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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...
Elizabeth’s Song
Elizabeth’s Song Linda Watkins Book Review I am aware that surprises come in many forms, and in many ways. And I was glad when I discovered Elizabeth’s Song, by author, Michael Wenberg, and il...
Role Call
Role Call Rondall Brasher Book Review I encounter many literary anthologies that try to appease my appetite for new talent. But most of them fall short of their mark, and few of these collections ar...
Business Unusual
Business Unusual Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Being About the Lord’s Business Every so often, a self-published book beats the odds and grabs the attention of enough readers to draw an offe...
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...
Genesis Begins Again
Genesis Begins Again Shafika Burke Book Review Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams is a powerful, poignant, and ultimately empowering middle-grade novel that highlights issues sure to interest...
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...
Consumed…
Consumed… Jacqueline Jones LaMon Book Review AALBC.com review by Jacqueline Jones LaMon I firmly believe that there are no coincidences in this life, that we are presented with that which is f...
True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself
True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself Kam Williams Book Review "Writing my first book was an adventure [which] comes from my heart with love… This is not an autobiography. It&rs...
Come on People
Come on People Kam Williams Book Review "For the last three and a half years, I have been holding community call-outs in cities around the country… This book will cover selec...
Journey to the Woman I've Come to Love: Affirmations from Women Who Have Fallen in Love with The
Journey to the Woman I've Come to Love: Affirmations from Women Who Have Fallen in Love with The Kam Williams Book Review “About 10 years ago, I was hanging out with some old high school c...
Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome
Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome Kam Williams Book Review ’When African-Americans accept the deprecating accounts and images portrayed by the media, literature, music and the arts as a true ...
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...
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 No Excuse Guide to Success: No Matter What Your Boss—or Life—Throws at You
The No Excuse Guide to Success: No Matter What Your Boss—or Life—Throws at You Kam Williams Book Review “Life is not what you’ve been taught; it’s what you believe. It’s not ...
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...
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...
A Gardin Wedding
A Gardin Wedding Richard Murray Book Review “When we really fell for each other, the rules we were playing by changed.” These wise words from Martha, a character in A Gardin Wedding by Ro...
What Becomes of the Brokenhearted
What Becomes of the Brokenhearted Rondall Brasher Book Review Before I begin this review I would like to "kick", not "thank" Thumper for handing me a stack of books, and putting a...
Supreme Discomfort
Supreme Discomfort Kam Williams Book Review ’[Clarence] Thomas once said he would never accept a race-based job, and yet he spent an entire federal career in such positions’ The irony i...
The Myth of Race/The Reality of Racism: Critical Essays
The Myth of Race/The Reality of Racism: Critical Essays Kam Williams Book Review “From today’s perspective in a media-soaked world all too familiar with the genomic footprints of huma...
Grace After Midnight: A Memoir
Grace After Midnight: A Memoir Troy Johnson Book Review This Review Appears in the Fall 2007 Issue of Harlem World Magazine Felicia “Snoop” Pearson, of...
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...
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...
Mojo: Conjure Stories
Mojo: Conjure Stories Thumper Book Review Mojo: Conjure Stories, edited by author Nalo Hopkinson is an excellent anthology of short stories that include the occult, folktales and voodoo. The ...
Watchmen
Watchmen Kam Williams watchm18.jpg Film Review Long-Awaited Adaptation of Graphic Novel an Underwhelming Disappointment Watchmen Rated R for full frontal nu...
The Complete Muhammad Ali
The Complete Muhammad Ali Tony Lindsay Book Review Ishmael Reed’s The Complete Muhammad Ali is much more than a standard biography. The work provides specific details on numerous facets that su...
No One Left Alone
No One Left Alone Eryka Parker Book Review The inspirational book No One Left Alone opens with the author sharing how members of the Boston community came together and, united, dealt with their grief...
My Bully, My Aunt, and Her Final Gift
My Bully, My Aunt, and Her Final Gift Shaundale Rénā Book Review In My Bully, My Aunt, & Her Final Gift, writer Harold Phifer openly shares childhood experiences with both boldness and wit. The s...
You're a Worthwhile Person
You're a Worthwhile Person Jayne Cubbage Book Review you're a Worthwhile Person in More Ways Than a Million by Simeon Johnson is an enjoyable, frank and honest read that lauds the everyday p...
Freedom Bound
Freedom Bound Jayne Cubbage Book Review The novel Freedom bound is based on the life Anta Majigeen Ndiaya who had been captured by slave raiders from Yang Yang village in Senegal, West Africa. Auth...
Peony’s Daughters
Peony’s Daughters Idrissa Uqdah Book Review A Mother With Crosses To Bear Although not categorized as Christian Fiction, Peony’s Daughters by Leceila Turnage is a very spiritual read w...
Letters to a Young Brother
Letters to a Young Brother Kam Williams Book Review "Young men today have been bombarded with images of wealth and success that tell them that buying the hottest car or the most bling...
Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice System
Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice System Kam Williams Book Review “The August 9th fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown by poli...
Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice Sys
Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice Sys Kam Williams Book Review “The August 9th fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown by police ...
What Next
What Next Paige Turner Book Review During these times of turmoil between the United States and Iraq the creative community is using the full extent of its powers to offer solutions. Walter Mosley, ...
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 ...
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...
It Was The Devil All Along: A Memoir
It Was The Devil All Along: A Memoir Robert Fleming Book Review Her name is Avalon Soulette Brown, a God-sent woman who happens to be an accomplished nurse from Newark, New Jersey, and still lives ...
The Art of Good Deeds
The Art of Good Deeds Denolyn Carroll Book Review The Oxford English Dictionary defines philanthropy as “the desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed especially by the generous donati...
Not Guilty of Love by Pat Simmons
Not Guilty of Love by Pat Simmons Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Doing It God's Way Christian Author Pat Simmons has written a wonderful sequel to her debut novel, Guilty of Love in her third rel...
John McCain’s Racism and Why It Matters
John McCain’s Racism and Why It Matters Kam Williams Book Review ’’I hate the gooks,’ said John McCain in the year 2000. ’I will hate them as long as I live.&rsquo...
Sugar of the Crop
Sugar of the Crop Kam Williams Book Review Everyone I interviewed for this book is now dead” Before I started the search, the one person I knew who was a granddaughter of a ...
Why Do Black People Love Fried Chicken?
Why Do Black People Love Fried Chicken? Kam Williams Book Review "The primary purpose of this book is to provide information about black folks… Please read with the understanding that neit...
Fishing for Love on the Net
Fishing for Love on the Net Kam Williams Book Review ’Many people have tried online dating with no success. The steps necessary to secure love online still remains a mystery. Many more ...
Next Day Air
Next Day Air Kam Williams next_d73.jpg Film Review Laughs Aplenty in Hilarious Homage to Blaxploitation Genre Next Day Air Rated R for violence, drug use, pervasive profanity and brief ...
Breasts
Breasts Kam Williams breast49.jpg Film Review Headline: 22 Topless Women Talk about Their Boobs Breasts - A Documentary (1996) Click to order via Amazon Unrated Running time: 50 minute...
Men in Black 3
Men in Black 3 Kam Williams mib2-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Alien-Fighting Franchise Revived for Time-Travel Finale Men in Black III In Theaters: May 25, 2012 Wide Rated PG-13 for violence and su...
Olympus Has Fallen
Olympus Has Fallen Kam Williams olympus-has-fallen-angela-bassett-Morgan-Freeman.jpg Film Review Olympus Has Fallen (2013) Click to order DVD from Amazon In Theaters: Mar 22, 2013 Wide ...
Saving Lincoln
Saving Lincoln Kam Williams saving-lincoln.jpg Film Review Chronicles Lincoln’s Long-Term Relationship with Close Confidant and Bodyguard Saving Lincoln (2013) In Theaters: Feb 15, 2013 Limit...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
Syncope
Syncope Brianna-Christine Alicea Book Review As a third-grade poet teacher, an author, and as a leader for an English conversation group for immigrants, Wadud is involved with her community. She is a...
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...
Dreamgirls (2006)
Dreamgirls (2006) Kam Williams dreamg1.jpg Film Review Jennifer Hudson Steals the Show in Adaptation of Tony Award-Winning Musical Dreamgirls (2006) Rated PG-13 for sex, expletives, and dru...
Detropia
Detropia Kam Williams detropia.jpg Film Review Cautionary Exposé Warns of Detroit’s Impending Demise Detropia [2012] - Film Review In Theaters: Sep 5, 2012 Limited Unrated Documentary D...
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...
Digging
Digging Robert Fleming Book Review The literary legacy of award-winning writer and poet Amiri Baraka continues to thrive as he releases another new book, Digging: The Afro-American Soul Of ...
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...
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...
Once Is Never Enough
Once Is Never Enough Idrissa Uqdah Book Review If Loving You Is Wrong, I don't Want To Be Right The old rythmn and blues tune, If Loving You Is Wrong, I don't Want To Be Right aptly desc...
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...
I Love My People
I Love My People Robert Fleming Book Review Lovingly crafted with an eye for substance and content, scholar Kim Singleton was determined with her new book, I Love My People. As a “race woman,&r...
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...
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...
Handbook for an Unpredictable Life How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother
Handbook for an Unpredictable Life How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother Kam Williams Book Review “I hated the fact that my mother was crazy. I wanted her to be normal. Even when...
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...
Kevin and His Dad
Kevin and His Dad Kam Williams Book Review ’What could be better for a young boy than to spend a whole day with his father! With mom away on a Saturday, that’s exa...
The Henry Louis Gates
The Henry Louis Gates Robert Fleming Book Review Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the nation’s most acclaimed scholars, is a masterful jack of all trades, including educator, editor, critic and ...
Black Pulp
Black Pulp Robert Fleming Book Review In his succinct introduction, award-winning novelist Walter Mosley, creator of the noted private eye Easy Rawlins, explains the appeal of fiction printed i...
A Hand to Guide Me
A Hand to Guide Me Kam Williams Book Review "Every individual you are about to meet in these pages has remained humble, and that’s been my mantra for as long as I can remember’ a...
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,...
Marvel’s Black Panther
Marvel’s Black Panther Brenda M. Greene Book Review The 2016 San Diego Comic-Con was a memorable moment for independent researcher and writer Todd Steven Burroughs. Burroughs begins Marvel’s Bl...
Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?
Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? Kam Williams Book Review “A book you can’t put down, but for all the wrong reasons.” “On May 17, 2004, ...
Insignificant Others: Erotic Novellas
Insignificant Others: Erotic Novellas Anita Doreen Diggs Book Review Award winning authors, Pynk and Carol Taylor have written two original tales for Insignificant Others. Fans will love both sto...
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...
Blind Light
Blind Light Carol Taylor Book Review In 2001, visionary social justice advocate, Glenda R. Taylor was struck with a potentially devastating illness that took most of her sight. Instead of retreating ...
Soul Food Junkies
Soul Food Junkies Kam Williams Soul-Food-Junkies-poster.jpg Film Review Soul Food Junkies - Premiering January 2013 on Independent Lens Soul Food Junkies 64 minutes In this PBS ...
Freedom Riders (American Experience)
Freedom Riders (American Experience) Kam Williams images/Sprite%20117.jpg Film Review American Experience: Freedom Riders Click to buy via Amazon.com Number of discs: 1 Rated: NR (...
Better Mus' Come: In Theaters: March 15, 2013
Better Mus' Come: In Theaters: March 15, 2013 Kam Williams https://aalbc.com/reviews/better-mus-come.jpg Film Review Better Mus’ Come In Theaters: Mar 15, 2013 Limited Written and Directed by Stor...
Path of the Half Moon
Path of the Half Moon Robert Fleming Book Review There has to be a great deal of skill to pull off a literary mashup like this. Imagine a superb paranormal Western novel complete with settlers, cowbo...
I Always Knew: A Memoir
I Always Knew: A Memoir Robert Fleming Book Review This country rarely acknowledges the celebrated triple threats of the arts in our community. Consider Barbara Chase-Riboud, the noted African-Americ...
Gathering Blossoms Under Fire
Gathering Blossoms Under Fire Robert Fleming Book Review Nobody will find the controversial writer, Alice Walker neutral, because of her fierce, unorthodox views. As an award-winning novelist, essayi...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir by Toni Braxton
Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir by Toni Braxton Kam Williams Book Review “While Toni Braxton may appear to be living a charmed life, hers is in fact a tumultuous story: a tale of personal triumph...
Brooklyn’s Finest
Brooklyn’s Finest Kam Williams images/img23.jpg Film Review Flawed NYPD Officers Featured as "Brooklyn’s Finest" Brooklyn's Finest Rated R for nudity, graphic sexuality, pe...
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...
The People Could Fly
The People Could Fly Kam Williams Book Review "The People Could Fly is one of the most extraordinary, moving tales in black folklore… [It] is a detailed fantasy of suffering, of magi...
The Salt Roads
The Salt Roads Linda Watkins Book Review Award winning author Nalo Hopkinson’s The Salt Roads is a multilayered fantasy full of various meanings, Haitian voodoo, mythology, slavery and Europe...
Lackawanna Blues
Lackawanna Blues Brian Egeston lackaw3.jpg Film Review How Matriarchs Have Made Us A Film Review of Lackawanna Blues. Lackawanna Blues (2005) (TV) Directed by George C. Wolfe Written by Ruben Santi...
Toe to Toe
Toe to Toe Kam Williams images/img4B.jpg Film Review Coeds Lock Horns and Lacrosse Sticks in Cross-Cultural Drama Toe to Toe (2010) Unrated Running time: 104 Minutes Distr...