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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&...
All I Need to Get By
All I Need to Get By Thumper Book Review I have just finished reading All I Need to Get By, the debut novel by Sophfronia Scott. I am taking a moment to pause and collect my thoughts in order to ...
Snapshot
Snapshot Tony Lindsay Book Review In Snapshot, Camryn King demonstrates the power of a page turning thriller. Through King’s beautifully descriptive screens, narrative pace, believable dialog, ...
People Buy Brands
People Buy Brands Kam Williams Book Review "Once I was like a lot of people who think that marketing is just a way of convincing people to buy a whole bunch of things they don’t need&hellip...
Marriage 101
Marriage 101 Kam Williams Book Review ’Most of us have heard what the acronym BIBLE stands for: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. The Bible gives us everything we need ...
The Lady
The Lady Linda Dominique Grosvenor Book Review T.D. Jakes has a way of knowing what women want, and need. With the well received "Woman Thou Art Loosed," and the follow up "Daddy Love ...
All You Need to Know about the Music Business
All You Need to Know about the Music Business Kam Williams Book Review ’In the music business, the key to success lies in knowing how to protect yourself. To do that, you need...
We Need to Talk
We Need to Talk Kam Williams images/51Icf9mwW+L._SL500_AA300_.jpg Film Review Sisters Make Most of Opportunity to Reflect on Relationships in Latest Documentary from Janks Morton We ...
The Upper Room
The Upper Room Thumper Book Review Mary Monroe initially caught my attention and admiration with her second novel God Don’t Like Ugly. I loved God Don’t Like Ugly, as I previously stated...
From Dusk To Dawn
From Dusk To Dawn Idrissa Uqdah Book Review The opening chapter of From Dusk To Dawn by first-time novelist Niambi Brown Davis reads like your average romance novel, but this reviewer found ...
In My Father’s House
In My Father’s House Thumper Book Review In My Father’s House is the first installment to a new series the late E. Lynn Harris was working on at the time of his death. I don’t know if t...
BlackWash: The Untold Stories of Reverse Racism
BlackWash: The Untold Stories of Reverse Racism Denolyn Carroll Book Review In the introduction to his latest work, Blackwash, Rodney Cloud Hill (also author of The Cloud Effect) notes the following:...
My Sisters’ Voices
My Sisters’ Voices Linda Watkins Book Review "And special thanks go to all those individuals who follow me in stores, call me derogatory and offensive names, and keep me from doing and achieving...
Sapphire’s Grave
Sapphire’s Grave Thumper Book Review While many of us have long since grown tired of the slave narratives, slave stories, or stories that are rooted in our past, my fascination with these stories ...
Neglected but Undefeated: The Life Of A Boy Who Never Knew A Mother’s Love
Neglected but Undefeated: The Life Of A Boy Who Never Knew A Mother’s Love Carol Taylor Book Review Born in 1987, Jonathan Anthony Burkett has lived a young life that reads like fiction: vicious be...
Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an an American Cuisine
Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an an American Cuisine Kam Williams Book Review From frontier cabins to plantation houses to the White House, from steamboat galleys and Pullman kitchens to pub...
The Right Mistake
The Right Mistake Thumper Book Review I don't need to ask, what did I do to deserve such good fortune? I stay good. It’s my natural state of being. *LOL* Although I did not ask i...
The Last King
The Last King Thumper Book Review Now is a time of rejoicing. Nichelle Tramble has finally released her much anticipated second novel, The Last King: A Maceo Redfield novel. I have been...
The Power of Presence
The Power of Presence Tony Lindsay Book Review The Power of Presence is a training manual for those looking to improve life, but not merely the life of an individual but those that depend on an indiv...
Be Careful What You Pray For
Be Careful What You Pray For Thumper Book Review It has been a few years since I have read a book by Kimberla Lawson Roby. I decided to break that trend and read her latest novel, Be Careful What You...
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past Kam Williams Book Review “When Jennifer Teege, a German-Nigerian woman, happened to pluck a library book from...
Devil’s Dream: A Novel about Nathan Bedford Forrest by Madison
Devil’s Dream: A Novel about Nathan Bedford Forrest by Madison Thumper Book Review It is safe to say, I began this book in complete and total ignorance. I had not read any of Madison Smartt Bell&rs...
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...
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...
No More Sheets
No More Sheets Linda Dominique Grosvenor Book Review No More Sheets by Juanita Bynum is the lay it on the line/tell it like it is approach to sex in the 90’s. In this book Juanita exposes hers...
Sassy
Sassy Thumper Book Review Gloria Mallette is one of my favorite authors. I became a major fan after I read one her earlier novel, Shades of Jade. Over the years she remained o...
Everything In Its Place
Everything In Its Place Thumper Book Review Everything In It’s Place is the first novel that I read by Evelyn Palfrey. When I finished the novel, I remembered a conversation I had with the lat...
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky Thumper Book Review The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow is the most remarkable debut novel that I have read in years! The small novel about a young girl...
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...
The Icarus Girl
The Icarus Girl Paige Turner Book Review Jessamy Harrison is an eight year-old, Afro-British girl, who writes haiku, reads Shakespeare, and just skipped a grade in school. Jess’ parents...
The Queen of Harlem
The Queen of Harlem Brian Egeston Book Review He has managed to fool us all! Because his previous work gave the impression that his was the authentic voice of the next generation of Black male southe...
From the Streets to the Sheets
From the Streets to the Sheets Thumper Book Review My favorite urban erotic literature author Noire brings a short story anthology to the stage with Noire presents From the Streets to...
Book Review: Them That Are Called: An Epic
Book Review: Them That Are Called: An Epic Robert Fleming Book Review This truly epic science-fiction novel, Them That Are Called, took its author more than sixteen years to complete this hefty narra...
Black Like You
Black Like You Kam Williams Book Review ’Listening to Knipp, a white man, impersonating Shirley Q. Liquor, a Black woman, was one thing. Actually seeing a white man in blackface dra...
The Dow Twins' Legacy: 50 Years of Disco Reflections
The Dow Twins' Legacy: 50 Years of Disco Reflections Michael A. Gonzales Book Review Coming of age in the disco era 1970s, even as a kid, I knew about the cool clubs where people dressed fly and boog...
Who Does She Think She Is
Who Does She Think She Is Thumper Book Review Demons and condemned souls must be having snowball fights in Hell because I not only read another Benilde Little book; I actually liked it. I know, I kn...
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...
Lost in Language & Sound: Or How I Found My Way to the Arts: Essays
Lost in Language & Sound: Or How I Found My Way to the Arts: Essays Alvin Romer Book Review Poetry and prose if presented and mixed well with a demonstrative esthetic can work wonders for anyone try...
Q: The Autobio of Quincy Jones
Q: The Autobio of Quincy Jones Paige Turner Book Review The new book, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones reads almost like a fable or a fairy tale. The young Quincy Jones, with his twinkly eyes, wa...
Forever
Forever RAWSISTAZ Book Review The title of McCann’s new book, Forever, made me wonder what really lasts forever, does life, love or even death? And why do we exert so much energy trying to make...
On The Edge of a Leaf
On The Edge of a Leaf Clarence V. Reynolds Book Review In his latest children’s picture book, At the Edge of a Leaf, author and poet Vincent L. Johnson draws from his love of gardening, nature,...
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...
Adam by Adam
Adam by Adam Thumper Book Review ’Never let anyone keep you contained and never let anyone keep your voice silent.’ -Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. to a young Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. If I were...
Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Thumper Book Review ’Never let anyone keep you contained and never let anyone keep your voice silent.’ -Adam Clayton Powell, ...
I’m African and Proud
I’m African and Proud Kam Williams Book Review ’I’ve taught in New Jersey schools for 32 years, 21 as a kindergarten teacher. I’ve seen so many children of African descent who ha...
Cinder
Cinder Thumper Book Review Cinder, the latest novel by Albert French, is a sequel to French’s 1993 debut novel, Billy. Although it had been a long time since I read Billy, the novel...
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...
The Wounds Are the Witness
The Wounds Are the Witness Denolyn Carroll Book Review The Wounds Are the Witness speaks to the often disregarded or denied cycles of pain and trauma among marginalized and disenfranchised people, wh...
Defying the Odds
Defying the Odds Kam Williams Book Review ’Whether the threat is a burning cross in a sleepy Southern town, or a female doctor bucking the whites-only hiring policies of a city h...
Love Unlimited
Love Unlimited Paige Turner Book Review The man is known by many names: The Maestro; The Icon of Love; The First, Last and Everything! In his new autobiography, recording legend Barry White lives up ...
Black Boys, I See You
Black Boys, I See You Kirkus Book Review STARRED REVIEW Written from a place of love and deeply attuned to the emotional needs of Black boys. A kid lit giant extends a mighty message of love. ...
David and Goliath: Underdogs
David and Goliath: Underdogs Kam Williams Book Review “Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone an...
High Waters
High Waters Thumper Book Review High Waters, a novel by Suzon Tropez, is a novel that I am unsure as to what the storyline or the point of the novel is. I think it is a novel about an older black ...
19 Years Old & 19 Men Later: A Memoir
19 Years Old & 19 Men Later: A Memoir Kam Williams Book Review “I wrote this book as a guide for young women so that they won’t make the same mistakes I’ve made… I really...
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...
Powerhouse Radio: Rough Roads, Radiance, and Rebirth
Powerhouse Radio: Rough Roads, Radiance, and Rebirth Ahmad Wright Book Review It is not often that a living person’s résumé reads as a memoir, however, Powerhouse Radio: Rough Roa...
Wimbey’s Corner
Wimbey’s Corner Emanuel Carpenter Book Review At first glance, one might think that Wimbey’s Corner is a story about a big and black country bumpkin’ named Wayne Hunter who moves from a...
Legacy
Legacy Michael Dequina images/LegacyPoster4-212x300.jpg Film Review Legacy [2010] LEGACY Not Rated Running time: 92 minutes Studio: Codeblack Entertainment Rating: 3 1...
The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods Kam Williams cabininthewoods.jpg Film Review College Kids Hunted at Haunted House in Harrowing Horror Flick The Cabin in the Woods [2012] In Theaters: Apr 13, 2012 Wide Rated...
Confessions of a Video Vixen
Confessions of a Video Vixen Kam Williams Book Review "Where young girls once aspired to be models and ballerinas, they now aspire to be hip-hop video girls. I sat down to write this book...
Gather Together in My Name
Gather Together in My Name Thumper Book Review You know, there are times when I simply LOOOVE being Thumper and reviewing books. Reviewing Tracey Price-Thompson’s latest novel, Gather...
A Day Late and a Dollar Short
A Day Late and a Dollar Short Paige Turner Book Review The publishing world and the legions of Terry McMillan fans can now officially exhale. McMillan’s long awaited "serious" nov...
Camilla&squo;s Roses
Camilla&squo;s Roses Thumper Book Review Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! *smile* No, my sugar level is not low. I am of sound mind. I know that I ...
Daughters of Men
Daughters of Men Kam Williams Book Review ’Good black fathers are far more plentiful than either the media or warped social science would have us believe’ The moral beau...
Twenty Feet from Stardom
Twenty Feet from Stardom Kam Williams 20-feet-from-stardom.jpg Film Review Backup Singers Belatedly Get Their Props in Pop Music Documentary Twenty Feet from Stardom In Theaters: Jun 14, 2013 Limited...
Blacktrospective 2006
Blacktrospective 2006 Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/akeela46sm.jpg Film Review Blacktrospective 2006 ’ Annual Look Back at the Best (and Worst) in Black Cinema by Kam Williams How d...
Sweetsmoke
Sweetsmoke Thumper Book Review When I heard of the novel Sweetsmoke by David Fuller, I was intrigued. The novel takes place during the Civil War, 1862, at its heart lays a murder mystery wi...
The Water Dancer
The Water Dancer Tony Lindsay Book Review To mix magical realism with historical fiction is a bold task. To discuss the topic of family pride from the perspective of the offspring of a slave and a ma...
My Mother’s Mother by Maryse Conde
My Mother’s Mother by Maryse Conde Thumper Book Review One of my favorite authors in the whole wide world is back with a new novel that I loved, loved, loved! Maryse Condé's latest novel...
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...
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...
The Cutting Season: A Novel
The Cutting Season: A Novel Emanuel Carpenter Book Review Attica Locke’s (Black Water Rising) latest novel, The Cutting Season, takes place on a sugar cane plantation in Louisiana. Though the s...
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 ...
Eden
Eden Thumper Book Review Eden, the debut novel by Olympia Vernon, is a powerful coming of age tale. It is an extraordinary novel, one that offers magnificent artistry in addition to the unveiling o...
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 ...
Do Me Twice: My Life after Islam
Do Me Twice: My Life after Islam Kam Williams Book Review "The story I must tell in order to be transformed is the story of my coming out — out of Islam, out of my parents’ hous...
Oh God!
Oh God! Paige Turner Book Review Sexuality is an extremely powerful force and a very real and large component of everyone’s existence. Yet black churches, like most religions through the ages, ...
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...
Salmon Croquettes
Salmon Croquettes Tony Lindsay Book Review Salmon Croquettes is a debut novel rich in prose. The book is loaded with purposeful dialogue and heartwarming descriptive scenes. The novel’s authent...
The Stork Market
The Stork Market Kam Williams Book Review ’Adoption pits woman against woman, rich against poor, making it painfully difficult to look at and admit. Adoption is racist and classist and of...
Fourplay: The Dance of Sensuality
Fourplay: The Dance of Sensuality Thumper Book Review Fourplay…the Dance of Sensuality, the latest novel by Brenda L. Thomas, is the continuing story of Sasha Boranni from Thomas’s firs...
I Do Love You Still
I Do Love You Still Tony Lindsay Book Review Mary B. Morrison’s novel, I do Love You Still, is filled with drama and unexpected twists that will gap a reader’s mouth. The story uses roman...
Logic
Logic Thumper Book Review I was caught unaware. I was not forewarned or prepared for Olympia Vernon’s beyond marvelous second novel Logic. I knew Vernon was a capable writer after reading her...
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...
Far From The Tree
Far From The Tree Paige Turner Book Review A prominent novelist once declared, "You can’t go home again", but co authors Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant have reevaluated this truism...
Enough
Enough Kam Williams Book Review "Reparations sends a message to Americans of every other race that blacks are wards of the state because they are a broken people. Social ills in the black com...
Family Affair
Family Affair Kam Williams Book Review ’Who am I? It’s a fundamental question for everyone, of course, but for African-Americans, it has particular resonance. Since our...
Going Natural: How to Fall in Love with Nappy Hair
Going Natural: How to Fall in Love with Nappy Hair Kam Williams Book Review "Five years ago… I knew nothing about my natural hair. It was that mess that grew out of my head… which...
No Place for Race: Why We Need to Address Economic and Social Factors That Are Crushing Us Every Day
No Place for Race: Why We Need to Address Economic and Social Factors That Are Crushing Us Every Day Kam Williams Book Review “Law enforcement isn’t about the white man out to get the bla...
Freedom’s Daughters
Freedom’s Daughters Paige Turner Book Review “Women hold up half the sky” is one of Chinese revolutionary Mao Tse Dung’s most often quoted statements. However readers of Freedom&rsq...
Our Kind of People
Our Kind of People Paige Turner Book Review A comedian joked that ethnic groups need an elite "Royal Family" to look up to. He mentioned that most WASPS identify with the British Royal fami...
Walking with Our Ancestors
Walking with Our Ancestors Denolyn Carroll Book Review On the face of it, contemplation is deep reflective thought or consideration. At a higher level, it hinges on a critical spiritual component tha...
Me First: A Deliciously Selfish Take on Life
Me First: A Deliciously Selfish Take on Life Carol Taylor Book Review Women have always been taught to put themselves last, that it’s selfish to put themselves first. Have you ever thought ab...
Love In A Carry-On Bag
Love In A Carry-On Bag Idrissa Uqdah Book Review As Wild As The Wind Modern technology has made a long-distance love affair more of a reality. The characters in this novel took the concept and made...
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...
Wench
Wench Thumper Book Review I had a feeling that even though we are educated enough in the institution of slavery, there are still aspects that take me by surprise. Dolen Perkins-Valdez debut...
Mama Dearest
Mama Dearest Thumper Book Review As many of you know, Mama Dearest is the last book written by E. Lynn Harris. I was a fan of Harris’s during the Invisible Life days and a few books ...
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...
Black Water Rising
Black Water Rising Thumper Book Review Attica Locke’s debut novel, Black Water Rising, got a lot of press last year, a lot of good press. I’ve been slowly getting back into the gro...
Walk Through Darkness
Walk Through Darkness Thumper Book Review Walk Through Darkness is magnificent! The writing prowess of David Anthony Durham is a promise fulfilled. Now, if, dear reader, your time is of the essence ...