AALBC Search
How to be an Antiracist
How to be an Antiracist Tony Lindsay Book Review How to be an Antiracist is an instructional text written by historian, professor, and bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi. The teaching text begins by i...
Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate
Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate Kam Williams Book Review "Is it possible to talk about Muslims and terrorism without being called a bigot? …What happened to me was not about me a...
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...
Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady
Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady Kam Williams Book Review ’A tall 44 year-old African-American woman took her place at the podium and began her speech at the Democratic ...
Kingston Noir
Kingston Noir Robert Fleming Book Review With his first anthology for Akashic, Iron Balloons, Colin Channer, author of the celebrated novel, Waiting In Vain, showcased the full range of contempo...
The High Price of a Good Man
The High Price of a Good Man Thumper Book Review What a welcome relief! The High Price of a Good Man by Debra Phillips is a novel that I’ve been waiting on for sometime — a book about a ...
Lynched by Corporate America
Lynched by Corporate America Kam Williams Book Review ’My intention in writing this book from the outset has been to illustrate what happens’ when one of the world’s largest com...
Blend In or Fade Out: A Memoir
Blend In or Fade Out: A Memoir Robert Fleming Book Review The main theme of identity takes center stage in Colnese M. Herndon’s emotional riveting memoir, Blend In Or Fade Out, as the writer in...
Cougar Tales
Cougar Tales Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Is Age Just A Number? Three best-selling romance authors have joined together to bring readers an anthology based on the theme of older women/younger m...
Let the Lion Eat Straw
Let the Lion Eat Straw Thumper Book Review One of the residuals affect I had hoped would happen when African American literature was proven marketable was the rediscovery of previously pub...
Sympathy For The Devil
Sympathy For The Devil Thumper Book Review I wasn’t expecting such an excellent, non-stop reading novel when I embarked on Christopher Chamber’s debut novel, Sympathy For The Devil. I wa...
Resurrecting Midnight by Eric Jerome Dickey
Resurrecting Midnight by Eric Jerome Dickey Thumper Book Review Man, I must have been knocked out for a long ass time. I had to take a leave of absence for three years because I had to go bac...
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...
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...
Every Man a King
Every Man a King Robert Fleming Book Review For those who love the creators of the hard-boiled private dicks from the 1930s such as Dashiell Hammett, James Cain, and Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosley&r...
What Mother Never Told Me
What Mother Never Told Me Idrissa Uqdah Book Review A Family's Secret Sins "Every Family has it's secrets…" says national best selling author, Donna Hill in her latest n...
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...
Free and Other Stories
Free and Other Stories Thumper Book Review My Dear Ms. Anika Nailah, I know, normally, that book reviews are not generally written in letterform, from the reviewer to the author. Since I have been kn...
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...
No Surrender
No Surrender Robert Fleming Book Review When news reached me about the death of renowned poetess, Ai, I knew that I must write something about her and her unwavering lyrical examination of the hu...
Something Like Beautiful
Something Like Beautiful Robert Fleming Book Review In many ways, the award-winning poet and journalist asha bandele’s second memoir, Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother&rsquo...
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...
I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to "The Blind Side" and Beyond
I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to "The Blind Side" and Beyond Kam Williams Book Review "I didn’t write this book just to revisit The Blind Side… I want to help sepa...
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 ...
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...
The Justus Girls
The Justus Girls Thumper Book Review I should let go of my preconceived notions that I am beginning to grow tired of the girl-coming-of-age story or the sista-girlfriend relationship tales. It seems ...
Red at the Bone
Red at the Bone Brenda M. Greene Book Review Jacqueline Woodson is the best-selling author of more than two dozen award-winning books, including the 2016 New Times best-selling National Book Award fi...
Dr. No
Dr. No Robert Fleming Book Review “…a hilarious, fantastic satire of our times and culture.” —Robert Fleming Bestselling author Percival Everett is a literary alchemist wi...
The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease
The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease Kam Williams Book Review "This book tells the story of how race gets written into the definition of mental illness… The book a...
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...
How We Fight for Our Lives
How We Fight for Our Lives Brianna-Christine Alicea Book Review As a recipient of the Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from Cave Canem and Queer/Art/Mentorship, Saeed Jones is a poet and the author of...
The Lion’s Brood
The Lion’s Brood Thumper Book Review I am weak when it comes to reading books on subjects off the normally beaten path of bestselling African-American novels. My ears perked up when I received a re...
The Wig
The Wig Linda Watkins Book Review There were many ways to evaluate, The Wig, by author Charles Wright, so many in fact, I had a difficult time deciding on how I could should begin this review. Perh...
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...
The Boiling Pot of Injustice
The Boiling Pot of Injustice Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Kelvin D. Bodley has penned an explosive book. He has taken his experiences of discrimination in the workplace; and using Biblical princ...
Billionaire Baby
Billionaire Baby Kam Williams Book Review A lot of parents say they want their child to become a star, but not many of them are realistically prepared for what will be required of them- their tim...
Color Him Father
Color Him Father Kam Williams Book Review Book Reviewed by Kam Williams ’My dad has a gentle spirit and quiet determination. He worked 30 years for the U.S. Postal Service, beginning as the ...
Promises to Keep
Promises to Keep Thumper Book Review Your beloved son is murdered and your family slowly begins falling apart. How do you hold it all together, your family, yourself and find the murderer of your s...
The Lurking Place
The Lurking Place Robert Fleming Book Review Veteran writer Clarence Major’s literary career continues full speed. His latest novel, The Lurking Place, rates among his best, using an experience...
Race Matters
Race Matters Kirby Roy III Book Review Reading and evaluating the overriding themes in Cornel West’s Race Matters, which was published in 1993, given the context of events that have occurred si...
Driven from Within
Driven from Within Kam Williams Book Review ’That day I met Phil Knight for the first time. Neither of us could imagine what the next 20 years together would produce’ Nike was the perfec...
Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography
Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography Troy Johnson Book Review The age of multitasking needs better narrative history. It must be absolutely factual, immediately accessible, smart, and brilliantly fun....
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...
Triangular Road: A Memoir
Triangular Road: A Memoir Thumper Book Review I don't know how I came to be aware of Paule Marshall’s new book, Triangular Road: a Memoir. Maybe it was the same still small voic...
IDOLeyes
IDOLeyes Idrissa Uqdah Book Review A Singer’s Life Changing American Idol Experience Mandisa Hundley may well go down in history as the most talked about American Idol participant who di...
Guiou: The Other Blacks The Afro-Jamaican Presence in Guatemala
Guiou: The Other Blacks The Afro-Jamaican Presence in Guatemala Kam Williams Book Review [This book] “chronicles the journey of a group of Jamaican pioneers who went to Guatemala during the ...
A Letter To My Father
A Letter To My Father Linda Watkins Book Review I had high expectations of debut autobiography, A Letter to My Father, by John W. Griffin, mainly because of my love for autobiographies and also due ...
A Love of My Own
A Love of My Own Linda Watkins Book Review Welcome Back Mr. Harris. Everybody! Yes, I mean, ev-ver-ry-bo-dy gets lonely sometimes and needs a little love. That’s what author, E. Lynn Harris,...
Conversation with the Mann
Conversation with the Mann Thumper Book Review Not since Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man has a first person narrative novel struck me with such a poignant sense of completeness and satisfaction a...
From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist
From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist Herb Boyd Book Review Like many red-blooded American boys, Bob Avakian’s early years were consumed wi...
Every Woman’s Man
Every Woman’s Man Thumper Book Review Yeah, it’s unusual for me to read a book with a title like, Every Woman’s Man, a novel by Rique Johnson. I don't normally go for the sister girl...
Nate
Nate Thumper Book Review I should have known better, especially with me being so fond of old sayings. ’Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.’ I love well written books about ...
The Juju Girl
The Juju Girl Robert Fleming Book Review Awarded by the 2022 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Self Published ebook in fiction by an African American author, Nikki Marsh’s The Ju...
Chasing Me to My Grave
Chasing Me to My Grave Robert Fleming Book Review This enthralling memoir is one of the most heralded books about the life, imagination, and cultural influences of an African American man who goes to...
The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires
The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires Kam Williams Book Review “In spite of Black America’s advances… with more successful, educated and accomplished entrepren...
Scottsboro
Scottsboro Thumper Book Review The history book train that I hopped on a few months ago is still rolling strong with no station stop in sight. The ride continues with the novel Scottsboro ...
Bourbon Street
Bourbon Street Thumper Book Review It has been a long while since I read a book as complex and gorgeous as Bourbon Street written by Leonce Gaiter. A novel which explores the spectrum of inner na...
Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama
Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama Kam Williams Book Review “Barack Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention instantly catapulted him into the national spotlight and...
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks Kam Williams Book Review “Described by the New York Times as ‘the accidental matriarch of the civil rights movement,’ the Rosa Parks who surf...
Men We Reaped: A Memoir
Men We Reaped: A Memoir Robert Fleming Book Review National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward, author of two previous acclaimed novels, Where The Line Bleeds and Salvage The Bones, closely examines...
Under the Skin
Under the Skin Robert Fleming Book Review Following the needless deaths of my grandfather and my father, I was very interested in reading Linda Villarosa’s Under The Skin: The Hidden Toll Of Ra...
Ralph Ellison: A Biography
Ralph Ellison: A Biography Kam Williams Book Review "I know by now that all my little triumphs are in reality defeats." — Ralph Ellison, 1961 When Ralph Ellison (1913-1994) won th...
Raisins in Milk
Raisins in Milk Brenda M. Greene Book Review Raisins in Milk by David Covin is a coming of age story focused on a young girl, Ruth-Ann Weathering, who is subjected to the staunch racism and stark rea...
Finding Heaven in the Dark
Finding Heaven in the Dark Carol Taylor Book Review Part memoir, part self-help, part-spiritual realization, Finding Heaven In The Dark is William Ingram’s moving account of his journey to spir...
Animated Objects
Animated Objects Patricia Mckinney Book Review I was very impressed with Animated Objects by Linda Addison. It was written by a person who truly loves and enjoys the horror and fantasy ...
Sins of the Mother
Sins of the Mother Idrissa Uqdah Book Review KARMA???? Victoria Christopher Murray is the best selling author of several contemporary novels that touch on hot topics that church people aren...
Samson
Samson Idrissa Uqdah Book Review A Man's Strength Is Determined By His Faith Christian author Jacquelin Thomas has crafted a new novel with a contemporary twist on the love story of the Bibl...
Southland
Southland Thumper Book Review In the beginning of my throes into books that I missed the first time around and cleaning out my library, one of my discoveries was the second novel by Nina ...
The Black Chicago Renaissance
The Black Chicago Renaissance Kam Williams Book Review “Beginning in the 1930s and lasting into the 1950s, black Chicago experienced a cultural renaissance that rivaled and, some argued, exce...
Hung
Hung Kam Williams Book Review ’The place: Providence, Rhode Island. The time, Spring 1986, my sophomore year in college’ I’m a little new to this, this meeting a strange girl ...
Sundown Towns
Sundown Towns Kam Williams Book Review ’Beginning in about 1890 and continuing until 1968, white Americans established thousands of towns across the United States for whites only. A &rsqu...
Casanegra
Casanegra Linda Watkins Book Review From the moment Casanegra crossed my palms, I was curious. Not only for the content of the story within, but for the story of the trio of authors that penn...
Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea
Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea Linda Watkins Book Review Everyone knows that poetry is opinionated, subjective and sometimes downright confusing. I was delighted to find that the problem of comprehensi...
4 Guys and Trouble
4 Guys and Trouble Thumper Book Review I invite you to sip this premise and swish it around your mind for a minute to see how it tastes. Take five young men that meet and pledge to the same fratern...
Allah Is Not Obliged
Allah Is Not Obliged Thumper Book Review ’The full, final and completely complete title of my bullshit story is: Allah is not obliged to be fair about all the things he does here on...
Player Haters
Player Haters Thumper Book Review No one writes drama like Carl Weber. I don’t know how he does it. He keeps throwing out books that I swallow whole with no salt or pepper while having a croo...
When All Hell Breaks Loose
When All Hell Breaks Loose Thumper Book Review less than a minor disturbance. If you can grasp these things along with a few others, then you have the essence of the trouble that our hero Gregory ...
Shayla Sweet and Her Magical Pen
Shayla Sweet and Her Magical Pen Denolyn Carroll Book Review “…And a little child shall lead them…” (Isaiah 11:6 NKJV). While spending summer break at her grandmother Nani&...
New Harmony: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss
New Harmony: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss Robert Fleming Book Review A complete reading of this debut novel by Leon E. Pettiway, a professor emeritus at Indiana University and an ordained Buddhi...
Alternate Sources
Alternate Sources Eryka Parker Book Review When picking up a prescription, you probably haven’t given much thought to how many hands the contents passed through before reaching the bottle. You may tr...
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Kam Williams Book Review ”Precisely how the system of mass incarceration works to trap African-Americans in a virtual (and ...
The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader
The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader Kam Williams Book Review “Ida B. Wells was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi in 1862. After beginning a teaching career to ...
Safe from the Neighbors by Steve Yarbrough
Safe from the Neighbors by Steve Yarbrough Thumper Book Review Reviewed by Thumper I came across Steve Yarbrough’s latest novel, Safe from the Neighbors, when I started my annual search on t...
Leaving Atlanta
Leaving Atlanta Thumper Book Review Tayari Jones enters the literary scene with Leaving Atlanta, a novel that takes place in 1979 Atlanta, Georgia during what came to be known as the Atlanta Child ...
Rooftop Diva
Rooftop Diva Idrissa Uqdah Book Review D. T. Pollard’s novel, Rooftop Diva became an Essence bestseller novel in 2007. This fictionalized account put a different spin on a survivor of H...
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 ...
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 ...
The Reckoning
The Reckoning Thumper Book Review Randall Robinson, the author of The Debt, has written a new insightful book, The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe To Each Other. In this volume, Robinson examines the cl...
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...
Inner City Miracle
Inner City Miracle Thumper Book Review Judge Greg Mathis makes his debut on the literary stage with his autobiography, Inner City Miracle: A Memoir. Mathis is the star of the popular The Judge Greg...
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters Kam Williams Book Review In this tender, beautiful letter to his daughters, President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaki...
To the Mountaintop: My Journey through the Civil Rights Movement
To the Mountaintop: My Journey through the Civil Rights Movement Kam Williams Book Review “On January 20, 2009, 1.8 million people crowded onto the cold, hard grounds of the nation’s cap...
Lincoln
Lincoln Kam Williams lincoln-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Civil War Docudrama Revisits Great Emancipator’s Team of Rivals Lincoln (2012) In Theaters: Nov 16, 2012 Wide Rated PG-13 for gruesom...
Examined Life
Examined Life Kam Williams examin9.jpg Film Review Cornel West & Company Weigh-In on the State of American Culture Examined Life Click to order via Amazon Unrated Runn...
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...
Black Folk Could Fly
Black Folk Could Fly Robert Fleming Book Review Some of our literary greats fly under the radar. The unexpected death of the late great author Randall Kenan in 2020 at age 57 brought him well-deserve...
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...
Race
Race Kam Williams Book Review “There is a lot to learn from this book. If you are feeling cynical and discouraged that you can’t fight the powerful, read it! If you want to learn the ...