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Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History and Culture
Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History and Culture Robert Fleming Book Review Dr. Burnett Kwadwo Gallman’s Sankofa University: Studying African-Centered History And Culture, is a...
The Blackbird Papers
The Blackbird Papers Thumper Book Review It never fails that every year there is one book in which the book’s good publicity reaches me before the book does. This year one of the books is Ian ...
Satisfy My Soul
Satisfy My Soul Thumper Book Review Colin Channer’s sophomore novel, Satisfy My Soul, is extraordinary! It is certainly a novel that deserves to have its praises sung by folks more knowledgeabl...
Masjid Morning
Masjid Morning Alexis E. Jackson Book Review Richard Morris’ Masjid Morning is a dedication to the millennial college student both embracing and learning how to live with religious and racial d...
Secret Mysteries of America’s Beginnings
Secret Mysteries of America’s Beginnings Kam Williams /reviews/images/secret-of-americas-beginnings.jpg Film Review Documentary Discusses Influence of Fraternities on Founding Fathers and Beyond Se...
Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation
Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation Adam Henig Book Review In Alex Haley and the Books that Changed a Nation, Robert J. Norrell, professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxvi...
Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?
Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? Kam Williams heist.jpg Film Review Wall Street Exposé Chronicles Systematic Dismantling of Financial Protections Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? In...
White Gold
White Gold Carol Taylor Book Review This sweeping historical novel follows aspiring railroad engineer, William Roberson, from his Jamaican homeland in 1897 at 16, to Panama, to help build the Pan...
Never As Good As the First Time
Never As Good As the First Time Emanuel Carpenter Book Review What happens when a good, Christian housewife finds herself divorced and having to fend for herself and her children? Perhaps s...
The Known World
The Known World Thumper Book Review As is becoming an unbreakable and pleasurable yearly excursion, I attended the 2003 Book Expo America (BEA) in Los Angeles. I love the BEA. The convention is all...
Beyond Glory
Beyond Glory Thumper Book Review Warning! I’ve been cleaning up my library again-meaning I’m about to review an old book. I have two walls full of bookshelves, whose...
Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues
Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review This year, we will celebrate the centennial of the birth of prominent writer, civil rights activist, and intellectual James Baldwin. Born in Ha...
Read Until You Understand
Read Until You Understand Robert Fleming Book Review With a solid array of books to her credit, Farah Jasmine Griffin has possibly written one of the artistic highlights in the national book marketpl...
Let Us Descend
Let Us Descend Donna Hill Book Review Acclaimed writer Jesmyn Ward, two-time National Book Award winner for Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones, returns with her latest, Let Us Descend, a haun...
Tales of a Jailhouse Librarian: Challenging the Juvenile Justice System One Book at a Time
Tales of a Jailhouse Librarian: Challenging the Juvenile Justice System One Book at a Time Carol Taylor Book Review After almost thirty years as a high school teacher Marybeth Zeman quits her teach...
Post Black: How a New Generation Is Redefining African-American Identity
Post Black: How a New Generation Is Redefining African-American Identity Kam Williams Book Review "In this book, I will not detail every pathological condition that ever existed in African-American...
Moses and the Monster and Miss Anne
Moses and the Monster and Miss Anne Thumper Book Review I admit that the things that form my initial impressions of a book are somewhat shallow. I love a good book cover, whether it is pictures or ...
Big Enough to Be Inconsistent
Big Enough to Be Inconsistent Thumper Book Review There is a great chance that my review of Big Enough to Be Inconsistent: Abraham Lincoln Confronts Slavery and Race by George M. Fredrickso...
The Disilgold Way
The Disilgold Way Kam Williams Book Review "After starting a business proposal that took over 10 years, as long as it took to finally self publish my first book, I knew that I needed to ...
Behind those Books (press release)
Behind those Books (press release) Troy Johnson images/behindthosebooks.jpg Film Review Behind Those Books: A Thought Provoking Documentary Tackling Societal Ills Through Literature Behind Th...
Remembering Roots: How an American Classic Transformed the World
Remembering Roots: How an American Classic Transformed the World Robert Fleming Book Review Unfortunately, there were efforts to demean the late Alex Haley’s Roots: The Saga of an American Family whe...
Strongholds
Strongholds Idrissa Uqdah Book Review The second book in the Blessed Trinity trilogy by best selling Christian fiction author, Vanessa Davis Griggs is a story full of the challenges that c...
God Don’t Like Ugly
God Don’t Like Ugly Thumper Book Review "I was hoping when I started God don't Like Ugly that it wasn't the typical girl-coming-of-age story. Alongside you-go-girl books, girl-coming-of...
21 Nights by Prince
21 Nights by Prince Thumper Book Review My number one is Aretha Franklin. Aretha Franklin is my favorite artist of all times. When I was 13 years old, her album, I Never Loved a Man, save...
Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film
Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film Kam Williams Book Review I admit that the things that form my initial impressions of a book are somewhat shallow. I love a good book cover, whether it...
Oreo
Oreo Thumper Book Review I’m thinking, pondering, you might say, that possibly the sign of a good book isn’t the fact that it is in print. Maybe, the sign of a good book should be wheth...
Just Wanna Testify
Just Wanna Testify Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Vamping The Vamps… Just Wanna Testify by the mega-talented author, Pearl Cleage was met with mixed reviews when it was first released. Many of...
Miss Chloe: A Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison
Miss Chloe: A Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison Robert Fleming Book Review There is so much commercial tripe out there on our bookshelves, but this book is very worthy: Miss Chloe: A Memoir Of A...
Brown’s Possession
Brown’s Possession Idrissa Uqdah Book Review To say that the books in acVernon Menchan’s trilogy; Black’s Trilogy are about a complicated love story is like saying water is wet. C...
A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks
A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks Neoma Nwasike Book Review Gwendolyn Brooks was a very influential African American poet who became the first Black writer to win a Pulitzer Prize award (Poetry). In the ch...
Brown Boys Rule
Brown Boys Rule Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review While listening to a recent meditation session on the app Happier—one of my favorites—I was reminded of the importance of embracing wo...
Butter: Novellas, Stories, and Fragments
Butter: Novellas, Stories, and Fragments Robert Fleming Book Review Recently, I received a letter from lit legend Gayl Jones, saying that she wasn’t writing anymore. Discovered by iconic editor...
Palmares
Palmares Robert Fleming Book Review No less than the esteemed late novelist Toni Morrison, the chief editorial gatekeeper of Random House, was stunned by the narrative power of Gayl Jones’ firs...
The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates Thumper Book Review In an effort to expand my reading to non-fiction titles, as well as the fact that the book is small in size, I read The Beauti...
The Felix Women Series
The Felix Women Series Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Acceptance Not Required: Felix Women IV Click to order via Amazon Print Length: 58 pages (October 10, 2014) This author, Angelia Vernon M...
The Middle Sister
The Middle Sister Thumper Book Review I’m still finding my footing. Being away from reading books for three years, obtaining another degree, has dulled my reading senses. Now that the...
The Book of Night Women
The Book of Night Women Thumper Book Review I have been awaiting the arrival of The Book of Night Women by Marlon James, literally, for years. I read and loved his debut novel, John Crow&r...
The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker
The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker Thumper Book Review The World Has Changed: Conversation with Alice Walker edited by Rudolph Byrd is a type of book that I had not seen befor...
Inner-City Interludes
Inner-City Interludes Jayne Cubbage Book Review Inner-City Interludes by Hoezee probably won’t go down in history as a literary classic. Perhaps as an ode to the ’hood’ and...
Standing in the Need of Prayer
Standing in the Need of Prayer Rondall Brasher Book Review Standing in the Need of Prayer is a book dedicated the diverse and powerful subject of Black prayer. The photographs and other anthropologi...
Book of Letters
Book of Letters Robert Fleming Book Review Mary J. Taylor’s Book Of Letters is just that, a book of letters from the Old School of storytelling. The series of sepia cultural flashbacks moves th...
Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey
Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey Troy Johnson Book Review Hip-Hop Culture’s first OFFICIAL luxury, large format coffee table book will inspire, entertain and educate all generations of readers wit...
Toni Morrison’s Spiritual Vision: Faith, Folktales, and Feminism in Her Life and Literature
Toni Morrison’s Spiritual Vision: Faith, Folktales, and Feminism in Her Life and Literature Robert Fleming Book Review When literary icon Toni Morrison died in August, 2019, world literature lost a r...
Butterfly Rising
Butterfly Rising Troy Johnson images/tanya_wright.jpg Film Review A Letter from Tanya Wright Tanya Wright author/writer/director, BUTTERFLY RISING My name is Tanya Wright. I am an actress...
black misery
black misery Troy Johnson Book Review Misery is when you heardon the radio that the neighborhoodyou live in is a slum butyou always thought it was home” black misery is a pictur...
Tavis Smiley Books
Tavis Smiley Books Lynne d. Johnson Book Review Tavis Smiley, syndicated radio and BET talk-show host, is committed to making the world a better place. This is his mission. His first book, Doing What...
Fifth Born
Fifth Born Thumper Book Review My copy of Fifth Born, the debut novel by Zelda Lockhart, came by way of this year’s Book Expo America convention (BEA). I met Ms. Lockhart and her son at The B...
Zion and Zara Stories: The Big Bike Race
Zion and Zara Stories: The Big Bike Race Amanda Robinson Book Review Good children’s books are hard to come by. Many of them lack morals for children to learn from or educational content to gro...
Black Food
Black Food Robert Fleming Book Review Black food, aka Soul food, is celebrated all over the world for its delicious ingredients, tangy flavors, homegrown recipes, and traditional richness. This book,...
An Affirmation Nite Baby Nite
An Affirmation Nite Baby Nite Sandra W. Headen Book Review An Affirmation: Nite Baby Nite is a gift to parents, grandparents, and everyone who loves children and picture books. Even more, it is a tre...
Glorious
Glorious Thumper Book Review Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden Buy This Book AmazonBarnesandNobleIndieBoundPowells 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!Publication Date: Ma
Rock the Boat: How to Use Conflict to Heal and Deepen Your Relationship
Rock the Boat: How to Use Conflict to Heal and Deepen Your Relationship Kam Williams Book Review “This book is about the reality of relationships. It offers no comforting fantasies, false pro...
Come by Here
Come by Here Thumper Book Review I found a pearl when I happened upon the remarkable author Clarence Major. I discovered Clarence Major by way of an anthology, titled After Hours edited by Robert ...
The Day You Begin
The Day You Begin Neoma Nwasike Book Review Have you ever felt like an outsider, or like you just did not belong? In this big world, with so many different faces, it can sometimes feel overwhelming a...
Red Light Special
Red Light Special Thumper Book Review Yeah, yeah, surprised that I am reviewing, no less read, Red Light Special by Risqu’. Well, I am too. don't let the surprise be about the sub...
Uncle Yah Yah Parts I & II 21st Century Man of Wisdom
Uncle Yah Yah Parts I & II 21st Century Man of Wisdom Alvin Romer Book Review Author Al Dickens gives us his unique brand of wisdom told as by Uncle Yah Yah, a storyteller and wise sage spewing amus...
You Made Me Love You
You Made Me Love You Robert Fleming Book Review Like Ishmael Reed, Clarence Major, and other legendary African-American male writers of their generation, John Edgar Wideman, at eighty, is nearing the...
Threesome
Threesome Tiffany M. Davis Book Review I must say, this book was not what I expected. The title brings to mind images of a steamy m’nage a trois, either male/female/male or the more commonly po...
Daughter
Daughter Jayne Cubbage Book Review The novel, Daughter is a wonderfully crafted book and a smashing follow up to Asha Bandele’s first book, The Prisoner’s Wife. In this suspenseful a...
The Hood Health Handbook
The Hood Health Handbook Kam Williams Book Review "In all my world travels, never have I picked up a book with the kind of love, concern and information that I’ve seen put into this book&hell...
And On The Eighth Day She Rested
And On The Eighth Day She Rested Thumper Book Review Lately, I have been in one of my lazy reading moods. I wanted a book that would go easy on my ol’ noggin. As you all know, my normal readi...
Nappy Hair
Nappy Hair Troy Johnson Book Review One nap of her hair is the only perfect circle in nature. —from Nappy Hair I recently purchased Nappy Hair and have read it to my daughters. I must say c...
Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been
Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been Amanda Robinson Book Review In the midst of arguably a time of the greatest push for the advocacy of LGBT acceptance, Jackie Hi...
Men We Cherish
Men We Cherish Thumper Book Review African-American Women Praise The Men In Their Lives, Edited by Brooke Stephens is an anthology. A book filled with laughter, heartache, inspiration, comfort, heart...
Too Beautiful For Words
Too Beautiful For Words Thumper Book Review Too Beautiful For Words, the debut novel by Monique W. Morris, is a small little miracle of a book. In a novel that is steeped in reality, under the grimme...
Story/Time: The Life of an Idea
Story/Time: The Life of an Idea Kam Williams Book Review “In this ceaselessly questioning book, acclaimed African-American dancer, choreographer and director Bill T. Jones reflects on his art...
Never Been a Time
Never Been a Time Thumper Book Review I am continuing my own personal goal of reading more history and biography books. If my memory serves me correctly, I think it had something to d...
Jazz Country
Jazz Country Walter Benefield Book Review Studying the writings of writer-intellectual Ralph Ellison, author of the critically acclaimed novel, Invisible Man promises to be rewarding. Horace Porter ...
Raceball: How The Major Leagues Colonized The Black and Latin Game
Raceball: How The Major Leagues Colonized The Black and Latin Game Robert Fleming Book Review As a life-long baseball fan, I�m always on the look-out for meaningful books on the sport with its pa...
America The Black Point of View
America The Black Point of View Kam Williams Book Review “I come from a place that is so invisible that you can hardly see me. Yet, I am despised, hated and feared more than anyone or anythin...
Reconsidering The Souls of Black Folk
Reconsidering The Souls of Black Folk Thumper Book Review To commemorate the 100th anniversary of The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois — of one of the most significant books ever publis...
Seventh Child
Seventh Child Thumper Book Review Seventh Child: A Family Memoir of Malcolm X is a memoir told by his nephew, Rodnell P. Collins and his mother, Ella Little Collins. Seventh Child is a nice, factual,...
The Roots of Rap
The Roots of Rap Neoma Nwasike Book Review Hip-Hop is a culture that has spanned generations and has become worldwide. It found its humble beginnings in some of the roughest trenches, deep in the Bro...
The Arc of Truth: The Thinking of Martin Luther King Jr.
The Arc of Truth: The Thinking of Martin Luther King Jr. Robert Fleming Book Review From the start of his singular journey to confronting cultural bigotry and moral chaos, Dr. Martin Luther King stoo...
Dear Revolutionaries: A Field Guide for a World beyond the Church
Dear Revolutionaries: A Field Guide for a World beyond the Church Robert Fleming Book Review In this modern age of random death and mayhem, there are powerful voices shouting for the church to retake...
The Secrets of Newberry
The Secrets of Newberry Thumper Book Review J. D. Mason is a gift that keeps on giving, in a good way. Mason is one of my favorite authors, so much so that I will read anything that has her name ...
The Future Has a Past
The Future Has a Past Thumper Book Review The Future Has A Past is the latest short story collection by author J. California Cooper. In case you don’t know, I adore J. California Cooper! I&rs...
Paradise Interrupted (Carole Ann Gibson Mysteries)
Paradise Interrupted (Carole Ann Gibson Mysteries) Thumper Book Review I want to state my bias up front. I look forward to this time of the year when a new “Carole Ann Gibson” installment...
America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook: Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes
America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook: Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes Kam Williams Book Review "The Pass It Down Cookbook is filled with recipes that reflect the generations-long need to document and sh...
Miracle at St. Anna
Miracle at St. Anna Thumper Book Review I wish all of my review assignments were like this one. It came upon me unexpectedly. I don’t need advance warnings when good things come my way, thoug...
Why Do I Have to Think Like a Man?
Why Do I Have to Think Like a Man? Kam Williams Book Review "This book is dedicated to all women who are ready to ask themselves, ‘What could I have done differently to get what I wanted out ...
Moon
Moon Thumper Book Review Allow me to state up front that I am a huge fan of Jewell Parker Rhodes; have been since I read one of her earlier novels, Magic City. I got extremely excited when I ...
Boys into Men
Boys into Men Paige Turner Book Review BOYS INTO MEN: RAISING OUR AFRICAN AMERICAN TEENAGE SONS By Paige Turner An old Parliament Funkadelic album was entitled America Eats Its Young. While this se...
Just Too Good to Be True
Just Too Good to Be True Thumper Book Review I never thought the moon would rise or the sun would set on the day that I would be writing a review on any E. Lynn Harris book. I use to be a fan of ...
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention Robert Fleming Book Review Dr. Manning Marable, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of fifteen books, knew how important and controversial ...
A Woman’s Worth
A Woman’s Worth Thumper Book Review I’m forewarning everyone, if…no, when I see Tracy Price-Thompson, whoever is closest to me, grab me, because I’m going to try my best to slap h...
Lookin’ For Luv
Lookin’ For Luv Thumper Book Review I gotta be honest with y’all, I wasn’t expecting too much from this book when I picked it up. I wanted to read it because the author Carl Weber somet...
Jake the Fake Goes for Laughs
Jake the Fake Goes for Laughs Vanessa Vanzie Book Review In general, kids enjoy a little something funny and wacky in the books they read to keep them interested until the very end. There is no way t...
The Collected Poems of Nikki Giovanni
The Collected Poems of Nikki Giovanni Rondall Brasher Book Review The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni has been grafted to my hands for the last 3 weeks. This anthology is the chronological atlas...
The Hatwearer’s Lesson
The Hatwearer’s Lesson Thumper Book Review I am perplexed. Maybe someone — anyone, can help me. I’m trying to figure out what happened between BeBe’s By Golly Wow, the last Yolanda...
Whippins
Whippins Thumper Book Review It’s times like these that I wish I were an editor. Whippins, Switches & Peach Cobbler, the first by Brian Egeston, is a novel that doesn’t quite make up ...
Slaves with Swag: The Negroes Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention
Slaves with Swag: The Negroes Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention Kam Williams Book Review “Every February, your history teachers taught you about nine African-Americans: Martin Luther Kin...
Pimp: The Story of My Life
Pimp: The Story of My Life Thumper Book Review Hello All. Now, my friend Gwen hipped me to Iceberg Slim. First, with his book, Mama Black Widow and now Pimp. I didn’t know what to expect, bu...
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration Connie Bradley Book Review I finally finished the 620-page The Warmth of Other Suns by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Isabel W...
Mrs. Black
Mrs. Black Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Angelia Vernon Menchan who also has written under the name, acVernon Menchan has just released an new novel that takes us further into the world of the...
Sinking Saints
Sinking Saints Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Author Etta Harbin outlines the ten most important reasons that the 21st century church is on the brink of self-destruction while offering real solution...
Split Indecision
Split Indecision Jayne Cubbage Book Review Before reading Split Indecision by Pierre Bateau, be sure to sit back and fasten your seatbelt because this book is going to take you on a wild ride. Bate...
i see through eyes
i see through eyes Kalamu ya Salaam Book Review Eric Payne is not ready to publish a book a poetry’but, on the other hand, the 21st century is a new time. If a person believes they are a poet a...
The Brand Within: The Power of Branding from Birth to the Boardroom
The Brand Within: The Power of Branding from Birth to the Boardroom Kam Williams Book Review "What I hope to do with this book is reach out to anyone who wants to get a leg up on their own careers&...
Temptation
Temptation Linda Dominique Grosvenor Book Review Temptation is a refreshing literary effort by first time novelist Victoria Christopher Murray. This book has crossed the line into mainstream fiction,...