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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...
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...
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...
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 "...
Born to Win
Born to Win Kam Williams Book Review "No Negro player, man or woman, had ever set foot on one of these courts. In many ways, it was an even tougher personal Jim Crow-busting assignment than was...
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...
I Wish I Had A Red Dress
I Wish I Had A Red Dress Thumper Book Review I’m going to be upfront. The review will be short and sour. I Wish I Had A Red Dress, Pearl Cleage’s new novel, we return to Idlewood, Michiga...
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...
White Men Cant Hump
White Men Cant Hump Kam Williams Book Review ’Why should black men continue to sit back and allow whites to negatively define black male sexuality, especially when you consider the fact t...
Phenomenally Me
Phenomenally Me Chris Hayden Book Review In a dark room with a blue light In the basement, music just right Nothing going down but the Mellow sounds of Mr. DJ’s turntables Going round" Boyz...
Jesus Boy
Jesus Boy Thumper Book Review I have a question for you: have you ever heard of anything; a food dish, a recipe, a car or a book, that by the description alone, you knew, KNEW it was going ...
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...
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...
Khalil’s Way
Khalil’s Way Kam Williams Book Review “Do you have nightmares about going to school? Do you hate going to school because you know you’ll be teased, or shoved or even beaten up? If yes, y...
Real Eyez: Race
Real Eyez: Race Kam Williams Book Review “America’s oldest dilemmas are rooted in race realities that it, as a nation and as a society, refuses to confront. Is race the dilemma of t...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Rockin around That Christmas Tree
Rockin around That Christmas Tree Thumper Book Review Denise Morrison has been married to her husband Edward Morrison for over 27 years. The couple has two children, Anthony and Christine.&nb...
Penitentiary Tales: A Love Story
Penitentiary Tales: A Love Story Robert Fleming Book Review When I was growing up, I heard about boys and girls, men and women from my Hood going to The Big House. One of the girls I dated had an inm...
The Known World
The Known World Thumper Book Review As is becoming an unbreakable and pleasurable yearly excursion, I attended the 2003 Book Expo America (BEA) in Los Angeles. I love the BEA. The convention is all...
The Middle Sister
The Middle Sister Thumper Book Review I’m still finding my footing. Being away from reading books for three years, obtaining another degree, has dulled my reading senses. Now that the...
Shades of Jade
Shades of Jade Thumper Book Review I was debating on whether I should start this review by writing All Hail The New Queen. Why not? I'll only live once, so, All Hail The New Queen of AA mystery...
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...
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 ...
Paradise Interrupted (Carole Ann Gibson Mysteries)
Paradise Interrupted (Carole Ann Gibson Mysteries) Thumper Book Review I want to state my bias up front. I look forward to this time of the year when a new “Carole Ann Gibson” installment...
Company I 366th Infantry
Company I 366th Infantry Kam Williams Book Review ’I reported to Captain Overall who told me I was leading the company across the Chinqualie Canal. He showed me on the map wh...
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...
What Went Wrong in Ohio
What Went Wrong in Ohio Kam Williams Book Review With the November elections just over the horizon, this might be as good a time as ever to take note of what happened in Ohio in 2004 in order to b...
Violet of a Deeper Blue
Violet of a Deeper Blue Thumper Book Review Violet Of A Deeper Blue is the story of Brandon Northcross, a young black MBA graduate from Dartmouth who previously lived in New Hampshire. Brandon had re...
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 ...
White Gold
White Gold Carol Taylor Book Review This sweeping historical novel follows aspiring railroad engineer, William Roberson, from his Jamaican homeland in 1897 at 16, to Panama, to help build the Pan...
The Last Love Letter
The Last Love Letter Robert Fleming Book Review Amanda Easton, the author of The Last Love Letter, has a history of letter writing going back to her college days when she sometimes said the...
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 Black Sleuth
The Black Sleuth Thumper Book Review Suggested Title: Tale of Early Black Detective Prescribes Strong Medicine Or Forgotten Black Writer Doses Up Strong Medicine Northeastern University Press, in its...
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...
We Gotta Have It
We Gotta Have It Kam Williams Book Review ’We Gotta Have It represents twenty years of seeing a new generation of Black movies. Before this journey began in 1986, with Spike Lee’s She...
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 Secret
The Secret Kam Williams Book Review ’What is the Secret? The Secret is the law of attraction! Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And it&...
Playing with Destiny
Playing with Destiny Thumper Book Review As incredible as it may seem, I’m a tad bit in shock. I recently finished reading and actually LOVING a novel published by BET under its Sepia imprint;...
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 ...
Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15
Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15 Kam Williams Book Review "Since the dawn of the hip-hop era in the 1970s, black people have become increasingly freer and freer as individuals, with a wid...
The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker
The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker Thumper Book Review The World Has Changed: Conversation with Alice Walker edited by Rudolph Byrd is a type of book that I had not seen befor...
Water Street
Water Street Thumper Book Review Recently, I had the pleasure of reading the short story collection, Water Street, written by Crystal E Wilkinson. I loved it. The short stories are slices of the l...
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...
What’s My Name
What’s My Name Kam Williams Book Review ’The most violent anti-busing demonstrations in America were not in Birmingham or Biloxi, but Boston. Every city has its stories of both racism and res...
Before I Forget
Before I Forget Thumper Book Review *giggling* I’m going to love writing this review. A little while ago, I read and finished a wonderful debut novel, Before I Forget by Leonard Pitt...
Such a Pretty Face
Such a Pretty Face Emanuel Carpenter Book Review Mia Sanchez has issues. Her waistline is increasing. Her co-worker is jealous of her success and may be out to get her. And to top it off, her live-i...
Outliers
Outliers Kam Williams Book Review ’This is a book about outliers, men and women who do things that are out of the ordinary. I’m going to introduce you to one kind of out...
Get Real
Get Real Kam Williams Book Review “News flash: There’s no such thing as automatic wealth — at least not in the real world. Of course some people will have you be...
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...
Jump at the Sun
Jump at the Sun Idrissa Uqdah Book Review It’s Always The Mama Baggage Kim McLarin is known for writing novels about touchy issues within the Black community. Her stories step on toes an...
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...
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...
The African-American Criminal Justice Guide
The African-American Criminal Justice Guide Kam Williams Book Review “As a defense attorney, I spend a lot of time counseling young African-American men and women about making better lives fo...
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...
Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps
Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps Kam Williams Book Review “When I was a boy traveling in Latin America, I saw colonial societies that were essentially m...
Breaking Free
Breaking Free Kam Williams Book Review ’For most of my life, from childhood onward, I had a form of mental illness that enabled me to be simultaneously a fierce competitor&...
Descending from the Clouds
Descending from the Clouds Kam Williams Book Review "When we finally got the order to go on D-Day, we moved to our planes, loaded our bundles in the belly racks, and saddled up. I was loaded ...
Don’t Blame It on Rio
Don’t Blame It on Rio Kam Williams Book Review ’Black women were once at the center of black men’s lives, as wives, mothers, lovers and partners’ However, in this generation, b...
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 ...
Free Lunch
Free Lunch Kam Williams Book Review ’The evidence of a growing divide between the superrich and everyone else in America is so overwhelming that all but the few lightweight ideologues amo...
God’s Politics
God’s Politics Kam Williams Book Review "The 2004 election was one where, no matter who won, almost half the population was going to feel absolutely crushed. We are now deeply divided. So h...
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 ...
Making Friends With Black People
Making Friends With Black People Kam Williams Book Review ’NIGGER. White readers, I should warn you right now that if reading this particular epithet makes you uncomfortable, you're goin...
More than Just Race
More than Just Race Kam Williams Book Review ’This book will likely generate controversy because I dare to take culture seriously as one of the explanatory variables in the st...
Real Men Cook
Real Men Cook Kam Williams Book Review "Increasingly, African-American men in particular are often portrayed as criminals, drug addicts, absentee fathers, and jailbirds. Seldom are they...
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...
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,...
Dark Midnight When I Rise
Dark Midnight When I Rise Paige Turner Book Review The history of blacks in America remains a vast uncharted territory. While the contributions of mainstream cultures have been duly recorded, the e...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
Seduced
Seduced Sheree Renée Thomas Book Review As a rule, I don’t kiss and tell, but sometimes, sometimes you get a hold to something that is just too good to keep to yourself. Well, I have to admit i...
6 Days in January
6 Days in January Thumper Book Review I am breaking with tradition on my review of 6 Days in January by William Frederick Cooper, because I loathe this book so much, I can't hold my disgust wi...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
Black and Ugly
Black and Ugly Thumper Book Review Shocked?! You should be. I know I am. Before any of you say anything, I admit that I am somewhat surprised to be reading T. Styles latest novel, Black and U...
Brown Glass Window
Brown Glass Window Thumper Book Review I’ve been waiting a long time for this and it is a privilege and a pleasure to state that Devorah Major’s new novel Brown Glass Window is out ...
Deja;Vu: Behind the Veil
Deja;Vu: Behind the Veil Thumper Book Review A few minutes ago, I finished the novel D’j’ Vu: Behind the Veil ll by Suzetta Perkins. D’j’ Vu is the sequel to P...
Fire In A Canebrake
Fire In A Canebrake Thumper Book Review "’If all it’s going to do is stir up old memories, it can’t do anything but hurt folks. Who wants to talk about Nagasaki and Hiroshim...
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...
Gay Rebel of the Harlem Ren…
Gay Rebel of the Harlem Ren… Thumper Book Review Richard Bruce Nugent is the best well-kept secret of the Harlem Renaissance. Nugent isn’t unheard of in the annals of the Renaissance; ...
Gonna Lay Down My Burdens
Gonna Lay Down My Burdens Thumper Book Review On a rainy night, Desiree Sheffield calls Carmen Taylor (on the eve of Carmen’s wedding to Burl,) to come get her after another violent fight with...
Last Man Standing
Last Man Standing Thumper Book Review The year, 2002, I decided to take Black History Month literally by reading books that expanded my scope of being black in America. I decided to read Last Man Sta...
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...
The Next Big Story
The Next Big Story Kam Williams Book Review "I began life as the child of a mixed-race marriage growing up in a white suburb, treated sometimes as a creature of bad circumstance… Bad things h...
6 Days in January
6 Days in January Thumper Book Review I am breaking with tradition on my review of 6 Days in January by William Frederick Cooper, because I loathe this book so much, I can't hold my disgust w...
Where Did Our Love Go: Love and Relationships in the African-American Community
Where Did Our Love Go: Love and Relationships in the African-American Community Kam Williams Book Review “SBF. Single Black Female. Walk through any major city in the U.S. on a Friday or Sa...
Getting To The Good Part
Getting To The Good Part Thumper Book Review Hello. It only took me a few hours to read this bad boy. I guess I can qualify it as one of those books that can make you lose sleep. So, if some words ...
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 ...
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...
Once Upon a Lie
Once Upon a Lie Carol Taylor Book Review Once Upon a Lie is timely and timeless story of an unlikely friendship, doomed love, and tragedy, that asks the questions: Can we escape our circumstances and...
Momma: Gone
Momma: Gone Tony Lindsay Book Review Nina Foxx’s personal story Momma: Gone is full of literary surprises. The reader’s expectations and predictions that are garnered from the story-line ...
Priscilla: Engaging in the Game of Politics
Priscilla: Engaging in the Game of Politics Robert Fleming Book Review In this novel, Priscilla: Engaging in the Game of Politics, Dr. M. J. Simms-Maddox weaves the fabric of her life with the narrat...
A Man Who Is Not a Man
A Man Who Is Not a Man Kadija Sesay Book Review Male circumcision as an entry into manhood takes place in many traditions including African ones. Mgqolozana tells this story of a young Xhosa man, Fum...