joy, which provide the foundation for lasting happiness. Throughout, they include stories, wisdom, and science. Finally, they share their daily Joy Practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives.

The Archbishop has never claimed sainthood, and the Dalai Lama considers himself a simple monk. In this unique collaboration, they offer us the reflection of real lives filled with pain and turmoil in the midst of which they have been able to discover a level of peace, of courage, and of joy to which we can all aspire in our own lives.


Click for more detail about How to Build a Museum: Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture by Tonya Bolden How to Build a Museum: Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture

by Tonya Bolden
Viking Books for Young Readers (Sep 06, 2016)
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Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture is truly groundbreaking!

The first national museum whose mission is to illuminate for all people, the rich, diverse, complicated, and important experiences and contributions of African Americans in America is opening.
And the history of NMAAHC—the last museum to be built on the National Mall—is the history of America.

The campaign to set up a museum honoring black citizens is nearly 100 years old; building the museum itelf and assembling its incredibly far-reaching collections is a modern story that involves all kinds of people, from educators and activists, to politicians, architects, curators, construction workers, and ordinary Americans who donated cherished belongings to be included in NMAAHC’s thematically-organized exhibits.

Award-winning author Tonya Bolden has written a fascinating chronicle of how all of these ideas, ambitions, and actual objects came together in one incredible museum. Includes behind-the-scenes photos of literally "how to build a museum" that holds everything from an entire segregated railroad car to a tiny West African amulet worn to ward off slave traders.


Click for more detail about Loving Day: A Novel by Mat Johnson Loving Day: A Novel

by Mat Johnson
One World (Sep 06, 2016)
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Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle • NPR • Men’s Journal • The Denver Post • Slate • Time Out New York

From the author of the critically beloved Pym (“Imagine Kurt Vonnegut having a beer with Ralph Ellison and Jules Verne.”—Vanity Fair) comes a ruthlessly comic and moving tale of a man discovering a lost daughter, confronting an elusive ghost, and stumbling onto the possibility of utopia.

“In the ghetto there is a mansion, and it is my father’s house.”

Warren Duffy has returned to America for all the worst reasons: His marriage to a beautiful Welsh woman has come apart; his comics shop in Cardiff has failed; and his Irish American father has died, bequeathing to Warren his last possession, a roofless, half-renovated mansion in the heart of black Philadelphia. On his first night in his new home, Warren spies two figures outside in the grass. When he screws up the nerve to confront them, they disappear. The next day he encounters ghosts of a different kind: In the face of a teenage girl he meets at a comics convention he sees the mingled features of his white father and his black mother, both now dead. The girl, Tal, is his daughter, and she’s been raised to think she’s white.

Spinning from these revelations, Warren sets off to remake his life with a reluctant daughter he’s never known, in a haunted house with a history he knows too well. In their search for a new life, he and Tal struggle with ghosts, fall in with a utopian mixed-race cult, and ignite a riot on Loving Day, the unsung holiday for interracial lovers.

A frequently hilarious, surprisingly moving story about blacks and whites, fathers and daughters, the living and the dead, Loving Day celebrates the wonders of opposites bound in love.

Praise for Loving Day

“Incisive … razor-sharp … that rare mélange: cerebral comedy with pathos. The vitality of our narrator deserves much of the credit for that. He has the neurotic bawdiness of Philip Roth’s Alexander Portnoy; the keen, caustic eye of Bob Jones in Chester Himes’s If He Hollers Let Him Go; the existential insight of Ellison’s Invisible Man.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Exceptional … To say that Loving Day is a book about race is like saying Moby-Dick is a book about whales… . [Mat Johnson’s] unrelenting examination of blackness, whiteness and everything in between is handled with ruthless candor and riotous humor… . Even when the novel’s family strife and racial politics are at peak intensity, Johnson’s comic timing is impeccable.”—Los Angeles Times

“Loving Day is about being blackish in America, a subject about which Johnson has emerged as satirist, historian, spy, social media trickster (follow him on Twitter) and demon-fingered blues guitarist… . Johnson, at his best, is a powerful comic observer [and] a gifted writer, always worth reading on the topics of race and privilege.’”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times


Click for more detail about I Am George Washington by Brad Meltzer I Am George Washington

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Sep 06, 2016)
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We can all be heroes. That’s the inspiring message of this New York Times Bestselling picture book biography series from historian and author Brad Meltzer. Learn all about George Washington, America’s first president.

George Washington was one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known. He was never afraid to be the first to try something, from exploring the woods around his childhood home to founding a brand new nation, the United States of America. With his faith in the American people and tremendous bravery, he helped win the Revolutionary War and became the country’s first president.

Each picture book in this series is a biography of a significant historical figure, told in a simple, conversational, vivacious way, and always focusing on a character trait that makes the person a role model for kids. The heroes are depicted as children throughout, telling their life stories in first-person present tense, which keeps the books playful and accessible to young children. And each book ends with a line of encouragement, a direct quote, photos, a timeline, and a source list.


Click for more detail about I Am Jane Goodall by Brad Meltzer I Am Jane Goodall

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Sep 06, 2016)
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We can all be heroes. That’s the inspiring message of this New York Times bestselling picture book biography series from historian and author Brad Meltzer. Learn all about Jane Goodall, the chimpanzee scientist.

Each picture book in this series is a biography of a significant historical figure, told in a simple, conversational, vivacious way, and always focusing on a character trait that makes the person a role model for kids. The heroes are depicted as children throughout, telling their life stories in first-person present tense, which keeps the books playful and accessible to young children. And each book ends with a line of encouragement, a direct quote, photos, a timeline, and a source list. This tenth book in the series features Jane Goodall, the scientist and conservationist who is famous for her work with chimpanzees.


Click for more detail about Behold the Dreamers: A Novel by Imbolo Mbue Behold the Dreamers: A Novel

by Imbolo Mbue
Knopf (Aug 23, 2016)
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Imbolo Mbue’s The Longings of Jende Jonga one of two books to earn $1 Million+ advances at the Frankfurt Book Fair read more; “Frankfurt Book Fair 2014: Two Debuts Draw Seven Figures”

For fans of Americanah and The Lowland comes a debut novel about an immigrant couple striving to get ahead as the Great Recession hits home. With profound empathy, keen insight, and sly wit, Imbolo Mbue has written a compulsively readable story about marriage, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream.

Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son. In the fall of 2007, Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty—and Jende is eager to please. Clark’s wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at their summer home in the Hamptons. With these opportunities, Jende and Neni can at last gain a foothold in America and imagine a brighter future.

However, the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets, and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers’ facades.

Then the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Desperate to keep Jende’s job, which grows more tenuous by the day, the Jongas try to protect the Edwardses from certain truths, even as their own marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice.

Advance praise for Behold the Dreamers

“A beautiful novel about one African couple starting a new life in a new land, Behold the Dreamers will teach you as much about the promise and pitfalls of life in the United States as about the immigrants who come here in search of the so-called American dream.”—Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Enrique’s Journey


Click for more detail about 88 Instruments by Chris Barton 88 Instruments

by Chris Barton
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Aug 16, 2016)
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"The rhythmic, onomatopoeic text dances across exuberant watercolors with lots of movement. This celebration of a child’s agency in choosing a means of artistic expression strikes just the right note." —Kirkus 


"A delightful offering for reading aloud, especially during music-themed storytimes."
—School Library Journal

From New York Times bestselling author Chris Barton and new illustrator Louis Thomas comes a fun, rhythmic picture book about finding the music that is perfect for you!
 
A boy who loves to make noise gets to pick only one instrument (at his parents urging) in a music store, but there is too much to choose from! There’s triangles and sousaphones! There’s guitars and harpsichords! Bagpipes and cellos and trombones! How can he find the one that is just right for him out of all those options?


Click for more detail about Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole Known and Strange Things: Essays

by Teju Cole
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Aug 09, 2016)
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A blazingly intelligent first book of essays from the award-winning author of Open City and Every Day Is for the Thief

With this collection of more than fifty pieces on politics, photography, travel, history, and literature, Teju Cole solidifies his place as one of today’s most powerful and original voices. On page after page, deploying prose dense with beauty and ideas, he finds fresh and potent ways to interpret art, people, and historical moments, taking in subjects from Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, and W. G. Sebald to Instagram, Barack Obama, and Boko Haram. Cole brings us new considerations of James Baldwin in the age of Black Lives Matter; the African American photographer Roy DeCarava, who, forced to shoot with film calibrated exclusively for white skin tones, found his way to a startling and true depiction of black subjects; and (in an essay that inspired both praise and pushback when it first appeared) the White Savior Industrial Complex, the system by which African nations are sentimentally aided by an America “developed on pillage.”

Persuasive and provocative, erudite yet accessible, Known and Strange Things is an opportunity to live within Teju Cole’s wide-ranging enthusiasms, curiosities, and passions, and a chance to see the world in surprising and affecting new frames.


Click for more detail about The Underground Railroad: A Novel by Colson Whitehead The Underground Railroad: A Novel

by Colson Whitehead
Doubleday (Aug 02, 2016)
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Every now and then a book comes along that reaches the marrow of your bones, settles in, and stays forever. This is one. It’s a tour de force, and I don’t say that lightly.” —Oprah Winfrey says, Oprah’s Book Club 2016 Selection

From prize-winning, bestselling author Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

Like the protagonist of A Gulliver’s Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey—hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.


Click for more detail about Charcoal Joe: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley Charcoal Joe: An Easy Rawlins Mystery

by Walter Mosley
Doubleday (Jun 14, 2016)
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Walter Mosley’s indelible detective Easy Rawlins is back, with a new detective agency and a new mystery to solve.

Picking up where his last adventures in Rose Gold left off in L.A. in the late 1960s, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins finds his life in transition. He’s ready—finally—to propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay, and start a life together. And he’s taken the money he got from the Rose Gold case and, together with two partners, Saul Lynx and Tinsford “Whisper” Natly, has started a new detective agency. But, inevitably, a case gets in the way: Easy’s friend Mouse introduces him to Rufus Tyler, a very old man everyone calls Charcoal Joe. Joe’s friend’s son, Seymour (young, bright, top of his class in physics at Stanford), has been arrested and charged with the murder of a white man from Redondo Beach. Joe tells Easy he will pay and pay well to see this young man exonerated, but seeing as how Seymour literally was found standing over the man’s dead body at his cabin home, and considering the racially charged motives seemingly behind the murder, that might prove to be a tall order.

Between his new company, a heart that should be broken but is not, a whole raft of new bad guys on his tail, and a bad odor that surrounds Charcoal Joe, Easy has his hands full, his horizons askew, and his life in shambles around his feet.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Nelson Mandela: From Prisoner to President by Suzy Capozzi Nelson Mandela: From Prisoner to President

by Suzy Capozzi
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jun 14, 2016)
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This Step 4 leveled reader about Nelson Mandela, the Nobel Prize-winning activist for racial equality in South Africa, is as spellbinding a biography as you can find. His journey from student to revolutionary to inmate to president of South Africa will inspire and engage kids of all ages.

As conversations about race, prejudice, and injustice pervade classrooms and homes, teachers and parents need books that can bring those discussions within the grasp of kids. Nelson Mandela’s story, told honestly and accessibly, is just such a book. The subjects of apartheid and racism are handled with aplomb, and readers will find much to discuss with their classmates, friends, and families.

Step 4 Readers use challenging vocabulary and short paragraphs to tell exciting stories. For newly independent readers who read simple sentences with confidence.


Click for more detail about Homegoing: A Novel by Yaa Gyasi Homegoing: A Novel

by Yaa Gyasi
Random House (Jun 07, 2016)
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Yaa Gyasi’s London Book Fair 2015: In Pre-Fair Deals, Debut Sells to Knopf for Rumored 7 Figures

A riveting, kaleidoscopic debut novel and the beginning of a major career: a novel about race, history, ancestry, love, and time that traces the descendants of two sisters torn apart in eighteenth-century Africa across three hundred years in Ghana and America.

Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into different tribal villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and will live in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising half-caste children who will be sent abroad to be educated before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the empire. Esi, imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle’s women’s dungeon and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, will be sold into slavery. Stretching from the tribal wars of Ghana to slavery and the Civil War in America, from the coal mines in the American South to the Great Migration to twentieth-century Harlem, Yaa Gyasi’s novel moves through histories and geographies and captures—with outstanding economy and force—the troubled spirit of our own nation. She has written a modern masterpiece.


Click for more detail about My Voice: A Memoir by Angie Martinez My Voice: A Memoir

by Angie Martinez
Celebra (May 17, 2016)
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Angie Martinez is the “Voice of New York.” Now, for the first time, she candidly recounts the story of her rise to become an internationally celebrated hip hop radio icon.

In her current reign at Power 105.1 and for nearly two decades at New York’ s Hot 97, Angie Martinez has had one of the highest rated radio shows in the country. After working her way up as an intern, she burst on the scene as a young female jock whose on-air “Battle of the Beats” segment broke records and became a platform for emerging artists like a young Jay Z. Angie quickly became known for intimate, high-profile interviews, mediating feuds between artists, and taking on the most controversial issues in hip hop. At age twenty-five, at the height of the East Coast/West Coast rap war, Angie was summoned by Tupac Shakur for what would be his last no-holds-barred interview—which has never aired in its entirety and which she’s never discussed in detail—until now.

Angie shares stories from behind-the-scenes of her most controversial conversations, from onetime presidential hopeful Barack Obama to superstars like Mary J. Blige and Chris Brown, and describes her emotional, bittersweet final days at Hot 97 and the highly publicized move to Power 105.1. She also opens up about her personal life—from her roots in Washington Heights and her formative years being raised by a single mom in Brooklyn to exploring the lessons that shaped her into the woman she is today.

From the Puerto Rican Day Parade to the White House—Angie is universally recognized as a powerful voice in the Latino and hip hop communities. My Voice gives an inside look at New York City’s one-of-a-kind urban radio culture, the changing faces of hip hop music, and Angie’s rise to become the Voice of New York.


Click for more detail about We Came to America by Faith Ringgold We Came to America

by Faith Ringgold
Alfred A. Knopf (May 10, 2016)
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A timely and beautiful look at America s rich history of diversity, from Faith Ringgold, the Coretta Scott King and Caldecot Honor winning creator of Tar Beach

From the Native Americans who first called this land their home, to the millions of people who have flocked to its shores ever since, America is a country rich in diversity. Some of our ancestors were driven by dreams and hope. Others came in chains, or were escaping poverty or persecution. No matter what brought them here, each person embodied a unique gift their art and music, their determination and grit, their stories and their culture. And together they forever shaped the country we all call home.

Vividly expressed in Faith Ringgold s sumptuous colors and patterns, We Came to America is an ode to every American who came before us, and a tribute to each child who will carry its proud message of diversity into our nation’s future.


Click for more detail about The Risen: A Novel of Spartacus by David Anthony Durham The Risen: A Novel of Spartacus

by David Anthony Durham
Doubleday (May 03, 2016)
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From the author of the widely praised Pride of Carthage, the superb fictional rendering of Hannibal’s epic military campaigns against Carthage’s archenemy Rome, comes the perfect follow-up: an equally superb novel of the legendary gladiator Spartacus and the vast slave revolt he led that came ever so close to bringing Rome, with its supposedly invincible legions, to its knees. 

In this thrilling and panoramic historical novel we see one of the most storied uprisings of classical times from multiple points of view: Spartacus, the visionary captive and gladiator whose toughness and charisma turn a prison break into a multi-cultural revolt that threatens an empire; his consort, the oracular Astera, whose connection to the spirit world and its omens guides the uprising’s progress; Nonus, a Roman soldier working both sides of the conflict in a half-adroit, half-desperate attempt to save his life; Laelia and Hustus, two shepherd children drawn into the ranks of the slave rebellion; Kaleb, the slave secretary to Crassus, the Roman senator and commander saddled with the unenviable task of quashing an insurrection of mere slaves; and other players in a vast spectacle of bloodshed, heroism, and treachery.
     In the pages of The Risen—the term the slaves in revolt have adopted for themselves—an entire, teeming world comes into view with great clarity and titanic drama, with nothing less than the future of the ancient world at stake. No one brings more verve, intelligence, and freshness to the novel of the classical age than David Anthony Durham.


Click for more detail about Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley Roots: The Saga of an American Family

by Alex Haley
Vanguard Press (May 03, 2016)
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Originally published in 1976, Roots was one of the most important books and television series ever to appear, Roots, galvanized the nation, and created an extraordinary political, racial, social and cultural dialogue that hadn’t been seen since the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The book sold over one million copies in the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Roots opened up the minds of Americans of all colors and faiths to one of the darkest and most painful parts of America’s past.

Image of the Original 1980 Book of Roots 1976 Over the years, both Roots and Alex Haley have attracted controversy, which comes with the territory for trailblazing, iconic books, particularly on the topic of race. Some of the criticism results from whether Roots is fact or fiction and whether Alex Haley confused these two issues, a subject he addresses directly in the book. There is also the fact that Haley was sued for plagiarism when it was discovered that several dozen paragraphs in Roots were taken directly from a novel, The African, by Harold Courlander, who ultimately received a substantial financial settlement at the end of the case.

But none of the controversy affects the basic issue. Roots fostered a remarkable dialogue about not just the past, but the then present day 1970s and how America had fared since the days portrayed in Roots. Vanguard Press feels that it is important to publish Roots: The 30th Anniversary Edition to remind the generation that originally read it that there are issues that still need to be discussed and debated, and to introduce to a new and younger generation, a book that will help them understand, perhaps for the first time, the reality of what took place during the time of Roots.


Click for more detail about Ladivine: A novel by Marie NDiaye Ladivine: A novel

by Marie NDiaye
Knopf (Apr 26, 2016)
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From the hugely acclaimed author of Three Strong Women—“a masterpiece of narrative ingenuity and emotional extremes” (The New York Times)—here is a harrowing and subtly crafted novel of a woman captive to a secret shame.

On the first Tuesday of every month, Clarisse Rivière leaves her husband and young daughter and secretly takes the train to Bordeaux to visit her mother, Ladivine. Just as Clarisse’s husband and daughter know nothing of Ladivine, Clarisse herself has hidden nearly every aspect of her adult life from this woman, whom she dreads and despises but also pities. Long ago abandoned by Clarisse’s father, Ladivine works as a housecleaner and has no one but her daughter, whom she knows as Malinka.

After more than twenty-five years of this deception, the idyllic middle-class existence Clarisse has built from scratch can no longer survive inside the walls she’s put up to protect it. Her untold anguish leaves her cold and guarded, her loved ones forever trapped outside, looking in. When her husband, Richard, finally leaves her, Clarisse finds comfort in the embrace of a volatile local man, Freddy Moliger. With Freddy, she finally feels reconciled to, or at least at ease with, her true self. But this peace comes at a terrible price. Clarisse will be brutally murdered, and it will be left to her now-grown daughter, who also bears the name Ladivine without knowing why, to work out who her mother was and what happened to her.

A mesmerizing and heart-stopping psychological tale of a trauma that ensnares three generations of women, Ladivine proves Marie NDiaye to be one of Europe’s great storytellers.

Translated from the French by Jordan Stump


Click for more detail about The Blackbirds by Eric Jerome Dickey The Blackbirds

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Knopf (Apr 19, 2016)
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New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey delivers his next delectable, erotic romance

They call themselves the Blackbirds. Kwanzaa Browne, Indigo Abdulrahaman, Destiny Jones, and Ericka Stockwell are four best friends who are closer than sisters, and will go to the ends of the earth for one another. Yet even their deep bond can’t heal all wounds from their individual pasts, as the collegiate and post-collegiate women struggle with their own demons, drama, and desires.

Trying to forget her cheating ex-fiancé, Kwanzaa becomes entangled with a wicked one-night stand—a man who turns out to be one in five million. Indigo is in an endless on-again, off-again relationship with her footballer boyfriend, and in her time between dysfunctional relationships she purses other naughty desires. Destiny, readjusting to normal life, struggles to control her own anger after avenging a deep wrong landed her in juvi, while at the same time trying to have her first real relationship—one she has initiated using an alias to hide her past from her lover. Divorced Ericka is in remission from cancer and trying to deal with two decades of animosity with her radical mother, while keeping the desperate crush she has always had on Destiny’s father a secret… a passion with an older man that just may be reciprocated.

As the women try to overcome— or give into— their impulses, they find not only themselves tested, but the one thing they always considered unbreakable: their friendship.


Click for more detail about Freedom of Speech: Mightier Than the Sword by David K. Shipler Freedom of Speech: Mightier Than the Sword

by David K. Shipler
Vintage (Apr 19, 2016)
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A provocative, timely assessment of the state of free speech in America

With his best seller The Working Poor, Pulitzer Prize winner and former New York Times veteran David K. Shipler cemented his place among our most trenchant social commentators. Now he turns his incisive reporting to a critical American ideal: freedom of speech. Anchored in personal stories—sometimes shocking, sometimes absurd, sometimes dishearteningly familiar—Shipler’s investigations of the cultural limits on both expression and the willingness to listen build to expose troubling instabilities in the very foundations of our democracy.

Focusing on recent free speech controversies across the nation, Shipler maps a rapidly shifting topography of political and cultural norms: parents in Michigan rallying to teachers vilified for their reading lists; conservative ministers risking their churches’ tax-exempt status to preach politics from the pulpit; national security reporters using techniques more common in dictatorships to avoid leak prosecution; a Washington, D.C., Jewish theater’s struggle for creative control in the face of protests targeting productions critical of Israel; history teachers in Texas quietly bypassing a reactionary curriculum to give students access to unapproved perspectives; the mixed blessings of the Internet as a forum for dialogue about race.

These and other stories coalesce to reveal the systemic patterns of both suppression and opportunity that are making today a transitional moment for the future of one of our founding principles. Measured yet sweeping, Freedom of Speech brilliantly reveals the triumphs and challenges of defining and protecting the boundaries of free expression in modern America.


Click for more detail about 50 for Your Future: Lessons from Down the Road by Tavis Smiley 50 for Your Future: Lessons from Down the Road

by Tavis Smiley
SmileyBooks (Apr 12, 2016)
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Stepping into your authentic life can be difficult. There are pitfalls of ego, of convenience, of modern society’s pressure to put yourself out there before you’ve even figured out what you really want. It’s easy to lose yourself along the way, conforming to those around you, obsessing over trivialities, letting fear drive your actions. Fortunately, though, you’re not the first one to walk this path …On these gorgeously illustrated pages, you’ll find the hard-won wisdom of media mogul and social entrepreneur Tavis Smiley, who rose from humble roots in a cramped Indiana trailer to become a critically acclaimed host of television and radio, as well as an impactful philanthropist. Through his relationships with cultural luminaries such as Maya Angelou and Quincy Jones, and personal mentors such as Rosa Parks, Peter Jennings, and Smiley’s own sagacious grandmother “Big Mama”—not to mention the lumps he’s received through the years—Smiley has learned what it takes to live your best life. Here, he offers both a guidebook and a toolkit to help you get on track, whether you’re just setting out on your own or whether you need a course correction to keep marching toward your dreams.


Click for more detail about I Won a What? by Audrey Vernick I Won a What?

by Audrey Vernick
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Apr 12, 2016)
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The hilarious and heartwarming story of a boy who tries to win a goldfish and winds up with FAR more than he bargained for …

A young boy wins a humongous new pet at the carnival, and before long, they become fast friends. But his parents are skeptical. After all, Nuncio doesn’t even fit in the house! Will the gargantuan goldfish have to go? Or will the family find a way to give him the home he deserves?

Fans of Sparky will flip for this whale of a tale from Audrey Vernick, author of Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? and featuring illustrations from Wow! City! illustrator Robert Neubecker.


Click for more detail about something to food about: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs by Questlove and Ben Greenman something to food about: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs

by Questlove and Ben Greenman
Clarkson Potter (Apr 12, 2016)
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In somethingtofoodabout, drummer, producer, musical director, culinary entrepreneur, and New York Times bestselling author, Questlove, applies his boundless curiosity to the world of food.

In conversations with ten innovative chefs in America, Questlove explores what makes their creativity tick, how they see the world through their cooking and how their cooking teaches them to see the world. The conversations begin with food but they end wherever food takes them.

Food is fuel. Food is culture. Food is history. And food is food for thought. 

Featuring conversations with: Nathan Myhrvold, Modernist Cuisine Lab, Seattle;  Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park, and NoMad, NYC;  Michael Solomonov, Zahav, Philadelphia; Ludo Lefebvre, Trois Mec, L.A.; Dave Beran, Next, Chicago; Donald Link, Cochon, New Orleans;  Dominque Crenn, Atelier Crenn, San Francisco;  Daniel Patterson, Coi and Loco’l, San Francisco; Jesse Griffiths, Dai Due, Austin; and Ryan Roadhouse, Nodoguro, Portland


Click for more detail about One Night by Eric Jerome Dickey One Night

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Apr 05, 2016)
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A pair of strangers has twelve hours to relish the night of their lives in a novel that "has taken the anonymous one-night-stand relationship into the realm of art" (Publishers Weekly) from New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey.

On a cold and rainy night during the Christmas season, a woman who has suffered great personal loss and a successful businessman from Orange County meet by chance at a gas station in Los Angeles County. They have nothing in common, but as they engage in conversation and move from con games to assault to robberies, within hours they end up sequestered in an upscale hotel room. During intimacy, they continue to confide in each other and try to come to grips with their problems and their seasonal loneliness. For one night, their passion is boundless, but with every tick of the clock, their separate pasts close in. They push the limits of time, devotion, and even the law as they attempt to catch a glimpse of the future. They need each other for a lifetime but will have only one night.


Click for more detail about We the People: The Modern-Day Figures Who Have Reshaped and Affirmed the Founding Fathers’ Vision of America by Juan Williams We the People: The Modern-Day Figures Who Have Reshaped and Affirmed the Founding Fathers’ Vision of America

by Juan Williams
Crown (Apr 05, 2016)
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What would the Founding Fathers think about America today? Over 200 years ago the Founders broke away from the tyranny of the British Empire to build a nation based on the principles of freedom, equal rights, and opportunity for all men. But life in the United States today is vastly different from anything the original Founders could have imagined in the late 1700s. The notion of an African-American president of the United States, or a woman such as Condoleezza Rice or Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, would have been unimaginable to the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, or who ratified the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

 

In a fascinating work of history told through a series of in depth profiles, prize-winning journalist, bestselling author, and Fox political analyst Juan Williams takes readers into the life and work of a new generation of American Founders, who honor the original Founders vision, even as they have quietly led revolutions in American politics, immigration, economics, sexual behavior, and reshaped the landscape of the nation.

Among the modern-day pioneers Williams writes about in this compelling new book are the passionate conservative President Reagan; the determined fighters for equal rights, Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King, Jr.; the profound imprint of Rev. Billy Graham’s evangelism on national politics; the focus on global human rights advocated by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt; the leaders of the gay community who refused to back down during the Stonewall Riots and brought gay life into America’s public square; the re-imagined role of women in contemporary life as shaped by Betty Friedan.

 

Williams reveals how each of these modern-day founders has extended the Founding Fathers original vision and changed fundamental aspects of our country, from immigration, to the role of American labor in the economy, from modern police strategies, to the importance of religion in our political discourse.

America in the 21st Century remains rooted in the Great American experiment in democracy that began in 1776. For all the changes our economy and our cultural and demographic make-up, there remains a straight line from the first Founders original vision, to the principles and ideals of today’s courageous modern day pioneers.


Click for more detail about What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

by Helen Oyeyemi
Riverhead Books (Mar 08, 2016)
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From the award-winning author of Boy, Snow, Bird and Mr. Fox comes an enchanting collection of intertwined stories.
 
Playful, ambitious, and exquisitely imagined, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is cleverly built around the idea of keys, literal and metaphorical. The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret—Oyeyemi’s keys not only unlock elements of her characters’ lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In “Books and Roses” one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers’ fates. In “Is Your Blood as Red as This?” an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” involves a “house of locks,” where doors can be closed only with a key—with surprising, unobservable developments. And in “If a Book Is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason for That Don’t You Think,” a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).
 
Oyeyemi’s tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation? What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours captivates as it explores the many possible answers.


Click for more detail about The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan The Bitter Side of Sweet

by Tara Sullivan
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Feb 23, 2016)
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For fans of Linda Sue Park and A Long Way Gone, two young boys must escape a life of slavery in modern-day Ivory Coast

Fifteen-year-old Amadou counts the things that matter. For two years what has mattered are the number of cacao pods he and his younger brother, Seydou, can chop down in a day. This number is very important. The higher the number the safer they are because the bosses won’t beat them. The higher the number the closer they are to paying off their debt and returning home to Moke and Auntie. Maybe. The problem is Amadou doesn’t know how much he and Seydou owe, and the bosses won’t tell him. The boys only wanted to make some money during the dry season to help their impoverished family. Instead they were tricked into forced labor on a plantation in the Ivory Coast; they spend day after day living on little food and harvesting beans in the hot sun—dangerous, backbreaking work. With no hope of escape, all they can do is try their best to stay alive—until Khadija comes into their lives.

She’s the first girl who’s ever come to camp, and she’s a wild thing. She fights bravely every day, attempting escape again and again, reminding Amadou what it means to be free. But finally, the bosses break her, and what happens next to the brother he has always tried to protect almost breaks Amadou. The old impulse to run is suddenly awakened. The three band together as family and try just once more to escape.

Tara Sullivan, the award-winning author of the astounding Golden Boy, delivers another powerful, riveting, and moving tale of children fighting to make a difference and be counted. Inspired by true-to-life events happening right now, The Bitter Side of Sweet is an exquisitely written tour de force not to be missed.


Click for more detail about And After Many Days: A Novel by Jowhor Ile And After Many Days: A Novel

by Jowhor Ile
Tim Duggan Books (Feb 16, 2016)
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An unforgettable debut novel about a boy who goes missing, a family that is torn apart, and a nation on the brink

     During the rainy season of 1995, in the bustling town of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, one family’s life is disrupted by the sudden disappearance of seventeen-year-old Paul Utu, beloved brother and son. As they grapple with the sudden loss of their darling boy, they embark on a painful and moving journey of immense power which changes their lives forever and shatters the fragile ecosystem of their once ordered family. Ajie, the youngest sibling, is burdened with the guilt of having seen Paul last and convinced that his vanished brother was betrayed long ago. But his search for the truth uncovers hidden family secrets and reawakens old, long forgotten ghosts as rumours of police brutality, oil shortages, and frenzied student protests serve as a backdrop to his pursuit.
     In a tale that moves seamlessly back and forth through time, Ajie relives a trip to the family’s ancestral village where, together, he and his family listen to the myths of how their people settled there, while the villagers argue over the mysterious Company, who found oil on their land and will do anything to guarantee support. As the story builds towards its stunning conclusion, it becomes clear that only once past and present come to a crossroads will Ajie and his family finally find the answers they have been searching for.
      And After Many Days introduces Ile’s spellbinding ability to tightly weave together personal and political loss until, inevitably, the two threads become nearly indistinguishable. It is a masterful story of childhood, of the delicate, complex balance between the powerful and the powerless, and a searing portrait of a community as the old order gives way to the new.


Click for more detail about Blue Laws: Selected and Uncollected Poems, 1995-2015 by Kevin Young Blue Laws: Selected and Uncollected Poems, 1995-2015

by Kevin Young
Knopf (Feb 02, 2016)
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A rich and lively gathering of highlights from the first twenty years of an extraordinary career, interspersed with “B sides” and “bonus tracks” from this prolific and widely acclaimed poet.

Blue Laws gathers poems written over the past two decades, drawing from all nine of Kevin Young’s previously published books of poetry and including a number of uncollected, often unpublished, poems. From his stunning lyric debut (Most Way Home, 1995) and the amazing “double album” life of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2001, “remixed” for Knopf in 2005), through his brokenhearted Jelly Roll: A Blues (2003) and his recent forays into adult grief and the joys of birth in Dear Darkness (2008) and Book of Hours (2014), this collection provides a grand tour of a poet whose personal poems and political poems are equally riveting. Together with wonderful outtakes and previously unseen blues, the profoundly felt poems here of family, Southern food, and loss are of a piece with the depth of personal sensibility and humanity found in his Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels or bold sequences such as “The Ballad of Jim Crow” and a new “Homage to Phillis Wheatley.”


Click for more detail about The African Americans: Many Rivers To Cross by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The African Americans: Many Rivers To Cross

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
SmileyBooks (Feb 02, 2016)
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The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross is the companion book to the six-part, six hour documentary of the same name, airing on national, primetime public television in the fall of 2013. The series is the first to air since 1968 that chronicles the full sweep of 500 years of African American history, from the origins of slavery on the African continent and the arrival of the first black conquistador, Juan Garrido, in Florida in 1513, through five centuries of remarkable historic events right up to today—when Barack Obama is serving his second term as President, yet our country remains deeply divided by race and class.The book explores these topics in even more detail than possible in the television series, and examines many other fascinating matters as well, such as the ethnic origins—and the regional and cultural diversity—of the Africans whose enslavement led to the creation of the African American people. It delves into the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and religious and social perspectives that African Americans have created in the half a millennium since their African ancestors first arrived on these shores. Like the television series, this book guides readers on an engaging journey through the Black Atlantic world—from Africa and Europe to the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States—to shed new light on what it has meant, and means, to be an African American.By highlighting the complex internal debates and class differences within the Black Experience in this country, readers will learn that the African American community, which black abolitionist Martin R. Delany described as a “nation within a nation,” has never been a truly uniform entity, and that its members have been debating their differences of opinion and belief from their very first days in this country. The road to freedom for black people in America has not been linear; rather, much like the course of a river, it has been full of loops and eddies, slowing and occasionally reversing current. Ultimately, this book emphasizes the idea that African American history encompasses multiple continents and venues, and must be viewed through a transnational perspective to be fully understood.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice by Patricia Bell-Scott The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice

by Patricia Bell-Scott
Alfred A. Knopf (Feb 02, 2016)
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A groundbreaking book—two decades in the works—that tells the story of how a brilliant writer-turned-activist, granddaughter of a mulatto slave, and the first lady of the United States, whose ancestry gave her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, forged an enduring friendship that changed each of their lives and helped to alter the course of race and racism in America.

Pauli Murray first saw Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933, at the height of the Depression, at a government-sponsored, two-hundred-acre camp for unemployed women where Murray was living, something the first lady had pushed her husband to set up in her effort to do what she could for working women and the poor. The first lady appeared one day unannounced, behind the wheel of her car, her secretary and a Secret Service agent her passengers. To Murray, then aged twenty-three, Roosevelt’s self-assurance was a symbol of women’s independence, a symbol that endured throughout Murray’s life.

Five years later, Pauli Murray, a twenty-eight-year-old aspiring writer, wrote a letter to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt protesting racial segregation in the South. The president’s staff forwarded Murray’s letter to the federal Office of Education. The first lady wrote back.

Murray’s letter was prompted by a speech the president had given at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, praising the school for its commitment to social progress. Pauli Murray had been denied admission to the Chapel Hill graduate school because of her race.

She wrote in her letter of 1938:

“Does it mean that Negro students in the South will be allowed to sit down with white students and study a problem which is fundamental and mutual to both groups? Does it mean that the University of North Carolina is ready to open its doors to Negro students … ? Or does it mean, that everything you said has no meaning for us as Negroes, that again we are to be set aside and passed over … ?”

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to Murray: “I have read the copy of the letter you sent me and I understand perfectly, but great changes come slowly … The South is changing, but don’t push too fast.”

So began a friendship between Pauli Murray (poet, intellectual rebel, principal strategist in the fight to preserve Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, cofounder of the National Organization for Women, and the first African American female Episcopal priest) and Eleanor Roosevelt (first lady of the United States, later first chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and chair of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women) that would last for a quarter of a century.

Drawing on letters, journals, diaries, published and unpublished manuscripts, and interviews, Patricia Bell-Scott gives us the first close-up portrait of this evolving friendship and how it was sustained over time, what each gave to the other, and how their friendship changed the cause of American social justice.


Click for more detail about The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage by Daymond John The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage

by Daymond John
Crown Business (Jan 19, 2016)
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The instant New York Times bestseller from Shark Tank star and Fubu Founder Daymond John on why starting a business on a limited budget can be an entrepreneur’s greatest competitive advantage, showing how brands, companies, and start-ups can leverage the power of broke to achieve success, fame, and profit.

Daymond John has been practicing the power of broke ever since he started selling his home-sewn t-shirts on the streets of Queens. With no funding and a $40 budget, Daymond had to come up with out-of-the box ways to promote his products. Luckily, desperation breeds innovation, and so he hatched an idea for a creative campaign that eventually launched the FUBU brand into a $6 billion dollar global phenomenon.  But it might not have happened if he hadn’t started out broke - with nothing but a heart full of hope and a ferocious drive to succeed by any means possible.

Here, the FUBU founder and star of ABC’s Shark Tank shows that, far from being a liability, broke can actually be your greatest competitive advantage as an entrepreneur. Why?  Because starting a business from broke forces you to think more creatively.  It forces you to use your resources more efficiently. It forces you to connect with your customers more authentically, and market your ideas more imaginatively. It forces you to be true to yourself, stay laser focused on your goals, and come up with those innovative solutions required to make a meaningful mark. 

Drawing his own experiences as an entrepreneur and branding consultant, peeks behind-the scenes from the set of Shark Tank, and stories of dozens of other entrepreneurs who have hustled their way to wealth, John shows how we can all leverage the power of broke to phenomenal success. You’ll meet:

· Steve Aoki, the electronic dance music (EDM) deejay who managed to parlay a series of $100 gigs into becoming a global superstar who has redefined the music industry
· Gigi Butler, a cleaning lady from Nashville who built cupcake empire on the back of a family  recipe, her maxed out credit cards, and a heaping dose of faith
· 11-year old Shark Tank guest Mo Bridges who stitched together a winning clothing line with just his grandma’s sewing machine, a stash of loose fabric, and his unique sartorial flair

When your back is up against the wall, your bank account is empty, and creativity and passion are the only resources you can afford, success is your only option.  Here you’ll learn how to tap into that Power of Broke to scrape, hustle, and dream your way to the top. 

New York Times Bestseller
International Book Awards - Best Business Book of 2016


Click for more detail about A Tiny Piece of Sky by Shawn K. Stout A Tiny Piece of Sky

by Shawn K. Stout
Philomel Books (Jan 19, 2016)
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THE SUMMER STORY OF THREE SISTERS, ONE RESTUARANT, AND A (POSSIBLE) GERMAN SPY

World War II is coming in Europe. At least that’s what Frankie Baum heard on the radio. But from her small town in Maryland, in the wilting summer heat of 1939, the war is a world away.
 
Besides, there are too many other things to think about: first that Frankie’s father up and bought a restaurant without telling anyone and now she has to help in the kitchen, peeling potatoes and washing dishes, when she’d rather be racing to Wexler’s Five and Dime on her skates. Plus her favorite sister, Joanie Baloney, is away for the summer and hasn’t been answering any of Frankie’s letters.
 
But when some people in town start accusing her father of being a German spy, all of a sudden the war arrives at Frankie’s feet and she can think of nothing else.
 
Could the rumors be true? Frankie has to do some spying of her own to try to figure out her father’s secrets and clear his good name. What she discovers about him surprises everyone, but is nothing compared to what she discovers about the world.
 
In a heartfelt, charming, and insightful novel that is based on true events, Shawn K. Stout weaves a story about family secrets, intolerance, and coming of age that will keep readers guessing until the end.
 
Advance praise for A Tiny Piece of Sky:
 
“Shawn Stout’s Frankie Baum is that rare creation: a character so real, so true, we don’t just feel we know her—we are her. Irrepressible Frankie meets issues like prejudice and loyalty head on, in a story both highly entertaining and deeply thought-provoking. She may be #3 in her family, but she’ll be #1 in the hearts of all who read this book.”—Tricia Springstubb, author of What Happened on Fox Street

“At turns hilarious, at turns heartbreaking, Shawn Stout’s story shows us the damage that a whisper campaign can do to a family and a community, and at the same time shows us, each of us, a way to find our hearts. Frankie Baum is a hero from a distant time and yet a hero for all times, the kind of hero who never gets old. I loved this book from the very beginning to the very end.”—Kathi Appelt, author of the National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor book The Underneath
 
"Stout uses an archly chummy direct address at several points, successfully and humorously breaking up tension in this cleareyed look at bad behavior by society….Successfully warmhearted and child-centered."—Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about American Ace by Marilyn Nelson American Ace

by Marilyn Nelson
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 12, 2016)
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This riveting novel in verse, perfect for fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Toni Morrison, explores American history and race through the eyes of a teenage boy embracing his newfound identity
 
Connor’s grandmother leaves his dad a letter when she dies, and the letter’s confession shakes their tight-knit Italian-American family: The man who raised Dad is not his birth father.
 
But the only clues to this birth father’s identity are a class ring and a pair of pilot’s wings. And so Connor takes it upon himself to investigate—a pursuit that becomes even more pressing when Dad is hospitalized after a stroke. What Connor discovers will lead him and his father to a new, richer understanding of race, identity, and each other.


Click for more detail about I Hear a Pickle: And Smell, See, Touch, & Taste It, Too! by Rachel Isadora I Hear a Pickle: And Smell, See, Touch, & Taste It, Too!

by Rachel Isadora
Nancy Paulsen Books (Jan 12, 2016)
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"Isadora’s book about the five senses is aimed perfectly at another sense—kids’ sense of humor."—The Horn Book, starred review

Caldecott Honor winner Rachel Isadora’s sweet and simple introduction to the five senses is perfect for the youngest children, who will recognize themselves in charming vignettes portraying a wide range of childhood activities. Hearing, smelling, seeing, touching, tasting—our five senses allow us to experience the world in so many ways! With our ears we hear the birds sing; with our nose we smell the stinky cheese; with our eyes we see the moon and stars (and sometimes glasses help us see even better!); with our skin we feel the rain (and learn not to touch the hot stove!); and with our tongue we can taste our favorite foods. Isadora’s lively art reveals the power and delight of each sense.


Click for more detail about The Covenant with Black America - Ten Years Later by Tavis Smiley The Covenant with Black America - Ten Years Later

by Tavis Smiley
SmileyBooks (Jan 05, 2016)
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In 2006, Tavis Smiley teamed up with other leaders in the Black community to create a national plan of action to address the ten most crucial issues facing African Americans. The Covenant with Black America, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller, ran the gamut from health care to criminal justice, affordable housing to education, voting rights to racial divides. But a decade later, Black men still fall to police bullets and brutality, Black women still die from preventable diseases, Black children still struggle to get a high quality education, the digital divide and environmental inequality still persist, and American cities from Ferguson to Baltimore burn with frustration. In short, the last decade has seen the evaporation of Black wealth, with Black fellow citizens having lost ground in nearly every leading economic category.

So Smiley calls for a renewal of The Covenant, presenting in this new edition the original action plan—with a new foreword and conclusion—alongside fresh data from the Indiana University School of Public & Environmental Affairs (SPEA) to underscore missed opportunities and the work that remains to be done. While life for far too many African Americans remains a struggle, the great freedom fighter Frederick Douglass was right: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
With Smiley leading the charge, the time has come to finally convert the trials and tribulations of Black America into the progress that all of America yearns for.


Click for more detail about I am Martin Luther King, Jr. by Brad Meltzer I am Martin Luther King, Jr.

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 05, 2016)
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We can all be heroes. That’s the inspiring message of this New York Times Bestselling picture book biography series from historian and author Brad Meltzer.
 
Even as a child, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shocked by the terrible and unfair way African-American people were treated. When he grew up, he decided to do something about it—peacefully, with powerful words. He helped gather people together for nonviolent protests and marches, and he always spoke up about loving other human beings and doing what’s right. He spoke about the dream of a kinder future, and bravely led the way toward racial equality in America.

This lively, New York Times Bestselling biography series inspires kids to dream big, one great role model at a time. You’ll want to collect each book.


Click for more detail about Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

by Mildred D. Taylor
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 05, 2016)
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A stunning repackage of Mildred D. Taylor’s Newbery Award-winning masterpiece with cover art by two-time Caldecott Honor Award winner Kadir Nelson and an introduction by Jacqueline Woodson, just in time for its 40th Anniversary! 

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family’s struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie’s story—Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she learns to draw strength from her own sense of dignity and self-respect.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry also won the following awards and honors:

  • Newbery Medal winner
  • A National Book Award Nominee
  • American Book Award Honor Book
  • An ALA Notable Book
  • A NCSS-CBC Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
  • A Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book


Click for more detail about Who Was Sojourner Truth? by Yona Zeldis McDonough Who Was Sojourner Truth?

by Yona Zeldis McDonough
Grosset & Dunlap (Dec 29, 2015)
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Almost 100 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, Sojourner Truth was mistreated by a streetcar conductor. She took him to court—and won! Before she was Sojourner Truth, she was known simply as Belle. Born a slave in New York sometime around 1797, she was later sold and separated from her family. Even after she escaped from slavery, she knew her work was not yet done. She changed her name and traveled, inspiring everyone she met and sharing her story until her death in 1883 at age eighty-six. In this easy-to-read biography, Yona Zeldis McDonough continues to share that remarkable story.


Click for more detail about Heroes of Black History by Bonnie Bader Heroes of Black History

by Bonnie Bader
Grosset & Dunlap (Dec 29, 2015)
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 A true hero not only rises to the occasion, but helps others rise with them. Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie Robinson, and Rosa Parks are five extraordinary people who overcame adversity to claim their places in modern history. In this box set, discover the life and times of five icons of black history and celebrate the difference they made in the world. Over 560 pages and 400 illustrations.


Click for more detail about Who Was George Washington Carver? by Jim Gigliotti Who Was George Washington Carver?

by Jim Gigliotti
Grosset & Dunlap (Dec 29, 2015)
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Born in 1860s Missouri, nobody expected George Washingtoni Carver to succeed. Slaves were not allowed to be educated. After the Civil War, Carver enrolled in classes and proved to be a star student. He became the first black student at Iowa State Agricultural College and later its first black professor. He went on to the Tuskegee Institute where he specialized in botany (the study of plants) and developed techniques to grow crops better. His work with vegetables, especially peanuts, made him famous and changed agriculture forever. He went on to develop nearly 100 household products and over 100 recipes using peanuts.


Click for more detail about Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat Krik? Krak!

by Edwidge Danticat
Vintage Books (Dec 15, 2015)
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With a new story by the author

When Haitians tell a story, they say “Krik?” and the eager listeners answer “Krak!” In Krik? Krak! In her second novel, Edwidge Danticat establishes herself as the latest heir to that narrative tradition with nine stories that encompass both the cruelties and the high ideals of Haitian life. They tell of women who continue loving behind prison walls and in the face of unfathomable loss; of a people who resist the brutality of their rulers through the powers of imagination. The result is a collection that outrages, saddens, and transports the reader with its sheer beauty.

Arriving one year after the Haitian-American’s first novel (Breath, Eyes, Memory) alerted critics to her compelling voice, these 10 stories, some of which have appeared in small literary journals, confirm Danticat’s reputation as a remarkably gifted writer.

Examining the lives of ordinary Haitians, particularly those struggling to survive under the brutal Duvalier regime, Danticat illuminates the distance between people’s desires and the stifling reality of their lives. A profound mix of Catholicism and voodoo spirituality informs the tales, bestowing a mythic importance on people described in the opening story, "Children of the Sea," as those "in this world whose names don’t matter to anyone but themselves." The ceaseless grip of dictatorship often leads men to emotionally abandon their families, like the husband in "A Wall of Fire Rising," who dreams of escaping in a neighbor’s hot-air balloon. The women exhibit more resilience, largely because of their insistence on finding meaning and solidarity through storytelling; but Danticat portrays these bonds with an honesty that shows that sisterhood, too, has its power plays. In the book’s final piece, "Epilogue: Women Like Us," she writes: "Are there women who both cook and write? Kitchen poets, they call them. They slip phrases into their stew and wrap meaning around their pork before frying it. They make narrative dumplings and stuff their daughter’s mouths so they say nothing more."

These stories inform and enrich one another, as the female characters reveal a common ancestry and ties to the fictional Ville Rose. In addition to the power of Danticat’s themes, the book is enhanced by an element of suspense—we’re never certain, for example, if a rickety boat packed with refugees introduced in the first tale will reach the Florida coast. Spare, elegant and moving, these stories cohere into a superb collection.


Click for more detail about Trust: Mastering the 4 Essential Trusts by Iyanla Vanzant Trust: Mastering the 4 Essential Trusts

by Iyanla Vanzant
SmileyBooks (Dec 08, 2015)
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You just can’t trust anyone—it’s a constant refrain in the modern world, and learning to trust is one of life’s most difficult lessons. This leads to fear and uncertainty, which too often erodes our confidence and undermines our relationships. “That’s because trust is not a verb,” says legendary life coach Iyanla Vanzant, “it’s a noun. In fact, trust is a state of mind and a state of being.”

In Trust, Iyanla explains what trust really is, reveals how and why to trust, and explores how to cultivate this liberating power. She outlines the special rewards that come from mastering the four essential trusts - trust in God, trust in yourself, trust in others, and trust in life—and shares how these opportunities encourage our true state of being. When trust is broken, it brings us face to face with our shadow, revealing our hidden beliefs and expectations about how things “should” be. This book’s pragmatic prescriptions demonstrate how to avoid trust-destroying behaviours through communication, consistency and cooperation. Her wise words encourage us to build trust, to revitalize us with increased authenticity, greater resilience and renewed peace in every part of our lives:

Trust in Self
Trust yourself because you are worthy of your own time, energy, attention, and love. You—as a demonstration of and representative of the presence of the Creator in the world—deserve and are worthy of your own trust… Trust yourself because it is the way you demonstrate that you are willing to embrace, engage, and enjoy life… Trust yourself because when the rubber meets the road, when all else fails, when everyone else has fallen by the wayside, you will know that you have always been and will always be there for you.

Trust in God
Trust in God because it is your sole purpose for being on the planet. Trust in God because you are a human being, prone to losing connection to and awareness of your good sense… Trust in God because it is the sure way that you will rise above your humanness into the truth of your authentic identity that is divine, purposeful, joyful, loving, and lovable… Trust in God because when you cannot do it—whatever it is—for yourself, God can do it through you and for you.

Trust in Others
Trust in others because it is the only way to fine-tune your instincts, deepen your ability to trust yourself, and learn the depth of your capacity to love and forgive… Trust in others because you need people to facilitate and support your mental, emotional, and spiritual growth. Even when your interactions and relationships are difficult, challenging, and uncomfortable, trust that you are growing. Trust in others because those whom you do trust—with or without good reason—will support you in recognizing the areas of your mind and heart that may still need loving care and attention.

Trust in Life
Trust the process of life because it is an incredible journey of wonder, adventure, and evolution that you can experience only in direct proportion to your willingness to trust it. Trust the process because life is on your side. Life wants to encourage you, inspire you, and motivate you, moment by moment, and that can happen only when you trust that life knows exactly what you need, and exactly when you need it… When you trust the process, you will deepen your awareness and understanding of who you are and the meaning of every person and experience you encounter. Learn more at the official website for Trust.


Click for more detail about Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush

by Jon Meacham
Random House (Nov 10, 2015)
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - In this brilliant biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham chronicles the life of George Herbert Walker Bush.

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review - Time - NPR - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Drawing on President Bush’s personal diaries, on the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and on extraordinary access to the forty-first president and his family, Meacham paints an intimate and surprising portrait of an intensely private man who led the nation through tumultuous times. From the Oval Office to Camp David, from his study in the private quarters of the White House to Air Force One, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the first Gulf War to the end of Communism, Destiny and Power charts the thoughts, decisions, and emotions of a modern president who may have been the last of his kind. This is the human story of a man who was, like the nation he led, at once noble and flawed.

His was one of the great American lives. Born into a loving, privileged, and competitive family, Bush joined the navy on his eighteenth birthday and at age twenty was shot down on a combat mission over the Pacific. He married young, started a family, and resisted pressure to go to Wall Street, striking out for the adventurous world of Texas oil. Over the course of three decades, Bush would rise from the chairmanship of his county Republican Party to serve as congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, head of the Republican National Committee, envoy to China, director of Central Intelligence, vice president under Ronald Reagan, and, finally, president of the United States. In retirement he became the first president since John Adams to see his son win the ultimate prize in American politics.

With access not only to the Bush diaries but, through extensive interviews, to the former president himself, Meacham presents Bush’s candid assessments of many of the critical figures of the age, ranging from Richard Nixon to Nancy Reagan; Mao to Mikhail Gorbachev; Dick Cheney to Donald Rumsfeld; Henry Kissinger to Bill Clinton. Here is high politics as it really is but as we rarely see it.

From the Pacific to the presidency, Destiny and Power charts the vicissitudes of the life of this quietly compelling American original. Meacham sheds new light on the rise of the right wing in the Republican Party, a shift that signaled the beginning of the end of the center in American politics. Destiny and Power is an affecting portrait of a man who, driven by destiny and by duty, forever sought, ultimately, to put the country first.

Praise for Destiny and Power

"Should be required reading—if not for every presidential candidate, then for every president-elect."The Washington Post

"Reflects the qualities of both subject and biographer: judicious, balanced, deliberative, with a deep appreciation of history and the personalities who shape it."The New York Times Book Review

"A fascinating biography of the forty-first president."The Dallas Morning News


Click for more detail about Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David K. Shipler Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land

by David K. Shipler
Crown Publishing Group (Nov 10, 2015)
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The expanded and updated edition of David Shipler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book that examines the relationship, past and present, between Arabs and Jews

In this monumental work, extensively researched and more relevant than ever, David Shipler delves into the origins of the prejudices that exist between Jews and Arabs that have been intensified by war, terrorism, and nationalism.

Focusing on the diverse cultures that exist side by side in Israel and Israeli-controlled territories, Shipler examines the process of indoctrination that begins in schools; he discusses the far-ranging effects of socioeconomic differences, historical conflicts between Islam and Judaism, attitudes about the Holocaust, and much more. And he writes of the people: the Arab woman in love with a Jew, the retired Israeli military officer, the Palestinian guerrilla, the handsome actor whose father is Arab and whose mother is Jewish.

For Shipler, and for all who read this book, their stories and hundreds of others reflect not only the reality of "wounded spirits" but also a glimmer of hope for eventual coexistence in the Promised Land.


Click for more detail about A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties by Ben Carson A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties

by Ben Carson
Sentinel (Oct 06, 2015)
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Dear Reader,

Many people have wondered why I’ve been speaking out on controversial issues for the last few years. They say I’ve never held political office. I’m not a constitutional scholar. I’m not even a lawyer. All I can say to that is “Guilty as charged.”

It’s true that I’ve never voted for a budget America could not afford. I’ve never raised anyone’s taxes. And I’ve never promised a lobbyist anything in exchange for a donation.

Luckily, none of that really matters. Our founding fathers didn’t want a permanent governing class of professional politicians. They wanted a republic, in Lincoln’s words, "of the people, by the people, and for the people." A country where any farmer, small-business owner, manual laborer, or doctor could speak up and make a difference.

I believe that making a difference starts with understanding our amazing founding document, the U.S. Constitution. And as someone who has performed brain surgery thousands of times, I can assure you that the Constitution isn’t brain surgery.

The founders wrote it for ordinary men and women, in clear, precise, simple language. They intentionally made it short enough to read in a single sitting and to carry in your pocket.

I wrote this book to encourage every citizen to read and think about the Constitution, and to help defend it from those who misinterpret and undermine it. In our age of political correctness it’s especially important to defend the Bill of Rights, which guarantees our freedom to speak, bear arms, practice our religion, and much more.

The Constitution isn’t history—it’s about your life in America today. And defending it is about what kind of country our children and grandchildren will inherit.

I hope you’ll enjoy learning about the fascinating ways that the founders established the greatest democracy in history—and the ways that recent presidents, congresses, and courts have threatened that democracy.

As the Preamble says, the purpose of the Constitution is to create a more perfect union. My goal is to empower you to help protect that union and secure the blessings of liberty.

Sincerely,
Ben Carson


Click for more detail about The Girl Who Buried Her Dreams in a Can by Tererai Trent The Girl Who Buried Her Dreams in a Can

by Tererai Trent
Viking Books for Young Readers (Oct 06, 2015)
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An inspirational picture book autobiography from Oprah Winfrey’s "All-Time Favorite Guest” 

This is the story of a little girl with big dreams.

All the girl ever wanted was an education. But in Rhodesia, education for girls was nearly impossible.

So she taught herself to read and write with her brother’s schoolbooks and to count while watching cattle graze.

When the girl became a young wife and mother, she wrote her goals on a scrap of paper and buried them in a can—an ancient ritual that reminded her that she couldn’t give up on her dreams.

She dreamed of going to America and earning one degree; then a second, even higher; and a third, the highest. And she hoped to bring education to all the girls and boys of her village.

Would her dreams ever come true?

Illustrated with Jan Spivey Gilchrist’s graceful watercolors, Dr. Tererai Trent’s true story of perseverance is sure to inspire readers of all ages.


Click for more detail about Naughtier Than Nice by Eric Jerome Dickey Naughtier Than Nice

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Knopf (Oct 01, 2015)
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Click for more detail about Voyage of the Sable Venus: and Other Poems by Robin Coste Lewis Voyage of the Sable Venus: and Other Poems

by Robin Coste Lewis
Knopf (Sep 29, 2015)
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A stunning poetry debut: this meditation on the black female figure throughout time introduces us to a brave and penetrating new voice.
 
Robin Coste Lewis’s electrifying collection is a triptych that begins and ends with lyric poems considering the roles desire and race play in the construction of the self. The central panel is the title poem, “Voyage of the Sable Venus,” a riveting narrative made up entirely of titles of artworks from ancient times to the present—titles that feature or in some way comment on the black female figure in Western art. Bracketed by Lewis’s autobiographical poems, “Voyage” is a tender and shocking study of the fragmentary mysteries of stereotype, as it juxtaposes our names for things with what we actually see and know. Offering a new understanding of biography and the self, this collection questions just where, historically, do ideas about the black female figure truly begin—five hundred years ago, five thousand, or even longer? And what role has art played in this ancient, often heinous story? From the “Young Black Female Carrying / a Perfume Vase” to a “Little Brown Girl / Girl Standing in a Tree / First Day of Voluntary / School Integration,” this poet adores her culture and the beauty to be found within it. Yet she is also a cultural critic alert to the nuances of race and desire and how they define us all, including herself, as she explores her own sometimes painful history. Lewis’s book is a thrilling aesthetic anthem to the complexity of race—a full embrace of its pleasure and horror, in equal parts.


Click for more detail about When Clowns Attack: A Survival Guide by Chuck Sambuchino When Clowns Attack: A Survival Guide

by Chuck Sambuchino
Ten Speed Press (Sep 29, 2015)
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"Now in a updated and expanded 28th edition, the Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market 2016 is the definitive publishing guide for anyone who seeks to write or illustrate for children from preschool through young adults. Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market 2016 provides more than 500 listings for children’s book markets (publishers, agents, magazines, and more) that include a point of contact, advice on how to properly submit your work, and what categories each market accepts. Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market 2016 includes: Interviews with creators of today’s successful children’s books; New Literary Agent Spotlights profiling literary reps who are currently building their client lists and are actively seeking authors of young adult, middle-grade, chapter books, and picture books; Success stories from 13 debut authors, as well as 9 successful debut illustrators, each of whom share their paths to publication so aspiring authors can learn from their success and see what they did right; Informative articles on how to make young readers laugh, how to build a career as an illustrator, how to sell your picture book, the difference between young adult and middle-grade, and so much more. Also included in this edition of Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market 2016 is a one-year subscription to the children’s publishing content on WritersMarket.com. Of special note is that Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market 2016 provides an exclusive access to the webinar ’25 Tips on How to Succeed in Children’s Publishing’ by Danielle Smith of Red Fox Literary. Simply stated, Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market 2016 will prove to be an incredibly valuable and practical resource for any author seeking to successfully publish children’s books for young readers preschool through YA for personal, family, schools, or community library collections. Very highly recommended for professional, community, and academic library Writing/Publishing reference collections." —Midwest Book Review


Click for more detail about Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America by Wil Haygood Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America

by Wil Haygood
Knopf (Sep 15, 2015)
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Thurgood Marshall brought down the separate-but-equal doctrine, integrated schools, and not only fought for human rights and human dignity but also made them impossible to deny in the courts and in the streets. In this stunning new biography, award- winning author Wil Haygood surpasses the emotional impact of his inspiring best seller The Butler to detail the life and career of one of the most transformative legal minds of the past one hundred years.

Using the framework of the dramatic, contentious five-day Senate hearing to confirm Marshall as the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Haygood creates a provocative and moving look at Marshall’s life as well as the politicians, lawyers, activists, and others who shaped—or desperately tried to stop—the civil rights movement of the twentieth century: President Lyndon Johnson; Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., whose scandals almost cost Marshall the Supreme Court judgeship; Harry and Harriette Moore, the Florida NAACP workers killed by the KKK; Justice J. Waties Waring, a racist lawyer from South Carolina, who, after being appointed to the federal court, became such a champion of civil rights that he was forced to flee the South; John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy; Senator Strom Thurmond, the renowned racist from South Carolina, who had a secret black mistress and child; North Carolina senator Sam Ervin, who tried to use his Constitutional expertise to block Marshall’s appointment; Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who stated that segregation was “the law of nature, the law of God”; Arkansas senator John McClellan, who, as a boy, after Teddy Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House, wrote a prize-winning school essay proclaiming that Roosevelt had destroyed the integrity of the presidency; and so many others.

This galvanizing book makes clear that it is impossible to overestimate Thurgood Marshall’s lasting influence on the racial politics of our nation.

Pulitzer Prize-winning, Harvard professor Annette Gordon-Reed reviews Wil Haygood’s new book.


Click for more detail about The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken by Wendell Pierce and Rod Dreher The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken

by Wendell Pierce and Rod Dreher
Riverhead Books (Sep 08, 2015)
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2016 Christopher Award Winner From acclaimed actor and producer Wendell Pierce, an insightful and poignant portrait of family, New Orleans and the transforming power of art.

On the morning of August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina barreled into New Orleans, devastating many of the city’s neighborhoods, including Pontchartrain Park, the home of Wendell Pierce’s family and the first African American middle-class subdivision in New Orleans. The hurricane breached many of the city’s levees, and the resulting flooding submerged Pontchartrain Park under as much as 20 feet of water. Katrina left New Orleans later that day, but for the next three days the water kept relentlessly gushing into the city, plunging eighty percent of New Orleans under water. Nearly 1,500 people were killed. Half the houses in the city had four feet of water in them—or more. There was no electricity or clean water in the city; looting and the breakdown of civil order soon followed. Tens of thousands of New Orleanians were stranded in the city, with no way out; many more evacuees were displaced, with no way back in.

Pierce and his family were some of the lucky ones: They survived and were able to ride out the storm at a relative’s house 70 miles away. When they were finally allowed to return, they found their family home in tatters, their neighborhood decimated. Heartbroken but resilient, Pierce vowed to help rebuild, and not just his family’s home, but all of Pontchartrain Park.

In this powerful and redemptive narrative, Pierce brings together the stories of his family, his city, and his history, why they are all worth saving and the critical importance art played in reuniting and revitalizing this unique American city.


Click for more detail about Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton Full Cicada Moon

by Marilyn Hilton
Dial Books for Young Readers (Sep 08, 2015)
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Inside Out and Back Again meets One Crazy Summer and Brown Girl Dreaming in this novel-in-verse about fitting in and standing up for what’s right

It’s 1969, and the Apollo 11 mission is getting ready to go to the moon. But for half-black, half-Japanese Mimi, moving to a predominantly white Vermont town is enough to make her feel alien. Suddenly, Mimi’s appearance is all anyone notices. She struggles to fit in with her classmates, even as she fights for her right to stand out by entering science competitions and joining Shop Class instead of Home Ec. And even though teachers and neighbors balk at her mixed-race family and her refusals to conform, Mimi’s dreams of becoming an astronaut never fade—no matter how many times she’s told no.

This historical middle-grade novel is told in poems from Mimi’s perspective over the course of one year in her new town, and shows readers that positive change can start with just one person speaking up.


Click for more detail about Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson Negroland: A Memoir

by Margo Jefferson
Pantheon Books (Sep 08, 2015)
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New York Times Bestseller

At once incendiary and icy, mischievous and provocative, celebratory and elegiac—here is a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, and American culture through the prism of the author’s rarefied upbringing and education among a black elite concerned with distancing itself from whites and the black generality while tirelessly measuring itself against both.
 
Born in upper-crust black Chicago—her father was for years head of pediatrics at Provident, at the time the nation’s oldest black hospital; her mother was a socialite—Margo Jefferson has spent most of her life among (call them what you will) the colored aristocracy, the colored elite, the blue-vein society. Since the nineteenth century they have stood apart, these inhabitants of Negroland, “a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty.”

Reckoning with the strictures and demands of Negroland at crucial historical moments—the civil rights movement, the dawn of feminism, the fallacy of postracial America—Jefferson brilliantly charts the twists and turns of a life informed by psychological and moral contradictions. Aware as it is of heart-wrenching despair and depression, this book is a triumphant paean to the grace of perseverance.

(With 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.)


Click for more detail about The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

by Bessel van der Kolk
Penguin Books (Sep 08, 2015)
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#1 New York Times Bestseller

“Essential reading for anyone interested in understanding and treating traumatic stress and the scope of its impact on society.” —Alexander McFarlane, Director of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies.

A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing in this New York Times bestseller.

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.


Click for more detail about Tales of Two Cities: The Best and Worst of Times in Today’s New York by Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz, Teju Cole, John Freeman, and others… Tales of Two Cities: The Best and Worst of Times in Today’s New York

by Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz, Teju Cole, John Freeman, and others…
Penguin Books (Sep 08, 2015)
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Thirty major contemporary writers examine life in a deeply divided New York
 
In a city where the top one percent earns more than a half-million dollars per year while twenty-five thousand children are homeless, public discourse about our entrenched and worsening wealth gap has never been more sorely needed. This remarkable anthology is the literary world’s response, with leading lights including Zadie Smith, Junot Díaz, and Lydia Davis bearing witness to the experience of ordinary New Yorkers in extraordinarily unequal circumstances. Through fiction and reportage, these writers convey the indignities and heartbreak, the callousness and solidarities, of living side by side with people of starkly different means. They shed light on the subterranean lives of homeless people who must find a bed in the city’s tunnels; the stresses that gentrification can bring to neighbors in a Brooklyn apartment block; the shenanigans of seriously alienated night-shift paralegals; the trials of a housing defendant standing up for tenants’ rights; and the humanity that survives in the midst of a deeply divided city. Tales of Two Cities is a brilliant, moving, and ultimately galvanizing clarion call for a city—and a nation—in crisis.


Click for more detail about Legends: The Best Players, Games, and Teams in Football: Classic Super Bowls! Amazing Playmakers! Historic Dynasties! And Much, Much More! by Howard Bryant Legends: The Best Players, Games, and Teams in Football: Classic Super Bowls! Amazing Playmakers! Historic Dynasties! And Much, Much More!

by Howard Bryant
Philomel Books (Sep 08, 2015)
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From Lombardi’s Packers through Brady and the Patriots, here is the ultimate look at the greatest sporting event in America — the Super Bowl — through its greatest quarterbacks, coaches, and highlight-reel plays.

In the second book of the LEGENDS series, ESPN’s Howard Bryant delivers THE gridiron guide to most exciting event in sports: the Super Bowl!

In this day and age, the gridiron reigns supreme. Football is America’s most popular sport and the NFL’s star players are instant celebrities with die-hard fans who live and die with each win or loss. And our collective obsession with the game begins when we’re just kids and culminates each year on what has become the equivalent of a national holiday—Super Bowl Sunday.

Recounting momentous stories of football’s past and present, and accompanied by iconic photos, Top Ten Lists to chew on and debate, and a Top 40-style Timeline of Key Moments, this comprehensive collection details twenty of the greatest Super Bowls in NFL history—and expands on their relevance within the larger scope of dynasties, giants of the coaching world, and marquee players making history. From the upsets to the blowouts to the nail-biting finishes, this is the perfect book for young fans eager to kick off their football schooling.“With the LEGENDS series, Howard Bryant brings to life the best that sports has to offer—the heroes, the bitter rivalries, the moments that every sports-loving kid should know.”—Mike Lupica, #1 bestselling author of Travel Team, Heat, and Fantasy League


Click for more detail about Pieces of Why by K. L. Going Pieces of Why

by K. L. Going
Kathy Dawson Books (Sep 08, 2015)
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From the award winning author of Fat Kid Rules the World and The Liberation of Gabriel King comes a lyrical, middle grade gem that asks all the hard questions and hits all the right notes—perfect for fans of Cynthia Rylant and Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

Tia lives with her mom in a high-risk neighborhood in New Orleans and loves singing gospel in the Rainbow Choir with Keisha, her boisterous and assertive best friend. Tia’s dream is to change the world with her voice; and by all accounts, she might be talented enough. But when a shooting happens in her neighborhood and she learns the truth about the crime that sent her father to prison years ago, Tia finds she can’t sing anymore. The loss prompts her to start asking the people in her community hard questions—questions everyone has always been too afraid to ask.

Full of humanity, Pieces of Why is a timely story that addresses grief, healing, and forgiveness, told through the eyes of a gifted girl who hears rhythm and song everywhere in her life.


Click for more detail about Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation by Edwidge Danticat Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation

by Edwidge Danticat
Dial Books for Young Readers (Sep 01, 2015)
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A touching tale of parent-child separation and immigration, from a National Book Award finalist

After Saya’s mother is sent to an immigration detention center, Saya finds comfort in listening to her mother’s warm greeting on their answering machine. To ease the distance between them while she’s in jail, Mama begins sending Saya bedtime stories inspired by Haitian folklore on cassette tape. Moved by her mother’s tales and her father’s attempts to reunite their family, Saya writes a story of her own—one that just might bring her mother home for good.

With stirring illustrations, this tender tale shows the human side of immigration and imprisonment—and shows how every child has the power to make a difference.


Click for more detail about Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon Everything, Everything

by Nicola Yoon
Delacorte Press (Sep 01, 2015)
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Madeline Whittier is allergic to the outside world. So allergic, in fact, that she has never left the house in all of her seventeen years. She is content enough—until a boy with eyes the color of the Atlantic Ocean moves in next door. Their complicated romance begins over IM and grows through a wunderkammer of vignettes, illustrations, charts, and more.

Everything, Everything is about the thrill and heartbreak that happens when we break out of our shell to do crazy, sometimes death-defying things for love.

PRAISE FOR EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING


Click for more detail about But Some Of Us Are Brave: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men: Black Women’s Studies by Patricia Bell-Scott, Gloria T. Hull, and Barbara Smith But Some Of Us Are Brave: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men: Black Women’s Studies

by Patricia Bell-Scott, Gloria T. Hull, and Barbara Smith
Vintage (Sep 01, 2015)
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Published in 1982, But Some of Us Are Brave was the first-ever Black women’s studies reader and a foundational text of contemporary feminism.

Featuring writing from eminent scholars, activists, teachers, and writers, such as the Combahee River Collective and Alice Walker, All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave challenges the absence of Black feminist thought in women’s studies, confronts racism, and investigates the mythology surrounding Black women in the social sciences.

As the first comprehensive collection of Black feminist scholarship, But Some of Us Are Brave was recognized by Audre Lorde as “the beginning of a new era, where the ’women’ in women’s studies will no longer mean ‘white.’”


Click for more detail about Don’t Fail Me Now by Una LaMarche Don’t Fail Me Now

by Una LaMarche
Razorbill (Sep 01, 2015)
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From the author of Like No Other, the novel Entertainment Weekly calls "One of the most poignant and star-crossed love stories since The Fault in Our Stars": What if the last hope to save your family is the person who broke it up to begin with?

"Fans of John Green, Rainbow Rowell, and Sharon Flake will find much to love in [Don’t Fail Me Now]." 
—School Library Journal
 
Michelle and her little siblings Cass and Denny are African-American and living on the poverty line in urban Baltimore, struggling to keep it together with their mom in jail and only Michelle’s part-time job at the Taco Bell to sustain them.
 
Leah and her stepbrother Tim are white and middle class from suburban Maryland, with few worries beyond winning lacrosse games and getting college applications in on time.
 
Michelle and Leah only have one thing in common: Buck Devereaux, the biological father who abandoned them when they were little.
 
After news trickles back to them that Buck is dying, they make the uneasy decision to drive across country to his hospice in California. Leah hopes for closure; Michelle just wants to give him a piece of her mind.
 
Five people in a failing, old station wagon, living off free samples at food courts across America, and the most pressing question on Michelle’s mind is: Who will break down first—herself or the car? All the signs tell her they won’t make it. But Michelle has heard that her whole life, and it’s never stopped her before….
 
Una LaMarche triumphs once again with this rare and compassionate look at how racial and social privilege affects one family in crisis in both subtle and astonishing ways.


Click for more detail about I Am Helen Keller by Brad Meltzer I Am Helen Keller

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Sep 01, 2015)
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We can all be heroes. That’s the inspiring message of this New York Times Bestselling picture book biography series from historian and author Brad Meltzer

When Helen Keller was very young, she got a rare disease that made her deaf and blind. Suddenly, she couldn’t see or hear at all, and it was hard for her to communicate with anyone. But when she was six years old, she met someone who change her life forever: her teacher, Annie Sullivan. With Miss Sullivan’s help, Helen learned how to speak sign language and read Braille. Armed with the ability to express herself, Helen grew up to be come a social activist, leading the fight for people with disabilities and so many other causes.


Click for more detail about The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami The Moor’s Account

by Laila Lalami
Vintage Books (Aug 18, 2015)
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**PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST**
**NOMINATED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE**
**WINNER OF THE AMERICAN BOOK AWARD**

A New York Times Notable Book
A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Book of the Year
An NPR Great Read of 2014
A Kirkus Best Fiction Book of the Year

In these pages, Laila Lalami brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America: Mustafa al-Zamori, called Estebanico. The slave of a Spanish conquistador, Estebanico sails for the Americas with his master, Dorantes, as part of a danger-laden expedition to Florida. Within a year, Estebanico is one of only four crew members to survive.
        As he journeys across America with his Spanish companions, the Old World roles of slave and master fall away, and Estebanico remakes himself as an equal, a healer, and a remarkable storyteller. His tale illuminates the ways in which our narratives can transmigrate into history—and how storytelling can offer a chance at redemption and survival.


Click for more detail about Who Asked You? by Terry McMillan Who Asked You?

by Terry McMillan
Penguin Group USA (Aug 04, 2015)
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When Who Asked You? begins, Trinetta leaves her two young sons with her mother, Betty Jean, and promptly disappears. BJ already has her hands full dealing with her other adult children, two opinionated sisters, an ill husband, and her own postponed dreams—all the while holding down a job delivering room service at a hotel.

Her son Dexter is about to be paroled from prison; Quentin, the family success, can’t be bothered to lend a hand; and taking care of two lively grandsons is the last thing BJ thinks she needs. But who asked her?


Click for more detail about Pointe by Brandy Colbert Pointe

by Brandy Colbert
Speak (Aug 04, 2015)
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Speak meets Black Swan in this stunningly dramatic debut novel

All that drama, plus pointe shoes? Yes, please: this is one book that’s bound to make a splash

Theo is better now.

She’s eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction—and his abductor.

Donovan isn’t talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn’t do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she’s been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse.


Click for more detail about Like No Other by Una LaMarche Like No Other

by Una LaMarche
Razorbill (Jul 14, 2015)
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Fitting seamlessly alongside current bestsellers like Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park, and John Green’s Paper Towns, LIKE NO OTHER provides a thoroughly modern take on romance that will inspire laughter, tears, and the belief that love can happen when you least expect it. 

"Electrifying…surprisingly seductive. LaMarche expertly conjures up what high-stakes infatuation feels like." —The New York Times Book Review
 
"[A] refreshing tale of forbidden love."—People Magazine

“One of the most poignant and star-crossed love stories since The Fault in Our Stars.” —Entertainment Weekly

Fate brought them together. Will life tear them apart? Devorah is a consummate good girl who has never challenged the ways of her strict Hasidic upbringing. Jaxon is a fun-loving, book-smart nerd who has never been comfortable around girls (unless you count his four younger sisters). They’ve spent their entire lives in Brooklyn, on opposite sides of the same street. Their paths never crossed…until one day, they did. 

When a hurricane strikes the Northeast, the pair becomes stranded in an elevator together, where fate leaves them no choice but to make an otherwise risky connection. Though their relationship is strictly forbidden, Devorah and Jaxon arrange secret meetings and risk everything to be together. But how far can they go? Just how much are they willing to give up?


Click for more detail about I Am Lucille Ball by Brad Meltzer I Am Lucille Ball

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Jul 14, 2015)
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We can all be heroes is the message of this picture-book biography series from #1 New York Times Bestselling author Brad Meltzer.

"Kids always search for heroes, so we might as well have a say in it," Brad Meltzer realized, and so he envisioned this friendly, fun approach to biography—for his own kids, and for yours. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a vivacious, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers, those who aren’t quite ready for the Who Was biography series. Each book focuses on a particular character trait that made that role model heroic. For example, Lucille Ball could make any situation funny. By making people around the world laugh, she proved that humor can take on anything.

This engaging series is the perfect way to bring American history to life for young children, providing them with the right role models, supplementing Common Core learning in the classroom, and best of all, inspiring them to strive and dream.


Click for more detail about Lillian’s Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by Jonah Winter Lillian’s Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

by Jonah Winter
Anne Schwartz Books (Jul 14, 2015)
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An elderly African American woman, en route to vote, remembers her family’s tumultuous voting history in this picture book publishing in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

As Lillian, a one-hundred-year-old African American woman, makes a “long haul up a steep hill” to her polling place, she sees more than trees and sky—she sees her family’s history. She sees the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and her great-grandfather voting for the first time. She sees her parents trying to register to vote. And she sees herself marching in a protest from Selma to Montgomery. Veteran bestselling picture-book author Jonah Winter and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner Shane W. Evans vividly recall America’s battle for civil rights in this lyrical, poignant account of one woman’s fierce determination to make it up the hill and make her voice heard.

“Moving… Stirs up a potent mixture of grief, anger, and pride at the history of black people’s fight for access to the ballot box.” —The New York Times


Click for more detail about Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates Between The World And Me

by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Spiegel & Grau (Jul 01, 2015)
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Debuted #1 New York Times Best Seller • Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States” (The New York Observer
“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.”
 
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
 
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson The Star Side of Bird Hill

by Naomi Jackson
Penguin Press (Jun 30, 2015)
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Two sisters are suddenly sent from their home in Brooklyn to Barbados to live with their grandmother, in this stunning debut novel.

This lyrical novel of community, betrayal, and love centers on an unforgettable matriarchal family in Barbados. Two sisters, ages ten and sixteen, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados after their mother can no longer care for them. The young Phaedra and her older sister, Dionne, live for the summer of 1989 with their grandmother Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah.

Dionne spends the summer in search of love, testing her grandmother’s limits, and wanting to go home. Phaedra explores Bird Hill, where her family has lived for generations, accompanies her grandmother in her role as a midwife, and investigates their mother’s mysterious life.

This tautly paced coming-of-age story builds to a crisis when the father they barely know comes to Bird Hill to reclaim his daughters, and both Phaedra and Dionne must choose between the Brooklyn they once knew and loved or the Barbados of their family.

Jackson’s Barbados and her characters are singular, especially the wise Hyacinth and the heartbreaking young Phaedra, who is coming into her own as a young woman amid the tumult of her family.


Click for more detail about Make It Messy: My Perfectly Imperfect Life by Marcus Samuelsson Make It Messy: My Perfectly Imperfect Life

by Marcus Samuelsson
Delacorte Press (Jun 09, 2015)
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In this inspirational autobiography, world-famous chef Marcus Samuelsson tells his extraordinary story and encourages young people to embrace their mistakes and follow their dreams. Based on his highly praised adult memoir, Yes, Chef, this young adult edition includes an 8-page black-and-white family photo insert.

Marcus Samuelsson’s life and his journey to the top of the food world have been anything but typical. Orphaned in Ethiopia, he was adopted by a loving couple in Sweden, where his new grandmother taught him to cook and inspired in him a lifelong passion for food. In time, that passion would lead him to train and cook in some of the finest, most demanding kitchens in Europe.

Samuelsson’s talent and ambition eventually led him to fulfill his dream of opening his own restaurant in New York City: Red Rooster Harlem, a highly acclaimed, multicultural dining room, where presidents rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, and bus drivers. A place where anyone can feel at home.

"’Step up to the challenge; don’t avoid it. Win or lose, take the shot.’ Samuelsson neatly serves up inspiration and food for thought."—Kirkus Reviews

"The perfect book for teen foodies and a great choice for others, thanks to its …  compelling story …  and sound advice."—VOYA

"A delightful read… .Samuelsson effectively connects his love of food to his personal journey."—School Library Journal


Click for more detail about For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law by Randall Kennedy For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law

by Randall Kennedy
Vintage (Jun 09, 2015)
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For Discrimination is at once the definitive reckoning with one of America’s most explosively contentious and divisive issues and a principled work of advocacy for clearly defined justice.

What precisely is affirmative action, and why is it fiercely championed by some and just as fiercely denounced by others? Does it signify a boon or a stigma? Or is it simply reverse discrimination? What are its benefits and costs to American society? What are the exact indicia determining who should or should not be accorded affirmative action? When should affirmative action end, if it must? Randall Kennedy gives us a concise and deeply personal overview of the policy, refusing to shy away from the myriad complexities of an issue that continues to bedevil American race relations.


Click for more detail about Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn And Made America A Democracy by Bruce Watson Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn And Made America A Democracy

by Bruce Watson
Knopf (May 31, 2015)
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A majestic history of the summer of ’64, which forever changed race relations in America

In the summer of 1964, with the civil rights movement stalled, seven hundred college students descended on Mississippi to register black voters, teach in Freedom Schools, and live in sharecroppers’ shacks. But by the time their first night in the state had ended, three volunteers were dead, black churches had burned, and America had a new definition of freedom.

This remarkable chapter in American history, the basis for the controversial film Mississippi Burning, is now the subject of Bruce Watson’s thoughtful and riveting historical narrative. Using in- depth interviews with participants and residents, Watson brilliantly captures the tottering legacy of Jim Crow in Mississippi and the chaos that brought such national figures as Martin Luther King Jr. and Pete Seeger to the state. Freedom Summer presents finely rendered portraits of the courageous black citizens-and Northern volunteers-who refused to be intimidated in their struggle for justice, and the white Mississippians who would kill to protect a dying way of life. Few books have provided such an intimate look at race relations during the deadliest days of the Civil Rights movement, and Freedom Summer will appeal to readers of Taylor Branch and Doug Blackmon.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Above the East China Sea by Sarah Bird Above the East China Sea

by Sarah Bird
Vintage (Apr 28, 2015)
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"A stunning account of wartime Okinawa… . Wise and sensitive." —Anthony Marra, San Francisco Chronicle

"Extraordinary… . A major display of literary talent—an absolutely don’t-miss novel." —The Washington Times

"Richly rewarding… . Finely wrought." —Chicago Tribune (Editor’s Choice)

"Bird’s fine novel suggests that … ancient beliefs can still provide comfort and connection in a modern world." —The New York Times Book Review

"Engaging, haunting, and illuminating… . A unique tale of friendship that defies time and space… . Poignant and deeply memorable." —The Daily Beast

"Compelling… . Bird deftly captures the unique, era-appropriate voice of each girl… . Revelations are at once heartbreaking and uplifting, and reinforce an Okinawan expression uttered by many of Birds’ unforgettable characters: ’Nuchi du takara.’ Life is the treasure." —The Seattle Times

"A moving dual coming-of-age story." —Marie Claire

"This is the rare tome that has the goods for both popular and critical acclaim at the highest level… . After this book, Bird should be a literary household name." —The Dallas Morning News

"Revelatory." —Reader’s Digest

"Gripping… . This tale of how women and girls survive bloody times manages its happy ending without offering easy answers—quite a feat for such an entertaining read." —The Austin Chronicle

"To my mind, Bird is the finest living Texas novelist, and Above the East China Sea showcases all of her gifts in spades—her unmistakable voice displays warmth, wit, and that rare variety of irreverence that possesses real heart." —Robert Leleux, The Texas Observer

"[Bird] has penned elegiac novels of tremendous depth and richness… . [Her] latest—Above the East China Sea, a return to her military-brat youth in Asia—may be her best." —San Antonio Express-News

"Fascinating… . Above the East China Sea provides welcome context to the news reports from an island whose pivotal place in global power politics remains mostly unexamined." —BookPage

"[Has] immense teen appeal… Teens will be turning pages quickly." —School Library Journal
"An extraordinary novel… . Intermingles past and present young adult lives, with entertaining banter plus a touch of the supernatural… . A gratifying read. Highly recommended." —Historical Novel Society

"Readers won’t soon forget Tamiko’s searing depiction of her experiences during the Battle of Okinawa… . A multilayered and utterly involving work." —Booklist

"A rich and engrossing achievement… . A suspenseful and magical journey." —Library Journal

"Fascinating… . Ambitious and rewarding… . [A] powerful sense of history and place." —Publishers Weekly


Click for more detail about God Help the Child: A Novel by Toni Morrison God Help the Child: A Novel

by Toni Morrison
Knopf (Apr 21, 2015)
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Spare and unsparing, God Help the Child is a searing tale about the way childhood trauma shapes and misshapes the life of the adult. At the center: a woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life; but which caused her light-skinned mother to deny her even the simplest forms of love until she told a lie that ruined the life of an innocent woman, a lie whose reverberations refuse to diminish … Booker, the man Bride loves and loses, whose core of anger was born in the wake of the childhood murder of his beloved brother … Rain, the mysterious white child, who finds in Bride the only person she can talk to about the abuse she’s suffered at the hands of her prostitute mother … and Sweetness, Bride’s mother, who takes a lifetime to understand that "what you do to children matters. And they might never forget."


Click for more detail about One Night by Eric Jerome Dickey One Night

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Knopf (Apr 21, 2015)
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The New York Times bestselling author checks in to the hotel of readers’ dreams for an ardent romantic adventure that lasts just One Night.

For one night, a couple checks in to an upscale hotel. The pair seem unlikely companions, from opposing strata of society, but their attraction is palpable to all who observe them—or overhear their cries of passion. In the course of twelve hours, con games, erotic interludes, jealousy, violence, and murder swirl around them. Will they part ways in bliss, in sorrow, or in death?

Filled with all the hallmarks of an Eric Jerome Dickey bestseller—erotic situations, edge-of-your-seat twists and turns, and fun, believable relationships—One Night will delight Dickey’s existing fans and lure countless new ones.


Click for more detail about Michelle Obama: A Life by Peter Slevin Michelle Obama: A Life

by Peter Slevin
Knopf (Apr 07, 2015)
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An inspiring story of a modern American icon, here is the first comprehensive account of the life and times of Michelle Obama. With disciplined reporting and a storyteller’s eye for revealing detail, Peter Slevin follows Michelle to the White House from her working-class childhood on Chicago’s largely segregated South Side. He illuminates her tribulations at Princeton University and Harvard Law School during the racially charged 1980s and the dilemmas she faced in Chicago while building a high-powered career, raising a family and helping a young community organizer named Barack Obama become president of the United States. From the lessons she learned in Chicago to the messages she shares as one of the most recognizable women in the world, the story of this First Lady is the story of America. Michelle Obama: A Life is a fresh and compelling view of a woman of unique achievement and purpose.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Pleasantville (Jay Porter Series) by Attica Locke Pleasantville (Jay Porter Series)

by Attica Locke
Knopf (Apr 01, 2015)
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From Attica Locke, a writer and producer of FOX’s Empire, this sophisticated thriller sees lawyer Jay Porter—hero of her bestseller Black Water Rising—return to fight one last case, only to become embroiled in a dangerous game of shadowy politics and a witness to how far those in power are willing to go to win.

Fifteen years after his career-defining case against Cole Oil, Jay Porter is broke and tired. That victory might have won the environmental lawyer fame, but thanks to a string of appeals, he hasn’t seen a dime. His latest case—representing Pleasantville in the wake of a chemical fire—is dragging on, shaking his confidence and raising doubts about him within this upwardly mobile black community on Houston’s north side. Though Jay still believes in doing what’s right, he is done fighting other people’s battles. Once he has his piece of the settlement, the single father is going to devote himself to what matters most—his children.

His plans are abruptly derailed when a female campaign volunteer vanishes on the night of Houston’s mayoral election, throwing an already contentious campaign into chaos. The accused is none other than the nephew and campaign manager of one of the leading candidates—a scion of a prominent Houston family headed by the formidable Sam Hathorne. Despite all the signs suggesting that his client is guilty—and his own misgivings—Jay can’t refuse when a man as wealthy and connected as Sam asks him to head up the defense. Not if he wants that new life with his kids. But he has to win.

Plunging into a shadowy world of ambitious enemies and treacherous allies armed with money, lies, and secrets, Jay reluctantly takes on his first murder trial—a case that will put him and his client, and an entire political process, on trial.


Click for more detail about Ordinary Light: A Memoir by Tracy K. Smith Ordinary Light: A Memoir

by Tracy K. Smith
Knopf (Mar 31, 2015)
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National Book Award Finalist

From the dazzlingly original Pulitzer Prize-winning poet hailed for her “extraordinary range and ambition” (The New York Times Book Review): a quietly potent memoir that explores coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter.

The youngest of five children, Tracy K. Smith was raised with limitless affection and a firm belief in God by a stay-at-home mother and an engineer father. But just as Tracy is about to leave home for college, her mother is diagnosed with cancer, a condition she accepts as part of God’s plan. Ordinary Light is the story of a young woman struggling to fashion her own understanding of belief, loss, history, and what it means to be black in America.

In lucid, clear prose, Smith interrogates her childhood in suburban California, her first collision with independence at Harvard, and her Alabama-born parents’ recollections of their own youth in the Civil Rights era. These dizzying juxtapositions—of her family’s past, her own comfortable present, and the promise of her future—will in due course compel Tracy to act on her passions for love and “ecstatic possibility,” and her desire to become a writer.

Shot through with exquisite lyricism, wry humor, and an acute awareness of the beauty of everyday life, Ordinary Light is a gorgeous kaleidoscope of self and family, one that skillfully combines a child’s and teenager’s perceptions with adult retrospection. Here is a universal story of being and becoming, a classic portrait of the ways we find and lose ourselves amid the places we call home.


Click for more detail about The Complete Poetry by Maya Angelou The Complete Poetry

by Maya Angelou
Random House (Mar 31, 2015)
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Throughout her illustrious career in letters, Maya Angelou gifted, healed, and inspired the world with her words. Now the beauty and spirit of those words live on in this new and complete collection of poetry that reflects and honors the writer’s remarkable life.
 
Every poetic phrase, every poignant verse can be found within the pages of this sure-to-be-treasured volume—from her reflections on African American life and hardship in the compilation Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie (“Though there’s one thing that I cry for / I believe enough to die for / That is every man’s responsibility to man”) to her revolutionary celebrations of womanhood in the poem “Still I Rise” (“Out of the huts of history’s shame / I rise / Up from a past that’s rooted in pain / I rise”) to her “On the Pulse of Morning” tribute at President William Jefferson Clinton’s inauguration (“Lift up your eyes upon / The day breaking for you. / Give birth again / To the dream.”).
 
Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry also features her final long-form poems, including “A Brave and Startling Truth,” “Amazing Peace,” “His Day Is Done,” and the honest and endearing Mother:
 
“I feared if I let you go
You would leave me eternally.
You smiled at my fears, saying
I could not stay in your lap forever”
 
This collection also includes the never-before-published poem “Amazement Awaits,” commissioned for the 2008 Olympic Games:
 
“We are here at the portal of the world we had wished for
At the lintel of the world we most need.
We are here roaring and singing.
We prove that we can not only make peace, we can bring it with us.”
 
Timeless and prescient, this definitive compendium will warm the hearts of Maya Angelou’s most ardent admirers as it introduces new readers to the legendary poet, activist, and teacher—a phenomenal woman for the ages.


Click for more detail about Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee Under a Painted Sky

by Stacey Lee
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Mar 17, 2015)
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Missouri, 1849: Samantha dreams of moving back to New York to be a
professional musician—not an easy thing if you’re a girl, and harder
still if you’re Chinese. But a tragic accident dashes any hopes of
fulfilling her dream, and instead, leaves her fearing for her life.
With the help of a runaway slave named Annamae, Samantha flees town
for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for
two girls, so they disguise themselves as Sammy and Andy, two boys
headed for the California gold rush.

Sammy and Andy forge a powerful bond as they each search for a link to
their past, and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. But when
they cross paths with a band of cowboys, the light-hearted troupe turn
out to be unexpected allies. With the law closing in on them and new
setbacks coming each day, the girls quickly learn that there are not
many places to hide on the open trail.

An unforgettable story of friendship and sacrifice—perfect for fans of
Code Name Verity.


Click for more detail about Legends: The Best Players, Games, and Teams in Baseball: World Series Heroics! Greatest Homerun Hitters! Classic Rivalries! And Much, Much More! by Howard Bryant Legends: The Best Players, Games, and Teams in Baseball: World Series Heroics! Greatest Homerun Hitters! Classic Rivalries! And Much, Much More!

by Howard Bryant
Philomel Books (Mar 03, 2015)
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“With the LEGENDS series, Howard Bryant brings to life the best that sports has to offer—the heroes, the bitter rivalries, the moments that every sports-loving kid should know.”—Mike Lupica, #1 bestselling author of Travel Team, Heat, and Fantasy League

Experience baseball’s most exciting moments, World Series heroics, greatest players, and more!

Baseball, America’s pastime, is a sport of moments that stand the test of time. It is equally a sport of a new generation of heroes, whose exploits inspire today’s young fans. This combination makes for a winning debut in Legends: The Best Players, Games, and Teams in Baseball.

This is no traditional almanac of mundane statistics, but rather a storyteller’s journey through baseball’s storied game. Told in fun, accessible chapters and accompanied by iconic photos, a slew of Top Ten lists for kids to chew on and debate, and a Timeline of the 40 Most Important Moments in Baseball History, this collection covers some of the greatest players from Babe Ruth to Hank Aaron; the greatest teams to take the field and swing the bats; the greatest social triggers, such as Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier; the greatest playoff rivalries, including the 2004 showdown between the Red Sox and Yankees that turned into an instant classic; and, of course, the edge-of-your-seat World Series moments that left some cheering while others wept. This is the perfect book for young fans eager to learn more about the sport that will stay with them for a lifetime.

Praise for LEGENDS:

An Amazon Best Book of the Month!

* "A terrific gathering of heroic hacks and legendary near misses."—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

* "Each story is engaging and offers readers a glimpse into baseball’s past and American history. [A] terrific addition to engage reluctant readers."—School Library Connection, STARRED REVIEW"[T]his is clearly a book for sports lovers. A strong choice for rounding out sports collections, this work knocks it out of the park."—School Library Journal

"Any fan of baseball will enjoy this compilation … Fans of all ages will find this a useful guide; teachers might find this an interesting mentor text for a student reporting on a particular topic since the approach is unique."—VOYA

"[T]his book will attract all manner of analysis and discussion among lovers of America’s favorite pastime. Fans of other sports will cheer: this is only the first in a series devoted to sports."—Booklist


Click for more detail about Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic by Connie H. Choi, Eugenie Tsai, Insoo Cho, Elizabeth Armstrong, and Richard Aste Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic

by Connie H. Choi, Eugenie Tsai, Insoo Cho, Elizabeth Armstrong, and Richard Aste
Prestel (Feb 20, 2015)
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Filled with reproductions of Kehinde Wiley’s bold, colorful, and monumental work, this book encompasses the artist’s various series of paintings as well as his sculptural work?which boldly explore ideas about race, power, and tradition. Celebrated for his classically styled paintings that depict African American men in heroic poses, Kehinde Wiley is among the expanding ranks of prominent black artists?such as Sanford Biggers, Yinka Shonibare, Mickalene Thomas, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye?who are reworking art history and questioning its depictions of people of color. Co-published with the Brooklyn Museum of Art for the major touring retrospective, this volume surveys Wiley’s career from 2001 to the present. It includes early portraits of the men Wiley observed on Harlem’s streets, and which laid the foundation for his acclaimed reworkings of Old Master paintings by Titian, van Dyke, Manet, and others, in which he replaces historical subjects with young African American men in contemporary attire: puffy jackets, sneakers, hoodies, and baseball caps. Also included is a generous selection from Wiley’s ongoing World Stage project; several of his enormous Down paintings; striking male portrait busts in bronze; and examples from the artist’s new series of stained glass windows. Accompanying the illustrations are essays that introduce readers to the arc of Wiley’s career, its critical reception, and ongoing evolution.


Click for more detail about Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now’s the Time by Dieter Buchhart, Franklin Sirmans, Olivier Berggruen, Glenn Obrien, and Christian Campbell Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now’s the Time

by Dieter Buchhart, Franklin Sirmans, Olivier Berggruen, Glenn Obrien, and Christian Campbell
Prestel (Feb 20, 2015)
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A thematic presentation of the groundbreaking and provocative art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, this volume offers a new appreciation of his tragic but highly influential career. From his early years spray painting the walls of lower Manhattan to his first solo show in 1982 and his untimely death at the age of 27 in 1988, Jean-Michel Basquiat has become a symbol of the 1980s New York art scene. Now, more than a quarter-century since his death, this book considers Basquiat’s works in light of their transformative power. Exquisitely reproduced full-page color illustrations of his paintings cover the full thematic range of Basquiat’s work. From the autobiographical elements of Untitled (1981) and the powerful critique of racial justice that is Irony of a Negro Policeman to an exploration of black heroes, Untitled (1982) and the tongue-in-cheek social commentary of A Panel of Experts, Basquiat’s limitless palette of observation, criticism, and cultural references endows his art with lasting and provocative power. Author Dieter Buchhart explores how Basquiat’s success paved the way for an entire generation of black artists and how street culture has spread into popular culture. Texts by curators, art dealers, and cultural critics discuss the significance of Basquiat’s oeuvre and show how his approach and subject matter continue to influence artists around the world.


Click for more detail about Welcome to Braggsville: A Novel by T. Geronimo Johnson Welcome to Braggsville: A Novel

by T. Geronimo Johnson
Penguin Books (Feb 17, 2015)
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From the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of Hold It ’Til It Hurts comes a dark and socially provocative Southern-fried comedy about four UC Berkeley students who stage a dramatic protest during a Civil War reenactment—a fierce, funny, tragic work from a bold new writer.Welcome to Braggsville. The City that Love Built in the Heart of Georgia. Population 712Born and raised in the heart of old Dixie, D’aron Davenport finds himself in unfamiliar territory his freshman year at UC Berkeley. Two thousand miles and a world away from his childhood, he is a small-town fish floundering in the depths of a large, hyper-liberal pond. Caught between the prosaic values of his rural hometown and the intellectualized multicultural cosmopolitanism of Berzerkeley, the nineteen-year-old white kid is uncertain about his place until one disastrous party brings him three idiosyncratic best friends: Louis, a “kung-fu comedian" from California; Candice, an earnest do-gooder claiming Native roots from Iowa; and Charlie, an introspective inner-city black teen from Chicago. They dub themselves the “4 Little Indians.”But everything changes in the group’s alternative history class, when D’aron lets slip that his hometown hosts an annual Civil War reenactment, recently rebranded “Patriot Days.” His announcement is met with righteous indignation, and inspires Candice to suggest a “performative intervention” to protest the reenactment. Armed with youthful self-importance, makeshift slave costumes, righteous zeal, and their own misguided ideas about the South, the 4 Little Indians descend on Braggsville. Their journey through backwoods churches, backroom politics, Waffle Houses, and drunken family barbecues is uproarious to start, but will have devastating consequences.With the keen wit of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and the deft argot of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, T. Geronimo Johnson has written an astonishing, razor-sharp satire. Using a panoply of styles and tones, from tragicomic to Southern Gothic, he skewers issues of class, race, intellectual and political chauvinism, Obamaism, social media, and much more.A literary coming-of-age novel for a new generation, written with tremendous social insight and a unique, generous heart, Welcome to Braggsville reminds us of the promise and perils of youthful exuberance, while painting an indelible portrait of contemporary America.


Click for more detail about King Kafu & the Moon by Trish Cooke King Kafu & the Moon

by Trish Cooke
Scott Foresman (Feb 13, 2015)
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Click for more detail about DISASTER ALERT! by Christine Taylor Butler DISASTER ALERT!

by Christine Taylor Butler
Scott Foresman (Feb 13, 2015)
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Click for more detail about Ruby by Cynthia Bond Ruby

by Cynthia Bond
Knopf (Feb 10, 2015)
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The newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection

The epic, unforgettable story of a man determined to protect the woman he loves from the town desperate to destroy her, this beautiful and devastating debut heralds the arrival of a major new voice in fiction.

Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby Bell, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe center of the city—the darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the Village—all the while hoping for a glimpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother. When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, thirty-year-old Ruby finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out again, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town’s dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy.

Full of life, exquisitely written, and suffused with the pastoral beauty of the rural South, Ruby is a transcendent novel of passion and courage. This wondrous page-turner rushes through the red dust and gossip of Main Street, to the pit fire where men swill bootleg outside Bloom’s Juke, to Celia Jennings’s kitchen, where a cake is being made, yolk by yolk, that Ephram will use to try to begin again with Ruby. Utterly transfixing, with unforgettable characters, riveting suspense, and breathtaking, luminous prose, Ruby offers an unflinching portrait of man’s dark acts and the promise of the redemptive power of love.

Shortlisted for the 2015 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction


Click for more detail about Selected Letters of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes Selected Letters of Langston Hughes

by Langston Hughes
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Feb 10, 2015)
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ARNOLD RAMPERSAD, the Sarah Hart Kimball Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at Stanford University, has also taught at Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers Universities. His books include The Life of Langston Hughes (two volumes); biographies of W. E. B. Du Bois, Jackie Robinson, and Ralph Ellison; and, with Arthur Ashe, Days of Grace: A Memoir. Among his numerous awards and honors are a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1991 and the National Humanities Medal, presented at the White House in 2011.

DAVID ROESSEL is the Peter and Stella Yiannos Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. He is the associate editor, with Arnold Rampersad, of The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, as well as the coeditor of The Collected Poems of Tennessee Williams and Mister Paradise and Other One-Act Plays by Tennessee Williams. His book In Byron’s Shadow: Modern Greece in the English and American Imagination was awarded the annual MLA Prize for Independent Scholars.

CHRISTA FRATANTORO is a senior editor with F. A. Davis Company, a health care publisher based in Philadelphia. She studied literature at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. An independent scholar with an interest in Hughes, she welcomed the opportunity to work on Selected Letters.


Click for more detail about The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes The Weary Blues

by Langston Hughes
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Feb 10, 2015)
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LANGSTON HUGHES was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902. After graduation from high school, he spent a year in Mexico with his father, then a year studying at Columbia University. His first poem published in a nationally known magazine was "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," which appeared in Crisis in 1921. In 1925, he was awarded the First Prize for Poetry from the magazine Opportunity for "The Weary Blues," which gave its title to this, his first book of poems. Hughes received his B.A. from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1929. In 1943, he was awarded an honorary Litt.D. by his alma mater; during his lifetime, he was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1935), a Rosenwald Fellowship (1940), and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Grant (1947). From 1926 until his death in 1967, Hughes devoted his time to writing and lecturing. He wrote poetry, short stories, autobiography, song lyrics, essays, humor, and plays. A cross section of his work was published in 1958 as The Langston Hughes Reader; a Selected Poems first appeared in 1959 and a Collected Poems in 1994. Today, his many works and his contribution to American letters continue to be cherished and celebrated around the world.


Click for more detail about We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Anchor (Feb 03, 2015)
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In this personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from her much-admired TEDx talk of the same name—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning author of Americanah, offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.


Click for more detail about China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa by Howard W. French China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa

by Howard W. French
Vintage (Feb 03, 2015)
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Chinese immigrants of the recent past and unfolding twenty-first century are in search of the African dream. So explains indefatigable traveler Howard W. French, prize-winning investigative journalist and former New York Times bureau chief in Africa and China, in the definitive account of this seismic geopolitical development. China’s burgeoning presence in Africa is already shaping, and reshaping, the future of millions of people.

From Liberia to Senegal to Mozambique, in creaky trucks and by back roads, French introduces us to the characters who make up China’s dogged emigrant population: entrepreneurs singlehandedly reshaping African infrastructure, and less-lucky migrants barely scraping by but still convinced of Africa’s opportunities. French’s acute observations offer an illuminating insight into the most pressing unknowns of modern Sino-African relations: Why China is making these cultural and economic incursions into the continent; what Africa’s role is in this equation; and what the ramifications for both parties and their people—and the watching world—will be in the foreseeable future.


Click for more detail about Rights at Risk: The Limits of Liberty in Modern America by David K. Shipler Rights at Risk: The Limits of Liberty in Modern America

by David K. Shipler
Vintage (Feb 03, 2015)
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An enlightening, intensely researched examination of violations of the constitutional principles that preserve individual rights and civil liberties from courtrooms to classrooms.

With telling anecdote and detail, Pulitzer Prize–winner David K. Shipler explores the territory where the Constitution meets everyday America, where legal compromises—before and since 9/11—have undermined the criminal justice system’s fairness, enhanced the executive branch’s power over citizens and immigrants, and impaired some of the freewheeling debate and protest essential in a constitutional democracy.

Shipler demonstrates how the violations tamper with America’s safety in unexpected ways. While a free society takes risks to observe rights, denying rights creates other risks. A suspect’s right to silence may deprive police of a confession, but a forced confession is often false. Honoring the right to a jury trial may be cumbersome, but empowering prosecutors to coerce a guilty plea means evidence goes untested, the charge unproved. An investigation undisciplined by the Bill of Rights may jail the innocent and leave the guilty at large and dangerous. Weakened constitutional rules allow the police to waste precious resources on useless intelligence gathering and frivolous arrests. The criminal courts act less as impartial adjudicators than as conveyor belts from street to prison in a system that some disillusioned participants have nicknamed “McJustice.”

There is, always, a human cost. Shipler shows us victims of torture and abuse—not only suspected terrorists at the hands of the CIA but also murder suspects interrogated by the Chicago police. We see a poverty-stricken woman forced to share an attorney with her drug dealer boyfriend and sentenced to six years in prison when the conflict of interest turns her lawyer against her. We meet high school students suspended for expressing unwelcome political opinions. And we see a pregnant immigrant deported, after years of living legally in the country, for allegedly stealing a lottery ticket.

Often shocking, yet ultimately idealistic, Rights at Risk shows us the shadows of America where the civil liberties we rightly take for granted have been eroded—and summons us to reclaim them.


Click for more detail about The Love Playbook: Rules for Love, Sex, and Happiness by La La Anthony and Karen Hunter The Love Playbook: Rules for Love, Sex, and Happiness

by La La Anthony and Karen Hunter
Celebra (Feb 03, 2015)
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#1 New York Times Bestseller

La La Anthony shares her one-of-a-kind rules on matters of the heart.

Star of VH1’s La La’s Full Court Life, actress, entrepreneur, and wife of New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony, La La Anthony found love and success on her own terms. But before La La was a strong woman balancing a growing career, a high-profile marriage, and motherhood, she suffered through bad dates, tumultuous relationships, and backstabbing friends. She learned the hard way how to rise above it all to live the life she loves.

Now La La channels those lessons into a personal playbook, providing empowering go-to advice for healthy relationships and a happy life. Candidly, she draws on her personal experiences, revealing intimate details about her marriage and past relationships to illustrate what she’s learned the hard way: from teaching your man the right way to treat a woman to dealing with a fickle friend and, of course, how to snag a baller. Through her non-nonsense advice on dating, love, marriage, and more, you will learn how to take control of your relationships, rise above adversity, and live your life by your rules.

The Love Playbook is the everywoman guide to dating, finding love, building healthy relationships, and staying true to yourself along the way.

“The first rule of love is that the ball is in the woman’s court.”


Click for more detail about Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family

by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams
Clarkson Potter (Feb 03, 2015)
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A mother-daughter duo reclaims and redefines soul food by mining the traditions of four generations of black women and creating 80 healthy recipes to help everyone live longer and stronger.

In May 2012, bestselling author Alice Randall penned an op-ed in the New York Times titled Black Women and Fat, chronicling her quest to be the last fat black woman in her family. She turned to her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, for help. Together they overhauled the way they cook and eat, translating recipes and traditions handed down by generations of black women into easy, affordable, and healthful—yet still indulgent—dishes, such as Peanut Chicken Stew, Red Bean and Brown Rice Creole Salad, Fiery Green Beans, and Sinless Sweet Potato Pie. Soul Food Love relates the authors’ fascinating family history (which mirrors that of much of black America in the twentieth century), explores the often fraught relationship African-American women have had with food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage. This is what the strong black kitchen looks like in the twenty-first century.


Click for more detail about Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America

by Jill Leovy
Spiegel & Grau (Jan 27, 2015)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE,

USA TODAY,

AND CHICAGO TRIBUNE

A masterly work of literary journalism about a senseless murder, a relentless detective, and the great plague of homicide in America NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST

NAMED

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review The Washington Post The Boston Globe

The Economist The Globe and Mail

BookPage

Kirkus Reviews On a warm spring evening in South Los Angeles, a young man is shot and killed on a sidewalk minutes away from his home, one of the thousands of black Americans murdered that year. His assailant runs down the street, jumps into an SUV, and vanishes, hoping to join the scores of killers in American cities who are never arrested for their crimes. But as soon as the case is assigned to Detective John Skaggs, the odds shift. Here is the kaleidoscopic story of the quintessential, but mostly ignored, American murder—a ghettoside killing, one young black man slaying another—and a brilliant and driven cadre of detectives whose creed is to pursue justice for forgotten victims at all costs. Ghettoside is a fast-paced narrative of a devastating crime, an intimate portrait of detectives and a community bonded in tragedy, and a surprising new lens into the great subject of why murder happens in our cities—and how the epidemic of killings might yet be stopped. Praise for Ghettoside A serious and kaleidoscopic achievement… [Jill

Leovy is] a crisp writer with a crisp mind and the ability to boil entire skies of information into hard journalistic rain.—Dwight Garner,

The New York Times Masterful… gritty reporting that matches the police work behind it.—Los Angeles Times Moving and engrossing.—San Francisco Chronicle Penetrating and heartbreaking…

Ghettoside

points out how relatively little America has cared even as recently as the last decade about the value of young black men’s lives.—USA Today Functions both as a snappy police procedural and—more significantly—as a searing indictment of legal neglect… Leovy’s powerful testimony demands respectful attention.—The Boston Globe Gritty, heart-wrenching… Everyone needs to read this book.—Michael Connelly Ghettoside is remarkable: a deep anatomy of lawlessness.—Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal [Leovy writes] with grace and artistry, and controlled—but bone-deep—outrage in her new book.…

The most important book about urban violence in a generation.—The Washington Post Riveting… This timely book could not be more important.—Associated Press Leovy’s relentless reporting has produced a book packed with valuable, hard-won insights—and it serves as a crucial, 366-page reminder that ‘black lives matter.’ —The New York Times Book Review A compelling analysis of the factors behind the epidemic of black-on-black homicide… an important book, which deserves a wide audience.—Hari Kunzru, The Guardian


Click for more detail about The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond

by Brenda Woods
Puffin Books (Jan 22, 2015)
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Coretta Scott King Honor winner Brenda Woods’ moving, uplifting story of a girl finally meeting the African American side of her family explores racism and how it feels to be biracial, and celebrates families of all kinds.Violet is biracial, but she lives with her white mother and sister, attends a mostly white school in a white town, and sometimes feels like a brown leaf on a pile of snow. Now that she’s eleven, she feels it’s time to learn about her African American heritage, so she seeks out her paternal grandmother. When Violet is invited to spend two weeks with her new Bibi (Swahili for "grandmother") and learns about her lost heritage, her confidence in herself grows and she discovers she’s not a shrinking Violet after all. From a Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author, this is a powerful story about a young girl finding her place in the world.


Click for more detail about The Work: My Search For A Life That Matters by Wes Moore The Work: My Search For A Life That Matters

by Wes Moore
Spiegel & Grau (Jan 13, 2015)
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The acclaimed author of The Other Wes Moore continues his inspirational quest for a meaningful life and shares the powerful lessons—about self-discovery, service, and risk-taking—that led him to a new definition of success for our times.
 
The Work is the story of how one young man traced a path through the world to find his life’s purpose. Wes Moore graduated from a difficult childhood in the Bronx and Baltimore to an adult life that would find him at some of the most critical moments in our recent history: as a combat officer in Afghanistan; a White House fellow in a time of wars abroad and disasters at home; and a Wall Street banker during the financial crisis. In this insightful book, Moore shares the lessons he learned from people he met along the way—from the brave Afghan translator who taught him to find his fight, to the resilient young students in Katrina-ravaged Mississippi who showed him the true meaning of grit, to his late grandfather, who taught him to find grace in service.
 
Moore also tells the stories of other twenty-first-century change-makers who’ve inspired him in his search, from Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of KIND, to Esther Benjamin, a Sri Lankan immigrant who rose to help lead the Peace Corps. What their lives—and his own misadventures and moments of illumination—reveal is that our truest work happens when we serve others, at the intersection between our gifts and our broken world. That’s where we find the work that lasts.
 
An intimate narrative about finding meaning in a volatile age, The Work will inspire readers to see how we can each find our own path to purpose and help create a better world.
 
Praise for The Work
 
“Powerful and moving … Wes Moore’s story and the stories of those who have inspired him, from family members to entrepreneurs, provide a model for how we can each weave together valuable lessons from all different types of people to forge an individual path to triumph. I’ve known and deeply admired Wes for a long time. Reading The Work, I better understand why.”—Chelsea Clinton

“Wes Moore proves once again that he is one of the most effective storytellers and leaders of his generation. His gripping personal story, set against the dramatic events of the past decade, goes straight to the heart of an ancient question that is as relevant as ever: not just how to live a good life, but how to make that life matter. Above all, this book teaches us how to make our journey about more than mere surviving or even succeeding; it teaches us how to truly come alive.”—Arianna Huffington, author of Thrive

“How we define success for ourselves is one of life’s essential questions. Wes Moore shows us the way—by sharing his incredible journey and the inspiring stories of others who make the world a better place through the choices they’ve made about how they want to live. We come away from this important book with a new understanding of what it truly means to succeed in life.”—Suze Orman
 
“An intriguing follow-up to his bestselling The Other Wes Moore … Moore makes a convincing case that work has the most value if it’s built on a foundation of service, selflessness, courage, and risk-taking.”—Publishers Weekly
 
“A beautifully philosophical look at the expectation that work should bring meaning to our lives.”—Booklist
 
“The Work will resonate with people seeking their own purpose.”—BookPage


Click for more detail about Turning 15 On The Road To Freedom: My Story Of The Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery Turning 15 On The Road To Freedom: My Story Of The Selma Voting Rights March

by Lynda Blackmon Lowery
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 08, 2015)
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A memoir of the Civil Rights Movement from one of its youngest heroes

As the youngest marcher in the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Albama, Lynda Blackmon Lowery proved that young adults can be heroes. Jailed eleven times before her fifteenth birthday, Lowery fought alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. for the rights of African-Americans. In this memoir, she shows today’s young readers what it means to fight nonviolently (even when the police are using violence, as in the Bloody Sunday protest) and how it felt to be part of changing American history.

Straightforward and inspiring, this beautifully illustrated memoir brings readers into the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, complementing Common Core classroom learning and bringing history alive for young readers.

Book Review

Click for more detail about I Am Jackie Robinson by Brad Meltzer I Am Jackie Robinson

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 08, 2015)
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This New York Times Bestselling picture book biography series by Brad Meltzer has an inspiring message: “We can all be heroes.”

Jackie Robinson always loved sports, especially baseball. But he lived at a time before the Civil Rights Movement, when the rules weren’t fair to African Americans. Even though Jackie was a great athlete, he wasn’t allowed on the best teams just because of the color of his skin. Jackie knew that sports were best when everyone, of every color, played together. He became the first black player in Major League Baseball, and his bravery changed African-American history and led the way to equality in all sports in America.

This engaging series is the perfect way to bring American history to life for young children, providing them with the right role models, supplementing Common Core learning in the classroom, and best of all, inspiring them to strive and dream.


Click for more detail about Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Peña Last Stop on Market Street

by Matt De La Peña
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jan 08, 2015)
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A New York Times Book Review Notable Children’s Book of 2015
A Wall Street Journal Best Children’s Book of 2015

Every Sunday after church, CJ and his grandma ride the bus across town. But today, CJ wonders why they don’t own a car like his friend Colby. Why doesn’t he have an iPod like the boys on the bus? How come they always have to get off in the dirty part of town? Each question is met with an encouraging answer from grandma, who helps him see the beauty—and fun—in their routine and the world around them.

This energetic ride through a bustling city highlights the wonderful perspective only grandparent and grandchild can share, and comes to life through Matt de la Pena’s vibrant text and Christian Robinson’s radiant illustrations.


Click for more detail about Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century by Carole Boston Weatherford Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Dec 23, 2014)
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A stunning picture-book biography of iconic African American opera star Leontyne Price.
 
Born in a small town in Mississippi in 1927, the daughter of a midwife and a sawmill worker, Leontyne Price might have grown up singing the blues. But Leontyne had big dreams—and plenty to be thankful for—as she surrounded herself with church hymns and hallelujahs, soaked up opera arias on the radio, and watched the great Marian Anderson grace the stage. 
           
While racism made it unlikely that a poor black girl from the South would pursue an opera career, Leontyne’s wondrous voice and unconquerable spirit prevailed. Bursting through the door Marian had cracked open, Leontyne was soon recognized and celebrated for her leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera and around the world—most notably as the majestic Ethiopian princess in Aida, the part she felt she was born to sing.

From award-winners Carole Boston Weatherford and Raul Colón comes the story of a little girl from Mississippi who became a beloved star—one whose song soared on the breath of her ancestors and paved the way for those who followed.


Click for more detail about The Light Of Truth: Writings Of An Anti-Lynching Crusader by Ida B. Wells The Light Of Truth: Writings Of An Anti-Lynching Crusader

by Ida B. Wells
Penguin Classics (Nov 25, 2014)
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The broadest and most comprehensive collection of writings available by an early civil and women’s rights pioneer

Seventy-one years before Rosa Parks’s courageous act of resistance, police dragged a young black journalist named Ida B. Wells off a train for refusing to give up her seat. The experience shaped Wells’s career, and—when hate crimes touched her life personally—she mounted what was to become her life’s work: an anti-lynching crusade that captured international attention.

This volume covers the entire scope of Wells’s remarkable career, collecting her early writings, articles exposing the horrors of lynching, essays from her travels abroad, and her later journalism. The Light of Truth is both an invaluable resource for study and a testament to Wells’s long career as a civil rights activist.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Book Review

Click for more detail about True Love by Jennifer Lopez True Love

by Jennifer Lopez
Celebra (Nov 04, 2014)
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In Jennifer Lopez’s first ever book, True Love, she explores one of her life’s most defining periods—the transformative two-year journey of how, as an artist and a mother, she confronted her greatest challenges, identified her biggest fears, and ultimately emerged a stronger person than she’s ever been. Guided by both intimate and electrifying photographs, True Love an honest and revealing personal diary with hard-won lessons and heartfelt recollections and an empowering story of self-reflection, rediscovery, and resilience.

Completely full-color, with photos throughout and lavishly designed, True Love is a stunning and timeless book that features more than 200 never-before-seen images from Lopez’s personal archives, showing candid moments with her family and friends and providing a rare behind-the-scenes look at the life of a pop music icon travelling, rehearsing, and performing around the world.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Hiding in Plain Sight: A Novel by Marita Kinney Hiding in Plain Sight: A Novel

by Marita Kinney
Riverhead Books (Oct 30, 2014)
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From an acclaimed African writer, a novel about family, freedom, and loyalty.
 
When Bella learns of the murder of her beloved half brother by political extremists in Mogadiscio, she’s in Rome. The two had different fathers but shared a Somali mother, from whom Bella’s inherited her freewheeling ways. An internationally known fashion photographer, dazzling but aloof, she comes and goes as she pleases, juggling three lovers. But with her teenage niece and nephew effectively orphaned – their mother abandoned them years ago—she feels an unfamiliar surge of protective feeling. Putting her life on hold, she journeys to Nairobi, where the two are in boarding school, uncertain whether she can—or must—come to their rescue. When their mother resurfaces, reasserting her maternal rights and bringing with her a gale of chaos and confusion that mirror the deepening political instability in the region, Bella has to decide how far she will go to obey the call of sisterly responsibility.
 
A new departure in theme and setting for “the most important African novelist to emerge in the past twenty-five years” (The New York Review of Books) Hiding in Plain Sight, is a profound exploration of the tensions between freedom and obligation, the ways gender and sexual preference define us, and the unexpected paths by which the political disrupts the personal.


Click for more detail about Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou by Maya Angelou Rainbow in the Cloud: The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou

by Maya Angelou
Knopf (Oct 28, 2014)
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“Words mean more than what is set down on paper,” Maya Angelou wrote in her groundbreaking memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Indeed, Angelou’s words have traveled the world and transformed lives—inspiring, strengthening, healing. Through a long and prolific career in letters, she became one of the most celebrated voices of our time. Now, in this collection of sage advice, humorous quips, and pointed observations culled from the author’s great works, including The Heart of a Woman, On the Pulse of Morning, Gather Together in My Name, and Letter to My Daughter, Maya Angelou’s spirit endures. Rainbow in the Cloud offers resonant and rewarding quotes on such topics as creativity and culture, family and community, equality and race, values and spirituality, parenting and relationships. Perhaps most special, Maya Angelou’s only son, Guy Johnson, has contributed some of his mother’s most powerful sayings, shared directly with him and the members of their family. A treasured keepsake as well as a beautiful tribute to a woman who touched so many, Rainbow in the Cloud reminds us that “If one has courage, nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”


Click for more detail about Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

by Bryan Stevenson
One World (Oct 21, 2014)
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A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of justice.


Click for more detail about Ballerina Dreams: From Orphan to Dancer (Step Into Reading, Step 4) by Michaela and Elaine Deprince Ballerina Dreams: From Orphan to Dancer (Step Into Reading, Step 4)

by Michaela and Elaine Deprince
Random House Books for Young Readers (Oct 14, 2014)
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Perfect for newly independent readers—the amazing true story of Michaela DePrince, one of America’s top ballerinas.

At the age of three, Michaela DePrince found a photo of a ballerina that changed her life. She was living in an orphanage in Sierra Leone at the time, but was soon adopted by a family and brought to America. Michaela never forgot the photo of the dancer she once saw, and quickly decided to make her dream of becoming a ballerina come true. She has been dancing ever since and is now a principal dancer in New York City and has been featured in the ballet documentary First Position, as well as Dancing with the Stars, Good Morning America, and Oprah magazine.

Young readers will love learning about this inspiring ballerina in this uplifting and informative leveled reader. This Step 4 Step into Reading book is for newly independent readers who read simple sentences with confidence.


Click for more detail about Hijacking the Runway: How Celebrities Are Stealing the Spotlight from Fashion Designers by Teri Agins Hijacking the Runway: How Celebrities Are Stealing the Spotlight from Fashion Designers

by Teri Agins
Avery (Oct 09, 2014)
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A fascinating chronicle of how celebrity has inundated the world of fashion, realigning the forces that drive both the styles we covet and the bottom lines of the biggest names in luxury apparel.
 
From Coco Chanel’s iconic tweed suits to the miniskirt’s surprising comeback in the late 1980s, fashion houses reigned for decades as the arbiters of style and dictators of trends. Hollywood stars have always furthered fashion’s cause of seducing the masses into buying designers’ clothes, acting as living billboards. Now, forced by the explosion of social media and the accelerating worship of fame, red carpet celebrities are no longer content to just advertise and are putting their names on labels that reflect the image they—or their stylists—created.
 
Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sean Combs, and a host of pop, sports, and reality-show stars of the moment are leveraging the power of their celebrity to become the face of their own fashion brands, embracing lucrative contracts that keep their images on our screens and their hands on the wheel of a multi-billion dollar industry. And a few celebrities—like the Olsen Twins and Victoria Beckham—have gone all the way and reinvented themselves as bonafide designers. Not all celebrities succeed, but in an ever more crowded and clamorous marketplace, it’s increasingly unlikely that any fashion brand will succeed without celebrity involvement—even if designers, like Michael Kors, have to become celebrities themselves.
 
Agins charts this strange new terrain with wit and insight and an insider’s access to the fascinating struggles of the bold-type names and their jealousies, insecurities, and triumphs. Everyone from industry insiders to fans of Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model will want to read Agins’s take on the glitter and stardust transforming the fashion industry, and where it is likely to take us next.


Click for more detail about Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America by Bob Herbert Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America

by Bob Herbert
Doubleday (Oct 07, 2014)
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From longtime New York Times columnist Bob Herbert comes a wrenching portrayal of ordinary Americans struggling for survival in a nation that has lost its way

In his eighteen years as an opinion columnist for The New York Times, Herbert championed the working poor and the middle class. After filing his last column in 2011, he set off on a journey across the country to report on Americans who were being left behind in an economy that has never fully recovered from the Great Recession. The portraits of those he encountered fuel his new book, Losing Our Way. Herbert’s combination of heartrending reporting and keen political analysis is the purest expression since the Occupy movement of the plight of the 99 percent.
     The individuals and families who are paying the price of America’s bad choices in recent decades form the book’s emotional center: an exhausted high school student in Brooklyn who works the overnight shift in a factory at minimum wage to help pay her family’s rent; a twenty-four-year-old soldier from Peachtree City, Georgia, who loses both legs in a misguided, mismanaged, seemingly endless war; a young woman, only recently engaged, who suffers devastating injuries in a tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis; and a group of parents in Pittsburgh who courageously fight back against the politicians who decimated funding for their children’s schools.
     Herbert reminds us of a time in America when unemployment was low, wages and profits were high, and the nation’s wealth, by current standards, was distributed much more equitably. Today, the gap between the wealthy and everyone else has widened dramatically, the nation’s physical plant is crumbling, and the inability to find decent work is a plague on a generation. Herbert traces where we went wrong and spotlights the drastic and dangerous shift of political power from ordinary Americans to the corporate and financial elite. Hope for America, he argues, lies in a concerted push to redress that political imbalance. Searing and unforgettable, Losing Our Way ultimately inspires with its faith in ordinary citizens to take back their true political power and reclaim the American dream.


Click for more detail about Cairo: Memoir of a City Transformed by Ahdaf Soueif Cairo: Memoir of a City Transformed

by Ahdaf Soueif
Anchor (Oct 07, 2014)
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When throngs of Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square to demand the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime, Ahdaf Soueif—author, journalist, lifelong progressive—was among them. Now, in this deeply personal work, Soueif summons her storytelling talents to trace her city’s—and nation’s—ongoing transformation.
         She writes of the youth who led the revolts, and of the jubilation in the streets at Mubarak’s departure. We then watch as Egyptians fight for democracy, as the interim military government throws up obstacles at every step, and as an Islamist is voted into power. Against this stormy backdrop, Soueif casts memories of her own Cairo—the open-air cinema; her family’s land, in sight of the pyramids—and affirms the beauty of this ancient city. Soueif’s postscript considers Egypt’s more recent turns in its difficult but deeply inspiring path toward its great human aims.


Click for more detail about Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor Dust

by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Vintage (Oct 07, 2014)
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A Washington Post Notable Book

When a young man is gunned down in the streets of Nairobi, his grief-stricken father and sister bring his body back to their crumbling home in the Kenyan drylands. But the murder has stirred up memories long since buried, precipitating a series of events no one could have foreseen. As the truth unfolds, we come to learn the secrets held by this parched landscape, hidden deep within the shared past of a family and their conflicted nation. Spanning Kenya’s turbulent 1950s and 1960s, Dust is spellbinding debut from a breathtaking new voice in literature.


Click for more detail about A Brief History Of Seven Killings: A Novel by Marlon James A Brief History Of Seven Killings: A Novel

by Marlon James
Knopf (Oct 02, 2014)
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Winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize

A recipient of the 2015 American Book Award

Named a best book of the year by:
The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Time, Newsweek, The Huffington Post, The Seattle Times, The Houston Chronicle, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Popsugar, BookPage, BuzzFeed Books, Salon, Kansas City Star, L Magazine.  

rom the acclaimed author of The Book of Night Women comes a “musical, electric, fantastically profane” (The New York Times) epic that explores the tumultuous world of Jamaica over the past three decades.

In A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James combines brilliant storytelling with his unrivaled skills of characterization and meticulous eye for detail to forge an enthralling novel of dazzling ambition and scope.

On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions in Kingston, seven gunmen stormed the singer’s house, machine guns blazing. The attack wounded Marley, his wife, and his manager, and injured several others. Little was officially released about the gunmen, but much has been whispered, gossiped and sung about in the streets of West Kingston. Rumors abound regarding the assassins’ fates, and there are suspicions  that the attack was politically motivated.

A Brief History of Seven Killings delves deep into that dangerous and unstable time in Jamaica’s history and beyond. James deftly chronicles the lives of a host of unforgettable characters – gunmen, drug dealers, one-night stands, CIA agents,  even ghosts – over the course of thirty years as they roam the streets of 1970s Kingston, dominate the crack houses of 1980s New York, and ultimately reemerge into the radically altered Jamaica of the 1990s. Along the way, they learn that evil does indeed cast long shadows, that justice and retribution are inextricably linked, and that no one can truly escape his fate.

Gripping and inventive, shocking and irresistible, A Brief History of Seven Killings is a mesmerizing modern classic of power, mystery, and insight.


Click for more detail about Rose Gold by Walter Mosley Rose Gold

by Walter Mosley
Knopf (Sep 23, 2014)
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In this new mystery set in the Patty Hearst era of radical black nationalism and political abductions, a black ex-boxer self-named Uhuru Nolica, the leader of a revolutionary cell called Scorched Earth, has kidnapped Rosemary Goldsmith, the daughter of a weapons manufacturer, from her dorm at UC Santa Barbara. If they don’t receive the money, weapons, and apology they demand, "Rose Gold" will die—horribly and publicly. So the FBI, the State Department, and the LAPD turn to Easy Rawlins, the one man who can cross the necessary borders to resolve this dangerous standoff. With twelve previous adventures since 1990, Easy Rawlins is one of the small handful of private eyes in contemporary crime fiction who can be called immortal. Rose Gold continues his ongoing and unique achievement in combining the mystery/PI genre form with a rich social history of postwar Los Angeles—and not just the black parts of that sprawling city.


Click for more detail about I Am Albert Einstein by Brad Meltzer I Am Albert Einstein

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Sep 16, 2014)
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We can all be heroes. That’s the inspiring message of this New York Times Bestselling picture book biography series from historian and author Brad Meltzer.

Even when he was a kid, Albert Einstein did things his own way. He thought in pictures instead of words, and his special way of thinking helped him understand big ideas like the structure of music and why a compass always points north. Those ideas made him want to keep figuring out the secrets of the universe. Other people thought he was just a dreamer, but because of his curiosity, Einstein grew up to be one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known.

What makes a hero? This lively, fun biography series by best-selling author Brad Meltzer answers the question, one great role model at a time.


Click for more detail about Firebird by Misty Copeland Firebird

by Misty Copeland
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Sep 04, 2014)
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Winner of the 2015 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
In her debut picture book, Misty Copeland tells the story of a young girl—an every girl—whose confidence is fragile and who is questioning her own ability to reach the heights that Misty has reached. Misty encourages this young girl’s faith in herself and shows her exactly how, through hard work and dedication, she too can become Firebird.

Lyrical and affecting text paired with bold, striking illustrations that are some of Caldecott Honoree Christopher Myers’s best work, makes Firebird perfect for aspiring ballerinas everywhere.


Click for more detail about Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Aug 28, 2014)
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“Ms. Woodson writes with a sure understanding of the thoughts of young people, offering a poetic, eloquent narrative that is not simply a story… but a mature exploration of grown-up issues and self-discovery.”—The New York Times Book Review

Jacqueline Woodson, one of today’s finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse.

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.


Click for more detail about Adultery: A Novel by Paulo Coelho Adultery: A Novel

by Paulo Coelho
Knopf (Aug 19, 2014)
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I want to change. I need to change. I’m gradually losing touch with myself.

Adultery, the provocative new novel by Paulo Coelho, best-selling author of The Alchemist and Eleven Minutes, explores the question of what it means to live life fully and happily, finding the balance between life’s routine and the desire for something new.


Click for more detail about The Good Lord Bird by James McBride The Good Lord Bird

by James McBride
Riverhead Books (Aug 05, 2014)
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A 2013 National Book Award Winner!

Fleeing his violent master at the side of abolitionist John Brown at the height of the slavery debate in mid-nineteenth-century Kansas Territory, Henry pretends to be a girl to hide his identity throughout the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.

From the bestselling author of The Color of Water and Song Yet Sung comes the story of a young boy born a slave who joins John Brown’s antislavery crusade—and who must pass as a girl to survive.

Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1857, when the region is a battleground between anti and pro slavery forces. When John Brown, the legendary abolitionist, arrives in the area, an argument between Brown and Henry’s master quickly turns violent. Henry is forced to leave town—with Brown, who believes he’s a girl.

Over the ensuing months, Henry—whom Brown nicknames Little Onion—conceals his true identity as he struggles to stay alive. Eventually Little Onion finds himself with Brown at the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859—one of the great catalysts for the Civil War. An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, and told with McBride’s meticulous eye for detail and character, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing adventure and a moving exploration of identity and survival.


Click for more detail about Back Channel: A novel by Stephen L. Carter Back Channel: A novel

by Stephen L. Carter
Knopf (Jul 29, 2014)
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October 1962. The Soviet Union has smuggled missiles into Cuba. Kennedy and Khrushchev are in the midst of a military face-off that could lead to nuclear conflagration. Warships and submarines are on the move. Planes are in the air. Troops are at the ready. Both leaders are surrounded by advisers clamoring for war. The only way for the two leaders to negotiate safely is to open a “back channel”—a surreptitious path of communication hidden from their own people. They need a clandestine emissary nobody would ever suspect. If the secret gets out, her life will be at risk … but they’re careful not to tell her that.

Stephen L. Carter’s gripping new novel, Back Channel, is a brilliant amalgam of fact and fiction—a suspenseful retelling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the fate of the world rests unexpectedly on the shoulders of a young college student.

On the island of Curaçao, a visiting Soviet chess champion whispers state secrets to an American acquaintance.

In the Atlantic Ocean, a freighter struggles through a squall while trying to avoid surveillance.

And in Ithaca, New York, Margo Jensen, one of the few black women at Cornell, is asked to go to Eastern Europe to babysit a madman.

As the clock ticks toward World War III, Margo undertakes her harrowing journey. Pursued by the hawks on both sides, protected by nothing but her own ingenuity and courage, Margo is drawn ever more deeply into the crossfire—and into her own family’s hidden past.


Click for more detail about Land Of Love And Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique Land Of Love And Drowning

by Tiphanie Yanique
Knopf (Jul 10, 2014)
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Recipient of the 2014 American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Foundation Award

A major debut from an award-winning writer—an epic family saga set against the magic and the rhythms of the Virgin Islands.

In the early 1900s, the Virgin Islands are transferred from Danish to American rule, and an important ship sinks into the Caribbean Sea. Orphaned by the shipwreck are two sisters and their half brother, now faced with an uncertain identity and future. Each of them is unusually beautiful, and each is in possession of a particular magic that will either sink or save them.

Chronicling three generations of an island family from 1916 to the 1970s, Land of Love and Drowning is a novel of love and magic, set against the emergence of Saint Thomas into the modern world. Uniquely imagined, with echoes of Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Márquez, and the author’s own Caribbean family history, the story is told in a language and rhythm that evoke an entire world and way of life and love. Following the Bradshaw family through sixty years of fathers and daughters, mothers
and sons, love affairs, curses, magical gifts, loyalties, births, deaths, and triumphs, Land of Love and Drowning is a gorgeous, vibrant debut by an exciting, prizewinning young writer.


Click for more detail about Nine Years Under by Sheri Booker Nine Years Under

by Sheri Booker
Knopf (Jul 01, 2014)
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Sheri Booker was only fifteen when she started working at Wylie Funeral Home in West Baltimore.

She had no idea her summer job would become nine years of immersion into a hidden world. Reeling from the death of her beloved great aunt, Sheri found comfort in the funeral home and soon had the run of the place. With AIDS and gang violence threatening to wipe out a generation of black men, Wylie was never short on business. As families came together to bury one of their own, Booker was privy to their most intimate moments of grief and despair. But along with the sadness, Booker encountered moments of dark humor: brawls between mistresses and widows, and car crashes at McDonald’s with dead bodies in tow. While she never got over her terror of the embalming room, Booker learned to expect the unexpected and to never, ever cry. Nine Years Under offers readers an unbelievable glimpse into an industry in the backdrop of all our lives.


Click for more detail about Claire Of The Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat Claire Of The Sea Light

by Edwidge Danticat
Vintage (Jul 01, 2014)
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From the best-selling author of Brother, I’m Dying and The Dew Breaker: a stunning new work of fiction that brings us deep into the intertwined lives of a small seaside town where a little girl, the daughter of a fisherman, has gone missing.

Claire Limyè Lanmè—Claire of the Sea Light—is an enchanting child born into love and tragedy in Ville Rose, Haiti. Claire’s mother died in childbirth, and on each of her birthdays Claire is taken by her father, Nozias, to visit her mother’s grave. Nozias wonders if he should give away his young daughter to a local shopkeeper, who lost a child of her own, so that Claire can have a better life.

But on the night of Claire’s seventh birthday, when at last he makes the wrenching decision to do so, she disappears. As Nozias and others look for her, painful secrets, haunting memories, and startling truths are unearthed among the community of men and women whose individual stories connect to Claire, to her parents, and to the town itself. Told with piercing lyricism and the economy of a fable, Claire of the Sea Light is a tightly woven, breathtaking tapestry that explores what it means to be a parent, child, neighbor, lover, and friend, while revealing the mysterious bonds we share with the natural world and with one another. Embracing the magic and heartbreak of ordinary life, it is Edwidge Danticat’s most spellbinding, astonishing book yet.


Click for more detail about I am Rosa Parks by Brad Meltzer I am Rosa Parks

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jun 17, 2014)
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"We can all be heroes" is the message entertainingly told in this picture-book biography series from #1 New York Times Bestselling author Brad Meltzer.

“Kids always search for heroes, so we might as well have a say in it,” Brad Meltzer realized, and so he envisioned this friendly, fun approach to biography – for his own kids, and for yours. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in a vivacious, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers, those who aren’t quite ready for the Who Was biography series. Each book focuses on a particular character trait that made that role model heroic. For example, Rosa Parks dared to stand up for herself and other African Americans by staying seated, and as a result she helped end public bus segregation and launch the country’s Civil Rights Movement.
 
This engaging series is the perfect way to bring American history to life for young children, providing them with the right role models, supplementing Common Core learning in the classroom, and best of all, inspiring them to strive and dream.


Click for more detail about One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America’s Future by Ben Carson One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America’s Future

by Ben Carson
Knopf (May 20, 2014)
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Dear Reader,

In February 2013 I gave a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. Standing a few feet from President Obama, I warned my fellow citizens of the dangers facing our country and called for a return to the principles that made America great.

Many Americans heard and responded, but our nation’s decline has continued. Today the danger is greater than ever before, and I have never shared a more urgent message than I do now.

Our growing debt and deteriorating morals have driven us far from the founders’ intent. We’ve made very little progress in basic education. Obamacare threatens our health, liberty, and financial future. Media elitism and political correctness are out of control.

Worst of all, we seem to have lost our ability to discuss important issues calmly and respectfully regardless of party affiliation or other differences. As a doctor rather than a politician, I care about what works, not whether someone has an (R) or a (D) after his or her name. We have to come together to solve our problems.

Knowing that the future of my grandchildren is in jeopardy because of reckless spending, godless government, and mean-spirited attempts to silence critics left me no choice but to write this book. I have endeavored to propose a road out of our decline, appealing to every American’s decency and common sense.

If each of us sits back and expects someone else to take action, it will soon be too late. But with your help, I firmly believe that America may once again be “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Sincerely,

Ben Carson


Click for more detail about Debbie Doesn’t Do It Anymore by Walter Mosley Debbie Doesn’t Do It Anymore

by Walter Mosley
Knopf (May 13, 2014)
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In this scorching, mournful, often explicit, and never less than moving literary novel by the famed creator of the Easy Rawlins series, Debbie Dare, a black porn queen, has to come to terms with her sordid life in the adult entertainment industry after her tomcatting husband dies in a hot tub. Electrocuted. With another woman in there with him. Debbie decides she just isn’t going to "do it anymore." But executing her exit strategy from the porn world is a wrenching and far from simple process.

Millions of men (and no doubt many women) have watched famed black porn queen Debbie Dare—she of the blond wig and blue contacts-"do it" on television and computer screens every which way with every combination of partners the mind of man can imagine. But one day an unexpected and thunderous on-set orgasm catches Debbie unawares, and when she returns to the mansion she shares with her husband, insatiable former porn star and "film producer" Theon Pinkney, she discovers that he’s died in a case of hot tub electrocution, "auditioning" an aspiring "starlet." Burdened with massive debts that her husband incurred, and which various L.A. heavies want to collect on, Debbie must reckon with a life spent in the peculiar subculture of the pornography industry and her estrangement from her family and the child she had to give up. She’s done with porn, but her options for what might come next include the possibility of suicide. Debbie … is a portrait of a ransacked but resilient soul in search of salvation and a cure for grief.


Click for more detail about The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, And Death by Colson Whitehead The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, And Death

by Colson Whitehead
Knopf (May 06, 2014)
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The Noble Hustle is Pulitzer finalist Colson Whitehead’s hilarious memoir of his search for meaning at high stakes poker tables, which the author describes as “Eat, Pray, Love for depressed shut-ins.”
 
 
On one level, The Noble Hustle is a familiar species of participatory journalism—a longtime neighborhood poker player, Whitehead was given a $10,000 stake and an assignment from the online online magazine Grantland to see how far he could get in the World Series of Poker.  But since it stems from the astonishing mind of Colson Whitehead (MacArthur Award-endorsed!), the book is a brilliant, hilarious, weirdly profound, and ultimately moving portrayal of—yes, it sounds overblown and ridiculous, but really!—the human condition.
    
 
After weeks of preparation that included repeated bus trips to glamorous Atlantic City, and hiring a personal trainer to toughen him up for sitting at twelve hours a stretch, the author journeyed to the gaudy wonderland that is Las Vegas – the world’s greatest “Leisure Industrial Complex” — to try his luck in the multi-million dollar tournament.   Hobbled by his mediocre playing skills and a lifelong condition known as “anhedonia” (the inability to experience pleasure) Whitehead did not – spoiler alert!  - win tens of millions of dollars.  But he did chronicle his progress, both literal and existential, in this unbelievably funny, uncannily accurate social satire whose main target is the author himself. 
 
Whether you’ve been playing cards your whole life, or have never picked up a hand, you’re sure to agree that this book contains some of the best writing about beef jerky ever put to paper.


Click for more detail about A Wanted Woman by Eric Jerome Dickey A Wanted Woman

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Knopf (Apr 15, 2014)
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The twenty-first novel from New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey, a steamy thriller set in tropical Barbados

She is a woman of a thousand faces, an assassin who could be anyone, anywhere.

The Trinidad contract was supposed to be simple: to make a living man become a dead man. When the job goes bad under the watchful eye of a bank security camera, there is nowhere for agent MX-401, known as Reaper, to hide from the fearsome local warlords, the Laventille Killers.

Her employers, the Barbarians, send her to Barbados, the next island over, barely two hundred miles away, with the LK’s in hot pursuit of the woman who took many of their own. With the scant protection of a dank safe house, no passport, and no access to funds, an island paradise becomes her prison.

While she trawls for low-profile assignments to keep her skills sharp and a few dollars in her pocket, Reaper discovers that family ties run deep, on both sides of the fight. Will the woman everyone wants, who has lived countless lives in the service of others, finally discover who she really is?

In A Wanted Woman, New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey delivers an adrenaline-pumping rush of a read.


Click for more detail about Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remix by Bryant Terry Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remix

by Bryant Terry
Ten Speed Press (Apr 08, 2014)
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African, Caribbean, and southern food are all known and loved as vibrant and flavor-packed cuisines. In Afro-Vegan, renowned chef and food justice activist Bryant Terry reworks and remixes the favorite staples, ingredients, and classic dishes of the African Diaspora to present wholly new, creative culinary combinations that will amaze vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike.

Blending these colorful cuisines results in delicious recipes like Smashed Potatoes, Peas, and Corn with Chile-Garlic Oil, a recipe inspired by the Kenyan dish irio, and Cinnamon-Soaked Wheat Berry Salad with dried apricots, carrots, and almonds, which is based on a Moroccan tagine. Creamy Coconut-Cashew Soup with Okra, Corn, and Tomatoes pays homage to a popular Brazilian dish while incorporating classic Southern ingredients, and Crispy Teff and Grit Cakes with Eggplant, Tomatoes, and Peanuts combines the Ethiopian grain teff with stone-ground corn grits from the Deep South and North African zalook dip. There’s perfect potluck fare, such as the simple, warming, and intensely flavored Collard Greens and Cabbage with Lots of Garlic, and the Caribbean-inspired Cocoa Spice Cake with Crystallized Ginger and Coconut-Chocolate Ganache, plus a refreshing Roselle-Rooibos Drink that will satisfy any sweet tooth.

With more than 100 modern and delicious dishes that draw on Terry’s personal memories as well as the history of food that has traveled from the African continent, Afro-Vegan takes you on an international food journey. Accompanying the recipes are Terry’s insights about building community around food, along with suggested music tracks from around the world and book recommendations. For anyone interested in improving their well-being, Afro-Vegan’s groundbreaking recipes offer innovative, plant-based global cuisine that is fresh, healthy, and forges a new direction in vegan cooking.


Click for more detail about Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculée Ilibagiza Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

by Immaculée Ilibagiza
Hay House (Apr 07, 2014)
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Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee s family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans. Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them. It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family s killers. The triumphant story of this remarkable young woman s journey through the darkness of genocide will inspire anyone whose life has been touched by fear, suffering, and loss.


Click for more detail about The Jewels of Aptor by Samuel R. Delany The Jewels of Aptor

by Samuel R. Delany
Ace Books (Apr 01, 2014)
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It is a post-atomic future and civilization has regressed to a Middle Age like world. Geo a young student and poet, takes a job on a boat with a strange passenger, a priestess of the goddess Argo. They are heading toward a land of mutants and high radiation, Aptor, to recapture her daughter who has been kidnapped by the forces of the dark god Hama.


Click for more detail about Every Day Is For The Thief: Fiction by Teju Cole Every Day Is For The Thief: Fiction

by Teju Cole
Knopf (Mar 25, 2014)
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NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY DWIGHT GARNER, THE NEW YORK TIMES • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY San Francisco Chronicle | NPR | The Root | The Telegraph | The Globe and Mail

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • FINALIST, PHILLIS WHEATLEY BOOK AWARD • TEJU COLE WAS NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICANS OF THE YEAR BY NEW AFRICAN MAGAZINE

For readers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Michael Ondaatje, Every Day Is for the Thief is a wholly original work of fiction by Teju Cole, whose critically acclaimed debut, Open City, was the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named one of the best books of the year by more than twenty publications.
 
Fifteen years is a long time to be away from home. It feels longer still because I left under a cloud.
 
A young Nigerian living in New York City goes home to Lagos for a short visit, finding a city both familiar and strange. In a city dense with story, the unnamed narrator moves through a mosaic of life, hoping to find inspiration for his own. He witnesses the “yahoo yahoo” diligently perpetrating email frauds from an Internet café, longs after a mysterious woman reading on a public bus who disembarks and disappears into a bookless crowd, and recalls the tragic fate of an eleven-year-old boy accused of stealing at a local market.
 
Along the way, the man reconnects with old friends, a former girlfriend, and extended family, taps into the energies of Lagos life—creative, malevolent, ambiguous—and slowly begins to reconcile the profound changes that have taken place in his country and the truth about himself.
 
In spare, precise prose that sees humanity everywhere, interwoven with original photos by the author, Every Day Is for the Thief—originally published in Nigeria in 2007—is a wholly original work of fiction. This revised and updated edition is the first version of this unique book to be made available outside Africa. You’ve never read a book like Every Day Is for the Thief because no one writes like Teju Cole.
 
Praise for Every Day Is for the Thief

“A luminous rumination on storytelling and place, exile and return … extraordinary.”—San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Cole is following in a long tradition of writerly walkers who, in the tradition of Baudelaire, make their way through urban spaces on foot and take their time doing so. Like Alfred Kazin, Joseph Mitchell, J. M. Coetzee, and W. G. Sebald (with whom he is often compared), Cole adds to the literature in his own zeitgeisty fashion.”—The Boston Globe
 
“Crisp, affecting … Cole constructs a narrative of fragments, a series of episodes that he allows to resonate.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Hugely rewarding … both a celebration of one of the world’s most vibrant cities and a lament over what can be one of the most frustrating and difficult places to live. It is also a story of family breakup and an uneasy homecoming—the narrator has been away for fifteen years and must relearn how to navigate a place that was once home.”—NPR

“[Every Day Is for the Thief has] a restraint that allows [Cole] to slip in these exquisitely rendered observations on life, love, art that leave you feeling richer and more attuned to your own reality once you’ve finished reading.”—Dinaw Mengestu, The Atlantic


Click for more detail about The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Poets, Penguin) by Willie Perdomo The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Poets, Penguin)

by Willie Perdomo
Penguin Group USA (Mar 25, 2014)
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A National Book Critics Circle 2014 Finalist for Poetry

Through dream song and elegy, alternate takes and tempos, prizewinning poet Willie Perdomo’s third collection crackles with vitality and dynamism as it imagines the life of a percussionist, rebuilding the landscape of his apprenticeship, love, diaspora, and death. At the beginning of his infernal journey, Shorty Bon Bon recalls his live studio recording with a classic 1970s descarga band, sharing his recollection with an unidentified poet. This opening section is followed by a call-and-response with his greatest love, a singer named Rose, and a visit to Puerto Rico that inhabits a surreal nationalistic dreamscape, before a final jam session where Shorty recognizes his end and a trio of voices seek to converge on his elegy.


Click for more detail about Paradise  by Toni Morrison Paradise

by Toni Morrison
Vintage Books (Mar 11, 2014)
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“They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time.” So begins Toni Morrison’s Paradise, which opens with a horrifying scene of mass violence and chronicles its genesis in an all-black small town in rural Oklahoma. Founded by the descendants of freed slaves and survivors in exodus from a hostile world, the patriarchal community of Ruby is built on righteousness, rigidly enforced moral law, and fear. But seventeen miles away, another group of exiles has gathered in a promised land of their own. And it is upon these women in flight from death and despair that nine male citizens of Ruby will lay their pain, their terror, and their murderous rage.
 In prose that soars with the rhythms, grandeur, and tragic arc of an epic poem, Toni Morrison challenges our most fiercely held beliefs as she weaves folklore and history, memory and myth into an unforgettable meditation on race, religion, gender, and a far-off past that is ever present.


Click for more detail about Boy, Snow, Bird: A Novel by Helen Oyeyemi Boy, Snow, Bird: A Novel

by Helen Oyeyemi
Knopf (Mar 06, 2014)
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As seen on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, where it was described as “gloriously unsettling… evoking Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Angela Carter, Edgar Allan Poe, Gabriel García Márquez, Chris Abani and even Emily Dickinson,” and already one of the year’s most widely acclaimed novels:

“Helen Oyeyemi has fully transformed from a literary prodigy into a powerful, distinctive storyteller…Transfixing and surprising.”—Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)

“I don’t care what the magic mirror says; Oyeyemi is the cleverest in the land…daring and unnerving… Under Oyeyemi’s spell, the fairy-tale conceit makes a brilliant setting in which to explore the alchemy of racism, the weird ways in which identity can be transmuted in an instant — from beauty to beast or vice versa.” – Ron Charles, The Washington Post

From the prizewinning author of What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, coming February 2016, the Snow White fairy tale brilliantly recast as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity.

In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman.A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she’d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy’s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white. Among them, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold.

Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time.


Click for more detail about Orleans by Sherri L. Smith Orleans

by Sherri L. Smith
Speak (Mar 06, 2014)
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First came the storms.
Then came the Fever.

And the Wall.

After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct…but in reality, a new primitive society has been born.

Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted. Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into the Delta illegally. Brought together by chance, kept together by danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of Orleans. In the end, they are each other’s last hope for survival.

Sherri L. Smith delivers an expertly crafted story about a fierce heroine whose powerful voice and firm determination will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.


Click for more detail about Book Of Hours: Poems by Kevin Young Book Of Hours: Poems

by Kevin Young
Knopf (Mar 04, 2014)
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A decade after the sudden and tragic loss of his father, we witness the unfolding of grief. “In the night I brush / my teeth with a razor,” he tells us, in one of the collection’s piercing two-line poems. Capturing the strange silence of bereavement (“Not the storm / but the calm / that slays me”), Kevin Young acknowledges, even celebrates, life’s passages, his loss transformed and tempered in a sequence about the birth of his son: in “Crowning,” he delivers what is surely one of the most powerful birth poems written by a man, describing “her face / full of fire, then groaning your face / out like a flower, blood-bloom,/ crocused into air.” Ending this book of both birth and grief, the gorgeous title sequence brings acceptance, asking “What good/are wishes if they aren’t / used up?” while understanding “How to listen / to what’s gone.” Young’s frank music speaks directly to the reader in these elemental poems, reminding us that the right words can both comfort us and enlarge our understanding of life’s mysteries.

Winner BCALA Poetry Book Award

A decade after the sudden and tragic loss of his father, we witness the unfolding of grief.

In the night I brush
my teeth with a razor

He tells us, in one of the collection’s piercing two-line poems. Capturing the strange silence of bereavement

Not the storm
but the calm
that slays me

Kevin Young acknowledges, even celebrates, life’s passages, his loss transformed and tempered in a sequence about the birth of his son: in “Crowning,” he delivers what is surely one of the most powerful birth poems written by a man, describing

her face
full of fire, then groaning your face
out like a flower, blood-bloom,
crocused into air.

Ending this book of both birth and grief, the gorgeous title sequence brings acceptance, asking

What good
are wishes if they aren’t
used up?

while understanding

How to listen
to what’s gone.

Young’s frank music speaks directly to the reader in these elemental poems, reminding us that the right words can both comfort us and enlarge our understanding of life’s mysteries.


Click for more detail about All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu All Our Names

by Dinaw Mengestu
Knopf (Mar 04, 2014)
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From acclaimed author Dinaw Mengestu, a recipient of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award, The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 award, and a 2012 MacArthur Foundation genius grant, comes an unforgettable love story about a searing affair between an American woman and an African man in 1970s America and an unflinching novel about the fragmentation of lives that straddle countries and histories. 

All Our Names is the story of two young men who come of age during an African revolution, drawn from the safe confines of the university campus into the intensifying clamor of the streets outside. But as the line between idealism and violence becomes increasingly blurred, the friends are driven apart—one into the deepest peril, as the movement gathers inexorable force, and the other into the safety of exile in the American Midwest. There, pretending to be an exchange student, he falls in love with a social worker and settles into small-town life. Yet this idyll is inescapably darkened by the secrets of his past: the acts he committed and the work he left unfinished. Most of all, he is haunted by the beloved friend he left behind, the charismatic leader who first guided him to revolution and then sacrificed everything to ensure his freedom.
 
Elegiac, blazing with insights about the physical and emotional geographies that circumscribe our lives, All Our Names is a marvel of vision and tonal command. Writing within the grand tradition of Naipul, Greene, and Achebe, Mengestu gives us a political novel that is also a transfixing portrait of love and grace, of self-determination and the names we are given and the names we earn.


Click for more detail about Success Through Stillness: Meditation Made Simple by Russell Simmons Success Through Stillness: Meditation Made Simple

by Russell Simmons
Knopf (Mar 04, 2014)
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In Success Through Stillness, Simmons shows the connection between inner peace and outward success through interviews with other successful leaders in various industries, and how learning to be still has been instrumental in his own career. Simmons attributes his meditation practice with changing his life for the better and says that there is no “bad” way to meditate, only different forms for different people.

In this highly anticipated new book, Russell Simmons guides readers into finding greater clarity and focus, and explains how to be healthier in both mind and body. Simmons breaks down what he’s learned from masters of meditation into a guide that is accessible to those unfamiliar with the practice.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Transforming Pain To Power: Unlock Your Unlimited Potential by Daniel Beaty Transforming Pain To Power: Unlock Your Unlimited Potential

by Daniel Beaty
Berkley Books (Mar 04, 2014)
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Pain doesn’t last always
Sometimes only for a night
Try not to resist
It hurts the more we fight

Overcoming life’s difficulties is daunting. At times, it seems the burdens that we bear are too painful to overcome. They keep us from even trying to accomplish the things we want most. It seems the only way to outlast the pain is to ignore it, when, in truth, the only way to discover the unlimited potential inside of us all is to embrace the pain, face the Authentic Self at our core, and use the strength therein to triumph over any obstruction in our way.

Based on his powerful, true journey from a childhood rife with poverty, incarceration, addiction and rage to the successful adult life he achieved, award-winning performer, writer, and motivational speaker Daniel Beaty presents the tools that readers need to overcome any obstacle and tap into their full capabilities. By outlining an alternative mode of thinking, especially for the modern African-American man bombarded by negative stereotypes in the media, Beaty empowers the individual and encourages readers of all backgrounds to learn from their cultural and family heritage while forgiving and letting go of the negative so that only the positive remains.

Beaty’s story, supported by deeply personal advice from notable mentors such as Bill Cosby, Leontyne Price, Sydney Poitier, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee, serves as a strong reminder that success is ultimately possible, not in spite of struggles but as a result of lessons learned and power drawn from those lessons.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Handbook For An Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata And My Crazy Mother, And Still Came Out Smiling (With Great Hair) by Rosie Perez Handbook For An Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata And My Crazy Mother, And Still Came Out Smiling (With Great Hair)

by Rosie Perez
Knopf (Feb 25, 2014)
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Oscar-nominated actress Rosie Perez’s never-before-told story of surviving a harrowing childhood and of how she found success—both in and out of the Hollywood limelight.
 
Rosie Perez first caught our attention with her fierce dance in the title sequence of Do the Right Thing and has since defined herself as a funny and talented actress who broke boundaries for Latinas in the film industry. What most people would be surprised to learn is that the woman with the big, effervescent personality has a secret straight out of a Dickens novel. At the age of three, Rosie’s life was turned upside down when her mentally ill mother tore her away from the only family she knew and placed her in a Catholic children’s home in New York’s Westchester County. Thus began her crazily discombobulated childhood of being shuttled between “the Home,” where she and other kids suffered all manners of cruelty from nuns, and various relatives’ apartments in Brooklyn.
 
Many in her circumstances would have been defined by these harrowing experiences, but with the intense determination that became her trademark, Rosie overcame the odds and made an incredible life for herself. She brings her journey vividly to life on each page of this memoir—from the vibrant streets of Brooklyn to her turbulent years in the Catholic home, and finally to film and TV sets and the LA and New York City hip-hop scenes of the 1980s and ‘90s. 
 
More than a page-turning read, Handbook for an Unpredictable Life is a story of survival. By turns heartbreaking and funny, it is ultimately the inspirational story of a woman who has found a hard-won place of strength and peace.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Book of Heaven: A Novel by Patricia Storace The Book of Heaven: A Novel

by Patricia Storace
Pantheon Books (Feb 18, 2014)
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From the author of the classic travel memoir Dinner with Persephone, an accomplished poet, and frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, here is an eagerly anticipated, stunningly original novel of heartrending lyricism about four women, a fierce mythopoeia that invites us to enter into a new and powerful imagination of the sublime: What if “a woman’s point of view” were God’s?
 
As The Book of Heaven commences, Eve speaks about what is alleged to have happened in the Garden of Eden, a story she hardly recognizes. She tells her version of events, revealing that the constellations we are accustomed to seeing above conceal heavens with which we have yet to contend. In the four parts of the novelThe Book of Souraya, The Book of Savour, The Book of Rain, The Book of Shebaand their accompanying proverbs, Eve accounts for four new zodiacs and teaches us how to view each and comprehend its centrality to women: a knife, a cauldron for cooking, a paradisiacal garden, lovers embracing. Each book keenly evokes the life of a woman newly freed from the old tales in which she was trapped: a metamorphosis of Sarah, Abraham’s wife; a polytheistic cook; Job’s wife; and the Queen of Sheba.
 
In The Book of Heaven, Patricia Storace has brilliantly and radically reimagined the worlds of these women, putting them in the foreground of their stories and of the so-called Old Testament itself.


Click for more detail about Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile Queen Sugar

by Natalie Baszile
Knopf (Feb 06, 2014)
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A mother-daughter story of reinvention—about an African American woman who unexpectedly inherits a sugarcane farm in Louisiana

Why exactly Charley Bordelon’s late father left her eight hundred sprawling acres of sugarcane land in rural Louisiana is as mysterious as it was generous. Recognizing this as a chance to start over, Charley and her eleven-year-old daughter, Micah, say good-bye to Los Angeles.

They arrive just in time for growing season but no amount of planning can prepare Charley for a Louisiana that’s mired in the past: as her judgmental but big-hearted grandmother tells her, cane farming is always going to be a white man’s business. As the sweltering summer unfolds, Charley must balance the overwhelming challenges of her farm with the demands of a homesick daughter, a bitter and troubled brother, and the startling desires of her own heart.

Penguin has a rich tradition of publishing strong Southern debut fiction—from Sue Monk Kidd to Kathryn Stockett to Beth Hoffman. In Queen Sugar, we now have a debut from the African American point of view. Stirring in its storytelling of one woman against the odds and intimate in its exploration of the complexities of contemporary southern life, Queen Sugar is an unforgettable tale of endurance and hope.


Click for more detail about His Day Is Done: A Nelson Mandela Tribute by Maya Angelou His Day Is Done: A Nelson Mandela Tribute

by Maya Angelou
Random House (Jan 21, 2014)
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He was a son of Africa who became father to a nation and, for billions of people around the world, a beacon of hope, courage, and perseverance in the face of opposition. Now, acclaimed poet Maya Angelou honors the life and remarkable soul of Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa and Nobel laureate.

In His Day is Done, Angelou delivers an authentically heartfelt and elegant tribute to Mandela, who stood as David to the mighty Goliath of Apartheid and who, after twenty-seven years of unjust imprisonment on the notorious Robben Island, emerged with “His stupendous heart intact / His gargantuan will / Hale and hearty” to lead his people into a new era.

This poignant work of gratitude and remembrance offers condolences to the resilient people of South Africa on the loss of their beloved “Madiba” and celebrates a man like no other, whose life and work changed the world.


Click for more detail about The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson The Secret of Magic

by Deborah Johnson
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Jan 21, 2014)
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In 1946, a young female attorney from New York City attempts the impossible: attaining justice for a black man in the Deep South.
 Regina Robichard works for Thurgood Marshall, who receives an unusual letter asking the NAACP to investigate the murder of a returning black war hero. It is signed by M. P. Calhoun, the most reclusive author in the country.
 As a child, Regina was captivated by Calhoun’s The Secret of Magic, a novel in which white and black children played together in a magical forest.

Once down in Mississippi, Regina finds that nothing in the South is as it seems. She must navigate the muddy waters of racism, relationships, and her own tragic past. The Secret of Magic brilliantly explores the power of stories and those who tell them.


Click for more detail about Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life by Joe Brewster, Michele Stephenson, and Hilary Beard
Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life

by Joe Brewster, Michele Stephenson, and Hilary Beard
Spiegel & Grau (Jan 14, 2014)
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As seen on PBS’s POV An unprecedented guide to helping black boys achieve success at every stage of their lives at home, at school, and in the world

Regardless of how wealthy or poor their parents are, all black boys must confront and surmount the €œachievement gap€: a divide that shows up not only in our sons€™ test scores, but in their social and emotional development, their physical well-being, and their outlook on life. As children, they score as high on cognitive tests as their peers, but at some point, the gap emerges. Why?

This is the question Joe Brewster, M.D., and Michae Stephenson asked when their own son, Idris, began struggling in a new school. As they filmed his experiences for their award-winning documentary American Promise, they met an array of researchers who had not only identified the reasons for the gap, but had come up with practical, innovative solutions to close it. In Promises Kept, they explain

– how to influence your son’s brain before he’s even born – how to tell the difference between authoritarian and authoritative discipline and why it matters – how to create an educational program for your son that matches his needs – how to prepare him for explicit and implicit racism in school and in the wider world – how to help your child develop resilience, self-discipline, emotional intelligence, and a positive outlook that will last a lifetime

Filled with innovative research, practical strategies, and the voices of parents and children who are grappling with these issues firsthand, Promises Kept will challenge your assumptions and inspire you to make sure your child isn’t lost in the gap. Praise for Promises Kept

€œThe authors offer a plethora of information and advice geared toward the specific developmental needs of black boys… . Thorough and detailed, this guidebook is also a call to action. As Brewster sees it, when people of color remain complacent, they not only break a tacit promise to future generations to achieve social equity, they also imperil the futures of both the nation and the planet. A practical and impassioned parenting guide.€ Kirkus Reviews

€œA penetrating look at the standard practices, at school and at home, that contribute to the achievement gap between the races and the sexes that seems to put black boys at a disadvantage. [Brewster and Stephenson] debunk myths and offer ten parenting and education strategies to improve the prospects for black boys to help them overcome racial stereotypes and low expectations… . This is a practical and insightful look at the particular challenges of raising black males.€ Booklist


Click for more detail about How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson How I Discovered Poetry

by Marilyn Nelson
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 14, 2014)
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A powerful and thought-provoking Civil Rights era memoir from one of America’s most celebrated poets.

Looking back on her childhood in the 1950s, Newbery Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Marilyn Nelson tells the story of her development as an artist and young woman through fifty eye-opening poems. Readers are given an intimate portrait of her growing self-awareness and artistic inspiration along with a larger view of the world around her: racial tensions, the Cold War era, and the first stirrings of the feminist movement.

A first-person account of African-American history, this is a book to study, discuss, and treasure.


Click for more detail about I Am Amelia Earhart by Brad Meltzer I Am Amelia Earhart

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Jan 14, 2014)
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We can all be heroes. That’s the inspiring message of this lively, collectible picture book biography series from New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer.

"Kids always search for heroes, so we might as well have a say in it," Brad Meltzer realized, and so he envisioned this friendly, fun approach to biography - for his own kids, and for yours. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in an entertaining, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers, those who aren’t quite ready for the Who Was series. Each book focuses on a particular character trait that made that role model heroic. For example, Amelia Earhart refused to accept no for an answer; she dared to do what no one had ever done before, and became the first woman to fly a plane all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. This book follows her from childhood to her first flying lessons and onward to her multi-record-breaking career as a pilot.

This engaging series is the perfect way to bring American history to life for young children, and to inspire them to strive and dream.


Click for more detail about I Am Abraham Lincoln by Brad Meltzer I Am Abraham Lincoln

by Brad Meltzer
Dial Books (Jan 14, 2014)
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We can all be heroes. That’s the inspiring message of this lively, collectible picture book biography series from New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer.

"Kids always search for heroes, so we might as well have a say in it," Brad Meltzer realized, and so he envisioned this friendly, fun approach to biography - for his own kids, and for yours. Each book tells the story of one of America’s icons in an entertaining, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers, those who aren’t quite ready for the Who Was series. Each book focuses on a particular character trait that made that role model heroic. For example, Abraham Lincoln always spoke up about fairness, and thus he led the country to abolish slavery. This book follows him from childhood to the presidency, including the Civil War and his legendary Gettysburg Address.

This engaging series is the perfect way to bring American history to life for young children, and to inspire them to strive and dream.


Click for more detail about The Sittin’ Up by Shelia P. Moses The Sittin’ Up

by Shelia P. Moses
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jan 09, 2014)
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When Mr. Bro. Wiley, Bean’s adopted grandfather and the last slave man around, dies in the summer of 1940, Bean and his very best friend Pole are some kind of hurt. Everyone in the Low Meadows is. Despite their grief, they are proud and excited to be included in their very first Sittin’ Upa wake for the dead. Bean and Pole know this special week will be one to remember, especially if the coming storm has its way and riles up Ole River enough to flood the Low Meadows right in the middle of Mr. Bro. Wiley’s Sittin’ Up.

Shelia P. Moses tells her most charming story yet. Laced with humor and a lot of heart, this is an affecting, fun tale from a storytelling master.


Click for more detail about The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel by Chris Abani The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel

by Chris Abani
Penguin Group USA (Jan 07, 2014)
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A gritty, riveting, and wholly original murder mystery from PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author and 2015 Edgar Awards winner Chris Abani

Before he can retire, Las Vegas detective Salazar is determined to solve a recent spate of murders. When he encounters a pair of conjoined twins with a container of blood near their car, he’s sure he has apprehended the killers, and enlists the help of Dr. Sunil Singh, a South African transplant who specializes in the study of psychopaths. As Sunil tries to crack the twins, the implications of his research grow darker. Haunted by his betrayal of loved ones back home during apartheid, he seeks solace in the love of Asia, a prostitute with hopes of escaping that life. But Sunil’s own troubled past is fast on his heels in the form of a would-be assassin.

Suspenseful through the last page, The Secret History of Las Vegas is Chris Abani’s most accomplished work to date, with his trademark visionary prose and a striking compassion for the inner lives of outsiders.


Click for more detail about A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina’s Dream by Kristy Dempsey A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina’s Dream

by Kristy Dempsey
Philomel Books (Jan 02, 2014)
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A story of little ballerinas with big dreams.

Little ballerinas have big dreams. Dreams of pirouettes and grande jetes, dreams of attending the best ballet schools and of dancing starring roles on stage. But in Harlem in the 1950s, dreams don’t always come true—they take a lot of work and a lot of hope. And sometimes hope is hard to come by.
 
But the first African-American prima ballerina, Janet Collins, did make her dreams come true. And those dreams inspired ballerinas everywhere, showing them that the color of their skin couldn’t stop them from becoming a star.
 
In a lyrical tale as beautiful as a dance en pointe, Kristy Dempsey and Floyd Cooper tell the story of one little ballerina who was inspired by Janet Collins to make her own dreams come true.


Click for more detail about Manuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho Manuscript Found in Accra

by Paulo Coelho
Vintage (Dec 31, 2013)
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The #1 International Bestselling author of THE ALCHEMIST reveals in this deeply thoughtful novel that the great wisdom of life is that we can be masters of the things that try to enslave us.

"There is nothing wrong with anxiety. Although we cannot control God’s time, it is part of the human condition to want to receive the thing we are waiting for as quickly as possible. Or to drive away whatever is causing fear. Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms.

1099. Jerusalem awaits the invasion of the crusaders who have surrounded the city’s gates. There, inside the ancient city’s walls, women and men of every age and faith have gathered to hear the wisdom of a mysterious man known only as the Copt.

As the wise man speaks of loyalty, fear, bravery and solitude, of love, sex, beauty and elegance, his words offer truth and guidance, and reveal the human values that have endured throughout time—then as now, his words reveal who we are, what we fear and what we hope for the future.


Click for more detail about Odyssey by Walter Mosley Odyssey

by Walter Mosley
Vintage (Dec 17, 2013)
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In this gripping and provocative eBook original novel celebrated bestselling author Walter Mosley explores the mind of an African-American man who is forced to re-examine his most closely held beliefs about race and about himself.

Sovereign James wakes up one morning to discover that he’s gone blind.

Sovereign’s doctors can’t find anything wrong with him, nor does he remember any physical or psychological trauma. Unless his sight returns, Sovereign has reached the end of his 25-year career in human resources. A couple of weeks later he is violently mugged on the street. His sight briefly, miraculously returns during the attack: for a few seconds, he can see as well as hear a young female bystander’s cries of distress. Now he must grapple with two questions: What caused him to lose his vision—and, perhaps more troubling, why does violence restore it? As Sovereign searches for the woman he glimpsed, he will come to question everything he valued about his former life.


Click for more detail about Forgiveness: 21 Days to Forgive Everyone for Everything by Iyanla Vanzant Forgiveness: 21 Days to Forgive Everyone for Everything

by Iyanla Vanzant
SmileyBooks (Dec 03, 2013)
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Too many of us feel trapped in stagnant romantic, family, or workplace relationships. Weighed down by toxic thoughts and emotions, we might be quick to judge and slow to pardon, and self-righteous about our feelings as we dwell on memories of what we or others did (or failed to do). In this new book and CD, Iyanla Vanzant challenges us to liberate ourselves from the wounds of the past and to embrace the new power of forgiveness. With Iyanla’s 21-Day Forgiveness Plan, you’ll explore relationship dynamics with your parents, children, friends, partners, co-workers, bosses, yourself, and even God. With journaling work and Emotional Freedom Techniques (also known as “tapping”), you’ll learn to live with more love; gain new clarity on your life, lessons, and blessings; and discover a new level of personal freedom, peace, and well-being. Forgiveness doesn’t mean agreeing with, condoning, or even liking what has happened. Forgiveness means letting go and knowing that—regardless of how challenging, frightening, or difficult an experience may seem—everything is just as it needs to be in order for you to grow and learn. When you focus on how things “should” be, you deny the presence and power of love. Accept the events of the past, while being willing to change your perspective on them. As Iyanla says, “Only forgiveness can liberate minds and hearts once held captive by anger, bitterness, resentment, and fear. Forgiveness is a true path to freedom that can renew faith, build trust, and nourish the soul.”


Click for more detail about Undisputed Truth by Mike Tyson and Larry Sloman Undisputed Truth

by Mike Tyson and Larry Sloman
Knopf (Nov 12, 2013)
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Bullied as a boy in the toughest, poorest neighborhood in Brooklyn, Tyson grew up to become one of the most thrilling and ferocious boxers of all time—and the youngest heavyweight champion ever. But his brilliance in the ring was often compromised by reckless behavior. Years of hard partying, violent fights, and criminal proceedings took their toll: by 2003, Tyson had hit rock bottom, a convicted felon, completely broke, the punch line to a thousand bad late-night jokes. Yet he fought his way back; the man who once admitted being addicted “to everything” regained his success, his dignity, and the love of his family. With a triumphant one-man stage show, his unforgettable performances in the Hangover films, and his newfound happiness and stability as a father and husband, Tyson’s story is an inspiring American original. Brutally honest, raw, and often hilarious, Tyson chronicles his tumultuous highs and lows in the same sincere, straightforward manner we have come to expect from this legendary athlete. A singular journey from Brooklyn’s ghettos to worldwide fame to notoriety, and, finally, to a tranquil wisdom, Undisputed Truth is not only a great sports memoir but an autobiography for the ages.


Click for more detail about If You Can See It, You Can Be It: 12 Street-Smart Recipes For Success by Jeff Henderson If You Can See It, You Can Be It: 12 Street-Smart Recipes For Success

by Jeff Henderson
SmileyBooks (Nov 04, 2013)
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     In his latest book, Chef Jeff Henderson, the New York Times best-selling author of Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, From Cocaine to Foie Gras, presents two decades of life lessons that he gained on his redemptive journey from drug dealer to TV celebrity chef to nationally acclaimed speaker. He has devoted himself to mentoring and motivating at-risk and vulnerable Americans, and his remarkable achievements and inspiring presentations have made him a sought-after speaker for business and non-profit organizations, addressing tens of thousands of individuals each year at conventions, conferences, and seminars.     Now, with the 12 inspiring and pragmatic “recipes” he offers in this book, you can discover your hidden business aptitudes, make life-changing decisions, and secure bulletproof personal and professional success. Whether you’re a “have-not” suffering from generational or situational poverty or a “lost-a-lot” knocked out by the economic recession, you’ll learn something from Chef Jeff’s unique perspectives on the virtues of self-knowledge, hard work, determination, and leverage in the real world. Reboot your dreams and gain a new foothold on the ladder to success!

Book Review

Click for more detail about Old Mikamba Had a Farm by Rachel Isadora Old Mikamba Had a Farm

by Rachel Isadora
Nancy Paulsen Books (Oct 31, 2013)
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This fabulous version of the classic nursery song "Old MacDonald" introduces children to a menagerie of African animals and their sounds. It is beautifully illustrated by Caldecott Honor winner Rachel Isadora, with her signature collage-style artwork.

Old Mikamba had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on this farm he had … a giraffe, a baboon, and an elephant! Meet Old Mikamba, who watches over a wide variety of animals on his game farm in the plains of Africa. Children will discover a whole new set of fun animal sounds as they are invited to sing along and roar with the lions, bellow with the rhino, whinny with the zebras, honk with the wildebeests, and more!

A wonderful introduction to African wildlife that is great fun to read aloud, this truly irresistible rendition of a beloved song includes a list of animal fun facts and gives children a huge variety of animal sounds to imitate as they pore over the detailed animals, landscapes and patterns in the stunning illustrations.


Click for more detail about Mastery by Robert Greene Mastery

by Robert Greene
Penguin Books (Oct 29, 2013)
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The #1 New York Times-bestseller from the author of The 48 Laws of Power

Each one of us has within us the potential to be a Master. Learn the secrets of the field you have chosen, submit to a rigorous apprenticeship, absorb the hidden knowledge possessed by those with years of experience, surge past competitors to surpass them in brilliance, and explode established patterns from within. Study the behaviors of Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Leonardo da Vinci and the nine contemporary Masters interviewed for this book.

The bestseller author of The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, and The 33 Strategies of War, Robert Greene has spent a liftime studying the laws of power. Now, he shares the secret path to greatness. With this seminal text as a guide, readers will learn how to unlock the passion within and become masters.


Click for more detail about Pecan Pie Baby by Jacqueline Woodson Pecan Pie Baby

by Jacqueline Woodson
Puffin Books (Oct 17, 2013)
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A sweet addition to the family is coming! Written by National Book Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson. Illustrated by Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Sophie Blackall.

Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

All anyone wants to talk about with Mama is the new “ding-dang baby” that’s on the way, and Gia is getting sick of it! If her new sibling is already such a big deal, what’s going to happen to Gia’s nice, cozy life with Mama once the baby is born?
 
“[An] honest story about jealousy, anger, displacement, and love [that] will touch kids dealing with sibling rivalry and spark their talk about change.”—Booklist
 
“Fresh and wise.”—Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington by Terry Teachout Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington

by Terry Teachout
Avery (Oct 17, 2013)
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A major new biography of Duke Ellington from the acclaimed author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong

  Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not even his closest friends, claimed to understand. The grandson of a slave, he dropped out of high school to become one of the world’s most famous musicians, a showman of incomparable suavity who was as comfortable in Carnegie Hall as in the nightclubs where he honed his style. He wrote some fifteen hundred compositions, many of which, like “Mood Indigo” and “Sophisticated Lady,” remain beloved standards, and he sought inspiration in an endless string of transient lovers, concealing his inner self behind a smiling mask of flowery language and ironic charm.

  As the biographer of Louis Armstrong, Terry Teachout is uniquely qualified to tell the story of the public and private lives of Duke Ellington. Duke peels away countless layers of Ellington’s evasion and public deception to tell the unvarnished truth about the creative genius who inspired Miles Davis to say, “All the musicians should get together one certain day and get down on their knees and thank Duke.”


Click for more detail about The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

by Ayana Mathis
Knopf (Oct 08, 2013)
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The arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

A debut of extraordinary distinction: Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one unforgettable family.

Oprah and Ayana“My newest Book Club pick, “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by first-time novelist Ayana Mathis gives me that same feeling of connection. It spoke so deeply to me about what is unique and personal to the many generations of our Tribe. New voices, like Ayana’s, are painting a rich and multilayered tapestry to bring the emotional center of the Great Migration to life. The Great Migration is a pivotal time in American history that affected our grandparents, our parents, our aunts and uncles, and now ultimately continues to impact all of us on the other side of it. You’ll find the characters in The Twelve Tribes of Hattie are so familiar, it’s like going to a family reunion. For any book club, you hope to engage and connect with a story so that you feel expanded, inspired, enriched&mdash;like you’ve been somewhere special, that you otherwise wouldn’t have gone. This is that kind of novel for every reader. For those of us who share the African American experience, and for all of us who share the human experience, I think it is a journey not to be missed.

I am honored to introduce you to Ayana Mathis and The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. I believe you will love it as much as I do.” —Oprah Winfrey

About the Book

In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage and the journey of a nation.

Beautiful and devastating, Ayana Mathis’s The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is wondrous from first to last&mdash;glorious, harrowing, unexpectedly uplifting, and blazing with life. An emotionally transfixing page-turner, a searing portrait of striving in the face of insurmountable adversity, an indelible encounter with the resilience of the human spirit and the driving force of the American dream.


Click for more detail about The Vegucation of Robin: How Real Food Saved My Life by Robin Quivers The Vegucation of Robin: How Real Food Saved My Life

by Robin Quivers
Avery (Oct 01, 2013)
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Howard Stern’s celebrated sidekick, Robin Quivers presents her vegan cookbook and manifesto with more than 90 healthy recipes for the home cook.

 Known for her levelheaded, deadpan comebacks to Howard Stern’s often outrageous banter, Robin Quivers is a force of nature. Yet few people know about her struggles with food especially the high-fat, high-sugar, high-cholesterol, highly addictive foods that doomed many of her relatives to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Sick and tired of being sick and tired, she knew it was time to stop her slow slide into bad health. Quivers took a stand in her personal nutrition battle and emerged victorious thanks to a plant-based diet.On her sometimes rocky, though endearingly hysterical, path to newfound health, Quivers discovered the power of the produce aisle in changing her body and her mindset.

 By filling up on soul-quenching, cell-loving vegetables instead of damaging animal products and processed foods, Quivers left behind the injuries, aches, and pains that had plagued her for twenty years. Charting her inspiring road to wellness, The Vegucation of Robin describes her transformation inside and out, and, including ninety of her favorite vegan recipes, she encourages readers to join her in putting their health first.With her signature humor and wit, Quivers builds an undeniable case that the key to living the life you

€™ve always wanted lies not with your doctor but in your refrigerator. Putting a new face on the pro-veggie movement, Quivers will dazzle readers who want to look good, feel good, and have fun doing it.


Click for more detail about The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry by Rita Dove The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry

by Rita Dove
Penguin Books (Sep 24, 2013)
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In time for the holiday season, a beautiful paperback edition of Penguin’s landmark poetry anthologyRita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of the United States, introduces readers to the most significant and compelling poems of the past hundred years in The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry. Now available in paperback, this indispensable volume represents the full spectrum of aesthetic sensibilities—with varying styles, voices, themes, and cultures—while balancing important poems with vital periods of each poet. Featuring earlier works by Robert Frost, James Weldon Johnson, and Wallace Stevens along with examples from the new generation of critically acclaimed poets, including A. E. Stallings, Terrance Hayes, and Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Dove’s selections paint a dynamic and cohesive portrait of modern American poetry.


Click for more detail about Who Asked You? by Terry McMillan Who Asked You?

by Terry McMillan
Knopf (Sep 17, 2013)
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Family ties are tested and transformed in the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author of Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back

With her wise, wry, and poignant novels of families and friendships—Waiting to Exhale, Getting to Happy, and A Day Late and a Dollar Short among them—Terry McMillan has touched millions of readers. Now, in her eighth novel, McMillan gives exuberant voice to characters who reveal how we live now—at least as lived in a racially diverse Los Angeles neighborhood.

Kaleidoscopic, fast-paced, and filled with McMillan’s inimitable humor, Who Asked You? opens as Trinetta leaves her two young sons with her mother, Betty Jean, and promptly disappears. BJ, a trademark McMillan heroine, already has her hands full dealing with her other adult children, two opinionated sisters, an ill husband, and her own postponed dreams—all while holding down a job delivering room service at a hotel. Her son Dexter is about to be paroled from prison; Quentin, the family success, can’t be bothered to lend a hand; and taking care of two lively grandsons is the last thing BJ thinks she needs. The drama unfolds through the perspectives of a rotating cast of characters, pitch-perfect, each playing a part, and full of surprises.

Who Asked You? casts an intimate look at the burdens and blessings of family and speaks to trusting your own judgment even when others don’t agree. McMillan’s signature voice and unforgettable characters bring universal issues to brilliant, vivid life.


Click for more detail about Giovanni’s Room  by James Baldwin Giovanni’s Room

by James Baldwin
Vintage Books (Sep 12, 2013)
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Set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin’s now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.


Click for more detail about Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin Go Tell It on the Mountain

by James Baldwin
Vintage Books (Sep 12, 2013)
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“Mountain,” Baldwin said, “is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else.” Go Tell It on the Mountain, originally published in 1953, is Baldwin’s first major work, a novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy’s discovery one Saturday in March of 1935 of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a Pentecostal storefront church in Harlem. Baldwin’s rendering of his protagonist’s spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle toward self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 by Juan Williams Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965

by Juan Williams
Penguin Books (Sep 03, 2013)
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The 25th-anniversary edition of Juan Williams’s celebrated account of the tumultuous early years of the civil rights movement

From the Montgomery bus boycott to the Little Rock Nine to the Selma–Montgomery march, thousands of ordinary people who participated in the American civil rights movement; their stories are told in Eyes on the Prize. From leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., to lesser-known figures such as Barbara Rose John and Jim Zwerg, each man and woman made the decision that somethinghad to be done to stop discrimination. These moving accounts and pictures of the first decade of the civil rights movement are a tribute to the people, black and white, who took part in the fight for justice and the struggle they endured.


Click for more detail about This Is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration by Jacqueline Woodson This Is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Aug 29, 2013)
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The story of one family’s journey north during the Great Migration starts with a little girl in South Carolina who finds a rope under a tree one summer. She has no idea the rope will become part of her family’s history. But for three generations, that rope is passed down, used for everything from jump rope games to tying suitcases onto a car for the big move north to New York City, and even for a family reunion where that first little girl is now a grandmother.

Newbery Honor–winning author Jacqueline Woodson and Coretta Scott King Award–winning illustrator James Ransome use the rope to frame a thoughtful and moving story as readers follow the little girl’s journey. During the time of the Great Migration, millions of African American families relocated from the South, seeking better opportunities. With grace and poignancy, Woodson’s lilting storytelling and Ransome’s masterful oil paintings of country and city life tell a rich story of a family adapting to change as they hold on to the past and embrace the future.


Click for more detail about Buck: A Memoir by MK Asante Buck: A Memoir

by MK Asante
Spiegel & Grau (Aug 20, 2013)
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A rebellious boy’s journey through the wilds of urban America and the shrapnel of a self-destructing family—this is the riveting story of a generation told through one dazzlingly poetic new voice.
 
MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents: a mother who led the new nation’s dance company and a father who would soon become a revered pioneer in black studies. But things fell apart, and a decade later MK was in America, a teenager lost in a fog of drugs, sex, and violence on the streets of North Philadelphia. Now he was alone—his mother in a mental hospital, his father gone, his older brother locked up in a prison on the other side of the country—and forced to find his own way to survive physically, mentally, and spiritually, by any means necessary.
 
Buck is a powerful memoir of how a precocious kid educated himself through the most unconventional teachers—outlaws and eccentrics, rappers and mystic strangers, ghetto philosophers and strippers, and, eventually, an alternative school that transformed his life with a single blank sheet of paper. It’s a one-of-a-kind story about finding your purpose in life, and an inspiring tribute to the power of education, art, and love to heal and redeem us.

Praise for Buck
 
“A story of surviving and thriving with passion, compassion, wit, and style.”—Maya Angelou 
 
“In America, we have a tradition of black writers whose autobiographies and memoirs come to define an era… . Buck may be this generation’s story.”—NPR

“The voice of a new generation… . You will love nearly everything about Buck.”—Essence

“A virtuoso performance … [an] extraordinary page-turner of a memoir … written in a breathless, driving hip-hop prose style that gives it a tough, contemporary edge.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Frequently brilliant and always engaging … It takes great skill to render the wide variety of characters, male and female, young and old, that populate a memoir like Buck. Asante [is] at his best when he sets out into the city of Philadelphia itself. In fact, that city is the true star of this book. Philly’s skateboarders, its street-corner philosophers and its tattoo artists are all brought vividly to life here… . Asante’s memoir will find an eager readership, especially among young people searching in books for the kind of understanding and meaning that eludes them in their real-life relationships… . A powerful and captivating book.”—Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times

“Remarkable … Asante’s prose is a fluid blend of vernacular swagger and tender poeticism… . [He] soaks up James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston and Walt Whitman like thirsty ground in a heavy rain. Buck grew from that, and it’s a bumper crop.”—Salon
 
“Buck is so honest it floats—even while it’s so down-to-earth that the reader feels like an ant peering up from the concrete. It’s a powerful book… . Asante is a hip-hop raconteur, a storyteller in the Homeric tradition, an American, a rhymer, a big-thinker singing a song of himself. You’ll want to listen.”—The Buffalo News


Click for more detail about The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

by Christopher Paul Curtis
Yearling (Aug 06, 2013)
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A wonderful middle-grade novel narrated by Kenny, 9, about his middle-class black family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan. When Kenny’s 13-year-old brother, Byron, gets to be too much trouble, they head South to Birmingham to visit Grandma, the one person who can shape him up. And they happen to be in Birmingham when Grandma’s church is blown up.


Click for more detail about The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color in a New Millennium by Kathy Russell, Midge Wilson, and Ronald Hall The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color in a New Millennium

by Kathy Russell, Midge Wilson, and Ronald Hall
Anchor Books (Aug 01, 2013)
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A provocative exploration of how Western standards of beauty are influencing cultures across the globe and impacting personal, professional, romantic and familial relationships. Processes like skin lightening in India, hair smoothing in Black America, eyelid reconstruction in China, and plastic surgery worldwide continue to rise in popularity for men and women facing discrimination from both within and outside of their own increasingly fluid ethnic groups. Now including a wealth of new information since the first edition of The Color Complex over two decades ago, the authors, through a historical and sociological lens, have measured the impact of recent pop culture events effecting race relations to determine whether colorism has gotten better or worse over time.


Click for more detail about Bad Girls of the Bible: And What We Can Learn from Them by Liz Curtis Higgs Bad Girls of the Bible: And What We Can Learn from Them

by Liz Curtis Higgs
Knopf (Jul 16, 2013)
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“When she was perfect, beautiful, and innocent, I found no toehold where I could connect with Eve. When she was tempted by her flesh, humbled by her sin, and redeemed by her God, I could sing out, ‘Oh, sister Eve! Can we talk?’ - from Bad Girls of the Bible

Ten of the Bible’s best-known femmes fatales parade across the pages of Bad Girls of the Bible with situations that sound oh-so-familiar.

Eve had food issues. Potiphar’s Wife and Delilah had man trouble. Lot’s Wife and Michal couldn’t let go of the past, Sapphira couldn’t let go of money, and Jezebel couldn’t let go of anything. Yet the Woman at the Well had her thirst quenched at last, while Rahab and the Sinful Woman left their sordid histories behind. Let these Bad Girls show you why studying the Bible has never been more fun!


Click for more detail about Zealot: The Life And Times Of Jesus Of Nazareth by Reza Aslan Zealot: The Life And Times Of Jesus Of Nazareth

by Reza Aslan
Knopf (Jul 16, 2013)
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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Good Housekeeping • Booklist • Publishers Weekly • Bookish

From the internationally bestselling author of No god but God comes a fascinating, provocative, and meticulously researched biography that challenges long-held assumptions about the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth.
 
Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher and miracle worker walked across the Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the “Kingdom of God.” The revolutionary movement he launched was so threatening to the established order that he was captured, tortured, and executed as a state criminal.
 
Within decades after his shameful death, his followers would call him God.
 
Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history’s most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor. Scores of Jewish prophets, preachers, and would-be messiahs wandered through the Holy Land, bearing messages from God. This was the age of zealotry—a fervent nationalism that made resistance to the Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews. And few figures better exemplified this principle than the charismatic Galilean who defied both the imperial authorities and their allies in the Jewish religious hierarchy.
 
Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction; a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves with swords; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity a secret; and ultimately the seditious “King of the Jews” whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his brief lifetime. Aslan explores the reasons why the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity.
 
Zealot yields a fresh perspective on one of the greatest stories ever told even as it affirms the radical and transformative nature of Jesus of Nazareth’s life and mission. The result is a thought-provoking, elegantly written biography with the pulse of a fast-paced novel: a singularly brilliant portrait of a man, a time, and the birth of a religion.

Praise for Zealot
 
“Riveting … Aslan synthesizes Scripture and scholarship to create an original account.”—The New Yorker

“A lucid, intelligent page-turner.”—Los Angeles Times
 
“Fascinatingly and convincingly drawn … Aslan may come as close as one can to respecting those who revere Jesus as the peace-loving, turn-the-other-cheek, true son of God depicted in modern Christianity, even as he knocks down that image.”—The Seattle Times
 
“[Aslan’s] literary talent is as essential to the effect of Zealot as are his scholarly and journalistic chops… . A vivid, persuasive portrait.”—Salon
 
“This tough-minded, deeply political book does full justice to the real Jesus, and honors him in the process.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Book Review

Click for more detail about Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan Golden Boy

by Tara Sullivan
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jun 27, 2013)
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Thirteen-year-old Habo has always been different—light eyes, yellow hair and white skin. Not the good brown skin his family has and not the white skin of tourists. Habo is strange and alone. His father, unable to accept Habo, abandons the family; his mother can scarcely look at him. His brothers are cruel and the other children never invite him to play. Only his sister Asu loves him well. But even Asu can’t take the sting away when the family is forced from their small Tanzanian village, and Habo knows he is to blame. 

Seeking refuge in Mwanza, Habo and his family journey across the Serengeti. His aunt is glad to open her home until she sees Habo for the first time, and then she is only afraid. Suddenly, Habo has a new word for himself: Albino. But they hunt Albinos in Mwanza because Albino body parts are thought to bring good luck. And soon Habo is being hunted by a fearsome man with a machete. To survive, Habo must not only run, but find a way to love and accept himself.


Click for more detail about Max and the Tag-Along Moon by Floyd Cooper Max and the Tag-Along Moon

by Floyd Cooper
Philomel Books (Jun 13, 2013)
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Has the moon ever followed you home at night?

Max loves his grandpa. When they must say good-bye after a visit, Grandpa reminds Max that the moon above them at Grandpa’s house is the same moon that will follow him all the way home. And on that swervy-curvy car ride back home Max smiles as the moon tags along, thinking of Grandpa. But when the sky darkens and the moon disappears behind clouds, Max worries that it did not follow him home after all. Yet when the clouds part and light streams through his window, he realizes that Grandpa was right—the moon was with him all along.Floyd Cooper received the Coretta Scott King Award for The Blacker the Berry, two Coretta Scott King Honors for Honey in Broomwheat Tea and I Have Heard of a Land, and an NAACP image award. His books have also been named to numerous best books list and been given many Parents Choice Awards. In Max and the Tag-Along Moon, his lush paintings perfectly capture the wonder of the moon, the love between grandfather and grandson, and that feeling of magic every child experiences when the moon follows him home.


Click for more detail about The Big Smoke (Poets, Penguin) by Adrian Matejka The Big Smoke (Poets, Penguin)

by Adrian Matejka
Penguin Books (May 28, 2013)
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Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and the National Book Award in Poetry—a collection that examines the myth and history of the prizefighter Jack Johnson
    The legendary Jack Johnson (1878-1946) was a true American creation. The child of emancipated slaves, he overcame the violent segregationism of Jim Crow, challenging white boxers—and white America—to become the first African-American heavyweight world champion. The Big Smoke, Adrian Matejka’s third work of poetry, follows the fighter’s journey from poverty to the most coveted title in sports through the multi-layered voices of Johnson and the white women he brazenly loved. Matejka’s book is part historic reclamation and part interrogation of Johnson’s complicated legacy, one that often misremembers the magnetic man behind the myth.


Click for more detail about Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson Yes, Chef: A Memoir

by Marcus Samuelsson
Random House Trade Paperbacks (May 21, 2013)
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JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“One of the great culinary stories of our time.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
 
It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations. Yes, Chef chronicles Samuelsson’s journey, from his grandmother’s kitchen to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of chasing flavors had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs, and, most important, the opening of Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fulfilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room—a place where presidents rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, and bus drivers. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home.

Praise for Yes, Chef
 
“Such an interesting life, told with touching modesty and remarkable candor.”—Ruth Reichl
 
“Marcus Samuelsson has an incomparable story, a quiet bravery, and a lyrical and discreetly glittering style—in the kitchen and on the page. I liked this book so very, very much.”—Gabrielle Hamilton
 
“Plenty of celebrity chefs have a compelling story to tell, but none of them can top [this] one.”—The Wall Street Journal
 
“Elegantly written … Samuelsson has the flavors of many countries in his blood.”—The Boston Globe
 
“Red Rooster’s arrival in Harlem brought with it a chef who has reinvigorated and reimagined what it means to be American. In his famed dishes, and now in this memoir, Marcus Samuelsson tells a story that reaches past racial and national divides to the foundations of family, hope, and downright good food.”—President Bill Clinton


Click for more detail about Three Strong Women: A novel by Marie NDiaye Three Strong Women: A novel

by Marie NDiaye
Vintage (May 21, 2013)
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A New York Times Notable BookA San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2012A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012Longlisted for The 2014 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary AwardFrom Marie NDiaye, the first black woman to win the Prix Goncourt, a harrowing and beautiful novel of the travails of West African immigrants in France. The story of three women who say no: Norah, a French-born lawyer who finds herself in Senegal, summoned by her estranged father to save another victim of his paternity; Fanta, who leaves a contented life as a teacher in Dakar to follow her boyfriend back to France, where his depression and dislocation poison everything; and Khady, a penniless widow put out by her husband’s family with nothing but the name of a distant cousin in France. As these three lives intertwine, each woman manages an astonishing feat of self-preservation against those who have made themselves the fastest-growing and most-reviled people in Europe. In Marie NDiaye’s stunning narration we see the progress by which ordinary women discover unimagined reserves of strength.


Click for more detail about Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Americanah

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Knopf (May 14, 2013)
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From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a dazzling new novel: a story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home.

As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu—beautiful, self-assured—departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze—the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor—had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. But when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion—for their homeland and for each other—they will face the toughest decisions of their lives. Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today’s globalized world: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s most powerful and astonishing novel yet.


Click for more detail about Little Green by Walter Mosley Little Green

by Walter Mosley
Knopf (May 14, 2013)
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When Walter Mosley burst onto the literary scene in 1990 with his first Easy Rawlins mystery, Devil in a Blue Dress—a combustible mixture of Raymond Chandler and Richard Wright—he captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of readers (including future president Bill Clinton). Eleven books later, Easy Rawlins is one of the few private eyes in contemporary crime fiction who can be called iconic and immortal. In the incendiary and fast-paced Little Green, he returns from the brink of death to investigate the dark side of L.A.’s 1960s hippie haven, the Sunset Strip. We last saw Easy in 2007’s Blonde Faith, fighting for his life after his car plunges over a cliff. True to form, the tough WWII veteran survives, and soon his murderous sidekick Mouse has him back cruising the mean streets of L.A., in all their psychedelic 1967 glory, to look for a young black man, Evander “Little Green” Noon, who disappeared during an acid trip. Fueled by an elixir called Gator’s Blood, brewed by the conjure woman Mama Jo, Easy experiences a physical, spiritual, and emotional resurrection, but peace and love soon give way to murder and mayhem. Written with Mosley’s signature grit and panache, this engrossing and atmospheric mystery is not only a trip back in time, it is also a tough-minded exploration of good and evil, and of the power of guilt and redemption. Once again, Easy asserts his reign over the City of (Fallen) Angels.


Click for more detail about Fatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge by Etan Thomas and Nick Chiles Fatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge

by Etan Thomas and Nick Chiles
Berkley Books (May 07, 2013)
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In Fatherhood, beloved NBA player, poet, children’s advocate, and devoted dad Etan Thomas speaks from his heart on what matters most in his life: being there for his children. As a leading participant in President Obama’s Fatherhood Initiative, Etan has reached out to young men (often young fathers) in the juvenile detention system and in local communities. He knows firsthand the difference having a father in your life every day can make.
Now he brings together a chorus of voices to weigh in on the importance of being a father in our nation today and to share what they’ve learned from being a father, having a father, or in some cases not having a father around.
With Original Essays and Poems from

Taye Diggs • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar • Malcolm-Jamal Warner • Ice Cube • Howard Dean • Tony Hawk • Isaiah Washington • Yao Ming • Al Sharpton • John King • Lamman Rucker • Derek Fisher • Kevin Durant • Russ Parr • Michael Moore • Chuck D • Malcolm Shabazz • Talem Acey • Will Downing • Chris Paul • Allan Houston • Talib Kweli • Black Ice • Cornel West • Elijah Cummings • Mumia Abu-Jamal • Grant Hill • Coach John Thompson • Roland Martin • Joakim Noah • Arn Tellum • Damian Marley • Abiodune Oyewole • Styles P • Baron Davis • David Aldridge • Stuart Scott • Dave Zirin • Kevin Powell • John Carlos • Derrick Coleman • J. Ivy • Joe Johnson • Al Horford • Pastor John Jenkins • Julian Thomas • Ed Gordon Jr. • Tito Puente Jr. • Billy Hunter • 13 of Nazareth • Messiah Ramkissoon

Through these inspiring personal experiences, Etan and the men he’s gathered together hope to share the message that by standing up and taking an active role as fathers, men not only find their own lives more joyful and fulfilling—they pass on to the next generation an unshakable legacy of love, wisdom, responsibility, and strength.


Click for more detail about The Lost Daughter: A Memoir by Mary Williams The Lost Daughter: A Memoir

by Mary Williams
Blue Rider Press (Apr 09, 2013)
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A daughter of the Black Panther movement tells her remarkable life story of being raised amid violence and near-poverty, adopted as a teenager by Jane Fonda, and finding her way back home.
 
As she grew up in 1970s Oakland, California, role models for Mary Williams were few and far between: her father was often in prison, her older sister was a teenage prostitute, and her hot-tempered mother struggled to raise six children alone. When Mary was thirteen, a silver lining appeared in her life: she was invited to spend a summer at Laurel Springs Children’s Camp, run by Jane Fonda and her then husband, Tom Hayden. Mary flourished at camp, and over the course of several summers, she began confiding in Fonda about her difficulties at home. During one school year, Mary suffered a nightmare assault crime, which she kept secret until she told a camp counselor and Fonda. After providing care and therapy for Mary, Fonda invited her to come live with her family.
 Practically overnight, Mary left the streets of Oakland for the star-studded climes of Santa Monica. Jane Fonda was the parent Mary had never had—outside the limelight and Hollywood parties, Fonda was a wonderful mom who helped with homework, listened to adolescent fears, celebrated achievements, and offered inspiration and encouragement at every turn.
 Mary’s life since has been one of adventure and opportunity—from hiking the Appalachian Trail solo, working with the Lost Boys of Sudan, and living in the frozen reaches of Antarctica. Her most courageous trip, though, involved returning to Oakland and reconnecting with her biological mother and family, many of whom she hadn’t seen since the day she left home. The Lost Daughter is a chronicle of her journey back in time, an exploration of fractured family bonds, and a moving epic of self-discovery.


Click for more detail about Mountains Beyond Mountains (Adapted for Young People): The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer,  A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder and Michael French Mountains Beyond Mountains (Adapted for Young People): The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World

by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Delacorte Books for Young Readers (Apr 09, 2013)
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Tracy Kidder’s critically acclaimed adult nonfiction work, Mountains Beyond Mountains has been adapted for young people by Michael French. In this young adult edition, readers are introduced to Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard-educated doctor with a self-proclaimed mission to transform healthcare on a global scale. Farmer focuses his attention on some of the world’s most impoverished people and uses unconventional ways in which to provide healthcare, to achieve real results and save lives.


Click for more detail about Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou Mom & Me & Mom

by Maya Angelou
Knopf (Apr 02, 2013)
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The story of Maya Angelou’s extraordinary life has been chronicled in her multiple bestselling autobiographies. But now, at last, the legendary author shares the deepest personal story of her life: her relationship with her mother. For the first time, Angelou reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence—a presence absent during much of Angelou’s early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old Maya and her older brother away from their California home to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The subsequent feelings of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years, but their reunion, a decade later, began a story that has never before been told. In Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,” revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them. Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise from immeasurable depths to reach impossible heights.


Click for more detail about You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter, Her No-nonsense Mother, and How They Survived Pageants, Holly wood, Love, Loss (and Each Other) by Vanessa L. Williams You Have No Idea: A Famous Daughter, Her No-nonsense Mother, and How They Survived Pageants, Holly wood, Love, Loss (and Each Other)

by Vanessa L. Williams
Avery (Apr 02, 2013)
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A candid and inspirational mother-daughter memoir of family, fame, trials, and triumphs by superstar Vanessa Williams her mother Helen Williams.

Since she was a little girl, Vanessa Williams wanted to be on Broadway. As a musical theater major in college she was on her way, but life took a turn when she became the first black Miss America. Forced to resign due to a nude photo scandal, it looked like her dreams were over. But through determination, and with a mom who was always there for her, she went on to conquer the entertainment world.

Like most teenagers, Vanessa Williams was often at odds with her mom. Despite their early conflicts, Helen has always ardently protected her daughter, staying in contact with the FBI about death threats Vanessa received and being there for her through the birth of her four children and dissolution of her two marriages. Vanessa and Helen tell of how they’ve made it through the many ups and down in their lives; and Vanessa dishes on her career and parts of her life that even her mother had no idea about—until now.

You Have No Idea is a celebration of the love between a mother and daughter as well as the lives thus far of two women who have consistently defied the odds to achieve success – no matter how uncertain their paths might have been.


Click for more detail about Supplying Salt and Light by Lorna Goodison Supplying Salt and Light

by Lorna Goodison
McClelland & Stewart (Mar 26, 2013)
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This stunning new book of poems from internationally renowned poet Lorna Goodison opens in Spain and Portugal, conjuring up a new history of the Caribbean and a new way of setting up its heritage.

     The title sets the tone for poems about backgrounds and outlines and shadows and sources of light. This extraordinary book "a wide lotus on the dark waters of song" is filled with surprises at every turn, as a Moorish mosque becomes a cathedral in Seville, a country girl dresses in Sunday clothes to visit a Jamaican bookmobile, and a bear appears suddenly, only to slip away silently into the trees on a road in British Columbia. The heartache of Billy Holliday singing the blues, the burden of Charlie Chaplin tramping the banana walks of Jamaica’s Golden Cloud, and the paintings of El Greco, the quintessential stranger, come together on the poet’s pilgrimage to Heartease, guided by a limping angel and inspired by the passage-making of Dante; the book ends with a superb version of the first of his cantos, translated into the poet’s Jamaican language and landscape with the gift of love.


Click for more detail about The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat  by Edward Kelsey Moore The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat

by Edward Kelsey Moore
Knopf (Mar 12, 2013)
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Meet Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean in the New York Times best-selling novel … Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat is home away from home for this inseparable Plainview, Indiana, trio. Dubbed “the Supremes” by high school pals in the tumultuous 1960s, they weather life’s storms together for the next four decades. Now, during their most challenging year yet, dutiful, proud, and talented Clarice must struggle to keep up appearances as she deals with her husband’s humiliating infidelities. Beautiful, fragile Barbara Jean is rocked by the tragic reverberations of a youthful love affair. And fearless Odette engages in the most terrifying battle of her life while contending with the idea that she has inherited more than her broad frame from her notorious pot-smoking mother, Dora.

Through marriage, children, happiness, and the blues, these strong, funny women gather each Sundayat the same table at Earl’s diner for delicious food, juicy gossip, occasional tears, and uproarious banter.

With wit and love, style and sublime talent, Edward Kelsey Moore brings together four intertwined love stories, three devoted allies, and two sprightly earthbound spirits in a big-hearted debut novel that embraces the lives of people you will never forget.


Click for more detail about My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood by Tameka Fryer Brown My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood

by Tameka Fryer Brown
Viking Books for Young Readers (Mar 07, 2013)
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What color is your mood?

On a really good day, Jamie feels purple like the first bite of a juicy cold plum.

And with a crayon in his hand, Jamie eases into a green feeling—like a dragon dancing through a jungle made of green jello.

But when his brothers push him around and make fun of his drawings, Jamie feels like a dark gray storm brewing.

What will it take to put Jamie back in a bright-feeling mood?

Through Jamie, young readers will learn to describe how they’re feeling in a unique way.


My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood is a 2014 Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book.


Click for more detail about Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi Ghana Must Go

by Taiye Selasi
Penguin Press (Mar 05, 2013)
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Kweku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of Kweku’s death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before. Ghana Must Go is their story. Electric, exhilarating, beautifully crafted, Ghana Must Go is a testament to the transformative power of unconditional love, from a debut novelist of extraordinary talent.

  Moving with great elegance through time and place, Ghana Must Go charts the Sai’s circuitous journey to one another. In the wake of Kweku’s death, his children gather in Ghana at their enigmatic mother’s new home. The eldest son and his wife; the mysterious, beautiful twins; the baby sister, now a young woman: each carries secrets of his own. What is revealed in their coming together is the story of how they came apart: the hearts broken, the lies told, the crimes committed in the name of love. Splintered, alone, each navigates his pain, believing that what has been lost can never be recovered until, in Ghana, a new way forward, a new family, begins to emerge.

  Ghana Must Go is at once a portrait of a modern family, and an exploration of the importance of where we come from to who we are. In a sweeping narrative that takes us from Accra to Lagos to London to New York, Ghana Must Go teaches that the truths we speak can heal the wounds we hide.

 


Click for more detail about Living and Dying in Brick City: An E.R. Doctor Returns Home  by Sampson Davi and Lisa Frazier Page Living and Dying in Brick City: An E.R. Doctor Returns Home

by Sampson Davi and Lisa Frazier Page
Knopf (Feb 12, 2013)
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Sampson Davis is best known as one of three friends from inner-city Newark who made a pact in high school to become doctors. Their book The Pact and their work through the Three Doctors Foundation have inspired countless young men and women to strive for goals they otherwise would not have dreamed they could attain. In this book, Dr. Davis looks at the healthcare crisis in the inner city from a rare perspective: as a doctor who works on the front line of emergency medical care in the community where he grew up, and as a member of that community who has faced the same challenges as the people he treats every day. He also offers invaluable practical advice for those living in such communities, where conditions like asthma, heart disease, stroke, obesity, and AIDS are disproportionately endemic. Dr. Davis’s sister, a drug addict, died of AIDS; his brother is now paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair as a result of a bar fight; and he himself did time in juvenile detention—a wake-up call that changed his life. He recounts recognizing a young man who is brought to the E.R. with critical gunshot wounds as someone who was arrested with him when he was a teenager during a robbery gone bad; describes a patient whose case of sickle-cell anemia rouses an ethical dilemma; and explains the difficulty he has convincing his landlord and friend, an older woman, to go to the hospital for much-needed treatment. With empathy and hard-earned wisdom, Living and Dying in Brick City presents an urgent picture of medical care in our cities. It is an important resource guide for anyone at risk, anyone close to those at risk, and anyone who cares about the fate of our cities.


Click for more detail about Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure by Tavis Smiley Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure

by Tavis Smiley
SmileyBooks (Feb 05, 2013)
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This timeless quote by Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett has served as an inspiration for Tavis Smiley’s unprecedented success. By reflecting on his missteps, misdeeds, and miscalculations, the award-winning television and radio broadcaster has learned that while failure is an inevitable part of the human journey, it can also serve as your wisest teacher. As he celebrates his 20th year in broadcasting, Smiley urges you to reconsider how you view your past mistakes. Every day that you wake up, you get another chance to get it right, to bounce back from failures big and small—to fail up.     In Fail Up, Smiley steps from behind the curtain of success to recount 20 instances of perceived “failures” that were, in fact, “lessons” that shaped the principles and practices he employs today. You will find a kinship in Smiley’s humanness that inspires, informs, and reminds us of our inherent ability to achieve and grow in spite of life’s inevitable setbacks.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Decadence by Eric Jerome Dickey Decadence

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Knopf (Feb 01, 2013)
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What Nia Simon Bijou desires, she works hard to achieve. Her accomplishments as a respected writer have not only brought her to Hollywood, but she’s now poised for worldwide success, and pursued and desired by Prada, a man of international power and wealth. With everything Nia has, she remains restless and on a journey to quell her inner storm. Then someone introduces her to a place called Decadence…

In this intimately private club, Nia submits to an abundance of sensual experiences she previously could only have imagined. As secret desires become reality, Nia’s ability to distinguish truth from fantasy becomes increasingly blurred. Seduced into the extremes of Decadence, Nia soon discovers that abandoning all caution in pursuit of your hedonistic fantasies can carry a devastating price…


Click for more detail about Sugar in the Blood: A Family’s Story of Slavery and Empire by Andrea Stuart Sugar in the Blood: A Family’s Story of Slavery and Empire

by Andrea Stuart
Knopf (Jan 22, 2013)
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In the late 1630s, lured by the promise of the New World, Andrea Stuart’s earliest known maternal ancestor, George Ashby, set sail from England to settle in Barbados. He fell into the life of a sugar plantation owner by mere chance, but by the time he harvested his first crop, a revolution was fully under way: the farming of sugar cane, and the swiftly increasing demands for sugar worldwide, would not only lift George Ashby from abject poverty and shape the lives of his descendants, but it would also bind together ambitious white entrepreneurs and enslaved black workers in a strangling embrace. Stuart uses her own family story—from the seventeenth century through the present—as the pivot for this epic tale of migration, settlement, survival, slavery and the making of the Americas.

As it grew, the sugar trade enriched Europe as never before, financing the Industrial Revolution and fuelling the Enlightenment. And, as well, it became the basis of many economies in South America, played an important part in the evolution of the United States as a world power and transformed the Caribbean into an archipelago of riches. But this sweet and hugely profitable trade—“white gold,” as it was known—had profoundly less palatable consequences in its precipitation of the enslavement of Africans to work the fields on the islands and, ultimately, throughout the American continents. Interspersing the tectonic shifts of colonial history with her family’s experience, Stuart explores the interconnected themes of settlement, sugar and slavery with extraordinary subtlety and sensitivity. In examining how these forces shaped her own family—its genealogy, intimate relationships, circumstances of birth, varying hues of skin—she illuminates how her family, among millions of others like it, in turn transformed the society in which they lived, and how that interchange continues to this day. Shifting between personal and global history, Stuart gives us a deepened understanding of the connections between continents, between black and white, between men and women, between the free and the enslaved. It is a story brought to life with riveting and unparalleled immediacy, a story of fundamental importance to the making of our world.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Home by Toni Morrison Home

by Toni Morrison
Knopf (Jan 01, 2013)
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America’s most celebrated novelist, Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison extends her profound take on our history with this twentieth-century tale of redemption: a taut and tortured story about one man’s desperate search for himself in a world disfigured by war. Frank Money is an angry, self-loathing veteran of the Korean War who, after traumatic experiences on the front lines, finds himself back in racist America with more than just physical scars. His home may seem alien to him, but he is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from and that he’s hated all his life. As Frank revisits his memories from childhood and the war that have left him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he had thought he could never possess again. A deeply moving novel about an apparently defeated man finding his manhood—and his home.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Hope’s Gift by Kelly Starling Lyons Hope’s Gift

by Kelly Starling Lyons
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Dec 27, 2012)
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A poignant story celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation ProclamationIt’s 1862 and the Civil War has turned out to be a long, deadly conflict. Hope’s father can’t stand the waiting a minute longer and decides to join the Union army to fight for freedom. He slips away one tearful night, leaving Hope, who knows she may never see her father again, with only a conch shell for comfort. Its sound, Papa says, echoes the promised song of freedom. It’s a long wait for freedom and on the nights when the cannons roar, Papa seems farther away than ever. But then Lincoln finally does it: on January 1, 1863, he issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves, and a joyful Hope finally spies the outline of a familiar man standing on the horizon.Affectingly written and gorgeously illustrated, Hope’s Gift captures a significant moment in American history with deep emotion and a lot of charm.


Click for more detail about Formula 50: A 6-Week Workout and Nutrition Plan That Will Transform Your Life by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson Formula 50: A 6-Week Workout and Nutrition Plan That Will Transform Your Life

by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson
Avery (Dec 27, 2012)
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Get fit like 50 Cent: The phenomenally fit superstar rapper reveals his strategic six-week workout plan for achieving a ripped body and developing the mental toughness to stay in shape for a lifetime.

Survival is a recurring theme of 50 Cent’s lyrics, and his life. That’s why, with obesity rates soaring and fitness levels declining, he wants to give everyone an all-access pass to his premium plan for lifelong fitness. In Formula 50, the mega-successful entertainer and entrepreneur unleashes the power of metabolic resistance training (MRT), the key ingredient that has helped him achieve the famously buff physique that makes his music videos sizzle.

Through MRT, 50 Cent’s fitness plan breaks down the barriers between traditional weight training and cardio workouts, accelerating fat loss while building muscle and improving overall fitness. Designed for a six-week rollout for total mind-body transformation, the Formula 50 regimen builds willpower while it builds physical power. In addition to motivation, nutrition is another key element; readers will discover the unique dietary combinations that fuel 50 Cent’s workouts. Coauthored with Jeff O

Connell, health journalist and editor-in-chief at Bodybuilding.com (the world’s largest fitness website), the book delivers a payoff that goes beyond six-pack abs and flab-free pecs: This is a fitness plan that boosts energy, endurance, flexibility, and mobility. The result is a body you

ve always dreamed of and the mindset to attain the rest of your dreams.


Click for more detail about The Power of Awareness by Neville Goddard The Power of Awareness

by Neville Goddard
TarcherPerigee (Dec 27, 2012)
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A beautiful edition of one of the twentieth century’s most powerful and intriguing works on how to use the manifesting powers of your mind. Features the bonus book, Awakened Imagination.

Here is a signature volume of one of the most quietly impactful and radical works ever written on the creative potentialities of human thought, The Power of Awareness. In this book, author Neville presents a concise, unforgettable statement of his core philosophy: that the world around you is a picture in your mind’s eye, created by your thinking, and susceptible to change by altering your thoughts and feelings.

Originally published in 1952, The Power of Awareness not only prefigured the revolution in mind-power metaphysics, but surpassed it. Before the public had heard about quantum physics experiments (popularized in our own time through movies such as The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know!?), Neville was conveying the unheard-of message that reality is directly impacted by the perspective and consciousness of the observer himself. Moreover, he wrote, each of us is ultimately responsible for, and capable of reshaping, the outer circumstances we perceive.

Neville’s authorial genius is his ability to deliver these ideas in an immensely readable and enjoyable way. Like few other metaphysical figures of his era, Neville captured complexities in simple stories, memorable examples, and practical advice. His books are unfailingly brief and easy to read, because his command of his material is so masterly and complete.

The Power of Awareness also includes a special bonus work, Awakened Imagination, originally published in 1954. This two-in-one volume forms a brilliant introduction and user’s guide to the practical philosophy of a great spiritual thinker.


Click for more detail about Parishioner by Walter Mosley Parishioner

by Walter Mosley
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Dec 18, 2012)
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An eBook original crime novel from bestselling author Walter Mosley, Parishioner is a portrait of a hardened criminal who regrets his past, but whose only hope for redemption is to sin again.

In a small town situated between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, a simple church of white stone sits atop a hill on the coast. This nameless house of worship is a sanctuary for the worst kinds of sinners: the congregation and even the clergy have broken all ten Commandments and more. Now they have gathered to seek forgiveness. Xavier Rule—Ecks to his friends—didn’t come to California in search of salvation but, thanks to the grace of this church, he has begun to learn to forgive himself and others for past misdeeds. One day a woman arrives to seek absolution for the guilt she has carried for years over her role in a scheme to kidnap three children and sell them on the black market. As part of atoning for his past life on the wrong side of the law, Ecks is assigned to find out what happened to the abducted children. As he follows the thin trail of the twenty-three-year-old crime, he must struggle against his old, lethal instincts—and learn when to give in to them.


Click for more detail about Tea Cakes For Tosh by Kelly Starling Lyons Tea Cakes For Tosh

by Kelly Starling Lyons
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Dec 06, 2012)
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A young boy helps his beloved grandmother remember an important family story

Tosh loves listening to Grandma Honey tell family stories. His favorite is about the special tea cakes that smell like vanilla and sunshine. They were great-great-great-great-grandma Ida’s specialty when she was a cook in the big house of a plantation. Unlike Tosh, the slave children weren’t allowed to have any of the treats, though Grandma Ida always found a way to put the sugary sweetness into their hands anyway. It was a promise and taste of freedom to come.

Tosh knows this is an important story and he takes care to remember every word. And when grandma Honey begins to forget, he can return the gift of tea cakes and stories. A touching family tale, Tea Cakes for Tosh celebrates the important bond between grandchild and grandparent and the stories that make a family strong.


Click for more detail about Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

by Jon Meacham
Random House (Nov 13, 2012)
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"Fascinating and insightful … Many books have been written about Jefferson’s life, but few have created such a vivid portrait … Meacham immerses the reader in that period of history to explain Jefferson’s behavior during an era when the nation was as contradictory as he was … extraordinary … essential."The Associated Press

"[A]ccomplishes something more impressive than dissecting Jefferson’s political skills by explaining his greatness, a different task from chronicling a life, though he does that too — and handsomely. Even though I know quite a lot about Jefferson, I was repeatedly surprised by the fresh information Meacham brings to his work. Surely there is not a significant detail out there, in any pertinent archive, that he has missed."—Joyce Appleby, Washington Post

"[Meacham] argues persuasively that for Jefferson the ideal of liberty was not incompatible with a strong federal government, and also that Jefferson’s service in the Congress in 1776 left him thoroughly versed in the ways and means of politics … Meacham wisely has chosen to look at Jefferson through a political lens, assessing how he balanced his ideals with pragmatism while also bending others to his will. And just as he scolded Jackson, another slaveholder and champion of individual liberty, for being a hypocrite, so Meacham gives a tough-minded account of Jefferson’s slippery recalibrations on race … Where other historians have found hypocrisy in Jefferson’s use of executive power to complete the Louisiana Purchase, Meacham is nuanced and persuasive.."—Jill Abramson, The New York Times Book Review

"[Meacham] does an excellent job getting inside Jefferson’s head and his world … Meacham presents Jefferson’s life in a textured narrative that weaves together Jefferson’s well-traveled career."USA Today

"A big, grand, absorbing exploration of not just Jefferson and his role in history but also Jefferson the man, humanized as never before. [Grade: ] A-."Entertainment Weekly

"Impeccably researched and footnoted … a model of clarity and explanation."Bloomberg

"[Meacham] captures who Jefferson was, not just as a statesman but as a man … By the end of the book, as the 83-year-old Founding Father struggles to survive until the Fourth of July, 1826, the 50th anniversary of his masterful Declaration, the reader is likely to feel as if he is losing a dear friend … [an] absorbing tale."Christian Science Monitor

"Absorbing … Jefferson emerges in the book not merely as a lofty thinker but as the ultimate political operator, a master pragmatist who got things done in times nearly as fractious as our own."Chicago Tribune

"[Jefferson’s] life is a riveting story of our nation’s founding—an improbable turn of events that seems only in retrospect inevitable. Few are better suited to the telling than Jon Meacham… . Captivating."The Seattle Times

"[Meacham] brings to bear his focused and sensitive scholarship, rich prose style … The Jefferson that emerges from these astute, dramatic pages is a figure worthy of continued study and appreciation … [a] very impressive book."Booklist (Starred Review)

"An outstanding biography that reveals an overlooked steeliness at Jefferson’s core that accounts for so much of his political success."Kirkus Reviews

"Jon Meacham understands Thomas Jefferson. With thorough and up-to-date research, elegant writing, deep insight, and an open mind, he brings Jefferson, the most talented politician of his generation—and one of the most talented in our nation’s history—into full view. It is no small task to capture so capacious a life in one volume. Meacham has succeeded, giving us a rich presentation of our third president’s life and times. This is an extraordinary work."—Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello

"This terrific book allows us to see the political genius of Thomas Jefferson better than we have ever seen it before. In these endlessly fascinating pages, Jefferson emerges with such vitality that it seems as if he might still be alive today."—Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals

"Jon Meacham resolves the bundle of contradictions that was Thomas Jefferson by probing his love of progress and thirst for power. Here was a man endlessly, artfully intent on making the world something it had not been before. A thrilling and affecting portrait of our first philosopher-politician."—Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life

"A true triumph. In addition to being a brilliant biography, this book is a guide to the use of power. Jon Meacham shows how Jefferson’s deft ability to compromise and improvise made him a transformational leader. We think of Jefferson as the embodiment of noble ideals, as he was, but Meacham shows that he was a practical politician more than a moral theorist. The result is a fascinating look at how Jefferson wielded his driving desire for power and control."—Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs

"This is probably the best single-volume biography of Jefferson ever written; it is certainly the most readable."—Gordon Wood, author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution

"This is Jon Meacham’s best book yet. Evocatively written and deeply researched, it sheds brilliant light on facets of Thomas Jefferson we haven’t seen before, gives us original and unexpected new insights into his identity and character, and uses the irresistible story of this talented, manipulative, complicated man to bring us life lessons on universal subjects from family and friendship to politics and leadership. The Sage of Monticello made a considerable effort to turn his life into a mystery, but in a splendid match of biographer with subject, Meacham has cracked the Jefferson code."—Michael Beschloss


Click for more detail about Puss in Boots by Jerry Pinkney Puss in Boots

by Jerry Pinkney
Dial Books for Young Readers (Nov 13, 2012)
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A beautifully illustrated retelling of the beloved fairy tale from Caldecott Medal-winning author Jerry Pinkney
 
For generations, children have been enchanted by the tale of the clever cat in fancy boots who outsmarts a king and a sorcerer to win a castle and a bride for his penniless master. The humor, the magic, and a lush Renaissance setting are all on glorious display, and a well-placed gatefold adds to the drama. This elegant new edition of Charles Perrault’s folktale is essential for every child’s library. Read it in tandem with other Pinkney classic picture books like The Little Red Hen and The Lion and the Mouse.

"This book is larger than life."-Library Media Connection


Click for more detail about Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself—And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future by Harriet A. Washington Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself—And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future

by Harriet A. Washington
Anchor (Nov 13, 2012)
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From the award-winning author of Medical Apartheid, an exposé of the rush to own and exploit the raw materials of life—including yours.
 
Think your body is your own to control and dispose of as you wish? Think again. The United States Patent Office has granted at least 40,000 patents on genes controlling the most basic processes of human life, and more are pending. If you undergo surgery in many hospitals you must sign away ownership rights to your excised tissues, even if they turn out to have medical and fiscal value. Life itself is rapidly becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the medical-industrial complex.
 
Deadly Monopolies is a powerful, disturbing, and deeply researched book that illuminates this “life patent” gold rush and its harmful, and even lethal, consequences for public health. Like the bestselling The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, it reveals in shocking detail just how far the profit motive has encroached in colonizing human life and compromising medical ethics.


Click for more detail about In The House Of The Interpreter: A Memoir by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o In The House Of The Interpreter: A Memoir

by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Pantheon Books (Nov 06, 2012)
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With black-and-white illustrations throughout

World-renowned Kenyan novelist, poet, playwright, and literary critic Ng˜ug˜ý wa Thiong’o gives us the second volume of his memoirs in the wake of his critically acclaimed Dreams in a Time of War.
 
In the House of the Interpreter richly and poignantly evokes the author’s life and times at boarding school—the first secondary educational institution in British-ruled Kenya—in the 1950s, against the backdrop of the tumultuous Mau Mau Uprising for independence and Kenyan sovereignty. While Ng˜ug˜ý has been enjoying scouting trips, chess tournaments, and reading about the fictional RAF pilot adventurer Biggles at the prestigious Alliance High School near Nairobi, things have been changing rapidly at home. Poised as he is between two worlds, Ng˜ug˜ý returns home for his first visit since starting school to find his house razed and the entire village moved up the road, closer to a guard checkpoint. Later, his brother Good Wallace, a member of the insurgency, is captured by the British and taken to a concentration camp. As for Ng˜ug˜ý himself, he falls victim to the forces of colonialism in the person of a police officer encountered on a bus journey, and he is thrown into jail for six days. In his second year at Alliance High School, the boarding school that was his haven in a heartless world is shattered by investigations, charges of disloyalty, and the politics of civil unrest.
 
In the House of the Interpreter hauntingly describes the formative experiences of a young man who would become a world-class writer and, as a political dissident, a moral compass to us all. It is a winning celebration of the implacable determination of youth and the power of hope.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Harlem’s Little Blackbird by Renée Watson Harlem’s Little Blackbird

by Renée Watson
Random House Books for Young Readers (Oct 23, 2012)
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Zora and Langston. Billie and Bessie. Eubie and Duke. If the Harlem Renaissance had a court, they were its kings and queens. But there were other, lesser known individuals whose contributions were just as impactful, such as Florence Mills. Born to parents who were former-slaves Florence knew early on that she loved to sing. And that people really responded to her sweet, bird-like voice. Her dancing and singing catapulted her all the way to the stages of 1920s Broadway where she inspired songs and even entire plays! Yet with all this success, she knew firsthand how bigotry shaped her world. And when she was offered the role of a lifetime from Ziegfeld himself, she chose to support all-black musicals instead.

Fans of When Marian Sang and Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa will jump at the chance to discover another talented performer whose voice transcended and transformed the circumstances society placed on her.


Click for more detail about There Was A Country: A Personal History Of Biafra by Chinua Achebe There Was A Country: A Personal History Of Biafra

by Chinua Achebe
Penguin Press (Oct 11, 2012)
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From the legendary author of Things Fall Apart comes a longawaited memoir about coming of age with a fragile new nation, then watching it torn asunder in a tragic civil war

The defining experience of Chinua Achebe’s life was the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967–1970. The conflict was infamous for its savage impact on the Biafran people, Chinua Achebe’s people, many of whom were starved to death after the Nigerian government blockaded their borders. By then, Chinua Achebe was already a world-renowned novelist, with a young family to protect. He took the Biafran side in the conflict and served his government as a roving cultural ambassador, from which vantage he absorbed the war’s full horror. Immediately after, Achebe took refuge in an academic post in the United States, and for more than forty years he has maintained a considered silence on the events of those terrible years, addressing them only obliquely through his poetry. Now, decades in the making, comes a towering reckoning with one of modern Africa’s most fateful events, from a writer whose words and courage have left an enduring stamp on world literature.

Achebe masterfully relates his experience, bothas he lived it and how he has come to understand it. He begins his story with Nigeria’s birth pangs and the story of his own upbringing as a man and as a writer so that we might come to understand the country’s promise, which turned to horror when the hot winds of hatred began to stir. To read There Was a Country is to be powerfully reminded that artists have a particular obligation, especially during a time of war. All writers, Achebe argues, should be committed writers—they should speak for their history, their beliefs, and their people.

Marrying history and memoir, poetry and prose, There Was a Country is a distillation of vivid firsthand observation and forty years of research and reflection. Wise, humane, and authoritative, it will stand as definitive and reinforce Achebe’s place as one of the most vital literary and moral voices of our age.


Click for more detail about The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats The Snowy Day

by Ezra Jack Keats
Viking Books for Young Readers (Oct 11, 2012)
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The adventures of a little boy in the city on a very snowy day. On board pages.


Click for more detail about It’s Complicated (But It Doesn’t Have to Be): A Modern Guide to Finding and Keeping Love by Paul Carrick Brunson It’s Complicated (But It Doesn’t Have to Be): A Modern Guide to Finding and Keeping Love

by Paul Carrick Brunson
Avery (Oct 11, 2012)
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The “Modern Day Matchmaker” presents a refreshingly optimistic and plainspoken dating guide to finding romance both on- and off-line. Finding and keeping a mate has never been harder. New rules are needed to navigate the complicated and changing modern-love landscape. If someone wants to find “the one,” what are the guidelines he or she needs to know, now that online dating and Google-searching a prospective love interest are the norm? Happily married for ten years, Paul Carrick Brunson is a husband, a father, and a rising star in the matchmaking world. In It’s Complicated (But It Doesn’t Have to Be), Brunson tackles relevant questions such as: Is marriage right for my personality type? Do the rules of chivalry still apply? How can I date more than one person without hurt feelings? What is the best mode of communication (text messages, phone, e-mail, etc.) for asking someone out? With an appealing mix of humor, candor, and real-world examples, It’s Complicated (But It Doesn’t Have to Be)

  is a breath of fresh air in the dating guide category, offering a message of eternal optimism from a man who believes in true love and practices what he preaches.


Click for more detail about I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have a Dream

by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Random House Children’s Books (Oct 09, 2012)
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From Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s daughter, Dr. Bernice A. King: “My father’s dream continues to live on from generation to generation, and this beautiful and powerful illustrated edition of his world-changing "I Have a Dream" speech brings his inspiring message of freedom, equality, and peace to the youngest among us—those who will one day carry his dream forward for everyone.”

On August 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, Martin Luther King gave one of the most powerful and memorable speeches in our nation’s history. His words, paired with Caldecott Honor winner Kadir Nelson’s magnificent paintings, make for a picture book certain to be treasured by children and adults alike. The themes of equality and freedom for all are not only relevant today, 50 years later, but also provide young readers with an important introduction to our nation’s past. Included with the book is an audio CD of the speech.


Click for more detail about Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson Each Kindness

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Oct 02, 2012)
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Each kindness makes the world a little better

This unforgettable book is written and illustrated by the award-winning team that created The Other Side and the Caldecott Honor winner Coming On Home Soon. With its powerful anti-bullying message and striking art, it will resonate with readers long after they’ve put it down.

Chloe and her friends won’t play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe’s teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she’d shown a little kindness toward Maya.


Click for more detail about Mugged: Racial Demagoguery From The Seventies To Obama by Ann Coulter Mugged: Racial Demagoguery From The Seventies To Obama

by Ann Coulter
Sentinel (Sep 25, 2012)
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“This isn’t a story about black people—it’s a story about the Left’s agenda to patronize blacks and lie to everyone else.” 

For decades, the Left has been putting on a play with themselves as heroes in an ongoing civil rights move­ment—which they were mostly absent from at the time. Long after pervasive racial discrimination ended, they kept pretending America was being run by the Klan and that liberals were black America’s only protectors. It took the O. J. Simpson verdict—the race-based acquittal of a spectacularly guilty black celebrity as blacks across America erupted in cheers—to shut down the white guilt bank. But now, fewer than two decades later, our “pos­tracial” president has returned us to the pre-OJ era of nonstop racial posturing. A half-black, half-white Democrat, not descended from American slaves, has brought racial unrest back with a whoop. The Obama candidacy allowed liberals to engage in self-righteousness about race and get a hard-core Leftie in the White House at the same time. In 2008, we were told the only way for the nation to move past race was to elect him as president. And 53 percent of voters fell for it. Now, Ann Coulter fearlessly explains the real his­tory of race relations in this country, including how white liberals twist that history to spring the guilty, accuse the innocent, and engender racial hatreds, all in order to win politically. You’ll learn, for instance, how A U.S. congressman and a New York mayor con­spired to protect cop killers who ambushed four police officers in the Rev. Louis Farrakhan’s mosque. The entire Democratic elite, up to the Carter White House, coddled a black cult in San Francisco as hun­dreds of the cult members marched to their deaths in Guyana. New York City became a maelstrom of racial hatred, with black neighborhoods abandoned to crimi­nals who were ferociously defended by a press that assessed guilt on the basis of race. Preposterous hoax hate crimes were always believed, never questioned. And when they turned out to be frauds the stories would simply disappear from the news. Liberals quickly switched the focus of civil rights laws from the heirs of slavery and Jim Crow to white feminists, illegal immigrants, and gays. Subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz was surprisingly popular in black neighborhoods, despite hysterical denunciations of him by the New York Times. Liberals slander Republicans by endlessly repeating a bizarro-world history in which Democrats defended black America and Republicans appealed to segregationists. The truth has always been exactly the opposite.Going where few authors would dare, Coulter explores the racial demagoguery that has mugged America since the early seventies. She shines the light of truth on cases ranging from Tawana Brawley, Lemrick Nelson, and Howard Beach, NY, to the LA riots and the Duke lacrosse scandal. And she shows how the 2012 Obama campaign is going to inspire the greatest racial guilt mongering of all time.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Ardency: A Chronicle Of The Amistad Rebels by Kevin Young Ardency: A Chronicle Of The Amistad Rebels

by Kevin Young
Knopf (Sep 18, 2012)
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Now in paperback, a haunting chorus of voices that tells the story of the captivity, education, language, hopes, dreams, and fight for freedom, of the African Americans abducted in the Amistad rebellion.

Based on the 1840 mutiny on board the slave ship Amistad, Ardency begins with "Buzzard," a sequence of poems told in the voice of the interpreter for the captive rebels, who were jailed in New Haven. In "Correspondence," we encounter the remarkable letters to John Quincy Adams and others that the captives wrote from jail. The book culminates in "Witness," a libretto chanted by Cinque, the rebel leader, who yearns for his family and freedom while eloquently evoking the Amistads’ conversion and life in America. As Young conjures this array of characters, interweaving the liberation cry of Negro spirituals and the indoctrinating wordplay of American primers, he delivers his signature songlike immediacy at the service of an epic built on the ironies, violence, and virtues of American history.


Click for more detail about The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court

by Jeffrey Toobin
Doubleday (Sep 18, 2012)
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From the prizewinning author of The Nine, a gripping insider’s account of the momentous ideological war between the John Roberts Supreme Court and the Obama administration. From the moment John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States, blundered through the Oath of Office at Barack Obama’s inauguration, the relationship between the Supreme Court and the White House has been confrontational. Both men are young, brilliant, charismatic, charming, determined to change the course of the nation and completely at odds on almost every major constitutional issue. One is radical; one essentially conservative. The surprise is that Obama is the conservative a believer in incremental change, compromise, and pragmatism over ideology. Roberts and his allies on the Court seek to overturn decades of precedent: in short, to undo the ultimate victory FDR achieved in the New Deal.  

 This ideological war will crescendo during the 2011-2012 term, in which several landmark cases are on the Court’s docket most crucially, a challenge to Obama’s controversial health-care legislation. With four new justices joining the Court in just five years, including Obama’s appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, this is a dramatically and historically different Supreme Court, playing for the highest of stakes.  

 No one is better positioned to chronicle this dramatic tale than Jeffrey Toobin, whose prize-winning bestseller The Nine laid bare the inner workings and conflicts of the Court in meticulous and entertaining detail. As the nation prepares to vote for President in 2012, the future of the Supreme Court will also be on the ballot.


Click for more detail about The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count Of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count Of Monte Cristo

by Tom Reiss
Crown (Sep 18, 2012)
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Here is the remarkable true story of the real Count of Monte Cristo – a stunning feat of historical sleuthing that brings to life the forgotten hero who inspired such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.

The real-life protagonist of The Black Count, General Alex Dumas, is a man almost unknown today yet with a story that is strikingly familiar, because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used it to create some of the best loved heroes of literature.

Yet, hidden behind these swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: the real hero was the son of a black slave — who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time. 

Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas was briefly sold into bondage but made his way to Paris where he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy. Enlisting as a private, he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution, in an audacious campaign across Europe and the Middle East – until he met an implacable enemy he could not defeat.

The Black Count is simultaneously a riveting adventure story, a lushly textured evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the modern world’s first multi-racial society. But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son.

Book Review

Click for more detail about This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz This Is How You Lose Her

by Junot Diaz
Knopf (Sep 11, 2012)
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Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Díaz’s first book, Drown, established him as a major new writer with “the dispassionate eye of a journalist and the tongue of a poet” (Newsweek). His first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was named #1 Fiction Book of the Year” by Time magazine and spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, establishing itself – with more than a million copies in print – as a modern classic. In addition to the Pulitzer, Díaz has won a host of major awards and prizes, including the National Book Critic’s Circle Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the PEN/O. Henry Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Anisfield-Wolf Award.Now Díaz turns his remarkable talent to the haunting, impossible power of love – obsessive love, illicit love, fading love, maternal love. On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. In the heat of a hospital laundry room in New Jersey, a woman does her lover’s washing and thinks about his wife. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness—and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses: artistic Alma; the aging Miss Lora; Magdalena, who thinks all Dominican men are cheaters; and the love of his life, whose heartbreak ultimately becomes his own. In prose that is endlessly energetic, inventive, tender, and funny, the stories in the New York Times-Bestselling This Is How You Lose Her lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that “the half-life of love is forever.”


Click for more detail about NW: A Novel by Zadie Smith NW: A Novel

by Zadie Smith
Penguin Press (Sep 04, 2012)
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Selected as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012 by the New York Times

“A boldly Joycean appropriation, fortunately not so difficult of entry as its great model… Like Zadie Smith’s much-acclaimed predecessor White Teeth (2000), NW is an urban epic.” —Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books

This is the story of a city.

The northwest corner of a city. Here you’ll find guests and hosts, those with power and those without it, people who live somewhere special and others who live nowhere at all.  And many people in between.

Every city is like this. Cheek-by-jowl living. Separate worlds.

And then there are the visitations: the rare times a stranger crosses a threshold without permission or warning, causing a disruption in the whole system. Like the April afternoon a woman came to Leah Hanwell’s door, seeking help, disturbing the peace, forcing Leah out of her isolation…

Zadie Smith’s brilliant tragi-comic new novel follows four Londoners - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan – as they try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of their childhood. From private houses to public parks, at work and at play, their London is a complicated place, as beautiful as it is brutal, where the thoroughfares hide the back alleys and taking the high road can sometimes lead you to a dead end.

Depicting the modern urban zone – familiar to town-dwellers everywhere – Zadie Smith’s NW is a quietly devastating novel of encounters, mercurial and vital, like the city itself.


Click for more detail about Interventions: A Life in War and Peace by Kofi Annan Interventions: A Life in War and Peace

by Kofi Annan
Penguin Press (Sep 04, 2012)
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""[A] resolute, detailed, and unflinching review of [Annan’s] most difficult hours

€¦No one ever came closer to being the voice of “we the peoples” and no one paid a higher price for it. The world still needs such a voice, but the next person who tries to fill that role will want to reflect long and hard on the lessons of this candid, courageous, and unsparing memoir."" —Michael Ignatieff, The New York Review of Books

Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2001, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke to a world still reeling from the terrorist attacks of September 11. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” proclaimed Annan, “we have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire. If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further we will realize that humanity is indivisible. New threats make no distinction between races, nations, or regions.” Yet within only a few years the world was more divided than ever polarized by the American invasion of Iraq, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the escalating civil wars in Africa, and the rising influence of China.

Interventions: A Life in War and Peace is the story of Annan’s remarkable time at the center of the world stage. After forty years of service at the United Nations, Annan shares here his unique experiences during the terrorist attacks of September 11; the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan; the war between Israel, Hizbollah, and Lebanon; the brutal conflicts of Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia; and the geopolitical transformations following the end of the Cold War. With eloquence and unprecedented candor, Interventions finally reveals Annan’s unique role and unparalleled perspective on decades of global politics.

The first sub-Saharan African to hold the position of Secretary-General, Annan has led an extraordinary life in his own right. His idealism and personal politics were forged in the Ghanaian independence movement of his adolescence, when all of Africa seemed to be rising as one to demand self-determination. Schooled in Africa, Europe, and the United States, Annan ultimately joined the United Nations in Geneva at the lowest professional level in the still young organization. Annan rose rapidly through the ranks and was by the end of the Cold War prominently placed in the dramatically changing department of peacekeeping operations. His stories of Presidents Clinton and Bush, dictators like Saddam Hussein and Robert Mugabe, and public figures of all stripes contrast powerfully with Annan’s descriptions of the courage and decency of ordinary people everywhere struggling for a new and better world. Showing the successes of the United Nations, Annan also reveals the organization’s missed opportunities and ongoing challenges inaction in the Rwanda genocide, continuing violence between Israelis and Palestinians, and the endurance of endemic poverty. Yet Annan’s great strength in this book is his ability to embed these tragedies within the context of global politics, demonstrating how, time and again, the nations of the world have retreated from the UN’s founding purpose. From the pinnacle of global politics, Annan made it his purpose to put the individual at the center of every mission for peace and prosperity.

A personal biography of global statecraft, Annan’s Interventions is as much a memoir as a guide to world order past, present, and future.


Click for more detail about The Devil In Silver: A Novel by Victor Lavalle The Devil In Silver: A Novel

by Victor Lavalle
Spiegel & Grau (Aug 21, 2012)
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New Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, very old one.
 
Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He’s not mentally ill, but that doesn’t seem to matter. He is accused of a crime he can’t quite square with his memory. In the darkness of his room on his first night, he’s visited by a terrifying creature with the body of an old man and the head of a bison who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It’s no delusion: The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down. Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back: Dorry, an octogenarian schizophrenic who’s been on the ward for decades and knows all its secrets; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD, who tries desperately to send alarms to the outside world; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl who acts as the group’s enforcer. Battling the pill-pushing staff, one another, and their own minds, they try to kill the monster that’s stalking them. But can the Devil die?
 
The Devil in Silver brilliantly brings together the compelling themes that spark all of Victor LaValle’s radiant fiction: faith, race, class, madness, and our relationship with the unseen and the uncanny. More than that, it’s a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror about friendship, love, and the courage to slay our own demons.


Click for more detail about What Language Is: And What It Isn’t and What It Could Be by John McWhorter What Language Is: And What It Isn’t and What It Could Be

by John McWhorter
Avery (Aug 07, 2012)
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A love letter to languages, celebrating their curiosities and smashing assumptions about correct grammar

An eye-opening tour for all language lovers, What Language Is offers a fascinating new perspective on the way humans communicate. from vanishing languages spoken by a few hundred people to major tongues like Chinese, and with copious revelations about the hodgepodge nature of English, John McWhorter shows readers how to see and hear languages as a linguist does.Packed with big ideas about language alongside wonderful trivia, What Language Is explains how languages across the globe (the Queen’s English and Suriname creoles alike) originate, evolve, multiply, and divide. Raising provocative questions about what qualifies as a language (so-called slang does have structured grammar), McWhorter takes readers on a marvelous journey through time and place from Persia to the languages of Sri Lanka to deliver a feast of facts about the wonders of human linguistic expression.


Click for more detail about I Want You To Shut The F#Ck Up: How The Audacity Of Dopes Is Ruining America by D.L. Hughley and Michael Malice I Want You To Shut The F#Ck Up: How The Audacity Of Dopes Is Ruining America

by D.L. Hughley and Michael Malice
Knopf (Jul 31, 2012)
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“Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is.” —Richard Nixon
 
“I believe America is the solution to the world’s problems.” —Rush Limbaugh
 
“SHUT THE F#CK UP.” —D. L. Hughley

The American dream is in dire need of a wake-up call. A f*cked up society is like an addict: if you are in denial, then things are going to keep getting worse until you hit bottom. According to D. L. Hughley, that’s the direction in which America is headed.

In I Want You to Shut the F*ck Up, D.L. explains how we’ve become a nation of fat sissies playing Chicken Little, but in reverse: The sky is falling, but we’re supposed to act like everything’s fine. D.L. just points out the sobering facts: there is no standard of living by which we are the best. In terms of life expectancy, we’re 36th—tied with Cuba; in terms of literacy, we’re 20th—behind Kazakhstan. We sit here laughing at Borat, but the Kazakhs are sitting in their country reading.

Things are bad now and they’re only going to get worse. Unless, of course, you sit down, shut the f*ck up, and listen to what D. L. Hughley has to say. I Want You to Shut the F*ck Up is a slap to the political senses, a much needed ass-kicking of the American sense of entitlement.  In these pages, D. L. Hughley calls it like he sees it, offering his hilarious yet insightful thoughts on:

- Our supposedly post-racial society
- The similarities between America the superpower and the drunk idiot at the bar
- Why Bill Clinton is more a product of a black upbringing than Barack Obama
- That apologizing is not the answer to controversy, especially when you meant what you said 
- Why civil rights leaders are largely to blame for black people not being represented on television
- Why getting your ghetto pass revoked should be seen as a good thing, not something to be ashamed of 
- And how hard it is to be married to a black woman

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Impeachment Of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen L. Carter The Impeachment Of Abraham Lincoln

by Stephen L. Carter
Knopf (Jul 10, 2012)
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From the best-selling author of The Emperor of Ocean Park and New England White, a daring reimagining of one of the most tumultuous moments in our nation’s past
 
Stephen L. Carter’s thrilling new novel takes as its starting point an alternate history: President Abraham Lincoln survives the assassination attempt at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. Two years later he is charged with overstepping his constitutional authority, both during and after the Civil War, and faces an impeachment trial …

Twenty-one-year-old Abigail Canner is a young black woman with a degree from Oberlin, a letter of employment from the law firm that has undertaken Lincoln’s defense, and the iron-strong conviction, learned from her late mother, that “whatever limitations society might place on ordinary negroes, they would never apply to her.” And so Abigail embarks on a life that defies the norms of every stratum of Washington society: working side by side with a white clerk, meeting the great and powerful of the nation, including the president himself.  But when Lincoln’s lead counsel is found brutally murdered on the eve of the trial, Abigail is plunged into a treacherous web of intrigue and conspiracy reaching the highest levels of the divided government.

Here is a vividly imagined work of historical fiction that captures the emotional tenor of post–Civil War America, a brilliantly realized courtroom drama that explores the always contentious question of the nature of presidential authority, and a galvanizing story of political suspense.


Click for more detail about Zone One: A Novel by Colson Whitehead Zone One: A Novel

by Colson Whitehead
Knopf (Jul 10, 2012)
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In this wry take on the post-apocalyptic horror novel, a pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead.

Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuild­ing civilization under orders from the provisional govern­ment based in Buffalo. Their top mission: the resettlement of Manhattan. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street—aka Zone One—but pockets of plague-ridden squatters remain. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety—the “malfunctioning” stragglers, who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives.

Mark Spitz is a member of one of the civilian teams work­ing in lower Manhattan. Alternating between flashbacks of Spitz’s desperate fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative, the novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world.

And then things start to go wrong.

Both spine chilling and playfully cerebral, Zone One bril­liantly subverts the genre’s conventions and deconstructs the zombie myth for the twenty-first century.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Conquistadora by Esmeralda Santiago Conquistadora

by Esmeralda Santiago
Vintage (Jul 10, 2012)
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Ana faces the dangers of the untamed countryside even as she relishes the challenge of running a sugar plantation in Puerto Rico. But when the Civil War breaks out in the United States, Ana finds her livelihood threatened by the hacienda’s slaves, whose richly drawn stories unfold alongside her own.


Click for more detail about Halfway To Perfect: A Dyamonde Daniel Book by Nikki Grimes Halfway To Perfect: A Dyamonde Daniel Book

by Nikki Grimes
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jul 05, 2012)
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Dyamonde knows it’s what’s on the inside that counts!

Dyamonde loves eating her mom’s pancakes. Free loves eating … period. But lately Damaris just pushes her food around her plate, and Dyamonde suspects it has something to do with the mean things classmates have been saying about people’s weight. Damaris wonders if they might be talking about her too. Dyamonde knows that Damaris doesn’t have a weight problem and is perfect just the way she is—so now it’s time for her to make sure Damaris knows that, too.

In this fourth installment of the award-winning series, Coretta Scott King Award winner Nikki Grimes’s lovable Dyamonde Daniel is back, with a timely message about self-acceptance and healthy eating habits—delivered with her trademark spunk.


Click for more detail about Soulacoaster: The Diary Of Me by R. Kelly and David Ritz Soulacoaster: The Diary Of Me

by R. Kelly and David Ritz
SmileyBooks (Jun 28, 2012)
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Who is R. Kelly? Three-time Grammy winner, who has sold more than 35 million records worldwide. Legendary writer and producer, who collaborated with such music icons as Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Jay-Z, and Aretha Franklin. Visionary cultural messenger, who created the hip hopera phenomenon Trapped in the Closet. Creative genius. Sex symbol. The man who puts the “R” in R&B. Through the iconic anthem “I Believe I Can Fly” and such sexy R&B mega-hits as “Bump N’ Grind,” “Ignition,” and “When a Woman’s Fed Up,” R. Kelly has proven to be one of the greatest musical talents of his generation. Yet his rollercoaster ride to the top has been as perilous as it has been exhilarating. In Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me, Kelly shares his life story through episodic tales and exclusive color photographs, exploring his meteoric rises and sudden falls. From the crippling learning disorder that rendered him unable to read or write, to the teacher/mentor who prophesized that his destiny was in music, not basketball, we follow his evolution from Chicago street performer to struggling L.A. musician and beyond. Kelly reveals his hard-won ascent to superstardom and his battle to move forward after legal and personal ordeals that threatened to destroy his life. Now back at the top, Kelly recounts the surprising twists and turns that have taken him to new heights of maturity and artistry. Part memoir, part keepsake, Soulacoaster unlocks the door to R. Kelly’s story as only he can tell it, promising his fans an intimate and unforgettable ride.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson and Veronica Chambers Yes, Chef

by Marcus Samuelsson and Veronica Chambers
Knopf (Jun 26, 2012)
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It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations. Marcus Samuelsson was only three years old when he, his mother, and his sister—all battling tuberculosis—walked seventy-five miles to a hospital in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Adaba. Tragically, his mother succumbed to the disease shortly after she arrived, but Marcus and his sister recovered, and one year later they were welcomed into a loving middle-class white family in Göteborg, Sweden. It was there that Marcus’s new grandmother, Helga, sparked in him a lifelong passion for food and cooking with her pan-fried herring, her freshly baked bread, and her signature roast chicken. From a very early age, there was little question what Marcus was going to be when he grew up. Yes, Chef chronicles Marcus Samuelsson’s remarkable journey from Helga’s humble kitchen to some of the most demanding and cutthroat restaurants in Switzerland and France, from his grueling stints on cruise ships to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a coveted New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of “chasing flavors,” as he calls it, had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs and, most important, the opening of the beloved Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fufilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room—a place where presidents and prime ministers rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, bus drivers, and nurses. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home. With disarming honesty and intimacy, Samuelsson also opens up about his failures—the price of ambition, in human terms—and recounts his emotional journey, as a grown man, to meet the father he never knew. Yes, Chef is a tale of personal discovery, unshakable determination, and the passionate, playful pursuit of flavors—one man’s struggle to find a place for himself in the kitchen, and in the world.


Click for more detail about Aleph by Paulo Coelho Aleph

by Paulo Coelho
Vintage Books (Jun 26, 2012)
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Transform your life. Rewrite your destiny.

In his most personal novel to date, internationally bestselling author Paulo Coelho returns with a remarkable journey of self-discovery. Like the main character in his much-beloved The Alchemist, Paulo is facing a grave crisis of faith. As he seeks a path of spiritual renewal and growth, his only real option is to begin again—to travel, to experiment, to reconnect with people and the landscapes around him.

Setting off to Africa, and then to Europe and Asia via the Trans-Siberian railroad, he initiates a journey to revitalize his energy and passion. Even so, he never expects to meet Hilal. A gifted young violinist, she is the woman Paulo loved five hundred years before—and the woman he betrayed in an act of cowardice so far-reaching that it prevents him from finding real happiness in this life. Together they will initiate a mystical voyage through time and space, traveling a path that teaches love, forgiveness, and the courage to overcome life’s inevitable challenges. Beautiful and inspiring, Aleph invites us to consider the meaning of our own personal journeys.


Click for more detail about Fifty Shades Trilogy (Fifty Shades of Grey / Fifty Shades Darker / Fifty Shades Freed) by E L James Fifty Shades Trilogy (Fifty Shades of Grey / Fifty Shades Darker / Fifty Shades Freed)

by E L James
Vintage (Jun 12, 2012)
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FIFTY SHADES OF GREY IS NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
Now available as a three-volume paperback boxed set, E L James’s New York Times #1 bestselling trilogy has been hailed by Entertainment Weekly as being “in a class by itself.” Beginning with the GoodReads Choice Award Romance Finalist Fifty Shades of Grey, the Fifty Shades Trilogy will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.
 
This boxed set includes the following novels:
 
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY: When college student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating.  The unworldly Ana realizes she wants this man, and Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian’s secrets and explores her own desires.
 
FIFTY SHADES DARKER: Daunted by Christian’s dark secrets and singular tastes, Ana has broken off their relationship to start a new career. But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and while Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Ana is forced to make the most important decision of her life.
 
FIFTY SHADES FREED: Now, Ana and Christian have it all—love, passion, intimacy, wealth, and a world of possibilities for their future. But Ana knows that loving her Fifty Shades will not be easy, and that being together will pose challenges that neither of them would anticipate. Just when it seems that their strength together will eclipse any obstacle, misfortune, malice, and fate conspire to turn Ana’s deepest fears into reality.

This book is intended for mature audiences.


Click for more detail about The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities by Will Allen The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities

by Will Allen
Gotham (May 10, 2012)
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A pioneering urban farmer and MacArthur “Genius Award” winner points the way to building a new food system that can feed and heal broken communities. The son of a sharecropper, Will Allen had no intention of ever becoming a farmer himself. But after years in professional basketball and as an executive for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Procter & Gamble, Allen cashed in his retirement fund for a two-acre plot a half mile away from Milwaukee’s largest public housing project. The area was a food desert with only convenience stores and fast-food restaurants to serve the needs of local residents. In the face of financial challenges and daunting odds, Allen built the country’s preeminent urban farm a food and educational center that now produces enough vegetables and fish year-round to feed thousands of people. Employing young people from the neighboring housing project and community, Growing Power has sought to prove that local food systems can help troubled youths, dismantle racism, create jobs, bring urban and rural communities closer together, and improve public health. Today, Allen’s organization helps develop community food systems across the country. An eco-classic in the making, The Good Food Revolution is the story of Will’s personal journey, the lives he has touched, and a grassroots movement that is changing the way our nation eats.


Click for more detail about Home by Toni Morrison Home

by Toni Morrison
Knopf (May 08, 2012)
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America’s most celebrated novelist, Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison extends her profound take on our history with this twentieth-century tale of redemption: a taut and tortured story about one man’s desperate search for himself in a world disfigured by war.
Frank Money is an angry, self-loathing veteran of the Korean War who, after traumatic experiences on the front lines, finds himself back in racist America with more than just physical scars. His home may seem alien to him, but he is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from and that he’s hated all his life. As Frank revisits his memories from childhood and the war that have left him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he had thought he could never possess again.
A deeply moving novel about an apparently defeated man finding his manhood—and his home.


Click for more detail about An Accidental Affair by Eric Jerome Dickey An Accidental Affair

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Knopf (Apr 17, 2012)
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James Thicke is a man whose mysterious past runs as deep as his violent streak. He’s channeled the intensity of his soul into twin passions-success as a screenwriter, and marriage to movie actress Regina Baptiste. In the midst of filming his latest script, starring Regina and leading man Johnny Bergs, James receives a video of his wife caught in the most compromising of situations.

Hours later, the clip of the on-set infidelity has hit the Internet and gone viral in the blogosphere and across all channels of social media. James responds to the affront by savagely attacking Johnny Bergs, and the spectacle has both the paparazzi and the police amassing at the married couple’s estate. James goes on the run, but only as far as the city of Downey, California. As James tries to protect Regina from Hollywood’s underbelly, lust, blackmail, and revenge become his constant companions. Does an accidental affair spell permanent danger?

An Accidental Affair has the eroticism of Pleasure, the intrigue of Thieves’ Paradise, the relentless pacing of Drive Me Crazy, and a female lead as complex as Genevieve.


Click for more detail about The Persistence Of The Color Line: Racial Politics And The Obama Presidency by Randall Kennedy The Persistence Of The Color Line: Racial Politics And The Obama Presidency

by Randall Kennedy
Vintage Books (Apr 17, 2012)
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Renowned for his insightful, common-sense critiques of racial politics, Randall Kennedy gives us a shrewd and penetrating analysis of the complex relationship between the first black president and his African-American constituency.

Kennedy tackles such hot-button issues as the nature of racial opposition to Obama; whether Obama has a singular responsibility to African Americans; the differences in Obama’s presentation of himself to blacks and to whites; the challenges posed by the dream of a post-racial society; the increasing irrelevance of a certain kind of racial politics and its consequences; the complex symbolism of Obama’s achievement and his own obfuscations and evasions regarding racial justice.

Eschewing the critical excesses of both the left and the right, Kennedy offers an incisive view of Obama’s triumphs and travails, his strengths and weaknesses, as they pertain to the troubled history of race in America.


Click for more detail about The Rich And The Rest Of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West The Rich And The Rest Of Us: A Poverty Manifesto

by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West
SmileyBooks (Apr 17, 2012)
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Record unemployment and rampant corporate avarice, empty houses but homeless families, dwindling opportunities in an increasingly paralyzed nation-these are the realities of 21st-century America, land of the free and home of the new middle class poor. Award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West, one of the nation’s leading democratic intellectuals, co-hosts of Public Radio’s Smiley & West, now take on the "P" word-poverty. The Rich and the Rest of Us is the next step in the journey that began with "The Poverty Tour: A Call to Conscience" Smiley and West’s 18-city bus tour gave voice to the plight of impoverished Americans of all races, colors, and creeds. With 150 million Americans persistently poor or near poor, the highest numbers in over five decades, Smiley and West argue that now is the time to confront the underlying conditions of systemic poverty in America before it’s too late. By placing the eradication of poverty in the context of the nation’s greatest moments of social transformation- such as the abolition of slavery, woman’s suffrage, and the labor and civil rights movements-ending poverty is sure to emerge as America’s 21st -century civil rights struggle. As the middle class disappears and the safety net is shredded, Smiley and West, building on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. ask us to confront our fear and complacency with 12 poverty changing ideas. They challenge us to re-examine our assumptions about poverty in America-what it really is and how to eliminate it now.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Fifty Shades Darker by E L James Fifty Shades Darker

by E L James
Vintage (Apr 17, 2012)
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MORE THAN 100 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY IS NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

Daunted by the singular tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house. 
 
But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.
 
While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.

This book is intended for mature audiences.


Click for more detail about Secret Saturdays by Torrey Maldonado Secret Saturdays

by Torrey Maldonado
Puffin Books (Apr 12, 2012)
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An urban novel with the power and intensity of Walter Dean Myers’s books

Sean is Justin’s best friend - or at least Justin thought he was. But lately Sean has been acting differently. He’s been telling lies, getting into trouble at school, hanging out with a tougher crowd, even getting into fights. When Justin finally discovers that Sean’s been secretly going to visit his father in prison and is dealing with the shame of that, Justin wants to do something to help before his friend spirals further out of control. But will trying to save Sean jeopardize their friendship? Should Justin risk losing his best friend in order to save him?


Click for more detail about Fifty Shades of Gray by E L James Fifty Shades of Gray

by E L James
Knopf (Apr 03, 2012)
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When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.


Click for more detail about The One: The Life and Music of James Brown by RJ Smith The One: The Life and Music of James Brown

by RJ Smith
Gotham (Mar 15, 2012)
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The definitive biography of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, with fascinating findings on his life as a Civil Rights activist, an entrepreneur, and the most innovative musician of our time Playing 350 shows a year at his peak, with more than forty Billboard hits, James Brown was a dazzling showman who transformed American music. His life offstage was just as vibrant, and until now no biographer has delivered a complete profile. The One draws on interviews with more than 100 people who knew Brown personally or played with him professionally. Using these sources, award-winning writer RJ Smith draws a portrait of a man whose twisted and amazing life helps us to understand the music he made.The One delves deeply into the story of a man who was raised in abject-almost medieval-poverty in the segregated South but grew up to earn (and lose) several fortunes. Covering everything from Brown’s unconventional childhood (his aunt ran a bordello), to his role in the Black Power movement, which used ""Say It Loud (I’m Black and Proud)"" as its anthem, to his high-profile friendships, to his complicated family life, Smith’s meticulous research and sparkling prose blend biography with a cultural history of a pivotal era.At the heart of The One is Brown’s musical genius. He had crucial influence as an artist during at least three decades; he inspires pity, awe, and revulsion. As Smith traces the legend’s reinvention of funk, soul, R&B, and pop, he gives this history a melody all its own.


Click for more detail about Wild by Ben Okri Wild

by Ben Okri
Rider Books (Mar 01, 2012)
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Ben Okri is a prolific Booker-Prize winning novelist and essayist, but has published only two collections of poetry. The first was "An African Elegy" and the second was "Mental Fight". Both were highly regarded. Thus a third collection is a literary event, especially since 13 years have elapsed since his last. As acclaimed for his poetic vision as for the beauty of his language, in these poems Okri captures both the tenderness and the fragility, as well as the depths and the often hidden directions of our lives. To him, the ’wild’ is an alternative to the familiar; an essential place in the journey where energy meets freedom, where art meets the elemental, where chaos can be honed. The wild is our link to the stars…Ranging across a wide variety of subjects, from the autobiographical to the philosophical, from war to love, from nature to the difficulty of truly seeing, these poems reconfigure the human condition in unusual light through their mastery of tone and condensed brilliance.


Click for more detail about The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties by David K. Shipler The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties

by David K. Shipler
Vintage (Feb 14, 2012)
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An impassioned, incisive look at the violations of civil liberties in the United States that have accelerated over the past decade—and their direct impact on our lives.

How have our rights to privacy and justice been undermined? What exactly have we lost? Pulitzer Prize–winner David K. Shipler searches for the answers to these questions by traveling the midnight streets of dangerous neighborhoods with police, listening to traumatized victims of secret surveillance, and digging into dubious terrorism prosecutions. The law comes to life in these pages, where the compelling stories of individual men and women illuminate the broad array of government’s powers to intrude into personal lives. Examining the historical expansion and contraction of fundamental liberties in America, this is the account of what has been taken—and of how much we stand to regain by protesting the departures from the Bill of Rights. And, in Shipler’s hands, each person’s experience serves as a powerful incitement for a retrieval of these precious rights.


Click for more detail about Killing The Messenger: A Story Of Radical Faith, Racism’s Backlash, And The Assassination Of A Journalist by Thomas Peele Killing The Messenger: A Story Of Radical Faith, Racism’s Backlash, And The Assassination Of A Journalist

by Thomas Peele
Crown (Feb 07, 2012)
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When a nineteen-year-old member of a Black Muslim cult assassinated Oakland newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey in 2007—the most shocking killing of a journalist in the United States in thirty years—the question was, Why? “I just wanted to be a good soldier, a strong soldier,” the killer told police.   A strong soldier for whom?

Killing the Messenger is a searing work of narrative nonfiction that explores one of the most blatant attacks on the First Amendment and free speech in American history and the small Black Muslim cult that carried it out. Award-winning investigative reporter Thomas Peele examines the Black Muslim movement from its founding in the early twentieth century by a con man who claimed to be God, to the height of power of the movement’s leading figure, Elijah Muhammad, to how the great-grandson of Texas slaves reinvented himself as a Muslim leader in Oakland and built the violent cult that the young gunman eventually joined. Peele delves into how charlatans exploited poor African Americans with tales from a religion they falsely claimed was Islam and the years of bloodshed that followed, from a human sacrifice in Detroit to police shootings of unarmed Muslims to the horrible backlash of racism known as the “zebra murders,” and finally to the brazen killing of Chauncey Bailey to stop him from publishing a newspaper story. 
 
Peele establishes direct lines between the violent Black Muslim organization run by Yusuf Bey in Oakland and the evangelicalism of the early prophets and messengers of the Nation of Islam.  Exposing the roots of the faith, Peele examines its forerunner, the Moorish Science Temple of America, which in the 1920s and ’30s preached to migrants from the South living in Chicago and Detroit ghettos that blacks were the world’s master race, tricked into slavery by white devils. In spite of the fantastical claims and hatred at its core, the Nation of Islam was able to build a following by appealing to the lack of identity common in slave descendants. 

In Oakland, Yusuf Bey built a cult through a business called Your Black Muslim Bakery, beating and raping dozens of women he claimed were his wives and fathering more than forty children.  Yet, Bey remained a prominent fixture in the community, and police looked the other way as his violent soldiers ruled the streets.
 
An enthralling narrative that combines a rich historical account with gritty urban reporting, Killing the Messenger is a mesmerizing story of how swindlers and con men abused the tragedy of racism and created a radical religion of bloodshed and fear that culminated in a journalist’s murder.

THOMAS PEELE is a digital investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group and the Chauncey Bailey Project. He is also a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism.  His many honors include the Investigative Reporters and Editors Tom Renner Award for his reporting on organized crime, and the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage. He lives in Northern California.

Book Review

Click for more detail about EllRay Jakes Is a Rock Star by Sally Warner EllRay Jakes Is a Rock Star

by Sally Warner
Puffin Books (Feb 02, 2012)
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All the boys in EllRay’s third-grade class have something they can brag about. Corey’s on the swim team, Kevin is super tall, Jared’s dad has an ATV. But EllRay’s dad is a geologist - not much to brag about. After all, rocks are boring. Then EllRay sees the crystals in his dad’s office, and they are really cool looking. If EllRay just "borrows" them to show his classmates, he knows they’d be impressed. And his dad will never have to know. It’s a perfect plan … until things go awry.


Click for more detail about Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson Beneath a Meth Moon

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Feb 02, 2012)
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Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

Laurel Daneau has moved on to a new life, in a new town, but inside she’s still reeling from the loss of her beloved mother and grandmother after Hurricane Katrina washed away their home. Laurel’s new life is going well, with a new best friend, a place on the cheerleading squad and T-Boom, co-captain of the basketball team, for a boyfriend. Yet Laurel is haunted by voices and memories from her past.

When T-Boom introduces Laurel to meth, she immediately falls under its spell, loving the way it erases, even if only briefly, her past. But as she becomes alienated from her friends and family, she becomes a shell of her former self, and longs to be whole again. With help from an artist named Moses and her friend Kaylee, she’s able to begin to rewrite her story and start to move on from her addiction.

Incorporating Laurel’s bittersweet memories of life before and during the hurricane, this is a stunning novel by one of our finest writers. Jacqueline Woodson’s haunting - but ultimately hopeful - story is beautifully told and one readers will not want to miss.


Click for more detail about Peace From Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You’re Going Through by Iyanla Vanzant Peace From Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You’re Going Through

by Iyanla Vanzant
SmileyBooks (Feb 01, 2012)
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New York Times best-selling author Iyanla Vanzant recounts the last decade of her life and the spiritual lessons learned-from the price of success during her meteoric rise as a TV celebrity on Oprah, the Iyanla TV show (produced by Barbara Walters), to the dissolution of her marriage and her daughter’s 15 months of illness and death on Christmas day. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Iyanla shares why everything we need to learn is reflected in our relationships and the strength and wisdom she has gained by supporting others in their journeys to make sense out of the puzzle pieces of their lives.


Click for more detail about Health First!: The Black Woman’s Wellness Guide by Eleanor Hinton Hoytt and Hilary Beard Health First!: The Black Woman’s Wellness Guide

by Eleanor Hinton Hoytt and Hilary Beard
SmileyBooks (Feb 01, 2012)
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The story of Black women in America is one of triumph and grace, even with odds stacked high against them. Health First! The Black Woman’s Wellness Guide provides you with a comprehensive guide to your #1 resource: yourself.

 Today, as Black women face an unprecedented health crisis, denial and self-neglect are no longer viable options. This groundbreaking volume is rooted in the pioneering work of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, the nation’s only nonprofit organization devoted to advancing the health and wellness of Black women and girls. It offers a core health philosophy too long denied Black women based on putting your health first.

 Health First! explores Black women’s most critical health challenges, connecting the dots through honest discussions with experts and the uncensored stories of real women from adolescence through

 elderhood. The focus is on prevention and awareness, across generations and circumstances from candid conversations about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS to frank explorations of Black women’s Top 10 Health Risks, including cancer, obesity, and violence.

 No matter what your age or health status, this unprecedented health reference will become a trusted ally as you seek accessible and relevant information to help you navigate your most pressing health needs. In an age of uncertainty, it’s time to take control and truly discover the vitality, power, and joy that can be yours when you learn how to put your health first.


Click for more detail about All I Did Was Shoot My Man (Leonid Mcgill Mystery) by Walter Mosley All I Did Was Shoot My Man (Leonid Mcgill Mystery)

by Walter Mosley
Riverhead Hardcover (Jan 24, 2012)
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In the latest and most surprising novel in the bestselling Leonid McGill series, Leonid finds himself caught between his sins of the past and an all-too-vivid present.Seven years ago, Zella Grisham came home to find her man, Harry Tangelo, in bed with her friend. The weekend before, $6.8 million had been stolen from Rutgers Assurance Corp., whose offices are across the street from where Zella worked. Zella didn’t remember shooting Harry, but she didn’t deny it either. The district attorney was inclined to call it temporary insanity-until the police found $80,000 from the Rutgers heist hidden in her storage space.For reasons of his own, Leonid McGill is convinced of Zella’s innocence. But as he begins his investigation, his life begins to unravel. His wife is drinking more than she should. His oldest son has dropped out of college and moved in with an exprostitute. His youngest son is working for him and trying to stay within the law. And his father, whom he thought was long dead, has turned up under an alias.A gripping story of murder, greed, and retribution, All I Did Was Shoot My Man is also the poignant tale of one man’s attempt to stay connected to his family.


Click for more detail about Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption-From South Central to Hollywood by Ice–T and Douglas Century Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption-From South Central to Hollywood

by Ice–T and Douglas Century
One World (Jan 24, 2012)
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He’s a hip-hop icon credited with single-handedly creating gangsta rap. Television viewers know him as Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola on the top-rated drama Law & Order: SVU. But where the hype and the headlines end, the real story of Ice-T—the one few of his millions of fans have ever heard—truly begins. Ice is Ice-T in his own words—raw, uncensored, and unafraid to speak his mind.

About his orphan upbringing on the gang-infested streets of South Central, his four-year stint in the U.S. Army, his successful career as a hustler and thief, and his fateful decision to turn away from a life of crime and forge his own path to international stardom. Along the way, Ice shares never-before-told stories about friends such as Tupac, Dick Wolf, Chris Rock, and Flavor Flav, among others. And he offers up candid observations on marriage and monogamy, the current state of hip-hop, and his latest passion: mentoring at-risk youths around the country.

With insights into the cutthroat world of the street—and the cutthroat world of Hollywood—Ice is the unforgettable story of a true American original.


Click for more detail about The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Picture Book Edition by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Picture Book Edition

by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 19, 2012)
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When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba’s Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone’s crops began to fail. Without enough money for food, let alone school, William spent his days in the library … and figured out how to bring electricity to his village. Persevering against the odds, William built a functioning windmill out of junkyard scraps, and thus became the local hero who harnessed the wind.

Lyrically told and gloriously illustrated, this story will inspire many as it shows how - even in the worst of times - a great idea and a lot of hard work can still rock the world.


Click for more detail about Open City by Teju Cole Open City

by Teju Cole
Knopf (Jan 17, 2012)
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“The past, if there is such a thing, is mostly empty space, great expanses of nothing, in which significant persons and events float. Nigeria was like that for me: mostly forgotten, except for those few things that I remembered with outsize intensity.”
 
Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor doing his residency wanders aimlessly. The walks meet a need for Julius: they are a release from the tightly regulated mental environment of work, and they give him the opportunity to process his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past. Though he is navigating the busy parts of town, the impression of countless faces does nothing to assuage his feelings of isolation.

But it is not only a physical landscape he covers; Julius crisscrosses social territory as well, encountering people from different cultures and classes who will provide insight on his journey—which takes him to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, and into the most unrecognizable facets of his own soul.

A haunting novel about national identity, race, liberty, loss, dislocation, and surrender, Teju Cole’s Open City seethes with intelligence. Written in a clear, rhythmic voice that lingers, this book is a mature, profound work by an important new author who has much to say about our country and our world.


Click for more detail about The Fault in Our Stars by John Green The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green
Penguin Young Readers Group (Jan 10, 2012)
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Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.


Click for more detail about Ellen’s Broom by Kelly Starling Lyons Ellen’s Broom

by Kelly Starling Lyons
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jan 05, 2012)
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A young girl learns a new meaning for freedom during the time of Reconstruction

Ellen always knew the broom resting above the hearth was special. Before it was legal for her mother and father to officially be married, the broom was what made them a family anyway. But now all former slaves who had already been married in their hearts could register as lawful husband and wife.

When Ellen and her family make the long trip to the courthouse dressed in their best, she brings the broom her parents had jumped so many years before. Even though freedom has come, Ellen knows the old traditions are important too. After Mama and Papa’s names are recorded in the register, Ellen nearly bursts with pride as her parents jump the broom once again.

Ellen is a wonderfully endearing character whose love for her family is brought to life in Daniel Minter’s rich and eye-catching block print illustrations.


Click for more detail about Fraternity: In 1968, a visionary priest recruited 20 black men to the College of the Holy Cross and changed their lives and the course of history. by Diane Brady Fraternity: In 1968, a visionary priest recruited 20 black men to the College of the Holy Cross and changed their lives and the course of history.

by Diane Brady
Spiegel & Grau (Jan 03, 2012)
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NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY San Francisco Chronicle

€¢ The Plain Dealer The inspiring true story of a group of young men whose lives were changed by a visionary mentor

  On April 4, 1968, the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., shocked the nation. Later that month, the Reverend John Brooks, a professor of theology at the College of the Holy Cross who shared Dr. King’s dream of an integrated society, drove up and down the East Coast searching for African American high school students to recruit to the school, young men he felt had the potential to succeed if given an opportunity. Among the twenty students he had a hand in recruiting that year were Clarence Thomas, the future Supreme Court justice; Edward P. Jones, who would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for literature; and Theodore Wells, who would become one of the nation’s most successful defense attorneys. Many of the others went on to become stars in their fields as well.

  In Fraternity, Diane Brady follows five of the men through their college years. Not only did the future president of Holy Cross convince the young men to attend the school, he also obtained full scholarships to support them, and then mentored, defended, coached, and befriended them through an often challenging four years of college, pushing them to reach for goals that would sustain them as adults.

  Would these young men have become the leaders they are today without Father Brooks’s involvement? Fraternity is a triumphant testament to the power of education and mentorship, and a compelling argument for the difference one person can make in the lives of others.


Click for more detail about Money Never Sleeps: A Millionaire Wives Club Novel (Millionaire Wives Club Novels) by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker Money Never Sleeps: A Millionaire Wives Club Novel (Millionaire Wives Club Novels)

by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker
One World/Ballantine (Dec 06, 2011)
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The bling is brighter, the drama is amped up, and the delicious beauties from Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker’s Millionaire Wives Club are back for a second season of backstabbing, divorce parties, and family sagas. Lights, camera, action!
 
Milan, Jaise, and Chaunci are the gorgeous, high-rolling divas starring in the hit reality show Millionaire Wives Club. As they struggle with love, lies, lust, and the pressures of sudden fame, their friendships turn into catfights that keep the cameras following all their malicious moves.

Milan is finally engaged to Kendu, the man of her dreams, and though things look perfect on the outside, distrust and jealousy are crumbling their romance. Jaise has found the love she so desperately craves, but her son, Jabril, remains the No. 1 man in her life—for better or for worse. And Chaunci, the independent, single mom who doesn’t feel she needs a man, is contemplating taking the plunge into a deep love affair—but will the man she chooses have room in his life for her? Add to this crafty cast Vera, a venomous new vixen who plays the game better than any of them, and you’ve got a season even more scintillating than the last.


Click for more detail about Life Upon These Shores: Looking At African American History, 1513-2008 by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Life Upon These Shores: Looking At African American History, 1513-2008

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Knopf (Nov 22, 2011)
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Henry Louis Gates, Jr., gives us a sumptuously illustrated landmark book tracing African American history from the arrival of the conquistadors to the election of Barack Obama.

Informed by the latest, sometimes provocative scholarship and including more than seven hundred images—ancient maps, fine art, documents, photographs, cartoons, posters—Life Upon These Shores focuses on defining events, debates, and controversies, as well as the signal achievements of people famous and obscure. Gates takes us from the sixteenth century through the ordeal of slavery, from the Civil War and Reconstruction through the Jim Crow era and the Great Migration; from the civil rights and black nationalist movements through the age of hip-hop to the Joshua generation. By documenting and illuminating the sheer diversity of African American involvement in American history, society, politics, and culture, Gates bracingly disabuses us of the presumption of a single “black experience.”

Life Upon These Shores is a book of major importance, a breathtaking tour de force of the historical imagination.


Click for more detail about The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and The Stories by Nella Larsen The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and The Stories

by Nella Larsen
Anchor (Nov 01, 2011)
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In The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen, whose career flamed brightly but briefly in the 1920s, we rediscover one of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

Nella Larsen’s subject is the struggle of sensitive, spirited heroines to find a place for themselves in a hostile world. Passing (originally published in 1929,) Passing tells the troublesome relationship between two African-American woman who are light enough to pass for white. Irene Redfield marries an African-American doctor and moves to Harlem. Clare Kendy, on the other hand, marries a bigoted white man — never telling him of her true heritage. When the two women meet, after decades of separation, they impact each other lives in ways that neither would have imagined.

Quicksand, Larsen’s first novel (1928) tells the story of a restless young mulatto tries desperately to find a comfortable place in a world in which she sees herself as a perpetual outsider. Race and marriage offer few securities here or in the other stories in a collection that is compellingly readable, rich in psychological complexity, and imbued with a sense of place that brings Harlem vibrantly to life.


Click for more detail about No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington by Condoleezza Rice No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington

by Condoleezza Rice
Crown (Nov 01, 2011)
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From one of the world’s most admired women, this is former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s compelling story of eight years serving at the highest levels of government.

  In her position as America’s chief diplomat, Rice traveled almost continuously around the globe, seeking common ground among sometimes bitter enemies, forging agreement on divisive issues, and compiling a remarkable record of achievement.

  A native of Birmingham, Alabama who overcame the racism of the Civil Rights era to become a brilliant academic and expert on foreign affairs, Rice distinguished herself as an advisor to George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign.

  Once Bush was elected, she served as his chief adviser on national-security issues

€“ a job whose duties included harmonizing the relationship between the Secretaries of State and Defense.

  It was a role that deepened her bond with the President and ultimately made her one of his closest confidantes.

  With the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Rice found herself at the center of the Administration’s intense efforts to keep America safe.

  Here, Rice describes the events of that harrowing day

€“ and the tumultuous days after.

  No day was ever the same.

  Additionally, Rice also reveals new details of the debates that led to the war in Afghanistan and then Iraq.

  The eyes of the nation were once again focused on Rice in 2004 when she appeared before the 9-11 Commission to answer tough questions regarding the country’s preparedness for, and immediate response to, the 9-11 attacks.

  Her responses, it was generally conceded, would shape the nation’s perception of the Administration’s competence during the crisis.

  Rice conveys just how pressure-filled that appearance was and her surprised gratitude when, in succeeding days, she was broadly saluted for her grace and forthrightness. From that point forward, Rice was aggressively sought after by the media and regarded by some as the Administration’s most effective champion.

  In 2005 Rice was entrusted with even more responsibility when she was charged with helping to shape and carry forward the President’s foreign policy as Secretary of State.

  As such, she proved herself a deft crafter of tactics and negotiation aimed to contain or reduce the threat posed by America’s enemies.

  Here, she reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuvers that kept the world’s relationships with Iran, North Korea and Libya from collapsing into chaos.

  She also talks about her role as a crisis manager, showing that at any hour — and at a moment’s notice — she was willing to bring all parties to the bargaining table anywhere in the world.

  No Higher Honor takes the reader into secret negotiating rooms where the fates of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Lebanon often hung in the balance, and it draws back the curtain on how frighteningly close all-out war loomed in clashes involving Pakistan-India and Russia-Georgia, and in East Africa.

 

  Surprisingly candid in her appraisals of various Administration colleagues and the hundreds of foreign leaders with whom she dealt, Rice also offers here keen insight into how history actually proceeds.

  In No Higher Honor, she delivers a master class in statecraft

  — but always in a way that reveals her essential warmth and humility, and her deep reverence for the ideals on which America was founded.


Click for more detail about The Last Days Of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley The Last Days Of Ptolemy Grey

by Walter Mosley
Riverhead Hardcover (Nov 01, 2011)
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A masterful, moving novel about age, memory, and family from one of the true literary icons of our time.

Ptolemy Grey is ninety-one years old and has been all but forgotten-by his family, his friends, even himself-as he sinks into a lonely dementia. His grand-nephew, Ptolemy’s only connection to the outside world, was recently killed in a drive-by shooting, and Ptolemy is too suspicious of anyone else to allow them into his life. until he meets Robyn, his niece’s seventeen-year-old lodger and the only one willing to take care of an old man at his grandnephew’s funeral.

But Robyn will not tolerate Ptolemy’s hermitlike existence. She challenges him to interact more with the world around him, and he grasps more firmly onto his disappearing consciousness. However, this new activity pushes Ptolemy into the fold of a doctor touting an experimental drug that guarantees Ptolemy won’t live to see age ninety- two but that he’ll spend his last days in feverish vigor and clarity. With his mind clear, what Ptolemy finds-in his own past, in his own apartment, and in the circumstances surrounding his grand-nephew’s death-is shocking enough to spur an old man to action, and to ensure a legacy that no one will forget.

In The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Mosley captures the compromised state of his protagonist’s mind with profound sensitivity and insight, and creates an unforgettable pair of characters at the center of a novel that is sure to become a true contemporary classic.


Click for more detail about Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980 by Kellie Jones Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980

by Kellie Jones
Prestel (Oct 31, 2011)
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The pioneering work of a group of black artists is documented in this companion volume to a groundbreaking exhibition. This comprehensive, lavishly illustrated catalogue offers the first in-depth survey of the incredibly vital but often overlooked legacy of Los Angeles’s African American artists, featuring many never-before-seen works, some of which were previously considered lost. Now Dig This! will feature artists including Melvin Edwards, Fred Eversley, David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, Senga Nengudi, John Outterbridge, Alonzo Davis, Dale Brockman Davis, Noah Purifoy, Betye Saar, and Charles White, connecting their work to larger movements, trends, and ideas that fueled the arts during this important era of creative, cultural, and political ferment. The publication also explores the significant network of friendships and collaborations made across racial lines, while underscoring the influence that African American artists had on the era’s larger movements and trends. Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980 is part of Pacific Standard Time, an initiative of the Getty.


Click for more detail about My Song: A Memoir by Harry Belafonte and Michael Shnayerson My Song: A Memoir

by Harry Belafonte and Michael Shnayerson
Knopf (Oct 11, 2011)
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Harry Belafonte is not just one of the greatest entertainers of our time; he has led one of the great American lives of the last century. Now, this extraordinary icon tells us the story of that life, giving us its full breadth, letting us share in the struggles, the tragedies, and, most of all, the inspiring triumphs.
 
Belafonte grew up, poverty-ridden, in Harlem and Jamaica. His mother was a complex woman—caring but withdrawn, eternally angry and rarely satisfied. His father was distant and physically abusive. It was not an easy life, but it instilled in young Harry the hard-nosed toughness of the city and the resilient spirit of the Caribbean lifestyle. It also gave him the drive to make good and channel his anger into actions that were positive and life-affirming. His journey led to the U.S. Navy during World War II, where he encountered an onslaught of racism but also fell in love with the woman he eventually married. After the war he moved back to Harlem, where he drifted between odd jobs until he saw his first stage play—and found the life he wanted to lead. Theater opened up a whole new world, one that was artistic and political and made him realize that not only did he have a need to express himself, he had a lot to express.
 
He began as an actor—and has always thought of himself as such—but was quickly spotted in a musical, began a tentative nightclub career, and soon was on a meteoric rise to become one of the world’s most popular singers. Belafonte was never content to simply be an entertainer, however. Even at enormous personal cost, he could not shy away from activism. At first it was a question of personal dignity: breaking down racial barriers that had never been broken before, achieving an enduring popularity with both white and black audiences. Then his activism broadened to a lifelong, passionate involvement at the heart of the civil rights movement and countless other political and social causes. The sections on the rise of the civil rights movement are perhaps the most moving in the book: his close friendship with Martin Luther King, Jr.; his role as a conduit between Dr. King and the Kennedys; his up-close involvement with the demonstrations and awareness of the hatred and potential violence around him; his devastation at Dr. King’s death and his continuing fight for what he believes is right.
 
But My Song is far more than the history of a movement. It is a very personal look at the people in that movement and the world in which Belafonte has long moved. He has befriended many beloved and important figures in both entertainment and politics—Paul Robeson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sidney Poitier, John F. Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Robert Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Tony Bennett, Bill Clinton—and writes about them with the same exceptional candor with which he reveals himself on every page. This is a book that pulls no punches, and turns both a loving and critical eye on our country’s cultural past.
 
As both an artist and an activist, Belafonte has touched countless lives. With My Song, he has found yet another way to entertain and inspire us. It is an electrifying memoir from a remarkable man.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration  by Isabel Wilkerson The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration

by Isabel Wilkerson
Knopf (Oct 04, 2011)
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From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Sacred Band: Book Three of the Acacia Trilogy by David Anthony Durham The Sacred Band: Book Three of the Acacia Trilogy

by David Anthony Durham
Doubleday (Oct 04, 2011)
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With the first two books in the Acacia Trilogy, Acacia and The Other Lands, David Anthony Durham has created a vast and engrossing canvas of a world in turmoil, where the surviving children of a royal dynasty are on a quest to realize their fates—and perhaps right ancient wrongs once and for all. As The Sacred Band begins, one of them, Queen Corinn, bestrides the world as a result of her mastery of spells found in the ancient Book of Elenet. Her younger brother, Dariel, has been sent on a perilous mis­sion to the Other Lands, while her sister, Mena, travels to the far north to confront an invasion of the feared race of the Auldek. Their separate trajectories will converge in a series of world-shaping, earth-shattering battles, all ren­dered with vividly imagined detail and in heroic scale.

David Anthony Durham concludes his tale of kingdoms in collision in an exciting fashion. His fictional world is at once realistic and fantastic, informed with an eloquent and dis­tinctively Shakespearean sensibility.


Click for more detail about Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America by Eugene Robinson Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America

by Eugene Robinson
Anchor Books (Oct 04, 2011)
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The African American population in the United States has always been seen as a single entity: a "Black America" with unified interests and needs. In his groundbreaking book, Disintegration, Pulitzer-Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson argues that over decades of desegregation, affirmative action, and immigration, the concept of Black America has shattered. Instead of one black America, now there are four:

  • a Mainstream middle-class majority with a full ownership stake in American society;
  • a large, Abandoned minority with less hope of escaping poverty and dysfunction than at any time since Reconstruction’s crushing end;
  • a small Transcendent elite with such enormous wealth, power, and influence that even white folks have to genuflect;
  • and two newly Emergent groups—individuals of mixed-race heritage and communities of recent black immigrants—that make us wonder what "black" is even supposed to mean.

“In Disintegration, Eugene Robinson neatly explodes decades’ worth of lazy generalizations about race in America. At the same time, he raises new questions about community, invisibility, and the virtues and drawbacks of assimilation. An important book.” —Gwen Ifill

“Gene Robinson’s Disintegration is the first popular salvo in the Age of Obama regarding the delicate issues of class division, generation gap, and elite obsession in Black America. This painful conversation must continue—and we have Gene Robinson as a useful guide.” —Cornel West


Click for more detail about Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi Mr. Fox

by Helen Oyeyemi
Knopf (Sep 29, 2011)
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Winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction
One of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists

From the prizewinning young writer of What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, coming February 2016, a brilliant and inventive story of love, lies, and inspiration.

Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding, and the fairy tales don’t get complicated. In this book, the celebrated writer Mr. Fox can’t stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It’s not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently.Mary challenges Mr. Fox to join her in stories of their own devising; and in different times and places, the two of them seek each other, find each other, thwart each other, and try to stay together, even when the roles they inhabit seem to forbid it. Their adventures twist the fairy tale into nine variations, exploding and teasing conventions of genre and romance, and each iteration explores the fears that come with accepting a lifelong bond. Meanwhile, Daphne becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair, and finds her way into Mary and Mr. Fox’s game. And so Mr. Fox is offered a choice: Will it be a life with the girl of his dreams, or a life with an all-too-real woman who delights him more than he cares to admit?The extraordinarily gifted Helen Oyeyemi has written a love story like no other. Mr. Fox is a magical book, endlessly inventive, as witty and charming as it is profound in its truths about how we learn to be with one another.


Click for more detail about Street Chronicles: A Woman’s Work by Nikki Turner Street Chronicles: A Woman’s Work

by Nikki Turner
One World/Ballantine (Sep 20, 2011)
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The heralded Queen of Hip-Hop Lit presents an addictive collection of celebrated urban authors with their fingers on the pulse of the streets.
 
Street lit’s finest female voices—Keisha Starr, Tysha, LaKesa Cox, and Monique S. Hall—deliver searing stories about women who make hard sacrifices to stay on top of their hustle and seize the power, money, and fame they can’t live without. Enterprising and fearless, these players are more than equipped to handle whatever the street throws at them. That’s because they are hellbent on survival—by any means necessary. 

Once again, Nikki Turner shares ultra-realistic page-turners that will keep fans coming back for more.


Click for more detail about Keena Ford and the Secret Journal Mix-Up by Melissa Thomson Keena Ford and the Secret Journal Mix-Up

by Melissa Thomson
Puffin Books (Sep 15, 2011)
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The third book about the spunky second-grader, perfect for fans of Ramona Quimby, Junie B. Jones, and Frankly, Frannie!

Keena Ford loves writing in her journal. She keeps all of her thoughts in there, even if they are sometimes not-so-nice. One day, Keena accidentally leaves her journal in Tiffany Harris’s apartment, and Tiffany tells Keena that she’s going to tell all of Keena’s secrets! With help from her brother, some classic fables, and a visiting author, Keena discovers what she must do to stand up to Tiffany and make things right with her friends.

"Young readers will relate to her friendship dilemma and appreciate her vibrant personality. Readers of Sharon Draper’s Sassy series will enjoy meeting Keena." - School Library Journal


Click for more detail about Push Has Come to Shove: Getting Our Kids the Education They Deserve—Even If It Means Picking a Fight by Steve Perry Push Has Come to Shove: Getting Our Kids the Education They Deserve—Even If It Means Picking a Fight

by Steve Perry
Crown (Sep 13, 2011)
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“Have you been to a school lately?  Have you sat through the six hours and forty-five minutes of excruciating tedium we send our kids to every day?  When we ask our kids, “What’d you do in school today?” and they mumble, “Nothin’,” they’re telling the truth.”
 
Steve Perry is like no other educator you’ve ever met.  He “gets it.”  He understands why some parents are downright panicked about what’s going on in their kids’ classrooms, and how other parents, whose kids supposedly attend the “good” schools, still fear that their children are falling behind.  As Principal of one of the best performing schools in America — one that sends 100% of its mostly minority students to four-year colleges — Perry delights in poking the system.  Present him with a “truth” about how education is supposed to work and – count on it – he’ll show it to be false.
 
Dictatorial teacher’s unions despise Steve Perry.  So do lazy teachers.  So do entrenched, unimaginative school boards.  So do reactionary “curriculum guardians” who – as a lure to get kids reading – cling to the same old stodgy texts.
 
“That’s okay,” say Perry.  That means he’s making a difference.  In this book, his priority is to help kids who don’t have the advantage of going to his school, Capital Prep.  He wants to save your kid, and the kid next door, and the kid down the street from getting a typical third-rate American education.
 
If you’re a parent who has worried recently about how depressed your child seems when he dresses for school in the morning…or how little of what happens during the school day seems to sink into her brain… or how much of your child’s homework is busywork, you need this book. 
 
If you’re a teacher who is putting your heart and soul into the job but are surrounded by colleagues who are “phoning it in,” you need this book.
 
If you’re a committed, forward-thinking principal who wants to get rid of the faculty bad apples, but are continually stymied by Mafia-style teachers-unions, you need this book.
 
*If you’re a citizen who worries about the $1 trillion-plus GDP loss that America suffers every year because our system of education doesn’t measure up, you need this book.
 
In this solution-oriented manifesto, Steve Perry covers the full range of issues holding back today’s students.  He shows parents how to find great teachers (and get rid of the bad ones)…how to make readers out of kids who hate to read…how to make the school curriculum thrilling rather than sleep-inducing…how to conduct an all-important education “home audit”… how to “e-organize” if school boards and administrators aren’t getting the message…how to build a “school of the future,” and much more.
 
The era of third-rate education is over.  Steve Perry isn’t going to let the fools and scoundrels get away with it any longer.  Push has come to shove!

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Devil Finds Work by James Baldwin The Devil Finds Work

by James Baldwin
Vintage (Sep 13, 2011)
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Baldwin’s personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also a probing appraisal of American racial politics. Offering an incisive look at racism in American movies and a vision of America’s self-delusions and deceptions, Baldwin challenges the underlying assumptions in such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist. Here are our loves and hates, biases and cruelties, fears and ignorance reflected by the films that have entertained us and shaped our consciousness. And here too is the stunning prose of a writer whose passion never diminished his struggle for equality, justice, and social change.


Click for more detail about Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self

by Danielle Evans
Riverhead Books (Sep 06, 2011)
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Introducing a new star of her generation, an electric debut story collection about mixed-race and African-American teenagers, women, and men struggling to find a place in their families and communities.

When Danielle Evans’s short story “Virgins” was published in The Paris Review in late 2007, it announced the arrival of a major new American short story writer. Written when she was only twenty-three, Evans’s story of two black, blue-collar fifteen-year-old girls’ flirtation with adulthood for one night was startling in its pitch-perfect examination of race, class, and the shifting terrain of adolescence.

Now this debut short story collection delivers on the promise of that early story. In “Harvest,” a college student’s unplanned pregnancy forces her to confront her own feelings of inadequacy in comparison to her white classmates. In “Jellyfish,” a father’s misguided attempt to rescue a gift for his grown daughter from an apartment collapse magnifies all he doesn’t know about her. And in “Snakes,” the mixed-race daughter of intellectuals recounts the disastrous summer she spent with her white grandmother and cousin, a summer that has unforeseen repercussions in the present.

Striking in their emotional immediacy, the stories in Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self are based in a world where inequality is reality but where the insecurities of adolescence and young adulthood, and the tensions within family and the community, are sometimes the biggest complicating forces in one’s sense of identity and the choices one makes.


Click for more detail about The Grace of Silence: A Family Memoir by Michele Norris The Grace of Silence: A Family Memoir

by Michele Norris
Vintage (Sep 06, 2011)
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ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Star.

A profoundly moving and deeply personal memoir by the co-host of National Public Radio’s flagship program All Things Considered.

While exploring the hidden conversation on race unfolding throughout America in the wake of President Obama’s election, Michele Norris discovered that there were painful secrets within her own family that had been willfully withheld. These revelations—from her father’s shooting by a Birmingham police officer to her maternal grandmother’s job as an itinerant Aunt Jemima in the Midwest—inspired a bracing journey into her family’s past, from her childhood home in Minneapolis to her ancestral roots in the Deep South.

The result is a rich and extraordinary family memoir—filled with stories that elegantly explore the power of silence and secrets—that boldly examines racial legacy and what it means to be an American.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Crossbones by Nuruddin Farah Crossbones

by Nuruddin Farah
Knopf (Sep 01, 2011)
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A gripping new novel from today’s "most important African novelist". (The New York Times Review of Books) A dozen years after his last visit, Jeebleh returns to his beloved Mogadiscio to see old friends. He is accompanied by his son-in-law, Malik, a journalist intent on covering the region’s ongoing turmoil. What greets them at first is not the chaos Jeebleh remembers, however, but an eerie calm enforced by ubiquitous white-robed figures bearing whips.Meanwhile, Malik’s brother, Ahl, has arrived in Puntland, the region notorious as a pirates’ base. Ahl is searching for his stepson, Taxliil, who has vanished from Minneapolis, apparently recruited by an imam allied to Somalia’s rising religious insurgency. The brothers’ efforts draw them closer to Taxliil and deeper into the fabric of the country, even as Somalis brace themselves for an Ethiopian invasion. Jeebleh leaves Mogadiscio only a few hours before the borders are breached and raids descend from land and sea. As the uneasy quiet shatters and the city turns into a battle zone, the brothers experience firsthand the derailments of war.Completing the trilogy that began with Links and Knots, Crossbones is a fascinating look at individuals caught in the maw of zealotry, profiteering, and political conflict, by one of our most highly acclaimed international writers.


Click for more detail about Is Marriage For White People?: How The African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone by Ralph Richard Banks Is Marriage For White People?: How The African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone

by Ralph Richard Banks
Dutton (Sep 01, 2011)
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During the past half century, African Americans have become the most unmarried people in our nation. More than two out of every three black women are unmarried, and they are more than twice as likely as white women never to marry. The racial gap in marriage extends beyond the poor. Affluent and college educated African Americans are also less likely to marry or stay married than their white counterparts. That harms black children and adults, and imperils the growth and stability of the black middle class.

One reason that marriage has declined is that as black women have advanced economically and educationally, black men have fallen behind. Nearly twice as many black women as black men graduate from college each year.Thus, not only are many college-educated black women unmarried, they are more likely than any other group of women to marry less educated and lower earning men. Half of college-educated black wives are more educated than their husbands.

Yet black women rarely marry men of other races. They are less than half as likely as black men, and only a third as likely as Latinos or Asian Americans, to wed across group lines. Is Marriage for White People? traces the far-reaching consequences of the African American marriage decline. It also explains why black women marry down rather than out. Its provocative conclusion is that black women would benefit both themselves and the black race if they crossed class lines less and race lines more.

As particular as this inquiry may seem, it is also universal. Americans of all races are more unmarried now than ever. And as women surpass men educationally, wives increasingly earn more than their husbands. In illuminating the lives of African Americans, Is Marriage for White People? thus probes cultural and economic trends that implicate everyone, highlighting the extent to which the experience of black women may become that of all women.

This book both informs and entertains. The culmination of a decade of research by a distinguished Stanford law professor, it melds scholarly theory and data with the poignant stories shared by black women throughout the nation. This unforgettable book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the shifting terrain of intimacy in American society.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas The Three Musketeers

by Alexandre Dumas
Puffin Books (Aug 24, 2011)
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“I do not say there is no character as well-drawn in Shakespeare [as D’Artagnan]. I do say there is none that I love so wholly.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

In this swashbuckling epic, d’Artagnan, not yet twenty, sets off for Paris in hopes of joining the Musketeers, that legion of heroes highly favored by King Louis XIII and feared by evil Cardinal Richelieu. By fighting alongside Athos, Porthos, and Aramis as they battle their enemies, d’Artagnan proves he has the heart of a Musketeer and earns himself a place in their ranks. Soon d’Artagnan and the gallant trio must use all their wits and sword skills to preserve the queen’s honor and thwart the wicked schemes of Cardinal Richelieu. With this classic tale, Dumas embroiders upon history a colorful world of swordplay, intrigue, and romance, earning The Three Musketeers its reputation as one of the most thrilling adventure novels ever written.


Click for more detail about The Wealth Cure: Putting Money In Its Place by Hill Harper The Wealth Cure: Putting Money In Its Place

by Hill Harper
Knopf (Aug 23, 2011)
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The perennial New York Times bestselling author helps readers discover how to put money in its place and use wealth-building as a tool for joy and fulfillment. Hill Harper is uniquely poised to guide readers through tough times and offers bestselling advice for reaping the rewards of a truly happy life. With The Wealth Cure, he does more than that: He presents a revolutionary new definition of wealth, motivating readers to not only build financial security but to also achieve wealth in every aspect of their lives.Using his own journey as a parable, Harper inspires the reader to evaluate their values while explaining the importance of laying a sound financial foundation and how to recognize the worth of your relationships and increase the value of your interactions with the people in your life. Drawing on his personal recollections and true stories from family and friends, Harper helps readers begin to see money not as a goal but as a tool that provides freedom for following their passions. The keys include investing in yourself, tapping the resources you need, and taking responsibility for how those resources are used. Far from a get-rich-quick primer, The Wealth Cure brims with inspired wisdom for building a lasting bounty from the experiences, loved ones, and achievements that really matter.


Click for more detail about Chike And The River by Chinua Achebe Chike And The River

by Chinua Achebe
Anchor (Aug 09, 2011)
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The more Chike saw the ferry-boats the more he wanted to make the trip to Asaba. But where would he get the money? He did not know. Still, he hoped.

Eleven-year-old Chike longs to cross the Niger River to the city of Asaba, but he doesn’t have the sixpence he needs to pay for the ferry ride. With the help of his friend S.M.O.G., he embarks on a series of adventures to help him get there. Along the way, he is exposed to a range of new experiences that are both thrilling and terrifying, from eating his first skewer of suya under the shade of a mango tree, to visiting the village magician who promises to double the money in his pocket. Once he finally makes it across the river, Chike realizes that life on the other side is far different from his expectations, and he must find the courage within him to make it home.

Chike and the River is a magical tale of boundaries, bravery, and growth, by Chinua Achebe, one of the world’s most beloved and admired storytellers.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Faith In The Fire: Wisdom For Life by Gardner C. Taylor Faith In The Fire: Wisdom For Life

by Gardner C. Taylor
SmileyBooks (Aug 01, 2011)
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“Waiting on God is difficult. We have not been promised a smooth voyage, but God does promise us a safe landing… . We want to comfortably rest on placid waters … but, we are called to bitter trials… . Patience means waiting. How do we wait? Patience is not a do-nothing policy. Especially when we are passing through hard places… .” In Faith in the Fire, civil rights activist and social-justice pioneer Dr. Gardner Taylor shares the inspirational wisdom gained throughout his extraordinary career as one of America’s most legendary and beloved preachers. The treasures collected here will inspire readers to pause and reflect on their lives and faith. Contained in this volume are Dr. Taylor’s observations, reflections, and teachings on subjects ranging from fear and faith to politics and integrity to wisdom and laughter. Each chapter’s eloquent messages have been selected to engage readers and support their deeper spiritual inquiry. Faith in the Fire’s exquisite gift-book-with-original-CD format, featuring Tavis Smiley’s conversation with Dr. Taylor, makes it both a wonderful introduction for those new to his work and a welcomed treasure for those who celebrate his enduring legacy.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Muzzled: The Assault On Honest Debate by Juan Williams Muzzled: The Assault On Honest Debate

by Juan Williams
Crown (Jul 26, 2011)
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“You can’t say that. You’re fired.”
 
Prize-winning Washington journalist Juan Williams was unceremoniously dismissed by NPR for speaking his mind and saying what many Americans feel—that he gets nervous when boarding airplanes with passengers dressed in Muslim garb. NPR banished the veteran journalist in an act of political correctness that ultimately sparked nationwide outrage and led to calls for Congress to end its public funding of the media organization.
 
In Muzzled, Williams uses his very public firing as a launching pad to discuss the countless ways in which honest debate in America—from the halls of Congress and the health care town halls to the talk shows and print media—is stifled. In today’s partisan world, where media provocateurs rule the airwaves and political correctness dictates what can and cannot be said with impunity, Williams shows how the honest exchange of ideas and the search for solutions and reasonable compromise is deliberately muzzled. Only those toeing the party’s line—the screaming voices of the extremist—get airtime and dominate the discussion in politics and the media. Each side, liberal and conservative, preaches to a choir that revels in expressions of anger, ideology, conspiracies, and demonized opponents. The result is an absence of truth-telling and honest debate about the facts. Among the issues denied a full-throated discussion are racial profiling; the increased reliance on religious beliefs in debating American values and legislation; the nuances of an immigration policym gone awry; why abortion is promoted as a hot button wedge issue to incite the pary faithful and drive donations; the uneasy balance between individual freedom and our desire for security of against terrorism; and much more.
 
A fierce, fresh look at the critical importance of an open airing of controversial issues, Muzzled is a hard hitting critique of the topics and concerns we can’t talk about without suffering retaliation at the hands of the politically correct police. Only by bringing such hot button issues into the light of day can we hope to grapple with them, and exercise our cherished, hard-won right of free speech.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Children of the Street by Kwei Quartey Children of the Street

by Kwei Quartey
Random House (Jul 12, 2011)
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In the slums of Accra, Ghana’s fast-moving, cosmopolitan capital, teenagers are turning up dead. Inspector Darko Dawson has seen many crimes, but this latest string of murders—in which all the young victims bear a chilling signature—is the most unsettling of his career. Are these heinous acts a form of ritual killing or the work of a lone, cold-blooded monster? With time running out, Dawson embarks on a harrowing journey through the city’s underbelly and confronts the brutal world of the urban poor, where street children are forced to fight for their very survival—and a cunning killer seems just out of reach.


Click for more detail about The Kid by Sapphire The Kid

by Sapphire
Penguin Press (Jul 05, 2011)
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Fifteen years after the publication of Push, one year after the Academy Award-winning film adaptation, Sapphire gives voice to Precious’s son, Abdul. In The Kid bestselling author Sapphire tells the electrifying story of Abdul Jones, the son of Push’s unforgettable heroine, Precious.A story of body and spirit, rooted in the hungers of flesh and of the soul, The Kid brings us deep into the interior life of Abdul Jones. We meet him at age nine, on the day of his mother’s funeral. Left alone to navigate a world in which love and hate sometimes hideously masquerade, forced to confront unspeakable violence, his history, and the dark corners of his own heart, Abdul claws his way toward adulthood and toward an identity he can stand behind.In a generational story that moves with the speed of thought from a Mississippi dirt farm to Harlem in its heyday; from a troubled Catholic orphanage to downtown artist’s lofts, The Kid tells of a twenty- first-century young man’s fight to find a way toward the future. A testament to the ferocity of the human spirit and the deep nourishing power of love and of art, The Kid chronicles a young man about to take flight. In the intimate, terrifying, and deeply alive story of Abdul’s journey, we are witness to an artist’s birth by fire.


Click for more detail about Tempted by Trouble by Eric Jerome Dickey Tempted by Trouble

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Jun 07, 2011)
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It’s love and bullets, Dickey style. The blistering new novel from the New York Times bestselling author.

For Dmytryk and Cora, there’s only one way to fight the recession that’s crippled their comfortable lifestyle: accept a crime boss’s offer to rob a few banks. It’s quick. A nice big payoff. No one gets hurt.

Good luck believing that.


Click for more detail about Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan Getting to Happy

by Terry McMillan
Berkley Books (Jun 07, 2011)
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#1 New York Times bestselling author Terry McMillan’s exuberant return to the four unforgettable heroines of Waiting to Exhale.

Waiting to Exhale was more than just a bestselling novel—its publication was a watershed moment in literary history. McMillan’s sassy and vibrant story about four black women struggling to find love and their place in the world touched a cultural nerve, inspired a blockbuster film, and generated a devoted audience.

Now, McMillan revisits Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine, and Robin fifteen years later. Each is at her own midlife crossroads: Savannah has awakened to the fact that she’s made too many concessions in her marriage, and decides to face life single again—at fifty-one. Bernadine has watched her megadivorce settlement dwindle, been swindled by her husband number two, and conned herself into thinking that a few pills will help distract her from her pain. Robin has an all-American case of shopaholism, while the big dream of her life—to wear a wedding dress—has gone unrealized. And for years, Gloria has taken happiness and security for granted. But being at the wrong place at the wrong time can change everything.

All four are learning to heal past hurts and to reclaim their joy and their dreams; but they return to us full of spirit, sass, and faith in one another. They’ve exhaled: now they are learning to breathe.


Click for more detail about The Central Park Five: A Chronicle Of A City Wilding by Sarah Burns The Central Park Five: A Chronicle Of A City Wilding

by Sarah Burns
Knopf (May 17, 2011)
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A riveting, in-depth account of one of New York City’s most notorious crimes.

On April 20, 1989, the body of a woman is discovered in Central Park, her skull so badly smashed that nearly 80 percent of her blood has spilled onto the ground. Within days, five black and Latino teenagers confess to her rape and beating. In a city where urban crime is at a high and violence is frequent, the ensuing media frenzy and hysterical public reaction is extraordinary. The young men are tried as adults and convicted of rape, despite the fact that the teens quickly recant their inconsistent and inaccurate confessions and that no DNA tests or eyewitness accounts tie any of them to the victim. They serve their complete sentences before another man, serial rapist Matias Reyes, confesses to the crime and is connected to it by DNA testing.

Intertwining the stories of these five young men, the police officers, the district attorneys, the victim, and Matias Reyes, Sarah Burns unravels the forces that made both the crime and its prosecution possible. Most dramatically, she gives us a portrait of a city already beset by violence and deepening rifts between races and classes, whose law enforcement, government, social institutions, and media were undermining the very rights of the individuals they were designed to safeguard and protect.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Corduroy: Giant Board Book by Don Freeman Corduroy: Giant Board Book

by Don Freeman
Viking Books for Young Readers (May 12, 2011)
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Check out the 50th Anniversary Reboot of the Corduroy Franchise—Written by Viola Davis!


Originally published in 1968 Corduroy is, based on a 2007 online poll by the National Education Association listed the book as one of its “Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children.” It was one of the “Top 100 Picture Books” of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.

Now, even the youngest readers can enjoy this story of a bear looking for a home. With a full-sized trim (9.0" x 10.5") and sturdy pages, this edition is bab-and toddler-friendly, and perfect for the whole family.

image from the book Corduroy
What happened to Black girl, Lisa, in the Corduroy Series?


Click for more detail about Just Wanna Testify: A Novel by Pearl Cleage Just Wanna Testify: A Novel

by Pearl Cleage
One World/Ballantine (May 10, 2011)
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Familiar faces and places meet fresh twists and turns in this enthralling novel from acclaimed author Pearl Cleage.
 
Atlanta’s West End district has always been a haven and home to a coterie of unique characters—artists and thinkers, dreamers and doers. Folks here know one another’s names, keep their doors unlocked, and look out for their neighbors. Anyone planning to sell drugs, vandalize, or rob a little old lady should think twice before hitting this part of town. And Blue Hamilton, West End’s unofficial mayor and longtime protector, will see to it that you do. Blue wears many hats here, including adored husband to Regina, dear nephew to Abbey, and doting father to Sweetie and another little one on the way.

Blue is also the man you pay your respects to if you’re looking to set up shop in this urban enclave—just ask Serena Mayflower, whom Blue sees striding down Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard wearing skin-tight black leather pants, thigh-high boots, and bright red lipstick. This tall, slender, ethereally beautiful woman and her four equally striking sisters make up the Too Fine Five, a quintet of international supermodels who have arrived in town for an Essence magazine photo shoot.
        
But Blue’s gut tells him that there’s more to these Mayflower mademoiselles than their affection for full moons and Bloody Marys. With the help of his beloved Regina and their close friends and relations in West End, Blue vows to uncover the women’s secret intentions—and prove once and for all that there is no greater force on earth than the power of love.

A mesmerizing slice of not-so-everyday life, brimming with wicked wit and spiced with a few supernatural surprises, Just Wanna Testify showcases Pearl Cleage’s masterly storytelling at its soulful and satisfying finest.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Till You Hear from Me: A Novel by Pearl Cleage Till You Hear from Me: A Novel

by Pearl Cleage
One World (May 10, 2011)
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From the acclaimed Pearl Cleage, author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day … and Seen It All and Done the Rest, comes an Obama-era romance featuring a cast of unforgettable characters.

Just when it appears that all her hard work on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is about to pay off with a White House job, thirty-five-year-old Ida B. Wells Dunbar finds herself on Washington, D.C.’s post-election sidelines even as her twentysomething counterparts overrun the West Wing. Adding to her woes, her father, the Reverend Horace A. Dunbar, Atlanta civil rights icon and self-described ’foot soldier for freedom,’ is notoriously featured on an endlessly replayed YouTube clip in which his pronouncements don’t exactly jibe with the new era in American politics.

The Rev’s stinging words and myopic views don’t sound anything like the man who raised Ida to make her mark in the world. When friends call to express their concern, Ida realizes it’s time to head home and see for herself what’s going on. Besides, with her job prospects growing dimmer, getting out of D.C. for a while might be the smartest move she could make.

Back in her old West End neighborhood, Ida runs into childhood friend and smooth political operator Wes Harper, also in town to pay a visit to the Reverend Dunbar, his mentor. Ida doesn’t trust Wes or his mysterious connections for one second, but she can’t deny her growing attraction to him.

While Ida and the Rev try to find the balance between personal loyalties and political realities, they must do some serious soul searching in order to get things back on track before Wes permanently derails their best laid plans.


Click for more detail about You Are Free: Stories by Danzy Senna You Are Free: Stories

by Danzy Senna
Riverhead Books (May 03, 2011)
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From the bestselling author of Caucasia, riveting, unexpected stories about identity under the influence of appearances, attachments, and longing.

Look out for Danzy Senna’s latest book, New People, on sale in August!

Each of these eight remarkable stories by Danzy Senna tightrope-walks tantalizingly, sometimes frighteningly, between defined states: life with and without mates and children, the familiar if constraining reference points provided by race, class, and gender. Tensions arise between a biracial couple when their son is admitted to the private school where they’d applied on a lark. A new mother hosts an old friend, still single, and discovers how each of them pities-and envies- the other. A young woman responds to an adoptee in search of her birth mother, knowing it is not she.


Click for more detail about A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother by Janny Scott A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother

by Janny Scott
Riverhead Books (May 03, 2011)
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A major publishing event: an unprecedented look into the life of the woman who most singularly shaped Barack Obama—his mother. Barack Obama has written extensively about his father, but little is known about Stanley Ann Dunham, the fiercely independent woman who raised him, the person he credits for, as he says, ""what is best in me."" Here is the missing piece of the story. Award-winning reporter Janny Scott interviewed nearly two hundred of Dunham’s friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, to uncover the full breadth of this woman’s inspiring and untraditional life, and to show the remarkable extent to which she shaped the man Obama is today. Dunham’s story moves from Kansas and Washington state to Hawaii and Indonesia. It begins in a time when interracial marriage was still a felony in much of the United States, and culminates in the present, with her son as our president- something she never got to see. It is a poignant look at how character is passed from parent to child, and offers insight into how Obama’s destiny was created early, by his mother’s extraordinary faith in his gifts, and by her unconventional mothering. Finally, it is a heartbreaking story of a woman who died at age fifty-two, before her son would go on to his greatest accomplishments and reflections of what she taught him.


Click for more detail about All Shot Up (Penguin Modern Classics) by Chester Himes All Shot Up (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Chester Himes
Penguin Books (May 01, 2011)
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A golden Cadillac big enough to cross the ocean has been seen sailing along the streets of Harlem. A hit-and-run victim’s been hit so hard she got embedded in the wall of a convent. A shootout with three heistmen dressed as cops has left an important politician in a coma - and a lot of money missing. And Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are the ones who have to piece it all together.All Shot Up is chaotic, bloody - and completely unforgettable. Chester Himes wrote detective fiction darker, dirtier and more extreme than anyone else dared.


Click for more detail about The White Woman on the Green Bicycle: A Novel by Monique Roffey The White Woman on the Green Bicycle: A Novel

by Monique Roffey
Penguin Books (Apr 26, 2011)
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A beautifully written, unforgettable novel of a troubled marriage, set against the lush landscape and political turmoil of Trinidad

Monique Roffey’s Orange Prize-shortlisted novel is a gripping portrait of postcolonialism that stands among great works by Caribbean writers like Jamaica Kincaid and Andrea Levy.

When George and Sabine Harwood arrive in Trinidad from England, George is immediately seduced by the beguiling island, while Sabine feels isolated, heat-fatigued, and ill-at-ease. As they adapt to new circumstances, their marriage endures for better or worse, despite growing political unrest and racial tensions that affect their daily lives. But when George finds a cache of letters that Sabine has hidden from him, the discovery sets off a devastating series of consequences as other secrets begin to emerge.


Click for more detail about Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor Akata Witch

by Nnedi Okorafor
Viking Books for Young Readers (Apr 14, 2011)
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Read Nnedi Okorafor’s blogs and other content on the Penguin Community.Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she’s albino. She’s a terrific athlete, but can’t go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits. And then she discovers something amazing-she is a "free agent," with latent magical power. Soon she’s part of a quartet of magic students, studying the visible and invisible, learning to change reality. But will it be enough to help them when they are asked to catch a career criminal who knows magic too?


Click for more detail about Can I See Your I.D.?: True Stories of False Identities by Chris Barton Can I See Your I.D.?: True Stories of False Identities

by Chris Barton
Dial (Apr 14, 2011)
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True crime, desperation, fraud, and adventure: From the impoverished young woman who enchanted nineteenth-century British society as a faux Asian princess, to the sixteen-year-old boy who "stole" a subway train in 1993, to the lonely but clever Frank Abagnale of Catch Me if You Can fame, these ten vignettes offer riveting insight into mind-blowing masquerades. Graphic panels draw you into the exploits of these pretenders, and meticulously researched details keep you on the edge of your seat. Each scene is presented in the second person, a unique point of view that literally places you inside the faker’s mind. With motivations that include survival, delusion, and plain, old-fashioned greed, the psychology of deception has never been so fascinating or so close at hand.


Click for more detail about A Reason To Believe: Lessons From An Improbable Life by Deval Patrick A Reason To Believe: Lessons From An Improbable Life

by Deval Patrick
Knopf (Apr 12, 2011)
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“I’ve simply seen too much goodness in this country—and have come so far in my own journey—not to believe in those ideals, and my faith in the future is sometimes restored under the darkest clouds.” —Governor Deval Patrick
 
In January 2007, Deval Patrick became the first black governor of the state of Massachusetts, one of only two black governors elected in American history. But that was just one triumphant step in a long, improbable journey that began in a poor tenement on the South Side of Chicago. From a chaotic childhood to an elite boarding school in New England, from a sojourn doing relief work in Africa to the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, and then to a career in politics, Patrick has led an extraordinary life. In this heartfelt and inspirational book, he pays tribute to the family, friends, and strangers who, through words and deeds, have instilled in him transcendent lessons of faith, perseverance, and friendship. In doing so, he reminds us of the power of community and the imperative of idealism. With humility, humor, and grace, he offers a road map for attaining happiness, empowerment, and success while also making an appeal for readers to cultivate those achievements in others, to feel a greater stake in this world, and to shape a life worth living.
 
Warm, nostalgic, and inspirational, A Reason to Believe is destined to become a timeless tribute to a uniquely American odyssey and a testament to what is possible in our lives and our communities if we are hopeful, generous, and resilient.

GOVERNOR DEVAL PATRICK is donating a portion of the proceeds from A REASON TO BELIEVE to A Better Chance, a national organization dedicated to opening the doors to greater educational opportunities for young people of color. To learn more, visit www.abetterchance.org.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Heartbreak Of A Hustler’s Wife: A Novel by Nikki Turner Heartbreak Of A Hustler’s Wife: A Novel

by Nikki Turner
One World/Ballantine (Apr 05, 2011)
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Long live the Queen of Hip Hop Lit! 
 
Nikki Turner is back with another explosive, page-turning sequel to her #1 bestselling novels A Hustler’s Wife and Forever a Hustler’s Wife.
 
Yarni Taylor is a successful corporate attorney who wants nothing more than for her husband, Des, to renounce his hustlin’ ways and commit to his life as a pastor—especially after someone tries to kill him. But Des isn’t ready to abandon his old habits just yet. He has to find out who is behind the murder attempt, and he wonders if the brazen robbery that took place during one of his church services is related in any way. But before he or Yarni can regain their footing, a young woman shows up on their doorstep—Desember Day, the eighteen-year-old daughter Des never knew he had. And, unfortunately, she takes after her father, so trouble isn’t far behind. 

With their lives on the line, Yarni must sacrifice everything and take it out of the office and back to the streets to save her husband and her family from their checkered but intricately connected pasts.


Click for more detail about The Strawberry Letter: Real Talk, Real Advice, Because Bitterness Isn’t Sexy by Shirley Strawberry The Strawberry Letter: Real Talk, Real Advice, Because Bitterness Isn’t Sexy

by Shirley Strawberry
One World/Ballantine (Apr 05, 2011)
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Listen up, ladies! Shirley Strawberry, co-host of the nationally syndicated Steve Harvey Morning Show, delivers more of the no-nonsense woman-to-woman straight talk her listeners have come to love. Shirley tells it like it is—from the heart. Whether the topic is cheating boyfriends, crazy mothers-in-law, job troubles, or money problems, Shirley’s girlfriend-next-door honesty has made the Strawberry Letters segment of the show a huge hit. Now, in this uplifting motivational guide, she brings her vivacious, inspirational, and down-to-earth message to women everywhere: Get up, get out, and be the best you can be!

As a single parent and a woman willing to let Mr. Right find her, Shirley’s been there and done that—and she’s got hard-won lessons to share. In this call to action to help women look at their lives with a candid eye, she tackles the issues her fans want to hear about:
 
• Love and Relationships: the highs and lows of dating, marriage, and breakups
• Family: the challenges of being a great mom
• Sisterhood: ways to get (and give) the support you need to stay sane
• Self: tips for overcoming low self-esteem and depression, and finding balance, faith, and acceptance

Full of motivating “Strawberry Tips,” personal stories that provide welcome advice on the run, and helpful suggestions for drama-stuck girlfriends, this book offers a simple message of strength: a challenge to love yourself and your life!

Book Review

Click for more detail about Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention by Manning Marable Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention

by Manning Marable
Knopf (Apr 04, 2011)
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Years in the making—the definitive biography of the legendary black activist.

Of the great figure in twentieth-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins’ bullets at age thirty-nine. Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African American man. In death he became a broad symbol of both resistance and reconciliation for millions around the world.

Manning Marable’s new biography of Malcolm is a stunning achievement. Filled with new information and shocking revelations that go beyond the Autobiography, Malcolm X unfolds a sweeping story of race and class in America, from the rise of Marcus Garvey and the Ku Klux Klan to the struggles of the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties. Reaching into Malcolm’s troubled youth, it traces a path from his parents’ activism through his own engagement with the Nation of Islam, charting his astronomical rise in the world of Black Nationalism and culminating in the never-before-told true story of his assassination. Malcolm X will stand as the definitive work on one of the most singular forces for social change, capturing with revelatory clarity a man who constantly strove, in the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.

Also consider A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X by Jared Ball and Todd Steven Burroughs

Book Review

Click for more detail about Time for New Dreams by Ben Okri Time for New Dreams

by Ben Okri
Rider Books (Apr 01, 2011)
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Booker Prize-winning novelist and one of Britain’s foremost poets, Ben Okri is a passionate advocate of the written word. In A Time for New Dreams he breaks new ground in an unusual collection of linked essays, which address such diverse themes as childhood, self-censorship, the role of beauty, the importance of education and the real significance of the recent economic meltdown. Proving that ’true literature tears up the script’ of how we see ourselves, A Time for New Dreams is provocative and thought-provoking. In an intriguing marriage of style and content, the concise but perfectly formed essays in this collection push the parameters of writing whilst asking profound questions about who we are and the future that awaits us.


Click for more detail about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot
Knopf (Mar 08, 2011)
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Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells, taken without her knowledge in 1951, became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew.


Click for more detail about When The Thrill Is Gone (Leonid Mcgill) by Walter Mosley When The Thrill Is Gone (Leonid Mcgill)

by Walter Mosley
Riverhead Hardcover (Mar 08, 2011)
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Leonid McGill is back, in the third-and most enthralling and ambitious-installment in Walter Mosley’s latest New York Times- bestselling series.

The economy has hit the private-investigator business hard, even for the detective designated as "a more than worthy successor to Philip Marlowe" (The Boston Globe) and "the perfect heir to Easy Rawlins" (Toronto Globe and Mail). Lately, Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminals he’s worked so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, his life grows ever more complicated: his favorite stepson, Twill, drops out of school for mysteriously lucrative pursuits; his best friend, Gordo, is diagnosed with cancer and is living on Leonid’s couch; his wife takes a new lover, infuriating the old one and endangering the McGill family; and Leonid’s girlfriend, Aura, is back but intent on some serious conversations…

So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She’s an artist, she tells him, who’s escaped from poverty via marriage to a rich collector who keeps her on a stipend. But she says she fears for her life, and needs Leonid’s help. Though Leonid knows better than to believe every word, this isn’t a job he can afford to turn away, even as he senses that-if his family’s misadventures don’t kill him first-sorting out the woman’s crooked tale will bring him straight to death’s door.


Click for more detail about Pym: A Novel by Mat Johnson Pym: A Novel

by Mat Johnson
Spiegel & Grau (Mar 01, 2011)
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In PYM, recently canned professor of American literature Chris Jaynes is obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe’s strange and only novel,The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. When Jaynes discovers an old manuscript of a memoir that seems to confirm the reality of Poe’s fiction, he conspires to get to Antarctica, the setting for Poe’s book, in hopes of discovering Tsalal, the remote and mythic land of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes with horror. Jaynes imagines it to be the last untouched bastion of the African Diaspora and the key to his personal salvation.

For his expedition, Jaynes convenes an all-black crew ’ some members are going to the South Pole in search of adventure, some for natural resources to exploit, and, for Jaynes at least, the mythical world of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. But soon, he and his fellow adventurers find themselves unable to make contact with the rest of the world and enslaved by the giant white ice creatures that also appear in Poe’s Narrative. With little but the firsthand account from which Poe derived his seafaring tale, a bag of bones, and a stash of Little Debbie snack cakes, Jaynes embarks on an expedition under the permafrost of Antarctica, beneath the surface of American history, and behind one of literature’s great mysteries.

A riveting adventure novel and a cutting, insightful meditation on race, literature, and obsession, PYM is sure to be one of the most inventive and engaging novels of 2011.

"You can trust the veracity of this account: Pym is a spectacularly sly and nimble-footed send-up of this world, the next world, and all points in between. A satire with heart, as courageous as it is cunning." —Colson Whitehead, author of Sag Harbor

"Johnson’s new novel is nothing short of fantastic, in every sense. I fell in love with the voice, the tone and the world of Pym. This is an adventure novel, a work of historical and social commentary, a rumination on identity. The only problem I could find with this novel is that I didn’t write it. It’s a beautiful piece of work." —Percival Everett, author of I Am Not Sidney Poitier

"Johnson has come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and he’s all out of bubble gum. Pym is an adventure, a satire, and a bracing political debate all rolled into one brilliant novel. Edgar Allen Poe has inspired many authors but Mat Johnson has the inspired audacity to both honor and discredit the man, often in the same sentence. I imagine Poe choking on half the things Johnson writes in this novel, and tipping his tiny hat in admiration to the rest." —Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine

"Johnson writes with all the probing intelligence of James Baldwin, the scalding satire of Dany Laferriere and the technique of a master craftsman, all of which make him one of the most exciting, important and gifted writers of his generation. Pym is a moving and accomplished novel." —Chris Abani, author of GraceLand and the Virgin of Flames


Click for more detail about I Beat The Odds: From Homelessness, To The Blind Side, And Beyond by Michael Oher I Beat The Odds: From Homelessness, To The Blind Side, And Beyond

by Michael Oher
Knopf (Feb 08, 2011)
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The football star made famous in the hit film The Blind Side reflects on how far he has come from the circumstances of his youth.

Michael Oher is the young man at the center of the true story depicted in The Blind Side movie (and book) that swept up awards and accolades. Though the odds were heavily stacked against him, Michael had a burning desire deep within his soul to break out of the Memphis inner-city ghetto and into a world of opportunity. While many people are now familiar with Oher’s amazing journey, this is the first time he shares his account of his story in his own words, revealing his thoughts and feelings with details that only he knows, and offering his point of view on how anyone can achieve a better life.

Looking back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, Michael talks about the goals he had for himself in order to break out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family for so long. He recounts poignant stories growing up in the projects and running from child services and foster care over and over again in search of some familiarity. Eventually he grasped onto football as his ticket out of the madness and worked hard to make his dream into a reality.

But Oher also knew he would not be successful alone. With his adoptive family, the Touhys, and other influential people in mind, he describes the absolute necessity of seeking out positive role models and good friends who share the same values to achieve one’s dreams.

Sharing untold stories of heartache, determination, courage, and love, I Beat the Odds is an incredibly rousing tale of one young man’s quest to achieve the American dream.

Book Review

Click for more detail about You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto

by Jaron Lanier
Vintage (Feb 08, 2011)
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A programmer, musician, and father of virtual reality technology, Jaron Lanier was a pioneer in digital media, and among the first to predict the revolutionary changes it would bring to our commerce and culture. Now, with the Web influencing virtually every aspect of our lives, he offers this provocative critique of how digital design is shaping society, for better and for worse.

Informed by Lanier’s experience and expertise as a computer scientist, You Are Not a Gadget discusses the technical and cultural problems that have unwittingly risen from programming choices—such as the nature of user identity—that were “locked-in” at the birth of digital media and considers what a future based on current design philosophies will bring. With the proliferation of social networks, cloud-based data storage systems, and Web 2.0 designs that elevate the “wisdom” of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and wisdom of individuals, his message has never been more urgent.


Click for more detail about Glitz by Philana Marie Boles Glitz

by Philana Marie Boles
Viking Books for Young Readers (Feb 03, 2011)
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Ann Michelle is tired of her boring, sheltered life. She longs for something real. Then she meets Raquel Marissa Diaz-Raq for short. Sassy, streetwise, and totally fearless, Raq is everything Ann Michelle isn’t. She has a voice to die for and the attitude to go with it, and she’ll stop at nothing to be a star. All Ann Michelle wants is to go along for the ride. Even if that means leaving home to go on the road with Piper, both girls’ favorite hip-hop artist. And shedding her identity along the way to become Glitz, a bolder- but not necessarily better-version of herself.

Crackling with authenticity, energy, and heart, Philana Marie Boles’s first young adult novel is about the true meaning of friendship and the pitfalls of fame.

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Click for more detail about America I Am Pass It Down Cookbook: Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes by Jeff Henderson America I Am Pass It Down Cookbook: Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes

by Jeff Henderson
SmileyBooks (Feb 01, 2011)
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                The smells in the kitchen, the unforgettable flavors—these powerful memories of food, family, and tradition are intertwined and have traveled down from generations past to help make us the people we are today. Now, Tavis Smiley’s America I AM exhibit has joined forces with Chef Jeff Henderson and Ramin Ganeshram to create the America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook.  This special keepsake preserves African Americans’ collective food history through touching essays, celebratory menus, and over 130 soul-filled and soul-inspired recipes. There’s something for everyone—from traditional southern cooking like Apryle’s Seafood Gumbo, Craig Robinson’s Mom’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken, and Russel Honoré’s Barbecued Boston Pork Butt, to healthy new millennium twists, including the Duo Dishes’ Honey Dijon Spiced Pecan Coleslaw, Ron Johnson’s Crunchy Collards, and Scott Alves Barton’s Fragrant Jerk Chicken. Irresistible desserts like Mama Mabel’s Apple Dumplings and Saporous Strawberry Cheesecake, and beverages like Very Exciting Fruit Punch and Tom Bullock’s classic Lemonade Apollinaris are sure to delight. As you read this book, you’ll discover the voices of real cooks and their triumphs in the kitchen, and the ways in which African Americans have impacted the way the whole nation eats.  You’ll learn healthy cooking variations filled with heart and soul, and how to make cooking with kids fun. There’s even a section for you to add your own family recipes and “pass it down” to the next generation. It’s time to turn the pages and join us at the table. After all, our shared experience is the greatest feast of all.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Education of a British-protected Child by Chinua Achebe The Education of a British-protected Child

by Chinua Achebe
Penguin Books (Feb 01, 2011)
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The pieces here span reflections on personal and collective identity, on home and family, on literature, language and politics, and on Achebe’s lifelong attempt to reclaim the definition of ’Africa’ for its own authorship. For the first thirty years of his life, before Nigeria’s independence in 1960, Achebe was officially defined as a ’British Protected Person’. In "The Education of a British-Protected Child" he gives us a vivid, ironic and delicately nuanced portrait of growing up in colonial Nigeria and inhabiting its ’middle ground’, interrogating both his happy memories of reading English adventure stories in secondary school and also the harsher truths of colonial rule.


Click for more detail about Mare’s War by Tanita S. Davis Mare’s War

by Tanita S. Davis
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Jan 25, 2011)
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Meet Mare, a World War II veteran and a grandmother like no other. She was once a willful teenager who escaped her less than perfect life in the deep South and lied about her age to join the African American Battalion of the Women’s Army Corps. Now she is driving her granddaughters—two willful teenagers in their own rite—on a cross-country road trip. The girls are initially skeptical of Mare’s flippy wigs and stilletos, but they soon find themselves entranced by the story she has to tell, and readers will be too.

Told in alternating chapters, half of which follow Mare through her experiences as a WAC and half of which follow Mare and her granddaughters on the road in the present day, this novel introduces readers to a larger-than-life character and a fascinating chapter in African American history.


Click for more detail about A Palace in the Old Village: A Novel by Tahar Ben Jelloun A Palace in the Old Village: A Novel

by Tahar Ben Jelloun
Penguin Books (Jan 25, 2011)
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The latest novel from "Morocco’s greatest living author" (The Guardian)

Award-winning, internationally bestselling author Tahar Ben Jelloun’s new novel is the story of an immigrant named Mohammed who has spent forty years in France and is about to retire. Taking stock of his life- his devotion to Islam and to his assimilated children-he decides to return to Morocco, where he spends his life’s savings building the biggest house in the village and waits for his children and grandchildren to come be with him. A heartbreaking novel about parents and children, A Palace in the Old Village captures the sometimes stark contrasts between old- and new-world values, and an immigrant’s abiding pursuit of home.


Click for more detail about A Nation’s Hope: the Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis by Matt De La Peña A Nation’s Hope: the Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis

by Matt De La Peña
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 20, 2011)
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On the eve of World War II, African American boxer Joe Louis fought German Max Schmeling in a bout that had more at stake than just the world heavyweight title; for much of America their fight came to represent America’s war with Germany. This elegant and powerful picture book biography centers around the historic fight in which Black and White America were able to put aside prejudice and come together to celebrate our nation’s ideals.


Click for more detail about The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

by Wes Moore
Knopf (Jan 11, 2011)
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Two kids named Wes Moore were born blocks apart within a year of each other. Both grew up fatherless in similar Baltimore neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods; both hung out on street corners with their crews; both ran into trouble with the police. How, then, did one grow up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader, while the other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence? Wes Moore, the author of this fascinating book, sets out to answer this profound question. In alternating narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.


Click for more detail about The Word: Black Writers Talk About The Transformative Power Of Reading And Writing by Marita Golden The Word: Black Writers Talk About The Transformative Power Of Reading And Writing

by Marita Golden
Knopf (Jan 11, 2011)
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Critically acclaimed Black writers reveal how books have shaped their personal lives—in often unexpected ways.
 
In these thirteen strikingly candid interviews, bestselling authors, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, and writers picked by Oprah’s Book Club discuss how the acts of reading and writing have deeply affected their lives by expanding the conceptual borders of their communities and broadening their sense of self.

Edwidge Danticat movingly recounts the first time she encountered a Black character in a book and how this changed her worldview forever; Edward P. Jones speaks openly about being raised by an illiterate mother; J. California Cooper discusses the spiritual sources of her literary inspiration; Nathan McCall explains how reading saved his life while in prison; Pearl Cleage muses eloquently about how other people’s stories help one make one’s own way in the world; and world-renowned historian John Hope Franklin—in one of the last interviews he gave before his death—touchingly recalls his childhood in the segregated South and how reading opened his mind to life’s greater possibilities.

The stories that emerge from these in-depth interviews not only provide an important record of the creative life of leading Black writers but also explore the vast cultural and spiritual benefits of reading and writing, and they support the growing initiative to encourage people to read as both a passion and a pastime.


Click for more detail about Super Rich: A Guide To Having It All by Russell Simmons and Chris Morrow Super Rich: A Guide To Having It All

by Russell Simmons and Chris Morrow
Knopf (Jan 04, 2011)
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The visionary entrepreneur and author of the New York Times bestseller Do You! delivers a powerful guide to true abundance.

Russell Simmons knows firsthand that wealth is rooted in much more than the stock market. True wealth has more to do with what’s in your heart than what’s in your wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons became one of America’s shrewdest entrepreneurs, achieving a level of success that most investors only dream about. No matter how much material gain he accumulated, he never stopped lending a hand to those less fortunate. In Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare blend of spiritual savvy and street-smart wisdom to offer a new definition of wealth-and share timeless principles for developing an unshakable sense of self that can weather any financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy can make you money, but money can’t make you happy."

In straight-talking inspiring chapters, Simmons provides unforgettable true stories from his own road to riches, delving into the principles and practices that have kept him energized and focused. Whether we’re in the boardroom or on a yoga mat, Simmons says, we have to be able to listen to our inner voices. Finding our unique potential, we can make the right moves, ruled not by money but by the joy of conscientious living and giving. With these philosophies and more, Simmons brings us a stimulus package of consciousness that will never run dry, backed by the power of the higher self.

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Click for more detail about Hope On A Tightrope: Words And Wisdom by Cornel West Hope On A Tightrope: Words And Wisdom

by Cornel West
SmileyBooks (Jan 01, 2011)
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Includes a free CD!

The New York Times best-selling author of Race Matters and Democracy Matters offers open-hearted wisdom for our times in this courageous collection of quotations, speech excerpts, letters, philosophy, and photographs that reflect the profound humanity that fuels the passionate public intellectual. In a world that seesaws between unconditional love and acceptance and blind hatred and exclusion, Hope on a Tightrope will satisfy readers in search of deep wells of inspiration and challenge that marries the mind to the heart. This gift book features an original CD that highlights Dr. West’s outstanding spoken-word artistry. His August 2007 CD release Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations that featured collaborations with best-selling artists Prince, Jill Scott, and Andre 3000 topped the charts as Billboard’s #1 Spoken Word album.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Too Important To Fail: Saving America’s Boys (Tavis Smiley Reports) by Tavis Smiley Too Important To Fail: Saving America’s Boys (Tavis Smiley Reports)

by Tavis Smiley
SmileyBooks (Jan 01, 2011)
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Too Important to Fail: Saving America’s Boys is the companion volume to TAVIS SMILEY REPORTS PBS special which is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of its American Graduate: Let’s Make It Happen initiative. It examines an undeclared crisis in Americaâ??the staggering dropout rate among young black males. In countless urban schools the graduation rate has plummeted to less than 20% and nationwide fewer than 50% of young black males will graduate from high school. Low graduation rates combined with disproportionate rates of suspensions, expulsion and young black males assigned to special education classes, fuel this state of emergency.Tavis Smiley’s candid conversations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Oakland with frontline experts and educators, detention center administrators and the boys themselves urges viewers to ponder the societal and economic cost of losing another generation of uneducated young black males to lifetimes of prison and poverty. This volume picks up where the special leaves off with expanded discussion, dot-connecting data and real life examples of the information and resources needed to harness our frustration and concern into collective and effective action. The e-book contains an extensive resource guide that lists 125 organizations who have a stake in solving this monumental challenge.


Click for more detail about The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations by Ira Berlin The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations

by Ira Berlin
Penguin Group USA (Dec 28, 2010)
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An award-winning historian’s sweeping new interpretation of the African American experience.

In this masterful account, Ira Berlin, one of the nation’s most distinguished historians, offers a revolutionary-and sure to be controversial-new view of African American history. In The Making of African America, Berlin challenges the traditional presentation of a linear, progressive history from slavery to freedom. Instead, he puts forth the idea that four great migrations, between the seventeenth and twenty-first centuries, lie at the heart of black American culture and its development. With an engrossing, accessible narrative, Berlin traces the transit from Africa to America, Virginia to Alabama, Biloxi to Chicago, Lagos to the Bronx, and in the process finds the essence of black American life.


Click for more detail about Teenie by Christopher Grant Teenie

by Christopher Grant
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Dec 28, 2010)
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High school freshman Martine (Teenie for short) is a good student, with a bright future ahead of her. She’s desperate to be accepted into a prestigious study abroad program in Spain so that she can see what life is like beyond the streets of Brooklyn. She wouldn’t mind escaping from her strict (though lovable) parents for awhile either. But when the captain of the basketball team starts to pay attention to her after she’s pined away for him for months and Cherise, her best friend, meets a guy online, Teenie’s mind is on anything but her schoolwork. Teenie’s longtime crush isn’t what he seemed to be, nor is her best friend’s online love. Can Teenie get her act together in time to save her friendship with Cherise, save her grade point average so that she can study in Spain, and save herself from a potentially dangerous relationship?

Christopher Grant makes a stunning literary debut with this warmly told story about friends, family, and finding oneself.


Click for more detail about Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart: A Cookbook by Maya Angelou Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart: A Cookbook

by Maya Angelou
Random House (Dec 14, 2010)
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“At one time, I described myself as a cook, a driver, and a writer. I no longer drive, but I do still write and I do still cook. And having reached the delicious age of eighty-one, I realize that I have been feeding other people and eating for a long time. I have been cooking nearly all my life, so I have developed some philosophies.”

Renowned and beloved author Maya Angelou returns to the kitchen—both hers and ours—with her second cookbook, filled with time-tested recipes and the intimate, autobiographical sketches of how they came to be. Inspired by Angelou’s own dramatic weight loss, the focus here is on good food, well-made and eaten in moderation. When preparing for a party, for example, Angelou says, “Remember, cooking large amounts of food does not mean that you are obligated to eat large portions.” When you create food that is full of flavor, you will find that you need less of it to feel satisfied, and you can use one dish to nourish yourself all day long.

And oh, what food you will create! Savor recipes for Mixed-Up Tamale Pie, All Day and Night Cornbread, Sweet Potatoes McMillan, Braised Lamb with White Beans, and Pytt I Panna (Swedish hash.) All the delicious dishes here can be eaten in small portions, and many times a day. More important, they can be converted into other mouth-watering incarnations. So Crown Roast of Pork becomes Pork Tacos and Pork Fried Rice, while Roasted Chicken becomes Chicken Tetrazzini and Chicken Curry. And throughout, Maya Angelou’s rich and wise voice carries the food from written word to body-and-soul-enriching experience.

Featuring gorgeous illustrations throughout and Angelou’s own tips and tricks on everything from portion control to timing a meal, Great Food, All Day Long is an essential reference for everyone who wants to eat better and smarter—and a delightful peek into the kitchen and the heart of a remarkable woman.


Click for more detail about Decoded by Jay-Z Decoded

by Jay-Z
Spiegel & Grau (Nov 16, 2010)
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Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.

“Hip-hop’s renaissance man drops a classic… . Heartfelt, passionate and slick.”— Kirkus, starred review

Book Review

Click for more detail about Of Thee I Sing: A Letter To My Daughters by Barack Obama Of Thee I Sing: A Letter To My Daughters

by Barack Obama
Alfred A. Knopf (Nov 16, 2010)
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In this tender, beautiful letter to his daughters, President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped our nation. From the artistry of Georgia O’Keeffe, to the courage of Jackie Robinson, to the patriotism of George Washington, President Obama sees the traits of these heroes within his own children, and within all of America’s children.

Breathtaking, evocative illustrations by award-winning artist Loren Long at once capture the personalities and achievements of these great Americans and the innocence and promise of childhood.

This beautiful book celebrates the characteristics that unite all Americans, from our nation’s founders to generations to come. It is about the potential within each of us to pursue our dreams and forge our own paths. It is a treasure to cherish with your family forever.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Peace From Broken Pieces: How To Get Through What You’re Going Through by Iyanla Vanzant Peace From Broken Pieces: How To Get Through What You’re Going Through

by Iyanla Vanzant
SmileyBooks (Nov 15, 2010)
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New York Times best-selling author Iyanla Vanzant recounts the last decade of her life and the spiritual lessons learned—from the price of success during her meteoric rise as a TV celebrity on Oprah, the Iyanla TV show (produced by Barbara Walters), to the dissolution of her marriage and her daughter’s 15 months of illness and death on Christmas day. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Iyanla shares why everything we need to learn is reflected in our relationships and the strength and wisdom she has gained by supporting others in their journeys to make sense out of the puzzle pieces of their lives.


Click for more detail about Black Business Secrets: 500 Tips, Strategies, And Resources For The African American Entrepreneur by Dante Lee Black Business Secrets: 500 Tips, Strategies, And Resources For The African American Entrepreneur

by Dante Lee
SmileyBooks (Nov 15, 2010)
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"Should I lower my price point? Give my new product away for free online? How do I compete when my goods, services, or business model might be duplicated? In this candid, 21st-century-savvy guide, Dante Lee illustrates how passion can become profit by addressing the questions that every businessperson needs to ask. Black Business Secrets discusses the entrepreneurial skills that African-American business owners must master in order to compete in a world where most new companies fail within three years. Whether you’re a weekend entrepreneur or a career-changing professional, Lee’s motto "don’t be a worrier, be a warrior" - applies. From personal branding to best practices, this empowering blueprint offers surefire tips and strategies designed to ensure business survival and success.

Book Review

Click for more detail about I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This by Jacqueline Woodson I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This

by Jacqueline Woodson
Puffin Books (Nov 11, 2010)
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Twelve-year-old Marie is a leader among the popular black girls in Chauncey, Ohio, a prosperous black suburb. She isn’t looking for a friend when Lena Bright, a white girl, appears in school. Yet they are drawn to each other because both have lost their mothers. And they know how to keep a secret. For Lena has a secret that is terrifying, and she’s desperate to protect herself and her younger sister from their father. Marie must decide whether she can help Lena by keeping her secret…or by telling it.


Click for more detail about The Dear One by Jacqueline Woodson The Dear One

by Jacqueline Woodson
Puffin Books (Nov 11, 2010)
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An intriguing look at teen pregnancy from a three-time Newbery Honor winning author

Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

Feni is furious when she finds out that her mother has agreed to take a fifteen-year-old pregnant girl into their home until her baby is born. What kind of girl would let herself get into so much trouble? How can Feni live under the same roof as someone like that? Her worst fears are confirmed when Rebecca arrives: she is mean, bossy, and uneducated. Feni decided she will have nothing to do with her. But it’s hard not to be curious about a girl so close to her own age who seems so different…


Click for more detail about Lena by Jacqueline Woodson Lena

by Jacqueline Woodson
Puffin Books (Nov 11, 2010)
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A compelling story of survival from a three-time Newbery Honor winning author

Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

At the end of I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This, Lena and her younger sister, Dion, set off on their own, desperate to escape their abusive father. Disguised as boys, they hitchhike along, traveling in search of their mother’s relatives. They don’t know what they will find, or who they can trust along the way, but they do know that they can’t afford to make even one single mistake. Dramatic and moving, this is a heart-wrenching story of two young girls in search of a place to call home.


Click for more detail about In the Falling Snow by Caryl Phillips In the Falling Snow

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Nov 02, 2010)
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From one of our most admired fiction writers: the searing story of breakdown and recovery in the life of one man and of a society moving from one idea of itself to another.
 
Keith—born in England in the early 1960s to immigrant West Indian parents but primarily raised by his white stepmother—is a social worker heading a Race Equality unit in London whose life has come undone. He is separated from his wife of twenty years, kept at arm’s length by his teenage son, estranged from his father, and accused of harassment by a coworker. And beneath it all, he has a desperate feeling that his work—even in fact his life—is no longer relevant.
 
Deeply moving in its portrayal of the vagaries of family love and bold in its scrutiny of the personal politics of race, this is Caryl Phillips’s most powerful novel yet.


Click for more detail about The Next Big Story: My Journey Through The Land Of Possibilities (Celebra Books) by Soledad O’Brien The Next Big Story: My Journey Through The Land Of Possibilities (Celebra Books)

by Soledad O’Brien
Celebra (Nov 02, 2010)
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An intimate look behind the CNN journalist’s most compelling reporting moments and how it has shaped her perspective on America’s future.

"Story is our medium. It’s how we connect emotionally with our viewers. And it’s how we make sense of our world…When we talk about a ’big story,’ we’re really talking about what resonates with people, what matters to them…And I think when it comes to our national narrative, what we need to realize is that we’re all contributing to the story, that we can affect where this country is going."

From top CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien comes a highly personal look at her biggest reporting moments from Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the devastating Haiti earthquake to the historic elections and high profile interviews with everyday Americans. Drawing on her own unique background and consciousness as well as her experiences as a journalist at the front lines of the most provocative issues in today’s society-and particularly from her work as host of the acclaimed series Black in America and Latino in America-O’Brien offers her candid, clear-eyed take on where we are as a country and where we’re going.

What emerges is both an inspiring message of hope and a glimpse into the heart and soul of one of America’s most straight-talking reporters.

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Book Review

Click for more detail about The Challenge For Africa by Wangari Maathai The Challenge For Africa

by Wangari Maathai
Anchor (Oct 19, 2010)
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The troubles of Africa today are severe and wide-ranging. Yet, too often, they are portrayed by the media in extreme terms connoting poverty, dependence, and desperation. Here Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, offers a refreshingly unique perspective on these challenges, even as she calls for a moral revolution among Africans themselves.
 
Illuminating the complex and dynamic nature of the continent, Maathai offers “hardheaded hope” and “realistic options” for change and improvement. She deftly describes what Africans can and need to do for themselves, stressing all the while responsibility and accountability. Impassioned and empathetic, The Challenge for Africa is a book of immense importance.


Click for more detail about Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir by Cornel West Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir

by Cornel West
SmileyBooks (Oct 15, 2010)
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New York Times­ best-selling author Cornel West is one of America’s most provocative and admired public intellectuals. Whether in the classroom, the streets, the prisons, or the church, Dr. West’s penetrating brilliance has been a bright beacon shining through the darkness for decades. Yet, as he points out in this new memoir, “I’ve never taken the time to focus on the inner dynamics of the dark precincts of my soul.” That is, until now. Brother West is like its author: brilliant, unapologetic, full of passion yet cool. This poignant memoir traces West’s transformation from a schoolyard Robin Hood into a progressive cultural icon. From his youthful investigation of the “death shudder” to why he embraced his calling of teaching over preaching, from his three marriages and his two precious children to his near-fatal bout with prostate cancer, West illuminates what it means to live as “an aspiring bluesman in a world of ideas and a jazzman in the life of the mind.” Woven together with the fibers of his lifelong commitment to the prophetic Christian tradition that began in Sacramento’s Shiloh Baptist Church, Brother West is a tale of a man courageous enough to be fully human, living and loving out loud.


Click for more detail about How To Read The Air by Dinaw Mengestu How To Read The Air

by Dinaw Mengestu
Riverhead Hardcover (Oct 14, 2010)
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From the prizewinning international literary star: the searing and powerful story of one man’s search for redemption. Dinaw Mengestu’s first novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, earned the young writer comparisons to Bellow, Fitzgerald, and Naipaul, and garnered ecstatic critical praise and awards around the world for its haunting depiction of the immigrant experience. Now Mengestu enriches the themes that defined his debut with a heartbreaking literary masterwork about love, family, and the power of imagination, which confirms his reputation as one of the brightest talents of his generation.One early September afternoon, Yosef and Mariam, young Ethiopian immigrants who have spent all but their first year of marriage apart, set off on a road trip from their new home in Peoria, Illinois, to Nashville, Tennessee, in search of a new identity as an American couple. Soon, their son, Jonas, will be born in Illinois. Thirty years later, Yosef has died, and Jonas needs to make sense of the volatile generational and cultural ties that have forged him. How can he envision his future without knowing what has come before? Leaving behind his marriage and job in New York, Jonas sets out to retrace his mother and father’s trip and weave together a family history that will take him from the war-torn Ethiopia of his parents’ youth to his life in the America of today, a story—real or invented—that holds the possibility of reconciliation and redemption.Watch a Video


Click for more detail about Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir Of Family by Condoleezza Rice Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir Of Family

by Condoleezza Rice
Knopf (Oct 12, 2010)
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Condoleezza Rice has excelled as a diplomat, political scientist, and concert pianist.  Her achievements run the gamut from helping to oversee the collapse of communism in Europe and the decline of the Soviet Union, to working to protect the country in the aftermath of 9-11, to becoming only the second woman - and the first black woman ever — to serve as Secretary of State.
 
But until she was 25 she never learned to swim.
 
Not because she wouldn’t have loved to, but because when she was a little girl in Birmingham, Alabama, Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor decided he’d rather shut down the city’s pools than give black citizens access.
 
Throughout the 1950’s, Birmingham’s black middle class largely succeeded in insulating their children from the most corrosive effects of racism, providing multiple support systems to ensure the next generation would live better than the last.  But by 1963, when Rice was applying herself to her fourth grader’s lessons, the situation had grown intolerable.  Birmingham was an environment where blacks were expected to keep their head down and do what they were told — or face violent consequences. That spring two bombs exploded in Rice’s neighborhood amid a series of chilling Klu Klux Klan attacks.  Months later, four young girls lost their lives in a particularly vicious bombing.
 
So how was Rice able to achieve what she ultimately did?
 
Her father, John, a minister and educator, instilled a love of sports and politics.  Her mother, a teacher, developed Condoleezza’s passion for piano and exposed her to the fine arts.  From both, Rice learned the value of faith in the face of hardship and the importance of giving back to the community.  Her parents’ fierce unwillingness to set limits propelled her to the venerable halls of Stanford University, where she quickly rose through the ranks to become the university’s second-in-command.  An expert in Soviet and Eastern European Affairs, she played a leading role in U.S. policy as the Iron Curtain fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated.  Less than a decade later, at the apex of the hotly contested 2000 presidential election, she received the exciting news – just shortly before her father’s death – that she would go on to the White House as the first female National Security Advisor. 
 
As comfortable describing lighthearted family moments as she is recalling the poignancy of her mother’s cancer battle and the heady challenge of going toe-to-toe with Soviet leaders, Rice holds nothing back in this remarkably candid telling. This is the story of Condoleezza Rice that has never been told, not that of an ultra-accomplished world leader, but of a little girl – and a young woman — trying to find her place in a sometimes hostile world and of two exceptional parents, and an extended family and community, that made all the difference.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Trouble With Nigeria by Chinua Achebe The Trouble With Nigeria

by Chinua Achebe
Penguin UK (Sep 21, 2010)
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Beautifully written yet highly controversial, An Image of Africa asserts Achebe’s belief in Joseph Conrad as a ’bloody racist’ and his conviction that Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness only serves to perpetuate damaging stereotypes of black people. Also included is The Trouble with Nigeria, Achebe’s searing outpouring of his frustrations with his country. GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.


Click for more detail about Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith Flygirl

by Sherri L. Smith
Penguin Books (Sep 16, 2010)
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Praise For Flygirl
The Washington Post Best Kids’ Books of the Year
ALA Best Books for Young Adults
California Book Awards Young Adult Gold Medal Winner
Texas Tayshas High School Reading List
Children’s Indie Next List
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books
Capital Choices Noteworthy Books for Children
Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices

All Ida Mae Jones wants to do is fly. Her daddy was a pilot, and years after his death she feels closest to him when she’s in the air. But as a young black woman in 1940s Louisiana, she knows the sky is off limits to her, until America enters World War II, and the Army forms the WASP-Women Airforce Service Pilots. Ida has a chance to fulfill her dream if she’s willing to use her light skin to pass as a white girl. She wants to fly more than anything, but Ida soon learns that denying one’s self and family is a heavy burden, and ultimately it’s not what you do but who you are that’s most important.


Click for more detail about Replenishing The Earth: Spiritual Values For Healing Ourselves And The World by Wangari Maathai Replenishing The Earth: Spiritual Values For Healing Ourselves And The World

by Wangari Maathai
Doubleday Religion (Sep 14, 2010)
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An impassioned call to heal the wounds of our planet and ourselves through the tenets of our spiritual traditions, from a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
 
It is so easy, in our modern world, to feel disconnected from the physical earth. Despite dire warnings and escalating concern over the state of our planet, many people feel out of touch with the natural world. Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai has spent decades working with the Green Belt Movement to help women in rural Kenya plant—and sustain—millions of trees. With their hands in the dirt, these women often find themselves empowered and “at home” in a way they never did before. Maathai wants to impart that feeling to everyone, and believes that the key lies in traditional spiritual values: love for the environment, self-betterment, gratitude and respect, and a commitment to service. While educated in the Christian tradition, Maathai draws inspiration from many faiths, celebrating the Jewish mandate tikkun olam (“repair the world”) and renewing the Japanese term mottainai (“don’t waste”). Through rededication to these values, she believes, we might finally bring about healing for ourselves and the earth.


Click for more detail about Getting To Happy by Terry McMillan Getting To Happy

by Terry McMillan
Knopf (Sep 07, 2010)
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An exuberant return to the four unforgettable heroines of Waiting to Exhale—the novel that changed African American fiction forever. Terry McMillan’s Waiting to Exhale was more than just a bestselling novel—its publication was a watershed moment in literary history. McMillan’s sassy and vibrant story about four African American women struggling to find love and their place in the world touched a cultural nerve, inspired a blockbuster film, and generated a devoted audience. Now, McMillan revisits Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine, and Robin fifteen years later. Each is at her own midlife crossroads: Savannah has awakened to the fact that she’s made too many concessions in her marriage, and decides to face life single again—at fifty-one. Bernadine has watched her megadivorce settlement dwindle, been swindled by her husband number two, and conned herself into thinking that a few pills will help distract her from her pain. Robin has an all-American case of shopaholism, while the big dream of her life—to wear a wedding dress—has gone unrealized. And for years, Gloria has taken happiness and security for granted. But being at the wrong place at the wrong time can change everything. All four are learning to heal past hurts and to reclaim their joy and their dreams; but they return to us full of spirit, sass, and faith in one another. They’ve exhaled: now they are learning to breathe.


Click for more detail about How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack: Defend Yourself When the Lawn Warriors Strike (and They Will) by Chuck Sambuchino How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack: Defend Yourself When the Lawn Warriors Strike (and They Will)

by Chuck Sambuchino
Ten Speed Press (Sep 07, 2010)
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Chuck Sambuchino of Writer’s Digest Books edits the GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS and the CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. His Guide to Literary Agents Blog is one of the largest blogs in publishing. His 2010 humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK, was optioned by Sony Pictures. His latest humor book, WHEN CLOWNS ATTACK: A SURVIVAL GUIDE (Sept. 29, 2015), will protect people everywhere from malicious bozos and jokers who haunt our lives. His books have been mentioned in Reader’s Digest, USA Today, the New York Times, The Huffington Post, Variety, New York Magazine, and more.


Click for more detail about The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings by James Baldwin and Randall Kenan The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings

by James Baldwin and Randall Kenan
Pantheon Books (Aug 24, 2010)
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The Cross of Redemption is a revelation by an American literary master: a gathering of essays, articles, polemics, reviews, and interviews that have never before appeared in book form.
 
James Baldwin was one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the past century, renowned for his fierce engagement with issues haunting our common history. In The Cross of Redemption we have Baldwin discoursing on, among other subjects, the possibility of an African-American president and what it might mean; the hypocrisy of American religious fundamentalism; the black church in America; the trials and tribulations of black nationalism; anti-Semitism; the blues and boxing; Russian literary masters; and the role of the writer in our society.
 
Prophetic and bracing, The Cross of Redemption is a welcome and important addition to the works of a cosmopolitan and canonical American writer who still has much to teach us about race, democracy, and personal and national identity. As Michael Ondaatje has remarked, “If van Gogh was our nineteenth-century artist-saint, Baldwin [was] our twentieth-century one.”

Book Review

Click for more detail about Tempted By Trouble by Eric Jerome Dickey Tempted By Trouble

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Aug 17, 2010)
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New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey returns with a flaming-hot stand-alone set in the world of conmen and thieves.

We can plan all we want, but sometimes fate has a different agenda…

Dmytryk was a respectable man… once. College educated, happily married, a stable job at a car factory in Detroit. He’s the king of the world with nowhere to go but up. But when a crippling recession annihilates the auto industry, Dmytryk and his wife Cora suddenly find themselves without jobs. And after two years of trying to live honestly, they begin to realize that honesty just doesn’t pay the bills.

Afraid of losing her home and her marriage, Cora compromises her faith and makes some choices that she isn’t proud of. And when a powerful and ruthless crime boss named Eddie Coyle gives them an opportunity to buy back their old lives, Cora urges Dmytryk to man up. All he has to do is join Eddie’s crime ring and rob some banks: two minutes, in and out, nobody gets hurt. Torn between desperation and his moral integrity, Dmytryk gives in, but no sooner does he enter a life of crime than Cora abandons him, taking with her his dreams for a better life and disappearing without a trace.

Now, more determined than ever to get his life back on track, Dmytryk is only one bank job away from having enough money to leave Eddie Coyle and find Cora. But when the job goes dangerously wrong, he realizes yet again that destiny has another plan for him. Forced into seclusion with one of his partners — a dangerous and damaged woman with a plan of her own - Dmytryk wonders if he’ll ever find his way back to his old life. And in the end, will he even want to?


Click for more detail about Keena Ford and the Field Trip Mix-Up by Melissa Thomson Keena Ford and the Field Trip Mix-Up

by Melissa Thomson
Puffin Books (Aug 12, 2010)
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Keena Ford is so excited to go on a field trip to the United States Capitol with her second-grade class! At school, she is running for a spot on the student council, and on the field trip she’s going to meet a real live U.S. representative. The only trouble is, mean Tiffany Harris keeps teasing Keena and taking the best place in line. Keena doesn’t mean to get into trouble, but trouble seems to find her anyway!


Click for more detail about Plus by Veronica Chambers Plus

by Veronica Chambers
Razorbill (Aug 05, 2010)
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The perfect romantic makeover story about an every-girl whose dream comes true … Beatrice Wilson is our lovable Cinderella, who just got dumped by her very first boyfriend and put on twenty-five pounds. But then she?s discovered as a plus model. In the eyes of pop culture, Bee is Jessica Alba and then some! Now she must vanquish skinny rivals, fend off sleazy photogs, and banish jealous frenemies in her rise to superstardom. All the while, she?s torn between her first love and the surprisingly sincere up-and-coming rapper she tutors in calculus. But what?s better than finding your prince charming? Finally learning to love yourself!


Click for more detail about Resurrecting Midnight by Eric Jerome Dickey Resurrecting Midnight

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Aug 03, 2010)
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The New York Times bestselling author does it again-in a fierce new novel of seduction, intrigue, and betrayal.

Gideon, a hired gun, trusts no one. But when his former lover resurfaces in need of his skills, Gideon accepts. The assignment leads to Argentina and a team of international mercenaries who will maim, kill, and torture to achieve victory. One of them has a connection to Gideon that neither assassin is aware of, a secret link that reaches into Gideon’s past and plunges him into a double-cross so explosive no one will make it out unscarred.


Click for more detail about Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson Peace, Locomotion

by Jacqueline Woodson
Puffin Books (Jul 08, 2010)
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The stunning companion to the National Book Award finalist—from a three-time Newbery Honor winning author

Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

Twelve-year-old Lonnie is finally feeling at home with his foster family. But because he’s living apart from his little sister, Lili, he decides it’s his job to be the "rememberer"—and write down everything that happens while they’re growing up. Lonnie’s musings are bittersweet; he’s happy that he and Lili have new families, but though his new family brings him joy, it also brings new worries. With a foster brother in the army, concepts like Peace have new meaning for Lonnie.Told through letters from Lonnie to Lili, this thought-provoking companion to Jacqueline Woodson’s National Book Award finalist Locomotion tackles important issues in captivating, lyrical language. Lonnie’s reflections on family, loss, love and peace will strike a note with readers of all ages.


Click for more detail about Behind You by Jacqueline Woodson Behind You

by Jacqueline Woodson
Puffin Books (Jul 08, 2010)
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A moving story of love and loss from National Book Award winner , Jacqueline Woodson. Great for fans of Angie Thomas and Nic Stone.

Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

You are so light you move with the wind and the snow… . And it lifts you up-over a world of sadness and anger and fear. Over a world of first kisses and hands touching and someone you’re falling in love with. She’s there now. Right there… .Miah and Ellie were in love. Even though Miah was black and Ellie was white, they made sense together. Then Miah was killed. This was the ending.And it was the beginning of grief for the many people who loved Miah. Now his mother has stopped trying, his friends are lost and Ellie doesn’t know how to move on. And there is Miah, watching all of this—unable to let go.How do we go on after losing someone we love? This is the question the living and the dead are asking.With the help of each other, the living will come together. Miah will sit beside them. They will feel Miah in the wind, see him in the light, hear him in their music. And Miah will watch over them, until he is sure each of those he loved is all right.This beautiful sequel to Jacqueline Woodson’s If You Come Softly explores the experiences of those left behind after tragedy. It is a novel in which through hope, understanding and love, healing begins.


Click for more detail about From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun by Jacqueline Woodson From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun

by Jacqueline Woodson
Puffin Books (Jul 08, 2010)
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Three-time Newbery Honor author Jacqualine Woodson explores race and sexuality through the eyes of a compelling narrator

Melanin Sun has a lot to say. But sometimes it’s hard to speak his mind, so he fills up notebooks with his thoughts instead. He writes about his mom a lot—they’re about as close as they can be, because they have no other family. So when she suddenly tells him she’s gay, his world is turned upside down. And if that weren’t hard enough for him to accept, her girlfriend is white. Melanin Sun is angry and scared. How can his mom do this to him—is this the end of their closeness? What will his friends think? And can he let her girlfriend be part of their family?


Click for more detail about Dear Darkness: Poems by Kevin Young Dear Darkness: Poems

by Kevin Young
Knopf (Jul 06, 2010)
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Delivered in Young’s classic bluesy tone, this powerful collection of poems about the American family, smoky Southern food, and the losses that time inevitably brings “bristles with life, nerve and, best of all, wit” (San Francisco Chronicle).


Click for more detail about A Place Where Hurricanes Happen by Howard Zinn A Place Where Hurricanes Happen

by Howard Zinn
Random House Books for Young Readers (Jun 22, 2010)
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Natural and man-made disasters are becoming more commonplace in children’s lives, and this touching free-verse picture book provides a straightforward account of Hurricane Katrina. In alternating voices, four friends describe their lives before, during, and after the storm and how, even though the world can change in a heartbeat, people define the character of their community and offer one another comfort and hope even in the darkest hours.
Adrienne, Keesha, Michael, and Tommy have been friends for forever. They live on the same street—a street in New Orleans where everyone knows everybody. They play together all day long, every chance they get. It’s always been that way. But then people start talking about a storm headed straight for New Orleans. The kids must part ways, since each family deals with Hurricane Katrina in a different manner. And suddenly everything that felt like home is gone.
Renée Watson’s lyrical free verse is perfectly matched in Shadra Strickland’s vivid mixed media art. Together they celebrate the spirit and resiliency of New Orleans, especially its children.


Click for more detail about America I Am Journal by Clarence V. Reynolds America I Am Journal

by Clarence V. Reynolds
SmileyBooks (Jun 15, 2010)
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What will you leave behind? It’s time to discover the unique and indelible life imprint that only you can create. Filled with inspiring quotations from those who have made a lasting impression on our culture and left a rich legacy, the AIA Journal will encourage you to reflect on what makes your life worth living. Record the positive imprints of your life’s journey, every day, in this beautiful journal inspired by the AIA exhibit.

Book Review

Click for more detail about You Don’t Know Me: Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles by Ray Charles Robinson Jr. You Don’t Know Me: Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles

by Ray Charles Robinson Jr.
Crown (Jun 08, 2010)
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A deeply personal memoir of the private Ray Charles - the man behind the legend - by his eldest son.

Ray Charles is an American music legend. A multiple Grammy Award-winning composer, pianist, and singer with an inimitable vocal style and a catalog of hits including “What I Say,” “Georgia on My Mind,” “Unchain My Heart,” “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” and “America the Beautiful,” Ray Charles’s music is loved by fans around the world.

Now his eldest son, Ray Charles Robinson Jr., shares an intimate glimpse of the man behind the music, with never-before-told stories. Going beyond the fame, the concerts, and the tours, Ray Jr. opens the doors of his family home and reveals their private lives with fondness and frankness.

He shares his father’s grief and guilt over his little brother’s death at the age of five as well of moments of personal joy, like watching his father run his hands over the Christmas presents under their tree while singing softly to himself. He tells of how Ray overcame the challenges of being blind, even driving cars, riding a Vespa, and flying his own plane. And, in gripping detail, he reveals how as a six-year-old boy he saved his father’s life one harrowing night.

Ray Jr. writes honestly about the painful facts of the addiction that nearly destroyed his father’s life. His father’s struggles with heroin addiction, his arrests, and how he ultimately kicked the drug cold turkey are presented in unflinching detail. Ray Jr. also shares openly about how, as an adult, he fell victim to the same temptations that plagued his father.

He paints a compassionate portrait of his mother, Della, whose amazing voice as a gospel singer first attracted Ray Charles. Though her husband’s drug use, his womanizing, and the paternity suits leveled against him constantly threatened the stability of the Robinson home, Della exhibited incredible resilience and inner strength.

Told with deep love and fearless candor, You Don’t Know Me is the powerful and poignant story of the Ray Charles the public never saw the father and husband and fascinating human being who also happened to be one of the greatest musicians of all time.


Click for more detail about The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Thing Around Your Neck

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Anchor (Jun 01, 2010)
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In these twelve dazzlng stories, the bestselling, award-winning Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States. Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, these stories map, with Adichie’s signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them.


Click for more detail about The Blueprint: A Plan For Living Above Life’s Storms by Kirk Franklin and Denene Millner The Blueprint: A Plan For Living Above Life’s Storms

by Kirk Franklin and Denene Millner
Knopf (May 18, 2010)
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Seven–time Grammy award winning artist offers an inspiring blend of God and grit for building a fulfilling life “The Blueprint is a transparent approach to talking about issues-from marriage to politics to sex and religion-and it’s from my perspective. Not from a Princeton, mainline, protestant, evangelical or liberal viewpoint, but from a 2010 Christian moderate with swag.—…Kirk Franklin “The Blueprint is a transparent approach to talking about issues-from marriage to politics to sex and religion-and it’s from my perspective. Not from a Princeton, mainline, protestant, evangelical or liberal viewpoint, but from a 2010 Christian moderate with swag."" …Kirk Franklin Gospel artist Kirk Franklin’s faith wasn’t always as strong as it is today. His father abandoned his family; his mother constantly told Kirk that he was an unwanted child and left him to be adopted when he was four; his sister became a crack addict; he never saw a black man who was faithful in marriage. Despite his shaky foundation he found strength and success through his music and through God.

In The Blueprint, Franklin will explain how by communicating with life’s architect, God, he learned to see hardships as necessary life propellants and moved on to become the bestselling gospel musician in recent history, as well as a devoted husband and loving father.

This is not a step program, it’s a lifelong journey. With Franklin’s guidance, you will:

  • pursue your dreams without losing yourself in the chase
  • do some lifescaping to eliminate the “weeds” that hold you back
  • declare your life to be drama-free
  • get past your fears, so you can live and love fully
  • pass the baton to future generations by leading by example
It’s time to take faith out of the church pews and into our everyday lives. With hope, devotion, and strength, The Blueprint offers a plan to help you move beyond hardships to create your own personal Blueprint for life.


Click for more detail about The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron

by Howard Bryant
Pantheon Books (May 11, 2010)
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In the thirty-four years since his retirement, Henry (Hank) Aaron’s reputation has only grown in magnitude. But his influence extends beyond statistics, and at long last here is the first definitive biography of one of baseball’s immortal figures.
 
Based on meticulous research and extensive interviews The Last Hero reveals how Aaron navigated the upheavals of his time—fighting against racism while at the same time benefiting from racial progress—and how he achieved his goal of continuing Jackie Robinson’s mission to obtain full equality for African Americans, both in baseball and society, while he lived uncomfortably in the public eye. Eloquently written, detailed and penetrating, this is a revelatory portrait of a complicated, private man who through sports became an enduring American icon.


Click for more detail about Brainwashed by Tom Burrell Brainwashed

by Tom Burrell
SmileyBooks (May 07, 2010)
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"Black people are not dark-skinned white people," says advertising visionary Tom Burrell. In fact, they are much more. They are survivors of the Middle Passage and centuries of humiliation and deprivation, who have excelled against the odds, constantly making a way out of "No way!" At this pivotal point in history, the idea of black inferiority should have had a "Going-Out-of-Business Sale." After all, Barack Obama has reached America’s Promise Land.

Yet, as Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority testifies, too many in black America are still wandering in the wilderness. In this powerful examination of "the greatest propaganda campaign of all time"-the masterful marketing of black inferiority, aka the BI Complex-Burrell poses ten disturbing questions that will make black people look in the mirror and ask why, nearly 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, so many blacks still think and act like slaves. Burrell’s acute awareness of the power of words and images to shift, shape, and change the collective consciousness has led him to connect the contemporary and historical dots that have brought us to this crossroads.

Brainwashed is not a reprimand-it is a call to action. It demands that we question our self-defeating attitudes and behaviors. Racism is not the issue; how we respond to media distortions and programmed self-hatred is the issue. It’s time to reverse the BI campaign with a globally based initiative that harnesses the power of new media and the wisdom of intergenerational coalitions. Provocative and powerful, Brainwashed dares to expose the wounds so that we, at last, can heal.


Click for more detail about A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison by Reginald Dwayne Betts A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison

by Reginald Dwayne Betts
Avery (May 04, 2010)
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A unique prison narrative that testifies to the power of books to transform a young man’s life

At the age of sixteen, R. Dwayne Betts—a good student from a lower-middle-class family-carjacked a man with a friend. He had never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. In Virginia, carjacking is a ""certifiable"" offense, meaning that Betts would be treated as an adult under state law. A bright young kid, he served his nine-year sentence as part of the adult population in some of the worst prisons in the state.

A Question of Freedom chronicles Betts’s years in prison, reflecting back on his crime and looking ahead to how his experiences and the books he discovered while incarcerated would define him. Utterly alone, Betts confronts profound questions about violence, freedom, crime, race, and the justice system. Confined by cinder-block walls and barbed wire, he discovers the power of language through books, poetry, and his own pen. Above all, A Question of Freedom is about a quest for identity-one that guarantees Betts’s survival in a hostile environment and that incorporates an understanding of how his own past led to the moment of his crime.


Click for more detail about Losing My Cool: How A Father’s Love And 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture by Thomas Chatterton Williams Losing My Cool: How A Father’s Love And 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture

by Thomas Chatterton Williams
Penguin Press (Apr 29, 2010)
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A pitch-perfect account of how hip-hop culture drew in the author and how his father drew him out again-with love, perseverance, and fifteen thousand books.

Into Williams’s childhood home-a one-story ranch house-his father crammed more books than the local library could hold. "Pappy" used some of these volumes to run an academic prep service; the rest he used in his unending pursuit of wisdom. His son’s pursuits were quite different-"money, hoes, and clothes." The teenage Williams wore Medusa- faced Versace sunglasses and a hefty gold medallion, dumbed down and thugged up his speech, and did whatever else he could to fit into the intoxicating hip-hop culture that surrounded him. Like all his friends, he knew exactly where he was the day Biggie Smalls died, he could recite the lyrics to any Nas or Tupac song, and he kept his woman in line, with force if necessary.

But Pappy, who grew up in the segregated South and hid in closets so he could read Aesop and Plato, had a different destiny in mind for his son. For years, Williams managed to juggle two disparate lifestyles- "keeping it real" in his friends’ eyes and studying for the SATs under his father’s strict tutelage. As college approached and the stakes of the thug lifestyle escalated, the revolving door between Williams’s street life and home life threatened to spin out of control. Ultimately, Williams would have to decide between hip-hop and his future. Would he choose "street dreams" or a radically different dream- the one Martin Luther King spoke of or the one Pappy held out to him now?

Williams is the first of his generation to measure the seductive power of hip-hop against its restrictive worldview, which ultimately leaves those who live it powerless. Losing My Cool portrays the allure and the danger of hip-hop culture like no book has before. Even more remarkably, Williams evokes the subtle salvation that literature offers and recounts with breathtaking clarity a burgeoning bond between father and son.

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Book Review

Click for more detail about Stars Of The New Curfew by Ben Okri Stars Of The New Curfew

by Ben Okri
Knopf (Apr 27, 2010)
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To enter the world of Ben Okri’s stories is to surrender to a new reality. Set in the chaotic streets of Lagos and the jungle heart of Nigeria, all the laws of cause and effect, fact and fiction, are suspended. It is a world where the lives of the powerless veer terrifyingly close to nightmare. In rich, lyrical, almost hallucinatory prose Ben Okri guides us through the fabulous and the mundane, the serene and the randomly violent. The unrelenting Nigerian heat and the implacable darkness of the black-out and the military curfew are the backdrops for his characters each finding their own ways to survive. We witness their dogged resistance to impotence, their unquenchable humour and their insistence on the possibility of love in the face of terror. Written with the lucid clarity and logic of dream, Stars of the New Curfew is a book of visionary imagination.


Click for more detail about In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance by Wilbert Rideau In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance

by Wilbert Rideau
Knopf (Apr 27, 2010)
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From Wilbert Rideau, the award-winning journalist who spent forty-four years in Louisiana prisons working against unimaginable odds to redeem himself, the story of a remarkable life: a crime, its punishment, and ultimate triumph.

After killing a woman in a moment of panic following a botched bank robbery, Rideau, denied a fair trial, was improperly sentenced to death at the age of nineteen. After more than a decade on death row, his sentence was amended to life imprisonment, and he joined the inmate population of the infamous Angola penitentiary. Soon Rideau became editor of the prison newsmagazine The Angolite, which under his leadership became an uncensored, daring, and crusading journal instrumental in reforming the violent prison and the corrupt Louisiana justice system.

With the same incisive feel for detail that brought Rideau great critical acclaim, here he brings to vivid life the world of the prison through the power of his pen. We see Angola’s unique culture, encompassing not only rivalries, sexual slavery, ingrained racism, and daily, soul-killing injustices but also acts of courage and decency by keeper and kept alike. As we relive Rideau’s remarkable rehabilitation—he lived a more productive life in prison than do most outside—we also witness his long struggle for justice.

In the Place of Justice goes far beyond the confines of a prison memoir, giving us a searing exposé of the failures of our legal system framed within the dramatic tale of a man who found meaning, purpose, and hope in prison. This is a deeply moving, eloquent, and inspirational story about perseverance, unexpected friendships and love, and the possibility that good can be forged under any circumstances.


Click for more detail about The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

by Wes Moore
Spiegel & Grau (Apr 27, 2010)
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Two kids with the same name lived in the same decaying city. One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Here is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation.
 
In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore. 

Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen?

That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had grown up in similar neighborhoods and had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies.

Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.


Click for more detail about Lebron’s Dream Team: How Four Friends and I Brought a Championsip Home by Lebron James Lebron’s Dream Team: How Four Friends and I Brought a Championsip Home

by Lebron James
Penguin Books (Apr 27, 2010)
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The DREAM TEAM was a bunch of kids from Akron, Ohio-LeBron James and his best friends-who first met on a youth basketball team of the same name when they were ten and eleven years old. United by their love of the game and their yearning for companionship, they quickly forged a bond which would carry them through thick and thin (a lot of thin) and, at last, to the brink of a national championship.

They were a motley group who faced challenges all too typical of inner-city America. LeBron grew up without a father and had moved with his mother more than a dozen times by the age of 10. Willie McGee, the quiet one, had left both his parents behind in Chicago to be raised by his older brother in Akron. Dru Joyce was outspoken, and his dad, who was ever-present, would end up coaching all five of the boys in high school. Sian Cotton, who also played football, was the happy-go-lucky enforcer, while Romeo Travis was unhappy, bitter, even surly, until he finally opened himself up to the bond his team mates offered.

In the summer after seventh grade, the DREAM TEAM tasted glory when they qualified for a national championship tournament in Memphis. But they lost their focus, and had to go home early. They promised each other they would stay together and do whatever it took to win a national title.

They had no idea how hard it would be to pursue that promise. In the years that followed, they would endure jealousy, hostility, exploitation, resentment from the black community (because they went to a “white” high school), and the consequence of their own over-confidence. Not least, they would all have to wrestle with LeBron’s outsize success, which brought too much attention and even a whiff of scandal their way. But together these five boys became men as they sought a national championship.


Click for more detail about A Game Of Character: A Family Journey From Chicago’s Southside To The Ivy League And Beyond by Craig Malcolm Robinson A Game Of Character: A Family Journey From Chicago’s Southside To The Ivy League And Beyond

by Craig Malcolm Robinson
Knopf (Apr 20, 2010)
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The eagerly anticipated inspirational memoir from Michelle Obama’s brother, celebrating the extraordinary family members and mentors who have shaped his life

When he stepped into history’s spotlight at the National Democratic Convention, Craig Robinson recalls that nothing could have been more gratifying than introducing his sister, Michelle Obama, to millions of Americans. Within minutes, he won the hearts of the nation by sharing highlights of growing up in the modest Robinson household, where the two were raised by devoted parents who taught them the values of education, hard work, and the importance of reaching far beyond what even seemed possible.

Those lessons of character were fundamentals in shaping Craig Robinson’s own remarkable journey: from his days playing street basketball on Chicago’s Southside, while excelling academically, to admission at Princeton University, where he was later named Ivy League Player of the Year, twice. After playing professionally in Europe, Robinson made an about-face, entering the competitive field of finance. With his MBA from the University of Chicago, his meteoric rise landed him a partnership in a promising new venture. But another dream beckoned and Craig made the unusual decision to forego the trappings of money and status in the business world in order to become a basketball coach. He soon helped transform three struggling teams - as an assistant coach at Northwestern, then as head coach at Brown and now at Oregon State University. In his first season at OSU, he navigated what was declared to be one of the nation’s best single season turnarounds.

In A Game of Character, Robinson takes readers behind the scenes to meet his most important influences in his understanding of the winning traits that are part of his playbook for success. Central to his story are his parents, Marian and Fraser, two indefatigable individuals who showed their children how to believe in themselves and live their lives with conviction through love, discipline and respect. With insights into this exemplary family, we relive memories of how Marian sacrificed a career to be a full-time mom, how Fraser got up and went to work every day while confronting the challenges of multiple sclerosis, how Craig and Michelle strengthened their bond as they journeyed out of the Southside to Princeton University and eventually, the national stage.

Heartwarming, inspiring, and even transformational, A Game of Character comes just at the right time in an era of change, reminding readers of our opportunity to work together and embrace the character of our nation, to make a difference in the lives of others and to pave the way for the next generation.

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Book Review

Click for more detail about Till You Hear From Me: A Novel by Pearl Cleage Till You Hear From Me: A Novel

by Pearl Cleage
One World/Ballantine (Apr 20, 2010)
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From the acclaimed Pearl Cleage, author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day … and Seen It All and Done the Rest, comes an Obama-era romance featuring a cast of unforgettable characters.
 
Just when it appears that all her hard work on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is about to pay off with a White House job, thirty-five-year-old Ida B. Wells Dunbar finds herself on Washington, D.C.’s post-election sidelines even as her twentysomething counterparts overrun the West Wing. Adding to her woes, her father, the Reverend Horace A. Dunbar, Atlanta civil rights icon and self-described “foot soldier for freedom,” is notoriously featured on an endlessly replayed YouTube clip in which his pronouncements don’t exactly jibe with the new era in American politics.

    The Rev’s stinging words and myopic views don’t sound anything like the man who raised Ida to make her mark in the world. When friends call to express their concern, Ida realizes it’s time to head home and see for herself what’s going on. Besides, with her job prospects growing dimmer, getting out of D.C. for a while might be the smartest move she could make.

    Back in her old West End neighborhood, Ida runs into childhood friend and smooth political operator Wes Harper, also in town to pay a visit to the Reverend Dunbar, his mentor. Ida doesn’t trust Wes or his mysterious connections for one second, but she can’t deny her growing attraction to him.
 
While Ida and the Rev try to find the balance between personal loyalties and political realities, they must do some serious soul searching in order to get things back on track before Wes permanently derails their best laid plans.


Click for more detail about Relapse: A Novel by Nikki Turner Relapse: A Novel

by Nikki Turner
One World/Ballantine (Apr 20, 2010)
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Nikki Turner, Queen of Hip-Hop Lit, is back with one of her gutsiest female characters yet, a glamorous chick with a high-end hustle that can rival any man’s game.
 
As the respected, renowned concierge for a luxury hotel chain, Beijing Lee caters to the wealthy and famous. Whether it’s securing a dinner reservation, a fleet of limos, or a record deal, or protecting her clients from the paparazzi, there’s nothing Beijing can’t do. She’s stacked up an impressive pile of IOUs from the world’s elite—and one day she decides it’s time to start cashing in. Before long, she’s a five-star diva running her own lucrative business, where she secures her clients their most outrageous—and increasingly illegal—desires.

But Beijing has her own addiction: a man named Lootchee, who lavishes her with even more diamonds and luxury than she already has. But behind Lootchee’s charm and over-the-top romantic gestures is a selfish, high-stakes hustler who lures Beijing into a dangerous web that takes even this seasoned enterpriser by surpise, and breaks her heart in the process.

Once the ball finally drops, it’ll take a ghost from Beijing’s past to rescue her—not only from those who are out to seriously harm her, but from herself.


Click for more detail about Oprah: A Biography by Kitty Kelley Oprah: A Biography

by Kitty Kelley
Knopf (Apr 13, 2010)
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For the past twenty-five years, no one has been better at revealing secrets than Oprah Winfrey. On what is arguably the most influential show in television history, she has gotten her guests—often the biggest celebrities in the world—to bare their love lives, explore their painful pasts, admit their transgressions, reveal their pleasures, and explore their demons. In turn, Oprah has repeatedly allowed her audience to share in her own life story, opening up about the sexual abuse in her past and discussing her romantic relationships, her weight problems, her spiritual beliefs, her charitable donations, and her strongly held views on the state of the world.

After a quarter of a century of the Oprah-ization of America, can there be any more secrets left to reveal? Yes. Because Oprah has met her match.

Kitty Kelley has, over the same period of time, fearlessly and relentlessly investigated and written about the world’s most revered icons: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, England’s Royal Family, and the Bush dynasty. In her #1 bestselling biographies, she has exposed truths and exploded myths to uncover the real human beings that exist behind their manufactured facades.

Turning her reportorial sights on Oprah, Kelley has now given us an unvarnished look at the stories Oprah’s told and the life she’s led. Kelley has talked to Oprah’s closest family members and business associates. She has obtained court records, birth certificates, financial and tax records, and even copies of Oprah’s legendary (and punishing) confidentiality agreements. She has probed every aspect of Oprah Winfrey’s life, and it is as if she’s written the most extraordinary segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show ever filmed—one in which Oprah herself is finally and fully revealed.

There is a case to be made, and it is certainly made in this book, that Oprah Winfrey is an important, and even great, figure of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. But there is also a case to be made that even greatness needs to be examined and put under a microscope. Fact must be separated from myth, truth from hype. Kitty Kelley has made that separation, showing both sides of Oprah as they have never been shown before. In doing so she has written a psychologically perceptive and meticulously researched book that will surprise and thrill everyone who reads it.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Life Is Short but Wide by J. California Cooper Life Is Short but Wide

by J. California Cooper
Knopf (Apr 06, 2010)
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Like the small towns J. California Cooper has so vividly portrayed in her previous novels, Wideland, Oklahoma, is home to ordinary Americans with big hearts. Among them are newlyweds Irene and Val, who graciously allow their neighbors, Bertha and Joseph, to build a house on their land. Together the couples have three daughters, all who struggle to find love and success in the changing world. But although the years may bring hardship and heartache, they also teach the importance of living one’s life boldly and squeezing out every possible moment of joy. An irresistible story of faith and family, Life Is Short But Wide proves that no matter who you are or what you do, you are never too old to chase your dreams.


Click for more detail about Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Triptych (Modern Library Classics) by Marie Vieux-Chauvet Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Triptych (Modern Library Classics)

by Marie Vieux-Chauvet
Modern Library (Mar 30, 2010)
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Available in English for the first time, Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s stunning trilogy of novellas is a remarkable literary event. In a brilliant translation by Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokur, Love, Anger, Madness is a scathing response to the struggles of race, class, and sex that have ruled Haiti. Suppressed upon its initial publication in 1968, this major work became an underground classic and was finally released in an authorized edition in France in 2005.

In Love, Anger, Madness, Marie Vieux-Chauvet offers three slices of life under an oppressive regime. Gradually building in emotional intensity, the novellas paint a shocking portrait of families and artists struggling to survive under Haiti’s terrifying government restrictions that have turned its society upside down, transforming neighbors into victims, spies, and enemies.

In “Love,” Claire is the eldest of three sisters who occupy a single house. Her dark skin and unmarried status make her a virtual servant to the rest of the family. Consumed by an intense passion for her brother-in-law, she finds redemption in a criminal act of rebellion.

In “Anger,” a middle-class family is ripped apart when twenty-year-old Rose is forced to sleep with a repulsive soldier in order to prevent a government takeover of her father’s land.

And in “Madness,” René, a young poet, finds himself trapped in a house for days without food, obsessed with the souls of the dead, dreading the invasion of local military thugs, and steeling himself for one final stand against authority.

Sympathetic, savage and truly compelling with an insightful introduction by Edwidge Danticat, Love, Anger, Madness is an extraordinary, brave and graphic evocation of a country in turmoil.


From the Hardcover edition.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Lighthead (Poets, Penguin) by Terrance Hayes Lighthead (Poets, Penguin)

by Terrance Hayes
Penguin Books (Mar 30, 2010)
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Winner of the 2010 National Book Award for Poetry

In his fourth collection, Terrance Hayes investigates how we construct experience. With one foot firmly grounded in the everyday and the other hovering in the air, his poems braid dream and reality into a poetry that is both dark and buoyant. Cultural icons as diverse as Fela Kuti, Harriet Tubman, and Wallace Stevens appear with meditations on desire and history. We see Hayes testing the line between story and song in a series of stunning poems inspired by the Pecha Kucha, a Japanese presenta­tion format. This innovative collection presents the light- headedness of a mind trying to pull against gravity and time. Fueled by an imagination that enlightens, delights, and ignites, Lighthead leaves us illuminated and scorched.


Click for more detail about Ossuaries by Dionne Brand Ossuaries

by Dionne Brand
McClelland & Stewart (Mar 30, 2010)
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Dionne Brand’s hypnotic, urgent long poem – her first book of poetry in four years, is about the bones of fading cultures and ideas, about the living museums of spectacle where these bones are found. At the centre of Ossuaries is the narrative of Yasmine, a woman living an underground life, fleeing from past actions and regrets, in a perpetual state of movement. She leads a solitary clandestine life, crossing borders actual (Algiers, Cuba, Canada), and timeless. Cold-eyed and cynical, she contemplates the periodic crises of the contemporary world. This is a work of deep engagement, sensuality, and ultimate craft from an essential observer of our time and one of the most accomplished poets writing today.


Click for more detail about Unzipped: An Urban Erotic Tale by Noire Unzipped: An Urban Erotic Tale

by Noire
One World/Ballantine (Mar 23, 2010)
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Have you ever had everything you love snatched from your hands in the blink of an eye? Do you know what it’s like to watch helplessly as those you cherish burn to a crisp? Have you ever heard a mournful cry for street justice and then realized that the only person left to heed the call was you?
 
Pearl Baines is a straight Harlem stunna. She and her twin sister, Diamond, are chased by some of the most notorious ballers in New York City. But while their father, ex-gangsta Irish Baines, devotes his life to rehabilitating young thugs, his sexy twin daughters fall hard for the glamour and glitter of strip clubs and street life. Unlike Diamond, though, Pearl is able to shake off the trappings of the hood in search of a better future. After graduating at the top of her class, Pearl becomes an FBI agent and plans to get as far away from the grime of Harlem as possible. But fate is cruel and the streets always get their due. On what should have been the happiest night of her life, Pearl’s family perishes in a ball of merciless flames—flames intentionally set on the orders of Mookie Mason, her father’s archenemy and the most ruthless gangsta in Harlem.

Crazed with grief, Pearl becomes unzipped. Hell-bent on retribution, she prepares for battle in New York’s urban jungle. With the help of Menace, an ex-lover who once trampled all over her heart but was deeply loyal to Irish Baines, Pearl puts her FBI training and tactical skills to work in a murderous mission designed to do what her father wasn’t able to: take down Mookie Mason, and his entire crew, one at a time.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Known To Evil (Leonid Mcgill, Book 2) by Walter Mosley Known To Evil (Leonid Mcgill, Book 2)

by Walter Mosley
Riverhead Hardcover (Mar 23, 2010)
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The Walter Mosley and his new hero, Leonid McGill, are back in the new New York Times-bestselling mystery series that’s already being hailed as a classic of contemporary noir.

Leonid McGill—the protagonist introduced in The Long Fall, the book that returned Walter Mosley to bestseller lists nationwide—is still fighting to stick to his reformed ways while the world around him pulls him in every other direction. He has split up with his girlfriend, Aura, because his new self won’t let him leave his wife—but then Aura’s new boyfriend starts angling to get Leonid kicked out of his prime, top-of-the­skyscraper office space. Meanwhile, one of his sons seems to have found true love—but the girl has a shady past that’s all of a sudden threatening the whole McGill family—and his other son, the charming rogue Twilliam, is doing nothing but enabling the crisis.

Most ominously of all, Alfonse Rinaldo, the mysterious power-behind-the-throne at City Hall, the fixer who seems to control every little thing that happens in New York City, has a problem that even he can’t fix—and he’s come to Leonid for help. It seems a young woman has disappeared, leaving murder in her wake, and it means everything to Rinaldo to track her down. But he won’t tell McGill his motives, which doesn’t quite square with the new company policy—but turning down Rinaldo is almost impossible to even contemplate.

Known to Evil delivers on all the promise of the characters and story lines introduced in The Long Fall, and then some. It careens fast and deep into gritty, glittery contemporary Manhattan, making the city pulse in a whole new way, and it firmly establishes Leonid McGill as one of the mystery world’s most iconic, charismatic leading men.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Big Machine: A Novel by Victor Lavalle Big Machine: A Novel

by Victor Lavalle
Spiegel & Grau (Mar 09, 2010)
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A fiendishly imaginative comic novel about doubt, faith, and the monsters we carry within us.


Ricky Rice was as good as invisible: a middling hustler, recovering dope fiend, and traumatized suicide cult survivor running out the string of his life as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York. Until one day a letter appears, summoning him to the frozen woods of Vermont. There, Ricky is inducted into a band of paranormal investigators comprised of former addicts and petty criminals, all of whom had at some point in their wasted lives heard The Voice: a mysterious murmur on the wind, a disembodied shout, or a whisper in an empty room that may or may not be from God.

Evoking the disorienting wonder of writers like Haruki Murakami and Kevin Brockmeier, but driven by Victor LaValle’s perfectly pitched comic sensibility Big Machine is a mind-rattling literary adventure about sex, race, and the eternal struggle between faith and doubt.


Click for more detail about Dreams In A Time Of War: A Childhood Memoir by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Dreams In A Time Of War: A Childhood Memoir

by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Pantheon Books (Mar 09, 2010)
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By the world-renowned novelist, playwright, critic, and author of Wizard of the Crow, an evocative and affecting memoir of childhood.
 
Ngugi wa Thiong’o was born in 1938 in rural Kenya to a father whose four wives bore him more than a score of children. The man who would become one of Africa’s leading writers was the fifth child of the third wife. Even as World War II affected the lives of Africans under British colonial rule in particularly unexpected ways, Ngugi spent his childhood as very much the apple of his mother’s eye before attending school to slake what was then considered a bizarre thirst for learning.
 
In Dreams in a Time of War, Ngugi deftly etches a bygone era, capturing the landscape, the people, and their culture; the social and political vicissitudes of life under colonialism and war; and the troubled relationship between an emerging Christianized middle class and the rural poor. And he shows how the Mau Mau armed struggle for Kenya’s independence against the British informed not only his own life but also the lives of those closest to him.
 
Dreams in a Time of War speaks to the human right to dream even in the worst of times. It abounds in delicate and powerful subtleties and complexities that are movingly told.


Click for more detail about Saving Maddie by Varian Johnson Saving Maddie

by Varian Johnson
Delacorte Books for Young Readers (Mar 09, 2010)
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Joshua Wynn is a preacher’s son and a “good boy” who always does the right thing. Until Maddie comes back to town. Maddie is the daughter of the former associate pastor of Joshua’s church, and his childhood crush. Now Maddie is all grown up, gorgeous—and troubled. She wears provocative clothes to church, cusses, drinks, and fools around with older men. Joshua’s ears burn just listening to the things she did to get kicked out of boarding school, and her own home.

As time goes on, Josh goes against his parents and his own better instincts to keep Maddie from completely capsizing. Along the way, he begins to question his own rigid understanding of God and whether, as his mother says, a girl like Maddie is beyond redemption. Maddie leads Josh further astray than any girl ever has … but is there a way to reconcile his love for her and his love for his life in the church?


Click for more detail about A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats A Letter to Amy

by Ezra Jack Keats
Puffin Books (Mar 05, 2010)
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Generations of children have read, re-read, and loved Ezra Jack Keats?s award-winning, classic stories about Peter and his neighborhood friends. Now, for the first time, Peter?s Chair, A Letter to Amy, and Goggles! are available in paperback exclusively from Puffin.?A master of ingenious collages, AKeats? has made brilliant variegated pictures?? — The Horn BookEzra Jack Keats (1916?1983) was the beloved author and/or illustrator of over eighty-five books for children.


Click for more detail about A Taste of Honey: Stories by Jabari Asim A Taste of Honey: Stories

by Jabari Asim
Broadway Books (Mar 02, 2010)
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Poignant and powerful, this debut collection from preeminent writer and critic Jabari Asim heralds his arrival as an exciting new voice in African American fiction.______________________________________________________________________ Through a series of fictional episodes set against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent years in modern history, Asim brings into pin-sharp focus how the tumultuous events of ’68 affected real people’s lives and shaped the country we live in today.   The sixteen connected stories in this exciting debut are set in the fictional Midwestern town of Gateway City, where second generation off-spring of the Great Migrators have pieced together a thriving, if fragile existence.  With police brutality on the rise, the civil rights movement gaining momentum, and wars raging at home and abroad, Asim has conjured a community that stands on edge.  But it is the individual struggles with love, childrearing, adolescence, etc, lyrically chronicled here, that create a piercing portrait of humanity. In I’d Rather Go Blind and Zombies, young Crispus Jones, who while sensitive to the tremors of upheaval around him is still much more concerned with his crush on neighbor Polly and if he’s ever going to be as cool as his brother.   When Ray Mortimer, a white cop, kills the owner of his favorite candy store, Crispus becomes aware of malice even more scary than zombies and the ghost that he thinks may be haunting his house.   In The Wheat from the Tares and A Virtuous Woman, Rose Whittier deals with her abusive husband with a desperate resignation until his past catches up with him and she’s given a second chance at love.  And Gabriel, her suitor, realizes that his whole-hearted commitment to The Struggle may have to give way for his own shot at romance. And in Ashes to Ashes we see how a single act of despicable violence in their childhoods cements a lasting connection between two unlikely friends.  From Crispus’ tender innocence to Ray Mortimer’s near pure evil, to Rose’s quiet determination, the characters in this book and their journeys showcase a world that is brimming with grace and meaning and showcases the talents of a writer at the top of his game.


Click for more detail about The Little Black Book Of Success: Laws Of Leadership For Black Women by Elaine Meryl Brown, Marsha Haygood, and Rhonda Joy Mclean The Little Black Book Of Success: Laws Of Leadership For Black Women

by Elaine Meryl Brown, Marsha Haygood, and Rhonda Joy Mclean
One World/Ballantine (Mar 02, 2010)
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In this engaging and invaluable “mentor in your pocket,” three dynamic and successful black female executives share their strategies to help all black women, at any level of their careers, play the power game—and win.

Rich with wisdom, this practical gem focuses on the building blocks of true leadership—self-confidence, effective communication, collaboration, and courage—while dealing specifically with stereotypes (avoid the Mammy Trap, and don’t become the Angry Black Woman) and the perils of self-victimization (don’t assume that every challenge occurs because you are black or female).

Some leaders are born, but most leaders are made—and The Little Black Book of Success will show you how to make it to the top, one step at a time.


Click for more detail about The Ex Chronicles: A Novel by Carol Taylor The Ex Chronicles: A Novel

by Carol Taylor
Plume (Feb 23, 2010)
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The creator of the bestselling Brown Sugar series returns with her first sexy novel In a New York City rife with emotional land mines, four friends search for Mr. Right but too often settle for Mr. Right Now. Precious, a struggling writer, discovers her fiancé Darius in bed with another woman, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting him. Bella, the wise-cracking, over-indulged only child of an absent diplomat father and pill-popping socialite mother, knows her boyfriend Julius is using her, but before she can give him up she has to give up her first love, alcohol. Half black, half British Zenobia sacrifices a successful modeling career for Malcolm, her overly critical boyfriend, but when she strays she fears she’s made a terrible mistake. Bourgie Hope, the creative director of a high-fashion magazine, is hiding her dementia- ridden mother and her debilitating depression, while trying to resist a strong attraction to her new driver Derrick, a single dad from the projects. Funny and sexy, heartbreaking and inspiring, The Ex-Chronicles is a novel about faith in one’s self, trust in one’s friends and the sacrifices we make in the name of love.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Safe From The Neighbors by Steve Yarbrough Safe From The Neighbors

by Steve Yarbrough
Knopf (Jan 26, 2010)
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Luke May teaches local history—his lifelong obsession—at his old high school in Loring, Mississippi. Having been mentored by his hometown newspaper’s publisher, a survivor of the civil rights turmoil, he now passes these stories along to students far too young to have experienced or, in some cases, even heard about them.

But when a long-lost friend suddenly returns to Loring, where years ago her family had been shattered by an act of spectacular violence, Luke begins to realize that his connection with her runs deeper, both personally and politically, than he ever imagined. Just children in 1962, they had no sense of what was happening when James Meredith’s enrollment at Ole Miss provoked a bloody new battle in the old Civil War, much less its impact on their fathers’ ambiguous friendship.

Once his daughters leave for Ole Miss, and with his marriage at an impasse, Luke’s investigation of this decades-old trauma soon spills over into his own life. With his parents unwilling, or unable, to help him unlock secrets whose existence he’d never suspected, this amateur historian is soon entirely consumed by an obscure past he can neither explain nor control—a gripping reminder that the past isn’t dead, or even past.

Once again Steve Yarbrough powerfully evokes—as David Guterson put it—“not only historical grief but the grief of our own time.”

Book Review

Click for more detail about Three Days Before The Shooting… by Ralph Ellison Three Days Before The Shooting…

by Ralph Ellison
Modern Library (Jan 26, 2010)
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At his death in 1994, Ralph Ellison left behind roughly two thousand pages of his unfinished second novel, which he had spent nearly four decades writing. Long awaited, it was to have been the work Ellison intended to follow his masterpiece, Invisible Man. Five years later, Random House published Juneteenth, drawn from the central narrative of Ellison’s unfinished epic.

Three Days Before the Shooting … gathers together in one volume, for the first time, all the parts of that planned opus, including three major sequences never before published. Set in the frame of a deathbed vigil, the story is a gripping multigenerational saga centered on the assassination of the controversial, race-baiting U.S. senator Adam Sunraider, who’s being tended to by “Daddy” Hickman, the elderly black jazz musician turned preacher who raised the orphan Sunraider as a light-skinned black in rural Georgia. Presented in their unexpurgated, provisional state, the narrative sequences form a deeply poetic, moving, and profoundly entertaining book, brimming with humor and tension, composed in Ellison’s magical jazz-inspired prose style and marked by his incomparable ear for vernacular speech.

Beyond its richly compelling narratives, Three Days Before the Shooting … is perhaps most notable for its extraordinary insight into the creative process of one of this country’s greatest writers. In various stages of composition and revision, its typescripts and computer files testify to Ellison’s achievement and struggle with his material from the mid-1950s until his death forty years later. Three Days Before the Shooting … is an essential, fascinating piece of Ralph Ellison’s legacy, and its publication is to be welcomed as a major event for American arts and letters.

Book Review

Click for more detail about FDR’s Alphabet Soup: New Deal America 1932-1939 by Tonya Bolden FDR’s Alphabet Soup: New Deal America 1932-1939

by Tonya Bolden
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Jan 12, 2010)
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FDR’S New Deal, which followed the 1929 stock market crash, was a hugely influential moment in the history of the United States, encompassing everything from the arts to finance, labor to legislation, and some think it helped bring the country out of the Great Depression. Here, Tonya Bolden, writing in her trademark accessible style, creates a portrait of a time that changed American history both then and now.

FDR’s First 100 Days and how the United States was changed by it then are closely examined, especially now. The 2009 financial situation is eerily mirrored by that of the late 1920s, and this is a perfect book to help teens understand history and its lasting impact on current events.


Click for more detail about Back of the Bus by Aaron Reynolds Back of the Bus

by Aaron Reynolds
Philomel Books (Jan 07, 2010)
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With childlike words and powerful illustrations, Reynolds and Coretta Scott King medalist Cooper recount Rosa Parks’ act of defiance through the eyes of a child—who will never forget. Full color.


Click for more detail about Miracle’s Boys by Jacqueline Woodson Miracle’s Boys

by Jacqueline Woodson
Penguin Young Readers Group (Jan 07, 2010)
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From a three-time Newbery Honor author, a novel that was awarded the 2001 Coretta Scott King award and the Los Angeles Times Book PrizeFor Lafayette and his brothers, the challenges of growing up in New York City are compounded by the facts that they’ve lost their parents and it’s up to eldest brother Ty’ree to support the boys, and middle brother Charlie has just returned home from a correctional facility.Lafayette loves his brothers and would do anything if they could face the world as a team. But even though Ty’ree cares, he’s just so busy with work and responsibility. And Charlie’s changed so much that his former affection for his little brother has turned to open hostility.Now, as Lafayette approaches 13, he needs the guidance and answers only his brothers can give him. The events of one dramatic weekend force the boys to make the choice to be there for each other—to really see each other—or to give in to the pain and problems of every day.


Click for more detail about After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson After Tupac and D Foster

by Jacqueline Woodson
Puffin Books (Jan 07, 2010)
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 A Newbery Honor Book

Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

The day D Foster enters Neeka and her best friend’s lives, the world opens up for them. Suddenly they’re keenly aware of things beyond their block in Queens, things that are happening in the world—like the shooting of Tupac Shakur—and in search of their Big Purpose in life. When—all too soon—D’s mom swoops in to reclaim her, and Tupac dies, they are left with a sense of how quickly things can change and how even all-too-brief connections can touch deeply.

Includes a Discussion Guide by Jacqueline Woodson


"A slender, note-perfect novel."—The Washington Post

"The subtlety and depth with which the author conveys the girls’ relationships lend this novel exceptional vividness and staying power."—Publishers Weekly 

"Jacqueline Woodson has written another absorbing story that all readers—especially those who have felt the loss of a friendship—will identify with."—Children’s Literature  "Woodson creates a thought-provoking story about the importance of acceptance and connections in life."—VOYA


Click for more detail about If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson If You Come Softly

by Jacqueline Woodson
Speak (Jan 07, 2010)
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A heartbreaking contemporary romance from a three-time Newbery Honor winning author

Jeremiah feels good inside his own skin. That is, when he’s in his own Brooklyn neighborhood. But now he’s going to be attending a fancy prep school in Manhattan, and black teenage boys don’t exactly fit in there. So it’s a surprise when he meets Ellie the first week of school. In one frozen moment their eyes lock and after that they know they fit together — even though she’s Jewish and he’s black. Their worlds are so different, but to them that’s not what matters. Too bad the rest of the world has to get in their way. Reviewers have called Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson’s work "exceptional" (Publishers Weekly) and "wrenchingly honest" (School Library Journal), and have said "it offers a perspective on racism and elitism rarely found in fiction for this age group" (Publishers Weekly). In If You Come Softly, she delivers a powerful story of interracial love that leaves readers wondering "why" and "if only…."


Click for more detail about Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson Locomotion

by Jacqueline Woodson
Speak (Jan 07, 2010)
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Finalist for the National Book Award

When Lonnie was seven years old, his parents died in a fire. Now he’s eleven, and he still misses them terribly. And he misses his little sister, Lili, who was put into a different foster home because "not a lot of people want boys-not foster boys that ain’t babies." But Lonnie hasn’t given up. His foster mother, Miss Edna, is growing on him. She’s already raised two sons and she seems to know what makes them tick. And his teacher, Ms. Marcus, is showing him ways to put his jumbled feelings on paper.

Told entirely through Lonnie’s poetry, we see his heartbreak over his lost family, his thoughtful perspective on the world around him, and most of all his love for Lili and his determination to one day put at least half of their family back together. Jacqueline Woodson’s poignant story of love, loss, and hope is lyrically written and enormously accessible.


Click for more detail about Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo Blonde Roots

by Bernardine Evaristo
Riverhead Books (Jan 05, 2010)
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The most provocative debut novel of the year, "a dizzying satire" (The New Yorker) that "boldly turns history on its head" (Elle).

What if the history of the transatlantic slave trade had been reversed and Africans had enslaved Europeans? How would that have changed the ways that people justified their inhuman behavior? How would it inform our cultural attitudes and the insidious racism that still lingers today? We see this tragicomic world turned upside down through the eyes of Doris, an Englishwoman enslaved and taken to the New World, movingly recounting experiences of tremendous hardship and the dreams of the people she has left behind, all while journeying toward an escape into freedom.

A poignant and dramatic story grounded in provocative ideas, Blonde Roots is a genuinely original, profoundly imaginative novel.


Click for more detail about Basketball Jones by E. Lynn Harris Basketball Jones

by E. Lynn Harris
Anchor (Jan 05, 2010)
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AJ Richardson is living the good life. Thanks to his longtime lover, NBA star Dray Jones, he has a gorgeous townhouse in New Orleans, plenty of frequent-flier miles, and an MBA he’s never had to use. Built on a deep and abiding love, their hidden relationship sustains them both. But when Dray’s teammates begin to ask insinuating questions, Dray puts their doubts to rest by marrying Judi, a beautiful and ambitious woman. Judi knows nothing about Dray’s “other life.” Or does she?
 
In Basketball Jones, E. Lynn Harris explores the consequences of loving someone who is desperate to conform. Filled with nonstop twists and turns, it will keep readers riveted from the first page to the last.


Click for more detail about The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Heidi W. Durrow The Girl Who Fell From The Sky

by Heidi W. Durrow
One World (Jan 01, 2010)
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A bizarre mystery surrounding a family tragedy forms the centrepiece of this atmospheric story of a mixed-race girl’s struggle for identity. Orphaned and alone, young Rachel is taken under the wing of her strict African-American grandmother and moved to a mostly black community where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and astonishing beauty start to attract a troubling level of attention. As the terrible secrets begin to emerge, Rachel learns to swallow her grief and construct her own self-image in a world that wants to see her as either Black or White. Inspired by the true story of a mother’s twisted love, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is a lyrical and poignant journey into loss, trauma, and the kinship that eventually allows a young girl to face the truth, confront the demons she has buried, and finally achieve a sense of peace.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Best African American Fiction 2010 by Dorothy Sterling and Chris Abani Best African American Fiction 2010

by Dorothy Sterling and Chris Abani
One World (Dec 29, 2009)
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Bursting with energy and innovation, the second volume in the annual anthology collects the year’s best short stories by African American authors.
 
Dealing with all aspects of life from the pain of war to the warmth of family, the superb tales in Best African American Fiction 2010 are a tribute to the stunning imaginations thriving in today’s African American literary community. Chosen by this year’s guest editor, the legendary Nikki Giovanni, these works delve into international politics and personal histories, the clash of armies and of generations—and come from such publications as The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Kenyon Review, and Callaloo.

In "Ghosts," Edwidge Danticat portrays an aspiring radio talk show host in Bel Air—which some call the Baghdad of Haiti—who is brutally scapegoated, and in "Three Letters, One Song & a Refrain," Chris Abani gives a searing account of the violent life of a thirteen-year-old member of a Burmese hill tribe. Jeffery Renard Allen dramatizes the mysterious arrival in Harlem of a child’s hated grandmother, and Wesley Brown fictionalizes the life of the great saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, with cameo appearances by Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and other immortals. John Edgar Wideman contributes dense and textured "Microstories" that interweave everything from taboo sex acts to Richard Wright’s last works to murder in a modern family. Desiree Cooper depicts a debutante from Atlanta moving to Detroit, "a city where there’s no place to hide," while in "Been Meaning to Say" by Amina Gautier, a widower gets an unforgettable holiday visit from his resentful daughter.

From Africa to Philadelphia, from the era of segregation to the age of Obama, the times and places, people and events in Best African American Fiction 2010 reveal inconvenient truths through incomparable fiction.


Click for more detail about The Home-Run King by Patricia C. Mckissack The Home-Run King

by Patricia C. Mckissack
Puffin Books (Dec 24, 2009)
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A historical chapter book series from three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner and Newbery Honor author, Patricia C. McKissack.

Brothers Tank and Jimbo Turner love sneaking into Nashville’s Sulphur Dell Ballpark to watch the superstars of Negro League baseball. When Josh Gibson, the famous home-run hitter for the Homestead Grays, bunks at their house, the boys think they’re one step away from heaven. With warmth and humor, the fourth installment of Patricia C. McKissack’s family saga brings to life an era of all-black baseball for readers who may not know that Major League teams were once restricted only to white players.

"A good child’s-eye introduction to baseball’s segregated past." —Booklist


Click for more detail about Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays

by Zadie Smith
Penguin Press (Nov 12, 2009)
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A sparkling collection of Zadie Smith?s nonfiction over the past decade.

Zadie Smith brings to her essays all of the curiosity, intellectual rigor, and sharp humor that have attracted so many readers to her fiction, and the result is a collection that is nothing short of extraordinary.

Split into four sections??Reading,? ?Being,? ?Seeing,? and ?Feeling??Changing My Mind invites readers to witness the world from Zadie Smith?s unique vantage. Smith casts her acute eye over material both personal and cultural, with wonderfully engaging essays?some published here for the first time?on diverse topics including literature, movies, going to the Oscars, British comedy, family, feminism, Obama, Katharine Hepburn, and Anna Magnani.

In her investigations Smith also reveals much of herself. Her literary criticism shares the wealth of her experiences as a reader and exposes the tremendous influence diverse writers?E. M. Forster, Zora Neale Hurston, George Eliot, and others?have had on her writing life and her self-understanding. Smith also speaks directly to writers as a craftsman, offering precious practical lessons on process. Here and throughout, readers will learn of the wide-ranging experiences?in novels, travel, philosophy, politics, and beyond?that have nourished Smith?s rich life of the mind. Her probing analysis offers tremendous food for thought, encouraging readers to attend to the slippery questions of identity, art, love, and vocation that so often go neglected.

Changing My Mind announces Zadie Smith as one of our most important contemporary essayists, a writer with the rare ability to turn the world on its side with both fact and fiction. Changing My Mind is a gift to readers, writers, and all who want to look at life more expansively.


Click for more detail about The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Rachel Isadora The Twelve Dancing Princesses

by Rachel Isadora
Puffin Books (Nov 12, 2009)
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A Caldecott Honor?winning illustrator gives this classic fairy tale a brand?new setting!

Night after night, the twelve princesses mysteriously wear out their shoes. But how? The king promises a great reward to any man who can solve the mystery. Rachel Isadora has revitalized and reimagined this well-loved Brothers Grimm fairytale by bringing the story of the twelve princesses to Africa. The unique presentation of this classic tale is sure to enchant readers with its vibrant imagery.


Click for more detail about Lifelines: The Black Book Of Proverbs by Askhari Johnson Hodari and Yvonne Mccalla Sobers Lifelines: The Black Book Of Proverbs

by Askhari Johnson Hodari and Yvonne Mccalla Sobers
Knopf (Nov 10, 2009)
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This little book contains the wisdom of the ages, and is guaranteed to produce a smile of appreciation at the sheer sense of the proverbs you will find inside. From advice you wish your mother had given you, to things you probably suspected, but had never put into words, Lifelines is a book to be read, absorbed and treasured.—Pearl Cleage, New York Times best selling author of What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day

This illustrated treasury of proverbs unites the timeless wisdom of Black communities in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, while speaking to the triumphs and challenges of everyday life.

Lifelines: The Black book of Proverbs travels to all corners of the globe to reclaim and preserve African wisdom. This book offers the remarkably wise heart of Africa and her children to readers experiencing career changes, new births, weddings, death, and other rites of passage. Readers will find truth in the African saying, “When the occasion arises, there is a proverb to suit it.”

Proverbs are presented in vibrant story-poem form; and are uniquely arranged by key life cycle events such as birth, initiation, marriage, and death. The proverbs can be found under themes such as “wealth”, “parenting”, “change” and “strength.” Inspired illustrations introduce each section along with beautiful vignettes showing how African proverbs comfort, inspire and instruct during different phases of life.

Lifelines illuminates how traditions, civilization and spirit survive and thrive, despite centuries of loss of freedom, family, identity, language, land, and wealth. The proverbs offer wisdom for every stage of our lives. Collected in one place as never before, it is the perfect addition to the book shelves of families large and small, from Nairobi to New Orleans and every city in between.

From Birth:
Every cackling hen was an egg at first.
-Rwanda
to Marriage:

A woman’s clothes are the price her husband pays for peace.
-Central Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa (Bantu)
and Elderhood:
Every time an old man dies it is as if a library has burnt down.
-West Africa

as well as every stage of life in between, the proverbs found in Lifelines offer the guidance and wisdom to last a life time.

Unlike other collections of proverbs, Lifelines hews closely to the cycle of life and draws inspiration from the authors combined 110 years of experience. Askhari Johnson Hodari and Yvonne McCalla Sobers have set out to let their proverbs both tell a story and stand alone. So whether you flip it open to a random page, read it through from start to finish, or go searching for a proverb to match your unique circumstance, you’ll find just the right lifeline to provide the comfort and guidance you’re looking for.


Click for more detail about Millionaire Wives Club: A Novel by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker Millionaire Wives Club: A Novel

by Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker
One World/Ballantine (Nov 10, 2009)
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In Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker’s steamiest novel yet, we meet the four deliciously dramatic, designer-clad divas from prime time’s new hit reality show, The Millionaire Wives Club.

Evan: Married to a pro-football star who isn’t in love with her anymore, Evan is digging her freshly manicured nails in ever deeper as she fights to keep the husband who loves someone else.

Milan: Half Dominican, half black, and beautifully exotic-looking, Milan is watching her has-been husband’s fortune fade fast–while her romantic attachment to Evan’s husband is heating up.

Jaise: Divorced from a former boxing star who’s now married to a white woman, Jaise is trying to raise her sixteen-year-old son on her own. Will her huge alimony checks keep her from falling in love?

Chaunci: Editor of the hottest black women’s magazine, Chaunci is now engaged to the high-powered man who helped finance her magazine when she was just a struggling single mom. But when a onetime passionate flame reignites, Chaunci may not be able to resist its charms.

When these starlets’ private lives run as wild as their emotions, their relationships with one another inevitably turn into high-profile catfights. Through it all, the cameras never stop rolling on TV’s guiltiest pleasure, where power–and diamonds–are always a girl’s best friend.


Click for more detail about Devil’s Dream: A Novel About Nathan Bedford Forrest by Madison Smartt Bell Devil’s Dream: A Novel About Nathan Bedford Forrest

by Madison Smartt Bell
Pantheon Books (Nov 03, 2009)
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From the author of All Souls’ Rising which The Washington Post called “A serious historical novel that reads like a dream,” comes a powerful new novel about Nathan Bedford Forrest, the most reviled, celebrated, and legendary, of Civil War generals.

With the same eloquence, dramatic energy, and grasp of history that marked his previous works, Madison Smartt Bell gives us a wholly new vantage point from which to view this complicated American figure. Considered a rogue by the upper ranks of the Confederate Army, who did not properly use his talents, Forrest was often relegated to small-scale operations.

In Devil’s Dream, Bell brings to life an energetic, plainspoken man who does not tolerate weakness in himself or in those around him. We see Forrest on and off the battlefield, in less familiar but no less revealing moments of his life: courting the woman who would become his wife; battling a compulsion to gamble; overcoming his abhorrence of the army bureaucracy to rise to its highest ranks. We see him treating his slaves humanely even as he fights to ensure their continued enslavement, and in battle we see his knack for keeping his enemy unsettled, his instinct for the unexpected, and his relentless stamina.

As Devil’s Dream moves back and forth in time, providing prismatic glimpses of Forrest, a vivid portrait comes into focus: a rough, fierce man with a life fill of contradictions.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou Letter to My Daughter

by Maya Angelou
Knopf (Oct 27, 2009)
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Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou’s path to living well and living a life with meaning. Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that taught Angelou lessons in compassion and fortitude: how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less religious mother, and grew to be an awkward six-foot-tall teenager whose first experience of loveless sex paradoxically left her with her greatest gift, a son.

Whether she is recalling lost friends such as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a “lifelong endeavor,” or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice, Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family.


Click for more detail about Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John McWhorter Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English

by John McWhorter
Avery (Oct 27, 2009)
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A survey of the quirks and quandaries of the English language, focusing on our strange and wonderful grammar

Why do we say I am reading a catalog instead of I read a catalog? Why do we say do at all? Is the way we speak a reflection of our cultural values? Delving into these provocative topics and more,  Our Magnificent Bastard Language  distills hundreds of years of fascinating lore into one lively history.

Covering such turning points as the little-known Celtic and Welsh influences on English, the impact of the Viking raids and the Norman Conquest, and the Germanic invasions that started it all during the fifth century ad, John McWhorter narrates this colorful evolution with vigor. Drawing on revolutionary genetic and linguistic research as well as a cache of remarkable trivia about the origins of English words and syntax patterns,  Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue  ultimately demonstrates the arbitrary, maddening nature of English and its ironic simplicity due to its role as a streamlined lingua franca during the early formation of Britain. This is the book that language aficionados worldwide have been waiting for (and no, it’s not a sin to end a sentence with a preposition).


Click for more detail about Brother West: Living And Loving Out Loud, A Memoir by Cornel West Brother West: Living And Loving Out Loud, A Memoir

by Cornel West
SmileyBooks (Oct 15, 2009)
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New York Times­ best-selling author Cornel West is one of America’s most provocative and admired public intellectuals. Whether in the classroom, the streets, the prisons, or the church, Dr. West’s penetrating brilliance has been a bright beacon shining through the darkness for decades. Yet, as he points out in this new memoir, “I’ve never taken the time to focus on the inner dynamics of the dark precincts of my soul.” That is, until now. Brother West is like its author: brilliant, unapologetic, full of passion yet cool. This poignant memoir traces West’s transformation from a schoolyard Robin Hood into a progressive cultural icon. From his youthful investigation of the “death shudder” to why he embraced his calling of teaching over preaching, from his three marriages and his two precious children to his near-fatal bout with prostate cancer, West illuminates what it means to live as “an aspiring bluesman in a world of ideas and a jazzman in the life of the mind.” Woven together with the fibers of his lifelong commitment to the prophetic Christian tradition that began in Sacramento’s Shiloh Baptist Church, Brother West is a tale of a man courageous enough to be fully human, living and loving out loud.


Click for more detail about Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson (Borzoi Books) by Wil Haygood Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson (Borzoi Books)

by Wil Haygood
Knopf (Oct 13, 2009)
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From the author of the critically acclaimed In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr., comes another illuminating socio-historical narrative of the twentieth century, this one spun around one of the most iconic figures of the fight game, Sugar Ray Robinson.

Continuing to set himself apart as one of our canniest cultural historians, Wil Haygood grounds the spectacular story of Robinson’s rise to greatness within the context of the fighter’s life and times. Born Walker Smith, Jr., in 1921, Robinson had an early childhood marked by the seething racial tensions and explosive race riots that infected the Midwest throughout the twenties and thirties. After his mother moved him and his sisters to the relative safety of Harlem, he came of age in the vibrant post-Renaissance years. It was there that—encouraged to box by his mother, who wanted him off the streets—he soon became a rising star, cutting an electrifying, glamorous figure, riding around town in his famous pink Cadillac. Beyond the celebrity, though, Robinson would emerge as a powerful, often controversial black symbol in a rapidly changing America. Haygood also weaves in the stories of Langston Hughes, Lena Horne, and Miles Davis, whose lives not only intersected with Robinson’s but also contribute richly to the scope and soul of the book.

From Robinson’s gruesome six-bout war with Jake "Raging Bull" LaMotta and his lethal meeting with Jimmy Doyle to his Harlem nightclub years and thwarted show-biz dreams, Haygood brings the champion’s story, in the ring and out, powerfully to life against a vividly painted backdrop of the world he captivated.


Click for more detail about A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor by Dana Canedy A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor

by Dana Canedy
Crown Publishing Group (Oct 13, 2009)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A hauntingly beautiful account of a family fractured by war … filled with vivid and heartbreaking details.”—The New York Times Book Review

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • “Full of wonderful treasures offered by a unique and spirited father … written with serene grace: part memoir, part love story, all heart.”—James McBride, author of The Color of Water

In 2005, Dana Canedy’s fiancé, First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, began to write what would become a two-hundred-page journal for his son in case he did not make it home from the war in Iraq. He was killed by a roadside bomb on October 14, 2006. His son, Jordan, was seven months old.

Inspired by his example, Dana was determined to preserve his memory for their son. A Journal for Jordan is a mother’s fiercely honest letter to her child about the parent he lost before he could even speak. It is also a father’s advice and prayers for the son he will never know.

A father figure to the soldiers under his command, Charles moved naturally into writing to his son. In neat block letters, he counseled him on everything from how to withstand disappointment and deal with adversaries to how to behave on a date. And he also wrote of recovering a young soldier’s body, piece by piece, from a tank—and the importance of honoring that young man’s life. He finished the journal two months before his death while home on a two-week leave, so intoxicated with love for his infant son that he barely slept.

This is also the story of Dana and Charles together—two seemingly mismatched souls who loved each other deeply and lost each other too soon. A Journal for Jordan is a tender introduction, a loving good-bye, a reporter’s inquiry into her soldier’s life, and a heartrending reminder of the human cost of war.


Click for more detail about Dying for Revenge by Eric Jerome Dickey Dying for Revenge

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Oct 06, 2009)
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The next installment in the bold and sexy series by the fearless New York Times bestselling author.

Sleeping with Strangers and Waking with Enemies "[left] Dickey fans wanting more"(Ebony). Now, with Dying for Revenge, he returns to that adrenaline- fueled underworld.

Gideon, a professional assassin, is convinced that an old score with a former client from Detroit was settled a long time ago. But the lady from Detroit has never forgotten-or forgiven-Gideon, and with a crack team of hit-men, she’s not letting him out of her sight. Now, Gideon’s on the run again, embarking on a global chase that takes him from London to Nashville, and back to the Caribbean where those on both sides of this battle are dying for revenge.


Click for more detail about The Other Lands (Acacia, Book 2) by David Anthony Durham The Other Lands (Acacia, Book 2)

by David Anthony Durham
Doubleday (Sep 15, 2009)
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David Anthony Durham presents the thrilling new installment in his ambitious Acacia trilogy, which has been praised by the Washington Post as "gripping and sophisticated."

Similar books:









The Sacred Band: Book Three of the Acacia Trilogy








Acacia: The War with the Mein (Acacia, Book 1)








The Risen: A Novel of Spartacus








Acacia: The War with the Mein (Acacia, Book 1)








The Broken Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy)


Click for more detail about Everything I’m Not Made Me Everything I Am: Discovering Your Personal Best by Jeff Johnson Everything I’m Not Made Me Everything I Am: Discovering Your Personal Best

by Jeff Johnson
Hay House (Sep 15, 2009)
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Award-winning activist journalist and motivational speaker Jeff Johnson dares the post–Civil Rights generation to stop making excuses, overcome personal challenges, and create lives filled with passion, meaning, and service in Everything I’m Not Made Me Everything I Am.  This empowering strategic guide for manifesting and achieving your personal B.E.S.T. highlights Johnson’s unique blend of political consciousness and street-smart inspiration. A committed youth advocate, Johnson offers a lifeline to those who feel lost in a sea of choices, distractions, and self-imposed limits. Everything I’m Not Made Me Everything I Am offers practical guidance for learning how to unplug from the programmed expectations of family and society in order to discover and fulfill your unique life’s mission.


Click for more detail about What You Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell What You Owe Me

by Bebe Moore Campbell
Berkley Books (Sep 09, 2009)
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“A multigenerational saga … about forgiveness and redemption. Lavish and funny and perfect.”—The Los Angeles Times
 
Sweeping across fifty years of family, friendship, betrayal and reconciliation, What You Owe Me is Bebe Moore Campbell’s most ambitious achievement in storytelling. When Hosanna Clark—a hotel maid in post-World War II Los Angeles—first meets her new co-worker, Holocaust survivor Gilda Rosenstein, she is shocked to see a white woman in a situation so like her own. They quickly become friends, then business partners. But when their cosmetics company meets with unprecedented success, Gilda disappears with the profits—and leaves behind an emotional debt that grows with time, in the hearts and souls of generations to come… .
 
“Entertaining … engaging … heartwarming.” —Boston Herald


Click for more detail about Singing in the Comeback Choir by Bebe Moore Campbell Singing in the Comeback Choir

by Bebe Moore Campbell
Berkley Books (Sep 09, 2009)
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“If this is a fair world, Bebe Moore Campbell will be remembered as the most important African-American novelist of this century … Her writing is clean and clear; her emotions run hot, but her most important characteristic is uncompromising intelligence coupled with a perfectionist’s eye for detail.”—The Washington Post Book World
 
Maxine McCoy’s life is going just fine. She’s the executive producer of a popular talk show, married to the man she loves, and pregnant with their child. But her security is shattered when Maxine gets a call from the caretaker of her 76-year-old grandmother, who raised the orphaned Maxine. She’s summoned back to the Philadelphia neighborhood of her childhood that, like her grandmother, has seen better days. Maxine is set to move her grandmother out of the neighborhood, but the independent Liddy isn’t quite ready to leave. She has plans of her own. Bebe Moore Campbell demonstrates why Entertainment Weekly called her “a master when it comes to telling a story” in this tale of hope and redemption and making the impossible come true.
 
“A book that embraces readers and wraps them in the humanity of characters who love, cry, laugh and experience the transitions of life at every turn.”—Dallas Morning News


Click for more detail about Wildflowers: A Novel by Lyah Beth LeFlore Wildflowers: A Novel

by Lyah Beth LeFlore
Knopf (Sep 08, 2009)
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Twenty-three dollars and eleven cents–that’s all that thirty-five-year-old Chloe Davis Michaels has to her name after she is driven from her home and career as a jet-setting Hollywood publicist, desperate to protect her unborn child from her crazed newlywed husband. She thought she had it all. Now Chloe seeks refuge in her Midwestern hometown to “get prayed up” by the women in her family.
Chloe’s impromptu homecoming takes us into the world of eight African-American women who make up the Davis clan–three mothers and five daughters, including Chloe, who soon discovers that the secrets she’s been keeping about her own life don’t compare to the secrets the other women in her family have been hiding.
As the bonds of family are tested, the women call upon their strong faith and spiritual teachings of deceased family matriarchs, MaMaw and Muh, in order to weather the storm.
With rippling boldness and crackling prose, Wildflowers is a beautifully written novel that explores the richness and complexity of the love between mothers and daughters.


Click for more detail about The Conversation: How Black Men And Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships by Hill Harper The Conversation: How Black Men And Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships

by Hill Harper
Knopf (Sep 08, 2009)
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In his first book for adults, New York Times bestselling author Hill Harper invites you to join the Conversation: an honest dialogue about the breakdown of African—American relationships. For generations African Americans have turned to their families in times of need—but now, this proud and strong legacy is in peril. Black men and women have stopped communicating effectively and it threatens the very relationships and marriages necessary to sustain the Black family. Today, less than a third of Black children are being raised in two—parent households, a sharp decline from past generations. So, why is it so difficult for Black men and women to build long—term, loving and mutually beneficial relationships? What is happening in the community that makes it so hard for women and men to find their way to each other? And why are there so few people who manage to hold a marriage together, even after finding a person to love?

In his moving yet practical book, Hill Harper undertakes a journey both universal and deeply personal in search of answers to these questions. He has conversations with friends and strangers—married, single and divorced—and learns about their private struggles, emotional vulnerabilities, and real concerns, and begins to see common themes emerge. As his journey picks up momentum, Hill begins to recognize his own struggles in other people’s stories, and is encouraged to more deeply examine his own relationship issues.

Why does so much misinformation and mistrust exist between the sexes? Hill addresses the stereotypes that have developed in the Black community, in the hope that by addressing the challenges, Black men and women can find their way to common ground. The Conversation aims to open up the lines of communication, and offers inspiration to those who want to take control of this crisis and start building successful, sustainable relationships.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Shooting Stars by Lebron James and Buzz Bissinger Shooting Stars

by Lebron James and Buzz Bissinger
Penguin Press (Sep 08, 2009)
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From the ultimate team—basketball superstar LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August—a poignant, thrilling tale of the power of teamwork to transform young lives, including James’s own The Shooting Stars were a bunch of kids—LeBron James and his best friends—from Akron, Ohio, who first met on a youth basketball team of the same name when they were ten and eleven years old. United by their love of the game and their yearning for companionship, they quickly forged a bond that would carry them through thick and thin (a lot of thin) and, at last, to a national championship in their senior year of high school. They were a motley group who faced challenges all too typical of inner-city America. LeBron grew up without a father and had moved with his mother more than a dozen times by the age of ten. Willie McGee, the quiet one, had left both his parents behind in Chicago to be raised by his older brother in Akron. Dru Joyce was outspoken, and his dad was ever present; he would end up coaching all five of the boys in high school. Sian Cotton, who also played football, was the happy-go-lucky enforcer, while Romeo Travis was unhappy, bitter, even surly, until he finally opened himself up to the bond his teammates offered him. In the summer after seventh grade, the Shooting Stars tasted glory when they qualified for a national championship tournament in Memphis. But they lost their focus and had to go home early. They promised one another they would stay together and do whatever it took to win a national title. They had no idea how hard it would be to fulfill that promise. In the years that followed, they would endure jealousy, hostility, exploitation, resentment from the black community (because they went to a “white” high school), and the consequences of their own overconfidence. Not least, they would all have to wrestle with LeBron’s outsize success, which brought too much attention and even a whiff of scandal their way. But together these five boys became men, and together they claimed the prize they had fought for all those years—a national championship. Shooting Stars is a stirring depiction of the challenges that face America’s youth today and a gorgeous evocation of the transcendent impact of teamwork.

Book Review

Click for more detail about On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope by DeRay Mckesson On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope

by DeRay Mckesson
Viking Books (Sep 03, 2009)
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"On the Other Side of Freedom reveals the mind and motivations of a young man who has risen to the fore of millennial activism through study, discipline, and conviction. His belief in a world that can be made better, one act at a time, powers his narratives and opens up a view on the costs, consequences, and rewards of leading a movement."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

From the internationally recognized civil rights activist/organizer and host of the podcast Pod Save the People, a meditation on resistance, justice, and freedom, and an intimate portrait of a movement from the front lines.

In August of 2014, twenty-nine-year-old activist DeRay Mckesson stood with hundreds of others on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, to push a message of justice and accountability. These protests, and others like them in cities across the country, resulted in the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement. Now, in his first book, Mckesson lays out the intellectual, pragmatic political framework for a new liberation movement. Continuing a conversation about activism, resistance, and justice that embraces our nation’s complex history, he dissects how deliberate oppression persists, how racial injustice strips our lives of promise, and how technology has added a new dimension to mass action and social change. He argues that our best efforts to combat injustice have been stunted by the belief that racism’s wounds are history, and suggests that intellectual purity has curtailed optimistic realism. The book offers a new framework and language for understanding the nature of oppression. With it, we can begin charting a course to dismantle the obvious and subtle structures that limit freedom.

Honest, courageous, and imaginative, On the Other Side of Freedom is a work brimming with hope. Drawing from his own experiences as an activist, organizer, educator, and public official, Mckesson exhorts all Americans to work to dismantle the legacy of racism and to imagine the best of what is possible. Honoring the voices of a new generation of activists, On the Other Side of Freedom is a visionary’s call to take responsibility for imagining, and then building, the world we want to live in.


Click for more detail about In The Falling Snow by Caryl Phillips In The Falling Snow

by Caryl Phillips
Knopf (Sep 01, 2009)
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From one of our most admired fiction writers: the searing story of breakdown and recovery in the life of one man and of a society moving from one idea of itself to another.

Keith—born in England in the early 1960s to immigrant West Indian parents but primarily raised by his white stepmother—is a social worker heading a Race Equality unit in London whose life has come undone. He is separated from his wife of twenty years (whose family “let her go” when she married a black man), kept at arm’s length by his seventeen-year-old son, estranged from his father, and accused of harassment by a co-worker. And beneath it all, he has a desperate feeling that his work—even in fact his life—is no longer relevant.

Moving deftly between past and present, the narrative uncovers the particulars of class, background, temperament, and desire that have brought Keith to this moment, and reveals how, often unwittingly, his wife, his son, and, ultimately, his father help him grasp the breadth of the changes that have occurred around him—and what these changes will require of him.

At once intimate and expansive, deeply moving in its portrayal of the vagaries of familial love and bold in its scrutiny of the personal and societal politics of race, this is Caryl Phillips’s most powerful novel yet.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Revolutionary Suicide: (penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Huey P. Newton Revolutionary Suicide: (penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

by Huey P. Newton
Penguin Group USA (Sep 01, 2009)
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The searing, visionary memoir of founding Black Panther Huey P. Newton, in a dazzling graphic package

Tracing the birth of a revolutionary, Huey P. Newton’s famous and oft-quoted autobiography is as much a manifesto as a portrait of the inner circle of America’s Black Panther Party. From Newton’s impoverished childhood on the streets of Oakland to his adolescence and struggles with the system, from his role in the Black Panthers to his solitary confinement in the Alameda County Jail, Revolutionary Suicide is unrepentant and thought-provoking in its portrayal of inspired radicalism.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about Down to Business: The First 10 Steps to Entrepreneurship for Women by Clara Villarosa Down to Business: The First 10 Steps to Entrepreneurship for Women

by Clara Villarosa
Avery (Sep 01, 2009)
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A bulletproof, step-by-step plan for turning your business brainstorm into a money-making reality

At age fifty-two , after years of working her way up the corporate ladder, Clara Villarosa found herself out of a job. But she didn’t let that get her down. Instead, she put her gifts to the test and started her own business, which became one of the country’s best-known independent specialty bookstores-The Hue- Man Bookstore. Now, twenty years and two successful stores later, Clara is a highly sought-after business coach and expert in the industry.

Down to Business expands on Villarosa’s proven "First 10 Steps to Entrepreneurship for Women" to offer women everywhere a targeted plan to help them launch the small business of their dreams. This book includes advice on:

?How to develop realistic business ideas by researching the industry

?Analyzing a competitor’s marketing approach and attracting your ideal customer

? Accumulating the start-up funds you need, from recruiting investors to using loans wisely

?Scouting the ideal location

? Creating a sound business plan-and beyond-with a simple, step-by-step strategy

Packed with stories of businesswomen at all stages of the game-from a beer connoisseur-turned-brewer to an avid reader-turned-literary agent-Villarosa brings together inspiring, real-life stories with her award-winning business savvy. Encouraging and empowering, Down to Business will get you motivated to dust off your dream and get your plan into action.


Click for more detail about Resurrecting Midnight by Eric Jerome Dickey Resurrecting Midnight

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Aug 25, 2009)
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After nearly losing his life in Antigua during a mission that went terribly wrong, Gideon trusts no one. But when a former lover, a grifter named Arizona, resurfaces in need of his skills, she reminds him he is indebted to a man who had once saved his life: the son of the legendary con man Scamz. Gideon is forced to take on an assignment that will lead him to Argentina in pursuit of a briefcase containing one part of a larger puzzle. The “package” contains material that another group of assassins—the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—will kill for to obtain and protect. One of the leaders of the Four Horsemen has a connection to Gideon of which neither man is aware—a connection that will be exposed when they meet face-to-face and gun-to-gun. Each member of the Four Horsemen is a world-class killer, each with a dark and dangerous past, and nothing will stop that team of renegades from completing their mission. But will a cunning woman be their undoing? In this world of killers, con men, and manipulative women, Gideon struggles to keep promises and uncover information about his past. He soon finds himself at the center of the ultimate double cross and is forced to do what he must in order to protect himself and those closest to him. Set amid the exotic and vibrant streets of Miami and Buenos Aires, Resurrecting Midnight is a seductive, pulse-pounding thriller.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Hungry Ghosts by Julius Lester The Hungry Ghosts

by Julius Lester
Dial (Aug 20, 2009)
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There are ghosts in the cemetery near Malcolm David’s house, and they?re filling the air with their spooky OOOOOs and EEEEEs and ARRRRs. When Malcolm David dares to go looking for them late one night, he is surprised to discover that the eerie howling is actually coming from the ghosts? empty stomachs. They?re not trying to scare anybody? they?re just hungry, and they don?t know what it is that ghosts are supposed to eat! A satisfying read-aloud for Halloween or anytime, this book mixes playfulness and lyricism as only Newbery Honor?winning author Julius Lester could do it. His dynamic text is well matched by Geraldo Valério?s glowing, happy artwork.


Click for more detail about <meta http-equiv= by Iyanla Vanzant" style="height:120px;border:0px;float:left;padding-right:10px" src="https://aalbc.com/bookcovers/9781401923051.jpg" />

by Iyanla Vanzant
Hay House (Aug 15, 2009)
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      The revised and expanded 20th-anniversary edition of Iyanla Vanzant’s first published work offers a powerful path to self-empowerment through the revitalization of one’s spiritual and ancestral roots. Written with Iyanla’s signature healing stories, this classic guide to uniting the will with the spirit teaches that only you have the power to make a change for the better. With chapters on basic breathing and meditation techniques, setting up a home altar, connecting with ancestors and guardian spirits, and the extraordinary power of forgiveness, this book is a perfect companion on the way toward the real you.       Known for teaching by principle and example, this exclusive edition also contains Iyanla’s special “What I Know Now” commentaries and an original CD. These tools will challenge you to stop struggling and start recognizing that it is possible to reconcile your humanity with your divinity. Whether you are a beginner on the path or a veteran in need of refreshment, Iyanla’s prescriptions can support your growth from the comfort of spiritual adolescence to the wisdom of spiritual maturity. You no longer need to settle for the way things are … you can open up to the way things can be—if you dare to tap the power within!


Click for more detail about A Mercy by Toni Morrison A Mercy

by Toni Morrison
Vintage (Aug 11, 2009)
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A powerful tragedy distilled into a small masterpiece by the Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier.

Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader in 1680s United States, when the slave trade is still in its infancy. Reluctantly he takes a small slave girl in part payment from a plantation owner for a bad debt. Feeling rejected by her slave mother, 14-year-old Florens can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master’s house, but later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives …

At the novel’s heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter – a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.


Click for more detail about My Sister’s Ex: A Novel by Cydney Rax My Sister’s Ex: A Novel

by Cydney Rax
Broadway Books (Aug 04, 2009)
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Rachel Merrell goes into shock when her ex-boyfriend, Jeffery Williams, begins dating her half sister Marlene Draper. At first, Rachel swears Jeff is feigning interest in Marlene just to get back at her for breaking up with him. Rachel pretends Jeff’s interest in Marlene doesn’t bother her, but when they unexpectedly hit it off and love begins to blossom, Rachel can’t bear to watch the happy couple. Suddenly, Rachel wants Jeff back and she is determined to get him no matter what the cost—including Marlene’s happiness.

But when her attempts to regain Jeff’s affections fail, Rachel decides to join an online dating service, creating a profile under an assumed name, just to test the waters. Surprisingly, Rachel’s profile matches someone who sounds like he’d be the perfect replacement for Jeff, but when she sees a picture of the man of her dreams, she’s dumbfounded and pissed: it IS Jeff! Despite Rachel’s jealousy over her sister’s relationship, she has to tell Marlene the truth about the two-timing Casanova. Now the women will work together to devise a way to make him pay for what he’s done…and discover a thing or two about sisterhood in the process.


Click for more detail about Friends & Fauxs: A Novel by Tracie Howard Friends & Fauxs: A Novel

by Tracie Howard
Knopf (Jul 28, 2009)
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Tracie Howard is back with all of the Gucci, glitz, and glamour in this steamy follow-up to her smash hit Gold Diggers!
Gillian Tillman learned all about landing a wealthy man from her globe-trotting mother, Imelda, but this second-generation gold digger has a style all her own. With big dreams of becoming a huge star, she slept her way right into the million-dollar mansion of her now-husband, star-producer Brandon Russell. He not only launched Gillian’s film career, but landed her the starring and Oscar-nominated role in the hit film Gold Diggers. But all that glitters may not be gold. Gillian wrestles with the real possibility that Brandon may be a mob-connected money launderer, and worse yet, may have had a hand in the murder of her friend Paulette. When pictures of her naked surface on the Internet, both Gillian’s Oscar dreams and her marriage are threatened, even though she swears they aren’t of her. Meanwhile her best friends are struggling with issues of their own. Reese’s beloved son falls ill and she’s forced to decide between spilling a long-kept secret and saving his life, and Lauren’s hard-won happiness is threatened by a shocking betrayal.
Buckle your seatbelt as the lives of these larger-than-life characters intersect in a wild, page-turning romp.


Click for more detail about Wife Of The Gods: A Novel by Kwei Quartey Wife Of The Gods: A Novel

by Kwei Quartey
Knopf (Jul 14, 2009)
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Detective Inspector Darko Dawson, a good family man and a remarkably intuitive sleuth, is sent to the village of Ketanu-the site of his mother’s disappearance many years ago-to solve the murder of an accomplished young AIDS worker.While battling his own anger issues and concerns for his ailing son, Darko explores the motivations and secrets of the residents of Ketanu. It soon becomes clear that in addition to solving a recent murder, he is about to unravel the shocking truth about his mother’s disappearance.Kwei Quartey’s sparkling debut novel introduces readers to a rich cast of characters, including the Trokosi-young women called Wives of the Gods-who, in order to bring good fortune to their families, are sent to live with fetish priests. Set in Ghana, with the action moving back and forth between the capital city of Accra and a small village in the Volta Region, Wife of the Gods brings the culture and beauty of its setting brilliantly to life.


Click for more detail about The True History of Paradise: A Novel by Margaret Cezair-Thompson The True History of Paradise: A Novel

by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Jul 14, 2009)
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It is 1981. Jean Landing secretly plans to flee her beloved Jamaica–the only home her family has ever known, a place now rife with political turmoil. But before she can make her final preparations, she receives devastating news: Lana, her sister, is dead. The country’s state of emergency leaves no time to arrange a proper funeral. Even Jean’s mother, Monica, who hadn’t spoken to Lana in more than a decade, cannot fully embrace her grief.

The tragedy only underscores Jean’s need to leave an island that holds no promise of a future. Her harrowing journey to freedom across a battered landscape takes Jean through a terrain of memories: of her childhood, with a detached mother at odds with an adoring father, of her complex bond with Lana, and of the friends and lovers who have shaped and shared her days. Epic in scope, The True History of Paradise poignantly portrays the complexities of family and racial identity in a troubled Eden.


Click for more detail about Whiskey Gulf by Walter Dean Myers Whiskey Gulf

by Walter Dean Myers
Vanguard Press (Jul 14, 2009)
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The latest novel by a new star of the mystery genre, featuring former Coast-Guard-officer-turned-marine-PI Charlie Noble


Click for more detail about Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up by Melissa Thomson Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up

by Melissa Thomson
Puffin Books (Jul 09, 2009)
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Keena Ford doesn’t mean to be a troublemaker, but sometimes things get out of hand. Lucky for her, it’s the beginning of the second grade and Keena’s got a clean slate. So when her new second-grade teacher, Ms. Campbell, mistakenly thinks it’s her birthday and brings in a huge chocolate cake, Keena realizes that she’s gotten herself into a sticky situation. She knows she has to tell the truth, but it’s not easy to turn down her very own birthday cake and a chance to wear a sparkly crown. How will Keena get out of this mess?


Click for more detail about Take Back Your Family: How To Raise Respectful And Loving Kids In A Dysfunctional World by Rev. Run, Justine Simmons and Chris Morrow Take Back Your Family: How To Raise Respectful And Loving Kids In A Dysfunctional World

by Rev. Run, Justine Simmons and Chris Morrow
Knopf (Jul 01, 2009)
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Stars of MTV?s Run?s House ? dubbed ?the new Cosby family? ? celebrate family values in this inspiring guide to modern parenting

Despite being a hip-hop icon, an ordained minister, and a reality TV star, Rev Run?s greatest accomplishment has been raising his six children?Angela, Vanessa, JoJo, Diggy, Russy and Miley?with his wife Justine. Their journey has been captured on Run?s House, a show that celebrates ? finally ? a reality TV family that is functional instead of dysfunctional. In an age marked by shallow materialism and fragmented families, Rev Run and Justine have inspired millions of viewers by teaching old-fashioned family values applied with a hip-hop twist. In Take Back Your Family, Rev Run and Justine celebrate the role of parents and share their secrets to raising a respectful and loving family that can enjoy the good times while surviving the hard ones.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Children of the Revolution by Dinaw Mengestu Children of the Revolution

by Dinaw Mengestu
Vintage Books USA (Jul 01, 2009)
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Seventeen years after fleeing the revolutionary Ethiopia that claimed his father’s life, Stepha Stephanos is a man still caught between two existences: the one he left behind, aged nineteen, and the new life he has forged in Washington D.C. Sepha spends his days in a sort of limbo: quietly running his grocery store into the ground, revisiting the Russian classics, and toasting the old days with his friends Kenneth and Joseph, themselves emigrants from Africa. But when a white woman named Judith moves next door with her only daughter, Naomi, Sepha’s life seems on the verge of change…


Click for more detail about Just Too Good to Be True: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris Just Too Good to Be True: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
Anchor (Jun 30, 2009)
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A New York Times Bestseller Brady Bledsoe and his mother, Carmyn, have a strong relationship. A single mother, faithful churchgoer, and the owner of several successful Atlanta beauty salons, Carmyn has devoted herself to her son and his dream of becoming a professional football player. Brady has always followed her lead, including becoming a member of the church’s "Celibacy Circle." Now, in his senior year at college, the smart and very handsome Brady is a lead contender for the Heisman Trophy and a spot in the NFL. As sports agents hover around Brady, a beautiful and charming cheerleader named Barrett enters the picture. Barrett is set on seducing Brady and getting a piece of his multimillion-dollar future. But is that all she wants from him? Is she acting alone? In a story that combines football, family, faith and secrets, Just Too Good to Be True is a sweeping novel that proves once and again why E. Lynn Harris is a bestselling author.

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Click for more detail about Too Much Of A Good Thing Ain’t Bad by Clarence Nero Too Much Of A Good Thing Ain’t Bad

by Clarence Nero
Knopf (Jun 23, 2009)
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In this sequel to THREE SIDES TO EVERY STORY, daring and acclaimed writer Clarence Nero takes us back into the lives of Johnny and James in a powerful novel about fraternities, family, and college drama.

Johnny and James survived the tough streets of New Orleans, but when Hurricane Katrina lays waste to their beloved Ninth Ward, they are forced to begin a new chapter in Washington DC. For Johnny, this means finally pursuing his dream of a becoming a student at the historic Wheatley College. James soon joins Johnny in the Nation’s Capitol but the strong connection that brought them together in prison is strained by the pressures of their new lives. Then Johnny’s brother Carl and his wife, Tiffany, introduce Johnny to the beautiful, sexy, and smart, Sheila Doggett with the intent of steering Johnny in a different direction. The entire family rallies around Johnny and Shelia’s budding friendship and Johnny prepares to join the frat that is a legacy in his family.

But once James gets wind of what Johnny’s family is up to, he decides that he’ll stop at nothing to save his relationship. Meanwhile, Johnny is struggling to keep the peace with everyone and keeping a potentially deadly secret that could stand in the way of his dreams. Everyone is soon confronted with the truth that the havoc in their lives has only just begun…

How far will you go for love?

Our heroes and sheroes wrestle with this question as they struggle to do right by themselves and those they love and the result is a fast-paced, thought-provoking roller coaster of a read.


Click for more detail about Children Of The Waters: A Novel by Carleen Brice Children Of The Waters: A Novel

by Carleen Brice
One World/Ballantine (Jun 23, 2009)
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Still reeling from divorce and feeling estranged from her teenage son, Trish Taylor is in the midst of salvaging the remnants of her life when she uncovers a shocking secret: her sister is alive. For years Trish believed that her mother and infant sister had died in a car accident. But the truth is that her mother fatally overdosed and that Trish’s grandparents put the baby girl up for adoption because her father was black.

After years of drawing on the strength of her black ancestors, Billie Cousins is shocked to discover that she was adopted. Just as surprising, after finally overcoming a series of health struggles, she is pregnant–a dream come true for Billie but a nightmare for her sweetie, Nick, and for her mother, both determined to protect Billie from anything that may disrupt her well-being.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Lover Man by Geneva Holliday Lover Man

by Geneva Holliday
Knopf (Jun 09, 2009)
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LOVER MAN finds two of our girls lusting for Mr. Right… but the trouble comes when there’s more than enough of him to go around.

After two years in Antigua, Crystal has had enough. Neville is her son’s father, her best friend, and her sometime lover, but Crystal realizes she wants more. And that “more” struts into her life at just the right moment. Claude Justine, widowed with a three-year-old daughter, has movie-star good looks, an athlete’s body, and cash to spare. After a short and steamy long-distance courtship, Claude lures Crystal to his lavish New Jersey mansion and introduces her to a jet-setting world where no pleasure is spared and every desire is met.

Karma Jackson, newly made over and back in New York after a scandalous affair in Europe, secures a position as an assistant to the president of a hedge fund. On the prowl for someone who can give her what she wants, the way she wants it, Karma falls for the cocky and irresistible C.J., and the two begin a secret fling.

Geneva, now living in Brooklyn, listens to both women’s tales of impromptu helicopter rides and lingerie sprees, failing to make the connection between the two men. But when Claude’s web of lies starts to unravel, the truth is even more outrageous than any of them could have imagined…


Click for more detail about Mare’s War by Tanita S. Davis Mare’s War

by Tanita S. Davis
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Jun 09, 2009)
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Meet Mare, a grandmother with flair and a fascinating past.

Octavia and Tali are dreading the road trip their parents are forcing them to take with their grandmother over the summer. After all, Mare isn’t your typical grandmother. She drives a red sports car, wears stiletto shoes, flippy wigs, and push-up bras, and insists that she’s too young to be called Grandma. But somewhere on the road, Octavia and Tali discover there’s more to Mare than what you see. She was once a willful teenager who escaped her less-than-perfect life in the deep South and lied about her age to join the African American battalion of the Women’s Army Corps during World War II.

Told in alternating chapters, half of which follow Mare through her experiences as a WAC member and half of which follow Mare and her granddaughters on the road in the present day, this novel introduces a larger-than-life character who will stay with readers long after they finish reading.


Click for more detail about Pleasure by Eric Jerome Dickey Pleasure

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Jun 02, 2009)
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The bold new blockbuster from the New York Times bestselling author.

Born in Trinidad and living in Atlanta after a relationship gone bad, Nia Simone Bijou is an ambitious writer who has it all. Except for the one thing that’ll give her the control she craves-and the power she deserves: absolute, uninhibited sexual satisfaction. Now, in the sweltering days and nights of summer, the heat is on. Nia’s fantasies will become a reality-with man after man after man. She will shatter the limits of erotic love. She will open herself up to experiences she never dared before. And as her fantasies begin to spin out of control, she’ll discover the unexpected price of the extreme.


Click for more detail about Renegade: The Making Of A President by Richard Wolffe Renegade: The Making Of A President

by Richard Wolffe
Crown (Jun 02, 2009)
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Before the White House and Air Force One, before the TV ads and the enormous rallies, there was the real Barack Obama: a man wrestling with the momentous decision to run for the presidency, feeling torn about leaving behind a young family, and figuring out how to win the biggest prize in politics.

This book is the previously untold and epic story of how a political newcomer with no money and an alien name grew into the world’s most powerful leader. But it is also a uniquely intimate portrait of the person behind the iconic posters and the Secret Service code name Renegade.

Drawing on a dozen unplugged interviews with the candidate and president, as well as twenty-one months covering his campaign as it traveled from coast to coast, Richard Wolffe answers the simple yet enduring question about Barack Obama: Who is he?

Based on Wolffe’s unprecedented access to Obama, Renegade reveals the making of a president, both on the campaign trail and before he ran for high office. It explains how the politician who emerged in an extraordinary election learned the personal and political skills to succeed during his youth and early career. With cool self-discipline, calculated risk taking, and simple storytelling, Obama developed the strategies he would need to survive the onslaught of the Clintons and John McCain, and build a multimillion-dollar machine to win a historic contest.

In Renegade, Richard Wolffe shares with us his front-row seat at Obama’s announcement to run for president on a frigid day in Springfield, and his victory speech on a warm night in Chicago. We fly on the candidate’s plane and ride in his bus on an odyssey across a country in crisis; stand next to him at a bar on the night he secures the nomination; and are backstage as he delivers his convention speech to a stadium crowd and a transfixed national audience. From a teacher’s office in Iowa to the Oval Office in Washington, we see and hear Barack Obama with an immediacy and honesty never witnessed before.

Renegade provides not only an account of Obama’s triumphs, but also examines his many personal and political trials. We see Obama wrestling with race and politics, as well as his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright. We see him struggling with life as a presidential candidate, a campaign that falters for most of its first year, and his reaction to a surprise defeat in the New Hampshire primary. And we see him relying on his personal experience, as well as meticulous polling, to pass the presidential test in foreign and economic affairs.

Renegade is an essential guide to understanding President Barack Obama and his trusted inner circle of aides and friends. It is also a riveting and enlightening first draft of history and political psychology.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Regards to the Man in the Moon by Ezra Jack Keats Regards to the Man in the Moon

by Ezra Jack Keats
Viking Books for Young Readers (May 28, 2009)
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When the other kids make fun of Louie and call his father "the junkman," his dad explains that the so-called junk he loves "can take you right out of this world" with a little imagination. So Louie builds the spaceship Imagination I and blasts off into his own space odyssey. Reissued just in time for the fortieth anniversary of the first lunar landing, this fantastical Keats adventure celebrates the power of imagination.


Click for more detail about Mixology (National Poetry Series) by Adrian Matejka Mixology (National Poetry Series)

by Adrian Matejka
Penguin Books (May 26, 2009)
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Selected for the 2008 National Poetry Series by Kevin YoungFinalist for the 2010 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature — Poetry
The poems in Adrian Matejka’s second collection, Mixology, shapeshift through the myriad meanings of "mixing" to explore and explode ideas of race, skin politics, appropriation, and cultural identity. Whether the focus of the individual poems is musical, digital, or historical, the otherness implicit in being of more than one racial background guides Matejka’s work to the inevitable conclusion that all things-no matter how disparate-are parts of the whole.


Click for more detail about The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an Interracial Family in the American South by W. Ralph Eubanks The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an Interracial Family in the American South

by W. Ralph Eubanks
DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) (May 19, 2009)
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A powerful story about race and identity told through the lives of one American family across three generationsIn 1914, in defiance of his middle-class landowning family, a young white man named James Morgan Richardson married a light-skinned black woman named Edna Howell. Over more than twenty years of marriage, they formed a strong family and built a house at the end of a winding sandy road in South Alabama, a place where their safety from the hostile world around them was assured, and where they developed a unique racial and cultural identity. Jim and Edna Richardson were Ralph Eubanks’s grandparents.Part personal journey, part cultural biography, The House at the End of the Road examines a little-known piece of this country’s past: interracial families that survived and prevailed despite Jim Crow laws, including those prohibiting mixed-race marriage. As he did in his acclaimed 2003 memoir, Ever Is a Long Time, Eubanks uses interviews, oral history, and archival research to tell a story about race in American life that few readers have experienced. Using the Richardson family as a microcosm of American views on race and identity, The House at the End of the Road examines why ideas about racial identity rooted in the eighteenth century persist today. In lyrical, evocative prose, this extraordinary book pierces the heart of issues of race and racial identity, leaving us ultimately hopeful about the world as our children might see it.


Click for more detail about Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel by Nikki Grimes Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel

by Nikki Grimes
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (May 14, 2009)
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Dyamonde Daniel may be new in town, but that doesn't stop her from making a place for herself in a jiffy. With her can-do attitude and awesome brain power she takes the whole neighborhood by storm. The only thing puzzling her is the other new kid in her class. He's awfully grouchy - but Dyamonde's determined to get to the bottom of his frowning attitude and make a friend. Readers will fall in love with Dyamonde Daniel, the spirited star of a new series by Nikki Grimes. With her upbeat, take-charge attitude, Dyamonde is a character to cheer for - and the fun, accessible storytelling will hook kids from the first page.


Click for more detail about Down Home With The Neelys: A Southern Family Cookbook by Pat Neely, Gina Neely and Paula Disbrowe Down Home With The Neelys: A Southern Family Cookbook

by Pat Neely, Gina Neely and Paula Disbrowe
Knopf (May 12, 2009)
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Collects over one hundred and twenty southern style recipes and cooking secrets, from adding barbeque sauce to spaghetti and nachos to molasses-baked beans and a kitchen sink omelet.
Title: Down Home With the Neelys
Author: Neely, Patrick/ Neely, Gina/ Disbrowe, Paula
Random House Inc
2009/05/12
Number of 278
Binding Type: HARDCOVER
Library of Congress: 2008054393

Book Review

Click for more detail about Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny by Hill Harper Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny

by Hill Harper
Avery (May 05, 2009)
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• Does life sometimes seem so much harder for girls?

• Do you ever feel insecure, pressured, or confused?

• Do you wish you had someone to give you honest advice on topics like boys, school, family, and pursuing your dreams?

• Do you want to make a positive impact on the world, but don’t even know how to begin?

In the follow-up to his award winning national bestseller, Letters to a Young Brother, actor and star of CSI: NY shares powerful wisdom for young women everywhere, drawing on the courageous advice of the female role models who transformed his life.

Letters to a Young Sister unfolds as a series of letters written by older brother Hill to a universal young sister. She’s up against the same challenges as every young woman: from relating to her parents and dealing with peer pressure, to juggling schoolwork and crushes and keeping faith in the face of heartache. Hill offers guidance, encouragement, personal stories, and asks his female friends to help answer some truly tough questions. Every young sister needs to know that it’s okay to dream big and to deFINE her own destiny. This is a book that will educate, uplift and inspire.


Click for more detail about Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead Sag Harbor

by Colson Whitehead
Knopf (Apr 28, 2009)
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A warm, funny, and supremely original new novel from one of the most acclaimed writers in America.

The year is 1985. Benji Cooper is one of the only black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. He spends his falls and winters going to roller-disco bar mitzvahs, playing too much Dungeons and Dragons, and trying to catch glimpses of nudity on late-night cable TV. After a tragic mishap on his first day of high school—when Benji reveals his deep enthusiasm for the horror movie magazine Fangoria—his social doom is sealed for the next four years.

But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of African American professionals have built a world of their own. Because their parents come out only on weekends, he and his friends are left to their own devices for three glorious months. And although he’s just as confused about this all-black refuge as he is about the white world he negotiates the rest of the year, he thinks that maybe this summer things will be different. If all goes according to plan, that is.

There will be trials and tribulations, of course. There will be complicated new handshakes to fumble through, and state-of-the-art profanity to master. He will be tested by contests big and small, by his misshapen haircut (which seems to have a will of its own), by the New Coke Tragedy of ’85, and by his secret Lite FM addiction. But maybe, with a little luck, things will turn out differently this summer.

In this deeply affectionate and fiercely funny coming-of-age novel, Whitehead—using the perpetual mortification of teenage existence and the desperate quest for reinvention—lithely probes the elusive nature of identity, both personal and communal.


Click for more detail about Gather Together In My Name by Maya Angelou Gather Together In My Name

by Maya Angelou
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Apr 21, 2009)
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Gather Together in My Name continues Maya Angelou’s personal story, begun so unforgettably in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The time is the end of World War II and there is a sense of optimism everywhere. Maya Angelou, still in her teens, has given birth to a son. But the next few years are difficult ones as she tries to find a place in the world for herself and her child. She goes from job to job–and from man to man. She tries to return home–back to Stamps, Arkansas–but discovers that she is no longer part of that world. Then Maya’s life takes a dramatic turn, and she faces new challenges and temptations.

In this second volume of her poignant autobiographical series, Maya Angelou powerfully captures the struggles and triumphs of her passionate life with dignity, wisdom, humor, and humanity.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas

by Maya Angelou
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Apr 21, 2009)
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In this third self-contained volume of her autobiography, which began with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou moves into the adult world. Maya struggles to support herself and her son through a series of odd jobs and weathers a failed marriage to a white man before landing a gig singing in one of the most popular nightclubs on the San Francisco coast. From there, she is called to New York to join the cast of Porgy and Bess. Maya soon finds herself on a joyous and dramatic adventure, touring abroad through Italy, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Egypt with spirited cast members, and performing for large, enthusiastic audiences. The exciting experience is dampened only by Maya’s nagging guilt that she has abandoned the person she loves most in life, her son, whose reentrance into her world reveals to Maya the healing power of devotion and love.

Charged with Maya Angelou’s remarkable sense of life and love, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas is a unique celebration of the human condition–and an enthralling saga that has touched, inspired, and empowered readers worldwide.


Click for more detail about The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou The Heart of a Woman

by Maya Angelou
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Apr 21, 2009)
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In The Heart of a Woman, Maya Angelou leaves California with her son, Guy, to move to New York. There she enters the society and world of black artists and writers, reads her work at the Harlem Writers Guild, and begins to take part in the struggle of black Americans for their rightful place in the world. In the meantime, her personal life takes an unexpected turn. She leaves the bail bondsman she was intending to marry after falling in love with a South African freedom fighter, travels with him to London and Cairo, where she discovers new opportunities.

The Heart of a Woman is filled with unforgettable vignettes of such renowned people as Billie Holiday and Malcom X, but perhaps most importantly chronicles the joys and the burdens of a black mother in America and how the son she has cherished so intensely and worked for so devotedly finally grows to be a man.


Click for more detail about I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (mass market) by Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (mass market)

by Maya Angelou
Ballantine Books (Apr 21, 2009)
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Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age–and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a modern American classic that will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

Superbly told, with the poet’s gift for language and observation, Angelou’s autobiography of her childhood in Arkansas.


Click for more detail about Ghetto Superstar: A Novel (Many Cultures, One World) by Nikki Turner Ghetto Superstar: A Novel (Many Cultures, One World)

by Nikki Turner
One World/Ballantine (Apr 21, 2009)
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The reigning queen of hip-hop lit, Nikki Turner, takes on the music biz in this tale of a young woman who risks everything to be a superstar.

Fabiola Mays was born to sing. She has a voice like honey and a body to match, but one heartbreaking setback after another threatens to derail her dreams of a recording deal. To make matters worse, it’s Christmastime, rent is past due, and the cops intend to kick her tight-knit family to the curb–until a small-town gangster comes to the rescue and offers them a place to stay.
Years pass, and Fabiola continues to play gigs and travel around the country hoping for another shot at fame. She’s long forgotten the gangster named Casino who bailed out her family once upon a time. But when Casino is shot, Fabiola feels that she must help the man who helped her family during their lowest point.

As Fabiola climbs the ladder of success, she is pulled between the spotlight and the street, trying to resist industry moguls who find the allure of fresh meat irresistible and the thugs from the shadowy side of the ghetto who threaten to keep her close.


Click for more detail about The Greatest Gift I Could Offer: Quotations From Barack Obama On Parenting And Family by Olivia M. Cloud The Greatest Gift I Could Offer: Quotations From Barack Obama On Parenting And Family

by Olivia M. Cloud
Berkley Books (Apr 07, 2009)
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Words of wisdom on raising a family, from President Barack Obama.

Barack Obama’s eloquent words have inspired many. Here, in the only collection of its kind, are his thoughts on parenting and family. Each of his quotes is set in a context of insightful background on Obama’s family experiences-a child of divorce, raised by a single mother, woven into a blended family, reared for years by his grandparents, then going on to embrace his multi-racial roots and blood relatives-and how each of these experiences helped to shape the choices he made in starting his own family.

Distinguished by its selection of photos of President Obama in casual family settings, this is an inspiring keepsake and a wonderful gift for baby showers and birthdays-as well as for the first Mother’s Day and Father’s Day that Obama will be in office.


Click for more detail about Leaving Tangier: A Novel by Tahar Ben Jelloun Leaving Tangier: A Novel

by Tahar Ben Jelloun
Penguin Books (Mar 31, 2009)
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From one of the world’s great writers, a breakthrough novel about leaving home for a better life

In his new novel, award-winning, internationally bestselling author Tahar Ben Jelloun tells the story of a Moroccan brother and sister making new lives for themselves in Spain. Azel is a young man in Tangier who dreams of crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. When he meets Miguel, a wealthy Spaniard, he leaves behind his girlfriend, his sister, Kenza, and his mother, and moves with him to Barcelona, where Kenza eventually joins them. What they find there forms the heart of this novel of seduction and betrayal, deception and disillusionment, in which Azel and Kenza are reminded powerfully not only of where they’ve come from, but also of who they really are.


Click for more detail about Life Is Short But Wide by J. California Cooper Life Is Short But Wide

by J. California Cooper
Knopf (Mar 24, 2009)
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Beloved writer J. California Cooper has won a legion of loyal fans and much critical acclaim for her powerful storytelling gifts. In language both spare and direct yet wondrously lyrical, LIFE IS SHORT BUT WIDE is an irresistible story of family that proves no matter who you are or what you do, you are never too old to chase your dreams.
Like the small towns J. California Cooper has so vividly portrayed in her previous novels and story collections, Wideland, Oklahoma, is home to ordinary Americans struggling to raise families, eke out a living, and fulfill their dreams. In the early twentieth century, Irene and Val fall in love in Wideland. While carving out a home for themselves, they also allow neighbors Bertha and Joseph to build a house and live on their land. The next generation brings two girls for Irene and Val, and a daughter for Bertha and Joseph. As the families cope with the hardships that come with changing times and fortunes, and people are born and pass away, the characters learn the importance of living one’s life boldly and squeezing out every possible moment of joy.
Cooper brilliantly captures the cadences of the South and draws a picture of American life at once down-to-earth and heartwarming in this-as her wise narrator will tell you-“strange, sad, kind’a beautiful, life story.” It is a story about love that leads to the ultimate realization that whoever you are, and whatever you do, life is short, but it is also wide.


Click for more detail about I’m Your Peanut Butter Big Brother by Selina Alko I’m Your Peanut Butter Big Brother

by Selina Alko
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Mar 10, 2009)
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In this delightfully engaging picture book, our narrator, big brother, uses his boundless imagination to wonder what his new sibling will look like.

Baby brother or sister, will you look like me? I blend from semisweet dark
Daddy chocolate bar and strawberry cream Mama’s milk.
My hair is soft crunchy billows of cotton candy.
I’m your peanut butter big-brother-to-be.

Selina Alko’s lyrical and jazz-like text, matched with the vibrant energy of her illustrations, perfectly captures the excitement of a new baby for an older sibling, while celebrating the genuine love of family.

Selina Alko is the illustrator of My Taxi Ride and My Subway Ride. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Sean Qualls, who is also an illustrator, and their two children.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Lemon City: A Novel by Elaine Meryl Brown Lemon City: A Novel

by Elaine Meryl Brown
One World/Ballantine (Feb 24, 2009)
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In this wry fiction debut, Elaine Meryl Brown plunges lucky readers into a gripping narrative of small-town hijinks and big-time hearts.

Rule Number One: Never marry an Outsider. If you do, the boll weevil will bite you back. Rule Number Two: If you can’t be honest, you might as well be dead.

Nestled in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains, Lemon City has ten rules, all designed in the best interests of its tight-knit black community. Granddaddy Dunlap knows all too well what can happen to folks who venture beyond Lemon City’s protective borders. He once had to venture outside town to identify his best friend’s body. So when his firebrand granddaughter Faye, returns from college married to an Outsider, he must act fast to keep her in Lemon City’s safe embrace.

It proves to be a challenge–and not just because the patriarch is distracted by the tensions arising from the heated tomato-growing contest for the annual county fair. Faye’s new husband, Harry, is a slick talker with a roving eye. Faye sees him as her ticket to New York City, where she hopes to fulfill big business dreams, but even the best-laid plans can be thwarted, as Faye discovers that marriage itself isn’t much of a honeymoon. No matter. She packs her bags, fully prepared to head north with or without her husband, when Harry turns up dead. Now the Dunlap family is trying to figure out–before the Thanksgiving turkey gets cold–who did the deed.


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Click for more detail about The Book Of Night Women by Marlon James The Book Of Night Women

by Marlon James
Knopf (Feb 19, 2009)
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From the author shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize

"An undeniable success.” — The New York Times Book Review

The Book of Night Women is a sweeping, startling novel, a true tour de force of both voice and storytelling. It is the story of Lilith, born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at the end of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they—and she—will come to both revere and fear.

The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans. But when she begins to understand her own feelings and desires and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman in Jamaica, and risks becoming the conspiracy’s weak link.

Lilith’s story overflows with high drama and heartbreak, and life on the plantation is rife with dangerous secrets, unspoken jealousies, inhuman violence, and very human emotion—between slave and master, between slave and overseer, and among the slaves themselves. Lilith finds herself at the heart of it all. And all of it told in one of the boldest literary voices to grace the page recently—and the secret of that voice is one of the book’s most intriguing mysteries.

Book Review

Click for more detail about One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, And Other Realities Of Truly Modern Love by Rebecca Walker One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, And Other Realities Of Truly Modern Love

by Rebecca Walker
Riverhead Hardcover (Feb 19, 2009)
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An illuminating, entertaining, and provocative immersion in today’s American family, with essays from ZZ Packer, Dan Savage, Min Jin Lee, asha bandele, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, and others, illustrating the changing realities of domestic life.

Edited by bestselling author Rebecca Walker, this anthology invites us to step into the center of a range of different domestic arrangements and take a good look around. From gay adoption to absentee fathers, from open marriages to green-card marriages, the reality of the American household has altered dramatically over the last three decades. With changing values and expectations, fluid gender roles, and a shifting economy, along with increase in infertility, adoption, and the incidence of mixed-race couples, people across the country are redefining the standard arrangement of family life. In a collection of eighteen honest, personal, and deeply affecting essays from an array of writers, One Big Happy Family offers a fresh look at how contemporary families are adapting to this altering reality.

Each writing from the perspective of his or her own unique domestic arrangements and priorities, the authors of these essays explore topics like transracial adoption, bicultural marriage and children, cohousing, equal parenting, and the creation of virtual families. Dan Savage writes about the unexpected responsibilities of open adoption. Jenny Block tells of the pros and cons of her own open marriage. ZZ Packer explores the ramifications of, and her own self-consciousness about, having a mixed-race child. asha bandele writes of her decision to have a child with a man in prison for life. And Min Jin Lee points to the intimacy shared by a mother and her child’s hired caregiver.

All of these pieces smartly discuss the various cultural pressures, issues, and realities for families today, in a manner that is inviting and accessible—sometimes humorous, sometimes moving, sometimes shocking, but always fascinating.


Click for more detail about Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale Of Love And Deception Across The Color Line by Martha A. Sandweiss Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale Of Love And Deception Across The Color Line

by Martha A. Sandweiss
Penguin Press (Feb 05, 2009)
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The secret double life of the man who mapped the American West, and the woman he loved

Clarence King is a hero of nineteenth century western history; a brilliant scientist and witty conversationalist, best-selling author and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War. Secretary of State John Hay named King “the best and brightest of his generation.” But King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family in Newport: for thirteen years he lived a double life—as the celebrated white explorer, geologist and writer Clarence King and as a black Pullman porter and steel worker named James Todd. The fair blue-eyed son of a wealthy China trader passed across the color line, revealing his secret to his black common- law wife, Ada Copeland, only on his deathbed.

King lied because he wanted to and he lied because he had to. To marry his wife in a public way – as the white man known as Clarence King – would have created a scandal and destroyed his career. At a moment when many mixed-race Americans concealed their African heritage to seize the privileges of white America, King falsely presented himself as a black man in order to marry the woman he loved.

Noted historian of the American West Martha Sandweiss is the first writer to uncover the life that King tried so hard to conceal from the public eye. She reveals the complexity of a man who while publicly espousing a personal dream of a uniquely American “race,” an amalgam of white and black, hid his love for his wife, Ada, and their five biracial children. Passing Strange tells the dramatic tale of a family built along the fault lines of celebrity, class, and race—from the “Todd’s” wedding in 1888, to the 1964 death of Ada King, one of the last surviving Americans born into slavery.


Click for more detail about It’s All Love: Black Writers On Soul Mates, Family And Friends by Marita Golden It’s All Love: Black Writers On Soul Mates, Family And Friends

by Marita Golden
Knopf (Feb 03, 2009)
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In It’s All Love, Black writers celebrate the complexity, power, danger, and glory of love in all its many forms: romantic, familial, communal, and sacred. Editor Marita Golden recounts the morning she woke up certain that she would meet her soul mate in “My Own Happy Ending”; memoirist Reginald Dwayne Betts, in a piece he calls “Learning the Name Dad,” writes stirringly about serving time in prison and how that transformed his life for the better; New York Times bestselling author Pearl Cleage is at her best in the delicate, touching “Missing You”; award-winning author David Anthony Durham enraptures readers with his “An Act of Faith”; New York Times bestselling author L. A. Banks is both funny and wise in her beautiful essay on discovering love as a child, “Two Cents and a Question.” And the poetry of love is here, too—from Gwendolyn Brooks’s classic “Black Wedding Song” to works by Nikki Giovanni, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Kwame Alexander. It’s All Love is a dazzling, delightfully diverse exploration of the wonderful gift of love.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Negro With A Hat: The Rise And Fall Of Marcus Garvey by Colin Grant Negro With A Hat: The Rise And Fall Of Marcus Garvey

by Colin Grant
Knopf (Feb 02, 2009)
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Definitive biography of Marcus Garvey from an exciting and talented new writer.

At one time during the first half of the twentieth century, Marcus Garvey was the most famous black man on the planet. Hailed as both the ‘black Moses’ and merely ‘a Negro with a hat’, he masterminded the first International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World, began the Universal Negro Improvement Association and captivated audiences with his powerful speeches and audacious ‘Back to Africa’ programme. But he was to end his life in penury, ignominy and friendless exile, after serving hail time in both the US and Jamaica.

With masterful skill, wit and compassion, Colin Grant chronicles Garvey’s extraordinary life, the failed business ventures, his misguided negotiations with the Ku Klux Klan, the two wives and the premature obituaries that contributed to his lonely, tragic death. This is the dramatic cautionary tale of a man who articulated the submerged thoughts of an awakening people.

Book Review

Click for more detail about America I AM Black Facts: The Timelines of African American History, 1601-2008 by Quintard Taylor America I AM Black Facts: The Timelines of African American History, 1601-2008

by Quintard Taylor
Hay House (Feb 02, 2009)
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This invaluable reference timeline charts African American history from 1601-2008 against the backdrop of American and world history. AIA Black Facts reveals the unexpected relationships between people and events, and the often unrecognized causes and effects that created African Americans’ indelible imprint on our nation.


Click for more detail about America I Am Legends: Rare Moments And Inspiring Words by Smiley Books America I Am Legends: Rare Moments And Inspiring Words

by Smiley Books
SmileyBooks (Feb 01, 2009)
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“Would America have been America without her Negro people?” — W. E. B. Du Bois   America I AM: The African American Imprint, a national traveling museum exhibition, was conceived by award-winning broadcaster and bestselling author Tavis Smiley as a one-of-a-kind multi-media experience that chronicles the distinct history of African Americans. This beautifully conceived companion volume addresses the central theme of the exhibition, posed by W. E. B. Du Bois: "Would America have been America without her Negro people?" Through exceptional photographic images and penetrating words, America I AM Legends captures the dynamism of 78 legendary African Americans, highlighting the indelible imprint each has made on the United States and the world. A statement illuminating a unique aspect of each iconic figure— made by the legend or by someone carrying on their legacy today—portrays the vision and contribution of each subject. Whether black artistic genius, athletic excellence, political leadership, or the struggle to hold America true to its promise, each legend reminds us that America would be unrecognizable without its African American imprint. America I AM Legends takes us on an unforgettable journey to the heart of the American experience.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Basketball Jones by E. Lynn Harris Basketball Jones

by E. Lynn Harris
Knopf (Jan 27, 2009)
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E. Lynn Harris has wowed and seduced more than three million readers with the wicked drama and undeniable heart in his novels. Now he’s back with another winner sure to top the bestseller lists—a rip-roaring tale of sex, secrets, betrayal … and blackmail.

Aldridge James “AJ” Richardson is living the good life. He has a gorgeous town house in always-flavorful New Orleans, plenty of frequent-flier miles from jet-setting around the country on a whim, and an MBA—but he’s never had to work a regular job. He owes it all to his longtime lover, Dray Jones. Dray Jones the rich and famous NBA star. They fell in love in college when AJ was hired to tutor Dray, a freshman on the basketball team. But Dray knew if he wanted to make it to the big time, he must juggle his public image and his private desires. Built on a deep, abiding love, their hidden relationship sustains them both, but when Dray’s teammates begin to ask insinuating questions about AJ, Dray puts their doubts to rest by marrying Judi, a beautiful and ambitious woman. Judi knows nothing about Dray’s “other life.” Or does she?
In Basketball Jones, E. Lynn Harris explores the consequences of loving someone who is forced to conform to the rules society demands its public heroes follow. Filled with nonstop twists and turns, it will keep readers riveted from the first page to the last.


Click for more detail about In Search Of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In Search Of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Crown (Jan 27, 2009)
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Unlike most white Americans who, if they are so inclined, can search their ancestral records, identifying who among their forebears was the first to set foot on this country’s shores, most African Americans, in tracing their family’s past, encounter a series of daunting obstacles. Slavery was a brutally efficient nullifier of identity, willfully denying black men and women even their names. Yet, from that legacy of slavery, there have sprung generations who’ve struggled, thrived, and lived extraordinary lives.

For too long, African Americans’ family trees have been barren of branches, but, very recently, advanced genetic testing techniques, combined with archival research, have begun to fill in the gaps. Here, scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., backed by an elite team of geneticists and researchers, takes nineteen extraordinary African Americans on a once unimaginable journey, tracing family sagas through U.S. history and back to Africa.

Those whose recovered pasts collectively form an African American “people’s history” of the United States include celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Don Cheadle, Chris Tucker, Morgan Freeman, Tina Turner, and Quincy Jones; writers such as Maya Angelou and Bliss Broyard; leading thinkers such as Harvard divinity professor Peter Gomes, the Reverend T. D. Jakes, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot; and famous achievers such as astronaut Mae Jemison, media personality Tom Joyner, decathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Ebony and Jet publisher Linda Johnson Rice.

More than a work of history, In Search of Our Roots is a book of revelatory importance that, for the first time, brings to light the lives of ordinary men and women who, by courageous example, blazed a path for their famous descendants. For a reader, there is the stirring pleasure of witnessing long-forgotten struggles and triumphs–but there’s an enduring reward as well. In accompanying the nineteen contemporary achievers on their journey into the past and meeting their remarkable forebears, we come to know ourselves.


Click for more detail about Ron’s Big Mission by Rose Blue and Corinne Naden
Ron’s Big Mission

by Rose Blue and Corinne Naden
Dutton Books for Young Readers (Jan 22, 2009)
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Nine-year-old Ron loves going to the Lake City Public Library to look through all the books on airplanes and flight. Today, Ron is ready to take out books by himself. But in the segregated world of South Carolina in the 1950s, Ron?s obtaining his own library card is not just a small rite of passage?it is a young man?s fi rst courageous mission. Here is an inspiring story, based on Ron McNair?s life, of how a little boy, future scientist, and Challenger astronaut desegregated his library through peaceful resistance.


Click for more detail about The Breakthrough: Politics And Race In The Age Of Obama by Gwen Ifill The Breakthrough: Politics And Race In The Age Of Obama

by Gwen Ifill
Knopf (Jan 20, 2009)
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In The Breakthrough, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential victory and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.

Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama (all interviewed for this book), and also covers numerous up-and-coming figures from across the nation. Drawing on exclusive interviews with power brokers such as President Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, his son Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict, the race/ gender clash, and the "black enough" conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history.

The Breakthrough is a remarkable look at contemporary politics and an essential foundation for understanding the future of American democracy in the age of Obama.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Best African American Fiction: 2009 by E. Lynn Harris and Gerald L. Early Best African American Fiction: 2009

by E. Lynn Harris and Gerald L. Early
Bantam (Jan 13, 2009)
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Introducing the first volume in an exciting new annual anthology featuring the year’s most outstanding fiction by some of today’s finest African American writers.

From stories that depict black life in times gone by to those that address contemporary issues, this inaugural volume gathers the very best recent African American fiction. Created during a period of electrifying political dialogue and cultural, social, and economic change that is sure to captivate the imaginations of writers and readers for years to come, these short stories and novel excerpts explore a rich variety of subjects. But most of all, they represent exceptional artistry.

Here youill find work by both established names and up-and-comers, ranging from Walter Dean Myers to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Mat Johnson, and Junot Díaz . They write about subjects as diverse as the complexities of black middle-class life and the challenges of interracial relationships, a modern-day lynching in the South and a young musician’s coming-of-age during the Harlem Renaissance. What unites these stories, whether set in suburbia, in eighteenth-century New York City, or on a Caribbean island that is supposed to be "brown skin paradise," is their creators’ passionate engagement with matters of the human heart.

Masterful and engaging, this first volume of Best African American Fiction features stories you’ll want to savor, share, and return to again and again.


Click for more detail about Best African American Essays: 2009 by Gerald L. Early Best African American Essays: 2009

by Gerald L. Early
Bantam (Jan 13, 2009)
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This exciting collection introduces the first-ever annual anthology of writing by African Americans. Here are remarkable essays on a variety of subjects informed by—but not necessarily about—the experience of blackness, as seen through the eyes of some of our finest writers.

From art, entertainment, and science to technology, sexuality, and current events—including the battle for the Democratic nomination for the presidency—the essays in this inaugural anthology offer the compelling perspectives of a number of well-known, distinguished writers, among them Malcolm Gladwell, Jamaica Kincaid, James McBride, and Walter Mosley, and a number of other writers who are just beginning to be heard.

Selected from a diverse array of respected publications such as the New Yorker, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Slate, and National Geographic, the essays gathered here are about making history, living everyday life—and everything in between. In “Fired,” author and professor Emily Bernard wrestles with the pain of a friendship inexplicably ended. Kenneth McClane writes hauntingly of the last days of his parents’ lives in “Driving.” Journalist Brian Palmer shares “The Last Thoughts of an Iraq War Embed.” Jamaica Kincaid describes her oddly charged relationship with that quintessentially British, Wordsworthian flower in “Dances with Daffodils,” and writer Hawa Allan depicts the forces of race and rivalry as two catwalk icons face off in “When Tyra Met Naomi.” A venue in which African American writers can branch out from traditionally “black” subjects, Best African American Essays features a range of gifted voices exploring the many issues and experiences, joys and trials, that, as human beings, we all share.


Please click the "Behind the Book" link for contributor’s bios.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II

by Douglas A. Blackmon
Anchor (Jan 13, 2009)
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In this groundbreaking historical expose, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history—an “Age of Neoslavery” that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II.Using a vast record of original documents and personal narratives, Douglas A. Blackmon unearths the lost stories of slaves and their descendants who journeyed into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation and then back into the shadow of involuntary servitude shortly thereafter. By turns moving, sobering, and shocking, this unprecedented account reveals the stories of those who fought unsuccessfully against the re-emergence of human labor trafficking, the companies that profited most from neoslavery, and the insidious legacy of racism that reverberates today.


Click for more detail about Song Yet Sung by James McBride Song Yet Sung

by James McBride
Riverhead Books (Jan 06, 2009)
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From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction.

In the days before the Civil War, a runaway slave named Liz Spocott breaks free from her captors and escapes into the labyrinthine swamps of Maryland’s eastern shore, setting loose a drama of violence and hope among slave catchers, plantation owners, watermen, runaway slaves, and free blacks. Liz is near death, wracked by disturbing visions of the future, and armed with “the Code,” a fiercely guarded cryptic means of communication for slaves on the run. Liz’s flight and her dreams of tomorrow will thrust all those near her toward a mysterious, redemptive fate.

Filled with rich, true details—much of the story is drawn from historical events—and told in McBride’s signature lyrical style, Song Yet Sung is a story of tragic triumph, violent decisions, and unexpected kindness.


Click for more detail about The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, And An Unlikely Road To Manhood by Ta-Nehisi Coates The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, And An Unlikely Road To Manhood

by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Spiegel & Grau (Jan 06, 2009)
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An exceptional father-son story about the reality that tests us, the myths that sustain us, and the love that saves us.

Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. Most of all, he was a wily tactician whose mission was to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence—and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack—and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free.

Among his brood of seven, his main challenges were Ta-Nehisi, spacey and sensitive and almost comically miscalibrated for his environment, and Big Bill, charismatic and all-too-ready for the challenges of the streets. The Beautiful Struggle follows their divergent paths through this turbulent period, and their father’s steadfast efforts—assisted by mothers, teachers, and a body of myths, histories, and rituals conjured from the past to meet the needs of a troubled present—to keep them whole in a world that seemed bent on their destruction.

With a remarkable ability to reimagine both the lost world of his father’s generation and the terrors and wonders of his own youth, Coates offers readers a small and beautiful epic about boys trying to become men in black America and beyond.


Click for more detail about Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad by Bebe Moore Campbell Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad

by Bebe Moore Campbell
Berkley Books (Jan 06, 2009)
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"Potent … Unforgettable."
—Bharati Mukherjee
The New York Times Book Review

"A REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT … . While Sweet Summer is infused with experiences unique to African-American culture, it speaks to the universals of human experience."
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Written with the narrative force of fiction and the lyrical motion of poetry, SWEET SUMMER is Bebe Moore Campbell’s elegy to her extraordinary father. Though she lived with her devoted mother and grandmother in the North most of the year, Campbell spent the summers with her father in the South—a man of gargantuan appetites and boundless exuberance. To his daughter, he was a magical presence.
A bittersweet evocation of a divided childhood with its family secrets, surprising discoveries, loneliness, and love, SWEET SUMMER also recalls living on the cusp of the social revolution of the 1960s. Most of all, it is an achingly honest and beautiful reminder of the universal challenge of growing up and facing one’s parents as an adult.
"Touching… With this candid account and loving tribute to a special man, Campbell breaks through all the stereotypes about black family life."
—New York Daily News


Click for more detail about The Truth Shall Make You Rich: The New Road Map to Radical Prosperity by Farrah Gray The Truth Shall Make You Rich: The New Road Map to Radical Prosperity

by Farrah Gray
Plume (Dec 30, 2008)
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The bestselling author of Reallionaire challenges common misconceptions about success and lays out the road map to a richer life

Raised in the impoverished south side of Chicago, Farrah Gray defied the odds and became a millionaire by age fourteen. He was the youngest person to have an office on Wall Street, and the youngest to receive an honorary doctorate. Now, at 24, he is an inspiration to millions and the bestselling author of Reallionaire, #1 Essence Bestseller.

In The Truth Shall Make You Rich, Gray shares the secret to his success: an emphatic rejection of the seven fallacies most people believe about money and success: the Born Lucky Lie, the Celebrity Lie, the Money Lie, the Debt Lie, the Google and Gates Lie, the Wall Street Lie, and the Work-Hard Lie. By revealing the truth behind the myths, Gray empowers readers to blaze their own paths and make their own millions.


Click for more detail about W. E. B Du Bois (Up Close) by Tonya Bolden W. E. B Du Bois (Up Close)

by Tonya Bolden
Viking Books for Young Readers (Dec 26, 2008)
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William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, perhaps best known for his seminal work The Souls of Black Folk and as the founding editor of the NAACP?s groundbreaking magazine The Crisis, was ever a soul in motion for justice. Whether he was protesting Jim Crow laws and lynch mobs in the Deep South, advocating for the end of European Colonialism, or campaigning for world peace, Du Bois was always speaking out for others. This fascinating Up Close biography by award-winning author Tonya Bolden tells the story of how one man?tirelessly and never quietly? fought for equality until his death at age ninety-five.


Click for more detail about The Egyptian Book of the Dead by E. A. Wallace Budge The Egyptian Book of the Dead

by E. A. Wallace Budge
Penguin Classics (Nov 25, 2008)
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A unique collection of funerary texts from a wide variety of sources, dating from the 15th to the 4th century BC

Consisting of spells, prayers and incantations, each section contains the words of power to overcome obstacles in the afterlife. The papyruses were often left in sarcophagi for the dead to use as passports on their journey from burial, and were full of advice about the ferrymen, gods and kings they would meet on the way. Offering valuable insights into ancient Egypt, The Book of the Dead has also inspired fascination with the occult and the afterlife in recent years.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about Looking For Lincoln: The Making Of An American Icon by Philip B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt and Peter W. Kunhardt Jr. Looking For Lincoln: The Making Of An American Icon

by Philip B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt and Peter W. Kunhardt Jr.
Knopf (Nov 18, 2008)
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An extensively researched, lavishly illustrated consideration of the myths, memories, and questions that gathered around our most beloved—and most enigmatic—president in the years between his assassination and the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922.
 
Availing themselves of a vast collection of both published and never-before-seen materials, the authors—the fourth and fifth generations of a family of Lincoln scholars—bring into focus the posthumous portrait of Lincoln that took hold in the American imagination. Told through the voices of those who knew the man—Northerners and Southerners, blacks and whites, neighbors and family members, adversaries and colleagues—Looking for Lincoln charts the dramatic epilogue to Lincoln’s extraordinary life.
 
During these years, as Americans struggled to understand their loss and rebuild their country, Lincoln’s legacy was still hotly debated. The authors take us through the immediate aftermath of the assassination; the private memories of those closest to the slain president; the difficult period between 1876 and 1908, when a tired nation turned its back on the former slaves and betrayed Lincoln’s teachings; and the early years of the twentieth century when Lincoln’s popularity soared as African Americans fought to reclaim the ideals he espoused.
 
Looking for Lincoln will deeply enhance our understanding of the statesman and his legacy, at a moment when the timeless example of his leadership is more crucial than ever.


Click for more detail about Dying For Revenge (Gideon Trilogy, Book 3) by Eric Jerome Dickey Dying For Revenge (Gideon Trilogy, Book 3)

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Nov 18, 2008)
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International hit man Gideon never misses his target, but when a job in Detroit goes bad, he should have killed his client – a cold-blooded woman who hired him to kill her husband – when he had the chance. Now the city’s mayor and with money and power to spare, this woman will stop at nothing to see that Gideon gets what he deserves. Gideon soon finds himself in the crosshairs of two hired assassins: a seasoned killer known as El Matador and his voluptuous but ruthless wife, who dons Manolo Blahniks for even the dirtiest jobs. But when Gideon proves himself an impossible target, the lady from Detroit sets her sights on those closest to him. On the exotic island of Antigua, Gideon enlists the help of his friend and fellow assassin Hawks to square off against his deadliest adversary yet. Amid palm trees and white sands, sparks and bullets fly as Gideon must outsmart and defeat his pursuers before it’s too late. Featuring Dickey’s trademark blend of passion and suspense, Dying for Revenge is a pulse-pounding and deliciously sexy thrill-ride through a Caribbean island paradise.


Click for more detail about 32 Ways To Be A Champion In Business by Earvin Magic Johnson 32 Ways To Be A Champion In Business

by Earvin Magic Johnson
Crown Business (Nov 18, 2008)
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As a young man, Earvin “Magic” Johnson admired his father and other small-town entrepreneurs who created jobs and served as leaders in his Midwestern community. He worked for them, watched them, and his interest in building communities through economic development grew even while his basketball career flourished. His fame as an NBA star gave him access to some of the most successful business leaders in the country. It was Earvin’s own entrepreneurial spirit that inspired them to serve as his mentors.

Earvin made the transition from great athlete to greater entrepreneur through hard work and by avidly pursuing opportunities. He recognized that densely populated urban communities were ripe for commercial and residential development. He partnered with major brands like Starbucks, 24 Hour Fitness, and T.G.I. Friday’s to lead a major economic push in these communities. The success of his businesses proved that ethnically diverse urban residents would welcome and support major brands if given the opportunity. Earvin continues to be a leader of urban economic development that provides jobs, goods, and a new spirit of community.

32 Ways to Be a Champion in Business will inspire and enlighten readers who wish to make a similar impact with their careers and business endeavors.

Book Review

Click for more detail about American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

by Jon Meacham
Random House (Nov 11, 2008)
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The definitive biography of a larger-than-life president who defied norms, divided a nation, and changed Washington forever

Andrew Jackson, his intimate circle of friends, and his tumultuous times are at the heart of this remarkable book about the man who rose from nothing to create the modern presidency. Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson’s election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics. Democracy made its stand in the Jackson years, and he gave voice to the hopes and the fears of a restless, changing nation facing challenging times at home and threats abroad. To tell the saga of Jackson’s presidency, acclaimed author Jon Meacham goes inside the Jackson White House. Drawing on newly discovered family letters and papers, he details the human drama-the family, the women, and the inner circle of advisers- that shaped Jackson’s private world through years of storm and victory.

One of our most significant yet dimly recalled presidents, Jackson was a battle-hardened warrior, the founder of the Democratic Party, and the architect of the presidency as we know it. His story is one of violence, sex, courage, and tragedy. With his powerful persona, his evident bravery, and his mystical connection to the people, Jackson moved the White House from the periphery of government to the center of national action, articulating a vision of change that challenged entrenched interests to heed the popular will- or face his formidable wrath. The greatest of the presidents who have followed Jackson in the White House-from Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to FDR to Truman-have found inspiration in his example, and virtue in his vision.

Jackson was the most contradictory of men. The architect of the removal of Indians from their native lands, he was warmly sentimental and risked everything to give more power to ordinary citizens. He was, in short, a lot like his country: alternately kind and vicious, brilliant and blind; and a man who fought a lifelong war to keep the republic safe-no matter what it took.


Click for more detail about Foreigners (Vintage International) by Caryl Phillips Foreigners (Vintage International)

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Nov 11, 2008)
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From an acclaimed, award-winning novelist comes this brilliant hybrid of reportage, fiction, and historical fact: the stories of three black men whose tragic lives speak resoundingly to the problem of race in British society.

With his characteristic grace and forceful prose, Phillips describes the lives of three very different men: Francis Barber, “given” to the 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson, whose friendship with Johnson led to his wretched demise; Randolph Turpin, a boxing champion who ended his life in debt and decrepitude; and David Oluwale, a Nigerian stowaway who arrived in Leeds in 1949 and whose death at the hands of police twenty years later was a wake up call for the entire nation. As Phillips weaves together these three stories, he illuminates the complexities of race relations and social constraints with devastating results.


Click for more detail about Red Light Special: A Novel by Risque Red Light Special: A Novel

by Risque
One World/Ballantine (Oct 28, 2008)
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Monday Smith is married to the mayor of New York City and struggles to keep her troubled past a secret. But when her husband’s thirst for high-priced sex leads them down an explosive path of passion, murder, and lies, she has to decide if her marriage is worth saving, and at what cost.

Collyn Bazemore, a Manhattan madam, deals with an elite clientele, and they pay big for the best sex in the city. One of Collyn’s most important customers, the mayor, has planned an erotic extravaganza in the Hamptons, but when he sends one of his associates to seal the deal, Collyn grows suspicious of this replacement–and yet her attraction to him is undeniable. While her mind tells her no, her body aches to say yes, and just when he melts her in all the right places, it turns out he has a few secrets of his own.

These two women are bound together by an erotically charged past, and when their carefully crafted facades start to crumble, neither will ever be the same.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Cubicles: A Novel by camika c. spencer Cubicles: A Novel

by camika c. spencer
One World/Ballantine (Oct 28, 2008)
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New from the Blackboard-bestselling author of When All Hell Breaks Loose: When some old secrets make office politics spiral out of control, three women will have to decide how far they’re willing to go to climb the corporate ladder.

At first glance, you couldn’t find three women more different than Margaret, Faulkner, and Joyce. Margaret is almost sixty, devoutly religious, and getting ready to retire from her job at Meridian Southwest. Faulkner is a young go-getter who really wants to land a position in upper management. And Joyce is a domineering, immaculately dressed middle-aged woman who’s moments away from receiving a top executive appointment.

But something just doesn’t seem right with these three. Isn’t it strange that Margaret and Joyce have worked together for more than twenty years but barely even speak? Why is it that the more Faulkner tries to impress Joyce with her hard work, the more Joyce seems to hate her? Who can explain why the management position for which Faulkner is the best qualified applicant remains vacant? And why is James, the department intern, always smiling about something?

Over the course of a few weeks, Margaret, Faulkner, and Joyce are unexpectedly drawn together as a tangled web woven decades earlier begins to unravel.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about The Essential Writings of James Weldon Johnson (Modern Library Classics) by James Weldon Johnson The Essential Writings of James Weldon Johnson (Modern Library Classics)

by James Weldon Johnson
Modern Library (Oct 21, 2008)
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“A canonical collection, splendidly and sensitively edited by Rudolph Byrd.”
–Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

One of the leading voices of the Harlem Resaissance and a crucial literary figure of his time, James Weldon Johnson was also an editor, songwriter, founding member and leader of the NAACP, and the first African American to hold a diplomatic post as consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua. This comprehensive volume of Johnson’s works includes the seminal novel Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, poems from God’s Trombones, essays on cultural and political topics, selections from Johnson’s autobiography, Along This Way, and two previously unpublished short plays: Do You Believe in Ghosts? and The Engineer. Featuring a chronology, bibliography, and a Foreword by acclaimed author Charles Johnson, this Modern Library edition showcases the tremendous range of James Weldon Johnson’s writings and their considerable influence on American civic and cultural life.

“This collection of poetry, fiction, criticism, autobiography, political writing and two unpublished plays by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) spans 60 years of pure triumph over adversity. [….Johnson’s] nobility, his inspiration shine forth from these pages, setting moral and artistic standards.” —Los Angeles Times


Click for more detail about The Moon Over Star by Dianna Hutts Aston The Moon Over Star

by Dianna Hutts Aston
Dial Books for Young Readers (Oct 16, 2008)
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In July 1969, the world witnessed an awe-inspiring historical achievement when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the moon. For the young protagonist of this lyrical and hopeful picture book, that landing is something that inspires her to make one giant step toward all of the possibilities that life has to offer.

Caldecott Honor–winning painter Jerry Pinkney and the poetic Dianna Hutts Aston create a moving tribute to the historic Apollo 11 Mission, just in time to commemorate its upcoming fortieth anniversary.


Click for more detail about The Love Child’s Revenge by Nicole Bailey-Williams The Love Child’s Revenge

by Nicole Bailey-Williams
Broadway Books (Oct 07, 2008)
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Shy and awkward, ruthlessly ridiculed by other children and carelessly treated by adults, Claudia Fryar flees her hometown of Philadelphia after her father’s death. But years of shame and silent suffering as the love child of the respected—and married—Louis Harrison finally come to a raging boil when Harrison’s jealous widow cheats Claudia out of her inheritance.

Twice-scorned, Claudia transforms herself into Peach Harrison: bold, beautiful…and sinister. Now a successful newscaster, Peach makes a triumphant return to Philadelphia, to the welcoming arms of those who once cast her aside. But as Peach puts her “big payback” scheme into action, she realizes that revenge comes with some serious costs of its own.


Click for more detail about The Bond by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt The Bond

by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt
Riverhead Books (Oct 07, 2008)
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Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt discovered early in their friendship that they shared a disturbing trait: as children, they navigated dangerous inner-city life without a father’s guidance. In spite of this, they escaped delinquency and crime to form the Pact, dedicated to putting themselves on the road to success. Now, the Three Doctors make a new promise: to set aside their resentment, and rebuild the relationships with their fathers—men they barely recognize. Told in alternating voices between father and son, The Bond explores the hard lessons of growing up without a father and suggests ways to stem the tide of fatherlessness in communities across the country. Honest, brave, and poignant, The Bond is a book for every child and every family.


Click for more detail about Great Ideas Concerning Violence by Frantz Fanon Great Ideas Concerning Violence

by Frantz Fanon
Penguin UK (Sep 23, 2008)
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Angered by the racism he witnessed on Martinique during the Second World War, Fanon here examines the roles of class, culture and violence, and expresses his profound alienation from the idea of colonialism and its bloodshed. More than four decades on, Fanon’s work still inspires liberation movements today. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.


Click for more detail about Fire from the Rock by Sharon M. Draper Fire from the Rock

by Sharon M. Draper
Speak (Sep 18, 2008)
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Sylvia is shocked and confused when she is asked to be one of the first black students to attend Central High School, which is scheduled to be integrated in the fall of 1957, whether people like it or not. Before Sylvia makes her final decision, smoldering racial tension in the town ignites into flame. When the smoke clears, she sees clearly that nothing is going to stop the change from coming. It is up to her generation to make it happen, in as many different ways as there are colors in the world.


Click for more detail about Willie and the All-Stars by Floyd Cooper Willie and the All-Stars

by Floyd Cooper
Philomel Books (Sep 18, 2008)
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Willie, an African-American boy growing up in Chicago, dreams of playing baseball in the Major Leagues, like his idols. But it?s 1942, and Jackie Robinson is years away from breaking the color barrier. One day Willie sits with the old men in the neighborhood as they spin tall baseball tales. Willie knows the game like the back of his hand, but he?s never heard of Josh Gibson or Cool Papa Bell. ?That?s because they?re Negro Leaguers,? says Ol? Ezra. ?Being a Major Leaguer is about a lot more than how good a fella is. It?s also about the color of his skin. And yours is the wrong color.? Willie is crushed. Until, that is, Ezra hands him two tickets to an exhibition all-star game between Major Leaguers and Negro Leaguers, and Willie sees firsthand how determination can change everything. A beautifully illustrated tribute to the power of a boy?s dreams, and the great gift that is hope.


Click for more detail about Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide (Left to Tell) by Immaculée Ilibagiza Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide (Left to Tell)

by Immaculée Ilibagiza
Hay House (Sep 16, 2008)
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For three months in the spring of 1994, the African nation of Rwanda descended into one of the most vicious and bloody genocides the world has ever seen. Immaculée Ilibagiza, a young university student, miraculously survived the savage killing spree that left most of her family, friends, and a million of her fellow citizens dead. Immaculée’s remarkable story of survival was documented in her first book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.In Led By Faith, Immaculée takes us with her as her remarkable journey continues. Through her simple and eloquent voice, we experience her hardships and heartache as she struggles to survive and to find meaning and purpose in the aftermath of the holocaust. It is the story of a naïve and vulnerable young woman, orphaned and alone, navigating through a bleak and dangerously hostile world with only an abiding faith in God to guide and protect her. Immaculée fends off sinister new predators, seeks out and comforts scores of children orphaned by the genocide, and searches for love and companionship in a land where hatred still flourishes. Then, fearing again for her safety as Rwanda’s war-crime trials begin, Immaculée flees to America to begin a new chapter of her life as a refugee and immigrant—a stranger in a strange land.With the same courage and faith in God that led her through the darkness of genocide, Immaculée discovers a new life that was beyond her wildest dreams as a small girl in a tiny village in one ofAfrica’s poorest countries.It is in the United States, her adopted country, where Immaculée can finally look back at all that has happened to her and truly understand why God spared her life … so that she would be left to tell her story to the world.


Click for more detail about For The Confederate Dead by Kevin Young For The Confederate Dead

by Kevin Young
Knopf (Sep 09, 2008)
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The award-winning “lively and excellent collection” (Los Angeles Times) about the South and its legacy, about African-American griefs and passages, from the author of Jelly Roll and Black Maria, a poet who has “set himself apart from his peers with his supple, variable, blues-inflected lines” (Publishers Weekly).


Click for more detail about Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It by Sundee T. Frazier Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It

by Sundee T. Frazier
Yearling (Sep 09, 2008)
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Ten-year-old Tae Kwon Do blue belt and budding rock hound Brendan Buckley keeps a CONFIDENTIAL notebook for his top-secret discoveries. And he’s found something totally top secret. The grandpa he’s never met, whom his mom refuses to see or even talk about, is an expert mineral collector, and he lives nearby! Brendan sneaks off to visit his grandpa Ed DeBose, whose skin is pink, not brown like Brendan’s, his dad’s, and the late Grandpa Clem’s. Brendan sets out to find the reason behind Ed’s absence, but what he discovers can’t be explained by science, and now he wishes he’d never found Ed at all… .


Click for more detail about Precious Cargo by Walter Dean Myers Precious Cargo

by Walter Dean Myers
Vanguard Press (Sep 09, 2008)
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Marvin and Angela Baynes prepare to embark on their voyage to Alaska. But their excitement turns to horror as a ghastly image comes into view: the body of a young woman impaled on the anchor flukes. It is up to detective Charlie Noble to piece together the missing elements of this case.


Click for more detail about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz
Riverhead Books (Sep 02, 2008)
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Winner of:
The Pulitzer Prize
The National Book Critics Circle Award
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
The Jon Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize
A Time Magazine #1 Fiction Book of the Year

One of the best books of 2007 according to: The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, People, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Salon, Baltimore City Paper, The Christian Science Monitor, Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, New York Public Library, and many more…

Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love.


Click for more detail about Keyshia And Clyde: A Novel by Treasure Blue Keyshia And Clyde: A Novel

by Treasure Blue
One World/Ballantine (Aug 26, 2008)
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Treasure E. Blue–acclaimed author of Harlem Girl Lost and A Street Girl Named Desire–is back with a heartbreaking urban love story of two star-crossed lovers up against the dirtiest dealer Harlem has ever seen.

Knocked up by a Southern preacher, Keyshia is sent to live with her aunt in New York, but after a horrific act of violence, the timid young woman becomes ice-cold–turning tricks and finding comfort in a crack vial.

Clyde and his two brothers find themselves living with a family friend after their mother is shot by their own father–leaving her institutionalized and unable to communicate, and him behind bars. Clyde’s older brother leads a decent life, working as a bank manager and trying to keep Clyde off the streets, but Clyde’s younger bro is the coldest killer in Harlem and takes every opportunity to involve Clyde in his infamous robberies-turned-blood baths.

When Keyshia and Clyde meet, they are instantly drawn to each other. Forced to pay back a large sum of cash to one nasty Harlem kingpin or risk the lethal consequences, Keyshia and Clyde use their tight game and their loyalty to pull off the impossible. And when Clyde is falsely accused of a bank hit, Keyshia vows to stick by her man–no matter the cost.

Praise for Treasure E. Blue’s A Street Girl Named Desire:

“Treasure Blue continues and solidifies his position as the true heir to Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines. A book full of gritty realism, violence, drug abuse, and hope; the book is simply off the damn hook!”
–African American Literary Book Club

“Drenched in drama, drugs, vengeance, power, pain, envy, love and hope … all the elements needed to satisfy [the] desire for a good read.”
–Urban Reviews


Click for more detail about <meta http-equiv= by Iyanla Vanzant" style="height:120px;border:0px;float:left;padding-right:10px" src="https://aalbc.com/bookcovers/9781401921880.jpg" />

by Iyanla Vanzant
SmileyBooks (Aug 15, 2008)
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       The revised and expanded 20th-anniversary edition of Iyanla Vanzant’s first published work offers a powerful path to self-empowerment through the revitalization of one’s spiritual and ancestral roots. Written with Iyanla’s signature healing stories, this classic guide to uniting the will with the spirit teaches that only you have the power to make a change for the better. With chapters on basic breathing and meditation techniques, setting up a home altar, connecting with ancestors and guardian spirits, and the extraordinary power of forgiveness, this book is a perfect companion on the way toward the real you.  Known for teaching by principle and example, this exclusive edition also contains Iyanla’s special “What I Know Now” commentaries and an original CD. These tools will challenge you to stop struggling and start recognizing that it is possible to reconcile your humanity with your divinity. Whether you are a beginner on the path or a veteran in need of refreshment, Iyanla’s prescriptions can support your growth from the comfort of spiritual adolescence to the wisdom of spiritual maturity. You no longer need to settle for the way things are … you can open up to the way things can be—if you dare to tap the power within!


Click for more detail about From the Streets to the Sheets: Urban Erotic Quickies by Noire From the Streets to the Sheets: Urban Erotic Quickies

by Noire
One World/Ballantine (Aug 12, 2008)
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In this bold collection of hard-hitting urban erotic quickies, Noire, the undisputed Queen of Urban Erotica, brings you eleven authors who explore, without apology or restraint, street sagas of sexual pleasure.

Boasting an all-star lineup of some of today’s hottest authors–and sprinkled with heat from some fresh new talent too–this collection from Noire thoroughly lives up to her credo of giving her fans just what they like: street drama with a sheet-drenching erotic twist.

Here you’ll find sexy tales from fan favorites K’wan, Joy, Thomas Long, Jamise L. Dames, Andrea Blackstone, Gerald Malcom, Euftis Emory, Kweli Walker, and Erick Gray, along with two hot new voices: Aretha Temple and Plea$ure. Noire even supplies her own juicy addition to the hard-body lineup.

So beware: The heat and the drama between these pages are not fairy tales for the desperate housewife. Ride hard with Noire as her authors get their grind on and take it to the limits in From the Streets to the Sheets.

Book Review

Click for more detail about God’s Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembène God’s Bits of Wood

by Ousmane Sembène
Longman (Aug 11, 2008)
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In 1947 the workers on the Dakar-Niger Railway came out on strike. Throughout this novel, written from the workers’ perspective, the community social tensions emerge, and increase as the strike lengthens. The author’s other novels include Xala and Black Docker.


Click for more detail about Take Back Your Family: A Challenge to America’s Parents by Rev. Run, Justine Simmons and Chris Morrow Take Back Your Family: A Challenge to America’s Parents

by Rev. Run, Justine Simmons and Chris Morrow
Gotham (Aug 05, 2008)
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Stars of MTV?s Run?s House ? dubbed ?the new Cosby family? ? celebrate family values in this inspiring guide to modern parenting

Despite being a hip-hop icon, an ordained minister, and a reality TV star, Rev Run?s greatest accomplishment has been raising his six children?Angela, Vanessa, JoJo, Diggy, Russy and Miley?with his wife Justine. Their journey has been captured on Run?s House, a show that celebrates ? finally ? a reality TV family that is functional instead of dysfunctional. In an age marked by shallow materialism and fragmented families, Rev Run and Justine have inspired millions of viewers by teaching old-fashioned family values applied with a hip-hop twist. In Take Back Your Family, Rev Run and Justine celebrate the role of parents and share their secrets to raising a respectful and loving family that can enjoy the good times while surviving the hard ones.


Click for more detail about Going Down South: A Novel by Bonnie J. Glover Going Down South: A Novel

by Bonnie J. Glover
One World/Ballantine (Jul 29, 2008)
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From the author of The Middle Sister comes a heartwarming tale of second chances and the unparalleled love between mothers and daughters.

When fifteen-year-old Olivia Jean finds herself in the “family way,” her mother, Daisy, who has never been very maternal, springs into action. Daisy decides that Olivia Jean can’t stay in New York and whisks her away to her grandmother’s farm in Alabama to have the baby–even though Daisy and her mother, Birdie, have been estranged for years. When they arrive, Birdie lays down the law: Sure, her granddaughter can stay, but Daisy will have to stay as well. Though Daisy is furious, she has no choice.

Now, under one little roof in the 1960s Deep South, three generations of spirited, proud women are forced to live together. One by one, they begin to lose their inhibitions and share their secrets. And as long-guarded truths emerge, a baby is born–a child with the power to turn these virtual strangers into a real, honest-to-goodness family.

Praise for Going Down South:

“Long live Olivia Jean, Daisy, and Birdie! These three daughters, mothers, and women are smart, feisty, and funny. Their stories will break your heart in the very best way. I absolutely loved Going Down South!”
—Carleen Brice, author of Orange Mint and Honey

Book Review

Click for more detail about Waking with Enemies by Eric Jerome Dickey Waking with Enemies

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Jul 01, 2008)
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New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey’s must-read follow-up to Sleeping with Strangers.Gideon, the hit man introduced in Sleeping with Strangers, returns in this “high-octane”(Publishers Weekly) thriller to discover that a hit has been taken out on him. Is it the man he left alive in Tampa, the cold beauty who taught him how to kill, the scorned woman he still desires, or an unknown enemy? As the hunter becomes the hunted, Gideon will need his friends—and his enemies—to get out of this crisis alive.


Click for more detail about Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale  by John Steptoe Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale

by John Steptoe
Puffin Books (Jul 01, 2008)
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This is the tale of Mufaro’s two daughters, two beautiful girls who react in different ways to the king’s search for a wife - one is aggressive and selfish, the other kind and dignified. The king takes on disguises to learn the true nature of both girls and of course chooses Nyasha, the kind and generous daughter, to be his queen.

While all of Mr. Steptoe’s work deals with aspects of the African American experience, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughter was acknowledged by reviewers and critics as a breakthrough. Based on an African tale recorded in the 19th century, it required Mr. Steptoe for the first time to research African history and culture, awakening his pride in his African ancestry. Mr. Steptoe hoped that his books would lead children, especially African American children, to feel pride in their origins and in who they are.


Click for more detail about All About The Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can’t Save Black America by John McWhorter All About The Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can’t Save Black America

by John McWhorter
Knopf (Jun 19, 2008)
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The bestselling commentator, hailed for his frank and fearless arguments on race, imparts a scathing look at the hypocrisy of hip-hop—and why its popularity proves that black America must overhaul its politics.

One of the most outspoken voices in America’s cultural dialogues, John McWhorter can always be counted on to provide provocative viewpoints steeped in scholarly savvy. Now he turns his formidable intellect to the topic of hip-hop music and culture, smashing the claims that hip-hop is politically valuable because it delivers the only “real” portrayal of black society.

In this measured, impassioned work, McWhorter delves into the rhythms of hip-hop, analyzing its content and celebrating its artistry and craftsmanship. But at the same time he points out that hip-hop is, at its core, simply music, and takes issue with those who celebrate hip-hop as the beginning of a new civil rights program and inflate the lyrics with a kind of radical chic. In a power vacuum, this often offensive and destructive music has become a leading voice of black America, and McWhorter stridently calls for a renewed sense of purpose and pride in black communities.

Joining the ranks of Russell Simmons and others who have called for a deeper investigation of hip-hop’s role in black culture, McWhorter’s All About the Beat is a spectacular polemic that takes the debate in a seismically new direction.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Seduction by Geneva Holliday Seduction

by Geneva Holliday
Knopf (Jun 10, 2008)
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In Geneva Holliday’s latest novel of lust and revenge, Seduction works both ways.

Mildred Johnson is the last woman on earth that gorgeous Tony Landry would dare to be seen with. That is, until Tony wants to pull a scam on the company where she works. In order to keep Mildred signing phony documents, Tony gives Mildred a taste of romance and keeps raising the stakes until he’s eventually forced to propose. But when the big day arrives he skips town with the money he’s stolen.
Heartbroken, Mildred takes a trip to Barbados where her “vacation” turns out to be a boot-camp style weight loss clinic! Soon she discovers a goddess that had been hiding beneath her homely exterior. And when she runs into Tony on the island, he doesn’t even recognize the sexy fox standing before him. Little does he know that this fox has a plan for revenge that will leave him whimpering with his tail between his legs for a good, long time.


Click for more detail about The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats by Grandmaster Flash The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats

by Grandmaster Flash
Crown Publishing Group (Jun 10, 2008)
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A no-holds-barred memoir from the primary architect of hip hop and one of the culture’s most revered music icons—both the tale of his life and legacy and a testament to dogged determination.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five fomented the musical revolution known as hip hop. Theirs was a groundbreaking union between one DJ and five rapping MCs. One of the first hip hop posses, they were responsible for such masterpieces as “The Message” and “Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel.”

In the 1970s Grandmaster Flash pioneered the art of break-beat DJing—the process of remixing and thereby creating a new piece of music by playing vinyl records and turntables as musical instruments. Disco-era DJs spun records so that people could dance. The original turntablist, Flash took it a step further by cutting, rubbing, back spinning, and mixing records, focusing on “breaks”—what Flash described as “the short, climactic parts of the records that really grabbed me”—as a way of heightening musical excitement and creating something new.

Now the man who paved the way for such artists as Jay-Z, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, and 50 Cent tells all—from his early days on the mean streets of the South Bronx, to the heights of hip hop stardom, losing millions at the hands of his record label, his downward spiral into cocaine addiction, and his ultimate redemption with the help and love of his family and friends. In this powerful memoir, Flash recounts how music from the streets, much like rock ’n’ roll a generation before, became the sound of an era and swept a nation with its funk, flavor, and beat.


Click for more detail about Mr. Chickee’s Messy Mission (Mr. Chickee’s Series) by Christopher Paul Curtis Mr. Chickee’s Messy Mission (Mr. Chickee’s Series)

by Christopher Paul Curtis
Yearling (Jun 10, 2008)
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Steven and his best friend Russell are back!

When Russell’s dog, Rodney Rodent, jumps into a mural to chase a demonic-looking gnome and disappears, the Flint Future Detectives are on the case. With the secret password (Bow-wow-wow yippee yo yippee yay!) Steven, Richelle, and Russell enter the mural too, only to find the mysterious Mr. Chickee on the other side. To find a way out, the detectives must complete a mission—finding Rodney Rodent. And that means they’re in some wild adventure!

As Steven says, "I second that emotion."


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi The Opposite House

by Helen Oyeyemi
Anchor (Jun 10, 2008)
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Lyrical and intensely moving, The Opposite House explores the thin wall between myth and reality through the alternating tales of two young women. Growing up in London, Maja, a singer, always struggled to negotiate her Afro-Cuban background with her physical home. Yemaya is a Santeria emissary who lives in a mysterious somewherehouse with two doors: one opening to London, the other to Lagos. She is troubled by the ease with which her fellow emissaries have disguised themselves behind the personas of saints and by her inability to recognize them. Interweaving these two tales. Helen Oyeyemi, acclaimed author of The Icarus Girl, spins a dazzling tale about faith, identity, and self-discovery.


Click for more detail about Of Love and Other Demons  by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Of Love and Other Demons

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage (Jun 10, 2008)
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On her twelfth birthday, Sierva Maria – the only child of a decaying noble family in an eighteenth-century South American seaport – is bitten by a rabid dog. Believed to be possessed, she is brought to a convent for observation. And into her cell stumbles Father Cayetano Delaura, who has already dreamed about a girl with hair trailing after her like a bridal train. As he tends to her with holy water and sacramental oils, Delaura feels something shocking begin to occur. He has fallen in love – and it is not long until Sierva Maria joins him in his fevered misery. Unsettling and indelible, Of Love and Other Demons is an evocative, majestic tale of the most universal experiences known to woman and man.


Click for more detail about Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny by Hill Harper Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny

by Hill Harper
Gotham (Jun 03, 2008)
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Now in paperback: the New York Times bestselling book of inspirational advice and wisdom for young women from the powerhouse public speaker, star of CSI: NY, and bestselling author of Letters to a Young Brother

* Does life sometimes seem so much harder for girls?
* Do you ever feel insecure, pressured, or confused?
* Do you wish you had someone to give you honest advice on topics like boys, school, family, and pursuing your dreams?
* Do you want to make a positive impact on the world, but don’t even know how to begin?

In the follow-up to his award winning national bestseller, Letters to a Young Brother, actor and star of CSI: NY shares powerful wisdom for young women everywhere, drawing on the courageous advice of the female role models who transformed his life.

Letters to a Young Sister unfolds as a series of letters written by older brother Hill to a universal young sister. She’s up against the same challenges as every young woman: from relating to her parents and dealing with peer pressure, to juggling schoolwork and crushes and keeping faith in the face of heartache. Hill offers guidance, encouragement, personal stories, and asks his female friends to help answer some truly tough questions. Every young sister needs to know that it’s okay to dream big and to deFINE her own destiny. This is a book that will educate, uplift and inspire.

Including original contributions from:
Michelle Obama * Angela Basset * Ciara * Tatyana Ali * Eve * Malinda Williams * Chanel Iman * Kim Porter * and many more.

Book Review

Click for more detail about I Get So Hungry by Bebe Moore Campbell I Get So Hungry

by Bebe Moore Campbell
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (May 29, 2008)
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Beloved author Bebe Moore Campbell?s last book shines light on childhood obesity. Once Nikki starts eating, it?s hard for her to stop. She snacks when she is upset, angry or bored. But when her teacher, Mrs. Patterson, is taken to the hospital because of her weight, Nikki realizes that she wants to live a healthier lifestyle. She and Mrs. Patterson work together to help each other succeed, and Nikki even convinces her mom to get involved and exercise too. Acclaimed author Bebe Moore Campbell said she wrote this as she felt strongly about the worth and necessity of this story. She hoped to touch kids and parents and help them make changes in their lives. Amy Bates? charming illustrations bring to life this important story of one young girl?s struggle with weight gain, an all-too-familiar problem for children today.


Click for more detail about God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (Penguin Classics) by James Weldon Johnson God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (Penguin Classics)

by James Weldon Johnson
Penguin Classics (May 27, 2008)
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Introduced by Maya Angelou, the inspiring sermon-poems of James Weldon Johnson 

James Weldon Johnson was a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, and one of the most revered African Americans of all time, whose life demonstrated the full spectrum of struggle and success. In God’s Trombones, one of his most celebrated works, inspirational sermons of African American preachers are reimagined as poetry, reverberating with the musicality and splendid eloquence of the spirituals. This classic collection includes "Listen Lord (A Prayer)," "The Creation," "The Prodigal Son," "Go Down Death (A Funeral Sermon)," "Noah Built the Ark," "The Crucifixion," "Let My People Go," and "The Judgment Day."

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about New England White (Vintage Contemporaries) by Stephen L. Carter New England White (Vintage Contemporaries)

by Stephen L. Carter
Vintage (May 27, 2008)
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Lemaster Carlyle, the president of the country’s most prestigious university, and his wife, Julie, the divinity school’s deputy dean, are America’s most prominent and powerful African American couple. Driving home through a swirling blizzard late one night, the couple skids off the road. Near the sight of their accident they discover a dead body. To her horror, Julia recognizes the body as a prominent academic and one of her former lovers. In the wake of the death, the icy veneer of their town Elm Harbor, a place Julie calls "the heart of whiteness," begins to crack, having devastating consequences for a prominent local family and sending shock waves all the way to the White House.


Click for more detail about Slavery Time When I Was Chillun by Belinda Hurmence Slavery Time When I Was Chillun

by Belinda Hurmence
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (May 16, 2008)
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”Now that it’s all over, I don’t find life so good in my old age, as it was in slavery time when I was chillun, down on Marster’s plantation,” said James Bolton when he was interviewed as an old man in Georgia.

Not all memories of slavery were as good as Bolton’s, and this book shows many aspects of plantation life as seen through the eyes of men and women who were children when slavery came to an end, in 1865. Mingo White recounts how he was sent away from his parents when he was four or five, so that he didn’t recognize his mother when she came to find him. Tempie Durham tells of her wedding, at which she wore a white dress and veil and her mistress played the wedding march on the piano. Lucinda Davis talks about growing up as a slave to a Creek Indian family. Descriptions of children’s games contrast with accounts of brutal mistreatment, but most affecting of all are the stories of what it was like when slaves suddenly found themselves free to go where they pleased, after a lifetime of being the property of their masters.


Click for more detail about The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, And An Unlikely Road To Manhood by Ta-Nehisi Coates The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, And An Unlikely Road To Manhood

by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Spiegel & Grau (May 06, 2008)
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An exceptional father-son story about the reality that tests us, the myths that sustain us, and the love that saves us.

W. Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. Most of all, he was a wily tactician whose mission was to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence—and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack—and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free.

Among his brood of seven, his main challenges were Ta-Nehisi, spacey and sensitive and almost comically miscalibrated for his environment, and Big Bill, charismatic and all-too-ready for the challenges of the streets. The Beautiful Struggle follows their divergent paths through this turbulent period, and their father’s steadfast efforts—assisted by mothers, teachers, and a body of myths, histories, and rituals conjured from the past to meet the needs of a troubled present—to keep them whole in a world that seemed bent on their destruction.

With a remarkable ability to reimagine both the lost world of his father’s generation and the terrors and wonders of his own youth, Coates offers readers a small and beautiful epic about boys trying to become men in black America and beyond.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Peekaboo Morning by Rachel Isadora Peekaboo Morning

by Rachel Isadora
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (May 01, 2008)
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A toddler plays a game of peekaboo, and you’re invited to play too. First there’s Mommy to find, with Daddy not far behind. Then Puppy comes peeking around the corner, and a favorite toy train brings the toddler to Grandma and Grandpa. Isadora’s brilliant, joyful pastel illustrations capture the familiar and cozy people, toys and animals that will delight babies.

Join this sweet toddler in the morning fun, sharing words your baby can repeat and pictures your baby will recognize. Then find out what this toddler sees next. It could be you!


Click for more detail about Abeng by Michelle Cliff Abeng

by Michelle Cliff
Plume (May 01, 2008)
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Ever since Abeng was first published in 1984, Michelle Cliff has steadily become a literary force. Her novels evoke both the clearly delineated hierarchies of colonial Jamaica and the subtleties of present-day island life. Nowhere is her power felt more than in Clare Savage, her Jamaican heroine, who appeared, already grown, in No Telephone to Heaven.

Abeng is a kind of prequel to that highly-acclaimed novel and is a small masterpiece in its own right. Here Clare is twelve years old, the light-skinned daughter of a middle-class family, growing up among the complex contradictions of class versus color, blood versus history, harsh reality versus delusion, in a colonized country. In language that surrounds us with a richness of meaning and voices, the several strands of young Clare’s heritage are explored: the Maroons, who used the conch shell—the abeng—to pass messages as they fought a guerilla struggle against their English enslavers; and the legacy of Clare’s white great-great-grandfater, Judge Savage, who burned his hundred slaves on the eve of their emancipation. A lyrical, explosive coming-of-age story combined with a provocative retelling of the colonial history of Jamaica, this novel is a triumph.


Click for more detail about Black Widow: A Novel (Nikki Turner Original) by Nikki Turner Black Widow: A Novel (Nikki Turner Original)

by Nikki Turner
One World/Ballantine (Apr 29, 2008)
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#1 bestselling author Nikki Turner returns with an explosive new novel about a woman at an emotional crossroads–and the men left in her wake.

Isis Tatum knows firsthand the way love can mess up a person. After all, she saw her mother drive a truck through the home of her father’s mistress before killing her dad. And ever since Isis was a teenager, her love life has been a series of disasters: Her first sweetheart was executed by the state of Virginia, and her next lover was sent to jail for murder. Now Isis is a successful jewelry designer, but she remains a failure with men. When she meets Logic, a Las Vegas high roller who treats her like a princess, Isis reckons she’s finally struck gold–literally. Logic sees to it that her custom pieces of jewelry are seen on the hottest rap stars and pro athletes.

But when this Mr. Right ends up in jail too, Isis starts to believe that she’s cursed, that she’s a true Black Widow. Always one to roll with the punches, she embraces her life and walks bravely down all its twisted paths, taking her business to unprecedented heights while letting the men who dare to get involved with her take their chances.


“Few writers working in the field today bring the drama quite as dramatically as Nikki Turner… . [She’s] a master at weaving juicy, ’hood-rich sagas of revenge, regret, and redemption.”
–Vibe.com

“Turner [takes] street literature to the next level, further proving that she is indeed ‘The Queen of Hip-Hop Fiction.’ ”
–UrbanPublicity.com


Click for more detail about Do You!: 12  Laws To Access The Power In You To Achieve Happiness And Success by Russell Simmons and Chris Morrow Do You!: 12 Laws To Access The Power In You To Achieve Happiness And Success

by Russell Simmons and Chris Morrow
Knopf (Apr 10, 2008)
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Since rising out of the New York City streets over twenty-five years ago, Russell Simmons has helped create such groundbreaking ventures as Def Jam Records, Phat Farm, and Def Comedy Jam. Russell might have helped introduce hip-hop to the world, but he credits his success to his belief in a strong set of principles—or laws. In twelve straightforward steps, Russell reveals a path that can be followed by anyone struggling to realize their dreams.

Russell’s laws stem from the belief that it’s impossible to receive any sort of lasting success from the world without giving something of lasting value to the world first. Blending business insight, universal spiritual truths, and an inspired sense of purpose, Do You! crosses the lines of age, race, and background, with wisdom that will lift you up and motivate you to pursue your vision.


Click for more detail about The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music by Victor L. Wooten The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music

by Victor L. Wooten
Berkley Books (Apr 01, 2008)
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From Grammy-winning musical icon and legendary bassist Victor L. Wooten comes an inspiring parable of music, life, and the difference between playing all the right notes…and feeling them.

The Music Lesson is the story of a struggling young musician who wanted music to be his life, and who wanted his life to be great. Then, from nowhere it seemed, a teacher arrived. Part musical genius, part philosopher, part eccentric wise man, the teacher would guide the young musician on a spiritual journey, and teach him that the gifts we get from music mirror those from life, and every movement, phrase, and chord has its own meaning…All you have to do is find the song inside.

“The best book on music (and its connection to the mystic laws of life) that I’ve ever read. I learned so much on every level.”—Multiple Grammy Award–winning saxophonist Michael Brecker


Click for more detail about Pleasure by Eric Jerome Dickey Pleasure

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton Adult (Apr 01, 2008)
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How realistic is it to believe that one lover can satisfy a woman’s every fantasy?Nia Simone Bijou is a woman who has it all?and is driven by the desire for more. Born in Trinidad, reared in Los Angeles, living in Atlanta, Nia is a writer, a thinker, and a woman in conflict. She’s dealing with two sides of her Gemini self, feeling as if there are two women living inside her, both struggling for domination. One side of Nia is a logical yet heartbroken person who has never let go of an old pain, while the other side is a sensual woman who will not let her rest, desiring intimacy and sexual freedom, demanding Pleasure.In the sweltering heat of July, loneliness, desire, and a struggle with both the sensual self and fantasy inspire Nia to become sexually adventurous, meeting lovers who arouse her in diverse ways, lovers who give her unimaginable experiences, generous lovers who desire to please her as much as she desires to satisfy them. Fantasies spiral out of control, and with her life on the line, Nia discovers that Pleasure does not come without pain. Filled with passion, populated with characters that are sexually uninhibited, Pleasure is an unforgettable journey into a free-spirited world.


Click for more detail about My Best Friend’s Girl by Dorothy Koomson My Best Friend’s Girl

by Dorothy Koomson
Bantam (Mar 25, 2008)
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How far would you go for the best friend who broke your heart? This internationally bestselling novel tells an enchanting tale of life’s most unpredictable loves and heartaches, and the unforgettable bond between a single woman and an extraordinary five-year-old girl. From the moment they met in college, best friends Adele Brannon and Kamryn Matika thought nothing could come between them—until Adele did the unthinkable and slept with Kamryn’s fiancé, Nate. Now, after years of silence, the two women are reuniting, and Adele has a stunning request for her old friend: she wants Kamryn to adopt her five-year-old daughter, Tegan.

Besides the difference in skin color—many will assume that headstrong, impulsive Kamryn is Tegan’s nanny—there’s the inconvenient truth that Kamryn is wholly unprepared to take care of anyone, especially someone who reminds her so much of Nate. With crises brewing at work and her love life in shambles, can Kamryn somehow become the mother a little girl needs her to be?

In My Best Friend’s Girl, Dorothy Koomson takes us on a warm and wondrous journey through laughter and tears, forgiveness and hope—and the enduring love forged by the unlikeliest of families.


Click for more detail about Knots by Nuruddin Farah Knots

by Nuruddin Farah
Penguin Books (Mar 25, 2008)
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From the internationally revered author of Links comes "a beautiful, hopeful novel about one woman’s return to war-ravaged Mogadishu" (Time)

Called "one of the most sophisticated voices in modern fiction" (The New York Review of Books), Nuruddin Farah is widely recognized as a literary genius. He proves it yet again with Knots, the story of a woman who returns to her roots and discovers much more than herself. Born in Somalia but raised in North America, Cambara flees a failed marriage by traveling to Mogadishu. And there, amid the devastation and brutality, she finds that her most unlikely ambitions begin to seem possible. Conjuring the unforgettable extremes of a fractured Muslim culture and the wayward Somali state through the eyes of a strong, compelling heroine, Knots is another Farah masterwork.


Click for more detail about Seen It All and Done the Rest: A Novel by Pearl Cleage Seen It All and Done the Rest: A Novel

by Pearl Cleage
One World/Ballantine (Mar 18, 2008)
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For Josephine Evans, home was on the stages of the world where she spent thirty years establishing herself as one of the finest actresses of her generation. Josephine was the toast of Europe, and her fabulous apartment in Amsterdam’s theater district was a popular gathering place for an international community of artists, actors, and expatriates who considered themselves true citizens of the world. Josephine lived above and beyond the reach of conventional definitions of who and what an African American diva could be, and her legions of loyal fans loved her for it. She had a perfect life and enough sense to live it to the hilt, but then a war she didn’t fully understand turned everything upside down, thrusting her into a role she never wanted and was not prepared to play. Suddenly the target of angry protests aimed at the country she had never really felt was her own, Josephine is forced to return to America to see if she can create a new definition of home.

Camping out with her granddaughter, Zora, who is housesitting in Atlanta’s West End; and trying to avoid the unwanted attentions of Dig It!, the city’s brand-new gossip magazine, Josephine struggles to reclaim her old life even as she scrambles to shape her new one. Hoping her friend Howard Denmond is as good as his word when he promises to engineer her triumphant return to the European stage, Josephine sets out to increase her nest egg by selling the house her mother willed her, only to find the long-neglected property has become home to squatters who have no intention of leaving.

But an unexpected reunion with an old friend offers Josephine a chance to set things right. Spurning an offer from unscrupulous land developer Greer Woodruff, Josephine gathers new friends around her, including Victor Causey, a lawyer whose addictions left him homeless but still determined to protect his mother; Louie Baptiste, a displaced New Orleans chef hoping to return to the city he loves; and Aretha Hargrove, recovering from her role in the same scandal that sent Zora running for cover. As Greer gets serious about her plan to tear the community apart, Josephine finds herself playing the most important role of her life, showing her neighbors what courage really is and learning the true meaning of coming home.


Click for more detail about Standing Tall: A Memoir Of Tragedy And Triumph by C. Vivian Stringer and Laura Tucker Standing Tall: A Memoir Of Tragedy And Triumph

by C. Vivian Stringer and Laura Tucker
Knopf (Mar 04, 2008)
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“Lots of people have dreams, but C. Vivian Stringer is the dream—a coalminer’s daughter who believed when her Poppa told her there was no obstacle she could not surmount. And she lives that dream, teaching others to rise up to meet challenges, turning underdogs into champions again and again—on and off the court. This is the quintessential American story, of a woman and of a family pulling together against the odds. Standing Tall offers an important message of hope to so many.”
—John Chaney, Hall of Fame college basketball coach


At a time when heroes are too rare, C. Vivian Stringer sets a shining example. She has time and again shown character, fortitude, and heart, both on and off the hardwood, and in the face of unbearable loss. In Standing Tall, she shares her remarkable life story, inspiring us to find this fortitude within ourselves.

“Work hard, and don’t look for excuses,” Stringer’s parents told her, “and you can achieve anything.” But her faith and perseverance would be tested many times. A gifted athlete, she had to fight for a place on an all-white cheerleading squad in the sixties. In 1981, just as her coaching career was taking off, her fourteen-month-old daughter, Nina, was stricken with spinal meningitis. Nina would never walk or talk again. Still grieving, Stringer brought a small, poor, historically black college to the national championships—a triumph hailed as “Hoosiers with an all-female cast.” In 1991, her husband, Bill—her staunchest supporter, the father of her children, and the love of her life—fell dead of a sudden heart attack, but that same year, she led yet another young team to the Final Four. Through these dark times and others—including her bout with cancer, shared here for the first time—Stringer has carried her burdens with grace. Given her history, it was no surprise that she led her team to respond to Don Imus’s slurs with dignity and courage.

Standing Tall is a story of quiet strength in the face of punishing odds. Above all, it is an extraordinary love story—love for the game, for the players she has coached, for her close-knit family, and for the husband she lost far too soon. It will resonate long after the last page.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After A Lifetime Of Ambivalence by Rebecca Walker Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After A Lifetime Of Ambivalence

by Rebecca Walker
Knopf (Mar 04, 2008)
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From the international bestselling author of Black, White, and Jewish comes a "wonderfully insightful" (Associated Press) book that’s destined to become a motherhood classic. Now in trade.

Like many women her age, thirty-four-year-old Rebecca Walker was brought up to be skeptical of motherhood. As an adult she longed for a baby but feared losing her independence. In this very smart memoir, Walker explores some of the larger sociological trends of her generation while delivering her own story about the emotional and intellectual transformation that led her to motherhood.


Click for more detail about Orange Mint And Honey: A Novel by Carleen Brice Orange Mint And Honey: A Novel

by Carleen Brice
One World/Ballantine (Feb 12, 2008)
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“A wonderful, jazzy, exciting read.”
–Nikki Giovanni, author of Acolytes

Broke and burned-out from grad school, Shay Dixon does the unthinkable after receiving a “vision” from her de facto spiritual adviser, blues singer Nina Simone. She phones Nona, the mother she had all but written off, asking if she can come home for a while.

When Shay was growing up, Nona was either drunk, hungover, or out with her latest low-life guy. So Shay barely recognizes the new Nona, now sober and with a positive outlook on life, a love of gardening, and a toddler named Sunny. Though reconciliation seems a hard proposition for Shay, something unmistakable is taking root inside her, waiting to blossom like the morning glories opening up in Nona’s garden sanctuary.

Soon Shay finds herself facing exciting possibilities and even her first real romantic relationship. But when an unexpected crisis hits, even the wise words and soulful melodies of Nina Simone may not be enough for solace. Shay begins to realize that, like orange mint and honey, sometimes life tastes better when bitter is followed by sweet.


“Carleen Brice has woven her talent for storytelling into a funny, sad, and perceptive novel that speaks to all of us who navigate less-than-perfect relationships with our parents or children.”
–Elyse Singleton, author of This Side of the Sky

“Brice deftly shows the importance and joy of understanding our past and not only forgiving those who hurt us, but loving them in spite of that hurt. Readers of Terry McMillan and Bebe Moore Campbell will find a new writer to watch.”
–Judy Merrill Larsen, author of All the Numbers

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears

by Dinaw Mengestu
Riverhead Books (Feb 05, 2008)
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Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution for a new start in the United States. Now he finds himself running a failing grocery store in a poor African-American section of Washington, D.C., his only companions two fellow African immigrants who share his bitter nostalgia and longing for his home continent. Years ago and worlds away Sepha could never have imagined a life of such isolation. As his environment begins to change, hope comes in the form of a friendship with new neighbors Judith and Naomi, a white woman and her biracial daughter. But when a series of racial incidents disturbs the community, Sepha may lose everything all over again.

Watch a QuickTime interview with Dinaw Mengestu about this book.


Click for more detail about Of Blood and Sorrow: A Tamara Hayle Mystery (Tamara Hayle Mysteries) by Valerie Wilson Wesley Of Blood and Sorrow: A Tamara Hayle Mystery (Tamara Hayle Mysteries)

by Valerie Wilson Wesley
One World/Ballantine (Jan 29, 2008)
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Valerie Wilson Wesley’s private investigator, Tamara Hayle, whom the Houston Chronicle calls “smart, sexy, tough but tender,” has earned enthusiastic acclaim from reviewers and readers alike. Now Newark, New Jersey’s savviest detective confronts the one case she never saw coming–and discovers how ties that bind can easily become a noose.

Tamara Hayle can’t believe that her life is this good. New York’s most powerful businessman wants her to work for him, her new lover seems caring and supportive, and her son, Jamal, is thriving. But as Tamara sardonically observes, “When things stir that easy, there’s always something lumpy at the bottom of the pot.”

Enter Lilah Love, an old acquaintance who begs Tamara to find her missing child. Tamara, however, is wary of Lilah, who attracts mayhem and murder like an alley cat attracts fleas. Next up is Basil Dupre, Tamara’s outlaw ex-lover, who always brings passion–and chaos–when he strolls into Tamara’s life. Suddenly Tamara’s safe world isn’t so secure, especially when Jamal witnesses a brutal murder and becomes the prime suspect.

As the body count rises, Tamara and Jamal will follow a long-forgotten secret into a terrifying confrontation with love gone bad, trust turned lethal, and a past hungry to claim more lives.


Click for more detail about The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation by Siku The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation

by Siku
WaterBrook Press (Jan 15, 2008)
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From the creation of the earth to the ultimate showdown between the forces of good and evil, this is the greatest story every told…as you’ve never seen it before.

A graphic novel adaptation of the Holy Bible, The Manga Bible tells the story of God’s relationship with His people, from the creation of the earth and the early history of the Israelites, to the life of Jesus, His death, and the adventures of the first ever church.

Containing portions of both Old and New Testaments, key scenes commentary, and a sketches gallery, this is the first ever English manga edition of the most important book of all time.


Click for more detail about The Road to Paris by Nikki Grimes The Road to Paris

by Nikki Grimes
Penguin Young Readers Group (Jan 10, 2008)
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Paris has just moved in with the Lincoln family, and she isn?t thrilled to be in yet another foster home. She has a tough time trusting people, and she misses her brother, who?s been sent to a boys? home. Over time, the Lincolns grow on Paris. But no matter how hard she tries to fit in, she can?t ignore the feeling that she never will, especially in a town that?s mostly white while she is half black. It isn?t long before Paris has a big decision to make about where she truly belongs.


Click for more detail about Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

by Harriet A. Washington
Anchor (Jan 08, 2008)
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National Book Critics Circle Award Winner (Nonfiction)
PEN/Oakland Award Winner
BCALA Nonfiction Award Winner
Gustavus Meyers Award Winner

From the era of slavery to the present day, the first full history of black America’s shocking mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects at the hands of the medical establishment.

Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the government’s notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions.
The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchers—and indeed the whole medical establishment—with such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid, a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Sellout: The Politics Of Racial Betrayal by Randall Kennedy Sellout: The Politics Of Racial Betrayal

by Randall Kennedy
Pantheon Books (Jan 08, 2008)
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In the wake of his controversial national best-seller, Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, Randall Kennedy grapples brilliantly and judiciously with another stigma of our racial discourse: "selling out," or racial betrayal, which is a subject of much anxiety and acrimony in Black America. He atomizes the vicissitudes of the term and shows how its usage bedevils blacks and whites, while elucidating the effects it has on individuals and on our society as a whole.

Kennedy begins his exploration of selling out with a cogent, historical definition of the "black" community, accounting precisely for who is considered black and who is not. He looks at the ways in which prominent members of that community—Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Barack Obama, among others—have been stigmatized as sellouts. He outlines the history of the suspicion of racial betrayal among blacks, and he shows how current fears of selling out are expressed in thought and practice. He offers a rigorous and bracing case study of the quintessential "sellout"—Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, perhaps the most vilified black public official in American history. And he gives is a first-person reckoning of how he himself has dealt with accusations of having sold out at Harvard, especially after the publication of Nigger.

Lucidly and powerfully articulated, Sellout is essential to any discussion of the troubled history of race in America.


Click for more detail about News of a Kidnapping (Vintage International) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez News of a Kidnapping (Vintage International)

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage (Jan 08, 2008)
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In 1990, fearing extradition to the United States, Pablo Escobar – head of the Medellín drug cartel – kidnapped ten notable Colombians to use as bargaining chips. With the eye of a poet, García Márquez describes the survivors’ perilous ordeal and the bizarre drama of the negotiations for their release. He also depicts the keening ache of Colombia after nearly forty years of rebel uprisings, right-wing death squads, currency collapse and narco-democracy. With cinematic intensity, breathtaking language and journalistic rigor, García Márquez evokes the sickness that inflicts his beloved country and how it penetrates every strata of society, from the lowliest peasant to the President himself.


Click for more detail about Get Real, Get Rich: Conquer The 7 Lies Blocking You From Success by Farrah Gray Get Real, Get Rich: Conquer The 7 Lies Blocking You From Success

by Farrah Gray
Dutton (Dec 27, 2007)
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Raised by a single parent in the impoverished south side of Chicago as the youngest of five children, Farrah Gray defied the odds to become a millionaire at the age of fourteen. He made his second million by sixteen and now inspires thousands through his speeches, writing, and consulting. His recipe for success: attitude, hustle, and an emphatic rejection of the most pervasive lies most of us believe about money and success. In Get Real, Get Rich, Farrah breaks down those seven lies one by one. Have you ever thought to yourself I’ll never be rich because I wasn’t born with connections, or a special talent? That’s The Born Lucky Lie. The truth is this: Luck is about showing up. And Farrah will help you move beyond the lottery mentality. If you’ve convinced yourself that you must first have money to make money, then you’ve fallen prey to The Money Lie. In the real world, the path to millions starts with just one dollar, and Farrah can help you find that first one. Perhaps you recognize yourself in one of these other misconceptions: I have to hit it big in entertainment or sports to be rich (The Celebrity Lie). I have to work hard and make sacrifices to be rich (The Work Hard Lie). I have to have zero debt to be rich (The Debt Lie). I have to be super smart or invent something the world relies on to be rich (The Google and Gates Lie). I have to know a lot about the stock market or work on the Street to be rich (The Wall Street Lie). In seven simple and provocative chapters blending inspiration and an actionable wealth building plan, Farrah lays out your road map to a richer life. “Too many of us live paycheck to paycheck and pray that those compilations of books and CDs and DVDs will somehow lead us to ‘automatic wealth.’ News flash: There’s no such thing as automatic wealth - at least not in the real world. In this book, I’m not only going to share the mind-set you need to achieve all that you dream, but also the specific strategies that accompany that state of mind. I want to help you marshal out your own wealth potential, which relates to everything about you - not just your bank account.”

Book Review

Click for more detail about Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carole Boston Weatherford Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Puffin Books (Dec 27, 2007)
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Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins


Click for more detail about The 33 Strategies of War (Joost Elffers Books) by Robert Greene The 33 Strategies of War (Joost Elffers Books)

by Robert Greene
Penguin Books (Dec 14, 2007)
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Brilliant distillations of the strategies of war—and the subtle social game of everyday life—by the bestselling author of The 48 Laws of PowerRobert Greene’s groundbreaking guides, The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, and  Mastery, espouse profound, timeless lessons from the events of history to help readers vanquish an enemy, ensnare an unsuspecting victim, or become the greatest in your field. In The 33 Strategies of War, Greene has crafted an important addition to this ruthless and unique series.Spanning world civilizations, synthesizing dozens of political, philosophical, and religious texts and thousands of years of violent conflict, The 33 Strategies of War is a comprehensive guide to the subtle social game of everyday life informed by the most ingenious and effective military principles in war. Structured in Greene’s trademark style, The 33 Strategies of War is the I-Ching of conflict, the contemporary companion to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.Abundantly illustrated with examples from history, including the folly and genius of everyone from Napoleon to Margaret Thatcher, Shaka the Zulu to Lord Nelson, Hannibal to Ulysses S. Grant, as well as movie moguls, Samurai swordsmen, and diplomats, each of the thirty-three chapters outlines a strategy that will help you win life’s wars. Learn the offensive strategies that require you to maintain the initiative and negotiate from a position of strength, or the defensive strategies designed to help you respond to dangerous situations and avoid unwinnable wars. The great warriors of battlefields and drawing rooms alike demonstrate prudence, agility, balance, and calm, and a keen understanding that the rational, resourceful, and intuitive always defeat the panicked, the uncreative, and the stupid. An indispensable book, The 33 Strategies of War provides all the psychological ammunition you need to overcome patterns of failure and forever gain the upper hand.


Click for more detail about Swahili: A Complete Course for Beginners (Spoken World) (Book & CD) by Living Language Swahili: A Complete Course for Beginners (Spoken World) (Book & CD)

by Living Language
Living Language (Nov 13, 2007)
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This simple and effective introduction to Swahili will teach you everything you need to speak, understand, read, and write in Swahili. This program assumes no background in the language, and it explains each new concept clearly with plenty of examples, making it ideal for beginners or anyone who wants a thorough review. Living Language Swahili includes:

·A course book and six audio CDs
·Two unique sets of recordings, one for use with the book, and a second for use anywhere to review and reinforce
·Natural dialogues, clear grammar notes, vocabulary building, and key expressions
·Plenty of practice, both written and recorded
·Notes on culture, cuisine, history, geography, and more
·Real life “discovery” activities and internet resources
·An extensive two-way glossary


Click for more detail about Christmas In The Hood (Street Chronicles) by Nikki Turner Christmas In The Hood (Street Chronicles)

by Nikki Turner
One World/Ballantine (Oct 30, 2007)
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The undisputed queen of hip-hop fiction, #1 Essence bestselling author Nikki Turner unwraps a talented new collection of writers with raw urban stories to jingle your bells this season.

Christmas in the Hood presents fresh talent alongside shining stars such as K. Elliott and Seth “Soul Man” Ferranti–all writing gritty tales that reveal what the holidays bring for the naughty and the nice who live by the code of the street. In “Secret Santa,” after her children’s Christmas presents are stolen, a woman has to decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to give them the holiday they deserve; in “Me and Grandma,” a senior sleighs more crack than candy canes to bring Christmas cheer to her needy grandkids; and in “Holiday Hell,” Noelle must raise $23,000 to repay a loan shark or her sister will become a ghost of Christmas past. True to the streets and true to the season, these stories will raise the holiday spirit in the heart of even the most ghetto-hardened gangsta.

“The ghetto’s voice without constraint.”
–Upscale, on Tales from da Hood


Click for more detail about Inside the Helmet: My Life as a Sunday Afternoon Warrior by Michael Strahan Inside the Helmet: My Life as a Sunday Afternoon Warrior

by Michael Strahan
Gotham (Oct 09, 2007)
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Just in time for the 2007 season: One of the finest defensive players ever to wear an NFL uniform delivers the first truly authentic, hard-hitting, revelatory portrait of America’s most popular sport—including the brutality, the vicious fights, and the high price of gridiron glory.

Michael Strahan is one of the NFL’s most talented players, and he is also one of the game’s most vocal personalities. So it’s no surprise that his first book would be a no-holds-barred, hard-hitting account of life in the league, venturing into territory no previous football authors had the nerve to tread. Inside the Helmet is not a self-serving memoir or a collection of triumphant feel- good anecdotes. Yes, Strahan recounts exhilarating victories in vivid detail, but not without the hair-raising details of the ruthless grit required for every win.

Sure to be controversial, Strahan’s account reveals never-before-seen details about the truth of life in the NFL, including the names of the dirtiest players, what it feels and sounds like to crush another player, which potent painkillers players take in order to return to the battlefield, the wild parties such as the Vikings’ infamous Love Boat romp, the pressure to live up to a multimillion- dollar salary, the intense and sometimes volatile relationship between player and coach, and the violent blowups that occur when that pressure gets too intense. For the 21.7 million fans who attend NFL football games, Inside the Helmet is an all-access pass into the huddle, the locker room, and even the minds of some of the most legendary players on the field today.


Click for more detail about Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes by Maya Angelou Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes

by Maya Angelou
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Oct 09, 2007)
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Throughout Maya Angelou’s life, from her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, to her world travels as a bestselling writer, good food has played a central role. Preparing and enjoying homemade meals provides a sense of purpose and calm, accomplishment and connection. Now in Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, Angelou shares memories pithy and poignant–and the recipes that helped to make them both indelible and irreplaceable.

Angelou tells us about the time she was expelled from school for being afraid to speak–and her mother baked a delicious maple cake to brighten her spirits. She gives us her recipe for short ribs along with a story about a job she had as a cook at a Creole restaurant (never mind that she didn’t know how to cook and had no idea what Creole food might entail). There was the time in London when she attended a wretched dinner party full of wretched people; but all wasn’t lost–she did experience her initial taste of a savory onion tart. She recounts her very first night in her new home in Sonoma, California, when she invited M. F. K. Fisher over for cassoulet, and the evening Deca Mitford roasted a chicken when she was beyond tipsy–and created Chicken Drunkard Style. And then there was the hearty brunch Angelou made for a homesick Southerner, a meal that earned her both a job offer and a prophetic compliment: “If you can write half as good as you can cook, you are going to be famous.”

Maya Angelou is renowned in her wide and generous circle of friends as a marvelous chef. Her kitchen is a social center. From fried meat pies, chicken livers, and beef Wellington to caramel cake, bread pudding, and chocolate éclairs, the one hundred-plus recipes included here are all tried and true, and come from Angelou’s heart and her home. Hallelujah! The Welcome Table is a stunning collaboration between the two things Angelou loves best: writing and cooking.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America by William Julius Wilson There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America

by William Julius Wilson
Vintage (Oct 09, 2007)
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From one of America’s most admired sociologists and urban policy advisers, There Goes the Neighborhood is a long-awaited look at how race, class, and ethnicity influence one of Americans’ most personal choices—where we choose to live. The result of a three-year study of four working- and lower-middle class neighborhoods in Chicago, these riveting first-person narratives and the meticulous research which accompanies them reveal honest yet disturbing realities—ones that remind us why the elusive American dream of integrated neighborhoods remains a priority of race relations in our time.


Click for more detail about Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Love in the Time of Cholera

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage (Oct 05, 2007)
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"A love story of astonishing power." - Newsweek
the International Bestseller and modern literary classic by Nobel Prize-Winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs—yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.


Click for more detail about A Family Sin: A Novel by Travis Hunter A Family Sin: A Novel

by Travis Hunter
One World/Ballantine (Sep 25, 2007)
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Karim Spencer, raised in the home of a bootlegger in a run-down neighborhood, has gone on to become a successful businessman with a tony home, a beautiful girlfriend, and a son. But memories of tragedy and betrayal have kept him entrenched in the past, as have the living reminders of his former life, including his down-on-her-luck sister, Nadiah; JaQuan, Nadiah’s thugged-out teenage son; and Karim’s older brother, Omar, serving a life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit.

As emotions reach a boiling point, does Karim have what it takes to set JaQuan on a straight path, clear his brother of a bogus indictment without jeopardizing his own future, and hold together the family that he so desperately loves?

As Travis Hunter skillfully draws us in with strong, believable characters with endearing flaws and broken dreams, A Family Sin, full of riveting twists and turns of plot, unravels the mystery of a long-buried secret that threatens to tear a family apart.


Click for more detail about Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat Brother, I’m Dying

by Edwidge Danticat
Knopf (Sep 04, 2007)
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From the best-selling author of The Dew Breaker, a major work of nonfiction: a powerfully moving family story that centers around the men closest to her heart—her father, Mira, and his older brother, Joseph.

From the age of four, Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph, a charismatic pastor, as her “second father,” when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for a better life in America. Listening to his sermons, sharing coconut-flavored ices on their walks through town, roaming through the house that held together many members of a colorful extended family, Edwidge grew profoundly attached to Joseph. He was the man who “knew all the verses for love.”

And so she experiences a jumble of emotions when, at twelve, she joins her parents in New York City. She is at last reunited with her two youngest brothers, and with her mother and father, whom she has struggled to remember. But she must also leave behind Joseph and the only home she’s ever known.

Edwidge tells of making a new life in a new country while fearing for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorates. But Brother I’m Dying soon becomes a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Late in 2004, his life threatened by an angry mob, forced to flee his church, the frail, eighty-one-year-old Joseph makes his way to Miami, where he thinks he will be safe. Instead, he is detained by U.S. Customs, held by the Department of Homeland Security, brutally imprisoned, and dead within days. It was a story that made headlines around the world. His brother, Mira, will soon join him in death, but not before he holds hope in his arms: Edwidge’s firstborn, who will bear his name—and the family’s stories, both joyous and tragic—into the next generation.

Told with tremendous feeling, this is a true-life epic on an intimate scale: a deeply affecting story of home and family—of two men’s lives and deaths, and of a daughter’s great love for them both.


Click for more detail about Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai Unbowed: A Memoir

by Wangari Maathai
Anchor (Sep 04, 2007)
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In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recounts her extraordinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to the world stage. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, she began a vital poor people’s environmental movement, focused on the empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa. Persevering through run-ins with the Kenyan government and personal losses, and jailed and beaten on numerous occasions, Maathai continued to fight tirelessly to save Kenya’s forests and to restore democracy to her beloved country. Infused with her unique luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai’s remarkable story of courage, faith, and the power of persistence is destined to inspire generations to come.


Click for more detail about Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Alfred A. Knopf (Sep 04, 2007)
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A masterly, haunting new novel from a writer heralded by The Washington Post Book World as “the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,” Half of a Yellow Sun re-creates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed.

            With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.           

           Epic, ambitious, and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all. Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise and the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place, bringing us one of the most powerful, dramatic, and intensely emotional pictures of modern Africa that we have ever had.


Click for more detail about Wizard Of The Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Wizard Of The Crow

by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Anchor (Aug 28, 2007)
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In exile now for more than twenty years, Kenyan novelist, playwright, poet and critic Ngugi wa Thiong’o has become one of the most widely read African writers. Commencing in “our times” and set in the fictional “Free Republic of Aburiria,” Wizard of the Crow dramatizes with corrosive humor and keenness of observation a battle for control of the souls of the Aburirian people. Fashioning the stories of the powerful and the ordinary into a dazzling mosaic, this magnificent novel reveals humanity in all its endlessly surprising complexity.


Click for more detail about DK Biography: Annie Oakley by Chuck Wills DK Biography: Annie Oakley

by Chuck Wills
DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) (Jul 30, 2007)
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DK’s acclaimed Biography line shine the spotlight on sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Includes detailed sidebars, handy vocabulary, and a visual timeline. Supports the Common Core State Standards.


Click for more detail about Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete by William C. Rhoden Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete

by William C. Rhoden
Broadway Books (Jul 24, 2007)
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From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied. But for all their money, fame, and achievement, says New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden, black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built.

Provocative and controversial, Rhoden’s $40 Million Slaves weaves a compelling narrative of black athletes in the United States, from the plantation to their beginnings in nineteenth-century boxing rings to the history-making accomplishments of notable figures such as Jesse Owens, Althea Gibson, and Willie Mays. Rhoden reveals that black athletes’ “evolution” has merely been a journey from literal plantations—where sports were introduced as diversions to quell revolutionary stirrings—to today’s figurative ones, in the form of collegiate and professional sports programs. He details the “conveyor belt” that brings kids from inner cities and small towns to big-time programs, where they’re cut off from their roots and exploited by team owners, sports agents, and the media. He also sets his sights on athletes like Michael Jordan, who he says have abdicated their responsibility to the community with an apathy that borders on treason.

The power black athletes have today is as limited as when masters forced their slaves to race and fight. The primary difference is, today’s shackles are often the athletes’ own making.


Click for more detail about Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa by Veronica Chambers Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa

by Veronica Chambers
Puffin Books (Jul 19, 2007)
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Everyone knows the flamboyant, larger-than-life Celia Cruz, the extraordinary salsa singer who passed away in 2003, leaving millions of fans brokenhearted. indeed, there was a magical vibrancy to the Cuban salsa singer. to hear her voice or to see her perform was to feel her life-affirming energy deep within you. relish the sizzling sights and sounds of her legacy in this glimpse into Celia’s childhood and her inspiring rise to worldwide fame and recognition as the Queen of salsa. Her inspirational life story is sure to sweeten your soul.


Click for more detail about Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in Africa and Beyond by Ekow Eshun Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in Africa and Beyond

by Ekow Eshun
Vintage (Jul 10, 2007)
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At the age of thirty-three, Ekow Eshun—born in London to African-born parents—travels to Ghana in search of his roots. He goes from Accra, Ghana’s cosmopolitan capital city, to the storied slave forts of Elmina, and on to the historic warrior kingdom of Asante. During his journey, Eshun uncovers a long-held secret about his lineage that will compel him to question everything he knows about himself and where he comes from. From the London suburbs of his childhood to the twenty-first century African metropolis, Eshun’s is a moving chronicle of one man’s search for home, and of the pleasures and pitfalls of fashioning an identity in these vibrant contemporary worlds.


Click for more detail about Heat by Geneva Holliday Heat

by Geneva Holliday
Knopf (Jun 26, 2007)
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It’s spring in New York City, but in the lives of these four friends there’s already plenty of HEAT


Geneva Holliday got your Groove on, gave you Fever, and now she turns up the Heat, in her wildest novel yet. Between their bedroom antics and their busy lives, Crystal, Geneva, Chevy, and Noah are all faced with situations that are way too hot to handle …

Crystal’s finding it hard to concentrate at work, and no wonder—she’s got a stud in Antigua who’s beginning to mean more to her than just steamy sex.

While things are red-hot with Geneva and her sexy young man, Deeka, her new diet pills stir up more trouble than her collection of slinky lingerie ever did.

Chevy’s out-of-control spending has finally caught up with her; when her paycheck is almost entirely garnished, she is forced to resort to sex with an ex to keep a roof over her head.

Noah and his partner can’t come to an agreement about adopting children, but one thing’s for sure: A blast from his little-known past with a woman is about to rock his world.


Click for more detail about A Street Girl Named Desire: A Novel by Treasure Blue A Street Girl Named Desire: A Novel

by Treasure Blue
One World (Jun 26, 2007)
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Bestselling author Treasure E. Blue returns with a gritty against-all-odds urban fairy tale set in the same unforgiving neighborhood as that of his breakout debut novel Harlem Girl Lost.

Desire was born on the streets of Harlem–literally. Her mom, a crack-addicted prostitute, delivered her on a bitter winter’s night after turning a trick and being brutally beaten by the john. Taken from her mother by the state, Desire grows up unwelcoming foster homes, until a local Good Samaritan takes her in. With Miss Hattie Mae’s love and Christian guidance, Desire gains confidence, joins the church choir, and discovers that she’s got a set of pipes–which soon attract the attention of hip-hop’s biggest exec.

But the road to superstardom is paved with dangers and temptations: drugged-out, violent rappers, untrustworthy pro athletes promising romance, and vicious drugs. Despite her phenomenal success and Miss Hattie Mae’s kindness, Desire seems destined for a fall from the top that will slam her back onto the pavement where her mama left her–until an unexpected angel picks her back up… .


Click for more detail about Acacia: The War with the Mein (Acacia, Book 1) by David Anthony Durham Acacia: The War with the Mein (Acacia, Book 1)

by David Anthony Durham
Doubleday (Jun 12, 2007)
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Leodan Akaran, ruler of the Known World, has inherited generations of apparent peace and prosperity, won ages ago by his ancestors. A widower of high intelligence, he presides over an empire called Acacia, after the idyllic island from which he rules. He dotes on his four children and hides from them the dark realities of traffic in drugs and human lives on which their prosperity depends. He hopes that he might change this, but powerful forces stand in his way. And then a deadly assassin sent from a race called the Mein, exiled long ago to an ice-locked stronghold in the frozen north, strikes at Leodan in the heart of Acacia while they unleash surprise attacks across the empire. On his deathbed, Leodan puts into play a plan to allow his children to escape, each to their separate destiny. And so his children begin a quest to avenge their father’s death and restore the Acacian empire–this time on the basis of universal freedom.

ACACIA is a thrilling work of literary imagination that creates an all-enveloping and mythic world that will carry readers away. It is a timeless tale of heroism and betrayal, of treachery and revenge, of primal wrongs and ultimate redemption. David Durham has reimagined the epic narrative for our time in a book that will surely mark his breakthrough to a wide audience.


Click for more detail about I Got Your Back: A Father and Son Keep It Real About Love, Fatherhood, Family, and Friendship by Eddie Levert, Gerald Levert, and Lyah Beth LeFlore I Got Your Back: A Father and Son Keep It Real About Love, Fatherhood, Family, and Friendship

by Eddie Levert, Gerald Levert, and Lyah Beth LeFlore
Crown Archetype (Jun 05, 2007)
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Check out Photos from the Book Launch Party for I Got Your Back


The final collaboration from Eddie and Gerald Levert: an intimate glimpse into their lives, their passions, and their musical legacy. But most important, I Got Your Back gets inside the special and rare father-son bond that these two R&B legends shared. Eddie and Gerald put their hearts and souls on the line and talk about their failures, concerns, fears, and triumphs as father and son. With a powerful message of reconciliation for broken families, Eddie and Gerald explore the themes of fatherhood, male bonding and male-female relationships. The book includes moving tributes from Eddie, Patti LaBelle, Steve Harvey and others, as well as treasured family photographs.


Click for more detail about The Bluest Eye  by Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye

by Toni Morrison
Vintage Books (May 08, 2007)
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Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in.Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison’s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.


Click for more detail about Take-Off (Bk & Cd): American All-Girl Bands During World War Ii by Tonya Bolden Take-Off (Bk & Cd): American All-Girl Bands During World War Ii

by Tonya Bolden
Knopf Books for Young Readers (May 08, 2007)
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The 1940’s was a time when society thought it improper for women to make a sax wail or let loose hot licks on skins, but with the advent of World War II and many men away fighting the war, women finally got their chance to strut their stuff on the bandstand. These all-girl bands kept morale high on the homefront and on USO tours of miltary bases across the globe while also helping to establish America’s legacy in jazz music.

"Take-off?" Oh, yeah. Several all-girl bands did.

This book includes a hip swing CD.


Click for more detail about Allah is Not Obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma Allah is Not Obliged

by Ahmadou Kourouma
Anchor (May 08, 2007)
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ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED TO BE FAIR ABOUT ALL THE THINGS HE DOES HERE ON EARTH.These are the words of the boy soldier Birahima in the final masterpiece by one of Africa’s most celebrated writers, Ahmadou Kourouma. When ten-year-old Birahima’s mother dies, he leaves his native village in the Ivory Coast, accompanied by the sorcerer and cook Yacouba, to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by rebels and forced into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, minimal rations of food, a small supply of dope and a tiny wage. Fighting in a chaotic civil war alongside many other boys, Birahima sees death, torture, dismemberment and madness but somehow manages to retain his own sanity. Raw and unforgettable, despairing yet filled with laughter, Allah Is Not Obliged reveals the ways in which children’s innocence and youth are compromised by war.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Ralph Ellison: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad Ralph Ellison: A Biography

by Arnold Rampersad
Knopf (Apr 24, 2007)
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The definitive biography of one of the most important American writers and cultural intellectuals of the twentieth century—Ralph Ellison, author of the masterpiece Invisible Man.

In 1953, Ellison’s explosive story of an innocent young black man’s often surreal search for truth and his identity won him the National Book Award for fiction and catapulted him to national prominence. Ellison went on to earn many other honors, including two presidential medals and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, but his failure to publish a second novel, despite years of striving, haunted him for the rest of his life. Now, as the first scholar given complete access to Ellison’s papers, Arnold Rampersad has written not only a reliable account of the main events of Ellison’s life but also a complex, authoritative portrait of an unusual artist and human being.

Born poor and soon fatherless in 1913, Ralph struggled both to belong to and to escape from the world of his childhood. We learn here about his sometimes happy, sometimes harrowing years growing up in Oklahoma City and attending Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Arriving in New York in 1936, he became a political radical before finally embracing the cosmopolitan intellectualism that would characterize his dazzling cultural essays, his eloquent interviews, and his historic novel. The second half of his long life brought both widespread critical acclaim and bitter disputes with many opponents, including black cultural nationalists outraged by what they saw as his elitism and misguided pride in his American citizenship.

This biography describes a man of magnetic personality who counted Saul Bellow, Langston Hughes, Robert Penn Warren, Richard Wright, Richard Wilbur, Albert Murray, and John Cheever among his closest friends; a man both admired and reviled, whose life and art were shaped mainly by his unyielding desire to produce magnificent art and by his resilient faith in the moral and cultural strength of America.

A magisterial biography of Ralph Waldo Ellison—a revelation of the man, the writer, and his times.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas by Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas

by Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher
Doubleday (Apr 24, 2007)
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SUPREME DISCOMFORT originated from a much-commented-upon profile of Clarence Thomas that appeared in an August 2002 issue of The Washington Post Magazine. In it, Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher, both Post staffers, both black, crafted a haunting portrait of an isolated and bitter man, savagely reviled by much of the black community, not entirely comfortable in white society, internally wounded by his passage from a broken family and rural poverty in Georgia to elite educational institutions to the pinnacle of judicial power. He has clearly never recovered from the searing experience of his Senate confirmation hearings and the "he said/she said" drama of the accusations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill.

SUPREME DISCOMFORT tracks the personal odyssey of perhaps the least understood man in Washington, from his poor childhood in Pin Point and Savannah, Georgia, to his educational experiences in a Catholic seminary and Holy Cross, to his law school years at Yale during the black power era, to his rise within the Republican political establishment. It offers a window into a man who straddles two different worlds and is uneasy in both—and whose divided personality and conservative political philosophy will deeply influence American life for years to come.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Cinder by Albert French Cinder

by Albert French
Harvill Secker (Apr 24, 2007)
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This title is set in Banes, Mississippi, 1938. The Catfish creek separates the Patch from the town, black from white. These worlds and their prejudices are hauntingly evoked in the rich accents of the American South. Cinder is a woman who belongs to neither, her beauty marking her out as different. Time passes slowly, and the inhabitants of Banes follow the same daily rhythm as they have done for years. Shorty sweeps up in Mister Macky’s store, then drinks his wages at LeRoy’s bar, men sit spitting outside the Rosey Gray, old people watch the world go by from their porches. But one quiet Sunday morning, when the bombs are dropped on Pearl Harbor, change comes to this small Mississippi town. Spanning four years, ""Cinder"" is the follow-up to Albert French’s outstanding novel, ""Billy"". It is at once the story of a woman whose life has been torn apart by tragedy, and the portrait of a town divided. It is about loss, community, history and the ties that bind.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Letters to a Young Brother: Manifest Your Destiny by Hill Harper Letters to a Young Brother: Manifest Your Destiny

by Hill Harper
Avery (Apr 19, 2007)
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Offering inspirational advice in a down-to-earth style, this unique compilation of letters provides wisdom, guidance, and heartfelt insight to help the reader chart their own path to success. Based on the author’s motivational speaking at inner-city schools across the country, the letters deal with the tough issues that face young people today. Bombarded with messages from music and the media, Harper set out to dispel the stereotypical image of success that young people receive today and instead emphasizes alternative views of what it truly means to be a successful male, such as educational and community achievements and self-respect. Intended to provide this frequently regarded “lost generation” of young men with words of encouragement and guidance, Harper’s deep-rooted passion regarding the plight of today’s youth drove him to write this book, sure to change the lives of readers for years to come.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Gold Diggers: A Novel by Tracie Howard Gold Diggers: A Novel

by Tracie Howard
Knopf (Apr 17, 2007)
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ENTER THE WORLD OF “GUCCI, GLITZ, AND GLAMOUR”* IN THIS DELICIOUSLY DECADENT LOOK INTO THE LIVES OF THE YOUNG, THE RICH, THE BEAUTIFUL, AND THE CONNIVING

Paulette, Gillian, and Reese are three gold diggers who have dollar signs in their eyes and gold digging in their DNA. Lauren is Paulette’s pampered cousin who never fails to remind Paulette of how different their lives have always been—Lauren the daughter of wealthy black urbanites and Paulette the daughter of the family black sheep who married “beneath her family pedigree.” Paulette will stop at nothing—not even sleeping with her cousin Lauren’s husband—to gain the social status she feels she rightfully deserves. Gillian is a second-generation gold digger and, having learned from the best, strategically sleeps her way to Hollywood—but does she have the talent to be a lasting star? Reese is a career basketball groupie turned NBA trophy wife, and she wears it well, taking advantage of everything her new position affords; but when she finds out that DL may be more than just her husband’s best friend’s initials, she may be forced to realize that all that glitters isn’t gold. The stunningly beautiful, well-bred, but naïve Lauren is the secret envy of her friends. She seems to have all the creature comforts money can buy, but when she’s confronted with a crisis of her own, just how will she respond?


Click for more detail about A Piece of Cake: A Memoir by Cupcake Brown A Piece of Cake: A Memoir

by Cupcake Brown
Broadway Books (Apr 10, 2007)
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There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gangbanging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, or homelessness.



Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she’d even turned twenty.



And that’s when things got interesting…



You have before you the strange, heart-wrenching, and exhilarating tale of a woman named Cupcake. It begins as the story of a girl orphaned twice over, once by the death of her mother and then again by a child welfare system that separated her from her stepfather and put her into the hands of an epically sadistic foster parent. But there comes a point in her preteen years—maybe it’s the night she first tries to run away and is exposed to drugs, alcohol, and sex all at once—when Cupcake’s story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark comic blues opera. As Cupcake’s troubles grow, so do her voice and spirit. Her gut-punch sense of humor and eye for the absurd, along with her outsized will, carry her through a fateful series of events that could easily have left her dead.



Young Cupcake learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor, partying like a rock star, and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. She stumbled into gangbanging, drug dealing, hustling, prostitution, theft, and, eventually, the best scam of all: a series of 9-to-5 jobs. But Cupcake’s unlikely tour through the cubicle world was paralleled by a quickening descent into the nightmare of crack cocaine use, till she eventually found herself living behind a Dumpster.



Astonishingly, she turned it around. With the help of a cobbled together family of eccentric fellow addicts and “angels”—a series of friends and strangers who came to her aid at pivotalmoments—she slowly transformed her life from the inside out.



A Piece of Cake is unlike any memoir you’ll ever read. Moving and almost transgressive in its frankness, it is a relentlessly gripping tale of a resilient spirit who took on the worst of contemporary urban life and survived it with a furious wit and unyielding determination. Cupcake Brown is a dynamic and utterly original storyteller who will guide you on the most satisfying, startlingly funny, and genuinely affecting tour through hell you’ll ever take.


Click for more detail about Sleeping with Strangers by Eric Jerome Dickey Sleeping with Strangers

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton (Apr 10, 2007)
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From Thieves’ Paradise to Drive Me Crazy to Chasing Destiny (which reached #6 on the New York Times list—his eighth bestseller), Eric Jerome Dickey has captivated audiences with his edgy, steamy books. Dickey’s fans will be delighted by this fast-paced, deadly, and sensual read that gives them the chance to catch up with some of their favorite characters while introducing a great new bad-boy narrator: a hit man who goes by the name of Gideon. He’s a man who lives off the grid, drifting along while making love on the run as he works as a hit man—enacting the revenge of the broken-hearted … for a price. With a supporting cast of grifters and killers, broken-hearted squares and streetwalkers, and three very different women who each want to become Gideon’s leading lady, this is a world that thrives on the darker passions of revenge and desire. Get ready for another scorching hot read full of twists and surprises from an author who keeps climbing higher on the bestseller lists with each new book.


Click for more detail about Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns: Stories by J. California Cooper Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns: Stories

by J. California Cooper
Doubleday (Apr 10, 2007)
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In stories that are simple yet elegant, hard-hitting yet poignant, J. California Cooper writes about the search for fulfillment that propels people’s dreams and desires. In “As Time Goes By” a young woman named Futila Ways grows up focusing her dream of a better future on material wealth, only to discover that having everything she ever wanted cannot compensate for the emptiness in her heart. “The Eye of the Beholder” recounts the story of an unattractive young girl, Lily Bea, whose search for love leads her to embrace her own brand of freedom. And in “Catch a Falling Heart” a woman mildly crippled in a fall endures loneliness and solitude until she finds a man and provides a resting place for his love. Each story beautifully conveys the profound human need to seek some sort of satisfaction, just as a wild star seeks a midnight sun.

J. California Cooper’s insights into the hearts and souls of ordinary people and her irresistible storytelling voice have endeared her to fans and critics. As Ms. magazine wrote, “Cooper’s stories beckon. It is as if she is patting the seat next to us, enticing us to come sit and listen.”


Click for more detail about Forever a Hustler’s Wife: A Novel (Nikki Turner Original) by Nikki Turner Forever a Hustler’s Wife: A Novel (Nikki Turner Original)

by Nikki Turner
One World/Ballantine (Apr 10, 2007)
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The high priestess of the hood, Nikki Turner, is back with the novel fans have been feenin’ for: the sequel to her #1 bestselling novel, A Hustler’s Wife.

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

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


Click for more detail about This Blinding Absence of Light. Tahar Ben Jelloun by Tahar Ben Jelloun This Blinding Absence of Light. Tahar Ben Jelloun

by Tahar Ben Jelloun
Penguin Books (Apr 01, 2007)
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In this extraordinary non-fiction novel, based on a true story, Tahar Ben Jelloun traces the experiences of Salim who, in 1971, took part in a failed coup attempt to oust King Hassan II of Morocco. With sixty others Salim was incarcerated in a secret prison complex in the Moroccan desert: he was to remain there for nearly twenty years. In starkly eloquent, beautiful prose, Ben Jelloun relates the prisoners’ experiences as they struggle to survive. The son of a witty, feckless courtier who disowns him, Salim tells stories to keep sane - from the suras of his beloved Koran to the plot of A Streetcar Named Desire. Even in the darkest, most terrible conditions, sympathy, insight, the human quest for meaning and understanding, never desert Salim. The resulting novel is a wrenching yet exquisite celebration of the human spirit and its determination to survive. ’A masterpiece’ Judges of the IMPAC award ’a sad and splendid book’ New York Times Book Review


Click for more detail about Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America by Cynthia Carr Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America

by Cynthia Carr
Broadway Books (Mar 27, 2007)
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The brutal lynching of two young black men in Marion, Indiana, on August 7, 1930, cast a shadow over the town that still lingers. It is only one event in the long and complicated history of race relations in Marion, a history much ignored and considered by many to be best forgotten. But the lynching cannot be forgotten. It is too much a part of the fabric of Marion, too much ingrained even now in the minds of those who live there. In Our Town journalist Cynthia Carr explores the issues of race, loyalty, and memory in America through the lens of a specific hate crime that occurred in Marion but could have happened anywhere.

Marion is our town, America’s town, and its legacy is our legacy.

Like everyone in Marion, Carr knew the basic details of the lynching even as a child: three black men were arrested for attempted murder and rape, and two of them were hanged in the courthouse square, a fate the third miraculously escaped. Meeting James Cameron–the man who’d survived–led her to examine how the quiet Midwestern town she loved could harbor such dark secrets. Spurred by the realization that, like her, millions of white Americans are intimately connected to this hidden history, Carr began an investigation into the events of that night, racism in Marion, the presence of the Ku Klux Klan–past and present–in Indiana, and her own grandfather’s involvement. She uncovered a pattern of white guilt and indifference, of black anger and fear that are the hallmark of race relations across the country.

In a sweeping narrative that takes her from the angry energy of a white supremacist rally to the peaceful fields of Weaver–once an all-black settlement neighboring Marion–in search of the good and the bad in the story of race in America, Carr returns to her roots to seek out the fascinating people and places that have shaped the town. Her intensely compelling account of the Marion lynching and of her own family’s secrets offers a fresh examination of the complex legacy of whiteness in America. Part mystery, part history, part true crime saga, Our Town is a riveting read that lays bare a raw and little-chronicled facet of our national memory and provides a starting point toward reconciliation with the past.


On August 7, 1930, three black teenagers were dragged from their jail cells in Marion, Indiana, and beaten before a howling mob. Two of them were hanged; by fate the third escaped. A photo taken that night shows the bodies hanging from the tree but focuses on the faces in the crowd—some enraged, some laughing, and some subdued, perhaps already feeling the first pangs of regret.

Sixty-three years later, journalist Cynthia Carr began searching the photo for her grandfather’s face.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Why Men Fall Out of Love: What Every Woman Needs to Understand by Michael R. French Why Men Fall Out of Love: What Every Woman Needs to Understand

by Michael R. French
Ballantine Books (Mar 27, 2007)
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The groundbreaking book that breaks the silence of the male code.

Why do men fall out of love? It’s rarely a simple issue of attraction, sex, or money trouble. In this provocative no-holds-barred guide, Michael French brings unparalleled insight into the male psyche and reveals why so many men feel trapped, unhappy, or unfulfilled, and what women can do about it.

Based on interviews with men from all ages and walks of life this grippingly honest book illustrates why, when it comes to relationships, so many men feel “outgunned and outmatched” by women. Discover:

• The 4 relationship busters that lead couples to flounder and sink–the loss of intimacy / the quest for validation / the perfection impulse / the fading of attraction–and strategies for dealing with them head-on
• Six key reasons why men fall out of love–from issues of identity, power, and fear to stereotypes about who they really are and what they want
• The truth about men and (mis)communication–and ways for them to open up
• Three questions a woman needs to ask a man before she becomes emotionally involved
• The Relationship Audit–how couples can figure out what is driving them apart and find ways to mend their relationship

By finally bringing men’s true feelings to the surface, Michael French offers a dramatic new approach to understanding men and their hidden emotions. This guide illuminates the deeper reasons why men fall out of love and, more important, shows how relationships can be healed.

“An impressive, insightful, and completely accessible view deep into the heart’s of men and their struggle with love.”
–Joel D. Block, Ph.D., author of Naked Intimacy

“Read this brilliant book and untie the knot of life– why does love fade?”
–Susan Braudy, former editor of Ms. Magazine


Click for more detail about Black Maria by Kevin Young Black Maria

by Kevin Young
Knopf (Mar 20, 2007)
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Kevin Young follows his acclaimed exploration of the blues in Jelly Roll with another playful riff on a vital art form, giving us a film noir in verse. Black Maria–the title is a slang term for a police van as well as a hearse–is a twisting tale of suspicion, passion, mystery, and the city. Young channels the world of detective movies, picking up its lingo and dark glamour in five “reels” of poetry–the adventures of a “soft-boiled” private eye, known as A.K.A. Jones, and an ingenue turned femme fatale, Delilah Redbone, who’s come to town from down south (“Mama bent till dark / tending rows to send / Me to school … I wanted / To head on & hitch … strike it / Big”). We follow Jones and Delilah through a maze of aliases and ambushes, sex and suspicions, fast talk and hard luck, in Shadowtown where noir characters abound. The Killer, The Gunsel, The Hack, The Director, The Champ, and The Snitch are among the local luminaries and beautiful losers who mingle with Jones and his elusive lady as they stalk one another through the scenes of the poet’s dazzling “treatment.” Charming, funky, bleak, humorous, picaresque, and full of pathos, Black Maria is brimming with the originality and stark lyricism we have come to expect from this remarkable poet.

When we met her first request:
Got a light?
*
I only had dark
so gave her that instead.
*
Ashtray full of butts
& maybes.
*
The sound of her heels down the hall
to me means reveille.

(from “Stills”)

Click on the poem titles below to hear Kevin Young read from Black Maria.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Ghettonation: A Journey Into the Land of Bling and Home of the Shameless by Cora Daniels Ghettonation: A Journey Into the Land of Bling and Home of the Shameless

by Cora Daniels
Doubleday (Mar 20, 2007)
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From the Introduction:

ghet-to n. (Merriam-Webster dictionary) Italian, from Venetian dialect ghèto island where Jews were forced to live; literally, foundry (located on the island), from ghetàr, to cast; from Latin jactare to throw
1: a quarter of a city in which Jews were formerly required to live
2: a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure
3a: an isolated group b: a situation that resembles a ghetto especially in conferring inferior status or limiting opportunity

ghet-to adj. (twenty-first-century everyday parlance)
1a: behavior that makes you want to say “Huh?” b: actions that seem to go against basic home training and common sense
2: used to describe something with inferior status or limited opportunity. Usually used with “so.” ;
3: a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure.
4: common misusage: authentic, Black, keepin’ it real

As current and all-consuming as “ghetto” is in these days of gold teeth, weaves (blond and red), Pepsi-filled baby bottles, and babymamas, ghetto has a long history. The original ghetto was in the Jewish quarter of Venice, a Catholic city. Before it became the Jewish quarter, this area contained an iron foundry or ghèto, hence the name. These days, ghetto no longer refers to where you live, but to how you live. It is a mindset, and not limited to a class or a race. Some things are worth repeating: ghetto is not limited to a class or a race. Ghetto is found in the heart of the nation’s inner cities as well as the heart of the nation’s most cherished suburbs; among those too young to understand (we hope) and those old enough to know better; in little white houses, and all the way to the White House; in corporate corridors, Ivy League havens, and, of course, Hollywood. More devastating, ghetto is also packaged in the form of music, TV, books, and movies, and then sold around the world. Bottom line: ghetto is contagious, and no one is immune, no matter how much we like to suck our teeth and shake our heads at what we think is only happening someplace else…From an award-winning journalist and cultural commentator comes a provocative examination of the impact of “ghetto” mores, attitudes, and lifestyles on urban communities and American culture in general.

Cora Daniels takes on one of the most explosive issues in our country today in this thoughtful critique of America’s embrace of a ghetto persona that demeans women, devalues education, celebrates the worst African American stereotypes, and contributes to the destruction of civil peace. Her investigation exposes the central role of corporate America in exploiting the idea of ghetto-ness as a hip cultural idiom, despite its disturbing ramifications, as a means of making money. She showcases Black rappers raised in privileged families who have taken on the ghetto persona and sold millions of albums, and non-Black celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, who have adopted ghetto attitudes and styles in pursuit of attention and notoriety. She explores, as well, her own relationship to the ghetto and the ways in which she is both part of and outside the Ghettonation.

Infused with humor and entertaining asides—including lists of events and people that the author nominates for the Ghetto Hall of Fame, and a short section written entirely in ghetto slang—Ghettonation is a timely and engrossing report on a controversial social phenomenon. Like Bill Cosby’s infamous, much-discussed comments about the problems within the Black community today, it is sure to trigger widespread interest and heated debate.

Book Review

Click for more detail about American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation by Jon Meacham American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation

by Jon Meacham
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Mar 20, 2007)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham reveals how the Founding Fathers viewed faith—and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice.

At a time when our country seems divided by extremism, American Gospel draws on the past to offer a new perspective. Meacham re-creates the fascinating history of a nation grappling with religion and politics-from John Winthrop’s "city on a hill" sermon to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence; from the Revolution to the Civil War; from a proposed nineteenth-century Christian Amendment to the Constitution to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for civil rights; from George Washington to Ronald Reagan.

Debates about religion and politics are often more divisive than illuminating. Secularists point to a "wall of separation between church and state," while many conservatives act as though the Founding Fathers were apostles in knee britches. As Meacham shows in this brisk narrative, neither extreme has it right. At the heart of the American experiment lies the God of what Benjamin Franklin called "public religion," a God who invests all human beings with inalienable rights while protecting private religion from government interference. It is a great American balancing act, and it has served us well.

Meacham has written and spoken extensively about religion and politics, and he brings historical authority and a sense of hope to the issue. American Gospel makes it compellingly clear that the nation’s best chance of summoning what Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" lies in recovering the spirit and sense of the Founding. In looking back, we may find the light to lead us forward.

Praise for American Gospel

"In his American Gospel, Jon Meacham provides a refreshingly clear, balanced, and wise historical portrait of religion and American politics at exactly the moment when such fairness and understanding are much needed. Anyone who doubts the relevance of history to our own time has only to read this exceptional book."—David McCullough, author of 1776

"Jon Meacham has given us an insightful and eloquent account of the spiritual foundation of the early days of the American republic. It is especially instructive reading at a time when the nation is at once engaged in and deeply divided on the question of religion and its place in public life."—Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation


Click for more detail about You Must Set Forth At Dawn: A Memoir by Wole Soyinka You Must Set Forth At Dawn: A Memoir

by Wole Soyinka
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Mar 13, 2007)
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The first African to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, as well as a political activist of prodigious energies, Wole Soyinka now follows his modern classic Ake: The Years of Childhood with an equally important chronicle of his turbulent life as an adult in (and in exile from) his beloved, beleaguered homeland.
In the tough, humane, and lyrical language that has typified his plays and novels, Soyinka captures the indomitable spirit of Nigeria itself by bringing to life the friends and family who bolstered and inspired him, and by describing the pioneering theater works that defied censure and tradition. Soyinka not only recounts his exile and the terrible reign of General Sani Abacha, but shares vivid memories and playful anecdotes–including his improbable friendship with a prominent Nigerian businessman and the time he smuggled a frozen wildcat into America so that his students could experience a proper Nigerian barbecue.
More than a major figure in the world of literature, Wole Soyinka is a courageous voice for human rights, democracy, and freedom. You Must Set Forth at Dawn is an intimate chronicle of his thrilling public life, a meditation on justice and tyranny, and a mesmerizing testament to a ravaged yet hopeful land.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about I Think of You: Stories by Ahdaf Soueif I Think of You: Stories

by Ahdaf Soueif
Anchor (Mar 13, 2007)
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Ahdaf Soueif, the bestselling author of The Map of Love, writes poignantly and beautifully about love, and about finding one’s place in the world. Achingly lyrical, resonant and richly woven, and with a spark of defiance, these stories explore areas of tension–where women and men are ensnared by cultural and social mores and prescribed notions of “love,” where the place you are is not the place you want to be. Soueif draws her characters with infinite tenderness and compassion as they inhabit a world of lost opportunities, unfulfilled love, and remembrance of times past.


Click for more detail about Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson Feathers

by Jacqueline Woodson
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Mar 01, 2007)
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Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’ss Literature

View our feature on Jacqueline Woodson’ss Feathers.

"Hope is the thing with feathers" starts the poem Frannie is reading in school. Frannie hasn’st thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more "holy." There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he’ss not white. Who is he?

During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light—her brother Sean’ss deafness, her mother’ss fear, the class bully’ss anger, her best friend’ss faith and her own desire for "the thing with feathers."

Jacqueline Woodson once again takes readers on a journey into a young girl’ss heart and reveals the pain and the joy of learning to look beneath the surface.


Click for more detail about All the Stars Came Out That Night by Kevin King All the Stars Came Out That Night

by Kevin King
Plume (Feb 27, 2007)
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Kevin King’s debut novel, All the Stars Came Out That Night, is a vivid portrait of Depression-era America written in a voice at once humorous and poetic. Set at Boston’s Fenway Park on October 20, 1943, All the Stars Came Out That Night imagines a late-night baseball game bankrolled by Henry Ford, pitting Dizzy Dean’s all-white all-stars against Satchel Paige’s black all-stars. Not a contest waged for money or trophies, the outcome of this game carries with it both the weight of a historic injustice?the barring of blacks from baseball?and the promise of vindication and redemption. Steeped in baseball lore and featuring an array of iconic American figures?from Babe Ruth to Clarence Darrow?All the Stars Came Out That Nightfar transcends the sport of baseball, creating a tale that is mythic, captivating, and above all, quintessentially American.


Click for more detail about Baby Brother’s Blues: A Novel by Pearl Cleage Baby Brother’s Blues: A Novel

by Pearl Cleage
One World (Feb 27, 2007)
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When Regina Burns married Blue Hamilton, she knew he was no ordinary man. A charismatic R&B singer who gave up his career to assume responsibility for the safety of Atlanta’s West End community, Blue had created an African American urban oasis where crime and violence were virtually nonexistent. In the beginning, Regina enjoyed a circle of engaging friends and her own work as a freelance communications consultant. Most of all, she relished the company of her husband, who never ceased to be a source of passion and delight.

Then everything changed. More and more frightened women were showing up in West End, seeking Blue’s protection from lovers who had suddenly become violent. When the worst offenders begin to disappear without a trace, the signs–all of them grim–seem to point toward Blue and his longtime associate, Joseph “General” Richardson. Now that Regina is pregnant, her fear for Blue’s safety has become an obsession that threatens the very heart of their relationship.

At the same time, Regina’s friend Aretha Hargrove is desperately trying to redefine her own marriage. Aretha’s husband, Kwame, is lobbying for them to leave West End and move to midtown. Aretha resists at first, but finally agrees in an effort to rekindle the flame that first brought them together.

Regina and Aretha have no way of knowing that what they regard as their private struggles will soon become very public. When Baby Brother, a charming con man, insinuates himself into the community, it becomes clear that there is more to his handsome façade than meets the eye. He carries the seeds of change that will affect both women in profound and startling ways.

Returning to the vividly rendered Atlanta district of her last two novels, New York Times bestselling author Pearl Cleage brilliantly weaves the threads of her characters’ intersecting lives into a story of family, friendship and, of course, love. Baby Brother’s Blues is full of wit and warmth, illumination the core of every woman’s hopes and dreams.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Is the Bitch Dead, Or What?: The Ritz Harper Chronicles Book 2 by Wendy Williams and Karen Hunter Is the Bitch Dead, Or What?: The Ritz Harper Chronicles Book 2

by Wendy Williams and Karen Hunter
Broadway Books (Feb 13, 2007)
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DJ Ritz Harper used every trick in the book to become a media darling in Drama Is Her Middle Name, shock-jock Wendy Williams’s exposé of a life she knows better than anyone. Playing a clever trick of her own, Williams left her heroine on the brink of death at the end of the novel. Now the second installment of the chronicles reveals what Williams’s readers are dying to know: Is the Bitch Dead, or What?

The drive-by shooting that brought her down forces Ritz to look back on her climb to the top and the people she loved, lost, used, and abused along the way. There’s the brief dalliance with Tracee, her best friend, and the romance with a man with some secrets of his own; the loss of her beloved Aunt M; and the recent appearance of the father who abandoned her and is now demanding a financial payoff and fifteen minutes of fame. At the heart of it all is Ritz’s need to figure out where the real-life Ritz ends and the radio bitch begins.

For the huge audience hooked on The Wendy Williams Experience and readers itching to find out what happens to the over-the-top star of Drama Is Her Middle Name, Is the Bitch Dead, or What? is packed with all the irresistible shocks and insider dish that make Williams the hottest voice in America today.


Click for more detail about The Covenant In Action by Tavis Smiley The Covenant In Action

by Tavis Smiley
SmileyBooks (Feb 01, 2007)
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The Covenant in Action was developed to continue the inspirational spirit of the Covenant With Black America and to empower people to take effective action to achieve THE Covenant goals.  The information, tools, and ideas presented in The Covenant in Action will enable and inspire people to become agents of change in their respective communities and to become partners in a larger Covenant movement. The Covenant in Action is organized into three parts: (1) stories about the projects and actions that everyday people have undertaken over the past year that were inspired by the Covenant With Black America; (2) motivational essays from young Black activists who are on the ground impacting their environments; and (3) a toolkit outlining steps you can take to organize, connect, and act.  The toolkit contains not only traditional action strategies, but includes innovative approaches to organizing and community building that will result in stronger, more bonded communities that are reflective of their history and past experiences.  The Covenant With Black America was only the first step.  The Covenant in Action toolkit will prime and prepare individuals and communities to actually move the Covenant book into action.


Click for more detail about Your Money and Your Man: How You and Prince Charming Can Spend Well and Live Rich by Michelle Singletary Your Money and Your Man: How You and Prince Charming Can Spend Well and Live Rich

by Michelle Singletary
Ballantine Books (Jan 30, 2007)
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"Money may not be able to buy you love, but conflicts about it can certainly bankrupt your relationship." -Michelle Singletary

Here at last is the lowdown on how to manage your finances with the man in your life. Money is the #1 problem couples fight about, says beloved Washington Post financial columnist Michelle Singletary. Acknowledging that most fights about money are usually about something else-like feelings of fear or resentment-Singletary stresses the value of open dialogue. In her trademark no-holds-barred style, she shows us how to handle the entire range of financial issues couples face-from splitting the dinner bill when dating to planning for retirement together after years of marriage.

Singletary speaks to the hearts of women as they try to successfully merge their money and future security with those of their man. Acknowledging the emotional weight of shared investments, she brings her own experience as a wife and mother to the table and doles out advice in a voice that, while encouraging and rational, is never less than frank on tough topics.

From sizing up a potential mate’s financial responsibility (or lack thereof) to figuring out how best to share bank accounts and expenses once you’ve made the leap, to determining how to teach your children about money, Your Money and Your Man focuses on the undeniable role that finance plays in every stage of a long-term relationship.

Including typical questions from readers of her syndicated column and advice from one of the savviest financial experts she has ever known-her grandmother-Singletary shows women that they can live happily ever after with Prince Charming, even if he doesn’t have a royal bank account!


Click for more detail about Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man by Vincent Carretta Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man

by Vincent Carretta
Penguin Books (Jan 30, 2007)
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A controversial look at the most renowned person of African descent in the eighteenth century In this widely aclaimed biography, historian Vincent Carretta gives us the authoritative portrait of Olaudah Equiano (c.1745–1797), the former slave whose 1789 autobiography quickly became a popular polemic against the slave trade and a literary classic. Sailor, entrepreneur, and adventurer, Equiano is revealed here as never before, thanks to archival research on an unprecedented scale—some of which even indicates that Equiano may have lied about his origins to advance the antibondage struggle with which he became famously identified. A masterpiece of scholarship and writerly poise, this book redefines an extraordinary man and the turbulent age that shaped him.


Click for more detail about The Last Friend by Tahar Ben Jelloun The Last Friend

by Tahar Ben Jelloun
Penguin Books (Jan 30, 2007)
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Renowned for his compeling , humane portraits of everyday Arab lives, Tahar Ben Jelloun has affirmed his place in the literary world by winning such awards as the Prix Goncourt and Prix Maghreb. In The Last Friend, Ben Jelloun presents a spellbinding coming-of-age story and a dazzling portrait of Morocco in an era of repression and disillusionment. In Tangiers in the late 1950s, two teenagers, Mamed and Ali, strike up an intense friendship that will last a lifetime. But lurking just beneath the surface is a deep, unspoken jealousy in danger of destroying them both.


Click for more detail about The Virgin Of Flames by Chris Abani The Virgin Of Flames

by Chris Abani
Penguin Books (Jan 30, 2007)
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From the author of the award-winning GraceLand comes a searing, dazzlingly written novel of a tarnished City of Angels Praised as “singular” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) and “extraordinary” (The New York Times Book Review), GraceLand stunned critics and instantly established Chris Abani as an exciting new voice in fiction. In his second novel, set against the uncompromising landscape of East L.A., Abani follows a struggling artist named Black, whose life and friendships reveal a world far removed from the mainstream. Through Black’s journey of self- discovery, Abani raises essential questions about poverty, religion, and ethnicity in America today. The Virgin of Flames, a marvelous and gritty novel filled with indelible images and unforgettable characters, confirms Chris Abani as an immensely talented writer.


Click for more detail about Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money by Christopher Paul Curtis Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money

by Christopher Paul Curtis
Yearling (Jan 23, 2007)
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Mr. Chickee, the genial blind man in the neighborhood, gives 9-year-old Steven a mysterious bill with 15 zeros on it and the image of a familiar but startling face. Could it be a quadrillion dollar bill? Could it be real? Well, Agent Fondoo of the U.S. Treasury Department and his team of Secret Government Agents are determined to get that money back! But Steven and his best friends, Russell and Zoopy the giant dog, are more than a match for the Feds. After all, Steven is the president of the Flint Future Detectives Club, and the inventor of fantastic spying and detecting equipment such as the Snoopeeze 9000!


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Finding Oprah’s Roots: Finding Your Own by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Finding Oprah’s Roots: Finding Your Own

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Crown (Jan 23, 2007)
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Finding Oprah’s Roots will not only endow readers with a new appreciation for the key contributions made by history’s unsung but also equip them with the tools to connect to pivotal figures in their own past. A roadmap through the intricacies of public documents and online databases, the book also highlights genetic testing resources that can make it possible to know one’s distant tribal roots in Africa.
For Oprah, the path back to the past was emotion-filled and profoundly illuminating, connecting the narrative of her family to the larger American narrative and “anchoring” her in a way not previously possible. For the reader, Finding Oprah’s Roots offers the possibility of an equally rewarding experience.


Click for more detail about Sophisticated Ladies: the Great Women of Jazz by Leslie Gourse Sophisticated Ladies: the Great Women of Jazz

by Leslie Gourse
Dutton Juvenile (Jan 18, 2007)
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This handsome volume contains the stories of fourteen fabulous women, blues and jazz singers all. Their art reflected their backgrounds—often small, poverty-ridden towns in the South—and the influence of musicians who preceded them. Each singer adapted the culture of jazz and wove it into her own personal style. Jazz historian Leslie Gourse’s biographies of Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Mildred Bailey, Mabel Mercer, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O’Day, Peggy Lee, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Rosemary Clooney, Cassandra Wilson, and Diana Krall offer a fascinating glimpse into American history and a continually evolving musical genre.


Click for more detail about On Michael Jackson by Margo Jefferson On Michael Jackson

by Margo Jefferson
Vintage Books (Jan 09, 2007)
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Michael Jackson was once universally acclaimed as a song-and-dance man of genius; Wacko Jacko is now, more often than not, dismissed for his bizarre race and gender transformations and confounding antics, even as he is commonly reviled for the child molestation charges twice brought against him. Whence the weirdness and alleged criminality? How to account for Michael Jackson’s rise and fall? In On Michael Jackson—an at once passionate, incisive, and bracing work of cultural analysis—Pulitzer Prize–winning critic for The New York Times Margo Jefferson brilliantly unravels the complexities of one of the most enigmatic figures of our time.

Who is Michael Jackson and what does it mean to call him a “What Is It”? What do P. T. Barnum, Peter Pan, and Edgar Allan Poe have to do with our fascination with Jackson? How did his curious Victorian upbringing and his tenure as a child prodigy on the “chitlin’ circuit” inform his character and multiplicity of selves? How is Michael Jackson’s celebrity related to the outrageous popularity of nineteenth-century minstrelsy? What is the perverse appeal of child stars for grown-ups and what is the price of such stardom for these children and for us? What uncanniness provoked Michael Jackson to become “Alone of All His Race, Alone of All Her Sex,” while establishing himself as an undeniably great performer with neo-Gothic, dandy proclivities and a producer of visionary music videos? What do we find so unnerving about Michael Jackson’s presumed monstrosity? In short, how are we all of us implicated?

In her stunning first book, Margo Jefferson gives us the incontrovertible lowdown on call-him-what-you-wish; she offers a powerful reckoning with a quintessential, richly allusive signifier of American society and popular culture.


Click for more detail about Apex Hides the Hurt: A Novel by Colson Whitehead Apex Hides the Hurt: A Novel

by Colson Whitehead
Anchor (Jan 09, 2007)
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The town of Winthrop has decided it needs a new name. The resident software millionaire wants to call it New Prospera; the mayor wants to return to the original choice of the founding black settlers; and the town’s aristocracy sees no reason to change the name at all. What they need, they realize, is a nomenclature consultant. And, it turns out, the consultant needs them. But in a culture overwhelmed by marketing, the name is everything and our hero’s efforts may result in not just a new name for the town but a new and subtler truth about it as well.


Click for more detail about No Name in the Street by James Baldwin No Name in the Street

by James Baldwin
Vintage (Jan 09, 2007)
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This stunningly personal document and extraordinary history of the turbulent sixties and early seventies displays James Baldwin’s fury and despair more deeply than any of his other works. In vivid detail he remembers the Harlem childhood that shaped his early conciousness, the later events that scored his heart with pain — the murders of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, his sojourns in Europe and in Hollywood, and his retum to the American South to confront a violent America face-to-face.


Click for more detail about Winning The Race: Beyond The Crisis In Black America by John McWhorter Winning The Race: Beyond The Crisis In Black America

by John McWhorter
Knopf (Dec 28, 2006)
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In his first major book on the state of black America since the New York Times bestseller Losing the Race, John McWhorter argues that a renewed commitment to achievement and integration is the only cure for the crisis in the African-American community. Winning the Race examines the roots of the serious problems facing black Americans today—poverty, drugs, and high incarceration rates—and contends that none of the commonly accepted reasons can explain the decline of black communities since the end of segregation in the 1960s. Instead, McWhorter posits that a sense of victimhood and alienation that came to the fore during the civil rights era has persisted to the present day in black culture, even though most blacks today have never experienced the racism of the segregation era. McWhorter traces the effects of this disempowering conception of black identity, from the validation of living permanently on welfare to gansta rap’s glorification of irresponsibility and violence as a means of “protest.” He discusses particularly specious claims of racism, attacks the destructive posturing of black leaders and the “hip-hop academics,” and laments that a successful black person must be faced with charges of “acting white.” While acknowledging that racism still exists in America today, McWhorter argues that both blacks and whites must move past blaming racism for every challenge blacks face, and outlines the steps necessary for improving the future of black America.


Click for more detail about Tales of Uncle Remus (Puffin Modern Classics): The Adventures of Brer Rabbit by Julius Lester Tales of Uncle Remus (Puffin Modern Classics): The Adventures of Brer Rabbit

by Julius Lester
Puffin Books (Dec 28, 2006)
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Whether he is besting Brer Fox or sneaking into Mr. Man’s garden, Brer Rabbit is always teaching a valuable lesson. These classic tales are full of wit, humor, and creativity, and Julius Lester brings an added contemporary sense to these forty-eight timeless stories.


Click for more detail about This Strange New Feeling: Three Love Stories from Black History by Julius Lester This Strange New Feeling: Three Love Stories from Black History

by Julius Lester
Dial (Dec 28, 2006)
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One of the most complex periods in American history is illuminated by the love stories of three couples and their fights for freedom from slavery. A Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Reissue.


Click for more detail about Champions on the Bench: The Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars by Carole Boston Weatherford Champions on the Bench: The Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Dial Books (Dec 28, 2006)
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In 1955, the Cannon Street YMCA in Charleston, South Carolina, chartered the only African-American Little League in the state. That same year, 61 all-white teams pulled out of the state tournament so they wouldn’t have to play against the team. Inspired by true events, this picture book follows one young ballplayer through that fateful season. Full color.


Click for more detail about The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them by The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them

by The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell
Broadway Books (Dec 12, 2006)
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Shocked by the teenage violence she witnessed during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Erin Gruwell became a teacher at a high school rampant with hostility and racial intolerance. For many of these students–whose ranks included substance abusers, gang members, the homeless, and victims of abuse–Gruwell was the first person to treat them with dignity, to believe in their potential and help them see it themselves. Soon, their loyalty towards their teacher and burning enthusiasm to help end violence and intolerance became a force of its own. Inspired by reading The Diary of Anne Frank and meeting Zlata Filipovic (the eleven-year old girl who wrote of her life in Sarajevo during the civil war), the students began a joint diary of their inner-city upbringings. Told through anonymous entries to protect their identities and allow for complete candor, The Freedom Writers Diary is filled with astounding vignettes from 150 students who, like civil rights activist Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders, heard society tell them where to go–and refused to listen.





Proceeds from this book benefit the Freedom Writers Foundation, an organization set up to provide scholarships for underprivieged youth and to train teachers

Book Review

Click for more detail about Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Strange Pilgrims

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage (Nov 14, 2006)
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In Barcelona, an aging Brazilian prostitute trains her dog to weep at the grave she has chosen for herself. In Vienna, a woman parlays her gift for seeing the future into a fortunetelling position with a wealthy family. In Geneva, an ambulance driver and his wife take in the lonely, apparently dying ex-President of a Caribbean country, only to discover that his political ambition is very much intact.

In these twelve masterly stories about the lives of Latin Americans in Europe, García Márquez conveys the peculiar amalgam of melancholy, tenacity, sorrow, and aspiration that is the émigré experience.


Click for more detail about Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Memories of My Melancholy Whores

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage (Nov 14, 2006)
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A New York Times Notable Book

On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a bachelor decides to give himself a wild night of love with a virgin. As is his habit–he has purchased hundreds of women–he asks a madam for her assistance. The fourteen-year-old girl who is procured for him is enchanting, but exhausted as she is from caring for siblings and her job sewing buttons, she can do little but sleep. Yet with this sleeping beauty at his side, it is he who awakens to a romance he has never known.

Tender, knowing, and slyly comic, Memories of My Melancholy Whores is an exquisite addition to the master’s work.


Click for more detail about Stepin Fetchit: The Life & Times of Lincoln Perry by Mel Watkins Stepin Fetchit: The Life & Times of Lincoln Perry

by Mel Watkins
Vintage (Nov 14, 2006)
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In the late 1920s and ’30s Lincoln Perry, aka Stepin Fetchit, was both renowned and reviled for his surrealistic portrayals of the era’s most popular comic stereotype-the lazy, shiftless Negro. Perry was hailed by critic Robert Benchley as "the best actor that the talking movies have produced," and Mel Watkins’s meticulously researched and sensitive biography reveals the paradoxes of this pioneering actor’s life, from Perry’s tremendous popularity to his money troubles and rowdy offscreen antics. As later generations come to recognize Perry’s prodigious talent and achievements, in Stepin Fetchit, Mel Watkins brilliantly and definitively illuminates the life and times of a legendary figure in American entertainment.


Click for more detail about Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer by Maya Angelou Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer

by Maya Angelou
Random House (Oct 24, 2006)
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Grace, dignity, and eloquence have long been hallmarks of Maya Angelou’s poetry. Her measured verses have stirred our souls, energized our minds, and healed our hearts. Whether offering hope in the darkest of nights or expressing sincere joy at the extraordinariness of the everyday, Maya Angelou has served as our common voice.

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

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


Click for more detail about Something to Die For: A Novel by Travis Hunter Something to Die For: A Novel

by Travis Hunter
One World (Oct 24, 2006)
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Nasir Lassiter is a college basketball star with a promising future–until a murder rap lands him in prison with a life sentence. Without hope, Nasir shuts down. But after five years he’s suddenly free and surprised to see how much the outside world has changed.

He discovers he has a daughter, Brandy, who believes her father has been away in the army all this time. His girlfriend, Ayana, is now involved with Alonzo, a wealthy, possessive man. Nasir’s life takes another turn when he finds out that his mother has taken to drugs to ease the pain over his fate. Ayana, meanwhile, struggles to break free of Alonzo’s jealous grip and gets a taste of his seemingly endless rage.

Nasir would love to right the wrongs his absence has brought the women in his life. And when his daughter is kidnapped, he will risk everything to save her–even if it means putting his newfound freedom on the line.

A riveting novel of love, loss, and reconciliation, Something to Die For follows the twisted path of a man desperately fighting for the good life he deserves–and for the family who needs him now more than ever.


Click for more detail about The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

by Barack Obama
Crown (Oct 17, 2006)
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In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners’ minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Obama called “the audacity of hope.”

The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama’s call for a different brand of politics—a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the “endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of “our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces—from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media—that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment.

At the heart of this book is Barack Obama’s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats—from terrorism to pandemic—that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy—where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories about family, friends, and members of the Senate is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus.

A public servant and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic, and above all a student of history and human nature, Barack Obama has written a book of transforming power. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes—“waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.”

Book Review

Click for more detail about Mozart and Leadbelly by Ernest Gaines Mozart and Leadbelly

by Ernest Gaines
Vintage (Oct 17, 2006)
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In this collection of stories and essays, the beloved author of the classic, best-selling novel A Lesson Before Dying shares the inspirations behind his books and his reasons for becoming a writer. Told in the simple and powerful prose that is a hallmark of his craft, these writings by Ernest J. Gaines faithfully evoke the sorrows and joys of rustic Southern life. From his depiction of his childhood move to California — a move that propelled him to find books that conjured the sights, smells, and locution of his native Louisiana home — to his description of the real-life murder case that gave him the idea for his masterpiece, this wonderful collection is a revelation of both man and writer.


Click for more detail about My Face Is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations by Mary Frances Berry My Face Is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations

by Mary Frances Berry
Vintage (Oct 10, 2006)
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“My face is black is true but its not my fault but I love my name and my honest dealing with my fellow man.” –Callie House (1899)In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed historian Dr. Mary Frances Berry resurrects the remarkable story of ex-slave Callie House (1861-1928) who, seventy years before the civil-rights movement, headed a demand for ex-slave reparations. A widowed Nashville washerwoman and mother of five, House went on to fight for African American pensions based on those offered to Union soldiers, brilliantly targeting $68 million in taxes on seized rebel cotton and demanding it as repayment for centuries of unpaid labor. Here is the fascinating story of a forgotten civil rights crusader: a woman who emerges as a courageous pioneering activist, a forerunner of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.


Click for more detail about Beyond Glory: Joe Louis Vs. Max Schmeling, And A World On The Brink by David Margolick Beyond Glory: Joe Louis Vs. Max Schmeling, And A World On The Brink

by David Margolick
Vintage (Oct 10, 2006)
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Nothing in the annals of sports has aroused more passion than the heavyweight fights in New York in 1936 and 1938 between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling — bouts that symbolized the hopes, hatreds, and fears of a world moving toward total war. Acclaimed journalist David Margolick takes us into the careers of both men — a black American and a Nazi German hero — and depicts the extraordinary buildup to their legendary 1938 rematch. Vividly capturing the outpouring of emotion that the two fighters brought forth, Margolick brilliantly illuminates the cultural and social divisions that they came to represent.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Dancing in the Dark by Caryl Phillips Dancing in the Dark

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Oct 10, 2006)
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In this searing novel, Caryl Phillips reimagines the life of the first black entertainer in the U.S. to reach the highest levels of fame and fortune.After years of struggling for success on the stage, Bert Williams (1874—1922), the child of recent immigrants from the Bahamas, made the radical decision to don blackface makeup and play the “coon.” Behind this mask he became a Broadway headliner–as influential a comedian as Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and W. C. Fields, who called him “the funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest man I ever knew.” It is this dichotomy at Williams’ core that Phillips explores in this richly nuanced, brilliantly written novel, unblinking in its attention to the sinister compromises that make up an identity.


Click for more detail about If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin If Beale Street Could Talk

by James Baldwin
Penguin Books (Oct 06, 2006)
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In this honest and stunning novel, Baldwin has given America a moving story of love in the face of injustice. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin creates two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.

Now a Motion Picture (Annapurna Pictures, Dec 14, 2018)

Set in early-1970s Harlem, If Beale Street Could Talk is a timeless and moving love story of both a couple’s unbreakable bond and the African-American family’s empowering embrace, as told through the eyes of 19-year-old Tish Rivers (screen newcomer KiKi Layne). A daughter and wife-to-be, Tish vividly recalls the passion, respect and trust that have connected her and her artist fiancé Alonzo Hunt, who goes by the nickname Fonny (Stephan James). Friends since childhood, the devoted couple dream of a future together but their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit.

Through the unique intimacy and power of cinema, If Beale Street Could Talk honors the author’s prescient words and imagery, charting the emotional currents navigated in an unforgiving and racially biased world as the filmmaker poetically crosses time frames to show how love and humanity endure.


Click for more detail about The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis The Hundred Penny Box

by Sharon Bell Mathis
Puffin Books (Oct 05, 2006)
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Michael loves his great-great-aunt Dew, even if she can’t always remember his name. He especially loves to spend time with her and her beloved hundred penny box, listening to stories about each of the hundred years of her life. Michael’s mother wants to throw out the battered old box that holds the pennies, but Michael understands that the box itself is as important to Aunt Dew as the memories it contains. Winner of a Newbery Honor, this beautiful story will be available in a collector’s edition featuring heavy interior stock embossing and silver ink on the cover, and a thread-sewn binding for added durability. A timeless story of the relationship between a boy and his elderly relative, this new edition is one that families young and old will treasure for years to come.


Click for more detail about Three Sides to Every Story: A Novel by Clarence Nero Three Sides to Every Story: A Novel

by Clarence Nero
Broadway Books (Oct 03, 2006)
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Growing up in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Johnny and Tonya meet in high school and fall for each other. Yet their romance falls apart when Johnny seriously injures Tonya’s ex-boyfriend in an altercation. Johnny is imprisoned, and Tonya starts dating a rapper who fulfills her dreams of dancing in videos.

Depressed and deflated in jail, Johnny comes back to life thanks to the help of Pandora, the prison’s “den mother,” and James, who helps Johnny study for his GED. What starts as a platonic friendship between the sexually repressed Johnny and the openly gay James soon develops into a tender love that’s put on hold when James is released on parole. A year later, Johnny is freed as well, haunted by his feelings.

Meanwhile, Tonya, no longer with the rapper, has a new dream of reuniting with Johnny. And James, who wows crowds as a legendary drag queen performer, is furious that Johnny hasn’t reached out to him.

Their lives soon become a twisting roller coaster—secrets are revealed and assumptions are shattered in ways never imagined. Inviting comparison to E. Lynn Harris, Clarence Nero has created a compelling story about the social and sexual challenges black people face today.


Click for more detail about Pleasure: A Woman’s Guide to Getting the Sex You Want, Need and Deserve by Hilda Hutcherson Pleasure: A Woman’s Guide to Getting the Sex You Want, Need and Deserve

by Hilda Hutcherson
TarcherPerigee (Oct 03, 2006)
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Written in the tone of a supportive and savvy friend who just happens to be a top sex expert, this invaluable guide explores:

  • Redefining pleasure: why the quest for female orgasms is overhyped - and how to relax and truly enjoy sex, with or without them
  • Discovering the female body’s pleasure zones
  • Communicating with a partner about what feels good (and what doesn’t)
  • Exercising and eating to improve your sex life
  • Sex positions 101…and 201
  • A lifetime of pleasure: great sex after pregnancy, after fifty, and more


Click for more detail about Harlem Girl Lost: A Novel by Treasure Blue Harlem Girl Lost: A Novel

by Treasure Blue
One World (Sep 26, 2006)
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“A true urban novel filled with vivid images of the street.”
–Black Issues Book Review


Treasure E. Blue, street lit’s hottest newcomer, crafts characters that fly off the page and a story that burns with intensity. Set in Harlem, this searing novel is a poignant and gritty portrait of urban survival of the ghetto’s fittest … and most fierce.

Silver Jones knows just how cruel life can be. Her mother was chewed up and spit out by its dark side–brutally murdered while turning a trick. Rather than live with her abusive grandmother, Silver runs away.

Determined to escape the mean streets, Silver longs for an education. But after running into an old friend, a homeless youth named Chance whom she’d taken under her wing once upon a time, Silver puts her dreams of college on hold. Chance is grown now–and he’s a powerful drug overlord. But underneath the cool exterior is the same innocent boy Silver once loved.

As they begin an affair, Silver tries to convince Chance to give up the lethal way of life that ruined both their childhoods. But Chance knows that walking away from the game means having to pay a deadly price. Silver won’t take no for an answer–even if it means delving into a seedy underworld and outscheming some of its most vicious drug-dealers and cold-blooded murderers.

“Even in Blue’s world of double-crossing, misogyny, drugs and brutality, an against-all-odds fairy tale can come true.”
–Publishers Weekly


Click for more detail about Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats Peter’s Chair

by Ezra Jack Keats
Viking Books for Young Readers (Sep 21, 2006)
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Peter is jealous of his new sister and decides to leave when he sees all of his old things being painted pink for her. On board pages.


Click for more detail about Prospero’s Daughter: A Novel by Elizabeth Nunez Prospero’s Daughter: A Novel

by Elizabeth Nunez
Ballantine Books (Sep 12, 2006)
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A spellbinding new novel from acclaimed author Elizabeth Nunez, Prospero’s Daughter is a brilliantly conceived retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest set on a lush Caribbean island during the height of tensions between the native population and British colonists. Addressing questions of race, class, and power, it is first and foremost the story of a boy and a girl who come of age and violate the ultimate taboo.

Cut off from the main island of Trinidad by a glistening green sea, Chacachacare has few inhabitants besides its colony of lepers and a British doctor who fled England with his three-year-old daughter, Virginia. An amoral genius, Peter Gardner had used his talents to unsavory ends, experimenting, often with fatal results, on unsuspecting patients. Blackmailed by his own brother, Peter ends up on the small island as England’s empire is starting to crumble.

On Chacachacare, Peter experiments chiefly on the wild Caribbean flora–and on the dark-skinned orphan Carlos, whose home he steals. Though Peter considers the boy no better than a savage, he nonetheless schools the child alongside his daughter. But as Carlos and Virginia grow up under the same roof, they become deeply and covertly attached to one another.

When Peter discovers the pair’s secret and accuses Carlos of a heinous crime, it is up to a brusque, insensitive English inspector to discover the truth. During his investigation, a disturbing picture begins to emerge as a monstrous secret is finally drawn into the light.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about On Beauty by Zadie Smith On Beauty

by Zadie Smith
Penguin Press (Aug 29, 2006)
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Winner of the 2006 Orange Prize for fiction, another bestselling masterwork from the celebrated author of White Teeth

Having hit bestseller lists from the New York Times to the San Francisco Chronicle, this wise, hilarious novel reminds us why Zadie Smith has rocketed to literary stardom. On Beauty is the story of an interracial family living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose misadventures in the culture wars-on both sides of the Atlantic-serve to skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smith’s reputation as a major literary talent.


Click for more detail about Thug-A-Licious by Noire Thug-A-Licious

by Noire
One World (Aug 29, 2006)
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“Have you ever wanted something so bad you was willing to crawl over bodies to get it? I mean, fiend for it so hard it didn’t matter who you hurt, how low you had to scrape, it was gonna be yours? That’s what music and balling did for me. They were the fundamentals behind my rise … and the perpetrators of my fall. They called me Harlem’s black prince–a rising star who carried street dreams on his back. But the streets, ya know. They got a way of coming for theirs. A method of sneaking up on you when you ain’t looking …”

Andre “Thug-A-Licious” Williams came up on Harlem’s meanest streets. But thanks to his nearly ankle-breaking hoop moves and explosive mic skills, he makes it out–and dominates the rap scene with chart-topping urban hits.

Thug has sexed all the hottest freaks and has a slew of baby mamas to show for it. But no matter how many women he takes to his bed, only one can claim his heart: successful beauty salon owner Carmiesha “Lil Muddah” Vernoy, his ride-or-die queen who has stuck by his side and guarded his back through thick and thin.

But Thug also has a nightmarish history with someone else. Pimp Williams, his older cousin and ex—partner in crime, is a cold-blooded killer who spreads havoc all over Harlem and will stop at nothing to get what he wants–even if it means betraying his own family, crushing Carmiesha, and forcing Harlem’s black prince down to his knees and back to his bloody beginnings.

“Urban erotica has never been hotter!”
–Nikki Turner, author of Riding Dirty on I-95


Click for more detail about The Magic Keys by Albert Murray The Magic Keys

by Albert Murray
Vintage (Aug 08, 2006)
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If Gabriel García Márquez had chosen to write about Pakistani immigrants in England, he might have produced a novel as beautiful and devastating as Maps for Lost Lovers. Jugnu and Chanda have disappeared. Like thousands of people all over England, they were lovers and living together out of wedlock. To Chanda’s family, however, the disgrace was unforgivable. Perhaps enough so as to warrant murder.As he explores the disappearance and its aftermath through the eyes of Jugnu’s worldly older brother, Shamas, and his devout wife, Kaukab, Nadeem Aslam creates a closely observed and affecting portrait of people whose traditions threaten to bury them alive. The result is a tour de force, intimate, affecting, tragic and suspenseful.


Click for more detail about Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We Can Do About It by Juan Williams Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We Can Do About It

by Juan Williams
Crown (Aug 01, 2006)
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Half a century after brave Americans took to the streets to raise the bar of opportunity for all races, Juan Williams writes that too many black Americans are in crisis—caught in a twisted hip-hop culture, dropping out of school, ending up in jail, having babies when they are not ready to be parents, and falling to the bottom in twenty-first-century global economic competition.

In Enough, Juan Williams issues a lucid, impassioned clarion call to do the right thing now, before we travel so far off the glorious path set by generations of civil rights heroes that there can be no more reaching back to offer a hand and rescue those being left behind.

Inspired by Bill Cosby’s now famous speech at the NAACP gala celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Brown decision integrating schools, Williams makes the case that while there is still racism, it is way past time for black Americans to open their eyes to the “culture of failure” that exists within their community. He raises the banner of proud black traditional values—self-help, strong families, and belief in God—that sustained black people through generations of oppression and flowered in the exhilarating promise of the modern civil rights movement. Williams asks what happened to keeping our eyes on the prize by proving the case for equality with black excellence and achievement.

He takes particular aim at prominent black leaders—from Al Sharpton to Jesse Jackson to Marion Barry. Williams exposes the call for reparations as an act of futility, a detour into self-pity; he condemns the “Stop Snitching” campaign as nothing more than a surrender to criminals; and he decries the glorification of materialism, misogyny, and murder as a corruption of a rich black culture, a tragic turn into pornographic excess that is hurting young black minds, especially among the poor.

Reinforcing his incisive observations with solid research and alarming statistical data, Williams offers a concrete plan for overcoming the obstacles that now stand in the way of African Americans’ full participation in the nation’s freedom and prosperity. Certain to be widely discussed and vehemently debated, Enough is a bold, perceptive, solution-based look at African American life, culture, and politics today.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Girls Most Likely: A Novel by Sheila Williams Girls Most Likely: A Novel

by Sheila Williams
One World (Jul 25, 2006)
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“We didn’t know then that the dramas we imagined weren’t even warm-ups for what real life held for us.”

From the fifth grade to their fifth decade, Vaughn, Reenie, Susan, and Audrey share secrets and dreams–their lives connected like silk threads through rich fabric, pulling but never breaking at life’s unexpected twists and turns. Meet the girls most likely

TO WRITE THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL: Vaughn has a flair for words that makes her the unofficial diplomat of the foursome. She’s great at keeping it together for everybody–but herself.

TO MARRY A PRINCE: Sassy Reenie can break hearts as easily as she can take out a bully without breaking a nail. But her live-for-today attitude leads to a tragic mistake that will haunt the girls for years.

TO BE FAMOUS: From the ashes of a ravaged home life, amid rumors and bad feelings, Susan rises to fame as a glamorous network anchorwoman, proving that success is the best revenge. But forgiveness is another matter.

TO RUN THE WORLD: Audrey is the ultimate overachiever, but this takes a devastating toll on her health, her career, and her family. Perfection is a race where the finish line keeps moving. What will she sacrifice to win?

Girls Most Likely is an emotional, uplifting, often hilarious glimpse into the lives of today’s ever-changing African American women, sustained by love, laughter, and sisterhood.

Don’t miss the reading group guide in the back of the book.


Click for more detail about Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete by William C. Rhoden Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete

by William C. Rhoden
Crown (Jul 11, 2006)
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From Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe, African American athletes have been at the center of modern culture, their on-the-field heroics admired and stratospheric earnings envied. But for all their money, fame, and achievement, says New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden, black athletes still find themselves on the periphery of true power in the multibillion-dollar industry their talent built.

Provocative and controversial, Rhoden’s $40 Million Slaves weaves a compelling narrative of black athletes in the United States, from the plantation to their beginnings in nineteenth-century boxing rings and at the first Kentucky Derby to the history-making accomplishments of notable figures such as Jesse Owens, Althea Gibson, and Willie Mays. Rhoden makes the cogent argument that black athletes’ “evolution” has merely been a journey from literal plantations—where sports were introduced as diversions to quell revolutionary stirrings—to today’s figurative ones, in the form of collegiate and professional sports programs. Weaving in his own experiences growing up on Chicago’s South Side, playing college football for an all-black university, and his decades as a sportswriter, Rhoden contends that black athletes’ exercise of true power is as limited today as when masters forced their slaves to race and fight. The primary difference is, today’s shackles are often of their own making.

Every advance made by black athletes, Rhoden explains, has been met with a knee-jerk backlash—one example being Major League Baseball’s integration of the sport, which stripped the black-controlled Negro League of its talent and left it to founder. He details the “conveyor belt” that brings kids from inner cities and small towns to big-time programs, where they’re cut off from their roots and exploited by team owners, sports agents, and the media. He also sets his sights on athletes like Michael Jordan, who he says have abdicated their responsibility to the community with an apathy that borders on treason.

Sweeping and meticulously detailed, $40 Million Slaves is an eye-opening exploration of a metaphor we only thought we knew.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Great Sky Woman: A Novel by Steven Barnes Great Sky Woman: A Novel

by Steven Barnes
One World/Ballantine (Jun 27, 2006)
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Thirty thousand years ago, in the heart of the African continent and in the shadow of the largest freestanding mountain in the world, lived the Ibandi. For countless generations they nurtured their ancient tradition, and met survival’s daily struggle with quiet faith in their gods. But when brutal intruders arrived from the south, a few brave souls dared the ultimate quest–to climb the Great Mountain, seeking answers and a way into the future.

In this breathtaking blend of imagination, anthropology, and sheer storytelling magic, Steven Barnes takes us to the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro and into the realm of our own ancestors, who lived, hunted, celebrated, and died side by side with roaming herds of wild animals and great golden clouds of migrating butterflies. A people whose skin was the color and smell of the earth itself, the Ibandi formed a hierarchy based on strength of limb and spirit. In this extraordinary novel, we follow the adventures of two of the Ibandi’s chosen ones: T’Cori, an abandoned girl raised by the powerful and mysterious medicine woman Stillshadow, and Frog Hopping, a boy possessing a gift that is also a curse.

Though the live in different encampments, Frog and T’Cori are linked through the revered and powerful Stillshadow, who has sensed in them a destiny apart from others’.

Through the years, and on their separate life paths, T’Cori’s and Frog’s fates entwine as an inevitable disaster approaches from the south–from the very god they worship. For as long as there have been mountain, sky, and savannah, there has been a home for the Ibandi. Now, in the face of an enemy beyond anything spoken of even in legend, they must ask their god face-to-face: Do we remain or do we depart?

Great Sky Woman not only brings to life the world of prehistoric man but also shines a brilliant light on humanity itself. For here is a story of rivalries and alliances, of human fear and desire, of faith and betrayal … and, above all, a story of how primitive man, without words or machines, set in motion civilization’s long, winding journey to the present.


Click for more detail about From A Crooked Rib by Nuruddin Farah From A Crooked Rib

by Nuruddin Farah
Penguin Books (Jun 27, 2006)
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Written with complete conviction from a woman’s point of view, Nuruddin Farah’s spare, shocking first novel savagely attacks the traditional values of his people yet is also a haunting celebration of the unbroken human spirit. Ebla, an orphan of eighteen, runs away from her nomadic encampment in rural Somalia when she discovers that her grandfather has promised her in marriage to an older man. But even after her escape to Mogadishu, she finds herself as powerless and dependent on men as she was out in the bush. As she is propelled through servitude, marriage, poverty, and violence, Ebla has to fight to retain her identity in a world where women are "sold like cattle."


Click for more detail about Selected Poems of Kwesi Linton Johnson by Linton Kwesi Johnson Selected Poems of Kwesi Linton Johnson

by Linton Kwesi Johnson
Penguin UK (Jun 27, 2006)
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A selection of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s best poems over three decades. Ranging from protests against police brutality to eulogies for departed friends and playful celebrations of urban life, Johnson’s use of Jamaican dialect to tackle distinctly British subjects contributed to a revolution in the notion of literary English. This Selected Poems charts the unique literary talent of one of Britain’s most influential poets and social critics.


Click for more detail about Playing by the Rules: A Novel by Elaine Meryl Brown Playing by the Rules: A Novel

by Elaine Meryl Brown
One World (Jun 27, 2006)
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“Playing by the rules isn’t always easy–but in this quirky, self-cloistered community, Lemon City’s peculiarly delightful, eccentric residents do their best to follow the town’s ten mandates–even with outsiders. Elaine Meryl Brown’s storytelling is new and fresh, yet warmly familiar.”
–Virginia DeBerry, co-author of Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made

When there’s a knock on the Dunlap’s door in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner, Nana knows it can’t be good. The last time an outsider managed to worm his way into Lemon City, mischief followed. But despite her doubts, she can’t turn away the young man who’s kidnapped his baby sister from an unfit foster mother.

Before long, Jeremiah and Ruby Rose are practically part of the family. But that’s not sitting well with everyone–especially Medford, the boyfriend of Nana’s spunky granddaughter, Louise. It seems Louise has taken a shine to Jeremiah, and Medford’s suddenly got some stiff competition. Of course he’s too busy tracking down his birth mother–who left him on a doorstep when he was a baby–to be bothered with Louise’s flirtatious nature.

As Medford moves closer to the truth about his mom, young Ruby Rose finds comfort in her newfound home, Louise wavers between love and lust, and Nana prepares to give her feisty old neighbor a run for her money at the annual fair’s tomato contest. By summer’s end, a mystery will be solved as Lemon City secrets reveal themselves–and bring about more than a few changes of heart.


Click for more detail about Drama Is Her Middle Name: The Ritz Harper Chronicles Vol. 1 by Wendy Williams and Karen Hunter Drama Is Her Middle Name: The Ritz Harper Chronicles Vol. 1

by Wendy Williams and Karen Hunter
Broadway Books (Jun 20, 2006)
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Shock jock extraordinaire Wendy Williams lets loose with the first in a series of novels based on her alter ego, the divalicious radio DJ Ritz Harper. Ritz puts the s in shock and the g in gossip, and Drama is her middle name.

Ritz is a suburban girl on the outside, but inside she’s a hustler’s hustler who’s masterfully maneuvered her way into the spotlight after ruining the career of a well-respected newswoman (and former college friend). Ritz’s “exclusive” rockets her to the top of the ratings, and she’s rewarded with her very own show. Like a talking Venus flytrap, she verbally seduces her on-air guests, only to have them for lunch as she spews gossip about their lives.

Ritz becomes the darling of the station’s afternoon slot. But what happens when Ritz goes from drive-time diva to drive-by victim? Has Ritz bad-mouthed the wrong person? Has her signature cat-and-mouse “bomb drop” been dropped on her instead?

As Ritz lies crumpled on a city sidewalk, all she can think as she struggles to maintain consciousness is “Who did this to me? Who?”

Readers will salivate as they try to figure out where the fictional Ritz ends and the real-life Wendy begins. Wendy will involve her millions of listeners by asking them what should happen to Ritz, which will be revealed at the beginning of the next novel, scheduled to be published in fall of 2006 for Christmas.


Click for more detail about Lost Hearts in Italy by Andrea Lee Lost Hearts in Italy

by Andrea Lee
Random House (Jun 20, 2006)
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The Italian phrase Mai due senza tre-"never two without three"-forms the basis of Andrea Lee’s spellbinding novel of betrayal. Sophisticated and richly told, “Lost Hearts in Italy” reveals a trio caught in the grip of desire, deception, and remorse.

When Mira Ward, an American, relocates to Rome with her husband, Nick, she looks forward to a time of exploration and awakening. Young, beautiful, and in love, Mira is on the verge of a writing career, and giddy with the prospect of living abroad.

On the trip over, Mira meets Zenin, an older Italian billionaire, who intrigues Mira with his coolness and worldly mystique. A few weeks later, feeling idle and adrift in her new life, Mira agrees to a seemingly innocent lunch with Zenin and is soon catapulted into an intense affair, which moves beyond her control more quickly than she intends. Her job as a travel writer allows clandestine trysts and opulent getaways with Zenin to Paris, Monte Carlo, London, and Venice, and over the next few years, now the mother of a baby daughter, she struggles between resisting and relenting to this man who has such a hold on her. As her marriage erodes, so too does Mira’s sense of self, until she no longer resembles the free spirit she was on her arrival in the Eternal City.

Years later, Mira and Nick, now divorced and remarried to others, look back in an attempt to understand their history, while a detached Zenin assesses his own life and his role in the unlikely love triangle. Each recounts the past, aided by those witness to their failure and fallout. An elegant, raw, and emotionally charged read, "Lost Hearts in Italy" is a classic coming-of-age story in which cultures collide, innocence dissolves, and those we know most intimately remain foreign to us.


Click for more detail about Russian Journal by Andrea Lee Russian Journal

by Andrea Lee
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Jun 20, 2006)
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At age twenty-five, Andrea Lee joined her husband, a Harvard doctoral candidate in Russian history, for his eight months’ study at Moscow State University and an additional two months in Leningrad. Published to enormous critical acclaim in 1981, Russian Journal is the award-winning author’s penetrating, vivid account of her everyday life as an expatriate in Soviet culture, chronicling her fascinating exchanges with journalists, diplomats, and her Soviet contemporaries. The winner of the Jean Stein Award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters–and the book that launched Lee’s career as a writer–Russian Journal is a beautiful and clear-eyed travel-writing classic.


Click for more detail about The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith The Autograph Man

by Zadie Smith
Random House (Jun 17, 2006)
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Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. His business is to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, and occasionally fake them—all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. But what does Alex want? Only the return of his father, the end of religion, something for his headache, three different girls, infinite grace, and the rare autograph of forties movie actress Kitty Alexander. With fries.

The Autograph Man is a deeply funny existential tour around the hollow trappings of modernity: celebrity, cinema, and the ugly triumph of symbol over experience. It offers further proof that Zadie Smith is one of the most staggeringly talented writers of her generation.


Click for more detail about Clown Child by Amy Littlesugar Clown Child

by Amy Littlesugar
Philomel Books (Jun 08, 2006)
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Olivia and her father are popular clowns in the Crystal Caravan circus, but she longs for a settled home to live in, in a touching story which reminds readers that home is not the place you live, but the people you love.


Click for more detail about Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture by John Strausbaugh Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture

by John Strausbaugh
TarcherPerigee (Jun 08, 2006)
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A refreshingly clearheaded and taboo-breaking look at race in America reveals our culture as neither Black nor White nor Other, but a mix-a mongrel.

Black Like You is an erudite and entertaining exploration of race relations in American popular culture. Particularly compelling is the author’s ability to tackle blackface—a strange, often scandalous, and now taboo entertainment. Although blackface performance came to be denounced as purely racist mockery, and shamefacedly erased from most modern accounts of American cultural history, Strausbaugh shows that, nevertheless, its impact has been deep and longlasting. The influence of blackface can be seen in rock and roll and hip-hop; in vaudeville, Broadway, and drag performances; in Mark Twain and "gangsta lit"; in the earliest filmstrips and Hollywood’s 2004 White Chicks; on radio and television; in advertising and product marketing; and even in the way Americans speak.

With remarkable common sense and clarity, Strausbaugh candidly illuminates truths about race rarely discussed in public, including:

- American culture neither conforms to knee-jerk racism nor to political correctness. It is neither Black nor White nor Other, but a mix-a mongrel.
- No history is best forgotten-however uncomfortable it may be to remember. The power of blackface to enrage and mortify Americans to this day is reason enough to examine what it still tells us about our culture and ourselves.
- Blackface is still alive. Its impact and derivations- including Black performers in "whiteface"-can be seen all around us.

Book Review

Click for more detail about A Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme by Calvin Trillin A Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme

by Calvin Trillin
Random House (May 30, 2006)
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Somehow, despite everything Calvin Trillin wrote about the Bush Administration in Obliviously On He Sails, his 2004 bestseller in verse, George W. Bush is still in the White House. Taking a philosophical view, Trillin has said, “We weren’t going to know whether you could bring down a presidency with iambic pentameter until somebody tried it.”

Now Trillin is trying again, back at his pithy and hilarious best to comment on the President’s decision to go to war in Iraq (“Then terrorists could count on what we’d do: / Attack us, we’ll strike back, though not at you”), his religiosity (“He treats his critics in the press / As if they’re yapping Pekineses. / Reporters deal in mundane facts; / This man has got the word from Jesus”), and whether he was wearing a transmitting device in the first presidential debate (“Could this explain his odd expressions? Is there proof he / Was being told, ‘If you can hear me now, look goofy’?”)

Trillin deals with the people around Bush, such as Nanny Dick Cheney and Mushroom Cloud Rice and Orange John Ashcroft and Orange John’s successor, Alberto Gonzales (“The A.G.’s to be one Alberto Gonzales– / Dependable, actually loyal über alles”). He tries to predict the behavior of the famously intemperate John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations in poems with titles like “Bolton Chases French Ambassador Up Tree” and “White House Says Bolton Can Do Job Even While in Straitjacket.”

Finally, in dealing with whether the entire Bush Administration, like the unfortunate Brownie, has done a heckuva job, he composes a small-government sea chantey for the Republicans:

’Cause government’s the problem, lads,
Americans would all do well to shun it.
Yes, government’s the problem, lads.
At least it is when we’re the ones who run it.


Click for more detail about What Goes Around: A Novel by Parry Brown What Goes Around: A Novel

by Parry Brown
One World/Ballantine (May 30, 2006)
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THE SISTER HAD IT ALL–UNTIL KARMA CAME TO TOWN.

A successful businesswoman, Catherine Hawkins has lived an enviable life of luxury, thanks to an ambition that has made her stop at nothing–including abandoning her own twin daughters when they were born eighteen years ago. After going AWOL, Catherine sent lavish gifts to Ariana and Alisa, while the children’s father, Terry Winston, and his wife, Jackie, reared the girls with all their love and care.

Now, as the twins are ready to graduate high school, Catherine is suddenly begging to visit and full of affection. A change of heart is hardly her motive, though: Catherine needs the girls–at least one of them–to save her life. For her kidneys are failing, and unless one of her daughters gives her an organ, Catherine may not be around long enough to find another compatible donor.

The news of Catherine’s illness affects her estranged family in different ways, as each member struggles with anger, resentment, and a sense of guilt over turning a blind eye. And when a decision is finally made, an unexpected secret is revealed–one that will rock the Winston family, heart and soul.


Click for more detail about Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away by June Cross Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away

by June Cross
Viking Adult (May 18, 2006)
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A powerful memoir about the complicated but ultimately loving relationship between a black daughter and her white mother Secret Daughter is a deftly drawn and moving portrait of a childhood spent in two very different worlds: one white, one black. In 1957, when June Cross was four years old, she was sent by her white mother to live with a black family in Atlantic City. Her mother, Norma, had left June’s abusive father, a comic in the well-known black vaudeville duo Stump and Stumpy, and gave June up when it became clear that her dark-skinned, kinky-haired child could no longer "pass." Within her adopted family, June struggled with her identity as the black radicalism of the times collided head on with her family’s more traditional ideals. Summer vacations were spent with her mother, now in Hollywood and married to F Troop TV actor Larry Storch. For many years, Norma, afraid that Larry’s career would suffer if anyone discovered the truth about her illegitimate daughter, told friends and reporters that June was adopted. Secret Daughter, which grew out of Cross’s Emmy Award–winning documentary, traces this thorny story with poignancy and skill. It is both a vivid snapshot of race relations in America and an inspiring journey of understanding between a mother and daughter.


Click for more detail about The Little Red Hen by Jerry Pinkney The Little Red Hen

by Jerry Pinkney
Dial Books (May 18, 2006)
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Caldecott Medal winner Jerry Pinkney enlivens the beloved fable with cheerful and classically beautiful illustrations, making this the ideal edition for every child’s library.

As he did with his Caldecott-winning The Lion and the Mouse, Jerry Pinkney has masterfully adapted this story of the hardworking hen and her lazy neighbors. Its Golden Rule message and sassy finale are just as relevant and satisfying as ever. Read it in tandem with Pinkney’s Puss in Boots and The Tortoise and the Hare or David Wiesner’s The Three Pigs.


Click for more detail about After: A Novel by Marita Golden After: A Novel

by Marita Golden
Doubleday (May 16, 2006)
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For twelve years Carson Blake inhabited a world of his own creation. Scorned by the father who was incapable of showing him affection and nearly consumed by the mean streets of Prince George’s County, Maryland, Carson did what no one else could: he saved himself.

After joining the police force and building a family with his wife, Bunny, Carson is finally in control of his life in the enclave where African American wealth and privilege shares the same zip code with black American crime and tragedy. Both Carson and his wife have great careers and three beautiful children: Roslyn, Roseanne, and Juwan. Carson is a devoted father, determined not to be the father that Jimmy Blake was to him. But while Juwan’s astounding artistic talent is his father’s pride, the boy’s close relationship with classmate Will conjures up emotions and questions in Carson that threaten to spill over and poison the entire Blake family.

And then, one night in March, nearing the end of a routine shift, Carson stops a young black man for speeding. He orders Paul Houston to exit the car and drop to his knees. But when Houston retrieves something from his waistband and turns to face Carson, three shots are fired, one man loses his life and two families are wrenched from everything that came before and hurled into the haunting future of everything that will come after. When it is revealed that Paul, a son of educators and a teacher in Southeast D.C., was only holding a cell phone, Carson’s carefully woven world begins to unravel.

After is a penetrating work of discovery for a man whose life careens more than once off the edge of disaster. Golden’s astounding prose will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.


Click for more detail about We Speak Your Names: A Celebration by Pearl Cleage We Speak Your Names: A Celebration

by Pearl Cleage
Random House (May 09, 2006)
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For centuries, African American women have been remaking the world, giving testament to the power of hope, courage, and resilience. But it took the inspired generosity of Oprah Winfrey to honor fully the many gifts of sisterhood. For three amazing days–from May 13 to 15, 2005–a distinguished group of women was invited to celebrate the enduring achievements of twenty-five of their mentors and role models–and in the process pay tribute to the long, glorious tradition of African American accomplishment. The brilliant centerpiece of the weekend was the reading aloud of Pearl Cleage’s poem “We Speak Your Names,” written especially for the occasion and appearing here for the first time in this beautiful keepsake book. As deeply moving in print as it was during that weekend of love and praise, the poem names each of the women honored: Dr. Maya Angelou, Coretta Scott King, Diahann Carroll, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, Rosa Parks, Katherine Dunham, and other legends of the brightest magnitude. With heartfelt eloquence, Pearl Cleage (herself a luminary of the younger generation) celebrates her distinguished elders’ strength, their magic, their sensuality, their loving kindness, their faith in themselves, and the priceless example of their lives. In her introduction, the poet shares: “My sisters, here, there, and everywhere, this poem is for you. Use it, adapt it, pass it on… .”

Destined to become a classic, We Speak Your Names is a treasure to keep forever and a precious, inspiring gift for the ones you love.


Click for more detail about The Sisterhood of Blackberry Corner by Andrea Smith The Sisterhood of Blackberry Corner

by Andrea Smith
The Dial Press (May 09, 2006)
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Canaan Creek, South Carolina, in the 1950s is a tiny town where the close-knit African-American community is united by long-term friendships and church ties. Bonnie Wilder has lived here, on Blackberry Corner, all her life, and would be content but for her deep desire to have a child. She and her husband Naz cannot conceive, and he refuses to adopt. Even the support of her outrageous best friend Thora—to whom Bonnie tells everything—can’t help fill the emptiness inside her.

Then Naz finds a blanketed infant on the banks of Canaan Creek, and suddenly Bonnie’s life is transformed. She has found her calling. Together with Thora and the rest of the hilarious, tough, and all-too-human women from her church group, Bonnie creates an underground railroad for unwanted babies. But one of these precious gifts will come back to haunt her: a deception begun in good faith comes full circle, ultimately forcing Bonnie to find the courage to confront a difficult truth at the center of her own life.

Filled with compassion, humor, and tenacity in the face of almost insurmountable odds, here is a rich, inspiring tale of friendship and family, sisterhood and mother love…and of finding grace where you least expect it.


Click for more detail about I Say a Little Prayer: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris I Say a Little Prayer: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
Doubleday (May 02, 2006)
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Bestselling author E. Lynn Harris is back with another sexy, shocking, and immensely satisfying novel that explores some of today’s toughest and most timely issues.

Chauncey Greer is the owner of Cute Boy Card Company, a thriving company in Atlanta. As a teenager, he was a member of a popular boy band, but left in disgrace when word got out that he and his bandmate D were more than good friends. Chauncey is a free spirit, on the brink of forty with a body admired by both men and women. Not into being categorized, Chauncey’s been known to hook up with men and women, but now in the age of the “down low,” he’s found that women ask too many questions, so he’s just focusing on the fellas.

After one too many bad dates, Chauncey finds himself in church, where the minister’s message inspires him to follow his dream of a singing career once again. Although he’s lost touch with D, as he starts writing songs his thoughts inevitably turn to his former lover. Chauncey’s powerful performance at the church earns him a standing ovation and an invitation to participate in an upcoming revival. But Chauncey soon discovers that an ambitious fundamentalist preacher plans to use the revival to speak out against gays and gay marriage. Feeling angry and betrayed, Chauncey and other gay members of the church decide to take a stand against the church’s homophobia by staging a “Day of Absence” when all of the gay members and their friends and family stay home. Everything is going as planned… until D appears on the scene and Chauncey has to confront his past and make some hard decisions about his future.

I Say A Little Prayer is filled with the delicious plot twists, humor, compassion, and up-to-the-minute controversy fans expect from their beloved “E. Lynn.” Harris has returned with another gem of a novel that will rocket to the top of bestseller lists nationwide.


Click for more detail about Mama Made the Difference by T. D. Jakes Mama Made the Difference

by T. D. Jakes
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Apr 25, 2006)
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From the bestselling author of He-Motions comes a positive and inspirational book of lessons learned from his mother.

In the bestselling The Lady, Her Lover, and Her Lord, Bishop T. D. Jakes examined a woman’s most important relationships in life: with God, with her man, and with herself. In the smash hit He-Motions, he turned his gaze to the hearts and minds of the other sex, offering both insight and empowerment to men and the women who love them.

Now, just in time for Mother’s Day 2006, Bishop Jakes brings us a book that celebrates motherhood and promises to be his most intensely personal book yet.

Mama Made the Difference comes straight from the heart of the Jakes family to yours. In his uplifting and powerful voice, Bishop Jakes shares personal stories about growing up in his mother’s home, revealing the time-honored lessons and values she taught him. Woven into his personal vignettes are inspirational biblical stories about mothers, heartfelt advice for modern-day moms, and testimonials from other prominent African-American figures about the importance of motherhood.

Driven by the Bible and stories straight from his own life and offering praise, inspiration, and instruction, T. D. Jakes has written a must-have for daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents-and anyone else who has ever felt the mighty power of a mother’s love.

Book Review

Click for more detail about It&rsqupo;s OK if You’re Clueless: and 23 More Tips for the College Bound by Terry McMillan It&rsqupo;s OK if You’re Clueless: and 23 More Tips for the College Bound

by Terry McMillan
Viking Books (Apr 25, 2006)
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When her son Solomon graduated from high school, Terry McMillan was asked to be the guest speaker at the commencement ceremony. Determined not to be dull or redundant, Terry thought back to when she was stepping out into the world for the first time and the things she wished people had told her. Printing up what she thought were the most important tips for these new graduates, Terry was surprised to find that not only were these homemade pamphlets a hit with the students, but their parents clamored for copies too.

Now with It’s Ok If You’re Clueless, Terry McMillan brings her trademark wit and sass to every son and daughter about to take their first tentative steps into adulthood. Offering such nuggets as “Sit up straight,” “Don’t listen to your parents,” and “Bring your laundry home,” as well as “See the world” and “Read anything and everything,” It’s Ok If You’re Clueless is packed with the commonsense advice and conversational tone that have made her novels classic bestsellers. Equal parts witty and wise, It’s Ok If You’re Clueless is the perfect gift for the college bound.


Click for more detail about Fever by Geneva Holliday Fever

by Geneva Holliday
Knopf (Apr 18, 2006)
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It’s almost summer in New York City, and the heat is breaking records on the street and between the sheets in Geneva Holliday’s beyond-sexy follow-up to Groove. When Geneva, Crystal, Chevy, and Noah get hot and bothered, they get way more than they ever bargained for…

Geneva is busy caring for her daughter—and robbing the cradle with her son’s business manager. Chevy is working for a diva who requires assistance that’s way too personal for Chevy’s liking. Crystal is in for the surprise of her life when her mom (!) conspires to get Crystal’s engine purring like a kitten again. And Noah hears everyone’s secrets, miles away in London, but with these friends, secrets don’t stay secret for long! After all, what are friends for?

So slip into something slinky and get ready to catch the Fever!


Click for more detail about Mother: A Cradle to Hold Me by Maya Angelou Mother: A Cradle to Hold Me

by Maya Angelou
Random House (Apr 11, 2006)
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Poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then moved to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she has also written a cookbook, Hallelujah! The Welcome Table; five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?; and the celebrated poems “On the Pulse of Morning,” which she read at the inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton, and “Amazing Peace,” which she read at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C., in December 2005.


Click for more detail about The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi The Icarus Girl

by Helen Oyeyemi
Anchor (Apr 11, 2006)
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Jessamy “Jess” Harrison, age eight, is the child of an English father and a Nigerian mother. Possessed of an extraordinary imagination, she has a hard time fitting in at school. It is only when she visits Nigeria for the first time that she makes a friend who understands her: a ragged little girl named TillyTilly. But soon TillyTilly’s visits become more disturbing, until Jess realizes she doesn’t actually know who her friend is at all. Drawing on Nigerian mythology, Helen Oyeyemi presents a striking variation on the classic literary theme of doubles — both real and spiritual — in this lyrical and bold debut.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Chasing Destiny by Eric Jerome Dickey Chasing Destiny

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton Adult (Apr 11, 2006)
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Eight-time New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey’s new novel is filled with intrigue, speed, and sex appeal. And an unforgettable female narrator rides her sexy yellow motorcycle right through it all. Billie (aka "Ducati") is known as much for her extraordinary beauty as for the sexy yellow motorcycle she rides through the mean streets of Los Angeles. Tough, talented, and self-assured, Billie’s used to doing things her way—but that was before love threw an oil slick in the road and spun her life into chaos. Billie’s first problem is simple: she’s pregnant.
Her second problem is that her lover, Keith, is still married. Keith has some "things" to deal with, and the people in his life are dark and duplicitous enough to take matters into their own hands, determined to keep Billie from having her baby. Billie suddenly finds herself confronted, attacked, run off highways, threatened and shadowed. Keith still has ties to his manipulative wife, Carmen, and he adores his fifteen-year-old daughter Destiny. Will he do the right thing by his new family, or stand by his old one? Soon all eyes shift as everyone finds themselves desperately chasing Destiny, a troubled and deceptive girl dancing on the edge of womanhood. When the rubber meets the road, everyone’s fighting dirty for what they want…and they’re all willing to destroy their enemy or go down in flames to get it.


Click for more detail about Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea’s Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life by Tyler Perry Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea’s Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life

by Tyler Perry
Riverhead Hardcover (Apr 11, 2006)
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View our feature on Tyler Perry’s Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings.

In 2005, Tyler Perry took Hollywood by storm. The movie he wrote, produced, and starred in, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, opened number one at the box office and went on to gross more than $50 million. In its first week on sale, the DVD sold 2.4 million copies. At the same time, Perry was starring nightly across the country in a soldout stage show he’d also written, produced, and scored-Madea Goes to Jail-even as another one of his productions, Meet the Browns, was touring nationally. Every week in 2005, 35,000 people saw a Tyler Perry production. His second feature film, Madea’s Family Reunion, opens in theaters in February 2006. Now, this triple-threat actor/playwright/director, has written his first book, and it features his most beloved, most irreverent creation: sixty-eight-year-old grandmother Madea Simmons.

Madea is at the center of all of Tyler Perry’s work, and she’s always unfailingly outspoken, dead-on, and hilarious. But in Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings, Madea shares more than she ever has before- about herself, and about what she thinks of everyone around her. The topics inimitably covered by Madea (a term of endearment for "Mother Dear") include love and marriage, child-rearing, etiquette and neighborliness, beauty tips, health tips, financial tips, the Bible and the church, and, of course, gun care. She’s brazen, feisty, and never at a loss for words, but at the heart of everything she says- and at the heart of all of Perry’s work-is a resounding message of faith and forgiveness.

Shockingly hilarious, surprisingly moving, and as rousing and inspiring as a great gospel show, Madea’s words of wisdom, memories, and straight-up in-your-face advice will be cherished by Perry’s numerous fans- and it all comes just in time for Mother’s Day. Tyler Perry is about to take the publishing world by storm.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Some People, Some Other Place by J. California Cooper Some People, Some Other Place

by J. California Cooper
Anchor (Apr 04, 2006)
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For generations Eula Too’s family has been making a journey North, year after year, step by painful step; and she’s determined to be the one to make it all the way to Chicago. In and out of school, taking care of her fourteen brothers and sisters, she can see no way out. But when a new family burden threatens to overwhelm her, she at last leaves for the city, only to find that her life gets even tougher.

Ranging from the Deep South at the turn of the century, to a diverse contemporary town filled with people striving for a better life, Some People, Some Other Place is J. California Cooper at her irresistible, surprising best.


Click for more detail about Wind in a Box (Penguin Poets) by Terrance Hayes Wind in a Box (Penguin Poets)

by Terrance Hayes
Penguin Books (Mar 28, 2006)
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The third collection of poetry from the author of Lighthead, winner of the 2010 National Book Award

Terrance Hayes is an elegant and adventurous writer with disarming humor, grace, tenderness, and brilliant turns of phrase. He is very much interested in what it means to be an artist and a black man. In his first collection, Muscular Music, he took the reader through a living library of cultural icons, from Shaft and Fat Albert to John Coltrane and Miles Davis. His second collection, Hip Logic, continued these explorations of popular culture, fatherhood, cultural heritage, and loss. Wind in a Box, Hayes’s resonant new collection, continues his interest in how traditions (of poetry and culture alike) can be simultaneously upended and embraced. The struggle for freedom (the wind) within containment (the box) is the unifying motif as Hayes explores how identity is shaped by race, heritage, and spirituality. This new book displays not only what the Los Angeles Times calls the range of a "bold virtuoso," but also the imaginative fervor of a poet in love with poetry.


Click for more detail about Willy and Max: A Holocaust Story by Amy Littlesugar Willy and Max: A Holocaust Story

by Amy Littlesugar
Philomel Books (Mar 16, 2006)
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When Max’s dad buys a painting from the window of Willy’s dad’s antique shop, Willy and Max become instant friends.They are just alike, down to their same missing tooth! Even though Max lives in the Jewish quarter, the boys are inseparable—until the Nazis come. They take everything from Max’s family, including the precious painting that began the boys’ friendship.And though they promise to be friends forever,Willy and Max know that something unspeakable is coming between them, and they may never see each other again … . Beautiful and heartbreaking, Willy & Max is the powerful story of two boys separated by circumstance, but held together through generations by a simple painting—and the unbreakable spirit of their friendship.


Click for more detail about Grace: A Novel by Elizabeth Nunez Grace: A Novel

by Elizabeth Nunez
Ballantine Books (Feb 28, 2006)
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Justin Peters is a Harvard-educated professor of British and classic literature who reads Shakespeare to his four-year-old daughter, Giselle. A native of Trinidad and the product of a strict, English-style education, Justin and his focus on the works of “Dead White Men” receive little professional respect at the public Brooklyn college where he teaches. But whatever troubles he might have at work are eclipsed when he realizes his wife, Sally, has begun to pull away from him, both physically and emotionally.

Harlem-born Sally Peters, a mother on the verge of turning forty, is a primary school teacher who believes that joy is a learned skill, and that it takes strength to be happy. After a life of tragic losses, Sally thought she had finally found that strength when she met Justin.

But now, Sally wants something more. And Justin is angered by her uncertainty about their life and frightened by the thought that perhaps Sally never stopped loving the ex-boyfriend for whom she wrote fierce poems. Is he, Justin wonders, responsible for helping Sally find meaning in her life—a life that seems to him most fortunate? If Sally and Justin’s union is to survive, both must face the crippling echoes of their own pasts before those memories forever cloud and alter their future.

Set in a snow-covered Brooklyn, Grace is a thoughtful and lovely meditation on trust, redemption, and family. Elizabeth Nunez’s delicate prose brings the struggles, aches, and tender moments of this contemporary urban love story into vivid focus.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, 10th Anniversary Edition by James McBride The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, 10th Anniversary Edition

by James McBride
Riverhead Books (Feb 07, 2006)
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Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother’s past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother. The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan’s free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion—and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain. In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother’s footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents’ loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned. At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life’s blessings and life’s values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth’s determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college—and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University. Interspersed throughout his mother’s compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.

Questions for James McBride author of The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother

 

On Thursday, November 13, 1998  barnesandnoble.com hosted questions from readers for James McBride

 

VogelBN: Good evening, Mr. McBride, and welcome to BarnesandNoble@aol! We’re thrilled that you could join us!!

JM: Delighted to be here!

VogelBN: We’re brimming with wonderful questions from the audience, so whenever you’re ready….

Question: Mr. McBride, what an honor! I am leading a book club tomorrow on your book and am anxious to find out why you decided to share all this info with all the rest of us?


JM: Well, I always wondered where my mother came from. It was something that was on my mind for many, many years.

Question: Judaism is passed down via the mother. Have you ever considered embracing the faith? Why or why not?

JM: I’ve considered it, but Christianity always worked for me. I grew up as a Christian. If my children decided to embrace the faith, I’d be more than delighted.

Question: As I read THE COLOR OF WATER, I kept wondering, what was your mother’s motivation to become a Christian? Do you think it was an effort to become closer to your father? Or did she have a revelation of faith?

JM: No. It happened because after her mother died, she converted to Christianity. I think that it was the loss of her mother and the loss of her family and the love of my father and the embrace of the Christian church that pushed her into Christianity.

Question: Did you enjoy doing the "Rosie O’Donnell Show"?

JM: I did indeed. I kissed her seven times.

Question: What advice do you give to a novice like myself about entering the professional writing field?


JM: Well, writing teaches writing. Many books have been written between 5 and 7 in the morning. Never give up. It’s a great catharsis.

Question: Did you ever harbor any anger against your mother for her dishonesty? It seems that her secret was important to her sense of self, and thus valid, but still….

JM: A very good question. I don’t think so. I’ve thought about that a lot. I’m not sure if there was any other thing she could do. We didn’t really have the time to think about her past that much. So it wasn’t that great an issue. I was never angry at her for that. I think a lot of my anger was self-directed, meaning it had to do with my own feelings of inadequacy.

Question: What would you say to your mother’s father if you met him today?


JM: I have no bitterness toward him. I’m sorry that he was the dysfunctional person that he was, but I certainly don’t harbor any bitterness toward him. I guess I would say hello.

Question: How did finding out about your mother’s history influence your own sense of identity?


JM: It gave me a tremendous sense of self. It made me feel complete. It gave me a sense of peace. It imbued in me my own sense of my "Jewishness." I don’t consider myself qualified to go around claiming to be a Jew. But I’m proud to be one anyway. I like who I am.

Question: I respect your mother’s strengthraising 12 kids on her own. What sustained her after both her husbands had passed on?


JM: She was a very religious woman. And her faith in God is what has sustained her.

Question: Most of what you write is nonfiction. Do you write fiction? Which do you feel more comfortable with? How do they differ for you?


JM: Before I started writing Quincy Jones’s biography for Doubleday, which I began last February, I was working on a novel for Riverhead. I enjoyed it immensely, though it was much more difficult than nonfiction. I plan to finish that novel after finishing Quincy’s biography. That’s due in late 1998.

Question: THE COLOR OF WATER chronicles each time you asked your mother about her past. Is this book a record of your personal odyssey to find out who you are?


JM: In a way, yes. I wrote the book partly because I didn’t know who I was. And I realized I couldn’t discover who I was until I discovered who my mother was.

Question: You attended a segregated school in Wilmington, Delaware. Could you comment on your experience there and how it differed from the schools in New York?


JM: The schools in New York were better. The variety of students added to my education. There were good things about the segregated school. The teachers were very kind and very educated, but I got a far better education in the New York City schools that were integrated.

Question: I’ve read that you are a very talented musician, although I’ve never heard anything by you. What do you play? What draws you to music? Do you feel that performing music affects your writing?


JM: I used to perform music. No longer. I wrote songs for Anita Baker, Grover Washington, and Gary Burton. I’m literally in the recording studio now, working on a demo for a Disney audition to write the score for one of their theatrical musicals. I play saxophone and I play piano and I write. I started on piano and clarinet as a boy. My mother encouraged music around the house. And no, performing music doesn’t affect my writing. I always loved music, even as a boy. I’ve just always been attracted to it.

Question: In your book you mention, "Mommy was the wrong color for black pride and black power." Could you elaborate on that statement from a modern-day historical perspective?


JM: At the time, black power was a huge deal in my neighborhood, and we were all imbued with a sense of black pride and black consciousness. In that context, she did not fit.

Question: Your childhood was hard, but you seem to successfully remember the good times. What’s your favorite childhood memory? What were you doing? Who were you with?


JM: My favorite childhood memory is swimming in the Red Hook swimming pool with my mother, brothers, and sisters. I remember the strength in her hands and the firm way in which she held me.

Question: Americans like to classify. Any federal form you fill out asks for your race black, white, Native American, etc. As someone who could feasibly check all those boxes, which do you choose, if any?


JM: I would prefer to choose "other," but I’ll always choose "black." I think there should be one box human being. But in the real world, I choose black.

Question: Could you please recommend your favorite jazz album?


JM: I guess I would have to answer that with three. "It Might as Well Be Swing," which is Frank Sinatra with the Count Basie Orchestra, with Quincy Jones as the arranger; "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis; and "Stolen Moments" by Oliver Nelson. My favorite tenor saxophone player is Billy Harper.

Question: I haven’t read the book yet, but I am fascinated by the title. What is "the color of water"?


JM: When I was a little boy, I would ask my mother, "What color is God?" I asked her if God was white or black. She said God was the color of water.

Question: Have you seen the film "Ethnic Notions"? What’s your reaction to it?


JM: I’m sorry but I haven’t seen it.

Question: First, I really enjoyed the book. Second, there’s been a lot written lately about the memoir and its form of narrative, with your book and Frank McCourt’s. How do you distinguish between telling a great story and telling the truth?


JM: What you have to do as a writer is find the gatepost moments of your story. The points of highest drama that prove your point.

Question: Mr. McBride, I was really moved by the scene where you brought your mother back to her hometown, and to her first real friend, Frances. Did your mother feel it was worth it to come back to this place that caused her such pain, to be reunited with Frances?


JM: It was a catharsis for Mommy. It was painful, but wonderful and terrifyingly exhilarating for her. I was moved by it. My sister Judy was there. It was just as moving for her.

Question: I found it interesting that you said your household was truly ruled by the women there, but in the end, it was you who told the story of your mother. Had it ever occurred to any of your siblings to tell her story? Were they just as interested as you?


JM: I don’t think it ever occurred to any of them, but they were just as interested. My siblings felt that God had put this story in my heart, and they felt it was appropriate that I be the one to tell it.

Question: When you were writing from your mom’s perspective, how did you change your tone so it really sounded like her?


JM: I just climbed into her skin. And felt what it felt like to be her. It wasn’t hard — she is my mother. Eighty percent of those words were hers.

Question: Can you tell us about the novel that you are currently working on?


JM: I’m working on a novel about a group of black soldiers who stumble upon a group of Jewish refugees after World War II.

VogelBN: Thanks so much for joining us, Mr. McBride. We are so glad to have had you, and we hope that you will join us again with your next book!


JM: I’m honored to be the recipient of so much love from so many people. My mother, myself, and my siblings feel truly blessed beyond words.

VogelBN: Your readers thank you. Have a wonderful night!

JM: Thank you!

Copyright 1998 barnesandnoble.com LLC


Click for more detail about Stripped Bare: The 12 Truths That Will Help You Land the Very Best Black Man by LaDawn Black Stripped Bare: The 12 Truths That Will Help You Land the Very Best Black Man

by LaDawn Black
One World/Ballantine (Feb 07, 2006)
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Tired of hearing (and believing) the lies that the media and your own sister friends keep feeding you: that good black love is an impossibility, that all the best men are either married, gay, or sell out on their own kind? If so, it’s time to get stripped. Welcome to the best and most practical relationship advice you’ll ever receive… .

Host of “The Love Zone,” Baltimore’s #1 urban radio relationship show, LaDawn Black has made it her mission to enlighten her African American sisters on finding and keeping quality black men. Stripped Bare is the blueprint of that mission: a relationship guide that, unlike any other, asks you–a smart, modern woman– to take inventory of your own life in order to land the man of your dreams.

Leave the blame and the baggage behind. This take-charge manifesto shows you how to be the kind of person who’ll attract the men that you deserve. With these twelve proven truths that LaDawn and her own friends have put to the test, you’ll challenge self-defeating ways of thinking and living and position yourself for enduring love. From letting go of the past and gaining a sense of fun to living for you and breaking the girlfriend chain (those negative friends who keep you and your expectations low), Stripped Bare lays out the tools you’ll need–and the directions for how to use them to your greatest romantic advantage.

Filled with personal anecdotes that illustrate each truth, this wise, amusing, and candid guide will help you break the cycle of dead-end relationships (hint: it’s a whole lot easier than you realized) and embrace that sexy, loving guy who’s always been within your reach.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Nowhere Is A Place by Bernice L. McFadden Nowhere Is A Place

by Bernice L. McFadden
Dutton (Feb 02, 2006)
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Bernice L. McFadden, whom the novelist Adriana Trigiani calls "a master storyteller," has crafted a touching novel about a young woman uncovering a surprising family history.

Her spectacular debut novel, Sugar, established Bernice L. McFadden as a writer to watch in African-American literary fiction. In Nowhere Is a Place, she spins a fully realized and memorable portrait of a young woman on a journey of self-discovery. Sherry has struggled all her life to understand who she is, where she comes from, and, most importantly, why her mother slapped her cheek one summer afternoon. The incident has haunted Sherry, and it causes her to dig into her family’s past. Like many family histories, it is fractured and stubbornly reluctant to reveal its secrets; but Sherry is determined to know the full story. In just a few days’ time her extended family will gather for a reunion, and Sherry sets off across the country with her mother, Dumpling, to join them. What Sherry and Dumpling find on their trip is far more important than a scenic site here and there— it is the assorted pieces of their family’s past. Pulled together, they reveal a history of amazing survival and abundant joy.


Click for more detail about The Shirt Off His Back: A Novel (Strivers Row) by Parry Brown The Shirt Off His Back: A Novel (Strivers Row)

by Parry Brown
One World/Ballantine (Jan 31, 2006)
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After a brief relationship in college, Catherine and Terry found themselves the parents of twin baby girls; Catherine, a reluctant mother from the start, abandoned the children for a successful career overseas. With the help of family and friends, Terry has raised the twins by himself, and now, eleven years later, is about to expand his family again by marrying Jackie, herself a single parent. Suddenly, realizing she needs a better family image to advance her career, Catherine shows up and demands custody of the twins.

        With a nasty battle developing, Terry teams up with his best friend, Roland, a powerful attorney, to fight for custody of his children. As Catherine pits the twins against each other, Terry struggles to keep his cool.

        With an engaging blend of humor and drama, and characters who seem as if they live right down the block, Parry "EbonySatin" Brown has written an entertaining novel of friendship, romance, and one man’s determination to keep his family together.


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Click for more detail about This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun This Blinding Absence of Light

by Tahar Ben Jelloun
Penguin Books (Jan 31, 2006)
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An immediate and critically acclaimed bestseller in France, This Blinding Absence of Light is the latest work by internationally renowned author Tahar Ben Jelloun, the first North African winner of the Prix Goncourt and winner of the Prix Mahgreb. Crafting real life events into narrative fiction, Ben Jelloun reveals the horrific story of the desert concentration camps in which King Hassan II of Morocco held his political enemies in underground cells with no light and only enough food and water to keep them lingering on the edge of death. Working closely with one of the survivors, Ben Jelloun narrates the story in the simplest of language and delivers a shocking novel that explores both the limitlessness of inhumanity and the impossible endurance of the human will.


Click for more detail about Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood by Donald Bogle Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood

by Donald Bogle
One World (Jan 31, 2006)
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In Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, Donald Bogle tells–for the first time–the story of a place both mythic and real: Black Hollywood. Spanning sixty years, this deliciously entertaining history uncovers the audacious manner in which many blacks made a place for themselves in an industry that originally had no place for them.

Through interviews and the personal recollections of Hollywood luminaries, Bogle pieces together a remarkable history that remains largely obscure to this day. We discover that Black Hollywood was a place distinct from the studio-system-dominated Tinseltown–a world unto itself, with unique rules and social hierarchy. It had its own talent scouts and media, its own watering holes, elegant hotels, and fashionable nightspots, and of course its own glamorous and brilliant personalities.

Along with famous actors including Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Hattie McDaniel (whose home was among Hollywood’s most exquisite), and, later, the stunningly beautiful Lena Horne and the fabulously gifted Sammy Davis, Jr., we meet the likes of heartthrob James Edwards, whose promising career was derailed by whispers of an affair with Lana Turner, and the mysterious Madame Sul-Te-Wan, who shared a close lifelong friendship with pioneering director D. W. Griffith. But Bogle also looks at other members of the black community–from the white stars’ black servants, who had their own money and prestige, to gossip columnists, hairstylists, and architects–and at the world that grew up around them along Central Avenue, the Harlem of the West.

In the tradition of Hortense Powdermaker’s classic Hollywood: The Dream Factory and Neal Gabler’s An Empire of Their Own, in Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, Donald Bogle re-creates a vanished world that left an indelible mark on Hollywood–and on all of America.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Bird by Angela Johnson Bird

by Angela Johnson
Puffin Books (Jan 19, 2006)
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Thirteen-year-old Bird runs away to convince her stepfather to return home, and becomes entwined in the lives of three people. In this ALA Notable Book, Coretta Scott King Award winner Johnson shows how one individual’s warmth and kindness can heal so many hurts.


Click for more detail about The House on Childress Street: A Memoir by Kenji Jasper The House on Childress Street: A Memoir

by Kenji Jasper
Harlem Moon (Jan 10, 2006)
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In this vivid and piercing memoir of his grandfather, noted novelist Kenji Jasper captures the story of his family and sheds a keen light on the urban and rural experiences of Black America.

Author Kenji Jasper only knew his maternal grandfather, Jesse Langley Sr., as a quiet man who smoked too many cigarettes, drank too much liquor and quoted the Bible like it was the only book he’d ever laid eyes on.

Jesse’s children rarely hugged him, and his nearly sixty years of marriage to Sally seemed cold and complicated. But when the man who declared himself “The Lone Ranger” passed away in late 2002, Kenji began a long and life-changing journey to learn more about the grandfather he barely knew. From the streets of his native Washington, D.C., to rural Virginia, North Carolina, and his home in Brooklyn, Jasper’s journey to find the truth leads him through three generations of stories, through tales of love and loss, loyalty and betrayal, addiction and redemption.

The House on Childress Street examines life, love, and survival through the eyes of one little family on one little block that somehow manages to speak for us all.


Click for more detail about Inventory by Dionne Brand Inventory

by Dionne Brand
McClelland & Stewart (Jan 01, 2006)
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Click for more detail about Amistad: The Story of a Slave Ship by Patricia C. Mckissack Amistad: The Story of a Slave Ship

by Patricia C. Mckissack
Penguin Young Readers Group (Dec 29, 2005)
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In Spanish, Amistad means friendship. It was also the name of a slave ship. In 1838, the Amistad took hundreds of kidnapped Africans on a long journey across the Atlantic, but the brave captives would not give up their freedom, taking over the ship so they could sail back to their homeland. Patricia C. McKissack, Caldecott and Newbery Honor Winner as well as a three-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, recounts an amazing chapter in American history for beginning readers.


Click for more detail about Cause: Reconstruction America 1863-1877 by Tonya Bolden Cause: Reconstruction America 1863-1877

by Tonya Bolden
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Dec 27, 2005)
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After the destruction of the Civil War, the United States faced the immense challenge of rebuilding a ravaged South and incorporating millions of freed slaves into the life of the nation. On April 11, 1865, President Lincoln introduced his plan for reconstruction, warning that the coming years would be “fraught with great difficulty.” Three days later he was assassinated. The years to come witnessed a time of complex and controversial change.

Cause
A Sample Page from Cause: Reconstruction America 1863-1877


Click for more detail about Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales by Carol Taylor Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales

by Carol Taylor
Plume (Dec 27, 2005)
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From the editor of the award-winning and bestselling anthology Brown Sugar comes a sultry and sophisticated new collection of erotic adventures from around the world

More than an erotic travelogue, these edgy, atmospheric and sexually charged stories explore what new desires and personas are unlocked while one is away from home, each one more wildly exotic and adventurous than the next. Contemporary, enlightening, and deeply sensual, these stories take you to new lovers, trysts, and rendezvous around the globe, from the streets of Paris, wet with rain, to the sun-kissed beaches of Jamaica, from the hidden verandas of the Mediterranean to the forbidden banks of the Nile.


Click for more detail about Candy Licker: An Urban Erotic Tale by Noire Candy Licker: An Urban Erotic Tale

by Noire
One World (Dec 27, 2005)
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SHE WANTED TO BE A HIP-HOP STAR BUT THE STREETS GOT IN THE WAY.

Have you ever laid down with a man and wasn’t sure if you’d ever get back up? Tossed the sheets with a bone-knocking fear that only a hard-core hustler could produce? Sexed him like your life depended on it, because in reality it did? You still with me? Then let’s roll over to my house. Harlem. 145th Street. Grab a seat and brace yourself as I show you the kind of pain that street life and so-called success can bring… .

Nineteen-year-old Candy Raye Montana, an ex—drug runner for the Gabriano crime family and a former foster child, dreams of becoming a hip-hop superstar, if only someone will discover her talents.

Someone does. Mega music producer and king thug of Harlem, Junius “Hurricane” Jackson, CEO of the House of Homicide recording studio, cuts a deal and puts Candy on the stage. Suddenly she is a hot new artist on the notorious Homicide Hitz record label. Her career takes off and she blazes the charts, but it’s not long before Candy realizes that the man she thought was her knight is nothing more than a cold-blooded nightmare.

Caught between the music and the madness, between the dollars and the deals, Candy belongs to Hurricane–body and soul–and must endure his sadistic bedroom desires while keeping his sexual secrets hidden from the world. But Candy has some strong desires of her own that simply cannot be denied, especially when she finds herself turned on by a brilliant investment baller who just happens to be Hurricane’s right-hand man. Candy longs for her freedom, but if Hurricane gets wind of her betrayal the blowback will be lethal–and not only will she risk losing her recording contract, she just might lose her life.


Click for more detail about Fighting for America: Black Soldiers-the Unsung Heroes of World War II by Christopher Moore Fighting for America: Black Soldiers-the Unsung Heroes of World War II

by Christopher Moore
Presidio Press (Dec 27, 2005)
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The African-American contribution to winning World War II has never been celebrated as profoundly as in Fighting for America. In this inspirational and uniquely personal tribute, the essential part played by black servicemen and -women in that cataclysmic conflict is brought home.

Here are letters, photographs, oral histories, and rare documents, collected by historian Christopher Moore, the son of two black WWII veterans. Weaving his family history with that of his people and nation, Moore has created an unforgettable tapestry of sacrifice, fortitude, and courage. From the 1,800 black soldiers who landed at Normandy Beach on D-Day, and the legendary Tuskegee Airmen who won ninety-five Distinguished Flying Crosses, to the 761st Tank Battalion who, under General Patton, helped liberate Nazi death camps, the invaluable effort of black Americans to defend democracy is captured in word and image.

Readers will be introduced to many unheralded heroes who helped America win the war, including Dorie Miller, the messman who manned a machine gun and downed four Japanese planes; Robert Brooks, the first American to die in armored battle; Lt. Jackie Robinson, the future baseball legend who faced court-martial for refusing to sit in the back of a military bus; an until now forgotten African-American philosopher who helped save many lives at a Japanese POW camp; even the author’s own parents: his mother, Kay, a WAC when she met his father, Bill, who was part of the celebrated Red Ball Express.

Yet Fighting for America is more than a testimonial; it is also a troubling story of profound contradictions, of a country still in the throes of segregation, of a domestic battleground where arrests and riots occurred simultaneously with foreign service–and of how the war helped spotlight this disparity and galvanize the need for civil rights. Featuring a unique perspective on black soldiers, Fighting for America will move any reader: all who, like the author, owe their lives to those who served.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about The Power Of Intention by Wayne W. Dyer The Power Of Intention

by Wayne W. Dyer
SmileyBooks (Dec 15, 2005)
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Intention is generally viewed as a pit-bull kind of determination propelling one to succeed at all costs by never giving up on an inner picture. In this view, an attitude that combines hard work with an indefatigable drive toward excellence is the way to succeed. However, intention is viewed very differently in this book. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer has researched intention as a force in the universe that allows the act of creation to take place. This book explores intention?not as something you do?but as an energy you’re a part of. We’re all intended here through the invisible power of intention. This is the first book to look at intention as a field of energy that you can access to begin co-creating your life with the power of intention.   Part I deals with the principles of intention, offering true stories and examples on ways to make the connection. Dr. Dyer identifies the attributes of the all-creating universal mind of intention as creative, kind, loving, beautiful, expanding, endlessly abundant, and receptive, explaining the importance of emulating this source of creativity. In Part II, Dr. Dyer offers an intention guide with specific ways to apply the co-creating principles in daily life. Part III is an exhilarating description of Dr. Dyer’s vision of a world in harmony with the universal mind of intention.


Click for more detail about The New Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times — Revised Edition by Karen Grigsby Bates The New Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times — Revised Edition

by Karen Grigsby Bates
Doubleday (Dec 06, 2005)
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A newly revised modern manual of manners and etiquette that has become an African American classic.

Unlike the more traditional etiquette books that many African Americans may find stodgy, off-putting, and culturally alien, The New Basic Black is for real people who live real lives—and it addresses many of the issues of a growing black middle class. Straightforward, user-friendly, and illustrated with line drawings, The New Basic Black includes all the information any well-mannered person would want to know about the social rites of passage (marriage, birth, christening, death), the corporate workplace (standard work issues and the more delicate issue of race and its impact on a work environment), various occasions (having guests or being a guest at a summer home, etc.), and everyday rules and rituals that make living in hectic times a little easier. The revised edition of The New Basic Black also contains the intricacies of Internet etiquette, tips for travel in the post-9/11 age, and a wealth of other invaluable information that will make life more comfortable.

For singles and families alike, The New Basic Black takes the mystery out of conventional etiquette and will arm the reader with confidence in any situation.


Click for more detail about Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Maya Angelou Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem

by Maya Angelou
Random House (Dec 01, 2005)
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In this beautiful, deeply moving poem, Maya Angelou inspires us to embrace the peace and promise of Christmas, so that hope and love can once again light up our holidays and the world. “Angels and Mortals, Believers and Nonbelievers, look heavenward,” she writes, “and speak the word aloud. Peace.”

Read by the poet at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree at the White House on December 1, 2005, Maya Angelou’s celebration of the “Glad Season” is a radiant affirmation of the goodness of life and a beautiful holiday gift for people of all faiths.


Click for more detail about Portraits Of African-American Heroes by Tonya Bolden Portraits Of African-American Heroes

by Tonya Bolden
Puffin Books (Dec 01, 2005)
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Click for more detail about White Rat: Stories by Gayl Jones White Rat: Stories

by Gayl Jones
Harlem Moon (Nov 22, 2005)
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Originally published in 1977, White Rat contains twelve provocative tales that explore the emotional and mental terrain of a diverse cast of characters, from the innocent to the insane.

In each, Jones displays her unflinching ability to dive into the most treacherous of psyches and circumstances: the title story examines the identity and relationship conundrums of a black man who can pass for white, earning him the name “White Rat” as an infant; “The Women” follows a girl whose mother brings a line of female lovers to live in their home; “Jevata” details eighteen-year-old Freddy’s relationship with the fifty-year-old title character; “The Coke Factory” tracks the thoughts of a mentally handicapped adolescent abandoned by his mother; and “Asylum” focuses on a woman having a nervous breakdown, trying to protect her dignity and her private parts as she enters an institution.

In uncompromising prose, and dialect that veers from northern, educated tongues to down-home southern colloquialisms, Jones illuminates lives that society ignores, moving them to center stage.


Click for more detail about Queens: Portraits of Black Women and their Fabulous Hair by Michael Cunningham and George Alexander
Queens: Portraits of Black Women and their Fabulous Hair

by Michael Cunningham and George Alexander
Doubleday (Nov 01, 2005)
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Crowns photographer Michael Cunningham and author and journalist George Alexander have captured the marvelous trinity of black women, hair, and beauty salons in the glorious Queens: Portraits of Black Women and Their Fabulous Hair.

Angela Garner says that “The beauty salon is the one great thing we get to share as African American women. It’s therapeutic.” Tisch Sims says that wearing fantasy hair makes her feel “like a goddess, a queen.”

From the afro to the ponytail to dreadlocks to braids to relaxed hair to fantasy hair; from “good hair” to bad hair days, in this stunningly designed book black women from the United States, Africa, and London explore the fascination with hair and beauty that has long been a cherished part of African American culture.

In fifty gorgeous photographs accompanied by vivid, personal narratives, Queens, by turns moving and funny, is the ultimate all-occasion gift book, perfect for Christmas, Kwanzaa, Mother’s Day, and birthdays.


Click for more detail about The One That Got Away by C. Kelly Robinson The One That Got Away

by C. Kelly Robinson
Berkley Books (Nov 01, 2005)
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Fast-rising record exec Tony Gooden has his priorities in line: making money and loving the single life. But his game is thrown off balance when he sees Serena Kincaid, the only woman he ever put himself on the line for.


Click for more detail about Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America by Scott Poulson-Bryant Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America

by Scott Poulson-Bryant
Doubleday (Oct 25, 2005)
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Following in the footsteps of such bestselling, taboo-breaking books as Randall Kennedy’s Nigger and J. L. King’s On the Down Low, Hung brings a topic previously discussed only in intimate settings out into the open. In a brilliant, multilayered look at the pervasive belief that African American men are prodigiously endowed, Scott Poulson-Bryant interweaves his own experiences as a black man in America with witty analyses of how black male sexuality is expressed in books, film, television, sports, and pornography.

“Hung” is a double entendre, referring not only to penis size but to the fact that black men were once literally hung from trees, often for their perceived sexual prowess and the supposed risk it posed to white women. As a poignant reminder, he begins his book with a letter to Emmett Till, the teenager who was lynched in Mississippi in the mid-1950s for whistling at a white woman.

For Poulson-Bryant and other men of his generation, society’s deep-seated obsession with the sexual powers of black men has had an enormous, if often deceptive, influence on how they perceive themselves and on the assumptions made by others. His tales of his sexual encounters with both sexes, along with anecdotes about the lives of various friends and colleagues, are wryly and at times shockingly revealing. Enduring racial perceptions have shaped popular culture as well, and Poulson-Bryant offers a thorough, thought-provoking look at media-created images of the “Well-Hung Black Male.” He deftly deconstructs movies like Mandingo and Shaft, articles in the popular press, and edgy works like Robert Mapplethorpe’s Black Book, while also providing distinctive profiles of icons like porn star Lexington Steele and rapper L.L. Cool J.

A scintillating mixture of memoir and cultural commentary, Hung is the first and only book to take on phallic fixation and uncover what lies below. Readers may be scandalized, but they’ll also have plenty to ponder about America’s views on how black men measure up.

Book Review

Click for more detail about A Woman’s Worth: A Novel by Tracy Price-Thompson A Woman’s Worth: A Novel

by Tracy Price-Thompson
One World/Ballantine (Oct 25, 2005)
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Embracing the shattered pieces of the soul and championing the resilient nature of the heart, A Woman’s Worth takes readers on a journey of startling depth. From a speakeasy whorehouse in the bottoms of Alabama to a luxurious high-rise apartment in Kenya, acclaimed author Tracy Price-Thompson crosses boundaries of sexuality, gender, and culture to accentuate the core of black identity: the enormous strength of family.

“Ain’t nothing like a Black man. No other man on the face of the earth can hold a light up to him, coming or going. Why do you think women are all the time chasing behind them? Smooth game and all, when a brotha loves you, he loves you right.”
—from A Woman’s Worth

Abeni Omorru is a stunning Kenyan woman who is haunted by piercing memories. Although her father’s wealth ensures her a life of prestige, childhood trauma has left her emotionally damaged and sexually promiscuous. While Abeni takes on many lovers, none come close to healing the wounds of her heart—and only a man who understands her worth can truly claim her soul.

Bishop Johnson is also haunted by his past. Raised by prostitutes in a rural Alabama town, he is a promising teenage boxer—until his dreams are shattered when his parents are murdered during a violent robbery and he takes revenge on the perpetrators. Bishop goes to jail, and when he is released he has a volatile temper and a mean left hook to back it up.

Trouble continues to find Bishop, and he is forced to leave Alabama and travel to Kenya with the Peace Corps. There he falls in love with Abeni, and they marry. When Bishop learns the secret of Abeni’s past, he is force to make a decision that may cost him more than one man should ever have to sacrifice.


Click for more detail about Knockin’ Boots: A Novel by Tracy Price-Thompson Knockin’ Boots: A Novel

by Tracy Price-Thompson
One World (Oct 25, 2005)
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Bestselling author Tracy Price-Thompson returns with another steamy novel, packed with wife swapping, down-low desires, racial self-hatred, and sexual swinging… .

Kevin Lawson has a secret. This hard-charging army sergeant is drawn to seedy sex dens, adult bookstores, and kinky encounters with multiple partners. To hide his cravings, Kevin uses his wife to solicit bedroom playmates and to indulge his ever-growing fantasies.

A preacher’s daughter, college graduate, and ex-stripper, “Freak Nasty” Fancy Lawson has done it all and loved every moment of it. But now Fancy must face the truth of her husband’s sexual addiction or risk losing the one constant in her ever-changing world.
Emile Pinchback is a dark-skinned brotha with issues, especially when it comes to his bootylicious, ghetto-fabulous nubian sistahs. He worships at the feet of the slender, blond-haired Becky Ann. But once he looks past her milky skin and into her heart, his racial stereotypes are blown wide open.

Sexy and full of Brooklyn spice, Sparkle Henderson loves on the black-hand side or not at all. Just a whiff of jungle fever can send her flying into a rage, but when she’s caught in a web of sexual trickery, she finds love in a strange place and is forced to reexamine her beliefs.

With a fresh look at love and lust in uniform, Tracy Price-Thompson’s sensual characters come alive in this erotically-charged page-turner of urban life.


Click for more detail about Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground by Ahdaf Soueif Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground

by Ahdaf Soueif
Anchor (Oct 11, 2005)
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From the bestselling author of the Booker Prize finalist The Map of Love–an incisive collection of essays on Arab identity, art, and politics that seeks to locate the mezzaterra, or common ground, in an increasingly globalized world.
The twenty-five years’ worth of criticism and commentary collected here have earned Ahdaf Soueif a place among our most prominent Arab intellectuals. Clear-eyed and passionate, and syndicated throughout the world, they are the direct result of Soueif’s own circumstances of being “like hundreds of thousands of others: people with an Arab or a Muslim background doing daily double-takes when faced with their reflection in a western mirror.” Whether an account of visiting Palestine and entering the Noble Sanctuary for the first time, an interpretation of women who choose to wear the veil, or her post—September 11 reflections, Soueif’s intelligent, fearless, deeply informed essays embody the modern search for identity and community.


Click for more detail about The Mack Within by Tariq Nasheed The Mack Within

by Tariq Nasheed
Knopf (Oct 04, 2005)
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The Art of Mackin’ was the first book of rules for players—from overcoming fears of getting dissed to spotting a stank dead on. Now the expert on mackin’ is back with the ultimate straight-up guide for every mack and mack-wannabe. Whether he’s after ass or cash, trying to spit game at a Benz-driving Diamond Girl or a street-tough Copper Chick, or if he’s just tired of being coochie-whipped, it’s time to open up this book and unlock the time-tested secrets of the pimp game.


Click for more detail about To Repel Ghosts: The Remix by Kevin Young To Repel Ghosts: The Remix

by Kevin Young
Knopf (Sep 27, 2005)
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Revamped from its original "double album" version of 350 pages into this unique "remix," To Repel Ghosts captures the dynamic work and brief life of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

In spare, jazzlike verse Kevin Young tells the story of Basquiat’s rise from the mock prophet and graffiti artist SAMO to one of the hottest painters of the 1980s ("blue-chip Basquiat / playing the bull / market"), exploring the artist’s bouts with fame and heroin, mourning his untimely death, and celebrating his legacy. Along the way Young riffs on Basquiat’s paintings and sayings, on the music he loved, on the artists he ran with (Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, among them), and on the black heroes (Charlie Parker, Muhammad Ali, Billie Holiday) who inspired him.

Young’s poetic channeling of Basquiat—a jostling, poignant brand of downtownspeak—makes for an urban epic in the tradition of Langston Hughes’s "A Dream Deferred." To Repel Ghosts, along with Young’s Jelly Roll: A Blues and Black Maria, his recent book of film noir verse, forms an American trilogy—Devil’s Music—that explores other art forms through poetry. In its creation, Yound has become a poet whose work speaks both for and beyond his genre, with a music all its own.


Click for more detail about Dancing in the Dark by Caryl Phillips Dancing in the Dark

by Caryl Phillips
Alfred A. Knopf (Sep 13, 2005)
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A searing new novel that reimagines the remarkable, tragic, little-known life of Bert Williams (1874—1922), the first black entertainer in the United States to reach the highest levels of fame and fortune.

Even as an eleven-year-old child living in Southern California in the late 1800s–his family had recently emigrated from the Bahamas–Bert Williams understood that he had to “learn the role that America had set aside for him.” At the age of twenty-two, after years of struggling for success on the stage, he made the radical decision to do his own “impersonation of a negro”: he donned blackface makeup and played the “coon” as a character. Behind this mask, he became a Broadway headliner, starring in the Ziegfeld Follies for eight years and leading his own musical theater company–as influential a comedian as Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and W. C. Fields.
Williams was a man of great intelligence, elegance, and dignity, but the barriers he broke down onstage continued to bear heavily on his personal life, and the contradictions between the man he was and the character he played were increasingly irreconcilable for him. W. C. Fields called him “the funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest man I ever knew,” and it is this dichotomy at Williams’s core that Caryl Phillips illuminates in a richly nuanced, brilliantly written narrative.

The story of a single life, Dancing in the Dark is also a novel about the tragedies of race and identity, and the perils of self-invention, that have long plagued American culture. Powerfully emotional and moving, it is Caryl Phillips’s most accomplished novel yet.


Click for more detail about Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson Show Way

by Jacqueline Woodson
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Sep 08, 2005)
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Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

Winner of a Newbery Honor!

Soonie’s great-grandma was just seven years old when she was sold to a big plantation without her ma and pa, and with only some fabric and needles to call her own. She pieced together bright patches with names like North Star and Crossroads, patches with secret meanings made into quilts called Show Ways — maps for slaves to follow to freedom. When she grew up and had a little girl, she passed on this knowledge. And generations later, Soonie — who was born free — taught her own daughter how to sew beautiful quilts to be sold at market and how to read.

From slavery to freedom, through segregation, freedom marches and the fight for literacy, the tradition they called Show Way has been passed down by the women in Jacqueline Woodson’s family as a way to remember the past and celebrate the possibilities of the future. Beautifully rendered in Hudson Talbott’s luminous art, this moving, lyrical account pays tribute to women whose strength and knowledge illuminate their daughters’ lives.


Click for more detail about The Old African by Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney The Old African

by Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney
Dial (Sep 08, 2005)
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No one on the plantation had ever heard the Old African’s voice, yet he had spoken to all of them in their minds. For the Old African had the power to see the color of a person’s soul and read his thoughts as if they were words on a page. Now it was time to act—time to lead his fellow slaves to the Water-That-Stretched-Forever, and from there back to Africa. Back to their home.Based on legend and infused with magical realism, this haunting tale is beautiful in both its language and its images. Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney have found a new, extraordinary way to express the horrors of slavery and the hope and strength that managed to overcome its grip.


Click for more detail about Echoes of a Distant Summer by Guy Johnson Echoes of a Distant Summer

by Guy Johnson
Random House (Aug 30, 2005)
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“You done lived a tough life, boy, and I know I’m part responsible for that. I ain’t askin’ you to excuse me or forgive me. Just know I did the best I knew to do. I was just tryin’ to make you tough enough to deal with the world. To stand tall among men, I knew you had to be strong and have yo’ own mind.”

“You were preparing me for war, Grandfather.”

Guy Johnson, the author of the critically acclaimed debut Standing at the Scratch Line, continues the Tremain family saga.

Jackson St. Clair Tremain hasn’t spoken to his grandfather King in nearly twenty years. Disgusted by the violence and bloodlust that seemed to be his grandfather’s way of life, Jackson chose to distance himself from King and live a simpler life. But now King is gravely ill, and his impending death places Jackson’s life—as well as those of his family and friends—in jeopardy. Reluctantly, Jackson travels to Mexico to see King. But after a brief reconciliation, his grandfather is assassinated, and Jackson suspects that his grandmother Serena may have had a hand in it. Jackson takes control of King’s organization, and as he does, he reflects on the summers he spent in Mexico as a child and the lessons he learned there at the knee of his strong-willed, complex grandfather.

In Echoes of a Distant Summer, Guy Johnson introduces us to a new hero, Jackson St. Clair Tremain, who learns that, like his grandfather, he must be willing to protect those he loves—at all costs.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornel West Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism

by Cornel West
Penguin Books (Aug 30, 2005)
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In his major bestseller, Race Matters, philosopher Cornel West burst onto the national scene with his searing analysis of the scars of racism in American democracy. Race Matters has become a contemporary classic, still in print after ten years, having sold more than four hundred thousand copies. A mesmerizing speaker with a host of fervidly devoted fans, West gives as many as one hundred public lectures a year and appears regularly on radio and television. Praised by The New York Times for his "ferocious moral vision" and hailed by Newsweek as "an elegant prophet with attitude," he bridges the gap between black and white opinion about the country’s problems.In Democracy Matters, West returns to the analysis of the arrested development of democracy-both in America and in the crisis-ridden Middle East. In a strikingly original diagnosis, he argues that if America is to become a better steward of democratization around the world, we must first wake up to the long history of imperialist corruption that has plagued our own democracy. Both our failure to foster peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the crisis of Islamist anti-Americanism stem largely from hypocrisies in our dealings with the world. Racism and imperial expansionism have gone hand in hand in our country’s inexorable drive toward hegemony, and our current militarism is only the latest expression of that drive. Even as we are shocked by Islamic fundamentalism, our own brand of fundamentalism, which West dubs Constantinian Christianity, has joined forces with imperialist corporate and political elites in an unholy alliance, and four decades after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., insidious racism still inflicts debilitating psychic pain on so many of our citizens.But there is a deep democratic tradition in America of impassioned commitment to the fight against imperialist corruptions-the last great expression of which was the civil rights movement led by Dr. King-and West brings forth the powerful voices of that great democratizing tradition in a brilliant and deeply moving call for the revival of our better democratic nature. His impassioned and provocative argument for the revitalization of America’s democracy will reshape the terms of the raging national debate about America’s role in today’s troubled world.


Click for more detail about Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War by Melvin Patrick Ely Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War

by Melvin Patrick Ely
Vintage (Aug 16, 2005)
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WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZEA New York Times Book Review and Atlantic Monthly Editors’ ChoiceThomas Jefferson denied that whites and freed blacks could live together in harmony. His cousin, Richard Randolph, not only disagreed, but made it possible for ninety African Americans to prove Jefferson wrong. Israel on the Appomattox tells the story of these liberated blacks and the community they formed, called Israel Hill, in Prince Edward County, Virginia. There, ex-slaves established farms, navigated the Appomattox River, and became entrepreneurs. Free blacks and whites did business with one another, sued each other, worked side by side for equal wages, joined forces to found a Baptist congregation, moved west together, and occasionally settled down as man and wife. Slavery cast its grim shadow, even over the lives of the free, yet on Israel Hill we discover a moving story of hardship and hope that defies our expectations of the Old South.


Click for more detail about The Sport of the Gods: and Other Essential Writings (Modern Library Classics) by Paul Laurence Dunbar The Sport of the Gods: and Other Essential Writings (Modern Library Classics)

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Modern Library (Aug 09, 2005)
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Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872—1906) overcame racism and poverty to become one of the best-known authors in America, and the first African American to earn a living from his poetry, fiction, drama, journalism, and lectures. This original collection includes the short novel The Sport of the Gods, Dunbar’s essential essays and short stories, and his finest poems, such as “Sympathy,” all which explore crucial social, political, and humanistic issues at the dawn of the twentieth century.


Click for more detail about He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands by Kadir Nelson He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands

by Kadir Nelson
Dial Books for Young Readers (Aug 08, 2005)
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What began as a spiritual has developed into one of America’s best-known songs, and now for the first time it appears as a picture book, masterfully created by award-winning artist Kadir Nelson.Through sublime landscapes and warm images of a boy and his family, Kadir has created a dazzling, intimate interpretation, one that rejoices in the connectedness of people and nature.Inspired by the song’s simple message, Kadir sought to capture the joy of living in and engaging with the world. Most importantly, he wished to portray the world as a child might see it—vast and beautiful.


Click for more detail about Def Jam, Inc. : Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin, and the Extraordinary Story of the World’s Most Influential Hip-Hop Label by Stacy Gueraseva Def Jam, Inc. : Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin, and the Extraordinary Story of the World’s Most Influential Hip-Hop Label

by Stacy Gueraseva
One World/Ballantine (Jul 26, 2005)
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In the early ‘80s, the music industry wrote off hip-hop as a passing fad. Few could or would have predicted that the improvised raps and raw beats busting out of New York City’s urban underclass would one day become a multimillion-dollar business and one of music’s most lucrative genres.

Among those few were two visionaries: Russell Simmons, a young black man from Hollis, Queens, and Rick Rubin, a Jewish kid from Long Island. Though the two came from different backgrounds, their all-consuming passion for hip-hop brought them together. Soon they would revolutionize the music industry with their groundbreaking label, Def Jam Records.

Def Jam, Inc. traces the company’s incredible rise from the NYU dorm room of nineteen-year-old Rubin (where LL Cool J was discovered on a demo tape) to the powerhouse it is today; from financial struggles and scandals–including The Beastie Boys’s departure from the label and Rubin’s and Simmons’s eventual parting–to revealing anecdotes about artists like Slick Rick, Public Enemy, Foxy Brown, Jay-Z, and DMX.

Stacy Gueraseva, former editor in chief of Russell Simmons’s magazine, Oneworld, had access to the biggest players on the scene, and brings you real conversations and a behind-the-scenes look from a decade–and a company–that turned the music world upside down. She takes you back to New York in the ‘80s, when late-night spots such as Danceteria and Nell’s were burning with young, fresh rappers, and Simmons and Rubin had nothing but a hunch that they were on to something huge.

Far more than just a biography of the two men who made it happen, Def Jam, Inc. is a journey into the world of rap itself. Both an intriguing business history as well as a gritty narrative, here is the definitive book on Def Jam–a must read for any fan of hip-hop as well as all popular-culture junkies.


Click for more detail about Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah Desertion

by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Pantheon Books (Jul 26, 2005)
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Writing at the peak of his powers, Abdulrazak Gurnah gives us in Desertion a spellbinding novel of forbidden love and cultural upheaval, with consequences powerfully reverberating through three generations and across continents—from the heyday of the British empire to the aftermath of African independence.

Early one morning in 1899, in a small, dilapidated town along the coast of Mombassa, a Muslim man, Hassanali, sets out for a mosque but doesn’t get there. Out of the desert stumbles an Englishman who collapses at Hassanali’s feet: Martin Pearce—writer, traveler, something of an Orientalist. Hassanali cares for Pearce until the Englishman is taken to the home of colonial officer Frederick Turner to recuperate. When Pearce returns to thank his Good Samaritan, he meets and is enraptured by Rehana, Hassanali’s sister—by her gorgeous eyes and tragic aura. And so begins the passionate, illicit love affair—two lives and cultures colliding—that informs the rich, finely woven tapestry of Desertion.

Gurnah, who has been short-listed for the Booker Prize, deftly and dramatically evokes the personal and political scandals of empire, the weight of tradition—of religion and culture—in everyday lives, the role of women in Muslim society, the vicissitudes of love, the complexities of filial relationships, the inexorability of miscegenation, and the power of fiction to charm and to harm. Desertion is a highly achieved, riveting work of imagination, brimming with controlled figural inventiveness, psychological acuity, and moral complexity.


Click for more detail about Behind the Scenes: or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House by Elizabeth Keckley Behind the Scenes: or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House

by Elizabeth Keckley
Penguin Classics (Jul 26, 2005)
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Originally published in 1868—when it was attacked as an “indecent book” authored by a “traitorous eavesdropper”—Behind the Scenes is the story of Elizabeth Keckley, who began her life as a slave and became a privileged witness to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Keckley bought her freedom at the age of thirty-seven and set up a successful dressmaking business in Washington, D.C. She became modiste to Mary Todd Lincoln and in time her friend and confidante, a relationship that continued after Lincoln’s assassination. In documenting that friendship—often using the First Lady’s own letters—Behind the Scenes fuses the slave narrative with the political memoir. It remains extraordinary for its poignancy, candor, and historical perspective.First time in Penguin Classics


Click for more detail about The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan The Interruption of Everything

by Terry McMillan
Viking Books (Jul 19, 2005)
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"Being a lifetime wife and mother has afforded me the luxury of having multiple and even simultaneous careers: I’ve been a chauffeur. A chef. An interior decorator. A landscape architect, as well as a gardener. I’ve been a painter. A furniture restorer. A personal shopper. A veterinarian’s assistant and sometimes the veterinarian…. An accountant, a banker, and on occasion, a broker. I’ve been a beautician. A map. A psychic. Santa Claus. The Tooth Fairy. The T.V. Guide. A movie reviewer. An angel. God….For a long time I have felt like I inadvertently got my master’s in How to Take Care of Everybody Except Yourself and then a Ph.D. in How to Pretend Like You Don’t Mind. But I do mind." Since Terry McMillan’s breakout novel Waiting to Exhale surged onto the bestseller lists, critics and readers alike have been captivated by her irreverent, hilarious, pitch-perfect tales of women’s lives and contemporary issues. With The Interruption of Everything, her sixth novel, McMillan takes on the fault lines of midlife and family life, reminds us once again of the redeeming power of friendship, and turns her eye toward the dilemma of how a woman starts to put her own needs higher on the to-do list while not shortchanging everyone else.Marilyn Grimes, wife and mother of three, has made a career of deferring her dreams to build a suburban California home and lifestyle with her husband, Leon. She troubleshoots for her grown kids, cares for her live-in mother-in-law, Arthurine (and elderly poodle, Snuffy); keeps tabs on her girlfriends Paulette and Bunny and her own aging mother and foster sister—all the while holding down a part-time job. But at forty-four, Marilyn’s got too much on her plate and nothing to feed her passion. She feels like she’s about ready to jump. She’s just not sure where.Highly entertaining, deeply human, a page-turner full of heart and soul, The Interruption of Everything is vintage Terry McMillan—and a triumphant testament to the fact that the detour is the path, and living life "by the numbers" never quite adds up.


Click for more detail about Bliss: A Novel by Danyel Smith Bliss: A Novel

by Danyel Smith
Crown (Jul 12, 2005)
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Danyel Smith is one of the most acclaimed music journalists of her generation, a prose stylist who “writes with music in her language” (Quincy Jones). In Bliss, a thrillingly sensual tale drenched with love and music, Smith dives deep into an intriguing set of characters facing life-changing choices in the swirl of the music industry at its decadent peak.

At a glossy gathering on Paradise Island, record exec Eva Glenn—soulful, sexy, powerful, and possibly pregnant—is hosting a comeback showcase for her singing sensation Sunny Addison, a barefoot diva with a poet’s heart and the voice of a lion. At the event’s high-strung peak, however, Eva begins to sink beneath the waves of anxiety washing over her—anxiety about a confusing sexual triangle, a career at a crossroads, and choices to be made about her possible pregnancy—and decides, in a blink, to flee. She leaves Paradise for the petite, pastoral island of Cat, accompanied by her sometime-lover D’Artagnan Addison, an earnestly crazy mystic looking for answers of his own. What begins as an idyllic break quickly turns into an intense sojourn that brings Eva to terms with the crises closing in on her.

Smith casts a wittily skeptical eye on the absurd drama of the music industry, but infuses every page with an infectious, bracing, unashamed passion for the power of pop. Her language matches the spirit of the music she writes about, echoing everything from throaty blues shouts and hip hop menace to the transcendent joy of a perfect R & B love song. This is a novel about the real rhythm and blues of life, about pain and loss and why we hold tight, in the end, to the sex and music and love that offer us a fleeting glimpse of bliss, even when the price is steep.


Click for more detail about Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball by Howard Bryant Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball

by Howard Bryant
Viking Adult (Jul 07, 2005)
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A history of steroid and performance-enhancing drug use in major league baseball discusses such issues as the 1994 strike and the current threat of punitive legislation, in an investigative account that features anecdotes by and interviews with such figures as Jason Giambi, Bud Selig, and Donald Fehr. 75,000 first printing.


Click for more detail about Haarlem: A Novel by Heather Neff Haarlem: A Novel

by Heather Neff
Broadway Books (Jul 05, 2005)
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“The only thing that’ll last forever is my Thirst … .”

So says Abel Crofton as he explores the streets and canals of Amsterdam. A New York tunnel worker who’s struggling to stay sober after years of alcoholism, Abel is searching for the mother he’s never known. Despite having few clues as to her whereabouts, he soon finds a bureaucratic trail that takes him to Haarlem, the Dutch town from which the famed African-American neighborhood takes its name.

As Abel ventures into more new territory, he also takes on his identity as a Black man, his rough childhood in Harlem, New York, his relationship to his bitter father, and his battle with addiction. The questions around his life only get more complicated after he meets a coldly direct waitress and a ragged jazz musician, both also bearing major scars from their pasts. The road leads to Haarlem for them as well.

Welcome to Abel’s search for salvation in another tight page turner from Heather Neff.


Click for more detail about Groove by Geneva Holliday Groove

by Geneva Holliday
Broadway Books (Jun 28, 2005)
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Geneva Holliday’s juicy novel brings a lighter touch to African American erotica, setting the sexual escapades amid the real-life folly and drama of four very different friends during one incredibly hot summer in New York City. This funny, sexy book has something for everyone!


Click for more detail about 72 Hour Hold by Bebe Moore Campbell 72 Hour Hold

by Bebe Moore Campbell
Knopf (Jun 28, 2005)
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In this novel of family and redemption, a mother struggles to save her eighteen-year-old daughter from the devastating consequences of mental illness by forcing her to deal with her bipolar disorder. New York Times best-selling author Bebe Moore Campbell draws on her own powerful emotions and African-American roots, showcasing her best writing yet.

Trina suffers from bipolar disorder, making her paranoid, wild, and violent. Watching her child turn into a bizarre stranger, Keri searches for assistance through normal channels. She quickly learns that a seventy-two hour hold is the only help you can get when an adult child starts to spiral out of control. After three days, Trina can sign herself out of any program.

Fed up with the bureaucracy of the mental health community and determined to save her daughter by any means necessary, Keri signs on for an illegal intervention. The Program is a group of radicals who eschew the psychiatric system and model themselves after the Underground Railroad. When Keri puts her daughter’s fate in their hands, she begins a journey that has her calling on the spirit of Harriet Tubman for courage. In the upheaval that follows, she is forced to confront a past that refuses to stay buried, even as she battles to secure a future for her child.

Bebe Moore Campbell’s moving story is for anyone who has ever faced insurmountable obstacles and prayed for a happy ending, only to discover she’d have to reach deep within herself to fight for it.


Click for more detail about The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America by Joseph Graves The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America

by Joseph Graves
Plume (Jun 28, 2005)
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Preeminent evolutionary biologist Joseph Graves proves once and for all that it doesn’t. Through accessible and compelling language, he makes the provocative argument that science cannot account for the radical categories used to classify people, and debunks ancient race-related fallacies that are still held as fact, from damaging medical profiles to misconceptions about sports. He explains why defining race according to skin tone or eye shape is woefully inaccurate, and how making assumptions based on these false categories regarding IQ, behavior, or predisposition to disease has devastating effects.Demonstrating that racial distinctions are in fact social inventions, not biological truths, The Race Myth brings much-needed, sound science to one of America’s most emotionally charged debates.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Blackbird Papers: A Novel by Ian K. Smith The Blackbird Papers: A Novel

by Ian K. Smith
Knopf (Jun 14, 2005)
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A rainy night … A stranded motorist … A Good Samaritan passerby … a Nobel Prize–winning professor … The setup for a shocking murder designed to cover up an even more sinister crime …

The Blackbird Papers marks the debut of Ian Smith, a major new talent in crime fiction, and of Sterling Bledsoe, his smart and occasionally combative sleuth.

World-renowned Dartmouth professor Wilson Bledsoe is returning from a party celebrating his latest honor when he encounters a broken-down pickup on the secluded country road to his home. The next day, the discovery of his body with a vicious racist epithet carved into his chest leads to the quick arrest of two loathsome white supremacists. The local authorities seem ready to accept the case at face value as a racial hate crime. But the murdered professor’s brother, FBI agent Sterling Bledsoe, has inserted himself into the investigation and isn’t ready to buy into this pat solution. A look around his brother’s lab and brief interviews with his students and colleagues pique Sterling’s curiosity about Wilson’s pet project: a nearly completed paper on the mysterious deaths of hundreds of local blackbirds.

Fast-paced and cleverly constructed, The Blackbird Papers introduces a major new talent in mystery and crime fiction.


Click for more detail about Miss Black America: A Novel by Veronica Chambers Miss Black America: A Novel

by Veronica Chambers
Broadway Books (Jun 14, 2005)
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A dazzling fiction debut from the author of Mama’s Girl, Miss Black America is the warm and tender story of Angela, a young girl growing up in 1970s Brooklyn. Angela goes to school one ordinary day and returns home to find her glamorous and fiercely independent mother gone. Her magician father, Teddo, left to raise Angela alone, insists on keeping Melanie’s disappearance shrouded in mystery. As Angela grows to womanhood and struggles to understand her mother’s motivation for escaping the bonds of her family, she wryly observes, “My father was a magician, but my mother was the real Houdini.”

A universal story that is both finely tuned and elegant, Miss Black America captures the intricacies, pleasures, contradictions, and complexities at the heart of every family. Spare and finely told, this novel will seep beneath your skin and stay with you long after the last page has been turned.


Click for more detail about The Middle Sister: A Novel by Bonnie J. Glover The Middle Sister: A Novel

by Bonnie J. Glover
One World/Ballantine (May 31, 2005)
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“As Kwai Chang moved through the arid desert of the American West, I would move through the equally desolate ghettos of Brooklyn, and we would each search: he for his family and I for my father… .”

The middle of three sisters, Pamela is a quiet, thoughtful girl with a huge hole in her life–the space her father used to fill before her mother kicked him out. Occasionally, Pamela conjures up Kwai Chang, David Carradine’s character, from the Western action series Kung Fu, to give her spiritual guidance and advice she would normally turn to her parents for. But with her father gone, her mother has fallen into a pit of confusion and mental disarray. So it is up to Pamela and her sisters, Nona and Theresa, to run the household.

When their money runs out, the family must leave their beloved East New York house and move to the projects. It is a change that will alter their lives forever–and even wise Kwai Chang cannot alter their destiny. But as Pamela discovers, “Everyone searches. The real challenge is in the finding and the keeping.”

In this powerful literary debut, vividly set in the 1970s, Bonnie Glover has written a marvelous story about a young black woman struggling to define her identity–and make her family whole.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Finding Martha’s Vineyard: African Americans at Home on an Island by Jill Nelson Finding Martha’s Vineyard: African Americans at Home on an Island

by Jill Nelson
Doubleday (May 17, 2005)
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In this elegant book of photographs, personal narrative, memories, and fascinating historical detail, bestselling author Jill Nelson conveys the special magic of Martha’s Vineyard and the African Americans who have summered or lived there for generations.

Jill Nelson has been a summer and occasional year-round resident of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard for nearly fifty years. It was where she learned to swim and ride a bike, first kissed a boy, became a writer, and, during twenty-eight summers, raised her own daughter. In Finding Martha’s Vineyard, Nelson offers a lively, intimate portrait of a place that has provided respite and rejuvenation, community and contemplation for generations of African Americans.

Part memoir, part history, Finding Martha’s Vineyard describes the various groups that settled on the Vineyard and in Oak Bluffs; slaves and their descendants; devout Methodists and Baptists; African Americans “in service” who accompanied their white employers to the island and over the years established a haven and a community; the black middle-class families who came each summer to escape the heat, hostility, and racial tension of their hometowns; and generations of African American professionals—doctors, presidential advisors, writers, academics and artists—who visit or live on the Vineyard today. Nelson interviews the Cottagers, the proud owners of Oak Bluffs’ famous Gingerbread cottages; members of the Polar Bear Club, a die-hard group that swims together every summer morning at 7:30 A.M.; and such famous residents as Vernon Jordan, Bebe Moore Campbell, and Stephen Carter.

Finding Martha’s Vineyard is about the power of place in our lives. A rich treasury of reminiscences, excerpts from news articles and documents from the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society, recipes, and glorious photographs, it brings the sights, sounds, celebrations, and social importance of the island community brilliantly to life.


Click for more detail about Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes

by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Broadway Books (May 10, 2005)
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A powerful wartime saga in the bestselling tradition of Flags of Our Fathers, Brothers in Arms recounts the extraordinary story of the 761st Tank Battalion, the first all-black armored unit to see combat in World War II.


Click for more detail about Genevieve by Eric Jerome Dickey Genevieve

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton Adult (May 10, 2005)
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Eric Jerome Dickey, the six-time New York Times bestselling author of Drive Me Crazy, returns with a sizzling new novel of romance and betrayal.

Just how well do we ever really know the person sleeping next to us?

Sometimes we know everything.
Sometimes we can never know enough.

In Genevieve, Eric Jerome Dickey has crafted a masterfully twisted tale of intrigue, hidden identities, and self-discovery. It’s the tale of a man torn between the love of his beautiful wife and the sudden arrival of his wife’s sister—a mysterious and provocative woman who offers him the passion he craves, but at a steep price. Both women harbor secrets, the answers to which appear to lie in a small Southern town filled with darkness, danger, and the promise of pain. Soon nothing is as it seems and no one is who they claimed to be, including the man caught in the middle. As the truth bubbles closer to the surface, everyone’s world threatens to fall apart. In a story packed with revelations at every turn, Eric Jerome Dickey takes us on a journey filled with deception, careening down a highway bound for destiny … and disaster.


Click for more detail about Would I Lie to You? by Trisha R. Thomas Would I Lie to You?

by Trisha R. Thomas
Broadway Books (Apr 26, 2005)
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Spirited, successful Venus Johnston is back—in the long-awaited sequel to "Nappily Ever After.
Venus feels history repeating itself, and she’s not loving it. She ended a relationship with Clint because he couldn’t commit, cut off her long, processed hair, and started on a new path with a new boyfriend. But she’s been with Airic for more than two years, and they still haven’t set a wedding date. When a temporary project takes her to Los Angeles, Venus welcomes the opportunity to spend some time with her family in California and to see if a little absence makes Airic’s heart grow fonder. But in L.A., savvy, ambitious Venus runs head-on into a new complication—the equally savvy and ambitious Jake Parsons, a former rap star turned clothing designer. Jake’s as suave as he is successful, and ten years her junior. Venus’s job is to create a marketing campaign for his urban wear. Jake’s job, it seems, is to distract her from her long-distance romance with Airic.
When Venus’s mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, her entire world seems to crumble. Everything she thought would make her happy—her new look, her successful career, her fiance—can’t fix the sadness and emptiness she feels. But before she throws in the towel, she’s offered one more chance, a chance for change, for growth, and maybe even for a new love. Will she take it? Or give in to the notion that her life will always be close but no cigar? Moving, romantic and inspiring," Would I Lie to You? is one woman’s happy, lighthearted story of giving in instead of giving up.


Click for more detail about Can’t Get Enough: A Novel by Connie Briscoe Can’t Get Enough: A Novel

by Connie Briscoe
Doubleday (Apr 26, 2005)
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The memorable men and women of P.G. County are back in Connie Briscoe’s wickedly funny and deliciously daring novel of romance and betrayal, dangerous choices and seductive second chances.

“This romp of a read combines lush settings, humorous dialogue and outrageous behavior …” Ebony magazine wrote of P.G. County, Connie Briscoe’s first excursion into the world of the overprivileged and undersatisfied inhabitants of an elite suburb of Washington, D.C. Readers will be delighted to learn that their mischievous machinations and meddlesome ways reach new heights—and sink to new depths—in CAN’T GET ENOUGH, the much-anticipated follow-up to P.G. County.

Barbara Bentley, the grand dame of P.G. County, is tentatively embarking on a fresh approach to life, abandoning the alcohol that served to soften the edges of her marriage to her bimbo-loving millionaire husband, Bradford. She’s been sober for nearly a year, her part-time work as a real estate agent has boosted her self-confidence, and the unexpected attentions of a handsome young colleague have done wonders for her ego. For Jolene, Bradford’s ambitious, conniving ex-mistress, the status she covets remains tantalizingly out of reach. Her decent, hard-working husband, Patrick, has left her for Pearl, a woman proud of her success as a beauty shop owner and eager to create a loving home for Patrick and his two mixed-up teenage daughters. Royalty comes to Silver Lake in the form of Veronique. She’s rich, fabulous and everyone’s new friend, or is she?

As the characters slip in and out of their Pratesi sheets and stride into mayhem and misdeeds in their Jimmy Choo shoes, CAN’T GET ENOUGH will hold readers spellbound. A delectable and scrumptious page-turner, it ushers in spring with the fabulous force of a Gucci-clad lion.


Click for more detail about Hip Hop America by Nelson George Hip Hop America

by Nelson George
Penguin Books (Apr 26, 2005)
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Now with a new introduction by the author, Hip Hop America is the definitive account of the society-altering collision between black youth culture and the mass media.


Click for more detail about A Cool Moonlight by Angela Johnson A Cool Moonlight

by Angela Johnson
Puffin Books (Apr 21, 2005)
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From the two-time Coretta Scott King Award-winner comes an exquisite new novel about a nine-year-old girl named Lila, born with an allergy to the sun who plays by the light of the moon and longs to feel the warmth of the sun.


Click for more detail about With Billie by Julia Blackburn With Billie

by Julia Blackburn
Pantheon Books (Apr 19, 2005)
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From Julia Blackburn, an author whose ability to conjure lives from other times and places is so vivid that one suspects she sees ghosts, here is a portrait of a woman whose voice continues to haunt anyone who hears it.

Billie Holiday’s life is inseparable from an account of her troubles, her addictions, her arrests, and the scandals that would repeatedly put her name in the tabloid headlines of the 1940s and 1950s. Those who knew her learned never to be surprised by what she might do. Her moods and faces were so various that she could seem to be a different woman from one moment to the next. Volatile, unpredictable, Billie Holiday remained, even to her friends, an elusive and perplexing figure.

In With Billie, we hear the voices of those people–piano players and dancers, pimps and junkies, lovers and narcs, producers and critics, each recalling intimate stories of the Billie they knew. What emerges is a portrait of a complex, contradictory, enthralling woman, a woman who knew what really mattered to her. Reading With Billie, one is convinced that she has only just left the room but will return shortly.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Fannin’ The Flames: A Novel by Parry Brown Fannin’ The Flames: A Novel

by Parry Brown
One World/Ballantine (Apr 12, 2005)
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The fire and rescue squad from Los Angeles County’s Fire Department Station Twenty-seven’s “C-Shift” was a rock-solid team. The camaraderie among them was only made stronger by the fact that they were all minority. But when their unit becomes the prey of a perverse trickster, their loyalties to one another are deepened to the core.

Someone on the inside is trying to sabotage C-Shift, and Jerome White and his longtime mentor, Capt. Lloyd Frederickson, are certain it’s racially motivated. When the Fire Department chief balks at an internal investigation, Lloyd and Jerome have no choice but to take matters into their own hands.

Jerome and Lloyd’s personal problems further complicate their lives. After thirty years of marriage, Lloyd’s wife, Nellie, wants a divorce, even though their sex life is still deliciously hot. And while Jerome and Nicolle are deeply in love, Mychel Hernandez, a Hispanic bombshell at the station, has set her sights on Jerome. But his attentions soon turn to a horrific car accident involving Nicolle. As Jerome is thrown headfirst into this nightmare, he must face life as a single father, a critically ill spouse, Mychel turning up the heat with her advances, and an overwhelming sense of fear and apprehension about where the menace will next strike.

From the #1 bestselling author Parry “EbonySatin” Brown comes her anticipated hardcover debut—a fast-paced, multilayered story of extraordinary characters grappling with issues of race, family, love, and deceit. In Fannin’ the Flames, she brings readers to the forefront of the lives of our most revered men—and the women they love.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about On the Right Side of a Dream: A Novel by Sheila Williams On the Right Side of a Dream: A Novel

by Sheila Williams
One World (Apr 12, 2005)
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What are you supposed to do with a restored spirit? Eventually, I got some answers. I just didn’t expect to get so many.

When Juanita Lewis arrived in Paper Moon, Montana, courtesy of a Greyhound bus, she was just looking for a brief respite. Instead, she found a home, friends, and a man to love. But this leave-your-attitude-by-the-door woman made a promise to herself–one that she intends to keep. Now that she’s got a place to come back to, Juanita wants to see the world.

A trip out West with her eccentric trucker friend, Peaches, leads to a cooking stint at a new age spa for skinny celebrities. Crazy, but its here that Juanita decides to take her talent for cooking to a new level … and make it her dream. She also learns something about life: It does turn out the way you planned it–just be ready to change the plan a few times along the way.

Just as Juanita’s journey begins, she’s called back to Paper Moon, having inherited an old, slightly haunted B&B, as well as a mountain of decisions. There’s her self-centered, irresponsible daughter, insisting that she get some sense and come back home to Columbus, and a son who’s doing things Juanita can’t bear to think about. So how does a middle-aged black woman from the projects follow her heart when it’s heading in so many different directions? By asking the right questions, then listening with her soul.


Click for more detail about What Keeps Me Standing: Letters from Black Grandmothers on Peace, Hope and Inspiration by Dennis Kimbro What Keeps Me Standing: Letters from Black Grandmothers on Peace, Hope and Inspiration

by Dennis Kimbro
Broadway Books (Apr 05, 2005)
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In his previous bestsellers, Think and Grow Rich and What Makes the Great Great, Dennis Kimbro revealed the success secrets of highly touted entrepreneurs, corporate climbers, and Olympic athletes, as well as famous black Americans from George Washington Carver to Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, and Jesse Jackson. In What Keeps Me Standing, he turns to another group of sages and mentors: the grandmothers who have long been the backbone of the African American family and community.

Over a period of five years, Kimbro contacted one thousand grandmothers—women from a wide range of backgrounds and locations—asking, "If you had to write a one page letter to your children or the next generation, what would you tell them about life?" Their answers, collected here, show that success in life cannot be measured in terms of wealth and material goods alone. The lives they describe and the advice they proffer capture both a richness in spirit and a strong belief in the power of every individual to take charge of his or her own destiny. In the face of racism, both blatant and subtle, financial struggles, and personal setbacks, black grandmothers have helped their communities in thousands of tangible and intangible ways, providing support, inspiration, and love not only to their own children and grandchildren but also to neighbors, friends, and extended families.

Filled with examples of how even the smallest acts of kindness and compassion can make a difference in the world, What Keeps Me Standing is a treasure trove of the wisdom that comes with years of experience, transformation, and growth. It is the perfect gift.


Click for more detail about The Promise: How One Woman Made Good on Her Extraordinary Pact to Send a Classroom of 1st Graders to College by Oral Lee Brown and Caille Millner The Promise: How One Woman Made Good on Her Extraordinary Pact to Send a Classroom of 1st Graders to College

by Oral Lee Brown and Caille Millner
Doubleday (Apr 05, 2005)
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In the bestselling tradition of The Pact and The Freedom Writers Diary—the inspiring story of one woman’s extraordinary promise and steely determination to make a difference in the world.

One morning in 1987 Oral Lee Brown walked into a corner store in East Oakland, California, to buy snacks for work. A little girl asked her for a quarter, and Brown assumed that she wanted to buy candy, but surprisingly she bought bread and bologna—staples for her family.

Later that day Brown couldn’t get the little girl out of her mind. Why wasn’t she in school? Why was she out begging for money to buy food for her family? After several weeks of not being able to sleep, Brown went to look for the girl at the local elementary school and soon found herself in a first-grade classroom. She didn’t find the little girl, but before she left she found herself promising the kids that if they finished high school, she would pay for their college education.

At the time, Oral Lee Brown made only $45,000 a year.

But years later, after annually saving and investing $10,000 of her own money and establishing the Oral Lee Brown Foundation, this remarkable woman made good on her promise: after nineteen of the original twenty-three students graduated from high school, she sent them all to college. And in May of 2003, LaTosha Hunter was the first of Brown’s “babies,” as well as the first person in her family, to graduate from college.

This marvelous and inspiring book is the amazing story of one woman’s unending desire to make a difference. And if once was not enough, in 2001 Brown made the same promise to three new classrooms of first-, fifth-, and ninth-graders. Brown and her foundation are now committed to adopting a new crop of kids to send to college every four years.

Brown’s pledge to the students was not without great personal and public sacrifice. Her promise turned her life upside-down—it strained her relationships, and at times required her to work several different jobs. Brown also developed a strong emotional attachment to the children—for many of these students Brown was the one consistent adult in their lives.

In a world short on heroes, altruism, and dedication, THE PROMISE shows that it is still possible to change lives for the better. This book will encourage, uplift, and inspire every reader.

A portion of the proceeds from the book will go to the Oral Lee Brown Foundation. To learn more about the Oral Lee Brown Foundation please visit www.oralleebrownfoundation.com.


Click for more detail about Who Are You? by Stedman Graham Who Are You?

by Stedman Graham
SmileyBooks (Apr 01, 2005)
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Most of us take years trying to figure out just who we are, and if we fail to define ourselves, we risk being defined by the world we live in and never realizing our unique potential. This book provides a step-by-step process for finding out who you really are and pursuing a life that is meaningful and rewarding for you.


Click for more detail about Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man? by Charles Barkley Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man?

by Charles Barkley
Penguin Press HC, The (Mar 31, 2005)
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Who’s afraid to talk on the record about the way things really are in this country where race is concerned? Not Charles Barkley, and now, thanks to him, not a host of other important people who carry a wealth of wisdom with them, from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to Samuel L. Jackson, Tiger Woods and Ice Cube.

This is the most personal and important book Charles Barkley has written. He lays himself open here, and because he does, he brings the same straight talk out of everyone with whom he engages in his journey around America to talk about the things that matter most that are the hardest to say - things having to do with race, and money, and identity. Why is it that we can all talk about all sorts of big issues, but when the subject of race is raised, we all freeze up? Who but Charles Barkley can put us into the passenger seat next to him for one of the most fantastic American road trips in recent memory? Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man is so surprising, challenging, and entertaining, so compelling to read, that its importance sneaks up on you and knocks you clean into another state of mind.

Bold, honest, funny, moving, occasionally shocking-everything we feel we can’t say but it really is time we did. Only Charles Barkley could make this conversation happen, and for that alone he is a national treasure.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Babylon Sisters: A Novel by Pearl Cleage Babylon Sisters: A Novel

by Pearl Cleage
One World/Ballantine (Mar 29, 2005)
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Catherine Sanderson seems to have it all: a fulfilling career helping immigrant women find jobs, a lovely home, and a beautiful, intelligent daughter on her way to Smith College. What Catherine doesn’t have: a father for her child– and she’s spent many years dodging her daughter’s questions about it. Now Phoebe is old enough to start poking around on her own. It doesn’t help matters that the mystery man, B.J. Johnson–the only man Catherine has ever loved–doesn’t even know about Phoebe. He’s been living in Africa.

Now B.J., a renowned newspaper correspondent, is back in town and needs Catherine’s help cracking a story about a female slavery ring operating right on the streets of Atlanta. Catherine is eager to help B.J., despite her heart’s uncertainty over meeting him again after so long, and confessing the truth to him–and their daughter.

Meanwhile, Catherine’s hands are more than full since she’s taken on a new client. Atlanta’s legendary Miss Mandeville–a housekeeper turned tycoon–is eager to have Catherine staff her housekeeping business. But why are the steely Miss Mandeville and her all-too-slick sidekick Sam so interested in Catherine’s connection to B.J.? What transpires is an explosive story that takes her world–not to mention the entire city of Atlanta–by storm.

From the New York Times bestselling author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day … comes another fast-paced and emotionally resonant novel, by turns warm and funny, serious and raw. Pearl Cleage’s ability to create a gripping story centered on strong, spirited black women and the important issues they face remains unrivaled.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Just My Luck: A Novel by Tajuana “TJ” Butler Just My Luck: A Novel

by Tajuana “TJ” Butler
One World/Ballantine (Mar 29, 2005)
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Today is no ordinary day for thirty-eight-year-old Lanita Lightfoot. Today represents the culmination of years of struggle and sacrifice. Today she graduates from college. But first, Lanita’s husband treats her to a day of beauty at an upscale black salon in Los Angeles, during which she shares her story with the staff and the other customers–and what a story it is…

Talk about an entrance. Lanita was born in a little corner store in the thick of the Watts riots. Her untimely entry into the world saved the joint from being sacked by looters–and the shop owner showed his gratitude by giving Lanita’s mother, Aretha, a decade of rent-free residence. But when the reward dries up and Aretha takes to the bottle and a no-good loser boyfriend, Lanita’s life takes a sharp turn for the worse. Forced to live in a cramped, dingy apartment, Lanita longs for her real daddy to ride to the rescue. But when he finally shows up, she finds he isn’t quite the knight she’s dreamed of.

Still, Lanita is determined to make something of herself. A straight-A student throughout high school, she is accepted to Howard University in Washington, D.C., and marvels that she’s finally escaped the ghetto. As Lanita embarks on the journey of becoming a woman, she encounters icons including Michael Jackson and Todd Bridges, who help transform her perception of her own life. But one year short of graduation, she must return to Los Angeles to care for the ailing Aretha–an unpleasant reality that leads her to join in a sordid West Hollywood strip club and farther away from her dreams–until the fateful night her high school heart throb shows up at the club and shows her that the easy money she makes comes with a high price.

The bestselling author of The Night Before Thirty, Tajuana “TJ” Butler delivers one of her most richly imagined, complex, and beloved characters yet–and delves into the void that many young women spend their lifetime trying to fill: the one left by a father’s absence.


Click for more detail about Links by Nuruddin Farah Links

by Nuruddin Farah
Penguin Books (Mar 29, 2005)
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Gripping, provocative, and revelatory, Links is a novel that will stand as a classic of modern world literature. Jeebleh is returning to Mogadiscio, Somalia, for the first time in twenty years. But this is not a nostalgia trip—his last residence there was a jail cell. And who could feel nostalgic for a city like this? U.S. troops have come and gone, and the decimated city is ruled by clan warlords and patrolled by qaat-chewing gangs who shoot civilians to relieve their adolescent boredom. Diverted in his pilgrimage to visit his mother’s grave, Jeebleh is asked to investigate the abduction of the young daughter of one of his closest friend’s family. But he learns quickly that any act in this city, particularly an act of justice, is much more complicated than he might have imagined.


Click for more detail about Trip Wire: A Cook County Mystery by Charlotte Carter Trip Wire: A Cook County Mystery

by Charlotte Carter
One World (Mar 29, 2005)
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Of Jackson Park, the first Cook County mystery featuring an unconventional trio of sleuths, Margo Jefferson of The New York Times said, "Charlotte Carter blends street savvy with wry urbanity and delivers a truly modern big-city crime tale." Now Carter returns with another suspenseful novel that brings the black experience to vivid life during one of the most turbulent times in American history.

It is December 1968. In the wake of assassinations and the violence of the Democratic convention in Chicago, "Summer of Love" idealism has disintegrated into suspicion and disillusion. On the city’s North Side, twentyishCassandra Perry longs to be independent. She leaves the overprotective embrace of her granduncle and grandaunt, Woody ans Ivy Lisle, and moves into a multiracial commune dedicated to brotherhood and just causes. But Cassandra’s search for identity plunges her into the dark side of peace, love, and unlimited freedom-even before she discovers the brutally violated bodies of the commune’s most charismatic activist couple.

As Cassandra investigates with the help of Woody and Ivy, she begins to see some friends-especially one of her dearest-in a disturbing, deadly light. But when the three amateur sleuths run afoul of a police cover-up with explosive political ramifications, they face a desperate enemy determined to bury the-along with the truth.


Click for more detail about What’s Really Holding You Back?: Closing the Gap Between Where You Are and Where You Want to Be by Valorie Burton What’s Really Holding You Back?: Closing the Gap Between Where You Are and Where You Want to Be

by Valorie Burton
WaterBrook Press (Mar 15, 2005)
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Get Unstuck. Become Unstoppable.

What is stopping you from fulfilling your purpose and achieving your dreams? Like millions of people you may find yourself repeatedly stuck in the same old rut–in your relationships, finances, career, health, or spiritual life. Maybe you want to start exercising, find a better job, get out of debt, launch a business, deepen your friendships, practice a new spiritual discipline–or pursue some other goal. The question is, What’s Really Holding You Back?

In this compelling book, life coach Valorie Burton explores the four forces that can free you from the fear, distractions, and obstacles that limit you. Discover how to harness your thoughts, words, actions, and energy to give you the power and strength to get unstuck and become unstoppable in every area of your life.

• Learny why you do what you do.
• Stop sabotaging your own success.
• Overcome the fears that have held you back.
• Keep your emotions from controlling your actions.
• Break through internal and external obstacles.

Seize the opportunity to move from where you are now to where you want to be. You were created to live fully, passionately, and freely. You can do it.

Now is the time!

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat The Dew Breaker

by Edwidge Danticat
Vintage (Mar 08, 2005)
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In this award-winning, bestselling work of fiction that moves between Haiti in the 1960s and New York in the present day, we meet an unusual man who is harboring a vital, dangerous secret. He is a quiet man, a good father and husband, a fixture in his Brooklyn neighborhood, a landlord and barber with a terrifying scar across his face. As the book unfolds, we enter the lives of those around him, and his secret is slowly revealed. Edwidge Danticat’s brilliant exploration of the “dew breaker”— or torturer— is an unforgettable story of love, remorse, and hope; of personal and political rebellions; and of the compromises we make to move beyond the most intimate brushes with history. It firmly establishes her as one of America’s most essential writers.


Click for more detail about A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips A Distant Shore

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Mar 08, 2005)
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Dorothy is a retired schoolteacher who has recently moved to a housing estate in a small village. Solomon is a night-watchman, an immigrant from an unnamed country in Africa. Each is desperate for love. And yet each harbors secrets that may make attaining it impossible.
With breathtaking assurance and compassion, Caryl Phillips retraces the paths that lead Dorothy and Solomon to their meeting point: her failed marriage and ruinous obsession with a younger man, the horrors he witnessed as a soldier in his disintegrating native land, and the cruelty he encounters as a stranger in his new one. Intimate and panoramic, measured and shattering, A Distant Shore charts the oceanic expanses that separate people from their homes, their hearts, and their selves.


Click for more detail about Collecting African American Art: Works on Paper and Canvas by Halima Taha Collecting African American Art: Works on Paper and Canvas

by Halima Taha
Crown Publishing Group (Mar 01, 2005)
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Art enthusiasts and lovers of American art have long considered collecting art a hobby reserved solely for the wealthy. Collecting African American Art: Works on Paper and Canvas (Revised Second Edition) effectively dispels this misconception.

In these pages, lavishly illustrated with almost two hundred works by a wide range of artists, readers will find practical guidelines for becoming an informed collector, including specific criteria for working with dealers.

By providing succinct advice on framing, insurance, and tax and estate planning, as well as pointers on how to care for one’s collection, author Halima Taha makes collecting an enjoyable-and affordable-pastime for everyone. Combining a rich and diverse blend of aesthetic traditions from Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States, African American art has emerged as the most actively collected art in the marketplace.

This guide presents both new and established artists and identifies dealers throughout the nation specializing in the field. Insightful and accessible, it is the first book to define the role of the collector of African American art. The result is a unique and essential guide to developing a meaningful and rewarding collection.


Click for more detail about Wifebeater by Mister Mann Frisby Wifebeater

by Mister Mann Frisby
Riverhead Trade (Mar 01, 2005)
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Blinking Red Light was the debut of an explosive natural-born talent who set it off on the first page and never let up. Now, Mister Mann Frisby drives the urban thriller in a graphic new direction as three players cross tracks on the night streets of North Philly.

It goes like this: Sticks is a struggling single dad doing everything he can to dodge any slip-up that could give his ex-wife custody of their daughter. He needs money to keep that from happening. Then Sticks stumbles on a bootleg video of a rap star with a solid rep, caught on tape doing something that could ruin his career and send him to jail. Sticks’s friend Kheli convinces him that it’s the get-rich scam he needs. Blackmail the punk. But Kheli’s got an agenda of her own, the rapper isn’t in the mood to play, and the word on the street is Sticks is a dead man.

A nightmare of stunning reversals and violent twists of fate, Wifebeater is a thriller all right. Now there’s no turning back.


Click for more detail about A One Woman Man: A Novel (Strivers Row) by Travis Hunter A One Woman Man: A Novel (Strivers Row)

by Travis Hunter
One World (Mar 01, 2005)
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Bestselling author Travis Hunter returns with a stunning new novel about family, success, and just how far a man will go to protect those he loves.

Dallas Dupree is a one woman man. A handsome and successful teacher, he is both worshipped and envied in his Atlanta neighborhood and chooses to live and raise his daughter, Aja, in the ghetto where he grew up rather than desert his roots. The only problem is that the one woman for him—his beloved Yasmin—passed away giving birth to his daughter. Now Dallas struggles through a string of empty relationships, unable to commit his heart because no woman can measure up to Yasmin. However, when Dallas plays with the wrong woman, he finds the consequences may cost him much more than he can afford.

Dallas’s sister Carmen has issues of her own. All of her life she has struggled with a weight problem that had caused a lack of self esteem. Now she is an affluent doctor who lives in the suburbs with her handsome new husband, Sterling. When a family crisis forces her to take in her wayward niece, she realizes that the picture perfect world she worked so hard to create is an illusion.

Their older brother, Priest, is pretty secretive about how he makes his money—and he does make a lot of it. He has been a father figure to both Dallas and Carmen, but now that they are all grown up, they want nothing to do with their shady older brother. But when Dallas and Carmen are in trouble, they turn to the one person who has always been there for them—and learn there is more to Priest than meets the eye.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Petals Of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Petals Of Blood

by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Penguin Classics (Feb 22, 2005)
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The puzzling murder of three African directors of a foreign-owned brewery sets the scene for this fervent, hard-hitting novel about disillusionment in independent Kenya. A deceptively simple tale, Petals of Blood is on the surface a suspenseful investigation of a spectacular triple murder in upcountry Kenya. Yet as the intertwined stories of the four suspects unfold, a devastating picture emerges of a modern third-world nation whose frustrated people feel their leaders have failed them time after time. First published in 1977, this novel was so explosive that its author was imprisoned without charges by the Kenyan government. His incarceration was so shocking that newspapers around the world called attention to the case, and protests were raised by human- rights groups, scholars, and writers, including James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Donald Barthelme, Harold Pinter, and Margaret Drabble.


Click for more detail about The Heart of Happy Hollow: A Collection of Stories (Harlem Moon Classics) by Paul Laurence Dunbar The Heart of Happy Hollow: A Collection of Stories (Harlem Moon Classics)

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Harlem Moon (Feb 15, 2005)
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A historic collection of perceptive tales from a luminary of nineteenth-century literature


First published in 1904, The Heart of Happy Hollow features sixteen short stories that provide rare glimpses into the lives of African Americans after the Civil War. Through characters ranging from schemers to preachers, Paul Laurence Dunbar crafted a rare snapshot of long-lost communities and their poignant sensibilities. An author who achieved remarkable versatility, he draws on language that is by turns folksy and formal, putting forth controversial vernacular dialects as easily as he delivers a hauntingly poetic scene.

In this collection, readers meet an influential entrepreneur who must navigate a treacherous political landscape; a Southern spiritual leader who must learn to accept the mores of his son, who was educated in the North; a reporter who restores hope in Santa Claus to a group of destitute siblings; and a host of other unique men and women giving voice to timeless themes.

Dunbar’s work has deservingly experienced a recent revival among commercial and scholarly audiences alike, and noted scholar Eleanor Alexander, author of the critically acclaimed biography Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow: The Courtship and Marriage of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore further contextualizes Dunbar’s contributions to American letters. A captivating read, The Heart of Happy Hollow will introduce more book lovers to this revered storyteller and visionary.


Click for more detail about Symptomatic by Danzy Senna Symptomatic

by Danzy Senna
Knopf (Feb 01, 2005)
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A young woman moves to New York City for what promises to be a dream job. Displaced, she feels unsure of her fit in the world. Then comes a look of recognition, a gesture of friendship from an older woman named Greta who shares the same difficult-to-place color of skin. On common ground, a tenuous alliance grows between two women in racial limbo. So too, does the older woman’s unnerving obsession, leading to a collision of two lives spiraling out of control. A beautifully written novel, at once suspenseful, erotic, and tantalizingly clever, Symptomatic is a groundbreaking contribution to the literature of racial identity.


Click for more detail about What Makes A Man: 22 Writers Imagine The Future by Rebecca Walker What Makes A Man: 22 Writers Imagine The Future

by Rebecca Walker
Riverhead Trade (Feb 01, 2005)
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A timely and profound anthology from the national bestselling author of Black, White and Jewish.

Representing a stunning range of essayists and novelists, both men and women, this groundbreaking anthology boldly confronts the complications, possibilities, uncertainties, and joys of being a man in the 21st century.


Click for more detail about Climate Of Fear: The Quest For Dignity In A Dehumanized World (Reith Lectures) by Wole Soyinka Climate Of Fear: The Quest For Dignity In A Dehumanized World (Reith Lectures)

by Wole Soyinka
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Jan 25, 2005)
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In this new book developed from the prestigious Reith Lectures, Nobel Prize—winning author Wole Soyinka, a courageous advocate for human rights around the world, considers fear as the dominant theme in world politics.

Decades ago, the idea of collective fear had a tangible face: the atom bomb. Today our shared anxiety has become far more complex and insidious, arising from tyranny, terrorism, and the invisible power of the “quasi state.” As Wole Soyinka suggests, the climate of fear that has enveloped the world was sparked long before September 11, 2001.

Rather, it can be traced to 1989, when a passenger plane was brought down by terrorists over the Republic of Niger. From Niger to lower Manhattan to Madrid, this invisible threat has erased distinctions between citizens and soldiers; we’re all potential targets now.

In this seminal work, Soyinka explores the implications of this climate of fear: the conflict between power and freedom, the motives behind unthinkable acts of violence, and the meaning of human dignity. Fascinating and disturbing, Climate of Fear is a brilliant and defining work for our age.


Click for more detail about G-Spot: An Urban Erotic Tale by Noire G-Spot: An Urban Erotic Tale

by Noire
Strivers Row (Jan 25, 2005)
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Her man demanded loyalty, but her body wouldn’t obey.

Have you ever rolled over in the middle of the night and realized you were doing things you swore you’d never do? Sexing brothers you vowed you’d never touch? Bending backwards and stooping lower than you ever thought you’d stoop? Well if you can feel me even a little bit, then let me hit you with a story that just might blow your mind… .

Nineteen-year-old Juicy Stanfield is the sexy young girlfriend of Granite “G” McKay, owner of Harlem’s notorious G-Spot Social Club. A drug dealer with a lethal streak, he runs Harlem with an iron fist. But even the cash and the bling can’t keep Juicy from getting restless, and while G fulfills her every material desire, she’s burning up with unrequited sexual energy. To cheat on him would mean a death sentence; so Juicy finds pleasure in secret ways: fantasizing on crowded subways or allowing her eyes to hungrily take in the male dancers on the club’s ladies night.

But as Juicy’s sexual cravings grow stronger, one thing becomes frighteningly clear: She’s a virtual prisoner in G’s dangerous world. As G begins to suspect her of playin’ him, he pulls the reins he keeps on her even tighter. If she’s ever to escape and get a life of her own she must find a way to start stashing away some of G’s cash. But doing that under G’s watchful eye is a challenge she might not live up to–especially when her appetite tempts her with the deadliest desire of all: G’s very own son… .


Click for more detail about Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire by Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Gardner Hines Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire

by Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Gardner Hines
One World (Jan 25, 2005)
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The grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep South, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a fortune worth well over $130 million and a business empire spanning communications, real estate, and insurance. Gaston was, by any measure, a heroic figure whose wealth and influence bore comparison to J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. Here, for the first time, is the story of the life of this extraordinary pioneer, told by his niece and grandniece, the award-winning television journalist Carol Jenkins and her daughter Elizabeth Gardner Hines.

Born at a time when the bitter legacy of slavery and Reconstruction still poisoned the lives of black Americans, Gaston was determined to make a difference for himself and his people. His first job, after serving in the celebrated all-black regiment during World War I, bound him to the near-slavery of an Alabama coal mine—but even here Gaston saw not only hope but opportunity. He launched a business selling lunches to fellow miners, soon established a rudimentary bank—and from then on there was no stopping him. A kind of black Horatio Alger, Gaston let a single, powerful question be his guide: What do our people need now? His success flowed from an uncanny genius for knowing the answer.

Combining rich family lore with a deep knowledge of American social and economic history, Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Hines unfold Gaston’s success story against the backdrop of a century of crushing racial hatred and bigotry. Gaston not only survived the hardships of being black during the Depression, he flourished, and by the 1950s he was ruling a Birmingham-based business empire. When the movement for civil rights swept through the South in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gaston provided critical financial support to many activists.

At the time of his death in 1996, A. G. Gaston was one of the wealthiest black men in America, if not the wealthiest. But his legacy extended far beyond the monetary. He was a man who had proved it was possible to overcome staggering odds and make a place for himself as a leader, a captain of industry, and a far-sighted philanthropist. Writing with grace and power, Jenkins and Hines bring their distinguished ancestor fully to life in the pages of this book. Black Titan is the story of a man who created his own future—and in the process, blazed a future for all black businesspeople in America.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Pride of Carthage: A Novel of Hannibal by David Anthony Durham Pride of Carthage: A Novel of Hannibal

by David Anthony Durham
Doubleday (Jan 18, 2005)
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An epic work of literary fiction about the superb military leader of Carthage, Hannibal Barca, and his struggle against the mighty Roman Republic.

With a vast cast of characters and nationalities, twists of fate, and tales of inspired leadership, David Anthony Durham perfectly captures the legendary Hannibal’s world in Pride of Carthage. Beginning in ancient Spain, where Hannibal’s father had carved out a Carthaginian empire, the novel traces the origins of the war, the opening moves, and Hanniball’s inspired choice to attack Rome via a land route most believed impossible. In graphic, panoramic prose, Durham describes the battles, including the icy slaughter of the Trebia; the mist-shrouded battle along Lake Trasimene; the battle of Cannae, in which Hanniball’s outnumbered force surrounded and decimated seventy thousand Romans in a single afternoon; and Zama, the hard slog that proved to be the decisive contest.
Along the way we meet a variety of major historical figures on both sides of the conflict, as well as characters representing the vast array of other ethnicities who played a part in the war: Iberians and Gauls, Numidians and Libyans, Macedonians and Moors. Hannibal’s family is brought to life: his wife, mother, sisters, and young son, as is Publius Scipio, the young Roman who was the only match for Hannibal’s genius on the field of battle — and who eventually defeated him.
Pride of Carthage is a stunning achievement in historical fiction, one that will transport readers to a world of mesmerizing authenticity of character, event, and detail.


Click for more detail about My Jim: A Novel by Nancy Rawles My Jim: A Novel

by Nancy Rawles
Crown Publishing Group (Jan 11, 2005)
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A deeply moving recasting of one of the most controversial characters in American literature, Huckleberry Finn’s Jim

Written in the great literary tradition of novels of American slavery, My Jim is told in the incantatory voice of Sadie Watson, an ex-slave who schools her granddaughter with lessons of love she learned in bondage. To help her granddaughter confront the decisions she needs to make, Sadie mines her memory for the tale of the unquenchable love of her life, Jim. Sadie’s Jim was an ambitious young slave and seer who, when faced with the prospect of being sold, escaped down the Mississippi with a white boy named Huck. Sadie is suddenly left alone. Worried about her children, convinced her husband is dead, reviled as a witch, and punished for Jim’s escape, Sadie’s will and her love for Jim, even in absentia, animate her life and see her through.

Told with spare eloquence and mirroring the true stories of countless slave women, My Jim re-creates one of the most controversial characters in American literature. A nuanced critique of the great American novel, My Jim stands on its own as a haunting and inspiring story about freedom, longing, and the remarkable endurance of love.


Click for more detail about Don’t Play in the Sun: One Woman’s Journey Through the Color Complex by Marita Golden Don’t Play in the Sun: One Woman’s Journey Through the Color Complex

by Marita Golden
Anchor (Jan 04, 2005)
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“Don’t play in the sun. You’re going to have to get a light-skinned husband for the sake of your children as it is.”

In these words from her mother, novelist and memoirist Marita Golden learned as a girl that she was the wrong color. Her mother had absorbed “colorism” without thinking about it. But, as Golden shows in this provocative book, biases based on skin color persist–and so do their long-lasting repercussions.

Golden recalls deciding against a distinguished black university because she didn’t want to worry about whether she was light enough to be homecoming queen. A male friend bitterly remembers that he was teased about his girlfriend because she was too dark for him. Even now, when she attends a party full of accomplished black men and their wives, Golden wonders why those wives are all nearly white. From Halle Berry to Michael Jackson, from Nigeria to Cuba, from what she sees in the mirror to what she notices about the Grammys, Golden exposes the many facets of "colorism" and their effect on American culture. Part memoir, part cultural history, and part analysis, Don’t Play in the Sun also dramatizes one accomplished black woman’s inner journey from self-loathing to self-acceptance and pride.


Click for more detail about Migrations Of The Heart: An Autobiography by Marita Golden Migrations Of The Heart: An Autobiography

by Marita Golden
Anchor (Jan 04, 2005)
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In her classic memoir, distinguished author, television executive, and activist Marita Golden beautifully recounts an astounding journey to Africa and back.

Marita Golden was raised in Washington, D.C., by a mother who was a cleaning woman and a father who was taxi-driver. For all their struggles, with life and each other, her parents instilled her with spirit and aspirations. Swept up in the heady Black Power movement of the sixties, Marita moved to New York to study journalism at Columbia—and fell in love with Femi Ajayi, a Nigerian architecture student..
Their passion led them to start a life together in Africa—a place Marita was eager to understand. Exhilarated by a world free of white racism, Marita quickly found work as a professor and embraced motherhood. But Femi’s increasing expectations that she snap into the role of the submissive Nigerian wife were shocking and dispiriting. Her struggle to regain her footing and shape a black identity that was true to her spirit is suspenseful and inspiring, an uncommon tale of race, identity, and Africa.


Click for more detail about Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African-American Authors by Eleanor Taylor Bland Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African-American Authors

by Eleanor Taylor Bland
Berkley Books (Jan 04, 2005)
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A dazzling collection of crime and mystery stories, Shades of Black is a landmark achievement. Bringing together today’s brightest talent from the field-from Walter Mosley, "one of America’s best mystery writers" (New York Times), to the late Hugh Holton, whose "gift for retaining suspense is golden" (Chicago Sun-Times)-it is the first anthology of African-American mystery writers. Shades of Black is not only a tribute to the art of storytelling-it’s a fascinating foray into the rich and widely varied African-American experience.Includes stories by:Frankie Y. Bailey • Jacqueline Turner Banks • Chris Benson • Eleanor Taylor Bland and Anthony Bland • Patricia E. Canterbury • Christopher Chambers • Tracy Clark • Evelyn Coleman • Grace F. Edwards • Robert Greer • Terris MacMahan Grimes • Gar Anthony Haywood • Hugh Holton • Geri Spencer Hunter • Dicey Scroggins Jackson • Glenville Lovell • Lee E. Meadows • Penny Mickelbury • Walter Mosley • Percy Spurlark Parker • Gary Phillips • Charles Shipps


Click for more detail about The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler The Working Poor: Invisible in America

by David K. Shipler
Vintage (Jan 04, 2005)
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Arab and Jew, an intimate portrait unfolds of working American families struggling against insurmountable odds to escape poverty.

"This is clearly one of those seminal books that every American should read and read now." —The New York Times Book Review


As David K. Shipler makes clear in this powerful, humane study, the invisible poor are engaged in the activity most respected in American ideology—hard, honest work. But their version of the American Dream is a nightmare: low-paying, dead-end jobs; the profound failure of government to improve upon decaying housing, health care, and education; the failure of families to break the patterns of child abuse and substance abuse. Shipler exposes the interlocking problems by taking us into the sorrowful, infuriating, courageous lives of the poor—white and black, Asian and Latino, citizens and immigrants. We encounter them every day, for they do jobs essential to the American economy.

This impassioned book not only dissects the problems, but makes pointed, informed recommendations for change. It is a book that stands to make a difference.


Click for more detail about The Village That Vanished by Kadir Nelson The Village That Vanished

by Kadir Nelson
Puffin Books (Jan 01, 2005)
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Young Abikanile and all of the villagers of Yao feel safe hidden deep within the African jungle. But word has come that the slavers are on their way! Abikanile looks to her mother and her grandmother for strength and guidance. These two brave women come up with a plan to fool the slavers and protect their tribe. But as the villagers retreat into the forest, Abikanile finds that she too has the courage to help her people stay safe and free.


Click for more detail about I Saw Your Face by Kwame Dawes I Saw Your Face

by Kwame Dawes
Dial Books for Young Readers (Dec 29, 2004)
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“Wow! This is still one of the greatest honors of my life—to work with Tom Feelings”Kwame Dawes

Before Tom Feelings passed away in August of 2003, he had been working on a picture book with his friend, poet Kwame Dawes. As Kwame explains, "One day, Tom gave me a folder of drawings of young people from his journeys around the world. I saw a story of resilience and pride, and wrote my poem as a response." These wonderful drawings, paired with lyrical text, offer a fresh encounter with one of our most evocative illustrators.


Click for more detail about Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carole Boston Weatherford Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Dial Books (Dec 29, 2004)
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When four courageous black teens sat down at a lunch counter in the segregated South of 1960, the reverberations were felt both far beyond and close to home. This insightful story offers a child’s-eye view of this seminal event in the American Civil Rights Movement. Connie is used to the signs and customs that have let her drink only from certain water fountains and which bar her from local pools and some stores, but still … she’d love to sit at the lunch counter, just like she’s seen other girls do.
Showing how an ordinary family becomes involved in the great and personal cause of their times, it’s a tale that invites everyone to celebrate our country’s everyday heroes, of all ages.


Click for more detail about Spend Well, Live Rich (Previously Published as 7 Money Mantras for a Richer Life): How to Get What You Want with the Money You Have by Michelle Singletary Spend Well, Live Rich (Previously Published as 7 Money Mantras for a Richer Life): How to Get What You Want with the Money You Have

by Michelle Singletary
Ballantine Books (Dec 28, 2004)
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The best financial planner Michelle Singletary ever knew was Big Mama, her grandmother. Big Mama raised Michelle and her four brothers and sisters on a salary that never reached more than $13,000 a year. Yet at her death, Big Mama owned her own home, had paid off a car loan, and had a beautiful collection of Sunday-go-to-meeting church hats and a savings account that supplemented her Social Security check and small pension. Most important, she had taught Michelle "7 Money Mantras for a Richer Life." Those mantras serve as the inspiration for this straight-talking book of practical personal financial advice that really works.

The 7 Money Mantras are:

  1. If it’s on your ass, it’s not an asset!
  2. Is this a need or is it a want?
  3. Sweat the small stuff.
  4. Cash is better than credit.
  5. Keep it simple.
  6. Priorities lead to prosperity.
  7. Enough is enough.

Michelle Singletary is a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post whose popular personal finance column appears in more than 120 newspapers. She’s also a mother of three children who understands what it’s like to live on a budget. In a plainspoken, sassy, no-nonsense voice, Michelle provides answers to the financial issues that confront almost every household: how to teach children the value of money; how to address money issues in a relationship or marriage; household saving tips; getting the best loans; and much more.

"This book is about saving enough money to have choices," she writes. "It’s about feeling free to be cheap if you can’t afford to buy a ton of gifts at Christmas. It’s about eliminating wasteful spending so you can begin to save and invest. It’s full of uncommon commonsense lessons and guidance on the way people should use their money."

With humor and down-home financial wisdom, Michelle Singletary offers practical and realistic advice that will help you live well with the money you have.

Michelle Singletary on …

Romance and Money

"It’s okay to say: ’Honey, I love you and everything, but if you need money, ask your mama.’"

Credit Cards

"We are minimizing our financial potential by making minimum credit card payments."

Car Buying

"If you want to save money, keep your car until you’re on a first-name basis with the local tow-truck drivers."

Leasing a Car

"You, too, can drive a car you can’t afford and then have to give it back. It’s crazy."

Gift Giving

"Generosity isn’t about how much you spend. It’s about how much thought you put into the gift."

Penny Pinching

"I once bought a stick-shift car because it was $1,000 cheaper than the automatic in the same model. There was just one little problem. I couldn’t drive a stick-shift. But at least I saved $1,000!"


Click for more detail about Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero by Kate Clifford Larson Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero

by Kate Clifford Larson
One World (Dec 28, 2004)
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Harriet Tubman is one of the giants of American history—a fearless visionary who led scores of her fellow slaves to freedom and battled courageously behind enemy lines during the Civil War. And yet in the nine decades since her death, next to nothing has been written about this extraordinary woman aside from juvenile biographies. The truth about Harriet Tubman has become lost inside a legend woven of racial and gender stereotypes. Now at last, in this long-overdue biography, historian Kate Clifford Larson gives Harriet Tubman the powerful, intimate, meticulously detailed life she deserves.
Drawing from a trove of new documents and sources as well extensive genealogical research, Larson reveals Tubman as a complex woman— brilliant, shrewd, deeply religious, and passionate in her pursuit of freedom. The descendant of the vibrant, matrilineal Asanti people of the West African Gold Coast, Tubman was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland but refused to spend her life in bondage. While still a young woman she embarked on a perilous journey of self-liberation—and then, having won her own freedom, she returned again and again to liberate family and friends, tapping into the Underground Railroad.
Yet despite her success, her celebrity, her close ties with Northern politicians and abolitionists, Tubman suffered crushing physical pain and emotional setbacks. Stripping away myths and misconceptions, Larson presents stunning new details about Tubman’s accomplishments, personal life, and influence, including her relationship with Frederick Douglass, her involvement with John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, and revelations about a young woman who may have been Tubman’s daughter.Here too are Tubman’s twilight years after the war, when she worked for women’s rights and in support of her fellow blacks, and when racist politicians and suffragists marginalized her contribution.
Harriet Tubman, her life and her work, remain an inspiration to all who value freedom. Now, thanks to Larson’s breathtaking biography, we can finally appreciate Tubman as a complete human being—an American hero, yes, but also a woman who loved, suffered, and sacrificed. "Bound for the Promised Land is a magnificent work of biography, history, and truth telling.

"From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun

by Lorraine Hansberry
Vintage Books (Nov 29, 2004)
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“…pivotal play in the history of the American Black theatre.”—Newsweek
“…a milestone in the American Theatre.”— Ebony.

From Sacred Fire

A Raisin in the Sun, written by the then twenty-nine-year-old Hansberry, was the "movin’ on up" morality play of the 1960s. Martin had mesmerized millions, and integration was seen as the stairway to heaven. Raisin had something for everyone, and for this reason it was the recipient of the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Award.
The place: a tenement flat in Southside, Chicago. The time: post’World War II. Lena Younger, the strong-willed matriarch, is the glue that holds together the Younger family. Walter Lee is her married, thirty-something son who, along with his wife and sister, lives in his mother’s apartment. He is short on meeting responsibilities but long on dreams. Beneatha (that’s right, Beneatha) is Waiter’s sister’an upwardly mobile college student who plans to attend medical school.

Mama Lena is due a check from her late husband’s insurance, and Waiter Lee is ready to invest it in a liquor store. The money represents his opportunity to assert his manhood. It will bring the jump start he needs to set his life right. Beneatha tells him that it’s "mama’s money to do with as she pleases," and that she doesn’t really expect any for her schooling. However, Mama wants to use her new money for a new beginning’in a new house, in a new neighborhood (white).

Walter cries, and Mama relents. She refrains from paying cash for the house and places a deposit instead, giving Waiter the difference to share equally between his investment and Beneatha’s college fund. Walter squanders the entire amount. Meanwhile, Mama receives a call from the neighborhood "welcome committee" hoping to dissuade the family from moving in.

While roundly criticized for being politically accommodating to whites, Raisin accurately reflected the aspirations of a newly nascent black middle class.

This groundbreaking play starred Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeill, Ruby Dee and Diana Sands in the Broadway production which opened in 1959. Set on Chicago’s South Side, the plot revolves around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family: son Walter Lee, his wife Ruth, his sister Beneatha, his son Travis and matriarch Lena, called Mama. When her deceased husband’s insurance money comes through, Mama dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago. Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans, however: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Beneatha dreams of medical school.


Click for more detail about The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales

by Virginia Hamilton
Knopf Books for Young Readers (Nov 11, 2004)
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Originally Published in 1985, The People Could Fly retells 24 black American folk tales in sure storytelling voice: animal tales, supernatural tales, fanciful and cautionary tales, and slave tales of freedom. All are beautifully readable. With the added attraction of 40 wonderfully expressive paintings by the Dillons, this collection should be snapped up."—(starred) School Library Journal.

This book has been selected as a Common Core State Standards text Exemplar (Grade 6-8, Stories) in Appendix B.

LEO AND DIANE DILLON’S award-winning picture book interpretation of Newbery Medalist Virginia Hamilton’s beloved tale now includes an unforgettable word-for-word CD narration by James Earl Jones and Virginia Hamilton. This tale of slaves who could fly to freedom offered hope in the darkly brutal times of slavery. "That is what Virginia Hamilton set out to show, what the Dillons have so astutely expounded on and what ultimately makes this version of ’People’ so powerful. Think of it as a triad of words, pictures, and storytelling." - New York Times Book Review

An elegant gift for reading, looking, and listening.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Accident of Birth: A Novel by Heather Neff Accident of Birth: A Novel

by Heather Neff
Broadway Books (Nov 09, 2004)
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Reba Freeman has loved two men in her life. Her current husband, Carl, has supported her through their twenty-year marriage and given her all the material wealth a suburban wife could hope for. Reba is comfortable, if not necessarily content, in her life with Carl and their blossoming teenage daughter, Marisa, until she learns that her first love and first husband, Joseph Thomas, has been detained by the World Court of Human Rights.

Joseph, a peaceful, gifted Liberian student, had dreams of returning to his native land and educating his people for the betterment of his country. Reba respected his strength and wanted to support his cause, but didn’t accompany Joseph to Liberia after graduation due to mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, she must decide if finding out what has happened to her first husband is worth the risk of losing Carl and turning her comfortable world inside out.

Alternating between present-day action and a series of flashbacks, Accident of Birth creates an intricate tapestry of suspense, drama, and romance, while also looking at the moral and cultural differences between African Americans and Africans. Neff boldly exposes the rift between American comforts and the traumas of the world we choose to ignore, creating a moving and memorable story of courage and hope that readers will talk about for a long time.


Click for more detail about Hottentot Venus: A Novel by Barbara Chase-Riboud Hottentot Venus: A Novel

by Barbara Chase-Riboud
Anchor (Nov 09, 2004)
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It is Paris, 1815. An extraordinarily shaped South African girl known as the Hottentot Venus, dressed only in feathers and beads, swings from a crystal chandelier in the duchess of Berry’s ballroom. Below her, the audience shouts insults and pornographic obscenities. Among these spectators is Napoleon’s physician and the most famous naturalist in Europe, the Baron George Cuvier, whose encounter with her will inspire a theory of race that will change European science forever.

Evoking the grand tradition of such “monster” tales as Frankenstein and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Barbara Chase Riboud, prize-winning author of the classic Sally Hemings, again gives voice to an “invisible” of history. In this powerful saga, Sarah Baartman, for more than 200 years known only as the mysterious lady in the glass cage, comes vividly and unforgettably to life.


Click for more detail about Soulscript: A Collection Of Classic African American Poetry (Harlem Moon Classics) by June Jordan Soulscript: A Collection Of Classic African American Poetry (Harlem Moon Classics)

by June Jordan
Knopf (Nov 02, 2004)
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Black poets from the early twentieth century and onward come together for a moving anthology, edited and organized by the late, revered poet June Jordan.

First published in 1970, soulscript is a poignant, panoramic collection of poetry from some of the most eloquent voices in the art. Selected for their literary excellence and by the dictates of Jordan’s heart, these works tell the story of both collective and personal experiences, in Jordan’s words, “in tears, in rage, in hope, in sonnet, in blank/free verse, in overwhelming rhetorical scream.”
Soulscript features works by Jordan and other luminaries like Gwendolyn Brooks, Countee Cullen, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Gayl Jines, James Weldon Johnson, Audre Lorde, Claude McKay, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, and Richard Wright, as well as the fresh voices of a turbulent era’s younger writers. Celebrated spoken-word poet Staceyann Chin, an original cast member of Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, has also added an introduction that speaks to Jordan’s legacy, helping to further cement soulscript as a visionary compilation that has already become a modern classic.


Click for more detail about Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson by Geoffrey C. Ward Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

by Geoffrey C. Ward
Knopf (Oct 26, 2004)
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He was the first black heavyweight champion in history, the most celebrated–and most reviled–African American of his age. In Unforgivable Blackness, the prizewinning biographer Geoffrey C. Ward brings to vivid life the real Jack Johnson, a figure far more complex and compelling than the newspaper headlines he inspired could ever convey. Johnson battled his way from obscurity to the top of the heavyweight ranks and in 1908 won the greatest prize in American sports–one that had always been the private preserve of white boxers. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he took orders from no one and resolved to live as if color did not exist. While most blacks struggled just to survive, he reveled in his riches and his fame. And at a time when the mere suspicion that a black man had flirted with a white woman could cost him his life, he insisted on sleeping with whomever he pleased, and married three. Because he did so the federal government set out to destroy him, and he was forced to endure a year of prison and seven years of exile. Ward points out that to most whites (and to some African Americans as well) he was seen as a perpetual threat–profligate, arrogant, amoral, a dark menace, and a danger to the natural order of things.

Unforgivable Blackness is the first full-scale biography of Johnson in more than twenty years. Accompanied by more than fifty photographs and drawing on a wealth of new material–including Johnson’s never-before-published prison memoir–it restores Jack Johnson to his rightful place in the pantheon of American individualists.


Click for more detail about Jump!: From the Life of Michael Jordan by Floyd Cooper Jump!: From the Life of Michael Jordan

by Floyd Cooper
Philomel Books (Oct 21, 2004)
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Michael Jordan was once just an ordinary little boy growing up in a North Carolina suburb, trying to keep up with his older brother Larry. Michael was always good at sports, but it seemed like Larry was always going to be bigger, quicker, and luckier. But Michael never gave up, and his practicing began to pay off. Then one summer day during a backyard game of one-on-one, Larry Jordan’s "little" brother took him—and the whole family—by surprise!
Based on actual events, this story of a friendly sibling rivalry is enhanced by Floyd Cooper’s stunning two-tone art. Jump! even features a gate-fold depicting Michael Jordan’s trademark leap that will send young readers soaring.


Click for more detail about Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Lucy Hurston Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston

by Lucy Hurston
Doubleday (Oct 19, 2004)
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One of the most beguiling and captivating figures of the twentieth century, Zora Neale Hurston gained fame as a bestselling author, anthropologist, journalist, and playwright. Her remarkable life is presented as never before in SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN. An interactive package tracing Hurston’s journey from Eatonville, Florida, to her student days at Barnard College, to her emergence as a literary star and bestselling author and cultural icon during the Harlem Renaissance and her subsequent decline into obscurity, it contains beautifully crafted facsimiles of historic papers, handwritten notes, photographs, and much more.

Readers will be able to hold in their hands the charred draft notes for the novel, Seraph on the Suwannee; open a Christmas card Hurston created for her friends; and read letters illuminating her relationships with intimate friends and fellow writers like Langston Hughes and Dorothy West. SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN also provides the extraordinary opportunity to hear Hurston’s own voice talking about her life as a writer on several radio interviews, and, in a powerful interlude, singing a passionate rendition of a railroad worker’s chant she learned while collecting folklore in the Deep South.

Interest in Hurston continues to soar. Her most famous book, Their Eyes Are Watching God, is now in development at Oprah Winfrey’s production company, Harpo, and is also being adapted for Broadway. The sales of her books attest to an ever-growing audience. Whether they are discovering Hurston for the first time or are devoted fans, readers will find hours of entertainment in SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN.


Click for more detail about Some People, Some Other Place by J. California Cooper Some People, Some Other Place

by J. California Cooper
Doubleday (Oct 19, 2004)
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J. California Cooper returns with a sweeping novel about love and heartbreak, perseverance and luck, telling her tale with an insight and grace that reaffirms Alice Walker’s words of praise for her previous works: “Her style is deceptively simple and direct and the vale of tears in which her characters reside is never so deep that a rich chuckle at a person’s foolishness cannot be heard.”

In her acclaimed novels and short stories, J. California Cooper has created moving portraits of people striving to make their way in a hard, often unjust world. Whether it explores the blatant racial and class biases of nineteenth-century America or the more subtle forms of discrimination that exist today, “It is the universality of her themes that has made Ms. Cooper’s work popular,” as the Dallas Morning News has written.

Some People, Some Other Place is Cooper’s biggest, most far-reaching novel to date. A multigenerational tale, it is set in a town called “Place,” on a street named “Dream Street.” In the words of the novel’s narrator, “the block surely had about it a feeling of long accumulation of history, of life, of many lives intertwined.” As she chronicles the interlocking lives of the residents of Dream Street, Cooper places the stories of the individuals and their families within the wider context of America’s social and economic history. We meet the narrator’s great grandparents, who left the poverty of the Deep South in 1895 and made their way to a farm in Oklahoma; her grandparents, who continued the northward journey with their eyes on the promised jobs of the industrial Midwest but were forced to settle without reaching their goal; and her mother, who finishes the journey and discovers that life at 903 Dream Street carries new burdens as well as rewards. The neighbors on the block are people of all colors, all striving to overcome personal troubles and disappointments, and all holding fast to their dreams of a better life.


Click for more detail about Echo of the Spirit: A Photographer’ S Journey by Chester Higgins, Jr. Echo of the Spirit: A Photographer’ S Journey

by Chester Higgins, Jr.
Doubleday Books (Oct 19, 2004)
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In stunning photographs and an intimate, moving narrative, award-winning "New York Times "photographer, Chester Higgins, chronicles his forty-year quest to capture and celebrate the singular, defining qualities of people, places, and events.
As a "New York Times" photographer, Higgins has taken glorious, one-of-a-kind pictures of people from all walks of life and covered grim disasters and history-making events. Throughout his career, Higgins has also pursued a more personal mission: in unforgettable photographs, he has documented the history and lives of people of African American and African descent. ECHO OF THE SPIRIT is Higgins’s most personal work to date. In photographs rich in spirit and memory and a simple but elegant text, he focuses on the significant people and events of his own life, from his days as a boyhood preacher in New Brockton, Alabama, where he was reared by his mother and stepfather, to his first encounters with the works of great photographers during his student years, to his emergence as a highly respected and much admired photojournalist. There are images and memories of his favorite great uncle, Forth, who died at the age of 107, and of his aunt Shug, a masterful quilt maker. He pays tribute to his mentors—P. H. Polk, Cornell Capa, Gordon Parks, Romare Bearden, and Arthur Rothenstein at "Look" magazine—describing their lessons and their influence on his work. Higgins’s extraordinary ability to get to the spirit of things—the essence of what makes people and places come alive, makes them interesting, beautiful, or ugly—resonates throughout ECHO OF THE SPIRIT. It is a remarkable look at a creative life and the cultural history that shaped it.


Click for more detail about Patti Labelle’s Lite Cuisine by Patti Labelle Patti Labelle’s Lite Cuisine

by Patti Labelle
Avery (Oct 14, 2004)
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Legendary singer and New York Times bestselling author Patti LaBelle reveals her mouthwatering culinary secrets for eating your way to a healthier life.


Click for more detail about The Colossus Of New York by Colson Whitehead The Colossus Of New York

by Colson Whitehead
Anchor (Oct 12, 2004)
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In a dazzlingly original work of nonfiction, the award-winning novelist Colson Whitehead re-creates the exuberance, the chaos, the promise, and the heartbreak of New York. Here is a literary love song that will entrance anyone who has lived in—or spent time—in the greatest of American cities.

A masterful evocation of the city that never sleeps, The Colossus of New York captures the city’s inner and outer landscapes in a series of vignettes, meditations, and personal memories. Colson Whitehead conveys with almost uncanny immediacy the feelings and thoughts of longtime residents and of newcomers who dream of making it their home; of those who have conquered its challenges; and of those who struggle against its cruelties.

Whitehead’s style is as multilayered and multifarious as New York itself: Switching from third person, to first person, to second person, he weaves individual voices into a jazzy musical composition that perfectly reflects the way we experience the city. There is a funny, knowing riff on what it feels like to arrive in New York for the first time; a lyrical meditation on how the city is transformed by an unexpected rain shower; and a wry look at the ferocious battle that is commuting. The plaintive notes of the lonely and dispossessed resound in one passage, while another captures those magical moments when the city seems to be talking directly to you, inviting you to become one with its rhythms.

The Colossus of New York is a remarkable portrait of life in the big city. Ambitious in scope, gemlike in its details, it is at once an unparalleled tribute to New York and the ideal introduction to one of the most exciting writers working today.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Coming on Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson Coming on Home Soon

by Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books (Oct 07, 2004)
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Ada Ruth’s mama must go away to Chicago to work, leaving Ada Ruth and Grandma behind. It’s war time, and women are needed to fill the men’s jobs.

As winter sets in, Ada Ruth and her grandma keep up their daily routine, missing Mama all the time. They find strength in each other, and a stray kitten even arrives one day to keep them company, but nothing can fill the hole Mama left. Every day they wait, watching for the letter that says Mama will be coming on home soon. Set during World War II, Coming On Home Soon has a timeless quality that will appeal to all who wait and hope.


Click for more detail about The African American Book of Values: Classic Moral Stories by Steve Barboza The African American Book of Values: Classic Moral Stories

by Steve Barboza
Harlem Moon (Sep 30, 2004)
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In the tradition of The Book of Virtues, author and journalist Steven Barboza has gathered together an impressive volume of poems, stories, letters, songs, folktales, and short biographies that will help guide African Americans and others solidly and securely through life’s moral and ethical dilemmas. Full-color illustrations. B&W photos & line drawings.

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Steven Barboza has fashioned a timely but also timeless book that draws shrewdly on the historic wisdom of African Americans. Voices old and new speak to us in a variety of ways about life and its lessons, about the joys and sorrows of the black experience. This is a book to be cherished. —Arnold Rampersad

Steven Barboza’s African American Book of Virtues earns my highest admiration for transcending color and exploring subjects valuable to us all. The stories and poems here provide essential lessons that will help us in our daily lives. —John Singleton

Reading Steven Barboza’s book is like listening to wisdom from a beloved grandfather or grandmother, and serves as a reminder that African Americans’ prosperity rests upon remembering and practicing our most deeply held values every day. —Eric V. Copage

From The Publisher:
In The African-American Book of Values, Steven Barboza has gathered together a wealth of stories that make up a moral map for modern living. Relying on the words and stories of (to name a few) the well-known: Langston Hughes, Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Zora Neale Hurston, Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou, Frances E.W. Harper, Malcolm X, Alex Haley, Benjamin Banneker, Phillis Wheatley—the unsung: ship captain, Robert Smalls; Underground Railroad "conductor" William Still; Stoplight inventor, Elijah McCoy (better known as the "Real McCoy") ; poet Georgia Douglas Johnson; etiquette maven Charlotte Hawkins Brown; Elizabeth Keckley, seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln; The African-American Book of Values illustrates for young and old, black and white the necessary characteristics by which we should lead our lives.

Split into two sections, "The Book of Self-Mastery" and "The Book of Empathy," and, augmented by black-and-white photos, line drawings and color illustrations, The African-American Book of Values will be a stunning "must-have" addition to African-American and American households everywhere.


Click for more detail about Dying in the Dark: A Tamara Hayle Mystery (Tamara Hayle Mysteries) by Valerie Wilson Wesley Dying in the Dark: A Tamara Hayle Mystery (Tamara Hayle Mysteries)

by Valerie Wilson Wesley
One World/Ballantine (Sep 28, 2004)
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Valerie Wilson Wesley’s Tamara Hayle mystery series featuring Newark, New Jersey’s number one private investigator are loved for their smart, sexy protagonist who “has a way with a wisecrack that is positively lethal” (Washington Post). Now in Dying in the Dark, Hayle is entrenched in a sinister investigation that will demand her best detective work yet.

Tamara Hayle’s past has come back to haunt her–literally. She’s been plagued by terrifying dreams about Celia Jones, an old friend whose walk on the wild side led her to a horrible death. Celia’s teenage son, Cecil, begs Tamara to find his mother’s killer … only to end up dead himself, stabbed through the heart.

The search for Celia and her son’s killer pulls Tamara deep into her friend’s troubled love life, where everyone adored her but somebody held a murderous  grudge. There’s her bullying thug of an ex-husband; a handsome ex-lover who woos Tamara with charm and lies; and an angry, jealous woman who claims that Celia broke her heart. And those were just the obvious people with axes to grind.

Despite her better judgment and the admonitions of the police department, Tamara refuses to back away from the mystery surrounding her old friend’s death and the tragedy that met her son. All clues lead to the past Tamara shared with Celia Jones, and Tamara fears that that past will threaten her own son. But she uncovers more than she bargained for–and unearths secrets someone would kill to keep in the shadows.


Click for more detail about The Apostles: A Novel by Y. Blak Moore The Apostles: A Novel

by Y. Blak Moore
Strivers Row (Sep 28, 2004)
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The Apostles run Chicago’s streets. Their leader, “Solemn Shawn” Terson, is the most revered–and feared–man in town. Because of his past exploits, the Apostles have a loyalty among its members that has reached mythic proportions.

When Insane Wayne, a former member of the rival gang, the Governors, comes groveling for admission to the coveted Apostles, he’s quickly turned down. His reaction is violent: He shoots a Governor and plants evidence that lays the murder rap on the Apostles, setting off a bloody series of retaliations.

Solemn Shawn is ready to give up the gang world. His pregnant girlfriend wants another way of life and the cops are hot on his tail; he knows the time has come to step aside. But he must fight one more street war before handing over the reins of his empire. The head of the Governors has a score to settle with Shawn that dates back to their prison days–and Shawn and the Apostles must fight or flee as the streets around them erupt in violence… .

Book Review

Click for more detail about Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes by Maya Angelou Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes

by Maya Angelou
Random House (Sep 21, 2004)
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Throughout Maya Angelou’s life, from her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, to her world travels as a bestselling writer, good food has played a central role. Preparing and enjoying homemade meals provides a sense of purpose and calm, accomplishment and connection. Now in Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, Angelou shares memories pithy and poignant–and the recipes that helped to make them both indelible and irreplaceable.

Angelou tells us about the time she was expelled from school for being afraid to speak–and her mother baked a delicious maple cake to brighten her spirits. She gives us her recipe for short ribs along with a story about a job she had as a cook at a Creole restaurant (never mind that she didn’t know how to cook and had no idea what Creole food might entail). There was the time in London when she attended a wretched dinner party full of wretched people; but all wasn’t lost–she did experience her initial taste of a savory onion tart. She recounts her very first night in her new home in Sonoma, California, when she invited M. F. K. Fisher over for cassoulet, and the evening Deca Mitford roasted a chicken when she was beyond tipsy–and created Chicken Drunkard Style. And then there was the hearty brunch Angelou made for a homesick Southerner, a meal that earned her both a job offer and a prophetic compliment: “If you can write half as good as you can cook, you are going to be famous.”

Maya Angelou is renowned in her wide and generous circle of friends as a marvelous chef. Her kitchen is a social center. From fried meat pies, chicken livers, and beef Wellington to caramel cake, bread pudding, and chocolate éclairs, the one hundred-plus recipes included here are all tried and true, and come from Angelou’s heart and her home. Hallelujah! The Welcome Table is a stunning collaboration between the two things Angelou loves best: writing and cooking.


Click for more detail about Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis Bud, Not Buddy

by Christopher Paul Curtis
Random House Children’s Books (Sep 14, 2004)
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It’s 1936, in Flint, Michigan, and when 10-year-old Bud decides to hit the road to find his father, nothing can stop him.


Click for more detail about Doormat by Kelly McWilliams Doormat

by Kelly McWilliams
Delacorte Books for Young Readers (Sep 14, 2004)
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What would you do your best friend got pregnant?

Fourteen-year-old Jaime is used to her best friend, Melissa, being the center of attention. Melissa wants to be a model—she’s beautiful, popular, and talented. There’s just one small problem—Melissa thinks she’s pregnant, and she wants Jaime’s help. But there’s not much Jaime can do. Melissa refuses to tell her parents; Jaime refuses to be the same old reliable doormat. She’s got a lead in the school play and a new friendship with Zach. Jaime is changing, too. And she’s sick of being stepped on!

Fifteen-year-old Kelly McWilliams’s debut novel is an inspiring story about friendship, choices, and learning how to shine.


Click for more detail about Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by Cornel West Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism

by Cornel West
Penguin Press HC, The (Sep 02, 2004)
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In his major bestseller, Race Matters, philosopher Cornel West burst onto the national scene with his searing analysis of the scars of racism in American democracy. Race Matters has become a contemporary classic, still in print after ten years, having sold more than four hundred thousand copies. A mesmerizing speaker with a host of fervidly devoted fans, West gives as many as one hundred public lectures a year and appears regularly on radio and television. Praised by The New York Times for his "ferocious moral vision" and hailed by Newsweek as "an elegant prophet with attitude," he bridges the gap between black and white opinion about the country’s problems.

In Democracy Matters, West returns to the analysis of the arrested development of democracy-both in America and in the crisis-ridden Middle East. In a strikingly original diagnosis, he argues that if America is to become a better steward of democratization around the world, we must first wake up to the long history of imperialist corruption that has plagued our own democracy. Both our failure to foster peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the crisis of Islamist anti-Americanism stem largely from hypocrisies in our dealings with the world. Racism and imperial expansionism have gone hand in hand in our country’s inexorable drive toward hegemony, and our current militarism is only the latest expression of that drive. Even as we are shocked by Islamic fundamentalism, our own brand of fundamentalism, which West dubs Constantinian Christianity, has joined forces with imperialist corporate and political elites in an unholy alliance, and four decades after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., insidious racism still inflicts debilitating psychic pain on so many of our citizens.

But there is a deep democratic tradition in America of impassioned commitment to the fight against imperialist corruptions-the last great expression of which was the civil rights movement led by Dr. King-and West brings forth the powerful voices of that great democratizing tradition in a brilliant and deeply moving call for the revival of our better democratic nature. His impassioned and provocative argument for the revitalization of America’s democracy will reshape the terms of the raging national debate about America’s role in today’s troubled world.


Click for more detail about The Red Moon: A Novel by Kuwana Haulsey The Red Moon: A Novel

by Kuwana Haulsey
One World/Ballantine (Aug 31, 2004)
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On the verge of adulthood, Nasarian–the daughter of a successful Samburu herdsman and his Somali fourth wife–finds herself trapped between the demands of her traditional tribal life and her desire to live abroad as a writer. When her parents die suddenly, Nasarian plans to escape her sheltered world, but is undermined by her scornful brother Lolorok. Appalled by Nasarian’s refusal to be circumcised and thus initiated into the traditional role of wife and mother, Lolorok allows his sister to be inherited by a distant cousin. But instead of submitting, Nasarian runs away, sparking a sweeping journey of discovery that evokes fifty years and three generations of her family history.


Click for more detail about Chinua Achebe: Collected Poems by Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe: Collected Poems

by Chinua Achebe
Anchor (Aug 10, 2004)
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Chinua Achebe is one of the founding fathers of African literature in English, a writer of world stature whose novel Things Fall Apart is one of the essential works of the twentieth century. This Collected Poems draws on his three collections of poetry, and includes seven previously unpublished poems; it reveals a lifetime of poetic engagement with politics, war and culture, inherited wisdom and the making of new futures. Achebe’s poems are ironic, generous and tender, drawing deep on the Igbo traditions of his African roots, confronting the continent’s harsh realities of violence and exploitation.


Click for more detail about Don’t The Moon Look Lonesome: A Novel In Blues And Swing by Stanley Crouch Don’t The Moon Look Lonesome: A Novel In Blues And Swing

by Stanley Crouch
Vintage (Aug 10, 2004)
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Stanley Crouch’s gloriously bold first novel provides an intimate and epic portrait of America that breaks all the rules in crossing the boundaries of race, sex, and class. Blonde Carla from South Dakota is a jazz singer who has been around the block. Almost suddenly, she finds herself fighting to hold on to Maxwell, a black tenor saxophonist from Texas. Their red-hot and sublimely tender five-year union is under siege. Those black people who oppose such relatonships in the interest of romantic entitlement or group solidarity are pressuring Maxwell, and he is wavering. As Carla battles to save the deepest love of her life, her past plays out against the present, vividly bringing forth a startlingly fresh range of characters in scenes that are as accurately drawn as they are unpredictable and innovatively conceived.


Click for more detail about Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama Dreams From My Father

by Barack Obama
Knopf (Aug 09, 2004)
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In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Pictured in lefthand photograph on cover: Habiba Akumu Hussein and Barack Obama, Sr. (President Obama’s paternal grandmother and his father as a young boy). Pictured in righthand photograph on cover: Stanley Dunham and Ann Dunham (President Obama’s maternal grandfather and his mother as a young girl).

Obama, the son of a white American mother and a black African father, writes an elegant and compelling biography that powerfully articulates America’s racial battleground and tells of his search for his place in black America.


Click for more detail about Love and Death in Brooklyn (Blades Overstreet Mystery) by Glenville Lovell Love and Death in Brooklyn (Blades Overstreet Mystery)

by Glenville Lovell
Putnam Adult (Jul 22, 2004)
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Blades Overstreet returns in an atmospheric crime novel set in that mysterious world known as Brooklyn.

Glenville Lovell’s first mystery, Too Beautiful to Die, was called a "page-turner" (New York Daily News) and "stylish entertainment" (Booklist). Now he’s back with a story ripped from today’s headlines-a brilliant young African-American politician gunned down as his career is about to take off.

Ex-cop Blades Overstreet is finally at peace. His case against the NYPD has been resolved, his estranged wife has come back, and the two of them, along with Blades’s young daughter, have settled into a nice home and a nice life. But peace is ephemeral on the mean streets of Brooklyn, and when the son of a good friend and mentor is murdered right before his eyes, Blades knows he won’t be able to rest until the killer is brought to justice.


Click for more detail about Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel by Aaron McGruder Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel

by Aaron McGruder
Crown (Jul 20, 2004)
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This scathingly hilarious political satire—produced from a collaboration of three of our funniest humorists—answers the burning question: Would anyone care if East St. Louis seceded from the Union?

East St. Louis, Illinois (“the inner city without an outer city”), is an impoverished town, so poor that Fred Fredericks, its idealistic mayor, starts off Election Day by collecting the city’s trash in his own minivan. But the mayor believes in the power of democracy and rallies his fellow citizens to the polls for the presidential election, only to find hundreds of them turned away for trumped-up reasons. Even sweet old Miss Jackson—not to mention the mayor himself—is denied the vote because her name turns up on a bogus list of felons. The national election hinges on Illinois’s electoral votes and, as a result of the mass disenfranchisement of East St. Louis, a radical right-wing junta led by a dim-witted Texas governor seizes the Oval Office.

Prodded by shady black billionaire and old friend John Roberts, Fredericks devises a radical plan of protest: East St. Louis will secede from the Union. Roberts opens an “offshore” bank (albeit in the heart of the U.S.) to finance the newly liberated country, and suddenly East St. Louis becomes the Switzerland of the American heartland, flush with money. It also begins to attract a motley circus of idealistic young militants, OPEC-funded hitmen, CIA operatives, tabloid reporters, and AWOL black servicemen eager to protect and serve the new nation.

Problems set in almost immediately: Controversies rage over the name and national anthem of the new country (they decide on the Republic of Blackland with an anthem sung to the tune of the theme from Good Times), and local thug Roscoe becomes a warlord and turns his gang into a paramilitary force. When the U.S. military begins to move in, Fredericks is forced to decide whether his protest is worth taking all the way.

Birth of a Nation starts with a scenario drawn from the botched election of 2000 and spins it into a brilliantly absurd work of sharply pointed satire. Along the way the authors lay into a host of hot social and cultural issues—skewering white supremacists, black nationalists, and everyone in between—drawing real blood and real laughs in equal measure in this riotous send-up of American politics.


Click for more detail about He-motions: Even Strong Men Struggle by T. D. Jakes He-motions: Even Strong Men Struggle

by T. D. Jakes
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Jul 15, 2004)
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T. D. Jakes has helped millions of women discover the glorious truth of who they are. His bestseller The Lady, Her Lover and Her Lord was a groundbreaking look at a woman’s most important relationships-with God, with the man in her life, and with herself-and was the first step toward hope and healing for women across the nation.

Now Bishop Jakes brings his unique perspective to this revealing look into the heart and mind of a man.

Men feel the pressure of fulfilling many roles in life: husband, father, son, businessman, and leader. Now Bishop Jakes comes to their aid with this guidebook to help every man understand his own emotional inner workings, and to offer biblically inspired direction toward being the man God wants him to be.

Practical, inspirational, and refreshingly honest, He-Motions is also the ultimate source for women who seek to comprehend and care for the men in their lives. It will help them decode men’s often-baffling behavior and will offer eye-opening insights that will bring greater intimacy and healing to their relationships.

He-Motions will bring clarity and hope to men and help them strengthen their relationships with themselves, with the women in their lives, and ultimately, with their God. It is the book that millions of men and women have been waiting for.


Click for more detail about Seeking Salamanca Mitchell: A Novel by Kenji Jasper Seeking Salamanca Mitchell: A Novel

by Kenji Jasper
Harlem Moon (Jul 13, 2004)
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The thrilling new novel of crime, music, and redemption from the acclaimed author of Dark and Dakota Grand.

Benjamin Baker knew love for the second time when his eyes met Salamanca Mitchell’s. The first time was at age 11, when he’d sat down at a piano to play his first original composition. But both of those loves are nearly destroyed when he goes to work for Alfonse Mitchell, Salamanca’s father and a prominent soul-food restaurant owner with a secret criminal life.

Seduced by the lure of easy money, Ben joins Mitchell’s den of thieves, only to earn seven years in prison when the burglary ring falls apart. As his singing group goes on to stardom without him, and Salamanca struggles to raise Ben’s daughter while on the run from her own father, he can only dream of a waiting family just beyond prison’s doors. Ben and Salamanca must each travel different roads to get back to each other, fighting against their own fears and against Alfonse Mitchell, the most tenacious enemy of all.

Told in gritty, poetic prose, Seeking Salamanca Mitchell follows two passionate hearts through the trials that keep them apart. It is an exciting story of love and danger that cements Kenji Jasper’s reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation.


Click for more detail about Drive Me Crazy by Eric Jerome Dickey Drive Me Crazy

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton Adult (Jul 01, 2004)
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Dickey’s tenth novel is packed with twists and turns, filled with titillations and poignancy. Drive Me Crazy is the latest example that "Dickey is an excellent writer at the top of his game." (Chicago Defender) After his blockbuster holiday novel, Naughty or Nice, New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey is serving up his new novel with style, sexiness, and a bit of grit. "Driver" is an ex-con trying to make his life right but who shares an expensive secret and a past affair with his boss’s wife-a woman who is nothing but trouble. Dickey’s rich characters jump off the page, making readers feel as if they are present in the hustle-filled pool hall, the bedroom, and the Lincoln Town Car that Driver chauffeurs his wealthy and notorious clients around in. Dickey’s millions of readers will be happy to see the reappearance of a femme fatale from Thieves’ Paradise, who adds spice and surprises every time she turns up. This is Dickey writing at his best-a fast-paced novel of raw emotions, softened as always with his incomparable humor and characters you will always remember.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The First Thing Smoking by Nelson Eubanks The First Thing Smoking

by Nelson Eubanks
One World/Ballantine (Jun 29, 2004)
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In dazzling, jazzlike prose that pulses with the rhythm of the street, Nelson Eubanks traces the influences on and evolution of Maceo, from impressionable adolescent to twentysomething man—each interconnected story is a snapshot of memory bursting with emotion.

In “Malta Scheffer,” nine-year-old Maceo slips out of a white world of private schools to fade back into his brown world, where stickball and dreams of glory just may provide the ticket out of poverty. “The First Thing Smoking” explores the prejudice and hatred that exist within a family, when skin color varies between darker and lighter shades of black. “Avenida Atlântica” depicts an older Maceo, now in Brazil, as he tries to escape his growing awareness of lust and desire as well as the racial strife and violence of his childhood.


Click for more detail about Passing Through by Colin Channer Passing Through

by Colin Channer
One World (Jun 29, 2004)
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From the national bestselling author of Waiting in Vain and Satisfy My Soul comes a sexy, witty collection of connected stories set on San Carlos, a tiny island with an old volcano in the Caribbean Sea.

Spanning the early 1900s up to modern times, the stories trace the intersecting lives of travelers, expatriates, and local folks in ways that shock, illuminate, and reveal. From the American photographer who finds her world disturbed by new forms of love and lust, to a charismatic priest confronted by the earthly perks of fame and stardom, the diverse mix of characters are united by the universal search for love and understanding—a challenge on an island simmering with issues of politics, power, and race.

Written with poetic grace and titillating candor, each story shines against its own tableau—World War II, the rise of Fidel Castro, Mt. Pelée devastating Martinique, import-export trading, Bob Marley in the days before his music echoed all around the world. As men and women fall in love, marry and remarry, face moral conflicts and new identities, the volcano sees it all. From plantation days to the roots of revolution, it is a silent witness to the turbulent century that engulfs this tiny island of eternal humor, passion, and allure.


Click for more detail about The Blackbird Papers: A Novel by Ian Smith The Blackbird Papers: A Novel

by Ian Smith
Doubleday (Jun 15, 2004)
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A rainy night … A stranded motorist … A Good Samaritan passerby … a Nobel Prize–winning professor … The setup for a shocking murder designed to cover up an even more sinister crime …

The Blackbird Papers marks the debut of Ian Smith, a major new talent in crime fiction, and of Sterling Bledsoe, his smart and occasionally combative sleuth.

World-renowned Dartmouth professor Wilson Bledsoe is returning from a party celebrating his latest honor when he encounters a broken-down pickup on the secluded country road to his home. The next day, the discovery of his body with a vicious racist epithet carved into his chest leads to the quick arrest of two loathsome white supremacists. The local authorities seem ready to accept the case at face value as a racial hate crime. But the murdered professor’s brother, FBI agent Sterling Bledsoe, has inserted himself into the investigation and isn’t ready to buy into this pat solution. A look around his brother’s lab and brief interviews with his students and colleagues pique Sterling’s curiosity about Wilson’s pet project: a nearly completed paper on the mysterious deaths of hundreds of local blackbirds.

Fast-paced and cleverly constructed, The Blackbird Papers introduces a major new talent in mystery and crime fiction.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Beloved by Toni Morrison Beloved

by Toni Morrison
Vintage Books (Jun 08, 2004)
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Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.

Toni Morrison’s masterpiece of a novel Beloved is based upon the true story of Margaret Garner, a fugitive slave from Kentucky, killed one of her children rather than permit her to be returned to slavery. Garner drowned in a shipwreck as she was being brought back to slavery.


Click for more detail about Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison Song of Solomon

by Toni Morrison
Vintage Books (Jun 08, 2004)
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Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, Morrison introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized black world.


Click for more detail about Sula by Toni Morrison Sula

by Toni Morrison
Vintage Books (Jun 08, 2004)
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Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Their devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.


Click for more detail about Tar Baby by Toni Morrison Tar Baby

by Toni Morrison
Vintage Books (Jun 08, 2004)
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Ravishingly beautiful and emotionally incendiary, Tar Baby is Toni Morrison’s reinvention of the love story. Jadine Childs is a black fashion model with a white patron, a white boyfriend, and a coat made out of ninety perfect sealskins. Son is a black fugitive who embodies everything she loathes and desires. As Morrison follows their affair, which plays out from the Caribbean to Manhattan and the deep South, she charts all the nuances of obligation and betrayal between blacks and whites, masters and servants, and men and women.


Click for more detail about Jazz by Toni Morrison Jazz

by Toni Morrison
Vintage Books (Jun 08, 2004)
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In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks the girl’s corpse. This passionate, profound story of love and obsession brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep realities of black urban life.


Click for more detail about Dad Interrupted: A Novel by Van Whitfield Dad Interrupted: A Novel

by Van Whitfield
Harlem Moon (Jun 08, 2004)
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Single guy Shawn Wayne has a problem … actually he has three problems:

(1) His girlfriend, a no-nonsense TV star named Dawn, expects the New Year’s broadcast of her new BET talk show to produce a long-awaited proposal from Shawn.

(2) His “sort-of” ex-girlfriend, the shapely and seductive Troi, announces that she’s pregnant and coming to be with Shawn in Washington, D.C.

(3) Shawn doesn’t know if the baby is his, though he would never deny it, and now he must decide if he should tell Dawn about the baby. He simply can’t afford to risk losing his one and only soul mate without first knowing he is, indeed, the father.

Shawn’s embarrassing, nationally televised confession is the centerpiece of this much-anticipated follow-up to Van Whitfield’s smash debut romantic comedy, Beeperless Remote. Taking an uncompromising and revealing look at the state of black fatherhood, this hilarious new novel includes the Official “Baby Mama” Checklist, the Why Men Are Lost Quotient, and the What It Takes to Be a Dad Inventory.

With Whitfield’s trademarked witty, fast-paced style, Dad Interrupted brings back Donnie, the recovering crack addict who now works as a drug counselor; Kelly, whose crush on Shawn may finally be realized; and Shawn’s lovable parents, who spin their special brand of wisdom from the great beyond. Everybody has a take on what Shawn should do and, more importantly, who he should do it with … Dawn or Troi.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Last King: A Maceo Redfield Novel (Strivers Row) by Nichelle D. Tramble The Last King: A Maceo Redfield Novel (Strivers Row)

by Nichelle D. Tramble
Strivers Row (Jun 01, 2004)
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“After two years of drifting I finally knew there was only one place that could offer me a shot at peace, and that was my hometown. The city was my crossroads, the crooked man with the slanted grin, my temptation, and I wanted to beat it. I wanted to win… .”

Two years after leaving Oakland, Maceo Redfield returns to the city, where NBA All-Star Cornelius “Cotton” Knox has become tangled up in the murder of a local call girl. What could easily become a story for the tabloids turns personal when Maceo realizes that his estranged friend Holly Ford has also been linked to the crime.

Maceo’s guilt at disappearing, coupled with a heartfelt plea for help from his Aunt Cissy, becomes a potent combination for a man seeking redemption. Taking it upon himself to clear his friend, Maceo stays one step ahead of the police as he traverses the dark corners of the San Francisco Bay Area. And in his quest for the truth, Maceo teams with a sultry con artist named Sonny Boston, “an eight-cylinder chick with bodies in her past.” While navigating the shifting alliances of a territory war, Maceo must also fight off an unseen enemy, a ruthless man with connections to Oakland, who came to town with two things in mind: destroying Holly and eliminating anybody who gets in his way.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Trouble Man: A Novel (Strivers Row) by Travis Hunter Trouble Man: A Novel (Strivers Row)

by Travis Hunter
Strivers Row (Jun 01, 2004)
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Growing up on Philadelphia’s gritty streets, Jermaine Banks was used to fighting, but life has now thrown him some unexpected hooks and jabs. Almost thirty years old, with a three-year-old son who worships the ground he walks on, a pregnant girlfriend whose family hates every breath he takes, and a slain best friend whose death racks him with guilt, Jermaine realizes it’s time to change. But can he step up to the challenge, or will he continue to be a trouble man?


Click for more detail about Floating: A Novel by Nicole Bailey-Williams Floating: A Novel

by Nicole Bailey-Williams
Broadway Books (May 11, 2004)
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From the gifted author of A Little Piece of Sky: The poignant tale of a young woman who must come to terms with her biracial identity.

Shana Washington is the product of two very different worlds. Her white mother is a socialite with an Ivy League education; Shana’s black father has a weakness for whiskey and can’t stay faithful to any woman, but when his daughter is in peril, he always finds a way to rescue her. Hauntingly evoking the worlds represented by these three characters, Floating follows the life of Shana as she seeks acceptance—and wholeness—from white and black communities that both turn her away. When she begins a college romance with Lionel, a handsome track star with bronze-colored skin, her dreams of finding a soulmate seem tantalizingly close to coming true. Yet Lionel’s childhood demons are even more vicious than Shana’s, threatening the fragile love they can’t admit to needing.

Tracing the themes of identity, healing, and self-acceptance that won such acclaim for her debut novel, Nicole Bailey-Williams now shares a provocative new storyline for anyone who has faith in the power of self-discovery.


Click for more detail about The Full Matilda: A Novel by David Haynes The Full Matilda: A Novel

by David Haynes
Broadway Books (May 11, 2004)
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Matilda Housewright hails from a long line of venerable and well-respected African American retainers—her family has been in “service” for generations, serving Washington, D.C., politicos and other upper-crust families. The daughter of the indispensable majordomo Jacob Housewright, Matilda grew up in the house of a powerful D.C. senator and learned how to be a hostess extraordinaire—and has perfected the art of service. But after her father dies and she starts a catering business with her brother, Matilda begins to question who she is and what, exactly, she’s serving. Told in the voices of the men in her life, with connecting interludes from Matilda, the reader indeed gets The Full Matilda, a glorious glimpse inside the intriguing life of a captivating woman in the midst of change as she maneuvers through a web of secrets, expectations, and worn-out social mores.


Click for more detail about Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story by Timothy B. Tyson Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story

by Timothy B. Tyson
Crown (May 08, 2004)
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“Daddy and Roger and ’em shot ’em a nigger.”

Those words, whispered to ten-year-old Tim Tyson by one of his playmates in the late spring of 1970, heralded a firestorm that would forever transform the small tobacco market town of Oxford, North Carolina.

On May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow, a 23-year-old black veteran, walked into a crossroads store owned by Robert Teel, a rough man with a criminal record and ties to the Ku Klux Klan, and came out running. Teel and two of his sons chased Marrow, beat him unmercifully, and killed him in public as he pleaded for his life. In the words of a local prosecutor: “They shot him like you or I would kill a snake."

Like many small Southern towns, Oxford had barely been touched by the civil rights movement. But in the wake of the killing, young African Americans took to the streets, led by 22-year-old Ben Chavis, a future president of the NAACP. As mass protests crowded the town square, a cluster of returning Vietnam veterans organized what one termed “a military operation.” While lawyers battled in the courthouse that summer in a drama that one termed “a Perry Mason kind of thing,” the Ku Klux Klan raged in the shadows and black veterans torched the town’ s tobacco warehouses.

With large sections of the town in flames, Tyson’ s father, the pastor of Oxford’ s all-white Methodist church, pressed his congregation to widen their vision of humanity and pushed the town to come to terms with its bloody racial history. In the end, however, the Tyson family was forced to move away.

Years later, historian Tim Tyson returned to Oxford to ask Robert Teel why he and his sons had killed Henry Marrow. “That nigger committed suicide, coming in here wanting to four-letter-word my daughter-in-law,” Teel explained.

The black radicals who burned much of Oxford also told Tim their stories. “It was like we had a cash register up there at the pool hall, just ringing up how much money we done cost these white people,” one of them explained. “We knew if we cost ’ em enough goddamn money they was gonna start changing some things.”

In the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird, Blood Done Sign My Name is a classic work of conscience, a defining portrait of a time and place that we will never forget. Tim Tyson’ s riveting narrative of that fiery summer and one family’ s struggle to build bridges in a time of destruction brings gritty blues truth, soaring gospel vision, and down-home humor to our complex history, where violence and faith, courage and evil, despair and hope all mingle to illuminate America’ s enduring chasm of race.


Click for more detail about Blinking Red Light by Mister Mann Frisby Blinking Red Light

by Mister Mann Frisby
Riverhead Trade (May 04, 2004)
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The hardcore hip-hop debut novel from a natural born storyteller.

"I had all this s-racing through my head. I figured that if the pigs was asking about Dex then they had to know he was rolling with somebody which meant they was going to be looking for me too…"

Blinking Red Light is a story of temptation and betrayal, where sex looks easy but the stakes are way higher than the players could have known.

When Dexter and a longtime friend come across a sweet hook up, it’s a deal neither can refuse: they are paid large sums of money to sleep with women with no strings attached… part of a blackmail ring that quickly backfires. Soon the two are caught in a predicament with lethal consequences. Twists and turns come flying at them full speed from the rugged streets of North Philly to the eerie back roads of North Carolina.

Blinking Red Light is fast-paced and intriguing, from its opening line to the shocking conclusion——-a thrilling ride about the madness that ensues when easy money comes a man’s way.


Click for more detail about Success Never Smelled So Sweet: How I Followed My Nose and Found My Passion by Lisa Price and Hilary Beard Success Never Smelled So Sweet: How I Followed My Nose and Found My Passion

by Lisa Price and Hilary Beard
One World/Ballantine (Apr 27, 2004)
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In this remarkable memoir, Lisa Price shares the extraordinary story of how she went from bankruptcy to successful entrepreneur—grossing more than two million a year while working from her very own Brooklyn home. Intoxicated by fragrance and scent even as a child, Lisa was famous among her friends for always smelling good. She never imagined that the oils she enjoyed mixing up for her own pleasure would give way to the hugely popular “Carol’s Daughter,” a luxurious, all-natural line of bath and beauty products.

How did a young black woman in financial straits, unable to get a business loan and deeply in debt, churn out a multi-million dollar enterprise? With $100 in cash, her own kitchen, and the simple notion that people should follow their hearts (which Lisa did by following her nose!) But first Lisa had to face down her demons—her fears about money, low self-esteem, and a history of failed relationships. But as she tackled each problem, her confidence soared and her business was unstoppable. She met her husband and business partner, began a family, and bought a large, beautiful space in her Brooklyn neighborhood to sell her products—favorites like Honey Pudding, Mango Body Butter, and Jamaican Punch that stars such as Halle Berry, Erykah Badu, Maya Angelou, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Rosie Perez buy religiously.

In Success Never Smelled So Sweet, Lisa Price charts her amazing journey in lively, down-to-earth stories about her childhood growing up in Brooklyn and the often unexpected “accidents” in the kitchen that led to her bestselling scents. From the early cultivation of her sensory gift through cooking with her Trinidadian grandmother to her painful years in a rigid school system where she was berated by teachers and bullied by kids, Lisa speaks tenderly and wisely about the subtle ways in which life can guide us to our inner truth—even as it throws out difficult obstacles along the way.

For any woman who has ever longed to leave the nine-to-five grind and work successfully from home, Lisa Price’s story is a must-read. Filled with inspiring anecdotes, life advice from her own mother, Carol, and the recipes for some of her best-loved products, Success Never Smelled So Sweet is a book to read by candlelight while soaking in a silky rose-milk bath.


Click for more detail about A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa by Howard W. French A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa

by Howard W. French
Knopf (Apr 20, 2004)
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Africa first captivated New York Times journalist Howard W. French more than twenty-five years ago, but his knowledge of and passion for the continent has the depth of a lifetime association. His experiences there awakened him as nothing before to the selfishness and shortsightedness of the rich, the suffering and dignity of the poor and the uses and abuses of power. And in this powerfully written, profoundly felt book, he gives us an unstinting account of the disastrous consequences of the fateful, centuries-old encounter between Africa and the West.

French delineates the betrayal and greed of the West–often aided and abetted by Africa’s own leaders–that have given rise to the increasing exploitation of Africa’s natural resources and its human beings. Coarse self-interest and outright greed once generated a need for the continent’s rubber, cotton, gold and diamonds, not to mention slaves; now the attractions include offshore oil reserves and minerals like coltan, which powers cellular phones.

He takes us inside Nigeria, Liberia, Mali and the Congo, examining with unusual insight the legacy of colonization in the lives of contemporary Africans. He looks at the tragedies of the AIDS epidemic, the Ebola outbreak and the genocide that resulted in millions of deaths in Rwanda and the Congo. He makes clear the systematic failure of Western political leaders–the nurturers of tyrants such as Mobuto Sese Seko and Laurent Kabila, whose stories are told here in full detail–and the brutal excesses of the CIA.

In helping us to better understand the continent, and indeed Africans themselves, French helps us see as well the hope and possibility that lie in the myriad cultural strengths of Africa.


On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of ’Straight’ Black Men Who Sleep with Men

by J. L. King
Broadway Books (Apr 14, 2004)
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A bold exposé of the controversial secret that has potentially dire consequences in many African American communities

Delivering the first frank and thorough investigation of life “on the down low” (the DL), J. L. King exposes a closeted culture of sex between black men who lead “straight” lives. King explores his own past as a DL man, and the path that led him to let go of the lies and bring forth a message that can promote emotional healing and open discussions about relationships, sex, sexuality, and health in the black community.

Providing a long-overdue wake-up call, J. L. King bravely puts the spotlight on a topic that has until now remained dangerously taboo. Drawn from hundreds of interviews, statistics, and the author’s firsthand knowledge of DL behavior, On the Down Low reveals the warning signs African American women need to know. King also discusses the potential health consequences of having unprotected sex, as African American women represent an alarming 64 percent of new HIV infections. Volatile yet vital, On the Down Low is sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year.


Click for more detail about Getting Mother’s Body: A Novel by Suzan-Lori Parks Getting Mother’s Body: A Novel

by Suzan-Lori Parks
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Apr 13, 2004)
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Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks’s wildly original debut novel, Getting Mother’s Body, follows pregnant, unmarried Billy Beede and her down-and-out family in 1960s Texas as they search for the storied jewels buried—or were they?


Click for more detail about Camilla’s Roses by Bernice L. McFadden Camilla’s Roses

by Bernice L. McFadden
Dutton Adult (Apr 01, 2004)
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The poignant tale of a woman who discovers the fragility of life and the strength of a family’s love, from an author praised by Toni Morrison for “…searing, expertly imagined scenes.&rsdquo;

Known for bringing to life a host of endearing characters who reveal tender truths about humanity, Bernice L. McFadden now turns her storytelling talents to an unforgettable and deeply troubled woman named Camilla.

Unfolding in a progression of stirring and powerful chapters, Camilla’s Roses presents a life haunted by the past. Camilla’s childhood was immersed in chaos and love, and steeped in the myth of perfection. As an adult, she never looked back, refusing to acknowledge the people and places that had scarred her so many years ago. But a legacy of cancer proves inescapable, forcing Camilla to embrace the past—no matter how painful it may be—and to salvage what is left of her love in order to save her daughter. As Camilla discovers the bittersweet limitations of motherhood and reconciliation, she also awakens an inspiring message about the mortality issues we all must face.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Louie by Ezra Jack Keats Louie

by Ezra Jack Keats
Puffin Books (Mar 30, 2004)
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Susie and Roberto are putting on a puppet show and all of their friends have come to see it, including she Louie. As the show begins, Louie becomes fascinated by the smiling puppet Gussie and shouts "Hello!" in front of a silent audience. After the show, Louie goes home and dreams about Gussie. When he wakes up, he discovers that his friends have left a gift for him. This classic Ezra Jack Keats story of love and generosity is as meaningful today as when it was first published more than twenty years ago.


Click for more detail about A Woman’s Worth: A Novel (Strivers Row) by Tracy Price-Thompson A Woman’s Worth: A Novel (Strivers Row)

by Tracy Price-Thompson
One World/Ballantine (Mar 30, 2004)
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Embracing the shattered pieces of the soul and championing the resilient nature of the heart, A Woman’s Worth takes readers on a journey of startling depth. From a speakeasy whorehouse in the bottoms of Alabama to a luxurious high-rise apartment in Kenya, acclaimed author Tracy Price-Thompson crosses boundaries of sexuality, gender, and culture to accentuate the core of black identity: the enormous strength of family.

“Ain’t nothing like a Black man. No other man on the face of the earth can hold a light up to him, coming or going. Why do you think women are all the time chasing behind them? Smooth game and all, when a brotha loves you, he loves you right.”
—from A Woman’s Worth

Abeni Omorru is a stunning Kenyan woman who is haunted by piercing memories. Although her father’s wealth ensures her a life of prestige, childhood trauma has left her emotionally damaged and sexually promiscuous. While Abeni takes on many lovers, none come close to healing the wounds of her heart—and only a man who understands her worth can truly claim her soul.

Bishop Johnson is also haunted by his past. Raised by prostitutes in a rural Alabama town, he is a promising teenage boxer—until his dreams are shattered when his parents are murdered during a violent robbery and he takes revenge on the perpetrators. Bishop goes to jail, and when he is released he has a volatile temper and a mean left hook to back it up.

Trouble continues to find Bishop, and he is forced to leave Alabama and travel to Kenya with the Peace Corps. There he falls in love with Abeni, and they marry. When Bishop learns the secret of Abeni’s past, he is force to make a decision that may cost him more than one man should ever have to sacrifice.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Angry Black Woman’s Guide To Life by Denene Millner, Angela Burt-Murray, and Mitzi Miller The Angry Black Woman’s Guide To Life

by Denene Millner, Angela Burt-Murray, and Mitzi Miller
Plume (Mar 30, 2004)
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The smart, sassy guide to embracing your inner Angry Black Woman

Rosa Parks, Claire Huxtable, Serena Williams. What do these women have in common? They are all Angry Black Women, whether they know it or not.

Throughout history, women’s attempts to stand up for themselves have been dismissed as the ramblings of "angry women." But there’s a method to their madness. Using quizzes, historical references, career advice, and irreverent Top 10 lists such as "Top 10 Signs That You Should Prepare to Meet Your Maker," The Angry Black Woman’s Guide to Life will help you find out what type of ABW you are, and empower you to be the best ABW you could possibly be-and have your loved ones live to tell about it.

A lively look at the art of being a true Angry Black Woman-from her relationships to her career to her family-this hip, hysterical manifesto is the perfect gift for all of the ABWs in your life-no matter what their type!


Click for more detail about Listen to Your Life: Following Your Unique Path to Extraordinary Success by Valorie Burton Listen to Your Life: Following Your Unique Path to Extraordinary Success

by Valorie Burton
WaterBrook Press (Mar 16, 2004)
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A Better Life Is Calling. Are You Ready to Answer?

Consider the current state of your life: your work, your relationships, your accomplishments. Are you in the place you’d hoped or expected to be? Is this the best life you could be living? Or is something missing-something you have not yet discovered or articulated that could lead you to the rich, fulfilling life you desire?

Fulfill Your Purpose. Decrease Your Stress. Expand Your Life.

In your spirit you know the truth: You were born to walk a more fulfilling path, where the definition of success is tailored to your unique gifts and talents. Author, speaker, and life coach Valorie Burton will help you find this path and step onto it with confidence.

In Listen to Your Life, you will discover powerful strategies and tools that will enable you to hear what your life is saying to you, take action, and finally live in the abundance of joy, purpose, and true success for which you were created.


Click for more detail about Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth: New Poems by Alice Walker Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth: New Poems

by Alice Walker
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Mar 09, 2004)
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In this exquisite book, Alice Walker’s first new collection of poetry since 1991, are poems that reaffirm her as “one of the best American writers of today” (The Washington Post). The forces of nature and the strength of the human spirit inspire the poems in Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth. Alice Walker opens us to feeling and understanding, with poems that cover a broad spectrum of emotions. With profound artistry, Walker searches for, discovers, and declares the fundamental beauty of existence, as she explores what it means to experience life fully, to learn from it, and to grow both as an individual and as part of a greater spiritual community. About Walker’s Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful, America said, “In the tradition of Whitman, Walker sings, celebrates and agonizes over the ordinary vicissitudes that link and separate all of humankind,” and the same can be said about this astonishing new collection, Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth.


Click for more detail about Sweets: A Collection of Soul Food Desserts and Memories by Patty Pinner Sweets: A Collection of Soul Food Desserts and Memories

by Patty Pinner
Ten Speed Press (Mar 01, 2004)
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Growing up in a large African-American family in a small town in Michigan, Patty Pinner spent her childhood helping the women of the house-the Queens of Soul Food-whip up the sweet treats that crowned family dinners, neighborhood gatherings, and church socials. In SWEETS, Patty shares her family’s stories, maxims, and magical desserts, many named after family members like Cud’n Daisy, Aint Sug, and My My, her beloved grandmother. Part recipe book, part family history, this sweet-as-can-be cookbook is a heartfelt tribute to women who ruled the home and the kitchen with their wisdom, hearts, and cooking.


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Click for more detail about The Fall of the Towers by Samuel R. Delany The Fall of the Towers

by Samuel R. Delany
Vintage (Feb 10, 2004)
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Come and enter Samuel Delany’s tomorow, in this trilogy of high adventure, with acrobats and urchins, criminals and courtiers, fishermen and factory-workers, madmen and mind-readers, dwarves and ducheses, giants and geniuses, merchants and mathematicians, soldiers and scholars, pirates and poets, and a gallery of aliens who fly, crawl, burrow, or swim.


Click for more detail about Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

by ZZ Packer
Riverhead Books (Feb 03, 2004)
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Chosen by John Updike as a Today Show Book Club Pick.Already an award-winning writer, ZZ Packer now shares with us her debut, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Her impressive range and talent are abundantly evident: Packer dazzles with her command of language, surprising and delighting us with unexpected turns and indelible images, as she takes us into the lives of characters on the periphery, unsure of where they belong. We meet a Brownie troop of black girls who are confronted with a troop of white girls; a young man who goes with his father to the Million Man March and must decides where his allegiance lies; an international group of drifters in Japan, who are starving, unable to find work; a girl in a Baltimore ghetto who has dreams of the larger world she has seen only on the screens in the television store nearby, where the Lithuanian shopkeeper holds out hope for attaining his own American Dream.With penetrating insight that belies her youth she was only nineteen years old when Seventeen magazine printed her first published story ZZ Packer helps us see the world with a clearer vision. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a striking performance—fresh, versatile, and captivating. It introduces us to an arresting and unforgettable new voice.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man from His Native Land by Randall Robinson Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man from His Native Land

by Randall Robinson
Dutton Adult (Jan 26, 2004)
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Bestselling author Randall Robinson, one of our nation’s most distinguished African-American leaders, returns with a book certain to be as important and controversial as his classic book on reparations, The Debt.

The man hailed by Cornel West as "the greatest pro-Africa freedom fighter of his generation in America" makes a striking departure, figuratively and literally: He leaves America for a life in the Caribbean.

Randall Robinson is quitting America, and this book charts his journey from the most powerful nation on earth to the tiny tropical island where his wife was born. His search for a more peaceful and hospitable place grew out of the disappointment and increasing sense of abandonment he felt in the land of his own birth-an America that has sapped the creative energies of his race and "transfigured humanity."

Here, in a culture that is as different from America as black is from white, Robinson shares his feelings about the need to escape the racism he has fought all his life. Yet even while he lives among his wife’s people, America is never far from his mind. He discusses the current state of political and socioeconomic affairs in our country, and why the leadership we have put in place will continue to fall short of our expectations.

Another stirring example of the astonishing breadth and scope of Randall Robinson’s vision, Quitting America demonstrates once again why he is one of the most profound and provocative thinkers of our time.


Click for more detail about The End of Blackness by Debra J. Dickerson The End of Blackness

by Debra J. Dickerson
Pantheon Books (Jan 13, 2004)
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“This book will prove and promote the idea that the concept of ‘blackness,’ as it has come to be understood, is rapidly losing its ability to describe, let alone predict or manipulate, the political and social behavior of African Americans.” Such is the explosive enterprise of what is sure to be one of the most
controversial books of recent times.

How has the notion of “blackness” bamboozled African Americans into an unhealthy obsession with white America? What are the deleterious consequences of this? How has “blackness” diminished the sovereignty of African Americans as rational and moral beings? How has white America exploited the concept to sublimate its rage toward and contempt for black America? Is American racism an intractable malaise, and who gets to decide when the past is over?

In this unstinting, keen, and brutally funny manifesto, Debra Dickerson critiques “race” as a bankrupt scientific and social construct, exposing the insidious, manipulative racial myths and prejudices still held by American blacks and whites. She examines much statistical rubbish that passes for sociological fact, the purposeful corruption of American history, and the resulting social ills and pathologies bedeviling both the black and white communities.

She bravely argues that, whether or not African Americans still have a moral claim against this country, they must now be fiercely self-reliant, ignoring the hackneyed presuppositions and expectations of whites and other blacks still stuck in tired and fruitless ways of thinking.

As the New York Times remarked about her highly acclaimed memoir, An American Story, “it is a startling thing to hear an American speak as frankly and un-self-servingly about race as Dickerson does.”


Click for more detail about Keeping the Faith: Stories of Love, Courage, Healing, and Hope from Black America by Tavis Smiley Keeping the Faith: Stories of Love, Courage, Healing, and Hope from Black America

by Tavis Smiley
Anchor (Jan 06, 2004)
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In Keeping the Faith, nationally acclaimed author and commentator Tavis Smiley, host of NPR’s The Tavis Smiley Show, weaves stories of over one hundred African Americans into a rich tapestry of intimate testimonies about life, love, and inner strength. In Smiley’s affirming collection, black Americans from all walks of life join with well known figures such as Iyanla Vanzant, Cornel West, and Danny Glover to offer insights about the moments that challenged them to learn, the teachers who inspired them to grow, and the sources of hope and courage they draw on in their daily lives. Certain to be of abiding value to readers everywhere, Keeping the Faith offers rich lessons about loss and healing, wisdom and fulfillment, perseverance and the wellsprings of joy.


Click for more detail about Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, And Adoption by Randall Kennedy Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, And Adoption

by Randall Kennedy
Vintage (Jan 06, 2004)
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In Interracial Intimacies, Randall Kennedy hits a nerve at the center of American society: race relations and our most intimate ties to each other. Writing with the same piercing intelligence he brought to his national bestseller Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, Kennedy here challenges us to examine how prejudices and biases still fuel fears and inform our sexual, marital, and family choices.

Analyzing the tremendous changes in the history of America’s racial dynamics, Kennedy takes us from the injustices of the slave era up to present-day battles over race matching adoption policies, which seek to pair children with adults of the same race. He tackles such subjects as the presence of sex in racial politics, the historic role of legal institutions in policing racial boundaries, and the real and imagined pleasures that have attended interracial intimacy. A bracing, much-needed look at the way we have lived in the past, Interracial Intimacies is also a hopeful book, offering a potent vision of our future as a multiracial democracy.


Click for more detail about The Dear One by Jacqueline Woodson The Dear One

by Jacqueline Woodson
Putnam Juvenile (Jan 05, 2004)
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Having had her mother all to herself for most of her life, Feni’s perfect world is disrupted when Rebecca, the fifteen-year-old daughter of her mother’s friend, comes to live with them, but through time and patience, the two girls realize that they can benefit from one another if only they open themselves to the possibilities of a friendship. Simultaneous.


Click for more detail about Violet’s Music by Angela Johnson Violet’s Music

by Angela Johnson
Dial Books (Jan 05, 2004)
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There’s nothing Violet loves more than music, and she plays or sings every chance she gets. But where are the other kids like her-kids who think and dream music all day long? As a baby, in kindergarten, at the beach and the zoo, she never gives up looking for companions. And then one summer day…

Bright, lively, and lyrical, this is a book for kids who march to a different drummer. Violet’s Music sings to us that the right friend is always out there-as long as we keep looking and hoping, and above all, staying true to ourselves.


Click for more detail about Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights by Tananarive Due Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights

by Tananarive Due
One World (Dec 30, 2003)
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Patricia Stephens Due fought for justice during the height of the Civil Rights era. Her daughter, Tananarive, grew up deeply enmeshed in the values of a family committed to making right whatever they saw as wrong. Together, in alternating chapters, they have written a paean to the movement—its hardships, its nameless foot soldiers, and its achievements—and an incisive examination of the future of justice in this country. Their mother-daughter journey spanning two generations of struggles is an unforgettable story.

Patricia Stephens Due fought for justice during the height of the Civil Rights era, surrendering her very freedom to ensure that the rights of others might someday be protected. Her daughter, Tananarive, grew up deeply enmeshed in the values of a family committed to making right whatever they saw as wrong. Together, they have written a paean to the movement’its struggles, its nameless foot-soldiers, and its achievements’and an incisive examination of the future of justice in this country. Their mother-daughter journey spanning the struggles of two generations is an unforgettable story.


Patricia Stephens Due was a civil rights activist with CORE while attending Florida A&M University. In 1960, based on her nonviolent stand during a landmark jail-in, she received the prestigious Gandhi Award. She is married to a civil rights lawyer, has three daughters, and continues to work for change in America. Over the years, she has conducted civil rights workshops and re-enactments for colleges, public schools, civic groups, and churches. She lives in Miami, Florida, with her husband, John Due. Photo: Troy Johnson

In 1960, when she was a student at Florida A&M University, Patricia and her sister Priscilla were part of the movement’s landmark ’jail-in,’ the first time during the student sit-in movement when protestors served their time rather than paying a fine. She and her sister, and three FAMU students, spent forty-nine days behind bars rather than pay for the ’crime’ of sitting at a Woolworth lunch counter. Thus began a lifelong commitment to human rights. Patricia and her husband, civil rights lawyer John Due, worked tirelessly with many of the movement’s greatest figures throughout the sixties to bring about change, particularly in the Deep Southern state of Florida.

Freedom in the Family chronicles these years with fascinating, raw power. Featuring interviews with civil rights leaders like Black Panther Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture) and ordinary citizens whose heroism has been largely unknown, this is a sweeping, multivoicedaccount of the battle for civil rights in America. It also reveals those leaders’ potentially controversial feelings about the current state of our nation, a country where police brutality and crippling disparities for blacks and whites in health care, education, employment, and criminal justice still exist today.

A mother writes so that the civil liberties she struggled for are not eroded, so that others will take up the mantle and continue to fight against injustice and discrimination. Her daughter, as part of the integration generation, writes to say thank you, to show the previous generation how very much they’ve done and how much better off she is for their effort’despite all the work that remains. Their combined message is remarkable, moving, and important. It makes for riveting reading.


Click for more detail about The Red Rose Box by Brenda Woods The Red Rose Box

by Brenda Woods
Penguin Young Readers Group (Dec 29, 2003)
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On her tenth birthday, Leah receives a surprise gift from glamorous Aunt Olivia, Mama’s only sister, who lives in Los Angeles. It is a red rose box. Not many people in 1958 Louisiana have seen such a beautiful traveling case, covered with red roses, filled with jewelry, silk bedclothes, expensive soaps…and train tickets to California. Soon after, Leah and her sister, Ruth, find themselves in Hollywood, far away from cotton fields and Jim Crow laws. To Leah, California feels like freedom. But when disaster strikes back home, Leah and Ruth have to stay with Aunt Olivia permanently. Will freedom ever feel like home?


Click for more detail about Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes Bronx Masquerade

by Nikki Grimes
Penguin Young Readers Group (Dec 29, 2003)
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A Coretta Scott King Award winner!

Using the structure of a poetry slam, Nikki Grimes’ award-winning novel is a powerful exploration of self, an homage to spoken-word poetry, and an intriguing look into the life of eighteen urban teens. This anniversary edition—celebrating ten years of this wonderfully evocative work—will feature discussion questions, testimonials from teachers, and an all new introduction from the author.

"All of the [students], black, Latino, white, male, and female, talk about the unease and alienation endemic to their ages, and they do it in fresh and appealing voices. Rich and complex."
—Kirkus Reviews

"As always, Grimes gives young people exactly what they’re looking for—real characters who show them they are not alone."
—School Library Journal

"Readers will enjoy the lively, smart voices that talk bravely, about real issues and secret fears. A fantastic choice."
—Booklist


Click for more detail about Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters by Carla Kaplan Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters

by Carla Kaplan
Anchor (Dec 02, 2003)
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A landmark collection of more than five hundred letters written by Zora Neale Hurston, a woman at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance, an author who remains one of the most intriguing people in American cultural history.

Alice Walker’s 1975 Ms. magazine article "Looking for Zora" reintroduced Zora Neale Hurston to the American literary landscape, and ushered in a virtual renaissance for a writer who was a bestselling author at her peak in the 1930s, but died penniless and in obscurity some three decades later.

Since that rediscovery of novelist, anthropologist, playwright, folklorist, essayist, and poet Zora Neale Hurston, her books—from the classic love story Their Eyes Were Watching God to her controversial autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road—have sold millions of copies. Hurston is now taught in American, African American, and women’s studies courses in high schools and universities from coast to coast.

Now, in Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters, the fascinating life of one of the most enigmatic literary figures of the twentieth century comes alive. Through letters to Harlem Renaissance friends Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Dorothy West, and Carl Van Vechten, and to bestselling author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Fannie Hurst, among others, readers experience the exuberance and trials of Hurston’s life. Her letters to her patron, Mrs. Charlotte "Godmother" Osgood Mason, are laced with equal amounts of cynicism and reverence, and offer a fascinating glimpse of the perilously thin line Hurston tread to maintain vital monetary support as she pursued her art and avant-garde lifestyle (which included crossing the country collecting folklore, and a job as story editor at Paramount Pictures in the 1940s).

Meticulously edited and annotated, this landmark collection of letters will provide her fans, as well as those discovering Hurston for the first time, with a penetrating and profound portrait into the life, writings (four novels, a play, an autobiography, and countless essays), and impressive imagination of one of the most amazing characters to grace American letters. 


Click for more detail about The Land by Mildred D. Taylor The Land

by Mildred D. Taylor
Penguin Young Readers Group (Dec 01, 2003)
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The son of a prosperous landowner and a former slave, Paul-Edward Logan is unlike any other boy he knows. His white father has acknowledged him and raised him openly-something unusual in post-Civil War Georgia. But as he grows into a man he learns that life for someone like him is not easy. Black people distrust him because he looks white. White people discriminate against him when they learn of his black heritage. Even within his own family he faces betrayal and degradation. So at the age of fourteen, he sets out toward the only dream he has ever had: to find land every bit as good as his father’s, and make it his own. Once again inspired by her own history, Ms. Taylor brings truth and power to the newest addition to the award-winning Logan family stories.


Click for more detail about Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Living to Tell the Tale

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Knopf (Nov 04, 2003)
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In this long-awaited first volume of a planned trilogy, the most acclaimed and revered living Nobel laureate begins to tell us the story of his life.

Like all his work, Living to Tell the Tale is a magnificent piece of writing. It spans Gabriel García Márquez’s life from his birth in 1927 through the start of his career as a writer to the moment in the 1950s when he proposed to the woman who would become his wife. It has the shape, the quality, and the vividness of a conversation with the reader—a tale of people, places, and events as they occur to him: the colorful stories of his eccentric family members; the great influence of his mother and maternal grandfather; his consuming career in journalism, and the friends and mentors who encouraged him; the myths and mysteries of his beloved Colombia; personal details, undisclosed until now, that would appear later, transmuted and transposed, in his fiction; and, above all, his fervent desire to become a writer. And, as in his fiction, the narrator here is an inspired observer of the physical world, able to make clear the emotions and passions that lie at the heart of a life—in this instance, his own.

Living to Tell the Tale is a radiant, powerful, and beguiling memoir that gives us the formation of Gabriel García Márquez as a writer and as a man.


Click for more detail about Love by Toni Morrison Love

by Toni Morrison
Knopf (Oct 28, 2003)
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May, Christine, Heed, Junior, Vida–even L: all women obsessed with Bill Cosey. The wealthy owner of the famous Cosey’s Hotel and Resort, he shapes their yearnings for father, husband, lover, guardian, and friend, yearnings that dominate the lives of these women long after his death. Yet while he is either the void in, or the center of, their stories, he himself is driven by secret forces–a troubled past and a spellbinding woman named Celestial.

This audacious exploration into the nature of love–its appetite, its sublime possession, its dread–is rich in characters, striking scenes, and a profound understanding of how alive the past can be.

A major addition to the canon of one of the world’s literary masters.

Book Review

Click for more detail about A Poem Traveled Down My Arm: Poems And Drawings by Alice Walker A Poem Traveled Down My Arm: Poems And Drawings

by Alice Walker
Knopf (Oct 28, 2003)
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In this illuminating book, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist and acclaimed poet Alice Walker reveals her remarkable philosophy of life. Curiously, this labor of love started with the author’s signature: Faced with the daunting task of providing autographs for multiple copies of one of her poetry collections, Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth, Walker turned an act of repetition into an act of inspiration. For each autograph became something more than a name: a thoughtful reflection, an impromptu sketch, a heartfelt poem. The result is this spontaneous burst of the unexpected. A Poem Traveled Down My Arm is a lovely collection of insights and drawings—by turns charming and humorous, provocative and profound—that represent the wisdom of one of today’s most beloved writers.

The essence of Walker’s independent spirit emanates from words and images that are simple but deep in meaning. An empowering approach to life…the inspiration to live completely in the moment…the chance to nurture one’s creativity and peace of mind—all these beautiful elements are evoked by this unusual and original book.


Click for more detail about Naughty or Nice by Eric Jerome Dickey Naughty or Nice

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton Adult (Oct 27, 2003)
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Heat up the holidays with New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey, the unsurpassed master of the contemporary relationship novel.

Making a list? Checking it twice? Eric Jerome Dickey knows who’s naughty or nice.

The New York Times bestselling author promises to deliver all the humor, heart, and superb storytelling that have made him one of the biggest names in African-American fiction. Wrapped up in a gift-sized, gift-priced, beautiful package, Naughty or Nice has all the elements Eric Jerome Dickey’s fans have come to love-humor, heart, and soul, with a considerable dose of spice to thaw out those cold winter nights. Hot on the heels of his surefire summer blockbuster, The Other Woman, Naughty or Nice is the present every Dickey fan will want to give as a gift (and keep for themselves)!

Book Review

Click for more detail about The House You Pass On The Way by Jacqueline Woodson The House You Pass On The Way

by Jacqueline Woodson
Putnam Juvenile (Oct 27, 2003)
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When her aunt’s adopted daughter Tyler comes to stay with them for the summer, Staggerlee, a self-proclaimed loner, finds a soulmate in Tyler, but their intense feelings for each other catch them off guard and force them to make some difficult decisions. Simultaneous.


Click for more detail about Rhetorical Choices: A Reader for Writers by Keith Gilyard Rhetorical Choices: A Reader for Writers

by Keith Gilyard
Longman (Oct 20, 2003)
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Part of the Penguin Academics Series, Rhetorical Choices is a rhetorically-organized reader whose selections and apparatus reflect the belief that language and literacy have deep political and social dimensions. The exploration of these dimensions throughout the book encourages students to see the power of writing and the lifelong benefits of writing well. To this end, through its choice of readings and surrounding apparatus, Rhetorical Choices: A Reader for Writers stresses more than any other reader the idea that writing always stems from some perspective and always reflects some perspective.


Click for more detail about A Distant Shore. by Caryl Phillips A Distant Shore.

by Caryl Phillips
Knopf (Oct 14, 2003)
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From Caryl Phillips—acclaimed author of The Nature of Blood and The Atlantic Sound—a masterful new novel set in contemporary England, about an African man and an English woman whose hidden lives, and worlds, are revealed in their fragile, fateful connection.

Dorothy and Solomon live in a new housing estate on the outskirts of an English village. She’s recently bought her bungalow; he’s recently become the night watchman. He is black, an immigrant. She is white, a recently retired music teacher. They are both solitary, reticent outsiders. When they move tenuously toward each other and their paths briefly cross, neither of them can know that it will be the last true human contact either will have.

The novel unfolds into the past to show us how Solomon and Dorothy have arrived at this moment: Solomon, a former soldier, escaping the horrors of a war-ravaged African country, entering England illegally, a non-man with no resources but his own waning strength, and no comprehension of the society that both hates and harbors him; Dorothy, the product of a troubled childhood and a messy divorce, fleeing the repercussions of a desperate obsession. In scene after resonant scene, we watch as Solomon and Dorothy come to live inside themselves, closing off from a world that has changed—and changed them—beyond recognition.

In their powerfully compelling stories, Caryl Phillips has created a brilliant and moving portrait of modern human displacement: from home, from heart, and from self.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship

by Jon Meacham
Random House (Oct 14, 2003)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The most complete portrait ever drawn of the complex emotional connection between two of history’s towering leaders

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were the greatest leaders of "the Greatest Generation." In Franklin and Winston, Jon Meacham explores the fascinating relationship between the two men who piloted the free world to victory in World War II. It was a crucial friendship, and a unique one—a president and a prime minister spending enormous amounts of time together (113 days during the war) and exchanging nearly two thousand messages. Amid cocktails, cigarettes, and cigars, they met, often secretly, in places as far-flung as Washington, Hyde Park, Casablanca, and Teheran, talking to each other of war, politics, the burden of command, their health, their wives, and their children.

Born in the nineteenth century and molders of the twentieth and twenty-first, Roosevelt and Churchill had much in common. Sons of the elite, students of history, politicians of the first rank, they savored power. In their own time both men were underestimated, dismissed as arrogant, and faced skeptics and haters in their own nations—yet both magnificently rose to the central challenges of the twentieth century. Theirs was a kind of love story, with an emotional Churchill courting an elusive Roosevelt. The British prime minister, who rallied his nation in its darkest hour, standing alone against Adolf Hitler, was always somewhat insecure about his place in FDR’s affections—which was the way Roosevelt wanted it. A man of secrets, FDR liked to keep people off balance, including his wife, Eleanor, his White House aides—and Winston Churchill.

Confronting tyranny and terror, Roosevelt and Churchill built a victorious alliance amid cataclysmic events and occasionally conflicting interests. Franklin and Winston is also the story of their marriages and their families, two clans caught up in the most sweeping global conflict in history.

Meacham’s new sources—including unpublished letters of FDR’s great secret love, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, the papers of Pamela Churchill Harriman, and interviews with the few surviving people who were in FDR and Churchill’s joint company—shed fresh light on the characters of both men as he engagingly chronicles the hours in which they decided the course of the struggle.

Hitler brought them together; later in the war, they drifted apart, but even in the autumn of their alliance, the pull of affection was always there. Charting the personal drama behind the discussions of strategy and statecraft, Meacham has written the definitive account of the most remarkable friendship of the modern age.


Click for more detail about The Ecstatic by Victor Lavalle The Ecstatic

by Victor Lavalle
Vintage (Oct 14, 2003)
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   Anthony James weighs 315 pounds, is possibly schizophrenic, and he’s just been kicked out of college. He’s rescued by his mother, sister, and grandmother, but they may not be altogether sane themselves. Living in the basement of their home in Queens, New York, Anthony is armed with nothing but wicked sarcasm and a few well-cut suits. He intends to make horror movies but takes the jobs he can handle, cleaning homes and factories, and keeps crossing paths with a Japanese political prisoner, a mysterious loan shark named Ishkabibble, and packs of feral dogs. When his invincible 13-year old sister enters yet another beauty pageant—this one for virgins—the combustible Jameses pile into their car and head South for the competition. 
   Will Anthony’s family stick together or explode? With electrifying prose, LaValle ushers us into four troubled but very funny lives.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation Of Language And Music And Why We Should, Like, Care by John McWhorter Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation Of Language And Music And Why We Should, Like, Care

by John McWhorter
Knopf (Oct 13, 2003)
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A rousing polemic in defense of the written word by the New York Times bestselling author of Losing the Race and the widely acclaimed history of language The Power of Babel.

Critically acclaimed linguist John McWhorter has devoted his career to exploring the evolution of language. He has often argued that language change is inevitable and in general culturally neutral-languages change rapidly even in indigenous cultures where traditions perpetuate; and among modernized peoples, culture endures despite linguistic shifts. But in his provocative new book, Doing Our Own Thing, McWhorter draws the line when it comes to how cultural change is turning the English language upside down in America today, and how public English is being overwhelmed by street English, with serious consequences for our writing, our music, and our society.

McWhorter explores the triumph of casual over formal speech-particularly since the dawn of 1960s counterculture-and its effect on Americans’ ability to write, read, critique, argue, and imagine. In the face of this growing rift between written English and spoken English, the intricate vocabularies and syntactic roadmaps of our language appear to be slipping away, eroding our intellectual and artistic capacities. He argues that "our increasing alienation from ’written language’ signals a gutting of our intellectual powers, our self-regard as a nation, and thus our very substance as a people."

Timely, thought-provoking, and compellingly written, Doing Our Own Thing is sure to stoke many debates about the fate of our threatened intellectual culture, and the destiny of our democracy.


Click for more detail about Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Chronicle of a Death Foretold

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage (Oct 07, 2003)
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A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place 27 years earlier, determined to get to the bottom of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister.
Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to stop it? The more that is learned, the less is understood, and as the story races to its inexplicable conclusion, an entire society—not just a pair of murderers—is put on trial.


Click for more detail about P.G. County by Connie Briscoe P.G. County

by Connie Briscoe
One World (Sep 30, 2003)
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In the sprawling homes and upscale townhouses of the exclusive, largely African American Prince George’s County, the lives of five women intersect–and the secrets, scandals, loves, and losses that ensue are par for the course where power, beauty, and wealth reside.

Barbara is the most influential woman in this swanky neighborhood, but she’s got her hands full–one hand is busy dealing with her husband’s wandering eye, while the other always needs a cocktail glass. Jolene is half of P.G. County’s number-two couple–and she desperately wants what she doesn’t have: namely Barbara’s husband. Pearl owns a hair salon and lives on the outskirts of the posh community with her son, Kenyatta. She’s not only juggling a growing business and a bad divorce, but now she’s has to cope with Kenyatta’s less-than-ideal girlfriend. Candice is white and liberal, but her daughter’s new beau tests her beliefs–and opens a can of worms she never knew existed. Lee is a runaway teen, a girl whose only connection to her father is an old photo and the belief that he’s well-off and waiting for her in …

P.G. COUNTY


Click for more detail about Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry by Bebe Moore Campbell Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry

by Bebe Moore Campbell
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Sep 29, 2003)
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Some mornings, Annie’s mother’s smiles are as bright as sunshine as she makes pancakes for breakfast and helps Annie get ready for school.

But other days, her mother doesn’t smile at all and gets very angry. Those days Annie has to be a big girl and make her own breakfast, and even put herself to bed at night. But Annie’s grandma helps her remember what to do when her mommy isn’t well, and her silly friends are there to cheer her up. And no matter what, Annie knows that even when Mommy is angry on the outside, on the inside she never stops loving her.


Click for more detail about They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by Ivan Van Sertima They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America

by Ivan Van Sertima
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Sep 23, 2003)
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They Came Before Columbus reveals a compelling, dramatic, and superbly detailed documentation of the presence and legacy of Africans in ancient America. Examining navigation and shipbuilding; cultural analogies between Native Americans and Africans; the transportation of plants, animals, and textiles between the continents; and the diaries, journals, and oral accounts of the explorers themselves.

Ivan Van Sertima builds a pyramid of evidence to support his claim of an African presence in the New World centuries before Columbus. Combining impressive scholarship with a novelist’s gift for storytelling, Van Sertima re-creates some of the most powerful scenes of human history: the launching of the great ships of Mali in 1310 (two hundred master boats and two hundred supply boats), the sea expedition of the Mandingo king in 1311, and many others. In They Came Before Columbus, we see clearly the unmistakable face and handprint of black Africans in pre-Columbian America, and their overwhelming impact on the civilizations they encountered.


Click for more detail about Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do by Pearl Cleage Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do

by Pearl Cleage
One World/Ballantine (Aug 26, 2003)
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With the unique blend of truth and humor that made her first novel, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day …, a huge bestseller, Pearl Cleage returns with an extraordinary novel that is rich in character, steeped in sisterhood, and bursting with unexpected love … and maybe just a little magic.

Depending on the time of day, Regina Burns is a woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown or an overdue breakthrough. One shattered heart and six months of rehab have left her wary and shell-shocked—especially with the prospect of taking a temporary consulting job in Atlanta, a move that would allow Regina to rescue the family home that she borrowed against when she was “a stomp down dope fiend.” Her stone-faced banker has grudgingly agreed to give her sixty days to settle her debts or lose the house.

Returning to Atlanta is a big risk. Last time Regina was there, she lost track of who she was and what she wanted. There’s a lot of emotional baggage with her new employer, Beth Davis. Can she really forgive Beth for breaking up her wedding plans on New Year’s Eve because she just didn’t think Regina was good enough to marry her son?

Meanwhile, Regina’s visionary Aunt Abbie has told her to be on the lookout for a handsome stranger with “the ocean in his eyes” who has a bone to pick and a promise to keep. Then a blue-eyed brother appears on the streets of Afro-Atlanta wearing a black cashmere overcoat, flashing a dazzling smile, and lending a helping hand when Regina needs it most. But between falling for Blue Hamilton and dealing with Beth, secrets will emerge that will threaten to send her life twisting in surprising new directions.

Like a conversation with a good friend, Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do shares hope, love, and laugher. As always, it is Pearl Cleage’s unforgettable characters and her gift for dialogue that will earn this provocative new novel a place in the hearts of her growing family of readers.


Click for more detail about The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas The Black Tulip

by Alexandre Dumas
Penguin Classics (Aug 26, 2003)
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Cornelius von Baerle lives only to cultivate the elusive black tulip and win a magnificent prize for its creation. But when his powerful godfather is assassinated, the unwitting Cornelius becomes caught up in a deadly political intrigue. Falsely accused of high treason by a bitter rival, Cornelius is condemned to life in prison. His only comfort is Rosa, the jailer’s beautiful daughter, who helps him concoct a plan to grow the black tulip in secret. As Robin Buss explains in his informative introduction, Dumas infuses his story with elements from the history of the Dutch Republic (including two brutal murders) and Holland’s seventeenth-century "tulipmania" phenomenon.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about The Shade of My Own Tree by Sheila Williams The Shade of My Own Tree

by Sheila Williams
One World (Aug 26, 2003)
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Beloved author Sheila Williams beautifully captures the bittersweet humor and vivid adventures of women who survive the worst life can toss at them—and fight back to claim their right to be free, to be themselves, and to live in …

The courage to change doesn’t come easy. When Opal Sullivan walks out on an abusive husband after fifteen years, she has only her dreams in her pocket. Her new beginning starts in Appalachian River country, where she sees a bit of herself in a graceful but dilapidated house. Like Opal, the house is worn-out and somewhat beaten up, but it still stands proudly and deserves a second chance.

So Opal opens her doors—and her heart—to a parade of unforgettable characters. There’s sassy Bette Smith with her cantaloupe-colored hair and four-inch heels; short-tempered Gloria and her devilish son, Troy; the mysterious Dana, who dresses in black and keeps exclusively nocturnal hours; a dog named “Bear” who is afraid of his own shadow; and Jack, who doesn’t mind hanging out with an OBBWA (old black broad with an attitude). It is Jack who helps Opal understand a funny thing about life: You can’t move forward if you keep looking back… .


Click for more detail about The Best Of Emerge Magazine by George E. Curry The Best Of Emerge Magazine

by George E. Curry
One World/Ballantine (Jul 29, 2003)
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The 1990s. African Americans achieved more influence–and faced more explosive issues–than ever before. One word captured those times. One magazine expressed them. Emerge.

In those ten years, with an impressive circulation of 170,000 and more than forty national awards to its credit, Emerge became a serious part of the American mainstream. Time hailed its “uncompromising voice.” The Washington Post declared that Emerge “gets better with each issue.” Then, after nearly a decade, Emerge magazine closed its doors. Now, for the first time, here’s a collection of the finest articles from a publication that changed the face of African American news.

From the Clarence Thomas nomination to the Bill Clinton impeachment … from the life of Louis Farrakhan to the death of Betty Shabazz … from reparations for slavery to the rise of blacks on Wall Street … the most important people, topics, and turning points of this remarkable period are featured in incisive articles by first-rate writers.

Emerge may have ended with the millennium, but–as this incomparable volume proves–the quality of its coverage is still unequaled, the extent of its impact still emerging. Stirring tribute, uncanny time capsule, riveting read–The Best of Emerge Magazine is also the best of American journalism.


Click for more detail about Jackson Park by Charlotte Carter Jackson Park

by Charlotte Carter
One World (Jul 29, 2003)
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From the acclaimed author of the Nanette Hayes mystery novels comes a thrilling new series featuring an unforgettable trio of sleuths. By turns gritty and gracefully written, Jackson Park is a compelling novel of noir suspense—a fast-paced page-turner that is also a glimpse inside Black life in Chicago during a pivotal moment in American history.
It is the Spring of 1968. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the city of Chicago is a powder keg ready to explode. Against this tense backdrop, there is Woodson and Ivy Lisle, an elegant couple living in a shabby chic apartment hotel in Cook County’s Hyde Park. Both are proud patriarchs of a large, extended family, which includes their twenty-year-old grandniece, Cassandra, a college student standing at the crossroads— and on the brink of a troubling mystery involving the missing granddaughter of an old family friend.
Fearing for the girl’s safety, Woody, Ivy, and Cassandra begin a determined investigation. What they uncover is a chilling link to an old murder case. Now a shattering secret of the past threatens all who try to expose it.


Click for more detail about Too Beautiful to Die (Blades Overstreet Mystery) by Glenville Lovell Too Beautiful to Die (Blades Overstreet Mystery)

by Glenville Lovell
Putnam Adult (Jul 14, 2003)
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A debut mystery by a highly regarded author of literary novels, a gritty African-American noir with the atmosphere of Dashiell Hammett and the multicultural appeal of Walter Mosely.

Set in New York, Too Beautiful to Die introduces Blades Overstreet, a black ex-cop, now at odds with the NYPD over the incident that prompted his resignation-a buy-and-bust operation gone bad when a white cop "accidentally" shot and nearly killed him. Now, the man who saved Blades’s life prevails upon him to help a beautiful soap-opera star named Precious find her father. But that assignment quickly turns sour when Blades stumbles on the murdered body of an FBI agent, and he becomes the target of an FBI/NYPD manhunt.

Blades Overstreet is destined to become one of the great heroes of crime fiction and Glenville Lovell a new star of the genre.

Book Review

Click for more detail about What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir by E. Lynn Harris What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir

by E. Lynn Harris
Doubleday (Jul 08, 2003)
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For almost a decade, beloved storyteller E. Lynn Harris has welcomed you into his family with his passionate, warm and trail-blazing novels. Now, he invites you into the most intimate world ever—his own.

Since his first book Invisible Life was published in the early 1990s, New York Times bestselling author E. Lynn Harris has wowed, charmed and romanced millions of readers. As a master storyteller, E. Lynn Harris has created an intimate and glamorous world centered around his signature themes of love, friendship and family. People all over the world have fallen in love with his characters and laughed and cried with them.

Now, in his most daring act yet, E. Lynn Harris writes the memoir of his life–from his childhood in Arkansas as a closeted gay boy through his struggling days as a self-published author to his rise as a New York Times bestselling author. In What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, E. Lynn Harris shares an extraordinary life touched by loneliness and depression, but more important, he reveals the triumphant life of a small-town dreamer who was able through writing to make his dreams–and more–come true.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Discretion by Elizabeth Nunez Discretion

by Elizabeth Nunez
One World/Ballantine (Jul 01, 2003)
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From American Book Award-winning author Elizabeth Nunez, a powerful novel that explores an intricate lovers’ triangle, the human thirst for passion, and the myriad ways desire can betray those who have fallen under its spell.

Descended from warriors and raised by missionaries, Oufoula is a diplomat whose wealth and charm make him both publicly admired and envied. From a tragic childhood he emerged a man who leads a disciplined life of respect, married to Nerida, a woman he did not want to deceive. But the beautiful Marguerite, a Jamaican-born artist living in New York, makes him question what ideals he can live by, and which values he can betray.

For twenty years, Oufoula has carried a secret in his heart, a secret of his love for Marguerite. Though they have been separated for two decades by Marguerite’s call for propriety, Oufoula refuses to let his desire wane. When the lovers are at last reunited, the rekindling of their passion forces Oufoula to come to terms with the core of his character: Is he willing to sacrifice his marriage, his career, and the very foundations of the life he has struggled to create, all for the love of one woman?

Oufoula’s confession is adorned with the literature of his European education, and shrouded by the spirits and responsibilities of Africa. Caught between myth and reason, Oufoula reveals himself to be a soul trapped in every way, who, like Faust, would bargain with the devil for fulfillment … but was never offered any choice.

This is the portrait of a man who cannot be forgotten. A gripping, masterfully crafted tale of love, deceit, and the human compulsion for power, Discretion forces us to reconsider that ever-compelling question: At what price passion?


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Beyond The Limbo Silence by Elizabeth Nunez Beyond The Limbo Silence

by Elizabeth Nunez
One World/Ballantine (Jul 01, 2003)
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“[A] haunting story … Bears witness to the struggles of an African Caribbean woman as she seeks to find her place in America without selling her soul.” –BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL, Author of Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine

When Sara Edgehill is given a scholarship to leave Trinidad and attend a college in Wisconsin, she is thrilled. America, the one she has seen in the movies, is a land of dreams, prosperity, and equality. Not like Trinidad, where her parents cast disappointed glances her way because she wasn’t born with lighter-colored skin. But when Sara leaves her island’s brilliant green fields and warm sparkling waters for the pale cornfields of the Midwest, the ties to her home and her past grip her as strongly as America’s cold, winter winds.

For as soon as Sara sets foot in her new home, she must make tough decisions. Wanting desperately to fit in, she begins to understand that in America, the color lines run deeper than they did even in Trinidad. And as Sara forms ties with two other West Indian students–the beguiling, haunted Courtney and the passionate, vivacious Sam–she is irrevocably pulled into the very center of America’s exploding civil rights movement.


Click for more detail about Hush by Jacqueline Woodson Hush

by Jacqueline Woodson
Speak (Jun 23, 2003)
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Toswiah Green’s life ended the moment her policeman father decided to testify against a fellow officer. The Greens have had to change their identities and move to a different city. Now Toswiah is Evie Thomas, and that is the least of the changes. Her defeated father spends his days sitting by the window. Since her mother can no longer work as a teacher, she puts her energy into their new church. Her only sister is making secret plans to leave. And Evie, struggling to find her way, wonders who she is now and how she can make her future as bright as her past once was.


Click for more detail about War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning

by Chris Hedges
Anchor (Jun 10, 2003)
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As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: “It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.”

Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies, corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting the most basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary.


Click for more detail about Joe-Joe’s First Flight by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley Joe-Joe’s First Flight

by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Jun 10, 2003)
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Joe-Joe’s father works at the local airport, one of the first in the area, at a time when segregation rules. Even though the men who work at the airport, including Joe-Joe’s dad, were promised flying jobs, the owner refuses to let them fly. The town of Blind Eye has lost hope over the men’s heartbreak and the injustice being done to them, so much so that the moon won’t shine down on it any longer. More than anything, Joe-Joe wants to bring the moon back to Blind Eye so he can return hope to the townspeople. This is an extraordinary storybook about lost hope and what can happen when dreams are allowed to flourish.


Click for more detail about The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas
Penguin Classics (May 27, 2003)
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"On what slender threads do life and fortune hang." Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.Robin Buss’s lively English translation is complete and unabridged, and remains faithful to the style of Dumas’s original. This edition includes an introduction, explanatory notes and suggestions for further reading.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter The Emperor of Ocean Park

by Stephen L. Carter
Vintage (May 27, 2003)
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In his triumphant fictional debut, Stephen Carter combines a large-scale, riveting novel of suspense with the saga of a unique family. The Emperor of Ocean Park is set in two privileged worlds: the upper crust African American society of the Eastern seabord—families who summer at Martha’s Vineyard—and the inner circle of an Ivy League law school.

Talcott Garland is a successful law professor, devoted father, and husband of a beautiful and ambitious woman, whose future desires may threaten the family he holds so dear. When Talcott’s father, Judge Oliver Garland, a disgraced former Supreme Court nominee, is found dead under suspicioius circumstances, Talcott wonders if he may have been murdered. Guided by the elements of a mysterious puzzle that his father left, Talcott must risk his marriage, his career and even his life in his quest for justice. Superbly written and filled with memorable characters, The Emperor of Ocean Park is both a stunning literary achievement and a grand literary entertainment.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Song Of The Trees by Mildred D. Taylor Song Of The Trees

by Mildred D. Taylor
Puffin Books (May 26, 2003)
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With the depression bearing down on her family and food in short supply, Cassie Logan isn’t sure where her next meal will come from.  But there is one thing that she knows will always be there-the whispering trees outside her window. Cassie’s trees are a steady source of comfort to her, but they also happen to be worth a lot of money. When Mr. Andersen tries to force Big Ma to sell their valuable trees, Cassie can’t just sit by and let it happen.  She knows that her family needs the money, but something tells her that they need the trees just as much. The beloved heroine of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry enchants us again in this story of strength and pride.


Click for more detail about I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti, Edward W. Said, and Ahdaf Soueif I Saw Ramallah

by Mourid Barghouti, Edward W. Said, and Ahdaf Soueif
Anchor (May 13, 2003)
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WINNER OF THE NAGUIB MAHFOUZ MEDAL FOR LITERATURE

A fierce and moving work and an unparalleled rendering of the human aspects of the Palestinian predicament.

Barred from his homeland after 1967’s Six-Day War, the poet Mourid Barghouti spent thirty years in exile—shuttling among the world’s cities, yet secure in none of them; separated from his family for years at a time; never certain whether he was a visitor, a refugee, a citizen, or a guest. As he returns home for the first time since the Israeli occupation, Barghouti crosses a wooden bridge over the Jordan River into Ramallah and is unable to recognize the city of his youth. Sifting through memories of the old Palestine as they come up against what he now encounters in this mere “idea of Palestine,” he discovers what it means to be deprived not only of a homeland but of “the habitual place and status of a person.” A tour de force of memory and reflection, lamentation and resilience, I Saw Ramallah is a deeply humane book, essential to any balanced understanding of today’s Middle East.


Click for more detail about The Other Woman by Eric Jerome Dickey The Other Woman

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton Adult (May 12, 2003)
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In his newest novel, Eric Jerome Dickey strides boldly over the minefield that is modern marriage. The central couple’s biggest challenge is timing: He works days; she works nights. Instead of growing together, they’re rapidly drifting apart, coexisting on stolen phone calls from work, punctuated by occasional bedroom encounters that leave them both feeling even emptier and more alone. When she finds out about his affair-and starts her own-the delicate fabric of their marriage is torn irrevocably asunder. Or is it? In Dickey’s expert hands, what begins as a seemingly unforgivable betrayal segues into the sexy and searing story of a man and a woman at a pivotal turning point in their relationship. Only time will tell whether they’ll let it all go…or can hold on to the love that drew them together in the first place.

Dickey’s eighth blockbuster novel sparkles with humor, honesty, and powerful compassion as a contemporary couple faces the challenges that test their trust, their faith, and their staying power. Poignant and passionate, The Other Woman is certain to resonate with readers of all marital persuasions.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Harlem Reader by Herb Boyd The Harlem Reader

by Herb Boyd
Broadway Books (May 01, 2003)
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There is no neighborhood in America as famous, infamous, and inspiring as Harlem. From its humble beginnings as a farming district and country retreat for the rich, Harlem grew to international prominence as the mecca of black art and culture, then fell from grace, despised as a crime-ridden slum and symbol of urban decay. But during all of these phases there was writing in Harlem—great writing that sprang from one of the richest and most unique communities in the world. From Harlem’s most revered icons (like Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Ann Petry, and Malcolm X) to voices of a new generation (including Willie Perdomo, Mase, Grace Edwards, and Piri Thomas), The Harlem Reader gathers a wealth of vital impressions, stories, and narratives and blends them with original accounts offered by living storytellers, famous and not so famous. Fresh and vivid, this volume perfectly captures the dramatic moments and personalities at the core of Harlem’s ever-evolving story.


Click for more detail about Wisdom by Heather Neff Wisdom

by Heather Neff
One World/Ballantine (Apr 29, 2003)
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“You must promise me to go back to Wisdom one day. You see, little girl, Wisdom is your Source. It’s where your blood was born… .”

The words of her grandfather echo in her ears as Maia Ransom, a nurse from Michigan, arrives on the island of St. Croix for the first time. She has always been curious about the great estate her grandfather lovingly described, but the importance of this place has suddenly become vital. A private woman with no lover and no children, Maia is slowly succumbing to the same disease that killed her mother. She has three weeks to find Wisdom. Once there, Maia hopes to uncover the rich history of her people—and the will to fight for her own life.

But once on the intoxicating Caribbean island, Maia finds that the inhabitants resent her presence and are determined to lead her astray. Maia finally locates the estate, but the once-grand manor now sits crumbling in disrepair, home to the dissolute, alcoholic, and severely ill Severin Johanssen, the only living son of its former owner. After an initial frosty dismissal, Maia finds herself living at Wisdom as Severin’s temporary nurse.

Seeking refuge, Maia befriends Noah Langston, a striking Crucian lawyer who is doing all he can to help his people rise up to self-sufficiency. Noah soon opens up in Maia tender emotions she never imagined were hers to feel. But what he discovers about her family will shock Maia to the core. For Wisdom is not just her legacy, it might be her future. And there are people who will do everything in their power to keep Maia from fulfilling her destiny.

With a clear eye and a poet’s heart, Heather Neff has written an absorbing, redemptive novel of struggle, family secrets, and making the profound choice between hiding safely from the truth or leaping through uncertainty towards true love. Wisdom is ultimately about finding one’s true soul.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about L Is for Liberty by Wendy Cheyette Lewison L Is for Liberty

by Wendy Cheyette Lewison
Grosset & Dunlap (Apr 14, 2003)
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For more than a century, the Statue of Liberty has stood proudly in New York Harbor. Perfect for reading together with a young child, this book celebrates the statue, her history, and the freedom she stands for using simple language and bold, full-color illustrations.


Click for more detail about Aye, and Gomorrah: And Other Stories by Samuel R. Delany Aye, and Gomorrah: And Other Stories

by Samuel R. Delany
Vintage (Apr 08, 2003)
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A father must come to terms with his son’s death in the war. In Venice an architecture student commits a crime of passion. A white southern airport loader tries to do a favor for a black northern child. The ordinary stuff of ordinary fiction—but with a difference! These tales take place twenty-five, fifty, a hundred-fifty years from now, when men and women have been given gills to labor under the sea. Huge repair stations patrol the cables carrying power to the ends of the earth. Telepathic and precocious children so passionately yearn to visit distant galaxies that they’ll kill to go. Brilliantly crafted, beautifully written, these are Samuel Delany’s award-winning stories, like no others before or since.


Click for more detail about A Song Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou A Song Flung Up to Heaven

by Maya Angelou
Bantam (Apr 01, 2003)
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The culmination of a unique achievement in modern American literature: the six volumes of autobiography that began more than thirty years ago with the appearance of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

A Song Flung Up to Heaven opens as Maya Angelou returns from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X. But first she has to journey to California to be reunited with her mother and brother. No sooner does she arrive there than she learns that Malcolm X has been assassinated.

Devastated, she tries to put her life back together, working on the stage in local theaters and even conducting a door-to-door survey in Watts. Then Watts explodes in violence, a riot she describes firsthand.

Subsequently, on a trip to New York, she meets Martin Luther King, Jr., who asks her to become his coordinator in the North, and she visits black churches all over America to help support King’s Poor People’s March.

But once again tragedy strikes. King is assassinated, and this time Angelou completely withdraws from the world, unable to deal with this horrible event. Finally, James Baldwin forces her out of isolation and insists that she accompany him to a dinner party—where the idea for writing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is born. In fact, A Song Flung Up to Heaven ends as Maya Angelou begins to write the first sentences of Caged Bird.

Read poet, Wanda Coelman’s Reaction


Click for more detail about Breaking Away by Kristin Hunter Breaking Away

by Kristin Hunter
One World/Ballantine (Apr 01, 2003)
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Bethesda Barnes has reached a point in life where she at last feels comfortable. She loves her family, despite a stormy relationship with her mother. For romance, there’s Lloyd Bounds, a devoted postal clerk. Although, cards on the table, Beth wouldn’t mind a ring. Ask Beth what part of her life is truly fulfilling and she just might answer “my beautiful career.”

After landing a plum teaching position at an Ivy League college, Dr. Barnes focuses her energies on her students, even the obnoxious ones, encouraging them all to “always strive for more.” Though driven and dedicated, Beth is fairly detached from her faculty colleagues, well aware that she is one of the only black faces in a sea of white. Despite the disparity, she loves her job and pursues it with gusto. Until an incident on campus rocks her worldand forces her to confront society’s uglier side.

Late one night, four African American sorority sisters are called vile names and assailed with garbage. The students decide to charge the boys with assault and racial insensitivity for violating the university’s harassment code. They ask Beth to be their faculty advisor for the case.

When Beth accepts, she walks into a racially charged firestorm of heated protest and dangerous threats. It turns out that one of the boys is a skinhead who seems to have sympathizers in high places. When the case goes national, even the editorial boards of presumably liberal newspapers criticize the victims and their cause. Though some of girls drop out of the case, and her personal life is blindsided by tragedy, Beth perseveres with the cause, believing some things are worth fighting for … especially in the name of justice.

A powerful novel that boldly takes on large, important themes while telling an intimate story of a courageous woman, Breaking Away is Kristin Lattany’s most persuasive and searing novel to date.


Click for more detail about The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas The Man in the Iron Mask

by Alexandre Dumas
Penguin Classics (Mar 25, 2003)
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In the Musketeers’ final adventure, D’Artagnan remains in the service of the corrupt King Louis XIV after the Three Musketeers have retired and gone their separate ways. Meanwhile, a mysterious prisoner in an iron mask wastes away deep inside the Bastille. When the destinies of king and prisoner converge, the Three Musketeers and D’Artagnan find themselves caught between conflicting loyalties.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about Crawfish Dreams: A Novel by Nancy Rawles Crawfish Dreams: A Novel

by Nancy Rawles
Doubleday (Mar 18, 2003)
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The luminous, uplifting story of a woman who cooks up a plan to bring her family back together and discovers that love, sharing, and a dash of daring are the secret ingredients that can turn dreams into reality.

Camille Broussard can remember a time when she had more pep in her stride and her single-story house was one of the nicest homes in the cozy, well-kept neighborhood of Watts. Her kitchen overflowed with the fragrant aromas of Creole cooking, and the taste of her divine crawfish, rich gumbos, and delicious pralines had family and friends begging for seconds and thirds. The devastation of the Watts riots and the ravages of Reaganomics, however, changed everything. Her neighbors have fled, the church pews are nearly empty at Sunday mass, and her own children have turned their backs on Watts and on the pride and values Camille instilled in them.

Her grandson Nicholas has just finished serving time for a crime he knew better than to commit; her politically active lesbian daughter, Grace, is struggling with an identity crisis; and Yvette, her naïve, sexually cloistered daughter, has a husband whose secrets threaten to destroy the bond between mother and daughter. But despite how far they have strayed, Camille is not ready to give up on the family who has nourished her as she has nourished them. So she decides to combine her love of family and her love of cooking into one great enterprise. She opens Camille’s Creole Kitchen and recruits her family to help her get the restaurant on its feet. As the business gradually grows, Camille not only restores her family’s spirit and sense of purpose, she also recovers her own lost dreams.

Written with grace and vitality, Crawfish Dreams is a generous novel about responsibility, community, family loyalty, and the pursuit of personal happiness. From its heartwarming messages to the recipes sprinkled throughout its pages, it is an irresistible treat from start to finish.


Click for more detail about My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me by Maya Angelou My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me

by Maya Angelou
Crown Books for Young Readers (Mar 11, 2003)
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Full color photographs. "Hello, Stranger-Friend" begins Maya Angelou’s story about Thandi, a South African Ndebele girl, her mischievous brother, her beloved chicken, and the astonishing mural art produced by the women of her tribe.  With never-before-seen photographs of the very private Ndebele women and their paintings, this unique book shows the passing of traditions from parent to child and introduces young readers to a new culture through a new friend.


Click for more detail about The Hatwearer’s Lesson by Yolanda Joe The Hatwearer’s Lesson

by Yolanda Joe
Dutton Adult (Mar 10, 2003)
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Grandma Ollie and her granddaughter Terri have been together since Terri’s mom passed away in Grandma Ollie’s arms, giving birth. Born with an extraordinary sixth sense, Grandma Ollie knows just when things are going to happen, good and bad. So when her pen runs out the day she goes to enter Terri’s engagement into her bible, Grandma Ollie knows something’s wrong with her granddaughter, now a prominent attorney living up North. Terri, however, won’t listen to Grandma Ollie’s concerns. She has a great career, a successful man in her life, and feels like her small town roots are finally far behind her-she’s going places and not looking back. But Grandma Ollie is never wrong…

With The Hatwearer’s Lesson, the bestselling author of He Say, She Say; Bebe’s By Golly Wow; and This Just In gifts us with a heartwarming and high-spirited novel about the lessons life teaches us, the rich histories families share-whether they wear hats or don’t-and the memories we carry with us all our lives.

Book Review

Click for more detail about My American Journey (Updated) by Colin Powell My American Journey (Updated)

by Colin Powell
Ballantine Books (Mar 04, 2003)
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Colin Powell is the embodiment of the American dream. He was born in Harlem to immigrant parents from Jamaica. He knew the rough life of the streets. He overcame a barely average start at school. Then he joined the Army. The rest is history—Vietnam, the Pentagon, Panama, Desert Storm—but a history that until now has been known only on the surface. Here, for the first time, Colin Powell himself tells us how it happened, in a memoir distinguished by a heartfelt love of country and family, warm good humor, and a soldier’s directness.

My American Journey is the powerful story of a life well lived and well told. It is also a view from the mountaintop of the political landscape of America. At a time when Americans feel disenchanted with their leaders, General Powell’s passionate views on family, personal responsibility, and, in his own words, “the greatness of America and the opportunities it offers” inspire hope and present a blueprint for the future. An utterly absorbing account, it is history with a vision.


Click for more detail about Bruised Hibiscus by Elizabeth Nunez Bruised Hibiscus

by Elizabeth Nunez
One World/Ballantine (Mar 04, 2003)
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The year is 1954. A white woman’s body, stuffed in a coconut bag, has washed ashore in Otatiti, Trinidad, and the British colony is rife with rumors. In two homes, one in a distant shantytown, the other on the outskirts of a former sugar cane estate, two women hear the news and their blood runs cold. Rosa, the white daughter of a landowner, and Zuela, the adopted “daughter” of a Chinese shop owner used to play together as girls—and witnessed something terrible behind a hibiscus bush many years ago.


Click for more detail about Passing into Light by Sharon Ewell Foster Passing into Light

by Sharon Ewell Foster
Multnomah (Mar 01, 2003)
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The characters that readers loved in Riding Through Shadows are at it again! Mother and Ma Dear, Tony Taylor, and others are back to make readers laugh and cry. Readers of this sequel will find troubling mysteries resolved: Does Sheri exist outside of Shirley Ferris’ imagination? What was in Shirley’s letter and who was it from? This story, told through the life of a grieving single parent, shows how we can recover from past failures and find our way to sustained love and joy.


Click for more detail about A Prayer for Deliverance: An Angela Bivens Thriller by Christopher Chambers A Prayer for Deliverance: An Angela Bivens Thriller

by Christopher Chambers
Crown (Feb 25, 2003)
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Never try to outrun your past …

Tough-minded FBI special agent Angela Bivens is just beginning to put her life back together. Still reeling from the bloody showdown where she took the lives of two serial killers, one of whom was her lover, Angela is hell-bent on facing the future. She’s enjoying the perks of a well-deserved promotion, as well as getting to know her new boyfriend on a romantic camping trip. All that changes when the FBI interrupts her relaxing getaway and puts her on a complicated high-profile case.

Inside a secluded Chesapeake bed-and-breakfast, Dr. Leslie Collins, a prominent African-American obstetrician, has been found dead and mutilated. His white mistress, a Clinton White House advisor, was also dead in their bed, apparently from a poisonous snakebite. And no one at the inn heard or saw a thing. Angela can’t help but be shaken to the core—Dr. Collins was a family friend, and now it’s up to her to apprehend the killer.
Angela’s superiors at the Bureau suspect a shadowy white supremacy group that has been terrorizing abortion clinics and liberal leaders, but such tidy motives are soon discredited as other influential Black men from the worlds of business, politics, and religion start to share the doctor’s gruesome fate. Angela’s quest for justice deepens when she discovers the unlikely connections that link the men to one another, and to Antoine Jones, a convicted murderer on death row. Angela’s investigation also uncovers disturbing evidence that these murders are bound to a world of spells and ancient prophecies rooted in South African witchcraft, and of age-old vendettas being played out in a very modern D.C.

In this compelling, action-packed sequel to the riveting debut Sympathy for the Devil, Christopher Chambers captivates his readers with an unpredictable plot that pits this strong and savvy female protagonist against a cast of formidable foes—both human and supernatural. His innovative blend of images from traditional African mysticism and the vivid landscape of our nation’s capital breathes new life into the suspense thriller genre. Fans of Walter Mosley, Thomas Harris, and Patricia Cornwell will all love this remarkably spellbinding page-turner.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Why We Make Movies: Black Filmmakers Talk About the Magic of Cinema by George Alexander Why We Make Movies: Black Filmmakers Talk About the Magic of Cinema

by George Alexander
Broadway Books (Feb 18, 2003)
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A sparkling collection of interviews with African American directors and producers.

Bringing together more than thirty candid conversations with filmmakers and producers such as Spike Lee, Gordon Parks, Julie Dash, Charles Burnett, and Robert Townsend, Why We Make Movies delivers a cultural celebration with the tips of a film-school master class.

With journalist George Alexander, these revolutionary men and women discuss not only how they got their big breaks, but more importantly, they explore the creative process and what making movies means to them. Why We Make Movies also addresses the business of Hollywood and its turning tide, in a nation where African Americans comprise a sizable portion of the film-going public and go to the movies more frequently than whites. In addition, Alexander’s cast of directors and producers considers the lead roles they now play in everything from documentaries and films for television to broad-based blockbusters (in fact, the highest-grossing film in Miramax history was Scary Movie, directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans). For film buffs and aspiring filmmakers alike, Why We Make Movies puts a long-overdue spotlight on one of the most exciting and cutting-edge segments of today’s silver screen.

INTERVIEWS INCLUDE: MELVIN VAN PEEBLES • MICHAEL SCHULTZ • CHARLES BURNETT • SPIKE LEE • ROBERT TOWNSEND • FRED WILLIAMSON • ERNEST DICKERSON • KEENEN IVORY WAYANS • ANTOINE FUQUA • BILL DUKE • FORREST WHITAKER • JULIE DASH • KASI LEMMONS • GINA PRINC-BLYTHEWOOD • JOHN SINGLETON • GEORGE TILLMAN Jr. • REGINALD HUDLIN • WARRINGTON HUDLIN • MALCOLM LEE • EUZHAN PALCY • DOUG McHENRY • DEBRA MARTIN CHASE • St. CLAIR BOURNE • STANLEY NELSON • WILLIAM GREAVES • KATHE SANDLER • CAMILLE BILLOPS • HAILE GERIMA • GORDON PARKS


Click for more detail about What Your Mother Never Told You about S-E-X by Hilda Hutcherson What Your Mother Never Told You about S-E-X

by Hilda Hutcherson
TarcherPerigee (Feb 04, 2003)
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In her ob-gyn practice, Dr. Hilda Hutcherson has seen women of all ages who have questions about sex. Now, in this down-to-earth book, she answers those questions and more as she addresses every sexual matter that has an impact on the lives of women.

Combining up-to-date medical science with good old-fashioned girl talk, Dr. Hutcherson discusses sex in a lively tone that’s as educational as it is engaging. With facts on female (and male) anatomy, aphrodisiacs, fantasy, orgasm, birth control, and more, she shows how to overcome sexual problems — and achieve sensational sensual experiences.

Your mother may not have known what to tell you about sex, but Dr. Hutcherson will give you a real, honest education on sex and sexuality. And with a special chapter on talking to your daughter, you can pass your wisdom on to the next generation.


Click for more detail about Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities by Johnnetta Betsch Cole and Beverly Guy-Sheftall Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities

by Johnnetta Betsch Cole and Beverly Guy-Sheftall
One World (Feb 04, 2003)
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Why has the African American community remained silent about gender even as race has moved to the forefront of our nation’s consciousness? In this important new book, two of the nation’s leading African American intellectuals offer a resounding and far-reaching answer to a question that has been ignored for far too long. Hard-hitting and brilliant in its analysis of culture and sexual politics, "Gender Talk asserts boldly that gender matters are critical to the Black community in the twenty-first century.
In the Black community, rape, violence against women, and sexual harassment are as much the legacy of slavery as is racism. Johnnetta Betsch Cole and Beverly Guy-Sheftall argue powerfully that the only way to defeat this legacy is to focus on the intersection of race and gender.
"Gender Talk examines why the "race problem" has become so male-centered and how this has opened a deep divide between Black women and men. The authors turn to their own lives, offering intimate accounts of their experiences as daughters, wives, and leaders. They examine pivotal moments in African American history when race and gender issues collided with explosive results—from the struggle for women’s suffrage in the nineteenth century to women’s attempts to gain a voice in the Black Baptist movement and on into the 1960s, when the Civil Rights movement and the upsurge of Black Power transformed the Black community while sidelining women.
Along the way, they present the testimonies of a large and influential group of Black women and men, including bell hooks, Faye Wattleton, Byllye Avery, Cornell West, Robin DG Kelley, Michael Eric Dyson, Marcia Gillispie, and Dorothy Height.
Provdingsearching analysis into the present, Cole and Guy-Sheftall uncover the cultural assumptions and attitudes in hip-hop and rap, in the O.J. Simpson and Mike Tyson trials, in the Million Men and Million Women Marches, and in the battle over Clarence Thomas’s appointment to the Supreme Court. Fearless and eye-opening, "Gender Talk is required reading for anyone concerned with the future of African American women—and men.


Click for more detail about Authentically Black: Essays For The Black Silent Majority by John McWhorter Authentically Black: Essays For The Black Silent Majority

by John McWhorter
Knopf (Jan 27, 2003)
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Picking up where the bestselling Losing the Race left off, this penetrating and profound collection of essays by the controversial thinker and passionate advocate for racial enlightenment and achievement explores what it means to be black in America today.

According to the author, nearly forty years after the Civil Rights Act, African-Americans in this country still remain "a race apart." He feels that modern black Americans have internalized a tacit message: "authentically black" people stress initiative in private but cloak the race in victimhood in public in order to protect black people from an ever-looming white backlash. He terms this the "New Double Consciousness" in homage to W.E.B. DuBois’ description of a different kind of double consciousness in blacks a century ago.

Within this context McWhorter takes the reader on a guided tour through the race issues dominant in our moment: racial profiling, getting past race, the reparations movement, black stereotypes in film and television, hip-hop, diversity, affirmative action, the word nigger, and Cornel West’s resignation from Harvard.

With his fierce intelligence and fervent eloquence, McWhorter makes a powerful case for the advancement of true racial equality.

A timely and important work about issues that must be addressed by blacks and whites alike, Authentically Black is a book for Americans of every racial, social, political, and economic persuasion.


Click for more detail about Mandela, Mobutu, and Me: A Newswoman’s African Journey by Lynne Duke Mandela, Mobutu, and Me: A Newswoman’s African Journey

by Lynne Duke
Doubleday (Jan 21, 2003)
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In this stunning memoir, veteran Washington Post correspondent Lynne Duke takes readers on a wrenching but riveting journey through Africa during the pivotal 1990s and brilliantly illuminates a continent where hope and humanity thrive amid unimaginable depredation and horrors.

For four years as her newspaper’s Johannesburg bureau chief, Lynne Duke cut a rare figure as a black American woman foreign correspondent as she raced from story to story in numerous countries of central and southern Africa. From the battle zones of Congo-Zaire to the quest for truth and reconciliation in South Africa; from the teeming displaced person’s camps of Angola and the killing field of the Rwanda genocide to the calming Indian Ocean shores of Mozambique. She interviewed heads of state, captains of industry, activists, tribal leaders, medicine men and women, mercenaries, rebels, refugees, and ordinary, hardworking people. And it is they, the ordinary people of Africa, who fueled the hope and affection that drove Duke’s reporting. The nobility of the ordinary African struggles, so often absent from accounts of the continent, is at the heart of Duke’s searing story.

MANDELA, MOBUTU, AND ME is a richly detailed, clear-eyed account of the hard realities Duke discovered, including the devastation wrought by ruthless, rapacious dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko and his successor, Laurent Kabila, in the Congo, and appalling indifference of Europeans and Americans to the legacy of their own exploitation of the continent and its people. But Duke also records with admiration the visionary leadership and personal style of Nelson Mandela in south Africa as he led his country’s inspiring transition from apartheid in the twilight of his incredible life.

Whether it was touring underground gold and copper mines, learning to carry water on her head, filing stories by flashlight or dodging gunmen, Duke’s tour of Africa reveals not only the spirit and travails of an amazing but troubled continent — it also explores the heart and fearlessness of a dedicated journalist.


Click for more detail about Jelly Roll: A Blues by Kevin Young Jelly Roll: A Blues

by Kevin Young
Knopf (Jan 14, 2003)
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In this jaunty and intimate collection, Kevin Young invents a language as shimmying and comic, as low-down and high-hearted, as the music from which he draws inspiration. With titles such as “Stride Piano,” “Gutbucket,” and “Can-Can,” these poems have the sharp completeness of vocalized songs and follow a classic blues trajectory: praising and professing undying devotion (“To watch you walk / cross the room in your black / corduroys is to see / civilization start”), only to end up lamenting the loss of love (“No use driving / like rain, past / where you at”). As Young conquers the sorrow left on his doorstep, the poems broaden to embrace not just the wisdom that comes with heartbreak but the bittersweet wonder of triumphing over adversity at all.

Sexy and tart, playfully blending an African American idiom with traditional lyric diction, Young’s voice is pure American: joyous in its individualism and singing of the self at its strongest.

Book Review

Click for more detail about A Love No Less: Two Centuries Of African American Love Letters by Pamela Newkirk A Love No Less: Two Centuries Of African American Love Letters

by Pamela Newkirk
Knopf (Jan 14, 2003)
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A Delightful paean to African American love, this treasury of fifty letters written by well known figures and ordinary folk alike resonates with the joy and tenderness of romance, and offers glimpses into the social, literary, and political lives of black Americans throughout the last two centuries.

An elegantly designed volume, printed in sepia and enhanced with photographs, A LOVE NO LESS presents the letters of African American lovers of all walks of life—from slave letters to the celebrated turn-of-the-twentieth-century poet Paul Laurence Dunbar to soldiers fighting World War II, to notable entertainers, businessmen, and civic leaders. Whether they were penned by literary masters or hastily scribbled by soldiers writing home to their wives or girlfriends, the letters are eloquent expressions of the writers’ most intimate feelings and touching revelations of the things that matter most in their lives.

A LOVE NO LESS is a testament to black love and to the bonds that endure in the face of physical separation, harsh times, and personal misfortunes. It also provides a peek into the more public arena, as writers tell their lovers about their everyday activities and encounters. Paul Laurence Dunbar writes to his wife about meeting Booker T. Washington and attending a lecture by W. E. B. DuBois. Letters from the Harlem Renaissance capture the excitement and vibrancy of that extraordinary period with stories about dinners, theater parties, shows and social outings with Langston Hughes, Carl Van Vechten and other luminaries. In a letter to her new husband written in the 1930s, stage and screen star Fredi Washington describes seeing a stereo for the first time and recounts her negotiations for a role in a Paramount film.

An enchanting and inspiring look at the power of love to transform and sustain, A LOVE NO LESS is the perfect gift for Valentines Day, anniversaries, birthdays, and weddings, a book that everyone who has ever been in love will treasure.


Click for more detail about Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture by Greg Tate Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture

by Greg Tate
Broadway Books (Jan 14, 2003)
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White kids from the ’burbs are throwing up gang signs. The 2001 Grammy winner for best rap artist was as white as rice. And blond-haired sorority sisters are sporting FUBU gear. What is going on in American culture that’s giving our nation a racial-identity crisis?

Following the trail blazed by Norman Mailer’s controversial essay “The White Negro,” Everything but the Burden brings together voices from music, popular culture, the literary world, and the media speaking about how from Brooklyn to the Badlands white people are co-opting black styles of music, dance, dress, and slang. In this collection, the essayists examine how whites seem to be taking on, as editor Greg Tate’s mother used to tell him, “everything but the burden”–from fetishizing black athletes to spinning the ghetto lifestyle into a glamorous commodity. Is this a way of shaking off the fear of the unknown? A flattering indicator of appreciation? Or is it a more complicated cultural exchange? The pieces in Everything but the Burden explore the line between hero-worship and paternalism.

Among the book’s twelve essays are Vernon Reid’s “Steely Dan Understood as the Apotheosis of ‘The White Negro,’” Carl Hancock Rux’s “The Beats: America’s First ‘Wiggas,’” and Greg Tate’s own introductory essay “Nigs ’R Us.”

Other contributors include: Hilton Als, Beth Coleman, Tony Green, Robin Kelley, Arthur Jafa, Gary Dauphin, Michaela Angela Davis, dream hampton, and Manthia diAwara.

Book Review

Click for more detail about American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm (Young Readers Adaptation) by Gail Lumet Buckley American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm (Young Readers Adaptation)

by Gail Lumet Buckley
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 14, 2003)
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They fought on Lexington Green the first morning of the Revolution and survived the bitter cold winter at Valley Forge. They stormed San Juan Hill with Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders and manned an anti-aircraft gun at Pearl Harbor. They are the black Americans who fought, often in foreign lands, for freedoms that they did not enjoy at home.
Adapted for young readers, this dramatic story brings to life the heroism of people such as Crispus Attucks, Benjamin O. Davis, Charity Adams, and Colin Powell, and captures the spirit that drove these Americans to better their lives and demand of themselves the highest form of sacrifice.


Click for more detail about More Like Wrestling: A Novel by Danyel Smith More Like Wrestling: A Novel

by Danyel Smith
Crown (Jan 14, 2003)
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The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing …

More Like Wrestling is the magnificent debut novel by one of the most acclaimed music journalists of her generation. It tells the story of Pinch and Paige, two sisters coming of age in Oakland, California, in the 1980s, a time when that beautiful, crumbling city is being transformed by tectonic shifts, both literal and figurative.

The novel unfolds through the alternating narration of the two sisters: Pinch, quiet and observant, and Paige, louder and wilder but faltering under her facade. The sisters are teenage refugees from a violent home, living alone in a faded Victorian mansion where they survive by creating a closed world centered around each other and their new friends—a rowdy makeshift family of castoffs, dealers, and drama queens on the periphery of the burgeoning drug game, some looking for a way out, some looking for a way deeper in. As the sisters grow from girls into women, they are confronted with a series of surprising reversals—death, imprisonment, and, just maybe, love—that force them to come to grips with the truth about their choices, their friends, and their tangled roots.

More Like Wrestling takes readers into fresh and surprising terrain, bringing a complex set of characters to vivid life with bracing honesty and sophistication. With a journalist’s eye for detail and a poet’s ear for language, Danyel Smith has written an unforgettable tale about memory, forgiveness, and love in a world built on fault lines.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Growing Up X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kim McLarin Growing Up X

by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kim McLarin
One World/Ballantine (Jan 14, 2003)
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“Ilyasah Shabazz has written a compelling and lyrical coming-of-age story as well as a candid and heart-warming tribute to her parents. Growing Up X is destined to become a classic.”
–SPIKE LEE

February 21, 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom. June 23, 1997: After surviving for a remarkable twenty-two days, his widow, Betty Shabazz, dies of burns suffered in a fire. In the years between, their six daughters reach adulthood, forged by the memory of their parents’ love, the meaning of their cause, and the power of their faith. Now, at long last, one of them has recorded that tumultuous journey in an unforgettable memoir: Growing Up X.

Born in 1962, Ilyasah was the middle child, a rambunctious livewire who fought for–and won–attention in an all-female household. She carried on the legacy of a renowned father and indomitable mother while navigating childhood and, along the way, learning to do the hustle. She was a different color from other kids at camp and yet, years later as a young woman, was not radical enough for her college classmates. Her story is, sbove all else, a tribute to a mother of almost unimaginable forbearance, a woman who, “from that day at the Audubon when she heard the shots and threw her body on [ours, never] stopped shielding her children.”


Click for more detail about Nigger: The Strange Career Of A Troublesome Word by Randall Kennedy Nigger: The Strange Career Of A Troublesome Word

by Randall Kennedy
Vintage (Jan 14, 2003)
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It’s “the nuclear bomb of racial epithets,” a word that whites have employed to wound and degrade African Americans for three centuries. Paradoxically, among many black people it has become a term of affection and even empowerment. The word, of course, is nigger, and in this candid, lucidly argued book the distinguished legal scholar Randall Kennedy traces its origins, maps its multifarious connotations, and explores the controversies that rage around it.

Should blacks be able to use nigger in ways forbidden to others? Should the law treat it as a provocation that reduces the culpability of those who respond to it violently? Should it cost a person his job, or a book like Huckleberry Finn its place on library shelves? With a range of reference that extends from the Jim Crow south to Chris Rock routines and the O. J. Simpson trial, Kennedy takes on not just a word, but our laws, attitudes, and culture with bracing courage and intelligence.


Click for more detail about Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride Miracle at St. Anna

by James McBride
Riverhead Books (Jan 07, 2003)
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From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction.

James McBride’s powerful memoir, The Color of Water, was a groundbreaking literary phenomenon that transcended racial and religious boundaries, garnering unprecedented acclaim and topping bestseller lists for more than two years. Now McBride turns his extraordinary gift for storytelling to fiction—in a universal tale of courage and redemption inspired by a little-known historic event. In Miracle at St. Anna, toward the end of World War II, four Buffalo Soldiers from the Army’s Negro 92nd Division find themselves separated from their unit and behind enemy lines. Risking their lives for a country in which they are treated with less respect than the enemy they are fighting, they discover humanity in the small Tuscan village of St. Anna di Stazzema—in the peasants who shelter them, in the unspoken affection of an orphaned child, in a newfound faith in fellow man. And even in the face of unspeakable tragedy, they—and we—learn to see the small miracles of life.

This acclaimed novel is now a major motion picture directed by Spike Lee.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Voices in Our Blood: America’s Best on the Civil Rights Movement (Rh Trade Pbk) by Jon Meacham Voices in Our Blood: America’s Best on the Civil Rights Movement (Rh Trade Pbk)

by Jon Meacham
Random House Trade Paperbacks (Jan 07, 2003)
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A literary anthology of important and artful interpretations of the civil rights movement and the fight against white supremacy, past and present—including pieces by Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, Richard Wright, and John Lewis

"Jon Meacham … has done about the best job of anthologizing the movement that I’ve ever seen."—Tom Wicker, Mother Jones

Editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham has chosen pieces by journalists, novelists, historians, and artists, bringing together a wide range of perspectives and experiences. The result is an unprecedented and powerful portrait of the movement’s spirit and struggle, told through voices that resonate with passion and strength.

Maya Angelou takes us on a poignant journey back to her childhood in the Arkansas of the 1930s. On the front page of The New York Times, James Reston marks the movement’s apex as he describes what it was like to watch Martin Luther King, Jr., deliver his heralded "I Have a Dream" speech in real time. Alice Walker takes up the movement’s progress a decade later in her article "Choosing to Stay at Home: Ten Years After the March on Washington." And John Lewis chronicles the unimaginable courage of the ordinary African Americans who challenged the prevailing order, paid for it in blood and tears, and justly triumphed.

Voices in Our Blood is a compelling look at the movement as it actually happened, from the days leading up to World War II to the anxieties and ambiguities of this new century. The story of race in America is a never-ending one, and Voices in Our Blood tells us how we got this far—and how far we still have to go to reach the Promised Land.

This powerful anthology contains works from:


Maya Angelou - Russell Baker - James Baldwin - Taylor Branch - Hodding Carter - Ellis Cose - Stanley Crouch - Ralph Ellison - William Faulkner - Marshall Frady - Henry Louis Gates, Jr. - Peter Goldman - David Halberstam - Alex Haley - Elizabeth Hardwick - Charlayne Hunter-Gault - Murray Kempton - John Lewis - Louis E. Lomax - Benjamin E. Mays - Willie Morris - Flannery O’Connor - Walker Percy - Howell Raines - James Reston - Carl T. Rowan - John Steinbeck - William Styron - Calvin Trillin - Alice Walker - Robert Penn Warren - Pat Watters - Bernard Weinraub - Eudora Welty - Rebecca West - E. B. White - Gary Wills - Tom Wolfe - Richard Wright


Click for more detail about Firefighter by Herman Williams Firefighter

by Herman Williams
Mountain Movers Press (Jan 01, 2003)
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Herman Williams is the father of Montel Williams. As a boy, he and his family fled Harlem to escape the infamous riots. Growing up in Baltimore, Williams encountered racism and ignorance on a continual basis, especially as one of the first black streetcar operators in the city, when he was subjected to humiliating verbal and physical abuse by members of the public. Yet, he eventually became the first African-American fire chief of a major U.S. city.


Click for more detail about Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights by Tananarive Due Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights

by Tananarive Due
One World/Ballantine (Jan 01, 2003)
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“History happens one person at a time.”
–Patricia Stephens Due

Patricia Stephens Due fought for justice during the height of the Civil Rights era, surrendering her very freedom to ensure that the rights of others might someday be protected. Her daughter, Tananarive, grew up deeply enmeshed in the values of a family committed to making right whatever they saw as wrong. Together, they have written a paean to the movement–its struggles, its nameless foot-soldiers, and its achievements–and an incisive examination of the future of justice in this country. Their mother-daughter journey spanning the struggles of two generations is an unforgettable story.

In 1960, when she was a student at Florida A&M University, Patricia and her sister Priscilla were part of the movement’s landmark “jail-in,” the first time during the student sit-in movement when protestors served their time rather than paying a fine. She and her sister, and three FAMU students, spent forty-nine days behind bars rather than pay for the “crime” of sitting at a Woolworth lunch counter. Thus began a lifelong commitment to human rights. Patricia and her husband, civil rights lawyer John Due, worked tirelessly with many of the movement’s greatest figures throughout the sixties to bring about change, particularly in the Deep Southern state of Florida.

Freedom in the Family chronicles these years with fascinating, raw power. Featuring interviews with civil rights leaders like Black Panther Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture) and ordinary citizens whose heroism has been largely unknown, this is a sweeping, multivoiced account of the battle for civil rights in America. It also reveals those leaders’ potentially controversial feelings about the current state of our nation, a country where police brutality and crippling disparities for blacks and whites in health care, education, employment, and criminal justice still exist today.

A mother writes so that the civil liberties she struggled for are not eroded, so that others will take up the mantle and continue to fight against injustice and discrimination. Her daughter, as part of the integration generation, writes to say thank you, to show the previous generation how very much they’ve done and how much better off she is for their effort–despite all the work that remains. Their combined message is remarkable, moving, and important. It makes for riveting reading.


Click for more detail about The Reckoning by Randall Robinson The Reckoning

by Randall Robinson
Plume (Dec 31, 2002)
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In The Reckoning, Randall Robinson examines the crime and poverty that grips much of urban America and urges black Americans to speak out and reach back to ensure their social and economic success in this country. With insight, compassion, and unflinching honesty, Robinson explores the twin blights of crime and poverty—the former often a symptom of the latter—and asks questions that are critical to the rebuilding of black communities: How do we create awareness of the heroic efforts already being made and how can we bring our troubled youth to safety?  A product of Robinson’s work with gang members, ex-convicts, and others who have been scarred by the harshness of life in our inner cities, The Reckoning is certain to be as important and controversial as his earlier books.

Book Review

Click for more detail about This Bitter Earth by Bernice L. McFadden This Bitter Earth

by Bernice L. McFadden
Plume (Dec 31, 2002)
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In This Bitter Earth, Sugar Lacey is on her way out of Bigelow, Arkansas, where she’d come to break with the past. With her worn leopard-print suitcase and her head held high, she walks past the prying eyes of its small-minded, cruel-hearted townsfolk, praying for the strength to keep going. She doesn’t stop until she arrives at her childhood home in Short Junction.  Here she learns the truth about her parentage: a terrible tale of unrequited love, of one man’s enduring hatred, and of the black magic that has cursed generations of Lacey women.  A powerfully realized novel that brings back the unforgettable characters from Sugar, McFadden’s bestselling debut, This Bitter Earth is a testament to the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Me and Uncle Romie: A Story Inspired by the Life and Art of Romare Beardon by Claire Hartfield Me and Uncle Romie: A Story Inspired by the Life and Art of Romare Beardon

by Claire Hartfield
Dial Books for Young Readers (Dec 30, 2002)
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Whooo-ooo! Train’s a’ coming! James can’t wait to get on board and go visit his uncle way up north in New York City. But he also just wishes he could take a little bit of home along with him-things like baseball games, and the special birthday cake Mama always makes. Will Uncle Romie, who’s some kind of artist, know about things like that?

Young readers will feel as if they’re discovering the city’s wonders, and making an unexpected friend, right along with James in this vibrant story, expressively illustrated by Coretta Scott King Award winner Jerome Lagarrigue.

A how-to section on storytelling collages and a short biography of Romare Bearden are included.


Click for more detail about My Man Blue by Nikki Grimes My Man Blue

by Nikki Grimes
Puffin Books (Dec 30, 2002)
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A collection of poems describes a young boy’s life with his working mother as he establishes his own identity and develops a close relationship with his mother’s friend, Blue. Full color.


Click for more detail about Only Passing Through by Anne F. Rockwell Only Passing Through

by Anne F. Rockwell
Random House Children’s Books (Dec 28, 2002)
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A powerful picture book biography of one of the abolitionist movement’s most compelling voices.

Sojourner Truth traveled the country in the latter half of the 19th century, speaking out against slavery. She told of a slave girl who was sold three times by age 13, who was beaten for not understanding her master’s orders, who watched her parents die of cold and hunger when they could no longer work for their keep. Sojourner’s simple yet powerful words helped people to understand the hideous truth about slavery. The story she told was her own.

Only Passing Through is the inspiring story of how a woman, born a slave with no status or dignity, transformed herself into one of the most powerful voices of the abolitionist movement. Anne Rockwell combines her lifelong love of history with her well-known skill as a storyteller to create this simple, affecting portrait of an American icon.


From the Hardcover Library Binding edition.


Click for more detail about Sapphire’s Grave by Hilda Gurley Highgate Sapphire’s Grave

by Hilda Gurley Highgate
Doubleday (Dec 24, 2002)
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The debut of a major new talent, SAPPHIRE’S GRAVE tells the stories of several generations of African-American women, bringing their spirit and their sorrow to life with a power, sensitivity, and immediacy.

In 1749 in Sierra Leone, a woman of fierce dignity is captured and forced onto a slave ship. On the harrowing voyage to the Americas, she is beaten for her unrelenting will and staunch pride. When she arrives, she gives birth to a daughter who is called Sapphire because of the "black-blue-black" complexion she shares with her mother. Sapphire has also inherited her mother’s strength and defiant spirit, and despite a life of poverty and opression, she grows up to mother several daughters of her own. Even when tragedy strikes and part of Sapphire dies, her strength gives rise to a legend that will sustain the women who follow her, "each carrying something of her mother, her grandmother, her aunts; each passing on to her own daughters blessing and cursing, the consequences of her own choosing.

Through the lives of Sapphire and her descendants, Hilda Gurley-Highgate not only creates a poignant and engrossing saga of black women in America, she brilliantly illuminates the meaning of roots and the links between women and their female ancestors, a tie that often appears tenuous, undefined, and distant, but is strong, palpable, and much closer than we imagine. Written in luminous prose, SAPPHIRE’S GRAVE is an astonishing work by an author poised to take the literary world by storm.

Book Review

Click for more detail about When Mules Flew on Magnolia Street by Angela Johnson When Mules Flew on Magnolia Street

by Angela Johnson
Yearling (Dec 10, 2002)
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Click for more detail about Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing by E. Lynn Harris and Marita Golden
Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing

by E. Lynn Harris and Marita Golden
Broadway Books (Dec 03, 2002)
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A literary rent party to benefit the Hurston/Wright Foundation of African-American fiction, with selections to savor from bestselling authors as well as talented rising stars.

Not since Terry McMillan’s Breaking Ice have so many African-American writers been brought together in one volume. A stellar collection of works from more than fifty hot names in fiction, Gumbo represents remarkable synergy. Edited by bestselling luminaries Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris, this collection spans new and previously published tales of love and luck, inspiration and violation, hip new worlds and hallowed heritage from voices such as:

Also featuring original stories by Golden and Harris themselves, Gumbo heralds the debut of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards for Published Black Writers (scheduled for October 2002), and all advances and royalties from the book will support the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Combining authors with a variety of flavorful writing, Gumbo will have readers clamoring for second helpings.


Click for more detail about Will by Will Smith Will

by Will Smith
Penguin Press (Nov 09, 2002)
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“The best memoir I’ve ever read.” -Oprah Winfrey

One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had.

Will Smith’s transformation from a West Philadelphia kid to one of the biggest rap stars of his era, and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, is an epic tale—but it’s only half the story. Will Smith thought, with good reason, that he had won at life: not only was his own success unparalleled, his whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world. Only they didn’t see it that way: they felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn’t signed up for. It turned out Will Smith’s education wasn’t nearly over. This memoir is the product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind. Written with the help of Mark Manson, author of the multi-million-copy bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Will is the story of how one person mastered his own emotions, written in a way that can help everyone else do the same. Few of us will know the pressure of performing on the world’s biggest stages for the highest of stakes, but we can all understand that the fuel that works for one stage of our journey might have to be changed if we want to make it all the way home. The combination of genuine wisdom of universal value and a life story that is preposterously entertaining, even astonishing, puts Will the book, like its author, in a category by itself.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Yokota Officers Club by Sarah Bird The Yokota Officers Club

by Sarah Bird
Ballantine Books (Oct 29, 2002)
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In this funny and moving novel, Bernie Root is returning to her family for the summer after her first year at college. Her father is stationed in Okinawa, and the rest of her large family is living at Kadena Air Base. Bernie is happy to be back, but it’s more obvious to her than ever that her oddball family is the only place she fits in.


Click for more detail about My Soul Has Grown Deep: Classics of Early African-American Literature by John Edgar Wideman My Soul Has Grown Deep: Classics of Early African-American Literature

by John Edgar Wideman
One World/Ballantine (Oct 29, 2002)
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In this vital and inspiring volume, John Edgar Wideman has brought together the first truly representative sampling of literature by African-American writers in the early centuries of our history. Reaching across periods, styles, and regional borders, Wideman has selected twelve works of genius–some of them celebrated literary icons, others neglected or forgotten masterpieces– and reprinted them in their entirety. The result is a book as thrilling in its passion as it is vast in scope.

Though these selections come from a range of genres (verse, memoir, historical, and personal narrative), they are all, fundamentally, stories of strength and survival. Frederick Douglass’s frank narrative of escape from slavery and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s classic verse take their place beside lesser-known works like Nat Love’s stirring account of life as a black cowboy, Ida B. Wells’s haunting descriptions of lynchings, and the crisp, compelling adventures of Olaudah Equiano. Wideman prefaces each selection with an illuminating biographical essay.

The fruit of a lifetime’s devotion to the best American writing, My Soul Has Grown Deep will stand as an enduring monument to the depth and beauty of African-American literature.


Click for more detail about Dancing on the Edge of the Roof by Sheila Williams Dancing on the Edge of the Roof

by Sheila Williams
One World (Oct 29, 2002)
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At forty-one, Juanita Lewis is running away from home, courtesy of a one-way ticket to Montana, a place that seems about as far away from the violence and poverty of the Columbus, Ohio, projects as the moon. She wants adventure and excitement–if such things exist for a pre-menopausal African American woman with three grown, deadbeat children.

Juanita’s new life in Paper Moon, Montana, begins at a local diner where a culinary face-off with chef and owner Jess Gardiner finds Juanita in front of Jess’s stove serving up home cookin’ that lures the townsfolk like a magic spell. And suddenly Juanita, who was just passin’ through, now has a job by popular demand.

Out here in this wide-open space, Juanita’s heart can no longer hide, especially when she sees herself through the eyes of the wonderful and eccentric people of this down-to-earth town. She’s happy in Paper Moon; she’s found a home, but can she stay? And then there’s Jess. She has always dreamed of romance, but she never planned on falling in love.


Click for more detail about A Little Piece of Sky by Nicole Bailey-Williams A Little Piece of Sky

by Nicole Bailey-Williams
Broadway Books (Oct 08, 2002)
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A poignant, powerful debut that combines the deep emotion of The House on Mango Street with uniquely creative storytelling.

Unfolding in a series of tiny vignettes, A Little Piece of Sky introduces an endearing new novelist and a truly unforgettable main character. In the first few chapters we meet a little girl named Song Byrd, who keenly reports on the world around her. She is African American (in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood), unwanted (conceived during an adulterous affair), and poor in the material sense but extraordinarily rich in spirit.

In piercingly insightful prose, Nicole Bailey-Williams takes readers on Song’s journey through life as she struggles against outsider status and intense guilt over her mother’s murder. Behind it all, places of pure joy, “dreaming the hurt away,” and glorious little pieces of sky shine through. Song’s tales—and Bailey-Williams’s narrative gift—are truly words to treasure.


Click for more detail about I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It by Charles Barkley I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It

by Charles Barkley
Random House (Oct 01, 2002)
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Charles Barkley has never been shy about expressing his opinions. Michael Jordan once said that we all want to say the things that Barkley says, but we don’t dare. But even die-hard followers of the all-time NBA great, the star of TNT’s Inside the NBA and CNN’s TalkBack Live, will be astonished by just how candid and provocative he is in this book—and just how big his ambitions are. Though he addresses weighty issues with a light touch and prefers to stir people to think by making them laugh, there’s nothing Charles Barkley shies away from here—not race, not class, not big money, not scandal, not politics, not personalities, nothing. “Early on,” says Washington Post columnist and ESPN talk show host Michael Wilbon in his Introduction, “Barkley made his peace with mixing it up, and decided the consequences were very much worth it to him. And that makes him as radically different in these modern celebrity times as a 6-foot-4-inch power forward.”

If there’s one thing Charles Barkley knows, it’s the crying need for honest, open discussion in this country—the more uncomfortable the subject, the more necessary the dialogue. And if the discussion leader can be as wise, irreverent, (occasionally) profane and (consistently) funny as Charles Barkley, so much the better. Many people are going to be shocked and scandalized by I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It, but many more will stand up and cheer. Like Molly Ivins or Bill O’Reilly, Charles Barkley is utterly his own thinker, and everything he says comes from deep reflection. One way or another, if more blood hasn’t reached your brain by the time you’ve finished this book, maybe you’ve been embalmed.


Click for more detail about Inner City Miracle by Greg Mathis Inner City Miracle

by Greg Mathis
One World/Ballantine (Oct 01, 2002)
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Millions have seen him on his nationwide TV show, dispensing justice in his own charismatic style. But Judge Greg Mathis’s own rise to success has been a trial by fire. In this truly candid memoir, his harrowing life on both sides of the law is revealed for the first time.

It starts in Detroit—but far from the court where Greg would one day preside. Raised in the hell of the Herman Garden Projects, he grows to become a “bad-ass, cool-dressing, do-anything gangsta.” His father gone, his mother juggling two jobs, he falls in with the Errol Flynns—“funkified English gentlemen” in three-piece suits and Borsalino hats, urban Robin Hoods who are truly stylish as they steal from everyone and give to themselves.

Considered bright but incorrigible, Greg is sent to stay in his middle-class cousin’s mixed neighborhood, where he enlists the local white youth in wrongdoing. Even jail can’t keep him from going bad again once he gets out. Then a threat to his beloved mother causes a shaken Greg to make a promise in a prayer to God: save my mother and I will straighten up.

To his and everyone else’s surprise, he keeps his side of the bargain. Inspired by The Autobiography of Malcolm X, working at McDonald’s by day and attending classes by night, Greg pulls himself through high school and college and then law school, using in positive ways the innate intelligence that made him a master at crime. Soon he becomes the youngest judge in Michigan history, a District Court judge and, at last, undaunted by the odds and propelled by his personal story, a sought-after and highly paid TV star.

In its blunt, bold, and sometimes hair-raising honesty, Inner City Miracle is both a cautionary and an inspiring story, one sure to stun all those who come to Judge Mathis’s TV courtroom every day.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Blame It On Eve by Philana Marie Boles Blame It On Eve

by Philana Marie Boles
One World/Ballantine (Oct 01, 2002)
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Shawni Baldwin has everything she has ever closed her eyes and wished for. She can wrap her arms around a devoted and very sexy fiancé, Bo Delaney, an entertainment attorney. She is living a glamorous life as a successful, jet-setting fashion model. But now, much to the dismay of her mother, Shawni has decided not to sign her next modeling contract. For beyond the pop of the flash bulb, beneath the glitzy trappings of fame and fortune, Shawni feels like just another empty doll on the runway.

As the cold war with her commanding mother silently rages on, and her overprotective brother tries not to cramp her style, Shawni starts a new career as an independent beauty and fashion consultant. But a current client, a band of gorgeous crooners known as The Gentlemen, challenges her in ways she would never have imagined. In particular, one of the singers, Zin, with his Kenneth Cole boots and Joop cologne, defines sensuality and knocks her feelings of fidelity off balance.

Suddenly there is a wedge between Shawni and her groom-to-be—and the estrangement turns a woman’s confidence into uncertainty. As her life begins to recklessly spiral out of control, Shawni is forced to confront demons she never knew she had. She asks herself a profound question: Does her sense of self, her happiness, her very existence, depend upon a man?


By turns probing and funny, searing and sweet, Blame It On Eve follows the ups and downs of a sassy new heroine as she navigates brave new emotional terrains of the heart and soul. It’s an infectious novel about independence, sisterhood, and finding the strength to be true to oneself. If you don’t like that truth, well … Blame It On Eve!


Click for more detail about Bombingham by Anthony Grooms Bombingham

by Anthony Grooms
One World (Oct 01, 2002)
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In his barracks, Walter Burke is trying to write a letter to the parents of a fallen soldier, an Alabama man who died in a muddy rice paddy. But all he can think of is his childhood friend Lamar, the friend with whom he first experienced the fury of violence, on the streets of Birmingham, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The juxtaposition is so powerful—between war-torn Vietnam and terror-filled “Bombingham”—that he is drawn back to the summer that would see his transition from childish wonder at the world to his certain knowledge of his place in it.

Walter and Lamar were always aware of the terms of segregation—the horrendous rules and stifling reality. Their paper route never took them to the white areas of town. But that year, everything exploded. And so did Walter’s family. As the great movement swelled around them, the Burkes faced tremendous obstacles of their own. From a tortured past lingered questions of faith, and a terrible family crisis found its climax as the city did the same. In the streets of Birmingham, ordinary citizens risked their lives to change America. And for Walter, the war was just beginning.


Click for more detail about Maizon at Blue Hill by Jacqueline Woodson Maizon at Blue Hill

by Jacqueline Woodson
Puffin Books (Sep 30, 2002)
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Maizon takes the biggest step in her life when she accepts a scholarship to boarding school and says good-bye to her grandmother and her best friend, Margaret. Blue Hill is beautiful, and challenging-but there are only five black students, and the other four are from wealthy families. Does Maizon belong at Blue Hill after all?

"Simply told and finely crafted." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)


Click for more detail about Between Madison and Palmetto by Jacqueline Woodson Between Madison and Palmetto

by Jacqueline Woodson
Putnam Juvenile (Sep 30, 2002)
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Maizon and Margaret are both living on Madison Street again, but somehow everything seems different. Maizon has changed since her semester at boarding school, and Margaret has become withdrawn since her father’s death. Added into the mix is Caroline, a white girl who’s new in town and threatens Maizon and Margaret’s closeness, and Maizon’s father, who left her as a baby but shows up unexpectedly just when she thought her life couldn’t get any more mixed up.

In the third book of Jacqueline Woodson’s trilogy, we see how growing up makes Maizon and Margaret’s lives-and their friendship-a lot more complicated.


Click for more detail about Dakota Grand: A Novel by Kenji Jasper Dakota Grand: A Novel

by Kenji Jasper
Harlem Moon (Sep 24, 2002)
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From the author of the acclaimed debut novel Dark, a searing and authentic new novel about the mano a mano feud between a famous rap artist and an intrepid, won’t-back-down hip-hop journalist.

Dakota Grand is a young music journalist who’s left his Southern roots behind and moved to the Big Apple to cover the rough-and-tumble world of rap. He’s part of the star-making machinery, spinning the web of interviews, reviews, and “inside stories” that move the CD’s off the racks. He’s good at this, but what it’s gotten him so far is an apartment in deepest Brooklyn, a check-to-check freelancer’s existence, and a hit-and-run love life. Then the break of his career comes: the opportunity to interview one of his rap heroes, Mirage, one half of the legendary group Arbor Day, for a cover story for The Magazine. Puffing on a spliff, Mirage spills plenty of beans to Dakota Grand, but he’s less than pleased by the resulting article. In fact, he has his boys assault Dakota in a midtown elevator and send him to the hospital. What ensues is an increasingly tense and violent duel between Mirage and Dakota Grand, with the young writer determined to fight back for his own honor and that of his fellow journalists.

As gripping as the best “Behind the Music” episode, Dakota Grand is a vivid and provocative study of a young writer and the multiplatinum, chart-topping culture that has begun to consume him—a significant step forward for a rising young star in the African-American literary world.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Drift by John Ridley The Drift

by John Ridley
Knopf (Sep 17, 2002)
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He was Charles Harmon, a black man “living white” and living well—beautiful wife, German car, big house—in an upper-upper-middle-class suburb of Los Angeles.

He is Brain Nigger Charlie, a train tramp eking out a ragged existence on the railroads, leaning on drugs to keep him from thinking about everything he had, everything his creeping dementia has forced him to run from.
Charlie’s been asked a desperate favor: find the seventeen-year-old niece of the man who taught him how to survive the rails—a girl lost somewhere on the High Line, the “corridors of racist hate” along the tracks of the Pacific Northwest. Charlie has little hope of finding her alive, but the request is an obligation he can’t refuse. The search is a twisted trail that leads from Iowa to Washington State, mixing lies and deceit, hate and hopelessness, and brutal, stubbornly unsolved murders. All of which Charlie is prepared to meet in kind. What he isn’t prepared
for is a path that will eventually lead him back to what he thought no longer existed—his own humanity—though the toll may turn out to be his life.

At once stunningly visceral and psychologically complex, furiously paced and deeply empathic, The Drift is John Ridley’s most ambitious, most galvanizing novel yet.

Book Review

Click for more detail about A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging by Dionne Brand A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging

by Dionne Brand
Vintage Canada (Sep 17, 2002)
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A Map to the Door of No Return is a timely book that explores the relevance and nature of identity and belonging in a culturally diverse and rapidly changing world. It is an insightful, sensitive and poetic book of discovery.

Drawing on cartography, travels, narratives of childhood in the Caribbean, journeys across the Canadian landscape, African ancestry, histories, politics, philosophies and literature, Dionne Brand sketches the shifting borders of home and nation, the connection to place in Canada and the world beyond.

The title, A Map to the Door of No Return, refers to both a place in imagination and a point in history — the Middle Passage. The quest for identity and place has profound meaning and resonance in an age of heterogenous identities.

In this exquisitely written and thought-provoking new work, Dionne Brand creates a map of her own art.


Click for more detail about A Love of My Own: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris A Love of My Own: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
Doubleday (Jul 30, 2002)
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Friendship. Love. Family.

Bestselling author E. Lynn Harris is back with another new tale that embraces his signature themes.

Zola Denise Norwood is a young hot editor in chief of Bling Bling, (the magazine “for people who want everything!) who’s at the top of her game, ruling the roost in business as well as the bedroom. Having discovered “the power of three” (not tying herself down to just one guy) Zola surrounds herself with a coterie of men : her best male friend, the gay Hayden; her Monday night man, Jabar, and enjoys stolen nights with married Bling Bling owner and media mogul Davis Vincent McClinton, a man who chases power at all costs…Still, Zola dreams of finding true love.

Raymond Tyler, Jr., a favorite and classic Harris character has suffered a personal loss and picks up and moves to New York to re-build his life. As CEO of Bling Bling,Raymond struggles to enjoy his newfound success in business as he searches for love and meaning in his personal life. John Basil Henderson returns with a new lady in his life, and Raymond and Basil renew a friendship that is fraught with sexual tension. As Raymond examines his life and strains to move forward, tragedy strikes, and Raymond faces his biggest challenge ever.

As Zola and Raymond search for a love of their own, several characters from the past make cameo appearances and round out another E. Lynn Harris classic tale. A LOVE OF MY OWN is filled with all the marvelous ingredients the author’s fans the globe over have come to love. Sit back and get ready as E. Lynn Harris takes you on another satisfying and rip-roaring ride.

Book Review

Click for more detail about After Hours: A Collection of Erotic Writing by Black Men by Robert Fleming After Hours: A Collection of Erotic Writing by Black Men

by Robert Fleming
Plume (Jul 30, 2002)
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After Hours contains nineteen stories from some of the best black male authors in the business today, such as National Book Award Winner, Charles Johnson, Colin Channer, Curtis Bunn, Brandon Massey, Brian Egeston, Alexs D. Pate, and many more.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Caribbean Dream by Rachel Isadora Caribbean Dream

by Rachel Isadora
Puffin Books (Jul 08, 2002)
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Where does sea meet sky?
Where does sound meet color?
Where does song meet soul?

Here is a place where children run, splash, and sing, on an island in the West Indies, in a world that is nothing short of magical. Rachel Isadora’s glowing watercolors and lyrical, evocative text celebrate the things that make the Caribbean a very special home.

"The poetic text encourages the reader to visualize the meeting of the waves and the sand, wind and hill, song and soul, and to imagine the activities that follow." (The Horn Book)

"Isadora’s pictures move and sway like a Caribbean breeze." (Booklist)


Click for more detail about In the Arms of One Who Loves Me by Jacqueline Jones LaMon In the Arms of One Who Loves Me

by Jacqueline Jones LaMon
One World/Ballantine (Jun 25, 2002)
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From fabulous new author Jacqueline Jones LaMon, a sexy page-turner that follows the lives of two young, black professionals as they navigate career and romance, ambition and heartbreak. Two paths that meet by serendipity.

Nia Benson, a college graduate who dreams someday of running her own public relations firm, believes the world is her oyster. But Nia runs up against the harsh realities of corporate life and office politics when she is fired from a job she loves. For someone who has always had a plan and a purpose, Nia feels suddenly adrift, questioning her aspirations and sense of self. It doesn’t help her state of mind when Nia learns her long-time love is seeing someone else. She finds emotional release, however, in an unexpected place.

Seth Jackson is trying to make his way in the cutthroat music industry. After years of chasing one woman after another, he is finally ready to settle down. When he meets the mysterious, captivating Lauren at his best friend’s wedding, Seth falls hard and fast. He has no doubt: Here is the woman with whom he is destined to spend the rest of his life. Until a twist of fate and painful secrets threaten to tear them apart.

Facing the collapse of all that they believe in, Nia and Seth set out on separate journeys to find themselves. Along the way, their paths will criss then cross, through tears and laughter, as they uncover deep truths about who they are, what they need, and where their hearts really belong.


Click for more detail about Nova by Samuel R. Delany Nova

by Samuel R. Delany
Vintage (Jun 11, 2002)
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Given that the suns of Draco stretch almost sixteen light years from end to end, it stands to reason that the cost of transportation is the most important factor of the 32nd century. And since Illyrion is the element most needed for space travel, Lorq von Ray is plenty willing to fly through the core of a recently imploded sun in order to obtain seven tons of it. The potential for profit is so great that Lorq has little difficulty cobbling together an alluring crew that includes a gypsy musician and a moon-obsessed scholar interested in the ancient art of writing a novel. What the crew doesn’t know, though, is that Lorq’s quest is actually fueled by a private revenge so consuming that he’ll stop at nothing to achieve it. In the grandest manner of speculative fiction, Nova is a wise and witty classic that casts a fascinating new light on some of humanity’s oldest truths and enduring myths.


Click for more detail about Getting Our Breath Back by Shawne Johnson Getting Our Breath Back

by Shawne Johnson
Dutton Adult (Jun 01, 2002)
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Violet, Lilly, and Rose know how it feels to be black women trying to find their place in a changing white world. Violet, the eldest, grows up believing in the myth of the southern belle-only to discover that good manners and genteel charm aren’t going to bring her acceptance from a closed-minded society…or a philandering husband. Lilly is an ex-Black Panther and writer caught up in the stormy aftermath of the sixties; she shuts out this new world of confusion and pain with the heroin that can never give her peace-or salvation. Rose is the youngest, a sculptor who has shaped herself in the image of an independent black woman grounded in the political movements of her time. But she carries a secret heartache that will resonate in the life of her daughter, Imani, who grows up searching for the daddy she longs to know.

Earthy, evocative, rich in the atmosphere and emotional turmoil of the times, Getting Our Breath Back is a story of struggle and forgiveness, of separation and reconciliation…of women who must reinvent themselves if they are to survive, to heal, and to flourish.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Hip Logic (National Poetry Series) by Terrance Hayes Hip Logic (National Poetry Series)

by Terrance Hayes
Penguin Books (May 28, 2002)
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The second collection of poetry from the author of Lighthead, winner of the 2010 National Book Award

Terrance Hayes is a dazzlingly original poet, interested in adventurous explorations of subject and form. His new work, Hip Logic, is full of poetic tributes to the likes of Paul Robeson, Big Bird, Balthus, and Mr. T, as well as poems based on the anagram principle of words within a word. Throughout, Hayes’s verse dances in a kind of homemade music box, with notes that range from tender to erudite, associative to narrative, humorous to political. Hip Logic does much to capture the nuances of contemporary male African American identity and confirms Hayes’s reputation as one of the most compelling new voices in American poetry.


Click for more detail about John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead John Henry Days

by Colson Whitehead
Anchor (May 14, 2002)
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Colson Whitehead’s eagerly awaited and triumphantly acclaimed new novel is on one level a multifaceted retelling of the story of John Henry, the black steel-driver who died outracing a machine designed to replace him. On another level it’s the story of a disaffected, middle-aged black journalist on a mission to set a record for junketeering who attends the annual John Henry Days festival. It is also a high-velocity thrill ride through the tunnel where American legend gives way to American pop culture, replete with p. r. flacks, stamp collectors, blues men , and turn-of-the-century song pluggers. John Henry Days is an acrobatic, intellectually dazzling, and laugh-out-loud funny book that will be read and talked about for years to come.


Click for more detail about Black Men: In Their Own Words by Patricia M. Hinds and Susan L. Taylor Black Men: In Their Own Words

by Patricia M. Hinds and Susan L. Taylor
Crown (May 14, 2002)
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From ESSENCE Books comes an exquisitely designed collection of essays from some of today’s most influential, respected, and recognized Black men, who speak candidly and eloquently about their lives and passions.

Black Men: In Their Own Words is an inspiring look at men of color who have reached the top of their chosen professions. Beautifully illustrated with striking photographs, it features prominent Black men speaking openly about the forces that have shaped their lives—from their friendships, passions, loves, and family relationships to racism and historical legacies.

A unique who’s who of contemporary African-American history and culture, Black Men: In Their Own Words is a fascinating compilation of personal testimonies from almost a hundred men. Filled with rich and powerful reflections from leading civil-rights activists and news-making politicians (Julian Bond, Jesse Jackson, Jr.), artists and entertainers (Samuel L. Jackson, Damon Wayans, Wynton Marsalis), sports stars (Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), media stalwarts (Ed Bradley, Tavis Smiley), and powerful thinkers and businessmen (Omar Wasow, Alvin Poussaint, Russell Simmons), this book’s thoughtful, enlightening stories and dynamic photographs will evoke feelings of pride and purpose in every reader—male or female.

A wonderful combination of poignant writing and photographic artistry, Black Men: In Their Own Words is a deeply felt and engaging book that acknowledges the past, celebrates today’s accomplishments, and salutes the future of Black men in all walks of life.


Click for more detail about Lisette’s Angel by Amy Littlesugar Lisette’s Angel

by Amy Littlesugar
Dial (May 13, 2002)
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When soldiers invade their quaint town of Normandy in France, Lisette prays for an angel to help her family overcome this terrible time, in a powerful story of the 1944 D-day invasion told from a child’s perspective.


Click for more detail about Thieves’ Paradise: A Novel by Eric Jerome Dickey Thieves’ Paradise: A Novel

by Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton Adult (May 01, 2002)
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Twenty-five-year-old Dante Brown is down and out in L.A. After doing a stretch of hard time in juvenile jail, he cleaned up his act as a computer techie-only to be laid off when the economy went south. Now he’s facing a mountain of unpaid bills, a car on its last legs, imminent eviction, and a snowball’s chance in hell with Pam, a sexy waitress/actress on the hunt for a man with means.

Enter Scamz, a slick brother from Dante’s checkered past whose successful, illegal business associations keep him in custom-tailored suits, a Benz CL600, and a lavish Hollywood mansion with his pick of gorgeous women. Dante is determined to stay straight…after one last con that could put him back on top. But he gets pulled in deeper when his old friend Jackson, who’s $16,000 behind in child support, becomes part of the sting. The icing on the cake is Pam who, seduced by the easy money, suddenly finds Dante irresistible…until everything goes wrong.

A provocative and seductive story of contemporary men and women on the move and on the make, living large-and small-in L.A., Thieves’ Paradise is this phenomenally gifted author "at the top of his game" (Chicago Defender).

Book Review

Click for more detail about A Walk Through Darkness: A Novel by David Anthony Durham A Walk Through Darkness: A Novel

by David Anthony Durham
Doubleday (Apr 30, 2002)
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The second novel by the acclaimed author of Gabriel’s Story, Walk Through Darkness is a story of history infused by myth, the intense narrative of an escaped slave trying to reunite with his pregnant wife.

Walk Through Darkness is the story of two very different men, each on a quest, both tied together by a history of remorse, jealousy, and a love that crosses the barriers of race during the time of slavery.

William, a fugitive slave from Maryland, is driven by two powerful needs—to find his wife, Dover, who is pregnant with his child, and to live as a free man. He undertakes the treacherous journey north to restore meaning to his life, putting him at odds with the law and the sentiments of a nation. Morrison, who fled a painful youth in Scotland, had once hoped to establish a new life in America with his brother, but the unforeseen realities of immigrant life drove them apart.

As David Anthony Durham traces the physical and spiritual journeys of William, Dover, and Morrison he captures in rich, evocative detail the events and the landscape of America just before the turmoil of the Civil War. Interweaving tragedy and hardship with a profound understanding of enduring love and the desire for freedom. Walk Through Darkness is a complex story that is uniquely American, reflecting the tortured nature of the country’s bloodlines and uncovering the deep bonds, and wounds, that exist across racial lines. This is a well-wrought work of "fiction in history" that follows two very different American men’s paths to freedom, and places a difficult part of our nation’s history under a magnifying glass to search for something beyond pain. In the end, it also presents a new possibility for healing — for the characters, and for the larger racial divide that still haunts the United States.

Building on the strengths of his extraordinary debut, Durham opens the reader’s eyes anew to the eternal odyssey to find a home and identity in America.

Book Review

Click for more detail about If You Can’t Be Free, Be A Mystery: In Search Of Billie Holiday by Farah Jasmine Griffin If You Can’t Be Free, Be A Mystery: In Search Of Billie Holiday

by Farah Jasmine Griffin
One World/Ballantine (Apr 30, 2002)
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More than four decades after her death, Billie Holiday remains one of the most gifted artists of our time–and also one of the most elusive. Because of who she was and how she chose to live her life, Lady Day has been the subject of both intense adoration and wildly distorted legends. Now at last, Farah Jasmine Griffin, a writer of intellectual authority and superb literary gifts, liberates Billie Holiday from the mythology that has obscured both her life and her art.

An intimate meditation on Holiday’s place in American culture and history, If You Can’t Be Free, Be A Mystery reveals Lady Day in all her complexity, humor and pain–a true jazz virtuoso whose passion and originality made every song she sang hers forever. Celebrated by poets, revered by recording artists from Frank Sinatra to Macy Gray, Billie Holiday is more popular and influential today than ever before. Now, thanks to this marvelous book, Holiday’s many fans can finally understand the singer and the woman they love.


Click for more detail about The Queen of Harlem by Brian Keith Jackson The Queen of Harlem

by Brian Keith Jackson
Doubleday (Apr 16, 2002)
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An African American Breakfast at Tiffany’s–a hip, refreshingly candid tale of identity and self—discovery from the critically acclaimed author of The View from Here and Walking Through Mirrors.

Mason Randolph, a black preppie of impeccable Southern pedigree, is bound for Stanford Law School after graduating from college. Before embarking on the path to his golden future, however, he takes a detour through Harlem, where he intends to live "authentically" with "real black people."

Mason takes the name "Malik" and moves into the orbit of the ever—fabulous Carmen, uptown diva and doyenne of Harlem. Carmen, always ready to have a handsome young man at her fabulous soirees and to add to her devoted entourage, happily takes him under her wing. Fueled by his parents’ money and dodging the people who remember him as Mason Randolph, "Malik" masquerades as a "ghettonian," exploring the wonders and pleasures of a Harlem in the midst of a second Renaissance. But his odyssey takes a different turn when he meets Kyra, whose world mirrors the one he has abandoned. As he contemplates the choices Kyra has made, and begins to reexamine his own presumptions about identity and authenticity, Mason realizes that everyone has something to hide and that to get what we want, we have to be willing to let go of our secrets.

People compared Brian Keith Jackson’s remarkable first novel, The View from Here, to the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, and Publishers Weekly called it "an extraordinary debut…[by] a formidable craftsman and exceptionally gifted storyteller." A novel rich in humor and insight, The Queen of Harlem will earn Jackson a much—deserved place in the center of today’s literary landscape.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Thirsty by Dionne Brand Thirsty

by Dionne Brand
McClelland & Stewart (Apr 16, 2002)
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This is a poem about the city. About a man who has visions, hovering on the edge but hating it, restless and at war with the world but wanting the peace that passeth understanding. Everything he does is half-done, except his death. When he falls, his parched spirit crying "thirsty," his family falls apart. This is a poem about Toronto, the city that’s never happened before, about waiting for a bus, standing on a corner, watching a stranger: the bank to one corner, the driving school on another, the milk store and the church. This is also about the poet, her own restless sensibility woven in and out through moments of lyric beauty, dramatic power and storytelling grace. It is written in the margins, like a medieval manuscript with shades of light and darkness.


Click for more detail about A New World Order: Essays by Caryl Phillips A New World Order: Essays

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Apr 01, 2002)
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The Africa of his ancestry, the Caribbean of his birth, the Britain of his upbringing, and the United States where he now lives are the focal points of award-winning writer Caryl Phillips’ profound inquiry into evolving notions of home, identity, and belonging in an increasingly international society.
At once deeply reflective and coolly prescient, A New World Order charts the psychological frontiers of our ever-changing world. Through personal and literary encounters, Phillips probes the meaning of cultural dislocation, measuring the distinguishing features of our identities–geographic, racial, national, religious–against the amalgamating effects of globalization. In the work of writers such as V. S. Naipaul, James Baldwin, and Zadie Smith, cultural figures such as Steven Spielberg, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Marvin Gaye, and in his own experiences, Phillips detects the erosion of cultural boundaries and amasses startling and poignant insights on whether there can be an answer anymore to the question “Where are you from?” The result is an illuminating–and powerfully relevant–account of identity from an exceedingly perceptive citizen of the world.


Click for more detail about Oh God!: A Black Woman’s Guide to Sex and Spirituality by Susan Moore Oh God!: A Black Woman’s Guide to Sex and Spirituality

by Susan Moore
One World/Ballantine (Mar 26, 2002)
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Far too many African American women struggle with a deep division between the two fundamental pillars of their identity–spirituality and sexuality. The church tells them that to live “holy and sanctified” lives they must give up sexual activity outside the institution of marriage, and yet their bodies and souls cry out for a way to express and fulfill their natural passions. In this groundbreaking book, the Reverend Dr. Susan Newman, a nationally recognized minister and speaker, finally shows all women of faith how to find a healthy balance between their spiritual selves and their sexual needs.

Dr. Newman opens with a simple but startling premise: You can love God and love sex at the same time. Though it may sound irreverent, this premise is actually the basis for an essential journey to self-knowledge and reconciliation. As Dr. Newman shows, this journey has been denied to women for centuries because of church traditions and doctrines going back to the Old Testament and to the teachings of Saint Paul. For African American women, the spiritual-sexual divide was compounded by slavery.

But women of faith do not have to live divided lives. Writing with passion, candor, and welcome humor, Dr. Newman opens new paths to healing and reconciliation. Here are frank, direct discussions about sex both inside and outside marriage; about being honest about your spiritual and erotic needs; about making personal choices; and about acknowledging the holiness of your body.

The goal, as Dr. Newman explains, is not to suppress or channel your sexuality, but to embrace sex as a wonderful gift from God. As a woman of faith–and as a woman–you deserve a healthy, satisfying life, a life open to passion and truly free of guilt and shame. The first book of its kind, Oh God! is a landmark achievement that will be welcomed by black women who want to live in wholeness of spirit and body.

Book Review

Click for more detail about I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

by Maya Angelou
Random House (Mar 05, 2002)
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Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.
 
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.
 
Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.
 
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin


Click for more detail about Love Don’t Live Here Anymore by Denene Millner and Nick Chiles Love Don’t Live Here Anymore

by Denene Millner and Nick Chiles
Dutton (Mar 01, 2002)
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Randy Murphy and Mikki Chance-Murphy are a contemporary couple whose marital bond is tested by the demands of their emerging professional lives. He is an ad executive who has temporarily relocated to Paris to pursue a prestigious account. She is a fashion designer living in Brooklyn, trying to move her struggling bridal boutique into the black. Unfolding in alternating chapters from each of their points of view, Love Don’t Live Here Anymore tells the story of what happens to a marriage when infidelity and distance-both physical and emotional-enter the equation. As Mikki finds herself powerfully drawn to her husband’s best friend, it will take some major shaking up-not to mention faith, understanding, and lots of love-to put the pieces of their marriage back together. If it’s not too late. A novel about the choices that shape our lives and relationships, this is a moving and captivating addition to contemporary African-American fiction.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Shackling Water by Adam Mansbach Shackling Water

by Adam Mansbach
Doubleday (Feb 19, 2002)
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Written in a lyrical, exhilarating, and intoxicating style that brilliantly evokes the moods and cadences of jazz and hip hop, Shackling Water is a book for lovers of both words and song.

The novel follows talented young saxophonist Latif James-Pearson as he migrates from Boston to New York in hopes of apprenticing himself to his hero, Albert Van Horn. The center of Latif’s universe soon becomes his room in a Harlem boarding house, where he spends his days alone, practicing intensely, and a downtown nightclub called Dutchman’s where Van Horn’s group performs. There, Latif studies the musicians from afar, unwilling to meet Van Horn until he feels musically ready.

It is at Dutchman’s that Latif stumbles into another apprenticeship, this one to a charismatic drug dealer named Say Brother, and inadvertently comes under the wing of Van Horn’s pianist, Sonny Burma. Latif also meets Mona, a white painter who is a regular at the club, and they begin a complex affair, which causes both of them to question their ideas about artistry, race, and love.

As Latif drifts slowly toward the life of a hustler and away from that of a musician, Van Horn himself steps in and begins to mentor the young man, relating his own remarkable life story in the process. But even as Latif makes his way into his hero’s inner circle, his frustration with his playing, the turn his relationship with Mona is taking, and the demands of hustling begin to take their toll. Desperate and in dire straits, Latif returns to Boston to seek the help of his mother, his first music teacher, and the crew of childhood friends he left behind. When tragedy spurs him to return to New York, Latif is forced to finally confront his music, Mona, and himself.

An intricate, riveting, and original improvisation on classic themes, Shackling Water heralds the arrival of an important and beautiful new voice in American literature.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten by Emily Bernard Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten

by Emily Bernard
Vintage (Feb 05, 2002)
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Langston Hughes is widely remembered as a celebrated star of the Harlem Renaissance — a writer whose bluesy, lyrical poems and novels still have broad appeal. What’s less well known about Hughes is that for much of his life he maintained a friendship with Carl Van Vechten, a flamboyant white critic, writer, and photographer whose ardent support of black artists was peerless.
Despite their differences — Van Vechten was forty-four to Hughes twenty-two when they met-Hughes’ and Van Vechten’s shared interest in black culture lead to a deeply-felt, if unconventional friendship that would span some forty years. Between them they knew everyone — from Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Wright, and their letters, lovingly and expertly collected here for the first time, are filled with gossip about the antics of the great and the forgotten, as well as with talk that ranged from race relations to blues lyrics to the nightspots of Harlem, which they both loved to prowl. It’s a correspondence that, as Emily Bernard notes in her introduction, provides "an unusual record of entertainment, politics, and culture as seen through the eyes of two fascinating and irreverent men.


Click for more detail about Free and Other Stories by Anika Nailah Free and Other Stories

by Anika Nailah
Doubleday (Jan 15, 2002)
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In spare, elegant stories reminiscent of the writings of Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West, Anika Nailah illuminates the emotional, spiritual, and social realities that shape–and sometimes destroy–the lives and dreams of ordinary African Americans.

The stories in Free offer a moving, strikingly original perspective on how cultural experiences and social assumptions impact our lives. The characters include young children trying to cope with the mysteries of adult behavior, adults striving to define themselves in a society unwilling to accept who and what they are, and elderly people looking back on the often difficult choices they have made. They all share a yearning to be free of the ties imposed by others, ties that bind their bodies, minds, or spirits.

"Trudy" depicts a battle of wills between a black salesclerk and a white customer, shining a harsh light on the bigotry of the 1950s. In "My Side of the Story," a little boy struggles to understand why his mother has abandoned him despite her claims that she loves him. “All These Years” is a touching vignette about a couple married for fifty-four years who reminisce about the attraction they felt at their very first meeting and realize that the magic still remains. In the aptly titled "Inside Out," a man who has adopted all the trappings of the white world–the hair, the clothes, the speech, the attitudes–finds himself still ostracized in his office and gently mocked at home by a wife who embraces her blackness with pride.

In probing the interior landscapes behind the everyday faces her characters assume, Anika Nailah brilliantly exposes the injustices and struggles African Americans confront, the skills they develop in order to survive, and the psychological and spiritual costs of survival.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Bill Clinton and Black America by Dewayne Wickham Bill Clinton and Black America

by Dewayne Wickham
One World/Ballantine (Jan 15, 2002)
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While white Americans were evenly divided about Bill Clinton’s impeachment ninety percent of African-Americans opposed it. Now from a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists comes a groundbreaking new book that explores the deep and unique connection between the former president and the black community–in the words of journalists, celebrities, academics, and other thoughtful Americans.

Going well beyond mere TV punditry, luminaries such as Dr. Mary Frances Berry, Bill Gray, Kweisi Mfume, and Alice Randall, as well as ordinary citizens, offer insight into why African-Americans for the first time saw themselves in the soul of a president–Whether it was the large African-American presence in his administration, his perceived legal persecutions, his personal style, or his lasting yet tumultuous marriage–and why that kinship has sweeping cultural implications. Bill Clinton’s actions, associations, and essence are all analyzed in light of their effect on and appeal to this crucial constituency.

Much-awaited and long overdue, Bill Clinton and Black America features fascinating, provocative interpretations of the special relationship between the black people and this extraordinary man who, when his presidency ended, moved his office from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue–White America’s most famous address–to Harlem’s 125th Street–the heart of Black America.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People by Carole Boston Weatherford Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People

by Carole Boston Weatherford
Philomel Books (Jan 14, 2002)
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Striking archival engravings and photographs accompany these twenty-nine original poems, taking the reader on a journey of over 400 years on the African American road to freedom. Weatherford’s poems, together with haunting black-and-white images, create portraits of captured Africans, slaves on the auction block, heroes of freedom, craftsmen and storytellers. These are the men and women, ordinary folks as well as legendary heroes, who made their people proud and strong and built the bridge to a promising future. Readers of all ages and cultures will treasure Remember the Bridge.

Archival engravings and photographs accompany these 29 original poems that take the reader along with African Americans on a 400-year journey to freedom. Poems paired with haunting black-and-white images create portraits of captured African slaves on the auction block, heroes of freedom, craftsmen, and storytellers.


Click for more detail about Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography Of A Shifting Self by Rebecca Walker Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography Of A Shifting Self

by Rebecca Walker
Knopf (Jan 08, 2002)
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The Civil Rights movement brought author Alice Walker and lawyer Mel Leventhal together, and in 1969 their daughter, Rebecca, was born. Some saw this unusual copper-colored girl as an outrage or an oddity; others viewed her as a symbol of harmony, a triumph of love over hate. But after her parents divorced, leaving her a lonely only child ferrying between two worlds that only seemed to grow further apart, Rebecca was no longer sure what she represented. In this book, Rebecca Leventhal Walker attempts to define herself as a soul instead of a symbol—and offers a new look at the challenge of personal identity, in a story at once strikingly unique and truly universal.


Click for more detail about The African American Guide to Writing & Publishing Non Fiction by Jewell Parker Rhodes The African American Guide to Writing & Publishing Non Fiction

by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Broadway Books (Jan 08, 2002)
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In college and graduate school, Jewell Parker Rhodes never encountered a single reading assignment or exercise that featured a person of color. Now she has made it her mission to rectify the situation, gathering advice and inspiring tips tailored for African Americans seeking to express their life experiences. Comprehensive and totally energizing, the African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Nonfiction bursts with supportive topics such as:

  • Finding your voice
  • Getting to know your literary ancestors
  • Overcoming a bruised ego and finding the determination to pursue your dreams
  • Gathering material and conducting research
  • Tapping sweet, bittersweet, and joyful memories
  • Knowing when to keep revising, and when to let go
The guide also features unforgettable excerpts from luminaries such as Maya Angelou, Brent Staples, Houston Baker, and pointers from bestselling African American authors Patrice Gaines, E. Lynn Harris, James McBride, John Hope Franklin, Pearl Cleage, Edwidge Danticat, and many others. It is a uniquely nurturing and informative touchstone for affirming, bearing witness, leaving a legacy, and celebrating the remarkable journey of the self.


Click for more detail about At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America by Philip Dray At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America

by Philip Dray
Random House (Jan 08, 2002)
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It is easy to shrink from our country’s brutal history of lynching. Lynching is called the last great skeleton in our nation’s closet: It terrorized all of black America, claimed thousands upon thousands of victims in the decades between the 1880s and the Second World War, and leaves invisible but deep scars to this day. The cost of pushing lynching into the shadows, however—misremembering it as isolated acts perpetrated by bigots on society’s fringes—is insupportably high: Until we understand how pervasive and socially accepted the practice was—and, more important, why this was so—it will haunt all efforts at racial reconciliation.

“I could not suppress the thought,” James Baldwin once recalled of seeing the red clay hills of Georgia on his first trip to the South, “that this earth had acquired its color from the blood that had dripped down from these trees.” Throughout America, not just in the South, blacks accused of a crime—or merely of violating social or racial customs—were hunted by mobs, abducted from jails, and given summary “justice” in blatant defiance of all guarantees of due process under law. Men and women were shot, hanged, tortured, and burned, often in sadistic, picnic-like “spectacle lynchings” involving thousands of witnesses. “At the hands of persons unknown” was the official verdict rendered on most of these atrocities.

The celebrated historian Philip Dray shines a clear, bright light on this dark history—its causes, perpetrators, apologists, and victims. He also tells the story of the men and women who led the long and difficult fight to expose and eradicate lynching, including Ida B. Wells, James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and W.E.B. Du Bois. If lynching is emblematic of what is worst about America, their fight may stand for what is best: the love of justice and fairness and the conviction that one individual’s sense of right can suffice to defy the gravest of wrongs. This landmark book follows the trajectory of both forces over American history—and makes the history of lynching belong to us all.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Babel-17/Empire Star by Samuel R. Delany Babel-17/Empire Star

by Samuel R. Delany
Vintage (Jan 08, 2002)
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Author of the bestselling Dhalgren and winner of four Nebulas and one Hugo, Samuel R. Delany is one of the most acclaimed writers of speculative fiction.

Babel-17, winner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year, is a fascinating tale of a famous poet bent on deciphering a secret language that is the key to the enemy’s deadly force, a task that requires she travel with a splendidly improbable crew to the site of the next attack. For the first time, Babel-17 is published as the author intended with the short novel Empire Star, the tale of Comet Jo, a simple-minded teen thrust into a complex galaxy when he’s entrusted to carry a vital message to a distant world. Spellbinding and smart, both novels are testimony to Delany’s vast and singular talent.


Click for more detail about Black Coffe by Tracy Price-Thompson Black Coffe

by Tracy Price-Thompson
Strivers Row (Jan 08, 2002)
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“I may be a supersoldier but I sure as hell ain’t no Superwoman. Yes, it’s true my hand is steady, I have the eye of a marksman, and I can hit a moving target dead center at four hundred meters, but when it comes to making clever love decisions, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer. While I look pretty lofty in my spit-shined combat boots and razor-sharp battle dress uniform, like a lot of young sisters from the ’hood, I’ve taken a few wrong turns down the back alleys of life.”

Meet Sergeant Sanderella Coffee, who has just completed a three-year overseas tour and is now reporting to a military installation in Virginia. She is a single mother whose goal is to attend the Army’s prestigious Officer Candidate School, which will guarantee a better life for her and her children.

Sandie meets a man who matches her ambition and determination step for step in the form of Drill Sergeant Romulus Caesar, who literally marches into her life and turns it upside down. They fall in love, and Rom is everything Sandie could want—supportive, confident, self-reliant—but he’s also married. Because of the military’s tough policy on fraternization and adultery, Sandie could find her carefully orchestrated career slipping away like sand in a breeze.


Click for more detail about Hot Johnny (And The Women Who Loved Him) by Sandra Jackson-Opoku Hot Johnny (And The Women Who Loved Him)

by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
One World/Ballantine (Jan 02, 2002)
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Like a ray of sun that can warm your skin for a moment but can’t be captured, John the Baptist Wright has touched the lives of many women–heart, body, and soul. Now, in this enthralling new novel by award-winning author Sandra Jackson-Opoku, we hear from the women who gave Hot Johnny his heat.

Each woman has a distinct voice and her own point of view. Among them is Destiny, the damaged young woman he married, but cannot save; Lola Belle, the white lesbian with something to prove and nothing to lose; Tree, the college soulmate, whose first taste of tenderness came from Hot Johnny’s touch; Peaches, the prostitute who gave the boy his name and sealed his reputation; and Gracita Reina “Queen of Grace,” his great-grandmother, who holds the key to Johnny’s salvation. Each woman provides a piece of the puzzle that is Hot Johnny–the result is a captivating portrait of a complex man who is both saint and sinner, hero and villain, and all the shadings in between.

A deeply felt and emotionally involving tale, Sandra Jackson-Opoku has done nothing less than illuminate the secret places of a man’s soul–and created a powerful novel of destiny and redemption… .

Book Review

Click for more detail about Bittersweet by Freddie Lee Johnson III Bittersweet

by Freddie Lee Johnson III
One World/Ballantine (Jan 02, 2002)
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Clifford. Victor. Nathan. Three brothers as different as they come. Three lives that veer unexpectedly off course. One bond that heals them all… .

Clifford sees his life as picture-perfect: two wonderful young sons, a fast-track career, and a solid marriage. But fresh back from a family vacation in Florida, Clifford is hit with a stunning blow when his wife Demetria declares that she is leaving him for “true love, excitement, and fun”–an announcement that throws him into an uncontrollable tailspin of denial.

With one failed marriage under his belt, and a precious daughter his ex-wife bars him from seeing, Victor is no expert in romantic love. His philosophy? The only way to keep a woman from squeezing every last drop from you is to get out before things get too deep. But lately Victor hasn’t been feeling quite like himself–especially since he’s been falling for Edie and her little girl. Seems like he spends more time looking out for her then he does staking out new booty calls.

Even in the face of tragedy and travail, Nathan, a minister, remains hopeful. His marriage is a paragon of Christian ideals, his loving wife Brenda is his soul mate and support. But it wasn’t always that way. Nathan has left some ugly wreckage in his wake before finding God. Now he and Brenda are truly blessed with a solid family and an adoring congregation. Then, a troubled divorcée tempts Nathan–and threatens the sacred vows he swore to uphold.

While Clifford, Victor, and Nathan struggle with the unexpected–faltering marriages, breaking hearts, and torn childhoods that threaten to repeat themselves in the lives of their children–each will discover the true redemptive power of a brother’s love.

By turns fierce and passionate, tender and humorous, this wise novel blasts the stereotype that black men’s ties to their families are tenuous at best. Freddie Lee Johnson III tells a refreshing story of three complex men who fight to do right by their families–both the ones they created, and the one they were born into. The result is Bittersweet.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Colored Sugar Water: A Spiritual Tale by Venise Berry Colored Sugar Water: A Spiritual Tale

by Venise Berry
Dutton Adult (Jan 01, 2002)
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Colored Sugar Water introduces Lucy Merriweather and Adel Kelly, both dealing with life issues. Lucy is thirty-five, single, and in great shape thanks to her career as a fitness manager for a string of Texas health clubs. Adel is the vice president for human resources at American Oil, pulling in a six-figure salary and annual bonuses. Unfortunately, neither is happy.

Lucy struggles with her emotional and spiritual dreams. Her boyfriend Spencer, a basic kind of guy who loves his mama, sports, fried chicken, and Lucy in that order doesn’t seem to measure up. So she decides to get out of her rut with a Sexy Soul Psychic named Kuba. Self-assured and sensitive, Kuba seems to know exactly what women want. Or does he?

Adel struggles with a husband, Thad, who refuses to grow up and a job that is less than satisfying despite its financial gains. She is eventually forced to reexamine her faith as she searches for a life that brings her closer to happiness and fulfillment.

Filled with the humor, passion, and pathos of modern relationships, Colored Sugar Water tells the story of two women who discover the power of their unique spiritual gifts. It further establishes Venise Berry as one of the freshest, wittiest, and wisest writers on today’s fiction scene-as New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey wrote, "magnificient and honest, Venise Berry’s writing comes from her soul."

Book Review

Click for more detail about Satisfy My Soul by Colin Channer Satisfy My Soul

by Colin Channer
One World/Ballantine (Jan 01, 2002)
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Read an Interview with Colin About This Book

I have called you here to reveal to you a truth that has been calling to you for many years… . Since then your soul has been seeking rest.

Playwright Carey McCullough is a close guardian of his privacy, haunted by a recurring dream and a damaged past he would like to keep there. But some things he can never forget. And the more he pushes them away, the more uprooted he feels. The women he has loved, lusted after, rejected, and embraced represent a lifetime of trial and error, adventure and compromise. Then, while in Jamaica, he crosses paths with a radiant woman who attracts him like a flame.

Then he remembers. The first time Carey saw Frances, she was singing a blues song on a videotape. Of course then she was just a nameless face, a hazy image that he could never quite get out of his mind. Now she has entered his life in the flesh. But this undeniable attraction is much more than chemistry. As Carey soon discovers from a “reader” of the spirit world, he and Frances share a history that has linked their souls for more than four hundred years. Though Carey views past lives with skepticism, he cannot explain knowing the language of an ancient African people—in particular the phrase: “Mulewe anekoso kuduwe bana” (“I will search until I find you”).

Yet Frances conceals secrets of her own, with devastating consequences. And while Carey visits his best friend and fellow playwright, Kwabena Small, in South Carolina, a bond that was once thought to be unbreakable will be put to the ultimate test as startling truths at last emerge… .

In a stunning novel of extraordinary power that involves a mystical journey to Ghana, Colin Channer combines profound questions of faith, the aching search for home, the long reach of history, and the double-edged sword of passion to dazzling effect. Satisfy My Soul will linger in yours long after the final page is turned.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Brothers of the Knight by Debbie Allen Brothers of the Knight

by Debbie Allen
Puffin Books (Dec 31, 2001)
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Debbie Allen’s contemporary retelling of the classic tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses with illustrations from Kadir Nelson!

Reverend Knight can’t understand why his twelve sons’ sneakers are torn to threads each and every morning, and the boys aren’t talking. They know their all-night dancing wouldn’t fit with their father’s image in the community. Maybe Sunday, a pretty new nanny with a knack for getting to the bottom of household mysteries, can crack the case. This modern, hip retelling of the classic tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses bursts with vibrant artwork and text that’s as energetic as the twelve toe-tapping Knight brothers themselves.

"A funky, fresh adaptation." —Publishers Weekly

"This is a high-flying alternative to the tale’s usual dainty renditions." —Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about Fire in Beulah by Rilla Askew Fire in Beulah

by Rilla Askew
Penguin Books (Dec 31, 2001)
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"A haunting, engrossing portrait of two families - one white, one Black - whose lives are woven together and then shattered" (The Washington Post) by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Oil-boom opulence, fear, hate, and lynchings are the backdrop for this riveting novel about one of the worst incidents of violence in American history. Althea Whiteside, an oil-wildcatter’s high-strung white wife, and her enigmatic Black maid, Graceful, share a complex connection during the tense days of the Oklahoma oil rush. Their juxtaposing stories - and those of others close to them - unfold as tensions mount to a violent climax in the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, during which whites burned the city’s prosperous Black neighborhood to the ground. The massacre becomes the crucible that melds and tests each of the character in this masterful exploration of the American race story and the ties that bind us irrevocably to one another.


Click for more detail about Nappily Ever After by Trisha R. Thomas Nappily Ever After

by Trisha R. Thomas
Broadway Books (Dec 26, 2001)
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NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILM STARRING SANAA LATHAN

What happens when you toss tradition out the window and really start living for yourself?

Venus Johnston has a great job, a beautiful home, and a loving live-in boyfriend named Clint, who happens to be a drop-dead gorgeous doctor. She also has a weekly beauty-parlor date with Tina, who keeps Venus’s long, processed hair slick and straight. But when Clint—who’s been reluctant to commit over the past four years—brings home a puppy instead of an engagement ring, Venus decides to give it all up. She trades in her long hair for a dramatically short, natural cut and sends Clint packing.

It’s a bold declaration of independence—one that has effects she never could have imagined. Reactions from friends and coworkers range from concern to contempt to outright condemnation. And when Clint moves on and starts dating a voluptuous, long-haired beauty, Venus is forced to question what she really wants out of life. With wit, resilience, and a lot of determination, she finally learns what true happiness is—on her own terms. Told with style, savvy, and humor, Nappily Ever After is a novel that marks the debut of a fresh new voice in fiction.


Click for more detail about Rock of Ages: A Tribute to the Black Church by Tonya Bolden Rock of Ages: A Tribute to the Black Church

by Tonya Bolden
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Dec 26, 2001)
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In her moving homage to the Black Church, Tonya Bolden has written a poem spanning centuries of oppression, freedom, prejudice, and joy. From times when slaves worshipped secretly in fields at night to the grand city churches of today, the Church has been there to help its community, inspire its congregants, and teach us what is possible when people join together.


Click for more detail about American Jihad by Steve Barboza American Jihad

by Steve Barboza
Doubleday Books (Dec 20, 2001)
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American Jihad is the only popular book available about the religious experience of Muslims, both black and white, in America. With over one billion faithful worldwide, and over six rnillion in the United States alone, Islam is the world’s fastest-growing religion. In fact, the population of American Muslims surpasses the membership of many mainline Protestant denominations. However, the media’s depiction of Muslims in America often stops short of any real examination and opts instead to cover only the sensational, puzzling charisma of Louis Farrakhan, who leads the Nation of Islam, or the violence of some of the more extremist Muslims.

American Jihad dispels these prominent but dangerously deceptive stereotypes and is the first book to take a serious and inclusive approach to exploring how the Muslim faith is embraced and practiced in America. Like many African-Americans of his generation, author Steven Barboza was affected profoundly by Malcolm X and converted from Catholicism after reading the Autobiography. In American Jihad, he features a myriad of faithful Muslims who come from many different walks of life from a foreign policy advisor of Richard M. Nixon’s, to a blond Sufi, to an AIDS activist, and so on. In American Jihad, you’ll hear from some of the most famous American Muslims after Malcolm X, including Louis Farrakhan, Kareem Abdul Jabar, Attallah Shabazz (Malcolm X’s daughter), and the former H. Rap Brown. In American Jihad, Steven Barboza does for Islam what Studs Terkel has recently done for race relations.


Click for more detail about Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt by Jack Olsen Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt

by Jack Olsen
Anchor (Nov 06, 2001)
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Jack Olsen’s Last Man Standing is the gripping story of Geronimo Pratt, war hero and community leader, who was framed by the FBI in one of the greatest travesties of justice in American history.

Geronimo Pratt did not commit the murder for which he served twenty-seven nightmarish years. As a UCLA student, though, he had led the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Panther Party, and became a target of the FBI. Here is the spellbinding saga of Pratt, his heroic lawyers, Johnnie Cochran and Stuart Hanlon, and the Reverend James McCloskey, who overcame all the odds to bring the truth to light and free Geronimo.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Sacred Woman: A Guide to Healing the Feminine Body, Mind, and Spirit by Queen Afua Sacred Woman: A Guide to Healing the Feminine Body, Mind, and Spirit

by Queen Afua
One World (Oct 30, 2001)
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For two decades, hundreds of thousands of women have turned to Sacred Woman, hailed as the “Woman’s Bible” by many of her fans, for Queen’s guidance and wisdom on self-healing, holistic wellness, and spiritual practices. Now, in this fully revised & updated edition, readers will enjoy new material, including two brand-new chapters, Sacred Time and Sacred Work. Through extraordinary meditations, affirmations, and rituals rooted in ancient Egyptian temple teachings, Queen teaches us how to love and rejoice in our bodies by spiritualizing the words we speak, the foods we eat, the spaces we live and work in, and the transcendent woman spirit we manifest.

Sacred Woman is a transformative blueprint of ancestral healing, spirit rejuvenation, and creativity consciousness, giving us the tools we need, complete with recipes, meditations, and tonics, such as, an herbal tonic recipe for healthy hair, body scrub recipe, and natural face-lift regimen in 7 simple steps. With love, wisdom, and passion, Queen Afua guides us to accept our mission and our mantle as Sacred Women—to heal ourselves, the generations of women in our families, our communities, and our world.

A pioneer in the green food movement with over 40 years of experience, Queen is the author of six books, CEO of the Queen Afua Wellness Institute, creator of the Heal Thyself product line, and founder of Sacred Woman, a rigorous rites of passage 12-week program designed to empower women with practical tools for holistic well-being rooted in ancient African cultural teachings. Called “the mother architect of healing” by Iyanla Vanzant, Queen’s celebrity fans also include Lauren London, Erykah Badu, Queen Latifah, FKA Twigs, India Arie, and Vanessa A. Williams, to name a few. Queen has an ongoing partnership with Black Girls Rock! called The Sacred Circle, a weekly IG LIVE show every Sunday.

A transformative blueprint of ancestral healing from the renowned herbalist, natural health expert, and healer of women’s bodies and souls

“Just when I thought I was all alone, I found myself walking with a group of conscious women who were taking sacred steps and speaking sacred words. We were on our way to Queen Afua’s Global Sacred Woman Village. Come with us, there’s Maat—balance and order—there.”—Erykah Badu

Through extraordinary meditations, affirmations, and rituals rooted in ancient Egyptian temple teachings, Queen Afua teaches us how to love and rejoice in our bodies by spiritualizing the words we speak, the foods we eat, the spaces we live and work in, and the transcendent woman spirit we manifest.

Sacred Woman gives us a program of spirit rejuvenation and creativity consciousness. Queen Afua summons us to enter the Gateways of Initiation, where she blesses us with the exact tools we need to bring our beings into true harmony with the earth and the cosmos.

With love, wisdom, and passion, Queen Afua guides us to accept our mission and our mantle as Sacred Women—to heal ourselves, the generations of women in our families, our communities, and our world.


Click for more detail about Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam by Tony Medina and Louis Reyes Rivera Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam

by Tony Medina and Louis Reyes Rivera
Broadway Books (Oct 23, 2001)
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Bum Rush the Page is a groundbreaking collection, capturing the best new work from the poets who have brought fresh energy, life, and relevance to American poetry.

“Here is a democratic orchestration of voices and visions, poets of all ages, ethnicities, and geographic locations coming together to create a dialogue and to jam–not slam. This is our mouth on paper, our hearts on our sleeves, our refusal to shut up and swallow our silence. These poems are tough, honest, astute, perceptive, lyrical, blunt, sad, funny, heartbreaking, and true. They shout, they curse, they whisper, and sing. But most of all, they tell it like it is.”
–Tony Medina, from the Introduction


Click for more detail about The Future Has a Past by J. California Cooper The Future Has a Past

by J. California Cooper
Anchor (Oct 16, 2001)
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Vinnie is an overworked and self-sacrificing single mother who gets a second chance at love and independence, in "The Eagle Flies." In "A Shooting Star" a happily married mother of two laments the fate of her beautiful friend Lorene, whose naivete about desire has deadly consequences. In "A Filet of Soul," Luella’s luck soon changes when her mother leaves her a modest inheritance, but not as soon as she initially imagines. And in "The Lost and Found," Irene confronts her womanizing boyfriend with the one piece of information that will bring him to his knees. Bursting with earthy wisdom and humor, these warmly engaging tales are a testament to Cooper’s gifts as a storyteller.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Riding Through Shadows by Sharon Ewell Foster Riding Through Shadows

by Sharon Ewell Foster
Multnomah (Oct 10, 2001)
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Living in one of the most tumultuous decades of America’s history, an eight-year-old African American girl experiences the anguish of real-life heartache: she loses her beloved father in the Vietnam War, endures the dissolution of her family, and faces the challenge of integration. Yet, through a wise and eccentric old woman, she also discovers the tenacity of joy. A powerful, eye-opening read!


Click for more detail about Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones by Quincy Jones Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones

by Quincy Jones
Doubleday (Oct 09, 2001)
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Musician, composer, producer, arranger, and pioneering entrepreneur Quincy Jones has lived large and worked for five decades alongside the superstars of music and entertainment — including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Ray Charles, Will Smith, and dozens of others. Q is his glittering and moving life story, told with the style, passion, and no-holds-barred honesty that are his trademarks.

Quincy Jones grew up poor on the mean streets of Chicago’s South Side, brushing against the law and feeling the pain of his mother’s descent into madness. But when his father moved the family west to Seattle, he took up the trumpet and was literally saved by music. A prodigy, he played backup for Billie Holiday and toured the world with the Lionel Hampton Band before leaving his teens. Soon, though, he found his true calling, inaugurating a career whose highlights have included arranging albums for Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Count Basie; composing the scores of such films as The Pawnbroker, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, and The Color Purple, and the theme songs for the television shows Ironside, Sanford and Son, and The Cosby Show; producing the bestselling album of all time, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and the bestselling single “We Are the World”; and producing and arranging his own highly praised albums, including the Grammy Award—winning Back on the Block, a striking blend of jazz, African, urban, gospel, and hip-hop. His musical achievements, in a career that spans every style of American popular music, have yielded an incredible seventy-seven Grammy nominations, and are matched by his record as a pioneering music executive, film and television producer, tireless social activist, and business entrepreneur–one of the most successful black business figures in America. This string of unbroken triumphs in the entertainment industry has been shadowed by a turbulent personal life, a story he shares with eloquence and candor.

Q is an impressive self-portrait by one of the master makers of American culture, a complex, many-faceted man with far more than his share of talents and an unparalleled vision, as well as some entirely human flaws. It also features vivid testimony from key witnesses to his journey–family, friends, and musical and business associates. His life encompasses an astonishing cast of show business giants, and provides the raw material for one of the great African American success stories of this century.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Atlantic Sound by Caryl Phillips The Atlantic Sound

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Oct 09, 2001)
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In this fascinating inquiry into the African Diaspora, Caryl Phillips embarks on a soul-wrenching journey to the three major ports of the transatlantic slave trade.

Juxtaposing stories of the past with his own present-day experiences, Phillips combines his remarkable skills as a travel essayist with an astute understanding of history. From an West African businessman’s interactions with white Methodists in nineteenth-century Liverpool to an eighteenth-century African minister’s complicity in the selling of slaves to a fearless white judge’s crusade for racial justice in 1940s Charleston, South Carolina, Phillips reveals the global the impact of being uprooted from one’s home through resonant, powerful narratives.


Click for more detail about The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart by Alice Walker The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart

by Alice Walker
Ballantine Books (Oct 02, 2001)
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"These are the stories that came to me to be told after the close of a magical marriage to an extraordinary man that ended in a less-than-magical divorce. I found myself unmoored, unmated, ungrounded in a way that challenged everything I’d ever thought about human relationships. Situated squarely in that terrifying paradise called freedom, precipitously out on so many emotional limbs, it was as if I had been born; and in fact I was being reborn as the woman I was to become."

So says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker about her beautiful new book, in which "one of the best American writers today" (The Washington Post) gives us superb stories based on rich truths from her own experience. Imbued with Walker’s wise philosophy and understanding of people, the spirit, sex and love, The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart begins with a lyrical, autobiographical story of a marriage set in the violent and volatile Deep South during the early years of the civil rights movement. Walker goes on to imagine stories that grew out of the life following that marriage—a life, she writes, that was "marked by deep sea-changes and transitions." These provocative stories showcase Walker’s hard-won knowledge of love of many kinds and of the relationships that shape our lives, as well as her infectious sense of humor and joy. Filled with wonder at the power of the life force and of the capacity of human beings to move through love and loss and healing to love again, The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart is an enriching, passionate book by "a lavishly gifted writer" (The New York Times Book Review).


Click for more detail about Sympathy for the Devil: An Angela Bivens Thriller by Christopher Chambers Sympathy for the Devil: An Angela Bivens Thriller

by Christopher Chambers
Crown (Sep 11, 2001)
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Be careful what you wish for …
FBI Special Agent Angela Bivens has just won a hard-fought racial and sex discrimination lawsuit against the Bureau. She should be euphoric — all she ever wanted to be was a field agent. But the women she filed the suit with have fled the Bureau, leaving Angela alone to deal with her cynical, ultrapolitical superiors. They throw her a bone by sending her to help the befuddled and apathetic D.C. police solve two seemingly unrelated cases — the brutal murder of two teenage girls and the macabre, ritualized executions of rival drug dealers.

The cops see the victims as routine casualties of a drug war, but Angela begins to uncover a far more extensive network of horrors. The threads seem to lead right from the case files into her personal life and her hot, burgeoning love affair with Trey Williams, a well-connected D.C. lawyer, scion of an elite family, or, as her girlfriends call him, the "black JFK Jr." Although Trey is everything a woman could want, he is also shackled with a heroin-addicted twin brother nicknamed Pluto who is obsessed with myths and the occult and is fast becoming Angela’s prime suspect in this wave of shocking murders.

After she saves the life of a fellow officer in a shoot-out, Angela becomes the FBI’s golden girl, a media-anointed local hero. But is the FBI setting her up for an even bigger fall? She can’t trust her superiors. She can’t trust her boyfriend. Faced with the hard facts and following her gut instincts, Angela feels that she has no choice but to solve these cases and avenge the innocent victims on her own.

Played out against a vivid and realistic portrait of Washington — from the halls of Congress and swank gathering places of the city’s African American elite to the gritty, mournful streets where gang warfare remains a fact of life —

Sympathy for the Devil introduces a remarkable new crime-fighting heroine whose struggle to reconcile the pulls of love and duty, ambition and self-doubt makes this an utterly compelling thriller. Fans of Grace Edwards and Valerie Wilson Wesley, whose stories feature strong African American women, and all readers looking for a riveting page-turner in the style of Patricia Cornwell or Thomas Harris will welcome this impressive debut novel from Christopher Chambers.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Sap Rising by Christine Lincoln Sap Rising

by Christine Lincoln
Pantheon Books (Sep 11, 2001)
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In this spare and mesmerizing debut work of fiction, Christine Lincoln takes us inside the hearts and minds of African Americans whose lives unfold against a vividly evoked Southern rural landscape. As they navigate between the old and the new, between youth and adulthood, they find themselves choosing between the comforts of what they trust unquestioningly and the fearsome excitements of what they might come to know.

An abandoned seven-year-old girl living inside a fantasy of invisibility … a young woman weighing the life she’s expected to want against the freedom that will transport her to the unexpected … a boy whose world is both expanded and contracted by stories he hears from a beautiful stranger—the characters who inhabit this
profoundly moving collection are brought to life with a remarkably light touch and an extraordinary depth
of insight and emotion.

Christine Lincoln possesses a gift of great originality. In Sap Rising, she proves herself one of those rare writers whose work transcends its own rich particularity to speak with stunning clarity to the most fundamental elements of the human experience.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Pet Show! by Ezra Jack Keats Pet Show!

by Ezra Jack Keats
Puffin Books (Sep 10, 2001)
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How can you enter a pet show when your pet runs away? That’s the question Archie faces when he can’t find his cat to enter in the neighborhood pet show. Fortunately, he does some fast thinking to win a prize in this beloved classic from award-winning author-illustrator Ezra Jack Keats.


Click for more detail about Seven Soulful Secrets for Finding Your Purpose and Minding Your Mission by Stephanie Stokes Oliver Seven Soulful Secrets for Finding Your Purpose and Minding Your Mission

by Stephanie Stokes Oliver
Doubleday (Sep 04, 2001)
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From the author of Daily Cornbread, Seven Soulful Secrets will motivate women to become not just better than they are but the best they can be.

In a tone that is as encouraging and comforting as your favorite quilt, veteran journalist and NiaOnline editor in chief Stephanie Stokes Oliver shows women of all ages how to get the most out of life by finding their purpose and minding their mission. In seven wonderfully crafted chapters, Stokes Oliver reveals her soulful secrets in a simple but potent acronym that spells PURPOSE.

Purpose: plan, persevere, and follow your own personal mission
Ultimacy: release your best, “ultimate” self
Relaxation: reduce stress and incorporate daily self-care into your routine
Positivity: claim the joy in your life and celebrate yourself
Optimum health: make the commitment to self-improvement, health, and fitness
Spirituality: develop and maintain a connection to God/Spirit
Esteem: boost your self-esteem and create healthy relationships

At once a practical how-to book and a spiritual guide, Seven Soulful Secrets speaks directly to the African American women who embraced Daily Cornbread and to all women eager to live a life that is authentic, vibrant, and fulfilling.


Click for more detail about Guys in Suits: A Novel by Van Whitfield Guys in Suits: A Novel

by Van Whitfield
Doubleday (Sep 04, 2001)
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Bestselling author Van Whitfield is back with another hilarious peek into the romantic lives of today’s everyday Joes.

Readers across the country are discovering the marvelously original voice of Van Whitfield as he champions the romantic trials and tribulations of today’s everyman. In Guys in Suits, a laugh-out-loud expos? of how differently women treat blue-collar guys and white-collar “suitors,” Whitfield shines the spotlight on the desperate bus-driving Simon and his stockbroker best friend Stuart, D.C.’s consummate ladies’ man.

Having just turned thirty, Simon is in search of his soul mate and determined to settle down. Stuart has different plans. He subscribes to the “Quintessential Male Manifesto,” the 60-day rule–a theory that suggests men are inherently bound to successfully coexist in relationships for just 60 days!

Weeks 1—2 are the “Glory Days,” when a man actually looks forward to “communicating” with a potential mate. Weeks 2—4 are known as the “Realm of Reality,” the period in which the gloss wears off. The “Prozac Period,” weeks 5—6, is a time of high anxiety because the woman thinks she’s found Mr. RightÉbut the guy knows he’s in too deep. And the “Dawn of Destruction,” the final era of the 60-day rule, is when the guy is ready to bail, but unfortunately, the woman isn’t!

As Simon and Stuart’s annual New Year’s Eve investment group vacation approaches (with their two “happily” married buddies and their wives, no less) they’re in a mad dash to find dates. As the deadline for this fun-in-the-sun extravaganza approaches both Simon and Stuart have met potential Ms. Rights and are confident that for the first time, they’ll take their dream dates on their annual island getaway. Everything looks good, but just before the tickets are booked a staggering discovery threatens to upset Simon and Stuart’s seemingly perfect plan.

With all the laughs and hubris of a sweet old-fashioned comedy, Van Whitfield takes readers on a madcap romp through the rocky terrain of today’s relationships.


Click for more detail about The Land (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner) by Mildred D. Taylor The Land (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner)

by Mildred D. Taylor
Dial Books for Young Readers (Sep 01, 2001)
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Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award! Millions of fans have followed the Logan family in their seven-book series. Living in the South in the not-so-distant past, the Logans are the only black family to own farmland, while most of their black neighbors are sharecroppers on white-owned land. But where did this valuable legacy come from? The story begins with Paul-Edward Logan, grandfather of Cassie Logan, the beloved protagonist of Newbery Medal–winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Born during the Civil War, Paul-Edward is the son of a white plantation owner and a former slave. Though not an unusual heritage, his upbringing is. Paul-Edward’s white father sees to it that he and his sister have many of the privileges their white half-brothers enjoy. But at fourteen, Paul-Edward runs away to seek his fortune. His story is filled with exciting, sometimes heart-breaking adventures, and what is most amazing, his dream of land-ownership, almost impossible for a black person to accomplish in the post–Civil War South, becomes reality. The Land, like all the books in this award-winning series, is based on the experiences of the Taylor family, bringing historical truth and power to this awe-inspiring story.


Click for more detail about Tuff: A Novel by Paul Beatty Tuff: A Novel

by Paul Beatty
Anchor Press (Aug 21, 2001)
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As fast-paced and hard-edged as the Harlem streets it portrays, Tuff shows off all of the amazing skill that Paul Beatty showed off in his first novel, The White Boy Shuffle.

Weighing in at 320 pounds, Winston “Tuffy” Foshay, is an East Harlem denizen who breaks jaws and shoots dogs and dreams of millions from his idea Cap’n Crunch: The Movie, starring Danny DeVito. His best friend is a disabled Muslim who wants to rob banks, his guiding light is an ex-hippie Asian woman who worked for Malcolm X, and his wife, Yolanda, he married from jail over the phone. Shrewdly comical as this dazzling novel is, it turns acerbically sublime when the frustrated Tuffy agrees to run for City Council. Smartly irreverent and edgily fierce, Tuff is a bona fide original.


Click for more detail about Any Way the Wind Blows: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris Any Way the Wind Blows: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
Doubleday (Jul 10, 2001)
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At the end of Not a Day Goes By, the terminally bisexual John Basil Henderson declares: “I’m back, in full form. And I’m out there. Roamin’. And switching lanes.” Now, in Any Way the Wind Blows, Basil, good-looking gadabout and homme fatal, is back at the top of his game (razzle-dazzling both the women and the men). All is well until Basil’s picture-perfect life starts to unravel …
Left at the altar a year before, jilted Broadway bombshell Yancey Harrington Braxton stages her comeback–this time as a recording star–but has she forgiven ex-fiancé Basil, or does she still need to even the score? As Yancey’s star continues to rise, her past threatens to catch up with her and she fears someone may be after her as well …
In a wicked little dance of revenge, Basil and Yancey struggle to keep their lives on track, while a chorus of unforgettable characters either come to their aid, or make matters worse. In the mix are: Yancey’s mother, Ava “Mama Dearest” Braxton, a diva’s diva and a second-rate showgirl housed in the body of an aging supermodel; the wise and wonderful Windsor Adams; and the new guy in town, Bartholomew “Bart” Dunbar, a rogue’s rogue and handsome hunk of a man who stands to make Basil look like a choirboy.
With just the right amount of wickedness, love, and compassion, Harris’s masterful storytelling and delicious plot twists will have fans and newcomers alike frantically turning pages trying to find the answer to the ultimate question: Does revenge ever really pay?


Click for more detail about Blanche Passes Go by Barbara Neely Blanche Passes Go

by Barbara Neely
Penguin Books (Jul 01, 2001)
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Praise the Ancestors! After three years of housekeeping for Boston’s haughty elite, Blanche White is finally coming home to North Carolina for an entire summer. And like a sign from above that she’s headed in the right direction, Blanche has already lined up a date with the handsome train conductor she met somewhere between Boston and Baltimore. The summer holds lots of promise, including helping her best friend, Ardell, with her new catering business. Then, on her first night back, Blanche runs into David Palmer, the man who raped her eight years ago. The time has now come for Blanche to exact her revenge. So when a young girl is murdered and it looks as if Palmer may be involved, Blanche pursues every possible lead to help put an end to his legacy once and for all.


Click for more detail about Mama Cracks a Mask of Innocence by Nora Deloach Mama Cracks a Mask of Innocence

by Nora Deloach
Bantam (Jun 26, 2001)
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There’s not a killer in the world who can hide from Mama….

Dark encounters and deadly lessons

I was happy to volunteer a few days back home to help Mama distribute clothing to the needy. But I didn’t expect big-city dangers to follow me all the way to Otis, South Carolina.

Instead of doing good deeds and cooking up a storm, Mama was digging deep into shady secrets after young Brenda Long was discovered dead in a shallow grave. Someone wanted Brenda silenced bad enough to kill, and the list of suspects is long.

But is the killer the drug-dealing teacher that Brenda threatened to expose? Or can it have been the man who was sent to jail after Brenda caught him stealing — now paroled and bent on exacting his revenge?

Everyone knows that Mama has had good luck as the town’s unofficial sleuth. But as a maze of tangled relationships leads to dead ends and dead bodies, time is slipping away. For our worst enemies can masquerade as friends — and even Mama’s luck can run out….


Click for more detail about Dark: A Novel by Kenji Jasper Dark: A Novel

by Kenji Jasper
Broadway Books (Jun 12, 2001)
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Thai Williams is walking a thin line between two worlds. On one side he has his job as a filing clerk for the Washington, D.C., Department of Public Works, his girlfriend Sierra, and his plans for going to college. But on the other, darker side there are his friends Snowflake and Ray Ray, men who run the neighborhood streets dodging the dangers of the criminal life and its after-effects. But that thin line disappears when Thai walks in on Sierra with another man, whom he eventually kills in a haze of jealousy and confusion. From there Thai finds himself on the run and away from the five-block stretch where he’s lived for all his life. He finds his way to Charlotte, where Enrique, his closest friend of all, has moved in search of a better life. In the course of the week that follows, Thai encounters a series of men and women who show him aspects of life he never dreamed of in his narrow ghetto existence. All of them are looking for answers, but it is Thai who must find his own path out of the dark and into the clear light of moral responsibility and repentance for his actions.

In his first novel, Kenji has written a haunting portrait of his own urban generation, shadowed (and often erased) by violence, but determined to make their own mark on the world.


Click for more detail about White Teeth: A Novel by Zadie Smith White Teeth: A Novel

by Zadie Smith
Penguin Press (Jun 12, 2001)
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Zadie Smith’s dazzling debut caught critics grasping for comparisons and deciding on everyone from Charles Dickens to Salman Rushdie to John Irving and Martin Amis. But the truth is that Zadie Smith’s voice is remarkably, fluently, and altogether wonderfully her own.

At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England’s irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn’t quite match her name (Jamaican for “no problem”). Samad’s late-in-life arranged marriage (he had to wait for his bride to be born), produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal’s every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith. Set against London’s racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.


Click for more detail about Loki & Alex: Adventures of a Dog and His Best Friend by Charles R. Smith Jr. Loki & Alex: Adventures of a Dog and His Best Friend

by Charles R. Smith Jr.
Dutton Juvenile (Jun 04, 2001)
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Alex and his dog, Loki, are best friends. Alex believes he knows exactly what his pal is thinking, but does Loki always agree? Each playful spread contains a full-color photograph illustrating Alex’s point of view, while the facing page shows the world from Loki’s perspective with a black-and-white photograph. Funny, simple dialogue highlights their differing views on everything from saying hello and digging in plastic bags to going down slides and playing tug-of-war. But in the end, Loki and Alex are in perfect agreement-a hug between friends is the best treat of all!


Click for more detail about Going Off: A Guide for Black Women Who’ve Just About Had Enough by Faye Childs Going Off: A Guide for Black Women Who’ve Just About Had Enough

by Faye Childs
Golden Books (Jun 02, 2001)
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Going Off examines common scenarios that can lead to anger in friendships, romantic relationships, families, and the workplace. It suggests ways to defuse your anger triggers by changing your perspective so that you can avoid the temptation to "go off" and instead think about the situation rationally. It also helps you detect when you have fallen into the Invincible Black Woman syndrome, the silent but strong type, and leads you on a path to recovery through control over stressful situations, counseling, setting limits, and accepting support from others. Going Off identifies some of the most common anger triggers and the four anger styles:

  • Authoritarian: difficulty seeing others’ point of view or feelings
  • High Profile: overly concerned with image, often displaying a strong front
  • Pragmatic: a stable team player at risk of internalizing anger
  • Intellectual: likes to be in control and feels threatened when criticized

Finding spiritual release through rituals, meditation, self-care, and forgiveness is the final tool for conquering negative anger patterns. With insight, empowering quotes, and spiritual reflections, Going Off is full of inspiration and hope.


Click for more detail about The Hearts of Men: A Novel (Strivers Row) by Travis Hunter The Hearts of Men: A Novel (Strivers Row)

by Travis Hunter
Strivers Row (May 29, 2001)
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Tall, dark, and handsome, Prodigy Banks was once a playboy. Now he’s a man any mother would be proud to call her son, and when he meets Nina, the mother of the young boy he mentors, it seems that life is going to get even better. But when his past threatens his newfound respectability, Prodigy has to act fast to protect his new relationship.

Bernard Charles is haunted by childhood memories of abandonment and poverty. His workaholic ways frustrate his wife, Diane, and leave her vulnerable to another man’s advances. After her betrayal, will Bernard move on or move out?

Winston “Poppa Doc” Fuller has a fix for what’s ailing the younger generation. Married for more than forty years to his beloved Ethel, Winston brings healing to everyone he touches. Yet despite his best efforts, he hasn’t been able to reach his own thirty-three-year-old son—a situation that soon requires urgent resolution, because as Poppa Doc tells his son: “I love you, but I’m not proud of you. Make me proud of you before I leave this earth.”

In his marvelous debut novel, Travis Hunter has crafted a tale that is funny, sexy, and touching—revealing what it truly means to have the heart of a man.


Click for more detail about Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany Dhalgren

by Samuel R. Delany
Vintage (May 15, 2001)
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In Dhalgren, perhaps one of the most profound and bestselling science fiction novels of all time, Samuel R. Delany has produced a novel “ to stand with the best American fiction of the 1970s— (Jonathan Lethem). Bellona is a city at the dead center of the United States. Something has happened there. The population has fled. Madmen and criminals wander the streets. Strange portents appear in the cloud-covered sky. And into this disaster zone comes a young man “poet, lover, and adventurer”known only as the Kid. Tackling questions of race, gender, and sexuality, Dhalgren is a literary marvel and groundbreaking work of American magical realism.


Click for more detail about Las Mamis: Favorite Latino Authors Remember Their Mothers by Esmeralda Santiago and Joie Davidow Las Mamis: Favorite Latino Authors Remember Their Mothers

by Esmeralda Santiago and Joie Davidow
Vintage (Apr 17, 2001)
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A marvelous new anthology from the editors of Las Christmas in which our most admired Latino authors share memories of their mothers.

The women lovingly portrayed in Las Mamis represent a cross section of Latino life and culture. They come from rich families in the big cities of Latin America, from rural immigrant families, and from the worlds in between-and they share an extraordinary inner strength, often maintained against incredible odds. Pressed by conflicting cultural expectations, circumstance, and religion, they have managed the challenges of motherhood, leaving enduring legacies for their children. Now, in these vivid, poignant, and sometimes hilarious reminiscences-all of them infused with distinct sabor latino-Las Mamis celebrates the universality of family love and the special bond between mothers and children.

Contributors include: Esmeralda Santiago, Piri Thomas, Marjorie Agosin, Junot Diaz, Alba Ambert, Liz Balmaseda, Mandalit del Barco, Gioconda Belli, Maria Escandon, Dagoberto Gilb, Francisco Goldman, Jaime Manrique, Gustavo Perez-Firmat, Ilan Stavans


Click for more detail about Travelling Mercies by Lorna Goodison Travelling Mercies

by Lorna Goodison
McClelland & Stewart (Apr 17, 2001)
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At the heart of acclaimed poet Lorna Goodison’s seventh book of poetry – her first published in Canada – is music, moving from a slow ska, a hard rocksteady, and a sweetie-come-brush-me bossanova, to line and sight gratitude psalms, lionheart outlaw anthems, and Miles Davis, blown by the winds to a concert in Berlin. Many of the poems are about those not heard or less counted, those who live in places like the favelas of Rio or the Kingston slum called Moonlight City. Goodison chronicles how “from shameports we passed through whale-belly nights of no return”, or from prison through the fields of Tecumseh on a Greyhound bus to Detroit. And she journeys, as they must have, to hell, this time in a marvellous translation of the canto about Brunetto Latini from Dante’s Inferno, where she meets Mr. Brown, a Jamaican duppy conqueror from her own land of look behind. Set mainly in her native Jamaica but universal in its concerns, this book, rare and special, is the real thing.


Click for more detail about Four Guys and Trouble by Marcus Major Four Guys and Trouble

by Marcus Major
Dutton (Apr 01, 2001)
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Another hip and hilarious, sexy and wise novel about relationships-from the Blackboard bestselling author of Good Peoples.

Best friends since their college days, Ibn, Colin, Michael, and Dexter share something unusual in common: Her name is Erika-"Bunches" to her friends. She’s the kid sister of a friend who died, and the four buddies have promised to look out for her. But now she’s all grown up-a twenty-four-year-old knockout of a medical student who’s arousing some not-so-sisterly feelings in the brothers.

When one of them acts on those feelings, they will all-including Erika-discover how far they’re willing to go in the name of friendship, loyalty, and love. The result is this savvy, entertaining novel filled with the wit, humor, and right-on observations about contemporary relationships that distinguished Good Peoples.

Four Guys and Trouble is the irresistible follow-up to Marcus Major’s acclaimed debut novel-and one certain to win this gifted author a wealth of captivated new readers.

Book Review

Click for more detail about All of Me: a Voluptuous Tale by Venise Berry All of Me: a Voluptuous Tale

by Venise Berry
Berkley Books (Apr 01, 2001)
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So Good, Venise Berry’s first novel, spent six months on Essence magazine’s Blackboard bestseller list and was an Alternate Selection of the Literary Guild. With All of Me, Berry again delivers a compelling, humorous, and poignant story on a subject that plagues half the women in America—weight. Serpentine Williamson has a good life: an exciting career as a television reporter in Chicago, a sexy boyfriend, membership in a popular gospel choir, and a family who loves her. But in the midst of her positives lies a powerful negative—her lifelong struggle with weight.After years of buying into fads and labels, Serpentine finds her world crumbling. And, finally losing the battle to uphold her plummeting self-esteem, she breaks down and needs to be hospitalized. All of Me is a heartwarming, inspiring, and often funny chronicle of Serpentine’s fight for recovery. As she learns to meet her challenges with dignity and strength she also learns to love herself, for the first time, just the way she is. All of Me will resonate with women of all shapes and sizes and will once again affirm Venise Berry as a fresh voice in African-American women’s fiction, whose snappy characters, according to Rosalyn McMillan, "double-dare you to put the book down."


Click for more detail about Raising Fences: A Black Man’s Love Story by Michael Datcher Raising Fences: A Black Man’s Love Story

by Michael Datcher
Riverhead Books (Mar 05, 2001)
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Immediate, dramatic, illuminating-through his own riveting story, Michael Datcher, a young black poet, argues passionately for a black man’s right to security, family, and love.

In Raising Fences, Michael Datcher offers a view of young black men seldom seen in the media-men who long for loving, stable marriages, fatherhood, and homes in safe neighborhoods. In this emotionally raw and intimate narrative, Datcher reflects on his fatherless childhood in inner-city Los Angeles, his attraction to local gangs, his promiscuity, and, at times, his lack of faith. But he also writes of his deep desire-and the desires of other black men he knows-to escape a cycle that deprives children of what they need most and creates empty shells of grown men. Here is the story of one man’s success in overcoming the obstacles thrown at him from birth. It is a powerful case for fathers, for family, for racial communication and understanding. And it is also a love story, a story of courage and faith. Its message is one we need to hear now more than ever before.


Click for more detail about Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964 by Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964

by Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten
Knopf (Feb 13, 2001)
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These engaging and wonderfully alive letters paint an intimate portrait of two of the most important and influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Carl Van Vechten—older, established, and white—was at first a mentor to the younger, gifted, and black Langston Hughes. But the relationship quickly grew into a great friendship—and for nearly four decades the two men wrote to each other expressively and constantly.

They discussed literature and publishing. They exchanged favorite blues lyrics ("So now I know what Bessie Smith really meant by ’Thirty days in jail / With ma back turned to de wall,’" Hughes wrote Van Vechten after a stay in a Cleveland jail on trumped-up charges). They traded stories about the hottest parties and the wildest speakeasies. They argued politics. They gossiped about the people they knew in common—James Baldwin, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, H. L. Mencken. They wrote from near (of racism in Scottsboro) and far (of dancing in Cuba and trekking across the Soviet Union), and always with playfulness and mutual affection.

Today Van Vechten is a controversial figure; some consider him exploitative, at best peripheral to the Harlem Renaissance—or, indeed, as the author of the novel Nigger Heaven, a blemish upon it, and upon Hughes by association. The letters tell a different, more subtle and complex story: Van Vechten did, in fact, help Hughes (and many other young black writers) to get published; Hughes in turn appreciated what Van Vechten was trying to do in Nigger Heaven and defended him, fiercely. For all their differences, Hughes and Van Vechten remained staunchly loyal to each other throughout their lives.

A correspondence of great cultural significance, judiciously gathered together here for the first time and annotated by the insightful young scholar Emily Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem shows us an unlikely friendship, one that is essential to our understanding of literature and race relations in twentieth-century America.


Click for more detail about The Warmest December by Bernice L. McFadden The Warmest December

by Bernice L. McFadden
Dutton (Feb 01, 2001)
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"Vivid" hailed the New York Times Book Review of Sugar, Bernice L. McFadden’s bestselling debut novel. This beloved new writer returns to the Brooklyn of her childhood in The Warmest December, a triumphant coming-of-age novel.

Childhood can be rough, but for Kenzie growing up in the Lowe home means opening the bottom drawer of her father’s dresser to choose which of the three belts coiled, waiting like snakes, she wants to get whipped with; trips to Bee Hive Liquor for her father’s vodka; and dreaming of the day she can escape apartment A5. Buoyed by the graceful voice that has become McFadden’s trademark, The Warmest December is the incredibly moving story of one family and the alcoholism, that determined years of their lives. Narrated by a young woman reminiscent of Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John, and moving from the Brooklyn of the 1970’s to 90’s, Kenzie Lowe discovers as she visits her dying father that choices she once thought beyond her control are very much hers to make.

Praise for Bernice L. McFadden’s bestselling debut, Sugar:

"She’s a writer on the caliber of Toni Morrison. Very rich, very woven, and very layered."-The Dallas Morning News


Click for more detail about Short Takes:Fast-Break Basketball Poetry: Fast-Break Poetry by Charles R. Smith Jr. Short Takes:Fast-Break Basketball Poetry: Fast-Break Poetry

by Charles R. Smith Jr.
Dutton Juvenile (Feb 01, 2001)
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In a basketball game, the mind flows. Later, memory serves up moments-short takes. Here are twelve poems delivered in short, quick lines that press and twist and streak their way downcourt toward their goal with practiced, impressive dexterity. The feeling is of the inner eye and ear, alert and awake, storing up memories. Competition is everywhere. Voices taunt, swagger, defend. Bodies dare and challenge. And yet, amid the heart-pounding action, the athletic stop-starts, come moments of quiet, even odd reflection-the sound of sneakers on a wood floor, for instance.

Small photographs capture suspended moments and pattern their way across colorful backgrounds in accompaniment to the energetic images of the poetry. Once again drawing on the rhythms of jazz and hip-hop, Charles Smith offers a fitting companion to his previous two books about The Game: Rimshots, an ALA Notable Book, and the highly praised Tall Tales.

• 3rd volume in an award-winning homage to street-court basketball


Click for more detail about Phillis Wheatley, Complete Writings by Phillis Wheatley Phillis Wheatley, Complete Writings

by Phillis Wheatley
Penguin Classics (Feb 01, 2001)
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The extraordinary writings of Phillis Wheatley, a slave girl turned published poet

In 1761, a young girl arrived in Boston on a slave ship, sold to the Wheatley family, and given the name Phillis Wheatley. Struck by Phillis’ extraordinary precociousness, the Wheatleys provided her with an education that was unusual for a woman of the time and astonishing for a slave. After studying English and classical literature, geography, the Bible, and Latin, Phillis published her first poem in 1767 at the age of 14, winning much public attention and considerable fame. When Boston publishers who doubted its authenticity rejected an initial collection of her poetry, Wheatley sailed to London in 1773 and found a publisher there for Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.

This volume collects both Wheatley’s letters and her poetry: hymns, elegies, translations, philosophical poems, tales, and epyllions—including a poignant plea to the Earl of Dartmouth urging freedom for America and comparing the country’s condition to her own. With her contemplative elegies and her use of the poetic imagination to escape an unsatisfactory world, Wheatley anticipated the Romantic Movement of the following century. The appendices to this edition include poems of Wheatley’s contemporary African-American poets: Lucy Terry, Jupiter Harmon, and Francis Williams.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about Beloved Sisters And Loving Friends: Letters From Rebecca Primus Of Royal Oak, Maryland, And Addie Brown Of Hartford, Connecticut, 1854-1868 by Farah Jasmine Griffin Beloved Sisters And Loving Friends: Letters From Rebecca Primus Of Royal Oak, Maryland, And Addie Brown Of Hartford, Connecticut, 1854-1868

by Farah Jasmine Griffin
One World/Ballantine (Jan 30, 2001)
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Rebecca Primus was the daughter of a prominent black Connecticut family who was sent south during Reconstruction by the Hartford Freedmen’s Aid Society to teach newly freed slaves. Addie Brown was a domestic servant in Connecticut and New York City—as well as Rebecca’s best friend and romantic companion. These two spirited, intelligent women wrote letters in this astonishing, historically priceless volume. Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends breaks the long silence surrounding the lives of black women in America and reveals an amazing world until now unknown.

"I have today put my second class into the third Reader," wrote Rebecca from the school in Maryland’s Eastern Shore that was later to bear her name. "I hear the President Johnson expect to be in Hartford the 26th," exclaimed Addie. "I wish some of them present him with a ball through his head."

Shared passion, ambitions, frustrations, politics, gossip, all the fascinating minutiae of daily life, give these unique letters extraordinary flavor and richness—and offer us an unprecedented piece of American history.


Click for more detail about Sugar: A Novel by Bernice L. McFadden Sugar: A Novel

by Bernice L. McFadden
Plume (Jan 28, 2001)
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20th Anniversary Edition—with a New Foreword by Kimberly Elise

A novel by a critically acclaimed voice in contemporary fiction, praised by Ebony for its “unforgettable images, unique characters, and moving story that keeps the pages turning until the end.”20th Anniversary Edition—with a New Foreword by Kimberly Elise

A novel by a critically acclaimed voice in contemporary fiction, praised by Ebony for its “unforgettable images, unique characters, and moving story that keeps the pages turning until the end.”

Sugar brings a Southern African-American town vividly to life, with its flowering magnolia trees, lingering scents of jasmine and honeysuckle, and white picket fences that keep strangers out—but ignorance and superstition in. To read this novel is to take a journey through loss and suffering to a place of forgiveness, understanding, and grace


Click for more detail about Gabriel’s Story by David Anthony Durham Gabriel’s Story

by David Anthony Durham
Doubleday (Jan 16, 2001)
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David Anthony Durham makes his literary debut with a haunting novel which, in the tradition of Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, views the American West through a refreshingly original lens.

Set in the 1870s, the novel tells the tale of Gabriel Lynch, an African American youth who settles with his family in the plains of Kansas. Dissatisfied with the drudgery of homesteading and growing increasingly disconnected from his family, Gabriel forsakes the farm for a life of higher adventure. Thus begins a forbidding trek into a terrain of austere beauty, a journey begun in hope, but soon laced with danger and propelled by a cast of brutal characters.

Durham’s accomplishment is not solely in telling one man’s story. He also gives voice to a population seldom included in our Western lore and crafts a new poetry of the American landscape. Gabriel’s Story is an important addition to the mosaic of our nation’s mythology.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Brutal Imagination: Poems by Cornelius Eady Brutal Imagination: Poems

by Cornelius Eady
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Jan 15, 2001)
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Brutal Imagination is the work of a poet at the peak of his considerable powers. Its two central sections—which could be called song cycles—confront the same subject: the black man in America.The first, which carries the book’s title, deals with the vision of the black man in white imagination. Narrated largely by the black kidnapper that Susan Smith invented to cover up the killing of her two sons, the cycle displays all of Mr. Eady’s range: his deft wit, inventiveness, and skillfully targeted anger, and the way in which he combines the subtle with the charged, street idiom with elegant inversions, harsh images with the sweetly ordinary. The second cycle, "Running Man," presents poems Mr. Eady drew on for his libretto for the music-drama of the same name, which was a l999 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Here, the focus is the black family and the barriers of color, class, and caste that tear it apart. As the Village Voice said, "It is a hymn to all the sons this country has stolen from her African- American families."


Click for more detail about The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson The Other Side

by Jacqueline Woodson
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Jan 15, 2001)
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Clover’s mom says it isn’t safe to cross the fence that segregates their African-American side of town from the white side where Anna lives. But the two girls strike up a friendship, and get around the grown-ups’ rules by sitting on top of the fence together.

With the addition of a brand-new author’s note, this special edition celebrates the tenth anniversary of this classic book. As always, Woodson moves readers with her lyrical narrative, and E. B. Lewis’s amazing talent shines in his gorgeous watercolor illustrations.


Click for more detail about Freedom School, Yes! by Amy Littlesugar Freedom School, Yes!

by Amy Littlesugar
Philomel Books (Jan 15, 2001)
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Jolie has a lot to be scared about since the new Freedom School teacher, Annie, came to town. Bricks thrown through windows in the dead of night, notes filled with hate, and now a fire has burnt down the church where Annie was supposed to start teaching tomorrow! Without the church, how can she possibly teach Jolie and the other townspeople about black poets and artists, historians and inventors? Unless the people themselves fight back.In this triumphant story based on the 1964 Mississippi Freedom School Summer Project, Amy Littlesugar and Floyd Cooper come together to celebrate the strength of a people, and the bravery of one young girl who didn’t let being scared get in her way.


Click for more detail about Ain’t No River by Sharon Ewell Foster Ain’t No River

by Sharon Ewell Foster
Multnomah (Jan 04, 2001)
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Penned in the same poetic voice introduced in her bestselling debut novel, Passing by Samaria, Sharon Ewell Foster’s Ain’t No River is a contemporary tale where the angst of modern life is seasoned with wisdom, humor, and a dash of African-American history. Meemaw has been a doting mother, grandmother, and church mother to her community. Suddenly she’s become a slimmed-down, silver-haired, seventy-something fox with a new attitude. And all fingers are pointing at a much younger ex-pro football player, GoGo Walker. When D.C. lawyer Garvin Daniels — Meemaw’s granddaughter — gets wind of what’s happening, she heads back to her hometown determined to help her Meemaw get it together before she goes too far.


Click for more detail about Brown Sugar: A Collection Of Erotic Black Fiction by Carol Taylor Brown Sugar: A Collection Of Erotic Black Fiction

by Carol Taylor
Plume (Jan 02, 2001)
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First in a Series

Brown Sugar brings together some of the most acclaimed voices in today’s black literary world — Sapphire, Natasha Tarpley, Reginald Harris, and Pamela Sneed, among them. These titillating stories cover the full spectrum of black experience and identity as they reveal sexuality and sensuality in all their varied and exotic forms. From the subtle to the graphic, Brown Sugar embraces the ardor and passion of black love and lust, and will appeal to both men and women. Featuring both well-established authors and promising new writers, this one-of-a-kind collection represents the past, present, and future of black literature at its pleasurable and outrageous best. It is a must-have for every lover, as well as every lover of first-rate fiction.


Click for more detail about The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks by Randall Robinson The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks

by Randall Robinson
Plume (Jan 01, 2001)
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The national bestseller by the author of Defending the Spirit. In this powerful and controversial book, distinguished African-American political leader and thinker Randall Robinson argues for the restoration of the rich history that slavery and segregation severed. Drawing from research and personal experience, he shows that only by reclaiming their lost past and proud heritage can blacks lay the foundation for their future. And white Americans can make reparations for slavery and the century of racial discrimination that followed with monetary restitution, educational programs, and the kinds of equal opportunities that will ensure the social and economic success of all its citizens.In a book that is both an unflinching indictment of past wrongs and an impassioned call to our nation to educate all Americans about the history of Africa and its people, Robinson makes a persuasive case for the debt white America owes blacks, and the debt blacks owe themselves.


Click for more detail about Passing By Samaria by Sharon Ewell Foster Passing By Samaria

by Sharon Ewell Foster
Multnomah (Jan 01, 2001)
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An inspirational read of racism, romance and religious conviction

When the discovery of a schoolmate’s lynched body puts her own life in jeopardy, Angela is sent by her parents from her beloved Mississippi home. With thousands of other African-Americans, Angela begins making her way north to the Promised Land of turn-of-the-century Chicago. On the way she meets two men who will dramatically impact her life: James, a young African-American believer determined to establish a newspaper in Chicago, and Pearl, a man with questionable intentions. A stirring novel by an exciting new writer, Passing by Samaria beautifully shows readers the path to truth, purpose, reconciliation, and joy.

Who knew that you would read it?

I wanted to write a novel that would sell millions and make me the darling of the literary world. So, I came up with a surefire 7-point plan.

1. Steamy romances are the rage; sex sells.

My response: Who cares? I’ll write a book with only a thread of romance but no explicit sex scenes; no one will be able to keep the book in stock. And while I’m at it, I’ll write without curse words. People will love it!

2. Books with tragic endings make headlines and best seller lists.

My response: I’ll write a book that is full of faith, optimism, charm, and hope.

3. People are angry, frightened, and sick of talking about race.

My response: Great! I’ll write a book that confronts racism and classism-particularly among Christians.

4. As a long-time Defense Department employee, though I am a Christian, I know nothing about the Christian fiction genre. It is a genre only read by a set group of Christians.

My response: If "discovered," I will have my book published by a Christian publishing house and pretty much ensure that my book will be catalogued as "religious." All kinds of people will run to buy a religious novel with references to God, gospel music, and Jesus. And I’ll expect that Christians and non-Christians alike will want to read my novel.

5. Christian fiction readers are overwhelmingly white women, and they don’t buy books with African Americans on the cover.

My response: Pooh! Pooh! I’ll intentionally write for men, as well as, women…even for young people. My protagonist will be a black female. There will be an African American on the cover, and I will expect that book will be bought by African-Americans. Sales will cross gender, racial, and religious lines.

6. Christian fiction is usually thought to be pretty tame, predictable, and idealistic-always showing Christians in the most positive light and "heathens" as the bad guys.

Fabulous! I’ll include lots of adventure, controversy, and plot twists. The story will include Christians who are murderers and non-Christian characters who are funny, charming, and lovable.

7. Oh no, not more history! No one wants to read about history.

Oh, yes! Passing by Samaria will include actual accounts, from 1919, of riots and African American troops serving in WWI. I think I’ll talk about Mississippi, about the Chicago Tribune, about W.E.B. DuBois and the black press. That ought to do it.

I wrote this book because I wanted to sell a million copies, get rich, and move out of the townhouse I lease.

Hardly!

Actually, I wrote Passing by Samaria from my heart, from the love in my heart. I wrote it because I could no longer avoid writing it. I wrote it because I love books, and hoped that I could tell you a good story that would make a difference. I wrote Passing by Samaria because I bear on my body healed scars from deep wounds caused by the anger and pain of racism. I wrote it because, like most people who have been miraculously healed, I could no longer avoid talking about the source of my cure. I wrote Passing by Samaria because I wanted to offer comfort and love to you, no matter where you stand on the difficult issues I confront in my novel. I wrote Passing by Samaria because I hoped that if I honestly shared my own frailties and struggles, I might help you or someone you love. I wrote the book from my naked, exposed heart because I had to; and I never really believed you would read it.

Who knew?

May you find a blessing within the pages of the book!

~Sharon Ewell Foster, August 13, 2000

Book Review

Click for more detail about Doing What’s Right: How to Fight for What You Believe—And Make a Difference by Tavis Smiley Doing What’s Right: How to Fight for What You Believe—And Make a Difference

by Tavis Smiley
Anchor (Dec 26, 2000)
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In Doing What’s Right, Tavis Smiley shows how each one of us can battle complacency and fight for the causes we support. Smiley is the host of "Black Entertainment Television Tonight with Tavis Smiley," a one-hour nightly talk show that reaches fifty-five million households, and his political and social commentary is heard daily on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show," a national radio program with a listenership of seven million. "The Smiley Report," his monthly newsletter, has a circulation of three to four million readers.

Smiley’s career was inspired by his lifelong determination to make a difference. Through the media, he has helped to galvanize public opinion and initiate national grassroots campaigns on everything from corporate responsibility to voter turnout. In Doing What’s Right, Smiley urges everyone to become involved and presents a practical and motivating gameplan for making it happen.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It by Herb Boyd Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It

by Herb Boyd
Anchor (Dec 26, 2000)
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Autobiography of a People is an insightfully assembled anthology of eyewitness accounts that traces the history of the African American experience.  From the Middle Passage to the Million Man March, editor Herb Boyd has culled a diverse range of voices, both famous and ordinary, to creat a unique and compelling historical portrait:

Benjamin Banneker on Thomas Jefferson Old Elizabeth on spreading the Word Frederick Douglass on life in the North W.E.B. Du Bois on the Talented Tenth Matthew Henson on reaching the North Pole Harriot Jacobs on running away James Cameron on escaping a mob lyniching Alvin Ailey on the world of dance Langston Hughes on the Harlem Renaissance Curtis Morriw on the Korean War Max ROach on ""jazz"" as a four-letter word LL Cool J on rap Mary Church Terrell on the Chicago World’s Fair Rev. Bernice King on the future of Black America And many others.


Click for more detail about To Be a Slave by Julius Lester To Be a Slave

by Julius Lester
Puffin Books (Dec 18, 2000)
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A Newbery Honor Book

What was it like to be a slave?  Listen to the words and learn about the lives of countless slaves and ex-slaves, telling about their forced journey from Africa to the United States, their work in the fields and houses of their owners, and their passion for freedom.  You will never look at life the same way again.


"The dehumanizing aspects of slavery are made abundantly clear, but a testament to the human spirit of those who endured or survived this experience is exalted."—Children’s Literature


Click for more detail about Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street by Angela Johnson Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street

by Angela Johnson
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Dec 12, 2000)
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When Charlie moves to Magnolia Street, it’s not long before she’s meeting new people and discovering fun things to do. Like looking for the maniac monkeys her brother swears are hiding in the willows. Or swinging on trees with her bound-to-be best friend Billy. Or digging for buried treasure in the vacant lot across the street.

There’s always something new blowing in the wind on Magnolia. And with Charlie’s nose for adventure, she’s sure to find it!


Click for more detail about The Art and History of Black Memorabilia by Larry V. Buster The Art and History of Black Memorabilia

by Larry V. Buster
Clarkson Potter (Dec 05, 2000)
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Black memorabilia is one of the most provocative areas of collecting in America today, encompassing anything made by or depicting people of African descent. It includes a diverse range of objects and documents that span five centuries of African-American life, from trade cards to kitchen novelties; dolls and toys to sports and civil-rights mementos; cereal boxes and product labels to books and sheet music; and even the shackles, classified ads, and bills of sale that document the long years of black slavery.

Often harsh and painful to examine, these artifacts nonetheless offer an important window into American history. They have become highly valued collectibles, and especially so among African Americans.

The Art and History of Black Memorabilia, by Larry Vincent Buster, is the first fully illustrated overview of this remarkable area of Americana. With more than two hundred color photographs, this volume examines the most desirable black collectibles and places them within their historical and social contexts. The author, himself a noted collector, includes information on how to buy, display, and preserve black memorabilia and explains how to spot fakes and reproductions. Also included are explorations of some of the most well-known and influential African-American figures in popular culture.

At times horrifying yet sublime, insulting yet intriguing, humorous, heartbreaking, and inspiring, The Art and History of Black Memorabilia is a landmark chronicle of the black experience in America.


Click for more detail about Do Unto Others by Kristin Hunter Do Unto Others

by Kristin Hunter
One World/Ballantine (Nov 28, 2000)
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Zena (short for Zenobia) Lawson honors all things African—art, culture, history. So when fortune hands her a twenty-year-old Nigerian girl in need of temporary housing, Zena and her husband, Lucius, jump at the chance to help. To Zena, Ifa Olongo is an exotic beauty with enough haughtiness and grace for three royal families. Not to mention the daughter she never had. But as Zena’s best friend, Vy, keeps reminding her, Ifa is no girl. Crackling with wit, intelligence, and hard-earned wisdom, Do Unto Others turns political correctness and Afrocentricity upside down, reminding us that there is only one golden rule.


Click for more detail about Living Healthy with Hepatitis C: Natural and Conventional Approaches to Recover Your Quality of Life by Harriet A. Washington Living Healthy with Hepatitis C: Natural and Conventional Approaches to Recover Your Quality of Life

by Harriet A. Washington
Dell Publishing (Nov 07, 2000)
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As many as four million Americans suffer from the hepatitis C virus (HCV), but most don’t even know they’re infected. Here at last is the unprecedented book that smashes the myths about the disease as it offers authoritative, lifesaving information you won’t find anywhere else. Living Healthy with Hepatitis C is your ultimate weapon against the biggest killer of all: fear. Discover new hope and help in its pages as you learn a comprehensive approach that puts you back in control of your life!

Protect yourself from acquiring HCV
Protect your loved ones from contracting it if you are infected
Benefit from the latest medical treatments, including interferon, ribavirin, and other drugs
Learn the pros and cons of alternative treatments, including herbs, supplements, and acupuncture
Use diet, lifestyle, and exercise as potent weapons against HCV
Avoid its worst consequences, including cancer and liver failure
Understand HCV, the medical treatments, lab tests, clinical trials, and much more
Take advantage of the latest breakthroughs, including a possible "magic bullet" leading to a cure

PLUS extensive resources, including books, organizations, websites, periodicals, and more


Click for more detail about Gifts by Nuruddin Farah Gifts

by Nuruddin Farah
Penguin Books (Nov 01, 2000)
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Gifts is a beguiling tale of a Somali family, its strong matriarch, Duniya, and its past wounds that refuse to heal. As the story unfolds, Somalia is ravaged by war, drought, disease, and famine, prompting industrialized nations to offer monetary aid—"gifts" to the so-called Third World. Farah weaves these threads together into a tapestry of dreams, memories, family lore, folktales, and journalistic accounts.


Click for more detail about Maps by Nuruddin Farah Maps

by Nuruddin Farah
Penguin Books (Nov 01, 2000)
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This first novel in Nuruddin Farah’s Blood in the Sun trilogy tells the story of Askar, a man coming of age in the turmoil of modern Africa. With his father a victim of the bloody Ethiopian civil war and his mother dying the day of his birth, Askar is taken in and raised by a woman named Misra amid the scandal, gossip, and ritual of a small African village. As an adolescent, Askar goes to live in Somalia’s capital, where he strives to find himself just as Somalia struggles for national identity.


Click for more detail about Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry
Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats

by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry
Doubleday (Oct 31, 2000)
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Countless black women would rather attend church naked than hatless. For these women, a church hat, flamboyant as it may be, is no mere fashion accessory;  it’s a cherished African American custom, one observed with boundless passion by black women of various religious denominations. A woman’s hat speaks long before its wearer utters a word.  It’s what Deirdre Guion calls "hattitude…there’s a little more strut in your carriage when you wear a nice hat. There’s something special about you." If a hat says a lot about a person, it says even more about a people-the customs they observe, the symbols they prize, and the fashions they fancy.

Photographer Michael Cunningham beautifully captures the self-expressions of women of all ages-from young glamorous women to serene but stylish grandmothers. Award-winning journalist Craig Marberry provides an intimate look at the women and their lives. Together they’ve captured a captivating custom, this wearing of church hats, a peculiar convergence of faith and fashion that keeps the Sabbath both holy and glamorous.


Click for more detail about Those Bones Are Not My Child: A novel by Toni Cade Bambara Those Bones Are Not My Child: A novel

by Toni Cade Bambara
Vintage (Oct 24, 2000)
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Those Bones Are Not My Child is a staggering achievement, a major work of American fiction: the novel that Toni Cade Bambara was working on at the time of her death in 1995 — a story that puts us at the center of the nightmare of the Atlanta child murders.
    
It was called "The City Too Busy To Hate," but two decades ago more than forty black children were murdered there with grim determination, their bodies found — in ditches, on riverbanks — strangled, beaten, and sexually assaulted. Bambara was living in Atlanta at the time, and Those Bones Are Not My Child is the result of twelve years of first-hand research, as she delved into the murders and the world in which they occurred.  Evoking the culture of the late 1970s and early ’80s with a keen eye — the Iranian hostage crisis, disco, Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver — Those Bones Are Not My Child powerfully dramatizes the story of one black family surviving on the margins of a seemingly prosperous city.
  
On Sunday morning, July 20, 1980, Marzala Rawls Spencer awakens to find that her teenage son has gone missing, even as the Atlanta child abductions are beginning to be reported. As she and her estranged husband frantically search for their son, the story moves with authority through the full spectrum of Atlanta’s political, social, and cultural life, illuminating the vexing issues of race and class that bedevil the city.

Suspenseful, richly dramatic, profoundly affecting, Those Bones Are Not My Child explores the complex relationships within one family in dire crisis. And as Toni Morrison, who edited Bambara’s manuscript, has observed, it is also "the narrative revelation of a major Southern city of the ’80s, a revelation of what clogs the bloodstream of ’The City Too Busy to Hate.’ "


Click for more detail about An Eighth of August by Dawn Turner Trice An Eighth of August

by Dawn Turner Trice
Crown (Oct 17, 2000)
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With Only Twice I’ve Wished for Heaven, Dawn Turner Trice established herself as a powerful and unique new fiction writer with a first novel called "touching and memorable" by the New York Times. Now, with An Eighth of August, she delivers on the promise of her stunning debut with an eloquent, evocative novel about the strong ties and haunting memories that bind family and friends in a small town.

Since the late 1800s, Halley’s Landing has commemorated the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation with one of the grandest festivals in the Midwest. Year after year, celebrants come from near and far to show off their best clothes, cook up special dishes, and pay tribute to the rich heritage of the former slaves who settled the Illinois town, hoping to piece together a life. But along with stories of the good times come unbearably painful memories and long-buried resentments.

Narrated by a chorus of voices, An Eighth of August begins with the Sunday church services of the 1986 celebration, a year after a terrible tragedy rocked the people of this close-knit community. The festival provides the backdrop for a vividly moving story that weaves together the lives and voices of the residents of Halley’s Landing. We hear from strong-willed Flossie Jo Penticott and her estranged daughter, Sweet Alma, whose relationship has been torn apart by an unimaginable sorrow; Flossie’s scatterbrained sister-in-law Thelma and her salt-of-the-earth husband, Herbert, who remain steadfastly devoted despite life’s ups and downs; Aunt Cora, whose humor, generous spirit,  and large home provide refuge for the weary; and May Ruth, an eccentric older white woman who fits in like any other family member.

As we grow to know and love these characters, we witness how this Emancipation Festival will offer up its own particular brand of freedom and herald a change in each of their lives. Like Gloria Naylor, Dawn Turner Trice draws us into a remarkable world in An Eighth of August and invites us to spend time with a group of extraordinary individuals who linger long after the story is complete.


Click for more detail about Blackgammon by Heather Neff Blackgammon

by Heather Neff
One World/Ballantine (Oct 03, 2000)
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A sweeping, unforgettable debut novel that traces remarkable parallel voyages of self-discovery, Blackgammon reveals the intertwined lives of two African-American women—soul sisters whose vow to stay true to one another will carry them through love, loss, and triumph on the way to finding out who they really are … and who they were meant to be.

After twenty-five years of self-imposed exile in Paris, legendary African American artist Chloe Emmanuel faces a daunting prospect: the chance of a triumphant return to the United States. She came to the City of Light in search of freedom … the freedom to paint, freedom from a love that nearly destroyed her, freedom from the racial strife in the country she once called home. Swept into the seductive world of high fashion and art gallery intrigues, Chloe finds that Paris posed its own set of challenges—the pressures of living up to her acclaimed reputation, the difficulty of expressing her feelings without a brush, the vow always to remain strong and directed, and the hope of never again allowing a man to turn her away from her dreams.

While Chloe reflects on her life, her relationships, and the meaning of her art, she begins to wonder: Is her artistic success linked to her "inability to love," as an enigmatic lover once suggested? If that is true, Chloe must somehow help her younger "sister" and closest friend, Michael Davies Northcross, who is confronting a devastating personal crisis of her own.

A distinguished African-American professor in England, married to a brilliant British scholar, Michael has modeled her life on the lies that Chloe has lived. When a visiting professor challenges not only her marriage but her reasons for staying devoted to a white man, Michael must sort through the half-truths and deceptions— and find her way back to that fragile place where real love exists.

Unwilling to sacrifice the dreams they dared to make real, Chloe and Michael are forced to the limits of their strength and independence. They must gamble everything to recapture what they have lost … in a dazzling game called Blackgammon.


Click for more detail about Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) by James Weldon Johnson Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

by James Weldon Johnson
Penguin Classics (Oct 01, 2000)
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2000 marks the centenary of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," James Weldon Johnson’s most famous lyric, which is now embraced as the Negro National Anthem. In celebration, this Penguin original collects all the poems from Johnson’s published works—Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), God’s Trombones (1927), and Saint Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day (1935)—along with a number of previously unpublished poems.Sondra Kathryn Wilson, the foremost authority on Johnson and his work, provides an introduction that sheds light on Johnson’s many achievements and his pioneering contributions to recording and celebrating the African American experience.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about Albidaro and the Mischievous Dream by Julius Lester Albidaro and the Mischievous Dream

by Julius Lester
Dial (Oct 01, 2000)
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Chaos results when a dream tells all the children and animals of the world that they should do whatever they want without fear of adult reprisal, and it is up to Albidaro, Guardian of Children, and Olara, Guardian of Animals, to put everyone back where they are supposed to be.


Click for more detail about Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt by Jack Olsen Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt

by Jack Olsen
Doubleday (Sep 19, 2000)
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With the epic scope of A Civil Action, Last Man Standing is an unforgettable chronicle of the twenty-seven-year struggle to break a conspiratorial abuse of power and free one of America’s most famous political prisoners.

In 1968, twenty-year-old Elmer Gerard "Geronimo" Pratt returned from Vietnam with a chest full of medals and a Purple Heart into the most heated racial climate in American history. Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, Pratt enrolled at UCLA, where the Black Panther Party was busy recruiting. Propelled by a diverse group of African Americans, the Panther agenda was a volatile mix of black rage, black pride, altruism, idealism, and violence. Under the charismatic leadership of Eldridge Cleaver, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Bunchy Carter, Pratt rose to the rank of Deputy Minister of Defense and became leader of the Los Angeles Chapter. The Panthers did not go unnoticed by J. Edgar Hoover. In the era of enemies’ lists, his FBI drew up its own list of Panthers to be "neutralized" and began a systematic counterintelligence program to undermine black solidarity. Geronimo Pratt headed Hoover’s list. When an FBI informer within the Panther party agreed to testify that Pratt murdered a young woman at a Santa Monica tennis court, his days as a free citizen came to an end.

If not for the unlikely alliance of a brash African American defense attorney (Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr.), a radical Irish Jewish law student (Stuart Hanlon), a Protestant minister (Rev. James McCloskey), and the indefatigable Pratt-his spirit unbroken by eight years in solitary confinement-a horrifying miscarriage of justice would never have been rectified. As riveting biography, courtroom drama, and just plain narrative nonfiction, Last Man Standing is certain to take its place among the finest works of American judicial history.


Click for more detail about The Map of Love: A Novel by Ahdaf Soueif The Map of Love: A Novel

by Ahdaf Soueif
Anchor (Sep 12, 2000)
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Booker Prize Finalist

Here is an extraordinary cross-cultural love story that unfurls across Egypt, England, and the United States over the course of a century. Isabel Parkman, a divorced American journalist, has fallen in love with a gifted and difficult Egyptian-American conductor. Shadowing her romance is the courtship of her great-grandparents Anna and Sharif nearly one hundred years before.

In 1900 the recently widows Anna Winterbourne left England for Egypt, an outpost of the Empire roiling with political sentiment. She soon found herself enraptured by the real Egypt and in love with Sharif Pasha al-Baroudi, an Egyptian nationalist. When Isabel, in an attempt to discover the truth behind her heritage, reenacts Anna’s excursion to Egypt, the story of her great-grandparents unravels before her, revealing startling parallels for her own life.

Combining the romance and intricate narrative of a nineteenth-century novel with a very modern sense of culture and politics—both sexual and international—Ahdaf Soueif has created a thoroughly seductive and mesmerizing tale.


Click for more detail about The Altar of My Soul: The Living Traditions of Santeria by Marta Moreno-Vega The Altar of My Soul: The Living Traditions of Santeria

by Marta Moreno-Vega
One World/Ballantine (Sep 12, 2000)
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Long cloaked in protective secrecy, demonized by Western society, and distorted by Hollywood, Santería is now emerging from the shadows… .

In The Altar of My Soul, scholar Marta Moreno Vega recounts the compelling true story of her journey from ignorance and skepticism to initiation as a Yoruba priestess in the Santería religion. This unforgettable spiritual memoir reveals the long-hidden roots and traditions of a faith that originated on the shores of West Africa and was transported to the Caribbean and the Americas via the trans-Atlantic slave trade that started in the fifteenth century. Today, with an estimated 75 million followers worldwide, Santería is being recognized as one of Africa’s gifts to the world. But gaining such acceptance was not easy.

As an Afro-Puerto Rican child in the New York barrio, Marta paid little heed to the storefront botanicas full of spiritual paraphernalia or to the Catholic-style images her parents turned to in times of trouble. Yet she often wondered why her grandmother prayed to those saints by other names: Yemayá, Ellegua, Shangó. She became fascinated by her grandmother’s ancestral altar table with its rose petals, candles, perfumed water, and figurines—among them one of a magnificent African woman.

These memories comforted her in the trials she faced later in life as a minority student and teacher, as a divorced mother, and when a rift tore apart her once-close family. But, in the deepest sense, Marta was living rootless. Her activist work for the community, where things African were mostly shunned, still left an emptiness inside her. In search of a religion that would reflect her racial and cultural heritage, Marta was led to Cuba by the spirits of her ancestors, where at last she awoke to the centuries-old West African Yoruba-based Santería tradition—the Way of the Saints.

Little by little, Marta learned the legends of the individual orishas: those African goddesses and gods who made us in their image, from Ogun the god of justice and the warrior-god Shangó to Yemayá, the ocean mother, and the messenger-god Ellegua, who stands at the crossroads of life.

Dr. Vega took part in the prayers and rituals, drumming and dancing, trances and divination that spark sacred healing energy for family, spiritual growth, and service to others. And finally, her initiation revealed the orisha with whom her personal affinity and destiny lay, her own guardian angel.

Written by one who is a professor, santera priestess, mother, grandmother, and godmother to new initiates, The Altar of My Soul lays before us an electrifying and inspiring faith—one passed down from generation to generation that sparks the sacred energy necessary to build a family, a community, and a strong, loving society.


Click for more detail about Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems by Sapphire Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems

by Sapphire
Vintage (Sep 12, 2000)
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With fierce candor and an unflinching eye, the highly praised author of Push journeys through the harsh realities of African American existence to find the "door to the possibility of now." The heroes that emerge from these forty-seven vigorous poems confront the agony of betrayal as they strive in their quest for self-transformation and redemption.

From the city streets to the rich landscape of dreams, each of these poems holds out the "black wings of expectation" offering the chance to emerge from the pain of the past and arrive at "the day you have been waiting for/when you would finally begin to live." At turns alarming and inspiring, the raw lyrics and piercing wisdom of Black Wings & Blind Angels remind us of Sapphire’s place as a unique and fearless voice.


Click for more detail about Practical Parenting by Montel Williams and Jeffrey Gardere Practical Parenting

by Montel Williams and Jeffrey Gardere
Hay House (Sep 01, 2000)
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In this work, Montel Williams delves into the difficult issue of how to parent our children in the complex world we live in. Williams offers his own thoughts on each topic, based on his experience in the military, the media and the world at large.


Click for more detail about Dancing In The Wings by Debbie Allen Dancing In The Wings

by Debbie Allen
Dial Books for Young Readers (Sep 01, 2000)
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Sassy worries that her too-large feet, too-long legs, and even her big mouth will keep her from her dream of becoming a star ballerina. So for now she’s just dancing in the wings, watching from behind the curtain, and hoping that one day it will be her turn to shimmer in the spotlight. When the director of an important dance festival comes to audition her class, Sassy’s first attempts to get his attention are, well, a little wobbly. But Sassy just knows, somehow, that this is her time to step out from those wings, and make her mark on the world. Actress/choreographer Debbie Allen and Kadir Nelson collaborated on Brothers of the Knight, about which School Library Journal raved, "the strutting high-stepping brothers are full of individuality, attitude, and movement."


Click for more detail about The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene The 48 Laws of Power

by Robert Greene
Penguin Books (Sep 01, 2000)
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Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control. 


In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum.
 
Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.


Click for more detail about Sam and the Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo by Julius Lester Sam and the Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo

by Julius Lester
Puffin Books (Aug 28, 2000)
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Once upon a time there was a place called Sam-sam-sa-mara, where the animals and the people lived and worked together like they didn’t know they weren’t supposed to. There was a little boy in Sam-sam-sa-mara named Sam…So begins this delightful telling of one of the most controversial books in children’s literature, Little Black Sambo. Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney reveal at the heart of this story a lively and charming tale of a little boy who triumphs over several hungry tigers. "Lester and Pinkney have stripped away the ugly racism and…reclaimed a great classic for children. “…expansive black storytelling voice is both folksy and contemporary, funny and fearful.” —Booklist


Click for more detail about Shadow Dancing by Louise Meriwether Shadow Dancing

by Louise Meriwether
One World/Ballantine (Aug 01, 2000)
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Acclaimed author of Daddy Was a Numbers Runner and the historical novel Fragments of the Ark, Louise Meriwether now gives us this resonant and revealing contemporary story about the struggle to love in the shadow of our fears…

A successful writer for BlackSpeak magazine, Glenda Jackson is gifted, dynamic, and respected in her field. She’s determined to take control of her emotional life. While reviewing a new play at Harlem’s innovative Aldridge Ensemble, she meets the enigmatic director, Mark Abbitt, the driving force behind a renaissance in black theater.

The charismatic director proves to be as complex as one of his dramas. Haunted by memories of Vietnam, blind to the manipulations of his ex-wife, Mark is determined to be a good father to his four-year-old son. If Glenda’s not to be eclipsed by Mark’s powerful presence, she must confront her own deep fear of intimacy to find out if love is enough to heal a damaged soul. Yet against all the odds, these two remarkable people step into each other’s shadow …and begin to dance.


Click for more detail about Do or Die: A Mali Anderson Mystery by Grace Edwards Do or Die: A Mali Anderson Mystery

by Grace Edwards
Doubleday (Jul 18, 2000)
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Harlem’s supersleuth Mali Anderson is back on the case in the fourth installment of Grace Edwards’s beautifully rendered and critically acclaimed Mali Anderson mystery series.

All of the characters Edwards’s fans love are back. This time Mali and company take to the high seas for a brief trip aboard the QE2. When they return to Harlem, they discover that the singer in Dad’s jazz band has been murdered—her throat slit from ear to ear, and her shirtsleeve ripped to expose faded track marks. The girl’s father, also a member of Dad’s band, is devastated. Out of a sense of duty, responsibility, and loyalty to her father and his grieving friend, Mali sets out to find the murderer and slips in and out of the "three B’s" of Harlem—the beauty shops, barbershops, and bars—with her signature grace and grit.

A spectacularly drawn Harlem—the good, the bad, and the ugly—comes vividly to life in Do or Die, which has all the charm and chutzpah Edwards’s fans have grown to expect. Readers will take delicious pleasure not only in Mali’s struggle to find the culprit before he strikes again; they will cheer her on as she fights for her jaw-droppingly gorgeous (and sensitive) man, Tad Honeywell, when he becomes the target of a sexpot’s advances.


Click for more detail about Not a Day Goes By: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris Not a Day Goes By: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
Doubleday (Jul 18, 2000)
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Welcome to the irresistible world of E. Lynn Harris…

He is a devilish and handsome ex-football player, now a rising sports agent at one of the hottest firms in the country. Irrepressible and dangerously alluring, John "Basil" Henderson has a history with women (and a few men). Basil is the consummate guy’s guy: a commitment-phobe gadfly known for a double-edged magnetism that has the ability to thrill—and wound.

She is the uncompromising Yancey Harrington Braxton, an up-and-coming Broadway star who oozes charm and bleeds ambition. Young, beautiful, and dangerously crafty, Yancey is prepared to do whatever she must to get what she wants. A femme fatale who has left more than a few brokenhearted men in her wake, Yancey is intrigued and besotted by Basil.

Both believe that in each other they’ve finally met their match.

A lavish wedding is planned, and the ultimate power couple plans to spend their lives in holy matrimony. But just before the nuptials, fate and a little comeuppance from the past threaten the happy couple’s future.

Masterful storyteller E. Lynn Harris takes the reader on a delicious ride into the mischievous lives of two very unforgettable characters.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Trumpet by Jackie Kay Trumpet

by Jackie Kay
Vintage (Jul 11, 2000)
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"Supremely humane…. Kay leaves us with a broad landscape of sweet tolerance and familial love." —The New York Times Book Review

In her starkly beautiful and wholly unexpected tale, Jackie Kay delves into the most intimate workings of the human heart and mind and offers a triumphant tale of loving deception and lasting devotion.

The death of legendary jazz trumpeter Joss Moody exposes an extraordinary secret, one that enrages his adopted son, Colman, leading him to collude with a tabloid journalist. Besieged by the press, his widow Millie flees to a remote Scottish village, where she seeks solace in memories of their marriage. The reminiscences of those who knew Joss Moody render a moving portrait of a shared life founded on an intricate lie, one that preserved a rare, unconditional love.


Click for more detail about The Lady, Her Lover, and Her Lord by T. D. Jakes The Lady, Her Lover, and Her Lord

by T. D. Jakes
Berkley Books (Jul 01, 2000)
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Here is the book that brought Bishop T.D. Jakes to the forefront of America’s bestselling Christian authors. Selling over half a million copies in hardcover alone, The Lady, Her Lover, and Her Lord is as provocative as it is profound—a truly inspiring volume that shows today’s women how to improve their relationships with their men, their God, and themselves. In a society that asks women to be perfect, sweet, sexy, submissive, and pristine, T.D. Jakes offers a spiritual path that cuts through the mixed messages and leads women toward the true self God wants them to be: strong, loving, and real.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Please Please Please by Renee Swindle Please Please Please

by Renee Swindle
Dell Publishing (Jun 13, 2000)
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Babysister gets what Babysister wants. Always has. Always will. After all, she’s been spoiled rotten ever since she witnessed her mother’s death as a child, and she’s made the most of it-especially with her dad. So when her oldest friend, Deborah, begins to date a fine-looking, fine-acting man named Darren-Babysister doesn’t think twice: she wants Darren for herself. And what Babysister wants…

There are just a few little problems with their secret love affair. Babysister’s devoted boyfriend is one. And Darren’s lingering doubts about dumping Deborah—light-skinned, church-going, beautiful—is another. But Babysister won’t let go, even after Darren crawls back to Deborah—and marries her. Following her love-crazed heart, Babysister jeopardizes friendship, family, and her own self-esteem, until a little dose of reality shows her how much she’s been missing all along.


Click for more detail about Mama Pursues Murderous Shadows by Nora Deloach Mama Pursues Murderous Shadows

by Nora Deloach
Bantam (Jun 06, 2000)
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With Mama on the case, murder meets its match….

A tryst with a deadly twist.

All I’d wanted to do back home in Otis, South Carolina, was whip up a wonderful thirty-fifth anniversary party for my parents. But we’d hardly picked the baker before Mama found herself volunteering her services for the one thing she did nearly as well as cook. And that is sleuthing.

You see, Ruby Spikes was found dead in a motor inn with a gun in her hand, a suicide note, and a certified check receipt to a man no one ever heard of—not even the trio of Otis gossips who are Mama’s rock-solid source of information.  Neither they nor Mama, despite Ruby’s tormented diary, were convinced she went to her reward willingly. But this was a young woman with an outsize bundle of secrets and enemies.  And when Mama starts sorting them out, and sudden death makes a return visit, it looks like she’ll uncover the truth only by making herself—and me—a killer’s next target….


Click for more detail about The Black Rose by Tananarive Due The Black Rose

by Tananarive Due
One World/Ballantine (Jun 06, 2000)
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Born to former slaves on a Louisiana plantation in 1867, Madam C.J. Walker rose from poverty and indignity to become America’s first black female millionaire, the head of a hugely successful company, and a leading philanthropist in African American causes. Renowned author Alex Haley became fascinated by the story of this extraordinary heroine, and before his death in 1992 he embarked on the research and outline of a major novel based on her life. Now with The Black Rose, critically acclaimed writer Tananarive Due brings the work to inspiring completion.

"I got my start by giving myself a start," Madam C.J. was fond of saying as she recounted her transformation from the uneducated laundress Sarah Breedlove to a woman of wealth, culture, and celebrity. Madam C.J. was nearing forty and married to a maverick Denver newspaperman when the wonder-working hair care method she discovered changed her life. Seemingly overnight, she built a marketing empire that enlisted more than twenty thousand bright young African American women to demonstrate and sell her products door-to-door.

By the time she died in 1919, Madam C.J. Walker had constructed her own factory from the ground up, established a training school, and built a twenty-room mansion at Irvington on the Hudson, New York, called Villa Lawaro.

A dynamic, brilliantly creative businesswoman, Madam C.J. also became a tireless activist in the fight against racial oppression and a key figure in the antilynching movement. A stalwart "race woman," she worked with black leaders like Booker T. Washington, and her legacy inspired poets like Langston Hughes. Yet she paid a steep emotional price for her worldly triumphs. Betrayed by her husband, plagued by rumors of her beloved daughter’s scandalous behavior, Madam C.J. suffered the private pain and disappointment all too familiar to many successful women.

In the tradition that made Alex Haley’s Roots an international bestseller, Tananarive Due blends documented history, vivid dialogue, and a sweeping fictionalized narrative into a spellbinding portrait of this passionate and tenacious pioneer and the unforgettable era in which she lived.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Devil Riding by Valerie Wilson Wesley The Devil Riding

by Valerie Wilson Wesley
Putnam Adult (Jun 05, 2000)
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Tamara Hayle goes undercover in the casinos of Atlantic City to track a runaway teen in this gripping new mystery.

Hailed as one of the best ethnic and female sleuthing mystery series, Valerie Wilson Wesley’s Tamara Hayle novels are consistent standouts. "She keeps peeling back layers and layers with a skill and determination that recall Ross MacDonald," says Kirkus Reviews. Now, in her sixth Hayle mystery, Wesley mines the intersection of African-American rich and poor caught in the crossroads of Atlantic City.

Darnella Desmond, stepdaughter to wealthy Foster Desmond, leaves her plush home for the wilds of Atlantic City, eschewing all contact with her family. When Darnella’s last-known roommate is murdered, apparently by a serial killer stalking Atlantic City’s vulnerable runaway population, Darnella’s mother hires Tamara Hayle to track her daughter down.

As her investigation brings her closer to Darnella, Tamara discovers that at the heart of the young woman’s disappearance lie two generations’ worth of familial perversityand a legacy of betrayal that threatens to undo the Desmond family.

Rich in the vices and delights of Atlantic City, freighted with characters whose passions too often lead to murder, The Devil Riding finds Valerie Wilson Wesley at her tempting best.


Click for more detail about Mississippi Bridge by Mildred D. Taylor Mississippi Bridge

by Mildred D. Taylor
Puffin Books (Jun 01, 2000)
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Jeremy Simms watches from the porch of the general store as the passengers board the weekly bus from Jackson. When several white passengers arrive late, the driver roughly orders the black passengers off to make room. Then, in the driving rain, disaster strikes, and Jeremy witnesses a shocking end to the day’s drama. Set in Mississippi in the 1930s, this is a gripping story of racial injustice."Taylor, a powerful storyteller, again combines authentic incidents to create a taut plot…Her cry for justice always rings true." —Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about Sweet Summer: Growing up with and without My Dad by Bebe Moore Campbell Sweet Summer: Growing up with and without My Dad

by Bebe Moore Campbell
Berkley Trade (Jun 01, 2000)
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This acclaimed memoir by Bebe Moore Campbell, the bestselling author of Brothers and Sisters and Singing in the Comeback Choir, recalls the sweet summers spent with her father—an extraordinary man of dreams and inspiration—in the American South of the 1960s.

"Unforgettable." —New York Times Book Review

"Fearlessly unveils the pain of loss and the ecstasy of love. I am grateful for Bebe Moore Campbell and for such a Sweet Summer." —Maya Angelou

"Mature insight, as well as a deft gift for language, gives this memoir its poignant, honest shape." —Chicago Tribune

"An uplifting reflection on family love." —San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle

"A remarkable achievement." —Philadelphia Inquirer

"Poignant…a beautiful tribute." —Newsday

"Campbell is a master." —Entertainment Weekly

"Touching….[A] candid account and loving tribute to a special man." —New York Daily News


Click for more detail about Abide With Me: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris Abide With Me: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
Anchor (May 02, 2000)
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In this hotly anticipated conclusion to his popular Invisible Life trilogy, E. Lynn Harris delivers a masterful tale that traces the evolving lives of his beloved characters Nicole Springer and Raymond Tyler, Jr., and reintroduces readers to their respective lovers, best friends, and potential enemies.  Abide with Me moves between the worlds of New York City, where Nicole has recently settled in order to pursue her dream of returning to the Broadway stage, and Seattle, where a late-night phone call from a U.S. Senator is about to change Raymond’s life dramatically.  Relationships and ambitions are tested as Harris deftly guides us toward this entertaining novel’s conclusion.

Sexy and heartwarming in equal measure, Abide with Me will thrill new readers as well as fans already familiar with Harris’s unique take on the universal themes of love, friendship, and family.  E. Lynn Harris has truly done it again.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Whatever Happened to Daddy’s Little Girl?: The Impact of Fatherlessness on Black Women by Jonetta Rose Barras Whatever Happened to Daddy’s Little Girl?: The Impact of Fatherlessness on Black Women

by Jonetta Rose Barras
One World/Ballantine (May 02, 2000)
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What happens to a little girl who grows up without a father? Can she ever feel truly loved and fully alive? Does she ever heal—or is she doomed to live a wounded, fragmented life and to pass her wounds down to her own children? Fatherlessness afflicts nearly half the households in America, and it has reached epidemic proportions in the African-American community, with especially devastating consequences for black women. In this powerful, searingly intimate book, accomplished journalist, poet, and fiction writer Jonetta Rose Barras breaks the code of silence and gives voice to the experiences of America’s fatherless women—starting with herself.

"We are legions—a choir of wounded—listen to the dirge we sing," writes Barras of the millions of black women like her who lost, either through abandonment, rejection, poverty, or death, the men who gave them life. A father is the first man in a girl’s life—the first man to look in her eyes, protect her, care for her, love her unconditionally. Fathers fashion their daughters as expertly and as powerfully as they do their sons. When a girl loses this man, she grows up with an ache that nothing else can soothe. Psychologists have found that fatherless daughters are far more likely to suffer from debilitating rage, depression, abuse, and addictions; they tend to seek "sexual healing" through promiscuity or anti-intimate behavior and end up fearing or despising the men whose love they crave.

Barras knows from personal experience the traps and the fury of being a black fatherless daughter, and she makes her own life story the heart and soul of her book, alternating chapters of spellbinding memoir with the stories she has gathered from women all over the country.

Passionate and shockingly frank, Whatever Happened to Daddy’s Little Girl is the first book to explore the plight of America’s fatherless daughters from the unique perspective of the African-American community. Like Hope Edelman’s New York Times bestseller Motherless Daughters, this brilliant volume gives all fatherless daughters the knowledge that they are not alone and the courage to overcome the hidden pain they have suffered for so long.


Click for more detail about Boys Into Men: Raising Our African American Teenage Sons by Nancy Boyd-Franklin and A. J. Franklin Boys Into Men: Raising Our African American Teenage Sons

by Nancy Boyd-Franklin and A. J. Franklin
Dutton Adult (May 01, 2000)
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Two noted psychologists, who are parents themselves, share their wisdom in this indispensable book on raising African-American boys.

With the success of books such as Raising Cain and Real Boys comes the awareness of the increasing need we have to help boys grow into healthy, happy men. But for African-American boys, the statistics are often grim. They enter this world having a distinct disadvantage, still the target of racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Now, in the first book of its kind, husband and wife psychologists Drs. Nancy Boyd-Franklin and A. J. Franklin address the long overdue issues involved in raising African-American teenage boys and how to combat the overwhelming influences that can negatively affect these young men.

Parents and educators will learn how to deal with problems such as violence, drugs, sex, and racism, as well as with the effects of music, the media, and sports. Based on the authors’ own experience as psychologists and as the parents of four children, and including stories from dozens of other African-American families, Boys into Men offers simple, effective strategies for problem-solving, improving communication, and instilling a positive racial identity in African-American boys. This important book includes resources on finding a professional counselor as well as offering related reading, websites, and helpful organizations.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The African American Writer’s Handbook: How to Get in Print and Stay in Print by Robert Fleming The African American Writer’s Handbook: How to Get in Print and Stay in Print

by Robert Fleming
Random House (Apr 28, 2000)
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With African Americans writing and buying books in record numbers, the time is ripe for a comprehensive publishing guide tailored expressly to the needs of this vibrant, creative community. The African American Writers Handbook meets this challenge perfectly. 

Written by veteran journalist and published author Robert Fleming, this book gives writers the heart, the determination, and above all the crucial information to publish successfully in this highly competitive field. Knowing the inner workings of the publishing industry provides any writer, novice or veteran, with a much needed advantage in the quest to get into print. Inside you’ll find:

  1. A complete, step-by-step guide to every aspect of the publishing process, from the germination of a winning idea to the nuts and bolts of book production
  2. Tips on submitting proposals, query letters, and preparing manuscripts for submission
  3. Advice on negotiating contracts that extend careers
  4. How to use on-line resources for research and profit
  5. Interviews with top editors, agents, publishing executives, and bookstore owners
  6. Updated information on copyrights, subsidiary rights, sales and marketing
  7. The trials and triumphs of self-publishing
  8. The art of promoting your work and yourself to a wider audience
  9. An insider’s look at the economic realities of the book business

And much more!

Here, too, are scores of inspiring interviews and capsule biographies of leading African American writers both past and present. How did Richard Wright become America’s first bestselling black writer? How did Zora Neale Hurston break through the artistic boundaries of the Harlem Renaissance long after her death? What was Toni Cade Bambara doing before she sold her first book? Why should Ann Petry, William Gardner Smith, Nella Larson, and William Melvin Kelley be revered wherever African American literature is read? Blending practical information and fascinating anecdotes with a mini literary history of African American writing, this upbeat, savvy, essential guide is a publishing primer with soul.

 


Click for more detail about This Just in by Yolanda Joe This Just in

by Yolanda Joe
Doubleday Books (Apr 18, 2000)
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Yolanda Joe, the bestselling author of He Say, She Say and Bebe’s by Golly Wow!, is back with her most heartfelt novel yet—a delicious peep into the lives of women who work in the cutthroat world of broadcast news.

While portraying the slippery business of television news through the lives of five friends—four black and one white—who work at the fictional WKBA in Chicago, Joe investigates two explosive topics, racism and sexism. Joe, who was a broadcast newswriter for more than a decade,writes with the singular knowledge of an insider.

Step into the all-consuming world of TV news as Joe weaves her way through the lives of her unforgettable characters: upstart reporter/anchor Holly Johnston—the drop-dead-gorgeous new kid on the block, striving to prove she’s up to the task and more than just eye candy; broadcast veteran Alexandra Harbor, WKBA’s sole black female photographer—talented, burned out, trying valiantly to keep her last good nerve intact; wife/mother/novice producer Kenya Adams, struggling to make the transition from print reporter to TV newswriter/producer without sacrificing her family life in the process; WKBA’s first camerawoman, Meg "Beans" Rippley—white, working-class, and troop leader to many women in the office, wondering if her friendships with the black women at WKBA will withstand the fallout from a newsroom racist incident; and Denise Mitzler, a trailblazing news manager who finds herself stuck between being a "company woman" and doing the right thing when a crisis arises…

Filled with fascinating tidbits and page-turning twists, This Just In… brims with fun and intrigue. As the characters negotiate the glass ceiling and contend with office politics and corporate roulette, Joe plumbs her signature themes of friendship and family, and gets to the heart of issues that will strike a chord with women everywhere.

previous territory and investigates two explosive topics, racism and sexism, while portraying the slippery world of broadcast news through the lives of five friends—four black and one white—who work at WKBA in Chicago.

Filled with fascinating insider tidbits and page-turning twists, Joe weaves her way into the lives of her characters: Upstart reporter/anchor Holly Johnston; broadcast veteran Alexandra Harbor; wife/mother/producer Kenya Adams; WKBA’s first female cameraman Meg "Beans" Rippley; and corporate trailblazing news manager Denise Mitzler. As these women try to negotiate the glass ceiling and contend with office politics and corporate roulette, Joe plumbs her signature themes of friendship and family, and gets to the heart of issues that will strike a chord with women everywhere.


Click for more detail about From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans by John Hope Franklin From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans

by John Hope Franklin
Knopf (Apr 11, 2000)
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This is the dramatic, exciting, authoritative story of the experiences of African Americans from the time they left Africa to their continued struggle for equality at the end of the twentieth century.

Since its original publication in 1947, From Slavery to Freedom has stood as the definitive his-tory of African Americans. Coauthors John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., give us a vividly detailed account of the journey of African Americans from their origins in the civilizations of Africa, through their years of slavery in the New World, to the successful struggle for freedom and its aftermath in the West Indies, Latin America, and the United States.

This eighth edition has been revised to include expanded coverage of Africa; additional material in every chapter on the history and current situation of African Americans in the United States; new charts, maps, and black-and-white illustrations; and a third four-page color insert. The authors incorporate recent scholarship to examine slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the period between World War I and World War II (including the Harlem Renaissance).

From Slavery to Freedom describes the rise of slavery, the interaction of European and African cultures in the New World, and the emergence of a distinct culture and way of life among slaves and free blacks. The authors examine the role of blacks in the nation’s wars, the rise of an articulate, restless free black community by the end of the eighteenth century, and the growing resistance to slavery among an expanding segment of the black population.

The book deals in considerable detail with the period after slavery, including the arduous struggle for first-class citizenship that has extended into the twentieth century. Many developments in recent African American history are examined, including demographic change; educational efforts; literary and cultural changes; problems in housing, health, juvenile matters, and poverty; the expansion of the black middle class; and the persistence of discrimination in the administration of justice.

All who are interested in African Americans’ continuing quest for equality will find a wealth of information based on the recent findings of many scholars. Professors Franklin and Moss have captured the tragedies and triumphs, the hurts and joys, the failures and successes, of blacks in a lively and readable volume that remains the most authoritative and comprehensive book of its kind.


Click for more detail about Rimshots: Basketball Pix, Rolls, and Rhythms by Charles R. Smith Jr. Rimshots: Basketball Pix, Rolls, and Rhythms

by Charles R. Smith Jr.
Puffin Books (Apr 03, 2000)
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The power, strength, and determination of the game of basketball are captured in striking photographs and sizzling stories, poems, and personal reflections. From frustration to humor, joy, and triumph, this streetwise look at a favorite American pastime conveys all the passion and excitement of the sport.


Click for more detail about In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif In the Eye of the Sun

by Ahdaf Soueif
Anchor (Apr 03, 2000)
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Set amidst the turmoil of contemporary Middle Eastern politics, this vivid and highly-acclaimed novel by an Egyptian journalist is an intimate look into the lives of Arab women today. Here, a woman who grows up among the Egyptian elite, marries a Westernized husband, and, while pursuing graduate study, becomes embroiled in a love affair with an uncouth Englishman.


Click for more detail about Sitting Bull and His World by Albert Marrin Sitting Bull and His World

by Albert Marrin
Dutton Juvenile (Apr 01, 2000)
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Richly researched, told with sweep, speed, and balance, here is a biography of the man who was arguably the Plains Indians’ most revered, most visionary leader. Tatan’ka Iyota’ke—Sitting Bull—was the great Hunkpapa Lakota chief who helped defeat Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. But more than that, he was a profound holy man and seer, an astute judge of men, a singer and speaker for his people’s ways. In the face of the army, the railroad, the discovery of gold, and the decimation of the buffalo, he led his band to Canada rather than “come in” to the white man’s reservation. To render Sitting Bull in context, the author explores the differences in white and Indian cultures in the nineteenth century and shows the forces at work—economic pressure, racism, technology, post-Civil War politics in Washington and in the army—that led to the creation of a continental nation at the expense of a whole people.

Illustrated with photographs and drawings by Albert Marrini


Click for more detail about Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quiñonez Bodega Dreams

by Ernesto Quiñonez
Vintage (Mar 14, 2000)
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“A new and authentic voice of the urban Latino experience.” —Esmeralda Santiago, author of When I Was Puerto Rican
In a stunning narrative combining the gritty rhythms of Junot Diaz with the noir genius of Walter Mosley, Bodega Dreams announces the arrival of a writer who The Village Voice has already hailed as “a Writer on the Verge.”
The word is out in Spanish Harlem: Willy Bodega is king. Need college tuition for your daughter? Start-up funds for your fruit stand? Bodega can help. He gives everyone a leg up, in exchange only for loyalty — and a steady income from the drugs he pushes.
Lyric, inspired, and darkly funny, this powerful debut novel brilliantly evokes the trial of Chino, a smart, promising young man to whom Bodega turns for a favor. Chino is drawn to Bodega’s street-smart idealism, but soon finds himself over his head, navigating an underworld of switchblade tempers, turncoat morality, and murder.


Click for more detail about Daughter’s Day Blues by Laura Pegram Daughter’s Day Blues

by Laura Pegram
Dial (Mar 01, 2000)
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Jealous of the constant attention her baby brother gets, Phyllis Mae’s mother decides to set a special day aside for her daughter where being a daughter is celebrated all day long.


Click for more detail about Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century by Randall Kenan Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

by Randall Kenan
Vintage (Feb 22, 2000)
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"A meaningful panoramic view of what it means to be human…Cause for celebration." —Times-Picayune

From the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Let the Dead Bury Their Dead comes a moving, cliché-shattering group portrait of African Americans at the turn of the twenty-first century.

In a hypnotic blend of oral history and travel writing, Randall Kenan sets out to answer a question that has has long fascinated him: What does it mean to be black in America today? To find the answers, Kenan traveled America—from Alaska to Louisiana, from Maine to Las Vegas—over the course of six years, interviewing nearly two hundred African Americans from every conceivable walk of life. We meet a Republican congressman and an AIDS activist; a Baptist minister in Mormon Utah and an ambitious public-relations major in North Dakota; militant activists in Atlanta and movie folks in Los Angeles. The result is a marvellously sharp, full picture of contemporary African American lives and experiences.


Click for more detail about The Messenger Reader: Stories, Poetry, and Essays from The Messenger Magazine by Sondra Kathryn Wilson The Messenger Reader: Stories, Poetry, and Essays from The Messenger Magazine

by Sondra Kathryn Wilson
Modern Library (Feb 08, 2000)
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The Messenger was the third most popular magazine of the Harlem Renaissance after The Crisis andOpportunity. Unlike the other two magazines, The Messenger was not tied to a civil rights organization. Labor activist A. Philip Randolph and economist Chandler Owen started the magazine in 1917 to advance the cause of socialism to the black masses. They believed that a socialist society was the only one that would be free from racism.

The socialist ideology of The Messenger "the only magazine of scientific radicalism in the world published by Negroes," was reflected in the pieces and authors published in its pages. The Messenger Reader contains poetry, stories, and essays from Paul Robeson, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, and Dorothy West.

The Messenger Reader, will be a welcome addition to the critically acclaimed Modern Library Harlem Renaissance series.


Click for more detail about Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary by Juan Williams Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary

by Juan Williams
Broadway Books (Feb 01, 2000)
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This New York Times Notable Book of the Year, 1998, is now in trade paper.

From the bestselling author of Eyes on the Prize, here is the definitive biography of the great lawyer and Supreme Court justice.


Click for more detail about A Hero Ain’t Nothin But a Sandwich by Alice Childress A Hero Ain’t Nothin But a Sandwich

by Alice Childress
Puffin Books (Feb 01, 2000)
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Benjie can stop using heroin anytime he wants to. He just doesn’t want to yet. Why would he want to give up something that makes him feel so good, so relaxed, so tuned-out? As Benjie sees it, there’s nothing much to tune in for. School is a waste of time, and home life isn’t much better. All Benjie wants is for someone to believe in him, for someone to believe that he’s more than a thirteen-year-old junkie. Told from the perspectives of the people in his life-including his mother, stepfather, teachers, drug dealer, and best friend-this powerful story will draw you into Benjie’s troubled world and force you to confront the uncertainty of his future.


Click for more detail about Jazmin’s Notebook by Nikki Grimes Jazmin’s Notebook

by Nikki Grimes
Penguin Young Readers Group (Jan 28, 2000)
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Jazmin Shelby was "born with clenched fists"-which is okay, since she’s got a lot of fighting ahead of her. Her dad died a couple of years back, and now that her mom’s in the hospital, it’s just her and her big sister, CeCe. But that’s fine by Jazmin. She’s got her friends, her school, lots of big plans for the future-and a zest for life and laughter that’s impossible to resist.

A Booklist Editors’ Choice Book
A Child Study Children’s Book Committee Children’s Book of the Year


Click for more detail about The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano

by Olaudah Equiano
Yearling (Jan 25, 2000)
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Adapted by Ann Cameron

Kidnapped at the age of 11 from his home in Benin, Africa, Olaudah Equiano spent the next 11 years as a slave in England, the U.S., and the West Indies, until he was able to buy his freedom. His autobiography, published in 1789, was a bestseller in its own time. Cameron has modernized and shortened it while remaining true to the spirit of the original. It’s a gripping story of adventure, betrayal, cruelty, and courage. In searing scenes, Equiano describes the savagery of his capture, the appalling conditions on the slave ship, the auction, and the forced labor… . Kids will read this young man’s story on their own; it will also enrich curriculum units on history and on writing."
—Booklist, Boxed Review

"The inspired simplicity of Cameron’s adaptation quickly allows Equiano’s gifted voice to establish a compelling relationship between himself and young readers. Well-sculpted with detail … his story is a must for multicultural or history collections."—School Library Journal

"Readers … will be fascinated by the details in this account."—The Bulletin

Ann Cameron is the author of many popular and award-winning books for children, including The Stories Julian Tells, The Stories Huey Tells, and The Most Beautiful Place in the World.


Click for more detail about A Visitation of Spirits: A Novel by Randall Kenan A Visitation of Spirits: A Novel

by Randall Kenan
Vintage (Jan 25, 2000)
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Horace Cross, the 16-year-old descendent of slaves and deacons of the church, spends a horror-filled spring night wrestling with the demons and angels of his brief life. Brilliant, popular, and the bright promise of his elders, Horace struggles with the guilt of discovering who he is, a young man attracted to other men and yearning to escape the narrow confines of Tim’s Creek. His cousin, the Reverend James Greene, tries to help Horace but finds he is no more prepared than the older generation to save Horace’s soul or his life. And as he views the aftermath of Horace’s horrible night, he is left with only questions and the passing of generations. 

In his powerful first novel, Randall Kenan—recipient of the Prix de Rome, the Whiting Award, and other accolades—shows us the effects of a proud family heritage on a generation that must confront a world far removed from anything they are prepared for. 

Told in a montage of voices and memories, A Visitation of the Spirits shows just how richly populated a family’s present is with the spirits of the past and the future.


Click for more detail about Something’s Wrong with Your Scale!: A Romantic Comedy by Van Whitfield Something’s Wrong with Your Scale!: A Romantic Comedy

by Van Whitfield
Anchor (Jan 18, 2000)
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The hilarious new work from Van Whitfield, writer-on-the rise and author of the Blackboard bestseller Beeperless Remote.

In Something’s Wrong with Your Scale, Van Whitfield introduces the likeable Sonny Walker, a thirty-something Mr. Nice Guy who’s found companionship and comfort with Marsha.  The only problem is that he’s become too comfortable.  Weighing seventy-five pounds more than when the courtship first began, the newly food-obsessed Sonny just can’t stay away from Marsha’s marvelous dishes, even in the middle of their breakup conversation.

Determined to slim down and get his girlfriend back, Sonny joins the FutraSystem weight-loss center and meets potential love interest Kayla, as well as a host of other colorful characters. In a heartwarming tale that is alternately hilarious, wise, and ultimately self-affirming, Whitfield has created a thoroughly delicious and engaging novel sure to be enjoyed by those who have waged the battle of the bulge, or know someone who has.


Click for more detail about The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa by Clyde W. Ford The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa

by Clyde W. Ford
Bantam (Jan 04, 2000)
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In this remarkable book, Clyde Ford restores to us the lost treasure of African mythology, bringing to life the ancient tales and showing why they matter so much to us today.
African myths convey the perennial wisdom of humanity: the creation of the world, the hero’s journey, our relationship with nature, death, and resurrection. From the Ashanti comes the moving account of the grief-stricken Kwasi Benefo’s journey to the underworld to seek his beloved wives. From Uganda we learn of the legendary Kintu, who won the love of a goddess and created a nation from a handful of isolated clans. The Congo’s epic hero Mwindo is the sacred warrior who shows us the path each person must travel to discover his true destiny.
These and other important African myths show us the history of African Americans in a new light—as a hero’s journey, a courageous passage to a hard-won victory. The Hero with an African Face enriches us all by restoring this vital tradition to the world.


Click for more detail about The Intuitionist: A Novel by Colson Whitehead The Intuitionist: A Novel

by Colson Whitehead
Anchor (Jan 04, 2000)
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Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist wowed critics and readers everywhere and marked the debut of an important American writer. This marvellously inventive, genre-bending, noir-inflected novel, set in the curious world of elevator inspection, portrays a universe parallel to our own, where matters of morality, politics, and race reveal unexpected ironies.


Click for more detail about In the Woods by Juanita Havill In the Woods

by Juanita Havill
Scott Foresman (Jan 01, 2000)
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Click for more detail about Aliens in Ancient Egypt by Juanita Havill Aliens in Ancient Egypt

by Juanita Havill
Scott Foresman (Jan 01, 2000)
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Click for more detail about The Wake of the Wind: A Novel by J. California Cooper The Wake of the Wind: A Novel

by J. California Cooper
Anchor (Dec 28, 1999)
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A dramatic and thought-provoking novel of one family’s triumph in the face of the hardships and challenges of the post-Civil War South.

The Wake of the Wind, J. California Cooper’s third novel, is her most penetrating look yet at the challenges that generations of African Americans have had to overcome in order to carve out a home for themselves and their families. Set in Texas in the waning years of the Civil War, the novel tells the dramatic story of a remarkable heroine, Lifee, and her husband, Mor. When Emancipation finally comes to Texas, Mor, Lifee, and the extended family they create from other slaves who are also looking for a home and a future, set out in search of a piece of land they can call their own. In the face of constant threats, they manage not only to survive but to succeed—their crops grow, their children thrive, they educate themselves and others. Lifee and Mor pass their intelligence, determination, and talents along to their children, the next generation to surge forward. At once tragic and triumphant, this is an epic story that captures with extraordinary authenticity the most important struggle of the last hundred years.


Click for more detail about I Am Rosa Parks (Penguin Young Readers, Level 4) by Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins I Am Rosa Parks (Penguin Young Readers, Level 4)

by Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins
Penguin Young Readers Group (Dec 01, 1999)
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When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man on December 1, 1955, she made history. Her brave act sparked the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott and brought the civil rights movement to national attention. In simple, lively language, Rosa Parks describes her life from childhood to the present and recounts the events that shook the nation. Her story is powerful, inspiring and unforgettable.An NCSS-CBC Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies


Click for more detail about John Henry by Julius Lester John Henry

by Julius Lester
Puffin Books (Dec 01, 1999)
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Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney’s warm, humorous retelling of a popular African-American folk ballad.

When John Henry was born the birds, bears, rabbits, and even a unicorn came to see him. He grew so fast, he burst right through the porch roof, and laughed so loud, he scared the sun! Soon John Henry is swinging two huge sledgehammers to build roads, pulverizing boulders, and smashing rocks to smithereens. He’s stronger than ten men and can dig through a mountain faster than a steam drill. Nothing can stop John Henry, and his courage stays with us forever.

A Caldecott Honor Book

* "This is a tall tale and heroic myth, a celebration of the human spirit … The story is told with rhythm and wit, humor and exageration, and with a heart-catching immediacy that connects the human and the natural world. " —Booklist, starred review

"Another winning collaboration from the master storyteller and gifted artist of Tales of Uncle Remus fame." —School Library Journal

"A great American hero comes fully to life in this epic retelling filled with glorious, detailed watercolors … This carefully crafted updating begs to be read aloud for its rich, rhythmic storytelling flow, and the suitably oversize illustrations amplify the text." —Publishers Weekly


Click for more detail about Secrets by Nuruddin Farah Secrets

by Nuruddin Farah
Penguin Books (Dec 01, 1999)
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It is the week before the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia. Kalaman, a successful young businessman in Mogadiscio receives an unexpected house guest—the wild and sexually adventurous Sholoongo, his childhood crush returned from America. She announces that she intends to have his baby. Confronted by this dangerous interruption from his past, Kalaman starts to investigate his family’s history, and uncovers the startling key to his own conception. Hailed by Salman Rushdie as "one of the finest contemporary African novelists," Farah writes in a rhythmical, sensual prose reminiscent of García Márquez’s best fiction. Evoking the beauty and tragedy of Africa, Secrets is a remarkable portrait of a family disintegrating like its country, its ties dissolved by exposed lies and secrets.


Click for more detail about Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian-White Relations from Prophecy to the Present, 1492-2000, Revised Edition by Peter Nabokov Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian-White Relations from Prophecy to the Present, 1492-2000, Revised Edition

by Peter Nabokov
Penguin Books (Dec 01, 1999)
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From the author of How the World Moves—the classic collection of more than 500 years of Native American History

In a series of powerful and moving documents, anthropologist Peter Nabokov presents a history of Native American and white relations as seen though Indian eyes and told through Indian voices. Beginning with the Indians’ first encounters with European explorers, traders, missionaries, settlers, and soldiers to the challenges confronting Native American culture today, Native American Testimony spans five hundred years of interchange between the two peoples. Drawing from a wide range of sources—traditional narratives, Indian autobiographies, government transcripts, firsthand interviews, and more—Nabokov has assembled a remarkably rich and vivid collection, representing nothing less than an alternate history of North America.


Click for more detail about The Messenger : The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad by Karl Evanzz The Messenger : The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad

by Karl Evanzz
Pantheon Books (Nov 23, 1999)
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Here, eagerly anticipated, is the definitive biography of Elijah Muhammad (né Elija Poole), a sharecropper’s son with a fourth- grade education who became one of the most controversial Americans of the twentieth century, the founder and "Prophet" of the Nation of Islam, a movement dedicated to black separatism and self-empowerment.


Though Muhammad’s main argument—that white people were innately evil ("devils," he called them)—ran counter to the precepts of orthodox Islam, he was the chief influence in the conversion of nearly four million African Americans to Islam, touching in the process the lives of figures ranging from Muhammad Ali and Jesse Jackson to Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. But in his desperate grasp for power, Muhammad also amassed a huge personal fortune at the expense of his followers. He was a party to ritualistic homicides, had illicit affairs galore, and was quick to betray his friends and charges, most notably Malcolm X. In brief, he violated every ideal and principle that he espoused.


With the cooperation of some of Elijah Muhammad’s children and former apostles and with access to previously unreleased FBI files, Karl Evanzz gives us an unprecedented account of the life of the man whose philosophy continues, long after his death, to shape race relations in America.


Click for more detail about Tree of Hope by Amy Littlesugar Tree of Hope

by Amy Littlesugar
Philomel Books (Oct 25, 1999)
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Florrie’s daddy used to be a stage actor in Harlem before the Depression forced the Lafayette Theater to close, but he gets a chance to act again when Orson Welles reopens the theater to stage an all-black version of Macbeth.


Click for more detail about Love Unlimited: Insights on Life and Love by Barry White Love Unlimited: Insights on Life and Love

by Barry White
Broadway Books (Oct 19, 1999)
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"I see a world of beauty and perfection, and I strive through my music to spread that vision, to help make this planet we call home a better, more desirable place for us to love one another, to procreate, and to keep our spirits renewed."

In his much anticipated memoir, Barry White, the international pop and R&B legend whose music has carried countless couples from first kisses to the walk down the aisle, takes his legendary singing voice from the airwaves to the page.

With honesty, warmth, and his signature sensuality, White recounts his rough road to superstardom and shares his deepest feelings and wise philosophy. Born into the tough streets of South Central Los Angeles to a single mother, Barry ran with the "oldest, baddest, and most envied" gang and was hooked on fighting, drinking, and stealing when he wound up in Juvenile Hall at age sixteen. While behind bars, he had a life-shaking epiphany that changed the direction of his life. From that moment on Barry vowed to get and stay on a straight, hardworking path and fulfill his dream of making music. He dropped out of school and literally walked to Hollywood to make his fortune.

Love Unlimited follows Barry from his hungry years as a jack of all trades, struggling to support a wife and four small children, to his first professional gig in the music business as a talent spotter; from his breakthrough producing the girls he named Love Unlimited to his own emergence into the international spotlight as a producer, songwriter, and singer renowned for his deep bass and gift for articulating the needs and desires of both men and women. At every step, the Maestro offers heartfelt reflections on self-pride and perseverance, the bonds of family and friendship, the key elements to keeping a lover happy, and the true meaning of ecstasy.

Barry also explores the relationships that have inspired him—from his profound love of his mother, who bought him his first piano, his brother, who didn’t have music to save him, his love Glodean, and his children, to his ultimate love, Lady Music. He also discusses his relationships with such legends and luminaries as Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Muhammed Ali, and Maxine Waters.

Featuring intimate, behind-the-scenes photographs, a complete discography, and some of his favorite lyrics, Love Unlimited is Barry’s ultimate love song for his fans.

Book Review

Click for more detail about B. Smith: Rituals & Celebrations by B. Smith B. Smith: Rituals & Celebrations

by B. Smith
Random House (Oct 19, 1999)
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Television lifestyle expert B. Smith shares her passion and ideas for entertaining, cooking, and crafts in this fabulous twelve-month celebration of holidays and rituals. As a restaurateur, TV host, columnist, and former model, B. Smith lets us in on the tricks of entertaining with flair and personal style.

The first in a series, Rituals & Celebrations is organized by calendar month, each including two or three celebrations and containing a history of the ritual, full-course recipes, party ideas, and step-by-step craft  instructions. In addition to such basic celebrations as a wine tasting at home,a Labor Day picnic on the beach, and a New Year’s Eve pajama party for kids, Rituals & Celebrations also incorporates such African American traditions as a Juneteenth celebration and a bid whist card party. The book also includes some wonderful variations on traditional holidays, such as a hot pink Valentine’s Day, a Thanksgiving featuring Jerked Roast Turkey, and Christmas Eve spent dipping into fondue.

Shrimp Dumplings with Ginger Soy Sauce, Candied Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potato Stuffing, and Triple Chocolate Torte are just a few of the  other mouthwatering recipes included. Craft ideas    include putting together the perfect houseguest thank-you basket and creating beautiful personalized hand-painted glassware.

B. Smith brings these celebrations into your home and helps you make them your own. Filled with beautiful full-color photographs, B. Smith: Rituals & Celebrations completes any home and makes a great gift all year long.










B. Smith gives us twelve months of menus, recipes, crafts, and party ideas that help us celebrate with style


Click for more detail about Daily Cornbread: 365 Ingredients For A Healthy Mind, Body and Soul by Stephanie Stokes Oliver Daily Cornbread: 365 Ingredients For A Healthy Mind, Body and Soul

by Stephanie Stokes Oliver
Doubleday (Oct 05, 1999)
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Heart & Soul founding editor Stephanie Stokes Oliver shows African American women how to soothe the soul, satisfy the mind, and revive the body 365 days a year.

Written in an affirming style that is prescriptive but never preachy, fun but not frivolous, Daily Cornbread is a day-by-day compendium of Oliver’s creative ideas for leading an enjoyable and fulfilling life. On January 2, for example, Oliver suggests taking time out to "get happy" (do something that makes you happy an hour a day); to schedule a personal retreat; and to develop a strategic plan for the upcoming year.

Reminiscent of Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Simple Abundance and Iyanla Vanzant’s Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color, but with a special emphasis on nurturing the body as well as the mind, Daily Cornbread shows African American women how to make each day better.


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Click for more detail about Slapboxing With Jesus by Victor Lavalle Slapboxing With Jesus

by Victor Lavalle
Vintage (Oct 05, 1999)
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Twelve original and interconnected stories in the traditions of Junot Díaz and Sherman Alexie. Victor D. LaValle’s astonishing, violent, and funny debut offers harrowing glimpses at the vulnerable lives of young people who struggle not only to come of age, but to survive the city streets.

In "ancient history," two best friends graduating from high school fight to be the one to leave first for a better world; each one wants to be the fortunate son. In "pops," an African-American boy meets his father, a white cop from Connecticut, and tries not to care. And in "kids on colden street," a boy is momentarily uplifted by the arrival of a younger sister only to discover that brutality leads only to brutality in the natural order of things.

Written with raw candor, grit, and a cautious heart, slapboxing with jesus introduces an exciting and bold new craftsman of contemporary fiction. LaValle’s voices echo long after their stories are told.


Click for more detail about The Right Set: A Tennis Anthology by Caryl Phillips The Right Set: A Tennis Anthology

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Jul 27, 1999)
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From stately lawns and gentlemen players to Andre Agassi and Venus Williams: 65 great writings on tennis that chronicle the transformation of the sport.

Since its inception, tennis has embraced traditions more patrician than plebeian. But times—and tennis—have changed. The game once reserved for royalty has moved from estate lawns to the concrete courts of the city. Old guard amateurs have given way to prodigies plastered with corporate logos. And while barriers of gender, race, and class have been shattered, the modern plagues of self-promotion, the paparazzi, and challengers of ever-escalating talent loom large.

In The Right Set, award-winning novelist and editor Caryl Phillips presents a collection of writings on the remarkable evolution of a gentleman’s pastime into a sport of jet-set players of athletic and psychological genius. Here are the stories of champions, from the Renshaw twins to "ghetto Cinderella" Venus Williams. Here, too, are volleys between tradition and innovation—debates on everything from etiquette and earnings to André Agassi’s rejection of the customary tennis whites. Insightful, informative, wonderfully entertaining, The Right Set is as colorful and surprising as the game itself.


John McPhee on Ashe vs. Graebner
David Higdon on Venus Williams
James Thurber on Helen Wills
Martina Navratilova on Bad Losers
Martin Amis on Smashing the Rackets
and more


Click for more detail about Waiting in Vain by Colin Channer Waiting in Vain

by Colin Channer
One World (Jul 06, 1999)
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Meet Fire—Jamaican-born, charming, poetic, and talented—a man who’s vowed to never play "love-is-blind" games again. Then he meets Sylvia, a beautiful magazine editor who keeps her passions under lock and key. Together they must choose between the love in their lives and the love of their lives.

From the galleries of Soho to the brownstones of Brooklyn, from the nightclubs of London to the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, Channer takes us on a wild, soul-searching ride as Fire and Sylvia try to connect, disconnect, and reconnect amid conflicting desires and wounds from the past. But through intricate love triangles, skewed priorities, and crushing personal tragedies, Fire, Sylvia, and their friends must learn that some things in life are worth fighting for. If not, you’re simply waiting in vain.


Click for more detail about The Opportunity Reader: Stories, Poetry, and Essays from the Urban League’s Opportunity Magazine by Sondra Kathryn Wilson The Opportunity Reader: Stories, Poetry, and Essays from the Urban League’s Opportunity Magazine

by Sondra Kathryn Wilson
Modern Library (Jun 29, 1999)
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Modern Library Harlem Renaissance

In 1923, the Urban League’s Opportunity magazine made its first appearance. Spearheaded by the noted sociologist Charles S. Johnson, it became, along with the N.A.A.C.P.’s Crisis magazine, one of the vehicles that drove the art and literature of the Harlem Renaissance. As a way of attracting writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, Johnson conducted literary contests that were largely funded by Casper Holstein, the infamous Harlem numbers gangster, who contributed
several essays in addition to money.
        Dorothy West, Nella Larsen, and Arthur Schomburg were among Opportunity’s contributors. Many of the pieces included in The Opportunity Reader have not been seen since their publication in the magazine, whose motto was "Not alms, but opportunity."

The fertile artistic period now known as the Harlem Renaissance (1920-1930) gave birth to many of the world-renowned masters of black literature and is the model for today’s renaissance of black writers.


Click for more detail about No Time to Die by Grace Edwards No Time to Die

by Grace Edwards
Doubleday (Jun 15, 1999)
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The indomitable Harlem sleuth Mali Anderson is back, this time on a case that will become more personal than she ever imagined.

A bizarre and brutal serial killer is on the loose in Harlem, but this time he has chosen the wrong victim—Mali Anderson’s close friend Claudine Hastings. The savvy sleuth vows to track down her friend’s killer, ignoring handsome Detective Tad Honeywell’s suggestion that she leave the investigating to the police. While the body count rises, Mali refuses to back down, tirelessly combing the "three Bs of Harlem: the barbershops, beauty shops, and bars" as she zeros in on the culprit.

It soon becomes clear that the killings are centered in Mali’s own neighborhood, and she fears that the people she holds dearest, including her jazz musician father and her preteen nephew, Alvin, will become embroiled in the case. But little does Mali realize that even as she races to catch the killer, he is planning yet another crime—and he’s already chosen her to be his next victim.

The Chicago Tribune called Grace Edwards’s first mystery, If I Should Die, "excellent," and her follow-up book, A Toast Before Dying, "impressive." Now, in the third installment of the Mali Anderson mystery series, Edwards has once again painted—in the smooth and sumptuous style her many readers have come to adore—a portrait of Harlem that is both beautiful and haunting. Filled with vibrantly unforgettable characters, No Time to Die is a thrilling and suspenseful plunge into one of the world’s most fascinating neighborhoods.


Click for more detail about Hi, Cat! by Ezra Jack Keats Hi, Cat!

by Ezra Jack Keats
Viking Books for Young Readers (Jun 01, 1999)
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On his way to hang out with the neighborhood kids, Archie very innocently greets a stray cat who follows him and gets in the way. The cat ruins everything - Archie’s street show is a mess and his audience drifts away. But things aren’t all bad: when Archie goes, the cat follows him all the way home, too!


Click for more detail about Juneteenth: A Novel by Ralph Ellison Juneteenth: A Novel

by Ralph Ellison
Random House (May 29, 1999)
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Juneteenth, the Senator said, closing his eyes, his bandaged head resting beneath his hands. Words of Emancipation didn’t arrive until the middle of June, so they called it Juneteenth… .

In Washington, D.C., in the 1950s, Adam Sunraider, a race-baiting senator from a New England state, is mortally wounded by an assassin’s bullet while making a speech on the Senate floor. To the shock of all who think they know him, Sunraider calls out from his deathbed for Hickman, an old black minister, to be brought to his side. The Reverend is summoned; the two are left alone. Out of their conversation, and the inner rhythms of memories whose weight has been borne in silence for many long years, a story emerges. For this United States senator, once known as Bliss, was raised by Reverend Hickman in a religion- and music-steeped black community not unlike Ralph Ellison’s own childhood home.    He was brought up to be a preaching prodigy in a joyful black Baptist ministry that traveled throughout the South and the Southwest. Together one last time, the two men retrace the course of their shared life in "an anguished attempt," Ellison once put it, "to arrive at the true shape and substance of a sundered past and its meaning." In the end the two men arrive at their most painful memories, memories that hold the key to understanding the mysteries of kinship and race that bind them, and to the senator’s confronting how deeply estranged he has become from his true identity.
    
Juneteenth draws on the full richness of America’s black cultural heritage, from the dazzling range of vernacular sources in its language to the way its structure echoes the call-and-response pattern of the black church and the riffs and bass lines of jazz. It offers jubilant proof that whatever else it means to be a true American, it means to be "somehow black," as Ellison once wrote. For even as Senator Sunraider was bathed from birth in the deep and nourishing waters of African-American folkways, so too are all Americans.
    
That idea is the cause for which Ralph Ellison gave the last full measure of his devotion. At the time of his death, he was still expanding his novel in other directions, envisioning a grand, perhaps multivolume, story cycle. Always, in Ellison’s mind, the character Hickman and the story of Sunraider’s life from birth to death were the dramatic heart of the narrative. And so, with the aid of Ellison’s widow, Fanny, his literary executor, John Callahan, has edited this magnificent novel at the center of Ralph Ellison’s forty-year work-in-progress—Juneteenth, its author’s abiding testament to the country he so loved and to its many unfinished tasks.


Click for more detail about Family Affairs by Sandra Kitt Family Affairs

by Sandra Kitt
Berkley Books (May 01, 1999)
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When the owner of a New York City art gallery meets a popular and controversial artist at her opening, she recognizes him as the man who was a surrogate child to her mother decades ago. This brooding, talented artist is eerily in sync with her innermost secrets and desires, but she has never found him attractive. Now that he has returned to her life from a checkered past, she must adjust to his influence and may learn that her arch-nemesis can turn out to be someone very special.


Click for more detail about LaBelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing About by Patti Labelle LaBelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing About

by Patti Labelle
Clarkson Potter (Apr 06, 1999)
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"From the time I was a little girl, I knew there were two things in this world I was born to do: sing and cook. I’ve spent my life developing my voice and my recipes, and to tell you the truth, I’m hard pressed to say where I’m happiest—in concert or in the kitchen, making music or making meals."

For Patti, cooking is about love. Taught by the great Southern cooks in her family—her mother, father, and aunts Hattie Mae and Joshia Mae—Patti LaBelle has kept these family heirlooms close to her heart. But now, she invites you into her kitchen and serves up more than 100 of her favorite recipes, from treasured down-home favorites—Say-My-Name Smothered Chicken and Gravy, Fierce Fried Corn, and Aunt Hattie’s Scrumptious Sweet Tater Bread—to good-enough-for-dinner-parties dishes—Shrimp Etouffée, Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary-Lemon Rub, and Aunt Mary’s Philadelphia Buttercake.

Wherever Patti goes, so do her electric frying pans and bottles of hot sauce. After her raise-the-roof shows, she often goes back to her hotel room and whips up a meal for her band or celebrity visitors. When she’s home—at holiday time and at family gatherings—or just after one of her sold-out concert tours, Patti likes nothing more than to head for her kitchen and cook her Geechee Geechee Ya Ya Gumbo, Pass-It-On Pot Roast, or Burnin’ Babyback Ribs. And like her bestselling memoir, Don’t Block the Blessings, her accompanying personal reminiscences will fill your heart just as her recipes will fill your stomach.

Patti LaBelle’s LaBelle Cuisine has the recipes you’ll want to cook, eat, and share with friends. Filled with the legendary diva’s favorite dishes and step-by-step instructions on how to prepare them, LaBelle Cuisine makes you feel like Patti’s in the kitchen with you, demonstrating the recipes and techniques that can turn anybody into a fabulous cook.


Click for more detail about Kinship: A Family’s Journey in Africa and America by Philippe E. Wamba Kinship: A Family’s Journey in Africa and America

by Philippe E. Wamba
Dutton/Penguin (Apr 01, 1999)
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When Philippe Wamba’s African American mother married his Congolese father in 1964, the family they would raise in Boston, MA, & Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, would become a test case of the pan-African ideal: that black people around the world share common interests, common goals, & a common destiny. In this deeply felt book, Wamba uses his personal background as a lens through which to view three centuries of shared history between Africans & African Amer. It is at once a vividly detailed memoir & a richly researched work of scholarship that deftly weaves accounts of Wamba’s multinational childhood with enlightening analyses of history, music, literature, religion, & politics.


Click for more detail about Listen Up! by Zoe Angelsey Listen Up!

by Zoe Angelsey
One World/Ballantine (Mar 30, 1999)
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"Today, the poetry scene flourishes at New York open-mic spots like the Nuyorican Poets Café, Brooklyn’s YWCA Tea Party and Harlem’s Sugar Shack. Progeny of hip poets—the Beats of the 50s and protest poets of the 60s and 70s—these up-and-coming literati cast their diverse spells of word beats inspiring young contemporaries in Cleveland, Ohio, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta; later branching out internationally to poetry circuit venues in Tokyo, Rio de Janiero, London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Istanbul."
—Zoë Anglesey
   Editor, Listen Up!

Spoken word poetry is a cross-cultural phenomenon. Here for the first time in one hot volume are poems from the nation’s top spoken word artists. Listen Up! features nine brilliant award-winning scribes who have ignited audiences worldwide with their soulful verse, bold alliterations, and sultry fusion of rhythm and rhyme—electrifying audiences as they chant, sing, recite, and improvise their poetry and powerful point of view.

Among these nine literary luminaries are Carl Hancock Rux, named by The New York Times as one of thirty young artists "most likely to change the culture in the next thirty years"; Jessica Care Moore, a record-breaking five-time winner of the Apollo competition; and Saul Williams, co-scriptwriter and star of the feature film Slam, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the prestigious Camera D’Or at Cannes.

Packed with penetrating interviews on the craft of writing poetry, insight into the art of performance, and on-target, off-guard photos of the poets in action at history-making poetry slams, this unforgettable collection is the next best thing to being there live.


Click for more detail about Invisible Life: Special edition by E. Lynn Harris Invisible Life: Special edition

by E. Lynn Harris
Doubleday (Mar 16, 1999)
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Available at last, E. Lynn Harris’s beloved first novel in a hardcover edition.

Just a few years ago, E. Lynn Harris was selling his self-published novel Invisible Life out of the back of his car. Today he is a bestselling publishing sensation, with more than one million copies of his four novels sold. To celebrate Harris’s incredible success, and offer his fans the opportunity to own, at last, a hardcover version of Invisible Life, Doubleday is proud to announce a special edition of the book so many have cherished.

Invisible Life is the story of a young man’s coming of age. Law school, girlfriends, and career choices were all part of Raymond Tyler’s life, but there were other, more terrifying issues for him to confront. Being black was tough enough, but Raymond was becoming more and more conscious of  sexual feelings that he knew weren’t "right." He was completely committed to Sela, his longtime girlfriend, but his attraction to Kelvin, whom he had met during his last year in law school, had become more than just a friendship. No matter how much he tried to suppress them, his feelings were deeply sexual.

Fleeing to New York to escape both Sela and Kelvin, Raymond finds himself more confused than ever before. New relationships—both male and female—give him enormous pleasure but keep him from finding the inner peace and lasting love he so desperately desires. The horrible illness and death of a friend force Raymond, at last, to face the truth.

Invisible Life has been hailed as "one of the most thought-provoking books—since James Baldwin’s Another Country" (Richmond Voice), and Harris’s "stories have become the toast of bookstores, reading groups, men, women, and gay and straight people" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

Proceeds from the sale of this special fifth anniversary edition will go to the E. Lynn Harris Foundation, a charitable organization that gives young people across the country the opportunity to study writing with established authors, and also aids emerging artists.


Click for more detail about A Miracle Every Day: Triumph and Transformation in the Lives of Single Mothers by Marita Golden A Miracle Every Day: Triumph and Transformation in the Lives of Single Mothers

by Marita Golden
Anchor (Mar 16, 1999)
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A Miracle Every Day takes an illuminating and intimate look at flourishing single-mother families. Single motherhood and the children of single mothers have been the subject of overwhelmingly negative statistical analysis. But, asks Marita Golden, where are the studies that analyze the strengths of single mothers, the positive adaptive skills learned by their children, the support systems that help these families work?

In A Miracle Every Day Golden, once a single mother herself, and several other single mothers and their family members share their success stories with great honestly and insight. Golden identifies the coping characteristics these families have in common and organizes them into guiding themes, making A Miracle Every Day a book that single mothers and their support networks can turn to for wisdom, comfort, and inspiration.


Click for more detail about Always In Pursuit: Fresh American Perspectives by Stanley Crouch Always In Pursuit: Fresh American Perspectives

by Stanley Crouch
Vintage (Mar 16, 1999)
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  As a cultural and political commentator, Stanley Crouch in unapologetically contentious and delightfully iconoclastic. Whether he is writing on the uniqueness of the American South, the death of Tupak Shakur, the O.J. Simpson verdict, or the damage done by the Oklahoma City bombing, Crouch’s high-velocity exchange with American culture is conducted with scrupulous allegiance to the truth, even when it hurts—and it usually does. And on the subject of jazz—from Sidney Bechet to Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington to Miles Davis—there is no one more articulate, impassioned, and encyclopedic in his knowledge than Stanley Crouch.

   Crouch approaches everything in his path with head-on energy, restless intelligence, and a refreshing faith in the collective experiment that is America—and he does so in a virtuosic prose style that is never less than thrilling.


Click for more detail about Willow Weep For Me: A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah Willow Weep For Me: A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression

by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah
One World/Ballantine (Feb 22, 1999)
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This moving memoir of an African-American woman’s lifelong fight to identify and overcome depression offers an inspirational story of healing and emergence. Wrapped within Danquah’s engaging account of this universal affliction is rare and insightful testimony about what it means to be black, female, and battling depression in a society that often idealizes black women as strong, nurturing caregivers. A startlingly honest, elegantly rendered depiction of depression, Willow Weep for Me calls out to all women who suffer in silence with a life-affirming message of recovery. Meri Danquah rises from the pages, a true survivor, departing a world of darkness and reclaiming her life.

The first book to focus on black women and depression, "Willow Weep for Me" recounts the author’s personal descent into despair. More than simply a memoir about depression, this pioneering work presents a powerful meditation on courage and a litany for survival. 160 pp. National media publicity. Buyer’s Choice 25,000 print.

A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression
The first book to focus on black women and depression, seen through the personal journey of a young black woman’s descent into despair.

Meri Danquah, a "working-class broke," twenty-two-year-old single mother, began to suffer from a variety of depressive symptoms after she gave birth to her daughter, which led her to suspect that she might be going crazy. Understanding the importance of strength in a world that often undervalues black women’s lives, she shrouded herself and her illness in silence and denial. "Black women are supposed to be strongcaretakers, nurturers, healers of other peopleany of the twelve dozen variations of Mammy," writes Danquah. But eventually, she could no longer deny the debilitating sadness that interfered with her ability to care for her daughter, to pursue her career as a writer, and to engage in personal relationships. "This is how the world feels to me when I am depressed," she writes. "Everything is blurry, out of focus, fading like a photograph; people seem incapable of change; living feels like a waste of time and effort."

She moves back to the city of her childhood where she befriends two black women who are also suffering from depression. With their support she confronts the traumatic childhood eventssexual abuse, neglect, and lossthat lie beneath her grief. This is not simply a memoir about depression, it is a powerful meditation on courage and a litany for survival.

  • Performance artist and poet, Meri Danquah has written freelance articles for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
  • This book is unique in the literature on depression because it speaks directly to the specific issues affecting black women.


Click for more detail about Caucasia: A Novel by Danzy Senna Caucasia: A Novel

by Danzy Senna
Knopf (Feb 01, 1999)
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In Caucasia—Danzy Senna’s extraordinary debut novel and national bestseller—Birdie and Cole are the daughters of a black father and a white mother, intellectuals and activists in the Civil Rights Movement in 1970s Boston. The sisters are so close that they have created a private language, yet to the outside world they can’t be sisters: Birdie appears to be white, while Cole is dark enough to fit in with the other kids at the Afrocentric school they attend. For Birdie, Cole is the mirror in which she can see her own blackness.Then their parents’ marriage falls apart. Their father’s new black girlfriend won’t even look at Birdie, while their mother gives her life over to the Movement: at night the sisters watch mysterious men arrive with bundles shaped like rifles.One night Birdie watches her father and his girlfriend drive away with Cole—they have gone to Brazil, she will later learn, where her father hopes for a racial equality he will never find in the States. The next morning—in the belief that the Feds are after them—Birdie and her mother leave everything behind: their house and possessions, their friends, and—most disturbing of all—their identity. Passing as the daughter and wife of a deceased Jewish professor, Birdie and her mother finally make their home in New Hampshire. Desperate to find Cole, yet afraid of betraying her mother and herself to some unknown danger, Birdie must learn to navigate the white world—so that when she sets off in search of her sister, she is ready for what she will find. At once a powerful coming-of-age story and a groundbreaking work on identity and race in America, "Caucasia deserves to be read all over" (Glamour).


Click for more detail about Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown-Up Black Woman by Jill Nelson Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown-Up Black Woman

by Jill Nelson
Penguin Books (Feb 01, 1999)
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The face of journalism was forever changed after Jill Nelson came along. Volunteer Slavery, the memoir and explosive expose of her experiences in the white, male-dominated world of The Washington Post, served as a wake-up call to all Americans and placed Nelson at the forefront of the African American political arena.Now, the bestselling author is back with Straight, No Chaser, a call to arms written in an effort to "look at the sum of Ablack women’s? lives beyond the how-to-snag-a-man, am-I-pretty-enough and how’s-my-hair concerns that dominate Atheir? daily existence." Nelson encourages black women?especially young girls?to develop a positive identity in the face of adversity and to look critically at their role models, many of whom she believes send mixed messages to the African American community. From Barbie to bra burning, Mike Tyson to the Million Man March, Nelson takes a personal and thoughtful approach to the empowerment of the black female.


Click for more detail about The World of Daughter McGuire by Sharon Dennis Wyeth The World of Daughter McGuire

by Sharon Dennis Wyeth
Delacorte Press (Jan 28, 1999)
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“Daughter—that’s my name. Daughter McGuire—I’m eleven.”

When Daughter McGuire, her mother, and her younger brothers, Satchel and Jerry Lee, move next door to her grandparents, she’s faced with starting over in a new school, making new friends, and keeping clear of troublemakers like the Avengers. Life would also be easier if her father hadn’t run off to Colorado. If her parents were together again, her mother’s creepy friend Jim Signet wouldn’t be hanging around.

But things pick up when Daughter and her classmates Connie and Anna discover Topknot Cave and start the Explorers Club. And at school Mrs. Jackson, Daughter’s teacher, suggests an exciting family heritage project. The hitch is that some people think that Daughter’s family heritage is too "mixed-up." According to her family tree she is African-Italian-Irish-Jewish-Russian-American. One of the Avengers calls her a "zebra," because one of her parents is black and the other is white. Daughter is so upset, she begins to wonder what she should call herself.

As her project comes together, Daughter learns more about her background and the story of the courageous woman whose name she carries. Little does Daughter McGuire know that her own courage will soon be tested in a way she had never dreamed of.

Sharon Dennis Wyeth wrote The World of Daughter McGuire because she wanted to issue a challenge. As she says, "Daughter McGuire’s world is by no means perfect. Parents don’t behave the way you want them to and there are cruel acts of bias. But there is also humor in this world and love aplenty in Daughter, Satch and Jerry Lee’s not-so-typical, typical extended family. I want my readers to make connections in spite of external bias, to celebrate ourselves as individuals in a world where conscience counts more than color."


Click for more detail about Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday

by Angela Davis
Vintage (Jan 26, 1999)
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From one of this country’s most important intellectuals comes a brilliant analysis of the blues tradition that examines the careers of three crucial black women blues singers through a feminist lens. Angela Davis provides the historical, social, and political contexts with which to reinterpret the performances and lyrics of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday as powerful articulations of an alternative consciousness profoundly at odds with mainstream American culture.

The works of Rainey, Smith, and Holiday have been largely misunderstood by critics. Overlooked, Davis shows, has been the way their candor and bravado laid the groundwork for an aesthetic that allowed for the celebration of social, moral, and sexual values outside the constraints imposed by middle-class respectability. Through meticulous transcriptions of all the extant lyrics of Rainey and Smithpublished here in their entirety for the first timeDavis demonstrates how the roots of the blues extend beyond a musical tradition to serve as a conciousness-raising vehicle for American social memory. A stunning, indispensable contribution to American history, as boldly insightful as the women Davis praises, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism is a triumph.


Click for more detail about Deep Sightings & Rescue Missions: Fiction, Essays, And Conversations by Toni Cade Bambara Deep Sightings & Rescue Missions: Fiction, Essays, And Conversations

by Toni Cade Bambara
Vintage (Jan 26, 1999)
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Edited and with a Preface by Toni Morrison, this posthumous collection of short stories, essays, and interviews offers lasting evidence of Bambara’s passion, lyricism, and tough critical intelligence. Included are tales of mothers and daughters, rebels and seeresses, community activists and aging gangbangers, as well as essays on film and literature, politics and race, and on the difficulties and necessities of forging an identity as an artist, activist, and black woman. It is a treasure trove not only for those familiar with Bambara’s work, but for a new generation of readers who will recognize her contribution to contemporary American letters.


Click for more detail about Grandmama’s Joy by Eloise Greenfield Grandmama’s Joy

by Eloise Greenfield
Puffin Books (Jan 25, 1999)
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When Rhondy can’t seem to cheer Grandmama up with a song, a dance, or a gift from the backyard, she tries the one thing she’s sure will work. Rhondy reminds Grandmama what she said about her when they first came to live together: "That’s my joy, that’s Grandmama’s joy. Long as I got my joy, I’ll be all right." "As sometimes happens, the child is more resourceful than the adult.This is the portrait of a relationship, revealed less as a story than as the unfolding of love." — Booklist "A sensitive story that shows the loving relationship between Grandmama and Rhondy." — School Library Journal


Click for more detail about Confirmation: The Spiritual Wisdom That Has Shaped Our Lives by Khephra Burns and Susan L. Taylor Confirmation: The Spiritual Wisdom That Has Shaped Our Lives

by Khephra Burns and Susan L. Taylor
Anchor (Jan 19, 1999)
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Confirmation: The Spiritual Wisdom That Has Shaped Our Lives is a very personal collection of inspirational writings gathered by the husband and wife team of Khephra Burns and Susan L. Taylor from more than a hundred different sources, representing the wisdom of diverse cultures throughout the world that have helped to shape their spiritual life. Introduced by a moving essay describing Susan and Khephra’s spiritual coming-of-age, and informed by scores of narrative bridges by the authors explaining and annotating the selections they include, the collection spotlights the wisdom of the ages that has been at the core of the author’s spiritual growth over the past twenty years.

Organized under a dozen different subject areas, from love and forgiveness to fear, death, prayer and meditation, this enthralling collection includes passages not only from the traditional sacred texts of the world’s major religions—the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, Bhagavad Gita and the teachings of Buddha-but from African proverbs and the writings of animists, mystics, poets, seers and songwriters elucidating the oneness of being. Among the authors included are Christian mystic Howard Thurman, Maya Angelou, Kahlil Gibran, Deepak Chopra, Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi, Black Elk, Lao-Tzu, Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, John Coltrane, African shaman Malidoma Some, and many more.

Confirmation is a rich and varied treasury of spiritual delights that will be nothing less than a sacred feast to Susan Taylor’s devoted fans and followers.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Pride: A Novel by Lorene Cary Pride: A Novel

by Lorene Cary
Anchor (Jan 19, 1999)
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Four women, lifelong friends, are turning 40—and what a year it is.



Roz, the perfectly controlled (and controlling) politician’s wife, is trying to keep her family together as she recovers from breast cancer and her husband runs for the biggest election of his career. Though he has strayed from her in the past, she has always been there for him—but all that is in jeopardy now that she has learned he has been sleeping with one of her three best friends.



Tam has been avoiding commitment all her life, both in an academic career that shows no sign of becoming permanent, and in her sexually combustive affairs with men. But she’s ready to make some radical departures—including trying to return the interest of a sexy hunk who has more than just looks.



Ever since her husband’s early death, Arneatha has immersed herself in her work as an Episcopal priest who runs a school and several community programs. But something is turning cold and brittle inside her, and for the first time in her life she questions her faith. Her last shreds of certainty are stripped from her when she is unexpectedly thrust into the role of mother—and finds herself falling in passionate, school-girlish love with a handsome African man.



Finally there is Audrey, whose climb back from the depths of alcoholism nearly costs her her life, but brings renewal to the friends’ commitment to each other.



Vibrant, funny, heartwrenching, and real, Pride is an unforgettable novel.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauziya Kassindja Do They Hear You When You Cry

by Fauziya Kassindja
Bantam Dell (Jan 12, 1999)
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The chronicle of one extraordinary young woman’s fight for freedom: Fauziya Kassindja, who fled her African homeland to escape female genital mutilation—only to be locked up in American prisons for 16 months.

Ultimately she became the first woman who received asylum in the U.S. on the basis of female genital mutilation, in 1996. Fauziya was born in Togo and escaped to Lagos, then Germany, before coming to America.


Click for more detail about A Shining Thread of Hope by Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson A Shining Thread of Hope

by Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson
Broadway Books (Jan 05, 1999)
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At the greatest moments and in the cruelest times, black women have been a crucial part of America’s history.  Now, the inspiring history of black women in America is explored in vivid detail by two leaders in the fields of African American and women’s history.

A Shining Thread of Hope chronicles the lives of black women from indentured servitude in the early American colonies to the cruelty of antebellum plantations, from the reign of lynch law in the Jim Crow South to the triumphs of the Civil Rights era, and it illustrates how the story of black women in America is as much a tale of courage and hope as it is a history of struggle.  On both an individual and a collective level, A Shining Thread of Hope reveals the strength and spirit of black women and brings their stories from the fringes of American history to a central position in our understanding of the forces and events that have shaped this country.


Click for more detail about Soul Looks Back in Wonder by Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Walter Dean Myers, Haki R. Madhubuti, Lucille Clifton and 8 others Soul Looks Back in Wonder

by Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Walter Dean Myers, Haki R. Madhubuti, Lucille Clifton and 8 others
Puffin Books (Jan 01, 1999)
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"The selections are uniformly uplifting, with affirming messages about the heritage, strength and dreams of African Americans."—Publishers Weekly

In this compelling collection of words and pictures, the voices of thirteen major poets, including Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Walter Dean Myers, rise in response to the dazzling vistas and emotionally vivid portraits of award-winning artist Tom Feelings. A unique and moving collaboration that celebrates the sustaining spirit of African creativity.


Click for more detail about Incidents At The Shrine by Ben Okri Incidents At The Shrine

by Ben Okri
Vintage (Jan 01, 1999)
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Incidents at the Shrine is the first collection of stories by the author of 1991 Booker Prize-winning novel, The Famished Road. Whether the subject is a child’s eye view of the Nigerian Civil War, Lagos and the spirit world or dispossession in a decaying British inner city, Okri’s lyrical, poetic and humorous prose recreates the known and the unknown world with startling power.


Click for more detail about The Black Parenting Book: Caring for Our Children in the First Five Years by Linda Villarosa The Black Parenting Book: Caring for Our Children in the First Five Years

by Linda Villarosa
Broadway Books (Dec 29, 1998)
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The parents of America’s 3.6 million black children under age six face unique challenges and, until now, there has not been one complete resource for them. Combining pediatric expertise, cultural wisdom, insight from leading experts, and the newest research, The Black Parenting Book finally fills this void. With stories from parents across the country and authoritative advice for all aspects of a child’s early life—including sleep, nutrition, discipline, play, medical treatments, hair and body care, spirituality, and education—this is the most comprehensive book of its kind.

The Black Parenting Book also explores topics such as talking about race, finding children’s books featuring African-American main characters, and deciding whether to send children to all-black preschools. Tackling issues neglected in most parenting books, this is a much-needed guide to the crucial first five years.


Click for more detail about The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie: An African American’s Spiritual Journey to Uncover a Sunken Slave Ship’s Past by Michael H. Cottman The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie: An African American’s Spiritual Journey to Uncover a Sunken Slave Ship’s Past

by Michael H. Cottman
Crown Publishing Group (Dec 29, 1998)
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When prize-winning journalist and avid scuba diver Michael Cottman participated in an underwater expedition to survey the sunken wreck of a slave ship off the coast of Florida, he was overwhelmed by powerful feelings of kinship and oneness with his African ancestors. As he held in his hands the very shackles that once had bound men, women, and children in their tortured passage from their African homeland to America, Michael Cottman became determined to tell their stories and the story behind the ship that had carried them away from all they knew and loved. The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie is a fascinating look at one man’s quest to reconstruct the journey of a British slave ship with all the detail and accuracy available to us at the end of the twentieth century.
The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie takes readers back three centuries and to three continents in order to trace the complex and moving story of the slaves and the slavers. We travel to England on the trail of the shipbuilders and the captain and his crew; to Goree Island, located off the westernmost extension of the African continent near Dakar, where the ship almost certainly sailed past and from which its enslaved passengers would have gotten their last view of their homeland; and to the Gulf of Mexico, where the Henrietta Marie sank without a trace—until its recent rediscovery gave us a tangible key to one of history’s most terrible episodes.
The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie is a powerful and compelling testament of one man’s attempt to make sense of the history of his ancestors, chronicling his journey while confronting questions with no answers and striving for reconciliation with his homeland’s past and his owncountry’s future.
From The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie
When the ships dropped anchor, the African villagers, their curiosity aroused, approached the pale men with stringy hair who had rowed ashore. The seamen quickly overpowered at least a dozen people, loaded them into longboats and sailed away.
These strong-arm raids didn’t last long. They ultimately evolved into the more routine capturing and trading for Africans, as Europeans were fast to establish a formal system by persuading some African kings and chiefs to capture their own people and sell them into slavery.
For long periods after the abductions, some of the children from the villages would climb the tallest trees to watch for the return of the great Portuguese ships that had snaked their way along the Rio Real—ships with long guns aimed at the shore; ships with tall sails that snapped in the breeze; dark ships that creaked in the tide; ships that brought chaos and fear and always left death in their wakes.
Calm would become only a memory for the people of the West African villages. Lives would be lost in the steady state of terror called slavery.
A life of peace had been stolen from these African families. Those taken were stripped of their titles, and even their names, snatched away from everything familiar. No one was safe from slavery—not the smallest children, not the mightiest warrior.
And so, the people of these villages along the west coast of Africa could only embrace their children, comfort each other, and wait for the ships to come.


Click for more detail about What’s Going On by Nathan McCall What’s Going On

by Nathan McCall
Vintage (Dec 29, 1998)
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   With the same personal authority and exhilarating directness he brought to his account of his passage from a prison cell to the newsroom of The Washington Post, Nathan McCall delivers a series of front-line reports on the state of the races in today’s America. The resulting volume is guaranteed to shake the assumptions of readers of every pigmentation and political allegiance.
   In What’s Going On, McCall adds up the hidden costs of the stereotype of black athletic prowess, which tells African American teenagers that they can only succeed on the white man’s terms. He introduces a fresh perspective to the debates on gangsta rap and sexual violence. He indicts the bigotry of white churches and the complacency of the black suburban middle class, celebrates the heroism of Muhammad Ali, and defends the truth-telling of Alice Walker. Engaging, provocative, and utterly fearless, here is a commentator to reckon with, addressing our most persistent divisions in a voice of stinging immediacy.


Click for more detail about Extravagant Strangers: A Literature of Belonging by Caryl Phillips Extravagant Strangers: A Literature of Belonging

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Dec 29, 1998)
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   Shakespeare called Othello "an extravagant and wheeling stranger/Of here and every where." In this exciting anthology, Caryl Phillips has collected writings by thirty-nine extravagant strangers: British writers who were born outside of Britain and see it with clear and critical eyes.  These eloquent and incisive voices prove that English literature, far from being pure or homogenous, has in fact been shaped and influenced by outsiders for over two hundred years.

   Here are slave writers, such as Ignatius Sancho, an eightieth century African who became a friend to Samuel Johnson and Laurence Sterne; writers born in the colonies such as Thackeray, Kipling, and Orwell; "subject writers," such as C.L.R. James and V.S. Naipaul; foreign émigrés, such as Joseph Conrad and Kazuo Ishiguro; and postcolonial observers of the British scene, such as Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, and Anita Desai.  With the eloquent and often inspiring collection, Phillips proves, if proof be needed, that the greatest literature is often born out of irreconcilable tensions between a writer and his or her society.


Click for more detail about The Bluelight Corner: Black Women Writing on Passion, Sex, and Romantic Love by Rosemarie Robotham The Bluelight Corner: Black Women Writing on Passion, Sex, and Romantic Love

by Rosemarie Robotham
Broadway Books (Dec 22, 1998)
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A collection of the very best writing by African-American women, The Bluelight Corner explores and reveals all the rich and varied dimensions of Black women’s romantic lives. A dramatic, touching, lively, erotic, tender, tragic, fierce, bawdy, heartfelt, and utterly surprising collection of voices, this is a one-of-a-kind gem of fiction and memoir.


Click for more detail about Standing at the Scratch Line by Guy Johnson Standing at the Scratch Line

by Guy Johnson
Random House (Dec 01, 1998)
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Raised in the steamy bayous of New Orleans in the early 1900s, LeRoi "King" Tremain, caught up in his family’s ongoing feud with the rival DuMont family, learns to fight. But when the teenage King mistakenly kills two white deputies during a botched raid on the DuMonts, the Tremains’ fear of reprisal forces King to flee Louisiana.

King thus embarks on an adventure that first takes him to France, where he fights in World War I as a member of the segregated 369th Battalion—in the bigoted army he finds himself locked in combat with American soldiers as well as with Germans. When he returns to America, he battles the Mob in Jazz Age Harlem, the KKK in Louisiana, and crooked politicians trying to destroy a black township in Oklahoma.

King Tremain is driven by two principal forces: He wants to be treated with respect, and he wants to create a family dynasty much like the one he left behind in Louisiana. This is a stunning debut by novelist Guy Johnson that provides a true depiction of the lives of African-Americans in the early decades of the twentieth century.

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

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

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


Click for more detail about Fast Talk On A Slow Track by Rita Williams-Garcia Fast Talk On A Slow Track

by Rita Williams-Garcia
Puffin Books (Dec 01, 1998)
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Denzel Watson is a fast talker with a system, and it’s made him valedictorian. But when he goes to a summer program at Princeton, he takes a fall. How can he tell his proud family that he won’t be able to cut it in the Ivy League? Instead, he spends the rest of the summer selling candy, up against "Top Man" Mello, a drop-out with a police record. For the first time, Denzel is forced to take a hard look at himself — and how much further he could fall."Williams-Garcia confronts some crucial issues that are generally ignored in YA fiction: issues of class and race, friendship and competition, identity and failure." — Booklist"Teens everywhere will be able to identify and commiserate with Denzel." School Library Journal, starred review


Click for more detail about Mama Rocks the Empty Cradle by Nora Deloach Mama Rocks the Empty Cradle

by Nora Deloach
Bantam (Dec 01, 1998)
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Mama’s back on the case, sniffing out dark, tragic secrets…and a killer.

Not much happens in Otis, South Carolina (pop. 5,000) that Mama, a caseworker for the Department of Social Services, doesn’t know about.  Mama’s given name is Grace Covington, but everyone calls her Candi—for the honeyed color of her complexion, not her cooking (which is second to none from Otis all the way to Atlanta, where I work as a paralegal).  I usually go home when I need some truly soul-satisfying eating.  But this time I was heading back to Otis to help Mama after her bunion operation.  I had no idea we’d end up knee-deep in somebody else’s trouble….

It all seemed to start when Mama and I were shopping for groceries and crazy old Miss Birdie stole Cricket Childs’ tiny baby, causing a scene between the two women everyone in town heard about.  It wasn’t twenty-four hours later that Cricket, known as a lady who liked wild times and wilder men, turned up murdered in a fellow’s bed.  Even worse, Cricket’s baby had vanished.

To add to the chilling events, my Daddy’s wandering dog Midnight dug up something shocking: an infant’s skull.  And not long after Mama rushed it over to Sheriff Abe’s office, Midnight brought home another.  Naturally, he couldn’t tell us where he got them…and the mystery deepened.

So no way Mama wasn’t going to start snooping.  And with the doctor ordering her off her feet, I ended up doing some legwork.  But it’s a good thing I still had two good feet, because before long, I was running for my life…as babies’ cries and women’s tears  mingled in a crime fueled by motives as ancient as human memory—greed, jealousy, and old-fashioned revenge.

In Mama Rocks the Empty Cradle, Nora DeLoach captures the warmth of family life in the deep South…and the icy tingling of superb suspense.  And in Mama she has created a woman sleuth as filled with compassion as courage, wise in the ways of the human heart—and the criminal mind.


Click for more detail about Train Whistle Guitar: A Novel by Albert Murray Train Whistle Guitar: A Novel

by Albert Murray
Vintage Books (Nov 24, 1998)
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First published in 1975, this is a coming of age novel. Scooter, growing up in Alabama in the 1920’s, learns everything he needs to know from the classroom, the barbershop, and a train-hopping musician who brings a musical touch to the tale.


Click for more detail about Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Bondswoman of Olden Time, with a History of Her Labors and Correspondence Drawn from Her Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Bondswoman of Olden Time, with a History of Her Labors and Correspondence Drawn from Her "Book of Life"; Also, a Mem

by Sojourner Truth
Penguin Group USA (Nov 01, 1998)
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Featured a new foreword by Nell Irvin Painter, who is the author of Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol and is Edwards Professor of History at Princeton University, where she currently heads the program in African-American Studies.

Truth’s landmark slave narrative chronicles her experiences as a slave in upstate New York and her transformation into an extraordinary abolitionist, feminist, orator, and preacher. Based on the complete 1884 edition, this volume includes the "Book of Life," a collection of letters and sketches about Truth’s life written subsequent to the original 1850 publication of the Narrative, and "A Memorial Chapter," a sentimental account of her death.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about Goggles by Ezra Jack Keats Goggles

by Ezra Jack Keats
Puffin Books (Nov 01, 1998)
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Generations of children have read, re-read, and loved Ezra Jack Keats?s award-winning, classic stories about Peter and his neighborhood friends. Now, for the first time, Peter?s Chair, A Letter to Amy, and Goggles! are available in paperback exclusively from Puffin.?A well-loved character, a familiar childhood situation, and an urban setting are the components of this winning picture book, one of Keats?s best.? — BooklistEzra Jack Keats (1916?1983) was the beloved author and/or illustrator of over eighty-five books for children.


Click for more detail about Shake Rag: From the Life of Elvis Presley by Amy Littlesugar Shake Rag: From the Life of Elvis Presley

by Amy Littlesugar
Philomel Books (Oct 26, 1998)
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They call him "White Trash" because he wears hand-me-down overalls and lives on the wrong side of the tracks over near Shake Rag, but when his mama gets him a second-hand guitar, his life is forever changed and his music becomes inspired by gospel and sweet jazz.


Click for more detail about No Language Is Neutral by Dionne Brand No Language Is Neutral

by Dionne Brand
McClelland & Stewart (Oct 24, 1998)
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A joyful, imagistic discovery of woman as speaker and subject. As a woman, a black, and a lesbian, Brand arrives at a rigorous and nakedly ruthless reclamation of the poetic.


Click for more detail about Another Africa: Photographs by Robert Lyons by Robert Lyons and Chinua Achebe Another Africa: Photographs by Robert Lyons

by Robert Lyons and Chinua Achebe
Doubleday (Oct 20, 1998)
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Another Africa is a book that fuses photographs, poetry, and text to create a view of present-day Africa that moves beyond the stereotypes commonly held by most westerners: an open-air ethnographic museum, a continent in constant turmoil, a vast expanse of beautiful sand dunes and tropical savannas where herds of wildlife roam. This work peels away myths to explore the complexity, diversity, and human dimensions of a place called Africa—one that celebrates the commonplace and exotic simultaneously. The photographs are highly subjective, a personal investigation that reflects the sensibilities, formal concerns, and the ongoing engagement of the photographer in this part of the world.

With the brilliant Chinua Achebe—a Nigerian—contributing his poems and an essay, the book takes on a further and critical dimension. He presents a concise view of Africa today, including the individual and political issues facing its countries. He deals with Africa on its own terms—from within, not from an outsider’s perspective.


Click for more detail about Speaking Truth to Power by Anita Hill Speaking Truth to Power

by Anita Hill
Anchor Books (Oct 20, 1998)
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Twenty-six years before the #metoo movement, Anita Hill sparked a national conversation about sexual harassment in the workplace.

After her astonishing testimony in the Clarence Thomas hearings, Anita Hill ceased to be a private citizen and became a public figure at the white-hot center of an intense national debate on how men and women relate to each other in the workplace. That debate led to ground-breaking court decisions and major shifts in corporate policies that have had a profound effect on our lives—and on Anita Hill’s life. Now, with remarkable insight and total candor, Anita Hill reflects on events before, during, and after the hearings, offering for the first time a complete account that sheds startling new light on this watershed event.

Only after reading her moving recollection of her childhood on her family’s Oklahoma farm can we fully appreciate the values that enabled her to withstand the harsh scrutiny she endured during the hearings and for years afterward. Only after reading her detailed narrative of the Senate Judiciary proceedings do we reach a new understanding of how Washington—and the media—rush to judgment. And only after discovering the personal toll of this wrenching ordeal, and how Hill copes, do we gain new respect for this extraordinary woman.

Here is a vitally important work that allows us to understand why Anita Hill did what she did, and thereby brings resolution to one of the most controversial episodes in our nation’s history.


Click for more detail about Affirmative Acts by June Jordan Affirmative Acts

by June Jordan
Anchor (Oct 20, 1998)
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Piercingly intuitive, eloquent, and caustic, Affirmative Acts is an address to the social, economic, racial, and political conflicts that mar the otherwise beautiful human experience.

In this new collection of political essays, Jordan explores the confusion of an America in the grip of pseudo-multiculturalism and political intolerance. Continuing in the tradition of her classic collections Civil Wars and Technical Difficulties, Jordan acquaints readers with moments of American life threatened by social negligence and economic despair. With her characteristic insight, Jordan unveils how these too-frequent bouts of civil unrest bring out the weakest parts of the American spirit and challenges readers to remain inspired as society approaches the millennium.
June Jordan’s wisdom shines through in this brilliant collection of inspirational essays, which will be eagerly awaited by Jordan loyalists and enjoyed by her new readers.


Click for more detail about Segu by Maryse Conde Segu

by Maryse Conde
Penguin Books (Sep 03, 1998)
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The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishing, fed by the wealth of its noblemen and the power of its warriors. The people of Segu, the Bambara, are guided by their griots and priests; their lives are ruled by the elements. But even their soothsayers can only hint at the changes to come, for the battle of the soul of Africa has begun. From the east comes a new religion, Islam, and from the West, the slave trade.Segu follows the life of Dousika Traore, the king’s most trusted advisor, and his four sons, whose fates embody the forces tearing at the fabric of the nation. There is Tiekoro, who renounces his people’s religion and embraces Islam; Siga, who defends tradition, but becomes a merchant; Naba, who is kidnapped by slave traders; and Malobali, who becomes a mercenary and halfhearted Christian.Based on actual events, Segu transports the reader to a fascinating time in history, capturing the earthy spirituality, religious fervor, and violent nature of a people and a growing nation trying to cope with jihads, national rivalries, racism, amid the vagaries of commerce.


Click for more detail about Jackie Robinson: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad Jackie Robinson: A Biography

by Arnold Rampersad
Ballantine Books (Sep 01, 1998)
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The extraordinary life of Jackie Robinson is illuminated as never before in this full-scale biography by Arnold Rampersad, who was chosen by Jack’s widow, Rachel, to tell her husband’s story, and was given unprecedented access to his private papers. We are brought closer than we have ever been to the great ballplayer, a man of courage and quality who became a pivotal figure in the areas of race and civil rights.

Born in the rural South, the son of a sharecropper, Robinson was reared in southern California. We see him blossom there as a student-athlete as he struggled against poverty and racism to uphold the beliefs instilled in him by his mother—faith in family, education, America, and God.

We follow Robinson through World War II, when, in the first wave of racial integration in the armed forces, he was commissioned as an officer, then court-martialed after refusing to move to the back of a bus. After he plays in the Negro National League, we watch the opening of an all-American drama as, late in 1945, Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers recognized Jack as the right player to break baseball’s color barrier—and the game was forever changed.

Jack’s never-before-published letters open up his relationship with his family, especially his wife, Rachel, whom he married just as his perilous venture of integrating baseball began. Her memories are a major resource of the narrative as we learn about the severe harassment Robinson endured from teammates and opponents alike; about death threats and exclusion; about joy and remarkable success. We watch his courageous response to abuse, first as a stoic endurer, then as a fighter who epitomized courage and defiance.

We see his growing friendship with white players like Pee Wee Reese and the black teammates who followed in his footsteps, and his embrace by Brooklyn’s fans. We follow his blazing career: 1947, Rookie of the Year; 1949, Most Valuable Player; six pennants in ten seasons, and 1962, induction into the Hall of Fame.

But sports were merely one aspect of his life. We see his business ventures, his leading role in the community, his early support of Martin Luther King Jr., his commitment to the civil rights movement at a crucial stage in its evolution; his controversial associations with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Humphrey, Goldwater, Nelson Rockefeller, and Malcolm X.

Rampersad’s magnificent biography leaves us with an indelible image of a principled man who was passionate in his loyalties and opinions: a baseball player who could focus a crowd’s attention as no one before or since; an activist at the crossroads of his people’s struggle; a dedicated family man whose last years were plagued by illness and tragedy, and who died prematurely at fifty-two. He was a pathfinder, an American hero, and he now has the biography he deserves.


From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Can I Get a Witness? by Julia A. Boyd Can I Get a Witness?

by Julia A. Boyd
Dutton Adult (Sep 01, 1998)
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A psychotherapist and the author of the best-seller, In the Company of My Sisters, presents the first prescriptive book by a black therapist on black women and depression, analyzing the signs of depression and offering strategies for recovery.


Click for more detail about A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America by David K. Shipler A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America

by David K. Shipler
Vintage (Sep 01, 1998)
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A Country of Strangers is a magnificent exploration of the psychological landscape where blacks and whites meet. To tell the story in human rather than abstract terms, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David K. Shipler bypasses both extremists and celebrities and takes us among ordinary Americans as they encounter one another across racial lines.

We learn how blacks and whites see each other, how they interpret each other’s behavior, and how certain damaging images and assumptions seep into the actions of even the most unbiased. We penetrate into dimensions of stereotyping and discrimination that are usually invisible, and discover the unseen prejudices and privileges of white Americans, and what black Americans make of them.

We explore the competing impulses of integration and separation: the reference points by which the races navigate as they venture out and then withdraw; the biculturalism that many blacks perfect as they move back and forth between the white and black worlds, and the homesickness some blacks feel for the comfort of all-black separateness. There are portrayals of interracial families and their multiracial children—expert guides through the clashes created by racial blending in America. We see how whites and blacks each carry the burden of our history.

Black-white stereotypes are dissected: the physical bodies that we see, the mental qualities we imagine, the moral character we attribute to others and to ourselves, the violence we fear, the power we seek or are loath to relinquish.

The book makes clear that we have the ability to shape our racial landscape—to reconstruct, even if not perfectly, the texture of our relationships. There is an assessment of the complexity confronting blacks and whites alike as they struggle to recognize and define the racial motivations that may or may not be present in a thought, a word, a deed. The book does not prescribe, but it documents the silences that prevail, the listening that doesn’t happen, the conversations that don’t take place. It looks at relations between minorities, including blacks and Jews, and blacks and Koreans. It explores the human dimensions of affirmative action, the intricate contacts and misunderstandings across racial lines among coworkers and neighbors. It is unstinting in its criticism of our society’s failure to come to grips with bigotry; but it is also, happily, crowded with black people and white people who struggle in their daily lives to do just that.

A remarkable book that will stimulate each of us to reexamine and better understand our own deepest attitudes in regard to race in America.


Click for more detail about The River Where Blood Is Born (Ballantine Reader’s Circle) by Sandra Jackson-Opoku The River Where Blood Is Born (Ballantine Reader’s Circle)

by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
One World/Ballantine (Aug 18, 1998)
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This astonishing novel takes us on a journey along the river of one family’s history, carving a course across two centuries and three continents, from ancient Africa into today’s America. Here, through the lives of Mother Africa’s many daughters, we come to understand the real meaning of roots: the captive Proud Mary, who has been savagely punished for refusing to relinquish her child to slavery; Earlene, who witnesses her father’s murder at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan; Big Momma, a modern-day matriarch who can make a woman of a girl; proud and sassy Cinnamon Brown, whose wild abandon hides a bitter loss; and smart, ambitious Alma, who is torn between the love of a man and the song of her soul.

In The River Where Blood Is Born, the seen and unseen worlds are seamlessly joined—the spirit realms where the great river goddess and ancestor mothers watch over the lives of their descendants, both the living and those not yet born. Stringing beads of destiny, they work to lead one daughter back to her source. But what must Alma sacrifice to honor the River Mother’s call?


Click for more detail about I Can’t Wait on God by Albert French I Can’t Wait on God

by Albert French
Doubleday (Aug 17, 1998)
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The crowded joys and familiar despair of poor, back-alley life in postwar Pittsburgh have a hold on most people there. Still, there are those who need to escape. Jeremiah Henderson and his woman, Willet Mercer, who keep to themselves and look far too pretty for their own good, have set their sights on New York City. As they learn, however, making good is easier said than done. Left with no choice but to give in to the pimp who’d like to try Willet on for size before selling her to his clientele, Jeremiah and Willet try to focus on the future. But in the last moments before letting the pimp have his way with her, Willet balks, stabbing him to death in the back of his parked Buick. If they are both horrified by what she’s done, Jeremiah and Willet are nonetheless now flush with the pimp’s fat wad of cash, his heavy rings, and his fancy car. And for a moment, it looks as if their dreams may finally come true. With New York on their minds and Pittsburgh behind them, they drive south to make one last stop outside Wilmington, North Carolina, where Willet intends to see the little boy she long ago abandoned.

Told over the course of five days and nights in the summer of 1950, as the Korean War is brewing, this is a story of crime, punishment, and loss that will never be forgotten. Carried along by the same voice and insight that have earned Albert French so much praise already, I Can’t Wait on God is his most beautiful and important book to date.


Click for more detail about Africans and Their History: Second Revised Edition by Joseph E. Harris Africans and Their History: Second Revised Edition

by Joseph E. Harris
Plume (Aug 01, 1998)
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Africa has witnessed the birth of many important developments in history. Human evolution, including the use of fire, food production via plant cultivation and animal domestication, as well as the creation of sophisticated tools and hunting weapons from iron took place in Africa. Other historical events such as the slave trade, which played a critical role in Western economic power, the rise of Islam as one of the world?s dominant religions, and colonization and struggles for independence occurred on African soil.Africans and Their History chronicles in fascinating detail African history from prehistoric times through the present. This concise and authoritative overview of the diverse peoples and societies of Africa now covers recent events, including the emergence of a free South Africa and its landmark enactment of a constitution that recognizes even more rights than the American constitution.The dynamic history and the relationship Africans have with the rest of the world is revealed in Africans and Their History, exposing and shattering ugly stereotypes that for too long have dominated Western thought.
Africans and Their History has been updated to reflect the past decade of African events.
Ever growing number of African Studies departments on college campuses insures a constant audience for this book.
Africans and Their History has a long and steady backlist life—first published in 1972.


Click for more detail about Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats Peter’s Chair

by Ezra Jack Keats
Viking Books for Young Readers (Aug 01, 1998)
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The award-winning, classic stories about Peter and his neighborhood friends from the Caledcott Medal-winning author, Ezra Jack Keats. Peter has a new baby sister. First his father paints Peter’s old cradle pink, then his crib. Then his parents want to paint Peter’s chair! “Let’s run away, Willie,” he says to his dog. And they do. This is a gentle and reassuring story about sibling rivalry.

"A more charming or contemporary child than Peter … is hard to bring to mind."—School Library Journal


Click for more detail about Bebe’s by Golly Wow! by Yolanda Joe Bebe’s by Golly Wow!

by Yolanda Joe
Doubleday Books (Jun 15, 1998)
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Bebe, a forty-something bank supervisor and recent college graduate, has finally found the reason to end the self-imposed man sabbatical she began in Yolanda Joe’s first novel, "He Say, She Say—a charming and sweet firefighter named Isaac Sizemore. A big, strapping "steak-colored" man who is as strong as he is sensitive, Isaac is the man of Bebe’s dreams. But he’s also a father dealing with the challenges of raising a thirteen-year-old daughter on his own. Much to Bebe’s surprise, Isaac’s whip-smart daughter, Dashay, turns out to be the "other woman" who threatens to keep them apart. Meanwhile Sandy, Bebe’s best friend, who is struggling in the workplace as she clashes with the new owners of the radio station, continues on her adventure in search of true love, refusing to give up. Set in Chicago and told in alternating voices, "Bebe’s By Golly Wow sparkles with Yolanda Joe’s deft storytelling, in-your-face dialogue, and marvelous insight as she paints a sensitive and funny tale of modern romance, family transitions, and heartfelt friendships.


Click for more detail about The Mercy Seat by Rilla Askew The Mercy Seat

by Rilla Askew
Penguin Books (May 01, 1998)
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Few first novels garner the kind of powerful praise awarded this epic story that takes place on the dusty, remorseless Oklahoma frontier, where two brothers are deadlocked in a furious rivalry. Fayette is an enterprising schemer hoping to cash in on his brother’s talents as a gunsmith. John, determined not to repeat the crime that forced both families to flee their Kentucky homes, doggedly follows his tenacious brother west, while he watches his own family disintegrate.

Wondrously told through the wary eyes of John’s ten-year-old daughter, Mattie, whose gift of premonition proves to be both a blessing and a curse, The Mercy Seat resounds with the rhythms of the Old Testament even as it explores the mysteries of the Native American spirit world. Sharing Faulkner’s understanding of the inescapable pull of family and history, and Cormac McCarthy’s appreciation of the stark beauty of the American wilderness, Rilla Askew imbues this momentous work with her tremendous energy and emotional range. It is an extraordinary novel from a prodigious new talent.

  • Strange Business, a collection of linked stories that won the 1993 Oklahoma Book Award, is available from Penguin.


Click for more detail about Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats Whistle for Willie

by Ezra Jack Keats
Viking Books for Young Readers (May 01, 1998)
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In the heat of a city summer, young Peter, an African American child, wishes to be able to whistle for his dog.


Click for more detail about The Jazz of Our Street by Fatima Shaik The Jazz of Our Street

by Fatima Shaik
Dial Books (May 01, 1998)
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New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, is the setting for this joyful book celebrating jazz parades and their traditions. The lyrical text shows how this quintessentially American musical form weaves stories through its rhythms and sounds. Full color.


Click for more detail about The Nature of Blood by Caryl Phillips The Nature of Blood

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Apr 28, 1998)
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In his most ambitious novel to date, Phillips creates a dazzling kaleidoscope of historical fiction, one that illuminates the dark legacy of Europe’s obsession with race and blood. At the center of The Nature of Blood is a young woman, a Nazi death camp survivor, devastated by the loss of everyone she loves. Her story is interwoven with a cast of characters from both the present and past: her uncle Stephan, Othello the Moorish general, three Jews in 15th century Venice, and an Ethiopian Jew struggling for acceptance in contemporary Israel. Tracing these characters through disparate lands and centuries, Phillips creates an unforgettable group portrait of individuals overwhelmed by the force of European tribalism.



"An extraordinarily perceptive and intelligent novel, and a haunting one."—New York Times


Click for more detail about Keepin’ It Real: Post-MTV Reflections on Race, Sex, and Politics by Kevin Powell Keepin’ It Real: Post-MTV Reflections on Race, Sex, and Politics

by Kevin Powell
One World/Ballantine (Apr 07, 1998)
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In Keepin’ It Real, writer, poet, and cultural critic Kevin Powell puts both himself and society under a microscope and creates a searingly honest collection that is at once powerful and disturbing. Within this rich weave of musings, confession, and sometimes painful introspection, he confronts such issues as racism, black self-hatred, gender violence in the ’90s, and his own anguished revelations about sex, love, and misogyny. He also explores the meaning and myths of the Million Man March and the influential and threatening presence of rap music. Like that musical movement, Kevin Powell samples the sights and sounds and scenarios of American life, then reshapes them into a provocative soundtrack for our times.


Click for more detail about Blanche Cleans Up by Barbara Neely Blanche Cleans Up

by Barbara Neely
Viking Adult (Apr 01, 1998)
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Tart-tongued and shrewd—with a keen nose for trouble—Blanche is unique in the field of amateur sleuths: a queen-sized, middle-aged black woman rooted in working-class America. Blanche sees at a glance what people, and society, are up to—especially if it’s criminal. This time, she’s filling in as cook-housekeeper to a Boston Brahmin politician and his venal wife when she becomes enmeshed in a festering canker of a scandal that moves from the Brindles’ house in Brookline (a.k.a Prozac House) to the center of her own black community in Roxbury. Hot on the trail, she encounters a love triangle with bent angles, teen pregnancy, phony spirituality, and at least one person who doesn’t mean her any good. In Blanche, BarbaraNeely has created a heroine to cheer for—and Blanche Cleans Up is a novel that will thrill not only her ardent fans and other mystery buffs, but also mainstream readers eager to explore a new neighborhood with a feisty, funny black woman as their guide.


Click for more detail about Soul Kiss: A Novel by Shay Youngblood Soul Kiss: A Novel

by Shay Youngblood
Riverhead Trade (Apr 01, 1998)
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The "intelligent and erotic" debut novel (Washington Post) by the author of the new hardcover, Black Girl in Paris

"Hauntingly beautiful…vibrantly alive…calls to mind Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."-Boston Herald


Click for more detail about Race, Crime, And The Law by Randall Kennedy Race, Crime, And The Law

by Randall Kennedy
Vintage (Mar 31, 1998)
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Winner of the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Grand Prize


"An original, wise and courageous work that moves beyond sterile arguments and lifts the discussion of race and justice to a new and more hopeful level."—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
In this groundbreaking, powerfully reasoned, lucid work that is certain to provoke controversy, Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy takes on a highly complex issue in a way that no one has before. Kennedy uncovers the long-standing failure of the justice system to protect blacks from criminals, probing allegations that blacks are victimized on a widespread basis by racially discriminatory prosecutions and punishments, but he also engages the debate over the wisdom and legality of using racial criteria in jury selection. He analyzes the responses of the legal system to accusations that appeals to racial prejudice have rendered trials unfair, and examines the idea that, under certain circumstances, members of one race are statistically more likely to be involved in crime than members of another.



"An admirable, courageous, and meticulously fair and honest book."—New York Times Book Review


"This book should be a standard for all law students."—Boston Globe


Click for more detail about Only Twice I’ve Wished for Heaven by Dawn Turner Trice Only Twice I’ve Wished for Heaven

by Dawn Turner Trice
Anchor (Feb 28, 1998)
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n 1975, Tempestt Saville and her family are chosen by lottery to "move on up" to Lakeland: one square mile of sparkling apartment towers and emerald lawns where the Black elite live sheltered from the ghetto by a ten-foot-tall, ivy-covered wrought-iron fence. Eleven-year-old Temmy doesn’t enjoy the privilege, however, and thinks Lakeland is the "kingdom of the drab." Instead, she is drawn to the vivid world outside the fence: to 35th Street, where the saved and the sinners are both so "done up" you can’t tell one from the other. Tempestt’s curiosity soon leads her down a dangerous path, however, and after witnessing the death of a friend, she sets into motion a chain of events that will send 35th Street up in flames.


Click for more detail about Tell Me How Long the Trains Been Gone by James Baldwin Tell Me How Long the Trains Been Gone

by James Baldwin
Vintage (Feb 17, 1998)
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A major work of American literature that powerfully portrays the anguish of being Black in a society that at times seems poised on the brink of total racial war.

At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable.

For between Leo’s childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo’s loyalty.

Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone is overpowering in its vitality and extravagant in the intensity of its feeling.


Click for more detail about Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe Anthills of the Savannah

by Chinua Achebe
Anchor Books (Feb 04, 1998)
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In the fictional West African nation Kangan, newly independent of British rule, the hopes and dreams of democracy have been quashed by a fierce military dictatorship. Chris Oriko is a member of the cabinet of the president for life, one of his oldest friends. When the president is charged with censoring the oppositionist editor of the state-run newspaper—another childhood friend—Chris’s loyalty and ideology are put to the test. The fate of Kangan hangs in the balance as tensions rise and a devious plot is set in motion to silence the firebrand critic.


Click for more detail about Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Vintage (Feb 03, 1998)
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“This is a book of stories,” writes Henry Louis Gates, “and all might be described as ‘narratives of ascent.’” As some remarkable men talk about their lives, many perspectives on race and gender emerge. For the notion of the unitary black man, Gates argues, is as imaginary as the creature that the poet Wallace Stevens conjured in his poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird."" James Baldwin, Colin Powell, Harry Belafonte, Bill T. Jones, Louis Farrakhan, Anatole Broyard, Albert Murray — all these men came from modest circumstances and all achieved preeminence. They are people, Gates writes, “who have shaped the world as much as they were shaped by it, who gave as good as they got.” Three are writers — James Baldwin, who was once regarded as the intellectual spokesman for the black community; Anatole Broyard, who chose to hide his black heritage so as to be seen as a writer on his own terms; and Albert Murray, who rose to the pinnacle of literary criticism. There is the general-turned-political-figure Colin Powell, who discusses his interactions with three United States presidents; there is Harry Belafonte, the entertainer whose career has been distinct from his fervent activism; there is Bill T. Jones, dancer and choreographer, whose fierce courage and creativity have continued in the shadow of AIDS; and there is Louis Farrakhan, the controversial religious leader. These men and others speak of their lives with candor and intimacy, and what emerges from this portfolio of influential men is a strikingly varied and profound set of ideas about what it means to be a black man in America today.


Click for more detail about Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes by Floyd Cooper Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes

by Floyd Cooper
Puffin Books (Feb 02, 1998)
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Writer Langston Hughes is an inspiration for youth everywhere. Now children can discover the young Langston and the events and circumstances that shaped his extraordinary life. Floyd’s stunning illustrations and colorful text capture the special moments in Langston’s life and invite young readers to learn about the power of hope.


Click for more detail about Stylenoir: The First How to Guide to Fashion Written with Black Women in Mind by Constance White Stylenoir: The First How to Guide to Fashion Written with Black Women in Mind

by Constance White
TarcherPerigee (Feb 01, 1998)
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Through practical advice and helpful tips from African-American designers, black women are shown how they can look modern while also expressing African culture in their way of dress, in a guide that comes complete with hair-braiding styles, accessory tips, and a history of blacks in the fashion industry. Original.


Click for more detail about Catch The Fire!!: A Cross-Generational Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry by D-Knowledge Catch The Fire!!: A Cross-Generational Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry

by D-Knowledge
Riverhead Books (Feb 01, 1998)
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African-American poetry is an ever-growing and ever-changing art form… in coffee houses and night clubs… from the blues and be-bop, to rap and hip-hop. Catch the Fire!!! is more than a poetry anthology. It is a cultural event: the indroduction of a new generation of African-American poets by an established generation, and a celebration of contemporary African-American poetry. Through the themes of family, the city, revolution, the body, and the soul, included selections written by several noted poets and writers including the late Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Quincy Troupe, June Jordan, Ntozake Shange, Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets, and many others. discuss their own generation of poets and their thoughts about the emerging poets whose poems they are presenting here.

The Revolution Will Be on the Big Screen

My man Gil Scott Heron once said:
The revolution will not be televised
Well…
Gil Scott may have a point
The revolution may not be televised
But…
The revolution will be a major motion picture
The revolution will not be televised
But…
The revolution will be on the big screen

The Revolution will be a fifty million dollar production
The Revolution will be written by John Grisham
And directed by Oliver Stone
The Revolution will star Kevin Costner and Julia Roberts
And they will teach people of color
How to revolt
And how to fight and how to hide and how to kill
And how to SCREAM
The Revolution will be on the big screen, brother.

The Revolution will have one Latino extra
Playin’ a thief
One Asian extra
Playin’ a servant
And one Native American extra runnin’
down Florence and Normandie yellin’
Geronimo.

The Revolution will have one Black supporting actor
Denzel Washington
Who will be killed by Kevin Costner in the first
three minutes
For looking at Julia Roberts for more than
one minute
While Kevin Costner will have a picture of Whitney Houston
Burnin’ in his wallet
The Revolution will be on the big screen, sistah.

The Revolution will be coming soon to a theatre near you
And will get two thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert
And will make more money than Jurassic Park and ET
The Revolution will cost $7.50 to see or $5.50 if
you got a student i.d.
The Revolution will go good with popcorn, bon bons and licorice
The Revolution will be on the big screen.

The Revolution will have a multi platinum soundtrack
Wtih revolutionary songs sung by
Guns ’N’ Roses, Metallica and Madonna
The Revolution will be advertised on billboards, buses, t shirts
and at Taco Bell and Micky Dees
The Revolution will be on the big screen.

The Revolution will be distributed internationally
The Revolution will be seen in Cuba, Ruwanda and Haiti
The Revolution will change the way the world thinks about
Revolution
And the way the world thinks about
Change
The Revolution will be on the big screen.

The Revolution will have a sequel
The Revolution will have a part III
The Revolution will be too large for t.v.
Too large for the little screen
The Revolution will be larger than life
Larger than large
And larger than larger than large
The Revolution will not be televised
Will not be televised
Not be televised
Be televised
The Revolution will be
On the Big Screen.

D-Knowledge
(Derrick I.M. Gilbert)


Click for more detail about The Gold Cadillac by Mildred D. Taylor The Gold Cadillac

by Mildred D. Taylor
Puffin Books (Feb 01, 1998)
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Lois and Wilma are proud of their father’s brand-new gold Cadillac, and excited that the family will be driving it all the way from Ohio to Mississippi. But as they travel deeper into the rural South, there are no admiring glances for the shiny new car; only suspicion and anger for the black man behind the wheel. For the first time in their lives, Lois and her sister know what it’s like to feel scared because of the color of their skin. A personal, poignant look at a black child’s first experience with institutional racism. —The New York Times


Click for more detail about The Friendship by Mildred D. Taylor The Friendship

by Mildred D. Taylor
Puffin Books (Feb 01, 1998)
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Cassie witnesses a black man address a white storekeeper by his first name. "A powerful story …Readers will be haunted by its drama and emotion long after they have closed the book." —Booklist


Click for more detail about Little Eight John (Picture Puffins) by Jan Wahl Little Eight John (Picture Puffins)

by Jan Wahl
Puffin Books (Feb 01, 1998)
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Little Eight John’s mother warns him that mischief—like sitting backwards in his chair and kicking frogs—means bad luck for the family. But what his mother warns him not to do, he does, and when he baby gets sick and the potatoes don’t grow, Little Eight John just laughs. Then, one day, trouble come looking for him. Full color .


Click for more detail about Defending the Spirit: A Black Life in America by Randall Robinson Defending the Spirit: A Black Life in America

by Randall Robinson
Dutton Adult (Feb 01, 1998)
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In 1977, Randall Robinson founded TransAfrica, the first organization to lobby for the interests of African and Caribbean peoples, and it became the galvanizing force behind the anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa, spearheaded efforts to secure the release of Nelson Mandela, and mobilized the fight to reinstate President Aristide and restore democracy in Haiti. Defending the Spirit tells the story of Robinson’s rise from childhood in the segregated South to his role as a Washington power figure. A stunning and uplifting memoir, it also offers stinging commentary on American policies in Africa and the Caribbean, where racism still plays an unfortunate role. Impassioned, charismatic, and unwavering in his convictions, Robinson emerges as an inspiring and empowering example of a great American leader.

  • A behind-the-scenes look at some of the most significant moments in recent American and world history.
  • Randall Robinson candidly discusses such prominent figures as Jesse Helms, Bob Dole, Charles Rangel, Nelson Mandela, Roger Wilkins, and his famed newscaster brother, Max Robinson.
  • Published to coincide with Black History Month.
  • As an active public speaker, Robinson appears all over America.
  • Randall Robinson is a prominent African-American political figure and a model for the black community.


Click for more detail about Multi-America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace by Ishmael Reed Multi-America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace

by Ishmael Reed
Penguin Books (Feb 01, 1998)
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Multi-America is an unprecedented, unpredictable and absolutely refreshing anthology. Ishmael Reed has brought together a rainbow collection of ethnic Americans to challenge the communications oligopolies that have dominated the discussion of race in this country. It provides perspectives from points of view that have been omitted from the discussion of race in the United States: African American, Native American, Asian American and Euro-ethnic, Italian American, Irish American, etc. These marginalized voices speak out on a broad spectrum of topics: an Irish American discusses what has been lost in assimilation; an Afrocentrist responds to the one-sided depiction of Afrocentrism; Latinos discuss the violent racial conflicts between blacks and Latinos. They represent, for the first time, the authentic voice of the new Rainbow America.


Click for more detail about Dorothy Dandridge (1998) by Donald Bogle Dorothy Dandridge (1998)

by Donald Bogle
Berkley Trade (Feb 01, 1998)
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She captured America’s hearts in such stunning films as Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess. Finally, the true story of America’s first Black movie star is revealed in this brilliant, in-depth biography-from her turbulent childhood in Cleveland, to her Hollywood girlhood, her battles against racism, her rise to fame, her marriage and affairs, and her professional and personal decline. The first Black woman nominated for an Academy Award Dorothy Dandridge paved the way for thousands of Black women entertainers. She toured the South with "The Dandridge Sisters," appeared in dozens of movies and on Broadway, played the Cotton Club, and worked with such luminaries as Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Maxine Sullivan. But Dandridge’s stardom only seemed to exacerbate her deep-seated insecurities-shadowing her success until she died of an overdose at the age of 42. Filled with photographs, and rich with research as well as personal anecdotes from Harry Belafonte, Etta James and others, Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography is not only a fascinating study of the woman and the performer, but also a riveting look at Black Hollywood as it existed within the larger culture.


Click for more detail about What Makes the Great Great by Dennis Kimbro What Makes the Great Great

by Dennis Kimbro
Broadway Books (Jan 20, 1998)
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In "What Makes the Great Great, " Dennis Kimbro, author of trhe best selling "Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice," introduces inspiring people who have achieved greatness in their own unique way, then highlights those qualities each of us must develop before we reach our full potential. Regardless of how you define greatness - whether it’s success in business or in pursuing a personal goal - this book provides a proven approach to turning your dreams into reality. Through dozens of interviews and inspirational stories, Dr. Kimbro outlines nine strategies that determine success. Greatness is gauranteed when you discover life’s true calling, live more courageously, access the knowledge and creativity of your mind, and embrace integrity in everything you do.


Click for more detail about Lessons In Living by Susan L. Taylor Lessons In Living

by Susan L. Taylor
Anchor (Jan 20, 1998)
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At long last, here is the paperback edition of beloved columnist and author Susan L. Taylor’s bestselling collection of spiritual writings on overcoming the challenges of everyday life.

Revealing the spiritual lessons Susan has learned first-hand from grappling with the challenges and difficulties in her own life, Lessons in Living is a celebration of the journey of life that has already become a classic. Written in the anecdotal style that has made Susan’s "In the Spirit" column the most popular feature of Essence magazine, Lessons in Living addresses the themes that have been her unique territory for over a decade: self empowerment, the exploration of love and self-worth, and issues of faith and commitment.


Click for more detail about Flying Home: And Other Stories by Ralph Ellison Flying Home: And Other Stories

by Ralph Ellison
Vintage (Jan 12, 1998)
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Written between 1937 and 1954 and now available in paperback for the first time, these thirteen stories are a potent distillation of the genius of Ralph Ellison. Six of them remained unpublished during Ellison’s lifetime and were discovered among the author’s effects in a folder labeled "Early Stories." But they all bear the hallmarks—the thematic reach, musically layered voices, and sheer ebullience—that Ellison would bring to his classic Invisible Man.

The tales in Flying Home range in setting from the Jim Crow South to a Harlem bingo parlor, from the hobo jungles of the Great Depression to Wales during the Second World War. By turns lyrical, scathing, touching, and transcendently wise, Flying Home and Other Stories is a historic volume, an extravagant last bequest from a giant of our literature.


Click for more detail about Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington Up from Slavery

by Booker T. Washington
Penguin Group USA (Jan 07, 1998)
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For the 50 years that followed its publication in 1901, Up from Slavery was the most widely known book written by an African American. The life of Booker T. Washington embodied the legendary rise of an American self-made man, and his autobiography gave voice for the first time to a vast group that had to pull itself up from nothing. In the well-documented ordeals and observations of this humble and plainspoken schoolmaster we find traces of Washington’s other nature: the ambitious and tough-minded analyst. Here was a man who had to balance the demands of his fellow blacks with the constraints imposed on him by whites.


Click for more detail about Maya Angelou: Journey of the Heart by Jayne Pettit Maya Angelou: Journey of the Heart

by Jayne Pettit
Puffin Books (Jan 01, 1998)
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Jayne Pettit is the author of A Place to Hide: True Stories of Holocaust Rescues, Maya Angelou: Journey of the Heart, Jane Goodall: Pioneer Researcher, and Martin Luther King Jr.: A Man with a Dream.


Click for more detail about The Long Journey Home: Stories from Black History by Julius Lester The Long Journey Home: Stories from Black History

by Julius Lester
Puffin Books (Jan 01, 1998)
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Meet Rambler, a runaway slave roaming the countryside with a guitar, who knows the only way to stay free is to keep moving. Louis is another runaway, fleeing the plantation where he was raised, because he is about to be sold. And Jake and Mandy’s marriage is damaged by slavery—and destroyed by freedom. Here is the African-American experience, brought alive by a master storyteller.


Click for more detail about Tales of Freedom by Ben Okri Tales of Freedom

by Ben Okri
Rider Books (Jan 01, 1998)
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Click for more detail about Jonkonnu by Amy Littlesugar Jonkonnu

by Amy Littlesugar
Philomel Books (Dec 29, 1997)
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In a story based on Winslow Homer’s accounts of an 1876 trip to Petersburg, Virginia, the artist stirs up controversy when he poses freed slaves in colorful costumes while he paints a tribute to Jonkonnu, an African-American holiday celebrating freedom from slavery.


Click for more detail about The Hand I Fan With by Tina McElroy Ansa The Hand I Fan With

by Tina McElroy Ansa
Anchor (Dec 29, 1997)
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Bestselling author Tina McElroy Ansa is back with another tale from Mulberry, Georgia, the richly drawn fictional town and home of the extraordinary Lena McPherson.  Lena, now forty-five and tired of being "the hand everyone fans with," has grown weary of shouldering the town’s problems and wants to find a little love and companionship for herself.  So she and a friend perform a supernatural ritual to conjure up a man for Lena.  She gets one all right: a ghost named Herman who, though dead for one hundred years, is full of life and all man.  His love changes Lena’s life forever, satisfying as never before both her physical and spiritual needs.  Filled with the same "humor, grace, and great respect for power of the particular" (The New York Times Book Review) as her previous critically acclaimed novels, Baby of the Family and Ugly Ways, The Hand I Fan With  is yet another memorable and life-affirming tale from one of America’s best-loved authors.


Click for more detail about One More River to Cross: Black & Gay in America by Keith Boykin One More River to Cross: Black & Gay in America

by Keith Boykin
Anchor (Dec 29, 1997)
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In the aftermath of the historic 1993 March on Washington for gay and lesbian rights, Keith Boykin, in One More River to Cross, clarifies the relationship between blacks and gays in America by portraying the "common ground" lives of those who are both black and gay.



Against a backdrop of civil rights and the black experience in America, Boykin interviews Baptist ministers, gay political leaders, and other black gays and lesbians on issues of faith, family, discrimination, and visibility to determine what differences—real and imagined—separate the two communities. Boykin points to evidence of African and precolonial same-sex behavior, as well as figures like James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin, to dispel the myth that homosexuality is a "white thang," while his research suggests that blacks are less homophobic than whites, despite the rhetoric of rap and religion. With stories from his own experience as well as that of other black gays and lesbians, Boykin targets gay racism and black homophobia and suggests that conservative forces have substituted the common language of racism for homophobia in order to prevent a potentially powerful coalition of blacks and gays.



By portraying what it means to be black and gay, One More River to Cross offers an extraordinary window into a community that challenges this country’s acceptance of its minorities, both racial and sexual.


Click for more detail about Mama Stalks the Past by Nora Deloach Mama Stalks the Past

by Nora Deloach
Bantam (Dec 01, 1997)
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Mama’s passion is digging up bits and pieces until she’s solved a mystery.  Long ago she decided that if we could get at the truth of a problem, we would have made a contribution to humankind.  Most of the time I agree with Mama.  This time, however, finding the truth about Hannah Mixon’s murder could cost Mama her life….

Mama’s name is Grace, but folks call her Candi because of a golden-brown complexion that puts you in mind of candied sweet potatoes.  Mama makes her living as a case manager for Social Services, but her talent for cooking up the best food in Otis, South Carolina, is well known.  When things weren’t working out for me in Atlanta, Mama suggested I come home.  I soon knew I’d made the right decision when I found Nat Mixon on Mama’s doorstep threatening to tell the whole town that Mama stole his inheritance.  It seems that Nat’s mother and Mama’s neighbor, spiteful recluse Hannah Mixon, had just died and left a will naming Mama as her beneficiary—yet Mama had never spoken to the woman!

Everybody in Otis knew Nat was one can short of a six-pack, but he was built like a tank and threatening Mama’s reputation, which to Mama is as bad as threatening her life.

When it turned out the bequest was 250 acres of land, and Miss Hannah had died of poisoning, a big drama was under way in a small town where inherited property is more valuable than gold.

Mama couldn’t see her reputation ruined—she had to discover why Hannah had left her the property and why the old woman had been murdered.  And maybe that was exactly what Hannah Mixon expected her to do—why else had she left Mama a message to look for a missing envelope?  But before Mama can find the hidden clue, Nat Mixon himself is brutally attacked.  Mama’s "sleuthing intuition" gets to working and, with the kindly assistance of three Otis women who should be on the FBI payroll for their expertise in uncovering other people’s business, my ninety-nine-year-old great-uncle Chester’s grasp of family history, and me as her escort, Mama prows that blood flowed freely on Hannah Mixon’s land.  Land that somebody was willing to kill for…more than once.  And unless Mama can uncover a secret buried for decades beneath greed and family betrayal—and now murder—she may never sleuth again….

In Mama Stalks the Past, Nora DeLoach offers up a suspenseful tale of how family ties snap like thread when a large inheritance attracts a brutal killer….And she spins a tale featuring one of the most endearing and memorable sleuths in fiction today.


Click for more detail about The Maker of Saints by Thulani Davis The Maker of Saints

by Thulani Davis
Penguin Books (Dec 01, 1997)
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? A QPB and BOMC selection ? The author?s previous novel, 1959, was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award.Bird Kinkaid is an African-American woman who has recently been plagued by nightmares: It is a month after she witnessed Alex, her closest friend, plunge eight stories to her death on the sidewalk below?and her grief has turned into obsession. Was Alex killed or was it a suicide? Was it an accident or did the white art critic and sometimes lover Frank Burton push her to her death?The two women had an intense friendship, their lives intertwined by shared space, history, friends (and occasionally lovers), and a passion for art. Alex?s death shatters Bird, compelling her to search for answers to her friend?s death amidst the disparate strands of Alex?s quixotic life. When she locates a series of bizarre video tapes among Alex?s belongings?in which she discusses her friends, her artwork, and her turbulent love life?Bird has the key to solving both the mystery of her friend?s death and her own long-hidden demons.Alive with wit and sensibility, Maker of Saints is a fascinating and provocative novel about love, art, jealousy, and friendship in a funky, glitzy, New York demimonde.


Click for more detail about Wisdom of the Elders by Robert Fleming Wisdom of the Elders

by Robert Fleming
One World/Ballantine (Nov 25, 1997)
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"Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go."—James BaldwinIn these troubled times, wisdom often seems in short supply. But as this magnificent volume reminds us, African Americans have been blessed with a precious legacy of wisdom, gained through long hard years of struggle by those who have gone before. Wisdom is the most hallowed gift born of experience and endurance.The life-affirming guidance in The Wisdom of the Elders has been gleaned from this bountiful harvest and includes some of the most electrifying and deeply moving writings and speeches ever produced. Here are the unedited works of such luminaries as Sojourner Truth, W. E. B. DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr., Elijah Muhammad, Lorraine Hansberry, Thurgood Marshall, Zora Neale Hurston, Adam Clayton Powell, Mary McLeod Bethune, Marcus Garvey, Barbara Jordan, Paul Robeson, Jean Toomer, and many others. The elders’ empowering messages and Robert Fleming’s interpretations offer us mother wit, cultural truths, and spiritual sustenance. These words challenge and inspire us to build on the best of our past, to insure our future.From the Hardcover edition.


Click for more detail about Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas Down These Mean Streets

by Piri Thomas
Vintage (Nov 25, 1997)
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Thirty years ago Piri Thomas made literary history with this lacerating, lyrical memoir of his coming of age on the streets of Spanish Harlem. Here was the testament of a born outsider: a Puerto Rican in English-speaking America; a dark-skinned morenito in a family that refused to acknowledge its African blood. Here was an unsparing document of Thomas’s plunge into the deadly consolations of drugs, street fighting, and armed robbery—a descent that ended when the twenty-two-year-old Piri was sent to prison for shooting a cop.

As he recounts the journey that took him from adolescence in El Barrio to a lock-up in Sing Sing to the freedom that comes of self-acceptance, faith, and inner confidence, Piri Thomas gives us a book that is as exultant as it is harrowing and whose every page bears the irrepressible rhythm of its author’s voice. Thirty years after its first appearance, this classic of manhood, marginalization, survival, and transcendence is available in an anniversary edition with a new Introduction by the author.


Click for more detail about Bloodline: Five Stories by Ernest Gaines Bloodline: Five Stories

by Ernest Gaines
Vintage (Oct 28, 1997)
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In these five stories, Gaines returns to the cane fields, sharecroppers’ shacks, and decaying plantation houses of Louisiana, the terrain of his great novels A Gathering of Old Men and A Lesson Before Dying. As rendered by Gaines, this country becomes as familiar, and as haunted by cruelty, suffering, and courage, as Ralph Ellison’s Harlem or Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County.

STORIES INCLUDE:

A Long Day in November

The Sky Is Gray

Three Men

Bloodline

Just Like a Tree


Click for more detail about The Art of Frank Howell by Michael R. French The Art of Frank Howell

by Michael R. French
Doubleday Books for Young Readers (Oct 14, 1997)
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FRANK HOWELL’S PAINTINGS dazzle the viewer with their luminous colors and haunting images. A unique chronicler of the native people and natural beauty of the Southwest, Howell pulls us into a spiritually charged world resonant with multiple meanings. Whether he’s painting a pair of hands, a bird in flight, or the face of an old woman, Howell can look upon the familiar and see something no one else sees. His sense of wonder and his passion make his often solitary figures enormously expressive; they inhabit a physically spare but spiritually rich universe that Howell reveals through his extraordinary artistry.


Click for more detail about Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation: A Three-Dimensional Interactive Book with Photographs and Documents from the Black Holocaust Exhibit by Velma Maia Thomas Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to Slavery and Emancipation: A Three-Dimensional Interactive Book with Photographs and Documents from the Black Holocaust Exhibit

by Velma Maia Thomas
Crown (Oct 07, 1997)
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This richly designed historical document is an ingenious, interactive, three-dimensional experience that dramatically addresses the painful history of America and the slave trade. Based on the Black Holocaust Exhibit, Lest We Forget is history brought to life by Velma Maia Thomas, curator. Accompanying the book’s documents, Thomas’ exquisite prose is interwoven with the moving words of slaves themselves.


Click for more detail about Men We Cherish by Brooke Stephens Men We Cherish

by Brooke Stephens
Anchor (Oct 06, 1997)
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One evening in 1994, writer Brooke Stephens was listening to the news while working on a tribute to her grandfather for an upcoming family reunion. The evening’s newscast began with three negative reports about black men—as rapists, muggers and murderers. The contrast between the black men on the news and the black man she was writing about suddenly seemed enormous. Where were the black men she knew? Stephens wondered. Why were they never featured on the evening news? Never publicly discussed or shown? From these questions, the idea for Men We Cherish was born.

Waiting to Exhale and the Million Man March to the contrary, good black men are neither fantasy nor unanswered prayer. In Men We Cherish, thirty African American women celebrate these everyday heroes: fathers and grandfathers, brothers and best friends, sons and husbands. These essays, memoirs, and love letters offer moving portraits of the three-out-of-four black men who never make the headlines. The men in the lives of established black women writers, including Bebe Moore Campbell, Gloria Wade-Gayles, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, and the Delany sisters, reflect the diversity, honesty, generosity and depth that is the reality of African American men.

With Men We Cherish, Brooke Stephens has created a groundbreaking collection that stands alone in the market as a literary memoir, a social critique, and an affirmation of faith.

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Princess of the Press: The Story of Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Rainbow Biography) by Angela S. Medearis The Princess of the Press: The Story of Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Rainbow Biography)

by Angela S. Medearis
Dutton Juvenile (Oct 01, 1997)
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Beginning readers seeking an accessible biography will be captivated by the story of the remarkable Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862 1931), a teacher, journalist, lecturer, and civil rights leader. In clear, easy-to-read prose, award-winning author Angela Shelf Medearis shows how Wells-Barnett triumphed over adversity throughout her life and became a respected leader. Orphaned at the age of fourteen, with five younger siblings to care for, she taught school to support her family. Later Wells-Barnett became part-owner of an African-American newspaper and led a crusade against lynching, endangering her life. A champion of the cause of suffrage for women, she was an outspoken, unusual woman whose courage to seek the truth and fight for justice made history. Angela Shelf Medearis is the author of thirty-three books, including Dare to Dream: Coretta Scott King and the Civil Rights Movement, which Booklist called “a concise,engaging biography for young readers.”


Click for more detail about Melitte by Fatima Shaik Melitte

by Fatima Shaik
Dial Books (Oct 01, 1997)
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In 1772, years of mistreatment force thirteen-year-old Melitte to decide whether or not to run away from the Frenchman who has kept her as a slave on his poor Louisiana farm and leave the young girl who is the only person who ever loved her.


Click for more detail about Kinfolks by Kristin Hunter Kinfolks

by Kristin Hunter
One World/Ballantine (Sep 08, 1997)
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""A BLACK FIRST WIVES CLUB … SIT BACK, RELAX, AND ENJOY."" —The Charlotte Post

Now swinging on the far side of forty, best friends Patrice Barber and Cherry Hopkins came of age in the sixties, becoming single mothers by choice. So who would have dreamed that these two ex-revolutionaries would find themselves trying to compose a la-de-dah wedding invitation for their soon-to-be-married children?

But a shattering truth from their radical past is about to rear its head and alter the course of their lives, forcing Patrice and Cherry to hit the road on an urgent mission of forgiveness and compassion, of making amends and letting go… .


Click for more detail about Don’t Split the Pole by Eleanora E. Tate Don’t Split the Pole

by Eleanora E. Tate
Delacorte Books for Young Readers (Sep 08, 1997)
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Nine-and-a-half-year-old Russell James finds that "a hard head makes a soft behind" when he tries to catch a catfish by hand. A giant glob of Gurdy’s Greasy Grape Groaners Gum attacks eleven-year-old Shaniqua Godette, who learns the hard way that you should "never leave your pocketbook on the floor. " And when twelve-year-old height-challenged Tucker Willis saves a life with the help of a ghost, he proves that "big things come in small packages. " A celebration of storytelling and folk wisdom, this is a perfect collection for sharing and reading aloud. Notes at the end explain the origins of the proverbs and the background of the stories.


Click for more detail about Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line by Michael Eric Dyson Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line

by Michael Eric Dyson
Vintage (Sep 02, 1997)
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"You couldn’t ask for a fairer-minded, better-informed, or more enjoyable guide."—ElleAs a former welfare father who is also an ordained Baptist minister and a Princeton Ph.D., Michael Eric Dyson is one of those rare intellectuals who act not only as interpreters between black and white America but as bridges between the academy and the street. In this brave, bracing, and vastly readable book, he identifies the hidden rules that govern interactions between the races and within black communities, poisoning our language, our politics, and our thinking. From the O. J. Simpson trial to the generational politics of gangsta rap, and from Colin Powell to Louis Farrakhan, Dyson takes on the most contentious issues of the 1990s. Again and again he shows us that, in a society that prides itself on being color-blind, race is more important—and more pernicious—than ever. Filled with eloquence and erudition, wit and moral common sense, Race Rules is an invaluable guide to the America we really live in as well as a redemptive vision of the one we want for our children. "Dyson’s insightful analysis comes to life on topics ranging from hip-hop culture to black leadership. "—Atlanta Journal & Constitution


Click for more detail about It’s Raining Laughter by Nikki Grimes It’s Raining Laughter

by Nikki Grimes
Dial Books (Sep 01, 1997)
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A collection of poems about children growing up with photographs of African American children


Click for more detail about Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice by Dennis Kimbro Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice

by Dennis Kimbro
Ballantine Books (Aug 27, 1997)
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The forerunner of such successful books as Winning Through Intimidation and Looking Out For #1, Napoleon Hill’s groundbreaking self-help guide Think and Grow Rich maps out sensible, effective strategies for getting ahead by using your head. Now, building on Hill’s foundation, Dennis Kimbro combines positive inspirational coaching with over a hundred success stories to help black Americans achieve wealth and personal success.


Click for more detail about When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor by William Julius Wilson When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor

by William Julius Wilson
Vintage (Jul 29, 1997)
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Wilson, one of our foremost authorities on race and poverty, challenges decades of liberal and conservative pieties to look squarely at the devastating effects that joblessness has had on our urban ghettos. Marshaling a vast array of data and the personal stories of hundreds of men and women, Wilson persuasively argues that problems endemic to America’s inner cities—from fatherless households to drugs and violent crime—stem directly from the disappearance of blue-collar jobs in the wake of a globalized economy. Wilson’s achievement is to portray this crisis as one that affects all Americans, and to propose solutions whose benefits would be felt across our society. At a time when welfare is ending and our country’s racial dialectic is more strained than ever, When Work Disappears is a sane, courageous, and desperately important work.


"Wilson is the keenest liberal analyst of the most perplexing of all American problems…[This book is] more ambitious and more accessible than anything he has done before."
—The New Yorker


Click for more detail about Balancing Act by Anita Bunkley Balancing Act

by Anita Bunkley
Dutton (Jul 01, 1997)
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When a chemical explosion in a facility owned by her employer rocks her hometown of Flatwoods, Texas, Elise Jeffries is torn between professional ethics and personal loyalty to her childhood friends."


Click for more detail about Drown by Junot Diaz Drown

by Junot Diaz
Riverhead Books (Jul 01, 1997)
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From the beloved and award-winning author Junot Díaz, a spellbinding saga of a family’s journey through the New World.
 
A coming-of-age story of unparalleled power, Drown introduced the world to Junot Díaz’s exhilarating talents. It also introduced an unforgettable narrator— Yunior, the haunted, brilliant young man who track his family’s precarious journey from the barrios of Santo Domingo to the tenements of industrial New Jersey, and their epic passage from hope to loss to something like love. Here is the soulful, unsparing book that made Díaz a literary sensation.


Click for more detail about Big Girls Don’t Cry by Connie Briscoe Big Girls Don’t Cry

by Connie Briscoe
One World/Ballantine (Jul 01, 1997)
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"[An] empathetic portrait of a modern woman wrestling with issues of love, work, and family obligations."—Publishers Weekly

Born into a comfortable Washington, D.C., home, Naomi Jefferson leads a life that is only occasionally marred by racism. As a teenager in the 1960s, her biggest concern centers around virginity. But all that changes when her older brother, Joshua—who seems destined for greatness—is killed in a tragic car accident on his way to a civil rights demonstration. Now the rift between black and white America becomes much too personal, and Naomi embarks on a journey to honor her brother’s legacy—and to find herself.

This brilliant new novel, from the bestselling author of Sisters & Lovers, traces three decades in the life of a woman readers will not soon forget, as she searches for love and purpose in a harsh often unforgiving world.

"Contains an infectious hope and optimism."
—Los Angeles Times


Click for more detail about The Flight of Red Bird: The Life of Zitkala-Sa by Doreen Rappaport The Flight of Red Bird: The Life of Zitkala-Sa

by Doreen Rappaport
Dial (Jul 01, 1997)
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Recreates the life of writer and lecturer Gertrude Bonnin, also known as Zitkala S+a5a, a Native American activist and reformer of the early twentieth century, who fought for legislation to help better the lives of her people.”


Click for more detail about My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love and Forgiveness by Patricia Raybon My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love and Forgiveness

by Patricia Raybon
Penguin Books (Jun 01, 1997)
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In mid-life Afro-American journalist Raybon made a conscious decision to stop hating white people. Her journal/analysis provides discourse on hatred and forgiveness, the rise of her hatred, and her efforts to conquer her fears and forgive the past. An unusual account of conscious change.—Kirkus Reviews.


Click for more detail about When Harlem Was In Vogue by David Levering Lewis When Harlem Was In Vogue

by David Levering Lewis
Penguin Books (Jun 01, 1997)
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"A major study…one that thorougly interweaves the philosophies and fads, the people and movements that combined to give a small segment of Afro America a brief place in the sun."—The New York Times Book Review.

This focuses on the creation and manipulation of an arts and belles-lettres bulture by a tiny African-American elite.

The decade and a half that followed World War I was a time of tremendous optimism in Harlem. It was a time when Langston Hughes, Eubie Blake, Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, and countless others made their indelible mark on the landscape of American culture. David Levering Lewis makes us feel the excitment of the times as he recaptures the intoxicating hope that black Americans could now create important art - and so at last compel the nation to recognize their equality. In his new preface, the author reconsiders the Harlem Renaissance in light of criticism surrounding the exploitation of the black community.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface to the Penguin Edition
Preface
1 We Return Fighting 3
2 City of Refuge 25
3 Stars 50
4 Enter the New Negro 89
5 The Six 119
6 Nigger Heaven 156
7 A Jam of a Party 198
8 The Fall of the Manor 240
9 It’s Dead Now 282
Notes 309
Index 365


Click for more detail about Stray Dogs by John Ridley Stray Dogs

by John Ridley
Ballantine Books (May 20, 1997)
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"It’s the heat that makes you crazy. I don’t know what it is, but it works that way for man and animal alike. I’ve seen some peculiar things on a hot day too. I’ve seen a scorpion sting itself to death. It just keeps drivin’ its tail into its body again and again. A little killer killing itself. And what a man’ll do on a hot day. A man could get his self killed just for rubbing shoulders with another… ."

A loner, a drifter, a gambler—John Stewart asks little of life. But when his ’64 Mustang busts a radiator hose in the middle of the empty Nevada desert, he prays to God, Buddha, L. Ron. And rolls into the tiny town of Sierra. Where he finds … nothing. A gas station whose former owner is lying low in the cemetery. A strip of barren, dust-blown store fronts. A truck stop cafe with more flies than customers.

Stewart wants out. Sucker-punched in a rigged poker game, he’s got to get to Vegas to settle a debt. Or else.

Then in walks Grace, a seductive knockout who can read fortunes in faces. In the next twenty-four hours, Stewart becomes ensnared in a web of dirty double-crosses, cold propositions, and desperate souls—deadly ground where murder is just one gasp away.

A stunning, fast-paced novel, Stray Dogs unfolds with unrelenting tension, memorable characters, and shocking twists of plot. John Ridley has created a hypnotic story that is pure noir, from its first page until its shattering climax.


Click for more detail about The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou The Heart of a Woman

by Maya Angelou
Random House (May 17, 1997)
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In The Heart of a Woman Maya Angelou leaves California with her son, Guy, to go to New York. There she enters the society and world of black artists and writers. Not since her childhood has she lived in an almost black environment, and she is surprised at the obsession her new friends have with the white world around them. She stays for a while with John and Grace Killens and begins to read her writing at the Harlem Writers Guild. She continues to sing, most notably at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, but more and more she begins to take part in the struggle of black Americans for their rightful place in the world. She helps organize a benefit cabaret for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and then is appointed Martin Luther Kings Northern Coordinator.

Shortly after that, through her friend Abbey Lincoln, she takes one of the lead parts in Genet’s The Blacks (it was a remarkable cast, including Godfrey Cambridge, Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Raymond St. Jacques, and Lou Gossett), and even writes music for the production.

In the meantime her personal life has taken a tempestuous turn. She has left the New York bail bondsman she was intending to marry and has fallen in love with a South African freedom fighter named Vusumzi Make, who sweeps her off her feet and eventually takes her to London and then to Cairo, where, as her marriage begins to break up, she becomes the first female editor of the English-language magazine.

The Heart of a Woman is filled with unforgettable vignettes of famous people, from Billie Holiday to Malcolm X, but perhaps most important is the story of Maya Angelou’s relationship with her son. Because this book chronicles, finally, the joys and the burdens of a black mother in America and how the son she had cherished so intensely and worked for so devotedly finally grows to be a man.


Click for more detail about N: A Romantic Mystery by Louis Edwards N: A Romantic Mystery

by Louis Edwards
Dutton (May 01, 1997)
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The long-awaited second novel by the acclaimed author of "Ten Seconds". A well-educated, independent journalist who runs an alternative newspaper strikes up an odd acquaintance with a sweet and sexy drug dealer when the two attempt to solve a mysterious murder.


Click for more detail about Mama’s Girl by Veronica Chambers Mama’s Girl

by Veronica Chambers
Riverhead Books (May 01, 1997)
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On the streets of Brooklyn in the 1970s, Veronica Chambers mastered the whirling helixes of a double-dutch jump rope with the same finesse she brought to her schoolwork, her often troubled family life, and the demands of being overachieving and underprivileged. Her mother—a Panamanian immigrant—was too often overwhelmed by the task of raising Veronica and her difficult younger brother on her meager secretary’s salary to applaud her daughter’s achievements. From an early age, Veronica understood that the best she could do for her mother was to be a perfect child—to rewrite her Christmas wish lists to her mother’s budget, to look after her brother, to get by on her own.Though her mother seemed to bear out the adage that "black women raise their daughters and mother their sons," Veronica never stopped trying to do more, do better, do it all. And now, as a successful young woman who’s achieved more than her mother dared hope for her, she looks back on their mother-daughter bond. The critically acclaimed Mama’s Girl is a moving, startlingly honest memoir, in which Chambers shares some important truths about what we all really want from our mothers—and what we can give in return.


Click for more detail about Push: A Novel by Sapphire Push: A Novel

by Sapphire
Vintage Books (Apr 29, 1997)
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"Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire," directed by Lee Daniels and written
by Damien Paul

GRAND JURY PRIZE and AUDIENCE AWARD winner at the 2009 Sundance Film
Festival

Relentless, remorseless, and inspirational, this "horrific, hope-filled story" (Newsday) is certain to haunt a generation of readers. Precious Jones, 16 years old and pregnant by her father with her second child, meets a determined and highly radical teacher who takes her on a journey of transformation and redemption.


Click for more detail about The Nature Of Blood by Caryl Phillips The Nature Of Blood

by Caryl Phillips
Alfred A. Knopf (Apr 29, 1997)
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A German Jewish girl whose life is destroyed by the atrocities of World War II … her uncle, who undermines the sureties of his own life in order to fight for Israeli statehood … the Jews of a 15th-century Italian ghetto . . Othello, newly arrived in Venice … a young Ethiopian Jewish woman resettled in Israel. These are the extraordinary people who inhabit Caryl Phillips’ eloquent and moving new novel, and whose stories are connected by circumstance, spirit, and blood across the centuries.


Click for more detail about An African Elegy Paperback by Ben Okri An African Elegy Paperback

by Ben Okri
Vintage Books USA (Apr 24, 1997)
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Dreams are the currency of Okri’s writing, particularly in this first book of poems, An African Elegy, but also in his books of short stories and prize-winning novel The Famished Road. Okri’s dreams are made on the stuff of Africa’s colossal economic and political problems, and reading the poems is to experience a constant succession of metaphors of resolution in both senses of the word. Virtually every poem contains an exhortation to climb out of the African miasma, and virtually every poem harvests the dream of itself with an upbeat restorative ending’ - Giles Foden, Times Literary Supplement.


Click for more detail about If I Should Die by Grace Edwards If I Should Die

by Grace Edwards
Doubleday (Apr 14, 1997)
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On her way to pick up her orphaned nephew Alvin at the world-renowned Uptown Children’s Chorus, ex-cop Mali Anderson hears the screams of a terrified child. As she and her Great Dane Ruffin race to the rescue, a car speeds away, leaving a young boy dazed on the sidewalk and a man lying in the street with a bullet in his forehead. The victim is her friend, Erskin Harding, tour director of the Chorus and a man without an enemy in the world. Could he have been the target, or was he an innocent bystander gunned down as he tried to prevent the kidnapping of young Morris Johnson? Starring a stunning and savvy ex-cop who’s tough and compassionate, this new series takes the readers into the heart of Harlem, from the stylish townhouses of Strivers Row to the clubs where jazz immortals jam the night away to the vicious crack houses of New York. It’s the debut of a heroine who’s sure to take her place in the bestselling company of V.I. Warshawski and Kinsey Millhone."


Click for more detail about Having Your Baby: For the Special Needs of Black Mothers-To-Be, from Conception to Newborn Care by Hilda Hutcherson Having Your Baby: For the Special Needs of Black Mothers-To-Be, from Conception to Newborn Care

by Hilda Hutcherson
One World (Mar 25, 1997)
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African-American women face unique challenges during pregnancy. Here is a they can turn to for medical information, health advice, and emotional support during this exhilarating, and sometimes anxious, time. Dr. Hilda Hutcherson, an esteemed Ob-Gyn, explains all the bodily changes, feelings, and medical procedures you may encounter when pregnant. From planning a pregnancy to caring for your newborn, Dr. Hutcherson provides comforting wisdom from her years of experience as a doctor and mother of four. Most important, she addresses such potential risks as fibroid, diabetes, lupus, high blood pressure, and skin conditions.

This extraordinary resource offers medically sound and reassuring advice on choosing a care provider … caring for yourself successfully in each trimester … the signs and symptoms that necessitate a call to a health care practitioner…minimizing the chances of birth defects … breastfeeding basics … and much more.

The first childbirth encyclopedia written for African-American mothers-to-be, Having Your Baby addresses all the issues, concerns, and questions you may have about pregnancy and childbirth.


Click for more detail about Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! by Eleanora E. Tate Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!

by Eleanora E. Tate
Yearling (Mar 01, 1997)
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Mary Eloise is disappointed that the part she gets in the school play is that of Black History narrator—but two storytellers visit her school and change how she views her heritage.


Click for more detail about And This Too Shall Pass: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris And This Too Shall Pass: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
Anchor (Feb 17, 1997)
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A stellar quarterback, an ambitious sportscaster. What happens when rising stars collide?In And This Too Shall Pass, Harris takes us into the locker rooms and newsrooms of Chicago, where four lives are about to intersect in romance and scandal. At the heart of the novel is the celibate Zurich, a rookiequarterback for the Chicago Cougars whose trajectory for superstardom is interrupted by a sexual assault charge by Mia, a sportscaster with her own sights on fame. With his career in jeopardy, Zurich hires Tamela, a high-powered attorney, to defend him, while Sean, a gay sportswriter, covers the story and uncovers his heart.All of these characters face the challenge of keeping the faith—in themselves and in God—while Harris’s heartfelt storytelling reveals how the love of family can help one to face the terrible legacy of long-held secrets. Throughout these characters’ search for self-knowledge, Harris weaves the stories of MamaCee, Zurich’s grandmother, whose lessons of faith teach one and all that "this too shall pass."Breaking new ground in contemporary fiction, And This Too Shall Pass entertains and affirms with its stirring message about the healing power of family and faith.


Click for more detail about The Seven League Boots by Albert Murray The Seven League Boots

by Albert Murray
Vintage (Feb 04, 1997)
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In the triumphant concluding volume of the trilogy that began with Whistle Guitar and The Spyglass Tree, Albert Murray gives us what is at once an African American coming-of-age novel and a pitch-perfect evocation of a touring jazz band at the height of the Swing era. Murray’s hero, Scooter, graduates from an Alabama college and becomes a bass player in an ensemble headed by the legendary Bossman. As Scooter criss-crosses the United States, he and his bandmates find themselves retracing Sherman’s march to the sea, the Underground Railroad, and the conquest of the West. The Seven League Boots is nothing less than a jazz epic, so vivid, high-spirited, and infectious that readers will tap their feet to the music of its prose.



"A work of joy, of celebration…a great work of art, a rich and moving song of the human spirit."—Los Angeles Times


"A fictional tale spinner in the grand Southern tradition."—Washington Post Book World


Click for more detail about Embracing the Fire: Sisters Talk About Sex and Relationships by Julia A. Boyd Embracing the Fire: Sisters Talk About Sex and Relationships

by Julia A. Boyd
Dutton (Feb 01, 1997)
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Examines the sex lives of African American women in their own words and explores the sexual relationships of Black men and women


Click for more detail about In the Company of My Sisters by Julia A. Boyd In the Company of My Sisters

by Julia A. Boyd
Plume (Feb 01, 1997)
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"This is the first self-help book by a psychotherapist to examine the realities of black women’s lives and their shared problems." Midwest Book Reveiw.


Click for more detail about Cornrows by Camille Yarbrough Cornrows

by Camille Yarbrough
Puffin Books (Jan 27, 1997)
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Every design has a name and means something in the powerful past and present richness of the Black tradition.

Mama’s and Great-Grammaw’s gentle fingers weave the design, and their lulling voices weave the tale, as they braid their children’s hair into the striking cornrow patterns of Africa.


Click for more detail about Seduced by Nelson George Seduced

by Nelson George
One World/Ballantine (Jan 21, 1997)
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"[A] smart, funny, and wonderfully resonant novel … It’s the 1980s, and aspiring songwriter Derek Harper is a man easily seduced. Not only do the Big Three *money, fame, and women *keep him running, but Harper falls prey to subtler forms of seduction as well: the ease of rationalizing bad behavior, abdicating responsibility, and keeping the whole world at arm’s length. All these issues are brilliantly interwoven with a behind-the-scenes look at the music industry, particularly the evolution of rap."

*Los Angeles Times Book Review



"Seduced is at its most compelling when author Nelson George delves into the differences between life in the projects and the middle-class heaven of St. Albans and how it evolved over thirty years… . George’s style is, well, seductive, luring the reader into a world that takes in the range of black experience funneled through the music industry."

*St. Petersburg Times



"Seduced shows Nelson George at the top of his game doing what he does best: zinging the black music biz. The road chapters alone have enough shrill wit, stabbing satire, and tight accuracy to parallel the life of anyone who’s ever been out there during the Reagan-stressed ’80s."

*Houston Chronicle



"In Seduced, Nelson keeps it real. This is a sex story, a New York story, and a music biz story rolled into one, starring a humble, beautifully average middle-class dreamer, who’s not unlike a male version of a Terry McMillan heroine."

*Touré

Book Review

Click for more detail about The Future of the Race by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel West The Future of the Race

by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel West
Vintage (Jan 14, 1997)
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Almost one-hundred years ago, W.E.B. Du Bois proposed the notion of the "talented tenth," an African American elite that would serve as leaders and models for the larger black community. In this unprecedented collaboration, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Cornel West—two of Du Bois’s most prominent intellectual descendants—reassess that relationship and its implications for the future of black Americans. If the 1990s are the best of times for the heirs of the Talented Tenth, they are unquestionably worse for the growing black underclass. As they examine the origins of this widening gulf and propose solutions for it, Gates and West combine memoir and biography, social analysis and cultural survey into a book that is incisive and compassionate, cautionary and deeply stirring.



"Today’s most public African American intellectual voices…West and Gates have made a valuable contribution."—Julian Bond, Philadelphia Inquirer


"Brilliant…a social, cultural and political blueprint…that attempts to illumine the future path for blacks and American democracy."—New York Daily News


"Henry Louis Gates., Jr., and Cornel West are among the most renowned American intellectuals of our time."—New York Times Book Review


Click for more detail about The All-American Skin Game, Or Decoy Of Race: The Long And The Short Of It, 1990-1994 by Stanley Crouch The All-American Skin Game, Or Decoy Of Race: The Long And The Short Of It, 1990-1994

by Stanley Crouch
Vintage (Jan 14, 1997)
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In this brilliantly acerbic collection of essays—a New York Times Notable Book in 1995—Stanley Crouch confirms that he is one of the most eloquent and unpredictable commentators on race and culture in American society—something already known to anyone who’s seen him on 60 Minutes or read his columns in The Village Voice and The New Republic. 288 pp. National media appearances.


Click for more detail about Smart Money Moves for African-Americans by Kelvin Boston Smart Money Moves for African-Americans

by Kelvin Boston
TarcherPerigee (Jan 01, 1997)
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The host of PBS’s The Color of Money presents his bestselling guide to personal wealth for African Americans.
 
Nationally renowned financial expert Kelvin Boston offers basic money management advice tailored for African Americans. It is an inspiring, clearly written, and easy-to-use book that will show readers the smart money moves they need to make to start on the road to financial security.


Click for more detail about Land to Light On by Dionne Brand Land to Light On

by Dionne Brand
McClelland & Stewart (Jan 01, 1997)
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Click for more detail about Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times by Karen Grigsby Bates Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times

by Karen Grigsby Bates
Doubleday (Dec 30, 1996)
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Some call it polite behavior,or good manners.  Others call it proper breeding, but to most African  Americans its simply called “home training.” Now in Basic Black, authors  Karen Grigsby Bates and Karen E. Hudson offer a modern guide for gracious living.

Contrary to the more traditional etiquette books  that most African Americans may find stodgy,  off-putting, and culturally alien, Basic Blackis for real people who live  real lives—and addresses many of the   issues of a growing black middle class who want to live riche without seeming noveau. Straightforward,  user-friendly and illustrated with line drawings,  Basic Black includes all the  information any well-mannered person would want to know about the social rites of passage (marriage, birth, christening, death), the new corporate workplace (standard work issues and the more delicate issue of race and its impact in an integrated  workplace), various occasions (having guests or being a guest at one’s summer home, etc.), and everyday rules and rituals that make living in hectic times a  little easier.

For singles and families alike, Basic Black takes the mystery out of conventional etiquette and will arm the reader with the ability to be  comfortable and confident in just about any situation.


Click for more detail about The Dancing Mind: Speech Upon Acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished C Ontribution to American Letters by Toni Morrison The Dancing Mind: Speech Upon Acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished C Ontribution to American Letters

by Toni Morrison
Knopf Publishing Group (Dec 24, 1996)
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On the occasion of her acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on the sixth of November, 1996, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison speaks with brevity and passion to the pleasures, the difficulties, the necessities, of the reading/writing life in our time.


Click for more detail about The Dream Keeper: And Other Poems by Langston Hughes The Dream Keeper: And Other Poems

by Langston Hughes
Alfred A. Knopf (Dec 03, 1996)
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Illus. in black-and-white. This classic collection of poetry is available in
a handsome new gift edition that includes seven additional poems written after
"The Dream Keeper" was first published. In a larger format, featuring
Brian Pinkney’s scratchboard art on every spread, Hughes’s inspirational
message to young people is as relevant today as it was in 1932. "There’s no
better way to show kids what poetry is about than to share this
collection."— "Booklist."


Click for more detail about Patches of Fire: A Story of War and Redemption by Albert French Patches of Fire: A Story of War and Redemption

by Albert French
Doubleday (Dec 01, 1996)
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Personal, lyrical, and extraordinary, Patches of Fire is a memorable exploration of the black soldier’s experience in Vietnam, the plight of the Vietnam veteran, and the redemptive power of writing.

With the same passion for truth and stunning honesty that marks his highly acclaimed fiction, Albert French’s remarkable memoir tells the story of a young man’s encounter with a war and with deaths beyond his understanding; of his return to a country torn by racial unrest in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and of his painstaking efforts to defeat his inner demons and make a place for himself as a black man in white America.

With a starkness tempered by humor, French brings to life the horrors of Vietnam, and recounts in compelling detail his uneasy tenure as a newspaper photographer, his heady days as publisher of his own magazine, his confrontations with the ghostly images of Vietnam that haunted his dreams—and the sense of renewal and purpose he achieved as a novelist.


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Click for more detail about Blue Tights by Rita Williams-Garcia Blue Tights

by Rita Williams-Garcia
Puffin Books (Dec 01, 1996)
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Joyce Collins desperately wants to be accepted into the popular circle, and when she is cut from the ballet recital, she is devastated, until she joins an African dance troupe and quickly discovers a place where she truly feels she belongs. Reprint. H.


Click for more detail about AN Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio by Judith Ortiz Cofer AN Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio

by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Puffin Books (Dec 01, 1996)
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A collection of stories captures the lives of different teenagers growing up in the barrio, including Rita, who goes to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico; Luis, who spends his days working at his father’s junkyard; and Sandra, who tries to rediscover her natural Latino beauty. Reprint. PW. AB. SLJ.


Click for more detail about Kofi and His Magic by Maya Angelou Kofi and His Magic

by Maya Angelou
Crown Books for Young Readers (Nov 05, 1996)
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A collaborative effort by Angelou and Margaret Courtney-Clarke.


Click for more detail about The Secret of Gumbo Grove by Eleanora E. Tate The Secret of Gumbo Grove

by Eleanora E. Tate
Yearling (Nov 01, 1996)
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Raisin Stackhouse doesn’t mind doing odd jobs for old Miss Effie Pfluggins, but when Miss Effie talks her into cleaning up the old church cemetery, she has no idea what trouble she might dig up. Mama says Miss Effie talks much too much, but Raisin loves hearing her remember the old days—especially when one of her stories puts Raisin smack in the middle of real-life mystery.

When Raisin is grounded for sneaking a night out, she not only misses her chance to compete in the Miss Ebony Pageant, but her efforts to uncover the famous person buried in the cemetery are brought to a half, too. Somehow Raisin’s got to solve the big mystery no one in town wants to talk about. Will her discovery bring her glory, or is the past better off left buried?


From the Paperback edition.


Click for more detail about The Sun, the Sea, a Touch of Wind by Rosa Guy The Sun, the Sea, a Touch of Wind

by Rosa Guy
Plume (Nov 01, 1996)
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Vivid, intriguing, and lyrical, The Sun, the Sea, a Touch of the Wind evokes the beauty and culture of the Caribbean, and passionately portrays an African-American woman’s struggle to define herself and her relation to the world around her. "Expansive … hones, intriguing … a rich brocade on the human condition."—The Boston Globe.


Click for more detail about Dinner with Persephone by Patricia Storace Dinner with Persephone

by Patricia Storace
Pantheon Books (Oct 08, 1996)
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With winning detail and infectious humor, award-winning poet and essayist Patricia Storace magically conjures up noisy, anarchist cities and quiet, idyllic towns and harbors where the unseen worlds of the pastthe Roman, the Byzantine, the Ottomancontinuing to make thier presence felt.


Click for more detail about Don’t Block the Blessings by Patti Labelle Don’t Block the Blessings

by Patti Labelle
Riverhead Hardcover (Oct 04, 1996)
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From lead singer with the Blue Belles in the ’60s to Grammy Award winner in the ’90s, the enduring career of Patti LaBelle is one for the books. In Don’t Block the Blessings, Patti reveals the exciting story of her rise to fame, describes how she overcame serious career setbacks, and writes frankly about her own personal tragedies.


Click for more detail about Journey To Justice by Johnnie Cochran Journey To Justice

by Johnnie Cochran
One World/Ballantine (Sep 30, 1996)
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He’s become a household name: Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., the brilliant orator and legal strategist who captained the Dream Team in the trial of the century. But behind the man the media created is a story of a life spent in the trenches of the American legal system, fighting not for clients as high-profile as O. J. Simpson, but for individuals whose voices are too often silenced. Journey to Justice  is an unflinching portrait of Johnnie Cochran and the legal system that he has so profoundly influenced. It will forever change our understanding of what works and what doesn’t in America’s most noble and troubling institution.


From the Paperback edition.


Click for more detail about Marie in Fourth Position by Amy Littlesugar Marie in Fourth Position

by Amy Littlesugar
Philomel Books (Sep 09, 1996)
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Marie’s dream is to dance beneath the spotlight in the Paris Opera, but she finds herself only a "rat" in the chorus, until Marie’s parents send her to pose for master artist Edgar Degas and he leads her to an unforgettable pose that wins the heart of all Paris.


Click for more detail about Mandela by Floyd Cooper Mandela

by Floyd Cooper
Philomel Books (Sep 09, 1996)
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Nelson Mandela is admired and respected the world over. Now, for the first time in picture book form, children can experience the story of how this son of a village tribal chief who came to be the revered political leader he is today. This stunning biography introduces readers to a multifaceted Mandela—from schoolboy to father to rebel to leader. Full color.


Click for more detail about Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime: Stories by J. California Cooper Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime: Stories

by J. California Cooper
Anchor (Sep 01, 1996)
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Whether through her stories or her legendary readings, J. California Cooper has an uncanny ability to reach out to readers like an old and dear friend.  Her characters are plain-spoken and direct: simple people for whom life, despite its ever-present struggles, is always worth the journey.

In Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime, Cooper’s characteristic themes of romance, heartbreak, struggle and faith resonate.  We meet Darlin, a self-proclaimed femme fatale who uses her wiles to try to find a husband; MLee, whose life seems to be coming to an end at the age of forty until she decides to set out and see if she can make a new life for herself; Kissy and Buddy, both trying and failing to find them until they finally meet each other; and Aberdeen, whose daughter Uniqua shows her how to educate herself and move up in the world.

These characters and others offer inspiration, laughter, instruction and pure enjoyment in what is one of J. California Cooper’s finest story collections.


Click for more detail about Love: What Life Is All About by Leo F. Buscaglia Love: What Life Is All About

by Leo F. Buscaglia
Ballantine Books (Aug 27, 1996)
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This book is about love. What it is and what it isn’t. It is about you—and about everybody who has ever reached out to touch the heart of another. Among many other lessons of the heart, Leo Buscaglia reminds us: Love is open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself.


From the Paperback edition.


Click for more detail about So Good by Venise Berry So Good

by Venise Berry
Dutton Adult (Aug 01, 1996)
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Conflicting desires for independence and security mark the actions and relationships of Lisa, Danielle, and Sundi, three Washington, D.C., women whose rapport sees them through difficult demands of love, commitment, family, career, and friendship. A first novel. 20,000 first printing. Tour.


Click for more detail about Japanese by Spring by Ishmael Reed Japanese by Spring

by Ishmael Reed
Penguin Books (Aug 01, 1996)
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Benjamin "Chappie" Puttbutt, a black juior professor at the overwhelmingly white Jack London College, lusts after tenure and its glorious perks (including a house in the Oakland Hills). He spends most of his time trying to divine the ideological climate of the school and obligingly adapting his beliefs to it. When Puttbutt’s mysterious Japanese tutor, who promises to teach him Japanese by spring, suddenly becomes the school’s new president and appoints Puttbutt as academic dean, the fun really begins—for Puttbutt sets out to stir things up and settle old scores.Turning every contemporary political and social movement on its head—from feminism to nationalism to jingoism—this boistrois and irreverent novel manages to be by turns hilarious and totally serious."One of the funniest satires of university politics I’ve ever read. Ishmael Reed is funnier than Norman Mailer or Gore Vidal." —Leslie Marmon Silko"Reed is, as always, an American original; a wiseguy whose wisdom is the real thing," —The Boston Sunday Globe


Click for more detail about A Different Beat by Candy Dawson Boyd A Different Beat

by Candy Dawson Boyd
Puffin Books (Jul 01, 1996)
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Jessie soon discovers the difficulties of studying acting at Oakland Performing Arts Middle School, as she copes with a full schedule, the need to keep up her grades, a prejudiced teacher, and an eloquent rival. By the author of Chevrolet Saturdays. Original.


Click for more detail about Skin Deep: Black Women & White Women Write About Race by Marita Golden Skin Deep: Black Women & White Women Write About Race

by Marita Golden
Anchor (Jul 01, 1996)
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Candid, poignant, provocative, and informative, the essays and stories in Skin Deep explore a wide spectrum of racial issues between black and white women, from self-identity and competition to childrearing and friendship. Eudora Welty contributes a bittersweet story of a one-hundred-year-old black woman whose spirit is as determined and strong as anything in nature. Bestselling author Naomi Wolf recalls her first exposure to racism growing up, examining the subtle forms it can take even among well-meaning people; bell hooks writes about the intersection between black women and feminist politics; and Joyce Carol Oates includes a one-act play in which racial stereotypes are reversed. Among the other writers featured in the collection are Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Susan Straight, Mary Morris, and Beverly Lowry. A groundbreaking anthology that reveals surprising insights and hidden truths to a subject too often clouded by misperceptions and easy assumptions,  Skin Deep is a major contribution to understanding our culture.


Click for more detail about The Shimmershine Queens by Camille Yarbrough The Shimmershine Queens

by Camille Yarbrough
Puffin Books (Jun 18, 1996)
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Angie and Michelle are best friends, facing the very real problems of growing up in a tough inner-city neighborhood where it’s sometimes not considered "cool," or even safe, to be smart or to have kinky hair and dark skin. That is until 90-year-old Cousin Seatta comes to visit and teaches Angie and Michelle about the shimmershine feeling, that good feeling and pride which people have for their racial heritage and physical features.


Click for more detail about American Dreams by Sapphire American Dreams

by Sapphire
Vintage (Jun 18, 1996)
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In the tradition of Alice Walker, this electrifying new African American voice delivers the verdict on the urban condition in a sensual, propulsive, and prophetic book of poetry and prose.

Whether she is writing about an enraged teenager gone "wilding" in Central Park, fifteen-year-old Latasha Harlins gunned down by a Korean grocer, or a brutalized child who grows up to escape her probable fate through the miracle of art, Sapphire’s vision in this collection of poetry and prose is unswervingly honest.

"Stunning … . One of the strongest debut collections of the ’90s."—Publishers Weekly


Click for more detail about Smart Money Moves For African Americans by Kelvin Boston Smart Money Moves For African Americans

by Kelvin Boston
Putnam (Jun 18, 1996)
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Seven steps to financial success for African-Americans include getting out of debt, saving money, starting an investment club, developing a financial plan, providing a support system, maximizing savings returns, and financing a home.


Click for more detail about The Price Of A Child: A Novel by Lorene Cary The Price Of A Child: A Novel

by Lorene Cary
Vintage (Jun 11, 1996)
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With Price of a Child—the story of Ginnie Pryor (cook, mistress and servant to a Virginia planter) and her struggle with slavery in 1855—Cary continues has created a work that elevates the reputation she created with Black Ice, her memoir which won her comparisons to Maya Angelou and Richard Wright. In a novel that examines the price of freedom and the value of a child’s life, Price of a Child is "a stunning achievement…a deeply engrossing story…. Cary’s impeccable research and seamless narrative carry us along" (Philadelphia Inquirer).


Click for more detail about The Richer, The Poorer by Dorothy West The Richer, The Poorer

by Dorothy West
Anchor (Jun 01, 1996)
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On the heels of the bestseller success of her  novel The Wedding, Dorothy West,  the last surviving member of the Harlem  Renaissance, presents a collection of essays and stories that  explore both the realism of everyday life, and the  fantastical, extraordinary circumstances of one  woman’s life in a mythic time. Traversing the  universal themes and conflicts between poverty and  prosperity, men and women, and young and old, and  compiling writing that spans almost seventy years,  The Richer, The Poorer not only  affords an unparalleled window into the  African-American middle class, but also delves into the  richness of experience of "one of the finest writers  produced in this country during the Roaring  Twenties"(Book Page).


Click for more detail about Grandpa’s Face by Eloise Greenfield Grandpa’s Face

by Eloise Greenfield
Puffin Books (May 07, 1996)
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This picture book tells the reassuring story of family love and the special bond between a grandparent and grandchild. The little girl knows her grandfather’s expressions until one day she sees him practising for the theatre, his appearance frightens her.


Click for more detail about Streetlights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience by Martin Simmons Streetlights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience

by Martin Simmons
Penguin Books (May 01, 1996)
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The editors have gathered together 50 moving, insightful works by a group of emerging and established contemporary black writers. Whether they are written by long-time urban dwellers, temporary inhabitants, or people just passing through American cities, the stories are all rooted in the ethnicity of their authors as it intersects with contemporary urban America, at once one of the most terrifying and exciting places in the world.


Click for more detail about The Souls of Black Folk: Includes “The Talented Tenth” and ”The Souls of White Folk” by W.E.B. Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk: Includes “The Talented Tenth” and ”The Souls of White Folk”

by W.E.B. Du Bois
Penguin Classics (Apr 01, 1996)
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The landmark book about being Black in America, now in an expanded edition commemorating the 150th anniversary of W. E. B. Du Bois’s birth and featuring a new introduction by Ibram X. Kendi, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist, and cover art by Kadir Nelson

“The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.”

When The Souls of Black Folk was first published in 1903 (A. C. McClurg & Company), it had a galvanizing effect on the conversation about race in America—and it remains both a touchstone in the literature of African America and a beacon in the fight for civil rights. Believing that one can know the “soul” of a race by knowing the souls of individuals, W. E. B. Du Bois combines history and stirring autobiography to reflect on the magnitude of American racism and to chart a path forward against oppression, and introduces the now-famous concepts of the color line, the veil, and double-consciousness.

This edition of Du Bois’s visionary masterpiece includes two additional essays that have become essential reading: “The Souls of White Folk,” from his 1920 book Darkwater, and “The Talented Tenth.”

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about Go And Tell Pharaoh by Al Sharpton Go And Tell Pharaoh

by Al Sharpton
Knopf (Mar 01, 1996)
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The personal memoirs of controversial figure Reverend Al Sharpton follow the tragedy that tore his family apart, his childhood ordination, his civil rights efforts, the Berhard Goetz subway incident, and more. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. Tour.


Click for more detail about No Telephone to Heaven by Michelle Cliff No Telephone to Heaven

by Michelle Cliff
Plume (Mar 01, 1996)
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A brilliant Jamaican-American writer takes on the themes of colonialism, race, myth, and political awakening.

The structure of No Telephone to Heaven combines naturalism and lyricism, and traverses space and time, dream and reality, myth and history, reflecting the fragmentation of the protagonist, who nonetheless seeks wholeness and connection. In this deply poetic novel there exist several levels: the world Clare encounters, and a world of which she only gradually becomes aware – a world of extreme poverty, the real Jamaica, not the Jamaica of the middle class, not the Jamaica of the tourist. And Jamaica – almost a character in the book – is described in terms of extraordinary beauty, coexisting with deep human tragedy.

The violence that rises out of extreme oppression, the divided loyalties of a colonized person, sexual dividedness, and the dividedness of a person neither white nor black – all of these are truths that Clare must face. Overarching all the themes in this exceptionally fine novel is the need to become whole, and the decisions and the courage demanded to achieve that wholeness.


Click for more detail about The Little Tree Growin’ In The Shade by Camille Yarbrough The Little Tree Growin’ In The Shade

by Camille Yarbrough
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (Feb 07, 1996)
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A history of the African-American spiritual and its unique cultural significance discusses the origins of these songs in the music of slaves who used the songs as expressions of hope, fear, sorrow, and freedom. By the author of Cornrows.


Click for more detail about Just Family by Tonya Bolden Just Family

by Tonya Bolden
Dutton (Feb 01, 1996)
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Participating in a special anniversary celebration for her parents in 1965 Harlem, ten-year-old Beryl is shocked and hurt when she learns that her older sister, Randy, is really her half-sister.


Click for more detail about Cold Medina: A Novel of Suspense by Gary Hardwick Cold Medina: A Novel of Suspense

by Gary Hardwick
Dutton (Feb 01, 1996)
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Tracking a white serial killer of African-American gang members in downtown Detroit, detective Tony Hill must capture the murderer while the city erupts in race-related violence all around him. A first novel. 25,000 first printing.


Click for more detail about Night on Neighborhood Street (Picture Puffins) by Eloise Greenfield Night on Neighborhood Street (Picture Puffins)

by Eloise Greenfield
Puffin Books (Feb 01, 1996)
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A rich collection of original poems celebrates the sights, sounds, and emotions of an African-American neighborhood over the course of a single evening. Reprint. Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Reading Rainbow. AB. K. SLJ.


Click for more detail about No Disrespect by Sister Souljah No Disrespect

by Sister Souljah
Vintage Books (Jan 30, 1996)
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Rapper, activist, and hip-hop rebel, Sister Souljah possesses the most passionate and articulate voice to emerge from the projects. Now she uses that voice to deliver what is at once a fiercely candid autobiography and a survival manual for any African American woman determined to keep her heart open and her integrity intact in 1990s America.


Click for more detail about Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America—An Anthology by Herb Boyd and Robert L. Allen Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America—An Anthology

by Herb Boyd and Robert L. Allen
One World/Ballantine (Jan 30, 1996)
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"[AN] OUTSTANDING COLLECTION…
The powerful opening excerpt by Frederick Douglass evokes his boyhood as a slave, and the collection closes with an eloquent discussion of the race problem today by Cornel West. A distinguished addition to black studies."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The purpose of this extraordinary anthology is made abundantly clear by the editors’ stated intention: "to create a living mosaic of essays and stories in which Black men can view themselves, and be viewed without distortion." In this, they have succeeded brilliantly. Brotherman contains more than one hundred and fifty selections, some never before published—from slave narratives, memoirs, social histories, novels, poems, short stories, biographies, autobiographies, position papers, and essays.
Brotherman books us passage to the world that Black men experience as adolescents, lovers, husbands, fathers, workers, warriors, and elders. On this journey they encounter pain, confusion, anger, and love while confronting the life-threatening issues of race, sex, and politics—often as strangers in a strange land. The first collection of its kind, Brotherman gathers together a multitude of voices that add a new, unforgettable chapter to American cultural identity.


Click for more detail about Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

by J. Nozipo Maraire
Crown (Jan 16, 1996)
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In an extraordinary novel—written as a letter from a Zimbabwean mother to her daughter, a student at Harvard—Maraire transforms the lessons of life into a lyrical narrative about love, war, separation, and the very meaning of being a woman.


Click for more detail about The Hero And the Blues by Albert Murray The Hero And the Blues

by Albert Murray
Vintage (Jan 16, 1996)
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Book by Murray, Albert


Click for more detail about To Be Young, Gifted and Black by Lorraine Hansberry To Be Young, Gifted and Black

by Lorraine Hansberry
Vintage (Jan 03, 1996)
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In her first play, the now-classic A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry introduced the lives of ordinary African Americans into our national theatrical repertory. Now, Hansberry tells her own life story in an autobiography that rings with the voice of its creator. "Brilliantly alive."—The New York Times.


Click for more detail about Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman by Alan Schroeder Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman

by Alan Schroeder
Puffin Books (Jan 01, 1996)
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This is the story of young Harriet Tubman, then called "Minty". A slave in the Brodas household, she is often punished for her feisty, rebellious spirit, and always, above all, dreams of escape.


Click for more detail about The Wedding: A Novel by Dorothy West The Wedding: A Novel

by Dorothy West
Anchor (Jan 01, 1996)
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An Oprah Winfrey Presents Mini-Series on ABC Network Television Starring Halle Berry

In her last novel, Dorothy West, an iconic member of the Harlem Renaissance, offers an intimate glimpse into African American middle class.  Set on bucolic Martha’s Vineyard in the 1950s, The Wedding tells the story of life in the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast’s black bourgeoisie.  Within this inner circle of "blue-vein society," we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from "a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions." Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.

With elegant, luminous prose, Dorothy West crowns her literary career by illustrating one family’s struggle to break the shackles of race and class.


Click for more detail about Seven Guitars (1940s Century Cycle) by August Wilson Seven Guitars (1940s Century Cycle)

by August Wilson
Plume (Jan 01, 1996)
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and The Piano Lesson
Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play

It is the spring of 1948. In the still cool evenings of Pittsburgh’s Hill district, familiar sounds fill the air. A rooster crows. Screen doors slam. The laughter of friends gathered for a backyard card game rises just above the wail of a mother who has lost her son. And there’s the sound of the blues, played and sung by young men and women with little more than a guitar in their hands and a dream in their hearts.August Wilson’s Seven Guitars is the sixth chapter in his continuing theatrical saga that explores the hope, heartbreak, and heritage of the African-American experience in the twentieth century. The story follows a small group of friends who gather following the untimely death of Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton, a local blues guitarist on the edge of stardom. Together, they reminisce about his short life and discover the unspoken passions and undying spirit that live within each of them.


Click for more detail about Saving Our Sons: Raising Black Children in a Turbulent World by Marita Golden Saving Our Sons: Raising Black Children in a Turbulent World

by Marita Golden
Anchor (Dec 01, 1995)
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When Marita Golden decided to write her personal account of the challenges of raising a black son in today’s world, she didn’t intend to write more than her own family’s story. But through the story of raising her son against the backdrop of a racially divided society, Golden discovered she was also confronting the causes of the violence that surrounds African-American men.

In the fierecely lyrical and revealing narrative of Saving Our Sons, she has created a work of profound and lasting importance?one that sensitively and uniquely addresses the problems of boyhood and emerging manhood. It is a book that issues a clarion call: The survival of our cities, if not our society, depends on our finding a way to save our sons.


Click for more detail about The Writing Life: A Collection of Essays and Interviews by Neil Baldwin The Writing Life: A Collection of Essays and Interviews

by Neil Baldwin
Random House (Nov 21, 1995)
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A collection of essays by and interviews with America’s finest writers about their working lives, this book has been published to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the National Book Awards. Includes 10 pages of photos.


Click for more detail about African-American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology by Al Young African-American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology

by Al Young
Watson-Guptill Publications (Nov 01, 1995)
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These brief anthologies of ethnic American literature are ideal for ethnic, multicultural and American literature courses. They are designed to introduce undergraduates to the rich but often neglected literary contributions of established and newer ethnic writers to American literature. Each text is organized chronologically by genre and represent a wide range of literature.


Click for more detail about The Final Passage by Caryl Phillips The Final Passage

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Oct 31, 1995)
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As nineteen-year-old Leila surveys her island home from the ship that will carry her, her husband, and baby to England, she contemplates the Caribbean life of the 1950s that is chaotic, hand-to-mouth, and offers no way but out.


Click for more detail about Higher Ground by Caryl Phillips Higher Ground

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Oct 31, 1995)
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Covering three ages, this novel begins in the Caribbean with the slave trade at its height and moves into the 1960s with a series of letters from prison of a black American convict to his family. The final part, set in England, tells of a West Indian who is determined to leave for his native land.


Click for more detail about The Collected Poems Of Langston Hughes (Vintage Classics) by Langston Hughes The Collected Poems Of Langston Hughes (Vintage Classics)

by Langston Hughes
Vintage (Oct 31, 1995)
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"The ultimate book for both the dabbler and serious scholar—. [Hughes] is sumptuous and sharp, playful and sparse, grounded in an earthy music—. This book is a glorious revelation."—Boston Globe

Spanning five decades and comprising 868 poems (nearly 300 of which have never before appeared in book form), this magnificent volume is the definitive sampling of a writer who has been called the poet laureate of African America—and perhaps our greatest popular poet since Walt Whitman.  Here, for the first time, are all the poems that Langston Hughes published during his lifetime, arranged in the general order in which he wrote them and annotated by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel.

Alongside such famous works as "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and Montage of a Dream Deferred, The Collected Poems includes the author’s lesser-known verse for children; topical poems distributed through the Associated Negro Press; and poems such as "Goodbye Christ" that were once suppressed.  Lyrical and pungent, passionate and polemical, the result is a treasure of a book, the essential collection of a poet whose words have entered our common language.


Click for more detail about A Fence Away From Freedom by Ellen S. Levine A Fence Away From Freedom

by Ellen S. Levine
Putnam Juvenile (Oct 17, 1995)
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A series of interviews with Japanese Americans, who were placed in internment camps during World War II merely because they had Japanese ancestry, reveals how they lost businesses, homes, and personal possessions.


Click for more detail about To Be Real: Telling The Truth And Changing The Face Of Feminism by Rebecca Walker To Be Real: Telling The Truth And Changing The Face Of Feminism

by Rebecca Walker
Anchor (Oct 01, 1995)
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An anthology of essays by up-and-coming feminist and gay writers reevaluates the objectives and philosophy of the feminist movement, calling for more emphasis on liberating women than guarding their sexual behavior.


Click for more detail about Daddy, Daddy, Be There by Candy Dawson Boyd Daddy, Daddy, Be There

by Candy Dawson Boyd
Philomel Books (Sep 12, 1995)
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In a collection of poetry celebrating fatherhood, children offer a heartwarming, poignant appeal to their fathers to support them as they cope with school, changes in personal relationships, grief, dreams, and growing up.


Click for more detail about President’s Daughter by Barbara Chase-Riboud President’s Daughter

by Barbara Chase-Riboud
Ballantine Books (Sep 11, 1995)
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"Barbara Chase-Riboud writes with a quill of eloquence that is indeed a sword, sounding with the spirituality of Toni Morrison and the passion of Charles Dickens."
—Elaine Brown
Author of A Taste of Power
Barbara Chase-Riboud made literary history with Sally Hemings, the controversial bestseller that told the story of the woman who was Thomas Jefferson’s mistress, mother of his children, and the slave he would never set free. Now the provocative chronicle of Sally Hemings continues, in this rich, sweeping novel of Harriet Hemings, the beautiful and headstrong slave daughter of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson.
Allowed to run away from Monticello as Jefferson had promised, Harriet passes for white in the stormy era leading up to the Civil War. And then Harriet receives, from an anonymous sender, her brother Madison Hemings’ memoirs. Madison is living on the black side of the color line and Harriet realizes that someone in her circle, perhaps even her own husband, knows that she is indeed the president’s daughter.
"Chase-Riboud’s passion for history and her obsession with the contradictions of sex and race that underlay the founding of the union bring great richness to The President’s Daughter."
—San Francisco Chronicle


Click for more detail about Tanya’s Reunion: Sequel to the Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy Tanya’s Reunion: Sequel to the Patchwork Quilt

by Valerie Flournoy
Dial Books (Sep 01, 1995)
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When she and her grandmother go to help with preparations for a big family reunion, Tanya learns about the history of the farm in Virginia where Grandma grew up.


Click for more detail about Carolina Shout! by Alan Schroeder Carolina Shout!

by Alan Schroeder
Dial Books for Young Readers (Sep 01, 1995)
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Through the eyes of young Delia, who hears music wherever she goes, readers are transported to a bygone time in Charleston, South Carolina, when the shouts of vendors filled the city streets from morning till night. The Waffle Man, the Pepper-Sauce Man, the vegetable vendors, and others each had their own song, and this book is a reminder that their voices shouldn’t be forgotten. Full-color illustrations.


Click for more detail about In Search of Satisfaction by J. California Cooper In Search of Satisfaction

by J. California Cooper
Anchor (Sep 01, 1995)
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The folk flavor of her storytelling has earned her  constant comparison to Langston Hughes and Zora  Neale Hurston, but through four collections of  short stories and two novels, J. California Cooper  has proven that hers is a wholly original talent  —one that embraces readers in an ever-widening  circle from one book to the next. With In  Search Of Satisfaction, Cooper  gracefully portrays men and women, some good and others  wickedly twisted, caught in their individual  thickets of want and need. On a once-grand plantation  in Yoville, "a legal town-ship founded by the  very rich for their own personal use," a  freed slave named Josephus fathers two daughters,  Ruth and Yinyang, by two different women. His  desire, to give Yinyang and himself money and  opportunities, oozes through the family like an elixir,  melding with the equally strong yearnings of  Yoville’s other residents, whose tastes don’t  complement their neighbors’. What Josephus buries in his  life affects generations to come. J. California  Cooper’s unfettered view of sin, forgiveness, and  redemption gives In Search Of  Satisfaction a singular richness that belies its  universal themes.


Click for more detail about Brothers and Sisters by Bebe Moore Campbell Brothers and Sisters

by Bebe Moore Campbell
Berkley Books (Sep 01, 1995)
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"This book is about succeeding—and surviving—even being happy, in a society where every card seems stacked against you. If this is a fair world, Bebe Moore Campbell will be remembered as the most important African-American novelist of this century—except for, maybe, Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin."—Carolyn See, Washington Post Book Review


Click for more detail about Blanche among the Talented Tenth by Barbara Neely Blanche among the Talented Tenth

by Barbara Neely
Penguin Books (Sep 01, 1995)
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The heroine of the top-selling mystery Blanche on the Lam—black domestic worker extraordinaire, accidental sleuth Blanche White—is enlisted to use her considerable wiles to discover the link between a suicide and a murder, and uncovers a web of secrets that someone may be willing to kill for.


Click for more detail about Oxherding Tale by Charles Johnson Oxherding Tale

by Charles Johnson
Plume (Sep 01, 1995)
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One night in the antebellum South, a slaveowner and his African-American butler stay up to all hours drinking Madeira and playing cards. Finally, too besotted to face their respective wives, they drunkenly decide to switch places in each other’s beds. The result is a hilarious imbroglio and an offspring, Andrew Hawkins, whose life becomes the Oxherding Tale, a deliciously funny, bitterly ironic account of slavery, racism, oppression - and the African-American spirit - in the Old South. Through sexual escapades, picaresque adventures, and philosophical inquiry, young Hawkins walks the line between white and black worlds and comments wryly on marriage, human nature, slave catchers, and culture along the way.


Click for more detail about Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society by John Edgar Wideman Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society

by John Edgar Wideman
Vintage Books (Aug 29, 1995)
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With resonant artistry and unflagging directness, Wideman examines the tragedy of race and the gulf it cleaves between black fathers and black sons. He does so chiefly through the lens of his own relations with his remote father, producing a memoir that belongs alongside the classics of Richard Wright and Malcolm X.


Click for more detail about Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman Brothers and Keepers

by John Edgar Wideman
Vintage (Aug 29, 1995)
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As John Wideman was building a reputation as one of our finest writers, his brother Robby went from the streets of Philadelphia to a life sentence in prison for murder. As it weighs their shared bonds of blood, tenderness, and guilt, Brothers and Keepers yields an unsparing analysis of America’s racial contract.


Click for more detail about Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine: A Novel by Bebe Moore Campbell Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine: A Novel

by Bebe Moore Campbell
One World/Ballantine (Jun 27, 1995)
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"ABSORBING…COMPELLING…HIGHLY SATISFYING."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"TRULY ENGAGING…Campbell has a storyteller’s ear for dialogue and the visual sense of painting a picture and a place….There’s a steam that keeps the story moving as the characters, and later their children, wrestle through racial, personal and cultural crisis."
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
"REMARKABLE…POWERFUL."
—Time
"YOUR BLUES AIN’T LIKE MINE is rich, lush fiction set in rural Mississippi beginning in the mid-’50s. It is also a haunting reality flowing through Anywhere, U.S.A., in the ’90s….There’s love, rage and hatred, winning and losing, honor, abuse; in other words, humanity….Campbell now deserves recognition as the best of storytellers. Her writing sings."
—The Indianapolis News
"EXTRAORDINDARY."
—The Seattle Times
"A COMPELLING NARRATIVE…Campbell is a master when it comes to telling a story."
—Entertainment Weekly
YOUR BLUES AIN’T LIKE MINE won the NAACP Image Award for Best Literary Work of Fiction


Click for more detail about The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader by David Levering Lewis The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader

by David Levering Lewis
Penguin Group USA (Jun 01, 1995)
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From its beginnings in 1919, with soldiers returning from the Great War, to its sputtering end in 1934, with the Great Depression, the New Negro Movement in arts and letters proclaimed the experience of African American men and women. This magnificent volume features a wealth of fiction and nonfiction works by 45 writers from that exuberant era.


Click for more detail about Live From Death Row by Mumia Abu-Jamal Live From Death Row

by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Addison-Wesley (May 03, 1995)
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Awaiting execution for the murder of a Philadelphia policeman, the author describes the brutality and humiliation of prison life and argues that the justice system is racist and ruled by political expediency.


Click for more detail about Girlfriend to Girlfriend: Everyday Wisdom and Affirmations from the Sister Circle by Julia A. Boyd Girlfriend to Girlfriend: Everyday Wisdom and Affirmations from the Sister Circle

by Julia A. Boyd
Dutton (May 01, 1995)
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In an elegant gift-book, the circle of African-American women featured in In the Company of My Sisters offers inspiring, street-wise sayings, prayers, and affirmations on such everyday subjects as self-esteem, looks, family, sex, and money. 75,000 first printing. Tour.


Click for more detail about Gone Quiet by Eleanor Taylor Bland Gone Quiet

by Eleanor Taylor Bland
Berkley Books (May 01, 1995)
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Wishing she could kill her husband of thirty-five years, Gladys Hamilton is surprised when someone else beats her to it, and police detectives Marti MacAlister and Vic Jessenovik search for the truth about a shameful family secret. Reprint.


Click for more detail about Holly by Albert French Holly

by Albert French
Viking Press (May 01, 1995)
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A poor, white girl in 1944 North Carolina finds her lonely life transformed by a handsome, educated black soldier, but their romance is met by turmoil and hostility from the girl’s hometown. 30,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Book Review

Click for more detail about Blues for Mister Charlie: A Play by James Baldwin Blues for Mister Charlie: A Play

by James Baldwin
Vintage (Apr 25, 1995)
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In a small Southern town, a white man murders a black man, then throws his body in the weeds. With this act of violence—which is loosely based on the notorious 1955 killing of Emmett Till—James Baldwin launches an unsparing and at times agonizing probe of the wounds of race. For where once a white storekeeper could have shot a "boy" like Richard Henry with impunity, times have changed. And centuries of brutality and fear, patronage and contempt, are about to erupt in a moment of truth as devastating as a shotgun blast.
In his award-winning play, Baldwin turns a murder and its aftermath into an inquest in which even the most well-intentioned whites are implicated—and in which even a killer receives his share of compassion.


Click for more detail about Going to Meet the Man: Stories by James Baldwin Going to Meet the Man: Stories

by James Baldwin
Vintage (Apr 25, 1995)
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""There’s no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it.” The men and women in these eight short fictions grasp this truth on an elemental level, and their stories, as told by James Baldwin, detail the ingenious and often desperate ways in which they try to keep their head above water. It may be the heroin that a down-and-out jazz pianist uses to face the terror of pouring his life into an inanimate instrument. It may be the brittle piety of a father who can never forgive his son for his illegitimacy. Or it may be the screen of bigotry that a redneck deputy has raised to blunt the awful childhood memory of the day his parents took him to watch a black man being murdered by a gleeful mob.

By turns haunting, heartbreaking, and horrifying—and informed throughout by Baldwin’s uncanny knowledge of the wounds racism has left in both its victims and its perpetrators—Going to Meet the Man is a major work by one of our most important writers.


Click for more detail about Colored People: A Memoir by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Colored People: A Memoir

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Vintage (Apr 11, 1995)
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From an American Book Award-winning author comes a pungent and poignant masterpiece of recollection that ushers readers into a now-vanished "colored" world and extends and deepens our sense of African-American history, even as it entrances us with its bravura storytelling.


Click for more detail about Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin by Cornel West Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin

by Cornel West
Putnam Adult (Apr 06, 1995)
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Examining the issues that have united Blacks and Jews in the past and now separate them, two long-time friends and leading intellectuals try to restore the special relationship between the two groups in a hard-hitting and worthwhile exchange.


Click for more detail about Afrekete: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing by Catherine E. McKinley and Jocelyn Taylor Afrekete: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing

by Catherine E. McKinley and Jocelyn Taylor
Anchor Books (Apr 01, 1995)
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Destined to become a classic in the tradition of the best-selling Black-Eyed Susans/Midnight Birds and Erotique Noire/ Black Erotica. Afrekete gives collective voice to the tradition of black lesbian writing. In the vast and proliferating area of both African-American and lesbian and gay writing, the work of black lesbians is most often excluded or relegated to the margins. Afrekete meshes these seemingly disparate traditions and celebrates black lesbian experiences in all their variety and depth.

Elegant, timely, provocative, and inspiring, the fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in Afrekete — written in a range of styles — engage a variety of highly topical themes, placing them at the center of literary and social discourse. Beginning with “Tar Beach,” an excerpt from Audre Lorde’s celebrated memoir Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, which introduces the character Afrekete, the collection also includes such prominent writers as Michelle Cliff, Carolivia Herron, Jewelle Gomez, and Alexis De Veaux. Other pieces are by Jacqueline Woodson, Sapphire, Essence editor Linda Villarosa, and filmmaker Michelle Parkerson, with other contributions by exciting new writers Cynthia Bond, Jocelyn Taylor, Jamika Ajalon, and Sharee Nash.

Afrekete is a collection whose time has come. It is an extraordinary work, one of lasting value for all lovers of literature. A fresh, engaging journey, Afrekete will both inform and delight.


Click for more detail about Arthur Ashe On Tennis: Strokes, Strategy, Traditions, Players, Psychology, and Wisdom by Arthur Ashe Arthur Ashe On Tennis: Strokes, Strategy, Traditions, Players, Psychology, and Wisdom

by Arthur Ashe
Knopf (Mar 28, 1995)
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Featuring introductions by Billie Jean King, Lori McNeil, John McPhee, and George Vecsey, this collection of invaluable instructional advice and tennis wisdom from the late Arthur Ashe is infused with the finest insights of a great man and a great tennis mind.


Click for more detail about Discerner of Hearts by Olive Senior Discerner of Hearts

by Olive Senior
McClelland & Stewart (Mar 25, 1995)
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The nine vividly rendered stories of place and character in Discerner of Hearts are set in Jamaica, both rural and urban, some present-day, others looking back several decades. Senior’s gift for fine characterization, for recreating the music of everyday speech, pervades these tales, which explore notions of home and exile as well as the intricate realm of the human spirit – its fallible nature, its indomitable strength against the sometimes downward pull of fate.


Click for more detail about Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Invisible Man

by Ralph Ellison
Vintage Books (Mar 14, 1995)
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Both a deeply compelling bestselling novel and an epic milestone of American literature.

original book cover Invisible ManThe book’s nameless narrator describes growing up in a Black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of “the Brotherhood,” before retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.

Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.


Click for more detail about Shadow And Act by Ralph Ellison Shadow And Act

by Ralph Ellison
Vintage (Mar 14, 1995)
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With the same intellectual incisiveness and supple, stylish prose he brought to his classic novel Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison examines his antecedents and in so doing illuminates the literature, music, and culture of both black and white America. His range is virtuosic, encompassing Mark Twain and Richard Wright, Mahalia Jackson and Charlie Parker, The Birth of a Nation and the Dante-esque landscape of Harlem—“the scene and symbol of the Negro’s perpetual alienation in the land of his birth.” Throughout, he gives us what amounts to an episodic autobiography that traces his formation as a writer as well as the genesis of Invisible Man.

On every page, Ellison reveals his idiosyncratic and often contrarian brilliance, his insistence on refuting both black and white stereotypes of what an African American writer should say or be. The result is a book that continues to instruct, delight, and occasionally outrage readers.


Click for more detail about Long Distance Life by Marita Golden Long Distance Life

by Marita Golden
Doubleday (Mar 01, 1995)
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"A novel of impressive artistry and power." The Washington Post
Caught in the web of history, generations of an African-American family play out their parts on a world stage that constantly changes, protected always by the love of one another, which never will.


Click for more detail about A Woman’s Place by Marita Golden A Woman’s Place

by Marita Golden
Ballantine Books (Mar 01, 1995)
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The compelling story of three black women who meet at a New England college in the late sixties and form a friendship that will guide them through the changes, the joys, and the tears of the coming years
 
Faith, small-boned and delicate, the daughter of a strong-willed mother and a father she no longer remembers, longs for the one experience that will show her to herself. Serena, a passionate and outspoken radical, has an intense political commitment and pride in her African roots, which will lead her to find a life on a continent far away. And Crystal, a poet from girlhood, has a long love affair with words that will be put to the ultimate test when she must explain to her father her love for a man of another race.

Praise for A Woman’s Place
 
“A radical new talent … The poignancy invites comparison to The Color Purple.”—New Woman
 
“A book that should be bought, read, and cherished, because it is a story of hope, a story of triumph and, above all, a testimony to resilience.”—The Philadelphia Tribune


Click for more detail about Urban Romance by Nelson George Urban Romance

by Nelson George
One World (Mar 01, 1995)
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Hip music critic Dwayne Robinson has two main gigs: defending rap’s rightful place in the music industry and scoring as many women as possible. But this smooth-talking b-boy has yet to try working love into his lingo—until "buppie" Danielle Embry slides into and rocks his world.

A Connecticut suburbanite, Danielle is as far removed from Dwayne’s Brooklyn ghetto upbringing as it gets. Yet despite this clash, these unlikely lovers are drawn together. While struggling to grind out a harmonious tune amid the grit and glamour of New York City, they soon find themselves confronted with issues that cut deeper than either of them bargained for… .


Click for more detail about Just As I Am: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris Just As I Am: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
Anchor (Feb 15, 1995)
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E. Lynn Harris’s blend of rich, romantic  storytelling and controversial contemporary issues like  race and bisexuality have found an enthusiastic and  diverse audience across America. Readers celebrate  the arrival in paperback of his second novel,  Just As I Am, which picks up where  Invisible Life left off,  introducing Harris’s appealing and authentic characters to a  new set of joys, conflicts, and choices. Raymond,  a young black lawyer from the South, struggles to  come to terms with his sexuality and with the grim  reality of AIDS. Nicole, an aspiring  singer/actress, experiences frustration in both her career and  in her attempts to find a genuine love  relationship. Both characters share an eclectic group of  friends who challenge them, and the reader, to look at  themselves and the world around thern through  different eyes. By portraying Nicole’s and Raymond’s  joys, as well as their pain, Harris never ceases to  remind us that life, like love, is about  self-acceptance. In this vivid portrait of contemporary  black life, with all its pressures and the  complications of bisexuality, AIDS, and racism, Harris  confirms a faith in the power of love — love of all  kinds — to thrill and to heal, which will warm the  hearts of readers everywhere.


Click for more detail about Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans by Vivek Wadhwa and Farai Chideya Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans

by Vivek Wadhwa and Farai Chideya
Plume (Feb 01, 1995)
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For those wishing to fight ignorance with intelligence and racism with facts, information from government sources and published studies point out discrepancies in assumed beliefs—such as that blacks are the main welfare recipients and drug users—and major fallacies.


Click for more detail about Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Conde Crossing the Mangrove

by Maryse Conde
Anchor (Feb 01, 1995)
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In this beautifully crafted, Rashomon-like novel, Maryse Conde has written a gripping story imbued with all the nuances and traditions of Caribbean culture. Francis Sancher—a handsome outsider, loved by some and reviled by others—is found dead, face down in the mud on a path outside Riviere au Sel, a small village in Guadeloupe.  None of the villagers are particularly surprised, since Sancher, a secretive and melancholy man, had often predicted an unnatural death for himself.  As the villagers come to pay their respects they each—either in a speech to the mourners, or in an internal monologue—reveal another piece of the mystery behind Sancher’s life and death.  

Like pieces of an elaborate puzzle, their memories interlock to create a rich and intriguing portrait of a man and a community. In the lush and vivid prose for which she has become famous, Conde has constructed a Guadeloupean wake for Francis Sancher.  Retaining the full color and vibrance of Conde’s homeland, Crossing the Mangrove pays homage to Guadeloupe in both subject and structure.


Click for more detail about Billy by Albert French Billy

by Albert French
Penguin Books (Feb 01, 1995)
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Albert French lights up the monstrous face of American racism in this harrowing tale of ten-year-old Billy Lee Turner, who is convicted of and executed for murdering a white girl in Banes County, Mississippi in 1937. Billy is about the deaths of two children, one girl, one boy, the girl’s death an accident, the boy’s a murder perpetrated by the state. Though the events Billy records occur during the 1930s in a small Mississippi town, the range of characters, emotions, and social forces, and the inexorable march to doom of a ten-year-old boy and the society that dooms him, catapult the story far beyond a specific time and location. Narrated by an anonymous observer in the rich accents of the region, constructed in a series of powerfully lean vignettes, Billy imparts an intensity that is nearly unbearable. It is a tour de force of dramatic compression. Albert French evokes with cinematic vividness the picking fields and town streets; the heat, the dust, the unrelenting sun, the poverty of 1930s Mississippi. High-spirited Billy; his mysterious and passionate mother, Cinder; his friend, Gumpy; and other characters black and white are realized with depth and authority. Told in classic, unrelieved terms yet with remarkable compassion and restraint, their story is an unsentimental and ultimately heart-rending vision of racial injustice. Billy is, quite simply, one of the most powerfully affecting novels to come along in years.


Click for more detail about Sisters & Lovers: A Novel by Connie Briscoe Sisters & Lovers: A Novel

by Connie Briscoe
One World/Ballantine (Jan 30, 1995)
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Beverly, Charmaine, and Evelyn — three sisters living in the same Maryland town outside Washington, D.C., each wishing her life were just a little different. Beverly is twenty-nine and single. She’s a successful magazine editor who would love to be in love. The problem is, no man can meet her high standards. Charmaine longs to finish her degree, but meanwhile, she has to juggle a thankless job, a beautiful child, and an irresponsible husband she doesn’t quite have the nerve to leave. Evelyn seems to have it made. She has a successful psychology practice and her husband is a partner in a prestigious law firm. But there’s trouble in paradise, and Evelyn refuses to face the facts.
Warm and bittersweet, believable and real, SISTERS & LOVERS is a novel of family and love, heartache and hope, and above all, the triumph of sisterhood.
""Riveting … Lively … Hilarious … Three sisters who are remarkably different except in one respect: their men are driving them crazy." — Mademoiselle


Click for more detail about Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women by Maya Angelou Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women

by Maya Angelou
Random House (Jan 17, 1995)
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Maya Angelou, the bestselling author of On the Pulse of Morning, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now, and other lavishly praised works, is considered one of America’s finest poets. Here, four of her most highly acclaimed poems are assembled in a beautiful gift edition that provides a feast for the eyes as well as the heart. (Poetry)


Click for more detail about A State of Independence by Caryl Phillips A State of Independence

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Jan 15, 1995)
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Bertram Francis, a British West Indian, has spent the last 20 years away from the Carribean. Now independence is looming and he is going back to see the end of colonial rule. But the visit is not the nostalgic homecoming he expected as he finds himself an outsider in a place he thought was home.


Click for more detail about Just Like Martin by Ossie Davis Just Like Martin

by Ossie Davis
Puffin Books (Jan 01, 1995)
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Joining the local efforts for Civil Rights in their 1960s Deep South community, fourteen-year-old Ike Stone and his companions are proud of their part in the movement until two of their friends are killed in a racial bombing incident. Reprint. PW. AB.


Click for more detail about Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays: The Drinking Gourd/What Use Are Flowers? by Lorraine Hansberry Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays: The Drinking Gourd/What Use Are Flowers?

by Lorraine Hansberry
Vintage (Dec 13, 1994)
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Here are Lorraine Hansberry’s last three plays—Les Blancs, The Drinking Gourd, and What Use Are Flowers?—representing the capstone of her achievement. Includes a new preface by Jewell Gresham Nemiroff and a revised introduction by Margaret B. Wilkerson.


Click for more detail about Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now by Maya Angelou Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

by Maya Angelou
Bantam (Oct 01, 1994)
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Maya Angelou, one of the best-loved authors of our time, shares the wisdom of a remarkable life in this best-selling spiritual classic. This is Maya Angelou talking from the heart, down to earth and real, but also inspiring. This is a book to treasured, a book about being in all ways a woman, about living well, about the power of the word, and about the power do spirituality to move and shape your life. Passionate, lively, and lyrical, Maya Angelou’s latest unforgettable work offers a gem of truth on every page.


Click for more detail about Songs Of Enchantment by Ben Okri Songs Of Enchantment

by Ben Okri
Anchor (Oct 01, 1994)
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In this remarkable sequel to his Booker Prize-winning novel The Famished Road, Okri continues the story of the spirit-child who is a reluctant but keen observer of his family’s turmoil and the political convulsions of a struggling new Africa. Through his shimmering consciousness and hallucinatory visions, the boy finds the strength to survive.


Click for more detail about No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe No Longer at Ease

by Chinua Achebe
Anchor (Sep 16, 1994)
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The story of a man whose foreign education has separated him from his African roots and made him parts of a ruling elite whose corruption he finds repugnant.  More than thirty years after it was first written, this novel remains a brilliant statement on the challenges still facing African society.


Click for more detail about Laughing in the Dark: From Colored Girl to Woman of Color—A Journey from Prison to Power by Patrice Gaines Laughing in the Dark: From Colored Girl to Woman of Color—A Journey from Prison to Power

by Patrice Gaines
Crown (Sep 13, 1994)
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An award-winning Washington Post reporter explores the twisted path she traveled to find her place as a confident black female in a world that values whiteness and maleness. Here is a rich and insightful story of a life lived on the edge by a woman formerly preoccupied with pleasing everyone but herself.


Click for more detail about Fall Secrets by Candy Dawson Boyd Fall Secrets

by Candy Dawson Boyd
Puffin Books (Sep 01, 1994)
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The first volume of a new series follows the adventures of four girls at their first year at a performing arts junior high school, during which Jessie, a spirited young African-American girl, explores racial differences and hides a painful secret. Original.


Click for more detail about A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying

by Ernest Gaines
Vintage Books (Sep 01, 1994)
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A Lesson Before Dying, is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young black man, is an unwitting party to a liquor store shoot out in which three men are killed; the only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, who left his hometown for the university, has returned to the plantation school to teach. As he struggles with his decision whether to stay or escape to another state, his aunt and Jefferson’s godmother persuade him to visit Jefferson in his cell and impart his learning and his pride to Jefferson before his death. In the end, the two men forge a bond as they both come to understand the simple heroism of resisting—and defying—the expected.

Ernest J. Gaines brings to this novel the same rich sense of place, the same deep understanding of the human psyche, and the same compassion for a people and their struggle that have informed his previous, highly praised works of fiction.


Click for more detail about The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion by Stephen L. Carter The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion

by Stephen L. Carter
Anchor Books (Sep 01, 1994)
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The Culture Of Disbelief has  been the subject of an enormous amount of media  attention from the first moment it was published.  Hugely successful in hardcover, the Anchor paperback  is sure to find a large audience as the  ever-increasing, enduring debate about the relationship of  church and state in America continues. In The  Culture Of Disbelief, Stephen Carter  explains how we can preserve the vital separation of  church and state while embracing rather than  trivializing the faith of millions of citizens or  treating religious believers with disdain. What makes  Carter’s work so intriguing is that he uses liberal  means to arrive at what are often considered  conservative ends. Explaining how preserving a special  role for religious communities can strengthen our  democracy, The Culture Of Disbelief  recovers the long tradition of liberal religious  witness (for example, the antislavery,  antisegregation, and Vietnam-era antiwar movements). Carter  argues that the problem with the 1992 Republican  convention was not the fact of  open religious advocacy, but the political  positions being advocated.


Feeling the Spirit

by Chester Higgins, Jr.
Bantam (Sep 01, 1994)
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"We are Africans not because we are born in Africa, but because Africa is born in us. Look around you and behold us in our greatness. Greatness is an African possibility; you can make it yours." — Chester Higgins Jr.

In "Feeling The Spirit," Chester Higgins Jr. tells the story of a people — by capturing the fierce dignity, enduring traditions and empowering spirituality that live in all men and women of African descent throughout the world. Higgins’ odyssey of discovery has spanned three decades and led him across boundaries of geography, nationality, and culture. In these pages Higgins combines 220 tri-tone black-and-white images with his own evocative prose to share the findings of his journey. From reclaiming a long-misrepresented history, to providing a rare, intimate look at sacred rituals passed down through the centuries, to exploring the simple yet profound significance of water in daily life, Chester Higgins Jr. presents a glorious evocation of the African personality as it thrives not just in Africa, but in all parts of the world.

In Feeling the Spirit, esteemed photojournalist Chester Higgins, Jr. tells the story of a people - by capturing the fierce dignity, enduring traditions, and empowering spirituality that live in all men and women of African descent throughout the world. Higgins’ odyssey of discovery has spanned three decades and led him across boundaries of geography, nationality, and culture. He has visited the sites of ancient civilizations, joined in religious celebrations rarely open to outsiders, and experienced private moments both joyous and heartbreaking with families and communities in more than thirty countries in North and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. Now, in these pages, Higgins combines 220 images with his own evocative prose to share the findings of his extraordinary journey. From reclaiming a long-misrepresented history, to providing an intimate look at sacred rituals passed down through the centuries, to exploring the simple yet profound significance of water in daily life, Feeling the Spirit paints a vibrant collective portrait of the African identity as it thrives not just in Africa, but in all parts of the world.


Click for more detail about Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe
Anchor (Sep 01, 1994)
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Things Fall Apart tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world. The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo’s world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries. These perfectly harmonized twin dramas are informed by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul.


Click for more detail about Six Out Seven: A Novel by Jess Mowry Six Out Seven: A Novel

by Jess Mowry
Anchor (Sep 01, 1994)
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The thirteen-year-old Corbitt Wainwright’s adolescence is abruptly cut short when his father is imprisoned for attacking a white man.  Tragically, dreams of success through good grades and hard work are wiped aside as white society shows him, out of both kindness and malice, that poor black kids in Mississippi don’t have much of a hand in creating their own destinies.  Refusing to accept this allotted role, and after a deadly confrontation with his father’s accuser, Corbitt sets out for California, the land of opportunity and racial equality. Upon his arrival in West Oakland, a whole other world awaits.  This is a world populated by gangs and crack dealers, violent cops and street kids, and one where the future seems even bleaker than it does back at home.  Against the odds, he helps some of the local homeboys overcome one of their many predators and discovers the power of his African heritage.  Finally, he learns to trust his own strength.

Filled with a remarkably diverse cast of characters and written with gut-wrenching immediacy, cutting-edge street slang, and a haunting lyricism, Six Out Seven is a brutally honest novel about what it means to be a black teenager in America today.


Click for more detail about And Do Remember Me by Marita Golden And Do Remember Me

by Marita Golden
Ballantine Books (Jul 19, 1994)
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"An engaging saga of unconditional friendship, love, and foregiveness…Golden’s style is modern, refreshing and accurately captures a slice of African-American life."
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
In the exciting, yet frightening days of Freedom Summer in 1963, two very different African-American women meet, each to discover in the other an elegant completion of herself. Jessie, running from her sexually abusive father and distant mother, is a born actress. In the movement she discovers an unknown world of personal freedom that could shape her into an extraordinary talent or destroy her from within. Macon, beautiful, fearless, and brilliant, knows she is too good to settle for less than she’s worth, but her activism threatens the man she loves.
In a vital time of politics and passion, dedication and distress, two women struggle to recreate themselves and their world—and learn to love the fight.


Click for more detail about Wild Women Don’t Wear No Blues: Black Women Writers on Love, Men and Sex by Marita Golden Wild Women Don’t Wear No Blues: Black Women Writers on Love, Men and Sex

by Marita Golden
Anchor (Jul 01, 1994)
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Bringing together fourteen African-American women, Marita Golden has compiled saucy and spicy essays that serve as an exploration into the contemporary black female psyche. Ranging in style from Audre Lorde’s classic polemic on eroticism to Miriam DeCosta Willis’s deeply moving essay on her husband’s last years, "every single one of these essays is terrific." — The Washington Post


Click for more detail about Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience by Jill Nelson Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience

by Jill Nelson
Penguin Books (Jul 01, 1994)
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When Jill Nelson became the first black woman to write for The Washington Post’s prestigious Sunday magazine in 1986, she thought she had entered journalism heaven. Instead, she discovered that life at The Post meant walking "the thin line between Uncle Tomming and Mau-Mauing" - between holding onto her job and preserving her soul. As Nelson recounts her harrowing four years at The Post - along with her odyssey from a middle-class childhood to near poverty, divorce and single motherhood, flame-out love affairs, and a nervous breakdown - she gives us a scalding expose of the racial, sexual, and corporate politics of one of our most respected newspapers. Volunteer Slavery is a funny, fiercely candid book that names names and takes no prisoners.


Click for more detail about Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Invisible Man

by Ralph Ellison
Modern Library (Jun 14, 1994)
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Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time

Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952.  A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century.  The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.  The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.


Click for more detail about Of Love and Dust by Ernest Gaines Of Love and Dust

by Ernest Gaines
Vintage (May 31, 1994)
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Ernest J. Gaines is best known for his prize-winning THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN, but OF LOVE AND DUST has equal power and fascination. It zeros in on an explosion in the making between two men, one black and one white, trapped in the vise of Southern back country prejudice. When young Marcus is bonded out of jail, he is sent to the Hebert Plantation to work in the fields. He treats Sidney Bonbon, the Cajun overseer, with contempt and Bonbon retaliates by working him nearly to death. Marcus decides to take his revenge.


Click for more detail about Days of Grace: A Memoir by Arthur Ashe Days of Grace: A Memoir

by Arthur Ashe
Ballantine Books (May 01, 1994)
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"Touching and courageous…All of it—the man, the life, the book—is rare and beautiful."
COSMOPOLITAN
DAYS OF GRACE is an inspiring memoir of a remarkable man who was the true embodiment of courage, elegance, and the spirit to fight: Arthur Ashe—tennis champion, social activist, and person with AIDS. Frank, revealing, touching—DAYS OF GRACE is the story of a man felled to soon. It remains as his legacy to us all….
AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB


Click for more detail about Till Victory Is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War (Young Reader’s Hist- Civil War) by Zak Mettger Till Victory Is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War (Young Reader’s Hist- Civil War)

by Zak Mettger
Dutton Juvenile (Apr 01, 1994)
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Complemented by archival photographs, paintings, maps, and letter and diary excerpts, this informative historical study chronicles the contributions of black soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War.


Click for more detail about Joker, Joker, Deuce by Paul Beatty Joker, Joker, Deuce

by Paul Beatty
Penguin Books (Mar 01, 1994)
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His second book of poetry.


Click for more detail about Invisible Life: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris Invisible Life: A Novel

by E. Lynn Harris
Anchor (Feb 15, 1994)
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The re-issue of a remarkable first novel by a young, gay, black author who has fashioned a deeply moving and compelling coming of age story out of the highly controversial issues of bisexuality and AIDS.


Click for more detail about Conversations: Straight Talk with America’s Sister President by Johnnetta Betsch Cole Conversations: Straight Talk with America’s Sister President

by Johnnetta Betsch Cole
Random House (Feb 01, 1994)
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Feminist, educator, African American spokeswoman, and "Sister Prez" to thousands of alumnae of Spelman College, where she has been President for the last seven years—Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole tells young African American women how to take an active role in making their world a better place.


Click for more detail about Daughters of Africa by Margaret Busby Daughters of Africa

by Margaret Busby
Ballantine Books (Feb 01, 1994)
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An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from Ancient Egyptian to the Present

“A magnificent starting place for any reader interested in becoming part of the collective enterprise of discovering and uncovering the silent, forgotten, and underrated voices of black women.”

THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
From all over the world and through the ages, here is a dazzling collection of two hundred women writers of African descent, showcased as never before, including:

Toni Cade Bambara, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alice Childress, Maryse Conde, Aldo do Espirito Santo, Marita Golden, Pilar Lopez Gonzales, June Jordan, Terry McMillan, Queen of Sheba, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Phillis Wheatley, and many, many others.

Check out the next edition: New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent


Click for more detail about Lure and Loathing: Essays on Race, Identity, and the Ambivalence of Assimilation by Gerald L. Early Lure and Loathing: Essays on Race, Identity, and the Ambivalence of Assimilation

by Gerald L. Early
Penguin Books (Feb 01, 1994)
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Eighteen essays written by prominent African-American intellectuals—including Nikki Giovanni, James McPherson, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.—talk about what it means to be African American in the 1990s. Reprint.


Click for more detail about Now Sheba Sings the Song by Maya Angelou Now Sheba Sings the Song

by Maya Angelou
Plume (Feb 01, 1994)
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The Inaugural poet, author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, unites with a renowned illustrator, Tom Feelings, for a poetic tribute to the extraordinary essence of ordinary African-American women.


Click for more detail about Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang by Clarence Major Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African-American Slang

by Clarence Major
Viking Books (Feb 01, 1994)
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African-American slang cuts through logic and arrives at a quick, efficient interpretive solution to situations and things otherwise difficult to articulate. This reference book looks at the dazzling spectrum of this vibrant, humorous language, selecting and presenting over 2000 slang words and phrases, giving definitions and dates of origin.


Click for more detail about Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man In America by Nathan McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man In America

by Nathan McCall
Vintage (Jan 31, 1994)
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Examining the complexities of the problems of black youths from an insider’s perspective, an African-American journalist recalls his own troubled childhood, his rehabilitation while in prison, and his successful Washington Post career. Reprint. 150,000 first printing.


Click for more detail about Malcolm X: Make It Plain by William Strickland, Malcolm X Documentary Production Team, and Cheryll Y. Greene Malcolm X: Make It Plain

by William Strickland, Malcolm X Documentary Production Team, and Cheryll Y. Greene
Knopf (Jan 26, 1994)
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From Blackside, Inc., the award-winning production team that created the national bestseller Eyes on the Prize comes the first major photographic biography of one of this century’s most provocative thinkers. Tie-in to the PBS "American Experience" documentary (January 26, 1994). This book traces Malcolm X’s "rise to fame, his world travels, and his life within the Nation of Islam through the words of family members, friends,and colleagues."

The voice of Malcolm X, silenced so abruptly nearly three decades ago, speaks to more people today than ever before. His autobiography sells more than 150,000 copies a year, his writings are devoured by thousands born after he died. But who was he? Drawing on hundreds of sources, the PBS "American Experience" documentary of his life, Malcolm X: Make It Plain, explores his many-faceted character - political philosopher and visionary, husband and father, dynamic orator and hero - and the many forces that forged him. In this, the companion volume to the documentary, rare photographs and personal memories interweave to tell the compelling story of Malcolm’s youth on the streets of Boston and New York, his world travels, his life within the Nation of Islam, his assassination in 1965. An essay by the acclaimed writer William Strickland highlights the African-American urban experience mirrored by Malcolm, and how we are still living through the history he helped shape.

Draws on hundreds of sources to explore Malcolm X’s multi-faceted character through rare photographs, personal memories, and an historical text. TV tie-in. 35,000 first printing. $40,000 ad/promo.


Click for more detail about Another Good Loving Blues by Arna Bontemps Another Good Loving Blues

by Arna Bontemps
Ballantine Books (Jan 18, 1994)
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"A charming, provocative novel in which Mr. Flowers seamlessly blends the rich rythms of the blues and a Deep South patois in a lyrical, literate style."
- THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
It’s Beale Street in Memphis in the age when jazz was spelled "jass" and ragtime was just a glint in Scott Joplin’s eye. Lucas Bodeen is the bluesman, and Melvira Dupree is the conjure woman he loves. But pitted against them are all the forces of nature, the clashing of their own stubborn wills, and a society mired in the laws of Jim Crow and the mob. Combining the ancient African storytelling art of the griot with the American offshoots of blues and hoodoo, Arthur Flowers sings us a story that makes us smile - a story of life, and how love and happiness really happen.


Click for more detail about I, Tituba, Black Witch Of Salem by Maryse Conde I, Tituba, Black Witch Of Salem

by Maryse Conde
Ballantine Books (Jan 03, 1994)
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"Stunning…Maryse Conde’s imaginative subversion of historical records forms a critque of contemporary American society and its ingrained racism and sexism."
THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE
At the age of seven, Tituba watched as her mother was hanged for daring to wound a plantation owner who tried to rape her. She was raised from then on by Mama Yaya, a gifted woman who shared with her the secrets of healing and magic. But it was Tituba’s love of the slave John Indian that led her from safety into slavery, and the bitter, vengeful religion practiced by the good citizens of Salem, Massachusetts. Though protected by the spirits, Tituba could not escape the lies and accusations of that hysterical time.
As history and fantasy merge, Maryse Conde, acclaimed author of TREE OF LIFE and SEGU, creates the richly imagined life of a fascinating woman.


Click for more detail about We Can All Get Along: 50 Steps You Can Take to Help End Racism by Clyde W. Ford We Can All Get Along: 50 Steps You Can Take to Help End Racism

by Clyde W. Ford
Dell Publishing (Jan 01, 1994)
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This groundbreaking book shows how, working individually or with others, you can truly help to end racism in the world. Clyde W. Ford, who has spent his life fighting for racial equality and harmony, now brings you 50 steps that put the power to change the way things are into your hands: address unresolved issues in your own life, initiate family discussions and parental guidance, lead church and fellowship groups, teach about cultural diversity, put together civic and community projects, change a workplace or neighborhood, and deal with national and worldwide issues.


Click for more detail about A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story by Elaine Brown A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story

by Elaine Brown
Anchor (Dec 01, 1993)
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Elaine Brown assumed her role as the first and only female leader of the Black Panther Party with these words: “I have all the guns and all the money. I can withstand challenge from without and from within. Am I right, Comrade?” It was August 1974. From a small Oakland-based cell, the Panthers had grown to become a revolutionary national organization, mobilizing black communities and white supporters across the country—but relentlessly targeted by the police and the FBI, and increasingly riven by violence and strife within. How Brown came to a position of power over this paramilitary, male-dominated organization, and what she did with that power, is a riveting, unsparing account of self-discovery.
            Brown’s story begins with growing up in an impoverished neighborhood in Philadelphia and attending a predominantly white school, where she first sensed what it meant to be black, female, and poor in America. She describes her political awakening during the bohemian years of her adolescence, and her time as a foot soldier for the Panthers, who seemed to hold the promise of redemption. And she tells of her ascent into the upper echelons of Panther leadership: her tumultuous relationship with the charismatic Huey Newton, who would become her lover and her nemesis; her experience with the male power rituals that would sow the seeds of the party’s demise; and the scars that she both suffered and inflicted in that era’s paradigm-shifting clashes of sex and power. Stunning, lyrical, and acute, this is the indelible testimony of a black woman’s battle to define herself.

“A glowing achievement.” —Los Angeles Times
 
“Honest, funny, subjective, unsparing, and passionate… A Taste of Power weaves autobiography and political history into a story that fascinates and illuminates.” —The Washington Post
 
“A stunning picture of a black woman’s coming of age in America. Put it on the shelf beside The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” —Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about Daddy and Me : A Photo Story of Arthur Ashe and his Daughter Camera by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe Daddy and Me : A Photo Story of Arthur Ashe and his Daughter Camera

by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
Alfred A. Knopf (Nov 16, 1993)
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The widow of tennis star Arthur Ashe, who recently died of AIDS, offers a photographic portrait of Ashe’s relationship with his six-year-old daughter during his illness, accompanied by the child’s reflections on living with and helping her father.


Click for more detail about Seven Candles for Kwanzaa by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney Seven Candles for Kwanzaa

by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney
Dial Books (Oct 06, 1993)
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For more than 25 years, African-American families have celebrated Kwanzaa—a holiday, inspired by their ancestors, that celebrates the harvest season. With a rich, informative text and stunning four-color illustrations, this book will help young children to begin their own Kwanzaa celebration.


Click for more detail about Through the Ivory Gate: A novel by Rita Dove Through the Ivory Gate: A novel

by Rita Dove
Vintage (Oct 05, 1993)
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A debut novel by the 1987 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. When a woman returns to her Midwestern hometown as an artist-in-residence to teach puppetry to schoolchildren, her homecoming also means dealing with memories of racism, rejected love—and truths about her family. Author readings.


Click for more detail about The Best Companies for Minorities: Employers Across America Who Recruit, Train, and Promote Minorities by Lawrence Otis Graham The Best Companies for Minorities: Employers Across America Who Recruit, Train, and Promote Minorities

by Lawrence Otis Graham
Plume (Oct 01, 1993)
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A list of companies with impressive minority-hiring records profiles eighty-five firms with effective affirmative-action programs, minorities in management positions, and programs for contributing to minority charities, scholarships, and training.


Click for more detail about Selected Poems by Rita Dove Selected Poems

by Rita Dove
Vintage (Sep 28, 1993)
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Here in one volume is a selection of the extraordinary poems of Rita Dove, who, as the nation’s Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995, brought poetry into the lives of millions of people.  Along with a new introduction and poem, Selected Poems comprises Dove’s collections The Yellow House on the Corner, which includes a group of poems devoted to the themes of slavery and freedom; Museum, intimate ruminations on home and the world; and finally, Thomas and Beulah, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1987, a verse cycle loosely based on her grandparents’ lives.  Precisely yet intensely felt, resonant with the voices of ordinary people, Rita Dove’s Selected Poems is marked by lyric intensity and compassionate storytelling.


Curtis: Twist and Shout

by Ray Billingsley
Ballantine Books (Sep 01, 1993)
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A second collection of hilarious and heartwarming comic strips starring one of America’s hottest new characters by a widely acclaimed cartoonist. By the author of Curtis.


Click for more detail about Bailey’s Cafe by Gloria Naylor Bailey’s Cafe

by Gloria Naylor
Vintage Books (Aug 31, 1993)
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Set in a diner where the food isn’t very good and the ambience veers between heaven and hell, this bestselling novel from the author of Mama Day and The Women of Brewster Place is a feast for the senses and the spirit. "A virtuoso orchestration of survival, suffering, courage and humor."—New York Times Book Review.


Click for more detail about Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine

by Bebe Moore Campbell
Ballantine Books (Aug 10, 1993)
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"Intriguing…A thoughtful, intelligent work…The novel traces the yeasr from he ’50s to the ate ’80s, from Eisenhower to George Bush….She writes with simple eloquence about small-town life in the South, right after the start of the great social upheaval of he civil rights movement….Campbell has a strong creative voice."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
Chicago-born Amrstrong Tood is fifteen, black, and unused to the ways of the segregated Deep South, when his mother sends him to spend the summer with relatives in rural Mississippi. For speaking a few innocuous words in French to a white woman, Armstrong is killed. And the precariously balanced world and its determined people—white and black—are changed, then and forever, by the horror of poverty, the legacy of justice, and the singular gift of love’s power to heal.


Click for more detail about Playing In The Dark: Whiteness And The Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison Playing In The Dark: Whiteness And The Literary Imagination

by Toni Morrison
Vintage (Jul 27, 1993)
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Beloved and Jazz now gives us a learned, stylish, and immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that promises to change the way we read American literature even as it opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race.

Toni Morrison’s brilliant discussions of the "Africanist" presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition. She shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree—and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires.

Written with the artistic vision that has earned Toni Morrison a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark will be avidly read by Morrison admirers as well as by students, critics, and scholars of American literature.

"By going for the American literary jugular…she places her arguments…at the very heart of contemporary public conversation about what it is to be authentically and originally American. [She] boldly…reimagines and remaps the possibility of America."
—Chicago Tribune

"Toni Morrison is the closest thing the country has to a national writer."
The New York Times Book Review


Click for more detail about Deals with the Devil by Pearl Cleage Deals with the Devil

by Pearl Cleage
Ballantine Books (Jul 07, 1993)
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"Pearl Cleage breaks down for sisters all the old rules and unspoken taboos. She tells us the truths our mothers are still afraid to confront, the essential wisdom we need to stay alive. Her book mourns and rages all in one breath."

BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL

Author of YOUR BLUES AIN’T LIKE MINE

Dead-on, to the point, fearless. A third-generation black nationalist feminist, Pearl Cleage recognizes the pure power of telling the uncompromising truth—about African-American life and about the fate of the race in racist America. Whether she’s writing about her—and her sisters’—defenition of good brother, or why she’s so mad at Miles Davis, DEALS WITH THE DEVIL is filled with Pearl’s most provactive, fascinating, and outrageous insights.


Click for more detail about The Shaping of Black America: The Struggles and Triumphs of African-Americans, 1619-1990s by Lerone Bennett The Shaping of Black America: The Struggles and Triumphs of African-Americans, 1619-1990s

by Lerone Bennett
Penguin Books (Jul 01, 1993)
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What forces transformed Africans into African Americans? How did they sustain themselves during centuries of captivity and oppression? In what way did their presence shape their attitudes - and fortunes - of White America? How did Black people become a nation within a nation? And what are the prospects for that nation in the 1990s? These are among the questions that Lerone Bennett Jr addresses in this companion volume to his "Before the Mayflower". It tells its story from a developmental perspective. Its first section, "Foundations", encompasses Black slaves and White indentured servants, the Black founding fathers and the relationship between African-Americans and Indians. In the second section, "Directions", Bennett traces the growth of Black labour and Black capital and their convergence into a separate economy.


Click for more detail about Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America; Sixth Revised Edition by Lerone Bennett Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America; Sixth Revised Edition

by Lerone Bennett
Penguin Books (Jul 01, 1993)
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Traces black history from its origins in western Africa, through the transatlantic journey and slavery, the Reconstruction period, the Jim Crow era, and the civil rights movement, to life in the 1990s. Reprint. 35,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo.


Click for more detail about Alex Haley: The Playboy Interviews by Alex Haley Alex Haley: The Playboy Interviews

by Alex Haley
Ballantine Books (Jun 08, 1993)
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Everyone knows Alex Haley as the world-renowned author of the international bestseller ROOTS, and as the writer who collaborated with Malcolm X on his historic autobiography. What many people don’t know is that Alex Haley began his professional writing career as a journalist. It was his experience in this arena that earned him the plum assignment as Playboy’s first — and foremost — interviewer.
Witness Haley’s work with the pre-Ali Cassius Clay, in which the posture of the young rebel fell away and a sensitive, intelligent young man emerged. He lured Malcolm X beyond his scathing Black Muslim rhetoric to reveal the agile, perceptive mind of a charismatic leader. With Johnny Carson, Haley revealed the man behind the mask of a charming television raconteur. And, in a devasting interview with George Lincoln Rockwell, the self-appointed fuhrer of the American Nazi Party, Haley deftly exposed the frightening heart and soul of the twisted man and his racist ideology.
A fascinating slice of recent history, an extraordinarily candid collection of celebrity interviews and personal reminiscences, ALEX HALEY: THE PLAYBOY INTERVIEWS anthologizes for the first time a gifted writer’s finest work at its controversial and informative best.


Click for more detail about The Famished Road by Ben Okri The Famished Road

by Ben Okri
Anchor (May 01, 1993)
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In the decade since it won the Booker Prize, Ben Okri’s Famished Road has become a classic. Like Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children or Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, it combines brilliant narrative technique with a fresh vision to create an essential work of world literature.

The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. The life he foresees for himself and the tale he tells is full of sadness and tragedy, but inexplicably he is born with a smile on his face. Nearly called back to the land of the dead, he is resurrected. But in their efforts to save their child, Azaro’s loving parents are made destitute. The tension between the land of the living, with its violence and political struggles, and the temptations of the carefree kingdom of the spirits propels this latter-day Lazarus’s story.


Click for more detail about Rats In The Trees (Contemporary American Fiction) by Jess Mowry Rats In The Trees (Contemporary American Fiction)

by Jess Mowry
Penguin Books (May 01, 1993)
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From the author of the hip novel Way Past Cool come these moving, streetwise stories about wayward boys. Mowry captures with moving accuracy and rare insight the bravado, humor, and compassion born in young men struggling for dignity and love. Optioned for a feature film by John Singleton, director of Boyz ’n the Hood.


Click for more detail about The House Behind the Cedars (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Charles W. Chesnutt The House Behind the Cedars (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

by Charles W. Chesnutt
Penguin Classics (Apr 01, 1993)
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An early masterwork among American literary treatments of miscegenation, Chesnutt’s story is of two young African Americans who decide to pass for white in order to claim their share of the American dream.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


Click for more detail about Catherine Carmier by Ernest Gaines Catherine Carmier

by Ernest Gaines
Vintage (Mar 31, 1993)
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By the author of A Lesson Before Dying and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Catherine Carmier is a compelling love story set in a deceptively bucolic Louisiana countryside, where blacks, Cajuns, and whites maintain an uneasy coexistence.

After living in San Francisco for ten years, Jackson returns home to his benefactor, Aunt Charlotte. Surrounded by family and old friends, he discovers that his bonds to them have been irreparably rent by his absence. In the midst of his alienation from those around him, he falls in love with Catherine Carmier, setting the stage for conflicts and confrontations which are complex, tortuous, and universal in their implications.


Click for more detail about Curtis by Ray Billingsley Curtis

by Ray Billingsley
Ballantine Books (Mar 22, 1993)
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Eleven-year-old Curtis and his family enjoy more adventures, in a debut collection of comics by the nationally syndicated comic strip artist.


Click for more detail about Cambridge by Caryl Phillips Cambridge

by Caryl Phillips
Vintage (Feb 02, 1993)
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One of England’s most widely acclaimed young novelists adopts two eerily convincing narrative voices and juxtaposes their stories to devastating effect in this mesmerizing portrait of slavery. Cambridge is a devoutly Christian slave in the West Indies whose sense of justice is both profound and self-destructive, while Emily is a morally-blind, genteel Englishwoman.


Click for more detail about High Cotton (Contemporary American Fiction) by Darryl Pinckney High Cotton (Contemporary American Fiction)

by Darryl Pinckney
Penguin Books (Feb 01, 1993)
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High Cotton is an extraordinarily rich account of the dreams and inner turmoils of a new generation of the black upper middle class, capturing the essence of a part of American society that has mostly been ignored in literature. The novel’s protagonist journeys from his childhood home in the midwest to college, a stint in New York publishing, and Europe, yet the issue of his "blackness" remains at the heart of his being.


Click for more detail about Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom (A Borzoi book) by Virginia Hamilton Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom (A Borzoi book)

by Virginia Hamilton
Alfred A. Knopf (Jan 04, 1993)
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Illus. in black-and-white. In this companion volume to the award-winning The People Could Fly, Virginia Hamilton traces the history of slavery and the Underground Railroad in America. Thirty-five inspiring stories describe ingenious escapes, desperate measures, and daring protests of former slaves.


Click for more detail about The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Leo & Diane Dillon The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales

by Leo & Diane Dillon
Alfred A. Knopf (Jan 04, 1993)
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The well-known author retells 24 black American folk tales in sure storytelling voice: animal tales, supernatural tales, fanciful and cautionary tales, and slave tales of freedom. All are beautifully readable. With the added attraction of 40 wonderfully expressive paintings by the Dillons, this collection should be snapped up.—(starred) School Library Journal.

This book has been selected as a Common Core State Standards text Exemplar (Grade 6-8, Stories) in Appendix B.


Click for more detail about Fires in the Mirror by Anna Deavere Smith Fires in the Mirror

by Anna Deavere Smith
Anchor (Jan 01, 1993)
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Derived from interviews with a wide range of  people who experienced or observed New York’s 1991  Crown Heights racial riots, Fires In The  Mirror is as distinguished a work of  commentary on black-white tensions as it is a  work of drama.  In August 1991 simmering tensions in the racially polarized Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood of Crown Heights exploded into riots after a black boy was killed by a car in a rabbi’s motorcade and a Jewish student was slain by blacks in retaliation.  Fires in the Mirror is dramatist Anna Deavere Smith’s stunning exploration of the events and emotions leading up to and following the Crown Heights conflict.  Through her portrayals of more than two dozen Crown eights adversaries, victims, and eyewitnesses, using verbatim excerpts from their observations derived from interviews she conducted, Smith provides a brilliant, Rashoman-like documentary portrait of contemporary ethnic turmoil.


Click for more detail about Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now by Maya Angelou Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

by Maya Angelou
Random House of Canada (Jan 01, 1993)
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"This book is dedicated to Oprah Winfrey with immeasurable love" This book is about "being in all ways a woman, about the sweetness of charity, about the spirit, and about death and its legacy. Its about living well and living good, and the power of the word, and complaining, and sexual encouragement, and jealousy-and even taking time, just for yourself."


Click for more detail about The Ups & Downs of Carl Davis III by Rosa Guy The Ups & Downs of Carl Davis III

by Rosa Guy
Yearling (Dec 02, 1992)
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Sent to South Carolina to live with his grandmother, Carl Davis III is determined to teach the kids in his new school about black history, but they do not want to listen to him. Reprint. AB. PW. K.


Click for more detail about Black Southern Voices: An Anthology by John Oliver Killens and Jerry W. Ward Black Southern Voices: An Anthology

by John Oliver Killens and Jerry W. Ward
Plume (Dec 01, 1992)
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This sweeping anthology celebrates the richly textured black voices of the South, their cadences steeped in the sonorous heritage of the oral tradition. Represented here are such novelists as Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, poets Nikki Giovanni and James Weldon Johnson, playwrights Tom Dent and Kalamu Ya Salaam, and nonfiction authors Martin Luther King, Jr., and Maya Angelou.


Click for more detail about Another Country by James Baldwin Another Country

by James Baldwin
Vintage Books (Dec 01, 1992)
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Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions—sexual, racial, political, artistic—that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime. In a small set of friends, Baldwin imbues the best and worst intentions of liberal America in the early 1970s.


Click for more detail about Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin Nobody Knows My Name

by James Baldwin
Vintage Books (Dec 01, 1992)
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Told with Baldwin’s characteristically unflinching honesty, this collection of illuminating, deeply felt essays examines topics ranging from race relations in the United States to the role of the writer in society, and offers personal accounts of Richard Wright, Norman Mailer and other writers.


Click for more detail about The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin The Fire Next Time

by James Baldwin
Vintage Books (Dec 01, 1992)
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A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as

“sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose,”

The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.


Click for more detail about Black Power : The Politics of Liberation by Kwame Ture Black Power : The Politics of Liberation

by Kwame Ture
Vintage (Nov 10, 1992)
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In 1967, this revolutionary work exposed the depths of systemic racism in this country and provided a radical political framework for reform: true and lasting social change would only be accomplished through unity among African-Americans and their independence from the preexisting order. An eloquent document of the civil rights movement that remains a work of profound social relevance 25 years after it was first published.


Click for more detail about Raising Black Children by Alvin Poussaint and James P. Comer Raising Black Children

by Alvin Poussaint and James P. Comer
Plume (Nov 01, 1992)
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Along with the traditional demands of parenthood, black parents face an even more challenging task—fighting the negative messages of racism while teaching their children to succeed in a white-dominated culture. In this timely book, two eminent psychiatrists address these concerns.


Click for more detail about The Spyglass Tree by Albert Murray The Spyglass Tree

by Albert Murray
Vintage (Oct 27, 1992)
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A deeply affecting, stylishly elegant novel of remembrance about a young African-American man’s advent into the world of academia, an imaginary Alabama college, in the 1930s. "A classic … one of the great works of African-American writing … Murray plays more notes than Faulkner ever dreamed of or in."—Raleigh News & Observer.


Click for more detail about When Rocks Dance by Elizabeth Nunez When Rocks Dance

by Elizabeth Nunez
Ballantine Books (Oct 20, 1992)
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When Rock Dance. Paperback.


Click for more detail about Who’s in Rabbit’s House? by Verna Aardema Who’s in Rabbit’s House?

by Verna Aardema
Puffin Books (Oct 15, 1992)
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A great bedtime story sure to keep children fascinated, Who’s in Rabbit’s House is a Masai tale told from the perspective of a play within a play. A monster has invaded Rabbit’s house, and the other animals must gather to help investigate … and scare the monster away. This story teaches children it is important to help each other in times of need.


Click for more detail about The Autobiography of Malcolm X (As told to Alex Haley) by Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X (As told to Alex Haley)

by Malcolm X
Ballantine Books (Sep 29, 1992)
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ONE OF TIME’S TEN MOST IMPORTANT NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
 
With its first great victory in the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the civil rights movement gained the powerful momentum it needed to sweep forward into its crucial decade, the 1960s. As voices of protest and change rose above the din of history and false promises, one voice sounded more urgently, more passionately, than the rest. Malcolm X—once called the most dangerous man in America—challenged the world to listen and learn the truth as he experienced it. And his enduring message is as relevant today as when he first delivered it.
 
In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement to veteran writer and journalist Alex Haley . In a unique collaboration, Haley worked with Malcolm X for nearly two years, interviewing, listening to, and understanding the most controversial leader of his time.
 
Raised in Lansing, Michigan, Malcolm Little journeyed on a road to fame as astonishing as it was unpredictable. Drifting from childhood poverty to petty crime, Malcolm found himself in jail. It was there that he came into contact with the teachings of a little-known Black Muslim leader renamed Elijah Muhammad. The newly renamed Malcolm X devoted himself body and soul to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and the world of Islam, becoming the Nation’s foremost spokesman. When his conscience forced him to break with Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity to reach African Americans across the country with an inspiring message of pride, power, and self-determination.
 
The Autobiography of Malcolm X defines American culture and the African American struggle for social and economic equality that has now become a battle for survival. Malcolm’s fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
 
The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America.
 
Praise for The Autobiography of Malcolm X
 
“Malcolm X’s autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me; the blunt poetry of his words, his unadorned insistence on respect, promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline, forged through sheer force of will.”—Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father

“Extraordinary … a brilliant, painful, important book.”—The New York Times
 
“A great book … Its dead level honesty, its passion, its exalted purpose, will make it stand as a monument to the most painful truth.”—The Nation
 
“The most important book I’ll ever read, it changed the way I thought, it changed the way I acted. It has given me courage I didn’t know I had inside me. I’m one of hundreds of thousands whose lives were changed for the better.”—Spike Lee
 
“This book will have a permanent place in the literature of the Afro-American struggle.”—I. F. Stone


Click for more detail about The Matter Is Life by J. California Cooper The Matter Is Life

by J. California Cooper
Anchor (Sep 13, 1992)
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A fourth collection of stories by the award-winning author.


Click for more detail about Tree of Life: A Novel of the Caribbean by Maryse Conde Tree of Life: A Novel of the Caribbean

by Maryse Conde
Ballantine Books (Sep 01, 1992)
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"It is impossible to read her novels and not come away from them with both a sadder and more exhilarating understanding of the human heart."
- THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Rapidly shifting between Guadeloupe and Harlem, moving from Haiti’s desperate slums to the exclusive enclaves of the Parisian upper class, this deeply personal tale traces one Guadeloupe family’s rise from poverty to riches through several generations.


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Click for more detail about Erotique Noire/Black Erotica by Miriam Decosta-Willis, Reginald Martin, and Roseann P. Bell Erotique Noire/Black Erotica

by Miriam Decosta-Willis, Reginald Martin, and Roseann P. Bell
Anchor (Aug 18, 1992)
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A collective work of art whose time has come. Of lasting value for all lovers of literature and the erotic, this is a glorious, groundbreaking celebration of black sensuality, including works by Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and many more.


Click for more detail about Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book by Muriel Feelings Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book

by Muriel Feelings
Puffin Books (Aug 15, 1992)
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A Caldecott Honor Book

Moja Means One
introduces children to counting in Swahili with helpful pronunciation keys, while presenting East African culture and lifestyles through an easy-to-understand narrative and vivid illustrations.

"Magnificient, full-page drawings throb with the feeling of East African life."—Child Study Association

Look for the Caldecott Honor Book and companion title: Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book


Click for more detail about The Boy Who Didn’t Believe In Spring by Lucille Clifton The Boy Who Didn’t Believe In Spring

by Lucille Clifton
Puffin Books (Aug 15, 1992)
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Two skeptical city boys set out to find spring which they’ve heard is "just around the corner".


Click for more detail about Billy the Great by Rosa Guy Billy the Great

by Rosa Guy
Delacorte Books for Young Readers (Aug 01, 1992)
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Billy’s parents have always decided what is right for him, but when new neighbors move in next door, he begins to demonstrate that he has a mind of his own. By the author of My Love, My Love.


Click for more detail about Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book by Muriel Feelings Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book

by Muriel Feelings
Puffin Books (Jul 15, 1992)
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"The beautiful vision of African life in the text merely hints of the community breathtakingly captured in the illustrations… . The space has been filled with monumental figures that glorify the power and beauty of man."—Horn Book. Full color. Caldecott Honor Medal; ALA Notable Book.


Click for more detail about A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines A Gathering of Old Men

by Ernest Gaines
Vintage Books (Jun 30, 1992)
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Set on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation in the 1970s, A Gathering of Old Men is a powerful depiction of racial tensions arising over the death of a Cajun farmer at the hands of a black man.

"Poignant, powerful, earthy…a novel of Southern racial confrontation in which a group of elderly black men band together against whites who seek vengeance for the murder of one of their own."—Booklist

"A fine novel…there is a denouement that will shock and move readers as much as it does the characters."—Philadelphia Inquirer


Click for more detail about In My Father’s House by Ernest Gaines In My Father’s House

by Ernest Gaines
Vintage (Jun 30, 1992)
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A compelling novel of a man brought to reckon with his buried past. In a small rural black community in Louisiana, Reverend Martin—a respected minister and civil rights leader, devoted husband and father, a man of strength and rectitude—comes face to face with the sins of his youth when a sinister stranger, in the person of “meeting” with the Reverend.

“…This novel runs just like a strong locomotive, from the beginning until the devastating—but amazing and redemptive—end. Unlike A Gathering of Old Men, which lands plenty of humor amid the drama, this novel’s tone comes across more like a Greek tragedy’s. A plus is that the novel conveys the disarray Blacks nationwide were undergoing after Martin Luther King’s assassination. An amazing read, with amazing characters.”—Goodreads


Click for more detail about Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara Gorilla, My Love

by Toni Cade Bambara
Vintage (Jun 30, 1992)
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In these fifteen superb stories, written in a style at once ineffable and immediately recognizable, Toni Cade Bambara gives us compelling portraits of a wide range of unforgettable characters, from sassy children to cunning old men, in scenes shifting between uptown New York and rural North CaroLina. A young girl suffers her first betrayal. A widow flirts with an elderly blind man against the wishes of her grown-up children. A neighborhood loan shark teaches o white social worker a lesson in responsibility. And there is more. Sharing the world of Toni Cade Bambara’s "straight-up fiction" is a stunning experience.


Click for more detail about The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara The Salt Eaters

by Toni Cade Bambara
Vintage (Jun 30, 1992)
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Set in Claybourne, a small town somewhere in the South, THE SALT EATERS is the story of a community of black faith healers who, searching for the healing properties of salt, witness an event that will change their lives forever.


Click for more detail about The Stories of John Edgar Wideman by John Edgar Wideman The Stories of John Edgar Wideman

by John Edgar Wideman
Pantheon Books (Jun 09, 1992)
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This work reprints PEN/Faulkner award winner Wideman’s collections Damballah (Avon, 1981) and Fever (LJ 11/1/89). Most of the stories are set in Homewood, the black section of Pittsburgh where Wideman grew up and which he has since turned into his own version of Yoknapatawpha County.

Damballah consists of 12 interrelated stories that trace successive generations of a fugitive slave’s family—the author’s own ancestors. Wideman presents the book as a series of letters to his brother Robby, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in prison. The two concluding sections further explore the Homewood theme, with retellings of old family tales and street-corner legends and with frequent meditations on the contrast between Robby’s fate and Wideman’s own success in the white world. The entire volume displays a novelistic unity unusual in short story collections. Recommended for most collections. —Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles


Click for more detail about Waiting To Exhale by Terry McMillan Waiting To Exhale

by Terry McMillan
Viking Press (May 28, 1992)
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Waiting to Exhale is on

President Obama’s Bookshelf

Four African-American women console and support one another in a complex friendship that helps each of them face the middle of her life as a single woman. 100,000 first printing. Major ad/promo. Tour.


Click for more detail about Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain

by Verna Aardema
Puffin Books (May 20, 1992)
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A cumulative rhyme relating how Ki-pat brought rain to the drought-stricken Kapiti Plain. Verna Aardema has brought the original story closer to the English nursery rhyme by putting in a cumulative refrain and giving the tale the rhythm of "The House That Jack Built."


Click for more detail about The Panther & the Lash by Langston Hughes The Panther & the Lash

by Langston Hughes
Vintage (Feb 04, 1992)
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The last and most explicitly political book of verse by one of the great poets of our century. Published just before his death in 1967, Hughes’ sometimes bitter, sometimes ironic, but always powerful poems address the racial politics of the 1960s.


Click for more detail about Black Ice by Lorene Cary Black Ice

by Lorene Cary
Vintage (Feb 04, 1992)
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In 1972 Lorene Cary, a bright, ambitious black teenager from Philadelphia, was transplanted into the formerly all-white, all-male environs of the elite St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire, where she became a scholarship student in a "boot camp" for future American leaders.  Like any good student, she was determined to succeed.  But Cary was also determined to succeed without selling out.  This wonderfully frank and perceptive memoir describes the perils and ambiguities of that double role, in which failing calculus and winning a student election could both be interpreted as betrayals of one’s skin.  Black Ice is also a universally recognizable document of a woman’s adolescence; it is, as Houston Baker says, "a journey into selfhood that resonates with sober reflection, intellignet passion, and joyous love."


Click for more detail about Music of Summer, The by Rosa Guy Music of Summer, The

by Rosa Guy
Delacorte Books for Young Readers (Feb 01, 1992)
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After being spurned by her best friend and a group of light-skinned, upper-middle-class girls vacationing on Cape Cod, Sarah develops a loving friendship with the Caribbean-born Madame Arnaud and her son Jean Pierre.


Click for more detail about Family by J. California Cooper Family

by J. California Cooper
Anchor (Dec 01, 1991)
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In this wise, beguiling, beautiful novel set in the era of the Civil War, an award-winning playwright and author paints a haunting portrait of a woman named Always, born a slave, and four generations of her African-American family.


Click for more detail about A Piece of Mine: Stories by J. California Cooper A Piece of Mine: Stories

by J. California Cooper
Anchor (Dec 01, 1991)
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Back in print after more than five years, this is the extraordinary first short story collection by the author of Family.


The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and First Hand Accounts From The Black Freedom Struggle, 1954-1990

by Vincent Harding and Darlene C. Hine
Viking Adult (Nov 01, 1991)
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"An important volume for students and professionals who wish to grasp the basic nature of the Civil Rights Movement and how it changed America in fundamental ways."—Aldon Morris, Northwestern Univ. The Eyes on the Prize Reader brings together the most comprehensive anthology of primary sources available, spanning the entire history of the Civil Rights Movement. "A remarkable collection…Indispensable."—William H. Harris, Texas Southern Univ.


Click for more detail about I Shall Not Be Moved by Maya Angelou I Shall Not Be Moved

by Maya Angelou
Bantam (Oct 01, 1991)
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In her first book of poetry since Why Don’t You Sing? Maya Angelou, bestselling author of the classic autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, writes with lyric, passionate intensity that reaches out to touch the heart and mind. This memorable collection of poems exhibits Maya Angelou’s unique gift for capturing the triumph and pain of being black and every man and woman’s struggle to be free. Filled with bittersweet intimacies and ferocious courage, these poems are gems–many-faceted, bright with wisdom, radiant with life.


Click for more detail about South To A Very Old Place by Albert Murray South To A Very Old Place

by Albert Murray
Vintage (Sep 03, 1991)
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Book by Murray, Albert


Click for more detail about Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman Amazing Grace

by Mary Hoffman
Dial Books for Young Readers (Sep 02, 1991)
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Grace loves stories, whether they’re from books, movies, or the kind her grandmother tells. So when she gets a chance to play a part in Peter Pan, she knows exactly who she wants to be. Remarkable watercolor illustrations give full expression to Grace’s high-flying imagination.


Click for more detail about Girls at War and Other Stories by Chinua Achebe Girls at War and Other Stories

by Chinua Achebe
Anchor (Aug 01, 1991)
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Twelve stories by the internationally renowned novelist which recreate with energy and authenticity the major social and political issues that confront contemporary Africans on a daily basis.


Click for more detail about All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

by Maya Angelou
Vintage (Jun 04, 1991)
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In 1962 the poet, musician, and performer Maya Angelou claimed another piece of her identity by moving to Ghana, joining a community of “Revolutionist Returnees&rqduo; inspired by the promise of pan-Africanism. All God’s Children Need Walking Shoes is her lyrical and acutely perceptive exploration of what it means to be an African American on the mother continent, where color no longer matters but where American-ness keeps asserting itself in ways both puzzling and heartbreaking. As it builds on the personal narrative of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name, this book confirms Maya Angelou’s stature as one of the most gifted autobiographers of our time.


Click for more detail about Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold Tar Beach

by Faith Ringgold
Crown Books for Young Readers (Jan 16, 1991)
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Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold broke new ground because the book was adapted from the textile/quilt. She incorporated African American/Native American building history and made the city seem magical with Black children flying over landmarks.—Zetta Elliott, PhD

I will always remember
when the stars fell down around me
and lifted me up above
the George Washington Bridge.

Cassie Louise Lightfoot, eight years old in 1939, has a dream: to be free to go wherever she wants for the rest of her life. One night, up on “tar beach” —the rooftop of her family’s Harlem apartment building—her dream comes true. The stars lift her up, and she flies over the city. She claims the buildings as her own—even the union building, so her father won’t have to worry anymore about not being allowed to join just because his father was not a member. As Cassie learns, anyone can fly. “All you need is somewhere to go you can’t get to any other way. The next thing you know, you‘re flying above the stars.”

This magical story resonates with a universal wish. Originally written by Faith Ringgold for her story quilt of the same name, Tar Beach is a seamless weaving of fiction, autobiography, and African-American history and literature. Originally publishing in 1991 by Crown Publishers, New York.


Click for more detail about Joy by Marsha Hunt Joy

by Marsha Hunt
Dutton Adult (Jan 01, 1991)
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As the Bang family gathers for Joy Bang’s funeral, Baby Palatine, the elderly woman who raised the Bang girls and who has an idealized image of the Bangs, realizes that their’s is not a perfect family. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.


Click for more detail about My Soul’s High Song by Countee Cullen My Soul’s High Song

by Countee Cullen
Doubleday (Dec 01, 1990)
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Gathers poetry and prose by Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes, leading literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance


Click for more detail about Memory of Kin: Stories About Family by Black Writers by Mary Helen Washington Memory of Kin: Stories About Family by Black Writers

by Mary Helen Washington
Anchor (Dec 01, 1990)
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Critic, essayist, and anthologist Mary Helen Washington has chosen as the theme of her newest collection "the family as a living mystery." She selected nineteen stories and twelve poems by some of this century’s leading black authors that oblige the reader to observe the complexities of the family in new and provocative ways.


Click for more detail about My Soul’s High Song by Countee Cullen My Soul’s High Song

by Countee Cullen
Anchor (Dec 01, 1990)
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The collected writings of Countee Cullen, a voice of the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry, like all art, speaks for itself.


Click for more detail about The Piano Lesson (1930s Century Cycle) by August Wilson The Piano Lesson (1930s Century Cycle)

by August Wilson
Plume (Dec 01, 1990)
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August Wilson has already given the American theater such spell-binding plays about the black experience in 20th-century America as Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Fences. In his second Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Piano Lesson, Wilson has fashioned his most haunting and dramatic work yet.At the heart of the play stands the ornately carved upright piano which, as the Charles family’s prized, hard-won possession, has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles’s Pittsburgh home. When Boy Willie, Berniece’s exuberant brother, bursts into her life with his dream of buying the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves, he plans to sell their antique piano for the hard cash he needs to stake his future. But Berniece refuses to sell, clinging to the piano as a reminder of the history that is their family legacy. This dilemma is the real "piano lesson," reminding us that blacks are often deprived both of the symbols of their past and of opportunity in the present.


Click for more detail about Skates of Uncle Richard by Carol Fenner Skates of Uncle Richard

by Carol Fenner
Random House Books for Young Readers (Oct 17, 1990)
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With her Uncle’s encouragement a nine-year-old takes the first step toward realizing her dream of becoming a figure skater.


Click for more detail about Breaking Ice: An Anthology Of Contemporary African-American Fiction by Terry McMillan Breaking Ice: An Anthology Of Contemporary African-American Fiction

by Terry McMillan
Penguin Books (Oct 01, 1990)
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A striking collection of works from authors both established and emerging, this is the first original anthology of African-American writing in over a decade. Featured contributors include: J. California Cooper, Marita Golden, Gloria Naylor, Darryl Pinckney, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Ishmael Reed, Terry McMillan, and many others.


Click for more detail about Fever (Contemporary American Fiction) by John Edgar Wideman Fever (Contemporary American Fiction)

by John Edgar Wideman
Penguin Books (Oct 01, 1990)
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By turns subtle and intense, disturbing and elusive, the stories in this collection are ultimately connected by themes of memory and loss, reality and fabrication, and by a richless of language that rests lightly on its carefully foundation.


Click for more detail about The Ways of White Folks: Stories by Langston Hughes The Ways of White Folks: Stories

by Langston Hughes
Vintage (Sep 12, 1990)
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In these acrid and poignant stories, Hughes depicted black people colliding—sometimes humorously, more often tragically—with whites in the 1920s and ’30s.

From Sacred Fire
If you are not yet familiar with Langston Hughes, then his collection The Ways of White Folks (named in homage to Du Bois’s classic The Souls of Black Folk) is the perfect introduction to his mordant wit and unerring eye for detail and his sly and direct prose.

These stories move from poignant to funny, to seething with rage, often within a paragraph. And life, as it is painted here, is bleak and unchanging until death. Hughes’s characters inhabit a world where people are mean because they can be, and where hard work is all that is guaranteed; these were the harsh realities for blacks in America in the twenties and thirties. If, as Du Bois contended in his book, "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," this collection allows Hughes to illustrate that point time and again. He demonstrates to white readers what he and his black readers knew: "White folks is white folks, South or North, North or South." This is the concept he used to structure his seemingly mundane yet tragic tales.

"Cora Unashamed" reveals how lifelong servitude can render the servant almost invisible, even to herself. In "Passing," a mixed-race black passes for white, forever denying his race and family: "I felt like a dog, passing you downtown last night and not speaking to you. You were great, though, didn’t give a sign that you even knew me, let alone that I was your son."

From North to South, light to dark, prosperous to dirt poor, all the stories are bound together and made powerful by the fact that they were all regular occurrences at that time in the United States. Within his simple stories, Hughes offered a barbed and trenchant analysis of white behavior and black behavior. Like his poems, the cruel accuracy of The Ways of White Folks is a reminder to Americans of some hard truths about the ridiculous and tragic ways skin color warps our lives.


Click for more detail about Stokely Carmichael: The Story of Black Power  by Jacqueline Johnson Stokely Carmichael: The Story of Black Power

by Jacqueline Johnson
Silver Burdett Press (Sep 01, 1990)
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A biography of the man who made famous the words “Black Power” as he fought for the rights of black people in this country, and later settled in Africa where he organizes young Africans to work for their rights.


Click for more detail about Three Classic African-American Novels : Clotel, Iola Leroy, The Marrow of Tradition (Vintage Classics) by William W. Brown, Frances E. W. Harper, and Charles W. Chesnutt Three Classic African-American Novels : Clotel, Iola Leroy, The Marrow of Tradition (Vintage Classics)

by William W. Brown, Frances E. W. Harper, and Charles W. Chesnutt
Vintage (Aug 11, 1990)
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William Wells Brown, Frances E.W. Harper, and Charles W. Chesnutt, three black writers who bore witness to the experience of their people under slavery, create a portrait of black life in the 19th century in these three novels.


Click for more detail about A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley A Different Drummer

by William Melvin Kelley
Anchor (May 01, 1990)
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Nearly three decades offer its first publication, A Different Drummer remains one of the most trenchant, imaginative, and hard-hitting works of fiction to come out of the bitter struggle for African-American civil rights.


Click for more detail about Love And Marriage by Bill Cosby Love And Marriage

by Bill Cosby
Bantam (Apr 01, 1990)
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The reigning King of Comedy demonstrates warmth, wit, and wisdom as he takes on two subjects close to us all. Cosby shares his thoughts on everything from childhood romances and adolescent crushes to first lovers, dating, and the rewards of marriage.


Click for more detail about A Thief in the Village: And Other Stories of Jamaica by James Berry A Thief in the Village: And Other Stories of Jamaica

by James Berry
Puffin Books (Feb 01, 1990)
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This is a collection of short stories about children and young people in Jamaica. Full of wonderfully atmospheric background detail combined with the rhythms and patterns of speech, these contemporary narratives bring to life a culture highly relevant to multi ethnic Britain. Stories include "Becky and the Wheels and Brake Boys"; "A Thief in the Village"; "Tukku Tukku and Sampson"; "All other Days Run into Sunday"; "The Mouth Organ Boys"; "Elias and the Mongoose"; "The Pet, The Sea and Little Buddy"; "Fanso and Granny-Flo"; and, "The Banana Tree".


Click for more detail about The Road to Memphis by Mildred D. Taylor The Road to Memphis

by Mildred D. Taylor
Puffin Books (Jan 01, 1990)
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"Cassie recounts harrowing events during late 1941. An engrossing picture of fine young people endeavoring to find the right way in a world that persistently wrongs them." —Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds: Stories by and about Black Women by Mary Helen Washington Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds: Stories by and about Black Women

by Mary Helen Washington
Anchor (Jan 01, 1990)
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This book combines in one volume two now classic short story collections.  The editor has added a new introduction and prefatory material.



"Mary Helen Washington has had a greater impact upon the formation of the canon of Afro-American literature than has any other scholar." —The New York Times Book Review


Click for more detail about Blind Man with a Pistol by Chester Himes Blind Man with a Pistol

by Chester Himes
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Dec 17, 1989)
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At once grotesquely comic and unflinchingly violent, Blind Man With a Pistol is the final entry in Chester Himes’s trailblazing Harlem Detectives series.
 
New York is sweltering in the summer heat, and Harlem is close to the boiling point. To Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, at times it seems as if the whole world has gone mad. Trying, as always, to keep some kind of peace—their legendary nickel-plated Colts very much in evidence—Coffin Ed and Grave Digger find themselves pursuing two completely different cases through a maze of knifings, beatings, and riots that threaten to tear Harlem apart.


Click for more detail about A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes A Rage in Harlem

by Chester Himes
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Dec 17, 1989)
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A Rage in Harlem is a ripping introduction to Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, patrolling New York City’s roughest streets in Chester Himes’s groundbreaking Harlem Detectives series. 
 
For love of fine, wily Imabelle, hapless Jackson surrenders his life savings to a con man who knows the secret of turning ten-dollar bills into hundreds—and then he steals from his boss, only to lose the stolen money at a craps table. Luckily for him, he can turn to his savvy twin brother, Goldy, who earns a living—disguised as a Sister of Mercy—by selling tickets to Heaven in Harlem. With Goldy on his side, Jackson is ready for payback.


Click for more detail about The Crazy Kill by Chester Himes The Crazy Kill

by Chester Himes
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Dec 17, 1989)
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Love and jealousy erupt into violence in The Crazy Kill, a classic thriller in Chester Himes’s trailblazing Harlem Detectives series. 
 
One early morning, Reverend Short is watching from his bedroom window as the A&P across the street is robbed. As he tries to see the thief get away, the opium-addicted preacher leans too far and falls out—but he is unscathed, thanks to an enormous bread basket outside the bakery downstairs.  As the crowd gathers to see what happened, a shocking discovery is made: There is another body in the bread basket, and Valentine Haines is dead, really dead. It’s up to Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson ti find out who murdered Val.


Click for more detail about Aké: The Years Of Childhood by Wole Soyinka Aké: The Years Of Childhood

by Wole Soyinka
Vintage (Oct 23, 1989)
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A dazzling memoir of an African childhood from Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian novelist, playwright, and poet Wole Soyinka.

Aké: The Years of Childhood gives us the story of Soyinka’s boyhood before and during World War II in a Yoruba village in western Nigeria called Aké. A relentlessly curious child who loved books and getting into trouble, Soyinka grew up on a parsonage compound, raised by Christian parents and by a grandfather who introduced him to Yoruba spiritual traditions. His vivid evocation of the colorful sights, sounds, and aromas of the world that shaped him is both lyrically beautiful and laced with humor and the sheer delight of a child’s-eye view. A classic of African autobiography, Aké is also a transcendantly timeless portrait of the mysteries of childhood.


Click for more detail about The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution

by C.L.R. James
Vintage (Oct 23, 1989)
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A classic and impassioned account of the first revolution in the Third World.

This powerful, intensely dramatic book is the definitive account of the Haitian Revolution of 1794-1803, a revolution that began in the wake of the Bastille but became the model for the Third World liberation movements from Africa to Cuba. It is the story of the French colony of San Domingo, a place where the brutality of master toward slave was commonplace and ingeniously refined. And it is the story of a barely literate slave named Toussaint L’Ouverture, who led the black people of San Domingo in a successful struggle against successive invasions by overwhelming French, Spanish, and English forces and in the process helped form the first independent nation in the Caribbean.

Claims that white abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison “started” the abolition movement and influenced the thinking of his black colleagues (when in fact it was the other way around) can be found in books published in the last decade. It’s not difficult to figure out what is at play here and why these narratives persist: white supremacy depends upon the notion that freedom and rights, when attained, are “granted” to blacks by benevolent whites, who then can distance themselves from their racist history through their purported efforts at salvation.

The Haitian Revolution disturbs these comforting assumptions. The Haitian Revolution was, as C. L. R. James noted in his classic Black Jacobins, “the only successful slave revolt in history,” and it was planned and carried out by the enslaved blacks of the French colony of Saint Domingue themselves, who effected their own transformation from “slaves, trembling in hundreds before a single white man, into a people able to organise themselves and defeat the most powerful European nations of their day.”

African Americans and other oppressed people, from the time of the Haitian Revolution until today, have been inspired by its success and the Haitians’ attainment of freedom and, ultimately, an independent nation in 1804. White Americans, though, were threatened in the antebellum period by the implications that their own investment in a republic dependent upon slavery was insecure; ever since, they have ignored the Haitian Revolution altogether, denied Haitians’ own agency in their struggle

Jacqueline Bacon


Click for more detail about The Talking Eggs by Robert D. San Souci The Talking Eggs

by Robert D. San Souci
Dial Books for Young Readers (Sep 29, 1989)
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The author of such delights as The Christmas Ark and The Enchanted Tapestry joins forces with illustrator Pinkney to resurrect a colorful folktale that captures the unique flavor of the American South. A 1989 Caldecott Honor Book.


Click for more detail about The Barsoom Project (Dream Park Series, Book 2) by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes The Barsoom Project (Dream Park Series, Book 2)

by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
Ace Books (Sep 01, 1989)
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Welcome to Dream Park-an amusement park where nothing is what it seems-except murder.


Click for more detail about Mama Day by Gloria Naylor Mama Day

by Gloria Naylor
Vintage Books (Apr 23, 1989)
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On the island of Willow Springs, off the Georgia coast, the powers of healer Mama Day are tested by her great niece, Cocoa, a stubbornly emancipated woman endangered by the island’s darker forces. A powerful generational saga at once tender and suspenseful, overflowing with magic and common sense.


Click for more detail about The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage (Mar 13, 1989)
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 In 1955, Garcia Marquez was working for El Espectador, a newspaper in Bogota, when in February of that year eight crew members of the Caldas, a Colombian destroyer, were washed overboard and disappeared. Ten days later one of them turned up, barely alive, on a deserted beach in northern Colombia. This book, which originally appeared as a series of newspaper articles, is Garcia Marquez’s account of that sailor’s ordeal.

Translated by Randolf Hogan.


Click for more detail about A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe A Man of the People

by Chinua Achebe
Anchor (Jan 19, 1989)
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By the renowned author of Things Fall Apart, this novel foreshadows the Nigerian coups of 1966 and shows the color and vivacity as well as the violence and corruption of a society making its own way between the two worlds.


Click for more detail about Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe Arrow of God

by Chinua Achebe
Anchor (Jan 01, 1989)
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Set in the Ibo heartland of eastern Nigeria, one of Africa’s best-known writers describes the conflict between old and new in its most poignant aspect: the personal struggle between father and son.


Click for more detail about Pictorial History of the Negro in America by Langston Hughes and Milton Meltzer Pictorial History of the Negro in America

by Langston Hughes and Milton Meltzer
Random House Value Publishing (Dec 12, 1988)
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“One of the most enlightening books that I’ve read on the reconstruction period, the events leading up to and after…” —Mel Hopkins (referring to 3rd revised edition, 1970). All the images shown on this page were obtained from that edition.


Click for more detail about The Heat’s On by Chester Himes The Heat’s On

by Chester Himes
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Nov 28, 1988)
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Detectives Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones are in the hot seat in one of the most chaotic, brutally funny novels in Chester Himes’s groundbreaking Harlem Detectives series.
 
From the start, nothing goes right for Coffin Ed and Grave Digger. They are disciplined for use of excessive force. Grave Digger is shot and his death announced in a hoax radio bulletin. Bodies pile up faster than Coffin Ed and Grave Digger can run. Yet, try as they might, they always seem to be one hot step behind the cause of all the mayhem—three million dollars’ worth of heroin and a giant albino called Pinky.


Click for more detail about Cotton Comes to Harlem by Chester Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem

by Chester Himes
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Nov 28, 1988)
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A classic entry in Chester Himes’s trailblazing Harlem Detectives series, Cotton Comes to Harlem is one of his hardest-hitting and most entertaining thrillers.
 
Flim-flam man Deke O’Hara is no sooner out of Atlanta’s state penitentiary than he’s back on the streets working the scam of a lifetime. As sponsor of the Back-to-Africa movement, he’s counting on a big Harlem rally to produce a massive collection—for his own private charity. But the take is hijacked by white gunmen and hidden in a bale of cotton that suddenly everyone wants to get his hands on. As NYPD detectives “Coffin Ed” Johnson and “Grave Digger” Jones piece together the complexity of the scheme, we are treated to Himes’s brand of hard-boiled crime fiction at its very best.


Click for more detail about The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes The Real Cool Killers

by Chester Himes
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (Nov 28, 1988)
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Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones get personally involved in a gang dispute in The Real Cool Killers, one of the most provocative cases in Chester Himes’s groundbreaking Harlem Detectives series.  

Many people had reasons for killing Ulysses Galen, a big Greek with too much money and too great a liking for young black girls. But there are complications—like Sonny, found standing over the body, high on hash, with a gun in his hand that fires only blanks; a gang called the Moslems; a disappearing suspect; and the fact that Coffin Ed’s daughter is up to her pretty little neck in the whole explosive business.


Click for more detail about Time Flies by Bill Cosby Time Flies

by Bill Cosby
Bantam (Nov 01, 1988)
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WE’RE ALL GETTING OLDER,
AND BILL COSBY KEEPS GETTING BETTER

America’s best-loved humorist, media personality and bestselling author now brings his unique warmth, wisdom and wit to a subject common to all: aging. From five to fifty and beyond, Bill Cosby takes us on a hilarious romp through the trials and tribulations of growing—and being—older. Funny, highly personal, and with just the right tugs on the heartstrings, Time Flies is Cosby at his best.


Click for more detail about Invented Lives: Narratives of Black Women 1860-1960 by Mary Helen Washington Invented Lives: Narratives of Black Women 1860-1960

by Mary Helen Washington
Anchor (Sep 01, 1988)
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Concentrating on carefully chosen selections from ten writers, Mary Helen Washington explores the work, the realities, and the hopes of black women writers between 1860 and 1960.
 
Featuring works by Harriet Jacobs, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Pauline E. Hopkins, Fannie Barrier Williams, Marita O. Bonner, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Petry, Dorothy West, and Gwendolyn Brooks.
 
Praise for Invented Lives
 
“Mary Helen Washington has done more than any other single critic to expand the Afro-American and Anglo-American feminist canons.”—The Women’s Review of Books
 
“This collection is, in fact, two fine books in one: at once an anthology and a critical study.”—New York Times Book Review
 
“The forceful, uncompromising, and distinctive voice of Mary Helen Washington brings together foremothers and daughters … in a volume that presents … a century of black women’s writing along with a vital new tradition of black feminist criticism.”—Marianne Hirsch, Ms. Magazine


Click for more detail about Paris, Pee Wee and Big Dog by Rosa Guy Paris, Pee Wee and Big Dog

by Rosa Guy
Yearling (Jul 01, 1988)
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paris pee wee and big dog


Click for more detail about The Death Of Rhythm And Blues by Nelson George The Death Of Rhythm And Blues

by Nelson George
Pantheon Books (Jun 12, 1988)
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Examines the changing sound of rhythm and blues, from the electrifying music of such greats as Chuck Berry and Aretha Franklin to current mainstream names like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, and explores the reasons for this radical shift.


Click for more detail about Barbeque’n With Bobby by Bobby Seale Barbeque’n With Bobby

by Bobby Seale
Knopf (Jun 01, 1988)
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Southern & Western Style Barbeque Recipes Veggie-Grill & LowFat Heart Smart Recipies including Sauces, Barbeque BASTE MARINADES, Side Dishes, & BobbyQue Quick recipies All by & with Bobby Seale’s 50 years recipe-perfected pit-smoke & pit-grilling Methodology


Click for more detail about More Tales of Uncle Remus: Further Adventures of Brer Rabbit, His Friends, Enemies, and Others by Julius Lester More Tales of Uncle Remus: Further Adventures of Brer Rabbit, His Friends, Enemies, and Others

by Julius Lester
Dial (Apr 30, 1988)
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A retelling of the continuing adventures and misadventures of Brer Rabbit and his friends and enemies.


Click for more detail about Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff by Walter Dean Myers Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff

by Walter Dean Myers
Puffin Books (Apr 01, 1988)
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Stuff doesn’t know anyone when he first moves to 116th Street. But all of that changes when he meets Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Gloria. Stuff and the gang grow close that eventful year, and nothing is ever like it again. That’s the year modern science gets them all in jail; Stuff falls in love and is unfaithful; and Cool Clyde and Fast Sam win the dance contest-almost.


Click for more detail about The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X, Alex Haley and Attallah Shabazz The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley

by Malcolm X, Alex Haley and Attallah Shabazz
Ballantine Books (Oct 28, 1987)
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With its first great victory in the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the civil rights movement gained the powerful momentum it needed to sweep forward into its crucial decade, the 1960s. As voices of protest and change rose above the din of history and false promises, one voice sounded more urgently, more passionately, than the rest. Malcolm X—once called the most dangerous man in America—challenged the world to listen and learn the truth as he experienced it. And his enduring message is as relevant today as when he first delivered it. In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement to veteran writer and journalist Alex Haley . In a unique collaboration, Haley worked with Malcolm X for nearly two years, interviewing, listening to, and understanding the most controversial leader of his time. Raised in Lansing, Michigan, Malcolm Little journeyed on a road to fame as astonishing as it was unpredictable. Drifting from childhood poverty to petty crime, Malcolm found himself in jail. It was there that he came into contact with the teachings of a little-known Black Muslim leader renamed Elijah Muhammad. The newly renamed Malcolm X devoted himself body and soul to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and the world of Islam, becoming the Nation’s foremost spokesman. When his conscience forced him to break with Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity to reach African Americans across the country with an inspiring message of pride, power, and self-determination. The Autobiography of Malcolm X defines American culture and the African American struggle for social and economic equality that has now become a battle for survival. Malcolm’s fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America.


Click for more detail about Numbers and You:  A Numerology Guide for Everyday Living by Lloyd Strayhorn Numbers and You: A Numerology Guide for Everyday Living

by Lloyd Strayhorn
Ballantine Books (Sep 12, 1987)
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If you can count on your fingers you can use numerology. Learn how to harness the power of numbers with this unique guide, and reveal the secrets of your personality, which lottery numbers you should choose, when is the best time to make decisions, what cities are best for you to live in, how can you tell if someone is right for you, and much, much more.


Click for more detail about Summer Lightning and Other Stories by Olive Senior Summer Lightning and Other Stories

by Olive Senior
Longman (Sep 01, 1987)
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Winner 1987 Commonwealth Book Prize for Best Book.

Written in vivid, colourful detail, these rich, compelling stories recreate with sensitivity and wit a whole range of emotions, from childhood hope to brooding melancholy.


Click for more detail about After the Garden by Doris Jean Austin After the Garden

by Doris Jean Austin
Dutton (Jul 24, 1987)
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Elzina Thompkins James, a young Black woman raised in the strict atmosphere of her over-protective grandmother’s rigid morality, begins an odyssey of growth and self-discovery in Jersey City during the forties and fifties after her marriage to a carefree man


Click for more detail about Fatherhood by Bill Cosby Fatherhood

by Bill Cosby
Berkley Publishing Group (May 01, 1987)
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From one of America’s most beloved funnymen comes a hilarious look at the lighter side of fatherhood. So, what is fatherhood…?It’s pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.It’s helping your children learn English as a second language.It’s asking your son to make up a name rather than tell anyone who he is.It’s knowing that "Everything’s okay, Dad!" means "I haven’t killed anyone!"It’s the book every father will love.It’s Bill Cosby at his wittiest, wisest, and warmest."Bill Cosby makes fatherhood come alive. He takes us on a comedic yet insightful journey through the awesome shifting sands of parenthood. Though this volume is titled Fatherhood, its effect will be to strengthen the entire family." —from the afterword by Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D.


Click for more detail about And I Heard a Bird Sing by Rosa Guy And I Heard a Bird Sing

by Rosa Guy
Delacorte Books for Young Readers (May 01, 1987)
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Eighteen-year-old Imamu’s newly-found contentment, with his job and the apartment he shares with his frail mother, is shattered when he is inadvertently drawn into the sinister events taking place in a wealthy household where he has been delivering groceries.


Click for more detail about Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis Teacup Full of Roses

by Sharon Bell Mathis
Puffin Books (Apr 07, 1987)
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Joe’s decision to leave home is prompted by despair over his Mother’s blindness to his younger brother’s talents and his older brother’s drug addiction.


Click for more detail about De Mojo Blues: De Quest of HighJohn de Conqueror by Arthur R. Flowers De Mojo Blues: De Quest of HighJohn de Conqueror

by Arthur R. Flowers
Ballantine Books (Jan 01, 1987)
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Three black soldiers are dishonorably discharged from the Vietnam War due to a mutinous fragging incident. They return home resolved to take on the world, but ambition and poverty begin to dissolve their precious brotherhoodo forged in the trenches of Southeast Asia. To counter this growing fragmentation, the hero prophet of the group, Tucept Highjohn, inspired by a set of mystical bones passed onto him by a dying brother in Vietnam, undergoes ‘hoodoo’ in his isolated house on stilts in a wilderness park in Memphis. His new self mastery enables him to relive his memories of Vietnam and to rally his ex companions in arms with a vision of the triumph of black people everywhere.

This rich first novel about the Vietnam inheritance of three black combat veterans, written in an original rhythmic prose, marks the debut of a gifted young black novelist.


Click for more detail about Texas Bred by Michael R. French Texas Bred

by Michael R. French
Bantam (Dec 01, 1986)
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Click for more detail about Love Story Black: 2 by William Demby Love Story Black: 2

by William Demby
Dutton Adult (Oct 16, 1986)
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Professor Edwards, a free-lance writer and Black Studies teacher at a New York college, is assigned to interview Mona Pariss, an aging ex-showgirl famed in the 1920s, and enters a magical world of mysticism, humor, and sex


Click for more detail about The Hornes by Gail Lumet Buckley The Hornes

by Gail Lumet Buckley
Knopf (Jun 12, 1986)
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An inspired, intimate history of musical legend Lena Horne and her family, written by Lena’s daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley. More than a loving biography of a true show business legend, Lumet Buckley traces Lena’s, as well as her own, roots as the latest in a long family line of America’s Black elite.


Click for more detail about Fences (1950s Century Cycle) by August Wilson Fences (1950s Century Cycle)

by August Wilson
Plume (Jun 01, 1986)
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 The 1987 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for DramaFrom August Wilson, author of The Piano Lesson and the 1984-85 Broadway season’s best play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, is another powerful, stunning dramatic work that has won him numerous critical acclaim including the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. The protagonist of Fences (part of Wilson’s ten-part “Pittsburgh Cycle” plays), Troy Maxson, is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive.  Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s… a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can…a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less…


Click for more detail about The Lucky Stone by Lucille Clifton The Lucky Stone

by Lucille Clifton
Yearling (May 01, 1986)
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There is nothing Tee enjoys more than sitting out on the porch with her great-greatmother, listening to the fascinating stories about the lucky stone.


Shiny and black as night, it brought good fortune to each of its owners for over one hundred years. First it helped Mandy, a runaway slave, win her freedom. Then it saved Vashti from death by lightning at a prayer meeting. And it even saved Tee’s great-grandmother from the ferocious dancing dog and helped her meet her husband.


Now Tee can’t help wondering what the old stone has in store for her. She certainly could use some luck on Valentine’s Day. But the lucky stone doesn’t belong to Tee. How can her wish come true?


Click for more detail about Linden Hills (Contemporary American Fiction Series) by Gloria Naylor Linden Hills (Contemporary American Fiction Series)

by Gloria Naylor
Penguin Books (Mar 04, 1986)
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A powerful look at an affluent black community from Gloria Naylor (1950-2016), the National Book Award-winning author of The Women of Brewster Place

A world away from Brewster Place, yet intimately connected to it, lies Linden Hills. With its showcase homes, elegant lawns, and other trappings of Wealth, Linden Hills is not unlike other affluent black communities. But residence in this community is indisputable evidence of "making it." Although no one knows what the precise qualifications are, everyone knows that only certain people get to live there - and that they want to be among them. In a resonant novel that takes as it’s model Dante’s Inferno, Gloria Naylor reveals the truth about the American dream - that the price of success may very well be on a journey down to the lowest circle of hell.

"With Linden Hills, Naylor has constructed a place for herself among the leading contemporary writers of fiction." -Los Angeles Times Book Review


Click for more detail about A Little Love by Virginia Hamilton A Little Love

by Virginia Hamilton
Berkley Pub Group (Mm) (Nov 01, 1985)
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Part of a series of fiction aimed specifically at libraries and secondary school English courses for fourth and fifth year and GCSE, this is the story of a teenager in America who goes searching for her father in her boyfriend’s rickety old car.


Click for more detail about McKenzie’s Hundred by Frank Yerby McKenzie’s Hundred

by Frank Yerby
Doubleday (Aug 01, 1985)
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McKenzie’s Hundred [Aug 01, 1985] Yerby, Frank …


Click for more detail about Don’t You Remember by Lucille Clifton Don’t You Remember

by Lucille Clifton
Dutton Juvenile (Jun 03, 1985)
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Until her birthday a young girl is convinced everyone makes promises to her that only she remembers.


Click for more detail about The Knee-high Man and Other Tales by Julius Lester The Knee-high Man and Other Tales

by Julius Lester
Dial (Jun 03, 1985)
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Drawing from Black folklore, the author recreates six stories about the wind and the water, Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear and a knee-high man


Click for more detail about The Black Poets by Dudley Randall The Black Poets

by Dudley Randall
Bantam (May 01, 1985)
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"The claim of The Black Poets  to being… an anthology is that it  presents the full range of Black-American poetry,  from the slave songs to the present day. It is  important that folk poetry be included because it is  the root and inspiration of later, literary  poetry. Not only does this book present the full range  of Black poetry, but it presents most poets in  depths, and in some cases presents aspects of a poet  neglected or overlooked before. Gwendolyn Brooks  is represented not only by poems on racial and  domestic themes, but is revealed as a writer of  superb love lyrics. Tuming away from White models and  retuming to their roots has freed Black poets to  create a new poetry. This book records their  progress."from the Introduction by Dudley  Randall


Click for more detail about Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1920s Century Cycle) by August Wilson Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1920s Century Cycle)

by August Wilson
Plume (Apr 24, 1985)
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and The Piano Lesson
Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play

The time is 1927. The place is a run-down recording studio in Chicago. Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer, is due to arrive with her entourage to cut new sides of old favorites. Waiting for her are her black musician sidemen, the white owner of the record company, and her white manager. What goes down in the session to come is more than music. It is a riveting portrayal of black rage, of racism, of the self-hate that racism breeds, and of racial exploitation.


Click for more detail about The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy The Patchwork Quilt

by Valerie Flournoy
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 01, 1985)
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The Patchwork Quilt


Click for more detail about Sarah Phillips by Andrea Lee Sarah Phillips

by Andrea Lee
Random House (Oct 12, 1984)
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Discover the acclaimed author of Red Island House Andrea Lee’s first novel—a coming-of-age classic that follows a young Black woman through her middle-class childhood in the suburbs of Philadelphia and her travels as an adult in France that captures “the hidden world of mind and heart” (LA Times).

At once far-reaching and intimate, this novel in stories begins in Paris, where Sarah Phillips has fled after graduating from Harvard. In successive flashbacks, we learn of Sarah’s proper middle-class upbringing as a minister’s daughter in a Black suburb of Philadelphia. Each layer of the past reveals the process that transformed her early sense of security into one of estrangement and escape, while her adventures slowly lead her to contemplate the eventual prospect of a return.

Like the loop of time it chronicles, Andrea Lee’s brilliant and revelatory debut novel, now considered a classic of Black American literature, traces essential issues of identity and affiliation that can’t be easily settled, and its nuance and resonance remains as timely as ever.


Click for more detail about The Chosen Place, The Timeless People by Paule Marshall The Chosen Place, The Timeless People

by Paule Marshall
Vintage (Sep 12, 1984)
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Fiction- The chosen place is Bourneville, a remote, devastated part of a Carribean island; the timeless people are its inhabitants- black, poor, inextricably linked to their past enslavement. The advance team for an ambitious American research project arrives, and the tense ambivalent relationships that evolve - between natives and foreigners, blacks and whites, haves and have-nots - keenly dramatize the vicissitudes of power.


Click for more detail about Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation by Mari Evans Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation

by Mari Evans
Anchor (Aug 17, 1984)
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This unique volume provides each writers reflection on her work, an evaluation of that writer by two perceptive critics, and detailed biographical and bibliographical data.  Included are Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and ten other outstanding writers.


All Good Things

by Sandra Kitt
Doubleday (Aug 01, 1984)
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Click for more detail about Our Golda: The Story of Golda Meir (Women of Our Time) by David A. Adler Our Golda: The Story of Golda Meir (Women of Our Time)

by David A. Adler
Viking Juvenile (Apr 16, 1984)
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A biography of the Israeli prime minister and world leader, emphasizing her early childhood and youth in Russia and America.


Click for more detail about Praisesong For The Widow by Paule Marshall Praisesong For The Widow

by Paule Marshall
Plume (Apr 16, 1984)
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A newer version is available.

With all her children at university and her husband recently dead, Avey Johnson takes an annual cruise to the Caribbean. But this cruise is different, and strips her of all her pretensions. The author has written "Brown Girl, Brownstones".


Click for more detail about From Columbus To Castro: The History Of The Caribbean 1492-1969 by Eric Williams From Columbus To Castro: The History Of The Caribbean 1492-1969

by Eric Williams
Vintage (Apr 12, 1984)
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From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean is about 30 million people scattered across an arc of islands — Jamaica, Haiti, Barbados, Antigua, Martinique, Trinidad, among others-separated by the languages and cultures of their colonizers, but joined together, nevertheless, by a common heritage. For whether French, English, Dutch, Spanish, Danish, or-latterly-American, the nationality of their masters has made only a notional difference to the peoples of the Caribbean. The history of the Caribbean is dominated by the history of sugar, which is inseparable from the history of slavery; which was inseparable, until recently, from the systematic degradation of labor in the region. Here, for the first time, is a definitive work about a profoundly important but neglected and misrepresented area of the world.


Click for more detail about Devilseed by Frank Yerby Devilseed

by Frank Yerby
Doubleday (Mar 01, 1984)
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Best possible copy of this book. Brand new condition hardcover book in its also mint condition decorative dustjacket. An archival quality mylar cover has been professionally added to make it even nicer. Enjoy being the first to read this book!


Click for more detail about Two Wings to Veil My Face by Leon Forrest Two Wings to Veil My Face

by Leon Forrest
Random House (Feb 01, 1984)
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A ninety-one-year-old Black woman tells her story of passage from slavery to freedom to her twenty-one-year-old grandson

Book Review

Click for more detail about Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1910s Century Cycle) by August Wilson Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1910s Century Cycle)

by August Wilson
Plume (Jan 01, 1984)
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and The Piano Lesson
Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play
 
“The glow accompanying August Wilson’s place in contemporary American theater is fixed.” –Toni Morrison
 
When Harold Loomis arrives at a black Pittsburgh boardinghouse after seven years’ impressed labor on Joe Turner’s chain gang, he is a free man—in body. But the scars of his enslavement and a sense of inescapable alienation oppress his spirit still, and the seemingly hospitable rooming house seethes with tension and distrust in the presence of this tormented stranger. Loomis is looking for the wife he left behind, believing that she can help him reclaim his old identity. But through his encounters with the other residents he begins to realize that what he really seeks is his rightful place in a new world—and it will take more than the skill of the local "People Finder" to discover it.
 
This jazz-influenced drama is a moving narrative of African-American experience in the 20th century.


Click for more detail about The Women of Brewster Place  by Gloria Naylor The Women of Brewster Place

by Gloria Naylor
Penguin Books (Jun 30, 1983)
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Once the home of poor Irish and Italian immigrants, Brewster Place, a rotting tenement on a dead-end street, now shelters black families. This novel portrays the courage, the fear, and the anguish of some of the women there who hold their families together, trying to make a home. Among them are: Mattie Michael, the matriarch who loses her son to prison; Etta Mae Johnson who tries to trade the ’high life’ for marriage with a local preacher; Kiswana Browne who leaves her middle-class family to organize a tenant’s union.


Click for more detail about Our Nig: Or, Sketches From the Life of a Free Black by Harriet E. Wilson Our Nig: Or, Sketches From the Life of a Free Black

by Harriet E. Wilson
Vintage (May 04, 1983)
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The 1859 novel tracing the life of a mulatto foundling abused by a white family in 19th century New England.


Click for more detail about Women, Race, & Class by Angela Davis Women, Race, & Class

by Angela Davis
Vintage (Feb 12, 1983)
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From one of our most important scholars and civil rights activist icon, a powerful study of the women’s liberation movement and the tangled knot of oppression facing Black women.

“Angela Davis is herself a woman of undeniable courage. She should be heard.”—The New York Times

Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. While Black women were aided by some activists like Sarah and Angelina Grimke and the suffrage cause found unwavering support in Frederick Douglass, many women played on the fears of white supremacists for political gain rather than take an intersectional approach to liberation. Here, Davis not only contextualizes the legacy and pitfalls of civil and women’s rights activists, but also discusses Communist women, the murder of Emmitt Till, and Margaret Sanger’s racism. Davis shows readers how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of rape, reproductive freedom, housework and child care in this bold and indispensable work.


Click for more detail about Fish Tales by Nettie Jones Fish Tales

by Nettie Jones
Random House (Jan 01, 1983)
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“Mostly forgotten and long out-of-print, Fish Tales by Nettie Jones is an often shocking, sexually charged novel that has retained the sharpness of its cutting edge in the 36 years since its release. Jones came to [Toni] Morrison’s attention via another writer of her prose posse, Corregidora author Gayl Jones (no relation), whom Nettie cited as a friend and mentor during the three years it took to finish her book.

Fish Tales was published in 1983, the same year Morrison, who had already written four novels including The Bluest Eye and Sula, quit her job to devote herself full-time to writing. Although Random House balked at buying Jones’s book, Morrison, already an empress in the literary world, persuaded the publisher that the work was worthy. ‘Toni was acquiring strong writers,’ said literary agent Marie Dutton Brown, who, in the 1970s held a similar editorial position at Doubleday. “There was no formulaic fiction on her roster. Toni saw something in Nettie that she thought was worthy of publication.”
—Read the full article, “Beautiful Women, Ugly Scenes: On Novelist Nettie Jones and the Madness of ‘Fish Tales’” on Longreads, by Michael A. Gonzales


Click for more detail about Three Pieces by Ntozake Shange Three Pieces

by Ntozake Shange
Penguin Books (Nov 18, 1982)
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Poet and playwright, Ntozake Shange, celebrates the Black experience in three plays; “Spell No. 7,” “Boogie Woogie Landscapes,” a Stream-of-consciousness verse play; and “A Photograph: Lovers in Motion,” A sensual melodrama of intersecting lives and loves


Click for more detail about The Sea Birds Are Still Alive by Toni Cade Bambara The Sea Birds Are Still Alive

by Toni Cade Bambara
Vintage (Aug 12, 1982)
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Ten stories of Black life written with Ms. Bambara’s characteristic vigor, sensibility and winning irony. The stories range from the timid and bumbling confusion of a novice community worker in "The Apprentice" to the love-versus-politics crisis of an organizers wife, to the dark and bright notes of the title story about the passengers on a refugee ship from a war-torn Asian nation.Young girls, weary men, lovers, frauds and revolutionaries — Toni Cade Bambara handles them all the expertise, passion and huge talent. As the Chicago Daily News said, "Ms. Bambara grabs you by the throat…she dazzles, she charms."


Click for more detail about Western by Frank Yerby Western

by Frank Yerby
Doubleday (Aug 01, 1982)
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The Kansas prairie was hard country. The land defied all efforts to tame it. The sun and wind aged women overnight. The loneliness drove men crazy. And there were so many ways to die. The prairie was hard, but the people were harder. A passionate few dared strive to make it better. Men like Ethan Lovejoy, who came to forget the horrors of the past and stayed to build a future. Bound to one woman by oath, to another by desire, he challenged the violence of man and the fury of nature.


Click for more detail about The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

by Ernest Gaines
Bantam (Aug 01, 1982)
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"This is a novel in the guise of the  tape-recorded recollections of a black woman who has  lived 110 years, who has been both a slave and a  witness to the black militancy of the 1960’s. In this  woman Ernest Gaines has created a legendary figure,  a woman equipped to stand beside William  Faulkner’s Dilsey in The Sound And The  Fury." Miss Jane Pittman, like Dilsey, has  ’endured,’ has seen almost everything and foretold the  rest. Gaines’ novel brings to mind other  great works The Odyssey for the way  his heroine’s travels manage to summarize the  American history of her race, and Huckleberry  Finn for the clarity of her voice, for  her rare capacity to sort through the mess of years  and things to find the one true story in it all."  — Geoffrey Wolff, Newsweek.

"Stunning. I know of no  black novel about the South  that excludes quite the same refreshing mix of wit  and wrath, imagination and indignation, misery and  poetry. And I can recall no more memorable female  character in Southern fiction since Lena of  Faulkner’s Light In August than Miss  Jane Pittman." — Josh Greenfeld,  Life


Click for more detail about Black Child by Peter Magubane Black Child

by Peter Magubane
Knopf (Mar 12, 1982)
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1982, First Edition, Large Paperback, 109 pages


This Strange New Feeling

by Julius Lester
Dial (Jan 01, 1982)
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One of the most complex periods in American history is illuminated by the love stories of three couples and their fights for freedom from slavery


Click for more detail about Coming to North America: From Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico by Susan Garver and Paula McGuire Coming to North America: From Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico

by Susan Garver and Paula McGuire
Delacorte Press (Dec 01, 1981)
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Explores the immigrant experiences of Mexicans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans in the United States.


Click for more detail about Daydreamers by Eloise Greenfield Daydreamers

by Eloise Greenfield
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 01, 1981)
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Poetry and portraits of young black children reveal all the beauty in children’s wishes, yearnings, and memories. “"Greenfield and Feelings have unquestionably worked together in harmony to create their sensitive portrayals of black boys and girls.”—Publishers Weekly.


Click for more detail about Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor Let the Circle Be Unbroken

by Mildred D. Taylor
Puffin Books (Jan 01, 1981)
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"This dramatic sequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a powerful novel …capable of touching readers of any age." —The Christian Science Monitor


Click for more detail about Mirror of her own by Rosa Guy Mirror of her own

by Rosa Guy
Delacorte Press (Jan 01, 1981)
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Having lived in her older sister’s shadow all her life, Mary Abbot comes into the spotlight the summer she turns 18.


Click for more detail about A Darkness at Ingraham’s Crest by Frank Yerby A Darkness at Ingraham’s Crest

by Frank Yerby
Dell Publishing (Aug 01, 1980)
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Click for more detail about The Dahomean by Frank Yerby The Dahomean

by Frank Yerby
Dell Publishing (Aug 01, 1980)
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This is based on Melville J. Herskovits’ 1967 anthropological study: Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom, among others, and with typical Yerby flair and a lot of cribbed Dahomean words — "A man can be executed for merely pinching an ahosi’s behind, Alogba"—He carries on with an infinite variety of questionable rituals. The novel features a superhuman protagonist named Nyasanu, meaning "man among men" although it should really mean "man among women" since Nyasanu ends up with more wives than he can handle and is eventually betrayed and shipped off to America as a slave.


Click for more detail about Hail the Conquering Hero by Frank Yerby Hail the Conquering Hero

by Frank Yerby
Dell Publishing (Jun 01, 1980)
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Click for more detail about The Throwing Season by Michael R. French The Throwing Season

by Michael R. French
Delacorte Press (Apr 01, 1980)
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With a good chance to become state high school shot put champion, Indian is gripped by both a determination to win and the fear of doing so when he is offered a bribe to throw the meet or else.


Blue Boy

by William Demby
Knopf Paperbacks (Jan 02, 1980)
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Click for more detail about Some Time Ago: A Historical Portrait of Black Americans from 1850-1950 by Chester Higgins, Jr. Some Time Ago: A Historical Portrait of Black Americans from 1850-1950

by Chester Higgins, Jr.
Anchor Books (Jan 01, 1980)
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Click for more detail about This Life by Sidney Poitier This Life

by Sidney Poitier
Ballantine Books (Jan 01, 1980)
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This Life


Click for more detail about Flowers and Shadows (African Classics) by Ben Okri Flowers and Shadows (African Classics)

by Ben Okri
Longman (Jan 01, 1980)
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Click for more detail about Abingdon’s by Michael R. French Abingdon’s

by Michael R. French
Doubleday (Jun 01, 1979)
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Where jeans are $75 and love is free. Where stars set trends, celebrites throw fits, and the beautiful people get more beautiful. Abingdon’s. Where glitter is the weapon and power is the prize that threatens three of New York’s best kept secrets!


Click for more detail about War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute Indians by Nancy Wood War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute Indians

by Nancy Wood
Doubleday (Mar 01, 1979)
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Criminal Justice in the United States is in the midst of momentous changes: an era of low crime rates not seen since the 1960s, and a variety of budget crunches also exerting profound impacts on the system. This is the first book available to chronicle these changes and suggest a new, emerging model to the Criminal Justice system, emphasizing: collaboration across agencies previously viewed as relatively autonomous a focus on location problems and local solutions rather than a widely shared understanding of crime or broad application of similar interventions a deep commitment to research which guides problem assessment and policy formulation and intervention. Ideal for use in graduate, as well as undergraduate capstone courses.


Click for more detail about The Young Landlords by Walter Dean Myers The Young Landlords

by Walter Dean Myers
Puffin Books (Jan 01, 1979)
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If you were looking for a real ghetto dump, you couldn’t beat The Stratford Arms. There was Askia Ben Kenobi throwing karate chops upstairs, Petey Darden making booze downstairs, and Mrs. Brown grieving for Jack Johnson, who’d died for the third time in a month—and not a rent payer in the bunch. Still, when Paul Williams and the Action Group got the Arms for one dollar, they thought they had it made. But when their friend Chris was arrested for stealing stereos and Dean’s dog started biting fire hydrants and Gloria started kissing, being a landlord turned out to be a lot more work than being a kid.


Click for more detail about And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems by Maya Angelou And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems

by Maya Angelou
Random House (Aug 12, 1978)
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Maya Angelou’s unforgettable collection of poetry lends its name to the documentary film about her life, And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Thus begins "Phenomenal Woman," just one of the beloved poems collected here in Maya Angelou’s third book of verse. These poems are powerful, distinctive, and fresh—and, as always, full of the lifting rhythms of love and remembering. And Still I Rise is written from the heart, a celebration of life as only Maya Angelou has discovered it.

"It is true poetry she is writing," M.F.K. Fisher has observed, "not just rhythm, the beat, rhymes. I find it very moving and at times beautiful. It has an innate purity about it, unquenchable dignity… . It is astounding, flabbergasting, to recognize it, in all the words I read every day


Click for more detail about Edith Jackson by Rosa Guy Edith Jackson

by Rosa Guy
Viking Books for Young Readers (May 22, 1978)
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A black teen-ager tries valiantly to keep her family together but sees her world collapse as her younger sisters reject her inept mothering.


Click for more detail about The Garfield Honor by Frank Yerby The Garfield Honor

by Frank Yerby
Dell Publishing (Apr 01, 1978)
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The Garfield Honor [Apr 01, 1978] Yerby, Frank.


Click for more detail about Judas My Brother by Frank Yerby Judas My Brother

by Frank Yerby
Dell Publishing (Mar 01, 1978)
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novel


Click for more detail about Barbara Jordan by James Haskins Barbara Jordan

by James Haskins
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 01, 1978)
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A biography of the Congresswoman from Texas, the first black woman ever to be elected to that office from the South.


Click for more detail about Something on My Mind by Nikki Grimes Something on My Mind

by Nikki Grimes
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 01, 1978)
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Poems expressing the hopes, fears, joys, and sorrows of growing up.


Click for more detail about The Heart As Ever Green: Poems by Carolyn Marie Rodgers The Heart As Ever Green: Poems

by Carolyn Marie Rodgers
Anchor (Jan 01, 1978)
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“The Heart as Ever Green: Poems, originally published in 1978, added further nuance to Rodgers’s poetic style while exploring themes such as feminism and self-determination.” —John M. Cunningham


Click for more detail about Portia: The Life of Portia Washington Pittman, the Daughter of Booker T. Washington by Ruth Ann Stewart Portia: The Life of Portia Washington Pittman, the Daughter of Booker T. Washington

by Ruth Ann Stewart
Doubleday (Dec 01, 1977)
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Tells the story of an independent and courageous woman, Portia Washington Pittman, Daughter of Booker T. Washington, who refused to ow to pressures of society to conform.


Click for more detail about Fair Oaks by Frank Yerby Fair Oaks

by Frank Yerby
Dell Publishing (Aug 01, 1977)
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Book by Yerby, Frank


Click for more detail about The African by Harold Courlander The African

by Harold Courlander
Crown (Jun 08, 1977)
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Before Alex Hailey’s Roots there was Courlander’s The African, which chronicles the experiences of a young African boy, Hwesuhunu, who is kidnapped from his homeland. His story recreates the horrors of the Middle Passage and the degradation of slavery.


Click for more detail about Children of Ham by Claude Brown Children of Ham

by Claude Brown
Bantam (Mar 01, 1977)
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This book records the stories of thirteen Harlem residents, focusing on their struggles against poverty, crime, and drugs.


Click for more detail about Benton’s Row by Frank Yerby Benton’s Row

by Frank Yerby
Dell Publishing (Mar 01, 1977)
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Click for more detail about The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats The Snowy Day

by Ezra Jack Keats
Puffin Books (Oct 28, 1976)
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Originally published in 1962, The Snowy Day is the winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal!


No book has captured the magic and sense of possibility of the first snowfall better than The Snowy Day. Universal in its appeal, the story has become a favorite of millions, as it reveals a child’s wonder at a new world, and the hope of capturing and keeping that wonder forever.
The adventures of a little boy in the city on a very snowy day.


"Keats’s sparse collage illustrations capture the wonder and beauty a snowy day can bring to a small child."—Barnes & Noble

"Ezra Jack Keats’s classic The Snowy Day, winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal, pays homage to the wonder and pure pleasure a child experiences when the world is blanketed in snow."—Publisher’s Weekly

"The book is notable not only for its lovely artwork and tone, but also for its importance as a trailblazer. According to Horn Book magazine, The Snowy Day was "the very first full-color picture book to feature a small black hero"—yet another reason to add this classic to your shelves. It’s as unique and special as a snowflake."—Amazon.com


Click for more detail about A Rose for Ana Maria: A Novel by Frank Yerby A Rose for Ana Maria: A Novel

by Frank Yerby
Doubleday (Jun 01, 1976)
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A Rose for Ana Maria: A Novel


Click for more detail about The Trouble They Seen: Black People Tell the Story of Reconstruction by Dorothy Sterling The Trouble They Seen: Black People Tell the Story of Reconstruction

by Dorothy Sterling
Doubleday (Mar 01, 1976)
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Doubleday, 1976, Very good., Bright ex-library copy with dust jacket. Front flyleaf clipped. B&w illustrations, photos. Second printing. [American History, Reconstruction, Black Studies] Out-of-print and antiquarian booksellers since 1933. We pack and ship with care.


Click for more detail about Escape To Freedom: A Play About Young Frederick Douglass (Puffin books) by Ossie Davis Escape To Freedom: A Play About Young Frederick Douglass (Puffin books)

by Ossie Davis
Puffin Books (Jan 01, 1976)
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A play that depicts Frederick Douglas overcoming his beginnings as a slave to becoming the first African American man to hold a diplomatic office.


Click for more detail about The Junior Bachelor Society by John A. Williams The Junior Bachelor Society

by John A. Williams
Doubleday (Jan 01, 1976)
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In 1981, the Sophisticated Gents mini-series is adapted from The Junior Bachelor Society and airs on NBC-TV.

Nine members of a Black athletic-social club reunite after 25 years to pay tribute to their former coach and mentor.


Click for more detail about Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions by Margaret Musgrove Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions

by Margaret Musgrove
Dial (Jan 01, 1976)
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Artists Leo and Diane Dillon won their second consecutive Caldecott Medal for this stunning ABC of African culture. "Another virtuoso performance… . Such an astute blend of aesthetics and information is admirable, the child’s eye will be rewarded many times over."—Booklist. ALA Notable Book; Caldecott Medal.

Art from Ashanti Zulu


Click for more detail about Giant talk: An anthology of Third World writings by Quincy Troupe Giant talk: An anthology of Third World writings

by Quincy Troupe
Vintage Books (May 28, 1975)
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Click for more detail about Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale by Verna Aardema Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale

by Verna Aardema
Dial Books for Young Readers (Jan 01, 1975)
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A retelling of a traditional West African tale that reveals how the mosquito developed its annoying habit.

Book Details:Format: Hardcover 1/1/1975 32Reading Level: Age 4 and Up


Click for more detail about Mothersill and the Foxes by John A. Williams Mothersill and the Foxes

by John A. Williams
Doubleday (Jan 01, 1975)
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From the prolific author of Captain Blackman and The Man Who Cried I Am (to name but two) comes one of the more intelligent novels about a man’s relation to persons of the opposite sex.

For once, the central character, Odell Mothersill (welfare case worker risen via Ph.D., intelligence, and a bit of black tokenism to Peace Corps and finally OEO V.I.P.) is neither philanderer nor eternal loser — just an average promiscuous lover with short, medium, and long-term affairs which end, sometimes bitterly, usually not, as affairs (and marriages) will do. Although the finale (a May-September marriage) is perhaps somewhat simplistically euphoric, the rest is not — for his former loves continue to rupture even his intermittent idealized daydreams of them as they commit suicide, turn psychotic, or just go on with their lives. Odell is portrayed as a decent man, but no more so than his former partners — and a rather violent unpleasantness emerges in a rape scene with an ex-lover turned lesbian.

A rather mature book about a middle-aged man’s experience with love and sex — special because it takes place in that usually uninhabited writer’s nowhere land between bourgeois recrimination and childish fantasies of super-cock —Kirkus Reviews


Click for more detail about how i got ovah by Carolyn Marie Rodgers how i got ovah

by Carolyn Marie Rodgers
Anchor (Jan 01, 1975)
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The idea of crossing over to a new way of life provides the substance that Rodgers explicitly longed for in several poems of self-doubt about her writing. Her third book takes its title from this concern: How I Got Ovah (1975) collects new and selected poems in a volume that marks a turning point in Rodgers’s career. Like Giovanni and Sanchez, Rodgers rejects the official hatred of the liberation movement and embraces love. "Some of Me Beauty" (53) recalls and dismisses her revolutionary persona:

the fact is
that i don’t hate any body any more
i went through my mean period.

Now, however, she awakes to find herself

carolyn
not imani man jua or soul sister poetess of
the moment
i saw more than a "sister"…
i saw a Woman. human.
and black.
i felt a spiritual transformation
a root revival of love.

The correlation between a spiritual transformation and the revival of love is critical.  Read the full review and more written about by Karen Ford.


Click for more detail about Drums of Life: A Photographic Essay on the Black Man in America by Chester Higgins, Jr. Drums of Life: A Photographic Essay on the Black Man in America

by Chester Higgins, Jr.
Anchor Books (Jan 01, 1974)
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Click for more detail about Conjure Tales by Charles W. Chesnutt and Ray Anthony Shepard Conjure Tales

by Charles W. Chesnutt and Ray Anthony Shepard
Dutton Books for Young Readers (Jan 01, 1974)
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Book by Shepard, Ray Anthony, Chesnutt, Charles Waddell


Click for more detail about From Memphis & Peking  by Barbara Chase-Riboud From Memphis & Peking

by Barbara Chase-Riboud
Random House (Jan 01, 1974)
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Click for more detail about Flashbacks: A Twenty-Year Diary of Article Writing (Autographed) by John A. Williams Flashbacks: A Twenty-Year Diary of Article Writing (Autographed)

by John A. Williams
Anchor Books (Jan 01, 1974)
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Autographed Copy!


A brilliant and thought-provoking collection of articles, profiles, and opinions from one of the twentieth century’s most acclaimed African American writers

A journalist, novelist, and educator, John A. Williams was never afraid to rock boats or take aim at society’s most sacred institutions, white and black. Flashbacks is an essential compilation of Williams’s best nonfiction pieces and an enthralling combination of memoir, biography, and social commentary that sheds a fascinating light on the black experience in America and abroad. With Flashbacks, the author of The Man Who Cried I Am and Captain Blackman reports on a wide array of world events and political realities, from South African apartheid to Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War and the American civil rights movement.

He offers insightful appreciations of some of the century’s most celebrated and controversial black public figures, including Marcus Garvey, Jack Johnson, Charlie Parker, Dick Gregory, and Malcolm X. With insight, candor, and brutal honesty, Williams explores the struggle of the African American middle class and the roots of his own black awareness in essays that remain provocative, powerful, courageous, and relevant today.


Click for more detail about Who I Am by Julius Lester Who I Am

by Julius Lester
Dial (Jan 01, 1974)
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A pictorial and poetic celebration of everyday life and the human experience


Click for more detail about The Case for Astrology by John Anthony West The Case for Astrology

by John Anthony West
Penguin Books (Sep 30, 1973)
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This defense of astrology is written by a self-confessed believer of astrology. It discusses the history and principles of astrology by refuting the numerous objections against it, surveying the evidence of astrology, chronicling how this evidence has provoked lies and double standards from the scientific community and concludes that the case for astrology is irrefutable. The book argues that astrology has two central premises - that correlations exist between celestial and terrestrial events and that correspondences exist between the positions of the planets at birth and the human personality.


Click for more detail about Sneakers by Ray Anthony Shepard Sneakers

by Ray Anthony Shepard
Dutton (Jan 01, 1973)
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A black boy finally admits to himself that his attitudes toward the team’s white co-captain is more important to winning an important game than having new sneakers.


Click for more detail about Vietnam and Black America: An Anthology of Protest and Resistance by Clyde R. Taylor Vietnam and Black America: An Anthology of Protest and Resistance

by Clyde R. Taylor
Random House (Jan 01, 1973)
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Vietnam and Black America: An Anthology of Protest and Resistance, edited by Clyde R. Taylor, is a collection of works that document the responses and viewpoints of Black Americans on the Vietnam War. The anthology, first published in 1973, features a diverse array of contributions from notable figures such as James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Huey P. Newton, Langston Hughes, and Ishmael Reed, among others. It captures a spectrum of African American thought and activism during the Vietnam War era, reflecting on the impacts of the war on the Black community and their unique perspective on protest and resistance.


Click for more detail about Christmas in Biafra, and Other Poems by Chinua Achebe Christmas in Biafra, and Other Poems

by Chinua Achebe
Anchor (Jan 01, 1973)
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Chinua Achebe volume of poetry was the joint winner of the first Commonwealth Poetry Prize.


Click for more detail about Pan-Africanism or Communism by George Padmore Pan-Africanism or Communism

by George Padmore
Doubleday Anchor (Jan 01, 1972)
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concerned about peace and justice in Africa


Click for more detail about Right On! An Anthology of Black Literature by Bradford and Rebecca Moon Right On! An Anthology of Black Literature

by Bradford and Rebecca Moon
New American Library (Jan 01, 1970)
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This anthology includes the work of Malcolm X, Countee Cullen, LeRoi Jones, W.E.B. DuBois, Dick Gregory, Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, Diane Oliver, and other bold Black writers from colonial times to today.


Click for more detail about The King God Didn’t Save: Reflections on the Life and Death of Martin Luther King, Jr. by John A. Williams The King God Didn’t Save: Reflections on the Life and Death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

by John A. Williams
Putnam (Jan 01, 1970)
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Biographers have begun to descend in force upon Martin Luther King, Jr., some to record the facts of his life and some to render judgment. Black novelist John A. Williams, whose sympathies are strongly pro-black power, anti-nonviolence, and anti-religion, falls into the latter category, for he has much to say about the mistakes and shortcomings of King’s leadership. But his unsparing portrayal of King’s career as public and private man also takes cognizance of King’s special greatness, his achievements, and his potential for growth. And as much as this is a study of King himself, it is also a study of “the awesome exercise of white power” that created and exploited his myth as the good black leader, blunted his actual effectiveness, pressured and threatened him over Vietnam and the Poor People’s March, and finally “cut King down in conspiracy, and then conspired to plug the memory of the man with putty.”

The first half of Williams’ book is a rough retracing of the course of King’s public life and the black movement, dotted with Williams’ personal recollections and political opinions. —


Click for more detail about Martin Luther King Jr.:  Man of Peace by Lillie Patterson Martin Luther King Jr.: Man of Peace

by Lillie Patterson
Dell Publishing (Jun 01, 1969)
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A biography of the minister, orator, and crusader for equal civil rights who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.


Click for more detail about Manchild in the Promised Land  by Claude Brown Manchild in the Promised Land

by Claude Brown
New American Library (Oct 01, 1966)
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With more than two million copies in print, Manchild in the Promised Land is one of the most remarkable autobiographies of our time—the definitive account of African-American youth in Harlem of the 1940s and 1950s, and a seminal work of modern literature.

Published during a literary era marked by the ascendance of black writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Alex Haley, this thinly fictionalized account of Claude Brown’s childhood as a hardened, streetwise criminal trying to survive the toughest streets of Harlem has been heralded as the definitive account of everyday life for the first generation of African Americans raised in the Northern ghettos of the 1940s and 1950s.

When the book was first published in 1965, it was praised for its realistic portrayal of Harlem—the children, young people, hardworking parents; the hustlers, drug dealers, prostitutes, and numbers runners; the police; the violence, sex, and humor.

The book continues to resonate generations later, not only because of its fierce and dignified anger, not only because the struggles of urban youth are as deeply felt today as they were in Brown’s time, but also because of its inspiring message. Now with an introduction by Nathan McCall, here is the story about the one who “made it,” the boy who kept landing on his feet and grew up to become a man.


Click for more detail about This is My Country Too by John A. Williams This is My Country Too

by John A. Williams
New American Library (Jan 01, 1966)
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In the early 1960s, novelist and journalist John A. Williams was commissioned by Holiday magazine to test the winds of racial change across the USA. Williams set out on a cross-country tour in a shiny new car (a station wagon) and with, as the cover states, “a fistful of credit cards.” This book is a searingly honest account of both the good and the bad he encountered.


Click for more detail about Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats Whistle for Willie

by Ezra Jack Keats
Viking Press (Sep 04, 1964)
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Since it was first published in 1964, Whistle for Willie has delighted millions of young readers with its simple writing and its striking collage artwork depicting the story of Peter, who longs to whistle for his dog. The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Keats’s illustrations boldly, colorfully capture the child, his city world, and the shimmering heat of a summer’s day."


Click for more detail about Facing Mount Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta Facing Mount Kenya

by Jomo Kenyatta
Vintage (Feb 12, 1962)
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Facing Mount Kenya is a central document of the highest distinction in anthropological literature, an invaluable key to the structure of African society and the nature of the African mind. Facing Mount Kenya is not only a formal study of life and death, work and play, sex and the family in one of the greatest tribes of contemporary Africa, but a work of considerable literary merit. The very sight and sound of Kikuyu tribal life presented here are at once comprehensive and intimate, and as precise as they are compassionate.

Features an introduction by Bronislav Malinkowski.


Click for more detail about Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin Sonny’s Blues

by James Baldwin
Penguin Books (Jan 01, 1957)
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The prolific writer James Baldwin is an essential voice in African American literature in the Civil Rights era and in the narrative of Black struggle. His 1957 popular masterpiece, Sonny’s Blues is a short story which begins with the unnamed narrator coming to understand that his estranged younger brother, who has had a history of delinquent and addictive behavior, will be going back to prison. Sonny is a musician, possessing great talent and an all around passive demeanor. The narrator turned out much differently than his troubled brother, as he is a high school math teacher with a stable family life. Once Sonny is finally released, he comes to live with the narrator and his family in their childhood neighborhood of Harlem, causing a strained situation. Tension leads to an inevitable argument between the two where Sonny reveals the motives for his drug use. The story explores such themes as addiction, incarceration, music, and family in the Black community. Although not overtly about racial tension, this piece of Civil Rights era African American literature tells a poignant tale surrounding themes that runs deeply and adversely in the everyday lives of many Black Americans. —Olympia Scott, AALBC


Click for more detail about Story of the Negro by Arna Bontemps Story of the Negro

by Arna Bontemps
Knopf (Jan 01, 1948)
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The first African-American authored book to receive a Newbery Honor.

The non-fiction book starts with a history dating back to 1700 BC, beginning with African civilizations such as the Ghana and Mandingo Empires. The horrors of the Atlantic slave trade are described, together with the causes and conditions of slavery in America, the Haitian Slave Revolt, and the Underground Railroad. Influential black leaders are examined, including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Bontemps said that the book,

“consists mainly of things I learned after I left school that I wish I had known much earlier.”

The book includes a theme poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes.

The book is split into five different sections, The Ship Introduction, Men of the lakes How African civilizations worked, The Crossing The Columbian trade sent Africans to the New World under poor conditions. Slavery was outlawed in 1863, and people were allowed to move freely, often to New York, The bondage About the twentieth century and the struggle to win rights and Making a new world After the Civil rights act was approved, there was still plenty to do to make the world an equal place.


Click for more detail about Savior, Savior, hold my hand by Piri Thomas Savior, Savior, hold my hand

by Piri Thomas
Doubleday (May 25, 1905)
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Click for more detail about Uncle Tom’s Cabin Told to the Children by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall Uncle Tom’s Cabin Told to the Children

by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall
E. P. Dutton & Co. (Jan 01, 1904)
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti–slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes towards slavery in the United States. The book also helped create a number of stereotypes of African-Americans. To some extent, this negative effect has overshadowed other historical impacts of the novel.

The Told to the Children Series of books were published in Great Britain in the early 1900s. The purpose of the book series was to introduce readers between the ages of 9 and 12 to the best known classic novels of the 19th Century.” —University of South Florida


Click for more detail about Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992

by Anna Deavere Smith
Anchor (Jan 01, 1970)
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Anna Deavere Smith’s stunning new work of “documentary theater” in which she uses verbatim the words of people who experienced the Los Angeles riots to expose and explore the devastating human impact of that event.


Click for more detail about Talk to Me: Travels in Media and Politics by Anna Deavere Smith Talk to Me: Travels in Media and Politics

by Anna Deavere Smith
Anchor (Jan 01, 1970)
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Anna Deveare Smith’s award-winning one-woman shows were borne of her uniquely brilliant ability to listen. In Talk to Me she applies her rare talent to the language of political power in America.

Believing that character and language are inextricably bound, Smith sets out to discern the essence of America by listening to its people and trying to capture its politics. To that end she travels to some of America’s most conspicuous places, like the presidential conventions of 1996, and some of its darkest corners, like a women’s prison in Maryland. And along the way she interviews everyone from janitors to murderers to Bill Clinton himself. Memoir, social commentary, meditation on language, this book is as vastly ambitious as it is compellingly unique.


Click for more detail about Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind by Anna Deavere Smith Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind

by Anna Deavere Smith
Anchor (Jan 01, 1970)
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From the most exciting individual in American theater” (Newsweek), here is Anna Deavere Smith’s brass tacks advice to aspiring artists of all stripes. In vividly anecdotal letters to the young BZ, she addresses the full spectrum of issues that people starting out will face: from questions of confidence, discipline, and self-esteem, to fame, failure, and fear, to staying healthy, presenting yourself effectively, building a diverse social and professional network, and using your art to promote social change. At once inspiring and no-nonsense, Letters to a Young Artist will challenge you, motivate you, and set you on a course to pursue your art without compromise.


Click for more detail about House Arrest and Piano: Two Plays by Anna Deavere Smith House Arrest and Piano: Two Plays

by Anna Deavere Smith
Anchor (Jan 01, 1970)
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From the award-winning actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, two teeming, pungent cross-sections of the American experience.

In the provocative and at times bitterly funny play House Arrest, Smith examines the relationships between a succession of American presidents and their observers in and out of the press. Arcing from Clinton and Monica Lewinsky to Jefferson and Sally Hemings and alive with the voices of such real-life figures as Ed Bradley, George Stephanopoulos, Anita Hill, and Abraham Lincoln, the result is a priceless examination of the intersection of public power and private life.

In Piano, Smith casts her gaze back a century as she follows the tangled lines of race, sex, and exploitation in a prosperous Cuban household on the eve of the Spanish-American War. Deftly and suspensefully, Smith tells a story of ruptured allegiances and ramifying deceptions in which no one—master or servant, friend or enemy—is what he or she pretends to be. Together these two plays are further proof that Anna Deavere Smith is one of the most searing and revelatory voices in the American theater.