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The 40 Most Popular Books Read by African Americans this Summer


Troy

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Somewhat surprisingly this is the least read post I'm ever made. :mellow:  There was a time a post like this would have generated some interesting discussion.  Here is the entire list maybe that will prompt some discussion.  Has anyone read, or plan to read, any of these books?  

I only read a few of these myself. I've been working side gigs and spending a lot on more on web development, so I have not been doing a lot of reading.  Most of what I have read is not on this list. 

I haven't read Morrison's latest.  It seems as if there was little exciting with this last novel.  In fact, Morrison got more media attention, saying TaNehisi was the next Jimmy Baldwin... 

Summer 2015 - Paperback - Fiction

#1 - Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
#2 - The Cartel 5: La Bella Mafia by Ashley and JaQuavis
#3 - Ruby by Cynthia Bond
#4 - A Deeper Love Inside by Sister Souljah
#5 - The Cartel 4 by Ashley and JaQuavis
#6 - The Cartel 3 by Ashley and JaQuavis
#7 - Secrets of a Side Bitch by Jessica N. Watkins
#8 - Stand Your Ground: A Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray
#9 - Mama’s Boy by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
#10 - Jezebel’s Daughter by Jacquelin Thomas

Summer 2015 - Paperback - Non-Fiction

#1 - 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse by JJ Smith
#2 - The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness  by Michelle Alexander
#3 - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
#4 - The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
#5 - Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay
#6 - The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration  by Isabel Wilkerson
#7 - Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Expanded Edition: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment by Steve Harvey & Denene Millner
#8 - Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland
#9 - America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great by Ben Carson
#10 - Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive by T. D. Jakes

Summer 2015 - Hardcover - Fiction

#1 - God Help the Child: A Novel by Toni Morrison
#2 - The Sellout by Paul Beatty
#3 - The Ultimate Betrayal (A Reverend Curtis Black Novel) by Kimberla Lawson Roby
#4 - And Sometimes I Wonder About You: A Leonid McGill Mystery (Leonid McGill Mysteries) by Walter Mosley
#5 - The Family Business 3 by Carl Weber & Treasure Hernandez
#6 - Zane’s The Other Side of the Pillow: A Novel by Zane
#7 - One Night by Eric Jerome Dickey
#8 - The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
#9 - Rose Gold by Walter Mosley
#10 - A Wanted Woman by Eric Jerome Dickey

Summer 2015 - Hardcover - Non-Fiction

#1 - Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
#2 - Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
#3 - The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
#4 - The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist
#5 - What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey
#6 - Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success: Discovering Your Gift and the Way to Life’s Riches by Steve Harvey
#7 - One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America’s Future by Ben Carson
#8 - Forgiveness: 21 Days to Forgive Everyone for Everything by Iyanla Vanzant
#9 - Success Through Stillness: Meditation Made Simple by Russell Simmons
#10 - Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Charles M. Blow

 

 

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I honestly don't have time to read. The books I am reading tend to deal with business, coding and SEO or other things to enhance sales. So I can't comment on this at all. I'm also reading to keep up with my wife and son and they have been reading Trilogies like Divergent and Maze Runner. I am reading the book Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That, which is about art by people like Pollack and helps me to strengthen my point that some classic art sucks, lol. I have to be honest though, I'm not reading many books of fiction.

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I've only read 2 on the lists; "Between the World and Me", by Ta-Nehisi Coates and "God Help the Child" by Toni Morrison. i don't read a lot of books any more, either.   Sorry to say, very little fiction captivates my short attention span these days. An engrossing biography or documentary, however, can still pique my interest...  .

I've reached the conclusion that I am tired of living.  There's so much about the world and the people in it that turn me off; I even get on my own nerves.  I'm becoming a misanthrope.  I hate that marriage clerk in Kentucky and everything she stands for, not to mention ALL of the Republican presidential candidates who fill me with disgust. I'm not crazy about Hillary and don't think Bernie or Joe Biden have a chance.  There I go, digressing again.  

Nice new profile picture, Chris.  There!  I found something positive to say about somebody. Just being the dedicated person you are, is my positive thought for the day about you, Troy.

ZZZZZZZZZZ 

Edited by Cynique
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Reading for pleasure is a luxury that increasingly fewer of us can afford. As folks lives improve, they read more.  

Cynique you make me think of the Sam Cooke song,

It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die
'Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky

But I think the real problem is that we are constantly presented with all the crap in the world.  I mean did any of us really need to know about that woman in Kentucky.  There is plenty of good happening in the world, but that rarely gets shared.  The general consensus is that this is what people actually want, "if it bleeds it leads."  As a result we tend to believe there is more crap in the world than there really is... in fact the opposite is true.

The crap is front and center because it is profitable, not because it is what people want.  They prey on our weaknesses, whether it is sugar, porn, cigarettes or just parading dysfunctional people in front of us, we repeatedly engage not because we want to, but because we are simply human.  

Crackheads don't want to be crackheads, but as long as there is someone greedy and vile enough to sell the product, there will always be crackheads.

I know I'm rowing upstream with a leaky boat trying to sell good books and that I can make more money selling fried Twinkies. But Sam continues;

It's been a long, a long time coming but I know a change gon' come Oh Yes it will!

 

 

 

 

 

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I purchased several books on the list but haven't completed any yet. (I'm also guilty of not making enough time to read for pleasure.) I'm partial to non-fiction and find myself buying a lot of older titles (both for the first time and replace worn copies). Just started Between the World and Me as well as Gil Scott-Heron's memoir The Last Holiday 

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Praise de lawd!  Katura, you are a glimmer of hope :-)  I know you love books because you have purchased copies to replace worn ones!  That is saying something.  I've done that once, buying a very nice edition of The Alchemist. I liked the book so much I just wanted to have a better looking copy (I never admitted that before).

I will probably go back and finish The Warmth of Other Suns (Cynique, I you forgot to mention you read that one that one, In fact I started it because of you).  I'm taking a few days off next week, so I'll have the luxury of being able to read a book or two.

As we speak, I'm working on AALBC.com bestsellers List for July and August.  I'm still experimenting with new designs for the presentation, and on the backend (database and scripts).  When it is all done I can go back to publishing a list monthly.  I stopped doing it because it was too labor intensive.  

Now that I think about it what do you all think about a bestsellers list that is say 100 books deep that represents the bestselling books on this website, keeping a running total (sort of the way Amazon does).

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