Is the Bitch Dead, Or What?: The Ritz Harper Chronicles Book 2
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by Wendy Williams, Karen Hunter

ISBN: 0767924878
Pub. Date: February 13, 2007
Format: Paperback, 256pp
Publisher: Broadway Books

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 expos� 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.

What I Know for Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America
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by Tavis Smiley, David Ritz, David Ritz (With)

ISBN: 0385505167
Pub. Date: October 2006
Format: Hardcover, 272pp
Publisher: Doubleday Publishing

Tavis Smiley grew up in a family of thirteen in a small trailer in Indiana, where money was scarce and the sight of other black faces even scarcer. One of only a few African American kids in his high school, he grew up feeling like an outsider because of his race, his Pentecostal religious beliefs, and his family's poverty. At home, the trust and support he felt from his family was shattered when his father, in a moment of rage, beat him with an electrical cord, sending him to the hospital. Placed in foster care for a time, it took Tavis years to bridge the emotional chasm between him and his parents.

Throughout his childhood, however, Smiley possessed an inner drive to succeed. His remarkable speaking ability made him an oratorical champion in Indiana and offered him a pathway to a different world. Determined to fight for the underdog and for African American rights, he entered the political arena, moving to Los Angeles to work in mayor Tom Bradley's administration, and later ran for a seat on the city council. After losing the election, he embarked on his career as a radio commentator, discovering that it was an ideal way to influence public discourse on the issues of the day. Now a broadcast star, he remains committed to bettering the lives of all Americans; he's especially acclaimed for his work on behalf of people of color and the underprivileged.

A moving, deeply honest self-portrait of one of America's most popular media figures, WHAT I KNOW FOR SURE will appeal to readers of every color and political persuasion. 

ISBN: 0060514906
Pub. Date: September 2005
Format: Hardcover, 352pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Hattie McDaniel is perhaps best known for her performance as Mammy, the sassy foil to Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, one of Hollywood's most revered -- and controversial -- films. McDaniel's Oscar win raised hopes that the entertainment industry was finally ready to create more respectful, multidimensional roles for blacks. But under the aegis of studio heads eager to please Southerners, screenwriters kept churning out roles that denigrated the African-American experience.

Where McDaniel's stature and popularity should have increased after Selznick's masterpiece came out, as was the case for her white counterparts, hers declined, as an increasingly politicized black audience turned against her. "I'd rather play a maid than be a maid," is how McDaniel answered her critics. Yet her flippant response belied a woman whose hardscrabble background rendered her emotionally conflicted about the roles she accepted. Here, at last, in a finely tuned biography by Jill Watts, is her story.

Watts, a highly praised researcher and writer, shares little-known aspects of McDaniel's life, from her dealings with Hollywood's power brokers and black political organizations to her successful civil rights battle to integrate a Los Angeles neighborhood, revealing a woman hailed by Ebony as an achiever of "more firsts in Hollywood" than any other black entertainer of her time.

ISBN: 006135791X
Pub. Date: January 2007
Format: Hardcover, 255pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

by Sidney Poitier

In this candid spiritual memoir, legendary actor Sidney Poitier reflects on life itself as he reveals the spiritual depth, passion, and intellectual fervor that has driven his remarkable life. Poitier credits his childhood of poverty on idyllic Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of self-worth, family values, and simple ethics that he has never since surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world.

Just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke countless barriers to launch a pioneering career portraying important, dignified characters in some of the most morally significant films of the late 20th century. Drawing on his personal journey, Poitier explores such themes as sacrifice and commitment, pride and humility, rage and survival, and paying the price for artistic integrity. His engaging memoir spans a time in history from Jim Crow segregation through the early Civil Rights conflicts to present-day cultural struggles and spiritual seeking. Poitier shares his provocative thoughts on racism in Hollywood, consumerism and the media, child-rearing, illness and mortality, honoring a higher consciousness, and realizing how fully a part of "the grand scheme" each of us is. This book is a powerful testament to the rewards of being true to one's self, acting passionately on one's convictions, and boldly walking on the edge.