AALBC.com's Best Selling Books for 2007
 

From nervous breakdowns to drug addiction, Love Is Never Painless explores the deeper side of love; the side rarely explored in romance novels. Zane, Johnson, and Rivers have penned a powerful collection of novellas that will not only have readers talking but also examining their own relationships with a new perspective.

�Excerpted from the Introduction

The erotica collection is divided into three sections: Wild, Wilder and Off Da Damn Hook. Her characters run the gamut from the sensual housewife that wants her husband to experiment more to the secret underground sorority of women that let it all hang out literally.

Karrine draws you in to get an up-close and personal look at the Hollywood life of fast money and sex; all the things that make for a great movie. She discusses her interactions with people after the release of Confessions of a Video Vixen and how she copes with it all.

The high priestess of the hood, Nikki Turner, is back with the novel fans have been feenin� for: the sequel to her #1 best-selling novel, A Hustler's Wife.

Des, Virginia's slickest gangsta, is about to become a dad when he is charged with the murder of his own attorney. But with Yarni, his gorgeous wife (and a brilliant lawyer), now calling the shots, Des isn�t going back to the slammer without a fierce fight. Even with the heat on, Des manages to take his game to the next level and finds a new hustle, one that will allow him to possess the three things all major players desire: money, power, and respect. He becomes a preacher. Reluctantly, Yarni stands by her man as he trades in his triple beam scale for a Bible and a Bentley and makes his Church of the Good Life Ministry a welcoming place for all sinners to step up to the altar.

But when Des's nephew is killed in the high-stakes heroin trade and Des learns that someone close to him okayed the hit, the dyed-in-the-wool gangsta sets aside the Bible for the gospel of the streets�even if it means risking the one person who's always had his back.

�Young men today have been bombarded with images of wealth and success that tell them that buying the hottest car or the most bling-blingin� jewelry is what they should be motivated by. There is an overwhelming sales pitch targeted at these young men that subliminally suggests that material goods are what makes them real men. I want young men to have knowledge of the things that bring them true empowerment: education, a strong sense of purpose, compassion, confidence, and humility, to name a few.

It is no accident that I graduated from Brown University magna cum laude and received graduate degrees with honors from Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government. My family taught me that doing my best, educating myself, and being in service to others were not optional and that having values and being truthful were not negotiable.

I am living proof that these principles work. Through the letters in this book, I wish to pass on to other young men my grandfathers� legacies of education, hard work, determination, and success.�

Zane is back with Gettin' Buck Wild: Sex Chronicles II, more stories for the legion of readers that made The Sex Chronicles a bestseller.

Zane's erotic short stories have captivated the minds of both sexes and all races. The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth did exactly what its title implies -- exploded the myth that men are more sexual in nature than women, and that African-American women in particular are inhibited compared to their female counterparts of other cultures.

Her audience is growing by leaps and bounds, nurtured by her Internet site and her previous best-selling titles, including The Heat Seekers, her debut in hardcover. Zane knows exactly what her readers want, and in Gettin' Buck Wild she gives them some of her most provocative prose to date. Her characters and settings run the gamut from committed, monogamous couples looking to experiment, to the wild single sisters who belong to a very unconventional sorority. Zane tells the story of a high-paid multi-tasking career woman who gets her groove back in "When Opposites Attract," a couple who try something new in "The Subway -- A Quickie," and a new way of celebrating Christmas in "The Santa Claus." She spices up real-life scenarios with over-the-top sexual fantasy and ultimately gives her readers the best time they've ever had between the pages of a book.

From a clandestine relationship with Nas's biggest rival, Jay-Z, that stirred up the biggest feud in hip-hop history, to seeing her reputation in tatters and a once loving relationship with Nas fall apart, Carmen depicts her trying journey to become the strong woman and mother she is today. After years of turmoil that included drugs, sex, greed, and violence -- and abandoning what she had always prized above all, her freedom -- Carmen took a stand, focusing on herself. After years of pursuit by the media, Carmen sets the record straight in It's No Secret -- and has no regrets.

Whore
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Tanika Lynch

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Triple Crown Publications (May 17, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0976789469

Whoever said whoring wasn�t easy, never lied! But somebody had to do it! Working the mean streets of Detroit was getting hard on young Kamone, with two small mouths to feed. Forced to get on the grind non-stop by her madam, Cookie, after being abandoned by her dopefiend, HIV infected mother, there's nothing Kamone won�t do to get that paper � drugs, murder, sex, lies and videotapes! That is, until she is scandalously set up to be raped, drugged and left for dead. Just when Kamone thinks it's the end, she finds what every bad girl longs for � a bad boy with a heart, who literally picks her up out of the gutter. But will Lucci's thug passion be enough to satisfy Kamone's lustful habits? Or will she run back to the only life she knows?

Each chapter outlines one key issue and provides a list of resources, suggestions for action, and a checklist for what concerned citizens can do to keep their communities progressing socially, politically, and economically. Though the African American community faces devastating social disparities�in which more than 8 million people live in poverty�this celebration of possibility, hope, and strength will help leaders and citizens keep Black America moving forward.

The book shifts into high gear as Zoe finds out that everyone from her lovers to her husband to her own mother are hiding secrets of their own. Her best friend, Brina, is physically abused by her alcoholic boyfriend, Dempsey. Zoe discovers under hypnosis that her fascination with sex stems from two incidents in her early childhood she had buried deeply into the crevices of her mind. She is stalked and attacked. The book comes to a head on a cold, dark mountain following a trail of murders and the true murderer is anyone's guess. Addicted does for women what Fatal Attraction did for men. It will make a woman think twice before risking it all.

Preface: "We now are nearing the final decade of the 20th century. Recently, there has been an unraveling and an analysis of the core issue of the first global power sysem of mass oppression-- the power system of racism (white supremacy). One the collective victim (non-white population) understands this fundamental issue, the ultimate organizing of all of the appropriate behaviors necessary to neutralize the great injustice of the white supremacy power system will only be a matter of time. The length of time required to neutralize global white supremacy will be inversely proportional to 1) the level of understanding of the phenomenon; plus 2) the evolution of self- and group-respect, the will, determination and discipline to practice the appropriate counter-racist behaviors--on the part of the non-white victims of white supremacy."

Nikki's debut novel is a smorgasbord of manipulation, street-life, greed, betrayal, envy, money, power and revenge.

"This testimony from a black sister marks the beginning of a new era in the minds and hearts of all black men and women... I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity. I have no words for this achievement, but I know that not since the days of my childhood, when the people in books were more real than the people one saw every day, have I found myself so moved... Her portrait is a biblical study in life in the midst of death." �James Baldwin

Zane, the queen of erotic fiction and publisher of Strebor Books, an imprint of Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, presents the second in a series of collections of great erotic fiction. Based on the Featured Erotica section of her website, Eroticanoir.com, which gets more than three million hits a year from around the world, these sensual tales, handpicked by Zane, are sure to please her fans.

These stories are written specifically with both African-American and Latino readers in mind, but they are for all people because as Zane always states: "Sensuality is universal." Among the contributors are names already familiar to readers of erotica, such as Tracee A. Hanna, Teresa Lamai, Michelle De Leon, Naleighna Kai, William Fredrick Cooper, and, of course, Zane -- as well as emerging voices, such as Pat Tucker, James W. Lewis, and Nikki Sinclair.

Zane always selects stories that turn her on, and she guarantees they will turn you on, also. These storytellers take risks. The stories are unique and creative. The contributors to this book are great at what they do -- making readers hot.

Throughout the book, Kola speaks in a voice so utterly naked, truthful and unpretentious that it's impossible not to fall in love with her.
�Kurt Rampling (editor)

Maya Angelou's brave, defiant poem celebrates the courage within each of us, young and old. From the scary thought of panthers in the park to the unsettling scene of a new classroom, fearsome images are summoned and dispelled by the power of faith in ourselves.

Angelou's strong words are matched by the daring vision of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose childlike style reveals the powerful emotions and fanciful imaginings of childhood. Together, Angelou's words and Basquiat's paintings create a place where every child, indeed every person, may experience his or her own fearlessness.

In this brilliant introduction to poetry and contemporary art, brief biographies of Angelou and Basquiat accompany the text and artwork, focusing on the strengths they took from their lives and brought to their work. A selected bibliography of Angelou's books and a selected museum listing of Basquiat's works open the door to further inspiration through the fine arts.

Before the Mayflower traces black history from its origins in western Africa, through the transatlantic journey that ended in slavery, the Reconstruction period, the Jim Crow era, and the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in an exploration of the complex realities of African-American life in the 1990s. Here is the most recent scholarship on the geographic, social, ethnic, economic, and cultural journey of "the other Americans," together with vital portraits of black pioneers and seminal figures in the struggle for freedom, as well as additional material on historical developments in the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton years.

Nervous: A Novel
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Zane

ISBN: 0743476239
Format: Hardcover, 304pp
Pub. Date: September 2003
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

Zane's legion of fans can't get enough of her way of telling a juicy, sexy story. Now, the New York Times best-selling queen of erotica brings us a tale of a woman with a split personality -- one highly sexed and one sexually repressed.

Jonquinette Pierce has always been nervous when it comes to men. She took a job dealing with mostly women so she could avoid men. She goes to work and comes straight home during the week, but on the weekends her other self, Jude, takes over and goes on intense sexual escapades.

Jonquinette recognizes that her alter ego is a problem and seeks to resolve it with the help of Dr. Marcella Spencer, the psychiatrist Zane originated in her best-selling novel Addicted. Jude's response is to get angry and go on a sexual rampage. In the meantime, Jonquinette becomes interested in her new neighbor, Mason, after having a conversation with him at a mutual friend's wedding. Jude has no intention of letting Jonquinette fall in love and find happiness at her expense. Jude is having way too much fun using the body she shares with Jonquinette. This "two faces of Eve" scenario is a fun fantasy for women who have imagined their own alter ego behaving badly in a sexual way. But for the leading lady of Nervous, this is a nightmare. Based on a short story of the same title from her best-selling collection, The Sex Chronicles, Nervous is classic Zane with an edge. So, relax, sit back. You're in for a nerve-tingling read.

Zane wanted stories "that took risks, that explored unique situations, that were creative beyond compare." She wanted to show that men and women can equally express themselves through the medium of erotic fiction. She wanted stories that would turn her on. This collection of selected sexy short stories will turn you on, too.

First published in 1993 on the one-year anniversary of the L.A. riots, Race Matters has since become an American classic. Beacon Press is proud to present this hardcover edition with a new introduction by Cornel West. The issues that it addresses are as controversial and urgent as before, and West's insights remain fresh, exciting, and timely. Now more than ever, Race Matters is a book for all Americans�one that will help us build a genuine multiracial democracy.

The five sections of Shame On It All are separated by four commercials, adding to the uniqueness the book. All of the people featured in the commercials end up as minor characters in the book.

From the Introduction: "In fact, the happiness that imbues this kind of (impersonal) friendship, whether for an individual or a country, or an act, is like an inner light, a compass we might steer by as we set out across the lengthening darkness. It comes from the simple belief that what one is feeling and doing is right. That it is right to protect rather than terrorize others; right to feed people rather than withhold food (and medicine); right to want the freedom and joyful existence of all human kind. Right to want this freedom and joy for all creatures that exist already, or that might come into existence. Existence, we are now learning, is not finished! It is a happiness that comes from honoring the peace or the possibility of peace that lives within one's own heart. A deep knowing that we are the earth�our separation.

Some things change - and then again, some things don�t. You can never take the hood out of the homegirl.

In this sequel to T.N. Baker's Sheisty, we find Epiphany, Keisha and Shana still trickin� for dough, still running off at the mouth and still being Sheisty. However, as they will soon see, what goes around will come around, and you can�t stay in drama forever. It will all come to a head - one way or another.
Will death really come knocking on Epiphany's door?
Does Keisha give up her good girl image for good?
Will Shana find herself in a situation that will claim her man and her freedom?
Still Sheisty will live up to its predecessor, all that and then some. So get ready for the drama.

100 Amazing Facts about the Negro with Complete Proof
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PROOF:
In Sept. 1664, Maryland passed a law that any white woman who married a 'Negro' should serve the master of such slave "for life." Slave-holders took advantage of this law to induce the white women, some of whom were recent arrivals, to marry the "Negroes." MacCormac says, "Instead of preventing such marriages this law enabled avaricious and unprincipled masters to convert many of their (white) servants into slaves." In 1681, the Legislature was forced to issue the following law: "Divers freeborn English or white women sometimes by the instigation, procurement, and connivance of their master.... and always to the satisfaction of their lascivious and lustful desires....do intermarry with 'Negroes' and other slaves, be it enacted that if any master....having any freeborn English or white woman servant in their possession or property, shall by any instigation, procurement, knowledge, permission or contrivance," cause her to marry a slave she should be free at once and the master should pay a fine of "10,000 lbs. of tobacco." (Archives of Maryland, Vol. I, pp. 433-34; and Vol. III, pp. 203-04, also Johns Hopkins University Studies in Hist. & Pol. Science, No. 3 & 4.) What is true of Maryland was true of other states.

Nikki Turner, the best selling author of A Hustler's Wife, once again will take readers on a safari through the jungle of the fierce and stormy streets, leaving readers on the edge of their seats begging for an encore.

In her own uniquely can-did and humorous way, Zane answers all your questions -- even questions you never thought to ask -- about making whoopee.

Bitch
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Deja King

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Triple Crown Publications (February 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 097623498X

Precious Cummings came from nothing but was determined to have it all. Using her most deadly weapons - undeniable beauty, body and street savvy brains, Precious sets out to change the cards that she�d been dealt. After meeting Nico Carter, a man who can help her achieve her goals, virtually overnight she is on her way. Precious quickly transforms from Project Chick to Hood Queen and is determined to hold on to her position even if it means crossing the man who made it possible. Set on revenge, Precious gambles it all in her quest to gain everything. Just when she believes the dice have rolled in her favor, Precious has to answer for the web of deceit that she has set in motion.

Developing Positive Self-Images and Discipline in Black Children
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Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu

ISBN: 0913543012
Format: Paperback, 116pp
Pub. Date: July 1985
Publisher: African American Images

This book discusses what's the relationship between self esteem and student achievement? Find the answers to this and other questions in this book.

Set in 1982, this marvelously entertaining sequel to Johnson's well-received first novel, Standing at the Scratch Line, continues the mythic saga of King Tremain, a knife- and gun-wielding Prohibition-era Robin Hood. Leaving a bloody trail of corpses from the bayous of Louisiana to New York and San Francisco, King's fight for survival against overwhelming odds offers a deeply affecting metaphor for black America's struggle for dignity and rights in the 20th century. The sequel picks up with San Francisco civil servant Jackson Tremain being summoned to the deathbed of his estranged grandfather, former mob-enforcer King, who has spent the past 28 years exiled deep in Mexico after being framed for the murder of white cops in San Francisco. Jackson flies to Mexico just in time to learn that he is the heir to a $50 million fortune. Returning to the Bay Area, Jackson learns that contracts are already out on his life from enemies determined to claim the fortune, and soon both he and his girlfriend are imperiled by King's old nemesis, bayou crime patriarch Pug DuMont, who's in cahoots with Bay Area mafiosi. Secret treasure, gang wars, voodoo, illegitimate heirs, damsels in distress in the hands of a lesser writer, this would be cheap pulp fiction, but the gifted Johnson gives sweep and emotional resonance to the action-packed hijinks.  �Publishers Weekly

�John Ragland (http://www.atheists.org/Atheism/roots/ham)

Now as adults their friendship is put to the test when envy, built up animosity, hidden betrayal and the bad boys in their lives causing more havoc come into play, everyday becomes a struggle to keep it tight. With all that's already riding against them when drastic situations occur will these girls be down for one another or just plain Sheisty.

This critical analysis looks at the disproportionate number of African American males in special education. Arguing that the problem is race and gender driven, questions covered include Why does Europe send more females to special education? Why does America lead the world in giving children Ritalin? Is there a relationship between sugar, Ritalin, and cocaine? and Is there a relationship between special education and prison? More than 100 strategies to help teachers and parents keep black boys in the regular classroom, such as revising teacher expectations, increasing parental involvement, changing teaching styles from a left-brain abstract approach to a right brain hands-on approach, redoing the curriculum, understanding the impact of mass media, and fostering healthy eating habits.

The Sisterhood of Blackberry Corner
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Andrea Smith

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback (July 31, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385336241

Canaan Creek, South Carolina, in the 1950s is a tiny town where the close-knit African-American community is united by long-term friendships and church ties. Bonnie Wilder has lived here, on Blackberry Corner, all her life, and would be content but for her deep desire to have a child. She and her husband Naz cannot conceive, and he refuses to adopt. Even the support of her outrageous best friend Thora�to whom Bonnie tells everything�can�t help fill the emptiness inside her.

Then Naz finds a blanketed infant on the banks of Canaan Creek, and suddenly Bonnie's life is transformed. She has found her calling. Together with Thora and the rest of the hilarious, tough, and all-too-human women from her church group, Bonnie creates an underground railroad for unwanted babies. But one of these precious gifts will come back to haunt her: a deception begun in good faith comes full circle, ultimately forcing Bonnie to find the courage to confront a difficult truth at the center of her own life.

Filled with compassion, humor, and tenacity in the face of almost insurmountable odds, here is a rich, inspiring tale of friendship and family, sisterhood and mother love�and of finding grace where you least expect it.

Asks and answers the questions how can we reduce the dropout rate? Why does the motivation to learn decline as the age increases for most youth? Are we training or educating students? How can we identify and develop their talents? Read this very interesting book for some startling answers!

True to the Game II
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This is the sequel to Teri's amazing first novel True to the Game. Fans have been awaiting this story for over five years. TRUE TO THE GAME II will pick up where True to the Game left off-- with one difference, Gena is now seeing a new guy named Jay. Little does Gena know that the man she has fallen in love with, so soon after Quadir's death, is his archrival, Jerrell Jackson. Unfortunately, Jerrell is determined to get his revenge against Quadir's crew and he'll start with Gena.

According to Michael Porter, some people believe that today's youth, especially African American males, are lost; many of them can be found inside Behavior Disorder classes in America's public school system. This book examines how African American males end up in dead end BD classes, what happens to them in these classes, and how people can help their community to get on a life enhancing path.

G-Spot: An Urban Erotic Tale
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Noire

ISBN: 0345477219
Pub. Date: January 2005
Format: Paperback, 301pp
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

You all can't be as shocked as I am that I read G-Spot: An Urban Erotic Tale by Noire. Well I did and I have to say that I loved it! The novel read like a novel that Gary Hardwick and Zane would write together. The novel is about a young girl, Juicy, who gets caught up in The Life as the woman of THE gangsta in Harlem named G. G has Juicy on LOCK DOWN on all facets of her life. But, as you all know, alll good things MUST come to an end for G because Juicy starts earning freedom, physically, emotionally, and sexually. Pretty soon she's not able to stop herself, even though she's well aware of the price she could pay, because even her poon poon belongs to G. Juicy busted loose and all sorts of thangs goes to hell in an hand basket.

The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave is a study of slave making. It describes the rationale and the results of Anglo Saxon's ideas and methods of insuring the master/slave relationship.