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AALBC.com eNewsletter - June 29th, 2004

Celebrating Our Literary Legacy! 

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HOW ARE YOU DOING?

In the last few eNewsletters, AALBC.com solicited your feedback by asking; "How are we doing?"  Your feedback is encouraging and useful - thank you.  Actually, we are quite interested in how you are doing � so tell us.  How are YOU doing? 

Our next newsletter will be dedicated exclusively to your responses.  Let us know how you are doing by sending an email to howami@aalbc.com and tell us!.  Let us know if you've read a great book or written one.  Did you attend an interesting reading?  Did you or a love one accomplish something important? We are looking forward to hearing from you.
 

 

AALBC.com BEST-SELLER LISTS - MAY 2004
http://books.aalbc.com/bestsellers.htm

Nonfiction

#1 - The Billion Dollar Bet: Robert Johnson and the inside Story of Black Entertainment Television by Brett Pulley
#2 - All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown V. Board of Education by Charles J. Ogletree
#3 - Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys by Jawanza Kunjufu
#4 - Brown V Board of Education: Caste, Culture, and the Constitution (Landmark Law Cases and American Society) by Robert J. Cottrol
#5 - Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. by Chancellor Williams 

Fiction

#1 - Let that Be the Reason by Vickie M. Stringer
#2 - Mass Deception by Hallema
#3 - A Hustler's Wife by Turner, Nikki
#4 - Chocolate Flava: The Eroticanoir.com Anthology Zane (Editor)
#5 - Dutch: The First of a Trilogy by Teri Woods

 

View the complete best seller list at http://books.aalbc.com/bestsellers.htm


 

 

RECENT RELEASES
http://books.aalbc.com

Little Scarlet: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley
http://authors.aalbc.com/walter.htm

Easy Rawlins returns to solve a mystery set amid the flames of the hottest summer L.A. has ever seen.

Just after devastating riots tear through Los Angeles in 1965 - when anger is high and fear still smolders everywhere - the police turn up at Easy Rawlins's doorstep. He expects the worst, as usual. But they've come to ask for his help.

A man was wrenched from his car by a mob at the riots' peak and escaped into a nearby apartment building. Soon afterward, a redheaded woman known as Little Scarlet was found dead in that building - and the fleeing man is the obvious suspect. But the man has vanished.

The police fear that their presence in certain neighborhoods could spark a new inferno, so they ask Easy Rawlins to see what he can discover. The vanished man is the key, but he is only the beginning. Easy enlists the help of his longtime friend Mouse to break through the shroud. And what Easy finds is a killer whose rage, like that which burned in the city for weeks, is intrinsically woven around deep-set passions - feelings echoed within Easy himself.

Mosley's lean and musical vernacular captures the heat and the rhythm of Los Angeles' heart, where danger is the common currency of everyday life. Little Scarlet is further proof that Mosley is "a master of mystery"
�New York Times Book Review.

 

Divas, Inc. by Donna Hill
http://authors.aalbc.com/donna.htm

Diva (n.): an extremely arrogant or temperamental woman.

Delicious Diva Tip #13: When in doubt, just do it anyway.

Tiffany Lane and Chantal Hollis are bonafide divas-in every sense of the word. They've also been Margaret Drew's best friends since they were children. Margaret has always been the plain Jane of the threesome, living vicariously through the exploits of her friends. But when Tiffany and Chantal head to Europe on an extended vacation, leaving Margaret to tend their apartments, Margaret decides to see how the other half lives. Co-opting their apartments, their boyfriends (current and past), their fabulous lifestyles and Tiffany's very savvy pooch, Virginia, Margaret finally feels like she has found the life she has always wanted and deserved. But her double living begins to catch up with her and Margaret might soon be homeless, manless, and friendless all in one swoop.

 

She's Got Issues by Stephanie Johnson
http://writers.aalbc.com/urbanbooks.htm

Sinclair started out wanting revenge on Aliette, the woman who destroyed her marriage. She befriends Aliette, planning to ruin her life and her engagement to Wayne. Along the way she discovers that Aliette is ruining her own life just fine, with all her infidelity and petty jealousy. Will Sinclair continue on her quest for revenge, or will she discover something more important?

This is the story of two women -Sinclair, who wants to love again but can't trust enough to do so, and Alliette, who does not love herself and so cannot recognize love when it shows its face. It teaches us that even when the ulterior motive may start off being negative, it can lead to unexpected developments. The truest and best of friends are sometimes friends by accident.

She's Got Issues will entice the genders and take them on a ride that will reinvent the meaning of friendship, understanding, and compassion, and allow them to love and lose without anger or judgment.

 

Cooking With Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics by Donna Brazile
http://authors.aalbc.com/donnabrazile.htm

Donna Brazile is a senior political strategist and former campaign manager for Gore-Lieberman 2000�the first African American to lead a major presidential campaign. She is currently chair of the Democratic National Committee�s Voting Rights Institute and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

Cooking with Grease is an intimate account of Donna's thirty years in politics. Her stories of the leaders and activists who have helped shape America's future are both inspiring and memorable. Donna's witty style and innovative political strategies have garnered her the respect and admiration of colleagues and adversaries alike -- she is as comfortable trading quips with J. C. Watts as she is with her Democratic colleagues. Her story is as warm and nourishing as a bowl of Brazile family gumbo.

 

Hot Potato: How Washington and New York Gave Birth to Black Basketball and Changed America's Game Forever by Bob Kuska
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813922631/aalbccom-20

In a nation distinguished by a great black athletic heritage, there is perhaps no sport that has felt the impact of African American culture more than basketball. Most people assume that the rise of black basketball was a fortuitous accident of the inner-city playgrounds. In 'Hot Potato,' Bob Kuska shows that it was in fact a consciously organized movement with very specific goals.

When Edwin Henderson introduced the game to Washington, D.C., in 1907, he envisioned basketball not as an end in itself but as a public-health and civil-rights tool. Henderson believed that, by organizing black athletics, including basketball, it would be possible to send more outstanding black student athletes to excel at northern white colleges and debunk negative stereotypes of the race. He reasoned that in sports, unlike politics and business, the black race would get a fair chance to succeed. Henderson chose basketball as his marquee sport, and he soon found that the game was a big hit on Washington's segregated U Street. Almost simultaneously, black basketball was catching on quickly in New York, and the book establishes that these two cities served as the birthplace of the black game.

 

Flesh and the Devil: A Novel by Kola Boof
http://authors.aalbc.com/kola_boof.htm

"Flesh and the Devil is the perfect companion piece for those who've enjoyed Toni Morrison's Beloved and Edward P. Jones's The Known World...but what sets this lush romantic novel apart from those American classics....is that this one is written by a North African woman. I found myself both shocked and numbed by the clarity of Boof's understanding of chattel slavery, black humanity and black love. This is not only the most graphic slave novel I've ever read, but it's also a passionate, passionate love story. Black women.....are going to love this book!"
�Alicia Banks, Eloquent Fury

Read an Article by Africana.com http://www.africana.com/articles/qa/bk20040518boof.asp

 

Poetry from the Masters: The Pioneers by Wade Hudson, Stephen J. Hudson (Illustrator)
http://books.aalbc.com/poetryrap.htm

Wade Hudson is a co-founder of Just Us Books, one of the leading publishers of Black interest titles for young people.  He is also the author of several books.  This time Hudson has teamed up with his son illustrator, Stephen J. Hudson to produce a diverse collection of 36 poems penned by 11 of the most talented writers in our nation's history.  The poems are introduced by biographies that explore the scope and content of each poet's work, as well as his or her historical significance and impact on the literary world.  This book is an excellent introduction to the world of poetry for both the young and old.

 

Gotham Diaries: A Novel by: Tonya Lewis Lee, Crystal McCrary Anthony
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1401301193/aalbccom-20

An uproarious work of social satire by Tonya Lewis Lee and Crystal McCrary Anthony, who give us an exclusive peek into the world of super-rich, super-connected African Americans.

Lauren is trying to be an independent woman by starting her own documentary film company, but it's difficult when you're married to Ed Thomas, one of the wealthiest African-American businessmen in the country -- particularly when he seems to have a roving eye. Manny is an up-and-coming gay real estate agent who arrived in Manhattan from Alabama with only the clothes on his back. He's made his way to the top of his profession -- yet he still wants more and is intent on charming his way into riches to keep his gorgeous live-in boyfriend happy. Tandy is one of the powerful "ladies who lunch" until her husband's death reveals his shocking financial problems. Now, she's desperate to reinvent herself and must find a new source of money.

In this compelling first novel, authors Tonya Lewis Lee and Crystal McCrary Anthony give us a rare glimpse inside the fashionable and urbane world of New York's chic African-American society and its incumbent scandals, foibles, and skeletons.

 

 

RECENT AALBC.COM BOOK REVIEWS & ARTICLES
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/book_reviews.htm

Camilla's Roses - Reviewed by Thumper
http://reviews.aalbc.com/camillasroses.htm

McFadden's latest novel is Camilla's Roses, a story of a family of women. In my opinion McFadden can do no wrong. I have loved every single novel written by her. McFadden does not disappoint me with Camilla's Roses. I love Camilla's Roses! I literally could not put the book down. True fact, I started reading the novel one Sunday morning at 6: 00 AM and finished it at 8:49 AM that same morning. Looking back at McFadden�s literary output, Camilla's Roses will stand as one of the jewels of McFadden's career.
 

White Chicks (PG-13) - Reviewed by Michael Dequina
http://aalbc.com/reviews/white_chicks.htm

I try not to judge a film before seeing it, but the poster tagline "Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans are White Chicks" cannot help but instill a certain feeling�namely, that of dread. Alas, there's nothing in the actual film to sway such an opinion any degree in the opposite direction.

AUTHORS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Derrick Bell
http://authors.aalbc.com/derrickbell.htm

Bell in his recently published, Silent Covenants: Brown V. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform asks; what if the Court had written a very different decision? What if "separate but equal" had been retained, rather than overturned? He notes that prior to Brown and despite the onerous burdens of segregation, many black schools functioned well and racial bigotry had not rendered blacks a damaged race. And while Brown recognized racial injustice, it left racial barriers intact. Given what we now know about the pervasive nature of racism, the Court might better have determined -- for the first time -- to rigorously enforce the "equal" component of the "separate but equal" standard.
 

Keith Knight
http://authors.aalbc.com/keithknight.htm

"...born and raised in the Boston area. Weaned on a steady diet of Star Wars, hip-hop, racism and Warner Bros. cartoons, Knight drew comics instead of paying attention in grade school. After graduating from college with a useless degree in graphic design, Knight drove out to San Francisco in the early '90s and began taking drugs. It was here in the Bay Area where Knight developed his trademark poorly rendered, barely thought-out, last-minute cartooning style that has amused dozens for over a decade."

 

Darcel Turner
http://authors.aalbc.com/darcel.htm

Darcel Turner is the author of Dana Dances on Paper, a slick, upbeat and heartfelt first novel. The main character Dana, is a young girl who struggles to deal with the hardship of growing up in the urban streets of the Bronx, New York during the beginning of the hip-hop era. Dana has dreams to become a professional dancer and show the world all the talent inside of her. Throughout the novel, Dana's dream will be delayed as the twists and turns of losing her mother to a fatal disease, leave Dana rethinking her life's path and entering into the prospect of being both a dancer and an introspective journalist. Through love, loss, inner renewal and hardship, Dana ultimately finds more than one way to "dance".

 

Bernard Alexander McNealy
http://authors.aalbc.com/bernard.htm

Bernard Alexander McNealy's debut novel, A Perfect World, invades the personal and professional lives of Perry and Felicia Richards and unleashes a story of turmoil and confusion.  Check out the work of this fresh new author.
 

AALBC.com RECOMMENDS

The G.R.I.T.S
http://www.thegrits.com/

The G.R.I.T.S., an acronym for Guys/Girls Raised In The South, is an online book club for men and women who love reading and discussing classic and contemporary African American Literature! This club began on January 1, 2000 and continues to provide its member and visitors to its website with  book reviews, author interviews, literary tidbits and purchasing information to some of the best African American literature written yesterday and today.

A Nu Twista Flavah
http://anutwistaflavah.com/

Founded by Monique Baldwin; "A Nu Twista Flavah is a company that sells flavah books, but with an urban twist. These books are highly recommended and worth every penny spent, ruling out poorly suggested literature. Our inventory ranges anywhere from mainstream to urban to poetry to historical and everything in between. Take a moment to browse our books, you may find something that interests you. We offer several additional benefits as well: author interviews, a book club, book chats, book reviews and much, much more...... "

African Bookstore
http://www.africanbookstore.net

Historical, fiction and children books, focusing on African cultures worldwide. Their bookstore carries volumes on classical African civilizations, literature on black history and culture. From ancient civilization to modern society.

 

EVENTS
http://www.aalbc.com/events/

Join the Harlem Book Fair Volunteer Army!
http://www.qbr.com/hbf2004/hbf04mainpage.htm

This year's Harlem Book Fair begins on Tuesday, July 20th with the Harlem Book Fair Launch Party, a very special event hosted by QBR The Black Book Review and  Harlem World Magazine.

The Annual Book Fair will take place Saturday, July 24, 2004. This, the largest book fair of its kind, is expected to draw more than 40,000 New Yorkers and visitors to West 135th Street (between Fifth Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevards in Harlem), from 12 PM to 6 PM. Over 250 booths will be set up along West 135th Street, offering books, story-telling, readings, and opportunities to meet and greet authors on four stages that will feature spoken word poets, celebrities, and music throughout the day.  Click here for Volunteer information... http://www.qbr.com/hbf2004/hbfvolunteer2004.htm

THE COFFEE WILL MAKE YOU BLACK ON-LINE READING GROUP
http://thumperscorner.com/Reading_List.htm

June 2004 Selection

The Coffee Will Make You Black reading group is currently reading Echo Tree: The Collected Short Fiction of Henry Dumas

Our chat session is scheduled for Sunday, July 11th, 2004 at 6:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time . If you have already read Echo Tree and would like to participate in our on-line chat session; please join us in our chat room http://www.thumperscorner.com/chat/

Visit http://thumperscorner.com/Reading_List.htm to view the rest of The Coffee Will Make You Black on-line reading group's reading list for 2004


 

CONTEST
http://fun.aalbc.com/contest.htm

We are waiting in vain for someone to answer April's Question #49B.  June and July's questions have been posted.

 

 

 

AALBC.com & "READ MORE" PRODUCT ON SALE
http://www.cafeshops.com/aalbc

"Read More" Campaign initiated by the Literary Freedom Project: http://mosaicbooks.com/lfp.htm

 

 

 

Interesting Discussion Board Posts (we discuss other things besides books)
http://www.thumperscorner.com/cgi/discus/discus.cgi

On Bill Cosby's Comments...
http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/179/1201.html?1085918969

On American Idol
http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/1/1177.html?1085852939

On Brown v. Board of Education
http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/179/1171.html?1085431888

On the NY Times admits flawed pre-war coverage
http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/179/1203.html?1085875304

On P Diddy's performance in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun
http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/1/1107.html?1088364400

 

 

Peace, 
Troy Johnson, 

Founder AALBC.com

55 West 116th Street #195
Harlem, NY 10026

(866) 603-8394

 

 

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