Troy

A good friend of mine, who was friends with Morrison, shared video interview with Morrison and the late Ed bradley with me. I'd forgotten just how large Morrison was. Which Black American journalist today, with a significant platform, could interview a Black American novelist half as accomplished as Morrison? Which two could team up today and give as good an interview? Then you can think about loss... https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/60-minutes-1998-novelist-toni-morrison-in-a-probing-interview-with-ed-bradley/

Was not up on Dr. Mazuri's work. He is a deep Brother -- thanks everyone. I just not added a profile of him on the website and will add his many books tomorrow. When I update the African Page I'll use the description your provided @Mel Hopkins. I found a playlist on Youtube. This will be the next thing I watch on TV

Check Our Current Reading list ► How our Book Club Operates Participation is easy. Discussions are held on the comments section of the book’s description page, near the book of the page. Feel free to join us anytime; discussions are not limited to the month the book was selected and anyone may join the conversation. How Books Are Selected Starting with the August 2019 selection, books are selected, for our reading list, from a list of books suggested by our readers. Our club’s moderator, Tony Lindsay, has the final say on the books selected. He is always free to select a book of his choice. Whether your book is selected or not, by sharing your book recommendation will help us all discover interesting books to read. You may suggest books for our reading list on our Black Literature Forum. The only criteria is that the book be written by or about Black people. All genres in fiction and nonfiction are acceptable. Where Discussion Take Place The discussions for each book will take place on the page describing the book (as described here). Additional Information AALBC.com’s online book club, “The Coffee Will Make You Black” ran, continuously, from 1998 until 2006. The book club was moderated by Thumper. The club was briefly resurrected in 2010, when both Fiction and Nonfiction titles were selected. Unfortunately, the club was discontinued the same year. In October of 2018, novelist, educator, avid reader, and advocate for Black literature, Tony Lindsay began running AALBC’s “The Coffee Will Make You Black online book club.” after a 8-year hiatus. Finally, our book conversations do not have to be limited to the books on AALBC's reading list. Conversation can take place on the pages of any of the, over 13,000, books highlighted on our website. Please post any questions or suggestions by replying.

I'm sorry to read about all the bad things that have happened to you @Ldvirtue. You are a stronger person than I am.

@Pioneer1 every joke has truth in it ir it would not be funny. The European colonizers exterminated the native population here and then enslaved the Africans. This country has a very violent beginning. Again, violence is part of our culture and guns are a big part of it. The practice was repeated throughout the Caribbean. There is not a single living indigenous Tasmanian today thanks to Brits. It seems like everyone has a gun here in FL. You are not considered much of a man unless you own one. You're weak, unable to protect your family.

Here in the United States @Maurice folks can go out and buy a gun as easily as they can get a prescription for Oxycodone or buy a pack of cigarettes. Outside of the major urban centers, we have a gun culture here which I assumed was inherited from you guys :-) Are guns difficult to obtain in the UK or do people simply not worship them as they do here?

Toni Morrison lived to be 88. She had a tremendously successful and, I trust happy, life. Today I received a lot of email from friends informing me of Morrison's passing describing it as "sad" and even "horrible." I understand the permanent loss of anyone, especially someone so talented, is sad, but Morrison's transition is the culmination of a life well lived, a life worth celebrating. We all should be so blessed. R.I.P. Toni Morrison

Hey @Wosey please post your website's URL.

@Ldvirtue I hear you, but I have difficulty blaming the parents. We have a culture that empty and shallow. They suffer from the same things that afflict their parents. I don't know what the answer is outside a reboot which will not be pretty, but nothing is gonna change for the better through the political process, Obama demonstrated that... Teach your kids Chinese.

Whoa, @Mel Hopkins I'm not accustomed to such sardonicism from you. Most people will move through this life without being murdered :-) That said it seems like Roe V Wade as has a better than even money chance of being overturned. More unwanted children will mean more crime and poverty. Murders are already on the rise... maybe you are right. Guest FAS, please consider creating an account -- so that I don't have to manually approve each of your comments -- thanks. @Maurice, maybe everyone's bad breath set him off. On a related note: Neil deGrasse Tyson. Posted the following tweet which resulted in a shitstorm of negative reaction: Neil followed the next day with the following post of Facebook, which makes me wonder why anyone of moderate celebrity would post anything on social media. Neil seems to think like so many other that you can change the world via social media. At best you provide fodder for people to ridicule you. I guess this "controversy" will help raise the profile of Neil brand as he emerges from hiding after his sexual assault allegation was resolved in his favor. We live in a weird world. The data he presented as "facts" is controversial as well. Fr example the number of deaths he associated to medical errors was disputed to Twitter by actually physicians. But physicians are of course biased which tells you that you can learn anything in a tweet. You really have to research everything or else you are being lied to... TweetStorm NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON·MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019·READING TIME: 2 MINUTES Yesterday, a Tweet I posted in reaction to the horrific mass shootings in America over the previous 48 hours, killing 34 people, spawned mixed and highly critical responses. If you missed it, I offered a short list of largely preventable causes of death, along with their average two-day death toll in the United States. They significantly exceeded the death toll from the two days of mass shootings, including the number of people (40) who on average die from handgun homicides every two days. I then noted that we tend to react emotionally to spectacular incidences of death, with the implication that more common causes of death trigger milder responses within us. My intent was to offer objectively true information that might help shape conversations and reactions to preventable ways we die. Where I miscalculated was that I genuinely believed the Tweet would be helpful to anyone trying to save lives in America. What I learned from the range of reactions is that for many people, some information –-my Tweet in particular -- can be true but unhelpful, especially at a time when many people are either still in shock, or trying to heal – or both. So if you are one of those people, I apologize for not knowing in advance what effect my Tweet could have on you. I am therefore thankful for the candor and depth of critical reactions shared in my Twitter feed. As an educator, I personally value knowing with precision and accuracy what reaction anything that I say (or write) will instill in my audience, and I got this one wrong. Respectfully Submitted Neil deGrasse Tyson

Yeah it is all fucked up. There is no reason to believe it will get better anytime soon.

I really Eddie Kendricks music and iften played it. Once my ex said she did nit care fir hus music. I was actually very surprised to hear her say that, I assumed his music, like Curtis Mayfield's was universally enjoyed by Black folks. Black people are not a monolith huh? Or liking Curtis Mayfield and Eddie Kendricks is a "test" for Blackness. It certainly is better than @Pioneer1's skin color test 😉

I just added Todd's book about his father to the website. Mayfield is actually one of my favorite artists. I always discover interesting books on "What Are You Reading?" threads. Hopefully more folks will chime in.

@Pioneer1 i know you don't read the poetry forum, but i think you will like @Ldvirtue's poem

Thanks for sharing that.

“The Authors Guild’s 2018 Author Income Survey, the largest survey of writing-related earnings by American authors ever conducted finds incomes falling to historic lows to a median of $6,080 in 2017, down 42 percent from 2009.” Read the conclusions drawn from the survey here. There are many additional reason for this decline, not mentioned by the authors guild, because as a bookseller I see the problem from a different angle. During the same period my revenue from the sales of books has declined as well. This is the reason there are fewer booksellers online, or offline, than there were 10 years ago. The major reason: Amazon. I sell books anyway they can be sold; I sell books directly; send readers to the author's, publisher's, and even other indie booksellers; and I sell books as an affiliate of Amazon, IndieBound, and Barnes & Noble. The vast majority of readers chose to purchase books from Amazon. Last year Amazon cut affiliate commission in half to 4%. Effectively cutting my book sales revenue in 1/2 overnight. Amazon also pressures authors, through their KDP Select program to give away free books for a period, to keep ebook prices below $2.99 (99 cents is not uncommon), and to give Amazon the exclusive right to sell their ebook (this would normally be laughable if Amazon were not a monopoly). Authors do this in exchange for some "promotion" and higher "royalties." As a result, I'm increasingly earning 4% on the sale of a 99 cent eBook. My commissions earned from Amazon, on the sale of books, have plummeted. A question for the author: What incentive do I have to sell an ebook that I will generate less than 4 pennies in revenue? What am I doing about it. I'm working to bypass Amazon completely and to ultimately drop all of my Amazon affiliate links. I've already turned down listing books of authors who have given Amazon exclusive right to sell. But I'm also working with some of these authors to sell their book through their own websites. I'm also working on a commission model that allows both the author and any bookseller to make more money on the sale of a book than we would if we went through Amazon. Let's be clear: Amazon has a monopoly on the sale of Black books. When we give a corporation that much power over our culture, we are all impoverished not just economically but spiritually.

Well @Tony Lindsaywhat book will it be for August?

I did not. Why bother when most of them are lying and will almost certainly do the bidding of their corporate masters as soon as they are in office? Call me when the democratic primary is about to take place.

Hi Joel post a link to you website or your book's ISBN13

See that is the thing, I do not know 45's motives. I think it is his nature and it has worked for him. My focus was on the reaction folks have to his posts. When they reply to his posts it elevates them and more people seem them. Which encourages him even more. Imagine if these authors invested their time sharing and commenting on AALBC's posts and the other entities they purport to support. Trolling 45 is just wasted energy that could be put to better use.

Dude! You can't lead with "Like Troy said..." then proceed to say nothing I agree with lol! Baltimore is no different than any other city. Baltimore has some good areas and bad ones. No other city is immune to any of the ills plaguing B'more. A decaying public school system, hyper-incarcerating, opioids, low wage jobs, lack of affordable housing all largerly due to greedy corporations taking control of everything while politicans on both sides help or do nothing. This not a Baltimore problem. It is a national one.

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@LGilman, I just added your event to our book event calendar. It looks like October will be a busy month in Minnesota. Good luck with your inaugural event!

@emilyquirq, really? You gotta do better than this to promote some nondescript amazon affiliate website. I removed your hyperlink. Here is a link to learn more about Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl