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They Tell Me of a Home
They Tell Me of a Home Thumper Book Review I was in the mood for a Southern gothic novel. For those of you who may not know, a Southern gothic novel is one that takes place in the S...
Go Tell it on the Mountain
Go Tell it on the Mountain Angeli R. Rasbury Book Review Originally Published in Sacred Fire Go Tell It on the Mountain is considered to be James Baldwin’s greatest novel. Like muc...
Diary of a Lost Girl (2)
Diary of a Lost Girl (2) Chris Stevenson Book Review “There are more pyramids in the Sudan than there are in Egypt, that’s a statistical fact… and today there are still 2-3 milli...
Passing by Samaria
Passing by Samaria Paige Turner Book Review In the early days of the church, when doing the Lord’s work, Christians tried to pass by the town of Samaria, tried to evade visiting this unpleasan...
Money: What Financial "Experts" Will Never Tell You
Money: What Financial "Experts" Will Never Tell You Shannon Simpson Book Review When I moved to Washington, D.C. in 2007, I was in for a rude awakening. I looked at my income compared to...
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...
Going Home In Chains: Stories
Going Home In Chains: Stories Robert Fleming Book Review Glenville Lovell, one of the foremost Caribbean writers, has written several novels, including the acclaimed Fire in the Canes, Too Beautifu...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
Grandpa! Tell Us a Story
Grandpa! Tell Us a Story Emanuel Carpenter Book Review He began taking the shells out of the gun and sighting down the barrel, and pulled the trigger listening to the c...
Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History
Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History Kam Williams Book Review “In her poem, ‘And Still I Rise,’ Dr. Maya Angelou wrote, ‘You can write me down in h...
Down Home with the Neelys
Down Home with the Neelys Kam Williams Book Review ’Hey, everyone, first of all, I want to thank you for reading our book and watching our show. We had no idea what we were g...
A House Is Not a Home
A House Is Not a Home Thumper Book Review The song says it’s hard to say goodbye’humph, not when the guests have overstayed their welcome it Ain't. At that time, saying goodbye is th...
Devil‘s Wake
Devil‘s Wake Emanuel Carpenter Book Review Something is turning the world into zombies. Perhaps it’s a virus or maybe even the latest flu vaccine. Whatever the cause, prevention is simple. Do...
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...
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...
Severed: A Novel
Severed: A Novel Mel Hopkins Book Review Severed, a Novel | A Black Woman’s Burden Someone is a few digits short of a hand in Nakadee, Louisiana. What’s worse, someone may be t...
Home
Home Connie Bradley Book Review I just recently completed Toni Morrison’s latest book Home, a novel I have been looking forward to reading because its advance notices promoted it as being set i...
Not Easily Broken
Not Easily Broken Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Can This Marriage Be Saved? Dave and Clarice have been married forever; yet the things that they do not know about one another could fill up a small house...
Uptown: A Novel
Uptown: A Novel Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Sometimes Going Home Is Difficult Uptownby the writing duo, Deberry and Grant is a fast-paced novel set in modern-day Harlem about a prominent middle cl...
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...
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...
Leaving
Leaving Thumper Book Review Leaving, the debut novel by Richard Dry, is an epic tale that spans three generations of a black family, from the 1950s to circa 2000. Leaving is an epic not only in siz...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Gangsta Lean
Gangsta Lean Linda Watkins Book Review Too Clean! Debut novel, Gangsta Lean, penned by Rochan Morgan is one of the few chronologically tight stories written by a new author this year. It is so ti...
The Ex Chronicles: A Novel
The Ex Chronicles: A Novel Thumper Book Review If any of you have been following me for any length of time, you are well aware of how I feel about the 3, 4 sista-girlfriends novels that had become ...
Dear Mary, Dear Luther: A Courtship in Letters
Dear Mary, Dear Luther: A Courtship in Letters Carol Taylor Book Review Dear Mary, Dear Luther: A Courtship in Letters is an epistolary love story of a 1930s courtship between Mary Brooks and Luther ...
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...
Jamerican Connection
Jamerican Connection Akilah Monifa Book Review First time novelist Sandra A. Ottey was born in Jamaica but lives in the United States as she has for most of her life. According to Ottey a "Jamer...
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 ...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
Going Home
Going Home Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Home Is Where The Heart Is Evelyn Palfrey is an author who writes romance novels. The unique thing about her books is that she writes romance for the "...
Buddy Guy: When I Left Home — My Story
Buddy Guy: When I Left Home — My Story Robert Fleming Book Review When I Left Home, the memoir of legendary blue guitarist Buddy Guy, with support from noted writer David Ritz, traces the musician ...
My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir
My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir Kam Williams Book Review "His father, Syl Whitaker, was the charismatic grandson of slaves… His mother, Jeanne Theis, was a shy, World War II refugee from ...
The Womanizers
The Womanizers Thumper Book Review How can I put this,The Womanizers by Dwayne S. Joseph could be classified as a literary "throwback"? Although the novel is not as wearable as a replica 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 ...
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...
If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer
If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer Kam Williams Book Review "I’m going to tell you a story you’ve never heard before, because no one knows this story the way I know it. It t...
Ain’t But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story
Ain’t But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story Robert Fleming Book Review Jazz is dead! If you believe that mess, you must not listen to radio or read any of the mainstream media. Howeve...
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...
Mama Made the Difference
Mama Made the Difference Kam Williams Book Review ’My mother was a most remarkable person. She embodies the reasons that I esteem mothers so highly. In fact, when people ask me why muc...
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...
Loving
Loving Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/images/loving.jpg Film Review Excellent (4 of 4 stars) Rated PG-13 for mature themes and ethnic slurs Running time: 123 minutes Studio: Big...
What Love Feels Like
What Love Feels Like Robert Fleming Book Review Most romances sugarcoat the challenges of love and commitment, but this new novel, What Love Feels Like, by F.Y. Dawn, shows the high cost of trust an...
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...
The Honey Well
The Honey Well Thumper Book Review I had never made a wish like this before. Believe me; I don't harbor any gender bending, transsexual fantasies. But, after reading Gloria Mallette’s lat...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist
When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist Lynne d. Johnson Book Review Hip-hop has intrinsically woven itself into the fabric of Americana. The culture, music, icons, and p...
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 ...
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 ...
Hot Johnny (And the Women Who Loved Him)
Hot Johnny (And the Women Who Loved Him) Thumper Book Review “That’s mighty pretty, precious“ The question, "Damn Thumper is using a term of endearment in the heading of a r...
Blues From Down Deep
Blues From Down Deep Thumper Book Review Reviewed by Thumper Blues From Down Deep is the second novel I have read by Gwynne Forster, the first being Once In A Lifetime which I enjoyed. I was not pl...
In Search of Nella Larsen
In Search of Nella Larsen Thumper Book Review I’m back! It’s good to be back, although I have to tell you that it took me a minute to find groove, before I was able to fall int...
Homie Spumoni
Homie Spumoni Kam Williams homie_59.jpg Film Review Italian Kid Learns He’s Really Black in Cross-Cultural Comedy Homie Spumoni Click to order via Amazon Rated R ...
Not a Day Goes By
Not a Day Goes By Paige Turner Book Review Lifestyles of the Bitch and Famous If you enjoy the big payback and revenge, then popular writer E. Lynn Harris’ is "da man", and his lat...
Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure
Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure Kam Williams Book Review "If they’re being honest, most people who have ever succeeded in any human endeavor will tell you they learn...
Is It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There?
Is It Just Me? Or Is It Nuts Out There? Kam Williams Book Review "Thoughtlessness is the new manners, and I’ve got to say I don’t like it… Somehow, so many little pieces of court...
Tuskegee Love Letters
Tuskegee Love Letters Kam Williams Book Review “My father was a pilot with the all-Negro Tuskegee Airmen; my mother a steno-typist… Separated by war and duty, they shared the events of...
Getting Our Breath Back
Getting Our Breath Back Linda Watkins Book Review Getting Our Breath Back, the debut novel, by author Shawne Johnson, is not your ordinary read. Passionate words float with a hypnotic, poetic rhythm ...
A Family Tree
A Family Tree Thumper Book Review A Family Tree, Taking Root by Doc Robertson is an enjoyable, refreshing novel that should have read like a dream. While many of our authors insist on writing the p...
Cry Me a River
Cry Me a River Thumper Book Review I have said it before, and most likely, I will say it again, but there is no drama like family drama. With Ernest Hill’s Cry Me a River, I got exactly that&...
Dark Corner
Dark Corner Thumper Book Review I love vampire tales with a passion. I’m always on the look out for new, well written, vampire adventures. I was anxious to read Brandon Massey’s latest ...
Gabriel’s Story
Gabriel’s Story Thumper Book Review Right now I’m scanning my slightly used memory attempting to determine the last time a debut novel moved me as much as Gabriel’s Story, the debu...
Harlem Redux
Harlem Redux Thumper Book Review Persia Walker busts on the literary scene burnin’ rubber and smokin’ with her debut novel, Harlem Redux, a multi-faceted fictional tapestry. Harlem Redux...
Long Fall
Long Fall Thumper Book Review I started Walter Mosley’s The Long Fall with a bit of left over anger and some anticipation. I’m not going to lie, I did not ever think that I would feel...
Shackling Water
Shackling Water Thumper Book Review I awoke and discovered myself in the middle of an improvisational jazz solo of great intensity, dexterity, color and depth. I knew not the melody, the song, the st...
Three Days Before The Shooting…
Three Days Before The Shooting… Robert Fleming Book Review When legendary African American writer Ralph Ellison died in 1994, everyone who loves good books mourned at his passing and wondered i...
Ida Mae
Ida Mae Thumper Book Review There are times when I love this job. The times that I hate to lay a book down for any reason. The times when the counting of pages mean that the story is coming to an end...
Zodiac Saga 2 The Balance of Power by Kaitlyn McKnight
Zodiac Saga 2 The Balance of Power by Kaitlyn McKnight Robert Fleming Book Review There are quality novels in the Young Adult novel market. It’s not easy or simple to do these hybrid collection...
Echoes of a Distant Summer
Echoes of a Distant Summer Thumper Book Review In Standing At The Scratch Line, Guy Johnson created one of the most memorable protagonists in literature with King Tremain. Johnson’s second no...
The Drift
The Drift Thumper Book Review Without getting a chance to miss him after the publication of his magnificent Conversation With The Mann, John Ridley delivers a second, equally splendid, novel, The D...
Sittin’ In The Front Pew
Sittin’ In The Front Pew Thumper Book Review Sittin’ In The Front Pew is the latest novel by Parry "EbonySatin" Brown. This tale showcases the reactions a family to the death of its ...
Married Men
Married Men Thumper Book Review Savvy, smart Kyle runs a booming African American beauty supply business, but his main job is hiding his wife from Talk about a Calgon-take-me-away book!! Married...
Watercolored Pearls
Watercolored Pearls Idrissa Uqdah Book Review The latest offering by, Christian fiction author, Stacy Hawkins Adams is about three female friends whose stories were captured in Adam’s first ...
The Root of All Evil
The Root of All Evil Lawrence Brown Book Review Just as many African-American readers have started to complain about the lack of depth in of Black Literature, complaining about the all-too-familiar p...
Charcoal Joe
Charcoal Joe Tony Lindsay Book Review What was refreshingly abundant in Walter Mosley’s Charcoal Joe was Black male characters. From strong Black men to Black men seeking guidance, the reader w...
The Global Obama: Crossroads of Leadership in the 21st Century
The Global Obama: Crossroads of Leadership in the 21st Century Kam Williams Book Review “Barack Obama [has] garnered higher approval ratings in most parts of the world than in the United S...
Where Wild Peaches Grow
Where Wild Peaches Grow Eryka Parker Book Review When heartbreak and familial betrayal send Nona “Peaches” Davenport running from her home of Natchez, Mississippi as a teenager, neither s...
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins Kam Williams nicole20.jpg Film Review Egotistical Talk-Show Host Humbled at Crass Family Reunion The Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins Click to or...
Black Prisoner of War
Black Prisoner of War Thumper Book Review I can't honestly tell you when I started watching war movies and reading books written about the American wars. In my younger years, I considered the sub...
Lay This Body Down
Lay This Body Down Thumper Book Review I may have gotten my love for reading from my mother, but I got my love of a good story from my father. He was an excellent storyteller. During my years livin...
American Imam
American Imam Robert Fleming Book Review Taymullah Abdur-Rahman’s sharp and stylish memoir, American Imam: From Pop Stardom to Prison Abolition, concerns itself with the causes and consequences...
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 ...
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...
Second Line Home: New Orleans Poems
Second Line Home: New Orleans Poems Rudolph Lewis Book Review June 2005, almost a decade ago, was the time I last visited New Orleans. It was still almost the Big Easy I knew in the mid-1980s. Seve...