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Dark Girls (Preview)
Dark Girls (Preview) Kam Williams dark-girls-movie-poster.jpg Film Review Dark Girls: Real Women, Real Stories Click to order via Amazon This documentary exploresd the deep-seated biases ...
A Woman’s Revenge
A Woman’s Revenge Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Three Women Scorned Just looking at the cover of this book, I wasn't sure if it was really Christian fiction. This anthology of three stories wr...
The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America
The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America Kam Williams Book Review “[This book] gives readers a compelling behind-the-scenes look at race re...
Celebritize Yourself: The Three-Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business
Celebritize Yourself: The Three-Step Method to Increase Your Visibility and Explode Your Business Kam Williams Book Review "To become a celebrity is no easy feat, but in today’s world, it is ...
Blues In The Wind
Blues In The Wind Thumper Book Review Whitney LeBlanc makes his literary debut with an impressive, multidimensional, highly entertaining family drama, written in the glory of the blues. I threw ope...
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...
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...
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 ...
Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute to E. Lynn Harris
Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute to E. Lynn Harris Thumper Book Review Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute to E. Lynn Harris is an anthology aptly described by its title. The authors, Te...
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...
An Obama’s Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery Across Three Cultures
An Obama’s Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery Across Three Cultures Kam Williams Book Review ”‘My family will hate me for this book, baby,’ I explained [to my wife]. She hugge...
paths of sanctuary
paths of sanctuary Jill Robinson Book Review ihsan bracy’s new novel, paths of sanctuary, is an intricate story of love, lust, envy’and filled to the brim with examples of how each can ...
Culture Worrier: Selected Columns 1984—2014: Reflections on Race
Culture Worrier: Selected Columns 1984—2014: Reflections on Race Kam Williams Book Review “These pages represent some of the valuable lessons I’ve learned about people and media over t...
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...
In My Bedroom
In My Bedroom Leah Mullen Book Review Rayne Holland, budding film director, wife and mother appear to have it all. She’s poised to be lauded for her work in the film industry when she’s...
The Fall of Rome
The Fall of Rome Thumper Book Review The Fall of Rome is the first adult novel by Coretta Scott King winner Martha Southgate. Southgate through the narrative of three people told a story that strip...
Bittersweet
Bittersweet Thumper Book Review Bittersweet, the debut novel by Freddie Lee Johnson, lll, proves the old adage that you can’t always judge a book by its cover. As I picked up Bittersweet from t...
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...
Going Down South
Going Down South Thumper Book Review When I started reading books many, many years ago, I came to the conclusion that there is no drama like family drama. A few years ago when African-Ameri...
Naughty or Nice
Naughty or Nice Thumper Book Review It’s Christmas time for the McBroom sisters and all three got man trouble. Frankie, the oldest sister, can’t seem to find Mr. Right in her everyday l...
Seed
Seed Thumper Book Review ’"The measure of a man", my father once said, "is in his scars. Without a scar he isn’t even a man. He is, merely, male."’ ―from...
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...
Triple Take
Triple Take Thumper Book Review Triple Take, the debut novel by Y. Blak Moore, reminds me of an old timey Hollywood western. Despite the fact that Triple Take takes place in the 21st century mean s...
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...
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 ...
Tangled Dreams
Tangled Dreams Kirkus Book Review A fantastic example of ancestry-driven fiction. In Friedman’s novel, a cultural anthropology professor at a crossroads receives a grant that draws her back into h...
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir Kam Williams Book Review ’We have joined the rest of the country in protesting in order to get Trayvon Martin’s killer charged....
Life Is A Canvas
Life Is A Canvas Carol Taylor Book Review Life is a Canvas is a contemporary novel about finding love and self and how the choices we make early in life, particularly in our twenties, sets us on a pa...
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...
The Dagger
The Dagger Hedi Harrington Book Review Timothy George’s 2016 novel, The Dagger, should come with a warning to all readers: “Fasten your seatbelts.” The fast-paced thriller is a sequ...
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 ...
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...
Love Don’t Live Here Anymore
Love Don’t Live Here Anymore Paige Turner Book Review Randy, the main character in Denene Millner and Nick Chiles "Love Don’t Live Here Anymore" reflects on his marriage: "What ...
It’s A Thin Line
It’s A Thin Line Thumper Book Review It’s A Thin Line may be the title to Kimberla Lawson Roby’s latest novel, but it also describes the condition of my last nerve that this book jumped ...
Love
Love Thumper Book Review For those of you who don’t know me or have not read any of my reviews, I have a tendency of getting extremely excited over republished books written by African Amer...
John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism
John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism Thumper Book Review I was looking forward to reading Keith Gilyard’s biography, John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism. J...
The PACMAN Plan
The PACMAN Plan Tiffany M. Davis Book Review The PACMAN plan is an ambitious debut by Sam A. Kempt. Set in the smoldering background of Austin, Texas, this book takes an eye-opening look at race, ...
The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream
The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream Kam Williams Book Review “Our criminal justice system is in need of reform. [It] costs the taxpayers too much, ...
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...
Go
Go Kam Williams Book Review ’This extraordinary collection of letters to Michelle Obama says a great deal about the lives, the hopes, prayers, fears, and aspirations of Africa...
White Coat Fever
White Coat Fever Thumper Book Review Roland S. Jefferson, author of the classic The School on 103rd Street, is back on the scene with his latest novel, White Coat Fever. The title of the novel is...
Powder Necklace
Powder Necklace Thumper Book Review I was trying not to like Powder Necklace, the debut novel by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond. I had had my fill of the black girl coming-of-age story. A few years ago, ...
The Rise: Creativity
The Rise: Creativity Kam Williams Book Review “This book is about the advantages that come from the improbable ground of creative endeavor. Brilliant inventions and human feats that have co...
The Man from Essence: Creating a Magazine for Black Women
The Man from Essence: Creating a Magazine for Black Women Kam Williams Book Review “I know what they say about me—that I am too quiet and low-key, unassuming, even clueless. Not the one...
Forever An Ex
Forever An Ex Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Where Does The Love Go? Only the women in Forever An Ex know for sure. The sequel to Murray’s wildly popular The Ex Files centers on the specifics of b...
This Side of Glory
This Side of Glory Thumper Book Review This Side Of Glory: The Autobiography of David Hilliard and the Story of the Black Panther Party by David Hilliard and Lewis Cole On my continuing quest in read...
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...
The Motherhood Diaries: A Humorous Look at Motherhood in the New Millennium
The Motherhood Diaries: A Humorous Look at Motherhood in the New Millennium Kam Williams Book Review “Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve kept a diary… Instead of writing out al...
Who’s Afraid Of Post-Blackness?
Who’s Afraid Of Post-Blackness? Kam Williams Book Review ’We’re in a post-Black era when our identity options are limitless. And there’s no going back… Post-Black means we ...
Shooting Stars
Shooting Stars Kam Williams Book Review ’I was born in December 1984 in a house on Hickory St. that was mostly maintained by my mother’s mother. But when I was three, my...
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...
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 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...
Flesh: The Disappearance of Portia Barrington
Flesh: The Disappearance of Portia Barrington Robert Fleming Book Review As the author of over a dozen novels including the bestselling Little Girl Lost series, Keith Lee Johnson has created his ...
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...
Color Me Butterfly
Color Me Butterfly Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Domestic Abuse: A Generational Curse?This book spans a 60 year period in the lives of a family of strong African American women who survived domestic a...
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...
Forever Sentimental
Forever Sentimental Idrissa Uqdah Book Review Ohio Poet, Kenyatta is a man of many words. His book Forever Sentimental-AGAPE LOVE is Volume Three in the Forever Sentimental book s...
Likeness of Being
Likeness of Being Jamie Walker Book Review In Likeness of Being: A Poetic Look at Friends and Strangers, poet Nathan M. Richardson offers readers an invitation to his soulful, Southern roots. Full ...
An Illuminated Life
An Illuminated Life Kam Williams Book Review ’Princeton University was a particularly interesting place for Belle to first be on her own and living as white… Princeton was c...
An Uncaged Eagle -- True Freedom
An Uncaged Eagle -- True Freedom Kam Williams Book Review "This autobiography tells the story of my life while highlighting some of the tremendous people who helped me overcome adversities I fa...
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...
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...
Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina
Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina Kam Williams Book Review “As the only African-American soloist dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has made history. Bu...
Going Postal
Going Postal Kam Williams Book Review "Rage as we know it today did not exist when Ronald Reagan took power in 1981. The word stress had a far less lethal meaning then. The vise hadn’t ye...
How Could My Husband Be Gay?
How Could My Husband Be Gay? Kam Williams Book Review Have you ever ignored any red flags regarding your mate? "How Could My Husband Be Gay?" may cause you to never make that mistake agai...
How to Grow as a Musician
How to Grow as a Musician Kam Williams Book Review ’This is a book about growth, success, and personal discovery. It is designed for musicians who want more out of their careers- though you d...
Out of Bounds
Out of Bounds Kam Williams Book Review ’There was this constant worry in the back of my head about being found out for liking men. I'd venture to say that the stigma ...
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...
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 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,...
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 ...
Wake Up Everybody
Wake Up Everybody Paige Turner Book Review I play the street life cuz there’s no place I can go Street Life - it’s the only life I know Street Life - there’s a thousand parts to pla...
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 ...
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...
A Death In Texas
A Death In Texas Thumper Book Review Upon hearing of the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in his hometown of Jasper, Texas, it occurred to me that "A new way of performing the act of lynching h...
After Hours
After Hours Thumper Book Review Honestly (as if there’s any other way I can come), I wasn’t going to read After Hours: A Collection of Erotic Writing by Black Men, the latest anthology ...
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...
Distant Lover
Distant Lover Thumper Book Review "Ooooo, she makes me SICK!! She does this to me every time!" I heard this from my good friend Steve right after I said hello when I answered the phone. A...
Drive Me Crazy
Drive Me Crazy Thumper Book Review When I began writing this review one of my favorite Nancy Wilson recordings, How Glad I Am, was playing in the background. The record perfectly captures my feelin...
The Emperor of Ocean Park
The Emperor of Ocean Park Thumper Book Review Conservative Pundit’s Mystery Novel Only Partly Successful Stephen L. Carter makes his debut as a fiction writer with The Emperor of Ocean Par...
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...
Hunting In Harlem
Hunting In Harlem Thumper Book Review I am always excited when new authors enter the scene because they expand the dimensions of our existence through literature that is vibrant, challenging and im...
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...
One Foot in Love
One Foot in Love Thumper Book Review Bil Wright, author of Sunday You Learn to Box, has returned with his wonderful sophomore effort, One Foot in Love. I loved Wright’s debut novel and was an...
As If Nothing Happened
As If Nothing Happened Tiffany M. Davis Book Review "And in the nine years she had known Joya, since freshman year, and in the eight years they had known Yvonne, the three had never become dist...
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...
Lion’s Blood
Lion’s Blood Thumper Book Review Sequel to Lion’s Blood is Equally Magnificent “Have you ever heard the expression ‘Zulu Heart?’” “No," he said, and t...
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...
It Begins With Tears
It Begins With Tears Akilah Monifa Book Review From Montego Bay (a.k.a. MoBay), Jamaica to Manhattan with visits in Brooklyn, Kristoff Valley, Jamaica, and Eternal Valley, Opal Palmer Adisa&rsquo...
Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, And Big Business Re-Create Race In The Twenty-First Century
Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, And Big Business Re-Create Race In The Twenty-First Century Kam Williams Book Review "Race is an invented political system, not a natural biological divi...
Jungle Nights & Soda Fountain Rags
Jungle Nights & Soda Fountain Rags Kalamu ya Salaam Book Review Brian Gilmore is a cut above. His 30-part poem on Duke Ellington is deep and deft. Each section can stand alone, but taken as a whole ...
New Kid
New Kid Tony Lindsay Book Review Jerry Craft’s graphic novel New Kid is a humorous teaching experience for any reader. Be warned, laughing out loud will occur while reading the text. The young ...
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...
The Prime Anniversary
The Prime Anniversary Brianna-Christine Alicea Book Review Jay Wright is an acclaimed poet, essayist, and playwright. Wright is the author of several collections of poetry, which include but are not ...
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...
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...
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...
Leading Inclusion
Leading Inclusion Robert Fleming Book Review In this book packed with practical business concepts and strategies, Gena Cox, an acclaimed organizational psychologist and executive coach, takes on seve...
Blue in Green
Blue in Green Robert Fleming Book Review On August 25, 1959, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis escorts a white girl to a cab, lights a cigarette outside Birdland, and a city policeman harasses the black man...